Category Archives: Book Giveaway

Q&A session this week!

For those of you who’d like to ask questions about the Sensor Series, this is your chance.  I’m over at Ch’kara SilverWolf’s blog today where you can leave questions in the comments section that I will answer via video blog next Sunday.  You have until Thursday night to get them in before the post is closed.  I’ll put up another link here when we post the video.  Commenters will also be entered into a giveaway to win a free signed paperback for one of the Sensor Series books and a tote bag.  Be sure to stop by!

http://sheerak.wordpress.com/2014/09/29/sensor-series-by-susan-illene/

Series Updates…

First off, thanks to everyone who has bought/read/reviewed Darkness Divides so far.  Release day was a busy one, but really awesome.  I truly appreciate it!

Next, those of you who follow me on Facebook or have visited the book page on this site have probably noticed I’ll be releasing a short story at the end of May.  I’m going to try to avoid spoilers here for anyone who hasn’t read Darkness Divides yet, but if you’ve finished the book you’ll get what I mean despite my vagueness.

This story will cover Melena returning the device she was still holding onto at the end of book 3.  Naturally, she’ll have her new “tag along” with her (as we like to refer to this person on Facebook to avoid spoilers) and that will cause some problems.  Sable, the shape-shifter kitty, will also be joining Melena for different reasons.

I’ve said this is going to be a short story, but as I began plotting it out recently a few more characters insisted on taking part so it may be closer to the length of my story in the New Year’s anthology.  That one was a little over 10k words.  It’s not going to be as action-packed as the books, but you can expect a decent bit of humor and some adventure.

What is the title?  I have no idea at this point, but I’m open to suggestions.

At this stage my plan is to provide free PDF copies of the story to anyone who emails me.  I may also add it to Goodreads and make it available for download there.  If by some crazy set of circumstances my muse makes me write something that goes beyond 15k words I may also put it up on the retailer sites for 99 cents.  The main reason I’d charge even that much is because Amazon won’t let me set it at free and because if I publish it with the retailers I’m going to have to have a cover designed.  That would at least help me recoup my costs with it.  Since I’d promised to provide it for free, though, I will still offer it at no charge if you contact me (the same as the New Year’s story).  You’ll be able to grab it whichever way you prefer and I’ll be happy so long as you enjoy it 🙂

For Goodreads users, I have added Darkness Clashes (book 4) onto the site.  No cover or blurb yet, but I’ll release those sometime in late July.  If you’d like to add it to your shelf this is the link:

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/21963515-darkness-clashes

Also, I’ve started a paperback giveaway for the first novel in the series, Darkness Haunts.  Members of Goodreads can go there to enter.

 

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Darkness Haunts by Susan Illene

Darkness Haunts

by Susan Illene

Giveaway ends May 07, 2014.

See the giveaway details
at Goodreads.

Enter to win


I will have at least one other giveaway for series paperbacks here on my blog, and several on Facebook during the month of May.  If you’re interested, be sure to be on the lookout!

If anyone has any other questions, feel free to ask them below.

 

Winners for paperback giveaway

Thanks to all the wonderful comments everyone wrote on the Darkness Divides release day announcement.  I put all your names into a random name picker site to select three.  This was more than I originally planned, but I wanted to increase everyone’s chances of getting a copy.  The following names are the winners:

 

place #1:  Chantal
place #2:  Rachael B
place #3:  Rosemary

 

I will be emailing everyone who commented on the previous post to get your addresses to send bookmarks, but the three names listed above can also expect to receive a signed paperback copy of Darkness Haunts (new version) in the mail as well.  If you don’t hear from me by tomorrow (April 24th…or 25th for Aussies), check your spam folder or use the contact page to message me.

For those still wanting to win a paperback copy you will have another chance.  I’m setting up a giveaway on Goodreads for three more of Darkness Haunts.  As soon as it is approved, I’ll post the link here and on Facebook for where you can enter.

In the coming weeks I will also do random giveaways for paperback copies of Darkness Taunts and Chained by Darkness on Facebook.  For those you will have to be the first to answer a story question derived from Darkness Divides.  Be on the lookout for those.  I will wait until after this coming weekend to allow time for readers to get through the book.

Hope everyone has a wonderful day!

Snippet from “Tempting the Moon”

Most of you know I’ll be including a short story in the Stroke of Midnight anthology that will be available on December 26th.  It ended up being a little over 10k words and features Melena and Emily dealing with a werewolf problem.  Sable, the shape-shifter kitty, makes an appearance as well.  For now, I’m giving you all a snippet from the beginning to tide you over.  Hope you enjoy!

***Update- you can now grab a free copy in any format from Smashwords***

*****

“Hey, Mel?”

I didn’t look up at Emily as I continued doing sit-ups. Just a hundred more to go. “Yeah?”

“I sort of have a problem.”

She was almost sixteen. She seemed to always have some kind of crisis going on—and those were just the ones I found out about. “What’s the problem?”

“I, uh, seduced a werewolf and got him caught in a bear trap,” she rushed out.

Fifty sit-ups would have to do. I sat up and ran my gaze over her. She had scratches on her face and hands as if she’d been running through the woods.

“Maybe you should repeat that.” I rubbed at my ears. “Because I could have sworn you just said you seduced a werewolf.”

She shifted from foot to foot. “It was payback. Hunter broke into my locker at school and did something really embarrassing.”

“What did he do?” I hoped it wasn’t something that would require me to kill him. He wasn’t eighteen yet. I really needed to wait until after he’d reached the legal age to do something that extreme.

“He rigged my locker so that when I opened it a song played loud enough for everyone to hear.”

Well, it could have been worse. He could have filled it with snakes or spiders or something even more horrifying. With a werewolf, the possibilities were endless.

“Which song?” I asked.

She pushed back some of her long, brown hair behind one ear. “Cooler Than Me by Mike Posner.”

Ouch. He must still be upset with her for breaking his nose and kneeing him in the balls back on Valentine’s Day when he’d tried to crash her party. The song was sort of romantic in a weird kind of way, though.

“How did he manage to do that?”

She shrugged. “Not sure. He had his iPod in there with some speakers and I think he had a remote in his hand. That must’ve been how he turned it on.”

“What did you do?”

“Everyone was looking at me and laughing.” Emily’s face turned red. “It was right at the end of school so I shoved everything into my backpack and took off. He’s been calling me ever since wanting his stuff back.”

I wanted to be angry with the guy, but nothing he’d done so far had really hurt her. Just minor pranks like this and sending her badly written poems. Oh, and that time he showed up outside our house on a full moon with a bloody rabbit between his teeth. He’d left that for her as a gift, though Emily hadn’t found it very amusing.

“Is that why you’ve been shutting your cell phone off every time it rings lately?” I lifted my brows.

Emily appeared to be a cheerful and open person, but if you tried to dig too deep she’d put up defensive walls. Life had already damaged her pretty badly by the time I found her and it was taking a while for her to open up. I tried not to push her too hard, hoping she’d learn to trust me and talk things out when she was ready.

“Yeah.” She glanced back at the door. “I don’t know how he got my number.”

“So you decided to seduce him and get him caught in a bear trap? Is he okay?”

Emily looked down and stared at her feet. “That’s sort of the problem. He’s still caught in it and now he’s turned into a wolf so I can’t get him free.”

*****

You can add this book to your Goodreads TBR list here.

*****

The Stroke of Midnight Promo Graphic

Name Contest!

lynxNote- This contest assumes you have read the end of Darkness Taunts.

As I mentioned on Facebook, I’m beginning a contest today to name Melena’s new pet.  As you may recall, she received a feline shapeshifter as a gift.  I’m looking for unique names that have a feminine quality to them and hope you all can help me out.  Here is how it works:

-You may submit as many suggestions as you want in the comments section below (Goodreads users please come to my blog to post yours).

-If more than one person submits the same name, the first one to do so will get credit.

-Make sure you leave a valid email address in the appropriate field (you don’t need to put it in the actual comment).

-You have until midnight (CDT) on July 30th to get your entries in before I close the comments section.

-After this, I will narrow the selection down to my top favorites and put up a new post with a poll so fans may vote for the one they like best.  It will remain open for two days.  The name with the most votes will win.

-The person who submitted the winning name will receive a signed paperback copy of Darkness Haunts and a $25 Amazon gift card (non-transferable).  If you are a customer for Amazon Canada, UK, France, or Germany I will send the gift card through the appropriate site you use.  Regardless of where you’re from, I will be happy to mail the paperback to you.

As a bonus, sometime during August (after the name has been chosen) I will post a short story with Melena and her pet.  It will take place between Darkness Taunts and Chained by Darkness.  This will give fans a chance to see how Melena is doing and get to know her pet a little better.

Good luck with the contest.  I’m looking forward to seeing what names people come up with!