Kalayna Price

Cross posted over at the Tri Mu blog . I’ve had a lot of emails and several questions over on facebook about my cover. Did I design it? Do I know the girl on the cover? Does she look like my main character? The simple answer to all the questions: No. Here is the story about the cover. Several weeks ago I opened my inbox to discover an email from my publisher titled “Cover Rough Draft”. Attached was a .jpg image that looked very similar to what you see now. I was invited to tell them if I loved it or hated it, and luckily I love it because that was the extent of my influence on the cover. The girl doesn’t look like Kita, and the really cool iron lamp isn’t in the book, but I think the cover as a whole has a dark-edgy feel that I hope permeates the book. So, that’s the story. Probably not the most illuminating tale, and I’ll be honest, just for curiosity’s sake, I’d love to see what other designs were thrown around, but I’m very happy with the cover, and I can’t wait to have a copy in...

I’ve been thinking a lot recently about promo material. From my time working at a bookstore, I know most of it gets junked immediately if sent to a store. Bookmarks are the only thing to survive, and their effectiveness depends a lot on the store in question. Placed in books in genre, bookmarks might just earn a new writer a second glance. Typically though, bookmarks are placed on the counter where most the people who pick them up are interested only in the fact it is a bookmark and not in the book, or worse, the bookmark is stuffed in a bag—where it will likely stay. Conventions, conferences, and signings are a little different. At Dragon*con the ‘freebie’ tables were covered in all kinds of things: postcards, bookmarks, flyers, fold out pamphlets, pens… Some were really cool. Most I would consider tossable (so I didn’t pick them up.) About the only thing I grabbed were bookmarks. I like bookmarks. I’ve bought several books after staring at a bookmark in books I was reading at the tim...

I am busy. That about sums things up. The last few weeks have been packed and the horizon looks just as chaotic. Once Bitten's release date is looming, though most of my work with the book is finished. Currently I'm neck deep in revisions again. I'm pulling apart my own words and trying to get them as tight as possible before the Moonlight and Magnolia conference. My edits were derailed by revisions not long ago, so *cross your fingers* I hope I'll be ready to pitch a new series while at the conference. My schedule doesn't get any clearer after that. During October I have three big NaNoWriMo events I plan to hold this year: Noveling 101, a Plotting Bash, and a Creativity Bash, so I need to do prep work for those. I also need to break out my own plotting hat because I'll be starting a new story in a new world for the challenge. (At least most of the world building is done, but I have a dismal amount of it plotted and most of that is in my head.) Then of course, t...

One of my fellow Tri-Mus just sent me a link to my book, now up for pre-sale at Barnes and Noble. I had no idea it would but up so soon, but Check it out! *happy dance*

My publisher bounced around a lot of ideas for a title, and I’m super pleased with the final outcome of ONCE BITTEN . Because good news is plentiful today, I have been given permission to share the cover image. (I saw it right before leaving for Dragon*Con, but I couldn’t share it yet.) Without further ado, the cover and blurb for Once Bitten: For the past five years, Kita Nekai has faded into the background of the human world, but when a rogue shifter begins littering the city of Haven with bodies, Kita's illegal status lands her on the suspect list. During a confrontation with hunters that she can't win, rescue arrives in the form of the mysterious Nathanial Deaton. Kita soon wishes it hadn't when his method of saving her leaves her undead. With only three nights to prove her innocence and a new liquid diet to worry about, Kita doesn't want to deal with her infuriating rescuer or the ghost from her past who is determined to drag her back home. But, she needs help if...

I’m back from Dragon*con, and while I’m tired, and need to get some serious work done on my revisions, I’m very glad I went. I listened to, and talked to, a dozen or more authors this weekend, not to mention all the other avid readers I had the opportunity to discuss my favorite books with. I don’t have a lot of time to write as much as I would like about Dragon, but here are some highlights: --Larurell K Hamilton getting on her soap box about the fallacy of ‘one perfect person’ because a romance writer on the panel insinuated Anita Blake’s character relationships were not about emotion. --Signed books (need I say more) --Meeting my publisher. --Watching the businessmen and innocent mall attendees staring at the crazy cosplayers. In the same vein, walking down the tubes connecting the hotels and passing Darth Vader and a troop of Storm Troopers. --Discovering two bands I’d never heard of: Voltaire and Cruxshadows --Talking to Rachel Caine (and too many more authors to list here.) Th...