Three #Sundaysnippet s #newrelease week Destiny Boxset2, and the Calloways of Rainbow Bayou, books 1-2

It's release week!!!

The Destiny Paramortals Boxset2 - books 4-6 of the series
Buy links

Destiny — is it Mayberry or Middle Earth?

The Destiny Paramortals Box set  2 includes books 4-6 in the continuing saga of Jack and Tempe and the rest of the Paramortal community. 

Where dragons, vampires and djinn live alongside humans. Just don’t tell the humans.

With so many Paramortals ill or weakened can their human sheriff keep them from being destroyed by their enemies? And can Jack and the others handle the surprises to come?From the chaos to the blast from the past, Blame it on the Moon, Take these Broken Wings and Blood Moon take the Paramortals’ journey to its fruition and beyond.

What readers are saying, "This is my new favorite series." “Can’t wait for the next one!” “Run don’t walk to the buy button” “Wow…just Wow! Give me some more!” “This is my new favorite series.”

"Where’s my valet? I really, really need my clothes…"

When the Right One Comes Along (Calloways of Rainbow Bayou)

Buy Links Preorder today for just #99 until Sept 11

Love happens when you least expect it, or want it.

A former Army Ranger and CEO finds himself drawn to the woman of his dreams but an impulsive fling puts his mission and their relationship in danger.

Former international model and photographer Lana Calloway is finally headed home, after attending the DC romance convention to find the perfect model, the “one” whose face and body could make her new business venture a success. She finds “Alex”, an unwilling and unlikely candidate. Turns out his appearance was a fluke, but the Calloways have a history of getting their man, or woman, and she doesn't intend to be the exception.

Her prospect is in DC to meet with Congress about a huge veterans project; in other words, he’s got higher priorities. It will take creative measures to convince him that her goals could benefit his mission of making life better for wounded veterans and oh, by the way, that they are meant to be.

"The guy’s a friggin’ Einstein. You just don’t think of geniuses looking like that, do you?”

Sonya said, “And he's like a stripper Robin Hood.”

Too Good to Be True (Calloways of Rainbow Bayou)

Buy Links. Preorder now for #99 until Sept 15

 

Love happens when and where, and with whom you least expect it.

Police officer Delilah Burke is no pushover. She prides herself on her instincts but when she arrives at the scene of a convenience store robbery she finds herself unwillingly intrigued by the tall dark and handsome perp dressed in a mercenary uniform and armed with fake weapons. Which begs the question - what else about him is fake? 

He seems too good to be true, but Luc’s huge, surprising family embraces Del and when he’s threatened they join in her efforts to protect him. Del is falling hard for him but can she keep him safe so they can have their happy ever after?

She was getting those boy-howdy-would-we-like-to-jump-his-bones urges out of a rarely heard from region below her gun belt. She sent the little miscreants a Now-is-not-the-time message.

"You Can Do This" #amwriting #indie @LivaQuinn #writing journey

When I was deciding to do this 30 day challenge I was struck by Sarah's words just above the "commit" button, "You Can Do This!"

My exact words when my critique partner and I made the decision to self-publish in 2011. But as a writer /mentor /friend said to me two years later, "You pretty much put it up and walked away." She laughed with me as I acknowledged that she was absolutely right. But it wasn't a lost cause.

Since I created my first website with iWeb back in 2007 with the mantra "Believe" I've never stopped believing I could find some measure of success writing. One of my favorite quotes by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe:

Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it. 

Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it.

This is no small thing to keep reminding yourself in the midst of writers block, family pressures, and repelling all the negatives back then for NOT self-publishing. No, I didn't do it right, but I learned a lot about rites of passage, about believing in myself, my strengths (which were greater than I thought), my weaknesses, and my abilities.

So in 2014, when I decided to restart my career, I set a goal of having four books ready by July for the Romance Novel Convention, my overall goal seven books in the contemporary and paranormal romance genres. My mantra for the months leading up to this seemingly impossible task was "I can do this". I whispered it to myself when I doubted it and when I didn't. In the end, I revamped my website, ran my business during the heaviest part of the season, revised, wrote, and published four books by July and was only one book short of my goal by the end of the year.

After that, things changed again. My day jobs became more demanding and stretched from January through August which meant my writing slowed, still, even though they were later coming out, I was able to publish four more books in 2015.  Then my heavy writing months came around again and I took a trip to Scotland. Then my husband broke his arm and I fell behind again. And once again, I've fallen back on that phrase that keeps me going no matter what, no matter how much writing space I have - I. Can. Do. This.

They were important words to remember over the holidays when I was trying to get all my books up on the various platforms and (forgive me, Mr. Goethe) I almost gave up.

That's the thing. The mark of a really big challenge is the feeling that there's no way we'll be able to accomplish it. And the reward is always knowing we did.

One of my favorite worn and patched posters says it best:

This is day #3 of the 30 day blogging challenge. I'm not even going to tell myself I can't complete it. I'll just try to keep writing and plan as many titles for my posts as I can each day along with one pertinent blog. I hope you'll come back.

To learn more about my books, visit my website at http://liviaquinn.com/books.htmlhttp://liviaquinn.com/books.html http://liviaquinn.com/books.html or sign up for my newsletter to get release alerts and be entered to win prizes here

BBC offerings

Click here to view the video of the Battle of Mons Graupius and how Alba was born. The beginnings of Scotland.

Wow, I love this site. I was looking for maps to use for the workshop I'm taking on Scottish Otherworld - you know, Faeries, Witches - a map to locate both historical and mystical sites. The instructor of our Scottish Lowlands workshop sent a post about the BBC's Scottish history series which is apparently not available in the U.S. Bummer! But I can go to a bookstore coffee shop - something I abhor (yeah, right) and download episodes, walking tours, podcasts. I know what I'm going to be doing most of August and September.

Well, I'm wrong. Since the series last aired in January 09 I can't download episodes. And it doesn't look like the DVD of the series is available. What a disappointment. Still, lots of great information and visual material here including the zoomable Scottish map on the Reformation and Civil War page!

If you know of a good link for an online pronunciation guide to the Scottish language and for names of towns and people, please let me know. Hopefully, this workshop will put the icing on my world building cake.

Update: Annnnd, if you're not from the U.S. you can't view the video. Too bad. I was so looking forward to it. Maybe they'll produce it on DVD.

In the Mood?

For fantasy, that is.


Last week I read Keri Arthur's first book in the Riley Jensen series. I can't pick up the second in the series until Friday when D goes for his training and I couldn't find anything in my home library of probably a thousand-plus books until I saw Storm Born by Richelle Mead. The title intrigued me because of my er, affinity, no that wouldn't be the word, fear and fascination with storms and my current wip. This is another great read in the paranormal genre.

From her site: Eugenie Markham didn't want any of this. Until now, she's been content with her job as a freelance shaman, battling and banishing Otherworldly creatures. When a prophecy makes her the Otherworld's most popular bachelorette, Eugenie finds herself fighting off supernatural suitors, as well as the evils that begin emerging from her past...

This is Richelle's second series for adults. Patricia Briggs, author of the Mercy Thompson series, described it as: "Great characters, dark worlds, and just the right touch of humor. A great read."

It's the first paranormal I've read since C.L.Wilson's Fading Lands series with no vampires. Actually Kensington lists this book as fantasy. Halfway through the book I felt I was experiencing a movie, so rich is her world of fae and human characters. I'm looking forward to Thorn Queen on August 4th.

New (to me) Author

One of my friends suggested a series to me since I'm working on the world building of RCPN. Keri Arthur's Riley Jensen series is a wonderful world of paranormal beings - werewolves, vamps, griffins!, Hellhounds.

Riley and her brother Rhoan are twins, half vamps and half werewolf. (It's always cool to find a new spin on one of the standards in the paranormal genre.) Keri pulls you into this world as smooth as silk. Before you know it you are in the scene with Riley, Rhoan, sexy beings like Quinn, and other members of Melbourne's Directorate of Other Races. Yes, the stories are set in Australia which is something else that sets the series apart.

I could waste time whining that I didn't read her sooner but I'm glad because now I have five Rileys I can read until the new one comes out in October. And it's not just the paranormal world that intrigues and holds your interest, Arthur's writing is superb and fresh, making her books keepers.

When I was reading Gabaldon's Outlander series, I'd have to wait until I got a glimmer of another book coming out then I'd allow myself to slowing savor the book I'd bought as soon as it was released. Like fine chocolate, it was difficult to eat the last piece until you new there was more in stock.

To read more about her books check out her website.

Writing Sprints

Wow, I'm brain dead. Been writing since 8 this morning. This was the day I planned to get back on the RCM/paranormal. I signed up for BIAW and was determined to get my research done in time to move forward.

Then our DSRA chapter sent a post that they were sprinting. Cadence and Cora and I had heard about their sprints from Delilah and I was looking forward to trying the timed writing. They open AIM and go 45/15 all day, depending on what everybody has doing. Delilah finished editing a book she wrote yesterday on a sprint!

I managed 5,552 words today. First words I'm written substantially in a couple months because of crawfish season. I'm soooo happy with that. It's very rough at this point because after Nola Stars I decided to drop back and reevaluate what I'd written, paying closer attention to the character motivations and turning points.

I'm not finished with the research. A fellow writer and blogger of May Contain Nuts, Michael Malone, a talented poet and writer, sent me a link to an online Scottish Dictionary. I've been trying to come up with the names for the towns in the book. So today, in order to keep moving, I just had to put three Xs for one town, 4Xs, 5 and so forth. Tomorrow I'll try that suggestion Michael gave me for naming the area.

I figured if I wrote awhile the plot would help me defind what some of the characters need to be and whether I need more of them. I do.

If you're struggling with finding time or getting the words down, you might want to try timed writing. To stimulate your brain, pop new ideas and push the work forward. I'll clean it up and go in more depth with what I wrote tomorrow then try it again when I'm ready.