Winter Solstice Advent Countdown, Week 2.

I pulled my beret out of the coat pocket where I'd shoved it that morning and perched it on my head at what I hoped was a perky angle, using my reflection in a shop window as a guide. As I adjusted my hat, I noticed a man leaning against the building on the opposite side of the street.  That struck me as odd -- he wasn't one of our regular street people, and we were in the middle of the block, nowhere near a bus stop. I turned to get a better look at him, but he was gone. Must have ducked into the building. But I knew he hadn't time while I turned around. Maybe he was finishing a cigarette when I noticed him. Except that he hadn't been smoking.

I shrugged mentally and continued on. I'd gone about another block when an owl suddenly swooped past me, hooting. Startled, I grabbed onto my hat and stepped back. The owl hooted again, flew another hundred yards or so down the street, and then veered up and into the darkness.

"Okay, things are getting just a little too weird around here," I said aloud, and then clapped my gloved hand over my mouth.

-- From Seized

Tapped is off to a good start! It's now available just about everywhere in both e-book and paperback, including at Kobo, Barnes and Noble, and the Apple iBooks store, in addition to Amazon and Smashwords.  Thanks to those who have purchased it so far; you're all my new best friends.  And again, if you liked the book, please go back where you bought it and leave a review.  Indie authors' sales tend to live and die by the reviews they receive. Thanks in advance!

In addition, Tapped is one of the books featured at the Orangeberry Virtual Book Expo for the next couple of weeks.  I've got some blog stops scheduled this week in connection with the expo. Check the Tour Dates tab for more info.

One other housekeeping thing: Smashwords asked me to take down the preview for Gravid because it wasn't a complete book.  So I've moved it here to the blog.  The same caveats as before (re spoilers, etc.) apply.

Now then: Congratulations and a round of applause, please, for Chuck Myers, who wins last week's contest for the Cosmic Coyote pin. Way to go, Chuck! 

As I said, the prizes will be getting a little bigger as time goes on. This week, we have a $10 Amazon gift card (I know -- ho-hum, right?) and a way cool two-inch-wide pin featuring the fractal owl from the cover of Seized.  I had a limited number of these made to hand out at the World Fantasy Convention in Toronto last month, and this is the last one. (Except for mine, which nobody can have, muahaha!)

The rules follow and the place to enter is below.  Good luck, everybody! 

The Rules (sorry, gotta have 'em):

1. Friends and family may definitely enter.
2. Winners from my previous contest may win again.  However, winners from previous weeks in *this* contest may not win *this* contest again.
3. If there is no winner one week, the prize(s) will be added to the following week's contest.  I am getting this stuff out of my house, one way or the other.
4. As always, the judge's decisions are arbitrary, capricious, and final.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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These moments of bloggy generosity are brought to you, as a public service, by Lynne Cantwell.

Winter Solstice Advent Countdown, Week 1.

Joseph howled. He shed his jeans jacket and shirt. And then he changed.

He had always shielded me from seeing him shift. I mean, I had seen him do it in his battle with Loki in the time-out-of-time. But those were spirit shifts, if you will; no actual human body was involved. Body parts just sort of melted and reformed there.

But here in the real world, it was real, and it looked painful.

-- from Fissured

It's release day for Tapped!  The e-book with the glowy wolf on the cover is now available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and in all kinds of formats from Smashwords.*  (The paperback, with the same cool cover, will go on sale sometime this week.)

In celebration of the new book -- and because, as you know, this year's winter solstice is a Very Big Deal in the Pipe Woman Chronicles -- I'm going to run a contest every week for the next three weeks.  The prizes will get bigger as the month goes on, with a grand prize in the final week.  (Not to say the Cosmic Coyote pin isn't cool. By the way, the pin looks huge in the box below, but in real life, it's two inches square.)

Um, well, I don't know what else to say here.  Hope you enjoy Tapped (and if you do, please go back to where you bought it and leave me a review -- thanks, you rock!), check out the contest rules below, and good luck!

* Alert readers of the Smashwords version of Tapped will find a link at the very end of the book to the first two chapters of Gravid: Book Four of the Pipe Woman Chronicles.  I'm providing these chapters with some misgivings.  First, Gravid was my NaNo project this year, so this is only a first draft and may change (a little or a lot!) by the time the book is published in the spring. Second, there is a major Tapped spoiler, right up front, that I could not take out.  Sooo...if you should decide to read the sneak peek on Smashwords before you read Tapped, don't come crying to me that it ruined Tapped for you.  Okay?  Okay.  Just so we're clear.

The Rules (sorry, gotta have 'em):

1. Friends and family may definitely enter.
2. Winners from my previous contest may win again.  However, winners from previous weeks in *this* contest may not win *this* contest again.
3. If there is no winner one week, the prize(s) will be added to the following week's contest.  I am getting this stuff out of my house, one way or the other.
4. As always, the judge's decisions are arbitrary, capricious, and final.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

***
These moments of celebratory blogginess are brought to you, as a public service, by Lynne Cantwell.