To start off this edition of the Escapist Newsletter, we have this gorgeous cover for the second Dorina Basarab novel, Death’s Mistress. I love the blue in this. There’s no release date yet, but Chance’s website says it should be out sometime this fall. I’m guess October since that is when Midnight’s Daughter came out. And I’m going to break with tradition and give you a little more here at the beginning…here’s the blurb:
Back home in Brooklyn after the demise of her insane uncle Dracula, Dory’s hoping her life is about to calm down. But then she gets some visitors. A friend wants Dory’s help in finding a magical Fey relic, and the gorgeous vampire, Louis-Cesare, is desperate to find his former mistress Christine.
Dory and Louis-Cesare quickly discover that the same master vampire Christine is bound to is also rumored to be in possession of the relic. But when the master vampire turns up dead, they realize that there’s more at stake than a missing mistress. Someone is killing vampire Senate members, and if Dory and Louis-Cesare can’t stop the murderer, they may be next…
New Releases:
Feb 1st:
Feb 3rd:
- Ravenous: The Dark Forgotten by Sharon Ashwood
- Never Been Witched by Annette Blair (Triplet Witch #3) – excerpt
- Bone Crossed by Patricia Briggs (Mercy Thompson #4) – excerpt
- The Thirteenth by LA Banks (Vampire Huntress Legends #13)
- Dream Warrior by Sherrilyn Kenyon (Dream Hunters #4)
- Coyote’s Mate by Lora Leight (Coyote Breeds #2)
- Undone by Rachel Caine (Outcast Season #1)
- Kiss of Fate by Deborah Cooke (Dragonfire #3)
- Would-Be Witch by Kimberly Frost
- A Kiss of Ashen Twilight by Rae Lori (Ashen Twilight #1)
- Grave Sins by Jenna Maclaine (Cin Craven #2)
- The First Sin by Cheyenne McCray (Lexi Steele #1) – excerpt
- MacGowan’s Ghost by Cindy Miles
- Evermore by Alyson Noel
- Mortal Coils by Eric Nylund (Fiona & Eliot #1)
- Fragile by Shiloh Walker – excerpt
- Mortal Sins by Eileen Wilks (World of the Lupi #5) – excerpt
Feb 4th:
- Wicked by Any Other Name by Linda Wisdom (Hex #3)
Feb 5th:
- Magic’s Design by Cat Adams (Magic #3)
Feb 10th:
- The Vampire Diaries: The Return: Nightfall by LJ Smith (Vampire Diaries)
Feb 24th:
- Jailbait Zombie by Mario Acevedo
- Made to be Broken by Kelley Armstrong (Nadia Stafford #2) – excerpt
- Into the Mist by Maya Banks (Falcon Mercenary Group #1)
- Death’s Daughter by Amber Benson
- You’re the One that I Haunt by Terri Garey (Nikki Styx #3) – excerpt
- White Witch, Black Curse by Kim Harrison (Rachel Morgan #7)
- Road Trip of the Living Dead by Mark Henry
- Desire Unchained by Larissa Ione (Demonica #2) – excerpt
- Go Fetch by Shelley Laurenston (Magnus Pack #2)
- Spell Games by TA Pratt (Marla Mason #4)
- The Better to Hold You by Alisa Sheckley
- Deader Still by Anton Stout
- Kitty Raises Hell by Carrie Vaughn (Kitty Norville #6)
I’ve found a new anthology to keep on the lookout for – Dark and Stormy Knights. This anthology is another collaboration spearheaded by PN Elrod and includes Jim Butcher, Rachel Caine, Shannon Butcher, Carrie Vaughn, Lilith Saintcrow, Vicki Pettersen, Deidre Knight, Ilona Andrews. I’m not seeing a link for it on Amazon, so I’m not really sure when it’s due out. If anyone knows, share please.
CONTEST ALERT – Pop Culture Zoo is giving away a complete set of Kitty Norvile novels by Carrie Vaugh. The contest is open until midnight on Feb. 10th, so there’s still time to get your name in.
A fan of Nalini Singh’s has set up a new fan forum for her Psy-Changeling (and other) novels. I haven’t had a chance to get over there yet, but if anyone does, let me know what you think.
OpusFest is back and is being held March 13 – 15, 2009 at the Red Lion Hotel in Denver, CO. Ilona and Gordon Andrews are Guests of Honor, plus there’ll also be Gil Bruvel, Stephen Segal, David Boop and many others. Click for more information.
The first round of new covers: Jocelynn Drake’s Dayhunter (April 28, 2009); Jeri Smith-Ready’s Bad to the Bone (); An anthology featuring Charlaine Harris, Jim Butcher, Patricia Briggs and many more – Strange Brew (July 7, 2009);
Interviews:
- Jim C. Hines, author of The Stepsister Scheme, by Jeri Smith-Ready
- CA Milson, author of The Chosen, by Calliope’s Coffee House
- Chandra Rooney, author of The Tarot Cafe, by Urban Fantasy Land
- Tez Miller, author of Tez Says, by Karen Kincy
- Vivi Anna, author of the Valorian Chronicles, by Amberkatze
- Justin Gustainis, author of Evil Ways, by Vampire Wire
- Yasmine Galenorn, author of Night Huntress (Sisters of the Moon #), by Anya Bast
- Anya Bast, author of Witch Heart (Elemental Witches #3), by Yasmine Galenorn
- Michelle Hauf, author of the Bewitch the Dark series, by Vampire Wire
- Jordan Gallard, the director of Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are Undead, by Park City Review
- Joss Whedon on his upcoming series Dollhouse by The Futon Critic
- Shayla Black, author of Tempt Me with Darkness, by Midnight Moon Cafe- CONTEST ALERT
- Jeaniene Frost, author of the Night Huntress series, by Love Vampires
- CA Milson, author of The Chosen, by Amberkatze Reviews – CONTEST ALERT
- Stacy Jay, author of You Are So Undead To Me, by Bitten by Books
- Michael Sheen, who reprises his role as Lucien in Underworld: The Rise of the Lycans, by USA Today
- Rachel Vincent, author of the Werecat series, by Bitten by Books
- Michael Sheen (Lucien) about Underworld: The Rise of the Lycans, by Daily Telegraph
- Ed Gathegi, who plays Laurent again in New Moon, by News OK
- Anya Bast, author of the Elemental Witch series and Taken, by Joyfully Review
- Maria Snyder, author of the Study series, by Amberkatze Reviews – CONTEST ALERT
- David B. Coe, author of the Blood of the Southlands trilogy, by Jeri Smith-Ready
- Ken Scholes, author of Lamentation, by Pat’s Fantasy Hotlist
- Heidi Betts, author of Tangled Up in Love, by Yankee Romance Reviews
- Lynsay Sands, author of the Argeneau series, by Yankee Romance Reviews
- Carrie Vaughn, author of the Kitty Norville series, by Bitten by Books
- Anya Bast, author of the Elemental Witches series, by Cynthia Eden
- R. Scott Bakker, author of The Judging Eye, by Pat’s Fantasy Hotlist
The title for the next Merry Gentry novel is going to be Sins of the Flesh. It’s due out October 27, 2009 and is already up for preorder on Amazon.
In spectacular news, Jeri Smith-Ready has sold her young adult series, Generation Ghosts, to Curtis Brown. The first book, Untouchable, will be released as a hardcover in Summer 2010, with it’s sequel, Never Ever, coming out the following year. Granted, that’s a little ways off, so who knows if those titles will remain the same, but Jeri says she’s pretty confident that the series will stay Generation Ghost.
The second round of new covers is here: Patricia Briggs’ Hunting Ground (July 28, 2009); the anthology featuring Caitlin Kittredge, Marjorie M. Liu, Jenna Maclaine and Christine Warren Huntress (June 30, 2009); Lilith Saintcrow’s Strange Angels (May 14, 2009); the anthology featuringKelley Armstrong, Kate Elliott, Robin Hobb and C. E. Murphy A Fantasy Medley.
The 2-Disc DVD for Twilight will be out March 21, 2009. The New York Comiccon has announced their panel lineups and a few of them sound interesting. Remember that Book Reviewers Meme that started at Grasping for the Wind and viraled out? Well, The Crotchety Old Fan is going through all of those links and posting a review of the blogs. He has completed the task and he created a page where you can see all of his reviews.
I’ve recently found a new series to try, Vickie Taylor’s Les Gargouillen. It was announced that the third novel, Legacy of Stone, will be out sometime this year. The series are about gargoyles, so if you’re as intrigued as I am, you can still check out the first two novels – Carved in Stone and Flesh and Stone.
Diana Pharaoh Francis is putting together a database of Science Fiction & Fantasy book reviewers. John over at Grasping for the Wind has the details. Speaking of databases, remember last fall when My Friend Amy put together a Book Bloggers Appreciation Week? Well, she put all the participating blogs into a searchable directory.
For the Terry Goodkind fans out there, the first seven episodes of The Legend of the Seeker are available over at Hulu. You can also see the episodes over at the website.
Anyone who is an e-book reader may be excited to hear that Orbit is going to be launching a promotion offering one ebook for sale each month for $1.00. Some of the ebooks up for grabs will include The Way of Shadows by Brent Weeks, Empress by Karen Miller, and many other science fiction and fantasy novels.
SciFiGuy has given us a great preview on a new book that I haven’t heard of yet. Amber Benson (from Buffy TVS), has a new novel out (I didn’t know she had others) called Death’s Daughter and it sounds really interesting. It’s due to release on Feb. 24th.
Jeaniene Frost’s publisher has decided that the title of the fourth novel, An Early Grave, is too close to the third novels title, At Grave’s End, so it was changed. The new title of the fourth Night Huntress novel will be Destined to an Early Grave. Not that big of a change and a little longer than the rest, but it all works I guess.
And we’re off with the third round of new covers: Virginia Kantra’s Sea Lord (May 5, 2009); Rob Thurman’s Trick of the Light (TBA); Lauren Dane’s Relentless (May 5, 2009); and Phaedra Weldon’s Phantasm (June 2, 2009).
There’s more bad news in the publishing industry, Realms of Fantasy magazine will be closing it’s doors, with April’s edition being the last one.
Rachel Vincent has announced the title for her Werecat #5 novel. It’s going to be Shift, but it’s not due out until March 2010.
Oh! And speaking of new titles, once you get your copy of Angels’ Blood by Nalini Singh, there’s a teaser for the second novel, Angels’ Kiss, in the back of the book. And now we know what the second novel will be called – Angels’ Kiss.
Carrie Vaughn’s website has moved. She now has a whole new look over at http://www.carrievaughn.com/, so make sure you go check it out.
The Deadline Dames have revealed their website, and they’ve been having a lot of contests. The Dames are: Toni Andrews, Keri Arthur, Jenna Black, Rinda Elliott, Jackie Kessler, Karen Mahony, Devon Monk, Lilith Saintcrow, and Rachel Vincent.
It’s not really official, but it looks like Diana Gabaldon’s An Echo in the Bone will be out sometime this fall. According to her website, she’s keeping the first part of the year open so she can finish the book. Plus, since there isn’t a publication date (or an Amazon pre-order link), I doubt it’ll be out before July anyway.
OMG! OMG! OMG! Diana Gabaldon will be in Michigan May 8th – 10th for the Jackson Public Library’s Wordwise, which is a weekend! My in-laws live 20 minutes north of Jackson, Mi (where Diana will be), which means I can drop the kid off while I do get my books signed!
In the back of Mortal Sins, there is a blurb for the next World of the Lupi novel by Eileen Wilks. This also means the titles been revealed. The sixth WotL novel will be called Blood Magic. Now I haven’t seen anything up on Wilk’s site yet, but I’m not expecting this to be released until sometime in 2010. So we’ll have a while to wait.
The last round of covers: the US and UK versions of MaryJanice Davidson’s Undead and Unwelcome (June 2, 2009); Gena Showalter’s Seduce the Darkness (??); and Katie MacAlister’s Crouching Vampire, Hidden Fang (May 5, 2009).
It looks like Ilona Andrews is working on another series called “the World of the Kinsmen”. The first novel, Silent Blade, has an excerpt up, but I haven’t seen anything else about it yet. The excerpt looks intriguing, so we’ll have to see where this one ends up. There is also an excerpt up for the first novel, On the Edge, for the Edge series. There’s just something about magic and Wal-mart that shouldn’t mix… Now I want to know when these novels are going to be published. :)
Here were this months reads/reviews:
- At Grave’s End by J. Frost
- Evil Ways by J. Gustainis
- Witch Heart by A. Bast
- 50 Ways to Hex Your Lover by L. Wisdom
- Hex Appeal by L. Wisdom
- Wicked By Any Other Name by L. Wisdom (review to be posted later)
- The Vision by CL Talmadge
- Once Bitten by K. Price
- Angels’ Blood by Nalini Singh (review to be posted later)
- Mortal Sins by E. Wilks
- Kitty and the Dead Man’s Hand by C. Vaughn
CONTEST ALERT – I completely missed this someone. Fantasy Book Critic is giving away 4 copies of Patricia Brigg’s Bone Crossed. The deadline to enter is Feb 3rd, so there is still time to get your name in.
Re: I’ve found a new anthology to keep on the lookout for – Dark and Stormy Knights. This anthology is another collaboration spearheaded by PN Elrod and includes Jim Butcher, Rachel Caine, Shannon Butcher, Carrie Vaughn, Lilith Saintcrow, Vicki Pettersen, Deidre Knight, Ilona Andrews. I’m not seeing a link for it on Amazon, so I’m not really sure when it’s due out. If anyone knows, share please.
I believe this book was just contracted, so there wouldn’t be a release date yet. They’d get a tentative release date, but nothing firm yet.
Re: It looks like Ilona Andrews is working on another series called “the World of the Kinsmen”. The first novel, Silent Blade, has an excerpt up, but I haven’t seen anything else about it yet. The excerpt looks intriguing, so we’ll have to see where this one ends up.
It’s a novella releasing in digital format from Samhain Publishing in June 2009.