Guest Post With Dakota Banks and Giveway!!

Today on my blog, I have an extra special guest. I have the pleasure of welcoming Ms. Dakota Banks. She has written several suspense novels and she has agreed to impart some of her words of wisdom (I can use all the words of wisdom I can get!). I recently reviewed her book, Dark Time: Mortal Path Book One (to read my review, click here) and I thought it was a fantastic adventure with her first foray into urban fantasy genre. So please join me in welcoming Ms. Banks to the blog!!!

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I want to thank Dottie for the opportunity to reach out to her blog readers today.





I sat down prepared to write something perky, ending with a few self-congratulatory statements about my book, Dark Time: Mortal Path Book 1. Instead I found myself in a more reflective mood. So stay with me and I promise a treat at the end.

I'm one of those people who had a lifelong urge to write and knew from the age of eight that I'd be a writer someday. That was the year I wrote a 200 word short story and had it published in the school newspaper. Wow, my first byline! I slept with that story under my pillow until it got tattered and smeared (mimeographs were used at that time). It must have been a health hazard, because one morning the story was gone and a quarter was left its place. My mother talked nonsense about the story fairy, but I was convinced it was my first paid writing. I was a pro, and the only thing I had to work on was a higher payment per word and maybe getting an agent.

I was swept up by life after that. Science and computer studies, college, marriage, a career, a couple of adopted sons. The dream never died, though. I kept waiting for the "perfect" time to devote myself to long days and weeks of writing, and naturally something always came up to cause me to put it off. I finally learned what all writers have to learn: there is no perfect time. If you wait for it, they'll carve on your gravestone, "She could have been a writer, but the laundry had to be done." When my first son was a toddler and still taking naps (thank God), my inclination was to nap when he did. Oh, how that pillow called to me! Instead, I chained myself to a desk and began writing. Soon I was staying up late or getting up early to add more writing hours. I'd proven to myself it could be done, and the timing was anything but perfect. Did I mention I was juggling a full-time job as a computer consultant working from home and being a wife, too? Sacrifices had to be made. Watching TV? What's that? A social life? Family time came first.

Six suspense novels later, I let go of the security blanket of continuing with the same type of book. I was at a point where I wanted to try something new, to move into the paranormal genre, and I had an idea for a series that had been building up inside to the point that I couldn't shove it into the background. I had to write it. I was starting to inhabit my protagonist, Maliha Crayne, like an actress immersed in method acting.

Most new writers experience a lot of angst in their search for a first agent. So imagine what it's like to fire one! That's the first thing I did, so I could search for a higher-profile agency. It was like stepping off a giant cliff. I was in freefall with no agent, no contract, and only a new, unconventional idea to offer. There were so many times that I doubted what I had done and berated myself for firing an agent. Was I nuts? What if no one liked the concept of the Mortal Path series except me? And an even deeper fear: what if my writing couldn't stand up to the competition in an already-crowded urban fantasy/paranormal thriller genre?

It took six really scary months to find a new agent. Whew. Thanks for listening as I relived all this. You're a good audience! Somehow I went from age eight to the present in a few paragraphs, complete with some soul-baring. I'm not destined to write an autobiography—it would be too short to publish!

Now for the treat. Here's an excerpt from Mortal Path Book Two, Sacrifice, coming next year. It's from the middle of the book. Thanks again to Dottie for inviting me!

Sacrifice Excerpt

When Maliha woke, she was half-reclined on a chaise lounge in a sunroom overlooking a grand view of forested hillsides. The sun glinted on water in the distance, with a hazy area that might be land to one side.

Lucius was sitting on the edge of the next lounge, looking over at her. When he saw that she was awake, he spoke.

"Please enjoy my hospitality."

She sat up abruptly and faced him. She was wearing a soft, flowing green gown that was the opposite of her killing outfit in every way. It didn't escape her that somewhere between killing outfit and gown, there must have been a nude stage. That riled her. If she was going to get naked with a guy, she didn't want to sleep through it.

"I don't suppose you had your wife change my clothes and give me a bath."

He blinked. "I don't have a wife, or any female but you, here."

"I thought so. You kidnapped me and stripped me," she said, with disbelief and anger fighting for control of her voice. "Whatever you did, you were cowardly enough to do it to an unconscious woman." She pursed her lips. "Where am I?"

"I didn't do anything to you but make you clean and comfortable. If you don't like this gown, I can take you to where there are others choices. You are on my island home in the Mediterranean Sea. I said I wanted answers from you, and short of torture, this seemed to be the best way to get your attention."

Maliha looked around. She could see olive trees nearby, with their evergreen leaves and gnarled trunks. Toto, I've a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore. Or Chicago, either.

She shook her head and regretted it. Dizziness made the world swirl around her.

"The dizziness will wear off. It's from the drug. I'm a skilled physician. You needn't worry about any permanent effects."

"You can take your torture and your permanent effects and this gown"—she grabbed a handful of the fabric—"and shove them up your ass. I'm leaving here now." She stood up and the dizziness was worse. Sitting back down, she said, "I'm leaving here in a few minutes. You should know this isn't the Stone Age. You don't knock a woman on the head with your caveman's club, drag her home, and expect cooperation."

"I've taken women without their consent. But I've matured since then."

"That does it. I'm out of here."

She stood up and began to walk away in spite of the dizziness. Instantly he was in front of her, his hand grasping her wrist tightly enough to signal that he wasn't going to let her just swim off the island. Even though it was a restraining move, his touch stirred something in her. There was no denying that she was physically attracted to him. Relaxed in his own home, with the breeze stirring the curtains on long windows, patches of sunlight on tile floors, and the scent of the Mediterranean in the air, he wore loose shorts and nothing else. She could see the mark of his demon on his chest, faintly pulsing with power.

"I wish you'd stop doing that," she said. "I never did anything that annoying when I was Ageless. Are you going to let me leave?"

"I'd rather you didn't."

His grip on her wrist loosened and his hand slid up her arm all the way to her bare shoulder, leaving an invisible trail of sexual sparks.

"We're not finished," he said. "In fact we haven't even started. You haven't answered my questions about your rogue status. Plus I … " He paused and gave her a slow, appreciative look down her body and back up again, ending by gazing directly into her eyes. He had expressive brown eyes, and at the moment they were expressing passion.

Maliha's legs felt a little weak and warmth radiated from low in her abdomen. He could turn on a rock.

His hand on her shoulder strayed and swept slowly across her body just above where her breasts filled the soft gown. He was very close to her now, close enough to bend and kiss her shoulder. Then his arm moved around her waist and he pulled her against him.

Whoa, girl, don't forget this is a demon's servant and a stone-cold killer. I think it's time to toss a little cold water. Remember that business about taking women without their consent.

She raised her knee to strike his groin, but he caught her leg and gave it a painful jerk. She ended up on her back on the marble floor. He offered her a hand up. She took it, planted both of her feet into his hard, flat belly, and flipped him over her head. He never made it to the floor in a body flop as intended. He twisted like a cat in mid-air, landed on his feet, and ended with a move that left her arm and shoulder half a second way from breaking. She rotated on the floor to face him, taking the pressure off her limb.

"So you like to play," she said. "I've done this cat-and-mouse thing with another demon's slave and he came out the worse for it. Don't think I can't do the same to you."

His face, so warm and welcoming just seconds ago, had taken on a look that frightened her. She thought of all the murderous power contained in his body, no matter how attractive the packaging.

"You are mistaken if you think a cat and a mouse are in this room. A tiger and a mouse are here, and I see no stripes on you."

The words were delivered coldly. She'd switched off both his good will and his lust.

He pulled her up from the floor, gathered her gown in his fist and kept lifting, holding her a foot up in the air with one hand. Lucius brought her to within an inch of his face and paused there. She expected to be flung backwards with murderous force.

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Thanks Dakota for being here today, it's been an honor! And you're welcome to come back anytime.

All I can say is WOW, I can't wait to get my hands on a copy of Sacrifice: Mortal Path Book Two! I have so many questions that need to be answered!

Now for the giveaway! The wonderful Dakota Banks not only gave us her words of wisdom and the treat of the excellent excerpt from Sacrifice: Mortal Path Book Two, but she's willing to giveaway a copy of Dark Time: Mortal Path Book One to one lucky commenter.



So, here are the rules:

1. Leave a comment or a question for Dakota, we'd really enjoy hearing from you and she'll be stopping by throughout the day (please include your email address, it will make it easier to track down the winner!).
2. This is an international giveaway, if you have an address on this planet, (hmmm I'll have to check on extra planetary visitors), you are welcome to enter.
3. If you follow this blog, you can have an extra entry. (Don't feel you have to follow. You still get the original entry.)
4. If you spread the word about the contest, let me know, and I give you another entry.
5. This contest will run for one week, so on my daughter's birthday (10-15-09), at midnight anywhere, (that means the next morning for me, lol), I'll let randomizer draw a winner.
6. Most importantly, have fun!!

That's it....nothing difficult.....so start commenting and good luck!

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

Publisher: Scholastic Inc.
Pages: 374

From the Cover: Twenty-four are forced to enter. Only the winner survives. In the ruins of a place once known as North America lies the nation of Panem, a shining Capitol surrounded by twelve outlying districts. Each year, the districts are forced by the Capitol to send one boy and one girl between the ages of twelve and eighteen to participate in the Hunger Games, a brutal and terrifying fight to the death – televised for all of Panem to see. Survival is second nature for sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen, who struggles to feed her mother and younger sister by secretly hunting and gathering beyond the fences of District 12. When Katniss steps in to take the place of her sister in the Hunger Games, she knows it may be her death sentence. If she is to survive, she must weigh survival against humanity and life against love.

The Hunger Games takes place in what used to be North America. But everything has changed. There's the Capitol and the thirteen outlying districts. That is until the revolt. Now there's only twelve districts, the Capitol destroyed the thirteenth district as a response to the revolt. Each district is demanded to give up two children, between 12 to 18 years of age to The Hunger Games. This is to show the power of the Capitol. The power and control it has over the citizens forced to live under it's totalitarian government. The districts have to sacrifice what little resources they have to support the Capitol, even to the extreme of sacrificing their children. As the icing on the cake, each person is each district is required to watch The Hunger Games as a nationally televised program. It's the only time when there is guaranteed electrical service. Not only do the districts have to sacrifice their children, but they have to watch them die.

Katniss has been supporting her family and surviving by any means possible since the death of her father in a coal mine explosion. She's from District 12, one of the poorest districts in North American area. The only resource that District 12 has to offer is coal. And all of the poorest citizens of the district are forced to work and eventually died in the coal mines. Her's is a sad existence of too little food, too much hardship, and too little help. But she has learned to escape the fence and hunt and fish to provide for her mother and sister. At sixteen, she is self sufficient. Cale, her best friend and companion, break Capitol rules and provide what little sustenance they can for their town.

Every year at The Reaping, two name are chosen. One boy and one girl, to try to survive The Hunger Games. This year, Cale and Katniss have their name in the drawing at least 3 times their years. For every year between 12 - 18, your name goes into The Reaping drawing, 6 entries by your 18th year. Families are allowed to sell their children's names for extra supplies by taking on extra chances in The Reaping. And it's Prim's first year, Katniss' little sister, 1 entry for her. Katniss would not allow her sister's name to be sold for supplies. Katniss is astounded when Prim's name is drawn is the first drawn, she'll never survive. Katniss immediately jumps up, volunteering her name for Prim's, she will not allow her sister's death. The second name drawn is Peeta, the local baker's son. Together Katniss and Peeta must survive The Hunger Games until they are the only ones left. Then, only one can survive.

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins was a fascinatingly fast read that I could not put down. It was amazing. I literally read this book cover to cover in one evening, the story captures your attention and draws you in, until you become part of The Hunger Games. I found myself identifying with Katniss, she's had such a hard life, yet she's willing to give her life for that of her sister. Katniss is at a disadvantage from the start. She's had an inadequate diet from birth, almost no training, but she has learned how to use a bow, and not only that but she's very, very good with it. The problem is that some of the wealthier districts train players for The Hunger Games from birth so they can reap greater rewards. The winner of The Hunger Games gets fantastic prizes and so does their district. Bigger, stronger, better fed.....how can she outlast those players? Peeta who appears to be at least well fed as had a hard existence too, even as the son of a baker. District 12 is so poor almost no one can afford the goods made. But, he had even less training in survival than Katniss; his advantage is his physical strength. Lifting 50 pound bags of flour creates healthy muscles. His other problem is his feelings for Katniss, can he kill the one person he feels like he could love? His mother is so heartless that when she comes to see him off, she tells him than maybe District 12 has a chance for a winner this year; Katniss is a good hunter. The only hope for either to survive is to learn to depend and trust each other until they can't anymore.

The Hunger Games is great YA urban fantasy, definitely a keeper. I would highly recommend picking this one up. If you like action/adventure, this is a book for you. If you loved dark urban fantasy, you'll love this book. If you want a taste of young love, there's even that found within the pages. The second book is the series, Catching Fire, was just released in September 2009. I have a copy coming my way, so I can hardly wait!! I would recommend reading The Hunger Games before Catching Fire though, there's a lot of background information about this world given and it will make following the storyline easier. Right now, I'm rooting for Peeta, Cale has helped Katniss grow into the person she is today, but I'm not sure that Katniss has the same feelings for Cale as she could have for Peeta, go Peeta!!

For The Lastest In The Hollows News

I received this in my email this morning, and loved it. Thought I'd share it. If you like Kim Harrison's Hollows Series, this is too cute. I think the opening graphic is the church (?) that Rachel and Ivy share. I subscribe to her newsletter and we always get the latest in Hollows news as well as all the cool stuff she has as promotional items. They're offering a Don't Touch The Baby button for $2.95 that cracked me up! (that would be the life sucking baby from White Witch Black Curse) My email said to 'share with friends'. If you check out Kim Harrison's website, she's having a Halloween costume contest. Take pics and send them in, win prizes!

As Taken From The Hollows Gazette
written, produced, created by Kim Harrison and Guy
To Subscribe: email @ mlharrison@comporium.net

-POLICE BEAT-

Cincinnati and Hollows police responded to a call from Eden Park attendants regarding large portions of Twin Lakes Bridge missing. Following a brief investigation, both Cincinnati and Hollows police referred the case to the I.S. No comment from the I.S. could be obtained.
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Hollows authorities continue to receive numerous calls regarding graffiti on buildings in the downtown area. Authorities report that some of the graffiti is of an "unusual nature."
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Hollows Police responded to a call from the conservatory regarding a large number of dead crows on the grounds. Police officials had no further comment and the conservatory was not responding to reporter's calls.

Cincinnati in the CrossHairs
Byline: Devin Crossman

Once again I find myself counting my lucky stars to be with you sharing the news and views from the Cincinnati area. I am not mentioning any names but I think we all know who is responsible for the "accident" that nearly prematurely ended my career and life. It is good to be back on the beat once again.

Much has happened around our fair city during my recovery but, I can not let go the recent devastation of one of our local parks. The "Mortis Operandi" is familiar, the target even more so. Yes I am am talking about the militantlike carnage that destroyed the statues of historic Carriage Park. These statues were older than most other parts of the city. The park itself, now unusable, was a haven to the many citizens that live in the area. We can only hope that modern science or possibly the best magic can save the ancient maple from being yanked from its arbor to tragically have the park becomes its tomb.

Unfortunately (as very typical of these recent events) there were no witnesses to the devastation, but I have it on very good authority that the destruction was from none other than the reckless antics of Rachel Morgan and Vampiric Charms Investigations. Yes dear citizens, Morgan and company have struck yet another blow against our city.

I keep asking the question when will it end? When will the authorities put and end to Morgan and her lawlessness. Why does Morgan remain free to roam our streets placing citizens in harms way? I tell you friends, this reporter is getting tired of the city management's lack of due process. I am asking, no, I am begging the city managers to get Morgan and her associates at Vampiric Charms, the FIB and the I.S. out of town and off our streets. If our current leadership can't or worse won't deal Morgan and her band of idiots maybe it is time for new leadership in our city. Who will step up and take control our city and get these criminals off the streets? Yes, who indeed.

Let your concerns be heard citizens. Let the city managers know enough is enough. We have had it, we are done. Stop Morgan and her cronies now.

As always Cincinnati, this reporter will aggressively get to the heart of this ongoing travesty. I will, for as long as I am able, pressure the city managers to get this menace off our streets and out of our city. You have my word on that Cincinnati. This is my promise to you. Morgan, you are in the crosshairs.

--Devin Crossman is a syndicated columnist that resides in northern Cincinnati and is featured in many national newspapers. Mr. Crossman can be reached through our office at Editor@hollowsgaz.hol.
Many thanks to crosshairs.com for the image in this column. Visit their website for many other variations of crosshairs.

Barnes & Nobles Free Ebooks

Hi Everyone!

I was on Twitter and Lisa Renee Jones was re-tweeting about free ebooks from Barnes & Nobles. You do have to create an account, but what the heck, it free (although they do ask for credit card information).

I know some of you have ereaders or maybe you're like me and read from PDF Adobe from your computer. Whether you like romance, fantasty, suspense, scifi, the classic....there's something for you.

Don't take my word for it, check out some of these great books, click here to peruse what's available. There are three pages, so something for everyone.

Here's one that grabbed my eye:

Legacy by Cayla Kluver Contest Winners!!!!

The winners of Cayla Kluver's Legacy are:




Randomizer has spoken Timestamp: 2009-10-01 10:22:53 UTC for 33 unique entries.

1. AmyC


2. Stephanie


3. Briana






I believe I have everyone's email address, so be expecting an email. I'll just need your snail mail addy to send to the publicists. Thanks Natalie for providing Legacy by Cayla Kluver as a giveaway!!