THE OFFICIAL BLOG OF INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLING AUTHOR CHERYL KAYE TARDIF

Mystery, suspense, thrillers, paranormal, horror & YA by "Cheryl Kaye Tardif" & romance by "Cherish D'Angelo". Cheryl is represented by Trident Media Group in NY.

Thursday, April 26, 2012

Pick up a FREE copy of my "heart book" WHALE SONG, an international bestseller

On April 26 and 27, I am giving away free Kindle copies of my "heart book"--WHALE SONG. It is the best gift I can think of to give you.

I call it my "heart book" because it was my first published book and the story I am most emotionally connected to of all my titles. To say I "love" this book is an understatement. :-)

Whale Song has literally changed people's lives. In fact, one woman told me it "saved" her. Another told me it reunited her with her mother, who also read my novel. Another said it helped her deal with the loss of a parent. Many readers have laughed and cried and healed. I am blessed.

So today please accept a free copy of WHALE SONG and share it with a loved one.

This international bestseller, which has received much movie interest, is FREE on Amazon TODAY & TOMORROW only.

WHALE SONG

A "compelling" story of family ties, love, tragedy, sacrifice and transformation that will change the way you view life...and death.

Thirteen years ago, Sarah Richardson’s life was shattered after the tragic death of her mother. The shocking event left a grief-stricken teen-aged Sarah with partial amnesia.

Some things are easier to forget.

But now a familiar voice from her childhood sends Sarah, a talented mid-twenties ad exec, back to her past. A past that she had thought was long buried.

Some things are meant to be buried.

Torn by nightmares and visions of a yellow-eyed wolf and aided by creatures of the Earth and killer whales that call to her in the night, Sarah must face her fears and recover her memories―even if it destroys her.

Some things are meant to be remembered―at all cost.

Reviews:

“I read Whale Song and loved it.” ―Jodelle Ferland, actress (The Twilight Saga: Eclipse, Case 39)

“Tardif’s story has that perennially crowd-pleasing combination of sweet and sad that so often propels popular commercial fiction…Tardif, already a big hit in Canada…a name to reckon with south of the border.” ―Booklist

Whale Song is deep and true, a compelling story of love and family and the mysteries of the human heart...a beautiful, haunting novel.” ―NY Times bestselling novelist Luanne Rice, author of Beach Girls

“A wonderfully well-written novel. Wonderful characters [that] shine. The settings are exquisitely described. The writing is lyrical. Whale Song would make a wonderful movie.” ―Writer’s Digest

Whale Song is reminiscent of Ring of Endless Light by M. L’Engle, and Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd.” ―Carol D. O’Dell, author of Mothering Mother

“One doesn’t simply read a Tardif story, one experiences it! Among the very few authors I’ve ever said that about is my all-time favorite Pat Conroy. Like him, Cheryl Kaye Tardif has a definite way with words.” ―Betty Dravis, co-author of Dream Reachers I & II.

“Tardif leaves a lasting mark on her readers…Moving and irresistible.” ―Midwest Book Review

Pick up your FREE Kindle copy of WHALE SONG today. You can read it on your Kindle ereader, smartphone, tablet with the Kindle app, PC or laptop.

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

FREE Kindle ebook: THE RIVER - and an excerpt

Yesterday my bestselling technothriller THE RIVER went on a 3-day FREE promotion, which is over at midnight April 25. This novel recently made Amazon's Top 100 Bestselling Kindle ebooks list and outsold many works by some of my favorite authors.

Here's the premise:


Stem cell research, cloning & world domination--with a killer twist!

Back cover/description:


How far do we go until we’ve gone too far?

The South Nahanni River has a history of mysterious deaths, disappearances and headless corpses, but it may also hold the key to humanity’s survival―or its destruction.

Seven years ago, Del Hawthorne’s father and three of his friends disappeared near the Nahanni River and were presumed dead. When one of the missing men stumbles onto the University grounds, alive but barely recognizable and aging before her eyes, Del is shocked. Especially when the man tells her something inconceivable. Her father is still alive!

Gathering a group of volunteers, Del travels to the Nahanni River to rescue her father. There, she finds a secret underground river that plunges her into a technologically advanced world of nanobots and painful serums. Del uncovers a conspiracy of unimaginable horror, a plot that threatens to destroy us all. Will humanity be sacrificed for the taste of eternal life?

At what point have we become…God?

Get it FREE on Amazon.

Here's an excerpt...

PART ONE
Undercurrents

I want to know the thoughts of God;
The rest are details.
~ Albert Einstein

One

She always leads with her heart,” a voice croaked.
Startled by the interruption, Professor Del Hawthorne lifted her head and gasped, shocked.
What the―?
A man stood in the doorway to her classroom, panting for breath. He was in his late seventies and wore a grimy suede jacket over a once-pristine white dress shirt. The shirt was torn and stained with what looked suspiciously like dried blood. The man’s tailored black pants were ripped from the knees down.
He stumbled inside and slammed the door.
Del threw a warning look at Peter Cavanaugh, her young anthropology protégé. Rising slowly from her desk, she faced the old man.
“Can I help you, sir?”
His stringy gray hair covered part of his face and was in desperate need of a shampoo and cut. His mottled, creviced skin reminded her of weathered cedar bark. But it was the man’s glazed yet vaguely familiar eyes that made her heart skip a beat.
Did she know him?
“Sir?”
The man’s eyes flashed dangerously. “She always leads with her heart!”
Del gulped in a breath.
It wasn’t every day that she heard her father’s favorite saying―especially when it wasn’t her father saying it. Instead, the words were coming from a man who looked like he had escaped from the psych ward.
How the hell did he make it past security?
She looked at her watch. Damn!
After six o’clock, security was reduced to two men on the Anthropology wing. And they were probably on rounds or at the snack machine.
She glanced at Peter.
The young man was terrified. He stood motionless at the far end of the room, his head drooping against his chest.
“Campus security will be here soon,” he said quietly.
The man turned half-closed eyes toward Peter. “Who’s that?”
Del took a hesitant step forward. She rested her hands at the edge of her desk, careful not to draw the man’s attention.
Where’s the damn button?
Security had installed silent alarm buttons underneath the lip of every faculty member’s desk. Times had changed. Schools, colleges and universities had become common targets of deranged psychopaths hell-bent on murder.
She pushed the button and drew in a breath, praying desperately that it wasn’t the case today. “Security will be here any minute.”
The old man’s head whipped around, his eyes pleading. “Don’t you recognize me?”
“Should I?”
Whatever reaction she was expecting to see, didn’t prepare her for the one she got. Instead of answering her question, the man slumped to the floor, babbling incoherently. His right hand reached shakily into the folds of the jacket.
She stabbed repeatedly at the alarm button.
Where the hell is security?
Terrified, she saw the man pull something bulky from his jacket.
A gun?
Suddenly, two armed security guards rushed into the room.
Then all hell broke loose.
One minute, she was standing behind her desk. The next, she was on the floor―with Peter Cavanaugh on top of her.
She waited, holding her breath, expecting shots of gunfire. But there were none. Instead, she heard scuffling sounds and a few grunts.
Finally, one of the guards called out. “We got him, Professor.”
She heaved a sigh of relief.
“You okay?” Peter asked, his boy-next-door face bare inches from hers.
She groaned. “Uh, Mr. Cavanaugh? Security has him under control, so you can get off me now. You’re crushing me.”
Peter turned a delicious shade of lobster red.
“Didn’t want you to get shot,” he mumbled, helping her to her feet.
She brushed herself off, then glanced toward the door.
The guards dragged the intruder out into the hall.
That’s when she heard the man shout, “Delly! It’s me!”
Only one person in the world had ever called her ‘Delly’.
“Wait!”
She ran toward the old man.
“I’ve seen it,” he hissed, his eyes wild. “I’ve seen the future…not human…monsters!”
Professor Schroeder?” she whispered. “Is that you?”
The old man’s gaze locked on her. “You have to stop the Director, Delly!”
A shiver raced up her spine. “Director of what? Professor, we thought you were dead. You, my dad, the other men…”
Schroeder leaned closer, tears welling in his eyes. “They’re going to kill your father, Delly.”
“He-he’s alive?”
“For now. The little bastards have him. You have to destroy the cell. I know how to get in. To the secret river. I know how to get in…and out.”
Professor Hawthorne,” one of the guards said. “We have to take him downstairs.”
Halfway down the hall, Schroeder’s head whipped around.
“Follow your heart, Delly. And remember…only one!”
The guards half-dragged him into the elevator.
Professor Schroeder!” she yelled. “What are you talking about?”
His dull brown eyes flared like a trapped fox, wild and feral.
“It’s all in the book. Destroy the cell, Delly. Find the river and stop the Director before he destroys humanity.”
The elevator doors hissed shut.
Del leaned against the wall outside her classroom. Her legs ached and vibrated. When her vision wavered, she closed her eyes and welcomed the darkness.
They’re going to kill him, Delly.
Was her father really alive?
Someone called her name. Peter.
He stood beside her, clutching something to his chest. Whatever it was, he gripped it as though he were holding the treasures of the Egyptian Pharaohs.
“He dropped this,” he said, handing her a book. “It’s what the old guy was reaching for. You gonna be alright, Professor?”
She nodded. “See you tomorrow, Peter.”
Del returned to her empty classroom, firmly closing and locking the door behind her. She made it across the room before her legs gave out. Dropping into a chair, she took a few deep breaths, then she picked up the leather-bound book that Peter had given her.
The cover was stained, partially missing. There was nothing on it except for an embossed symbol that was hard to make out.
Perhaps a cross.
She traced what was left of it with one finger.
Professor Schroeder, what happened to you?
Arnold Schroeder was a renowned genius in anthropology. Whenever he had visited Del’s father, which was often, he would take Del under his wing and teach her something new. He was the reason she was teaching anthropology at the University of British Columbia. Schroeder had been her idol.
Other than Dad, of course.
Del carefully opened the journal, her fingertips barely grazing it. She flipped the pages, reading sentences here and there, trying to make sense of Schroeder’s notes. Most of the entries in the journal appeared to be written in some kind of code and they were next to impossible to decipher. She was about to put the book down when a name jumped from the page.
Dr. Lawrence V. Hawthorne.
Just below her father’s name, a date was scribbled.
January 2001.
Her hand began to shake.
2001?
She yanked open a drawer and rifled through it.
Finally, she found what she was looking for―a photograph taken seven years ago. Back in 1998. In it, her father and Professor Schroeder stood side by side wearing jeans, t-shirts and silly fishing hats. They had infectious grins on their faces, probably laughing at some private joke. The photo had been taken the day that her father, Schroeder and two associates had left for ‘the adventure of a lifetime’.
In the summer of ‘98, a new intern at Bio-Tec Canada, the company Del’s father worked for, suggested a summer rafting excursion down the Nahanni River in the Northwest Territories. The intern seduced him with native legends about veins of undiscovered gold, and headless skeletons and corpses lining the banks of the river. Her father became consumed by the idea of exploring one of Canada’s most spectacular sights, and he convinced Schroeder and his boss to accompany them.
The four men went missing three days later.
A search party was sent down the Nahanni, and the investigators discovered a headless skeleton a few miles downriver from Virginia Falls. Most of the flesh had been consumed by wild animals and the bones were badly decayed, but a forensics expert was able to identify the body.
It was Neil Parnitski, CEO of Bio-Tec Canada.
There was no sign of Del’s father…or the other men.
A week later, the search party found a bloody shirt on the shore and scalp tissue embedded into a rock. DNA tests showed that most of the blood matched her father’s, while the scalp tissue was Schroeder’s. The investigators also said that based on the amount of blood found at the scene, even a doctor couldn’t have survived without medical attention. Six months later, the investigation was closed, the missing men presumed dead.
Del stroked the photograph of her father.
He’s a dead man.
Schroeder’s words echoed in her mind, and she was unable to shake the doomed sensation that crept under her skin and invaded every pore.
She stared out the window into the darkening night sky, remembering the day her mother had told her that her father was presumed dead, months after his disappearance. She recalled the funeral a week later, and remembered standing in the pouring rain at the edge of the gaping hole as an empty casket was lowered into the muddy ground. The funeral had been three days before her twenty-fifth birthday―a birthday that came and went without any fanfare.
Del never celebrated her birthday anymore. Too many memories.
Now, staring at her father’s picture, the overwhelming grief she had felt seven years ago came back with a vengeance.
They’re going to kill him, Delly.

It was past eight o’clock when Del reached her small house in Port Coquitlam. Parking her car under the carport, she grabbed her briefcase and went inside.
“Honey, I’m ho-ome!”
An overweight, one-eared, brown-tinged Siamese darted toward her and anxiously rubbed up against her leg, mewing mournfully at the same time.
“Oh, Kayber! You act like I never feed you.”
She had found the cat in her backyard five months ago. He was bruised and scratched, his right ear hanging by a piece of skin. He looked like he had been in a barroom brawl―and lost. She had adopted him on the spot.
Although, she often wondered if it weren’t the other way around.
Tossing her briefcase on the couch, she returned to the kitchen, poured some cat kibble into a dish and set it on the floor. Then she sat on the couch, picking at a bowl of leftover macaroni casserole and sipping vanilla tea.
Her gaze drifted over the photographs on the mantle of the brick fireplace and dozens of memories raced through her mind. Memories of good times, happy times. Times when her father was alive―before he disappeared and left a dark void in her life.
She slid the bowl of half-eaten casserole onto the coffee table and pulled the journal from her briefcase. She leafed through the book, stopping when she came to a page filled with unfamiliar words, abbreviations, numbers and symbols.
NB…resistant to…≠
DC #02541-87654-18 prov. base….BSC & syn. CSF in
V. saline…gn.
She found several references to her father but couldn’t make out the content. A few pages in, the journal lapsed into page after page of numerical code. An hour went by and she was only one-third into it when she found an odd entry.
Bio-T Can…key!
She hissed in a breath.
Bio-Tec Canada?
Her father had worked for Bio-Tec. Why was that in Schroeder’s notes? Other than her father, Neil Parnitski and the intern, Schroeder had never had any contact with anyone else at Bio-Tec. He was an anthropologist. Bio-Tec was a research company exploring biotechnology.
Del was baffled.
She pushed the journal aside and flicked the remote control in the direction of the CD player. As Alexia Melnychuk’s smooth voice filled the room, Del stretched out on the couch and closed her eyes.
Kayber, having wolfed down his food, immediately took this as an invitation and jumped up on her stomach. All twenty-two pounds of him.
“What is it with males jumping on top of me today?”
As she thought of Peter Cavanaugh with his Tobey Maguire-like face, a smile formed on her lips. Peter was in his first year of studies, but he had missed too many classes due to an ailing grandmother, which resulted in an ‘incomplete’ on the regular one-year course. That was why he was taking her summer class.
Ten years younger, he was an embarrassingly shy kid, a bit of a loner―except when he was around Del. He had a severe crush on her. She knew it. Hell, everyone knew it. Half the faculty thought she was sleeping with him. But she wasn’t. She wasn’t a cougar. She didn’t go after younger men. Unlike her mother.
Del unceremoniously pushed Kayber aside, then reached for the phone and dialed her mother’s number. After several rings, someone picked up.
“Yeah? Wh-who’s this?”
Ken, her mother’s newest conquest and third husband, had been drinking again.
That’s what you get when you marry a nightclub owner.
“Is my mother there?”
“What ya want her for?”
“Just put her on, Ken.”
She listened while her mother’s husband stumbled through the house. He swore loudly after he dropped the phone. She swore too as the sound reverberated into her ear.
“Hello?”
Jesus! What’s taking him so long? Did he pass out?
She waited, listening to faint shuffling sounds. She was about to hang up when her mother’s cool voice greeted her.
Maureen Walton speaking.”
“Hi, it’s me.”
“Who?”
“It’s Delila, Mother.”
God forbid if you forget to introduce yourself!
She couldn’t believe that her mother was still playing that game. The woman lived for formality. Proper manners and etiquette, shaking hands, addressing elders by their surnames and owning a house that was treated like a show home. It was all part of her mother’s attempt to become the next Miss Manners. Or, God forbid, Martha Stewart.
“Delila, I haven’t heard from you in weeks. Why haven’t you come to visit us?”
Del cringed, remembering the last time she had visited. The time Ken tried to cop a feel when she passed him in the hall.
“I’ve been busy.”
“Too busy to visit your own mother?”
Great! Here it comes.
“When you were sick with the flu, was I too busy to bring you some magazines?”
Her mother’s voice was tinged with disapproval.
“And when you went away with Tyler or whatever his name is, was I too busy to feed that filthy animal?”
Del held the receiver away from her ear and threw Kayber a rueful look. “She’s never going to forgive you for peeing in her shoes.”
She gave her mother a few minutes to vent, then drew the phone back to her ear.
What could she possibly say that would shut the woman up?
“Dad’s alive.”
A sharp gasp on the other end was followed by silence.
“Well, that worked,” she said dryly to Kayber who was busy grooming himself.
She pressed her ear against the receiver.
Dead air.
“Are you there, Mother?”
“Of course, Delila. Now what’s this nonsense about your father?”
“I had a visitor today. Professor Schroeder.”
Arnold? But that’s not possible, dear. They found a piece of his head.”
“His scalp.”
“What?”
Del gritted her teeth. “They found a piece of his scalp, Mother. And a bit of hair. That’s all.”
“Well, whatever. He was dead and buried along with Neil, Vern and your father six years ago.”
Del resisted the urge to correct her again. It had been seven years.
“Vern?”
“Yes, dear. The young man, your father’s assistant or whatever he was. At least I think his name was Vern. Or maybe it was Victor…”
Her mother’s voice dwindled away, lost in thought.
Professor Schroeder says that Dad is alive. He gave me a journal. It has some strange notes in it, Dad’s name―”
Arnold always was a bit of an odd duck, Delila. I wouldn’t take too much that man said seriously. God only knows where he’s been.”
“I’m going to bring him back, Mother.”
There was a pause on the other end.
Arnold?”
“No. I’m going after Dad.”
“You can’t be serious, Delila. He’s dead!”
“I am serious. I’m bringing Dad home.”
She hung up, feeling both relieved and irritated.
Why was her mother so heartless? Her parents had been married nearly thirty years. Didn’t that count for anything? Didn’t the woman care that her husband might still be alive? Or was it that her mother didn’t want her perfect little life to come crashing down?
Del scowled.
She was the first to admit she certainly wasn’t an expert on relationships. Look how long it took her to realize that TJ was screwing around on her. He had moved into her house and her heart.
Then he betrayed both.
She would never forget the day she came home early, barely able to walk and yearning for her bed―only to find that it was otherwise occupied.
Her neighbor, Julie Adams, had always been asking whether the rumors about a black man’s libido and the size of a specific part of his anatomy were true. Now Julie knew.
Del had kicked TJ out on his ass that same day.
She shrugged off the dark mood that threatened to engulf her and gave Kayber a quick pat on the head. With the journal and briefcase in her hands, she walked to the large second bedroom that doubled as an office. She flicked on the lamp and was immediately greeted by a pile of final summer exams that screamed to be marked.
Turning a deaf ear, she nudged them aside, opened her briefcase and pulled out an empty notebook. She wrote a reminder at the top of the first page.
Find out where Schroeder is. Go see him!
Then she began to translate Schroeder’s journal.
An hour later, she gave up trying to make sense of the scribbled notes and strange numerical code. When she finally crawled into bed after marking the exams, it was after midnight.
She lay in the dark, the flicker of shadows moving through her room. She pictured her father as she remembered him. Tall, with golden brown hair and rich brown eyes. He was always happy, always smiling.
She closed her eyes, her lashes damp with unshed tears.
I’m coming for you, Dad...

THE RIVER, an international bestselling technothriller by Cheryl Kaye Tardif

Sunday, April 15, 2012

A Feast of Frights from The Horror Zine

From the pages of The Horror Zine-the critically acclaimed online horror magazine-comes A FEAST OF FRIGHTS FROM THE HORROR ZINE edited by Jeani Rector.

Featuring dark fantasy, mystery, pure suspense and classic horror, this book from The Horror Zine is relentless in its approach to basic fears and has twisted, unexpected endings. Come and find out what terrifying things can creep out of The Horror Zine to make your skin crawl.

A FEAST OF FRIGHTS FROM THE HORROR ZINE contains fiction from such renowned masters of the macabre as Simon Clark, Graham Masterton, Joe R. Lansdale, Scott Nicholson, Cheryl Kaye Tardif, Joe McKinney, Susie Moloney, Tom Piccirilli, Ed Gorman, Trevor Denyer, and Jeff Strand. 

This book has amazing articles from John Gilmore, Deborah LeBlanc, Earl Hamner, Kasey Lansdale and Tim Lebbon, and a Foreword from horror great Ramsey Campbell. 

Here you will also find other deliciously dark delights from morbidly creative people who have not yet made the big time…but will soon. Each tale and poem, every article and artful rendering is a dark delicacy of its own, making this a true Feast of Frights!

Pick up the Kindle edition today.

Saturday, April 14, 2012

Guest post: Life-altering Decisions with Author Eileen Schuh, plus a Kindle Giveaway



Today I welcome author Eileen Schuh to my blog to discuss her YA novel THE TRAZ, which deals with societal issues like gangs and drugs. Eileen also has a School Edition available, plus a readers' guide available on her website. Read her post to find out how you can win a Kindle! Welcome, Eileen! :-)

I thought I was being original when I included a Teaching/Discussion guide with THE TRAZ. I quickly discovered that many authors and/or their publishers do that. In fact, many of the novels that the book club at my local library chooses have readers’ guides appended.

What sets THE TRAZ guide apart, however, is the fact that not only does it ask the questions, it also provides points of discussion and possible answers. Perhaps because I several of my cousins and close friends are teachers, I realized the importance of this. If teachers need to come up with their own answers, they might as well ask their own questions, in my humble opinion.

There are specific ideas and concepts addressed in THE TRAZ that I think are important, and the only way to ensure my readers pick up them, is for me to note them.

For example, one of the questions in the Teaching Guide is “What life-changing decisions do you anticipate making in the near future?” I want my at-risk young readers to think about making empowering decisions such as reporting abuse at home—something that may not be on the tip of the tongue of either teachers or students. So I included it—along with more obvious answers such as life-style choices and academic decisions.

I hope that my suggested answers might spark additional ideas in teachers and students—serve as a thought-stimulant, so to speak. If my readers begin thinking outside the box—beyond basic decisions such as whether or not to stay in school, drink, or do drugs, THE TRAZ will become much more relevant a story to them…and, more helpful.

So…what life-altering decisions do you see in your future?
______________________________________________

THE TRAZ eBook is FREE on Amazon Kindle for THREE DAYS ONLY-- April 14, 15 and 16. Don’t have a Kindle? No problem—you can easily download Amazon’s free KINDLE FOR PCs software to read eBooks on your computer.

THE TRAZ is available in paperback and ebook formats and in a special School Edition that includes a Teaching Guide. Click on the following links to purchase or sample THE TRAZ

Amazon eBook

Amazon Paperback

School Edition Paperback

School Edition eBook

Also available from other fine online bookstores.

If THE TRAZ is not on your local bookstore or library shelves, ask for it to be ordered in for you.

“LEAVE A COMMENT, WIN A KINDLE” Virtual Book Tour. Follow me through cyberspace as I promote THE TRAZ on blogs around the world. Each time you leave a comment beneath my guest blogs, I’ll enter your name in my draw for a Kindle. For more details visit my Facebook Fan Appreciation Page or follow me on Twitter.

Eileen Schuh is also the author of the adult Sci-Fi novella SCHRÖDINGER’S CAT

For more information on Schuh and her books visit her at:

http://www.eileenschuh.com

http://eileenschuh.blogspot.com

Follow Katrina on Twitter: KatrinaBuckhold

Thursday, April 12, 2012

LANCELOT'S LADY is FREE for 3 days

A Bahamas holiday from dying billionaire JT Lance, a man with a dark secret, leads palliative nurse Rhianna McLeod to Jonathan, a man with his own troubled past, and Rhianna finds herself drawn to the handsome recluse, while unbeknownst to her, someone with a horrific plan is hunting her down.

When palliative care nurse Rhianna McLeod is given a gift of a dream holiday to the Bahamas from her dying patient, billionaire JT Lance, Rhianna has no idea that her 'holiday' will include being stranded on a private island with Jonathan, an irritating but irresistibly handsome recluse. Or that she'll fall head over heels for the man.

Jonathan isn't happy to discover a drop-dead gorgeous redhead has invaded his island. But his anger soon turns to attraction. After one failed marriage, he has guarded his heart, but Rhianna's sudden appearance makes him yearn to throw caution to the wind.

To live fully in the present, Rhianna must resolve her own murky past, unravel the secret that haunts JT, foil the plans of a sleazy, blackmailing private investigator and help Jonathan find his muse. Only then can Rhianna find the love she's been searching for, and finally become...Lancelot's Lady.

Monday, April 09, 2012

FREE eBook: Divine Justice, book 2 in the Divine series

From April 9th to 11th you can get DIVINE JUSTICE FREE in Kindle edition. This is book 2 in the Divine series, my paranormal thriller series starring CFBI agent Jasi McLellan and her covert team of psychic agents.

CFBI agent and Pyro-Psychic Jasi McLellan battles a serious infection that threatens to claim her life. Slipping in and out of consciousness, she remembers the Parliament Murders...

One by one, members of Ontario's Parliament are disappearing, only to be found days later, disoriented and drugged. Or worse―dead. Police are stumped and the CFBI brings in a covert PSI team, agents with special psychic abilities.

Accompanied by Psychometric Empath Ben Roberts and new team member Victim Empath Natassia Prushenko, Jasi heads for Ottawa and uncovers a plot so devious that Canada's national security is at risk. If that isn't enough to deal with, Jasi bumps into old flame, Zane Underhill, who wants to rekindle their relationship that ended three years earlier.

But the investigation takes precedent and Jasi is forced to place her feelings for Zane on hold in order to find a killer who has more than justice in mind for his victims, and in the end she makes a gut-wrenching decision―one that will cost the life of someone close to her.


I recommend you read DIVINE INTERVENTION first as this IS a series. And it's only $2.99.

Wednesday, April 04, 2012

The KDP Select Experiment: Part 11 - Conclusions - Updated: Sept 24

I'm going to keep this post short and hopefully you'll get enough out of it to make up your mind about Amazon's Select program. I began enrolling in Select as an experiment. I was a skeptic. I didn't like the exclusivity clause. But I knew I could always opt out and return to my old ways of selling if things didn't work out.

I also knew that even if I saw a slight increase in sales, it didn't mean I could maintain that increase every month--or make any of the big numbers a few people like JA Konrath have mentioned.

My experiment took place from January to March...

In January I made 3 times more money than I was averaging per month last year. If my math is correct (and remember, I admit I do suck at math) that's a 300% increase.

In February I made 13 times more money than I was averaging per mth in 2011.

In March I made 42 times more money than my 2011 monthly average.

From January to March 2012, I've earned more money than I've made in the last 5 years. Do I expect the numbers to keep getting higher? No. Like anything else, I expect they'll rise and fall. But I don't expect to ever go back to making only what I made each month last year. Why? Because I'll eventually have another book on the Select promo.

Conclusions: It's WORTH giving up exclusive distribution rights and enrolling in KDP Select because you'll make more money this way than with ANY other distribution system.

UPDATE: September 24, 2012: 

I have now earned over $150,000 with KDP Select. Two agents contacted me after they saw my success and I have signed with Adrienne Lombardo at Trident Media Group. A senior editor from Penguin contacted me about CHILDREN OF THE FOG in particular but I wasn't willing to let it go for low terms. She is awaiting my next new novel. 


I'll be represented at the Frankfurt book fair this year--I'm excited. A possible audiobook deal is in the works, foreign rights deals are being pursued. THIS is what happens when you take a chance, are bold enough to try something new and find ways to make the numbers soar.


***
If you haven't read my experiment results, please visit: The KDP Select Experiment Link List