COVER REVEAL!

I can finally share the cover for the first in my new cozy mystery series coming in February from Berkley Publishing.

I hope you love it as much as I do! Be sure to tell me what you think.

BOOK RELEASE DAY!

I'm so excited! Today is finally the release day for Modern Witchcraft: Goddess Empowerment for the Kick-Ass Woman. I love this book and I really hope you will too!

Blurb:

Deborah Blake’s Modern Witchcraft is a guidebook to witchcraft as a female-empowering religion, including detailed instructions on how to practice self-care in today’s society through goddess worship and magic.

In a time when most formal religions are on the wane, Wicca is said to be the fastest growing religion in North America. What is it that draws people to Witchcraft, and how does a spiritual path with its roots in ancient beliefs and traditions transform itself into a practice that resonates so deeply with today’s modern woman?

There are a number of explanations for the phenomenon, such as Witchcraft’s connection to the natural world, or acceptance of members regardless of lifestyle choices. For women, however, the greatest appeal may be the worship of a goddess (or goddesses). No stern patriarchal God here. Instead, Wicca and most other forms of modern Witchcraft embrace deity in both the feminine and the masculine. Suddenly, women can look at the divine and see themselves reflected back. In addition, many women are frustrated, frightened, triggered, and down-right furious with the current social and political environment, but feel powerless to create positive change. Witchcraft can give them a sense of personal empowerment.

There are many different Witchcraft paths and a multitude of approaches to its practice. This book will guide the reader on the journey to connecting with the feminine divine both without and within, and open the door to this magical religion that will enlighten, uplift, and energize their lives.

Buy Links

Barnes & Noble |Amazon | Macmillan| iTunes |Kobo| GooglePlay | BooksaMillion

Wickedly Unraveled Book Release Day

If you’ve been waiting for the next book in the Baba Yaga series, the wait is over! Yes, today is release day for WICKEDLY UNRAVELED. I hope you’re as excited as I am.

 This book is based on an idea I submitted a couple of years ago, when the Baba Yaga series was still being published by Berkley. But when they decided not to continue with the series, I figured it would never get written. Then I self-published the final Broken Riders book, DANGEROUSLY FIERCE, followed by a novella (Dangerously Driven) and it turned out that my readers wanted more. Yay for my readers! My readers rock.

I loved writing this book because I got to return not just to the world of the Baba Yagas, but specifically to Barbara Yager, who I confess was my favorite of them all (shhhh, don’t tell the others). When I told my agent that I wanted to write about Barbara again, she said, “You can’t do another book about a character who has already gotten her happily ever after…a married one to boot. That just won’t work in romance.” Then she saw what I had figured out, and basically called me an evil genius. Snicker.

Here’s the back cover copy:

The Baba Yagas have incredible power, but even that may not be enough to save their world when magic goes horribly wrong and all their happily ever afters are gone in an instant.

Barbara Yager is used to traveling alone as she tends to her duties as a Baba Yaga. She sometimes brings Babs, the adopted daughter she is training, but her sheriff husband stays behind. This trip, though, she has made an exception. After all, the task seems so simple, and shouldn’t take long to accomplish. When it is done, the three of them can indulge in a long-overdue family vacation. What could it hurt?

Quite a lot, as it turns out. What Barbara thought was a minor problem ends in a violent magical confrontation she never expected. The resulting backlash sends them all into a warped timeline where Barbara and Liam never got together, and only Barbara and nine-year-old Babs remember the truth. Liam is still trapped in his grief and all the good they’ve done together in the past few years has come undone.

Even worse, her Baba Yaga sisters, Beka and Bella, don’t believe her, and the wicked Brenna is still out there, planning who knows what kind of mischief. The children stolen by the rusalka Maya are trapped in the Otherworld and she is loose in this one and up to no good. It is up to Barbara, Babs, and their faithful dragon-dog companion Chudo-Yudo to knit together the unraveled timeline and make things right again, before it is too late and Barbara loses her one true love forever.

Will Barbara get her happily ever after back again? You’ll have to read the book to find out! It’s available in both print (Amazon only) and eBook from all the usual online retailers, and you can also request that your library or local Indy bookstore get a copy.

BUY LINKS:

 Amazon print 

Amazon Kindle

Barnes & Noble

Kobo

Apple

Of course, because I’m me, I’m doing a huge giveaway to celebrate!

There are THREE prizes: a cool notebook with the cover from the last Broken Rider's novella plus an adorable dragon, a pen, magnets, and bookmarks OR a $10 Amazon gift card OR the grand prize, a Fire 7 tablet! Just fill out the Rafflecopter form to be entered. Open internationally, no purchase necessary to win. (Although of course, I'd love it if you'd buy the book.)

As always, if you buy the book and love it, I’d really appreciate it if you could take a minute to put up a quick review on Amazon, Goodreads, or B&N. Not to mention spreading the word to all your friends. If this book does well enough, I have an idea for the next one…

Welcome back to the world of the Baba Yagas—I hope you have as much fun reading WICKEDLY UNRAVELED as I had writing it.

 a Rafflecopter giveaway

Veiled Enchantments Tablet Giveaway

Holy crap--Veiled Enchantments is out in ONE WEEK (on Tuesday the 20th) and I've done practically no promo. I'd better up my game. (I have excuses. I won't bore you with them.)

So, are you ready for the last book in the Veiled Magic trilogy? Here's the blurb:

In this exciting novel in the Veiled Magic series, Witch and police officer Donata Santori travels to Maine to help solve a deadly mystery, where her magical abilities are tested like never before.

Still reeling from her unwitting involvement in murder and subsequent break up with a half-Dragon art forger, Witch-cop Donata Santori is grateful for the distraction when her ex-lover requests her help. Not only are Magnus's beloved dead suddenly haunting the Ulfhednar shapechangers in his tiny rural hometown in Maine, their patron god Odin has turned his back on them, and the members of their once tight-knit enclave are at each other's throats. Literally.

Magnus is relying on Donata's experience in dealing with the gods, along with her magical ability to summon the dead, to help him unravel this mystery in time to save his clan. Donata only hopes to survive the ordeal so she can return home to the city and her quiet job at the precinct.

But first, she must discover who or what is behind the terrible attacks on the Ulfhednar. And the clock is ticking, in more ways than one...

Like the other two books, this one is being released in eBook form only (that was a Berkley decision, so don't blame me!), so I'm going to try and make it up to my "But I don't have an eReader" peeps by giving away a Kindle Fire 7, so you'll have something to read it on.

Fire 7 and goodies

As always, just enter by filling in the Rafflecopter form below. I'd love you to buy the book, of course (it's only $4.99! that's like a cup of fancy coffee), but no purchase is necessary. I'd also REALLY love for you to spread the word about the book, since I've done such a lousy job of it myself... Think of yourselves as my hastily deputized informal street team. Also, I'll love you forever. And so will Donata. (And all my cats.)

Here, have some links:

Barnes & Noble |Amazon |iBooks |Penguin 

 And now, have a giveaway! (And have fun.)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

 

 

A BIG Announcement

 So, I have some bad news and I have some good news. 

The bad news is that Berkley, who published all of my fiction series, has decided not to contract for the third Broken Rider book. Publishing is a numbers game, and the numbers from the previous books just weren’t good enough to justify putting out the third one. This isn’t something I take personally—you’d be amazed how many of my author friends, many of them better writers and more popular than I am, have lost their contracts in the last year. The third book in the Veiled Magic series, Veiled Enchantments, will be out in March, and that’s the last of the books from Berkley, at least for now.

I’ve actually known about this for some time, although I haven’t talked about it online. And the good news is that I decided that there was no way I was going to leave my readers hanging—so I wrote Alexei’s story anyway. Surprise! 

I’ve been quietly working on it (this is the unnamed project I’ve mentioned a few times) over the last four months, and I will be self-publishing it sometime soon; probably in the next couple of weeks. I’ll be sure to let you know when it is live. It will be available as an ebook pretty much everyplace, and as a print book from Amazon. I even found a great cover artist who was able to come up with a cover that matched the first two in looks, although it was impossible to get quite the right “Alexei.” (Sadly, Jason Momoa wasn’t available to pose…)

Here’s the cover—what do you think?

Cover by Earthly Charms

I’m a little sad to be putting out the last of the books in this world, which I’ve really enjoyed writing in, but at least those of you who have been following the series from the beginning will be able to get the ending to the story.

Of course, I do have a few more ideas, so if this one is successful enough, you never know, I might decide to self-publish another one…so perhaps this isn't the end at all.

Here’s the blurb for the book:

The Riders: Three legendary brothers who kept the Baba Yagas safe. The Riders’ immortality was stripped away, along with their mission. But they are still much more than Human, and their story is far from over…

His brothers may have found new paths to follow, but Alexei Knight isn’t even looking. If he can’t have the life he was meant to lead, there is no second choice. So he is bent on drinking and brawling his way across the country until he winds up on Cape Cod in a bar called The Hook and Anchor, where he finds challenges he was never expecting, a feisty red-haired bartender, and maybe a lot more than that…

Bethany McKenna left behind an almost-completed law degree to return home and care for her cranky disabled father and run his bar for him. If that wasn’t enough, she also agreed to foster a very pregnant Great Dane. She has enough to deal with without adding in a giant bearded brawler, no matter how appealing he is. Yet somehow he ends up living in the guesthouse, taking care of her father, and sneaking his way into her heart…

Alexei and Bethany both think the lives they wanted have come to an end, but after dealing with a mysterious sea monster, pirates, dragons, and some adorable puppies, they might just discover that love is the greatest adventure of all…

I’ve had so much fun writing this book, which I think of as a gift for all those who have been taking this journey with me. I hope you enjoy Alexei’s story.

Who is looking forward to the book, now that you know it is coming out?