SLCLS Reader’s Choice Award nominee!

Great news, folks!

Salt Lake County Library System notified me in an email this morning that VENGEANCE BORN has been selected as a nominee for their semi-annual Reader’s Choice Award. It's one of twenty six titles chosen by readers across 18 libraries!!! Voting will be open until November 1st, 2013. 

What a fantastic way to begin my morning getting this news!

VENGEANCE BORN wins Cover Cafe contest!

I came home to some awesome news this arvo - Vengeance Born has won the 2012 Alternate Reality section of the Cover Cafe's cover contest. I'm stoked!

Gene Mollica (cover artist) will be thrilled. The cover was 1/100 entries in this section! Thanks to everyone who took the time to vote and/or spread the word!

Reader's comments can be seen over at the Cover Cafe!

And a huge shout out to fellow Aussie romance authors, Fiona Lowe & Nikki Logan who took out their sections with Boomerang Bride (Contemporary) & Wild Encounter (Series) respectively.

GUEST BLOGGING over at GLIAS!

Get thee over to Get Lost in a Book!

Angi asks the hard questions of my Light Blade warriors - Kalan, Varian & Arek. You find out more about these awesome men.

Oh, and did I mention there's an international giveaway going begging?

There is a question posed at the end of the blog that you MUST answer though!!!!


This is the very last stop on my blog tour - see you there!

Booksellers Best Award finalist!

Some great news to share - an email arrived from the Greater Detroit RWA Booksellers Best Award  organiser to inform me VENGEANCE BORN is a finalist in the Paranormal/Time Travel/Futuristic section AS WELL AS the Best First Book section. Woohoo!!!

Results announced at the BBA Reception on July 17 following the RWAmerica Literacy Signing.

Full list of finalists here.

Goodreads Giveaways Galore!!!

Two special Light Blade series giveaways are happening over at Goodreads for anyone in Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, and various Asian countries, folks!

Here's the link for VENGEANCE BORN.

 Here's the link for ALLEGIANCE SWORN.

Good luck!

COVER CONTEST - VENGEANCE BORN is a finalist!!!

VENGEANCE BORN is a best cover finalist in the Cover Cafe’s 2012 Alternate Reality category.

Every year Cover Cafe picks the best romance covers and run a contest where readers can vote for  their favourite cover in a number of categories.

Voting has now started - so mosey on over and cast yours!!!

Hats off to Gene Mollica, my awesome cover artist for VENGEANCE BORN!

FANTASTIC FABLES over at Dark Faerie Tales

Head on over to Dark Faerie Tales and find out what fairytale themes resonated with me when I wrote ALLEGIANCE SWORN.

And to entice you - your choice in a giveaway - but there's one catch, you have to answer this question – Which fairytale is your favourite and why?

Will I see you over there? I hope so!

GUEST BLOGGING over at Sassy Book Lovers!

There's a visual feast (aka Heart-Pounding Heroes & Breath-taking Heroines) for your eyes over at Sassy Book Lovers this morning, folks!

And these guys put in an appearance.

Interested? Intrigued?

Then get thee over there and if you join in the discussion you'll be put in the draw for not one but TWO giveaways.

BARGAINS for readers!

There are a number of discounts running at the moment for the Light Blade series. A bargain for readers (or your chance to hook a friend on a new series)!

VENGEANCE BORN (trade paperback)
Amazon (60% off)
B&N (70% off)
Booktopia (30% off)
Fishpond (52% off)
The Book Depository (7% off)

VENGEANCE BORN (mass market)
Amazon (10% off)
Booktopia (35% off)
Fishpond (62% off)
The Book Depository (7% off)


ALLIANCE FORGED (trade)
Amazon (18% off)
B&N (3% off)
Booktopia (25% off)
Fishpond (55% off)
The Book Depository (7% off)
Kindle (33% off)






ALLEGIANCE SWORN (trade)
Amazon (31% off)
B&N (31% off)
Booktopia (22% off)
Fishpond (50% off)
The Book Depository (6% off)
Kindle  (38% off)

Last Days - Goodreads Giveaways!

There are three books up for grabs over on Goodreads:

• Vengeance Born (mass market paperback)
• Alliance Forged (trade size)
• & Allegiance Sworn (trade size).

The deadline for entering is March 31st, 2013.

Don't miss out!

Goodreads Giveaways Galore!

With the release of ALLEGIANCE SWORN exactly a month away, it's time to begin the party with a triple giveaway!

Yes, you read that right - a TRIPLE giveaway!

Not one book.

Not two books.

But THREE books of Light Blade goodness.

• VENGEANCE BORN

• ALLIANCE FORGED

and

• ALLEGIANCE SWORN

All are now listed over at Goodreads (they're also listed in the side bar of this blog) - get thee there and enter! Good luck!!!

Dark Side DownUnder Halloween Blog-Hop!!!

Happy Halloween and Happy 2nd Anniversary to the Dark Side DownUnder blog!!!

Where has the time gone? It only seems like yesterday our Romance Writers of Australia Paranormal e-loop conceived the idea of starting up a blog to showcase our wonderfully, talented local writers (published and unpublished) from Australia and New Zealand.

Well, here we are two years down the track and still going strong! And to celebrate some of us have joined together to participate in a Dark Side DownUnder 2nd Anniversary Blog-Hop and boy, do we have some goodies to giveaway!

But first, let's get into the Halloween spirit and talk scary things (but not too terrifying as I'm a bit of a wuss when it comes to creepy things)!

I'm not one for horror or anything that scares the pants off me, strange considering I write about the paranormal, things like demons, mythical creatures (some good, some bad), magic, evil characters and unknowns that go bump in the night.

But for the fun of it, and because it's Halloween, I'm going to share my Top 10 List of Scary Movies (these might date me but growing up watching these movies cured me for the rest of my adult life):

*A Nightmare on Elm Street (I only watched part of one - I did say I was a big, 'fraidy cat - and could never face another incarnation of it after the first. The only guy with claws that I like is Wolverine!







* Texas Chainsaw Massacre (I never looked at a meat hook in a butchers shop the same again, a blood 'n'guts movie that scarred me for life!) 





* Friday the 13th (thanks to Jason killed one of the campers with a knife through the throat coming up from under the bed, I trained myself to sleep on my stomach) 



* IT (hate, hate, hate clowns and sewer drains)



 



* The Sixth Sense (this wasn't so bad, I think I prefer inferential horror to actually seeing the scary bits - this movie had me sitting on the edge of my seat and my imagination working over time. It was just damn creepy, loved the twist at the end though!)


* Poltergeist (as a teen I believed in poltergeists and it scared the jeheebers out of me and to this day the crackle/prickle of the TV turning off as well as the residual light swirls on the screen as it powers down creep me out) 


*Jaws (water skiing after seeing this was never the same)








*Alien (I watched this at a slumber party when I was 10y.o. - who's bright idea was it to show this movie to a bunch kids???? - couldn't finish watching it and spent the night hiding in my sleeping bag)






*The Omen (my cousin was named Damien, I watched him like a hawk after this movie)







*Carrie (read the book before I saw the movie, awesome telekinetic powers)







On the flip side, one of my all time favorite Halloween themed movies has werewolves, lycans and vampires. Besides starring a certain hunky blond, which I have to admit was a huge draw card, I loved the premise of a mutated virus infecting humans to create two races of supernatural creatures that then spend the next few hundred years at war with one another.

The idea of a vampire and lycan falling in love and breaking all the rules appealed to my Shakespearean love of tragedies (and romance writers heart), although in this case the hero and heroine do have a happily ever after!

And on that HEA note, I think it's time for the 'treat' part of Halloween! My treat - well, I have a Light Blade Book Pack to giveaway (signed copies of VENGEANCE BORN & ALLIANCE FORGED). Two of them actually!!! Just in time for Christmas to give away as gifts to someone or to keep for yourself.

To enter my giveaway, there's some legwork is required, but that's half the fun of a Halloween Blog-Hop! Just fill out the Rafflecopter form as you like (it has plenty of chances for you to enter).

Good luck!

And if you'd want to see what other treats are up for grabs with the other Dark Side DownUnder authors, see the details below. 

DARK SIDE DOWNUNDER HALLOWEEN BLOG-HOP PRIZES:

• The Dark Side DownUnder authors are offering print books, ebooks and other goodies at their blogs.
• The big prize is a $30 Amazon gift voucher.

Here are the rules to the blog hop:

1. To be eligible to win a prize on the blogs, the reader must do as what’s instructed on each blog by 11.59pm 4th November Australian Eastern Daylight Savings Time.
2. To be eligible to win the Amazon voucher, the participants must comment on each participating blog. Only one comment needed. Multiple comments will be ignored for the purposes of the contest.
3. Have fun!

Halloween Special - 2nd Blogiversary Participants

1. Eleni Konstantine 2. Mel Teshco 3. Nicole Murphy 4. Imogene Nix 5. Christina Phillips aka Christina Ashcroft 6. Amanda Ashby 7. Jenny Schwartz 8. Shona Husk 9. Maree Anderson

10. Kylie Griffin 11. Lilliana Rose 12. Nicole Hurley-Moore 13. Eden Summers 14. Erica Hayes 15. Sandra Harris 16. Keziah Hill 17. S E Gilchrist 18. DSDU

Powered by... Mister Linky's Magical Widgets.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Another REVIEW of VENGEANCE BORN

Seems to be the day for reviews popping up on Google Alerts! :-)

This one is from Errant Dreams Reviews. A snippet:

I even ended up reading that part of the book a second time—it’s one of those fictions where it’s fascinating to go back and look at what came before knowing how the rest of the story ends. I’m certainly glad to have discovered Griffin’s Light Blade series.

Full review here.

REVIEW of VENGEANCE BORN

An insightful review of VENGEANCE BORN over at Ren's Little Corner. I've linked to the English version and while some of the sentence structure and cohesion of Ren's review is lost (thanks to Google's literal translation), you get the gist of it.

Thanks, Ren, and I'm so glad you enjoyed the first in the Light Blade series! :-)

REVIEW of VENGEANCE BORN

An incredible review for VENGEANCE BORN from Kaydid in Oz.

Snippets from the review:

Here’s the thing that’s really great about this series: the religion. Stop backing away. This isn’t a scary-religious-fanatic fantasy romance. But it is a fantasy romance where religion plays an enormous part in the world, and therefore in the story. And, if you want it to, it can work as a pretty powerful message about the role religion plays in this world too. But it’s never a ‘hey look at me and my allegory! Aren’t I clever with all this allegory I’m doing here?!’ narrative...

...there’s the deft handling of spirituality in a way that I haven’t seen in recent times, an acknowledgement that a belief system is a powerful force, even if we try not to recognise it, and that for all the strife it can cause, it can be an enormous force for good as well.

Bottom line: Vengeance Born is a thought-provoker, but you might not necessarily notice, wrapped up as it is in the trappings of an entertaining fantasy novel, with a little road trip romance in the middle.

All I can say is wow and thanks! :-)

Full review here.

REVIEW for VENGEANCE BORN

A very nice review for VENGEANCE BORN from Barb over at The Reading Cafe!

Vengeance Born by Kylie Griffin, is the first book in her Light Blade series.  This is a book about two couples, one a half demon and the other a human warrior. Vengeance Born is a Fantasy Romance, and totally different then most romance stories.  It is a story of two unlikely people, who come together to help each other survive a deadly situation.  It is a story of trust, prejudice and how love can change anything.

Thank you, TRC!

Review for VENGEANCE BORN!

A very cool review for VENGEANCE BORN from We Fancy Books!

Snippet:

Would you trust a person who was born to kill your kind? Will you trust a demon because she saved your life? A journey of trust, love and acceptance Kylie Griffin will hold you into your seat gasping for more!

From the very start of this novel I was really intrigued by the premise of this book. It got me awhile before I finish it because I don’t really want to end the novel so soon. It was an awesome read. A story back up with a great characters; I was totally in it!...I rarely read Paranormal Romance but I think it’s safe to say that this is a great start of a wonderful series. 

Thank you, WFB!

Books Fighting Cancer!

Having friends with or lost relatives to various forms of cancer, when I was approached by Chelsea from the Vampire Book Club to donate something for their Books Fighting Cancer Charity Auction, I agreed.

Vengeance Born book banner

Rather than double up on the details & deadlines you can read all about the Charity Auction here.

Suffice to say there are some rather excellent prizes up for grabs - check out the list!

My contribution is in the Urban Fantasy Set (a copy of VENGEANCE BORN & a matching banner of the book cover).

Click the links below to view the auction, get details on bidding and, of course, stake your claim on the great prizes.

Moira Rogers’ Prize Pack including a year’s worth of ARCs! (15 books)
Avon Romance Prize Pack with signed books and character names from Jeaniene Frost, Lynsay Sands, Joss Ware & Pamela Palmer (8 books)
Necklace designed by True Blood’s Kristin Bauer van Straten
Complete, Signed Set of Meljean Brook’s Guardians Series (7 books)
Urban Fantasy Set 1 featuring Jim Butcher, Allison Pang, Jaye Wells, Seanan McGuire, E.S. Moore and Kylie Griffin (8 books)
Urban Fantasy Set 2 featuring Jess Haines, Barbara Ashford, E.S. Moore, Linda Poitevin, Devon Monk, Stacia Kane & Alma Katsu (8 books)
YA Prize Pack featuring signed books from Jennifer Estep, Julie Kagawa and more (8 books)
Signed J.R. Ward, Sherrilyn Kenyon and Liz Maverick set (5 books)
Signed sets from Stacey Jay and Cassie Alexander (4 books)
Signed books from Christine Cody and Chris Marie Green (6 books)
Signed set of Dark Mission novels from Karina Cooper and Character Name (3 books)
Signed books from Amanda Bonilla and character named after you! (2 books)
Romance Prize Pack featuring Meljean Brook, J.A. Saare, Jennifer Estep, more (8 books)
PNR Prize Pack featuring Laurie London, Shiloh Walker, Lynsay Sands (6 books)
Signed books from Jenn Bennett, chance to be Lon’s ex (2 books)
Signed books from Kristen Painter (3 books)
Signed copy, character name in new Carolyn Crane novel

Happy bidding!!! And thank you!

Good news!!!

Well, the earthquake may have been the herald to a day filled with good news *grin*.

First - ALLEGIANCE SWORN (Bk#3) has a tentative release date (to be confirmed) of April 2013. It's already up and available for pre-order at The Book Depository!

Second - Berkley has decided to release VENGEANCE BORN in mass market paperback, also with a release date of April 2013!!! Woohoo!!! I can't wait to see it! It's also available for pre-order from The Book Depository and has a 25% off RRP at the moment!

Still grinning!

REVIEW over at Not Your Ordinary Book Banter

How wonderful to discover that a book group based at the Bangor Public Library (Maine, USA) had VENGEANCE BORN on their summer reading list.

To top it all off, a lovely person called Jan reviewed it for their Not Your Ordinary Book Banter blog AND ordered a copy of both VENGEANCE BORN and ALLIANCE FORGED for the library!!!

I gave a hoo-rah when I read this snippet in the review.

I came across this author while downloading a bunch of samples to my eReader.  For the record, I have decided that eReader samples are a marvelous thing.  I usually get my first twenty-five pages from a sample, and from there, if the author has intrigued me, I borrow it from the library.  Or, if I just can't wait one more day---I buy the book!


I bought this book.

Then I let loose a squee, for this comment!

For those of you who like books by Nalini Singh, I would recommend you try this author.

And I was grinning like a loon with these closing thoughts.

With that said, there was depth to this story, especially concerning racial prejudice.  I was engrossed by the fantasy world Griffin created.  She formed a believable war between two races fueled by ignorance and prejudices on both sides.  It was an enjoyable read, and in many ways thought provoking---with a happy ending, of course!

Alliance Forged is the next book in this series.  I have ordered both books for the library's collection.

You can read the review in its entirety here.