Memorable Mondays Bonus: The Ghost by Christine Rains buy links and tour dates

Thanks for joining me earlier for the cover reveal of Carrie Butler's Mark of Nexus Book Two: Courage. Wasn't the cover beautiful? I hope you loved it as much as I did, and have all signed up to host Carrie on her blogtour in October. 

I'm back for a second dose of Memorable Mondays, as I celebrate the final novel in Christine Rains' 13th Floor Series: The Ghost.

Title: The Ghost (The 13th Floor series, #6)
Author: Christine Rains
Genre: paranormal romance

Release date: July 13th, 2013

Blurb: Chiharo Black lives with six supernatural tenants in a haunted building's mysterious thirteenth floor. Of course, no one knows she's there except the cats. Being a ghost can be a bit frustrating and lonely, but it isn't as bad as her mother made it out to be.

Until another ghost intrudes on her territory. Jeremy Emerson wants revenge on the vampire that killed him and won't stop until he has it. To top it off, a nightmarish shade sneaks in and leeches the energy from the building's residents before setting its sights on Chiharo and the thirteenth floor. She can't decide which one is more frightening: the one wanting to eat her soul or the one who might win her heart.

Chiharo must convince Jeremy to stand with her against the hellish parasite. If they cannot work together, the greedy fiend will not only drain their energy but everything that supports the thirteenth floor's existence.

Buy the Ghost: Amazon US | Amazon UK | Barnes & Noble | Smashwords | Kobo

Blog tour: July 13th - 18th, 2013 

Blog tour stops:

July 13 - TF Walsh and M. Pepper Langlinais

July 14 - Kyra Lennon and Aubrie Dionne

July 15 - Nutschell and Heather Holden

July 16 - Carolyn Brown, Nick Wilford, and Graeme Ing

July 17 - Cherie Reich, Heather M. Gardner, and M.J. Field

July 18 - Colette Chmiel and Clare Dugmore

Join me here on Thursday 18th July, for the final stop on The Ghost tour, where Christine and I will discuss our favourite ghostly fiction, what I thought of the final book in the 13th Floor series, and our own ghostly experiences.

Memorable Mondays: Carrie Butler's Courage (Mark of Nexus #2) Cover Reveal

Happy Monday, everyone! I hope your week gets off to a wonderful start!

Thanks to those who dropped by my personal blog last week for Working Wednesday. 

Continuing with the posting schedule this week, and back to Memorable Mondays: book releases, cover reveals, blog tours & blog hops etc. from around the Blogosphere.

And today news from the Blogosphere I'm crazily excited to share ... the cover reveal for Carrie Butler's Courage; Book Two in the Mark of Nexus series.

I read Strength back in March when it was released, and thought it was awesome; a real benchmark for paranormal romance, so I'm really looking forwards to what comes next, and the cover and blurb have whetted my appetite even more!

So, without further ado, here is the cover for Mark of Nexus Book Two: Courage ...

Title: COURAGE

Series: Mark of Nexus - Book 2

Author: Carrie Butler

Category: New Adult (NA)

Genre: Paranormal Romance (PNR)

Release: October 15, 2013

Formats: E-Book & Paperback

Description: Courage (Mark of Nexus #2) features four unique points-of-view. While the novel stands alone, it is best enjoyed after Strength (Mark of Nexus #1). 

Making a deal with the bad guys wasn’t the highlight of Rena Collins’ semester, but, hey, it saved her boyfriend. Now, in order to appease the human-altering organization known as ERA, she’ll crawl under their microscope while they study the Mark of Nexus and plot their eye-glazed version of the future—until she realizes that’s not all they’re plotting.

Wallace Blake has always known his girlfriend is unlike most girls. But now that information has surfaced regarding the two bloodlines that balance his supernatural race, he finally understands why. Rena belongs to one of them. She’s been augmenting his power, all along...

Enter: Corynn Catley. Brought into the country under the guise of an internship, she’s intended to become ERA’s secret weapon. Kind of. Her abilities cancel out Wallace’s, rendering him powerless, but that’s exactly what he’s always wanted. Too bad it only works when his girlfriend’s not around.

All the while, Rena fails to notice the crush her geeky best friend, Aiden Ross, is nursing. He’d give anything for her to see him in a new light—even reinvent himself through questionable means—but there’s a reason people are told to be careful what they wish for. Finding the courage to tell her could put everyone’s lives in danger.

Where to find Carrie:

WEBSITE  |  BLOG  |   TWITTER  |  FACEBOOK  |  GOODREADS  |  GOOGLE+  | NA ALLEY | PINTEREST

Where to find Courage (Mark of Nexus #2):

BOOK PAGE  |  GOODREADS  |   BOOK TRAILER

Book Bloggers may start requesting e-ARCs via this form. 

Blog Tour:

Participate in the Courage blog tour, happening October 14th–26th!

Book Trailer: 

Countdown Clock:

Cover Credits:

Design: Carrie Butler

Photography: Subbotina Anna & Yuri Arcurs

Memorable Mondays: Free Books from both Kyra Lennon and Mary Pax!

Happy Monday, everyone! I hope your week gets off to a productive start! 

We're experiencing a heat-wave in the UK, and the warm temperatures are killing my creativity; I'm such a winter baby! Hopefully I can make some progress on my WiPs though.

Yesterday saw a little later than usual Favourites Friday post on my personal blog. If you've got time, and want to see what I've been up to with the family, please drop by.

Continuing with the posting schedule this week, and back to Memorable Mondays: book releases, cover reveals, blog tours & blog hops etc. from around the Blogosphere.


Two of my favourite authors, and friends, are giving away books this month.

A Beginner's Introduction to the Game On Series -
available for free on Smashwords. 

First of all we have Kyra Lennon, who's just released "A Beginner's Introduction to the Game On Series."

If you were around for the 2012 A-Z Blogging Challenge, you'll remember Kyra's wonderful posts, written as diary entries by characters from her Game On series.

Since then, we've had two books from the series, as well as a special Christmas snippet, and I know Kyra has plans for a third Game On book later this year. 

For those of you not familiar with the series, Game On and sequel/ spin-off Blindsided, are contemporary romances, centred around L.A's (fictional) soccer team the Westburg Warriors. 

The first title in the series, Game On, sees British expat, Westburg's physiotherapist Leah Walker battle with her feelings for womanising soccer star Radleigh McCoy. The second book, Blindsided sees McCoy's younger team mate Jesse Shaw vacationing in England, where he meets shy British girl Isabelle Mills, and events while on vacation put Jesse's career on the line. 

Having critiqued both books, I know how truly amazing they are. Kyra's stories are packed full of twists and turns; they're not your predictable love stories, but it's the super realistic, life-like characters that really make the stories shine.

So if you're looking to get into a fresh contemporary series, with wonderfully deep characters, why don't you pick up A Beginner's Introduction to the Game On Series, and get to know a little about Leah Walker, Radleigh McCoy and Jesse Shaw, as well as Game On secondary characters Bree Collinson, Fraya Phillips and Will Cater; who will all feature as main characters in future books. 

The second author giving away free books this month is the wonderful Mary Pax, who's boundless imagination knows no ends. 

The Renaissance of Hetty Locklear
now only 99 cents. 

Her brilliant New Adult Contemporary Fantasy with a Contemporary Sci-fi twist, The Renaissance of Hetty Locklear,  is on sale this month for 99 cents. And beginning July 15th two signed paperbacks will be given away through Goodreads, and 10 ebooks will be given away through Rafflecopter. 

"The journey into adulthood is stranger than she expects.

Graduation from community college isn’t the magic elixir Hetty Locklear counts on for becoming an adult. Her parents, who work the Renaissance fair circuit, insist she spend part of the summer with them. Hetty doubts pretending to live in the Middle Ages will help her find her way. 

 To make it worse, an entity haunts her at her dead-end job, warning her of a dangerous man she doesn’t know. The ghost leads her to a lover who has a lot of secrets. He pulls her farther into peril and into a strange, hidden world of genetic experimentation. 

New Adult Contemporary Fantasy with a contemporary sci-fi twist."

That's not all Mary is giving away. Over on her blog is the free episodic novel Under the Moon, which is currently on part five. 

"Dennis Merrill shouted at the driver to stop then rushed out into the wild night clutching his pack. The land resembled nothing he had ever seen. All the brush grew low, the trees sparse. Palisades crooked through the landscape in an awing tumult. The rock faces sang, beckoning."

Read the full chapter - and find previous instalments - here ...


Thanks for dropping in, I hope you find something you enjoy in the offerings from Kyra Lennon and Mary Pax. 

Check back next Monday, where I'll be taking part in the cover reveal for the second book in Carrie Butler's amazing New Adult Paranormal Romance series The Mark of Nexus, entitled Courage which you can mark as 'to be read' on Goodreads now!

And if you're so inclined, please drop by again on Wednesday, where I may or may not be discussing a new project. 

Memorable Mondays: Curiosity Quills Edition

Happy Monday everyone! Hope you all had a productive/ relaxing weekend, and are ready to go for a new week!

Thanks for the comments on my latest Favourites Friday entry; it was a lot of fun taking part in The Armchair Squid's Cephalopod Coffeehouse, and I hope to do it again next month!

It's back to Memorable Mondays today, and this week I'm promoting something quite close to home - my new employer Curiosity Quills! 

Curiosity Quills is a gaggle of literary marauders with a bone to grind and not enough time for revisions.

We are an independent publishing house, creating together, supporting each other, and putting out the best darn tootin' words this side of Google.


Want sci-fi? Want paranormal? Want horror? Want mystery? Yeah, there's an app for that.

Curiosity Quills.com | CQ on Facebook | QC on Twitter | CQ on Goodreads | CQ on Tumblr | CQ on Pinterest | CQ on Google Plus

Aiden James has brought to life the first three installments of Dying of the Dark Vampires. Now, Curiosity Quills Press brings you the first “Calling of the Co-Authors”, a competition to help bestselling author Aiden James find a worthy co-author to continue Txema’s tale.

•     Are you a writer? Check
•     Do you love Aiden James’ novels? Check
•     Are you familiar with the dark skill of vampire authorship? Check

Then you are a perfect candidate to compete and be considered to co-write with Aiden James!

Fans and Voters: This is your chance to read several different plausible courses the storyline could take, and the opportunity to choose how you want the story to continue! Don’t miss it!

For the full contest details, please view the Curiosity Quills Press Site

http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/

Curiosity Quills Presents: Call for Serialization Submissions

Over the last three years, Curiosity Quills Press has brought you a plethora of wonderful serializations, many of which have gone on to be published as ebooks and paperbacks; such as Amy Fecteau’s Real Vampires Don't Sparkle and Michael Panush’s Jurassic Club.

Now they're looking for exciting new hard-hitting dark sci-fi, speculative fiction, and paranormal works of the highest quality, aimed at adults, young adults, and new adults, to be published at the Curiosity Quills website.

If you’re interested in submitting something to them, please read through their author submissions guidelines, and then follow these instructions:

To submit a manuscript for consideration, please send an email to one of the addresses below with the following information:

• A one-page query letter containing your genre, title, word count, and a brief blurb about the book.
• The first five (5) double-spaced pages
• For serialized works, please include information about update frequency, update length, and projected series duration.
• Established authors are welcome to query with a standard proposal package of three chapters, a synopsis, and a query.

PLEASE DO NOT INCLUDE ANY PERSONAL WRITING CREDENTIALS, AWARDS, REVIEWS, OR PROMOTIONAL LINKS

Young Adult: ya@curiosityquills.com | New Adult: na@curiosityquills.com | General Adult: adult@curiosityquills.com | Not sure which to use? editor@curiosityquills.com

Best of luck with your submissions, Curiosity Quills look forward to hearing from you soon.

http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/

Curiosity Quills recently reached a huge milestone; a thousand posts. CQ have come a long way in the last few years, and  want to thank everyone who has supported them thus far; it’s greatly appreciated. They  hope you’ll stick with them into the future, as they have some exciting things planned.

Reaching such a massive milestone has made them reflective and eager to improve and one of the areas they want to focus on is their social media presence. For this reason, they've created a quick user survey to find out how you rate their social media presence this far, and what they can do to improve.

It only takes three minutes to fill out, and Curiosity Quills will be extremely grateful if you could give them your feedback. Thank you. 

Curiosity Quills social Media Survey

Thank you for taking the time to check out what Curiosity Quills is all about, and what they've got going on at the moment. I don't just say this from the point of view of an employee, but also as a writer who thinks what they're doing is brilliant, and truly believes in them.

Please check back later in the week for Working Wednesday for another snippet from my WiP paranormal romance. 

Memorable Mondays Extra: The Thrill of it All Blogfest

In addition to my earlier post, Heather M. Gardner and Tara Tyler are hosting The Thrill of it All Blogfest, in celebration of their own publishing thrills. Heather with MCGUIRE'S CORNER (out now) and Tara with POP TRAVEL (07.07.13). Congratulations, ladies!

The Rules:
On June 24th, share a big thrill. It can be real or fiction. Just keep it to a paragraph or two. Tara and Heather will be judging the posts.

The Prizes:

1) An e-copy of MCGUIRE'S CORNER.
2) An ARC of POP TRAVEL.
3) A $20 Amazon GC.
4) A banner or caricature by Tara.

Sign ups can be found here, and make sure you hop around to everyone else's blog.

As I'm taking part at the last minute - I literally found out about this fest an hour ago - here's a thrilling little excerpt from my current paranormal romance WiP. Enjoy!

"A thrill of excitement shot up my spine when I realised, just a few steps ahead of me was Pierre Beaufort, the male model sensation and face of the newly launched Farley Cosmetics masculine range. The ad campaign featured him in nothing but tight black boxers and I almost didn't recognise him with his clothes on, but I’d remember those piercing blue eyes and luscious blond hair anywhere."

Memorable Mondays: Writers for Writers, Cover Reveal & WiP Madness

Happy Monday, everyone! I hope your new week gets off to a fantastic start! 

Thanks to everyone who commented on my Favourites Friday post over at The Life and Loves of Clare Dugmore. 

Additional thanks to those who stopped by to support Annalisa Crawford on her That Sadie Thing Blog Tour.

I'm continuing the blogging schedule this week, and it's back to Memorable Mondays; for book releases, cover reveals, blog tours & blog hops etc. from around the Blogosphere. My way of highlighting what my fellow writers are doing.

First of all we have Writers for Writers - Hosted by M Pax, Stephen Tremp, Christine Rains, C M Brown - Writers helping other writers to succeed. Twitter hashtag: #W4WS Find W4Ws on Facebook.

Today, Writers for Writers are hosting Canadian author Marta Szemik, writer of a witchy paranormal romance novella Marked, which she is currently offering for free. 

Shapeshifter Xander will remain stuck in oblivion between good and evil until he is marked—either with the sphere that will identify him as a servant of the underworld or with the water mark, working for the keepers of humans, vampires, and warlocks.

One decision will mark him and his twin sister Mira equally. She is in love with a man bearing the water mark and wants Xander to follow the path of the good. But Xander loves a black witch, a minion of the underworld. All he has to do to join her forever is kill.

After all, there's something good about being bad.

Warning: Adult Content includes sensual non-graphic sex.

Find Marked at the following places: Amazon Kindle | Kobo (epub) | Smashwords | Barnes & Noble | iTunes | Diesel

Help Marta spread the word about Marked on social media with these handy pre-written shout-outs.

Twitter:

Marked Novella is #Free “You like a bad witch?”, “I like a very, very bad witch.” http://amzn.to/163Jd0E #amreading #ebook #W4Ws

  

“There’s something good about being bad” http://amzn.to/163Jd0E Marked Novella is #Free on #kindle #Paranormal #W4Ws

Marked Novella is #Free on #kindle “Want me to match that scar on the other side of your face?”  #paranormal http://amzn.to/163Jd0E #W4Ws

Like #Paranormal Romance? Try Marked:A Two Halves Novella for Free, a prequel to Two Halves Series http://amzn.to/163Jd0E #amraeading #W4Ws

Facebook:

How do you make a choice when anything you decide dooms your fate? Marked: A Two Halves Novella is a paranormal romance prequel to the Two Halves Series, and it's Free. http://amzn.to/163Jd0E

When your fate is already decided, there's nothing you can do, can you? Read Marked: A Two Halves Novella, prequel to the Two Halves Series for free http://amzn.to/163Jd0E

I know this news is a week old now, but I wanted to share Cassie Mae's cover for How to Date a Nerd, because the cover is awesome and after reading Reasons I Fell For the Funny Fat Friend, I'm sure How to Date a Nerd will be a huge success. Congrats, Cassie Mae! 

Zoe has a great pair of legs, perky boobs, and wears exactly what she needs to show it all off. She works hard for the easy sleazy ‘you only wish you were me’ reputation, burying who she really is—an all-out nerd.

The only time Zoe gets to be herself is when she hides under her comforter to read X-Men comics, sending jealousy stabs at everyone who attends Comic-Con. Keeping up her popular rep is too important, and she’s so damn insecure to care about the consequences. But when Zoe’s sister takes her car for a ‘crash and burn into a tree’ joyride, her parents get her a replacement. A manual. Something she doesn’t know how to operate, but her next door neighbor Zak sure as heck does.

Zak’s a geek to the core, shunned by everyone in school for playing Dungeons and Dragons at lunch and wearing “Use the Force” t-shirts. And Zoe’s got it bad for the boy. Only Zak doesn’t want Popular Zoe. He wants Geek Zoe.


She has to shove her insecurities and the fear of dropping a few rungs on the social ladder aside to prove to Zak who she really is and who she wants to be… if she can figure it out herself. 

Today is also Work in Progress Madness, this month hosted by Kim Baccellia. If you're working on something and need extra motivation, and want to help motivate your fellow author, why don't you hop on along to Kim Baccellia's blog, you can also find a list of participants on Twitter, as well as follow the #wipmadness hashtag. Go show your fellow writers some love and support!

Thanks for dropping by, and I'll catch you back here on Wednesday, for Working Wednesday where I'll be updating about how my work in progress is going, as well as how I'm getting on with my Curiosity Quills internship. 

Memorable Mondays: Followers Blog Hop

A new week starts with my new Posting Schedule and the first of three weekly posts on my blog(s); Memorable Mondays.

Normally, I will reserve Mondays for book releases, cover reveals, blog tours & blog hops etc. from around the Blogosphere. My way of highlighting what my fellow writers are doing.

However, the first Memorable Monday will focus on me because it falls on the same day as Mel Chesley's Followers BlogHop, and I thought the beginning of a more scheduled style on by blog would be a perfect time to connect with some new people. 

I love meeting new people, and I love the community in the Blogosphere. In the 18 months that I've been blogging, I've met some really awesome people, that have gone on to become great friends. I have a lot of fantastic memories, have picked up some excellent tips, and through blogging have found some brilliant books.

I'd love to continue expanding my blogging world, and meeting even more great people. So, if you think we could get along, please follow me.

I have two blogs, my writing blog here at Clare Dugmore Writes, where I promote fellow authors and update on my current work in progress - a new adult paranormal romance in the first draft stage - and my personal blog, The Life and Loves of Clare Dugmore; where I write about TV shows, video games, books and movies I love, as well as what I've been getting up to with Hubby and our two sons. Feel free to follow me on both blogs, or just one, whatever appeals to you most.

I'd also love to connect with people on social media, and I can be found on Twitter and Facebook, as well as Tumblr, GoodReads, Pinterest and Polyvore. 

Thanks for dropping by and taking the time to read my post today, and I hope to get to know some of you better.

If you'd like, check back for Working Wednesday for an update on how I'm getting on with my WiP, and how my internship at Curiosity Quills is going.