So, you want to read “Beauty”, but don’t have a kindle or a nook. What can you do?
You can read it several ways, from Amazon there are free Kindle readers for a variety of platforms, from iPhone & iPad to Android or your computer or even via a web browser.
Barnes and Noble has free readers for the iPhone, iPad, Android or computer.
If you have an iPhone or iPad you have a third option, with iBooks.
Choose the app that works best for you, and enjoy!
We had over 918 entries..We asked which Merry Gentry book was your favorite, and the winner was Lick Of Frost. Swallowing Darkness came in a close 2nd. And then A Kiss of Shadows was 3rd. And of course, there were the “cheaters” who couldn’t make up their minds! There were some that picked an Anita book as their favorite instead of Merry. But we still added you all to the random drawing file to have a chance to win an Audio Book from one of the Laurell K Hamilton series…your choice….of what we have in stock.
So… we would like to announce that Maria Duepner from Davie FL is our April Contest winner. We contacted Maria and she chose “Circus of the Damned” as the Audio Book that she wanted. Congratulations, Maria.
As for the rest of Laurell’s fans, make sure that you are signed up as a subscriber and then be watching for the next contest email sometime in May for your next chance to win your choice of an LKH Audio Book.
So many of you have asked, or said, you can’t wait until it comes out, so . . . Here’s a sneak peek at Beauty the too hot to handle outtake from Kiss the Dead which comes out as an eSpecial May 8, 2012:
“I finally let myself look at that face, and I felt like I had from almost the first moment I’d seen him, that he was simply one of the most beautiful men I’d ever seen. The black curls touched the edge of his face, as if bringing attention to the curve of his mouth, the line of his cheek, and those eyes. They always looked blue, but they were so dark. Midnight blue with their double edge of black eyelashes like dark lace to frame the deepest blue I’d ever seen in anyone’s eyes. His eyes were a blue like deep ocean water, where it runs cold and will eventually spill down into something warm and mysterious, where creatures the light has never seen live and thrive. Those gorgeous eyes looked at me, and there was love in them, but the second he saw me in the doorway, walking toward him, there was lust, desire, and just a heat that brought a blush to my face and an answering heat to my own eyes. Six years after we’d first started dating I was still a little amazed that this most lovely of men wanted me so badly. They talked about burning for each other, and we still did. I never seemed to get over the surprise of turning around and seeing him there. You’d think I’d get used to seeing such a beautiful man and knowing he was mine, but it never grew old, as if his beauty and the fact that he was mine, and I was his, would forever surprise me.”
Whenever I tweet, FaceBook, or blog, that I had to delete a perfectly good scene because it no longer worked with the plot of the current book, a lot of you ask to see the scene. You’ve even suggested that I share my Anita outtake file with you. Well, guess what, Beauty, the eSpecial that everyone’s been asking me about is an outtake from Kiss the Dead. It’s a sex scene that unfortunately had to be cut, because character decisions made it impossible as written. More unfortunately it was the scene between Jean-Claude and Anita. I really wanted them to have some up close and personal time in this next book, and it was a great scene, and . . . I still had to cut it.
But one day I was talking to my editor, Susan, on the phone, and I bemoaned the loss of the scene. She thought it was a fabulous scene, too, and regretted it’s loss. That was the point that she and I came up with the idea of doing the outtake as my first ever eSpecial. I thought great, and it’s already written, but like much in this whole e-experience that wasn’t quite correct. I had to write a new beginning for the scene, because it was taken out of the early middle of the book where the world, the characters, relationships, everything had already been explained, but suddenly the scene had to stand on it’s own without all the earlier pages. So, I did add a few paragraphs to introduce the world, Anita, and her relationship to Jean-Claude and Asher. Yep, try as I might in Kiss the Dead to give Jean-Claude and Anita their alone time, Asher was just not going to be left out. When things work well between the three of them it’s so worth it, when it doesn’t, well . . . it’s just a freaking disaster. So I did the extra bit up front so the scene would not be quite so naked to everyone who buys the eSpecial, and then it was done. Okay, except for the whole editing part when it came back from New York, but other than that it was done.
But one of the weird things about publishing of late is that e-books are still evolving in how they are handled, and before I’d ever seen Beauty back from New York, before I’d even signed the contract, and sent it back to them, I had people asking me about it on the internet. People were asking what Beauty was, and were thrilled it was coming out on April 24. Since my editor had told me that Beauty was scheduled for a month before Kiss the Dead came out on June 5, I was a little confused. I called her up and she double checked, and the actual date for Beauty is May 8, because the whole idea is that it comes out about a month ahead of the novel, that it’s an outtake for, so . . . No one at my publisher is sure where the first date of April 24 came from, but it is now corrected on line to its actual release date of May 8, so yay, for that!
So, Beauty is my first eSpecial. It’s the first outtake from any Anita Blake novel that I’ve allowed to be published. It’s a very hot, steamy, outtake with Jean-Claude, Anita, and Asher. It comes out May 8, as a sort of preview for Kiss the Dead which comes out June 5.
Links to preordering Beauty –
We had over 1066 entries..We asked which Anita Blake book was your favorite, and the winner was OBSIDIAN BUTTERFLY. Narcissus in Chains came in a close 2nd. And then Incubus Dreams was 3rd. And of course, there were the “cheaters” who couldn’t make up their minds! There were some that picked a Merry Gentry book as their favorite instead of Anita. But we still added you all to the random drawing file to have a chance to win an Audio Book from one of the Laurell K Hamilton series…your choice.
So… we would like to announce that Dana Kloeppel from O’Fallon, MO is our March Contest winner. We contacted Dana and she chose “Hit List” as the Audio Book that she wanted. Congratulations, Dana.
As for the rest of Laurell’s fans, be watching for the next contest email sometime in April for your next chance to win your choice of an LKH Audio Book.
The 21st Book of the Anita Blake series “Kiss the Dead” is coming out June 2012. We are offering this limited run…PRE-ORDER…Tee! Go to the online store and order yours now, because on April 30th, we will no longer be accepting orders for this awesome shirt. Shirts will be shipped out approximately 3rd week of May in time for you to wear it when you meet Laurell on tour or at Comic Con.
We had over 1000 entries…WOW! Anita Blake was the definite favorite, but Merry Gentry held her own. And of course, there were the “cheaters” who couldn’t make up their minds as to who they loved better! But we still added you all to the random drawing file to have a chance to win an Audio Book from one of the Laurell K Hamilton series…your choice.
So… we would like to announce that Amy Whitten from Hartford, IL is our February Contest winner. We contacted Amy and she chose “The Harlequin” as the Audio Book that she wanted. Congratulations, Amy.
As for the rest of Laurell’s fans, be watching for the next contest email sometime in March for your chance to win your choice of an LKH Audio Book.
And could we please change Cupid back to his original Deity of Love, and get rid of the sexless baby images? The closest image to what Cupid is supposed to look like that I could find in modern times is this one. Karl Urban as the God of Love! Come on, who wouldn’t rather look at him, than some infant on steroids with a heart tipped bow?
Valentine’s Day dawned as the coldest, snowiest day of the year so far. Jon, my husband, and I were cuddled up in the dark, drowsing, and waking slowly, when the third time he hit snooze on the alarm, I remembered that it was our day to take our daughter, Trinity to school. Suddenly, our leisurely morning was thrown into scrambling for clothes, and getting ready to face the day. We made it with enough time for Trinity to discuss the unfairness of not having a snow day on Valentine’s Day. “Not many kids will be at school,” she said.
“You’re going,” I said.
She said, “I know life isn’t fair, but I’d still like to have a snow day.”
“It’s Valentine’s day don’t you want to see your boyfriend?”
“He probably won’t be there.”
“Text him and see.”
She did, but didn’t expect a reply, because he’d be sleeping in, because he wasn’t having to go to school in the snow. It turned out he was already at school, early, so she was in better spirits about going to school in the snow. Meanwhile my sister, Chica, is in the kitchen in pajamas and a robe with our little dogs bouncing around her feet. Okay, Keiko, our recent puppy mill rescue, a 3-year-old Japanese Chin bounced and fluttered, and danced. Sasquatch, our 11-year-old pug just sat there staring up waiting for food. He loves my sister, we joke that he’s her boyfriend, but he’s a pug so he loves food, too.
Trinity has already opened her cards that we left out for her last night. Chica has given me my sister card. I’ve given her all her cards – one from all of us, one a piece from the dogs, and one funny sister card from me. (I like cards a lot.) I’d already given Jon one card and a small stuffed animal days ago for Valentine’s Day. I’ll be giving Jon his big present after he gets back from the school run.
Chica is getting ready to feed the dogs, and the chickens putting out the different kinds of food. Jon bends down to help get Keiko’s food bowl, and then stands up abruptly and says, “Crap, my pants split!”
He goes running past for the stairs to change so he can take Trinity to school. The three of us, Trin, Chica, and me, are left trying not to giggle. Then we realize there’s no time, we have to take Trinity now or she’ll be late. Crap!
Jon was going to drive Chica’s four wheel monster jeep, but . . . “Do you know how to drive my Jeep?” Chica asks.
“I guess so, what’s different about it?”
“It’s four wheel drive.”
“I’ve never driven four wheel drive.”
“Crap,” she says, and starts putting coat and snow boots on over pajamas.
I put my coat on, grab purse.
She can’t find keys because Jon took them upstairs with him, but she finds the spare set, then . . . “Grab the dogs, they haven’t gone out yet.”
“They’ll mess in your car.”
“No they won’t. They love riding in the car.” I’m not sure it’s good logic, but I tuck Keiko under one arm, Sasquatch follows at our heels and we scramble for the door with Trinity trailing.
Jon comes bounding down the stairs in fresh jeans, sunglasses in place, keys in hand. “Let’s go!” He moves past gathering Trinity in his wake, and Chica and I are left gaping at each other at the door.
Into the silence I say, “No woman could have done that.”
We agree that no woman we know could have possibly stripped and changed that fast. We stand there for a moment longer in our winter gear, Keiko dangling from my arm, looking at us, as if to say, “What’s going on?”
Sasquatch barks from other side of a door further in the house, he’d missed a turn somewhere and gotten left on the wrong side of a door. Curse that lack of opposable thumb.
And that was our start to Valentine’s Day. It was a good start, because love, real love, isn’t about the flowers and chocolates you get, or the stuffed toys and cards you buy, or the romantic dinners planned, or even the hot, monkey sex – love is getting the kid to school, being able to pitch in when things go wrong, and just having each other’s back. We did all that this morning, and we got Valentine Day cards, too. When Jon got back from taking Trinity to school, I gave him more cards (Did I mention that I really like cards.) and his present. Chica went to work. Suddenly the house is empty and ours. The rush of the morning recedes leaving us with our happy, but chaotic day. I hope your Valentine’s Day is full of real love from your family, your pets, your spouse, partner, lover, friends, and all the many people that we have in our life that love us and supports us. Because love, real love, is about living for each other every day, not just on the holidays.
Here’s the cover of the new book, Kiss the Dead. It’s available for pre-order now, on shelves in early June 2012 – Yes, that’s this year. 🙂
