Easily Distracted by Shiny Objects

Hello there — I'm Christine Pope, and, as the title of this intro post indicates, I have a tendency to chase after the new shiny thing. This could be because I'm an Aquarius, or it might be because I'm a magpie. If it sparkles, it's definitely going to catch my attention (which may be why I'm wearing sparkly nail polish as I write this). And this is probably also the reason why I've spread my writing efforts among nine different series, although you'll be happy to know that more than half of them are completed, and two more will be getting their final books in the next few months. So, in general, I do finish what I start. I may or may not have made this my personal goal after getting burned by a few authors in the past. <cough Robert Jordan cough>

I'd say most people probably know me through my witch books — The Witches of Cleopatra Hill and The Witches of Canyon Road — although I have several other paranormal romance series, including The Djinn Wars and Project Demon Hunters. I've also written a science fiction romance series (Gaian Consortium) and a fantasy romance series (Tales of the Latter Kingdoms), but I've been focusing on PNR pretty much exclusively for the past few years.

As a child, I always had my nose buried in a book, and I always hoped that one day I'd be a full-time writer. I feel very lucky to be living in a time when that's been made more and more possible, thanks to the indie publishing revolution that's taken place over the past decade. My first three books were actually published by a small press, but in 2011, I decided to take the leap as an indie writer, and I haven't looked back.

I grew up in Southern California and spent most of my adult life there, but my husband and I moved to Arizona about six years ago, mostly because we were tired of the SoCal rat race and wanted to try something different. We also spent a couple of years in Santa Fe, New Mexico, before returning to Arizona in mid-2018. Most of my series are set in places I've either lived or visited — Sedona for my Sedona Files series, Santa Fe and Taos, New Mexico, for my Djinn Wars series, the tiny, funky town of Jerome, Arizona, for The Witches of Cleopatra Hill.

One of my favorite things to do is take day trips to scout locations for books or series — in fact, my husband and I just went out earlier this week to take a peek at Globe, a former mining town in central Arizona that'll be the setting for an upcoming series. Another favorite pastime is visiting local wineries and sampling their wares. (There's a lot of wine in my books...be forewarned!)

Otherwise, I'm a nerdy girl with a shoe obsession who met her husband through playing D&D and who's lucky enough to be married to her best friend. No doubt my awesome husband is part of the reason why I'm so happy to be writing romance, although — last time I checked, anyway — he isn't a djinn or a wizard or a vampire, just a guy who loves to trade movie quotes with me and is always up for a new adventure.

I generally release around ten books a year, give or take. If you want to learn more about any of them, you can visit my website...or my Facebook page or Facebook readers' group. Thanks for dropping by! 

Today Is My (Book) Birthday!

Hey, everyone! I'm Sarra Cannon, and today I'm celebrating nine years since I published my first book, Beautiful Demons.

I honestly can hardly believe it's been nine full years since I took the plunge and decided to start my own publishing company and put my books out into the world.

When I first started writing, I had every intention of trying to get a deal with a big publisher, but as I met more published authors and got into the industry a bit more, I decided that I really wanted to have more control over my own books and to get them in the hands of readers faster than traditional publishing. Nine years ago today, I took the leap and published my books on my own.

It was seriously the best decision I ever made! Since then, I've published 25 books and sold nearly three quarters of a million copies. It's crazy to think how much that one day - that one decision - changed my life forever.

Unlike some of the other authors you'll meet on this blog, I write mostly Young Adult fiction. I can't exactly call most of it Urban Fantasy, because my main series, The Shadow Demons Saga, is set in a super small town in Georgia called Peachville.

Peachville is totally made up, but it's based (not so loosely) on the town where I grew up. Hawkinsville, Georgia.

Beautiful Demons

Beautiful Demons is the first book in my Shadow Demons Saga, so in celebration of this book's birthday, here is quick description for you:

Harper Madison isn't like other girls. She has extraordinary powers, but her inability to control them has gotten her kicked from so many foster homes she's lost count. Shadowford Home for Girls is her last chance, and she hopes Peachville High will be the fresh start she needs.

At first, life appears to be looking up for Harper. She's making new friends and is strangely drawn to the guy next door. But when evidence ties her to the gruesome murder of a Demons cheerleader, Harper discovers this small town has a big secret.

My life has changed so much since I wrote and published this book, and I couldn't be more grateful to each reader who has taken a chance on this series.

What's really nuts is that I originally expected and planned for this to be a simple trilogy. The first couple of books are shorter and the story lines are simpler, but the more I wrote in this world, the more ideas started to flow out of me. I had to write more!

Now, nine years later, I'm about to start working on the 11th book in this series. There will be 12 total, but I also have a spin-off called Sacrifice Me and a few side stories, as well.

If you don't like YA as much but you want to check out this story world, you might love Sacrifice Me, which is more Urban Fantasy with a strong romance and one of my personal favorite heroines, Franki. She is 21, so even though there is still a coming of age feel to her story, it's more New Adult than YA.

If you're interested in checking out my books, you can find the Shadow Demons Saga reading order here on my personal website, with links to buy the first three books in the Shadow Demons Saga for free in the Beautiful Demons Box Set.

More About Me

And since this is the first post from me, let me share a little bit more about who I am and what I'm all about. I currently live in Charleston, South Carolina, which is seriously a dream come true. I have always wanted to live near the beach in an old southern town like Charleston. I love it!

I am married to my best friend, George, who I met while playing an online game called Everquest II years ago. We will celebrate our 10 year wedding anniversary in December.

We have two children. Andrew is 7 and he's the cutest, sweetest, red-headed little boy in the world. We also just had a daughter 8 weeks ago!! Her name is Nynaeve (a name we pulled from our fave fantasy series, The Wheel of Time), but we call her Evie. How cute are they?

You can see lots of family and behind-the-scenes writing pics over on my Instagram, so I'd love for you to follow me there!

I am passionate about my stories, and I love creating new worlds. I'm also passionate about helping fellow writers and people who want to be writers find a way to get their books out there and manage their time. Okay, I'm also a passionate planner-girl who is obsessed with washi tape :P. If you have always thought about writing a book, you might be interested in my YouTube channel, Heart Breathings, where I talk a lot about writing, publishing, and all things planner.

What else? I love gaming (currently playing Final Fantasy online), anime (Sword Art Online is my all-time favorite next to RWBY), and reading. I'm also really into Tarot Cards, crystals, and manifestation. Oh! And I am obsessed with Hello Kitty!

And that's basically me! If you stumble across this post, comment and let me know a little bit about you, too! I'd love to hear more!

Oh, and by the way, this is me with Baby Evie!

So, hello to you! Welcome to our blog. I hope you'll stick around and hang out with us here.

As a huge Happy Birthday to Beautiful Demons, I hope you'll pick up that first free box set and give it a try. It's a great time to discover the series since you can binge read the first 10 books and the side stories before the 11th book comes out early next year. :P

Also, as a gift to you, here's a free downloadable signed wallpaper featuring my cover art from the incredible artist, Ravven. You can simply click on the image to bring up the full size and then save this image and post it as your laptop or desktop wallpaper. The image below is perfect for most phones!

Click here for the full sized desktop image!

Click here for the full sized phone wallpaper image!

I hope you enjoy the free wallpapers. Thank you for hanging out and helping me celebrate Beautiful Demons' book birthday today!

Music, Magic, and Mayhem

Hi! My name is Erin Zarro, and I write fiction in the genres of fantasy, sci-fi, and horror. I started writing when I was a kid. I've always wanted to be a published author. My parents, ever practical, suggested that I have another job so I could pay my bills while I was trying to find a publisher. This was back in the days before self-publishing.

I went to college, majoring in journalism and unofficially minoring in photography. As it turns out, journalism and photography are both in my blood. My grandmother, who passed away when I was eleven, was a gossip columnist for the city paper, which is still operating today! My goal back then was to work there. I even have her old Smith Corona typewriter that she used to type her columns. It is almost a hundred years old, and it's in my office. I feel closer to her having it with me.

My grandfather was a photographer and had his own darkroom. I've seen his pictures.They were a lot like mine, amazingly. I have my own darkroom as well because I love black and white photography so much! Back when I was in school, you could still get black and white film developed for a hefty price. Problem was, they used a standard development process and sometimes the pictures don't look good. By doing everything myself, I can control how my negatives and prints look. My favorite kinds of pictures are self-portraits, black and white infrared, and other experimental processes. I haven't been in my darkroom in a long time due to health issues, but one of my goals for next year is to get back in there. I miss it terribly.

I started self-publishing in 2012 as an experiment. I had been revising one novel over and over again, trying to make it perfect for submission to literary agents. Please note that I had no idea what exactly the "perfect novel" was. I ended up causing myself horrible anxiety every time I opened the file. Some writer friends suggested I take time away from it for some much-needed perspective. It was initially supposed to be six months, but it ended up being ten years. Oops! I started writing a book in 2011 on Halloween that became my debut self-published novel, Fey Touched. I had started it for fun as a rewrite of a novel I'd written for National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), a yearly writing challenge I always participate in."The Sacrifice" was my first finished novel. After Fey Touched, I went on to write two more books in the series, Grave Touched and Ever Touched. They are published through Turtleduck Press, a small independent press I co-founded. We aim to publish books that don't fit into genre boxes—the different, the experimental, the great books that aren't commercial enough for traditional publishing.

All Aboard For the Wild Hunt

So our beginning posts are going to be introductions and a bit of chit-chat so you get to know us a little better. So...here's me, in a (non) nutshell! I've got  along bio, so pull up a chair and I'll try to keep from being boring. ;)

I’m New York Times, USA TODAY, and Publishers Weekly bestselling author Yasmine Galenorn.  In April 2012, I won a Career Achievement Award in Urban Fantasy at the Romantic Times Convention.

I have over 65 books on the shelves, and I write urban fantasy and paranormal romance, including the Wild Hunt Series, the Fury Unbound Series, the Indigo Court Series, the Otherworld Series, the Bewitching Bedlam Series, and a number of others, as well as metaphysical nonfiction books. AND...I just got my rights back to my Whisper Hollow Series, which I'll be starting up again!

I wrote for traditional publishers for twenty years, from 1996 until 2016, and now I have moved into being an indie author to give myself more freedom. I'm loving the new ride. It suits me well and I find so much more freedom this way.

And yes, I’m a shamanic witch and am considered an elder in the Pagan community, having been in the Craft since February 29th (yes, leap year day), 1980.  I walk an eclectic path and consider my life to be a blend of teacups and tattoos–the former in my china closet, the latter on my skin–I’m a heavily inked pagan priestess.

Welcome to the Urban Fantasy Fiend Bloggers

Once upon a time, a group of urban fantasy authors (who also write paranormal romance/paranormal mystery/fantasy/science fiction/ and all sorts of things) came together to mutually support one another. We've evolved into a group of 36 authors, all either fully indie or hybrid authors, and we've been together since 2015. We have a Facebook group, but with the algorithms and vagaries of FB, we decided we wanted a site outside of the FB where we could blog, talk about our lives and books, and still support one another. So welcome to the UFF Blog. Subscribe if you want notifications when we have new posts, and please, feel free to comment! We have few rules here: Play nice, no dissing other authors, no self-promotion from any authors who aren't in our group, and no R/X-rated comments/posts/pictures. Otherwise, jump aboard for the ride!

~Yasmine Galenorn