Fantasy Dreamer's Ramblings

Breia at Literaturely Speaking has giving me the Heartfelt Award. Thank you Breia! The instructions say to nominate up to 9 blogs but it's too hard to just pick 9 blogs, I like so many and feel comfortable with them all.

Do you reach for a cup of cocoa or tea when your relaxing, seeking comfort, sharing a plate of cookies with family & friends? You know that feeling you get when you drink a yummy cup of cocoa, tea ~or a hot toddy? That is what the Hearthfelt Award is all about, feeling warm inside.

Author News:

• Diana Rowland's debut Urban Fantasy novel Mark of the Demon was released yesterday, Yay! I loved this book and I plan on writing up a review but here is a list of other reviews out there for this spectacular book:
  
  • Enchanted by Books
  • Graeme's Fantasy Book Review
    
  • Janicu's Book Blog
  • Preternatural Reviews
    
• Gena Showalter has an excerpt to chapter 1 of Seduce the Darkness on her blog.
• Richelle Mead has the dates for her Blood Promise tour up on her blog. Looks like she'll be coming to Austin on August 29th, might see I can swing it.
• Ilona Andrews is giving away copies of an Ace and Roc Sampler to booksellers and bloggers who do frequent contests. The sampler contains the first chapters of many well known authors: Ilona Andrews, Patricia Briggs, Rob Thurman and Mark Del Franco to name a few.
• Larissa Ione has revealed the sexy new cover for the next Demonica novel, Ecstasy Unveiled, Lore's book, and along with the book blurb.
• CE Murphy, author of the The Walker Papers series and The Negotiator Trilogy is now Twitter.
• Alyssa Day announced that she has 3-book deal for more books in her Atlantis series.
• Devon Monk has announced the name of the fourth book in her Allie Beckstrom series as Magic on the Storm.
  

Interesting Tidbits:

• Rae Lori has a book review of Blood Tears by Raven Dane. I have this book on my TBR list, need to move it up.
• Undercover Book Lover has a book review up of Skinwalker by Faith Hunter, also on my TBR list - at the very top.
• There several blog post generated from a post by Larry at Blog of the Fallen: When do you ever stop whoring yourself out?, which spurned a number of heated response from other bloggers concerning giveaways. Read them and see what you think. I personally don't see anything wrong with giveaways. I think giveaways are a great way to get the authors noticed and their books into the hands of readers:
  • Fantasy & Sci-Fi Lovin' Blog: Question About Giveaways
  • A Dribble of Ink: Where’d the Enthusiasm Go?
  • Fantasy Book News & Reviews: Is Whoring Out Your Blog So Bad?
  • NextRead: Comment: Personal Journeys in Reading
• Smexy Books has a post up Project Paranormal Featuring JR Ward.
• Stalking the Muse has a poem up Today Will Be That Day. It's a good advise for when your having one those bad days.

This week there were a ton, and I mean a ton of contests, I couldn't keep up with all of them but I did list a few. If you would like for me to list your contest leave a comment or email (on my blogger profile) with a link to your contest.

Contests/Giveaways:

• Suzanne McLeod is having a Fangs for Morganville : Giveaway. She is giving away a signed copy of winners pick of her books The Cold Kiss of Death or The Sweet Scent of Blood and a pick of UK version of Lord of Misrule or US version of Carpe Corpus by Rachel Caine plus bracelets. Deadline to enter is end of day on Thursday, June 25th.
• Anna's Book Blog is having her final give away in celebration of her blog's anniversay. Too many awesome books to list, head over and check them out. Deadline to enter is midnight, June 25th.
  
• Angieville is participating in the YA Carnival Giveaway of Fragile Eternity by Melissa Marr. Deadline to enter is Sunday, June 28th.
• Ann Aguirre is having a Summer Heat Giveaway. She is giving away 3 copies of Mark of the Demon by Diana Rowland, 2 ARCs of Trick of the Light by Rob Thurman and 1 copy of Skin Deep by Mark del Franco.
• Ink and Paper is having a SFF Writers Day Contest. Jo is giving away a copy of Pawn of Prophecy by David Eddings. Deadline to enter is Tuesday, June 30th, 5pm GMT.
• Undercover Book Lover is giving away a copy of My Forbidden Desire by Carolyn Jewel. Deadline to enter is 11:59 pm EDT, Monday, June 29th.
• Undercover Book Lover is giving away a copy of Seduce the Darkness by Gena Showalter. Deadline to enter is 11:59 pm EDT, Tuesday, June 30th.
• Jenna Maclaine is having a Sinful Summer Spread-The-Word Contest. There several deadlines so head over to her website and check out the details.
• Suvudu is having a "Get Ready to Roadtrip to Comic-Con" with Stephenie Meyer Contest. They are giving away unabridged audiobooks in Stephenie Meyer's Twilight series.