» Contests

Coming Up and Contest Question

April 26, 2012

I think it’s almost bedtime for me, even though I guess most of the people who will want to take part in the contest are just getting started with their evenings. Timezones are such funny things.

I wanted to talk a little bit about what’s to come. I was writing a lot last year and so far this year not that much, but I’ll get back to writing more actively soon, I hope. The writing I did last year and early this year has really paid off.

The next release I have coming up is book one of my shifter series. The series’ name is Finnshifters and the first book is called Chuffed. I’m working on book three and I’ve submitted book two, so they’re all coming up eventually, hopefully every few months or so. How many books are in the series? Probably four or five. Unless something new pops up.

Finnshifters is my take on the shifter genre. In my world, there are only “cats and dogs” as far as shifters are concerned, and it’s otherwise pretty much a regular world, just with shifters who live in secrecy. The series is a bit different, at least I think so, and the setting is Finland, which makes it unique in the M/M-genre. I hope you all will like it, at least I really do.

Another new thing I have coming up is a new novel. The working title is Technically Dead, and it’s about a young human who fell in love with a really old vampire and they ended up changing each other’s lives. The story begins in present day, where they haven’t seen each other in a decade and much has happened in between. And then much more happens and things change even more, you know the deal!

Chuffed will be out in May-June and Technically Dead in July-August. When I have the official dates, I’ll post them on my blog, which you can find from my website.

Since it is my bedtime, it’s also time for me to give you the last contest-question!

Because my upcoming shifter series, I want to know what kind of shifter you would want to be if you had to choose? It doesn’t have to be a feline or a canine breed, it can be whatever you like. Tell me why you chose this kind of animal and email me at tiafielding at gmail dot com with the two other answers to the previous questions.

When I have the contest winners, I’ll post them to my Facebook page and my blog. This should happen no later than Wednesday, May 2nd. If I don’t get many answers, I’ll extend the contest deadline and probably post it to a few other places too, just to get a few more emails to toss into the mix.

It has been fun, rambling along today! Let’s do this again some time, shall we?

Have a nice spring, everyone!

- Tia Fielding

Tia Travels Again!

April 26, 2012

I used to travel a lot as a kid. My family went through a holiday destination every year or every two years from the time I was six-ish to when I was fifteen. After that I’ve only gone abroad once, for my language course in England when I was sixteen.

I’m a low-income person, so I don’t have money to travel these days. I’d really love to go to the larger events and cons in the US, but the tickets are ridiculously expensive and I just can’t. Maybe one day. At least the thought will keep me writing!

Because I can’t go as far as the US, I decided to aim closer. There’s this event this year, the UK GLBTQ Fiction Meet, in Brighton, UK. It takes place in September, and I’m really looking forward to it. My sister, she’s 14, is coming with me and she insists we go to London as well.

It wasn’t like she had to twist my arm… I mean I loved the few things I had a chance to see in London when I was there on a day-trip during my language course. I adore The Tower of London. I also want to go see The London Dungeon again.

Because my sister is a huge Harry Potter-freak, we’re also going to go to the Warner Bros. Studio Tour London. It’s going to be amazing and a treat even for me who haven’t actually read all the books or seen all the movies. I’ll have to before I go there, though. Not because of spoilers but because my dear friend who is probably coming with us will flay me if I don’t… You know who you are.

These are my travel plans for the future. I’m probably taking a little road trip (cue 5 hours of driving and bad singing. At least I’m doing it alone, eh?) soon to see relatives and friends in another part of Finland, but that doesn’t count, really. Because there needs to be an airplane involved for it to be a proper trip!

Contest-question number two: If you could travel abroad right this minute, where would you go and why?

Tia and Music, the Love Story.

April 26, 2012

I think I’ve always loved music. It is a huge inspiration and most of my stories tend to have songs or playlists. I’ve posted the playlist for my first novel By Any Other Name to my blog. You can find it here.

One of my first memories of a specific band or song comes from when I was about three years old. My mom had bought this new C-cassette of this Finnish band and we were listening to it in the car while driving to or from my grandparents’ house.

Since then, I’ve never really stopped listening. There was a boy band-period when I was about ten years old. Yes, it all started from this song.  New Kids On The Block forever! It’s been twenty years and I still remember the lyrics.

After the boy bands (also Take That, they were awesome!), I went punk-ish, but also listened to rock music. I remember this period where I listened to a lot of things, and during it I was on a vacation with the family in Turkey when I was about fourteen. I was sunbathing near the pool of our hotel with my Walkman and my cassettes and my favorite songs that week in the sun were anything from Oasis, Aerosmith, Green Day, Offspring and yes, Take That.

There have come periods in my life when I’ve listened to a certain kind of music for a long time, but I’ve always gone back to Green Day eventually. In 2010 I had the opportunity to go see them live in Helsinki, here in Finland. The funny thing was, I took my kid sister with me, and I suddenly realized I’d been a fan for a longer time she had been alive. Where did all those years go?!

Mike Dirnt of Green Day in Helsinki.

Lately, and I’m thirty now, I’ve cultivated my extremely random taste in music a little. I know instantly what I like, and I know what I won’t touch with a stick. So anything from Eminem to Dave Matthews Band to Muse to Linkin Park and Mozart, I’ll be there. I said cultivated, not “stopped being random”.

I have a favorite song at the moment. While I don’t like the original, I greatly enjoy this Glee version (by the lovely Darren Criss and the even more lovely Matt Bomer) of Somebody That I Used to Know (originally by Gotye ft. Kimbra).

And here’s my first contest-question: What’s been playing in your head or your player lately? You know that one song you can’t stop listening whether you like it or not?

Remember to collect all three questions (the other two are coming later today) and email them in one email to me at tiafielding at gmail dot com to win some nice prizes listed in a previous post!

Contest Details!

April 26, 2012

For the contest, I have figured out a few prizes.

Here we go:

1. Any three (3) of my Dreamspinner Press e-books (including my next release, Finnshifters 1: Chuffed).

2. A special package from yours truly via mail (this is valid worldwide and will contain something special) AND one (1) e-book of mine from Dreamspinner Press (not including any future releases).

3. A $15 gift card to All Romance Ebooks.

4. One (1) of my ebooks from Dreamspinner Press (no future releases).

I’ll randomly pick four people, and they get to pick a prize of the above four. So the first person can pick one, and the second can pick one of the remaining three and so on and so forth until there are no prizes left. Is this clear enough?

What you need to do to qualify to win is to follow my posts today. I’ll put three questions into the posts (they will be marked, don’t worry) and then you will have to email me your answers. There are no right or wrong answers, they’re open questions and I will pick the winners randomly, but you will have to answer all three to qualify.

My email is tiafielding at gmail dot com, and that’s where you need to send your answers.

If you get here later than tonight, don’t worry. You have until midnight of April 29th to take part and send in your answers. (I’ll check them my Monday night, which means anyone anywhere will have time to THEIR Sunday night.)

The first contest question will be posted soon-ish.

I can't wait to see these outside. So far there's only snow, but at least it's melting!

Tia Fielding’s Day at the DSP-blog!

April 26, 2012

It’s finally here! Don’t know if anyone else is excited, but I sure am!

I’m Tia Fielding, if you didn’t guess that already, and I’ve been a Dreamspinner Press-author for almost a year now. I have two short stories, three novellas and one novel out, and at the moment there are two other releases lined up, if not more… (that’s a secret!)

Today, I’ll be posting every now and then about my latest releases, upcoming releases, what inspires me and so on. I’ll probably be talking about playlists–because music is important to me, and of course, I’ll hold a little contest later on, with some neat prizes to boot!

I’m also taking questions and answering them as I go, so please do leave some in the comments, and I’ll get back to you at some point.

So, let’s get this party started, eh?

Here’s the cover and the blurb for my second latest release from March 28th, Something New.

For thirty-five-year-old writer Frank Hudson and his partner of fourteen years, the spark is dead, and it’s time to move on. Frank sets his sights on a sleepy town in Vermont, where he plans to start over in peace and quiet—plans that are destroyed when fireman Conner O’Malley literally blazes onto the scene. To Frank, the tattooed, redheaded twenty-three-year-old and his bright smile are a flash of light in an otherwise dreary life.

But it’s a tricky situation right from the beginning. Frank’s passionless relationship has left him doubting that anyone could ever find him attractive. Conner’s juggling a demanding job and the unexpected responsibility of playing dad to his little brother and sister. Battling their own insecurities, Conner’s demanding schedule, and small-town homophobia is hard work—but sometimes hard work pays off.

And here’s my latest release, Thank My Lucky Scars, that was released yesterday!

When London bicycle messenger Matt Rooney has a run-in with a rich guy’s Mercedes, he ends up housebound with his leg in a cast. Bored, Matt uses his suddenly limitless free time to web-stalk American porn star Brian Enola. What he doesn’t expect is for his witty Tweets to develop into an actual correspondence.

A UK promotion brings Brian to London, where the online chemistry explodes into real-life attraction—but a potential romance is foiled by the forces of distance, misunderstanding, and practicality. After all, Matt and Brian live on different continents. But with the support of their loved ones, maybe they can find the strength to give love a fighting chance.

If you click at the cover, you get to the book’s page at the Dreamspinner-shop.

I’ll be back in a bit, I’m going to get some coffee and figure out what to post next!

- T

Does one bring balloons to a blog party?

April 25, 2012

Hello! Janey Chapel here, hosting my very first blog party! When I first typed the title of this post, I wrote it as “party blog” rather than “blog party.” An important distinction? I don’t know… what do you think?

I ran a contest earlier this week over at my LiveJournal, asking readers to comment with a song that reminded them of the first time they were “flat-out stupid in love.” Responses ranged from Peaches and Herb to Neil Young, with both of Genesis’s lead singers represented in Phil Collins and Peter Gabriel. Those two know how to lay down some love songs, that’s for sure!

Feel free to play along here — I’m going to be  giving away another free ebook copy of False Start, which is being released today! I’ll choose a winner by random drawing from comments posted on the party blog… I mean, blog party today.

So stay tuned for an excerpt from False Start, a few love song lyrics, and perhaps even a little moment of nostalgia.

“No Quarter” Day – Titles and Languages and a Giveaway.

April 3, 2012

It’s getting on towards my bedtime here in Australia, so before I go for the night, I leave you all with a giveaway. Leave your name and email address in a comment to this post and when I get up in the morning, I’ll announce the winner of a copy of “No Quarter.”
And just how did “No Quarter” get its title?
Well, basically, titles are my nemesis. “No Quarter” went through over twenty titles before my good friend, Meredith Shayne (author of “Equilibrium” also out with Dreamspinner Press) suggested “No Quarter.” It fit perfectly, especially as I’d just written a line about Gabriel giving no quarter in war and no quarter in love. I love my characters, like all authors do, and I wanted them to have a title that reflected the story and their personalities. So when “No Quarter” was put to me, it was very much a lightbulb moment.
Some of the other titles the novel had that just didn’t suit at all included “Craving to Entwine,” which made me *cringe*; “Masquerade of Stars,” “Flying for Lovers,” another that made me cringe, but it might get used in something else. “Hope Remains,” “Angels Speak in Dark and Light,” which was a little too close to one of my favourite books, “Creatures of Light and Dark” by Roger Zelazny, and so it was definitely a no.
“No Quarter” was Meredith Shayne’s 4am brainstorm, and her thoughts matched mine as soon as I saw it. No quarter is given in wars/battles between angels and demons; no quarter is given in love, when it’s the possessive, primitive sort of love that Michael and Gabriel have.
Now, because my Archangels represent all the races of humanity, and Michael is Chinese with Gabriel being British with a love of Russia, I wanted them to have pet names in Chinese and Russian. The Russian was easy enough, I’d researched Russian pet names and swear words several years ago for a role playing game, and I remembered the affectionate <I>solnyshko</I> and <I>solnyshko moyo</I> for (loosely translated) ‘my sun’ or ’sun of my life.’ Finding the Chinese pet names for lovers was a little harder.
I’d studied Mandarin Chinese in high school, but I don’t remember a lot of it, much to my regret. So, I did a lot of Googling to find the right terms, because I am big on research, and found a site where you could ask a Chinese speaker to translate things. Someone had already asked about terms of endearment, happily for me, and the answer was <I>da bao</I>, which means ‘big treasure.’ Perfect!
Thanks again for reading along, everyone, and don’t forget to leave a comment with your name and email address to go into the running to win a copy of the novel!

Walking on Air

January 16, 2012

I hear the wind outside and I feel I need to find a blanket to warm up. This must mean I need to crawl away from the PC and join my puppy in the front room to save the cat. In an hour I’ll tally up the comments and draw the winners! (That means you have until 6:30 MST to post) I’ll contact the winners by email if I can, or I will comment in the post alerting them.

World on Fire was written in 2010 after a trip to Seattle. Originally the forest featured in WoF was in Washington but for shorter train travel time I changed it to Colorado. While in Seattle I heard the song “Walking on Air” by Kerli and it greatly inspired this story. The song fits so well because it molded Cole’s story from the sound and lyrics.

I wanted Lucian strange enough to forcefully pull Cole out of his shell without seeming like a bully. He ended up being just this side of crazy, but still loveable. Cole’s blushful reactions are inspired by a friend of mine. She’ll blush at the mention of shirtless men tennis clubs. (She might be reading this. Hi!)

Thank you for joining me during my second release. I hope I’ll have many more in the future. Water Waltz comes out in February so you do get to see me at least once more in 2012.

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Follow me on Twitter.

Like my Facebook page.

Read my Blog.

Purchase World on Fire.

Interviewed: Eric Arvin

January 13, 2012

I was interviewed by Kathy at Book Reviews & More for this dandy occasion…that being the release of Galley Proof. I talk about all sorts of things. Just a sheer plethora. You can also enter to win an ebook copy. Have a look-see and a gander. I’m here to answer any questions you have. Here be the link:

http://www.bookreviewsandmorebykathy.com/2012/01/13/eric-arvin/

Thank You!

January 6, 2012

One final word of thanks before I log off for the night: It’s been a pleasure sharing bits of my newly released book, Awakenings, today. Thank you for reading and I look forward to doing this again sometime soon and getting to know all of you more!  Thanks again~

Tara Larson