Kalayna Price

Hello all! Swinging by for a quick update about all things Alex Craft. The website now includes the cover for GRAVE RANSOM (Alex Craft book five), several links for where the book can be pre-ordered (with more to come as they become available), and AN EXCERPT ! Part of the excerpt might look a little familiar to some of you as an early draft of it was included in the end of Grave Visions last year. Some key points have changed though, and there is more included in this excerpt than was released last year, so I hope you'll pop over to the site and check it out. I also wanted to let you know that I received a couple advanced reading copies of Grave Ransom. I will be holding a contest for these copies in the coming weeks, so be sure to check back soon! Also, I wanted to let you know my schedule for ConCarolinas next weekend (June 2nd-4th). I'm excited to be returning to this con again this year, and it will likely be my only appearance in 2017, so I hope to see many of ...

Some of you likely recall my post "where did the author go?" from several years ago. This post is basically a follow up to that, as well as a look toward the horizon. This weekend, I made my first public appearance since about 2012. I was nervous for many reasons, not the least of which was my long hiatus. Thankfully, it went really well. ConCarolinas, while not the biggest convention, has always been a favorite because of all the great friends who attend it. Thank you everyone who stopped by the table to say hi, who attended panels, and who chatted at the bar and/or breakfast. All of you made this a wonderful first con back, and I am encouraged to expand my schedule further in the future! But where have I been? Well, that is a murky tale, and I don't like putting too much of my personal life out for public consumption, but I feel that those of you who have stuck around deserve some information. So, let me try a little non-fiction here: I ran into some health troubl...

ConCarolians is this weekend and I will be there with books, swag, and hopefully something intelligent to say on panels! If you are in the area, please stop by and say hello. This will be my first public appearance in several years, and I'm insanely shy, so if I'm a little quiet, please know I'm absolutely thrilled to see/speak with you, my tongue just gets a little tied! So where will I be? Well, I'll have a table in the author's hall. I will only be at it a few hours during the convention, but I'll have times I will be there posted, so do stop by to see me and say hi. I'll also be speaking on the following panels: FRIDAY: 3:00 PM Doing It All: Blending Character, Plot, and Backstory  5:00 PM Paranormal Suspense - How to Ramp Up Action in Your Paranormal   8:00 PM The Burden of Years   SATURDAY: 11:00 AM Fantasy the World Over   8:00 PM The Writer's Life: Not Exactly a Bed of Roses   I hope to see you there!   ...

GRAVE VISIONS is officially released out into the world and hopefully readers who will enjoy it. I'm so excited to share this book with you! I hope you love it. GRAVE VISIONS Urban Fantasy ISBN: 0451416570 Roc Pre-order at: Amazon Barnes & Noble Books-A-Million Book Depository Audio Edition: Amazon Audible Tantor Audio iTunes UK Edition: (UK) Amazon

The random number generator has spoken and we have a winner! But first, let me thank all of you who helped me get the word out about GRAVE VISIONS. I hope you enjoy it! And without further ado, the winner of the get the word contest is: Alina P! Alina, please drop me an email at contests@kalayna.com so that I can get your ARC in the mail to you. Thank you again everyone!

We are one week out from the release of GRAVE VISIONS ! I'm so excited I finally get to share this book with you. To celebrate the upcoming release, I am giving away two ARCs of the novel: one here on the blog and one over on facebook . To enter here, simply help me get the word out about the release! You can do this on any media you like--twitter, facebook, goodreads, your own blog, or wherever you would like to announce the upcoming release. You can link back to the giveaway here, share the cover and/or excerpt , or just talk about the series or release--whatever way you would like to help me get the word out! Then come back here and leave a comment with a link to where you got the word out. You can share in multiple locations for multiple entries, but please leave only one link per comment. The contest will be open until Thursday 1/28 at 11:59pm PST. I'll announce a winner on Friday. Best of luck and THANK YOU for helping me get the word out!

My big contest for ARCs of GRAVE VISIONS will be coming soon, but for Christmas I'm having a flash giveaway on my facebook page. Please check it out and enter!

Grave Visions: An Alex Craft Novel We are close enough to start counting down the days until the release of GRAVE VISIONS. Or at least, I am excited enough to count the days. It will hit shelves on February 2nd, so as of today, there are only 52 days until the release. Yay! I can't wait. With that in mind, I think it is about time to release an excerpt. Who wants a sneak peek? CLICK HERE to read the first chapter of Grave Visions. I hope you enjoy it! And check back soon. I recently received a couple advance reading copies of the book that I will be giving away right here, on the blog,  so be sure to be on the look out for that contest opportunity to appear soon! 

Sorry for the long silence everyone. I hope to have an update for you soon. In the mean time, I wrote a short story that is set in the Alex Craft world and will be hitting shelves tomorrow in the anthology  KICKING IT.  My story in KICKING IT is called RUBY RED and follows Briar Darque on a case. It doesn't relate directly to Alex's tale, but timeline-wise, it falls between Grave Dance and Grave Memory. This anthology is packed full of great stories from authors I'm sure you know well, including Rachel Caine, Chloe Neill, and Faith Hunter. I'm super thrilled to have been involved with the project and I hope that you'll check it out. It will hit stores everywhere tomorrow,  December 3rd. Enjoy!

As you probably know, I have severally cut back my traveling and appearance schedules this year.  While the decision was necessary, I have missed having the opportunity to chat with many of you.  The good news is, I will get to chat and hang out this weekend at ConCarolinas . Below is my schedule for the weekend. I hope to see you there! Fri 04:00 pm Writer's Reception Lakeshore Ballroom I & II - Main Programming Fri 09:00 pm Writing the Other Harris - Programming 9 Sat 04:00 pm The Villain as Protagonist Harris - Programming 9 Sat 10:00 pm Bloodsucking Fiends Olmstead - Programming 8 Sat 11:30 pm Making Monsters Scary Again Olmstead - Programming 8

Before I start this post, let me say that you guys are absolutely wonderful. I love meeting you at cons and signings, and even though I'm ridiculously (to the point of embarrassment) behind on my email, I love hearing from you. The fact that people want to read stories that initially exist only in my head still amazes me. You are all awesome and I cherish each and every one of my readers. So then why have I been so quiet recently? The blog has been barren, twitter and facebook have been neglected, and my website is in woeful need of an update. Well, the answer is rather complicated and very personal. Writing is something I love to do, but it is also my job. I've always tried to maintain a clear line between my job and my private life, and to ensure that whatever is going on in my personal life doesn't interfere with my job. That's what professionals do, right? There are deadlines to meet and events to attend and business to be conducted.  Recently preventing the...

I can't believe NY Comic Con is only days away. I realized that I haven't posted my schedule for the convention yet, so I should probably do that, huh? I hope to see you there! Friday, October 12th: 1:30 -2:30 PM, 1A14 PANEL: PASSION, POWER, AND PARANORMALS! Description: Authors discuss the inclusion of romantic elements in their action-packed novels. If dating the undead wasn’t tricky enough, these protagonists must also battle the forces of evil while trying to keep their sanity and the world safe from destruction. Moderator Jocelyn Davies (Author of A B eautiful Dark and A Fractured Light ; Editor at Razorbill/Penguin Young Readers)will have the authors divulging the steamy details behind creating their characters and their tricky love affairs. 3:15–4:15 PM AUTOGRAPHING: PASSION, POWER, PARANORMALS Saturday, October 13th:  2:45--3:45 PM, 1A01 PANEL: GENRE-BENDERS: Out-of-the-box Science-Fiction and Fantasy Novels that blur the lines of fantasy, SF, horror, r...

Dragon*Con is just a few days away and I'm getting everything packed and ready. Here is where I'll be during the con: Title: Frightening Folklore Description: look at the ways folklore is used in dark fantasy fiction Time: Fri 5:30 pm Location: Embassy C - Hyatt ( Length: 1 Hour) Title: Reading: Kalayna Price Time: Sat 01:00 pm Location: Marietta - Hyatt ( Length: 1 Hour) Title: You Are What You Fight Description: How heroes identify (or not) with their monstrous foes Time: Sat 7:00 pm Location: Embassy C - Hyatt ( Length: 1 Hour) Title: Creating Memorable Characters Description: Never to early to start developing the best characters possible. What's the secret? Learn from the pros. Time: Sun 11:30 am Location: Embassy D-F - Hyatt ( Length: 1 Hour) Title: Bell Bridge Spotlight Description: Focus on Bell Bridge Books Time: Sun 2:30 pm Location: Embassy D-F - Hyatt ( Length: 1 Hour)   Title: The Perfect Blend: Genre Mixing in Urban Fan...

Hey everyone. First off, let me apologize for being terribly behind on emails and for not responding to tweets/facebook messages/comments recently. I have been dealing with some unavoidable issues and have been unavailable. Hopefully I will be able to catch up in the next few weeks. First off though, I thought I'd answer some of the most common questions I've been receiving. The Alex Craft novels: -Yes, there will be more Alex novels! The fourth novel has a tentative title of Grave Visions and will be released next year. A total of six books are currently under contract. -An Alex Craft short story will be released in the Kicking It anthology next year. Currently I'm leaning toward a story focused on Briar Darque. The Haven Novels: -Third Blood release date: I will let you know as soon as I have a date. I wasn't happy with the writing so it got pushed back while I fix it. Upcoming Appearances: -Dragon*Con: I'll be in Atlanta next weekend for Dragon*con. I...

Things have been busy here lately, so I apologize for the lack of posts, but today I'm very happy to reveal the cover for THIRD BLOOD! I really love this cover--it fits the story wonderfully. So what do you think? Oh, and don't forget--Tonight I'll be in Rockhill with Faith Hunter and D B Jackson at the Booknack. I hope to see you there!

Hey everyone. I just wrapped up the Live Release party on Google Air. Thank you everyone who attended and major thanks to everyone who asked questions and saved me from talking to myself for an hour. I apologize for the sound quality--I should have tested things out more but 8pm crept up on me. I announced winners to the FMT contests as well as prize winners during the release. If you are one of them, please write me at CONTESTS (AT) KALAYNA (DOT) COM. In case you missed the announcement, those winners were: Release party winners: Heather and Derek Blood and Bullets winner: Molly Hard Day's Knight winner: Sophie Eli Monpress omnibus winner: Elizabeth. Congrats all winners and thank you again everyone who attended the release!

[one more day left to enter to win books by James Tuck, John Hartness, and Rachel Aaron!] Hello everyone. It is Monday, July 2nd and there are less then ten hours left until GRAVE MEMORY officially goes on sale. I almost can't believe it--only that I can because that churning giddiness filling me says it is true. I'm so excited that you guys are going to be able to read the book tomorrow! Which leads me to my plans to celebrate the release. I have a number of signing stops for this release ( I'll discuss those in a moment) but I know not everyone will be able to make it to one of the live events.  So, I will be doing a live, interactive chat tomorrow from 8-9pm EST on Google air. I'll announce winners, give out prizes, do an on-air reading, and of course answer questions from you guys (so please plan to "attend" so I won't be talking to myself for an hour.) I'll put the link up on the blog/facebook/and twitter tomorrow, so look for it! I'm al...

[Check out the spotlight on John Hartness and James Tuck for a chance to win more books!] Continuing our series of Fantastical Mystery Tour authors is Rachel Aaron, an amazing author and good friend of mine. She told me to tell you that she is an absolute genius and to read her books. *Ahem* Moving on. ^_^ (She really is a genius and you should read her books, btw--I just like picking on her.) Rachel writes an adventure fantasy series called the Legend of Eli Monpress about a charming wizard thief and all the trouble he gets into. This series is rather hysterical (the first scene includes the main character conversing with a door. Really you have to check it out) but it has a lot of depth and not a little bit of darkness too. If you like adventure fantasy, you should definitely check out Spirit Thief , which is now available as part of an omnibus with the first three books in the series. I'm carrying on again, so I'll skip to the description of the book. Eli ...

[If you missed the first post in this series, click here to see more info on James Tuck and don't forget to enter to win a copy of Blood and Bullets !] For the second post in the Fantastical Mystery Tour series, I'd like to move the spotlight to the amazing and completely unconventional John G. Hartness . I first met John at RoundCon and I've made a point of running into him at other events because this guy is awesome. He's an unabashed redneck who writes about snarky vampires (among other things)--what's not to love? He's had a rather unusual path to publication and considers himself a hybrid writer as he both self-publishes and traditionally publishes his work. I don't usually talk about many self-published books, but John has a voice that will entangle you from the first page. I laughed so much while reading HARD DAY'S KNIGHT , the first book in the Black Night Chronicles, that the head minion came to see what I was reading. John also recently sta...

To prepare for the release of GRAVE MEMORY and the upcoming Second Annual Fantastical Mystery Tour, I thought I'd start a series to spotlight the Authors who will be participating in the tour. And of course, I'll give away books during each spotlight. Sound good? Today I'd like to start the series with a spotlight on James R Tuck, the author of the Deacon Chalk: Occult Bounty Hunter series. I first met James last year at DragonCon before his first book, BLOOD AND BULLETS was released. But Dragon is huge and we didn't have much time to talk. I ran into him again at ConCarolinas, and I have to say, this is one guy you want to hang out with. He is smart and witty and all around fun, so don't let the fact he looks like a scary bouncer intimidate you--he is totally approachable. He is also one of the people who talked me into my last minute decision to join Fandomfest, so if you'll be at the con, make sure you go chat him up. Okay, enough of my blathering and let...