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In case you haven't heard, I have a brand new series coming out next year and I'm offering you the chance to have your name appear in that first book, House of the Rising Sun! Plus you get to help a very worthy cause at the same time.
How, you ask? Good question! It's easy - just bid!
Click here to bid on this auction item at the fabulous Brenda Novak Diabetes Research Auction.
If seeing your name in print isn't your bag, maybe an actual handbag is? Then you're in luck because I have a second item up for bid too. It's a delish Coach tote that includes a signed book from me and two of my best author buddies, Lily Everett and Roxanne St. Claire. Check it out here. (And yes, that's it in the pic. Did I lie? Craveable!) People, this is a WIN-WIN! So hurry up before someone else beats you to it!
0 Comments on How'd you like to see your name in one of my books? as of 5/9/2013 4:17:00 PM
Hey y'all! I know it's been a lifetime since I put a post up - what can I say? I've been busy busy busy! Doing what, you ask? I'm so glad you did.
One brand new thing is I'm starting a newsletter! And see those pretty earrings over there? I'm giving them away to one lucky subscriber. You can sign up for that newsletter right down below.
You know what else is going to be in that first newsletter? SECRETS! Like what I'm currently working on. Trust me, you're gonna want to know. ;o) And some BRAND new cover related stuff. Shhh! I'm not even supposed to reveal that much yet!
So get yourself hooked up with my newsletter and find out before anyone else does! The first issue should be out in the next week or two, so don't wait. Feel free to tell your friends. Or retweet this.
Subscribe to my newsletter here!
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0 Comments on News and a giveaway! as of 4/4/2013 4:13:00 PM
Just a heads up that Tantor Audio is running another awesome giveaway for three copies of the audio book version of Flesh and Blood! Get in on the giveaway here.
This time, the giveaway is on Goodreads, so even if you're not on Facebook, you can enter!
Don't miss this chance to listen in on the adventures of Mal and Chrysabelle. I'm kind of looking forward to hearing it myself. Is that weird?
0 Comments on Audio Giveaway Awesomeness! as of 1/1/1900
Hey gang! My audio publisher, Tantor Audio (Tantor as in Tarzan's elephant - how cool is that?) is giving away a few copies of the Blood Rights audio book!!
You can also listen to a sample of Blood Rights here.
Just think, if you win, you could listen to vampires killing each other while you're on the treadmill! Hey, we have to find a way to make exercise enjoyable somehow, right?
Can I enter even if I am not on facebook? I would love the audio book. I started to listening to audio books to free up my hands to deal with my baby and cleaning. I would love to try this series Thanks, Ezi Chinyere [email protected]
Can I enter even if I am not on facebook? I would love the audio book. I started to listening to audio books to free up my hands to deal with my baby and cleaning. I would love to try this series Thanks, Ezi Chinyere [email protected]
To celebrate the release of the fourth book in the House of Comarre series, Out For Blood, I'm getting my release day party on over at Bitten By Books!
Stop by and leave a comment to be entered to win the $50 gift card for either Amazon or Barnes and Noble -winners choice!
Feel free to ask me questions about the series, too. I'll be checking in all day.
I came to your blog first, forgetting the contest was at BBB, so my comment number came from this post. When it was actually comment 16--not sure how that can be fixed. :P
I was lucky enough to meet you at Barbara Vey's luncheon, where you signed a copy for me (yea me). That hooked me and I have been waiting patienty for Out for Blood to release ever since. Great series. Thx for the giveaway.
Today we are thrilled to be visiting Kristen Painter, whose October release, Out For Blood, is already getting reviewers excited. And in celebration of her creepy, visual fiction, we’re talking about:
Scariest Movies
Susan
Back in the 1970s, I was an unsuspecting, precocious child of seven or eight, and my mother looked for all intents and purpose like a normal housewife who loved going to church and worshipped naught but family values. Little did I know that she was also an avid fan of horror movies.
So when my mother said I couldn’t watch television with her one day, I was stunned, and yes, a tad angry. It only made me more determined to be with her and find out what she was doing in the TV room. I masterminded a plan to sneak in under the ping pong table and then slip through the space between the couch and the end table, gaining a full view of what she was watching.
And what I saw on the screen terrified me. I was frozen in shock and horror! On the screen was a beast of terrible proportions! A living brain with a spinal cord for a tail, which had wrapped itself around its victim and was choking him to death. I think it even had a small mouth with sharp teeth and was biting the poor soul.
I stayed far longer than I should have and saw more than a small child could withstand. Sneaking out of the room, I fled to cower in my bedroom, seeing in every shadow a brain like shape that would leap out and devour me! My mother, of course, had no idea what I had done and found my refusal to go to bed that night annoying. I never watched another horror movie until I met my husband Clay. Now I watch them all the time, the classic ones at any rate. It was through Clay that I discovered the name of that particular movie which had haunted me for years. Fiend without A Face. I suppose then it was inevitable that horror seeped into my soul.
Thanks Mom for the introduction!
Clay
I am a horror movie guy and have been since I was a kid watching late night creature features. I love monsters and aliens like the Mummy, the Creature, Godzilla, the Thing From Another World…but they don’t scare me. The movies that scare me have been ghost stories, and two in particular. The Innocents (1961) and The Haunting (1963). These two movies were “Holy Crap, could we turn some lights on in this house” scary to me when I first saw them. They are both black and white, and better for it.
The Innocents is the film version of Henry James’ novella The Turn of the Screw, a psychological parable about insanity and reality. On screen, it becomes more of a straightforward “child in jeopardy” ghost story, but it’s still amazing. The Innocents has the single creepiest image I’ve ever seen in a movie. A ghostly woman dressed in black stands amidst cattails on the edge of a pond. That’s it. No screaming. No blood. No chainsaws. It’s an eerie image that I’ve never seen equaled.
However, no movie ever scared me like The Haunting did the first time I saw it. It’s based on Shirley Jackson’s novel The Haunting of Hill House about a group of investigators who stay in a haunted house. It has numerous sequences that are makers of sleepless nights. Julie Harris and Claire Bloom huddling together in bed while something bangs on the walls and the door. Near the end there’s a jarring appearance by the lead investigator’s skeptic wife after she unwisely demands to spend the night in the nursery. The shadows. The whispering.
As jaded as I am from a lifetime of horror now, I don’t think I would watch either of these pictures late at night at home alone.
What scares me? Not vampires. I think they are hot. No, what scares me most is people. Humans..and the dark...and rain. Heights and flying too. Vampires, no.
Whenever I get asked why I write, my answer usually boils down to one word - readers. I adore my readers, love interacting with them on my Facebook page, cherish the emails they send me and feel blessed by the support they've given the House of Comarre series. I've even been lucky enough to meet some of them face to face!
And because I have such awesome readers, I've decided to do something a little crazy as my way of saying thanks. For those readers who've posted a reviewed a House of Comarre novel, I want to thank you for your support by sending you a signed copy of Out For Blood, the fourth book in the series that comes out in October.
Send me a link to your review at kristenpainterbooksATyahooDOTcom and I'll get back to you. Supplies are limited, but I'm going to try to get as many books out as I can. Thanks again and keep reading!
4 Comments on Because I Love My Readers, last added: 9/19/2012
This is why you are an awesome woman, Kristen. I have all the books in the House of Commare series so far, but haven't read them yet. I did however have the pleasure of meeting you in New Orleans at AAD. The covers of these books are the most beautiful I've ever seen, and a credit to the writer who inspired them. I can't post a review yet, but maybe one day you would consider a virtual signing, so that international readers can get a personlised book! Love from Australia, Karen
Last Blood is the fifth and final book of the House of Comarre series. I'm currently working on it, pushing closer to The End every day and even though these are fictional characters set in a fictional world, I feel like I'm beginning to grieve. A strange emotion to associate with writing a book, but there it is.
Is feeling that way weird? Maybe, but consider that I started writing Blood Rights, the first book, in the summer of 2008. Four years, one novella and five books later, saying goodbye is understandably difficult. At times my relationship with these characters and this world has been love/hate. There are moments in these books that feel like triumphs and yet, some of the details written in earlier books caused me to make decisions in later ones that I might not have otherwise made. Some days felt like slogging through mud and some days like flying. (And those flying days? Those are the days writers live for.)
Such is the writing process when you commit yourself to basically writing a story that is five books long, because that's how these books work. You should really consider books 1-5 all parts of the same story, just broken down into manageable chunks.
Maybe some of what I'm feeling isn't grief, but exhaustion. *grin* It's tough writing something this long and this involved. These characters and plotlines show up in my dreams, pop into my head when I'm supposed to be thinking about other things and distract me daily from the most mundane aspects of life. They have become...part of me. And wow, just writing that sounds a little too precious, but there it is.
Have you as a writer ever felt like this? As a reader, what do you feel when you read the last book in a series?
1 Comments on The End of a Series, last added: 6/6/2012
The last book of the series is always sad. I am sad to see a series end, yet I love a good ending! Sometimes I feel like the characters do deserve a break, an ending. What with the hell they go through in the writing! (But I still LOVE Reading about it!)
I'm an aspiring author myself, although the series I have in mind is a bit different than the standard.
But as a reader, I love for the story to go on as long as possible. Some series do get to the point where they kind of drag and I don't want to see that happen with series I love.
So while the ending is sad, I am happy that the characters are (hopefully) going to get their HEA ending!
Forbidden Blood, the novella pre-quel to the House of Comarre series, is now live and available for reading! (And only 2.99!) It's a glimpse into Dominic and Maris's early days.
Here's the blurb:
Maris's life as a comarré has come down to three options: escape her patron and spend the rest of her days looking over her shoulder, fight him for her freedom with the understanding it could mean her death or undergo dangerous experimentation to transform her blood into something even more powerful.
Before she can make a decision, she discovers the vampire who's been charged with sunproofing her blood isn't so fond of her patron either. In fact, Dominic is unlike any vampire she's ever met, but is she desperate enough to put her trust in another noble? Her heart says yes...
In the last two days I've received notification that both Blood Rights and Dark Kiss of the Reaper have finaled in some kind of readers/reviewers choice contest. Both nominations make me endlessly happy - who wouldn't like knowing that their stories meant that much to someone?
Both contests allow readers to vote, so if you're feeling clicky, here's where to go:
Blood Rights - Goodreads Choice Awards 2011 - just mouse over the cover of Blood Rights and a Vote button will pop up. Then, you know, click it. I think you have to be a member of Goodreads, but I'm not 100% sure. Anyone know?
Dark Kiss of the Reaper - The Romance Reviews - find the Best PNR - Angels and Demons category, then next to Dark Kiss of the Reaper click Vote Now. Again, not sure if you have to be registered, but I don't think so.
Regardless of how these contests come out, I'm just psyched to have two of my books recognized this way. Sure beats cleaning out cat boxes. Which I probably need to go take care of...
0 Comments on I'm a double finalist! Sort of. as of 1/1/1900
Last weekend, I went to New York Comic Con, which was also my first con of this type. I did two signings at the Orbit booth and on Saturday, I dressed up as a noble vampire from my series. On Sunday, I was part of an awesome panel with some truly great authors (Patricia Briggs, Alison Goodman, Kim Harrison, Jeaniene Frost, Marjorie M. Liu, Sabrina Benulis and me. You can watch some snippets from that panel here.) It was TONS of fun and a rather educational experience at the same time. Here are a few things I learned that I thought I would share.
1. Costume is a loose term. It could mean body paint and boxer-briefs or a contraption that requires stilts and a minder. It could also mean a headband with ears.
2. If you have issues with large crowds, being unable to move through them and lack of personal space, stay home.
3. Deodorant should be mandatory. It should be whatever is more mandatory than mandatory. And yet, it isn't. I think I now know what a dead body smells like.
4. You will wait in line for everything. Not just to see your favorite artist, author or celeb, but food, bathrooms and transportation.
5. People are really nice, very friendly and for the most part, willing to chat.
6. No matter how much you think you know about popular culture, chances are Comic Con will still make you feel a little dumb.
7. If you're wearing fangs, some men will ask you to bite them.
8. Even if you're not wearing fangs, some men will ask you to bite them.
9. You'll come away worn to the bone tired, but also oddly energized by the general enthusiasm for art, writing and fun.
10. Lastly, bring your own water! $4 for a bottle sucks.
Ultimately, I can't wait to go back. I met some great folks who came to the signings and loved getting to talk to all the readers. What a fun first con!
8 Comments on Things I Learned At Comic Con, last added: 10/21/2011
Look at you rockin' the vampire ensemble. It sounds like it was a blast (sans the odoriferous attendees). I hope it got you tons of sales and new readers. =o)
I'm off to NY Comic Con today and I could not be more excited. Not only will I be signing Blood Rights at the Orbit Booth #939 on Saturday (5pm) and Sunday (11am) but I'll be on an awesome panel Sunday:
Beware the women of Sci-Fi/Fantasy … and their kick-ass heroines. Kristen Painter joins Patricia Briggs, Alison Goodman, Kim Harrison, Jeaniene Frost, Marjorie M. Liu and Sabrina Benulis.
If you see me on Saturday, you might not recognize me as I'll be in costume as a noble vamp. Yes, I'm cray-cray like that.
2 Comments on Getttin' My Geek On, last added: 10/15/2011
If you're interested in reading Blood Rights and want to try to win a copy, there's a contest on Goodreads you can enter here. With 10 copies of Blood Rights up for grabs, your chances are ten times better!
Of course, you can always just pre-order it, too. ;o)
0 Comments on Free stuff always rocks as of 1/1/1900
The fabulous Louisa Edwards' latest release is now available! Check it out!
The blurb:
Welcome to the Rising Star Chef competition, where today’s hottest chefs battle it out on national TV for a chance at fame, fortune and culinary supremacy. Every contestant hungers to win, but only one will take the prize...
HE’S GOT THE SIZZLE
When it comes to competitive cooking, Max Lunden is no stranger to winning...though he’s never been great at working with a team. A master chef—and major hunk—he’s traveled the world, picking up new cooking techniques as well as beautiful women. But when the prodigal chef returns home to his family’s Greenwich Village restaurant, he discovers one too many cooks in the kitchen—and she’s every bit as passionate as he is...
SHE’S GOT THE FIRE
Juliet Cavanaugh used to have a crush on Max when she was just a teenager, hanging out at Lunden & Sons Tavern, hoping to catch a glimpse of the owner’s oldest, and hottest, son. Now a chef herself—competing in the biggest culinary contest in the country—Juliet will be cooking side by side with the one man she’s always admired...and desired. But despite their simmering attraction, Juliet is determined to keep her cool—no matter how hot it gets...
2 Comments on Hot, hot, hot!, last added: 8/3/2011
No, it's not a cat at sea. Today's caturday features a video I took on a recent whale watching trip in Gloucester, Massachusetts while on a family vacation there. We've been whale watching in Hawaii, but I never had a camera with me then. Enjoy!
1 Comments on A Whale of a Caturday, last added: 7/18/2011
I feel like I've been away from home for months, but it's only been 9 days. That's like 78 years in cat time according to my boys, who've been demanding massive quantities of attention in an effort to show me what a bad cat mother I am. *ahem*
Actually, after yesterday's airport disaster I wasn't sure I'd even make it home last night, but Hotrod worked his magic and found us another flight before JetBlue even announced our original flight had been canceled. (It pays to be married to a man who's proactive. That is all.)
RWA Nationals is now a blur, but I will say that one of the highlights was getting to spend time with many of the Orbit folks. This only renewed my love for my publisher. Individually, they're all amazing. As a group, I'm surprised they haven't taken over a small country and renamed it Orbitland.
While I dig out from under a towering pile of laundry and head out to restock our fridge, here are a few book-related things worth mentioning:
There's a signed ARC of Blood Rights up for bid in the LA Banks Relief Auction here. Great cause for an amazing author. Check it out!
The cover of Blood Rights has been listed in a Goodreads Best Book Covers of 2011 here. If you like the cover, give it a vote!
2 Comments on Catching Up - Part 1, last added: 7/7/2011
Wow, glad you made it home okay! So cool that you got to meet with your publisher too. :-) I think your cover is amazing and I can't wait to read your book!
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YAY. The series is coming to audio. Thanks for the audio giveaway info.
That is awesome!! It will make workout even longer
Can I enter even if I am not on facebook? I would love the audio book. I started to listening to audio books to free up my hands to deal with my baby and cleaning. I would love to try this series
Thanks,
Ezi Chinyere
[email protected]
Can I enter even if I am not on facebook? I would love the audio book. I started to listening to audio books to free up my hands to deal with my baby and cleaning. I would love to try this series
Thanks,
Ezi Chinyere
[email protected]
Right now the contest is only open to Facebook users, but the next one will be done via Goodreads, making it open to all!