Tuesday, December 25, 2012

sexy viking vampire tuesday

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

Isn't that lovely? It's the Idstein Christmas Markt in Frankfurt Germany. It looks like a storybook!
Anyway, Merry Christmas to all of you! Peace on Earth. Good will toward men. I hope your holiday has been storybook!

Thursday, December 20, 2012

happy birthday Blood Betrayal! It's your official release day

yippee!! It's Blood Betrayal's official release day! It is now available on Amazon in paperback and Kindle format and on Barnes and Noble dot com in paperback and Nook format. Don't forget that I'm currently on blog tour and giving away some awesome swag that includes a Kindle at the end!
Thanks to everyone who supported me on my journey to publication!! you all are awesome!!

Wednesday, December 19, 2012

just an FYI

Here's a list of my upcoming blog tour stops. stop by!!


December 17 Interview
Roxanne’s Realm

December 19 Feature
Victoria Danann 

December 27 Interview 
Books & Other Spells. 

December 29 Interview
Creatively Green

December 31 Guest blog
Fang-tastic Books
topic: new year resolutions for a vampire

January 2 Interview and review
Paranormal Book Club !!!

January 6 Guest blog
Reading Between the Wines

January 7 Guest blog and review
The Book Nympho

January 8 Promo and review
Paranormal Opinion

January 9 Interview and review
Little Read Riding Hood

January 10 Guest blog and review
Words of Wisdom from The Scarf Princess

January 11 Promo
SMARTMOUTHTEXAN

January 12 Promo

January 12 review
For The Love Of Film And Novels

January 13 Guest blog
Reginamayross's Blog

January 14 review
Cloey's Book Reviews and Other Stuff

I'm giving away a big ol bag of swag including a Kindle on the tour so please follow along!

Monday, December 17, 2012

so there I was on Monday when I saw THIS in the mail

MY BOOK!!yes! waiting for me when I got home was a box with my books! what I felt didn't have words. I couldn't believe it. It felt completely amazing to hold my story in book form. like a parent holding their baby for the first time. I was already thrilled when a friend, actually a young woman who I used to babysit and is a ballerina!, posted a pic of herself holding my book. it was surreal. everything became so real. I was honored that someone from my past was reading it! such an indescribable feeling. one of joy and accomplishment. I want to thank everyone of you in the roles you all have played in getting to this point. HUGS!

Thursday, December 13, 2012

Welcome Jessica Mc Quay, author of Black Moon!!


I am so excited to welcome Jessica Mc Quay author of Black Moon to my little patch of the internet!
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Hi Jessica and welcome! Congratulations on your release. It is fantastic!!

~Thank you for the warm welcome and I’m so happy that you enjoyed the story so much.

1)What was your inspiration for Black Moon?

~The paranormal genre as a whole was my inspiration really. My imagination has always been my escape. I’ve had stories brewing since childhood. LOL!

2)You write from 1st and 3rd person, which I found fascinating. Was that difficult?

~It was definitely tricky. But it was fun too. It helped though because it was like I was writing two different stories that converged at the end. I had fun with it and I plan on toying around with the idea again in another book in this series. =)

3)Your world building is incredible. I felt like I was truly in the book. Do you feel like you have a special connection to nature or just a vivid imagination?

~Thank you. It makes me happy knowing you felt that way while reading the story because that is what I set out in hopes of accomplishing. I don’t know that I have a special connection with nature, but I do find beauty in many things. Couple that with a vivid and active imagination and Varulean emerges. =)

4)I love the friendship between  Paige and Naialah. It seems there is more there. Not to be a spoiler but where do you predict that will go?

~I don’t want to give anything away, but their relationship does progress in the second book. The things I only hinted at in Black Moon will move into new territory for book 2. Territory that is unexplored for Paige and very new to her. This relationship is one that has come under scrutiny and questioning after people read the story. Mostly because there are a lot of questions left up in the air and some confusion about their feelings for one another. I do that for a number of reasons. This is all new for Paige. She is going through a LOT of changes in this story and questioning her growing attraction is one of them. I don’t push the love interest because it wasn’t what I wanted the focus of this story to be about. Book 2 shifts into it a bit more with some added…fun. ;-)

5)Tell me about your writing routine. Do you do anything in particular to help you write?

~I don’t really have a routine. I usually brainstorm a little before each writing session on regular ol’ notebook paper. LOL! Then, I put on some music and get to business.

 6)What inspires you?

~Music. Music, music, music and more music. LOL! I have to listen to whatever my mood fancies at the time I’m writing in order to get into writing mode. Reading, writing and listening to and/or playing music make me a very happy camper.

7) Tell me about your road to publication. How hard was it for you?

~The plain and simple is that it was tough. Very tough. The road to publication is 99% rejection. You’re told over and over and over again that you aren’t good enough. It’s a journey about learning exactly who you are as a person. Figuring out how much you can take and what you can hold up against. It makes you question yourself, your story and whether or not you’re meant to go down this path. I discovered a lot about myself. But more importantly was that it reaffirmed my dream. No matter how many tears I cried, I wanted to be a published writer. So I kept at it and after just under 2 years of trying, someone said Yes.

8) Any one thing in particular that kept you writing if you had disappointments?

~My husband.  His constant encouragement pushed me forward. It still does.

9) How do you manage stress?

~Have I mentioned music yet? =P And zumba. Which is just more music with dancing added. LOL!

10) What are you working on now?

~Book 2 in the Paige Tailor Series! I am about 70% done. But there is still a lot of work to do. Pushing for an end of 2013/beginning of 2014 release.

11) Any advice for writers? Or words of encouragement?

~Never give up. No matter what anyone tells you, keep pushing forward. Remember, all it takes is one Yes.

12) Silly question…what is your favorite holiday show or movie?

~A Christmas Story is my favorite movie, but I also have a favorite holiday cartoon and its Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. 

Thanks again for joining me here, Jessica! It was a blast. Good luck with your book. It’s truly awesome!

~Thank you so much for having me, I really appreciate it. And it was FUN!

You're welcome!!!
A little about Jessica including where to find her...



About the Author:
There were three things Jessica loved to do growing up; reading, writing and playing music. She discovered her love for writing at a young age, when she realized she could create anything she wanted with words. Jessica lives in Sacramento, CA with her husband, four children, a goldfish named Sparkle and their cat, Talula. When she isn't working on the next Paige Tailor novel, taking her children to one activity or another, or folding the never ending laundry of a six person family, Jessica enjoys playing her clarinet in the community band, reading while enjoying a cup of coffee or heading to the theater and catching a movie with her husband.






And about BLACK MOON



"Am I losing my mind?"

Paige couldn't help but question her sanity. What other explanation could there be for her hearing a conversation held barely above a whisper in the back of a classroom full of students? What about coming home to find one of those very classmates lying in wait in the darkness of her home, ready to attack her?

Confused, frustrated and feeling every ounce of her social ostracism, Paige confides in the one person she's always been able to count on: her mom. But when her mom reveals a deeply rooted, unbelievable family secret, Paige discovers her world is filled with more than she ever imagined possible. A world where fairytales live alongside nightmares and secrets are the glue that binds them together. Suddenly no one is who they seem and Paige is faced with more questions than answers. Can she survive in a world filled with creatures scarier than anything she could imagine and where deceit runs as thick as blood? Or will the truth send her over the edge?

Black Moon
Paige Tailor Series Book One
Jessica McQuay

Genre: YA/NA Paranormal Fantasy

ISBN: 1936185741
Number of pages: 240

Cover Artist: Miriam Grunhaus


Amazon   BN  
  

Jessica is graciously doing a buunch of giveaways all throughout her tour so please follow along!
  
Tour Wide Giveaway

3 Small Book Swag Packages including a $10 amazon.com gift card, bookmark, bracelets, notebook, and other fun reading/writing related items. At least 5 items in each package. Open to US Shipping

3 Signed Paperback Copies of Black Moon open to US Shipping

Rafflecopter code

Link to grab code
 

Sunday, December 9, 2012

Please visit author Tory Michaels blog tomorrow!

please stop by http://torymichaels.blogspot.com/2012/12/word-slingers-guest-alison-beightol.html, which is brilliant author Tory Michaels blog, to see my interview with her.
you might remember Tory from her visits here and her awesome Dreamwalkers series available from Evernight Publishers.

Wednesday, December 5, 2012

The Next Big Thing


My awesome fiancé and fellow author Scott Baker invited me to be a part of The Next Big Thing. The Next Big Thing is a blog tour in which the invited author answers a set of questions about his/her latest work, gives a shout out to the author who offered the initiation, and then tags five other authors to participate (you can see my selected authors at the end).

So without further adieu, below are my answers to The Next Big Thing interview tour.  Enjoy.  And please be sure to visit my colleagues' blogs to see how they answer.

What is the working title of your next book?
 Death Hunter

Where did the idea come from for the book?
Like all my ideas, it came out of the blue. I was watching a show about terrorism and I thought, what would terrorism against vampires be like and then it just rolled from there.

What genre does your book fall under?
Urban Fantasy

Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?
Alexander Skarsgard would play Reinhard Heydrich, Patrick Wilson would play Eamon Rutherford and Amanda Seyfried would play Amelie Rutherford

What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?
The vampire world will either be revealed or wiped out by blood and the death hunter.

Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?
Neither. It will be published by Cambridge Press US, an imprint of Charles River Press

How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?
Still working!
What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?
wow, that’s tough to say.
Who or what inspired you to write this book?
I think my love of history fed my desire to write this. That and the encouragement of my fiancé Scott Baker.
What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?
This and the book before have a rather evil person that I have reincarnated as a vampire. I’ve chosen Reinhard Heydrich as a pivotal character. Writing him is strange because he is a real person but I don’t portray him as totally evil. Like in life, I don’t think he only had one side, although the more sinister one showed the most.

Here are the next authors I am tagging:
Laura Diamond who is an awesome writer and a psychiatrist too! 
Carol VanAtta who is a fellow author at Cambridge Press US. Check her out!
Ash Krafton an amazing author who writes with Pink Narcissus Press.
Cate Peace one of the most epic people I know (and I know some epic people)
Kittie Howard a terrific Southern Lady in every sense of the word!

quickie GIVEAWAY!

I thought I would have a spontaneous giveaway. I'm giving away two signed copies of my book Blood Betrayed here on my blog! All you have to do is leave me a comment! That's it! Feel free to share this flash giveaway!

Tuesday, December 4, 2012

today is the day! Blood Betrayal is out in paperback!

I got news from my publisher, Cambridge Press, that Blood Betrayal was now out in paperback on  Barnes and Noble's website http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/blood-betrayal-alison-beightol /1113843563?ean=9781936185825     and Amazon.com http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1936185822/ref=olp_product_details?ie=UTF8&me=&seller=  I was so surprised and amazed to see my book actually up on these sites and for sale! The ebook will be released on 12/20 so check back!

sexy viking vampire tuesday

Hello Christian Grey!

Monday, December 3, 2012

BUSY month!

December is a busy month for me! mainly because my book Blood Betrayal is being released on December 20th. I'll let you know when I have links. also, I am hosting fellow Cambridge Press author Jessica Mc Quay for a stop on her blog tour for her release Black Moon. if you like fae paranormals you will love her book! speaking of blog tours, Bewitching Book Tours will be sending me on a month long blog tour for my release. I'm so excited about that. I will give you dates and blogs when I get them but I am giving away some awesome stuff including e copies of Blood Betrayal, nifty vampire swag and a Kindle! so make sure you follow the tour!

Monday, November 26, 2012

life is good...usually. but it really is good.

yes I was a victim of a theft from my purse. last wednesday, I left my purse in the shopping cart at my local grocery. I didn't realize it until I got home and when I got back, someone had turned it in. however my engagement ring was missing out of it. I had been wearing it and then taking it off around my family because Scott and I were going to surprise my family Thanksgiving.  yeah, it was a dumb move. one I now wish I hadn't done but I did.
in all of this I try and tell myself at least my wallet didn't get stolen(again) so that is the bright side.
whoever has my ring, I hope you get what you truly deserve. you broke my heart.

Saturday, November 24, 2012

and then there was THIS!

here is my beautiful cover flat for Blood Betrayal. I did a major squee and happy dance when I saw this.
also, I found out that Blood Betrayal will be released on December 20th. one day before the alleged end of the world so take advantage of that!

Friday, November 2, 2012

Happy Launch Day for New Pride by Laura Diamond!


 New Town, New Love, New Terror

I am sooo excited to help my friend and awesome author launch her novelette  New Pride!! it is the prequel for her soon to released novel Shifting Pride, which comes out December 7th. Please check it out. you won't be disappointed!!

In SHIFTING PRIDE, the main character, Nickie, searches for her missing father, Richard…and NEW PRIDE is all about Richard’s journey to independence and new love. 


A shape-shifter without a pride, Richard Leone strikes a tenuous friendship with power hungry, Derek, from an unstable, rogue group. On a hunt in the forest, they encounter a gorgeous brunette, Molly, partying with friends around a campfire. Derek tells the rogue pride and they bristle at humans trespassing on their territory. Richard risks life and tail to protect his secret and the humans—especially Molly—while simultaneously trying to win her heart. When Molly is kidnapped, he faces taking on the rogue pride alone, but quickly finds he has to put his trust in Derek, not only to rescue his new love, but to ensure the rogue pride doesn’t wreak havoc on his new town.

Sounds GREAT!!!

About Laura
Laura Diamond is a board certified psychiatrist and author of all things young adult paranormal, dystopian, horror, and middle grade. Her short story, City of Lights and Stone, is in the Day of Demons anthology by Anachron Press (April 2012) and her apocalyptic short story, Begging Death is in the Carnage: Life After the End anthology by Sirens Call Publication (coming late 2012). Her debut young adult paranormal romance, SHIFTING PRIDE, is coming December 2012 by Etopia Press. When she's not writing, she is working at the hospital, blogging at Author Laura Diamond--Lucid Dreamer , and renovating her 225+ year old fixer-upper mansion. She is also full-time staff member for her four cats and a Pembroke Corgi named Katie. 

How to find Laura Diamond on the web:


Thursday, November 1, 2012

my trip to Spooky Empire and geek out moment






so if you watch The Walking Dead, you know that man next to me is actor IronE Singleton, who plays T Dog on TWD. I'll get back to this pic in a sec. last weekend my boyfriend, author Scott M. Baker, and I went to the Spooky Empire Horror Convention in Orlando. it was awesome. we had the best time checking out all the horror related stuff. as a former costumer I was amazed by some of the con goer's costumes. I was blown away. one of the highlights of the con for me was listening to  author RL Stine talk about writing. he talked about his Goosebumps series and his new book Red Rain.
RL Stine is actually very funny. I laughed many many times while he talked. And not one time was inappropriate. after Scott and I got our  books signed by Mr. Stine, we went back to where the celebrity guests were. I wanted a pic with IronE Singleton so we waited in line and when we got up to the table, he signed a photo for me and then noticed Scott. Then he proceeded to Wassup Scott and hug him. He remembered Scott from the Infect Scranton Con where Scott was a panel member and VIP guest. how awesome was that that a TV star remembered my boyfriend and then said "Is this your girl? Oh he talked about you. He really loves you!" I about died. Scott and a TV star were talking about me. and that is why I look so dorky in my pic. I was in a major nerdgasm over MY BOYFRIEND who shot up in awesome. he's already amazing but he got a special coating of super awesome after this.
Check out his book Rotter World from Permuted Press at www.permutedpress.com

Wednesday, October 31, 2012

going over proofs with the world's tiniest comb

yep just this small. I have been going over the proofs of Blood Betrayal with a micro fine toothed comb. it is very intense. I can only do so much before my brain explodes and I start to miss things. but I'm almost done! I'm so excited. the layout is so beautiful. when I got the proof and opened it, I almost cried. it was like giving birth and seeing your baby for the first time. the best thing is I have an inkling of when my release will be. I can't say yet but I will let you know when I can. I plan on doing some amazing giveaways!

have a spooktacular Halloween!

have wonderful day! hope it's full of treats and no tricks. and definitely no rocks!

Saturday, October 27, 2012

so there I was goofing off when I discovered I missed Vladimir Putin's birthday

I'm doing a bonus post today because while not doing my homework and surfing the internet, I discovered that my favorite Russian had a birthday. yes, good ol' Vlad had a birthday on October 7th. He's 60. I didn't know that until I stumbled upon this nugget of info. I also discovered that 1 in 5 Russian women would marry him. ahh the lure of a badass translates to any country or language. Happy Birthday Vladimir Putin. sorry I was late wishing it.

happy Vladurday!


Sunday, October 14, 2012

so why aren't there flame throwers in zombie stories?

the above picture is how suspected zombies are dealt with on Spongebob Squarepants. I'm trying to develop a fondness for zombies. now I have posted about how zombies make me very nervous and post apocalyptic stories push some paranoid button in my psyche. so I am watching the Walking Dead marathon on AMC. I've already had a few issues. one of the main issues is why does no one ever have a flame thrower for a weapon? I am pretty certain that nothing survives fire. my boyfriend, who is a zombie enthusiast and author of zombie fiction informed my novice self that a flamethrower was not a good weapon and that a burning zombie chasing you would be a terrifying problem. now, from what I know from anatomy and physiology and 16 years as a nurse, I think that fire is slowing anything down, even a zombie. reality is being a buzzkill for me watching this.
as an author, I ask readers to suspend their sense of disbelief when they start reading my stories. it's part of a trust between a reader and an author. however I guess I'm not going to be able to do that with the zombies. probably because they scare something in me that I can't let go of my always planning on how I would deal with something like that. it doesn't happen with vampires or werewolves. I guess I like those paranormal creatures too much.

Sunday, October 7, 2012

Prague, Heydrich and me

so here I am in front of one of the fireplaces in the now abandoned villa of Reinhard Heydrich when he was the Reichsprotektor of Bohemia and Moravia. this stop was just one of the many astounding and emotional places we visited on the tour I took of the sites associated with the assassination of Heydrich in July and August. it was a big deal to be allowed into this house as it is now in private hands on the site of some sort of industrial complex. one doesn't simply waltz into industrial areas in the Czech republic, even now that communism is over.
anyway, I've been wanting to write about my trip over there because the tour for me had many purposes. one, it fed the hungry history nerd in me. I got to see places that the average person doesn't see. and I saw places that I only had seen in books. especially the books I had been reading in my research for my second and third installations in my series The Primigenio Tales. the main purpose the tour served was to help me to come to terms with writing about such an evil person who was real. I have been driving myself nuts with guilt and other mixed emotions while writing him as a main character. I've had to create a vampire version of a reviled person from history but also someone who was known as "papa" to his children. oddly enough I felt a great deal of worry about how his descendants would feel about me choosing to use him as a fictional character. would they think I was just using him to make a buck? and would people vilify me for taking someone who was so notorious and making him into a complex and sometimes even likable character? all that remains to be seen but seeing the places he lived and touching things he was part of helped me come to terms with him and his place in my books' universe. also seeing the horrific things he was part of helped remind me of what he dedicated his life to.
anyway, my trip to Prague was epic and I will never forget it. I hate to post such a downer of a post but I had been meaning to do this. I'll be back with my usual goofiness this week.

Monday, October 1, 2012

happy October!!!

woo hoo! it's the first day of October! and it starts the countdown to my favorite holiday...Halloween. I just love October. I love pumpkins and mums and corn mazes. they all make me think of when I was a kid and the homemade decorations we would make at school. yes  this was before Halloween was forbidden at school and any celebration related to it was named the fall festival. but I digress. usually my mind shifts to a more gothic and dark frame and my creativity seems to just FLOW during October. and lately I need this because my creativity has been locked up tight.
so hopefully, as the weather cools and the leaves turn, I'll feel the spirit of fall and Halloween.

Thursday, September 27, 2012

german with a southern accent

or it comes out with a southern accent. so I've decided that I want to learn to speak German. this is because if I want to go to grad school, I have to speak a historically significant second language. apparently Spanish is not significant and I don't get that. also, two of my characters are German and sometimes think in German and I don't trust Google Translate. another reason is because I just want to learn another language. this isn't exactly easy where I live despite the fact that the University of Florida is here. so I've been investigating programs like Rosetta Stone and the like. I don't know how successful that will be because I think if you can't learn it in a classroom, the next best way is to just have your ass dropped off in the country and force yourself to learn it but that won't be happening any time soon. if anyone has any suggestions or recommendations for me, let me know.

it's getting closer now!

so I finished my edits and now it has gone to internal design. I'm getting so excited because it is actually happening!! I have ISBN numbers, a lovely cover and my edits are done. WOW. now I have to come up for my marketing blitz when it releases. I plan on touring but I am definitely going to give away some sweet vampire related things along with my book on my blog when the time comes.
also, I want to host some of my sister Cambridge Press authors as guests here next month and in Novemeber. so stay tuned!!

Tuesday, September 25, 2012

sexy viking vampire tuesdays


tuesdays are hereby dedicated to the sexy viking vampire on True Blood Eric Northman played by Alexander Skarsgard.



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