Juno Books

Fang-tastic Books:

The urban fantasy genre has a wonderful new heroine in Anya Kalinczyk.

Laura Bickle’s urban fantasy world is complete and unique. In a genre drowning under the weight of vampires, witches and werewolves Bickle’s character Anya, a Lantern, is something different and refreshing. And the fire elemental Sparky the salamander- brilliant. The two of them together make a wonderful team that I really enjoy reading about….

Sparks is even better than the first book Embers. The interaction between characters is much more detailed and fleshed out, Anya’s character is also fuller and richer and I loved the introduction of a new character Charon the ghostly connection between this world and the underworld. I really hope to see more of him in upcoming books….Sparks was a fantastic fiery read that I couldn’t put down until it was finished. If each book in this series just keeps getting better I can’t wait to read the next installment.

If you are looking for something out of the ordinary in the urban fantasy genre- this series is one to try. Not a vampire in sight, no werewolves either but you’ll get lots of ghosts and elementals and Lantern or two.

Alayna Williams’ alter-ego Laura Bickle is doing another EMBERS giveaway
here today.

Ebay Bidding open at Only $50.00

Want to add a new gem to your collection?
Interested in starting your art collection with a small painting?
Looking for that unique gift you can mail easily?
Wondering how you might contribute to the education of art students who are close to beginning careers we’ll enjoy?

*MicroVisions 5 with it’s themed size of 5″ x 7″ is for you — 11 renowned artists to choose from!*

Rick Berry created “RainMaker”, oil on panel, exclusively for this charity auction to benefit the Student Scholarship. 100% of sales benefit this scholarship, administered by New York Society of Illustrators. Ebay Auction ends Wednesday, May 26th. Rick Berry is my favorite artist — he was kind enough to allow me to use his art extensively for many years on my old DarkEcho Web site. One reason I haven’t manage to get rid of that site, which is sorely outdated, is because at least you get glimpses of his art there.

Other artists include Scott Altmann, Scott Bakal, Bill Carman, Jon Foster, Donato Giancola, Michael Kaluta, Tim O’Brien, Omar Rayyan, Allen Williams, and Boris Vallejo.

More info on Irene Gallo’s blog.

Bitten by Books:

Amazon Queen by Lori Devoti begins with a slow trickle of information and intrigue, and ends with a deluge of action, trickery, and emotion. Zery is a more difficult character to relate to than Mel because her heart is still with the tribe. Her loyalty is to the tribe itself, not the individuals in it. As the story develops, so does Zery. She becomes a true leader, and a thinker, not a follower.

There are so many different motivations in this book: Zery wants her tribe to be safe and secure, the bad guys want to install a new regime, the sons want recognition. Lori makes it easy to navigate through them all with her tight writing style and intriguing characters. I never felt lost or overwhelmed by the information. It flows smoothly, allowing me to ride the current with little or no disruptive waves.

Okay, thanks for the response. I’ll give the “Submit Now!” blog campaign till midnight Wednesday, then it is back to the regular guidelines. Thanks to those of you who spread the word. Re-spread that we are back to where we were: we’ve always been open to unsoliciteds anyway.

For those of you who did submit, you will probably get a brief response soon. If it is obvious your novel won’t work for us, I’ll just say that and thanks. I appreciate people taking a shot and I may be lucking out with a few, but I won’t be able to go into detail on responses for rejections.

For those of you with subs already in before now, you’ll get a response soon.

I seem to have missed these…

Singletitles.com:

Lori Devoti has demonstrated her ground-breaking talent in previous releases, and her skill shines even brighter in her first book about an out of the ordinary subject….Lori Devoti knows how to entertain and captivate by keeping the surprises coming one after another. Although AMAZON INK takes place in our modern day world, there are plenty of supernatural occurrences to keep one spellbound and make you wonder about the possibilities. Ms. Devoti expertly blends the truths we know with the legends of the Amazons to create an exceedingly noteworthy story, one filled with dynamic characters and a convincing premise. From the very start of this book, I felt as though I was reading about actual people who might live in my community yet posses various atypical plus hidden abilities. Each individual seems to come alive in personality, while their responses also come across as credible with much realism. Whether a character is downright angry or just exchanging some quick-witted banter, their conversations ring true and are frequently packed with emotion. Mel is definitely facing many difficult concerns, and her reaction to many of them is deeply insightful as it lets her inner thoughts become evident. Often her emotions are extremely conflicted, and these scenes are especially gripping when her personal skills are displayed. The storyline itself is totally memorable with so much intrigue and a myriad of questions needing answers. As each disclosure of the many mysteries is divulged, I was held engrossed by every fascinating revelation. Lori Devoti has crafted an outstanding urban fantasy with strong characters plus creative writing, and I cannot wait to read more about this believable world. AMAZON INK is an enchanting novel brimming with mystery, emotion and an abundance of magic.

Corpus Christi Examiner:

Amazon Ink, by Lori Devoti, is an entertaining read with a unique urban fantasy setting….Amazon Ink’s world… is original and intriguing. The idea of an urban fantasy setting based on an Amazon tribe’s adaptation to the modern world is a nice change from the popular vampires, werewolves and fairies, and the twist at the end leaves much potential for future sequels.

Diary of a Book Addict::

Amazon Ink… had a really refreshing take on the Amazon legend that was perfectly integrated with the “real” world to create a seamless urban fantasy experience. Lori Devoti’s mythology and detail made the world of Amazon Ink come to life and helped the characters feel more complex. The characters… are bonded together by realistic relationships and complex adult problems that make the story even better… I enjoyed Amazon Ink far more than I thought I would. I picked up the book because I thought the story might be fun (and maybe a little campy), but I ended up getting hooked. I’m excited for the sequel, Amazon Queen, which, according to Amazon, should be hitting shelves April 2010.

Flames Rising:

Even though gender and family roles take center stage in this urban fantasy novel, there is a unique twist on the Amazonian mythos that offers a touch of ethnicity blended with mythology. The primary goddess behind the Amazons is Artemis, who you may remember from Greek mythology. Tattoos are part of the “magic” in Amazon Ink, which is part of the reason why Melanippe is a suspect in both the Amazonian world and the human one. There are a few male characters that offer great counterpoints to Mel’s impulsiveness; Pete (a tattoo artist she ends up employing) and Detective Reynolds. If you’re looking for their characters to be weak-willed and subservient to the Amazons, you’ll be sadly disappointed. There’s a little bit of sexual tension that makes you wonder whether or not Mel will end up in a romantic entanglement, which adds a little bit of spice to Mel’s passionate character.

I have to say that I liked the twist on the Amazonian culture because there are several unique facets to it that were revealed in the first book. The interpersonal character conflicts heat up as the mystery takes center stage, enhancing the pacing and my curiosity to find out the real culprit. (Not only did I guess the identity of the murderer wrong, but I also got the murderer’s motives wrong, too.)

As the first urban fantasy book in a series, Amazon Ink is a fast read with enough twists and turns to hold your attention and keep you wanting for more. This would be a good book for anyone who enjoys powerful characterizations and high magic in their urban fantasy novels.

One of Kimber An’s Top 10 Favorite Books of 2009:

Wasn’t much interested in Urban Fantasy until this one and I wouldn’t have picked it up without a recommendation from my good buddy, Tia over at Fantasy Debut (now morphed into Debuts & Reviews.) Modern day Amazon Mama, totally engaging world-building, not a stereotype in sight that I could see. (Review)

The nice folks at Bitten by Books are featuring Delilah Street’s cocktails and a contest! Check it out! Enter! Win!

Vampire Sunrise, Carole Nelson Douglas’s next book in the series is our December release, following the first two: Dancing With Werewolves (with its Albino Vampire cocktail and Brimstone Kiss (with its Brimstone kiss cocktail). (And yes, of course there is a Vampire Sunrise Cocktail!

My car didn’t start, but I lived. But I’m not blogging anymore today. I might bring down the entire Internet.

Other than the Cavs winning last night, I’m having a bad day. I decided to write about a good book here. Even out the balance of the universe, so to speak. So, naturally, I just lost the whole freaking post.

I’m going to the grocery store. If you never hear from me again, you’ll know the day got really bad…

Grandpup Dewie (left) just celebrated her first birthday! Malcolm does mind that she’s taller than him. Much

This is “Doc.” She is the newest addition to the family. My son Andrew’s girlfriend Katie adopted her last week. She’s a mix of beagle (like Snoopy) and Cavalier King Charles Spaniel and was the runt of her litter.

The cats here are putting up with her visits with considerable patience as she wants to play, play, play…and they don’t. She is very beagle-ish when it comes to following her nose and exploring and thus finds a great many fascinating things she should not eat on the floor.

Right now she’s tiny. They were saying they expected her to eventually weigh maybe 25 lbs, but I’m thinking she’s going to be smallish.

Beagle (l) + Cav (r) = Doc

My doctor has a resident “therapy cat”, Sandy. She made the news today in the Akron Beacon Journal. Sandy should be pleased with her photos as they make her look more slender than she really is.

The grandpup, Dewie, in Diva mode.

I’ve made it home, do have power and cable and have started downloading a week’s worth of email. I’ll also have to tackle a refrigerator and freezer of spoiled food.

I arrived home after midnight last night after a 12 hour drive to find city crews finally clearing trees from my street. Not my yard, but the street is passable after a week.

Although I received a phone call telling me my power was restored Friday evening, I am no longer in Akron. I am out of town attending a wedding as previously scheduled. I no longer have a laptop and, since I wasn’t expecting to lose power for over five days, I made no preparations to get access to material stored on my main computer at home.

I had no chance to contact key folks on many matters to even let them know I was (a) without power and (b) leaving town. So I am sure some chaos is ensuing. Use of my cell phone was limited last week as — right — without power I had to recharge the battery when and where I could.

My access to hundreds of emails is not complete at this point. Some accounts I am getting to from Web access; others I am not. So, I’m not going to try to reply to anything until I am home and, I hope, have full access.

I hope to enjoy the wedding and, I suppose, work, etc. will still be there when I get to it.

Paula been without power since Sunday. Could be days before she has power. Sorry! Who knew hurricanes hit Ohio?

I’m back.

I probably won’t have access to a computer much for a couple of days.

Here I am at Stephen’s computer in Rockville MD — trying not to mess anything up (using someone’s else equipment is so…intrusive…)– at Wildside HQ. I’m also trying to figure out how to make the color printer print.

Otherwise, I left 18″ of snow in Ohio and 30 degrees. Here it was snow-free and 50. Whole new world…Sean and Jen’s cats allowed me to occupy their suite and I’ve asked them not to throw up on the bed while I am gone today. (Something they did the last time I upset their feline boundaries.)

The Diamond meeting is later today and mostly I am frustrated I am not able to actually get any real work done till I get home

Isn’t the publishing biz exciting?

Yesterday (Sunday) all was back to normal — well, there are large piles of snow about, but the streets were clear and the sun was shining. Not that I could get out of my driveway…

The Kid made it out and to rehearsal in the 4-wheel drive Honda CRV. My Accord is — lower. But one of his friends brought over a snowblower and cleared the entire (immense!) driveway and front walk (so the mail, UPS, FedEx, DHL, etc. can get through). I think I owe the young man some cookies or something.

Anyway, this meant I could get out and get my errands done, they could get the airport, and now life goes on. I’m on my way to Wildside HQ in Maryland so I can attend a sales meeting with our distributor, Diamond. I’ll be telling them about our fall line-up and cheering the troops on to sell Juno Books. Rah!

Also means I’ve been frantically trying to get things together, of course.

Got some copies of CLOCKWORK HEART and BLACKNESS TOWER finally. Look good!

I’m in Ft Lauderdale at the ICFA. My Net access is…weird. SO if you’ve emailed, you might want to be patient for a couple of days. I also posted already about the con…but it has disappeared…

I hope…If you find errors–let me know…editor@juno-books.com

It will probably be this evening until repairs can be made. Sorry.

I’m ill. It’s my body’s subtle way of telling me I am stressed out. I’m not in my right mind (or write mind, either) so will be holding off on looking at email and stuff for the most part.