Release Day! Accident Among Vampires (or what would Dracula do?)

I am happy to announce my next book, Accident Among Vampires or What Would Dracula Do?

It is a standalone novel n the Paper Flower Consortium! If you are a fan of Norma’s Cleaning Service or Immortal House this is the story of the first year of Norma’s existence as a vampire aka her origin story.

Issaquah, Washington, USA 1951

My name is Norma Mae Rollins. I’m fourteen and an illegal vampire. I miss my mom, but new ghoulish appetites force me to remain with my creator. 

Bill didn’t mean to transform me. At least, that’s what he claims. His frightening temper, relentless lies, and morbid scientific experiments makes it hard to know what to believe. However, someone snitched about Bill’s experiments to a nearby coven. Now both of our corpses will burn. 

Bill won’t run. He is curious what happens to a vampire after final death. I don’t want to die again. It hurt so much the first time. Bill thinks his vampire boyfriend might shelter me. I must brave an eternal existence with elder vampires and other monsters who don’t think I ought to exist. Oh and figure out who I am allowed to eat.  

A vampire’s reality is nothing like the movies.

This book is a found family story, clean of profanity and suitable for most. People do get eaten.

EBOOK is only 99 cents at Amazon https://www.amazon.com/Accident-Among-Vampires-would-Dracula-ebook/dp/B08ZFQRYQS/

SIGNED PAPERBACKS $15.00 on my website! https://www.elizabethguizzetti.com/product-page/accident-among-vampires-paperback

The Light Side of the Moon is here!

It’s here! It’s here! If you want you can picture me jumping up and down with excitement. 

The Light Side of the Moon is the second novel in the Other Systems Universe, but it is not a sequel. Fans familiar with the series know that Other Systems followed immigrants to the utopian planet, Kipos. The Light Side of the Moon is the story of those who stayed behind on Earth.

Due to lack of natural resources, no public education, and a surplus of political bickering, Earth is an over-populated cesspool and our solar system’s colonies have failed. Encouraged by the conquest of Kipos, idealistic dreamers look beyond Earth to build a utopia from the abandoned Lunar Colony Serenitatis. Despite intense uncertainty and physical hardship, the impoverished Ella Sethdottier follows rumors of plentiful jobs on the moon. On roads fraught with danger, she discovers Earth is a bigger place than she ever imagined, but Serenitatis is little more than a prison colony. Ella forges unlikely friendships with corrupted androids and the quixotic prison doctor, Ian Whitlatch, who champions equality and rights for inmates. Amid
corruption and nobility, tragedy and victory, the fate of the colony hangs in the balance.

You can read an excerpt here!

And I am having a release party at Barnes & Noble Pacific Place August 1st, 2 – 4 pm. Hope to see you there.

Sales Links Below

Amazon

Paperbacks: http://www.amazon.com/Light-Side-Moon-Elizabeth-Guizzetti/dp/193754642X/

Kindle: http://www.amazon.com/Light-Side-Moon-Elizabeth-Guizzetti-ebook/dp/B011EWJHTC 

Barnes&Noble http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-light-side-of-the-moon-elizabeth-guizzetti/1122388290?ean=2940150853218

iBooks https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/the-light-side-of-the-moon/id1018607604?ls=1&mt=11

48Fourteen: https://48fourteen.com/catalog/the-light-side-of-the-moon/

Kobo: https://store.kobobooks.com/en-US/ebook/the-light-side-of-the-moon-1

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25891512-the-light-side-of-the-moon

3rd Annual Heroes Resource’s Fall Festival

Hey Fans in Northern Washington State, I will be signing books and giving away swag at

3rd Annual Heroes Resource’s Fall Festival

Saturday October 25^th in Lynden WA.

They have Guest Artist’s, Authors, and Game Designers. There will be a costume contest, door prizes, game tournaments, Food vendors, the road will be half-closed for the safety of families. I have gone each year and had lots of fun. Hope to see you there.

http://www.facebook.com/events/1479287548998347/

Guests:
http://elizabethguizzetti.com/
www.facebook.com/pages/1314-Art-of-Ben-Hansen
www.facebook.com/BethSobelIllustration
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Ian-Styer/498179706896404
www.facebook.com/pages/Psychedelic-Circumstances
www.facebook.com/BarnCatRadio
http://www.daportfolio.com/493591/
https://www.facebook.com/AuthorMadisonKeller

Review of Isaac the Fortunate: The Spring

Here is my review of The Spring which is the next book in the Isaac The Fortunate Series.

I loved The Winter and all I can say is wow for The Spring. AoKA’s engaging characters and beautiful descriptions will transport you to medieval Switzerland where you follow Eostre–the mysterious lady from the Winter who gives the farmer Beltran the Golden Bridle.

After the death of her drunken father, she goes to a nunnery. She begins having visions that leave her confused, lost, and in deep trouble with the other nuns. She sees her best friend another novice alive and then she sees her dead from a plague. Then other nuns are alive and dead.

Eostre begins to doubt her own sanity as she wonders what is real. As the timelines converge, well, I don’t want to spoil it for anyone.

AoKA has a beautiful style and the poetic descriptions left me hungering for more. She doest they beautiful black and white “woodcut” style illustrations. I look forward to The Summer!

The fate of The Light Side of the Moon has been decided!

The Light Side of the Moon will be published by 48Fourteen!

In Other Systems, the Kiposi built space elevators on Earth to get humans, livestock and seed cheaply off the planet. I knew I wanted to explore other aspects of space colonization and I began the second of a series of companion novels each focusing on a separate aspect of the human condition in the far future. The Light Side of the Moon will focus on the rebuilding of Earth’s space program.

Human colonists from another planet seek young people to populate their utopian colony. Many are tested, few are chosen. The Light Side of the Moon is the story of those who remained in Earth’s solar system.

Ella Sethdottier’s family lives in extreme poverty, barely surviving on the training wage system. When her mother dies from the flu and her older brother Dan is fired from his job, Ella is arranged to be married to an elderly groom to keep her warm and safe.

Determined to make a better life for herself, but with no prospects, she follows rumors halfway around the world with the hope of working on Lunar Colony Tranquility. The road is fraught with danger, but she makes her way thousands of kilometers to the Paris Space Elevator, meeting a variety of people along the way, including a family of broken down androids who decide to accompany her. Ella and the androids indenture themselves to the warden as servants and companions for his family.

On Luna, Ella escapes dire poverty, however she must navigate the treacherous paths of life in a place where one misstep can mean disaster. Corrupt guards take comfort from the prison population as the conflicted warden tries to keep the peace. As colony’s relentless hardships intensify, Ella forges an unlikely friendship with the idealistic dreamer, Dr. Ian Whitlatch. The two draw strength from one each other to defeat formidable enemies—hunger, riots, inconsistent supply drops, and the insidious effects of low gravity—and find the strength to build a utopia.

Want more information?

Websites
http://elizabethguizzetti.com
http://other-systems.com

Facebook Page
http://www.facebook.com/Elizabeth.Guizzetti.Author

Excerpt from Everlasting by Candace Knoebel

Today as part of the Everlasting Blog Tour, I am happy to show an Excerpt from Everlasting by Candace Knoebel….

EXCERPT

“This way,” Nathaniel says from the side of the stage. We’re like cows being herded into individual

pens to await sacrifice. There are closed-in cubicles constructed backstage, and each of us is placed in

one without a word of guidance or encouragement.

“Wait a second,” I say as I try to scan down the row one last time for Katie, but I’m shoved into my

cubicle and the door shuts, enclosing me in between four confining walls with only the light of a

lamp. I drag my hands down the fabric of the walls until I fall down into my seat. I tug on my braid

again and again and again. Calm down. Breathe. Calm down. I chant this over and over again,

imagining that Katie’s the one who’s coaching me. I shut my eyes and am back in her room. The

scent of her perfume overwhelms the small space, but instead of making me sneeze, it comforts me.

It makes my imagined state more real.

I hear loud clapping coming from off the stage and know someone must’ve just gone. They obviously

weren’t a Defect. No one wants a Defect at their ceremony. A voice shouts, “Let’s go, Todd Jenson.

It’s time to meet your partner.” I wonder if it was Katie on stage. I wonder if he’s her partner. I

wonder this through eighteen more times worth of clapping and cheering and name calling. Anytime

now, they’ll open my door and force me to stand before the crowd, force me to touch the quartz, force

me to face my peers in shame. If they deem me a Defect, I’ll be the first this Culling, and most likely

the only.

I twist my hands into knots and think about my parents. They have to be out there by now. I’m going

to walk out there and they’re going to be in the front row smiling. I open my eyes. Four walls. They’re

closing in on me. They’re suffocating me. I have to get out.

“Faye Middleton?” The door opens and air rushes in. I draw sharply on it as the cheering continues.

Another novice and her new partner walk off stage. It’s the girl with black hair. She’s coyly looking at

him from under her lashes. He looks pissed.

Nathaniel guides me forward, and I want to yank my arm from him. I want to tell him I left my

courage back in that cubicle, but I don’t. I can’t. My lips are glued shut by fear. My knees have turned

into two extremities of doubt, and I know I’m going to fall. I’m going to forget how to speak.

Steel blue eyes find mine from across the stage. Elder Maddock. He bows ever so slightly in my

direction, his eyes seeking past my outer appearance. I wonder if he knows who I am. He has to.

I stop right before him and feel like a bird trapped in a cage. I can’t escape the thousands of eyes

studying me. I can’t escape the hundreds of assumptions building me into something I’m not.

“Faye Middleton,” he says, his voice eager and curious. There’s a friendly lightness in his voice I don’t

expect, a sound that makes me feel safe and comfortable under his gaze. He has thick, golden brown

hair combed neatly over to the side and back, showing off the squared planes of his face. He looks

much younger than he should, but older than my father. “Are you ready to begin?”

I turn to the crowd and scan desperately for my parents. Eyes. There are so many eyes. Too many.

They form together, creating an awful monster that wants to swallow me whole. I can’t find them.

The eyes have hidden them from me. I’m all alone. I try to swallow, but my mouth is so dry. I bite the

inside of my cheek, curbing the need to release tears.

The Witch standing next to him says, “Faye, he asked you a question.”

I take in a tight breath and force myself to look away and back at Maddock. “I’m sorry,” I whisper,

my stomach twisting a little tighter.

He pretends not to notice the panic I’m sure my face is masked in and offers me the kindest, most

patient smile. “Everyone is nervous on the day of the Culling,” he says knowingly. “I was a wreck the

day of mine.”

Polite laughter comes from the audience, and I feel myself relax just enough so that I can breathe

again.

He offers me a small wink…a knowing sort of wink, and says, “Your parents will be proud.” He says

these words carefully, evenly, and I know he’s trying to tell me something. They’re okay? He’s aware

of who I am. “So are you ready to begin?”

Available on

Amazon: http://amzn.com/B00IIYHQEI

Barnes & Noble: http://tinyurl.com/or6g3bl

ADD IT ON GOODREADS!

 

 About The Author

Candace Knoebel is the award-winning author of Born in Flames-a young adult fantasy trilogy.

Published by 48fourteen in 2012, Born in Flames went on to win Turning the Pages Book of the Year award in February of 2013. Embracing the Flames, the second in the trilogy, is scheduled for release in the summer of 2013.

Candace Knoebel discovered through lunch breaks and late nights after putting her kids to bed, a world where she could escape the ever-pressing days of an eight to five Purgatory. Since then, she crawled out of Purgatory and has devoted her time to writing and sometimes heelying.

 

Facebook ~ Goodreads ~ @candaceknoebel

Plus to celebrate there is a RaffleCopter with tons of great prizes: http://bit.ly/UgH7bn

Write with passion

I never know if you should follow my advice, but here’s some advice about writing which I am pretty sure you should not follow. Make your lives easy.

Most successful authors generally talk about knowing one’s market. I have a problem, I never know about markets. Though I talk about it, the truth is I don’t know who my market is.  I write the story, I want to write.

For me, that means writing stories that I believe needs telling. When I see injustices, I mirror it in my longer works. The world is not simple. In many books, there is a problem and when the problem is fixed the story is over. That isn’t how I write.

There are problems we may fix in our lifetimes, and problems we might not. So it is within the story. There are problems, some which will be solved and problems for the main characters to overcome, but not everything will be overcome. Part of the problem is that I write angry. I see a news article about an injustice, and I shove it directly into my writing.
The entirety of the Other Systems Series deals with poverty, fear of an other, ignorance. Each book has different issues. The Light Side of the Moon will deal with economic slavery, homelessness, antibiotic resistance,  the loss of pollinators, the acidification of the ocean, power struggles within the prison system.

Finally, I write about people with morals that may or may not be yours. They aren’t even always my own morals.  Some are religious. Some of them are idealists on a crusade.  Some are just people just trying to get by in an immoral world. 

Mostly, the series revolves around characters who must challenge the system in which they are born and become more. I write these stories, because I am passionate about these types of stories. 

Review: The Winter (Isaac the Fortunate, #1)

 The Winter (Isaac the Fortunate, #1)
by A. Ka (Author, Illustrator)

I loved this book. A.Ka’s prose is spectacular. She creates a setting in medieval Spain is rich and full of life and death. Both the idea and the created reality (in the book) of the plague known as the Delirium is truly terrifying.

The time-travel is treated with intelligence and has a few hints about what is coming further in the series.

The characters are deep and well written. Isaac who is the narrator and Beltran the protagonist are sympathetic in different ways, but I don’t want to give away too much. As this is the first book in a six-part series, there are plenty of mysteries to unfold as of yet. I can’t wait for the rest.

PS A. Ka also did the cover and illustrations and they are absolutely gorgeous.

Upcoming Author Appearance: Heroes Resource Fall Festival!

Up in Northern Washington State and looking for a fun free event this weekend? Check out Heroes’ Resource’s Fall Festival.

Heroes’ Resource is North Whatcom County’s game and comic book store. They offer Comics, Novels, Board and Card Games, Card Games, Toys, Apparel, Models, Modeling Supplies!

There will be fun Halloween games and over at the Pioneer Museum there will be artists, novelists, pod casters and more–including me!

Though it’s official debut is Jet City Comic Show, at my table, I will have Out For Souls&Cookies #4 The long awaited Christmas Special!

We will be having a raffle for this original 8.5 x 11 Halloween sketch of Lord Fluffcakes! (Yes you have to attend to enter the raffle.)

We will also have free bookmarks and stickers for Other Systems.

I hope to see you there!

A Racy Question for Readers!

I’m going to pose a racy question about sex scenes in non-erotica books to my readers. (Yes, I posed this to FB earlier, but then I realized I could be much more specific on my blog! Though I’m having a fun exchange on FaceBook if you want to join in.) I write sci-fi, and so yes, I’m talking about sci-fi. Gritty dark science fiction.

 

Oh my gosh, I see stamens, how risqué!

In general, if you read a book that has a sex scene (In this case a married couple on their wedding night) Do you want to see a second sex scene or is one enough? Or since there is only one sex scene in the manuscript would you prefer it just blacked out prior to intercourse?

Since both characters are inexperienced, it’s pretty tame and there is some important dialogue, cultural stuff prior and during and after the act. I don’t want it to be gratuitous either, but it is a big deal for both the groom and the bride. I would also it is one of the most sweet scenes in the book because they care about each other. Nothing we would call kink of any sort is shown.

An example that doesn’t tell you much is prior to intercourse: a priest and wedding guests bless the marriage bed and then the groom unbraids the bride’s hair in front of the assembled crowd. They cheer then the bride and groom at left alone.

If you read Other Systems, you know the sex scenes I wrote there was a bit of foreplay and kissing, but the scene was blacked out prior to actual intercourse, but in this new book I thought the intercourse made the scene better.

(Unless it is going to turn readers away…then it is bad!)

I’d love anyone’s opinion whether they have read my stuff before or not.

So 1) Do you like sex in non-erotic books?

2) Do you think a wedding night is gratuitous sex?

3) If I show the wedding night, will you be disappointed there is no more sex shown in the book?