Kalayna Price

This is a fly by posting. I just wanted to post some pictures I found rather exciting: Image ©Adonna Pruette w/Author Pro First up, from this weekend here is a picture of Faith and me signing books at the Raven Cursed release party (Which was tons of fun. Thank you everyone who came out!) In front of me, you can see PC in his first public appearance. Next, another image from the signing--my name on the sign! This is a first for me. I've been in program books and on posters, but never on a sign. So this moment is now memorialized. ^_^ (yes, I'm very easily excited.) And lastly for this post, some pretties. (This picture doesn't do them justice.) On the left you can see the UK version of Grave Dance which will be released February 2nd and on the right a copy of the German edition of Once Bitten. There is absolutely nothing like holding a book in your hands for the first time. Okay, that's it for me. Back to writing! Happy Monday everyone.

As many of you know if you've seen me at events (or seen pictures from events), I like conversation pieces on my table. It started with a tombstone I picked up before the release party of Grave Witch and has slowly expanded since then. All of the items I display I can justify as tying into my books in some manner (though sometimes it's a stretch). From the tombstone fitting because Alex is a Grave Witch to my adorable little vamplet because of the vampires in the Haven novels, I consider them appropriate. But I've never actually had a table piece that tied directly into any of the books. Until now. Recently I commission artist Angela Woodruff to create a stuffed version of PC from the Alex Craft novels. We had several discussions about what he looks like and his personality before she started working and the end results just arrived today. What do you think? Isn't he adorable! I'm thrilled with the results, and he will definitely be making appearances at ...

 I'm very happy to unveil my very first foreign cover. This is the German version of ONCE BITTEN (German title appears to be "The Kiss of Eternity") and I am just floored by how beautiful it is. I will have to figure out how to get my hands on one when it hits shelves this December.  What do you think?  (If you follow my twitter/facebook feed, you might have already spotted this cover, but I just had to share here as well.) Happy Tuesday everyone! I should have an extended excerpt up tomorrow and videos from the last weekend's SC Book Festival later this week, so check back soon.

Audio books were something I never gave a lot of thought to. Oh, I'd listened to one or two over the years, but I always preferred to read a book. That has started to change over last year. I can't really pinpoint a single event, but I would say the amount of traveling I've been doing had something to do with this change. Anyway, sometime last year I started listening to audio books in the car. Then I brought them inside and started listening to them while I cooked, or made buttons, or any task that took both my hands but not my full attention. Now I wouldn't say I'd rather listen to a book over read it, but I definitely enjoy being able to multi-task. All that said, when the audio rights for both the Alex Craft and Haven series recently sold, I was a lot more excited than I probably would have been in previous years. Who will the reader be? What kind of voices will she give the characters? What will Alex/Kita/Nathanial/Falin/Death/Bobby/Tatius/etc . . . sound lik...

RoundCon has come to a close. Cons seem to go by so fast, but then you know what they say about time and fun. ^_^ With Misty Massey and Faith Hunter at our table This was the first year RoundCon featured a creative track, and anything new takes a bit to catch on. During a few panels the panelists outnumbered the attendees, but as the con continued I think word got around and we ended up with a nice handful of people by the end of Saturday night. (Not surprisingly, our "The Battle of Sex" about sex in genre and writing sex and sexual tension was the most popular panel. It was also our last panel of the night and we were all a little silly by then.) The great thing about such a small group was the amount of interaction that was possible. We really got to chat with everyone and we were able to shape the discussions to what attendees wanted to talk about. I'd like to send a special shout out to Pat who attended every single panel and Debbie who started with us bright an...

The polls have closed and the Grave Witch in the Wild contest is now officially complete. The votes have been tallied and with 27 votes in the sidebar and 17 votes in the comments the winner is: Kitty with the Kindle! Congratulations Dawn! Please email me at Contests(AT)kalayna(dot)com with the shipping address of where you'd like the bookmark to go and let me know if you want the ghost or tombstone. ( click here for pictures ). Now, the second prize is supposed to randomly selected, but I have to say, I love all the entries so much that I decided that all four entries deserve to win. I just ordered more charms from etsy, so as soon as they arrive, I'll design two additional bookmarks. That means four prizes in total and everyone wins!   ASchilling,  KT, and NL Berger, please email me at the above address with where you'd like me to ship your bookmark. (Since the charms have not arrived yet, be prepared that it might be a week or two before I can ship the bookmark...

It's day two of NaNo. How are things going? I saw several of you knocked a nice chuck of your word count out last night. Congrats! If you find you're falling a little behind, no worries--you have plenty of time to catch up. If you find you're spending a lot of time staring at your screen and not writing, try setting a timer for short bursts of writing--try 10 to 15 minutes at a time and you might be surprised what you can accomplish when a timer is counting down. If you're having trouble carving time to write out of your busy day, remember that you don't need long periods of time. If you can jot down a sentence or two at a time while cooking dinner or waiting on the kids to get out of after school activities you'll find yourself a lot closer to your goal when you finally do reach your computer. (Also, thinking about your story throughout the day will keep it percolating in the back of your head.)  So, how are those word counts looking? Switching gears, I want ...

Pets fill a number of different roles in peoples' lives. For me they are family, so today I lost a family member. Licorice was 11 1/2 years old and the sweetest guy you could meet. He was a lap kitty and purr box who often had the tip of his tongue peeking out. Monday we made an emergency appointment with the vet because one of his toes suddenly doubled in size. They put him on a steroid, an anti inflamatory drug, and an antibiotic as a first step, but there was a good chance it was cancer and that on the recheck next week we might have to consider amputation. Yesterday he was happy enough. This morning he was having trouble breathing. He died in transit to the vet. At least he died in someone's arms, knowing he was loved. And it was fairly fast, so I don't think he suffered much. I do believe animals have souls and that he is in a better place, but that doesn't dampen the ache of saying goodbye. Here are some pictures of my baby so he is immortalized here on the blog....

The last week has been busy but extremely exciting, and I owe most of that to you guys, so I just want to say Thank You to all of you. The release of Grave Witch seems to be going well from my outside view (Of course, I won't  know anything definite until I hear from my publisher in several months.) The blog tour stops have seen good traffic, the online chatter has been really positive, and reviews are cropping up! Thank you everyone who has picked up a copy already, and double thank you to everyone who has blogged/tweeted/recommend it to others. You guys are AWESOME! Now, I promised you a wrap up of my first ever book signing. The event on Friday went extremely well (or at least I though it did). I was crazy nervous, which didn't help my already chicken-scratch hand writing or the fact that on good days letters get jumbled in my head and when I'm nervous? Yeah . . . But everyone who came out was absolutely amazing. I must have talked to fifty or sixty people over the...

When you go to a convention like Dragon*Con the people watching (and more accurately, the costume ogling) is a big part of the experience. I'll be honest, I'm terrible about taking pictures. I walk around thinking "wow, that's a great costume" and I feel like I'm constantly taking pictures, but at the end of the day, I tend to walk out with only a handful. Thankfully, I have friends who take many, many more pictures than me. Every year you guaranteed to see dozens if not hundreds of Slave Leias, storm troopers, and other immediately recognizable characters. They are great, but you've probably already seen pictures of them and most start blending together. So, in this photo mash-up, I'll focus on the costumes which either delighted me in originality, were from obscure sectors of geekdom, were absolutely stunning in execution, or made me laugh or say 'aww'.  Ready? First up is the cutest Captain America I've ever seen. This kid must have...

As previously mentioned, I just returned from Dragon*Con, the largest Sci-Fi/Fantasy Con in the South East. The guest list for Dragon is always impressive. Big name TV/movie stars, best selling authors, and some of the best underground musicians are pretty much par for the course. Lines for events are sometimes blocks long and many rooms fill to capacity (and beyond, though then the fire marshals tend get rather irate). You'd pretty much have to be living under a rock (or, I guess, just not be a geek) to have never heard of at least a few of the guests. Whatever your particular flavor of geekdom, there is probably someone there that you're dying to hear speak and maybe get a signature and a photo. I'd almost guarantee that there is a guest in attendance whose work you respect greatly, and maybe there is someone whose work has influenced or inspired you. This Dragon*Con, I had the opportunity to see one of those people who influenced and inspired me. And not only see her, ...

Late yesterday afternoon the FedEx guy dropped off a huge box of Roc Samplers on my doorstep. These samplers include the first chapter from seven upcoming and recently released Ace/Roc novels, one of which, being Grave Witch! If you direct your attention to the upper left hand side of the sample book, you can see Alex from the front cover. This is the first time I've seen even part of the cover in print, (aside from my own promo materials, of course) and I was downright giddy when I opened the box. These samplers are just gorgeous in their layout, presentation, and binding. My editor told me months ago that she wanted to include Grave Witch in the promo material they would be giving out at ComicCon (which is what these samplers are from--apparently thousands were given away a couple weekends ago) but I had no idea what form the final product would take. I couldn't be more excited that she sent me some of the remainders and that I will get a chance to pass them on to you! Al...

I received this in my email this morning and just got permission to post it. GRAVE WITCH is my upcoming October release from Roc. This is not the final version of the cover as quotes still need to be added to it, but the art is final. Isn't it breathtaking? Personally, I'm in awe! What do you think?   (If you repost, please note that this is not the final version of the cover.) I will be posting a blurb and excerpt soon, so stay tuned.  Also, have you joined the mailing list yet? Once I have permission to release an excerpt, I intend to make it available on my newsletter first. If you are looking for where to sign-up, you can do so in the box below. Fill out your e-mail address to receive Kalayna's newsletter! E-mail address: Subscribe Unsubscribe   Have a great weekend everyone!

Well, today ends a year for me and begins another. Because my birthday is so close to the first of the year, there isn't much point doing a wrap up. Basically, if you've been following along, my highlights and accomplishments are the same as my New Year post, A year in review with, of course, the addition of TWICE DEAD's release, ONCE BITTEN topping Amazon's Fantasy List over the holidays, and Twice Dead hitting #2 on Fictionwise's Dark fantasy list. (okay, maybe quite a bit has happened in the last two months.) Outside of my writing career beginning to, well, begin , one of the major influences/changes in my life this year was hoop dance. I talk about hooping quite a bit on twitter, and occasionally here on the blog, but today I decided to take a look at a visual archive of my year. I don't turn my camera on near far enough (perhaps a goal for this year) but, I found I did have several clips, which I compiled here for my your entertainment. My first year...

(If you haven't entered yet, there are still a couple hours left to get your name in the drawing for cool Twice Dead stuff. Check it out here! ) The hubbie and I went to an early movie for Valentines day, and when I came back, I had the coolest surprise waiting on my front step. I didn't even know FEDEX delivered on Sundays, but there it was. I have now held my second book in my hands. How very cool! Happy Valentines Day everyone!

My editor at Bell Bridge Books just sent me the full cover copy for TWICE DEAD. Isn't it gorgeous?!

I took a trip to the swamp this weekend. My current WIP has several scenes based in a swamp, so I wanted to go muck around, get a feel for the sounds, the smells, the way the ground felt. A lot of what I write comes straight out of my head, but when I can get first hand experience, I jump on it. It was cold, but it was a beautifully sunny day. With all the recent rain in the area, (and the fact the swamp is a floodplain--for obvious reasons) most of the trails were washed out. I took some awesome pictures, and I intend to return later in the week to see what the swamp is like when it is not so flooded. While I could record all my findings here, I think I'll save the really good ones for the book. But enjoy these pictures. (Obviously I didn't take the picture of me, but the rest are images I shot during the four mile hike.) P.S. If you are interested in a little free fiction, I started a new Tri Mu 'Pass the Plot' challenge today. Check it out at the Modern Myth...

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!! I've never taken a picture of a turkey, but I tend to snap far too many pictures of big cats, so today, Lions will be representing Thanksgiving on this blog. ^_^

I’m going to answer questions today, but first I want to talk a bit about, well, today. Today was the annual lock-in. Every NaNo, my Co-ML and I host a day long write-in. The outcome of this event tends to be huge one day word gains (for me today that is about 5k words, but we’ve had two writers cross 10k for the day so far) as well as a lot of laughing and silliness because if you lock a dozen writers together for 14 hours, silliness occurs. The one thing we never get enough of at these events is exercise. So, abi showed up in the middle of the day with hoops to force the writers to move. He returned after dark for another exercise break (isn’t he awesome, and he’s leaving to run off to China) and this time he brought the fire hoop Yes, if you are looking at the picture right now, that is me, on fire. Okay. No. I’m not on fire . The hoop is on fire. But still . . . It was just . . . amazing ! This was my ‘virgin burn’ (which means this was the first time I’ve ever fire hooped) a...

Today was my very last day at the day job. It was a hectic one as I ran around trying to anticipate any issues I could preemptively fix, but now it is over. I had a lot of friends I'll miss and I hope to keep contact with. The department threw me an amazing farewell party, and my boss said the sweetest speech. I guess it was kind of like having a funeral--people say all the good stuff--but I was alive to hear it. Well, this page of my life has now passed. Tomorrow is my first day as a full time writer. Guess that means I have to write an impressive amount tomorrow. X_X In the mean time, I'm entering a contest the brilliant Faith Hunter is hosting, and I'm trying to decide which picture to use. What do you think? Photo 1 Photo 2 Photo 3 Photo 4 I hope you are all finding good words today! Write on!