Chocolate-Covered Bliss

The winner of the Chocolate-Covered Bliss
Starter Kit is Bonnie! Thanks to all who entered. :-)

Before I get to the yummy title of this post, I'd like to remind everyone that the fabulous giveaway of 24 books from your favorite Supernatural Underground authors ends October 31st! If you haven't entered yet... Well, why not? Just click on the pumpkins below.

Now about the yummy--oh, something else to talk about first. At Paranormal Haven, they're having a month-long event called Halloween at the Haven. My turn for a guest post and giveaway came up yesterday, and I can't resist sharing my post with you. I wrote a paranormal short story, "Deadline," with a Halloween theme, with two different endings. You get to choose the one you like best! To read this original story making its debut now, just click on the story's title in drippy blood below. While you're there, you can enter the giveaway if you wish. 

Read my new short story!

Now, about that chocolate-covered yum. I saw a trailer for Skyfall, the new James Bond movie, the other day. After I was done squeeeeing over Daniel Craig, it popped into my head that This Was the Man I'd Most Like to Cover in Chocolate (after my husband, of course--this disclaimer, whether I remember to put it in or not, is always to be understood. Right? Right.).

So now I'm holding that thought and I figure I have not only the title for my post but an idea for too-cute giveaway, too. I'm offering a Chocolate-Covered Bliss starter kit. All you have to do is get Daniel to whisper yes ... to you. Enter the Rafflecopter drawing below.




a Rafflecopter giveaway

Coming Up on 1 November: An Interview with Merrie Destefano

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Just a heads up that on 1 November I'll be featuring an interview with fellow Supernatural Underground author, Merrie Destefano – primarily talking her YA paranormal Fathom, but also generally chatting about her experience as an author and the paranormal genre.

Fun stuff, so I hope you'll check out the goodness an maybe and join in the conversation with a comment. Merrie and I would love to have you on board! :)

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Halloween Giveaway

In the meantime, just a reminder re our all-out Supernatural Underground Halloween giveaway of 24 books by Harper Collins authors affiliated with the blog – if you haven't already signed up for this then it's not too late: just click here to join in via the rafflecopter. 

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YA Giveaway

If you like giveaways and YA, I'm running a giveaway for three great YA novels on my blog this week: Rae Carsons Fire and Thorns, Kristen Cashore's Bitterblue, and Tamora Pierce's Beka Cooper: Mastiff.

I run giveaways like these from time to time when a few good books come my way and all you have to do is post a comment to enter – just click here.

(PS It's international.)

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Otherwise, see you all again on the 1st for my interview with Merrie Destefano! :)

Half-naked Men!

Congratulations to Patricia of Michigan for winning Phineas's book and giant poster! Thank you all for the comments!  Please come back November 25th when I'll be giving away a T-shirt with Howard's book cover on it!!

Did that title catch your eye?  Then the covers of my books should draw your attention, too, for they have been blessed with some spectacular half-naked men. Granted, it's the top half of the man that's naked.  Avon wants the print copies to appear on store shelves without causing cardiac arrest. And we want you to be able to read them without hiding them in a lunch sack. So we're basically talking chests here.  Gorgeous, rippled, drool-worthy chests.

Here's Howard's chest.  Yes, he has a handsome face, but that takes about a millisecond to recognize before the gaze gravitates back to his chest. I've heard there's a girl in the picture, but I haven't noticed her yet.  Oh right, the heroine, Elsa something or other. But back to Howard's chest.  It's a bit gray in color, but that hasn't detracted from the delicious contours of his six-pack. Why gray? Because when he shifts into a bear, he turns gray for a few seconds.  I guess Elsa what's-her-name is about to find herself hugging a big Kodiak bear. But that doesn't stop her from rubbing her hands over his gorgeous chest.  It wouldn't stop me, either.

By the way, Howard's book, Wild About You, goes on sale November 27th.  If you bought my historical romance, The Forbidden Lady, (and I hope you did!) then you got a sneak peek at Howard's book.

And here's Phineas's chest. Another piece of art from the Avon art department. Where do they find these guys?  I've been to New York City several times, and I haven't seen these gorgeous men.  If they ever appeared, there would be a twenty-car pile up on Park Avenue.  But back to the chest. While Howard's chest is silver, Phineas's chest is gold. They did that so it would look like an old-timey Western photo. And the photo here is actually a giant poster of Phineas.  When I did a booksigning at Joseph-Beth Booksellers in Lexington, Kentucky, they made this giant poster and gave it to me. Wasn't that wonderful of them? The poster is six feet long and almost three feet wide!  That is one big, hunky chest!

And it could be yours!!  Yes, I am giving away the giant poster of Phineas today!  One lucky person will win a signed copy of Phineas's book, Wanted: Undead or Alive, plus the poster of the book featuring Phineas's magnificent chest!  International entries welcome.  Just leave a comment about which romance hero you think has the best chest!  Good luck!

Graveyard Gothic Garden Giveaway!

Only one week left until Halloween, and to celebrate today's release of BLOOD BY MOONLIGHT, I'm already handing out the treats!

Come to the dark side of the garden with this super cool "Graveyard Gothic Garden" terrarium... you don't need a green thumb when a black one will do! :)

Spooky plants like Moonflower, Black Dragon Coleus, Dragon Tree Dracaena and the mysterious "Sensitive" plant, grown in a creepily decorative little container complete with tombstone stakes, blood rocks, skulls and spiders! Go ahead, enter! Winner will be announced on (when else?) October 31, 2012!! a Rafflecopter giveaway

Fears under the bright sun

Spring has sprung here in Australia. It's getting warm, birds are singing, grass is growing, lawns are being mowed (I write this to remind myself that I need to get the mower out...)

Spring also brings one of the things I fear most in the world. Magpies.

Magpies are a songbird that can be found in Europe, Asia and Australia. There was a theory being mooted a few years ago that all songbirds have evolved from the magpie. This is a magpie singing:

Pretty, isn't it? It's a lovely sound to wake to.

Unfortunately, they don't just sing. In springtime, when they are nesting, they do this:

I first got swooped by a magpie when I was 11 years old. We were walking home from school, and my brothers and I decided (for reasons that must have been apparent at the time) that rather than go around a tree, we would climb up and through the fork in the middle of the tree. My two brothers got through not a problem. I was stradling the fork in the tree when something hit the back of my head - hard.

I was down that tree and across the paddock in record-breaking time. I was crying, shaking, screaming. One of my brothers went back to get my school bag and I screamed when he was swooped. We took so long to get home that my father ended up coming out to find us.

I've been terrified of magpies ever since. My terror is not helped by the fact that there's something about me that magpies love - I've been swooped the length and breadth of this great country.

I don't mind magpies in general. I'm quite happy to walk right next to one on the ground any other time of the year. But in swooping season...

So while it's bright and sunny and getting warm here in Australia while in the Northern Hemisphere things are darkening and Halloween looms, don't worry - there's still enough here to scare the willies out of us at this time of the year.

Oh, and in case you were wondering - yeah, spring is when the spiders and snakes get active.

Who'd live in Australia, huh? ME!

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To help me get over my fear, why not buy one of my books? The electronic versions of the Dream of Asarlai trilogy is on special at the moment. Each book is just $3!
Apple/iTunes - https://itunes.apple.com/au/book/secret-ones-dream-asarlai/id400476572?mt=11

Kindle - http://www.amazon.com/Secret-Ones-Dream-Asarlai-ebook/dp/B003UD7QHO/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1350705902&sr=1-1&keywords=Nicole+Murphy

Kobo - http://www.kobobooks.com/search/search.html?q=secret+ones
Don't forget - buy the Kobo books, read them on the Kobo app on iPhone or iPad and you can read my author comments in all three books!

In the darkest shade @ThePoetTrees

Read Sample

Plato said; Poetry is nearer to vital truth than history.

      Poetic prose included. In fact, any writing that expresses a raw emotion or insight into humanity is arguably poetic - whether it's seen through the eyes of a human, or a supernatural creature in fiction.

      So yes, that includes quotes from our favourite books, songs, computer games and movies. It includes the first liners from our favourites that are great hooks for sucking us in to the rest of the series… and the punch lines that leave us reeling, long after we’ve forgotten the rest of the story. It even includes “wow words” from YOU, oh shy one lurking back there in the darkest shadows… whether you consider yourself to be a writer or not. You see things, hear things, and over time, you process and reinterpret from your own perspective. You collect memories as lessons in life, and that intrigues me.

Everything we see is a perspective... - Marcus Aurelius

I don’t see the world the same way that you do. A sight malfunction developed during my teens, and impedes me - the same kind of “lens distortion” that inspired my Diamond Eyes trilogy in the first place. And while I can’t see through time like my heroine, Mira Chambers, the condition still served as the source of inspiration for the Poet Trees (Mira’s childhood home), where wise words have been embossed in pretty gold Braille to help keep her out of trouble – usually.

First Poet Tree in the World, created by a fan at Alice Springs, in central Australia -
It's on a tree called a "ghost gum" which is especially spooky, not only because of the "ghostly" way Mira sees through Time, but also because these trees really do glow like ghosts  under moonlight...
and the Braille says: 2C is 2Know... Amen, sister!

In a perfect world, every city would have a Poet Tree – a place where local writers could leave behind their insights as entertainment and lessons for future generations. In the real world, we call it a library.

So like an alien  or supernatural creature who's studying your species, I’m already breathless, waiting for your next move to entertain me. Quit being so darn quiet and grab this fleeting moment to say something startling… or I’ll have to poke you. ;)

Hide inside a Halloween costume, if that’s what it takes to express the most insightful side of you this month. But do it! Read, write, regurgitate. Share the one-liners that have meant something special to you, or to your own fans.

Tweet your favourite quotes from books to me @ThePoetTrees…

Or FB me on FB  at facebook.com/anitabell.fanpage

Or you can even reply in the comments below, and then I'll tweet, like, share, pin, post, blog
and shout in every space, place, group, troup, nook, book, cloud, crowd, wall and hall I can find, because @ThePoetTrees wisdom grows by sharing. And so does fun.

So don't forget to include a short link to the book itself, where we can buy it, and/or read a sample.

And when  you've done that - like good little mice in a maze - you can treat yourself to an entry in this Month's Major Supernatural Giveaway for Halloween.

Plus for a bonus, click below to enter for your chance at a copy of Leopard Dreaming over at Goodreads.com/aabell

And good luck, humans!  (And anyone else who's lurking in the shadows this month.)

;)

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Leopard Dreaming

by A.A. Bell

Giveaway ends November 29, 2012.
See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter to win

Related Links:

Anitabell.com

Goodreads.com/aabell

Twitter: @ThePoetTrees

Facebook.com/anitabell.fanpage

Play the "Blood by Moonlight" Game!

As Halloween grows ever closer, I thought it might be time for a little "trick-or-treating" here in the Underground!  While I can't hold your hand while I take you from door-to-door, I can offer you a completely different type of treat - a spooky first-person adventure through some moon-lit woods!

Are you brave enough?

Take a moment, and gather your nerve, while I tell you a little about BLOOD BY MOONLIGHT, an upcoming Halloween anthology from Avon Impulse.

Here's the official description, straight from Amazon:

Just in time for the scariest season of all, three popular paranormal authors come together to tell original tales of romance beneath a Halloween moon . . .

In Terri Garey's The Ghoul Next Door, a witch and a warlock battle it out for possession of a haunted house, but the ghost may have her own agenda . . .

Tempers flare and passions rise in Jocelynn Drake's Of Monsters and Men as the local werewolf pack clashes with the Winter Court's Wild Hunt . . .

And, in Trick or Treathen by Caris Roane, a master vampire struggles to stay away from the mortal woman who enflames his very soul.

Yep, that's three all-new spooky tales of love and romance, all for only $1.99!! Werewolves, witches, ghosts and vampires... BLOOD BY MOONLIGHT is now available for pre-order, and will be officially released on October 23, 2012!

Ok, are you ready for a little Halloween adventure?

Play the BLOOD BY MOONLIGHT game!