signal to noise

Signal to Noise audio book giveaway

To honor the upcoming audio book release of Signal to Noise, as well as the upcoming sequel Klaxon at the Core, available for pre-order here, let’s get this party started!

This is an audio book giveaway for Signal to Noise.

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It’s been three years since the Incursion; three long years since Bastian and his twin brother Theo became the sole survivors on the planet Noise. Their distress calls have gone unanswered, and they are running out of supplies. They have no one but each other. And when the long-awaited rescue finally arrives, it brings with it complications that make being alone and forgotten look easy.

The listing for this audio book is available here. It’s 6 hours and 38 minutes long. I will email a ZIP audio file to the winner once I’ve selected and heard back. I choose the winner with random.org.

Entering for this giveaway is a two-part process. I know, I’m making you work for it a little, but a free audio book is pretty awesome, and I’ve been listening to it over the past week–trust me, it’s worth it. Also, I don’t have a marketing team, so having you spread the word is a huge help.

1. Do one (or more) of the following:

– Tweet, or retweet, about Klaxon at the Core’s upcoming release, such as my tweet here.
– Blog, or reblog, about Klaxon at the Core’s upcoming release, such as my tumblr post here.
– Post about Klaxon at the Core’s release on Facebook, or share my update here
– Review Signal to Noise on Goodreads, Amazon, or anywhere on the web. If you’ve already reviewed it, that still counts! It doesn’t have to be a long review, either–a sentence or two letting people know what you thought of the book (and maybe why they should read it) is all that’s needed to qualify.
– Promote the release of Klaxon at the Core in any way I haven’t mentioned and link back to the publisher listing here.

2. Drop a comment here and link me to your reblog, retweet, shared post, review, or any kind of promo that spreads the word. Make sure to include an email address or means of contact. Winners will be chosen Monday, June 23rd, evening Pacific time.

If you haven’t done a promo and a comment, the entry is invalid.

Questions? Ask away! Thank you for your support, and stay tuned for an awesome Klaxon at the Core giveaway yet to come. ♥ May your reading list be long and bring you everything you love!

Up next: Signal to Noise in audio and its sequel

Big news! Everything’s coming up Psionic Frequency.

That’s right, it’s a series now.

I’ve even got a super-secret brand new folder with a working title in the brand new Psionic Frequency folder on my hard drive. Tis a beautiful thing.

Want to know what else is beautiful?

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Sweet, sweet audio books. More specifically, Signal to Noise on audio book. Coming soon to most major audio book etailers! It will be available on Audible, Amazon, and iTunes on or around Friday, June 20th.

You may be able to score a free copy sooner, so mark your calendar and check this space for a giveaway opening this Sunday, the 15th! If I could get my shizz together I’d open it on Friday the 13th because that tickles me, but let me be honest, I’ve been spending the majority of my free time playing Mass Effect lately. I mean writing and incorporating edits. Well, that too. Honest.

Also exciting:

Klaxon at the Core

Klaxon at the Core is up for pre-order! The (mis)adventures of Theo and Bastian continue in this intrigue and action-packed sequel to my first sci-fi horror. And it will be a dual giveaway–you can put in for a chance to win an ebook copy of Klaxon at the Core for double incentive to mark you calendar and check this space Sunday.

More news coming soon, because I’ve been naughty and neglectful and have quite a backlog of things to share.

Check-in and regular features

Greetings, I’m night blogging again! Being on the West Coast, it seems like I get to it a lot later than everyone else. But I come bearing news.

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Chris and Ling travel the world in search of rare, exquisite curiosities, but treasure hunting is rife with danger and comes with a price. In order to retrieve a lost treasure deep within a perilous mountain, Chris hires on a vampire. But traveling with a predator comes with its own risks, and their venture may collapse into absolute loss unless they can each find the opportunity in one another.

I’m excited to announce that Convergence will be released in the second Proud to be a Vampire collection on October 8th. It’s listed here on Goodreads. The story was a lot of fun to write, and I pitched it as vampires meets tomb raiders–I’d love to write more in that universe at some point.

In more delightful news, Signal to Noise will be available in audiobook format starting next year. I was really pleased to agree to that offer! Details aren’t firm yet, but I’ll be signing the addendum to my contract for the audiobook rights very soon. It’s tentatively slated for June 15, 2014 availability.

But wait–there’s more! Body Option has been accepted for Less Than Three’s mecha anthology, A Loose Screw. I got a contract to print up, but sadly my printer has notified me it’s out of ink, the jerk. I suppose I’ll have to schlep over to Office Depot some time this week.

Time to set up regular blog content over here, and stick to some kind of weekly schedule. It’s been too long since I updated, and regular features might keep me on track. Of course, it’s figuring out what kind of regular content would work here that’s been giving me a bit of a hang-up.

Manicure Monday wasn’t a good fit for the author blog, so I’m considering a topic of the week, intermittent daily anecdote, book reviews, WIP Wednesday, and Free Fiction Friday (an excerpt) – pending my publisher’s approval on that last. Four to five regular features should give me something to blog about every other day or so. I can also do some kind of “Ask the Author” feature but I may wait until there’s a bit more traffic. 😉

If WIP Wednesday sounds good to you, hit me up with a comment, and tomorrow you’ll get to see a clip from one of my works in progress!

Signal to Noise is featured!

Less Than Three Press has chosen Signal to Noise for the book of the week!

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It’s been three years since the Incursion; three long years since Bastian and his twin brother Theo became the sole survivors on the planet Noise. Their distress calls have gone unanswered, and they are running out of supplies. They have no one but each other. And when the long-awaited rescue finally arrives, it brings with it complications that make being alone and forgotten look easy.

See what others thought of this story on Goodreads.

Stop on by and pick up your ebook or print copy. Use code: MAYBOW3 to get 25% off this title!

Code is only valid Friday, May 17 – Saturday, May 18, 2013.

And please, spread the word. 🙂

Caution: Writing works in progress

A few small updates…

I haven’t been writing so much this month; I finished three stories last month, finished a chapter of something else this month, and I suppose I’ve been taking a bit of a break.

Top priority: finishing edits on The Competitive Edge and getting them back to the editor for final review. And I need to get that done, soonest, because: *drumroll*

Substantial edits have come back for The More Plausible Evil. The in-document edits aren’t so bad, I think I could blaze through them in a day or two. But the overall story has two major issues, one that I could probably resolve, the other that I can’t because my beta thinks the story is too short for everything that’s happening. She thinks it would work better around my usual length, which is ~80-100k.

Tough one. So, I’ll incorporate the edits to bring it to a good second draft, submit it, and present it to the press to get their take.

The Fall Guide has a publication date of December 4th, 2013, and I have to think what to put on the cover. This is one of those where I’m contemplating saying “…dealer’s choice?” All I can think of is palm trees. That…yeah, probably better not.

What else? Oh yes, this month I need to finish plotting the sequel for Signal to Noise, because I’m going to start writing it this month and it’s next month’s focus point.

Final word: don’t forget to sign up for my giveaway! Tomorrow is the last day to win a free book. :3

Giveaway closed

Thanks, everyone, for participating in my Signal to Noise giveaway! The almighty Randomizer has selected Cecille, and I’ve sent an email to the lucky winner. Cecille, please get back in touch with me within 48 hours – if I don’t hear from you, the Randomizer will be unleashed again!

Stay tuned; there will definitely be more giveaways to come. I have a beautiful copy of The Bestiary: Volume One, for example.

Right now I’m working on a snippet for the Less Than Three editor’s challenge, so I’ll be posting that here soon. They’ll also be organizing a blog hop that I’ve signed up for, and with any luck, I may be able to drum up some cross-author promotion some time soon!

Coming soonest: Illamasqua Creator, a discussion on inspiration, and a review. Or perhaps I’m being overly ambitious and should start with two out of three.

Last chance for a signed copy of Signal to Noise!

One last post about the giveaway, then I’ll give it a rest and let the randomizer pick a winner tomorrow.

Pop on over here to drop a comment and your email, and any other follows for additional entries if you like, and you’re signed up for a free signed copy of Signal to Noise. I’ll ship it anywhere!

The Korres Guava body butter that I mentioned yesterday was a freebie from the seller, so that was awesome. In not so awesome news, I may be getting sick. Hopefully I’m forestalling that by proclaiming I’m sick to all and sundry and when I wake up I’ll feel great.

Tonight I did my two-week fit test, and all my numbers improved, even if it was only slightly. There’s a great note to end the post. Coming soon: meanderings about writing and inspiration.

Freezing fog is an auspicious start to the year, right? Other parts of the nation are seeing balmy temperatures and over here, the frost is thick enough that the cars and roof gutters are rimmed in icicles and I heard fire trucks and ambulances on the drive home from dropping a friend at campus yesterday morning.

It’s been a stay-indoors sort of weekend, but despite that and the fact that most of my to do list can be done on the computer, I seem to have gotten very little done this weekend. I’ve stayed constant with my workout, at least. It’s Jan. 13th, and I’m on Day 13 of the Insanity workout.

Any workout gains I thought I’d gotten by toughing it through the 90-day Jillian Michaels Body Revolution was wiped out this morning when I did Cardio Abs after 40 minutes of Pure Cardio. If it sounds excessive, that’s what was on the program! I am now a weak, wobbly shell of a person and my lower abdominal muscles are like pudding. Hopefully at some point there will be a payoff. The Fit Test on Tuesday will be a good indicator of progress, I think.

Things I should be doing include thank you cards for Christmas (it’s totally not too late to be considered delinquent), outlining the sequel to Signal to Noise, tentatively titled Klaxon at the Core, editing Appetite: Part One, which will be released March 13th as A Cut Above the Rest (covers have been commissioned, hooray!), editing a project for a friend, and clearing out some of these Chrome tabs that are building up.

Tomorrow’s a good time to get back to it all! My writing routine is better, and more consistent, during the week when I have a set schedule. Looking forward to getting back to The Fall Guide since I’m halfway through the chapter and excited for what comes next.

Coming soon: reflections on what got me started on writing, and the travesty that was my first novel. But that’s a tale for another day.

Last up: Reminder that time is running out to enter for the signed copy of Signal to Noise giveaway, which closes Tuesday!

Have a great week, everyone.

Of reviews, giveaways, and writing

In a pleasant surprise today, Joyfully Jay reviewed Signal to Noise and gave it 4.5 stars!

Signal to Noise is one of my most tightly-plotted stories and it’s such a pleasure to see it getting this kind of reception, from a nomination for Best Debut to all the great things people are saying. Don’t forget, there’s still a week left to sign up for the giveaway of a free signed copy with a personalized greeting. Full disclosure: it’s classified as science fiction, but it is definitely sci-fi horror, and it also contains incest. (Which is relevant to the plot.)

All this makes me want to haul out the bare-bones outline I penned for a potential sequel. There’s a lot left to cover in that world.

Being a nail polish fiend, I thought I’d make mention of the Zoya 2013 “Color Your World” giveaway, which goes through Sunday, January 13th. Click here for details but, in brief, you can get three free nail polishes from a selection of most of their inventory, excluding the 24K gold top coat or the Spring 2013 or Pixie Dust collections, check out with promo code ZOYA2013, and pay a $10 shipping/processing fee. That’s $3.33 per nail polish including shipping … I considered it an irresistible deal.

Speaking of nails, here’s what’s on mine:

China Glaze in China Rouge, with matte squares.

Interestingly enough, my obsession in all things nail polish led me to plot the story I’m working on right now, The Fall Guide, in which a young male beauty blogger experiences failure to launch, and relies on the help of a smooth producer who happens to treat him better than his boyfriend does. It’s been fun to write so far, and I’m hoping to wrap it up around 50-60K and clean it up for submission.

I got back to that this afternoon after reaching a stopping point in edits for someone. The More Plausible Evil has been sent off to a couple of people for a deep cleanse, and I’m striking a balance between edits and writing.

With so many things going well for me, I’m considering being daring enough to establish a New Year’s resolution of flossing my teeth more consistently.

Parting note: I received a $5 credit on Amazon. Does anyone have any ebook recommendations for me?

2013: What’s in store

Did everyone have a great New Year’s eve? I sure did. We rang in the new year with a home smorgasbord, champagne and schanpps, and games, and had a quiet day after.

I don’t make formal resolutions, but I accomplished two of my goals last year: got back into the “good” jeans waiting on the hanger (and beyond – I need a size smaller) and established a consistent exercise routine I don’t hate. I also made my publishing debut, refinanced my house, and used less sick time than any of the four years previous. What a year!

Here’s to staying healthy and becoming even more fit.

What’s coming up next for the written word: I’m working on edits to Appetite with my editor, and we don’t have a publish date set, yet. I think we’ll have a better idea once we’ve completed the first round of edits.

Part of the Rocking Hard anthology, Courage Wolf Never Sings the Gorram Blues is scheduled to hit the Less Than Three serial fiction page in May. The LT3 serials are stories that run bi-monthly on their site, followed by an e-book and sometimes anthology publication, depending on the story. Courage Wolf Never Sings the Gorram Blues is, as you can see, part of the Rocking Hard anthology, vol. 1, and I’m super excited to share it.

If you’re not signed up for Less Than Three serials, I highly recommend it. It’s easy and quite cost-effective to sign up and you get a lot of stories for your money! They’ve got some great ones running right now, including Beast by Jamie Sullivan and Battle of Will by Sasha Miller.

Beyond that, I’m working on edits for my vampire novel, The More Plausible Evil, which I’ll be submitting once I’m satisfied with it. My pre-reader really enjoyed it, and I feel like I accomplished what I set out to do with that story. I’ve been reading the draft on my brand new Kindle Fire, which is great. It feels like I’m reading a novel, yet I can make little editorial notes with the highlight feature.

As for writing, there are two works in progress I want to finish this year – The Fall Guide, a story that I started last May, and Resonance Thrums, the young adult novel I began in November. It doesn’t seem like a lot, but between edits for this and that, I need to figure out how to make time for writing in my schedule! I’m not sure what I’ll write after those two, but I’ve been pining to get back to some fantasy.

Lastly, don’t forget to sign up for my Signal to Noise giveaway. Remember, you have to leave a comment on the post with your name and email as well as any follows that get you additional giveaway entries.

Thanks for reading, and have a great day!