Wednesday, July 27, 2016

Summer Heat Giveaway!

It's way too hot for an outdoor workout. (Here in this hemisphere, at least.) But you need to get your heart racing. Cardio is important

What to do, what to do...

Hey, I know! Reading a fast-paced, sexy book has been known to rev up the ol' ticker. And it's way more fun than jogging outside in steamy weather. Plus, it's much less likely to give you heatstroke. 

Sooo....

IT'S GIVEAWAY TIME!

(Click on that link for a chance to win a signed first edition of ALL FIXED UP at Goodreads. It can even be personalized, if the winner so chooses.)

Hope you're all having a marvelous summer! And remember...






Tuesday, May 24, 2016

ALL FIXED UP Release Day!

Let's get this baby launched!

via GIPHY

That's right. Ciel Halligan #4 is now officially out there in the world! 


Yes, 'tis moi, holding an actual copy of it.

And, yes, there is a space-related theme to this one--Ciel's client is a NASA astronaut about to make a big announcement when a temporary crisis puts her in need of Ciel's special brand of "temp" service. Other than having to cope with a ride on one of these...



...it should be a fairly simple job for Ciel. Of course, as we've found out in previous books, nothing is ever simple with Ciel.

I hope you'll enjoy our intrepid aura adaptor's latest adventure! 

P.S. There's a release day interview with me over at The Qwillery (just click here and you'll be magically transported there), and it has a great giveaway: all four Ciel Halligan books! 

If you haven't started the series yet, this would be a great way to do it. And if you already have the first three, hey, surely you have a gift-giving occasion of one kind or another on the horizon. ;)

Monday, May 16, 2016

Cover Reveal from Suz Korb

So, a writing friend of mine is trying out something new: writing a novel chapter by chapter online. Well, she's done it before on her own blog, but now she's trying out Patreon. 

Now, that takes guts! I think I would crack under the pressure of not being able to change my mind a hundred times before finishing the book, but I suspect Suz is made of sterner stuff. *grin*

Best of luck to you, Suz! May the motivation be with you! 


Suz Korb's Newest Cover Reveal and Live Novel Writing
 
Hello, I'm Suz Korb and my new book project is titled: Flutterby Girl. Welcome to this cover reveal blog post, with a twist. And here's the cover...

The twist is that this book hasn't been written yet. I'm going to write it live on Patreon. I've written a novel live before, chapter by chapter, on my blog. And now I'm doing it again with Flutterby Girl! 
 
I got the idea for Flutterby Girl, then I thought up a title, then I got the cover, and now I'm writing the story. It will go up on Patreon chapter by chapter, daily. You can read each chapter if you become my patron. I'm new at Patreon, so if problems arise I hope I can deal with them quick! It should be easy enough though.
 
I've decided to write my two most recent books live because it pushes me, and it makes my imagination flow more deeply.
 
Chapter 1 of Flutterby Girl is up on Patreon now and I hope you will join me in this young adult journey.

Author Suz Korb
Suz Korb Patreon
suzkorb.com
Twitter @SuzKorb
Facebook Author Page

Friday, April 1, 2016

Say "Cheese!" and WIN!

You know what I haven't done in a while? I haven't had a silly contest with a silly sur-prize. So let's do it! (Heh-heh. I said "do it.")

I think this one should be a Silly Selfie contest. 



All you have to do is take a selfie and either email it to me at linda(dot)grimes(at)gmail(dot)com OR tweet it to @linda_grimes. 

Silly sur-prize will be revealed later. (Duh. That's why it's a SUR-prize, and not just a prize, silly.) But it will most likely contain silly candy, a (cheap) silly toy, and reading material that may or may not have been written by a certain author who may or may not be considered "silly" by some people.)

Winner will be chosen, on a purely whimsical basis, by moi. (Natch. My sandbox, my rules.)  

Hint: I find pics of people holding one of my books next to their face while sticking out their tongue and/or crossing their eyes to be VERY whimsical. ;)

BUT, if you are bashful about sharing your silly visage in a public place, entries will be accepted of people holding one of my books in front of their face, as long as they are accompanied by your solemn silly oath that it is indeed you holding one of my silly books.

Digital copies work, too. Just hold up your digital reading device with the title page displayed, and Bob's your uncle. 

Also, bear in mind that my books are in a lot of libraries, so if you don't already have one, no purchase is necessary to add that extra bit of whimsy to your entry. In fact, I love libraries so much, I might even be tempted to award extra silly-credit for silly selfies taken holding a library copy of one of my books. 

Or you could always send a selfie without one of my books. It's not mandatory, after all. :)

Best of all, anyone can enter! (Unless, of course, it is illegal for any reason where you live, in which case, follow the law.) Enter as often as you like. The only rule is--and I can't stress this strongly enough--NO NAKED SELFIES ALLOWED. I don't care how good you look sans clothing (and I'm sure you're breathtaking), I do NOT want to see that. 

There you are. Easy-peasy lemon squeezy. Just get out your smart phones, make (or hide) a face, click, and send it to me.

Oh, and let's see ... how long should I keep this contest going? 

I know! How about until the release date of All Fixed Up? That would be May 24, 2016. So you have loads of time to get your silly on. Just don't put it on the back burner and forget about it, because you don't want to miss out on the Silly Sur-prize!

Thursday, March 17, 2016

Happy St. Patrick's Day from Ciel and the gang!




Wishing all of you the luck of the Irish!

And if you absolutely must read a real post, here's a rerun from 2010. TG has a show this year, so we won't be having our traditional dinner tonight. But we had Reuben sandwiches last night, so at least we got our corned beef and cabbage (in the form of sauerkraut), anyway. And I'll still wear that necklace. 

Me & St. Pat, we got a thing going on...

I love St. Patrick's Day. :)

Every year I wear this:



It's not a shamrock, but I figure a four-leaf clover is close enough. This one I've had since I was born (which makes it *cough* over twenty-one), a gift from my aunts in Sweden (who were really my mother's cousins, but as close to her as sisters, so my brothers and I always called them aunts). They wanted me to have a life full of good luck.

Here's the back:



Isn't that handy? I'll never forget my name as long as I am wearing it.

Seriously, St. Paddy's Day is just about my favorite holiday. Yes, even above Christmas. As much as I love jolly old St. Nick, there is a lot of mom-work involved with that holiday. Not to mention High Expectations from just about everyone.

St. Paddy's Day is laid back. Relaxed. No gift shopping, no unavoidable card & candy & flower shopping (oh, you can send cards if you like, but nobody really expects them, at least nobody I know), no hard-boiling & dyeing eggs, or filling up baskets with fake grass and goodies. No infernal racket & blowing your fingers off with fireworks.

Just good ol' Guinness and a nice New England boiled dinner (corned beef and cabbage, and of course potatoes).



Normally I don't even have to boil that dinner, since the theater god loves to cook. But this year I may have to, if he doesn't get home from work in time to start the corned beef (it takes about three hours at a simmer to do it right). I am assured by both TG and DD (my darling daughter, who inherited her cooking skills from TG--too bad she's not here to step into the breach) that this meal is easy-peasy to produce.

Ha. We shall see about that. Never underestimate my ability to screw up in the kitchen.

Update later. If I haven't burned down the house.

(And if I've had enough Guinness, I may come back and tell you about the time a gunrunner for the IRA tried to recruit TG and me in Dublin. Long story short, we, um, declined his kind invitation to be a part of a noble cause. Even though he did offer us a freezer full of steaks and a possible job connection at the Abbey Theater.)


Tuesday, January 19, 2016

ATTN: Readers of the Latest ARC!

It's that time again! ARC Tour!

Photo courtesy of MorgueFile.com, "Fixed" by moi.


The USS ALL FIXED UP is about to embark on the traditional voyage of early readership. (Get it? Readership? Ha-ha! Sometimes I crack myself up. Then again, I'm an easy audience.)

As many of you know, All Fixed Up won't be released until May 24th. BUT! (Am I using too many exclamation points? I feel like I might be. But this is exciting!) But (apparently I'm fond of "buts," too) if you don't mind a few measly typographical errors, you don't have to wait that long to read it. Because I have these:


And I'm going to send one of them out into the world, in all its uncorrected glory (don't worry, it's not that bad), so my loyalist readers can find out Ciel's bombshell early. (Please, no spoilers if you participate. But feel free to smile smugly at your secret knowledge.)

If it's any encouragement to participate in the tour, I guarantee that in this one Billy is Billy-er, Mark is Mark-ier, and, most importantly, Ciel is Ciel-ier! One might say her character is growing. Which is, in my humble opinion, important in a series. 

Once again, the magnificently bad-ass Karla Nellenbach has agreed to be my Tour Director, and will be juggling emails and plotting the best route for the book. 

To participate, all you have to do is email me at linda(dot)grimes(at)gmail(dot)com and tell me your address, and agree to mail the ARC on to the next person on the tour list when you're done reading.

I'll forward your info to Karla, who will be the one giving you a heads-up when its on its way to you. 

Once you have it, it would be great if you could finish in under a week, so the others don't have to wait longer than necessary for their turn. And if you sign it before sending it on, that would be absolutely lovely. The early-reader-signed ARCs of the first three books are some of my most prized possessions. :)

Oh, and if you would leave an honest review on Goodreads, Amazon, or B&N (after release day--May 24th--for Amazon and B&N), that would be great, too. But not mandatory.

Since I'm asking people to pony up the postage to send it on to the next person, I'm afraid I'll have to limit participants to the US. It doesn't cost much to mail a book within the US. Under $3, last I checked. Lots cheaper than buying the book, anyway. ;)

More incentive: I will send each participant a signed bookmark, once I get them from the printer. (Speak of the devil--just this minute got a email from the printer that they've shipped. Yay!)

Bookmark Front
Bookmark Back


Hope you guys will enjoy it! Ciel, Billy, and Mark hope so, too. :)

Friday, January 1, 2016

2016!

I would love to take a few minutes to write a truly inspirational post for this, the first day of 2016, but, frankly, Bill and Ted distilled it so much better than I ever could:


Think how much better the world would be if everyone did just that. :)

And now I'm off to begin my new year as I would like to continue it: working on a book. 

First up: Finish assiduously (wow, those SAT prep vocab words really do come in handy) perusing the First Pass pages of All Fixed Up.


Yup, it looks like a real book now! Stay tuned. May 24th will be here quicker than that jerk behind you at the light can honk when it turns green. ;)

May the coming year bring you health, happiness, and creative fulfillment!