Mercy Thompson & Other Reader Goodness

I know, I haven't posted in a while, blah blah blah. I've been getting ready for school to go back, working, writing, and playing PC games. So there!

ANYways, I thought you Briggs fans might enjoy this article with the artist of her covers. It concerns the Mercy covers themselves and the gal who models for them. She's not a professional model, but an architectural draftsperson and part-time bartender. Pretty cool. Anyways, it's a neat read.

AND, the cover for Mercy #6 has been revealed!!! Here is River Marked, coming in Spring 2011. It's too far away!!! Luckily we'll have Masques and Wolfsbane coming in October and November of this year to tide us over.

In other book news, here's the back cover copy for Lisa Shearin's next Raine Benares book, coming out next year. It looks fantastic!

And now, for a contest link. The incomparable Meljean Brook is giving away 3 ARCs of her October steampunk romance release, The Iron Duke. Go enter before tomorrow night, and if you win, give it to me!!! ;) The novella that kicked off the series (and was really good) was in the Burning Up anthology and was titled "Here There Be Monsters."

Random Web Links

Go check out Lisa Shearin's blog this week - she's doing a mini-workshop on book synopsis and even posting examples, bless her heart. Even if you're not ready to submit to agents yet, I'd recommend going over there and bookmarking this stuff for later reference.

A very cool idea for a book trailer - the making of the book cover (hours of work condensed down to just under 2 minutes) for Gail Carriger's 3rd book, Blameless. Check it out here:

I've been meaning to pick up the first novel, Soulless, having heard a great many good things about it - Victorian alternate history/comedy/romance.

Dear Author is holding an ARC contest for some Putnam and Riverhead books if you all want to go enter by March 13th at noon CST. The new Amanda Quick book in hardcover is up for grabs.

Finally, The NY Times has an interesting comparison of the cost of publishing a print book as opposed to an e-book and why the publishers aren't really saving all that much by offering the electronic format.

Free ARC Contest

Meljean Brook is giving away an ARC of Must Love Hellhounds over at her website. For those of you who have no clue about this book, it's an anthology of Urban Fantasy/Paranormal Romance being released on Sept. 1, that features hellhounds in each story. The coolest thing about this book is the lineup of authors: Charlaine Harris, Nalini Singh, Ilona Andrews, and Meljean Brook. Yowzers. I get all tingly just thinking about it. Mmmm, stories.... Anyways, it looks like the contest is running until July 31, so you've got some time, but don't forget to enter if you're interested.

Contest!!! Contest!!!!

Free ARCs (Advanced Reader Copies) are being given away over at Dear Author today. Go. Enter. Win. These are books being released in June, July and August by Berkley/Jove and Ace/Roc.

To tease you, some of the books up for grabs are (in no particular order) by Nalini Singh *jumping up and down*, Marjorie M. Liu, Kat Richardson *squeeeeee*, Mark Del Franco *more jumping*, Jayne Castle *hyperventalating*, Faith Hunter, Lora Leigh, Emma Holly, Christine Feehan, and Mary Janice Davidson.

And this is two posts for me in one day. Weird.