Wickedly Wonderful Giveaways!

I was surprised that no one said "Congrats!" on my release day post on Tuesday. I guess you were all out buying WICKEDLY WONDERFUL, right?

Of course, lots of people said lovely things on Facebook, and THANK YOU so much to all those who spread the word. And of course, to those who did run out and buy the book, you have my undying appreciation. SMOOCHES.

I'm all around the interwebs this week, with lots of guest interviews on various reviewer's blogs. (And getting lots of good reviews--WHEW.) Most of them are giving away a free copy of the book, too.
A few places I am today:
An Interview with author D.J. Martin (includes a signed book and swag giveaway from me)
Fun and silly interview at I Smell Sheep blog (includes a book giveaway)
Fabulous review at I Smell Sheep--I got 5 Sheep!
Author Karen Rose Smith talks about the book

 And I'm giving away one more signed copy of Wickedly Wonderful on Goodreads. The contest ends December 14th, so don't wait!

 
 

    Goodreads Book Giveaway
 

   

       
   

   

     

          Wickedly Wonderful
     

     

          by Deborah Blake
     

     

         
            Giveaway ends December 14, 2014.
         

         
            See the giveaway details
            at Goodreads.
         

     

   

   

      Enter to win

But the big news is that I will be doing one more MEGA GIGANTIC giveaway here, probably starting Saturday. So be sure to check back. Here's a preview:

Yep--all of it! So keep your eyes open. I'll be putting the giveaway up here soon.

In the meanwhile, I'm dying to know...has anyone started reading the book? What do you think?

RELEASE DAY!

It is finally here—Book Release Day for my second novel, WICKEDLY WONDERFUL! I’m excited and a little freaked out, all at the same time. I sure hope that people like it as well as they liked the first book!

(You read Wickedly Dangerous, right?)

I have been truly honored and blessed by the enthusiasm of friends, fans, and followers, and I thank you all from the bottom of my heart for all the cheerleading, and for those of you who were kind enough to spread the word about the book. I hope you’ll help me to do so today, of all days!

If you’re on Facebook or Twitter, you’ll no doubt see me posting about the book release—I would really appreciate it if you could help me to get the word out.

 

I know I said I wasn’t going to do any more giveaways, but how could I let Book Release Day pass without one? I’ve got one signed copy up as a Goodreads giveaway, so be sure to go enter right away—it is only on for a couple of weeks. (Go HERE, and the giveaway will be lower down on the page.) And I’m giving away books at a few of the places where I will be guest blogging to promote the book. Will I do another fun giveaway on my blog too? I guess you'll have to keep stopping by to find out!

Also, I’ll be at a (more or less) live event on Tuesday the 2^nd (today) at Bitten by Books, where I’ll be answering questions, chatting with folks, and giving away $50 in Gift Cards! I hope you will come join me. http://bittenbybooks.com/  (This event starts at 3PM EST/noon PST, but the contest will be open for a couple of days.)

Here is the direct link to the contest, which runs until the 5th http://bittenbybooks.com/author-deborah-blake-release-party-and-50-00-gift-card-contest-live-here/

Check out my blog all this week for other blogs where I’ll be popping up!

Speaking of which, if you live anywhere near Albany NY, I’ll be having a book signing on Sunday, December 7^th, at a great Indie bookstore, Flights of Fantasy, at 2 PM. Check out their website for directions and more info. http://www.fof.net/  I hope I’ll see a few of you there!

Don’t forget that if you loved Wickedly Dangerous and want to read the third book in the series, Berkley will be basing their decision on whether or not to publish it on how good the sales for the first two books are. No pressure, right?

Buying links:

AMAZON

B&N 

Or look for it at your local Independent bookstore!

Thanks again for all your support and encouragement—I appreciate it more than words can say. Feel free to send me a picture on Facebook or by email (magicmysticminerva at yahoo) of the book in the wild if you spot it in a bookstore, or of you with the book if you’ve picked one up. This would make my day! And I hope you’ll stop by the blog and say “Hi and happy book release day!”

Holy crap—IT’S RELEASE DAY!!!!!!!!

Winners! and an Exclusive Excerpt

Congrats to Kay, Maddie Rose, and Kit--you all won copies of Wickedly Wonderful from the latest giveaway. (If you've not sure it is you, go check your comments: I replied there that you'd won.) You should each email me at magicmysticminerva at yahoo and let me know where to send your book!

And if you didn't win, don't worry, because I've got a few other things up  my sleeve. Today I'm over at Fang-Tastic Books where there is an exclusive excerpt so you can get a sneak peak of the book, as well as a giveaway running all week (a signed copy of the book plus some swag!)

I'm also giving away a copy on Goodreads (that contest runs through the 13th).

Want more? Of course you do. Tomorrow is RELEASE DAY! And to celebrate, I'll be at Bitten by Books giving away $50 worth of gift cards (USA only, I'm afraid) and chatting with people. The event goes live at noon Pacific, 3 EST time. Feel free to stop by and say hello. In the meanwhile, you can get an extra 25 entries by going there ahead of time and RSVP-ing via this link! http://bittenbybooks.com/author-deborah-blake-release-party-and-50-00-gift-card-contest-122-rsvp-here/ 

Also on the 2nd, I'll be interviewed over at Delighted Reader which should be a lot of fun.

I'm pretty excited about this, my second novel, finally hitting the shelves! Tell me, are you planning to read it?

 

It's the "I've Got Books" Giveaway!

Happy day after Thanksgiving, people. Here in America, some call this day Black Friday, since all the stores have sales that are supposed to finally put them in the black.

But at my house, I'm more inclined to call it Purple (and a Little Pink) Friday, because the lovely UPS man brought these to me this afternoon.

No, the UPS man did not bring me the cat--she was already here. But as you can tell, she is seriously excited about teh Box O Books. (She just hides it well.) Okay, I'M seriously excited about finally getting my author copies of WICKEDLY WONDERFUL , book two in the Baba Yaga series. (You all read book one, Wickedly Dangerous, right?) I can't believe that Wickedly Wonderful is out on December 2nd--that's FOUR DAYS from now! *squeeeee*

If you've been hanging around this blog for more than a month or two, you know what happens when I get a box of books and I get all excited...

GIVEAWAY!!!!!!

I'm going to keep this simple--just leave a comment. I don't care what you say: you loved the first book, you can't wait for the second one to come out, you like cats, snow is cold. Just a comment, any comment. Monday morning, I'll pick THREE random winners and send them copies of Wickedly Wonderful.

Well....what are you waiting for? Comment! 

(And, of course, I hope you'll order the book. But no pressure.)  

Jewelry, Jewelry, Jewelry

When a potter friend and I used to sit together with our wares at the local farmer's market, she invariably used to sell more than I did, so to make it up to me, she would sing a little jewelry sales chant under her breath: jewelry, jewelry, jewelry. (Set to whatever music suits your fancy.)

Later, we went on to found The Artisans' Guild shop together, which is where most of my jewelry ends up these days. I used to make it all the time (and do lots of craft shows, and had pieces in shops around the area), but most of my time and energy is now taken up by writing. Which basically means that about a month before Black Friday, I sat up and said, "OH NO, I need to make jewelry!"

Luckily, that happened to coincide with a rare lull in the writing push, so I've been madly stringing beads almost every day, singing the jewelry chant under my breath. Folks have asked me to post some pictures here, and not just on Facebook, so here's another bunch of finished pieces. [Any day now, in theory, I'm going to get a few of these up on Etsy, but in case I don't, just yell if there is something that catches your eye.]

Amethyst and hematite

malachite

aventurine and Venetian glass

aventurine stars

picture jasper stars

Long, large turquoise and black stone necklace

One of my favorites--black onyx and silver collar

black onyx and silver with a very cool face

black onyx and garnet with a dragon!

the dragon reminds me of Chudo-Yudo :-)

black onyx and snowflake obsidian, with a very cool agate slice that has a crystal in the middle

So tell me--which is your favorite?

Feline Friday--Introducing Cat-Crazy Book Lovers!

No, that's not actually Magic the Cat. It's her look-alike, Zoie, who belongs to author Karen Rose Smith

(And here is Karen's "Invitation to Cat-Crazy Book Lovers" stolen from her blog, since I was going to write exactly the same thing anyway. Thanks, Karen!)

Most of my friends love cats! I guess cat people just gravitate toward each other. In the writing world, the same is true. With a common interest in cats and their welfare, we just seem to find each other. Four of us have banded together to create something special--

a CAT-CRAZY BOOK LOVER page on Facebook!  (Click on the link!)

Along with Karen Rose Smith, Susan Meier and Melissa McClone, I will be posting photos and chatting with readers on this Facebook page. (I post lots of cat photos on my personal profile and author page now, but this just means I have an excuse to shoot more pictures.)

We're planning themed days when readers can post photos of their cats too. Visit us on Monday for MONDAY MAYHEM. Do your cats get into trouble? Ours do. We can compare notes.

Wednesday is for WEDNESDAY WISDOM. We can share strategies for caring for our cats, solutions to problems, a place to give and get feedback,

Friday is always FELINE FRIDAY. Every cat is beautiful, and on Friday you can let yours be a star by posting his or her photo.

We'll also have a giveaway every week--books and cat-related prizes. (We're trying Monday's for this, so be sure to check in. I'm up next Monday, and I have some fun cat prized to give away!)

So if you love cats, like to chat with others who do too, can't get enough of cat photos and generally just want a friendly place to discuss your fur babies, the CAT-CRAZY BOOK LOVERS page is the place for you.  Just LIKE the page and join the fun! (Don't forget to check GET NOTIFICATIONS on Facebook so you don't miss a thing.) And don't forget to follow these other great authors. They're cat-crazy too!

CAT-CRAZY BOOK LOVERS

Jewelry SALE Part One

First things first:
Big congrats to the winners of the recent giveaway. If you won, you should have gotten an email from me, so check your inbox. (The winners are also listed at the bottom of the giveaway gizmo on the previous blog post.) I'm going to TRY to get your goodies out this week, so be sure to email me with your address if you won. ( Porsha W, I still need to hear from you.)

I should be getting my author copies of Wickedly Wonderful within a week or so, and I'm fairly certain that another giveaway will ensue, so stay tuned. Can you believe that the book is out in less than two weeks? Eeeeeeiiiiiiii! Have you ordered your copy yet? (Please say yes. Please say yes. Please say yes.)

And now for something completely different, as Monty Python would say. I've taken a short break from writing to madly get jewelry made to sell at The Artisans' Guild during the holiday season. I've been posting some pictures of my shiny new things over at Facebook, and lots of people have asked me where they can buy them, if they don't live close enough to come into the shop in person. Technically, I do have an Etsy shop...but at the moment, I haven't had time to get over there and list anything, and it is a crapshoot as to whether or not I'm going to manage it, what with the promo for Wickedly Wonderful (TWO WEEKS! Did I mention TWO WEEKS!!?)

So I thought, why not put a few pictures up here? And then I thought (what with the crazy and all), why not give my blog followers a special opportunity to get my jewelry ON SALE as a thanks for being so wonderful and supportive?

So here's the deal. For the next week or so, I'm going to post some pictures and descriptions of some of the jewelry I've made. And here only, I will let people have 15% OFF until the Saturday after Thanksgiving. If you want a piece, just say so in the comments--first person to call "DIBS" on a piece will get it. If you have questions, ask those in the comments too. [Once you've yelled dibs, email me at magicmysticminerva at yahoo and we will work on the specifics. Paypal is usually the easiest way, but I'm flexible.] Shipping will be $5 for USA folks, and whatever the actual cost is for anyone out of the country.

Most of the pictures are necklaces, but I can make matching earrings if you want (in some cases there are already earrings in the pictures, but they don't come with the necklaces unless you pay for them too). Any questions? 

Here's the first batch:

This is all the Snowflake obsidian together, so you can see the bracelet and earrings too. Bracelet is $32 and earrings are $30--so $27.20 and $25.50 on sale. And yes, Snowflake obsidian comes from volcanoes!

Snowflake obsidian necklace #1 $72 -- on sale for $61

Snowflake Obsidian necklace #2 18" long, regularly $59, now $50

My favorite! Snowflake Obsidian cat-- 19" plus 1" cat. $72 on sale for $61

close-up of the cat

Ryolite, also known as Rainforest Jasper. Necklace #1 has lovely faceted beads, as does the  matching bracelet. 18" long and normally $69, on sale for $58.65 -- bracelet is $32/$27.20

Ryolite #2, a nice long 24" necklace for $85/$72.25

Another long ryolite #3 also $85/$72.25 (the earrings are $32/$27.20)

 
 That's it for today's goodies. Up next, Smoky Quartz, Labradorite, and a few misc. cool stones...