Dangerously Fierce Happiness

So I have been lucky enough to have previous books reviewed on the RT Reviews Magazine site, which is a great by-subscription online magazine aimed at the romance reader (and writer). I didn't really expect them to review Dangerously Fierce when I put it out on my own.

But look what showed up this week! What's more, they gave it 4 1/2 stars AND made it a Top Pick of the Month. Please insert happy author dance here. Have you read it yet?

Everyday Witchcraft Celebration Giveaway!

I'm sorry I haven't been around much lately (see previous post for explanation). But I'm going to make it up to you by doing another big giveaway! Do you forgive me now? I thought you would.

In fact, I'm going to do two giveaways in a row, so be sure to check back at the end of the month to see what the second one is. (I have a surprise for you. No, I won't tell you what it is. That would ruin the surprise!)

This is a celebration giveaway, because I'm happy to say that it looks like my new Llewellyn Worldwide book,  Everyday Witchcraft: Making Time for Spirit in a Too-Busy World  is doing quite well, even though it was released almost a month ago.

Can I get a huzzah?

 In fact, here is what I saw when I looked on Amazon yesterday:

That's right--that says #1 New release!

At the bottom of the page, it looked like this:

Insert more "huzzah-ing" here.

Yes, I know that's not a real word. Never mind.

Those numbers are great for a book in its first week of release. For the end of a release month, they're fab. Of course, I only have five reviews so far, and I'd love to get some more (HINT, HINT, SUBTLE HINT), but over all, I'm very happy. I've also had lots of people writing to me and saying how much they love the book, which of course, makes me happier still.

So now I'm going to spread the happy by doing a giveaway! I'm going to give away one big prize pack with a double-sided tote bag (just one bag, but it has Everyday Witchcraft on one side and The Witch's Broom on the other), plus a notebook, postcard, and magnet, and a cool broom pen. Sorry, Magic the Cat is not included. She was just supervising.

PLUS, I'll be giving away TWO signed copies of Everyday Witchcraft!

As usual, it is easy to enter. You get extra points for doing things like buying a copy of the book and posting a review (which this time you can do every day of the contest, as long as you post it in different places each day, like Amazon, Goodreads, and Barnes & Noble ). Or you can just comment and tell me if you are excited about the book, love the cover, or just think Magic the Cat is the best prize-putting-together supervisor evah.



And of course, I'd love it if you'd spread the word. On account of you are all teh best readers evah.



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BOOK RELEASE DAY!

It's finally here! BOOK RELEASE DAY for WICKEDLY DANGEROUS! YAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAY!

As you can tell if you watched the video (or as you can probably guess, even if you didn't), I'm pretty excited. It seems like I have been talking about this book for a long time, and now it is FINALLY here!

If you want to pick up a copy of the book, and you don't happen to have a bookstore near you, you can get one at any of these places online:

Buying links:

AMAZON

PENGUIN

B&N

IndieBound

Of course, you can also ask your local Indy bookstore or library to order it.

I'm celebrating the book release today over at Bitten By Books with a live chat that starts at 3pm EST/noon PST and will go on throughout the evening until I have to go to bed, and then continue the next morning. I will be giving away a $50 Amazon Gift Card, so go enter the contest, and if you want, you can ask me questions or just say hi! (The live chat is only today and tomorrow--but the contest runs until Friday.)

And I know I said I wasn't going to do any more contests here, but it's RELEASE DAY! How could I not?

I'm going to do things a little differently this time. Instead of giving away a bunch of things and spreading the winning around, I'm going to give away a Bunch of Things to one lucky winner! Maybe it will be you :-) This will include a signed book (or a signed ARC, if you prefer--I still have a couple left), a bunch of swag, and a tote bag to carry it all around in.

[Note: because this is a Bunch of Things, I will only be able to send them to a winner in the USA. But if you win and you live outside the USA, I think of something cool. The contest at Bitten by Books is open to international entries.]

Thanks SO much for coming to celebrate BOOK RELEASE DAY with me--I really appreciate it...and you.

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A Fabulous Review from RT Book Reviews!

Official reviews are starting to come in for Wickedly Dangerous

This is always a tense time for an author, and because this is my debut novel, I am even a bit twitchier than usual. What if no one loves my baby? Thankfully, that doesn't seem to be the case. One of the more important sources for reviews in the romance industry, RT Book Reviews, gave me an absolutely glowing four star review (since they only go up to 4 1/2 stars, I'm pretty darned happy with that!)

Check it out~

Book Review

 

http://www.rtbookreviews.com/book-review/wickedly-dangerous WICKEDLY DANGEROUS by Deborah Blake Genre: Paranormal/Urban Fantasy, Paranormal Romance Sensuality: MILD RT Rating Looking for a fresh take on paranormal romance? Your search is over! Blake, who has previously self-published paranormal tales, makes her traditional publishing debut with a terrific spin on the Russian legend of the wicked witch Baba Yaga. In Blake’s universe, Baba Yaga is not an individual but rather a job title for a very chosen few who are selected to help guard the balance of nature and the borders between worlds. Wickedly Dangerous is innovative and fun, introducing some lesser known mythological characters and giving them a 21st century makeover. This reviewer is eager to see what else this talented newcomer has to offer! While on the surface she appears to be an herbalist and researcher, Barbara Yager’s true calling is that of the magical Baba Yaga. Older than she appears, Barbara travels the country in an enchanted Airstream along with her companion, dragon-turned-dog Chudo-Yudo, who guards the Water of Life and Death. At the moment, Barbara has been summoned to Clearwater County in upstate New York by the family of a young girl who has gone missing. Sheriff Liam McClellan is hunting for three missing kids, so he is suspicious of Barbara’s sudden arrival. To save these children, Barbara and Liam must work together, but is this sexy sheriff prepared to learn of the existence of magic and magical creatures? (BERKLEY SENSATION, Sep., 352 pp., $7.99) Reviewed By: Jill M. Smith Publisher: BERKLEY SENSATION

COVER REVEAL Wickedly Dangerous!

I never do two posts in one day, but I finally got the okay to post the cover for the first Baba Yaga book, WICKEDLY DANGEROUS, and I just couldn't wait! 

I hope you all love it as much as I do! 

Meet Barbara Yager, the first of three Baba Yagas, and her dog (well, sort of, when he's not a dragon), Chudo-Yudo. And yes, that's the front of her classic BMW motorcycle you can see in the bottom right corner. Berkley did a FABULOUS job, and I couldn't be happier. 

So tell me, what do you think? Do you like it? Would you buy a book with this cover?

Deborah, who is over the moon.

Big News! Title Announcements! Giveaway! Friday!

Boy, do I have some news for you guys! I’ve known about some of this for a while, but haven’t been able to share until contracts were finalized, or other such things.

NONFICTION NEWS:

As some of you will have seen from the poll above [IT WAS A SECRET HINT!], if you ask many people which of my existing Llewellyn books is their favorite, a large majority will name The Goddess is in the Details. And to be honest, it has always been my favorite too. The Goddess is in the Details was my 3^rd book, and is far and away the best seller of them all. When it went to a 5^th printing this year (yay!), it suddenly occurred to me that I had more to say on the subject of integrating your spiritual beliefs as a Pagan with your everyday life. So I pitched the idea of a follow-up book to Elysia Gallo, my fabulous Llewellyn editor, and she loved it.

So I am really happy to announce that I will be writing that book, my 8^th for Llewellyn—which will probably come out sometime early in 2015. No name at the moment, because the one I was going to use is too close to another book coming out soon. I’ll keep you posted. I’m really excited, especially since this will probably be my last nonfiction book.

Except, that is, for a small project I just agreed to take on for Llewellyn as well.

They decided to put out a series of small books on the 8 Sabbats written by various authors (they will probably be sold as “by Llewellyn”). I’m going to be writing the book on Midsummer, and it looks like the series is going to be great fun. Here is the list of books and authors—it’s a great line-up!

Ostara – Kerri Connor

Beltane – Melanie Marquis

Midsummer – Deborah Blake

Lughnasadh/Lammas – Melanie Marquis

Mabon – Diana Rajchel

Samhain – Diana Rajchel

Yule – Susan Pesznecker

Imbolg – Kenny Klein

I’m not sure exactly when these are going to come out, since they aren’t going to be released all at one time, but I promise I will let you know when things get closer. I can’t wait to get a copy of all of them myself!

I’m also really pleased to announce that book #7 for Llewellyn, The Witch’s Broom is now available for pre-order! I hope you’ll all rush out and order one, so that Llewellyn gets the delusion that I’m popular. (Snicker.) Don’t you love that cover? (Magic the Cat thinks it is a picture of her.)

PRE-ORDER HERE

FICTION NEWS:

Lest you think that I have been ignoring the fiction side of things, I have news there too. We finally have official titles for the Baba Yaga novels, as well as the prequel novella which will be coming out in advance of the books. The 1^st book should be out in September 2014 (no final dates yet) and the second one in December 2014. And the titles are (drumroll, please):

Wickedly Magical (the novella)

Wickedly Dangerous (book 1)

Wickedly Wonderful (book 2)

I love these titles—what do you think? All the books will have something like “A Baba Yaga Book” on them, too, so people will know they are part of a series.

The first book is finished, except for final tweaks and copy edits, and the second book has been written and is off to Leis Pedersen, my lovely editor at Berkley, who will undoubtedly have a couple (hundred) revision notes for me within the next month or two.

So I’m going to be a little busy. But I am a pretty happy author, all the same. Thanks for letting me share my news with you! 

I thought I'd celebrate by doing a giveaway :-) I'm going to give a copy of The Goddess is in the Details to one lucky commenter. Just tell me what you think of the new titles, or the book cover, or the news, or whatever! I'll pick a random winner on Tuesday morning to give you all the chance to PASS THE NEWS (pretty please) over the next few days. If I get over 50 commenters, I'll give away TWO COPIES!!!!! [Don't worry--if you win and already own this book, I'll send you a different one. If you don't want a witchy book, I'll even offer you something else cool. Can't be more fair than that!]

Happy Friday!

Winners!

Wow. Just...wow. I am over the moon about the great response to the giveaway of the new book, Everyday Witch Book of Rituals -- thanks to everyone who entered, and who helped to spread the word about the book. You all ROCK. I wish I could give each and every one of you a book :-)

I said I was going to give away one of my author copies of the new book, and one of the very cool cover flats that Llewellyn sent me (like a poster form of the entire cover, back and front). But I was so blown away by the amazing enthusiasm everyone showed, I'm going to give away TWO books and TWO cover flats.

And the lucky winners are..... (drumroll, please)

Bert Hansen (a book)
Carrie Trimble (a book)
Anna Lipari (a cover flat)
Anne (who said that a copy of one of my other books brightened her week) (a cover flat)

These folks were all picked randomly, and should contact me either on FB if they know me there, or by email at magicmysticminerva at yahoo to tell me the address they want their prize sent to, and who if anyone they want the book signed to.

If you didn't win this time, don't despair! I'll be doing at least one more contest in a couple of weeks, closer to the official release date of October 8th. (Although bizarrely enough, I was just checking Amazon, and it actually looks like the book is available NOW. And there are only 4 left already!!)

I'm going to be asking people to come up with more ideas for unusual or fun ways to spread the word about the book, so start thinking about that... And I might give away a piece of my handcrafted jewelry in addition to a book, if people think that would be fun.

Thanks again for making this author feel so loved. You guys made my week!

FREE Short Story Celebration

If you've been around at all for the last couple of days, you will have seen that I am having a pretty happy writer's week. This blog was featured as the "Website of the Week" over at the Writer's Digest site, which is a HUGE honor, and tickled me pink. (And a few other colors.) The blog also hit 30,000 views, which just blew me away. I finished up another great class over at my workshop loop, and started on the revisions to Seeds of Change, the current WIP.

Anyway, the point is, when I announced my happy dancing over the Website of the Week, I said I might celebrate with a gift for all the folks who read this blog. *blows kisses*

So I called the amazing Robin Wright, who is my website guru and mistress of all things eBook-ish, and she arranged for the new short story, WITCH UPON A STAR (which follows the events in the paranormal romance novel, WITCH EVER WAY YOU CAN) to be FREE for the next couple of days. Yes, I said FREE. For anyone. Just go to Amazon between midnight PST tonight and midnight PST Saturday night (basically, Fri & Sat) and you can have it for free. It's a gift from me to you, to thank you all for being so supportive and fantabulous!

THANKS! YOU ROCK!!!

Witch Upon a Star (A Star Stone Story) Available for free starting at midnight (Pacific time) tonight!

Five Star Reviews Make an Author Happy and REVIEW CONTEST WINNER

As many of you know, my paranormal romance, WITCH EVER WAY YOU CAN, came out in ebook form in December. So far, the reaction has been lovely--another Five Star review just went up, and seeing it made me do the "happy author" dance :-)

Check it out, if you've a mind to...
http://www.amazon.com/Witch-Ever-Way-You-ebook/product-reviews/B006HWZPGO/ref=cm_cr_dp_all_helpful?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1&sortBy=bySubmissionDateDescending

And if you haven't taken a look at the book yet (gasp!), here is the link on Amazon http://www.amazon.com/Witch-Ever-Way-You-ebook/dp/B006HWZPGO

If you have read it and liked it (either on the Kindle or the Nook--which has no reviews up yet, alas), it would make me do the "really, really happy author" dance if you would post a review of your own.

Oh-- and one more thing: I realized I never picked a winner for my "Review Contest" back in December (I blame the holidays, and exhaustion). Oops. My bad. So, the winner of the contest is KiaLynn! Email me at magicmysticminerva at yahoo and tell me where to send your prize!

Great Reviews! Doing the Happy Author Dance

Nothing makes an author happier than a shiny new positive review of one of her books. Today, I got two! EVERYDAY WITCH A TO Z SPELLBOOK was reviewed by two different people at the fabulous Facing North site--and both of them loved it, despite not being "spellbook" fans.

*does happy author dance*

Check them out, then if you want, come back here and tell me if any of what they said resonates with you.
http://facingnorth.net/Witchcraft/everyday-witch-a-to-z-spellbook.html

YAY!