Teresa D'Amario

Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category

Yep, so sorry for taking so long on this contest. 

Vicki, you won a copy of Christine Ashworth’s Demon Soul!

Now I know I have your email address somewhere, but just to make sure, so there are no mistakes, please email me at desertpetiri@aol.com so I can get it to Christine!

Yep, we have a winner, and I can’t wait to hear what she has to say about her prize. First, for all those who were so kind as to post their favorites, it was so nice to see such a wonderful VARIETY of responses. It shows we all like different things in our reading, and there is no one type of paranormal for everyone. That’s so kewl.

The winner, by a length is:

Shannon J!  congratulations Shannon!  You can email me at desertpetiri@aol.com with your address and I’ll get the RTC’s out to you as well as your ecopy of SheWolf!  And Thank you everyone for participating!  Happy Easter to you all!

Today’s Cover Art is Piper’s Fury – now THIS is a fascinating cover.  First, I apologize for not getting the interview post to go with this beautiful cover, but Rachel and I kind of “missed” each other yesterday, but I’m still showing you this AWESOME cover.  Talk about dark and interesting!  Ash did an awesome job.

Passion of the Soul: Piper’s Fury
by Rachel Firasek

Purchase e-Book
Purchase Print
Genre: Paranormal Romance
ISBN: 978-0-9828200-5-6
Length: Novel
Publication Date: March 2011
Cover art by Ash Arceneaux

It’s an empath thing…

Using your “powers” to help the Dark Hills Police Department hunt down serial killers doesn’t leave much time for dating. Not that Piper Anast is complaining. The last thing she needs is some guy brushing up against her and pumping his pornographic thoughts into her head.

When she meets Bennett Slade, a sexy, tormented vampire, Piper stumbles headlong into a telepathic connection with his missing daughter. She can’t leave the kid to the evil surrounding her unwanted visions, nor can she resist her draw to Slade. He’s the first guy she’s been able to touch vision-free in, well, forever.

As she and Slade close in on the evil creature holding his daughter, Piper’s powers morph into a deadly fury. To save Slade’s daughter-and herself-Piper must face down demons she never knew she had and trust the one thing she keeps from everyone.

Her heart.

I do, but be kind, yours truly made it. LOL

Rachel’s Website

Buy Piper’s Fury: 

• Crescent Moon Press
• Amazon for Kindle
• Barnes & Noble Nook

Excerpt

Copyright © Rachel Firasek
All rights reserved — a Crescent Moon Press publication

“How do you do it?”

“Do what?”

“Feed,” I said.

He grinned. “Your mind amazes me, Piper. It flits from one subject to the next. Do you ever find peace?”

I shrugged. He was avoiding my question with one of his own. “How?”

“If I tell you, do you promise not to run in horror?”

Good question. What if he showed me something repulsive like the fangs of a snake? I’d seen Gage’s fangs, but what if they were little because he was a baby vamp? What if they kept growing? Would I be able to look at him the same again? “Yes. I promise.”

“Give me your wrist.”

I tentatively stretched my arm out, wrist up. He kept hold of my hand and raised it to his face.

I wrenched it back to cradle against my chest, “I didn’t say you could feed on me.”

“Piper, I would not feed from you without your permission. Trust me.”

“No tasting either.”

He shook with suppressed laughter. “I promise.”

I stretched my arm back out to him and once again he raised it to his face. This time, he ran his nose along the vein running up my wrist, tickling me whenever he brushed my skin, but it was a tickle I wanted to continue forever.

“Open your eyes.”

I wasn’t even aware they’d drifted shut. My lids flickered open and my eyes met the blue flame flickering behind his.

“What?”

“Watch.” He opened his mouth. His canine teeth, slightly longer than before, subtly shifted in his gum line.

“Wow. That was cool. Can you make them go up and down?”

He snapped his teeth together. “I am not a freak for your entertainment. I do not ask you to touch everyone who passes to see what kind of life they have lived.”

Obviously, I’d struck a nerve. “I’m sorry. I guess I expected something bigger. Like the fangs of a cobra or something.”

“Well, I am sorry to disappoint you.” He turned his face away from me to hide the pained expression my words had caused. I grasped his strong chin and turned his face back toward mine.

“I’m sorry. It was just a little startling, that’s all. I didn’t mean to poke fun at you.”

He leaned into my hand. His slight stubble scraped along my palm and I found myself exploring the hard angles of his face, firm muscle wrapped over steel. I let my hand slide along his neck to tease the hair curling gently at his collar. His eyes shut, allowing me the freedom to watch the emotions shift across his skin.

Dark and strong. Two simple words to describe the vulnerable strength in this anything-but-simple man. I craved the taste of him again. Leaning forward, I slid my parted lips across his. His intake of breath encouraged me to run the tip of my tongue along the seam of his mouth, teasing for entry. His eyes opened and I pulled back.

“You were kissing me with your eyes open.”

“Yes.”

He touched my cheek. “Why?”

“I wanted to watch your face.”

“Your honesty, Piper, is what I like most about you.” His hands braced my head and he pulled me back down for another kiss. This time, he took control and deepened the assault on my senses. His tongue plunged into my mouth, sliding along mine and withdrawing only to plunge in again, coating my taste buds with his minty flavor. He tilted my head for better access and drove his tongue even deeper. A moan escaped him, sounding almost like a growl.

I broke away. “Am I hurting you?”

“No. Less talk, more kissing.”

“But—”

Talk was overrated, anyway. He leaned deeper into me and explored my mouth the same way you nibble the cherry out of a cordial at Christmas. Delicious. When he moved to tease my jaw with his teeth, I asked, “Slade, will you show me the other way?”

He had worked down to my neck and a ragged breath escaped me when he worked the skin between his teeth. My stomach tightened and a dampness gathered in my panties. “What other way?”

“You said there were two ways to feed.”

His head rose from the crook of my neck and I completely forgot to breath. The heat in his eyes made my anger look like a holiday. Fire surged from his body and ate through my skin. Power. Pure energy. Little sparks darted between us like one of those static balls at the mall.

“You do not realize what you are asking.”

“You won’t hurt me, will you?” In my heart, I knew he wouldn’t. He was too gentle, too careful.

“Never.”

“Well, show me a little of this so-called addictive euphoria.” Curiosity usually never affected me, but with him, I wanted to know everything. Knowledge killed fear. “You give it to strangers—why not me?”

He kissed the pout from my lips and I grinned. Feminine wiles win again.

“Stand up.”

I stood and waited.

“Shut your eyes and turn around.”

“Why?”

“Trust me.”

“Fine.” I snapped my eyes closed and took a leap of faith by turning around. Several seconds passed before the rustling of fabric warned me Slade had removed his shirt. His voice rumbled close to my ear. “Raise your arms.”

My arms went into the air as if his voice be-spelled them somehow. “Why?”

“Would you quit asking that?”

“No.”

His soft chuckle made me grin. He tugged my t-shirt clear of my jeans and I spun around. “Whoa, what are you doing?”

“I want your skin against mine when I do this. It will be much better this way. I promise.”

“Do I look stupid to you?”

“No. You look gorgeous. Now take off your shirt.”

“Why?”

“You are most exasperating. You asked me to do this!”

“Why won’t you tell me what you’re going to do?”

He ran a hand through his dark hair. “Fine. I am removing your shirt because, if we get carried away, I do not want blood on your clothes.”

“Blood? I didn’t say you could feed.”

“Piper, this will be good and when it is, you may ask me to bite you. I will not be able to deny you. If you want to stop, you had better do it now. I will not be able to later. Not with you.”

“I don’t want to stop—I just don’t buy your reasoning.”

“Humor me and turn back around. I am trying to be a gentleman.” I gave him my back, feeling vulnerable and exposed as he drew my shirt over my head. The soft curls on his chest pressed against me. I leaned back and met the strong wall of steel.

He tensed and pulled my arms away from my body. “Who did this?”

I’d forgotten about the deep purple bruising on my upper arms. “Gage.”

“Gage?” He blinked. “He should not have had the strength to do this on his own. What has that monster done to him?”

I shrugged and would have turned around if Slade’s grip wasn’t so tight. His thumbs softly stroked the bruising. “Does it hurt?”

“Nah. Can we get back to what we were doing? What happens next?”

He chuckled. “Listen. Listen to air. Listen until you hear nothing but the air around you.”

What did he mean, listen to air? I stood still, listening to the soft sound of his breath teasing the top of my head. I was a good foot shorter than he was and felt miniscule against his mass.

After a few moments of relaxing and listening to nothing, a soft breeze floated along my skin. With it came the scent of vanilla. Warm. Inviting. I felt myself sway toward it. Slade’s hard hands caught my upper arms and pulled me tighter to him.

“Listen,” he whispered.

Then I heard it. A bell, soft chimes, ringing in my ear. “What is it?”

“That is the sound of the power. Now feel it.” He placed his arms around me and engulfed me in his strong embrace. Heat rushed in, and at first, it was almost painful. Then came the liquid fire coursing through my veins. Following the fire, a lust so sinful all rationality fled. I wilted against him, wanting to feel more of the hardness pressed against my back.

His breathing shifted. Soft, warm pants tickled my neck. “Piper, turn around and look at me.”

I did as he asked because there was nothing else I wanted to do. He was my everything at that moment.

“Your eyes…” He held my head tightly in his palms. “Piper, what are you?”

Don’t forget to also drop by The Easter Hop Blog post also from April 15th.

Lifeline Echoes, by Kay Springsteen

Voices form a powerful connection. The day the earth rocked LA, Sandy Wheaton became a voice lifeline over the radio for trapped firefighter, “Mick.” Less than twenty four hours later, she had fallen in love with him. Shattered when she learned that rescue came too late, she sought solace Wyoming, the home state he had loved. Now, seven years later, she’s made a life there as the owner of a popular local bar. But her wounds are still fresh, and she longs to let go of the past and her lost love so she can begin living again. That opportunity presents itself when the local prodigal son returns home. The attraction between them is instant. It feels like she’s known him far longer than just a few days. 

Sixteen years ago, Ryan McGee left home in the midst of controversy. After living through a harrowing trauma, he finally returns home when his family needs his help through some troubling times. All he wants to do is make amends with those he hurt most and to get back to the life he’d never wanted to leave in the first place. When he meets the sexy bartender, he starts thinking interms of forever. But there’s still someone out there he wants to find, someone who once believed in him and gave him hope.

1. What was your first impression of your cover when it arrived in the email? Did you pet the screen for a while?  Pet the screen, lick the screen–tomato, tomahto. I absolutely loved it. Elaina Lee caught the story perfectly, but then this is the second one she’s done for me and she nailed the last one also.

2. What does your book cover say about your book? In a word, I think it says “exciting.”  What special feature does it point to that tells the reader to snatch this up right away to read? The very first thing I noticed was the way she set up the title, Lifeline Echoes, with the cardiac trace running through the word Lifeline, and the word Echoes showing up with shadows, or echoes behind/around it. It was intriguing how she used the title to create a picture.

3. So tell me a little about your cover artist? Elaina is a very talented artist, who, when given the premise of the book, maybe a few key words or elements of the story, works magic to create the perfect cover. She also creates related promotional items for authors — she is able to pretty much work with any comcept. Her site shows some great examples, not only of her coverart but of the promotional materials, from bookmarks to magnets, to business cards to postcards, and so much more. But in addition to her art, Elaina is also a published author. I think this gives her just a bit of insight into the unique needs and desire of the authors with whom she works. She “gets it,” when we tell her what we’re looking for.

Do you know if he or she has a webpage? If so, do you have the link?

Her artist website  And her Author website:  And of course, her Blog: 

And you can friend her at Facebook: 

4. What feedback have you gotten back from readers? With both of the covers she did for me, I’ve gotten excellent feedback. She gets me and my stories, and the covers contain not only eye-catching elements, but they are appealing for their great use of color as well. The minute I posted each cover (one in February for a March release, and one in March for an April release) on Facebook, I got an amazing amount of hits on the Facebook like button.

Lifeline Echoes and Heartsight are both available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Smashwords, as well as Astraea Press. However, purchases of Heartsight made at the Astraea Press website will generate a $2 per copy donation to the USO Wounded Warrior Program from now until June 1, 2011.  Purchases of Lifeline Echoes made at Astraea Press website will generate a $1 per copy donation to the American Red Cross for the relief effort in Japan, until July 5, 2011.

You can find Kay at the following locations:

Facebook and her Blog

Your book trailer is chilling.  I should have used it for my book trailer seminar I put on my site here.  The music, the words, and the thoughts behind it.  What an awesome job!

Pull out the marching band folks, we have a winner for Jessa Slade’s book, Vowed in Shadow!  Using the wonderful joys of Randomizer.org – our winner is……

Drumroll please

Gracie Alexander!!

Gracie!  Email me at desertpetiri@aol.com with your address and I’ll get it to Jessa!

This is Sean’s Story – Blurb and excerpt coming soon!

How did I make those awesome morphs??? You would be surprised. LOL. It’s not as hard as you would think. I did have to buy a new program though, when I moved into windows 7, because what I was using had too much trouble. The new program I’m using is called Abrasoft Fantamorph. It’s great, you open the program, and add two photos – the start, and the ending. Then you mark points. The more points, the better the morph.

I start with the eyes.  I click in the center of the iris of the left eye on the first picture, and it creates a matching mark on the resulting photo.  You click and drag on the right picture to the center of the left eye that corresponds to the same exact location.  And then I mark the center of the left eye on the wolf.  Then the right eye.  If the photos are clear enough, I’ll even go as far as marking all the way around the eyeball, where the white changes to color, or where the lid comes down. 

Why do I start with the eyes?  Because it’s what the person watching it will watch the closest.  It sets the “center” of the viewing.  The eyes have to be perfect. 

The nice thing about fantamorph is that it lets you actually view the session at different times of the morph so you can see if there are any errors, so you can play with the dots until everything looks smooth.

Another thing important is to have the program show the first slide and last slide for 7-10 seconds. That’s because the human eye is going to truly freak out if all you put is the morph. The first part is like having a slide in your trailer – and you can add text if you like, but stop the text before the morph begins if at all possible. You’ll see the example looks like it takes forever to get started, but it’s because it will be inserted into the trailer with the music and slides on either side, so it will blend together better.

Here’s a draft of my next morph.  It matches the photo you see above, except on the right side where I have since fixed the shoulder so the green merges better.  This is not the entire trailer, I’ll be releasing that very soon – but is just the morph of Sean from Blood Moon Betrayed. There’s no sound, so you don’t get that much of a “sneak peak”, but you do get the basics. :)

I’m off to the dentist now. I hope you have enjoyed the last two weeks on “how to make a book trailer.

Marketing your book trailer is next. You laid it out. You picked your music, you adjusted it till you are blue in the face, and at long last you are satisified it will do exactly what you want: Sell your book. Now what do you do?

The first place you want to go is to Youtube to upload your video. Yes, it’s easy! I promise. Take a deep breath, create your account and follow their instructions. Make sure you put keywords just as you do for your book any palce you list it.

Go to your Facebook account, and upload your video (they do sometimes allow links from youtube, but mostly you have to upload it to every site on facebook you go to).

Put it on your goodreads account
List it on twitter
Talk about it
Enter it in contests! Anything to get your video “Seen”.
Your video cannot market your book if nobody sees it! Talk about video book trailers. share them with others. If you a great trailer – leavea comment, and maybe a link with your own.

Put it on your website, using the youtube “embed” code. Everyone makes it easy for you at this point, but they aren’t going to do it for you. So get out there! Remember, if you don’t share it, neither will anyone else, because they won’t know it is out there.

Does your book trailer sell books? Nobody knows for sure.

So what’s left after you market your marketing material? Come back tomorrow to see how I talk about making the morph from man to beast.

In the meantime, tell me where you plan to share YOUR video! And if you have been following along and made your own, give us the link – we wanna see!