For Kira Solomon, normal was never an option.

Kira’s day job is an antiquities expert, but her true calling is as a Shadowchaser. Trained from youth to be one of the most lethal Chasers in existence, Kira serves the Gilead Commission dispatching the Fallen who sow discord and chaos. Of course, sometimes Gilead bureaucracy is as much a thorn in her side as anything the Fallen can muster against her. Right now, though, she’s got a bigger problem. Someone is turning the city of Atlanta upside-down in search of a four-millennia-old Egyptian dagger that just happens to have fallen into Kira’s hands.

Then there’s Khefar, the dagger’s true owner—a near-immortal 4000-year-old Nubian warrior who, Kira has to admit. looks pretty fine for his age. Joining forces is the only way to keep the weapon safe from the sinister Shadow force, but now Kira is in deep with someone who holds more secrets than she does, the one person who knows just how treacherous this fight is. Because every step closer to destroying the enemy is a step closer to losing herself to Shadow forever. . . . (Juno Books…)

Both Amazon and Borders list Shadow Blade by Seressia Glass as releasing on Jan. 26, 2010.

I was surfing the web and stumbled across this C.E. Murphy and Dabel Brothers series that is set to be released in December.

a standstill for the moment. I’ve got a ton of reviews to reformat, and even more to write. I need a full two or three days to focus completely on scooperspeaks.com if I’m ever going to complete it.

I think I’m going to start playing Thursday 13 again on a variety of topics. The site is also going to have more than book reviews now that I’ve got the website. The plan is to put the book reviews up on the blog and at the website at the same time. The website will only be focused on books (all kinds that I read) while the blog will begin to encompass more. Any thoughts?

So I went to Comic-Con/ Wizard World yesterday. It was a blast. There were all kinds of people dressed up and taking pictures. Artist’s alley was filled with talented people. I learned quickly not to look the artist in the eyes. They’d then pitch their product to me. I wanted to browse not buy. Good Lord. Did I just say that?

There was just a ton of things and a lot of it was over priced (pretty normal for festivals). I brought home a ton of freebies for my brother, light swords for my girls (the lights broke on one of them same day) and several Juno books, Buffy trading cards and comic books, and a  cheap metal lunch box for myself.

While I had fun, I’ve decided next year I’d rather go to the RT convention. What’d you do this weekend?

I am so done with parties for this year. No more birthdays or any other kind of party. I’m ready to read until my head explodes and post until my fingers fall off. I’ll be making my rounds to visit all of y’all (anyone who still visits) and I’ll be searching out other reading blogs to add to my blogroll.

It seems the New Year has come early to me. I’m feeling inspired and am ready for a good time. How about you? Any plans you want to share? Have a book blog and want to be added to my blogroll? Leave a comment.

I just wanted to post a small thank you to Paula Guran of Juno. She was my fairy godmother this week. (I wished for Dancing With Werewolves and received it.) I stayed up until 2 a.m. reading the book, which I loved. I’ll be posting a review of it in the coming weeks days. Obviously I enjoyed it. If you want to know what other people thought of it go to Darque Reviews. Dancing With Werewolves will be released Oct. 1, 2007 and you can buy it here.

  (The cover was created by an artist at deviantart.com.)

There are a crap load of books being released next week. I figure that I better get a head start listing them now. Most of the links are to the author’s blog. Only 5 out of the 15 don’t have blogs and while J.D. Robb (Nora Roberts) doesn’t have a blog that I’ve found, she is very active in the online community. The books I’ve listed are all slated to be released in paper on Tuesday.

1. Hunting the Demon by Jaci Burton
2. 74 Seaside Ave. (Cedar cove series 7) by Debbie Macomber
3. Primal Desires (Book 5) by Susan Sizemore
4. Innocent in Death by J.D. Robb
5. The Gathering (Immortals Book 4) by Jennifer Ashley
6. Just Wicked Enough by Lorraine Heath
7. The Royal Mess (Alaskan Royal Family, Book 3) by Mary Janice Davidson
8. Madam’s Deception by Renee Bernard
9. Undercover in High Heels by Gemma Halliday
10. Real Vamps Don’t Drink O-Neg by Tawny Taylor
11. Driven by Eve Kenin
12. Forbidden Fantasy by Cheryl Holt
13. Dark Possession by Christine Feehan
14. Secret Desires of a Soccer Mom by Robyn Harding
15. Bodyguard by Beverly Havlir

Can you believe that another week is over? It seems like this week flew by. My Nalini Singh Caressed by Ice came yesterday and I spent the day reading it. It’s a great book. I’ll be posting my review next week. I’ve been adding several books to my Books Read page and linking to the reviews that I posted for Romance Designs, so check it out!

I did buy Anya Bast’s latest release and I’ll be reading it this weekend. I’ve got two books from Cerridwen Press that I’m reading, Lady Iona’s Rebellion and Eye Witness. Those reviews will be linked to from the Books Read page. I haven’t been surfing like I normally do so I feel a little out of touch. Are there any contests being ran? Any book pimping you want to do? Feel free to post in today’s comments.

On to personal drama, well it’s not drama. My oldest is in summer school this year. I discovered that I could sign her up for enrichment classes for $15 (one benefit to being poor). She’s taking “Cooking up a Book”. The class reads a book then they make some kind of food to connect to the story. For example, they read If You Give a Mouse a Cookie then baked cookies. My daughter acted like she’d never seen cookies made before. She said, “Mom, the cookies were tiny before we put them in the oven, but when they came out they were bigger than my hand.”

They made pigs in a blanket the next day. Yesterday they made playdough and baked bread. She was highly upset that they ran out of time before she got to eat the bread. The whole way home she complained that she was starving. It was kinda funny seeing as how the girl was only at school for 3 hours and had ate as soon as she got there.

What are your kids doing this summer? Any major plans? Does your school district offer summer school? Today is dump day, lay it all out.

Chapter Book Submissions Call

Freya’s Bower is starting a new line of chapter books. These are a series of three, or more, installments of an ongoing story. Each “chapter” must be 5000-6000 words in length. They will be released monthly. The story can be any heat rating, any genre, and can even incorporate any of our series (Goddess Freya, Valkyrie, T.R.O.U.B.L.E., Angels and Demons) Due to the length, they will not be given ISBN’s and will have one cover for all installments with the exception of a minor change to distinguish each installment from the others. (i.e. Title one: The Southern Sting: Chapter One, title two: The Southern Sting: Chapter Two, and so on.)

To submit, include the first chapter in the body of the email text with “CHAPTER BOOKS” in the subject line. Also include a one-paragraph synopsis of the following installments planned for the story. Send your submissions to: submitATfreyasbowerDOTcom .

If you have questions email Faith at editorfaithATsbcglobalDOTnet or Marci at mbaunATfreyasbowerDOTcom.

Please read our guidelines for formatting and any questions you might have before submitting.

When you are self-promoting your books, where do you advertise? I was asked my opinion and had no answer to give. This lady has blogged about her book and been blogged about by others. Now she has a little cash and would like to know where the best (reasonably priced) places are to advertise. Leave a note and I’ll forward them to her. Thanks!