Tag Archives: #newrelease

Hooray for holiday reading!

My books, Reading, Writing, , , , , , , , ,

Oh my goodness, I thought I might slacken off when I didn’t have my Alphabet Reading Challenge to keep my nose in a book. I’m delighted to say that hasn’t happened at all!

Rachel E Carter's Black Mage series
Start with the prequel and I bet you won’t want to stop.

Since blogging last I’ve had a lovely week off, taking a holiday by the seaside. I also caught up on some of the books I wanted to read “just because” rather than because they start with the necessary letter of the alphabet to fit my challenge.

Try the preview

I got through the whole of Rachel E Carter’s Black Mage series (terrific – the list of imaginary worlds in which I want to take a holiday grows exponentially!). I read an out of left field 5* book that just happened to catch my eye in a Facebook group I’m a member of. Ember Burning was unsettling in the best way – creative, eerie and populated by fabulous characters.

Cover of Cortney Pearson's The Perilous In-BetweenAnd finally, I read a book by a fellow author in the Shattered Worlds collection. I decided to start with Cortney Pearson’s The Perilous In-Between to check out her take on steampunk, and it’s glorious – delightfully fantastical and beautifully written.

I’m now back to work and writing hard on my clockwork war series – book two is about to go to my proof-readers, and I’m on the home straight to complete the writing of book three. While I’m doing that, my reading is research for what I’m going to write next (ideas are coalescing, but I’m not certain which story I’m going to pick just yet). I’ll keep you posted!

He could be my book boyfriend any day!

If you’ll excuse me a plug, Shattered Worlds is out now and today is the last day to get it at launch-day-bargain price of .99. Next week it will be going up to the regular price of $2.99, so if you’re dithering, dither no longer and grab a copy!

Amazon
Nook
iBooks

Y is for … why aren’t there more hours in the day?

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I’m sorry, I feel like I’m full of excuses lately. My alphabet challenge went so well for so long I think I thought I was home safe, but it seems to have derailed in the home straight.

I should have been reading a book whose title started with Y, but I don’t even have a Y book on my kindle, let alone read or partly so.

What I have been doing is reading my own book what feels like 37 times through as I complete proof-reading and formatting. I, frankly, ran out of time in the day to do any reading that wasn’t getting The Clockwork War ready for publication. However, I’m delighted to report that’s now done and the book’s uploaded and off my desk (it goes live on 8th August, so I’m nicely ahead of myself for once), so I should have more time to read (except that I’m straight on with the next book, plus a tie-in story. Some people just don’t seem to like a quiet life).

Cover of Kelly St Clare's The Return

And I have been reading! I could blame it on Kelly St Clare if I want to claim I’ve been led astray. If her The Return weren’t so utterly excellent perhaps I’d have found time to read a Y book. Instead, I was completely gripped by Romy and her friends’ ongoing adventures.

Oh my, reader, this series really is spectacularly good. Check it out for yourself.

Now, I swear I’m back on track. With this blog hanging over me I did another search on Amazon and asked for recs in one of my Facebook groups. I now have Saving Yesterday on my kindle, and when I’m in town tomorrow I’ll see about a paperback of The Young Elites either at the library or Waterstones. I’ll WILL get there, I promise!

We interrupt our usual broadcast…

My books, Reading, Writing, , , , , , ,

I’m so sorry! My blog this week should, of course, be all about my Q book. However, it’s gone a bit pear-shaped. I had it all worked out: on holiday I was going to finish my P book (managed that) and find and read my Q book.

A nice plan, but I hadn’t realised how rubbish Amazon is when you’re trying to find a book instead of buying one you already know you want. (Tara Sparling blogged about how frustrating it is to browse Amazon recently, and I quite agree).

Q book in the YA genre… Well, let’s face it, every other title is “Queen Something”, so that’s a good place to start … except that Amazon offered me 3 Queen titles, none of which grabbed me, and then that was it: have the top 100 books to scroll through. Pah. And because I was in foreign climes I couldn’t even go to a physical bookshop and ask someone (well, until I got back and that’s what I did).

I’ve also been busy as I launched a new book this weekend (yippee!). If you like my writing, please check out Dissent – and grab a copy this weekend while it’s .99 for launch (it’s also in KU if you have a subscription). If you haven’t read Discord yet (where have you been?!), it’s on a free promo, so you can get both the Echoes of Earth books for a paltry .99 (try getting that from your local Waterstones!).

Click for Amazon

Next week, I promise normal service will be resumed. I’ve started Shadow Queen (yes, I know that’s a cheat for a “Q” book, but I was getting desperate and it’s close enough) so I’ll be able to tell you all about it by then.

And if you want to know what I read on holiday when I couldn’t find a Q, check out The Good Riddance Project, which was tremendous fun. Can you project manage a murder? Read it and find out!

Cover of A K Lakelett's Good Riddance Project
Click for the preview

My free reading challenge: Peaks and Troughs

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Down in the dumps

I missed posting last week, but you didn’t miss much, I promise: “I did some reading” makes for a less than riveting post, so I spared you all.

I also didn’t blog because I was at a bit of a low point, reading-wise. I spent much of the week mildly disgruntled (well, I am British) by the quality of reading matter I managed to unearth. There are, apparently, 166,051 books available for free in the UK Amazon store (that number seems lower than I expected, but even so – it’s more than I can get through between now and Christmas), so why couldn’t I find anything good to read?

A relative term

Now, good is of course the key word in that statement because ‘good’ is a value judgement, not an objective assessment. I’m a really fussy reader and I was just in a bit of a reading trough because I couldn’t find anything that suited me. I turned down numerous review requests after reading the preview and going, “Meh” (sometimes after about 3 sentences… Impatient? Possibly, but I don’t feel I have time to waste when it comes to reading).

Editing, schmediting

Overall, I do worry that editing is getting much more hit and miss. The number of books I’ve read recently that are thick with telling rather than showing has surprised and slightly horrified me (again: British). Isn’t that the first thing most books on writing will tell aspiring writers? And isn’t that something an editor should work with you to absolutely nail? But, it seems that some editors don’t mention it and lots of readers don’t mind being told a story rather than shown it, so I guess I have to put it down to taste and continue with my search for something that IS to my taste.

Go with quality

Cover of Kelly St Clare's Fantasy of Flight
Click for preview

So, I caved. I don’t see it as a cave-in, really, but I wasn’t as strict with myself as I might have been. I got Kelly St Clare’s Fantasy of Frost for free in a giveaway, read it and loved it. It’s a series of 4 and I then grabbed book 3 when it was on a free day on Amazon. So I was well within my own free reading challenge rules to buy book 2 and fill the gap. So that’s what I’ve done. I galloped through Fantasy of Flight in two days. And it was such a relief to settle down with a book where I felt like I was in safe hands with a writer who knows what they’re doing.

Cover of Melle Amade's Sanctuary
Click for preview

I followed that up with Sanctuary, Melle Amade’s debut shifter novel and it’s such a cracking good read I zipped through it in a day. Two fabulous books back to back and I’m much more myself, thankfully.

Treasures ahead

I’ve also responded with big fat “yes”s to a couple of review requests that looked absolutely fabulous from the previews, so hopefully I’m firmly out of my reading slump and will soon be reporting on what a welter of brilliant books I’ve been reading.

Cover of Kate Johnson's Max Seventeen
Kick-ass characters in a space opera setting. Fabulous.

Also, Max Seventeen is out on Monday and will appear on my Kindle as if by magic. Now that IS one I’m looking forward to – Kate Johnson is one of the best writers I know (and I’m not saying that just because she’s a Kate, although Kates, Katys and Katies are, natch, the best). It’s a little more – er – earthy than my usual YA fayre is able to be, but if you like a cracking read with characters who will wrench your heart, give it a try. It’ll be my Monday very well spent.

Rising Tides

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Release blitz: Rising Tides

My new YA novel, Rising Tides, came out on Friday, so there’s no chance I’ll be able to focus on anything else at present.

Read on for more information – and a giveaway!

Cover of Katy Haye's YA post-apocalyptic novel, Rising Tides

About the book:

The truth won’t stay submerged forever

City is the last civilised place left on a drowned Earth, a floating town built from metal and plastic from the Time Before. It’s the only home doctor’s daughter Libby Marchmont has ever known or wanted – until her father helps the wrong patient and she’s forced to flee.

Cosimo came to City for one reason. Then he should have vanished back to his people on the Wastes. But what about his promise to Libby’s father?

Stranded in the middle of the sea, can the two enemies learn to trust each other? And can they survive long enough to uncover the truth: City isn’t the safe haven Libby always believed it to be …

Rising Tides Facebook Blue eyes

Early reviews:

Readers’ Favourite described Rising Tides as: “a compelling read [with] cool and ingenious concepts, a captivating plot [and] vivid and engaging characters”.

Kelly St. Clare at YA Books Central called Rising Tides “a gem of the YA genre.”

Get your copy for just 99c/p this week only (Also on Kindle Unlimited).

Win a book lover's apocalypse survival kit

Giveaway:

Win a book-lover’s survival kit.

Your survival kit is as follows:
1. An Amazon voucher for £10/$15US/$20CAN, AUS, NZ. Load up your Kindle with books to read, while shops remain.
2. A solar charger so when the national grid fails you can still read your books.
3. A mirror. When you are stranded in the open sea you can signal for help by reflecting the sun’s light. Alternatively, if you have no wish to be rescued because you still have reading to do, flip the mirror over to depict the slogan, “Go away I’m reading.”
4. Ribbon bookmark. If all your books have been washed away by the rising seas, this can be rolled up and packed into the neck of a cut-open bottle and will double-up as a water filter. Note: this will not desalinate salt water, sorry.
5. An Eat-Sleep-Read-Repeat tote bag to put the last of your worldly belongings into. DO NOT LEAVE THIS BEHIND.

Check out the ways to win with Rafflecopter.

Want to read Rising Tides? Get your copy here.