It’s officially the month leading up to Blood Moon!
To celebrate I’m going to give teasers out every Tuesday…I’m starting on a Wednesday because I didn’t think of this yesterday.

Here is today’s teaser… a song for Lucy and Nicholas, especially for books 5 and 6:

There will also be a contest running during release week!
Post a pic of you holding your print copy of Blood Moon (or your dog, stuffed bear, Thor figurine…) and 100 peope will receive Drake Chronicles tattoos and stickers!
Note: This particular contest is for US and Canada only as mailing costs are prohibitive.
HOWEVER: I’ll pick 1x International winner out of the lot. Ebooks don’t count towards this particular contest but I’ll think up a way to include you in another awesome thing.
The contest will have it’s own page on June 19th for you to post a link to your pic.

Thank you!

I will choose 3 winners who will receive all 3 Enovellas each (Kindle…since I know how to do it that way lol).
All you need is an email address…and if you don’t have an E reader there are apps that allow you to read the stories on your phone or computer.
All you have to do is share your favourite Drake Chronicles character and tell me why.
*Share in the comments to this post and I’ll choose a winner here.
*Retweet and I’ll choose a twitter winner. (@AlyxandraH)
*Share on Facebook (www.thedrakechronicles.com) and I’ll choose a winner there.

Giveaway ends this Friday, April 20th…

They are a community and a haven. I, thankfully, didn’t have bullies to hide from when I was fourteen, but I still spent a lot of time sitting on the carpeted floor with my back against the uncomfortable metal shelves looking at both books and boys. And don’t get me wrong, I do love libraries. In fact, being a librarian finds itself on my list of what I want to be when I grow up. Never mind that I’m thirty six years old and technically grown up. While being a writer was, and is, always on the top; archaeologist, costume designer, librarian and archeao-mythologist also make the list. I don’t actually know what an archeao-mythologist does but I saw it in the credits of a movie once and fell in love with the word. It sounds like fun. And I’m sure a librarian could help me look it up.

Because that’s what’s so great about libraries; they’re like Delphic Oracles, pronouncing wisdom on anything from crop rotations to what the Ancient Egyptians ate for dinner. There’s always someone there to help you find the answer. The other times I visited for the actual books and not the scenery, I took away worn copies of volumes on everything from First Nations beadweaving and inter-tribal sign language, past life regression to King Arthur and Robin Hood. And I distinctly remember a family trip to Italy where I was allowed to choose the sights I wanted to visit. I spent hours pouring over travel guides to Florence, Rome and Venice, again sitting on the floor of my school library. I don’t know why those floors were always more comfortable then the perfectly good chairs two feet away.

A place full of books always feels holy to me, whether it’s a bookshop, a small village library or a book-lined living room. As a reader, there’s no happier place. And now that I get to visit them as a writer, it’s just as wonderful. It’s filled with old friends like Anne of Green Gables, Jane Eyre and Jo March; friends who might be forgotten if it wasn’t for the librarian behind the desk.

I don’t remember ever hearing about author visits when I went to school, and certainly the Young Adult genre didn’t have its own section in the stacks the way it does now. I see the difference it makes to young readers, not only to have librarians who can recommend books and encourage reading, but who also make the effort to bring in writers. Books become more real when writers aren’t just some old guy who lived two hundred years ago and is ruining your weekend because you have to write an essay about him for class. When writers become real, readers can become writers too. And students also invariably have the most interesting and intelligent questions. In libraries, they get to ask those questions. Sometimes they get answers and sometimes they get something even better: an adult who admits to not having all the answers. Together they can search the hundreds of books for clues. The internet is good for many things but the glimmer of shared excitement when someone else is helping you on your quest just isn’t one of them.

And it’s not just research, which I happen to love, but recreational reading as well. Whatever that is. “Recreational” makes it sound like reading a novel is akin to indulging in a piece of chocolate; as if one’s okay but too many might be bad for your health. But I firmly believe that chocolate can save the day, and so can a good book.

There is something delicious about a novel. It’s a portable world in your palm, it has its own weather systems, its own emotional landscapes, its own friends and foes. And it makes your local library a guide to a veritable galaxy of stories.

You got that fact? Good. Now let it set you free. Write about monkeys, or magicians, or monkeys who are also magicians, in third person, in first person, in deranged monkey person, in past tense, in present tense. Write about whatever you love writing about. And tell those doubts that you’re too busy to talk right now, because you’re writing a story that’s yours, a story that’s shining so strong that it has to be told, no matter how scary telling it might be.”

From YA Highway http://www.yahighway.com/2012/04/on-fear-and-beginnings.html

What inspires you?
A good song, well sung–lately it has been the music of Zachary Richard, a brilliant singer-songwriter and environmental activist from Louisiana. When I hear a good song, I want to run to the keyboard and start writing stories.

Name your 3 “Desert Island” books:
Can I cheat and name three series? No? Darn. Okay, in that case…Stephen King’s The Stand. Susan Howatch’s Cashelmara. And Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. The oddness of that trio probably says something about me.

If you weren’t a writer, what would you be?
Probably a veterinarian or a kennel operator. I love animals. Love love love.

If you could invite any 3 people to tea, alive or dead, who would they be and why?
Can I be armed? If so, the early 19th-century pirate Jean Lafitte. I’ve become really fascinated with him as I’ve written him into my urban fantasy series. He was so smart in many ways, but naive in others. A very complex man.
Stephen King, because I’m such a fangirl and I think he’s brilliant. He’d be so ready to get away from me.
And my great-great grandfather Daniel Smith, a farmer in Alabama who sent three sons to fight for the Union Army–and spent much of the Civil War years hiding from his Confederate neighbors who wanted to hang him. All three sons (my great-grandfather’s older brothers) died in the war, and I have transcripts of testimony Daniel gave after the war. He couldn’t read or write, but had strong convictions that he was willing to back up with action. I’d like to meet him.

Suzanne’s newest book is out now and you can find out more about her on her website: www.suzanne-johnson.com

GETTING THE TUNE

by Alex Bledsoe

 Lots of writers work to music, and I’m no exception.  My last novel, The Hum and the Shiver, was even partly about music.  Some authors create playlists that, for them, capture the feeling of the book.  I did that on my prior website, but when it got revamped, I took down the playlists.  One reason was that my opinions and tastes change over time, but the main incentive was to avoid telling the reader what to think or feel.  There are songs mentioned in the story, and those can be found pretty easily.  As for the ones I listened to while writing, there’s no guarantee they’d have the same effect on the reader.

 That being said, I’d like to talk about one particular song, “Wrought Iron Fences,” and how it ended up in the book I’m writing right now, Wisp of a Thing.

 The song is written and performed by Mississippi-born singer-songrwriter Kate Campbell.  I’ve been a fan of Kate’s for over a decade; when she’s in the zone, no one writes better music about what it means to be a modern Southerner.  As an example, I recommend her song, “Look Away,” probably her defining statement.

 In Wisp of a Thing, the follow-up to The Hum and the Shiver, the hero is attempting to find, essentially, a song hidden in plain sight.  His only clue is the cryptic line, “On a hill, long forgotten, carved in stone.”  That line comes from “Wrought Iron Fences,” found on Kate’s 1997 CD Moonpie Dreams.  I intended to use the line in the story and perhaps quote it as an epigraph to acknowledge the source.  Those things don’t legally require permission, although it’s always morally polite to ask.  But then I realized the ideal use would be to have the song, including some of its lyrics, actually in the book.

 Now, I have to back up a little and explain something.  These days books are expected to have trailers, just like movies.  And just like movie trailers, memorable music is an essential element.  But music licensing is both incredibly complex, and ridiculously expensive.  You must get permission to use both the song itself (from the music publisher) and the particular recording (from the record company).  The former is bad enough, but securing the latter can equal the GNP of some third-world countries.  It’s one reason so many famous songs are re-recorded by new artists for movies and TV shows.

 However, the world is filled with musicians who write, record, produce and distribute their own material.  That’s what the whole “indie” movement is about.  They not only own all their rights, they are often delighted to be featured this way, and are quite willing to let you use a song for the exposure it brings them.  For example, I used the song “Pirate” by Jen Cass in the first trailer for Wake of the Bloody Angel.  Not only is the song itself brilliantly written, it’s performed and produced with as much skill and polish as anything out there.  And all I had to do was write Jen and ask to use it.  I get a great song, she gets exposure to a new audience.

 ”Wrought Iron Fences” is a slightly different situation, though, because I wanted to have characters familiar with Kate Campbell’s music sing, play,  and talk about the song.  Thus the lyrical clue appears not as a random comment, but in a musical context, which makes it even more meaningful.

 But again, the process was essentially the same.  I wrote Kate, explained that I was a fan and that I’d like to feature her song in my book.  Since she owns all the rights to her music, she was able to grant permission.  And I sincerely thank her for it.

 Contrast this to my experience trying to license the 1979 song “Fauvette” by the late Duncan Browne for the trailer to my novel Blood Groove.  Browne’s widow whole-heartedly endorsed the idea.  However, since the recording was done for a major label, one that had changed corporate owners over the years, I was never able to even find out who could grant permission, let alone acquire it, probably because it was clear I had no money to spend on it.  In the end, my friend Colleen Grace came through big and let me use her song, “Bottle of Jack.”

 So the moral of this is: keep your ears open.  Don’t limit yourself to the godawful drek mainstream radio pumps out like a manure spreader.  There is brilliant music being made by people who would be delighted to cross-pollinate with an author.  Seek it out.

 And once again, thank you, Kate Campbell.

Find Alex online at: http://alexbledsoe.com/