Updates & 2014 Upcoming Releases...

Happy Friday All,

I've been thinking about what kind of post to write, and well several ideas have been floating in my mind. I couldn't nail down one, so I waited until I could. And I still haven't, but I thought I'd give it a go to see what happens. (Bear with me LOL).

I'm awaiting 1st round edits for Immortal Dreams Book 1: Divine Love.

I'm still waiting on the paperback version of All's Fair In Love & Lion (I'm sorry that's been taking so long).

I'm waiting on the cover art for Immortal Dreams Book 1: Divine Love.  The form has been turned in to the artist, so I guess just waiting on them.

I am so looking forward to this cover you have NO idea. I love this Trilogy. I do, I really do. There's just something about Erich and Laney that has me going bonkers. My beta reader is awaiting Book 3. She's loved the first 2 and is ready for the third one. 

If you're a member of Goodreads, all 3 Immortal Dreams Trilogy books are up on Goodreads for you to press that "Want To Read" button. I haven't put in much of a blurb, yet, because I wanted to wait closer to Divine Love's release date to do that. However, don't let that stop you from pressing the "want to read" button. The more "buzz" that is created, the better. 

Here's a very general overview of the Immortal Dreams Trilogy: 

18 year-old, senior high school student, Laney Alberts mourns the death of her beloved father. Even though it happened a year earlier,

it might as well have been yesterday.  Enter Erich Magnus. There's

something about this guy, and it's not just his god-like good looks, cocky attitude, leather jacket, and silver Corvette. There's something more, something deeper. What Laney hadn't bargained on was her place in the whole crazy situation. Secrets will be uncovered, lies revealed, and to put it into Laney's words "major suckage" ensues. Can they figure it out before the world is taken over by chaos? Find out starting June 18, 2014 when Immortal Dreams Book 1: Divine Love is released!

I realize that's not the most awesome blurb in the world, and I promise I have another one that should be better yet to come, but that's what I can offer at the moment.

Meanwhile here's a list of books (besides my own, of course) that I'm really excited about (in no particular order) and some of these you can pre-order, too:

Kiera Cass's The One (Book 3 in The Selection series)--May 2014

C.C. Hunter's Shadow Falls After Dark:  Reborn (spin-off series to her Shadow Falls series)  -- May 2014

Kerrelyn Sparks' How To Seduce A Vampire (Without Really Trying)  (next installment in her Love At Stake series)  -- April 2014

Jennifer L. Armentrout's Opposition (book 5 in her Lux series)--August 2014

Katie McGarry's Take Me On --releasing May 2014   also looking forward to Breaking The Rules (a new Noah & Echo story!)--December 2014

Lesley Livingston's Transcendent (book 3 of Starling series)--December 2014

There's other books I'm looking forward to reading that I already have but haven't gotten to, but these are the ones that are releasing this year.


What books are you looking forward to seeing released THIS year?

Have A Fabulously Fun Friday!

Classics Week: Last Day--"Stepping Through The Wardrobe"

Happy Friday All,

Wow! It’s been such a fun week with learning more about different Classic novels, and other authors’ work. If you haven’t checked out yesterday’s post with TinaBausinger, please do. I think it’s fascinating.

To close out Classics Week, you get yours truly (me) for today.

There are many authors I could have chosen to talk about today, however, CS Lewis is an author I've particularly enjoyed. So I’m going to go ahead and focus on him and his Chronicles Of Narnia.

You could say in some sense, Aslan from the series influenced All’s Fair In Love & Lion a bit—given Monroe , like Aslan, (when Monroe was in his lion form) could speak

My Monroe Christmas ornament, given to me
by one of my sisters

and be understood, was majestic. In the stories, Aslan sacrifices himself, and sacrifice comes into play in my story, as well.

However, the thing about Narnia that appealed to me was how each adventure was full of imagination, wonder, and magic. As a lover of fairy-tales and fantasy, what better devices to ignite my passions?

How can anyone forget meeting Mr. Tumnus at the lamppost? Or hitting the high seas on the Dawn Treader? Or the curiosity and tying everything together in The Last Battle?

An intellectual or English teacher would find all the various points of allegory, allusion, and metaphor to point out. For me, it was just plain fun.

The other thing we have with CS Lewis is the re-imaging of mythology and a different way of telling a story (at least different for his time).

I believe there’s room among writers and readers for all kinds of stories, which is one of the best things about Narnia. There was room for all believers and those who really wanted what Narnia had to offer. And years after Lewis’s death, there’s still room for new readers to partake of each story’s charm and adventure.

For a writer such as myself, it warms my heart to see people willing

to invite new fairy-tales and stories, but to still love the old ones, too. I hope this will always be the case.

I remember a song we had on a cassette tape that went: “Make new friends, but keep the old. One is silver, the other’s gold.” I feel this way about books. I make new friends with new novels and stories, but I keep the old ones in my heart. My wish for readers, is to have that experience, so they can enjoy all kinds of glorious tales.

As you know, my Romance Novel, All’s Fair In Love & Lion is

available on Amazon Kindle (hopefully to be in paperback, soon).  I don’t have the cover art (nor is it out, yet) for my New Adult Paranormal Romance, Immortal Dreams Book 1: Divine Love, yet, but that’s coming soon (and definitely fits the idea of re-imagining stories!)

Also, you can check out more about me and my writing on my official website.

In the meantime, I hope you've enjoyed Classics Week. I know I did!

Have A Fabulously Fantastical Friday!

Classics Week Guest Post: Tina Bausinger "Love, Death, And Madness"

Happy Thursday Everybody,

I can't tell you how excited I am that you all have been enjoying Classics Week. When I got this idea I wasn't sure what would happen, but it's turned into a lot of fun. Yesterday's posts by Mina Khan got many comments (thank you for supporting Mina!) Which is great. It's always nice when readers support an author.

Today I welcome an author who is on one of the email loops I'm on. Like Mina, when I sent out the call for certain authors, (mostly Paranormal and Fantasy, but I welcomed a couple of other genres, too) author Tina Bausinger answered the call and I was delighted to have her come aboard for this blog series.

So please join me in welcoming Tina Bausinger as she talks about Emily Brontë:

The windy heights—a horrifying thunderstorm and a choice between a love-crazed, revenge-seeking rogue or a beautiful aristocratic pretty boy. Who can resist the world of Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë? I know I can’t.

 

Love that transcends all boundaries, even those set by sanity--Cathy Earnshaw is the original Bella Swan. She’s indecisive, whiny, spoiled—and yet, brooding, handsome, mentally unstable Heathcliff and gorgeous, wealthy and wussy Linton are ready to fight to the death for her. Well, sort of—Linton is ready to pay someone to fight in his place, but still.

 

When Cathy thinks about Heathcliff, she says, “If all else perished, and he remained, I should still continue to be; and if all else remained, and he were annihilated, the universe would turn to a mighty stranger.” When Heathcliff speaks to Cathy, he says, “Be with me always – take any form – drive me mad! Only do not leave me in this abyss, where I cannot find you! Oh, God! It is unutterable! I cannot live without my life!”

 

Wuthering Heights is so much more than just a love story—it’s a revenge story as well, and we see Heathcliff as the antihero. We can’t help rooting for him to win Cathy, but he’s sort of a weird obsessive bad boy whose mental instability keeps us guessing till the end. Gotta love a good, dark Gothic tale.

        

If you like dark and twisty tales like Wuthering Heights, you’re gonna love my book, War Eagle Women. It’s considered a Southern Gothic romance. Like Cathy, Eden is torn between

beautiful, moody, talented artist Craig and Mike, a handsome, dedicated trauma surgeon. Elizabeth, Eden’s grandmother, tells her own story about her choice between dark Italian hottie Antonio, who hides a questionable past and rough and handsome boy-next-door Henry. In the tiny town of War Eagle where secrets lie as deep as the river, four women whose lives are inextricably linked by blood and destiny must share their long buried stories to help their youngest, Samantha, to disclose her own secret that, left untold, threatens to steal her very life. Dark and gritty, War Eagle Women is part romance, part mystery, part ghost story, and part Indian legend. I promise that Eden is a more likable heroine than either Cathy or Bella. Give War Eagle Women a try!

Note From Bethany:  You can find War Eagle Women on Amazon Kindle. 

Classics Week, Guest: Mina Khan Talks About Mary Shelley

Happy Wednesday All,

I hope you enjoyed Marie Hall's post yesterday on Regency Romance and how they influenced her. I know I did.

Today I welcome author Mina Khan to Write By Bethany. When I

Author Mina Khan

was scheduling authors for this week, I got on the two email loops I'm a member of and asked who would be interested (out of Fantasy and Paranormal authors).  Mina sent me an email asking if I had room for her and whether or not Mary Shelley was taken. I replied that there was room, and no, nobody had claimed Mary Shelley as their topic. So what follows is an interesting take on a novel that is definitely categorized as a Classic. My thanks to Mina for being a part of Classics Week! 

So, now I invite you to sit back and relax as Mina takes the floor...

Thanks Bethany for having me over! My geeky heart is thrilled to be sharing & discussing one of my favorite classic reads – Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus by British author Mary Shelley.

Frankenstein is considered to be one of the earliest examples of science fiction, if not the first real science fiction story. Science and its possibilities and consequences are an intrinsic part of the plot. But Frankenstein is also timeless because it is about the human condition.

  

As a reader and writer of paranormal romance and urban fantasy, what appeals to me the most is Shelley’s handling of Frankenstein’s creature.

  

When people hear “Frankenstein,” they usually imagine an eight-foot tall green creature with bolts coming out of his neck, who communicates in grunts, growls and moans. But Shelley’s creature was very different.

For me, Shelley was the first person to humanize the monster. If you watch old vampire or werewolf movies (Nosferatu, anyone?), they were pure horror. The Monsters were stereotypes with no depth beyond mindless marauding beasts.

Shelley’s novel made me wonder who was the real monster? The creature who is abandoned and rejected and needs community or the man who created him and doesn’t take the time or care to love and be responsible for the consequences – his child.

  

Frankenstein is about the basic human need for love and belonging, it’s about acceptance and rejection, and it’s about Science vs Nature, Patriarchal Society vs one where women are a valued and important part of life, and it’s about the complex relationship between parent and child.

Frankenstein and its themes have influenced one of my own stories, Wildfire. The Japanese American heroine, Lynn, inherited the dragon shifter gene. She doesn’t want anything to do with her inner dragon or its primal instincts, power and refusal to be completely tamed and controlled.

  

Worse, the gene sometimes skips generations and this makes for a prickly relationship with her non-shifter, practical and efficient mother (who is a doctor and devoted to science and medicine).

  

Lynn is hunting a rogue dragon – the one thing she fears the most especially because he threatens her control.

  

To me, the story arc of Wildfire is the Serenity Prayer. It's about Lynn accepting herself, accepting what she can and cannot do, with grace and wisdom.

  

BLURB: Dragon Shifter Lynn Alexander is hunting an arsonist

burning up acres of West Texas. She has to figure out if her primary suspect a malicious rogue dragon or the love of her life? A paranormal mystery with romantic elements. 

Note From Bethany:  Wildfire is available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble for your reading pleasure.

Classics Week Guest Post: Marie Hall "Why I Love Regency Period Romance"

Happy Tuesday All,

Did you all enjoy yesterday's post? If you haven't checked it out, please do so by clicking here.

Today I welcome author Marie Hall to Write By Bethany. Marie is

an author I came across while browsing E-book options. I read Her Mad Hatter and was hooked. Now several more titles later, and having interviewed her, plus chit-chatting on Facebook (she's a Once Upon A Time show fan, too). I'm delighted to be able to welcome her once again to my blog as she discusses her love of Jane Austen, and other period romances.

Take away, Marie Hall...

I guess it’s no surprise that I as a romance writer would love romances. And I hardly doubt I’m in the minority when it comes to loving Jane Austen, and the Bronte sisters. I’m also very partial to Dickens, but he didn’t write the traditional romances. So for the sake of this piece I’ll stick with romance period writers.

I first picked up Pride and Prejudice in high school. It was a school assignment and I wasn’t too keen on the idea. My idea of a period romance was going to be a book full of big words I couldn’t understand, completely unrelatable characters, the ultimate snooze fest. Four hours after opening the book I was done and my world was forever changed. How could a woman who lived so long ago perfectly capture the spirit of love, desire, jealousy, and betrayal?

Realizing I may have just stumbled across a new genre of books never before read to me I picked up Northanger Abbey, Mansfield Park, Sense and Sensibility. Though none of them quite captured my attention the way Mr. Darcy had, they were all very good. On a quest now to search out new authors I picked up the Bronte’s. I’ll be the first to say that I hated Wuthering Heights. To me that was most definitely not a romance, but a tragedy. As I’ve grown older I’ve come to appreciate the complexities and psychology of the story but I would still hesitate to call it a romance. That said, Jane Eyre stole my breath away. Mr. Rochester specifically. Wow, what an anti-hero. He was brusque, MARRIED, and just downright nasty. But I loved him. Loved everything about him. I loved the dark edge to him, how he could put on a show for others, but how with Jane he dared to be his true self.

Mr. Darcy and Mr. Rochester shaped my idea of what a wonderful hero could actually be. Someone who on the surface seemed so wrong and just horrid, but who in the end, you couldn’t help but root for. It is that archetype, more than any other that I love writing to this day. In a lot of ways Rumpelstiltskin is an amalgam of the two. Haughty, disdainful, and yet there’s something in him that calls to the heroine because she can see beyond the mask to the wounded man beneath. Thanks to two ladies who lived centuries ago I feel like I’ve found my true calling in life and I could not be happier. After all, isn’t that what romance is all about? Happily ever after.

Marie didn't mention it, but she has a brand-new release out in the Alphas After Dark anthology. Her story is entitled Rumpel's Prize (which I reviewed in this post) and is a part of her Kingdom series.  You can get your copy of Alphas After Dark on Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

Kickin' Off Classics Week With Guest Patti Korbet...

Happy Monday Everybody,

Welcome to the first ever Classics Week on Write By Bethany. Each day I will feature a different author. The author for the day will talk about which classic author and book they enjoyed and why, plus whether or not it influenced them. At the end of the post, they will feature one of their own publications for your reading pleasure.

To kick off Classics Week, I've got author Patti Korbet. I met Patti through author Marie Hall's Facebook page. As it turns out, we're both avid Once Upon A Time fans (as well as fans of Marie Hall's work) and started chatting. She's got some interesting things to say about JRR Tolkein, so I'll hush up and let Patti take over...

My childhood memories are filled with moments of fantasy and science fiction, from the cartoons that started our Saturday mornings to the films we saw in the movie theater. Many of those stories were classics of childhood for kids of the 70's and 80's – E.T., The Dark Crystal, The Neverending Story, Legend, Labyrinth, Planet of the Apes, Back to the Future, Willow and of course, Star Wars, to name a few. The ritual of watching sci-fi and fantasy together binds my family even now.

Of all those movies, the one animated film of the two genres that always stayed with me was The Hobbit (1977). Before special effects and Peter Jackson could do justice to Middle Earth, the animator's hand gave life to this fantastical world. It stuck with me more than any Disney movie I had ever seen at that point.

Note from Bethany:  I think these were the Ozark Mountains
in Arkansas, but look a little Tolkein-ish!

Years later, a college friend gave me his extra copies of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings (LOTR) trilogy. I didn't read them immediately, but knew I would – I had loved that little Hobbit Bilbo from my childhood cartoon. Then a coworker loaned me his copy of the original BBC broadcast teleplay of LOTR, and let me tell you, if you've never heard it, you should. What Peter Jackson did for the films, that production did for audio. When I played the last CD, I felt compelled to read all four books. I devoured them.

I knew the story of The Hobbit, of course. But I could not have been prepared for the wonder that enveloped me when my eyes directly consumed J.R.R. Tolkien's words. He wove this fantastical tale of dragons, of demons with names like 'goblin' and 'orc', of elves the size of men, dwarves more complex than Snow White's pals, wise wizards and the small, gentle, half-men known as hobbits. It changed forever how I read fantasy and laid the foundation for the amazing series that followed.

In many ways, The Hobbit was not just the pre-quel to the LOTR saga, it was also the pre-quel to all the fantasy stories that came later. Some, like Harry Potter, nod very directly to Tolkien. But many writers and stories – even those outside fantasy and sci-fi – owe The Hobbit for paving the way to creating worlds that do not exist.

What Tolkien teaches us through The Hobbit is that you can create a wholly fictional universe, and as long as you believe in it, your audience will, too. When that world comes directly from your own imagination, however many words you need to carry the reader into the varied and vivid landscapes and to illuminate the characters, those are the words you must use. I don't write fantasy or sci-fi – not yet – but if I do, I know I'll strive to meet the standard set by The Hobbit and Tolkien.

Until then, you can catch my contemporary romance series, Ward Sisters, about an interconnected group of people. The third book, Right Here Waiting, featuring a strong woman and the soldier who steals her heart, is available at Amazon and Barnes and Noble, where you can also find the first two books.

If You Say His Name...

Happy Thursday  Everybody,

Recently, I struck a deal with author Marie Hall (which it’s kind of funny for me to say

“struck a deal” given the character of this novel). She was kind and generous enough to allow me the opportunity to read and review her upcoming release, Rumpel’s Prize. 

This novel is filled with suspense, adventure, sizzling romance, and mystery…just like Rumpelstiltskin himself.

Rumpel is a cursed man of darkness. His life is made up of deals, contracts, dancing-around-the-truth, secrets, and loneliness.  He knows nothing else, and in many ways, he revels in his life. After all, he's powerful and he's feared. He gets what he wants and nobody can do a darned thing about it.

But he's a man on a mission. A very important mission, so he travels the land of Kingdom, seeking the answer to his problem. To aid him in his quest is his list of names who have contracts with him.

His travels takes him to the home of Gerard and Betty Caron (you can read their story in Gerard’s Beauty) where their nineteen year old daughter, Shareya lives.

Tucked away from all human contact, Shareya harbors a frustrating and horrible secret. And while she loves her family dearly, the secret has made her life very difficult.

When Rumpel visits, and calls in on the contract her father, Gerard, made with him, Shareya is horrified by the terms with which Rumpel decides to fulfill the bargain. To save her beloved father from Rumpel’s terms, Shareya agrees to take her father’s place and travel with Rumpel to his castle. For three months Shareya will remain at Rumpel’s castle. One day out of each month will be the day of the test—the day she plays Rumpel's game.

Three tests/games, three months. Shareya is determined to fulfill her promise, and return home. Rumpel is equally determined to figure out the answer to his troubles. What neither of them bargained on was love.

The question is, will love be strong enough and real enough to withstand Rumpel’s secrets?  Or will the whole thing tear them apart?

Find out in Marie Hall’s newest release, Rumpel’s Prize on April 1, 2014 (Marie assured me it wasn't a joke) in the Alpha’s After Dark Anthology.

Have A Tremendously Thrilling Day!