Piatkus just sent me the final versions of the Dancing with the Devil and Hearts in Darkness covers. For those who don’t know, Piatkus have bought the non-American rights for all my ImaJinn books, and will be releasing them over the coming year, starting in September this year with the Ripple Creek series (a spot of trivia–Beneath a Rising Moon/Darkening Moon, along with Circle of Desire, are the books that Riley’s world grew from. You can see much of the same world building in them, including the moon ceremony Riley often talks about). Dancing with the Devil and Hearts in Darkness are both being released in November, and the sequels–Chasing the Shadows and Kiss the Night Goodbye will be coming in December. All of which is great news for all my non-American readers, simply because it means the books will now be on the shelves of book stores and readily available!

Anyway, here’s the covers:

you like?

The winner of the signed copy of Mark Henry’s Happy Hour of the Damned is Cassi Simpson. Congrats Cassi! An email should be winging its way towards you, and your books soon should be

New contest–this time the book is a signed copy of Rachel’s Vincent’s Rogue (the sequel to Stray). We’ll run with the same rules as last time– send me an email at kez @ keriarthur .com (without the spaces) and put Rogue Giveaway in the subject line. The contest will run until Sunday 18th (Aussie time) and the winner announced Monday. A signed copy of my erotic novella Lifemate Connections will accompany Stray.

Writing news– well, there isn’t any. I was out most of the weekend (lunching with friends on Saturday) and doing the rounds visiting the mum’s on Sunday. Hopefully today I’ll get back to some writing

I found out today that The Darkest Kiss hit 29 on the USA Today best seller list, and 10 on the Publisher’s Weekly best seller list. Both of which are pretty damn cool.  The New York Times list is a week behind everyone else, so that doesn’t officially come out until next week.  But thanks to everyone who bought the book and made those list debuts possible!

Writing news–well, I actually haven’t written anything these last two days. Mercy has changed direction (in that the muse has changed who the bad guy actually is), so before I got too much further ahead, I went back and did a read through, and wove the new bits and pieces of information into it.  So, with the story more complete, the muse can move on. Hopefully.

On a side note–I’m a regular visitor over to Lynn Viehl’s paperback writer blog, simply because she always has great writing tips on her site and I’m a big believer in the fact that a writer never stops learning (or shouldn’t, anyway.)  I was there the other day, and she’d just blogged about one page plotting, and gave an example of how to do it. Hmmm, says I, the unplotter, maybe this could work for me. Yes, I have plotted the last two books, but the plotting has basically happened after I’ve started the story. I’ve never actually tried plotting either before–or at least near–the start of a story, and this one page format looked easy enough to do. Of course, it wasn’t, because it actually meant I had to think a little more about the nuts and bolts of Mercy’s story. But it is the format that the muse has used to work out a few problems I was having with the story, and it is the reason for the change of direction. I think Mercy’s story is going to be stronger for it. So, if you’re not quite a plotter, the one page plotting process might just work for you. It seems to done the trick for me (although I still haven’t written the resolution down–I don’t think ‘it all works out in the end’ quite makes the grade. lol)

and really, the man set the standard for how all authors should act at these things (the author in me was taking notes!). He spoke brilliantly and he read brilliantly (he was reading pages from one of his upcoming books–which has graveyard in the title, but for the life of me I can’t remember the rest of it. I’ll be searching the stores come October, though), he did all the various voices for the characters and the made the prose come to life just that little bit more.  Did I mention the man had a wonderful speaking voice? And then he signed for ages, taking the time to talk to every single person, posed for pictures whenever asked, and there was absolutely no restrictions on what he’d sign. Some folks had bought in whole collections, others (like me) bought books there. He didn’t care, he signed them all. Oh, and Mel? So jealous you got a handdrawn original Gaiman pic in your book!

Writing news–Mercy continues to trundle along at a slow pace, and the plot deviation continues. I’ve only half-plotted part of this, but the muse seems intent on going her own way for the moment. I may have to draw her back to the plot line, because I’ve got a feeling it might be getting a bit talky-talky, but we’ll see.

Mercy Burns progress meter

of the Jenna Black The Devil Inside give away is Lia Kamp from Australia! I’ll also be sending a signed copy of Lifemate Connections–my erotic short novella–so hope you enjoy both books

The next give away is Mark Henry’s Happy Hour of the Damned (which I haven’t read yet but looks a real hoot), and again, I’ll be giving away a copy of Lifemate Connections along with it.

The contest will run until Sunday 11th (Aussie time) and I’ll announce the winner either Sunday night or Monday. To enter, just send an email to kez @ keriarthur .com (without spaces) and put Happy Hour give away in the subject line.

Writing Update–well, there hasn’t been a whole lot of that done over the weekend. I’ve been having massive modem/isp problems, and I’ve been on the line talking to our internet provider a whole lot (who were very helpful–and patient–I might add). And what happens when we finally got it fixed? We had a power outage which crashed the modem. Again. So, I’ve got a couple of pages done, but that’s about it. Hopefully I’ll get more done this afternoon, but I have the Neil Gaiman dinner and chat to go to tonight, which should be ace. I haven’t read a whole lot of his books but the man is an amazing writer and I’m looking forward to hearing him speak. I’ll probably ramble on about the aceness of it tomorrow.

I’m getting about the release date of Deadly Desire (Riley 7)–no, sorry, as I mentioned in my last blog post, I haven’t got anything official yet. All I know is that it should be out sometime early next year. I can tell you that there will be a teaser extract in the back of Destiny Kills. It isn’t a whole lot, but it’ll give you a taste for the story.

In other writing news, here’s the list of stories and authors that will be in the Wolfsbane and Mistletoe anthology that comes out in October.

“Gift Wrap” by Charlaine Harris

“The Haire of the Beast” by Donna Andrews

“Lucy, at Christmastime” by Simon Green

The Night Things Changed” by Dana Cameron

“The Werewolf Before Christmas” by Kat Richardson

“Fresh Meat” by Alan Gordon

“Il Est Ne” by Carrie Vaughn

“The Perfect Gift” by Dana Stabenow

“Christmas Past” by Keri Arthur

“S.A.” by JA Konrath

“The Star of David” by Patricia Briggs

“Better Not Pyout” by Nancy Pickard

“Rogue Elements” by Karen Chance

“Milk and Cookies” by Rob Thurman

“Keeping Watch Over His Flock” by Toni L.P. Kelner

There’s some brilliant authors in this one (besides me, of course. lol) and it should really rock!

and lots of people have already read it–and loved it–if the emails I’m getting are any indication. Can’t be sad about that Unfortunately, the next book–Deadly Desire–won’t be out until early next year (I haven’t got an official release date yet) so patience will be needed! But many of the questions you’ve been asking me in those emails will actually be answered in the next book.

Kimberly Swan, from Darque Reviews has added a review for Kiss, and I thought I’d share: Ms. Arthur pens a fabulous mystery filled with vampires and shapeshifters whose unique qualities add to the overall suspense. The danger throughout the story plays a big role in the building tension and the heroine’s passion for catching the killers bring each case to a searing climax.  To read the whole review, just click the link and head over to their site.

In other writing news, the Hotter than Hell anthology (out in June) just received a great review from the Romantic Times magazine. Jill M Smith from RT says: With this incredibly talented line-up, readers are in for a wild and varied ride! The 12 stories run the gamut from supernaturally sexy to sad and disturbing, with no shortage of intriguing characters and creative plots. The real challenge facing these authors is delivering a uniquely satisfying tale in such a short space. For the most part, they succeed amazingly well.  Pretty cool, huh?

I’ve just finished some more (minor) editorial questions for Destiny, and the book is now in the production stage. I really can’t wait to see what you all think of this one, because I really do love Destiny’s story (even if I did hate the thing when I was doing the umpteenth revision on it. lol.) Mercy Burns, the sequel (not with the same characters) is proceeding along nicely, and I’ve finally rolled over 100 pages done. Only just, mind you, but every page counts. The hero in Mercy is proving a little more difficult to pin down, and I’ve deleted I don’t know how many pages simply because he keeps acting all happy and hot, and he’s supposed to be all dark and hot.  I still haven’t pinned down the entire plot on this one yet, either, but I’m hoping that’ll happen once I get a little more into the story.

Mercy Burns progress meter: