Showing posts with label Margo Bond Collins. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Margo Bond Collins. Show all posts

Thursday, September 1, 2016

Cover Reveal: A Generation of Vipers






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A Generation of Vipers
A Shifter Shield Novella

Capturing the killer who was stalking the shapeshifter community s
hould have earned weresnake Lindi Parker and her new boyfriend,
mongoose-shifter Kade Nevala, a vacation.

Instead it earned them a basket of baby lamias and a whole heap
of trouble. Someone in the shifter community doesn’t want those
infants—or Lindi—to survive.

Not knowing who or what they can trust, Kade and Lindi must use
every skill they have to stop a killer—again.

Available for pre-order on Kindle: http://amzn.to/2bwhl2c

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Excerpt

"Don't panic," Kade said that evening as he stirred a pot of his homemade spaghetti sauce. "It's not like you're bringing all these new lamia babies home to live in your house. We're going to set up a group home for them, with a live-in staff. You're their counselor, Lindi, not their mother."
I poured a glass of Chianti and settled in on a barstool at the island in the middle of his large kitchen. "That's the thing. I'm not sure a group home is the right way to go with these kids."
"You signed off on it when we came up with the idea." He narrowed his eyes at me and tasted the sauce, then added something to it. "Janice thinks it's the best option we have," he added, knowing that the leader of the shifters' Council had been tutoring me in all things shapeshifter recently, and that her endorsement mattered to me.
"Yeah, but…" I trailed off, trying to find the words to explain what I was trying to say.
As usual, I didn't have to find the exact phrase for Kade to understand. Or any words at all. "You're worried that without a stable home-life, you won't be able to give these children the same kind of emotional training that your parents gave you."
I nodded and took a long drink.
"We can provide stability. Everyone wants this to work."
"Not quite everyone," I muttered darkly.
"Everyone who is directly involved wants this to work. You cannot be completely responsible for the entirety of the lamia race."
"It's more than that." I considered what to say, how much to share of my own recent insights. "We will have plenty of other weres stepping in to help raise these kids, lots of people to teach them how to be solid shifter citizens. But until they're grown, I will be the only adult lamia in their lives. I will be the only weresnake they can model themselves on. That feels like a lot more responsibility than simply being their counselor. In that sense, I am kind of responsible for the entire lamia race."
"Your parents did fine with you, and they're not shifters at all," he pointed out.
"But they managed it by encouraging me to focus almost entirely on my human side. I would like to give these children even more."
Turning down the heat under the sauce, Kade put the wooden spoon down and made his way around to my side of the counter, where he spun the seat of my barstool around until I faced him. Then he took my face in his hands and leaned his forehead against mine. "You'll do a great job with them."
Then he pressed his lips against my mouth.
As usual, his kiss almost took my breath away. We hadn't been together long enough for the sense of wonder at his touch to fade. The sheer heat of our connection didn't show any signs of abating, either. The brush of his tongue against mine sent sparks shooting through my veins to pool in the pit of my stomach. It wouldn't take much to stoke that heat into a raging fire.
But if we did that, his lovely dinner would be ruined.
Not that I was sure I cared.



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Join the Shifter Shield Star Newsletter

Love this Shifter Shield story? Be sure to sign up for the Shifter Shield Star to get all the latest about Lindi and Kade, along with all the other shifters in their world!  And if you haven't read it yet, be sure to download a copy of Lindi and Kade's first story, Under Her Skin.

You can also sign up for Margo's newsletter for news about all her new releases and great book deals and goodies!


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Join The Vampirarchy, Margo's Street Team

Want to hang out with the author, win book prizes, see the stuff covers first, and support Margo's books on social media? Join The Vampirarchy, Margo's street team on Facebook!
 

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About the Author

Margo Bond Collins is addicted to coffee (mmm...caffeine) and SF/F television, especially Supernatural (mmm...Winchesters). She writes paranormal and contemporary romance, urban fantasy, and paranormal mystery. She lives in Texas with her daughter and several spoiled pets. Although she teaches college-level English courses online, writing fiction is her first love. She enjoys reading urban fantasy and paranormal fiction of any genre and spends most of her free time daydreaming about heroes, vampires, ghosts, werewolves, and the women who love (and sometimes fight) them.

You can learn more about her at http://www.MargoBondCollins.net and follow her on all the usual social media outlets (listed below).

For updates about publications, free fiction, and other goodies, be sure to subscribe to her newsletter: http://eepurl.com/caUeyr

Twitter  @MargoBondCollin

Friday, April 17, 2015

Blurb Blitz: Waking Up Dead


1Waking Up DeadSale Banner2  

She expected heaven or hell. She got Alabama.

When Dallas resident Callie Taylor died young, she expected to go to heaven, or maybe hell. Instead, when she met her fate early thanks to a creep with a knife and a mommy complex, she went to Alabama. Now she's witnessed another murder, and she's not about to let this one go. She's determined to help solve it before an innocent man goes to prison. And to answer the biggest question of all: why the hell did she wake up dead in Alabama? _____________________________________________

Excerpt

When I died, I expected to go to heaven.

Okay. Maybe hell. It’s not like I was perfect or anything. But I was sort of hoping for heaven.

Instead, I went to Alabama.

Yeah. I know. It’s weird.

I died in Dallas, my hometown. I was killed, actually. Murdered. I’ll spare you the gruesome details. I don’t like to remember them myself. Some jerk with a knife--and probably a Bad-Mommy complex. Believe me, if I knew where he was, I’d go haunt his ass.

At any rate, by the time death came, I was ready for it--ready to stop hurting, ready to let go. I didn’t even fight it.

And then I woke up dead in Alabama. Talk about pissed off.

You know, even reincarnation would have been fine with me--I could have started over, clean slate and all that. Human, cow, bug. Whatever. But no. I ended up haunting someplace I’d never even been.

That’s not the way it’s supposed to work, right? Ghosts are supposed to be the tortured spirits of those who cannot let go of their earthly existence. If they could be convinced to follow the light, they’d leave behind said earthly existence and quit scaring the bejesus out of the poor folks who run across them. That’s what all those “ghost hunter” shows on television tell us.

Let me tell you something. The living don’t know jack about the dead.

Not this dead chick, anyway.

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waking up dead cover  


Buy Waking Up Dead for 99 cents in ebook through April 21:

Kindle from Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Waking-Dead-Margo-Bond-Collins-ebook/dp/B00HKQQRJA/


Paperback from these booksellers:
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Waking-Dead-Margo-Bond-Collins/dp/1493750461/
Barnes & Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/waking-up-dead-margo-bond-collins/1117526839?ean=9781493750467
Books A Million: http://www.booksamillion.com/p/Waking-Up-Dead/Margo-Bond-Collins/9781493750467?id=5868658257083
Book Depository: http://www.bookdepository.com/Waking-Up-Dead-Margo-Bond-Collins/9781493750467

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About the Author
f15b1-margobondcollins

Margo Bond Collins is the author of a number of novels, including Sanguinary, Waking Up Dead, Taming the Country Star, Bound by Blood, Legally Undead, and Fairy, Texas. She lives in Texas with her daughter and several spoiled pets. She teaches college-level English courses online, though writing fiction is her first love. She enjoys reading urban fantasy and paranormal fiction of any genre and spends most of her free time daydreaming about vampires, ghosts, zombies, werewolves, and other monsters.

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Connect with Margo

Amazon Author Page: http://www.amazon.com/Margo-Collins/e/B00EOU9DEG
Email: MargoBondCollins@gmail.com
Website: http://www.MargoBondCollins.net
Blog: http://www.MargoBondCollins.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/MargoBondCollin @MargoBondCollin
Google+: https://plus.google.com/116484555448104519902
Goodreads Author Page: http://www.goodreads.com/vampirarchy
Facebook Author Page: https://www.facebook.com/MargoBondCollins
Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/mbondcollins/
Tsu: http://www.tsu.co/MargoBondCollins  


Tuesday, November 4, 2014

Spotlight and Character Interview: Fairy, Texas





Fairy, Texas (Fairy, Texas #1)
Release Date: 02/06/14

Summary from Goodreads:
Laney Harris thinks there might be monsters in Fairy, Texas.

She's right.

When her mother remarried and moved them to a town where a date meant hanging out at the Sonic, Laney figured that "boring" would have a whole new meaning. A new stepsister who despised her and a high school where she was the only topic of gossip were bad enough. But when she met the school counselor (and his terminal bad breath), she grew suspicious. Especially since he had wings that only she could see. And then there were Josh and Mason, two gorgeous glimmering-eyed classmates whose interest in her might not be for the reasons she hoped. Not to mention that dead guy she nearly tripped over in gym class. 

Boring takes on an entirely new dimension in Fairy, Texas.

If she's going to survive in this small town, she'll have to learn to wing it.


Buy Links:
AmazonBarnes & NobleBooks-a-MillionBook Depository



Excerpt:

     I was partnered with Mason Collier, the infamous football-playing, cute, but possibly black-magicky friend-of-Bartlef I’d heard about at lunch. I looked around and saw a guy waving at me from across the room. He was looking at me kind of like he was hungry and maybe I was breakfast. It worried me.
     Still, at least I hadn’t been paired up with Kayla. It could have been much worse.
     “Okay,” Carlson said. “Go ahead and meet with your partner and plan your strategy.”
     Mason and I stood up at the same time and walked toward each other. I was so busy making sure I didn’t trip over any desks that I didn’t see Kayla headed toward me until she was right in front of me. And then she leaned in close to my face and hissed at me. “Don’t get too cozy. He’s way out of your league.”
     I rolled my eyes and moved around her without responding. Three days. Three days I’d been in Fairy, and already I had an enemy. And I lived in her house. My life kept getting better and better.
Mason and I met in the middle of the room. Kayla and her friends huddled nearby, watching us.
     “Hey,” Mason said.
     “Hey.” Nice, neutral word, hey. Can mean almost anything. Or nothing.
     “So,” he said, “where do you want to start?”
     He was asking me? Where I wanted to start was away from here, where there weren’t any dead boys to trip over.

      So much for that option.


Character Interview: Lainey

1. Laney, quick. Describe yourself in seven words or less!
High school student, new girl, freaked out!

2. Tell us something about your current hometown.
I got dragged off to Fairy, Texas when my mother got remarried—to her high school sweetheart, of all people. It’s a tiny little town in the middle of nowhere. I can’t believe Mom grew up here.  I live on a ranch. My stepfather hangs dead coyotes on the fence, I now know how to recognize buzzard vomit, and the only place to hang out is the local Sonic. It’s making me crazy!

3. What's the strangest thing that has ever happened to you?
I saw mostly invisible bat wings on the creepy school counselor. Then I tripped over a dead guy in gym class. Did I mention how much I hate it here?

4. What's your favourite food?
Spaghetti and meatballs. But my new stepsister Kayla said she hates it, so Mom hasn’t cooked any lately. I don’t believe Kayla, by the way. I think she lied just because she heard me say I liked it.

5. Can you tell us a little about what to expect in Fairy, Texas?
The book starts off with pretty much my worst day ever—tripping over that dead guy is just the beginning! And those bat wings on the creepy counselor? They’re real!

6. Can you tell us something about yourself we don't learn from the book?
My first kiss was with Joey Blaine in the fourth grade behind the jungle gym on the playground. His lips tasted like the cherry lollipop he’d just finished.

7. What is your author Margo Bond Collins like?
She’s kind of quiet until you get to know her—she likes to sit back and watch for a while before jumping into any kind of social situation. But then it’s hard to shut her up! She grew up not far from Fairy, Texas, and after living all over the country, has come back to North Central Texas, where she lives with her husband, daughter, and a bunch of pets.

8. Name five items in your purse or pockets right now.
I’ve got a 35mm camera, my cell phone, some sparkly lip gloss, a $5 bill, and my Fairy High student ID.

9. What were your first impressions of Josh and Mason?
They are both insanely hot. Mason’s a flirt, too. He’s got this amazing smile that lights up the room, and he makes me laugh. Josh is quieter, more serious. His eyes are a beautiful, indefinable color, sort of a blue-green-silver. Neither of them would have given me a second look in my old school in Atlanta. I guess being the new girl does have some benefits.

10. If you had one chance to change anything about your life, what would it be?

I just wish I could have figured everything out before someone got hurt . . .


Fairy, Texas Playlists
All of the songs in these playlists represent some element of the characters, setting, or plot of Fairy, Texas—and they’re also the songs I listened to when I was writing the book!  I wanted songs that highlighted both the creepy world in which Laney Harris finds herself and the rural Texas setting of this YA paranormal romance/mystery.

And since I can never pick just one, I have two playlists for Fairy, Texas!





Top 5 YA Books of 2014 by Margo Bond Collins(so far)
I never get enough time to read, but I've been trying to focus on it more this year, and I’ve read a whole pile of excellent YA books! Here are just a few of my favorites from the first six months of 2014, in no particular order:

This book was recommended by another book blogger as the best YA book she had read in 2013, and as soon as I started reading, I figured out why. Hayoz’s prose is flawless and her characters engrossing—even when I wanted to kick Sylvie, the astral-projecting protagonist, I believed in her completely.  I was so deeply involved in this book that I completely forgot to cook dinner one night; I looked up and it was almost midnight!

Lilac LaRoux and Tarver Merendsen are from different worlds, but when their starship crashes and they are stranded together on an apparently abandoned planet, they must learn to work together if they are going to survive—and if they are going to discover the source of the whispers and visions that haunt them in this strange place. I’m rarely taken completely by surprise when reading, but These Broken Stars did just that—it’s a haunting story, and I’m anxious for the next entry in the series.

The end of this book left me gasping and wanting more—what starts out as a fairly traditional paranormal romance quickly turns into an amazing mystery/romance/thriller. Cora Sandoval, whose life-threatening illness leaves her with the ability to see auras, heads out to find her long-lost mother and discovers a whole world of power and magic. I can’t wait for the sequel!

 In this novel, Romeo and Hamlet take a trip through the underworld in order to find Romeo’s love, Juliet. This novel delighted me, in part because I’m a college professor in my other life and have taught both Shakespeare and a whole slew of traditional heroic tales. Trout draws on and transforms literary tradition in entertaining ways in this book.

 I actually read this book for the first time at the very end of 2013, but I re-read it almost instantly in January because I love it so very much. I adored Black’s short story of the same name and was initially a little disappointed to discover that the novel was not, in fact, a continuation of the same story but rather a new story set in the same world. But that disappointment quickly disappeared as Black’s novel drew me in. Black has called this novel her “love letter” to vampire novels, and the vampires here are horrifying—being the single (potential) exception to that rule makes the love-interest vampire equally terrifying and attractive, adding up to the kind of vicarious adrenaline rush that draws me to vampire tales in the first place.  

Honorable Mention: 
This is the sequel to Ee’s amazing Angelfall, a post-apocalyptic story of humans struggling to survive in the days after an attack by an angelic host. This second novel is in some ways even darker than the first, but it does a good job of continuing the story and setting the reader up for the next novel.

About the Author
Margo Bond Collins is the author of a number of novels, including Sanguinary, Taming the Country Star, Waking Up Dead, Fairy, Texas, and Legally Undead. She lives in Texas with her husband, their daughter, and several spoiled pets. She teaches college-level English courses online, though writing fiction is her first love. She enjoys reading romance, urban fantasy, and paranormal fiction of any genre, and spends most of her free time daydreaming about heroes, monsters, cowboys, and villains, and the strong women who love them.




Connect with Margo

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Friday, October 17, 2014

Book Blitz: Sanguinary


Blog Blitz Headersanguinary final














A Night Shift Novel

Only fifty years left before vampires rule the world.

When Dallas police detective Cami Davis joined the city's vampire unit, she planned to use the job as a stepping-stone to a better position in the department.

But she didn't know then what she knows now: there's a silent war raging between humans and vampires, and the vampires are winning.

So with the help of a disaffected vampire and an ex-cop addict, Cami is going undercover, determined to solve a series of recent murders, discover a way to overthrow the local Sanguinary government, and, in the process, help win the war for the human race.

But can she maintain her own humanity in the process? Or will Cami find herself, along with the rest of the world, pulled under a darkness she cannot oppose?

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Forthcoming October 8, 2014

Order on Kindle:  http://www.amazon.com/Sanguinary-Night-Shift-Book-1-ebook/dp/B00MR5VGV8/


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My Top Five Favorite Vampire Books/Series

A Guest Post by Margo Bond Collins  

  1. The Coldest Girl in Coldtown by Holly Black http://www.amazon.com/Coldest-Girl-Coldtown-Holly-Black-ebook/dp/B00BAXFB3C/
I loved Black’s short story of the same name and was initially a little disappointed to discover that the novel was not, in fact, a continuation of the same story but rather a new story set in the same world. But that disappointment quickly disappeared as Black’s novel drew me in. The vampires here are horrifying—and being the single (potential) exception to that rule makes the love-interest vampire equally terrifying and attractive, adding up to the kind of vicarious adrenaline rush that draws me to vampire tales in the first place.
 
  1. Sunshine by Robin McKinley http://www.amazon.com/Sunshine-Robin-McKinley/dp/0515138819/
I re-read this book every year or two—I just finished the latest re-reading in November. McKinley does a beautiful job of setting up a world that is almost, but not exactly, like our own. The eponymous protagonist almost seems to ramble sometimes, but the voice is perfectly her own and the things she reveals about herself are beautifully woven back into the plot. Also, the vampires are creepy as all get-out!  

  1. Quiver by Holly Luhning http://www.amazon.com/Quiver-Holly-Luhning-ebook/dp/B005BTJUHE/
Unlike most of the books I read, Quiver is not speculative fiction. It’s a psychological thriller about obsession—specifically, obsession with Elizabeth Bathory, the psychotic sixteenth-century Hungarian countess who bathed in the blood of her (many!) victims in an attempt to make herself younger. Luhning’s depiction of a dissatisfied academic pulled further into a world of horror and intrigue is both compelling and unsettling. So this isn’t really a “vampire” novel in the strictest sense—but it draws on vampire mythology in interesting ways.  

  1. Guilty Pleasures (Anita Blake, Book 1) by Laurell K. Hamilton http://www.amazon.com/Guilty-Pleasures-Laurell-K-Hamilton-ebook/dp/B0030MTPU6/
This was probably the first book I ever heard called a “urban fantasy”—though the term Hamilton used for it was “paranormal mystery.” In the early novels of this series, Anita Blake, is based more on the gritty noir detective than the romance heroine. Though the series shifts toward the erotic later, the early novels are still among my favorite paranormal mysteries/urban fantasies.

  1. Skinwalker (Jane Yellowrock, Book 1) by Faith Hunter http://www.amazon.com/Skinwalker-Jane-Yellowrock-Book-1-ebook/dp/B002AU7MSG/
This series has landed on my favorite vampires and my favorite shapeshifters lists. I’m a fan of shapeshifter novels in general, and of this series in particular. I like Hunter’s twist on the shapeshifter standards—in these novels, Jane shares her body and her consciousness with a big cat she calls Beast. Watching the two of them negotiating their shared life is almost as much fun as watching them work through whatever mysteries and problems come their way because of Jane’s job as bodyguard to vampires.

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MargoBondCollins
About the Author:

Margo Bond Collins is the author of urban fantasy, contemporary romance, and paranormal mysteries. She has published a number of novels, including Sanguinary, Taming the Country Star, Legally Undead, Waking Up Dead, and Fairy, Texas. She lives in Texas with her husband, their daughter, and several spoiled pets. Although writing fiction is her first love, she also teaches college-level English courses online. She enjoys reading romance and paranormal fiction of any genre and spends most of her free time daydreaming about heroes, monsters, cowboys, and villains, and the strong women who love them—and sometimes fight them. _____________________________________________



Connect with Margo
Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/author/margobondcollins
Email: MargoBondCollins@gmail.com
Website: http://www.MargoBondCollins.net
Blog: http://www.MargoBondCollins.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/MargoBondCollin @MargoBondCollin
Google+: https://plus.google.com/116484555448104519902
Goodreads Author Page: http://www.goodreads.com/vampirarchy
Facebook Author Page: https://www.facebook.com/MargoBondCollins
Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/mbondcollins/

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