Kalayna Price

This weekend I will be Roanoke, VA for MystiCon . Here is a quick look at my schedule for the event: Fri 8:00 PM Boardroom 1 How To Be a Dark Hunter Determined to vanquish evil in the night. Join Sherrilyn and our other panelists as they discuss how you too can be a dark hunter and protect humanity from things that go bump in the night. Sat 10:00 AM Dogwood 2 Sympathy for The Devil - Liking the Bad Guy We all love to hate the bad guy. The best villains keep fans yearning for more. What makes them so intriguing and how do you write the villain without him/her becoming a caricature. Sat 1:00 PM Signing Table Kalanya Price Signing Sat 6:00 PM Restaurant Koffee Klatch Readings by several of our authors. Sat 8:00 PM Boardroom 1 Where's the Line? Handling Potentially Offensive Topics in Your Work How do you decide how far to go with humor, language, violence, sex and other situations? Do creators have a...

Just a reminder that tonight NYT bestselling author Faith Hunter and I will be at Barnes and Noble on Forest Dr tonight from six until eight pm tonight. We'll have a short talk and Q&A session followed by a signing. I hope that you'll join us. We'd love to see you!

Today I'm very happy to share with you the back cover copy for GRAVE MEMORY. So now all of those who have been asking me what the book is about, I can now tell you! When the dead need to talk, Alex Craft is always ready to listen… As a Grave Witch, Alex solves murders by raising the dead—an ability that comes at a cost, and after her last few cases, that cost is compounding. But her magic isn’t the only thing causing havoc in her life. While she’s always been on friendly terms with Death himself, things have recently become a whole lot more close and personal. Then there’s her sometime partner, agent Falin Andrews, who is under the glamour of the Winter Queen. To top everything off, her best friend has been forever changed by her time spent captive in Faerie. But the personal takes a backseat to the professional when a mysterious suicide occurs in Nekros City and Alex is hired to investigate. The shade she raises has no memory of the days leading up to h...

Thank you everyone who helped me get the word out about the UK release of GRAVE DANCE! The random number generator has spoken, and we have winners. Congratulations to: Melliane and jbon! If you will write me with your shipping information and who you'd like your book signed to at  Contests (AT) Kalayna (DOT) com I will send you your book and handmade bookmark. To those who didn't win, I'd still love to thank you for helping me get the word out by sending you something. How does bookmarks (sorry, not handmade) and a signed bookplate sound? If you're interested, send me an email at Kalayna (at) Kalayna (dot) com   with the subject line Get the word out! Be sure to include your shipping information and who you'd like the bookplate made out to and I'll get them in the mail. Thank you again everyone who helped get the word out! Have a great Monday.

Hello United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand! Did  you know that GRAVE DANCE hits your shores (and e-readers) today? It's true!  In Alex's second adventure, something foul is afoot in Nekros City, but as Alex begins investigating the murder case, it quickly becomes apparent that the only thing someone wants her to find is a dead end--her own.  To read an excerpt click HERE .   (Note, excerpt contains spoilers from book one. If you haven't checked out GRAVE WITCH yet, you can read and excerpt HERE ) As the official release day for the UK version of GRAVE DANCE, the second Alex Craft novel,  I think it's a good time to do a "get the word out" contest: UK version. Entering is easy. Simply tweet, blog, google+, facebook--whatever social media you like--the news about the release and include a link back to this blog post, to the excerpt ( HERE ) or a site selling the book (Amazon UK HERE , iBooks HERE , Book Depository HERE ,  or anywhere else books a...

Today I'm very happy to unveil the cover for the third Alex Craft novel, GRAVE MEMORY, which will be hitting shelves this July. And not only do I have US cover, but I also have the UK cover. I believe the books should be hitting shelves simultaneously, so this is super exciting. Okay, enough chatter. You want the covers, right?   Above is the US cover (The title will be printed with gold embossing)  And this is the UK cover So, what do you think? I love them. Of course, blue is my favorite color, so I'm probably biased. ^_^

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.

Two bits of news today--both dealing with signed books. First up, I want to remind everyone that this Saturday (1/07)  I'll be at the Booknack in Rockhill, SC from 5-7pm as part of the release party for the newest Jane Yellowrock novel, Raven Cursed , by NYT best selling author Faith Hunter. I love Faith's books, and I'm thrilled to have been invited to join her release party, so I hope you'll stop by. We'd both love to see you! I know some of you aren't in the South East (where most of the events and conventions I attend are located). Which leads me to my second bit of news: I talked to Mike (the very awesome guy at the Booknack) and if you'd like me to sign a book made out to you, the Alex Craft novels can be ordered before the event and I'll sign and personalize it for you while I'm at the store Saturday and the Booknack will ship the signed book(s) to you. Yes, you read that correctly. You can get a signed and personalized book without d...

I hope that everyone is having a very happy holiday season! In the next couple days I'll probably do a post on some of my favorite books of 2011, but for now, I'd like to point you in the direction of some free and or/sale books by some of my favorite authors as well as a special promotion on one of my own books. I've, unfortunately, not had time to read most of the novellas I'm linking to yet, but like I said, favorite authors, so I have a lot of confidence in their quality.  First up is a free Kate Daniels novella by the writing team published as Ilona Andrews. Someone just directed me to it, and I haven't had time to read it yet, but it's a limited time offer, so I wanted to go ahead and link everyone. (I imagine that has spoilers for those of you not familiar with the series). Next on the list is the novella Easy Pickings written by Faith Hunter and C. E. Murphy. They both have a special fan discount on their sites. Which you can find HERE (Faith)...

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 ...

There are milestones in every career. In publishing, the first of these milestones is probably the very first time you write the magical words "The End" followed by new markers at each stage of your career. Each is new and exciting, and I'm very happy to announce that today I've crossed one of those milestones. Today my very first foreign language book hits shelves! DER KUSS DER EWIGKEIT is the German language version of ONCE BITTEN , the first novel of Haven. As has probably become apparent in previous posts, I don't speak a word of German, so I'm using a translator. But,  to my new German readers who stumble on this post, I just want to say: Vielen Dank für das Lesen der Kuss der Ewigkeit! Ich hoffe, Sie genießen das Buch!  (That should translate to "Thank you for reading The Kiss of Eternity. I hope you enjoy the book!" --or at least I hope that's what it says and that I haven't announced I'm a jelly doughnut. ^_^) Have...

Hey everyone. This is a fly by post as I am counting down the hours (and words) until a looming deadline. I've received a lot of questions recently about the research books I use in my writing, particularly for my Faeries and magic. Of course, I make a lot of things up (I am a writer after all) but especially in the Alex Craft novels, I like to incorporate some traditional folklore. And as I can't run off to the UK to hear these stories first hand (those that are left in the oral tradition, that is--so much has been lost). My main source for research is from books.  I've slowly been scanning my research books into goodreads (love their iphone bar-code reader--though some of my books are too old to have bar codes) and I've finally managed to get a decent number of my folklore books scanned into the goodreads system.  Which means I can share them with you!  The ones I recommend most have the highest star ratings, but just because I haven't added stars yet doesn...

Hey everyone. I have two exciting bits of information to share today. The first is that I will be participating in the Booknack's annual Author Festival this Saturday (December 10th). There will be authors signing books throughout the day, and I'm slotted to sign between 5 and 7pm, so if you're in the Rock Hill or surrounding area, I hope to see you there! As my second bit of news, I'm very excited to share that a facebook friend linked me to the German cover for Grave Witch (yes, a friend found it before I did, these things happen).  According to Babel Fish translator, the German title is Of death entices . (If you speak German and that translation is wrong, please let me know as I'm trusting a computer translator and they tend toward unreliable.) I thought that title sounded skeptical. Thank you Mary Lee for the correct translation of the title as Seduced by Death .  (Gee, I wonder which character the German editor likes best. LOL) So what do you think? Per...

Hey everyone. I just found out GRAVE DANCE is in the semifinals of the 2011 Goodreads Choice Awards in the Paranormal Fantasy section! This is apparently the second round of the competition, so everyone who voted in the first--you totally rock! Thank you! The selection in this category is awesome--many of my top favorite authors/books from this year are in there. I can't believe I'm grouped in with such awesome writers! To check out all the nominees and cast your vote, click HERE . (I'm not begging for votes because let's face it, there are lots of really awesome books on the list, but if you read and enjoyed Grave Dance, I'd definitely appreciate the vote!) 2011 Goodreads Choice Awards Vote now for your favorite books! In other news, I saw the cover for Grave Memory today. So pretty. I can't wait until I can share it with you. (Yes, I'm a tease ^_^) Happy Monday everyone!

Every year hoopers celebrate world hoop day by going out to spread the joy of hoop dance to others. While I plan to attend local outreach events in my community, I decided that this year I'd also attempt to reach all of you out in cyber land. So I recorded a  quick video about WHD, why I love hoop dance, and some very basic starting steps for those interested in picking up the best dance partner you'll ever have--a hoop! And, of course, I jam out a little at the end. I hope you enjoy: Happy World Hoop Day everyone!

Things are changing quickly these days. Some of these changes inspire wonder as new technology entertains us or makes our lives easier. Some inspire dread and fear as many of these same changing technologies seem to be the harbinger of destruction for traditions and institutions we've come to know and love. And yet, things have always changed. Perhaps not so quickly as they do now where most high-end tech is outdated within six months of hitting the shelves, but they've always changed. In visual entertainment, reels gave way to Beta to VHS to DVD to Blueray/HD and digital. In music, records gave way to cassette tapes, to CDs, and now to digital. Movies/television and music are two popular de-stressing pastimes most people partake in. Reading is another. Should we be surprised that traditional printed books are also moving toward digital in the form of e-books? The transition between technologies seems to grow ever shorter. I'll admit that though I still have some favori...

Hey everyone. As you've probably noticed, October has been a month full of events for me. I also have a book due in a couple days--talk about being busy. I apologize for not being around as much as normal. I will attempt to get back on a regular blogging schedule soon. Anyway, one of my favorite things to do while at an event is to steal a couple of the other attending writers for a quick chat about their books and ask them for some tips for aspiring authors. At RoundCon last weekend, my victims lovely volunteers included Rachel Aaron and J ohn Hartness . I hope you enjoy!

I know I mentioned RoundCon a few posts back, but I'm giving it another post just in case you are in the area and want to come, but maybe forgot or missed the first post. (Besides, it's not like I'm exactly clogging the blogsphere with posts right now--deadlines and some aspects of my personal life are killing me at the moment, but I'll start blogging regularly as soon as I get caught up on everything. Promise. You'd rather books than blogs, right?) Anyway, RoundCon 2011.1 starts TODAY. The writer's track is new for 2011, so if you're in the Columbia area and want to hear professionals from all different walks of publishing--from nationally bestselling to small press to self published--talk about writing, craft, the business, the market, and I'm sure any topics  you guys might desire us to discuss please make plans to come check out the Con. Seriously, we have several great tracks lined up, but if there is a topic you'd like to know more about or ...

Today I'm wishing a very happy release day to my friend and fellow Magical Words author, A.J. Hartley, for his brand new release  Darwen Arkwright and the Peregrine Pact . This book marks the first in a series and AJ's first adventure into middle-grade fiction. I haven't yet had the pleasure to read it, and while middle-grade fiction isn't usually added to TBR, this book certainly sounds intriguing so I plan to pick up a copy soon! AJ sent me some additional information I can share with you guys, so please welcome him to the blog! A. J. Hartley: So you’re a kid: a boy of about 11. You’re in the mall in an unfamiliar city, feeling lost, alone and a bit home sick. You look up and you see a bird in one of the plastic trees. You like birds, so you watch it, trying to figure out what type it is. Then there’s a shadow overhead and the little bird gets hits hard by something much bigger, something hawkish but with leathery bat-like wings and the face of… well, if it was...

I can't believe it's already October. That said, I have two events coming up that I hope I'll be able to see some of you at. Next weekend, October 15th and 16th , I will be in North Carolina for the literary weekend at the Carolina Renaissance Festival . I think this event will be a ton of fun not only because of the great writers I'll be there with, but because, well, it's Ren Faire--how can you go wrong with that? The following weekend, October 21-23 ,  I'll be in Columbia, SC for RoundCon 2011.1 . The writer's track is a relatively new add-on for the convention, so if you have a chance, I hope you'll come check it out. A full schedule of panels is up on the website, but here is my schedule for the con: Friday: Detectives & Mysteries Sex & Violence - Writing Emotional Action Scenes Saturday:   Writing a Series The New World of Publishing Sunday: World-Building Tension - Build it or Break it?   It's going to be a busy ...