Cloaked in Fur and Anthropies, CassaStorm Updates, and Ninja News

Some awesome Cassan news and updates today!



But first, I have an awesome guest - TF Walsh.

Alex, thanks for having me on your blog today.

Therianthropy is the ability, or curse, that allows humans to transform into animals. There are many examples of it throughout mythology and folklore and it has become the basis of more and more popular culture. Lycanthropy relates specifically to werewolves and is the most common example, particularly in European cultures, which is why I chose to write about it. But if people were given the choice of an animal they could transform into, would wolves be the most common response. Of the myriad of animals, birds, fish and other beasts inhabiting the planet, it would seem that wolves might not be the most popular, if given a choice that is, considering there was such a choice.

If I had to choose, it would be difficult decision. A swan maiden is another mythological form of Therianthropy and would give me a chance to fly. Selkies are seal-type creatures when in water and human when on land, so I could swim effortlessly through the ocean. But if I had to be honest I think I would chose Ailuranthropy, the ability to turn into a cat. And not one of the great cats, but a simple house cat. Especially when I see how many people love their cats, and how well cats are treated. I would love nothing more than sleeping all day in a warm sunshine. Snuggling up to someone when it gets colder and leaping around the house as if I own it. And not to mention being able to understand just what my cat thinks of me.

Which animal would you choose to shift into if you had the ability?

As a moonwulf, Daciana never expected to fall in love with a human. Hell, she never imagined that she’d abandon her pack, endanger everyone around her, and break the worst rule possible. But she did.

Buy Cloaked in Fur Here: Amazon US, Amazon UK, Barnes and Noble, iBookstore, and Crimson Romance.

T.F. Walsh emigrated from Romania to Australia at the age of eight and now lives in a regional city south of Sydney with her husband. Growing up hearing dark fairytales, she's always had a passion for reading and writing horror, paranormal romance, urban fantasy and young adult stories. She balances all the dark with light fluffy stuff like baking and traveling.
Find her - Website-Blog, Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Goodreads, and Amazon.

Ninja News

Brandon Ax is hosting a giveaway in celebration of his latest book, Ashes.

Cherie Colyer’s latest is out – Hold Tight. You can find it anywhere online and add it to Goodreads The first book in the series, Embrace, is now ninety-nine cents for a limited time. Congratulations, Cherie!

Pat Hatt’s latest book is out, Catality - Saving Your Reality.
This is book number eighteen – congratulations, Pat.
To you and your rhyming cat!

Hart Johnson is celebrating the release of the first installment of A Shot in the Light by hosting a blogfest. On September 5, post about her book and your answer to The World Ends HOW!? See her site for details.

Melissa Maygrove is hosting a blogfest September 23-27. Follow Fest is about writers making connections with other writers on other social platforms besides blogging. See her site for details.

Summer Ross is hosting the In Your Pants Blogfest on September 2. Yes, you read that correctly! Visit her site for details.

CassaStorm Updates and News

First, I am happy to say the CassaStorm tour is full – and then some! I have a great mix of guest posts, articles, giveaways, and reviews set, and the lineup of hosts is awesome, including a couple big sites I never thought would host me. (And I’m quite honored to be appearing there!)


September
9 - The Non-Review
11 - The Unicorn Bell
15 - Anne R Allen’s Blog
16 – Literary Rambles
17 – Edi’s Book Lighthouse
18 - Mithril Wisdom
19 - Lynda Young
20 - Tossing It Out
23 - Under the Tiki Hut
27 – Cruising Altitude 2.0
30 - Write Now

October
4 - MsBookish
9 - The Writing Nut
11 - My First Book
14 - Untethered Realms
18 - Sia McKye Over Cofffe
21 - Stephen Tremp
28 - Sandra Ulbrich Almazan

November
4 - Donna Weaver
25 - Leave it to Livia

In addition, I am teaming up with author Lynn Rush for my first ever Twitter party on September 17 from 8-9:00 EST. Hashtag is #RUSHED and there will be chances to win prizes from both of us.

The week of my release, there will be an awesome prize package offered here for anyone who comments. And anyone who signs up to announce my book release that week (Taking the World by Storm) is eligible for this cool prize package: Cassa mug, Cassa mousepad, $25.00 iTunes gift card, and swag. You can sign up HERE. You have the option of just signing up or asking a unique question to go with your announcement post. (In addition to the questions, the information I send for the announcements will be different.)

Special thanks to my publisher who is doing a large campaign through trade magazines, libraries and bookstores, and science fiction cons.

And a big thanks to all of you for helping me launch one final book into the world!

Just to give you an idea how awesome this journey has been, I want to highlight Ellie Garratt’s winning entry into the Cheers Blogfest last December, because it covers some of the cool things that have happened these past few years:



Now, I need to make a video for you guys!! Mini-Alex can host…

Have you picked up Cloaked in Fur? What animal would you become? Picked up the other awesome books? Can you help Take the World by Storm? Can you believe it’s less than four weeks until my last book comes out?!

Dear Lord, help me survive this next month…

Murder and Madness but no Flirting! Plus Starship Troopers via Rifftrax, Spaceship Trivia Answers, and Ninja News

Today we have a little Murder, Madness, & Love from Yolanda Renee!

NO FLIRTING ALLOWED!

Thank you, Alex, for allowing me to guest post on your awesome blog. As some of you know my first novel Murder, Madness & Love was self-published in 2008, and this year picked up by Curiosity Quills Press and today is the re-release date, which makes it super exciting to be here on Alex's Blog to celebrate!

What the re-release means, is that I've already held a book launch and have attended a number of books signings. I thought some of you might like to hear a few of my experiences – sort of a do's and don'ts when selling your books, and since Alex likes humorous posts, I hope you see the humor in what happened to me.

First, the do's – talk to the people, even those that don't walk directly over to your table. Make eye contact, and smile. Many readers are shy, just as shy if not more so than the writer is, so catch their eye and start a conversation. It helps if you have a flyer to hand out, if you have something to greet them with, something to get their attention. Many of them will take it and walk away, but if it peaks their interest, they will come back – and if there is ordering information – you may hear from them later!

Many of my sales happened at flea markets and craft fairs and always with another author. Together we brought the folks to the table and 8 times out of 10, both of us sold a book. We always had a decorative table, giveaways, and free candy—free candy always helps!

The don'ts – Don't express political opinions. I made the mistake of agreeing with one customer's expressed opinion on a candidate and another customer walked away, but not before letting me know my opinion was vastly different from hers. So be careful, and be neutral – you never want to lose a customer because of politics.

But watch the flirting – I had a man stop by and yes, he flirted, and I was amused. My partner (the other author) had stepped away from the table and this guy sat down in the chair beside me to look at my book. During the conversation, it was clear he was more interested in me, than the book, despite the fact that he talked about buying it for his wife. However, he was all talk and didn't buy the book. His wife soon found him, and she was not happy. She did a cursory flip of the pages, gave me the evil eye, and quickly walked away with him in tow. I lost another customer.

My partner got a real kick out of it, which isn't fair because he flirted constantly, and never lost a sale. He was amazing.

Never, ever, just sit behind a table and ignore the folks around you – they want to know that you want to talk to them, so have fun, just remember no politics and no flirting, well, unless it really works for you!

So writers what do you think – is flirting fair? Or is it all fair when it comes to selling books?

After a gritty detective becomes involved with a beautiful widow suspected of murder, rumor and obsession obstruct his quest for justice.

Visite Yolanda Renée at her BLOG and find her book at Curiosity Quills Press.

Ninja News

Michelle Wallace just experienced her first e-Zine publication! Her flash fiction piece, Blast From The Past, is in Pure Slush. Read it HERE.
Congratulations, Michelle! You are the flash fiction master.

Summer Ross signed a contract with Breathless Press for her series The Trouble with Elves, Book 1, Ribbon of Darkness. Because it’s erotica, she’s chosen to go with a pen name, and you can find her on Facebook under Decadent Kane. Congratulaions, Summer!

Donna Weaver and her publisher are offering a chance to win A Change of Plans in audiobook. See her site for details.

Cheers to the ladies with new book releases:

Laura Pauling’s latest is now available – Heist!

Cate Masters’ latest was just released, a historical romance novella from Decadent Publishing – Betting it All!

Juliana Haygert’s new NA contemporary romance was released last week – Breaking the Reins!



For laughs:

John Wiswell posted 7 Ways Writing a Book is Not Like Raising a Child.

Fran at The Angry Lurker posted another classic – If Facebook Existed During the American Revoluion.

And my POST last week that kicked off with the Star Trek movies made top story over at Suvudu!

Spaceship Trivia Answers!

Several of you named the movie, but what we were after was the spaceship – here are the answers:
Movies:
1 - Alex Durant, Harry Booth, V.I.N.C.E.N.T. - Palomino
2 - Captain Dallas, Warrant Officer Ripley, Science Officer Ash - Nostromo
3 - Pres. Skroob, Dark Helmet, Col. Sandurz - Spaceball One
Television:
4 - Fry, Bender, Leela, Amy - Planet Express Ship
5 - Mal Reynolds, Zoe Washburne, Simon Tam - Serenity
6 - Don West, John Robinson, Dr. Zachary Smith - Jupiter 2
Literature:
7 - Arthur Dent, Ford Prefect, Zaphod Beeblebrox - Heart of Gold
8 - Charlie Bucket, Grandma Josephine, Willy Wonka - Great Glass Elevator
Real:
9 - Jim Lovell, Fred Haise, Jack Swigert - Apollo 13

Riffed Movie Review

Any of you familiar with Mystery Science Theater 3000 know that not long after the show was cancelled (damn you SyFy!) Mike, Kevin, and Bill formed Rifftrax. You can purchase and download a riff track for just about any movie. And on occasion, they do a live riff track in front of a movie theater audience and it’s broadcast across the nation to other theaters. Thus last week, I got to enjoy a Rifftrax screening of Starship Troopers.

Funded by a Kickstarter project and with the blessings of the cast, it was one of the first times they’d riffed a recent R rated film. Starship Troopers is cheesy, dated, and poorly acted, so it was an easy target. (Denise Richards in particular.) Yes, 80% of the film was epic ship scenes, mass bug shootings, and the word ‘Move!’ (In its defense, the bug effects hold up well. Everything else – not so much.) All in all, it was hilarious.

Before the film begins, they warm up the audience with a humorous slide show. I thought I’d share some my wife caught on her cell phone:

Is flirting fair when selling books? (Do you remember how to flirt? Because it’s been so long, I don’t!) See some new books you want? Find something amusing? Get any of the spaceships right? And has anyone else ever downloaded Rifftraxs or gone to a live event?

My next post will be on Thursday instead of Wednesday, and I’ll have another awesome guest, plus some cool CassaStorm news.

Science Fiction-Fantasy News and My Odd Answers

First, a little science/fantasy fiction news for you…

During a recent interview with Jewel Staite (Serenity, Stargate:Atlantis) she revealed she’s working with former S:A castmember, David Hewlett, on a secret project. She also revealed that if given the choice between Simon and Mal, she’d select Inara. Crap, I guess I know where I stand...

From the latest issue of Entertainment Weekly: “Skip I Am Number Four, see Starman instead. They’re both about hunky aliens, so why bother with the cruddy one?” (Sorry, found that rather funny!)

And Jason Momoa is already talking about Conan 2 and 3. Let’s hope 1 lives up to the hype!

And my odd answers?

Summer Ross at My Inner Fairy tagged me with this meme, and I decided to have some fun with it…

Do you think you're hot?

Is molten lava hot? Is the center of the sun hot? Is the middle of an inferno hot?
Eh, I’m all right.

Upload a picture or wall paper you are using at the moment


Kate...!
Okay, not really. This is my wallpaper, because it motivates me to finish the damn sequel!

When was the last time you ate chicken meat?

I like to start off my day with a protein based breakfast consisting of Cocoa Puffs and BBQ chicken. Oh, and a sliced banana.

The Song(s) you listened to recently?

The entire new While Heaven Wept CD
Amon Amarth’s song, “War of the Gods”
Oh, and, the J.G. Wentworth 877-CASHNOW jingle (Someone please help me get it out of my head!)

What were you thinking as you were doing this?

Maybe I’ll add Hot Tamales to my Cocoa Puffs…

Do you have nicknames? What are they?

Captain Ninja Alex!

Tag eight Blogger friends

Eight? I don’t know if I could find eight who haven’t already been tagged. Damn, I don’t want to be responsible for a dead rabbit. So, I shall tag Bossy Betty and let the rabbit die with her!

I know - that's not right!

Heard any odd news lately?