Welcome to the PNR, Urban Fantasy & Dystopian Party!
This giveaway is brought to you by 22 fabulous Urban Fantasy, Paranormal Romance, and Dystopian authors!In this giveaway, EVERYONE who enters will win TWENTY-TWO FREE – EXCLUSIVE – ebooks by the sponsoring authors (to be delivered at the conclusion of the giveaway), and one GRAND PRIZE winner will also receive a $1000 Amazon Gift Card! The Winner will be announced on April 1st at our Facebook Event. The winner will also receive an email directly.
There will ALSO be other prizes and giveaways happening at that event between now and our Grand Prize announcement! So make sure you mark yourself as attending so you don’t miss those great opportunities to win more prizes and snag more freebies!
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Here's a sneak peek from one of the sponsors:
Discern - an award-winning and bestselling urban fantasy novel by Andrea Pearson
Nicole put her things down, not wanting anything to be in her hands when she picked up the disgusting book. She reached for it, but hesitated. Already, she could sense warmth coming from the leather cover, and she wasn’t even touching it. Its magical pulses were different from the other items—they seemed to drip off the book like sweat.
Nicole hesitated, but wasn’t sure why. It wasn’t as if something bad would happen, right? She took a deep breath and placed her hands on the book. It shivered under her touch and she cringed, pulling back. The sensation of warm leather made her flesh crawl, and she rubbed her hands and arms on her jeans, trying to get the feeling to go away.
Come on, Nicole. Don’t wimp out.
Without letting herself think about it, she picked up the book and lifted the cover.
A wind rushed over her, blowing her hair back, roaring in her ears. She caught a brief whiff of tobacco smoke before the surge of air reversed and sucked the breath out of her lungs, making her gasp.
The floor under her quaked. The book vibrated. The leather on the cover moved, muscles beneath it flexing. Nicole tried to drop the book, but couldn’t. She was unable to control her hands or fingers. They clenched so tightly, they ached. A shadow covered the pages of the book, preventing her from reading.
What was going on? She gasped again, trying to breathe against the strong wind. She felt someone touch her shoulder, but she couldn’t move. Her fingers still clung to the book. The shadow on the pages shifted, roiled, and turned toward her, the brief outline of a face visible. It watched her for several moments.
Nicole . . .
The voice was soft, deep. A strange yearning inside her made her want to read the book, to understand. To join the owner of the voice, though she didn’t know where or what he was.
The wind slowed to a gentle and familiar caress across her cheek. Familiar?
Then suddenly, it all stopped. The book fell from her hands and slammed itself shut. She backed away, her arms, legs—everything—shaking.
“What happened?” Professor Coolidge asked next to her, making her jump.
“I—I don’t know.” Nicole tried to smooth her hair, but her hands shook too much. She tucked them under her arms. “It said my name . . . and there was a shadow. In-inside it.”
Coolidge lifted the leather book. His mouth popped open in surprise. “You’ve activated a force within it—something alive.” He looked at her, fear and worry on his face. “How did you do that?”
Nicole shook her head. “I don’t know,” she repeated.
Professor Coolidge put the book back on the table. “I’m not sure what to say, other than the book is much more powerful than it used to be.” He peered at her, scrutinizing her. “And I’d love to know why it called to you, why you woke it up, when so many others have not.”
Set Sail for the Unknown and Escape Reality
by
Erin Richards
When I set out to write my fantasy romance novel, WICKED PARADISE, I wanted to write a time-travel with a heroine from medieval times and a hero from the present-day. However, I didn’t want a contemporary or a historical setting like so many other time-travel novels. Somewhere unknown, exotic, and unique tugged at me.
For many authors, the setting of a story is a convenience. We set our stories in our hometown or a place we’ve visited because it’s familiar. Or we place our story in Hollywood because it’s about murder on a movie set. You can relate to these settings or you’ve read about them. These locales bring many expectations because they have history, a certain population, social and political values. However, I wanted my readers’ escape from reality to be absolute.
During the conception stage of WICKED PARADISE, I took a queue from a classic Eagles song, “Hotel California.” The lyrics: “this could be heaven or this could be hell” and “you can check-out anytime you like, but you can never leave” resonated with me. Instantly, the idea about an unchartered, inescapable island and the lost and desperate people who were destined to colonize it took flight. Most of all, I wanted my world to be the heaven they never wished to leave. First, I had to make it hell. What fun would heaven be without a trip through danger or hardship to reach that paradise?
Due to my small cast of characters, my unique setting had to become an empathetic character itself and cause havoc and mayhem on my heroine and hero as they searched for their happily ever after. Just like my human characters, my world had to be friendly, to create mood and influence behaviors. Weather, treacherous terrain and non-human inhabitants needed to test the mettle of both my island and characters, and also create opportunities for my heroine and hero to come together and explore their relationship naturally as they traveled toward a common goal. As my characters evolved and changed, so did my world. My island showed fear and relief. It sought comfort as well as gave it. It worked with my heroine and fought my villain. It endured and overcame external conflict and peril. My island became real to me as if I had walked upon it a million times.
There’s no lack of conflict, romance, suspense, adventure and mystery in mainstream fiction. Yet fantasy offers one distinctive element that is lacking in mainstream fiction: an imaginary setting. Many of you choose fantasy or science fiction because you want to escape everyday reality and be transported to a unique world. Are you ready to set sail to the complete unknown? Or do you prefer real urban, suburban or historical settings of our world?
Take a chance on a total escape for a couple of hours. Walk through my jungle, breathe its air, taste its food, experience a slice of heaven. Come to my wicked paradise, and you just may find you never want to leave.
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