Aequitas Goodreads Giveaway!

During the lovely month of April, there is a giveaway happening over at Goodreads for “Aequitas: Book 2 of the Monstrum Chronicles”! Not sure what happens in the book? Here’s a brief synopsis from my website:

Reid Ainsley is demoted from the Council of Thema following his actions taken during the Vox case.  On his latest mission, he discovers a plot so heinous, its consequences could destroy mankind and lilitu alike. In order to unravel the subterfuge within his own Council, he must dive into his past to find the answers he seeks as he sinks deeper into the Monstrum he’s become…
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Meanwhile, Torrent finds himself in Austria investigating a series of gruesome murders. Blamed for murdering his sire in cold blood, he’s pursued by a renowned tracker with whom he has a history. Together with a hesitant sidekick, Vinh, they hunt an elusive lilitu, Leach, a creature whose thirst for the macabre is never satisfied. 

​As they hurtle through snow-capped Montreal, seductive Paris, Istanbul’s dark cisterns, and the twisted bowels of the Council’s Bion Fortress, Reid and Torrent will have to come to terms with their pasts in order to confront the most dangerous monstrum either has ever encountered…

Want to enter the giveaway? Of course you do! Click on “Giveaway” below and sign up by hitting the “Enter to Win” button on the Goodreads page! Good luck!

Giveaway

Haven’t read “Vox” Book 1 yet? No worries. As of tomorrow, it’ll be available on Amazon Kindle for only 99 cents…for the whole month. You’re welcome!

Want to hear the book’s unofficial soundtrack? You can find it here on the website. (You’ll need Spotify to be able to listen to it.)

Anything else you want to know about the book? Send me an email! I’d love to hear from you!

~KSilva

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What I’ve Been Up To!

So! It has been quite the busy summer! Aside from kicking it back at the wonderful New England Authors Expo in July, I also had the chance to get in on the action of New Hampshire’s Granite State Comic Con! What a joy that was! I manned (or shall I say womaned?) the New England Horror Writers table with my fellow authors Scott Goudsward, Rob Watts, Gordon Bean, and Matthew Bartlett on September 13th and 14th, a midst a sea of Harley Quinns, Arya Starks, and Starlords. I even had a run-in with one of my worst fears…one that I couldn’t have even imagined would be present: a stilted devil clown that continued to haunt me no matter which direction I looked in. I had copies of my Monstrum Chronicles series present and was promoting the upcoming 3rd book in the series, Memento Mori. I made a few sales, enjoyed getting to know my fellow writers, and checked out some of the many other vendors at the show. (I came close to getting vampire fangs. Maybe next time?)

Southern Writers Magazine Blog Featuring Moi!

Back in May, I was asked to write a piece for the Suite T blog by Southern Writer’s Magazine about myself and being nominated for the Maine Literary Award. Here is that piece now! http://southernwritersmagazine.blogspot.com/2013/11/reinvigorated-writer.html

Maine Literary Awards Finalist!

I woke up this morning with a migraine. I ended up going back to bed for an hour to get rid of it, sipping at weak coffee, and eating a rather crispy pumpkin muffin.

I drove to work behind someone who was afraid of slight bends in the road. He’d slow down whenever he came to one… and he wasn’t even going the speed limit.

All day at work, I kept saying the opposite of what I meant to say. It got so that I couldn’t even get one sentence out without something not sounding right.

But when I got home, I received some of the best news I’ve ever had. My second novel, Aequitas: Book 2 of The Monstrum Chronicles was nominated in the speculative fiction category at the 2013 Maine Literary Awards. I’m blown away… completely blown away. They said that there were a hundred entries for the various categories. To be one of the finalists in the Maine Literary Awards along with such names as Paul Doiron and Monica Wood and countless others is a tremendous honor. A fellow author with whom I’m thankful to have been introduced to, Jeff Foltz, is one of my fellow nominees. I’m so glad that I can share that category with such a wonderfully talented author.

The awards ceremony is May 30th! I’ll be there to rub elbows with some pretty awesome people and sit trembling as they announce the winners. Words can’t describe how excited I am. Seriously. Excited.

Haven’t checked out my Monstrum Chronicles series yet? Aequitas can be found here on Amazon! Give it a peek!

~KSilva

Inspiration Through Music: Celldweller

Ever have a morning where you can barely crawl out of bed? What am I saying… of course you have. Everyone has. That soft velvety feel of the sheets and the warmth call back to you as you trudge toward your bedroom door and out onto the always cold kitchen floor. Don’t fear, my friends. There is music that can help that feeling. And that music is Celldweller. In most cases, I have a little bit of time first thing in the morning to get some writing done before I have to start getting ready for work. Those are the reasons I rip myself out of bed at six a.m. every morning. This morning, I had some trouble though. I was very, very tired and almost just wanted to stay in bed. But, I knew that I had an action scene that was waiting for me to write and that in order to do that, I’d have to call upon the services of one of my favorite rock groups, Celldweller.

Inspiration Through Music: Bat For Lashes

I write about vampires. I’m not ashamed of this nor am I embarrassed by it. Sure, you may be saying to yourself, “Everyone is doing it right now.” And you’d be partially correct. There’s a whole vampire explosion that’s happened in the literary world ever since a certain series that shall not be named emerged several years ago. But you’ll also agree that the majority of these books are paranormal romance. Now, I’ll be painfully clear: The Monstrum Chronicles is not a paranormal romance series. There may be hints of crushes, sexual innuendos, and even a few on page kisses here and there but romance is not the sole focus of the series. This series is best described as “The DaVinci Code” with vampires. Oh, and without the religion. But like I said, here and there, there are hints of romance through out the books sprinkled in the background. The reasoning for this makes some sense. Vampires are meant to show our inner most desires fleshed out and exposed to the world. They were human at one point and so a human side must be shown in contrast with their monster. What’s more human than love? And let’s be honest, vampires can be pretty sexy (as long as they’re not sparkling.) Unfortunately for me, I’m not the most wonderful writer when it comes to romance. However, it helps that I have one musical group that I can listen to for inspiration on anything vampire: Bat For Lashes.

“Aequitas” is free March 8th and 9th!

WARNING: Shameless self-promotion below. Take it or leave it, peeps.

The title says it all. My second book, “Aequitas: Book 2 of The Monstrum Chronicles” is free today and tomorrow! Please jump on the bandwagon and download your copy today! If you already have a copy and have already read it, please do me a favor and write a little review of it for the Amazon page!

If you want to get updates on what else is coming up for future projects, give the facebook page a “like”!

https://www.facebook.com/katherinesilva.author

Got a Twitter? So do I? Don’t use it much… but I’ve got it!

Tweets by KatherineSilva_

And Goodreads! Great place to be and always a good place to show your love of all things literary!

http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5066729.Katherine_Silva

And I think that about covers it! Thanks for showing your support. You guys are the best of the best.

~KSilva

Inspiration Through Music: Little People

Ever watched a montage scene in your favorite television show or movie? It’s where the characters are working together (or sometimes against one another) and they are not necessarily in the same scene as one another. This is usually a fill in scene that lets people know how these characters accomplish their tasks at hand. This is a little trickier to do in books because it ends up usually just being a lot of exposition and no dialogue. But, as long as the language is rich enough and the task being done captures the attention of the reader, that’s all that matters. I mean, honestly, we’re not going to be interested in a character with a montage scene of him doing his daily chores, are we? Odds are probably not. One of the television shows that is famous for pairing awesome music with montage scenes is CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. Now imagine you have Little People’s music playing through a scene of the characters processing evidence. It feels like it belongs there. This band is so chameleon-like with their various pieces that I feel they can fit into several different genres quite seamlessly. Little People has described their musical style as “downtempo instrumental with hip-hop beats and bleets.” This basically means that they like to experiment a lot with their music. In my opinion, the end results are always phenomenal. I’ve listened to their stuff for a few years now. One of their pieces even inspired a scene for “Aequitas”. Today, I’m going to share six of their songs with you and tell you what I see when I listen to them.

Goodbye 2012… Welcome 2013!

Wow. What a year its been. I’ve got to say that never in my wildest dreams did I imagine I’d be keeping a blog going all year long… two blog posts weekly. Sure I slipped off the track here and there but still managed to make up for it each time. I’m not that great with being consistent about weekly writings, so this was a big step for me. I had a wonderful year cooking many bizarre and sometimes wonderful dishes, expanding my culinary knowledge and having a few good laughs at the same time. Likewise, I also enjoyed discovering unique and inspiring music to branch out my creativity in my writing and sharing it with you all. I intend to continue both blogs into the new year along with a resolution to try and keep my promises of having Inspiration Through Music up on Mondays and now Cooking Adventures up every Friday.

In addition to the blog, I’ve also published my Kindle and paperback versions of Aequitas, a feat that has had me with my nose to the grindstone since two years ago. I learned more than I can ever imagine about self-publishing, self-marketing, and online marketing and am eager to learn more. I also had some inspiration for some wonderful projects that I hope to continue with into 2013. I joined both Maine Writers and Publishers Alliance and the New England Horror Writers Association, both amazing groups to be a part of with being an author in Midcoast Maine. I organized my very first readings with the Camden and Rockland libraries, both of which were tons of fun. And let’s not forget the other awesome writer’s I’ve met this year.

I’d planned to have both my Cooking Adventure and my Inspiration Through Music up tonight for your viewing pleasure. Alas, I’ve been struck not only by a devilish headache but by the most sinister back ache imaginable… from shoveling snow yesterday morning. (I lifted with my back, not my legs. I know, I know. You’re not supposed to do that. I learned my lesson.) So we’ll be kicking off the new year tomorrow evening with both instead. My Cooking Adventure is in the oven as we speak, and the house smells wonderfully of gingerbread. Mmm-mmm!

To the rest of you, here’s hoping you have fantastic evenings and happy New Year’s celebrations! Looking forward to interacting with more of you in 2013!

~KSilva

Erpdates! Ermahgerd!

Yes. It has been a long time since I’ve given you all an update on things happening here at Monstrum Chronicles central. Figured it was about time. I apologize for my wacky schedule the last couple months. Fall is always so much more hectic for me because I have so much going on. Plus being sick hasn’t helped things. Thank you to all of you who still read my blogs every week. You guys are pretty awesome.

So, this week is Thanksgiving which generally means it’s just going to be a crazy week. I am literally over 80% done with revisions to the physical copy of “Aequitas”. Having just conquered the evil cold (maybe?), I can finally look forward to spending more time in the evening getting this done. I plan to use tonight and tomorrow night to finish up the last of locating issues in the book and starting to apply those revisions to the computer draft.

Then… it’s Thanksgiving (gobble, gobble). I intend to take that day off (but because I’m a workaholic, I might end up working on stuff anyway).

Then… it’s Black Friday. And yes, folks, I’m working that day. Probably going to be a pretty insane day. Not sure how much energy I’ll have that evening for working on the book. Saturday, however, I’ll have plenty of time to make the changes I need to the digital proof. I’ll probably purchase another physical proof so that I can make sure all of the changes came out correctly. When that’s approved, I’ll order copies of the books. So, now, we’re looking at an early December release.

Now, news on other things… I have an author event scheduled for the Vose Library in January. It will be a book signing/reading/discussion event for “Aequitas” and a chance for you to ask any questions you may have about the future of The Monstrum Chronicles. I’ll have more info on that later.

I have been struggling with a bit of writer’s block lately and as a result haven’t been able to really write anything. I have three books that I’m trying really hard to focus on right now. “Memento Mori, Book 3 of The Monstrum Chronicles” is obviously one of the more important ones. I also have “Cold Walls” which is an apocalyptic novel that I’ve talked about many times on here and read a segment of at the Halloween Readings in October. That one is currently on the front burner as I’m trying to get it written before I lose all the inspiration I have for it, ha ha. Lastly, I have started Book 4 of The Monstrum Chronicles which I’m hoping to write at the same time as Book 3. Kind of a crazy thought, I know, but I really don’t want a two year lapse between the release of books like there has been.

In addition to these, I have plans to release a series of short stories through the winter, specifically a western horror (worror) series, I’ve been developing with a whole set of new characters (that also takes place in The Monstrum Chronicles universe). The first segment is already written and just needs some editing magic. You can probably look forward to seeing that one around Christmas.

Now… I think that’s all there is! Stay tuned for Cooking Adventures which will be posted either late Thursday night or Friday morning this week. I’m making a green bean casserole and a sparkling cider pound cake that will (hopefully) have you salivating in your computer chair.

Until next time, have a great holiday everyone!

~KSilva