Happy Birthday to My MUCH Younger Sister!

Just a quick reminder--the Book Release Celebration Blowout Giveaway ends at midnight tonight Saturday the 23rd, EST). If you're having trouble leaving a comment, try again, or just say so in the contest form.

I want to wish a big happy birthday to my "little" sister, Becky. I love her a whole lot, even though she is ridiculously gorgeous and smart and stuff. *blows kisses*

(I'd tell you how old she is, but she has promised to hurt me if I do. Let's just say that she is MUCH younger than me, and leave it at that.)

This was the last time I was in San Diego, on the beach with my wonderful brother in-law Rich, which is married to my other gorgeous, smart, and younger sister Sarah.

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

ALS Icebucket Challenge August 2014

Alex Bledsoe challenged me to do the ALS Icebucket Challenge. I said no, of course. And yet, here I am, doing it anyway. Of course, things didn't turn out quite the way I expected...

Book Release Celebration Blowout

OMG. OMG. *tries not to hyperventilate* Two weeks. The book is out two weeks from today, on Tuesday, September 2nd. I guess that means that this is as good a time as any to start the celebration. I hope you'll celebrate with me.

I got this from my publisher, Berkley...isn't it pretty?

So I thought, "Gee, I should give away a book." And then I thought, "Well, heck, that's not much of a giveaway, is it? Not for such a HUGE and momentous occasion." So instead, I thought I'd give away, well, this...

The mug, pictured above. A big tote bag (it has Wickedly Dangerous on one side, and SURPRISE! Wickedly Wonderful, book two, on the other).

And a few swag packs, including some dragon temporary tattoos, a couple of mini-notebooks, postcards, and a magnet.

 And a cool notebook with a few surprises of its own. (I won't tell you what they are, but I swear, you'll like it.)

 And of course, a signed copy of the book.

PLUS (because what's a party without someone getting carried away?) a $25 B&N gift card--which you can use to buy a copy of the book, or anything else you are in the mood to read.

*Note: This contest is open to my international fans too, but I reserve the right to substitute a lighter-weight prize (such as the swag package) if you win a heavier one (like the tote bag) that would cost too much to ship. *smooches*

So, who wants to celebrate with me? Tell me, are you as excited about this book as I am?

If you want to, you can pre-order it here:

Amazon

Penguin

B&N

IndieBound 

And now, with no further ado, I present the BOOK RELEASE CELEBRATION BLOWOUT GIVEAWAY!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Blog Hopping with Maria V. Snyder

 Author pal Maria V. Snyder invited me to take part in a blog hop. Each author thanks the person who invited them (thank you, Maria!) and then answers a few writing related questions, then passes the "hop" on to someone else.

Here is Maria's contribution (I love her books--she's one of the people who inspired me the most when I got serious about my own writing, so if you haven't read her yet, you might want to start!)

Maria's blog hop post

And here is mine...

Question One: What am I working on?
Answer:
Well, there's the Sekrit Project I can't talk about yet (soon, I promise), but mostly I am working on a new novel, which I am provisionally calling One Born Every Minute. It is a complete departure for me, since it is a humorous contemporary romance, rather than a paranormal romance or an urban fantasy. I love writing with humor (there's always at least a little bit, no matter what I write) and I'm having a ball writing something that is out and out funny.

Question Two: How does my work differ from others of its genre?
Answer:  My paranormal romance books (the Baba Yaga series) aren't quite as grim or sexy as a lot of the books out there now (not that I have anything against grim and sexy--it's just not what I write), and there is always a hint of humor. The Baba Yaga books are loosely based on a bunch of Russian fairy tales, which isn't exactly the norm either. Also, I have dragons disguised as dogs. Go ahead, find someone else who has THAT.

Question Three: Why do I write what I do?
Answer: I suppose that the simple answer is that I write the kind of books I love to read. I adore books about witches (especially ones that break the normal stereotypes) and I really like modern retellings of old fairy tales. (Check out Jim C. Hines Princess Books to see what I mean.) I like kickass female protagonists who mostly rescue themselves, with maybe just a little help from the good-looking guy who shows up. Not to mention dragons that turn into dogs. Or is it the other way around?
I also write what I do because that's what shows up in my head. I might say to myself, "Gee, I'd like to write a humorous romance next." But what shows up after that it pretty much out of my control.

Question Four: How does your writing process work?
I always love reading other authors' answers to this question, since no two authors I know work the same way. My friend Alex Bledsoe tend to get up very early, to write before his kids are awake. Maria said in her post that she works from 10 pm to 3 or 4 am--if I tried that, all you'd get would be drivel!

Every book is a little different (they all want to be written in their own particular way, believe it or not--some can be outlined in detail, others prefer to be mostly made up as I go along...it's very annoying). In general, I tend to start with an idea (what if there is a woman who is the only honest one in a family of thieves, who is forced to work with an uptight cop and pretend to be a thief?), then create the main characters, figure out the basics of the plot, then delve deeper into the protagonists, which usually introduces me to the secondary characters. I try to write up a "blurb" for the story (like the one you would find on the back of a book jacket), to sum things up, then write up detailed character studies and a basic outline before I start actually writing.

Once I'm into the story, I write almost every day, usually from about 6:30-7pm to about 9:30-10:30 pm. At which point I clean a bunch of litter boxes and stagger off to bed. When things are really rolling, I often do two stints on the weekend days. (No, I don't have a life. And your point?) I aim at producing at least 1,000 words a day, although on a good day I can get two or three times that much, and on a bad day, I'm happy to produce a page (about 300 words). In theory, I can write the first draft of a novel in about 3-4 months, then I send it out to a few folks, including my fabulous critique partner Lisa, and my equally fabulous agent Elaine. Revisions take about a month, not counting waiting-for-responses-time. Then, if the book is already sold, it goes off to my editor, then I do MORE revisions. Oh, the joy. Then I have a glass of wine.

And eventually, the finished book comes out, and I celebrate!

Next up on the blog hop, be sure to check out the lovely and talented Nancy Holzner, author of the Deadtown books (which I LOVE). Nancy has had a tough year, with the loss of her husband, and hasn't been blogging at all. Hopefully this little blog hop will be a easy way for her to hop back to it. (Yes, I did that. I'd say I'm sorry, but of course I'm not.) She'll be posting her piece of the puzzle sometime next week.

Ongoing Giveaways and Feline Friday

Hey all--I'm running late (and if I'm late to work, I have to fire myself, which would suck) so I'm just going to throw up a couple of quick updates:

My publisher Berkley is giving away TWENTY copies of Wickedly Dangerous on Goodreads, but the giveaway ends next Tuesday, August 19th! Hurry over and enter.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/20821001-wickedly-dangerous?ac=1

I got wild and crazy and threw a quickie giveaway up on my author page on Facebook--but that ends at midnight tonight. Quick as a bunny, go enter! Giveaway on Facebook Just look for the "giveaway" tab at the top of the page.

REALLY excited to see my name show up at the Bitten By Books Weekly Poll -- I went to go vote in this week's "Pick your most anticipated upcoming release" poll, and there was Wickedly Dangerous! What a great surprise! Of course, it isn't anywhere near the top of the voting, because there are authors like Kim Harrison and Patricia Briggs, but thankfully, you can vote for three. The poll closes on Sunday, so if you are so inclined, and my book IS one of your most anticipated, I'd love it if you'd go vote for me so I don't look completely unloved. Snort.

And keep an eye out, because I think I'm probably going to put up the mother of all giveaways starting next Tuesday, when it will be TWO WEEKS before Wickedly Dangerous comes out. (*faints*)

In the meanwhile, I hope you are doing something fun this weekend. Here is your Feline Friday amusement... Mystic (and friends) helping me to work on revisions. Or, you know, not.

I printed out all 160 pages, spent an hour and a half brainstorming with my CP Lisa and scribbling notes on the manuscript. Too bad I couldn't read it through the large gray mass sitting on top of it. No, I never did get the revisions done that night. Guess what I'm doing this weekend...

A rare picture of all five cats at once. SEE, I really do have five!

You're welcome.

Revealing My Secret Identity

It's been an interesting week so far. My Supermoon Love Spell post post went viral on Facebook with almost 9,000 views (holy crap). Yesterday, I put up a post about the fairy tale and mythological origins of Baba Yaga HERE. And of course, I got a box of books from Berkley, which means I'm pondering my next giveaway contest.

Do you think I should
A) Have one massive blowout giveaway with a bunch of prizes starting soon and running until the book comes out in LESS THAN THREE WEEKS (eek!)? or
B) Have a series of smaller giveaways, each only lasting a couple of days?

Speak now or get whatever my fevered brain comes up with on its own.

On Facebook, there has been a recent trend called Throwback Thursdays, or #TT. So in honor of that, I'm going to reveal my secret identity. No, really, I  have one. (And NO, it's NOT Crazy Cat Lady.) I found this picture when I was looking for something else. This was me, on the back porch of a house on a lake I was renting in 1989-1990. This would have made me 29 or 30.

Here's the cover of WICKEDLY DANGEROUS

 I got kind of a kick out of this.