Carter's rage-aholic-y travel guide to Midcity!

Wow! There's some crazy action over at All Things Urban Fantasy today... Disillusionist Carter, whose specialty is rage, is giving travel tips on:

• Eating out in Midcity
• Getting around in Midcity
• Places to shop 
• Safety tips! 

And giving away a copy of Wild & Steamy, which contains a stand-alone Midcity-based novella. Come join the fun! 

Where is Wild & Steamy? The shame...and the contest!

Dear readers,

Perhaps you are wondering: WHERE the heck is the Wild & Steamy Anthology? The supposed Steampunk and Supernatural trio of novellas that a certain trio of supposed authors has been crowing about all these months?  Wasn't the release date supposed to be JULY 25th???


Yet it doesn't seem to be on Amazon, or Barnes & Noble, or Smashwords, or All Romance Ebooks or Apple or anywhere!! How can it be??

 *shamefaces* 
It's not ready!!!  We are sorry.

Release date: between now and August 3rd
Guess the time & date and win a copy!

We're editing, revising, proofing and formatting like crazy. We so badly want it to be perfect and awesome, and we underestimated the time we'd need. We really do apologize for putting an overly ambitious date up there. We're soooo close to done, we nearly made it, but we don't want to just slap it up there to make this deadline. We need...an extension.


When will Wild & Steamy be released? We are sure we can comfortably have it out by August 3rd, 11:59 CST. Probably sooner, but August 1st is just to be safe. Which brings us to the contest!


Guess the new release date and win a copy contest! 
All we know is that Wild & Steamy will go up for sale between now and August 3rd, 11:59 CST--as soon as we have it right we're putting it up. But when? Take your best guess. We're giving away FIVE copies of the book to the FIVE readers who make the closest guess of when it will finally go up for sale out there! Enter the contest here.


Where sold: At some point before August 3rd, it will be available for Kindle at Amazon, Nook at Barnes & Noble, Smashwords & All Romance Ebooks (many formats) 


Rules:
1. Guess the day and the time (CST) you believe the elusive Wild & Steamy will finally go up for sale. (example: July 28, 3:15 pm) in the comments on Jill's site here.
2. DO NOT MAKE YOUR GUESS HERE!  Make your guesses on Jill's site  - One guess per person.
3. Make sure we can get your email address by clicking on your name, or else put your email addy with the guess you make.
4. Winners will get to pick the format and so forth. If you don't have an ereader, you can choose a pdf if you like, and read it on a computer  or tablet. The winners will be announced when it goes up!!


Again, our apologies. Please know that we're hopoing to make it worth the wait.


Comments closed because you need to go to Jill's site to make your guess for a chance to win!

Random items of a Friday evening...

It may be old and dirty, but it works great,
and by god, it's kitty-proofed!! 

Hot
Well, there's one advantage to having a somewhat wee condo - you can cool it down with one window unit air conditioner and a fan. And as I said to a friend recently, chocolate does taste better in the heat. Melty chocolate!!

Don't laugh at my fan - it is an awesome fan. It's like 20 years old, and just so powerful. The plastic slats in the back got brittle and started breaking off a few years back, which wouldn't be that big a problem, except I worried the cats would stick their paws in, so, using the principle of darning socks, I kitty proofed.

Mr. Crane scorns this fan. He went out and got another fan a few years ago, a shiny new plastic thing, and it has already broken, but not this baby! It is now hard at work circulating the air. Can you believe this heat? I went running today and I still don't feel right. Totally brutal.

Elsewhere
Do you do this - go through word phases, and you take a shine to a certain word and use it a lot? I'm going though that with the words wee and elsewhere. Wee I like for its subtle comic value. Wee really has tons of attitude; you find this out when you start using it.

But Elsewhere! This is a hell of a word. Coy and powerful. It forces sentences into a specific and singular order, and then it arranges their collar and makes them sit up straight. Like a mean, mysterious nanny. I am so into the word elsewhere.

Deadly Destinations
There's a really fun event this month over at All Things Urban Fantasy and Dark Faerie Tales called Deadly Destinations. It's authors being sort of summer tour guides to their novel settings and giving away tons of books. I'll be there in a week, giving away a copy of Wild & Steamy!!

More excellent series-kickoff books for temporary sunshine prices for kindle!
With all my ballyhooing of Nicole's cheapie dealio (see last post) I didn't realize TWO other leaguers have cheapie deals right now. Sunshine is on many shoulders!

• Richelle Mead's Succubus Blues is only $3.99
• Jaye Wells' Red-headed Stepchild is only $1.99
• And there's Nicole's Tempest Rising: $1.99

I will admit this is a particularly insane detail;
note that a piece of the back is simply hanging
by the string. Well, it just is.

Three great opportunities to give three excellent, popular series kick-off books a test drive. I've heard this lasts through Sunday, and also, until the 27th. I don't know which thing is right.

A rare moment in the Crane household
I'm about to finish edits on the still-not-named book #3 which will fly into my agent's hands on Monday, and I recently finished a major part of a different new series project that is elsewhere.

So basically, on Monday, I will have a totally clean fiction plate, and I don't think the day job will be crazy. I think it's kind of a rare occurrence, and I'm excited for it. It means I can write whatever the hell I please during my special morning writing time. I have an idea for the best-ever new series, but I'm also thinking of doing a Simon novella, or doing a Christmas novella of some sort. I think I'll decide when I get there.

Adrian!!!!!!!!
I'm such a fan girl of Joanna Bourne, I had to trot out to her blog to see just when the heck Adrian's book is coming out, a book I've been waiting for since like 2009 when Spymaster's Lady, one of the best books ever written, blew my socks off.

I found a treat there: the Adrian cover. And an excerpt. And it will be out in November!!! The heroine of this book is named Justine. A fine name, Ms. Bourne! Godspeed to you on the edits!!

Sunshine...on Nicole Peeler's $1.99 shoulder!

Good news! Nicole Peeler's first book, Tempest Rising, is a sunshine deal at Amazon for Kindle* - a  steal at $1.99!!  But only for the next week - it turns back into a pumpkin, albeit a delicious one, but a more expensive pumpkin, on July 27th. But right now, it's $1.99. 


FIVE reasons to try this series: 

1. Awesomeness.   This series has taken its place in my pantheon of shiny, sexy, go-to series, right next to Kresley Cole's and Charlaine Harris's. Nicole is my galpal, but that's not why I'm saying all this - some of my galpals double as authors I love, and happily, Nicole is one of them.  
2. Engaging heroine.  Jane True is a vulnerable, fascinating and totally compelling heroine. I enjoy her careful intelligence, as well as her unabashed love of eating and other sensual pleasures.
3. Absorbing luv triangle.  This book featured my favorite kind of love triangle, where both options are hugely attractive, but you definitely know who the hero is. A very low-angst triangle that lets you stop and smell the roses. Smutty goodness all along the way.  
4. Smart, surprising worldbuilding. This is a strong world. Nicole brings lots of knowledge to UF, and isn't afraid to toy with the tropes and pull out some very crazy kinds of creatures, either. So enjoyable.  
5. It's just 1.99 at Amazon!! 

*You know what's funny? Ten years ago, the phrase "sunshine deal at Amazon for the Kindle" would have been total nonsense to me. But, then, so much would be. If I travelled back in time, I could really freak myself out!!)

My new skirt, a passive-aggressive conflict at the store, and a bit of flash! + a question

First of all, I hope everybody is feeling sorry for us poor folks in Minnesota - It was like 100 today, but the heat index was 120!!!

Okay, please wipe your tears now, because otherwise you won't be able to admire my awesome new woodland scene skirt!!! I so love it.  I got it at the used clothing store today. Somebody handmade it...I'm thinking out of curtains. It just feels like that.

I totally think the heat is affecting people. Today at that store...okay, I'll set the stage: it is pretty cramped in there, with racks all along the very long walls and the middle. There was this woman looking through the racks, making her way right to left, and I was going  the opposite way, left to right. Granted, I started looking after her, but there was a good deal of tundra between us when I started. Maybe ten feet!

Then, I'm, you know, riffling through the racks, making my way down, and I notice her just to my right, standing still as a statue, and sort of a step back from the rack. And I feel her eyes on me, burning into my neck, and I'm like, is something wrong? And she goes, You're looking right where I was going to look! And she was super mad. Usually at this store, you just swap positions, but she seemed really to think I was messing with her. So I said, look, I'll skip down. And she said, No, you can look there, and  I'll just wait here. That didn't sound very fun to me, so I skipped this whole section of rack.

So later, she's disappeared, and I revisit the section I skipped, and just then, she comes around a circular dress rack right behind it, and we're yet again on a collision course. I was completely in her way again. It was sort of funny, because, she really did think I was messing with her. I do think it's the heat!! 

My skirt is quite flash, don't you think? 
I don't know if I'm using that word right. I am reading Meredith Duran's amazing, glorious and riveting A Lady's Lesson in Scandal right now. I am richly enjoying every aspect of it. Especially the details of the working girl life, and the working girl slang. I love when the heroine says a thing is 'flash' like, oh this is a bit of flash, or, that skirt is real flash.

I was thinking that use of flash belonged specifically to that time period, but then yesterday DH and I were working out to Adam and the Ants and Adam used the word flash just like that in a song. Was Adam using it as an older word, or is it a modern UK usage? Do people walk around calling things flash? I think the song was about pirates, one of Adam's main obsessions. Maybe he was using the word flash as pirate lingo. Is this a word of pirates and guttersnipes of old, or what? UK friends, please advise.

Confessions of a torrid eye cheater!

As a writer, I used to be a total snob about cheating on eye descriptions. Part of it comes from having worked for some years with a very exacting writing mentor. A brilliant and highly trained English fellow (and really, the best teacher ever) who would very nearly mock any liberties I took with eyes.

I used to be so pure about eye
descriptions. Now, not so much.

I can picture him now, my offending pages clutched in his hands: “His eyes were sad? What does it mean that his eyes were sad? His eyeballs, do you mean? Tell me, how do eyeballs look sad? They don’t get sad. Eyeballs are inanimate! Were there tears glistening upon them? Then you say that. Or is it the skin around the eyebrows that changed shape, creating a sad effect? Was his brow furrowed? Certain kind of frown?”

This whole thing made me really sensitive to writers cheating with eyes. Even some of my favorite writers, those I consider towering in their brilliance, cheat a bit. Even major huge NYT best-selling writers cheat quite boldly. This isn’t a real line, but stuff like this: “There was a stormy look in his eyes, chased by sorrow, and then a dawning recognition of what had come to pass in that room, after which his eyes were shuttered with hate.”

I would sometimes be darkly impressed by a line like that, a total sleight of hand that’s a blatant form of telling disguised as showing. A writer pretending to describe outward appearance, but telling a state of mind. And nobody made her rewrite it! And here I would be slaving over tears and hardened facial planes squinching eyes.

I really kept to my purity around eye description for a long time. I don’t believe you will find any eyeball liberties whatsoever in Mind Games, where I tended to rely a lot on widened and narrowed eyes, as well as gleaming eyes, and sometimes sides of eyes with little wrinkles of happiness. 

I recall doing one or two eye cheats in Double Cross and being thrilled nobody stopped me, because it really is convenient to cheat like that when you have a lot going in a scene. I didn’t cheat horribly, stuff like “a surprised light in her eyes.”

I have drunk the eye-cheat  Kool-aid. It's quite delicious! 

Light was kind of my gateway cheat. In real life, people can have a light in their eyes, but adding surprised is the cheat part—I mean, if you showed a lineup of eye photos, you wouldn’t be able to tell a surprised light from an angry light without the context of the face or situation. There simply is no such thing as a surprised light.

Anyway, I’m doing edits on book #3, and I was just laughing the other day, because I have totally started eye-cheating! Here, a selection of my cheats:

I keep a frantic eye on the air overhead.

Packard turns to me, and there’s a lonely light in his eyes.

Otto sits up, brown eyes glittering darkly.

Packard's lonely light is the boldest one--basically, I'm telling the inward state of the man by pretending to show it in the eyes. Okay, glittering darkly is pretty bad—that’s really about something going on in Ottos's face that I didn’t feel like getting into. Even that frantic eye on the air overhead is pretty slippery. My narrator is frantic, but the eye isn't. All in all, total cheater ways of sneaking state of mind into a physical description. But oh so convenient.

My name is Carolyn Crane and I am an eye cheater! 

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not condemning writers who eye cheat. (Especially since I have started!)  I mean, you can walk into any museum and see a good portion of beloved paintings that aren’t realistic whatsoever, and nobody’s going around like, that’s not a even what a hand looks like!

There are books on my loftiest keeper shelf (penned by writers whose feet I would kiss in a second if that sort of thing wouldn’t make me persona non grata at conventions) that contain the phrase “eyes were shuttered…”  Different writers are up to different things, and have different goals, and if an eye cheat works, it works. 


I just think it’s funny, because, if you knew how pure I used to be around it, you would totally laugh about the lonely light in Packard’s eyes, too. But, what the heck! I am keeping that lonely light line, and I might write more just like it.    

Public domain images from wiki commons: Anton van Dyck self portrait, The Eye by Haley Davis, Charles V at Muhlberg, eye detail, by Titian, Gjord i Paint.net Jagsjalv 

Gasp! Disillusionist trilogy coming to audiobook soon!

What will audio Justine be like? 

Well, the summer of exciting things (or at least, exciting-to-me-things) continues with Audible picking up the Disillusionist trilogy!


Which means that they are probably currently casting somebody to be the voice of Justine Jones.


What will this Justine be like? I have her voice in my head, but I could not tell you what it sounds like in the world. This is just so exciting. A voice actress will bring a whole new dimension of interpretation to the books. She will have to make choices on how to say each line. She will sort of have to decide what kind of person Justine is. The whole thing is both scary and wonderful.


All three audiobooks will be out this October. Which means, if you are an audiobook aficionado, the release of book #3 is a bit over a month early - digital comes out December 6, and later in 2012 for print.


I know the different release times of #3 may seem wacky, but my main aim has always been to make book #3 the best damn book I can write, and that the book would be available to the most readers in the most forms, and this is how I put it together…non linear as it may appear! And let me say, I am feverishly excited about #3.


 All three books will be available through audible.com (and, I think, all other online bookstores where Mind Games and Double Cross are sold, but I'm not entirely clear on the details - I'll post when I have more.)


Anyway, that is a new awesome thing at Casa Crane. If I get a sneak snippet of Justine's voice, I'll post it if I can. Eeeep!

All sorts of release week insanity at the league!

It's a major release week over at the League of Reluctant Adults! 

Read all about it, including Diana Rowland's tattoo challenge, which I'm sort of horrified-ly fascinated with. (She'll get the tattoo pictured right if she hits the NYT list with her White Trash Zombie novel!)


Plus, the lowdown on releases from Michelle Rowen, Kevin Hearne, KA Steward and Dakota Cassidy! Come on over for the deets.  

Mind Games & Double Cross International ebooks on sale this weekend!

Just a quickie update before I start my day: Mind Games and Double Cross ebooks are available for just $3.49 each - this weekend only - in whatever digital format you choose.

Now, these are the international editions, so, if you live in the US, Canada or the Philippines, this sale doesn't work for you. (Sorry!) Still, I think it's great that international readers get an advantage for once.

At right, this is what my international ebook covers look like!

Go here for book #1, Mind Games

Go here for book #2, Double Cross

UPDATE: Sale ended July 4th

What do tortured masterminds wear to the beach?

Come on over to Larissa's bookish life for a rare and kind of wacky summery interview with Sterling Packard! 

It's part of the Bookish Haven Summer Vacation Event, hosted by Larissa's Life and Paranormal Haven.

We're at the tail end of this event, but there is still plenty of fun--and prizes up for grabs--at both these awesome blogs. And come say hi to Packard and me here! 

Release day! Kindling the Moon by Jenn Bennett

I had the pleasure of devouring this very awesome book ahead of time, and look! It's finally out! Our newbie author Jenn is enjoying the breathless, nerve-wracking, can't-concentrate-on-anything, gimme-that-chocolate  release day experience!

The only way I would love this book more is if my blurb was on the FRONT like Karen Chance's and Ann Aguirre's. Am I not more famous than those two losers? What? I'm not? Not at all? LOL.

Here's my blurb: 
"Delicious characters, fun twists, and fiendish risks…this smart, stylish debut really delivers. Loved loved loved it!" ~Carolyn Crane

I was so not being full of crap on that blurb. I found this to be a riveting and highly swashbuckling read with great characters, plus a magical storyline that took me off the beaten UF path. Really, I thought the worldbuilding and the engineering of the magical workings were just wonderful. Then there’s the single father hero who has absolutely great chemistry with our intrepid heroine - I really enjoyed him! There is also a fabulous frenemies storyline that I found to be understated and very hilarious. And of course, a fine and twisty plot. Hello! Can’t wait for this next one. 

Okay, the official blurb:  

Meet Arcadia Bell: bartender, renegade magician, fugitive from the law. . . Being the spawn of two infamous occultists (and alleged murderers) isn’t easy, but freewheeling magician Arcadia “Cady” Bell knows how to make the best of a crummy situation. After hiding out for seven years, she’s carved an incognito niche for herself slinging drinks at the demon-friendly Tambuku Tiki Lounge. 

But she receives an ultimatum when unexpected surveillance footage of her notorious parents surfaces: either prove their innocence or surrender herself. Unfortunately, the only witness to the crimes was an elusive Æthyric demon, and Cady has no idea how to find it. She teams up with Lon Butler, an enigmatic demonologist with a special talent for sexual spells and an arcane library of priceless stolen grimoires.  

Their research soon escalates into a storm of conflict involving missing police evidence, the decadent Hellfire Club, a ruthless bounty hunter, and a powerful occult society that operates way outside the law. If Cady can’t clear her family name soon, she’ll be forced to sacrifice her own life . . . and no amount of running will save her this time.

INSTANT CONTEST ALERT!!!  Leave a comment and I'll draw one winner tomorrow afternoon at 4 pm CST and send them a copy of this awesome book (International welcome). 


The rest of you will have to buy it from your neighborhood bookstore or online. Luckily, it's easy! A measly eight bucks for hours of pleasure. Buy links from Jenn's page:  AMAZON | BOOK DEPOSITORY| BARNES & NOBLE | BORDERS | BOOKS-A-MILLION | INDIEBOUND | POWELLS |MYSTERIOUS GALAXY | CHAPTERS (CANADA) 
PDF Download of First Chapter here. More on the elusive Jenn Bennett here. Read a review here.
PS: why do my fonts and spaces look so crazy and messed up? *shakes fist in mute anger at Blogger*

Monday things: Interview, antho release dates & kitties!

July 25

Interview! I'm over at the awesome Romance Books forum doing a fun interview - Alix and I are talking superhero skills, having scandalous thoughts about anatomy (at least I am; Alix wisely stays mum!), the difference between writing a novella and a series, the song I will always sing aloud when I hear it, and some of the thinking behind Mind Games, Double Cross and the Disillusionists Trilogy...and so much more. Come say hi! 

Release dates: The two anthologies I'm in have new release dates. The wonderful, wonderful Wild & Steamy will be coming out July 25th (if not before, but for sure by then).

And, Mammoth Book of Ghost Romance has been pushed back to summer of 2012 - a year later than planned. *sob* I was really excited for it to come out, because it was the first non-disillusionists thing I'd written for publication and also, the first short I've written since the dawn of time. (I actually called my writer friend to ask what the goal is with a short story - she had this whole explanation on everything turning on a moment.) And, when you're a writer (or at least, when you're me) you want to instantly share everything you have written, because that is exciting and fun (unless people hate it!). Well, when Ghost finally does come out, maybe it will be like finding a forgotten Kit Kat candy bar in my purse.

Kitties: I had a busy weekend, but not as busy as the kitties, who were working really hard on their cuteness skills. Momma is so proud!

Have a nice week, everyone, and if you're going to RWA, I hope you have a wonderful, wonderful time (she says as her complexion turns ever so faintly green). I await pictures! I will live the dream through your pictures!

Great moments in last night's reading: immersion vs travelogue in UF world-building

Gah! I've been so swamped, I haven't done one of my great moments posts forever, and I have tons of great moments I've made notes for to talk about. Okay, this one is from last month. 


Great Moments from Last Night's Reading
Book: The Sweet Scent of Blood by Suzanne McLeod
Page: 61
Spoiler level: zero

There’s a certain sly element of cool in Suzanne McLeod’s The Sweet Scent of Blood. I was thinking today about how she achieved it, and in part, I feel like she does something that a lot of my favorite ultra-contemporary, high-realism cable dramas do, like THE WIRE, or the movie INCEPTION, for example, in the sense that you’re admitted into a world, but not given a whole travelogue about it.


This creates a sheen of otherness, and so part of the fun and dazzle is to behold all the people and strange goings-on and piece things together. By the end, you get the ins and outs and back alleys, and it’s kind of satisfying. 

I don’t mean that the plot is hard to follow, though it’s certainly more complex than most, but more that you get the world through immersion.

This is especially true with the small details—the surface details. I was absolutely thrilled with this underground ride our main character Genny took. These goblins come onto her car. Gazza is a jerk. We’ve seen goblins before in the book - as literal minded bodyguards - but suddenly there are these other kinds of goblins. Here, the passage:

...His white translucent ears flicked like a rat’s and he clutched a gold lamé satchel tight to his chest, almost obscuring the London Underground badge on his navy boiler-suit – a gold embroidered ‘G’ that marked him as a Gatherer.

He slid a thin grey finger down his twitching nose. ‘Rubbish, miss.’ 

My disguise wasn’t good enough to trick a goblin, or even a vamp – not that it mattered. It was only the witches I was trying to fool. 

I shook my head at the goblin, then touched my own nose in reply. 

He patted the flap of his satchel. ‘Thankee, miss.’ 

The goblin clomped along to Gazza, his trainers flashed green with every step. ‘Rubbish, mister.’ 

Gazza sneered again. ‘Bugger off, you little creep.’ 

The goblin grinned up at him, baring black serrated teeth, three of them studded with square-cut garnets. He opened his mouth wide, leaned forward and snapped his teeth together with a loud crack, right next to Gazza’s cheap PVC-covered groin. ‘Rubbish, mister,’ he demanded.

Huddling against the door, his eyes wide, Gazza fumbled in his coat pocket, found something and offered it warily to the goblin. A stick of chewing gum, still wrapped.

Thin fingers plucked at it, then tucked it away inside the gold lamé satchel. ‘Thankee, mister.’ The goblin stamped his feet, leapt onto a seat and curled up in a ball, his arms hugging tight around his bag.

And that, to my memory, is the first and last we see or hear of these freak-ay goblin trash gatherers. Why are they asking people for trash? Why do they have gold lame satchels? What is the deal with the goblin stamping his feet, leaping onto a seat, and curling into a ball hugging his bag?

You never find out, and I absolutely loved that, because it made this strange world truly strange. If this was key to the plot, I might feel mystified or even left behind, but it’s not key to the plot. So it just became this quirky, random world detail that really made me as a reader feel like I’d gained entrée to a new land.

McLeod definitely takes a risk with this, because it’s such extreme ‘show-don’t-tell’, albeit for an insignificant surface detail.

I think a lot of other authors, including myself, might have given Genny some opinions about these guys as a way to guide the reader, like, “I don’t know what these goblins did with their trash or why the underground union employed them, but at least the cars were clean. Some speculated that… bla bla.” But wouldn’t that be boring? It is way cooler just to have them show up, collect trash that’s not even trash, and exit.

Because, isn’t how that is when you’re traveling in a foreign country? I enjoyed this effect. 

Image: The Fra Mauro map. Part of China. 1459, from Wiki Commons.

Shoes, character breakthrough, and revised thinking on high punctuation within dialogue

Character breakthrough.
I was doing some plotting and reworking on a part of my new paranormal series and had this breakthrough. Do you know the fable of the grasshopper and the ant?  I realized my hero in this book is the ant type, jealous of the grasshopper, and my heroine is the grasshopper type trying unsuccessfully to be the ant. Oh, this helps me immensely, you can't even know.

Stop the presses! I have revised my opinion on high punctuation in dialogue.
Re-reading Meredith Duran's Bound by Your Touch, a favorite book of mine. I usually hate high punctuation within dialogue (semicolon or colon) but I've changed my tune: now I hate it in all dialogue except a certain kind of playful facetiousness, like in this scene, such a fun one, where our hero, Sanburne is wasted at his own party and his sister, sitting down next to him on the stairs, tries to get his attention:

... Elizabeth's fingers fastened onto his upper arm, digging for attention. "Do you hear me? Are you awake?"

He was curious about that, too. "Are my eyes open?"

She made a noise of exasperation, then took his chin in her grip, yanking it up so their eyes met. "They are open," she said. "Behold: it is I." 

There could be no other punctuation there but a colon. The colon is perfect! Really, I just love this behold bit of hers. These two probably grew up reading books and seeing plays that contained that sort of language, maybe still do, and here it is as part of their humorous language, the way I sometimes sing to DH: Don't do the crime if you can't do the time from the TV show Baretta. (Yup, I'm in my 40s!) Anyway, I love when characters place themselves specifically in relation to their time, instead of simply being of their time.

Sometimes when I type these things out, I discover new wonderful treasures in the writing. Like those fingers, digging for attention. And the feel of this easy sibling relationship. You get so much out of this little exchange.

Shoes
I go wildly back and forth on these shoes I got from a secondhand store. They are leather, made in Mexico, and brown, a favorite shoe color of mine. Sometimes I love them, and other times, I'm not so sure.

I am a fan of buckles on things, that is part of the attraction. And they work with bare feet. Today I love them.

Hey, happy Saturday everybody!
I have a big day job project to work on this weekend, but plan to get some novel writing in, and some exercise, and some quality time with the husband. Hmm, we'll see how that all works out. What are you all up to?

The Disillusionists might become a TV show!

Like many Americans, I am a great fan of TV, and have many opinions and fierce attachments to various shows. So as you can imagine, I’m beyond thrilled that the Disillusionists has been optioned by the production company Fishbowl Media for possible development for TV!!

Here is the announcement from Publisher’s Marketplace:

Carolyn Crane's The Disillusionist Trilogy, about a psychological hit squad of misfits and neurotics who reform criminals by pumping them full of their negative energy, pitched as Heroes meets Inception, optioned to FishBowl Media, by Shari Smiley at CAA, on behalf of Cameron McClure at Donald Maass.

What what what will it be like?

Yippee!

When something gets optioned, it’s not actually sold. It’s more like the rights are rented for a year or some other specified time period. Fishbowl Media would use this time to work out and pitch the show to…um, I think networks. Then, if somebody picks it up, they would buy the rights.

I’m so excited to learn more about what they envision. I enjoyed Heroes, and I really REALLY enjoyed Inception. So I’m sure I’ll like what they have in mind.

Also, I’m burning with curiosity on how they’ll translate it to screen, because the books are quite psychological, but I'm sure they have ideas. And far more psychological books than mine have been made into shows and movies that I have come to love. My prime example is Remains of the Day. I was like, How the hell do you make that into a movie? But it was awesome.

Screenwriters and TV people bring new ideas and worldviews to books. Even though I would not be involved, I feel like they are sort of collaborators after my part is over.

Anyway, sometimes these options just run out and nothing happens at all, but still. Quite exciting! What are your favorite movies or TV shows that have been made out of books?

PS: I'm going out of town this weekend, so not around much. Also, don't forget to enter my contest below!

A very hexy release roundup...with contest!

So many exciting new releases by various pals, cohorts and people I admire from afar... Yee hah!  It's time for one of my roundup contests. And be sure and wear your anti-hex boots, because there is a definite theme here...

Hexes and Hemlines (A Witchcraft Mystery #3)

More from everybody's fave paranormal mystery series. I think I need to start shopping at Lily's store!!

Blurb: With her vintage clothing store taking off, Lily Ivory is finding that life in San Francisco suits her just fine. But her ability to sense vibrations from the past, so useful in locating secondhand gems, has landed her in the middle of a new mystery...

Lily gets called away from Aunt Cora's Closet when the police need a witch's take on a strange case. Malachi Zazi was stabbed to death in his apartment, under a ladder, surrounded by the number thirteen, a broken mirror, and a black cat—superstitions that the victim, as head of a rationalist society, was devoted to discrediting.

When the police identify a suspect from the Serpentarian Society, Lily is shocked to learn it's someone she knows. But with bad luck plaguing all its members, she begins to wonder if there's more at work than mere coincidence. And while there aren't many clues from the crime scene, Lily finds evidence of dark witchcraft and a hex on her friend's doorstep. With her friend's safety at stake, Lily is determined to use magic to find the murderer before everyone's luck runs out... Excerpt

Hexed - An anthology with novellas by Ilona Andrews, Yasmine Galenorn , Allyson James, & Jeanne C. Stein

Blurb: Four of the bestselling names in romance and fantasy come together in this collection of thrilling novellas featuring powerful women who know how to handle a hex or two.

From Publishers Weekly - Bestsellers Andrews, Galenorn, James, and Stein serve up stories set in their established magical worlds in this entertaining urban fantasy anthology. In Andrews's Atlanta-based "Magic Dreams," shape-shifting white tiger Dali Harimau battles a dark force to save the man she loves. In Galenorn's "Ice Shards," Finnish house sprite Iris Kuusi travels to the frozen Northlands to break a curse and confront the evil shadow of her former lover. Stormwalker Janet Begay struggles to save herself and her friends when they become trapped in a cursed Arizona hotel in James's "Double Hexed." Stein rounds out the anthology with "Blood Debt," in which San Diego vampire Anna Strong saves an innocent man and winds up on trial herself. 

~not to be confused with...

Hexed by Kevin Hearne (Iron Druid Chronicles Series #2)

Hits the shelves to the sound of rubbing hand and squeees...the fun continues...

Blurb: Atticus O’Sullivan, last of the Druids, doesn’t care much for witches. Still, he’s about to make nice with the local coven by signing a mutually beneficial nonaggression treaty—when suddenly the witch population in modern-day Tempe, Arizona, quadruples overnight. And the new girls are not just bad, they’re badasses with a dark history on the German side of World War II.

With a fallen angel feasting on local high school students, a horde of Bacchants blowing in from Vegas with their special brand of deadly decadence, and a dangerously sexy Celtic goddess of fire vying for his attention, Atticus is having trouble scheduling the witch hunt. But aided by his magical sword, his neighbor’s rocket-propelled grenade launcher, and his vampire attorney, Atticus is ready to sweep the town and show the witchy women they picked the wrong Druid to hex.

Hunter’s Fall (Hunters #5) by Shiloh Walker

Oh, Hunters series! Determined, embattled characters, great romance and inventive worldbuilding. 

Blurb: Nessa lost her memory following a near-death experience. Dominic is a Hunter dealing with his own problems with memory and sanity. When the two are put together to battle the forces of darkness-while trying to restore what they've lost-their all-consuming passion becomes an even greater unknown.

From Publishers Weekly: Nessa is an old, powerful witch thrust into a sexy new body still occupied by the taunting presence of its previous owner and possessed by murderous urges. Young vampire Dominic is plagued by erotic dreams about a beautiful woman who is both familiar and mysterious, much to his frustration and confusion. Aided by characters from previous series titles, Nessa and Dominic attempt to discover the truth behind their psychic connection before evil forces destroy them both. Complex personal histories and a very solid paranormal world add detail and intrigue as beautifully well-rounded characters reach for clarity…  Excerpt

Chicks Kick Butt (anthology) - eleven original stories by various fabulous authors, including my talented galpal Jeanne Stein!!

Editors note/blurb: Chicks are awesome—and never more so than when they are kicking some serious vampire/werewolf/demon/monster butt. Chicks Kick Butt is an anthology that features one of the best things about the urban fantasy genre: strong, independent, and intelligent heroines who are quite capable of solving their own problems and slaying their own dragons (or demons, as the case may be).

- Rachel Caine (with a story from her bestselling Weather Wardens universe)

- L.A. Banks

- Rachel Vincent

- Karen Chance

- Lilith Saintcrow

- Cheyenne McCray

- Susan Krinard

- Jeanne Stein

- Jenna Black

- Susan Krinard

- Jeanne Stein

- Jenna Black

- Elizabeth Vaughan

- Carole Nelson Douglas

- P.N. Elrod

- Nancy Holder

Nightfall by Ellen Connor (Dark Age Dawning #1)

Ellen Connor is the collaborative pen name of Carrie Lofty and Ann Aguirre. Shhhhhhhh! I'm really excited to check this out.

Blurb: First in a stunning new post-apocalyptic paranormal romance trilogy.

Growing up with an unstable, often absent father who preached about the end of the world, Jenna never thought in her wildest nightmares that his predictions would come true. Or that he would have a plan in place to save her-one that includes the strong, stoic man who kidnaps and takes her to a remote cabin in the Pacific Northwest.

The mysterious ex-Marine named Mason owes a life-debt to Jenna's father. Skilled and steadfast, he's ready for the prophesied Change, but Jenna proves tough to convince. Until the power grid collapses and mutant dogs attack-vicious things that reek of nature gone wrong.

When five strangers appear, desperate to escape the bloodthirsty packs, Jenna defies her protector and rescues them. As technology fails and the old world falls away, Jenna changes too, forever altered by supernatural forces. To fight for their future, she and Mason must learn to trust their instinctive passion-a flame that will see them through the bitter winter, the endless nights, and the violence of a new Dark Age.


Money Shot by Susan Sey
My own hometown RWA chaptermate Susan Sey has been getting tons of buzz for her smart, sexy, fun work. I'm excited to crack open this book, set on a frozen island in the middle of Lake Superior. I love the idea of a female Secret Service Agent, too.

Blurb: Secret Service Agent Maria "Goose" di Guzman is assigned to Mishkawa Island on a goose-chase of a case when she encounters a greater mystery in sexy park ranger Rush Guthrie.


From Fiction Vixen: After reading Money Shot, the second book from Susan Sey, I can say for sure that she writes easy to love heroes, has a talent for writing some good fun snark, and leaves me marking her books all over the place with possible favorite quotes.  Excerpt here

Goddess with a Blade by Lauren Dane (ebook)

I'm really curious and excited to read this new UF by one of the most vertsatile and sexy writers around.

Rowan Summerwaite is no ordinary woman. Physical vessel to the Celtic Goddess Brigid and raised by the leader of the Vampire Nation, she's a supercharged hunter with the power to slay any vampire who violates the age-old treaty.

A recent string of murders has her at odds with Las Vegas's new Scion, the arrogant and powerful Clive Stewart. The killings have the mark of Vampire all over them, and Rowan warns Clive to keep his people in line—or she'll mete out her own brand of justice.

Though her dealings with Clive are adversarial to say the least, Rowan is intensely aware of her attraction to him. But she can't let it distract her from her duty—to find and battle the killer before more women die.

Shimmerlight by Jill Myles (a 99-cent novella; a companion to the erotic time travel novella Mirrorlight)

Loving the sound of this plot! Freaky and fun...

Blurb: Chloe Sorenson's just started a brand new job at Ms. Muffet's art gallery. However, no one told her that the latest auction piece - a sculpture of a handsome Roman soldier - comes to life. Think it's hard to explain to your boss why you're fondling a statue? Try explaining to the statue why you're holding his, uh, fig leaf. Chloe never thought that touching the statue would turn him into a sexy, aroused man, but she's not saying no to this delicious Roman soldier. The curse requires that she touch him at all times? Such a hardship...

But there's a problem in their lust-fueled relationship; she's falling dangerously in love with a guy that cursed to be hard as a rock - literally - unless she can somehow free him. And the statue of Titus just went up for auction. If she doesn't do something, he's going to be out of her life and trapped for all eternity... available for here, here and elsewhere soon!

Giveaway time! 

Okay, you can win one of these books! (Or the first book from one of these series, if you haven't started the series yet).
ADDED: Anne Aguirre has generously offered up a copy of Nightfall! So I'll pick two random winners - one to win NIGHTFALL, and one to win any book of their choice. Thanks Anne!

Directions:

1. Leave a comment, any comment - you can talk about any or all of the books, or you can talk about your cat or fear of hexes or anything! Your comment doesn't have to say what book you'll choose.

2. You have to leave your comment here on the blog - if you are seeing this on Goodreads or Facebook, come over, cover over, Red Rover!

3. Make sure your email is in the comment, or else that I can find it by clicking on your name.

4. Live somewhere in the world where book depository ships.

I will choose a TWO winners next week (June 14th) when I sit down with my tea and oats. I will email those people then. Hey, Happy release day everyone!