Supernatural Fog - Cover Reveal!

Not long ago I reviewed a fun book called Supernatural Freak, by Louisa Klein. I hoped there would be a sequel, and there is! It's coming out later this year, and today I'm part of the cover reveal:

Supernatural Fog, book 2 of the Supernatural Freak series, is another humorous, action-packed urban fantasy, this time with more romance and a little bit of horror...

Supernatural Fog, by Louisa Klein

1) Learn how to use your new powers;
2) Find the other spirits;
3) Keep up with the training;
4) Defeat the Dark Cloud;
5) Don’t you ever, EVER fall in love with your best friend.

Yeah, easier said than done. Supernatural Freak Robyn Wise is, well, freaking out.

She’s trying to adjust to her new life as the Spirit of the Cat’s incarnation. But with little success. She cannot find the other animal spirits who are supposed to help her, nor can she master the tricky art of telekinesis.

And then there’s James, her wizard best friend. They kissed in a moment of passion, right after she had slayed a powerful infernal monster.

After that, being around James awakens a range of emotions she’s really not eager to analyse. She just wants to be back to normal, to be friends again. Trouble is, it’s not that easy.

Especially when a mysterious Fog attacks London and the city’s survival depends on her teaming up with James. But it’s not a big deal, right? They can totally keep things friendly and professional, right? RIGHT?

www.lostinfiction.co.uk

Cover Art - The Apprentice Journals and Schadenfreude

I've got a couple of covers to share today from four people I've worked with over at Polluto magazine. I'm really excited for all of them, as I've been watching as their books came together, and am looking forward to reading them both! I'm also excited for the artists who have created two such different and amazing covers, and I wanted to provide a little more focus on them too.

First up is The Apprentice Journals (synopsis below), from J. Michael Shell, with stunning cover art from Vincent Sammy. Isn't it gorgeous?

The Apprentice Journals: From the slaver land of Tara to the shores of Ginny’s Beach, ride the mag lines with Spaul and Pearl as they do their best to deal with fickle Elementals, and their growing—as well as dangerous—love for one another. Dangerous because, as they learn from the “Fierae”—the Lightening Elementals—Love is Above the Rules.

I'm so pleased for Mike, who has been a regular contributor of short stories to the magazine, and who has already been getting some great feedback on the recently released novel. J Michael Shell's fiction has appeared in a number of magazines and anthologies. He lives in the American South, and though he's been characterised as an 'Old Hippie', he insists the correct appellation is 'Last Hippie'.

Vincent Sammy, a celebrated South African artist, has also recently provided Polluto with a wonderful cover, as well as artwork for South African magazine Something Wicked, and covers for Pandemonium (story collections from the Pornokitsch team). He was nominated for a This Is Horror award for best artist of 2012 and was voted into the Runner Up position! See more of Vincent's artwork here.


Second cover reveal is Schadenfreude (synopsis below), with an eye-catching cover from Vikki Hastings.

Schadenfreude: Enter a mind full of transcendental drugs, doomed punks, voyeuristic puppets and omnipotent intergalactic prisons in Chris Kelso's debut short fiction collection. 

Schadenfreude is a short story collection from Chris Kelso, who has helped me as a submissions editor (and lots more) for Polluto. He's the co-creator of The Imperial Youth Review with Garrett Cook, and co-edited the Terror Scribes anthology with Adam Lowe. You can find out more about him and his writing here.

I think this is such a beautiful and unique image from Vikki Hastings. Vikki has also provided cover art for a previous issue of Polluto. With a love of fairytale and storytelling, she likes to explore the escapist side of art, and you can see more on her website, here.


Haven't both these guys been so lucky with their lovely covers?

The Apprentice Journals

(Dog Horn Publishing)
(Amazon UK)
(Amazon USA)

Schadenfreude

(Dog Horn Publishing)
(Amazon UK)
(Amazon USA)

Bout of Books Mini-Challenges

I find it easier to put the mini-challenge responses in a separate post from my updates, so here we go. I LOVE mini-challenges, so I'm pretty excited...


Sunday:

Last day of the read-a-thon! Today's mini-challenge is hosted by Snarky Bird, Uber Nerd, and it's all about recommending books. The idea is to say that if you liked (...) then you'll love (...)

Okay, here are my suggestions. I wanted to go mad and recommend everything on my shelf, but then realised that I'd have to limit myself. Of course, these work both ways - if you've read the second suggestion, then you should love the first too!

- If you like The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman, you'll love Johnny and the Dead by Terry Pratchett. The latter book is older, and I never see it talked about much, but it is very good!

 

- If you like The Immortal Rules by Julie Kagawa, you'll love Bitten by Kelley Armstrong. Strong heroines, and sexy supernatural stories that don't pull punches.

- If you like the Harry Potter series by J. K. Rowling, you'll love the Bartimaeus series by Jonathan Stroud. Not exactly similar, but both are fun and adventurous, both feature magic, both are very British, both feature arrogant magic users (the Bartimaeus series could be seen as what the Harry Potter world could look like if the magic users had ruled over the muggles instead of hiding from them), and both explore prejudice towards magical creatures.

- If you like A Game of Thrones by George R R Martin, but would like a smaller cast of characters and more women in positions of strength, then you'll love The Red Knight by K. T. Davies.

- If you like The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern, you'll love Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones. In terms of the magical feel. So enchanting and absorbing, though I think Howl's Moving Castle has a much better story, and would recommend it to anyone, even if you hated The Night Circus. ;-)

- If you like the current trend of YA dystopias involving pregnancies, you'll love The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood.

- If you like A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula le Guin, you'll love The Magician's Guild by Trudi Canavan. Similar idea of young people being plucked from the most unlikely place in order to learn magic, and then dealing with the consequences.

- If you like the Famous Five series by Enid Blyton, you'll love the Roman Mysteries series by Caroline Lawrence. Same sense of adventure, same fairly simple but very fun puzzles, same brave children and strong friendship, and the added bonus of learning about ancient Rome as you go!

So there you go. Hope there was something there to interest you, or to add to your To Read list! Can't wait to see everyone else's suggestions. :-)


Saturday

Today's challenge is hosted by Smash Attack Reads and it's another book spine poem! But this time we have to stick to one genre of books... of course, I chose fantasy (it's the genre I own the most of, so makes things a bit easier). It's 12 books long and uses 12 extra words, and I ended up having to take the picture in three:

A game of thrones in Fantasyland:

The Iron King on his throne of glass;

The High Lord in his castle in the air.

Each sips poison from enchanted glass,

As the novice, cursed with eyes the colour of magic,

Claims the crown of Dalemark.

I'm not sure if the second title is 'Fantasyland' or 'The Tough Guide to Fantasyland'. If it's the latter, then replace that title with 'City of Ruin', which I own but haven't taken a photo of.


Thursday

Today's challenge is to make an acrostic poem, hosted by Harley Bear Book Blog. The task is to take a book title and use each letter to make a word. Here's mine:

Wednesday

Create a cover! This is being hosted by I Talk Books, and the challenge is simple: re-design a book cover! I picked Wool by Hugh Howey, and created this with the help of my husband. Enjoy! ;-) 

 
Monday

Book spine poem time! This is being hosted at Escape Through the Pages.

The rules are: create a poem using book titles. You get as many extra words as you have books in your poem. I'm already breaking the rules because I actually have two more words than I do books. Technically, I can do it without cheating, as I can replace 'I call' with 'are', and remove 'and', but I think this throws off the rhythmn a bit, so I prefer this version.

This is a little tribute to the poem within the book The Stars My Destination, which is also one of the books in the stack. :-)

I've titled it:

'The Science Fiction and Fantasy Author'

I'm the master puppeteer,
And Neverwhere my nation.
Magic and stone I call my home,
The stars my destination.

Authors Who Look Like Their Book Covers

Ever heard that saying that pet owners look like their pets? Well, lately I’ve been noticing something fun in the world of publishing... authors who look like their books!

Not sure what I mean? Check these out.

 Throne of Glass (left) and its author Sarah J Maas (right)

 Glamour in Glass (left) and its author Mary Robinette Kowal (right)

 Artificial Evil (left) and its author Colin F Barnes (right)

Remembrance (left), Timeless (centre), and their author Michelle Madow.

Okay, this one is a bit more of a push, but imagine her with curled hair and a mask.

 Good Omens (left) and its authors Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman (right).

This one is a little different, as the authors don't look exactly like the characters as pictured on the cover. However, the photo is deliberately taken to resemble the two main characters in the story, the demon Crowley (Neil Gaiman), and the angel Aziraphale (Terry Pratchett). It's one of my favourite author photos.

So, have you noticed any authors who look like their covers, or who resemble characters in their books? Got any author-booky-look-a-likes to add to my list? :-)

Pulp Pride and Prejudice

 

These are just so funny - I had to share them with you. Pulp! the Classics is a new imprint that's given some classic books' covers a retro, pulpy twist. I particularly love the Pride and Prejudice one.

You can find more here.



What do you think?









(I found these through Twitter via @gavreads)

Bout of Books - Tuesday's Mini-Challenges

There are two mini-challenges today and they're both cover related! Over at Never Too Fond of Books, Mandi has challenged us to guess the upcoming releases from the close-ups of their covers. This is quite a tough one, and I don't think I'm going to be able to get them all. Go take a look and see how many you can get. And don't forget to email her your answers to be in with a chance of winning the prize!