The Qwillery

Happy Monday! Hope that everyone is enjoying summer (it's a bit too hot here) and getting in some reading. July is ParaCozyMysMo at The Qwillery. Keep checking the Giveaways page for new ParaCozyMysMo giveaways, which will all end on August 10th (so you've plenty of time to enter all of them!).




It's a light release week with 2 Debuts:

The Curiosity by Stephen P. Kiernan;

and

Fiend by Peter Stenson.


From previously featured Debut Author Challenge Authors:

Blood and Feathers: Rebellion by Lou Morgan;

and

Fifth Grave Past the Light by Darynda Jones.




July 9, 2013

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
Women on War: Zombies v. Robots (Kindle e)	Jeff Conner (ed)	Anthology
Turbulence	Samit Basu	SF/Superheroes
The Sentinel	Jeremy Bishop	H - Jane Harper Horror 1
Serpent's Kiss (h2tp)	Melissa de la Cruz	PNR - Beauchamp Family 2
Crucible	Troy Denning	SF - Star Wars
True Love	Jude Deveraux	R w/ PE - Nantucket Brides 1
This River Awakens (ri)	Steven Erikson	Fict w/ PE
The Glass God	Kate Griffin	UF - Magicals Anonymous 2
The Secret of Abdu El Yezdi	Mark Hodder	SP - Burton & Swinburne 4
Skinner	Charlie Huston	TechnoTh/SF
Fifth Grave Past the Light	Darynda Jones	PM/UF - Charley Davidson 5
The Curiosity (D)	Stephen P. Kiernan	F
A Once Crowded Sky (h2tp)	Tom King	SF/Superheroes
The Executioner's Heart	George Mann	SP/M - Newbury & Hobbes Investigations 4
Blood and Feathers: Rebellion	Lou Morgan	UF - Blood and Feathers 2
Haunted Wolves (e)	Moira Rogers	PNR - Green Pines 2
Fiend (D)	Peter Stenson	H/Z
The Coldest War (h2tp)	Ian Tregillis	UF - Milkwood 2
The New Essential Guide to Droids (e 1st)	Daniel Wallace	SF - Star Wars
The Best of Connie Willis: Award-Winning Stories	Connie Willis	SF/F - Collection

July 10, 2013

TITLE	AUTHOR	Series
Bad Seeds: Evil Progeny	Steve Berman (ed)	H - Anthology
The Year's Best Science Fiction & Fantasy 2013 Edition	Rich Horton (ed)	SF/F - Anthology
Homecoming: A Tor.Com Original (e)	Susan Palwick	DF

July 12, 2013

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
C. S. Lewis's Perelandra: Reshaping the Image of the Cosmos	Judith Wolfe Brendan Wolfe	LC

July 13, 2013

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
Love in the Time of Metal and Flesh	Jay Lake	SF

D - Debut
e - eBook
h2tp - Hardcover to Trade Paperback


DF - Dark Fantasy
F - Fantasy
Fict - Fiction
H - Horror
LC - Literary Criticism
M - Mystery
PE - Paranormal Elements
PM - Paranormal Mystery
PNR - Paranormal Romance
R - Romance
SF - Science Fiction
SP - Steampunk
Th - Thriller
UF - Urban Fantasy
Z - Zombies

What are the 2012 Debut Author Challenge Authors up to in 2013?  This is the ninth in a series of posts.





Lou Morgan

Rebellion
Blood and Feathers 2
Solaris, July 9, 2013
Trade Paperback and eBook, 384 pages

This is the thrilling follow-up to Blood and Feathers, one of the most highly-regarded debuts of 2012. The battle between the Fallen and the Angels has turned into open warfare, on the streets of London.

"This is a war. The war. There is no stopping; no getting out. You're in this - just like the rest of us - to the end." • Driven out of hell and with nothing to lose, the Fallen wage open warfare against the angels on the streets. And they're winning.• As the balance tips towards the darkness, Alice - barely recovered from her own ordeal in hell and struggling to start over - once again finds herself in the eye of the storm. But with the chaos spreading and the Archangel Michael determined to destroy Lucifer whatever the cost, is the price simply too high… and what sacrifices will Alice and the angels have to make in order to pay it? • The Fallen will rise. Trust will be betrayed. And all hell breaks loose…

Nancy Northcott

Guardian
The Protectors 3
Forever Yours, July 2, 2013
eBook, 394 pages

A POWER TO KILL

FBI agent Camellia "Mel" Wray is no stranger to violence but when an old friend is brutally murdered, she takes it personally. The case hits even closer to her heart when the best person to help with the investigation is Dr. Stefan Harper, the only man she ever loved-and lost. One look at the gorgeous medical expert and Mel realizes he's still impossible to resist-and still harboring a secret after all these years . . .

A POWER TO LOVE

Afraid Mel wouldn't accept him, Stefan never revealed his study of magical medicine or his abilities, instead allowing her to believe he'd been unfaithful. Now she's back in his life-and their mutual attraction burns hotter than ever. But when something dark and otherworldly threatens humans, Stefan must summon his mage powers to keep everyone safe. Will Mel be able to trust him again? Or will their love cost him even more than it did the first time?

Melissa F. Olson

Trail of Dead
Scarlett Bernard 2
47North, June 4, 2013
Trade Paperback and Kindle eBook, 297 pages

As a null, Scarlett Bernard possesses a rare ability to counteract the supernatural by instantly neutralizing spells and magical forces. For years she has used her gift to scrub crime scenes of any magical traces, helping the powerful paranormal communities of Los Angeles stay hidden. But after LAPD detective Jesse Cruz discovered Scarlett’s secret, he made a bargain with her: solve a particularly grisly murder case, and he would stay silent about the city’s unearthly underworld.

Now two dead witches are found a few days before Christmas, and Scarlett is once again strong-armed into assisting the investigation. She soon finds a connection between the murders and her own former mentor, Olivia, a null who mysteriously turned into a vampire and who harbors her own sinister agenda. Now Scarlett must revisit her painful past to find Olivia—unless the blood-drenched present claims her life first.

Cecy Robson

A Cursed Embrace
Weird Girls 2
Signet, July 2, 2013
Mass Market Paperback and eBook, 368 pages

Celia Wird and her three sisters are just like other twentysomething girls—with one tiny exception: They are the products of a curse that backfired and gave each of them unique powers that made them, well, a little weird.…

After Celia Wird and her sisters help master vampire Misha save his family, their powers are exposed to the supernatural community of the Lake Tahoe region. But fame comes at a price, and being “weird” isn’t always welcome.

To make matters worse, Celia desires the love of Alpha werewolf Aric, but his pack is bent on destroying their relationship to preserve his pureblood status. And once weres start turning up dead—with evidence pointing to the vampires—she must face the prospect of losing Aric forever. But the chaos only masks a new threat. An evil known as the Tribe has risen—and their sights are set on Celia and her sisters.

Jillian Stone

The Miss Education of Dr. Exeter
Phaeton Black, Paranormal Investigator 3
Brava, June 25, 2013
Trade Paperback and eBook

From steam-powered bunkers to steamy boudoirs, paranormal detective Phaeton Black knows his way around Victorian London. But sometimes, when you slip down a rabbit hole, there's no turning back. . .

If The Portal's A-Rockin'

Phaeton Black is missing. Sucked into an alternative universe--courtesy of Professor Lovecraft's Trans-Dimensional Injection Portal--the illustrious investigator is nowhere to be found. Even the bewitching Miss America Jones, who's pregnant with Phaeton's child, has no clue to his whereabouts. But when a spy fly's microphone picks up Phaeton's voice in the parlors of Paris, she enlists his dearest friends to track him down--before his deadliest enemies find him first. . .

Don't Come A-Knockin'

Accompanied by the dashing Dr. Exeter, his delightful ward Mia, and a trusty duo of Nightshades, it's off to the City of Lights for the determined Miss Jones. Unfortunately, there is something about Paris in the fall that brings out the devil in Dr. Exeter--and the beast in mild-mannered Mia, whose animal urges transform her into a gorgeous panther. With physical reality unraveling on both sides of the cosmic rift, the good doctor must extract Phaeton Black from the clutches of a diabolical techno-wizard--or both could lose the women they love to love. . .forever.

Joan Swan

Rush
Phoenix Rising 3
Brava, August 27, 2013
Trade Paperback and eBook

Jessica Fury, Washington lobbyist, has money, connections, and her own firm. But five years ago she had something better: happiness. Her firefighter husband, Quaid, was handsome, courageous, and crazy about her. Then one day he walked into a chemical inferno—and never walked out. Jessica has been through hell to get back on her feet. And then a rumor surfaces that could bring a miracle or shatter her world—again.

Q has been a prisoner forever. He’s honed his mind and body into weapons. He’s developed abilities no one else understands. But he’s still at the mercy of a cabal of ruthless men, who blank his memory, test him like a lab rat, and tell him lies. Although his past has been erased and his future looks grim, instinct tells him he has a woman to live for. What his mind can’t remember, his body can’t forget…

The heat is on.

Please welcome Lou Morgan to The Qwillery. Lou's debut, Blood and Feathers, is out today in the United States/Canada.  It's out in the United Kingdom on August 2, 2012. London may have the Olympics but we've got Blood and Feathers. Go and get it. Now. I'll wait. And Happy Publication Day to Lou!




TQ:  What would you say is your most interesting writing quirk?

Lou:  I've got my fair share of quirks… I'm not sure how many of them are particularly interesting, though! I like to know character backstories, so I usually write a few of those before I do anything else: a couple of pages of a notebook, usually - nothing too big, but enough to give me a feel for who they are. I do keep a notebook where I try to put everything: plot points, notes, snippets of dialogue, an entire section for working through plot holes or things that need to be thrashed out in more detail… The notebook for Blood and Feathers is bright pink, which makes it pretty easy to find, at least!

I've also developed the terrible habit of coming up with dialogue (or solving problems) in the bath… and since the Great Soggy Notebook Episode of last November, now keep one of those slightly ludicrous "waterproof" notebooks by the bath. No doubt I'll be testing just how waterproof it really is before too long…


TQ:  Who are some of your favorite writers? Who do you feel has influenced your writing?

Lou:  In terms of favourites, I've got a lot! I love Michael Marshall Smith's work in any of his assorted guises (including Michael Marshall and MM Smith), and he's certainly been a long-standing influence. Neil Gaiman is also influential for me - particularly with Sandman and American Gods. Those are probably two of the easiest to single out, although like all writers, I'm influenced to some degree by just about everything I've ever read. In terms of more general favourites, I love what Sarah Pinborough has been doing with her most recent books, and I'm a sucker for a short story by Ray Bradbury or Robert Bloch. I'm also a huge fan of Audrey Niffenegger - especially The Time Traveler's Wife - and Joanne Harris. I read quite a bit of YA, too, and I've got a lot of love for Will Hill's Department 19 series.


TQ:  Are you a plotter or a pantser?

Lou:  A bit of both, I suppose. I like to have a fairly good idea of where I'm going, and to have rough guide to what goes where, but beyond that I'm a fairly free-range writer. It's a bit like taking a road trip: as long as I've got the route sketched out, and a couple of hotel rooms booked along the way where I know I can take a bath and get a good night's sleep, I'm pretty relaxed about how I get from one to the next.


TQ:  What is the most challenging thing for you about writing?

Lou:  I'm not the most disciplined creature: it's incredibly easy to distrac…. Sorry. But you see my point. I get sidetracked very quickly. It takes me a while to feel my way back into writing at the start of a session: once I've got going, especially on a faster-paced bit, I'm usually alright, but until I've managed that, there's a terrible temptation to wander round the house and stare out of windows.


TQ:  Describe Blood and Feathers in 140 characters or less.

Lou:  Alice doesn't know it yet, but she's about to go through hell. The balance is tipping, and the angels are coming. Be afraid.


TQ:  What inspired you to write Blood and Feathers?

Lou:  It started off as a couple of ideas rattling round my head: there was a young woman who was in therapy, a disgraced angel, and the image which eventually became the prologue to the whole thing: teeth. Eventually, they all came together into one big idea, and that turned into Blood and Feathers. I've always been interested in angels and in the idea of portraying them as warriors, and somehow, all those things just fitted together to make a story.


TQ:  What sort of research did you do for Blood and Feathers?

Lou:  I did quite a lot of research on angels, although I knew I wanted to come up with my own mythology rather than build on too much of the existing angel lore. Even if you're going to completely throw what's gone before out of the window, you still need to know about it. So I read a lot of general background on angels and Enochian and things like that, as well as re-reading Paradise Lost and Dante's Inferno. There was a fair amount of research involved in Mallory's gun, too - even down to picking the one that felt right for him. (In the end, he wound up with a Colt .45 M1911 - which, interestingly enough, the Marines have just re-selected as their sidearm.)

There were also a few weird and wonderful things I looked into on a more minor level: the ones that stand out were how to clip birds' wings, cold-branding and electrical burns. Basically, my browser history is a mess.


TQ:  Who was the easiest character to write and why? Hardest and why?

Lou:  They all had their own challenges! Vin was great to write, partly because I knew exactly how he should sound, and I always enjoyed it when Mallory was around - he probably became my favourite, along with Abbadona, one of the Fallen. The latter has absolutely no filter - he says pretty much whatever he wants - so he was a blast.

The hardest was almost certainly Lucifer, because… well, Lucifer. Talk about pressure.


TQ:  Without giving anything away, what is/are your favorite scene(s) in Blood and Feathers?

Lou:  I'm quite fond of the scene where Alice comes face to face with her first Archangel, because the angel in question has always been a favourite of mine, and being able to write my own version of him was both intimidating and a lot of fun.

There's also one set during and in the aftermath of a bar-fight, which I like because it tells you a lot about Mallory: it sort of sums up the contradiction at the heart of him.


TQ:  What's next?

Lou:  At the moment, I'm working on the follow-up to Blood and Feathers, which will be called Blood and Feathers: Rebellion and published next summer. I've also got a couple of short stories coming out over the next few months - one in the Solaris Magic anthology, which I'm particularly excited about because the line-up also includes two of those favourite authors of mine: Audrey Niffenegger and Will Hill - so I can't quite believe my luck at being involved! The other story is a slightly creepy circus story being published in a PS Publishing anthology called A Carnivale of Horror: Dark Tales from the Fairground, and that's another one with an amazing line-up of contributors. There's some other things going on in the background as well, which I can't talk about yet (because I'm annoying) so it looks like the rest of the year's going to be pretty busy… in a good way!

TQ:  Thank you for joining us at The Qwillery.

Lou:  Thanks for having me!



Blood and Feathers

Blood and Feathers
Blood and Feathers 1
Solaris, July 31, 2012 (US and Canada)
August 2, 2012 (UK)
Trade Paperback and eBook, 384 pages

"What's the first thing you think of when I say 'angel'?" asked Mallory. Alice shrugged. "I don't know... guns?"

Alice isn't having the best of days. She was late for work, she missed her bus, and now she's getting rained on. What she doesn't know is that her day's about to get worse: the epic, grand-scale kind of worse that comes from the arrival of two angels who claim everything about her life is a lie.

The war between the angels and the Fallen is escalating; the age-old balance is tipping, and innocent civilians are getting caught in the cross-fire. If the balance is to be restored, the angels must act - or risk the Fallen taking control. Forever.

That’s where Alice comes in. Hunted by the Fallen and guided by Mallory - a disgraced angel with a drinking problem and a whole load of secrets - Alice will learn the truth about her own history… and why the angels want to send her to hell.

What do the Fallen want from her? How does Mallory know so much about her past? What is it the angels are hiding - and can she trust either side?

Caught between the power plays of the angels and Lucifer himself, it isn't just hell's demons that Alice will have to defeat...

Blood and Feathers: Rebellion (Blood and Feathers 2) will be published in 2013!




About Lou

Lou Morgan grew up in Wales, before moving to London to study medieval literature at UCL. She now lives in Brighton with her husband and son.

Her first novel, BLOOD AND FEATHERS will be published by Solaris Books in August 2012 with the sequel, BLOOD AND FEATHERS: REBELLION to follow in 2013.

She wastes a lot of time on Twitter as @LouMorgan, and occasionally commits short fiction.




The Giveaway

THE RULES

What:  One commenter will win a signed (and personalized) copy of Blood and Feathers and a bookmark from Lou!!

How:  Leave a comment answering ONE of the following question:


Please remember - if you don't answer one of the questions your entry will not be counted.

You may receive additional entries by:

1)   Being a Follower of The Qwillery.

2)   Mentioning the giveaway on Facebook and/or Twitter. Even if you mention the giveaway on both, you will get only one additional entry. You get only one additional entry even if you mention the giveaway on Facebook and/or Twitter multiple times.

3)   Mentioning the giveaway on your on blog or website. It must be your own blog or website; not a website that belongs to someone else or a site where giveaways, contests, etc. are posted.

There are a total of 4 entries you may receive: Comment (1 entry), Follower (+1 entry), Facebook and/or Twitter (+ 1 entry), and personal blog/website mention (+1 entry). This is subject to change again in the future for future giveaways.

Please leave links for Facebook, Twitter, or blog/website mentions. You MUST leave a way to contact you.

Who and When:  The contest is open to all humans on the planet earth with a mailing address. Contest ends at 11:59pm US Eastern Time on Tuesday, August 7, 2012. Void where prohibited by law. No purchase necessary. You must be 18 years old or older to enter.

It's time for the 2012 Debut Author Challenge Cover Wars for July 2012!





As part of this year's Debut Author Challenge I thought it would be fun to choose a favorite cover from each month's debut novels. At the end of the year the 12 monthly winners will be pitted against each other to choose the 2012 Debut Novel Cover of the Year. Please note that a debut novel cover is eligible in the month in which the novel is released in the US.

January 2012 Winner - Control Point (Shadow Ops 1) by Myke Cole. Cover Art by Mike Komarck.

February 2012 Winner - Dead Harvest (The Collector 1) by Chris F. Holm. Cover Art by Amazing 15.

March 2012 Winner - The Company of the Dead by David Kowalski, Cover Art by Amazing 15.

April 2012 Winner - Blackbirds (Miriam Black 1) by Chuck Wendig. Cover Art by Joey Hi-Fi.

May 2012 Winner - Nightshifted (Edie Spence 1) by Cassie Alexander. Cover art by Aleta Rafton.

June 2012 Winner - Osiris (The Osiris Project 1) by E.J. Swift. Cover art by Sparth.

There are 12 debuts for July.  Please note that I use the publisher's publication date in the United States, not copyright dates or non-US publication dates.


The July debut authors and their novels are listed in alphabetical order by author (not book title or publication date). Pick one or more and let us know in the comments which one(s) you'll be reading. If I've missed any, let me know in the comments.

Take a good look at the covers. Voting for your favorite July cover for the 2012 Debut Author Challenge Cover Wars will take place later this month.


Author:  Ania Ahlborn
Publisher:  47North
Pub Date:  July 17, 2012
Format:  Trade Paperback, 250 pages 
Price:  $14.95
Genre:  Horror
ISBN:  978-1612183664

With nothing but the clothes on his back—and something horrific snapping at his heels—Jack Winter fled his rural Georgia home when he was still just a boy. Watching the world he knew vanish in a trucker’s rearview mirror, he thought he was leaving an unspeakable nightmare behind forever. But years later, the bright new future he’s built suddenly turns pitch black, as something fiendishly familiar looms dead ahead.

When Jack, his wife Aimee, and their two small children survive a violent car crash, it seems like a miracle. But Jack knows what he saw on the road that night, and it wasn’t divine intervention. The profound evil from his past won’t let them die…at least not quickly. It’s back, and it’s hungry; ready to make Jack pay for running, to work its malignant magic on his angelic youngest daughter, and to whisper a chilling promise: I’ve always been here, and I’ll never leave.

Country comfort is no match for spine-tingling Southern gothic suspense in Ania Ahlborn’s tale of an ordinary man with a demon on his back. Seed plants its page-turning terror deep in your soul, and lets it grow wild.

Author:  Howard Anderson
Publisher:  Twelve
Pub Date:  July 10, 2012
Format:  Hardcover, 240 pages
Price: $24.99
Genre:  Fantasy
ISBN:  9781455509621

ALBERT OF ADELAIDE follows the story of a duck-billed platypus who escapes from Australia's Adelaide Zoo and embarks on a journey through the outback in search of 'Old Australia,' a land of liberty, promise and peace. Encountering a motley assortment of characters--a pyromaniac wombat, a pair of invariably drunk (and vaguely gay) bandicoots, some dingoes, a group of kangaroos and a wrestling Tasmanian devil--this unlikely hero discovers a strength and skill for survival he could not have known he possessed. At once an old-fashioned-buddy-novel-shoot-em-up and a work of deliciously imagined fantasy, ALBERT OF ADELAIDE is a haunting story of a world where something has gone horribly awry.

Author:  Madeline Ashby
Series:  Machine Dynasty
Publisher:  Angry Robot Books
Pub Date:  July 31, 2012 US/Canada
                  August 2, 2012 UK/RoW
Format:  Trade Paperback, 448 pages
Price:  $7.99
Genre:  Science Fiction
ISBN:  9780857662620

Amy Peterson is a von Neumann machine, a self-replicating humanoid robot.

For the past five years, she has been grown slowly as part of a mixed organic/synthetic family. She knows very little about her android mother’s past, so when her grandmother arrives and attacks her mother, little Amy wastes no time: she eats her alive.

Now she carries her malfunctioning granny as a partition on her memory drive, and she’s learning impossible things about her clade’s history – like the fact that the failsafe that stops all robots from harming humans has failed… Which means that everyone wants a piece of her, some to use her as a weapon, others to destroy her.

File Under: Science Fiction [ Von Neumann Sisters | Fail Safe Fail | The Squid & the Swarm | Robot Nation ]

Author:  Michael Boccacino
Publisher:  William Morrow Paperbacks
Pub Date:  July 24, 2012 
Format:  Trade Paperback
Price:  $14.99
Genre:  Gothic/Supernatural/Victorian
ISBN:  9780062122612

When the nanny to the young Darrow boys is found mysteriously murdered on the outskirts of the village of Blackfield, Charlotte Markham, the recently hired governess, steps in to take over their care. During an outing in the forest, they find themselves crossing over into The Ending, "the place for the Things Above Death," where Lily Darrow, the late mother of the children, has been waiting. She invites them into the House of Darkling, a wondrous place filled with enchantment, mystery, and strange creatures that appear to be, but are not quite, human.

However, everything comes with a price, and as Charlotte begins to understand the unspeakable bargain Mrs. Darrow has made for a second chance at motherhood, she uncovers a connection to the sinister occurrences in Blackfield and enters into a deadly game with the master of Darkling—one whose outcome will determine the fate of not just the Darrows but the world itself.

Charlotte Markham and the House of Darkling is a Victorian Gothic tale about family ties, the realm beyond the living, and the price you pay to save those you love.

Author:  Tom King
Publisher:  Touchstone
Pub Date:  July 10, 2012
Format:  Hardcover, 336 pages
Price:  $26.00
Genre:  Fantasy
ISBN:  9781451652000

A tour de force debut novel from a former CIA counter-terrorism officer, A Once Crowded Sky fuses the sensibility of bombastic, comic-book-style storytelling with modern literary fiction to bring to life a universe of super men stripped of their powers, newly mortal men forced to confront danger in a world without heroes.

The superheroes of Arcadia City fight a wonderful war and play a wonderful game, forever saving yet another day. However, after sacrificing both their powers and Ultimate, the greatest hero of them all, to defeat the latest apocalypse, these comic book characters are transformed from the marvelous into the mundane.

After too many battles won and too many friends lost, The Soldier of Freedom was fine letting all that glory go. But when a new threat blasts through his city, Soldier, as ever, accepts his duty and reenlists in this next war. Without his once amazing abilities, he's forced to seek the help of the one man who walked away, the sole hero who refused to make the sacrifice--PenUltimate, the sidekick of Ultimate, who through his own rejection of the game has become the most powerful man in the world, the only one left who might still, once again, save the day.

Author:  Hanna Martine
Series: The Elementals
Publisher:  Berkley
Pub Date: July 3, 2012
Format:  Mass Market Paperback, 368 pages
Price:  $7.99
Genre:  Paranormal Romance
ISBN:  9781101569009

Magic is corporate America's best-kept secret, and Gwen Carroway is the best at selling it...

With her ability to pick up any language in an instant, Gwen Carroway is taking her family business global. As dutiful future leader of water elementals, she'll do anything to protect her people's secrets and bloodlines--including enter an arranged marriage. Inside, however, she yearns for the forbidden.

Reed is a mercenary addicted to the money and adrenaline rush of his work. After he inadvertently saves Gwen's life, he ignites her taboo desire for men without magic--and with bodies of gods. Just as things heat up, Reed discovers that Gwen is exactly who he's been hired to kidnap. He resolves to put work before lust, yet her luscious beauty and fiery spirit unravel him...

But there is a terrible truth behind Gwen's family business--and now, caught between the kinsmen she no longer trusts and an enemy bent on vengeance, the only ally she has is her abductor...

Author:  Lou Morgan
Series:  Blood and Feathers
Publisher:  Solaris
Pub Date:  July 31, 2012 (US and Canada)
                   August 2, 2012 (UK)
Format:  Trade Paperback, 384 pages
Price:  $9.99
Genre:  Urban Fantasy
ISBN:  9781781080191

"What's the first thing you think of when I say 'angel'?" asked Mallory. Alice shrugged. "I don't know... guns?"

Alice isn't having the best of days. She was late for work, she missed her bus, and now she's getting rained on. What she doesn't know is that her day's about to get worse: the epic, grand-scale kind of worse that comes from the arrival of two angels who claim everything about her life is a lie.

The war between the angels and the Fallen is escalating; the age-old balance is tipping, and innocent civilians are getting caught in the cross-fire. If the balance is to be restored, the angels must act - or risk the Fallen taking control. Forever.

That’s where Alice comes in. Hunted by the Fallen and guided by Mallory - a disgraced angel with a drinking problem and a whole load of secrets - Alice will learn the truth about her own history… and why the angels want to send her to hell.

What do the Fallen want from her? How does Mallory know so much about her past? What is it the angels are hiding - and can she trust either side?

Caught between the power plays of the angels and Lucifer himself, it isn't just hell's demons that Alice will have to defeat...

Author:  Michael Poore
Publisher:  Ecco
Pub Date:  July 3, 2012
Format:  Trade Paperback, 368 pages
Price:  $13.99
Genre:  Fantasy
ISBN:  9780062064417

A stunningly imaginative, sharp, funny, and slyly tender novel featuring the Devil himself, John Scratch.

He's made of wood. He cooks an excellent gumbo. Cows love him. And he's the world's first love story . . . and the world's first broken heart. Meet the darkly handsome, charming John Scratch, aka the Devil. Ever since his true love, a fellow fallen angel named Arden, decided that Earth was a little too terrifying and violent, John Scratch has been trying to lure her back from the forgiving grace of Heaven. Though neither the wonders of Egypt nor the glories of Rome were enough to keep her on Earth, John Scratch believes he's found a new Eden: America.

John Scratch capitalizes on the bounty of this arcadia as he shapes it into his pet nation. Then, one dark night in the late 1960s, he meets three down-on-their-luck musicians and strikes a deal. In exchange for their souls, he'll grant them fame, wealth, and the chance to make the world a better place. Soon, the trio is helping the Devil push America to the height of civilization—or so he thinks. But there's a great deal about humans he still needs to learn, even after spending so many millennia among them.

Overflowing with imagination, insight, and humor, rippling with history and myth, Up Jumps the Devil is as madcap and charming as the Devil himself.

Author:  Megan Powell
Series:  Damned
Publisher:  47North
Pub Date:   July 10, 2102
Format:  Trade Paperback
Price:  $14.95
Genre  Urban Fantasy
ISBN:  978-1612183602

Magnolia Kelch is no stranger to pain. Beautiful and powerful, she’s spent her entire life at the mercy of her sadistic father and the rest of the Kelch clan, who have tortured her and tested the limits of her powers. After one particularly heinous night that leaves Magnolia nearly dead, she finally sees her chance for escape…

But this first taste of freedom is short-lived when she collides with Thirteen, head of the Network—a secret organization dedicated to fighting supernatural criminals—who recruits her into the group. Even as she’s coming to grips with this new life and the horrific memories that still haunt her, she’s conflicted by her growing attraction to fellow team member Theo and the emergence of new, untested abilities. After months of grueling training, her loyalty to the team is tested when she learns her target is the Network’s most wanted: the Kelch family.

Revenge may course through her veins, but so does the blood of the Kelches. And opposing her family may cost her the thing she treasures most. After all, Magnolia is still a Kelch. And the Kelch are damned.

Author:  Rob Reid
Publisher:  Del Rey
Pub Date:   July 10, 2012
Format:  Hardcover, 384 pages
Price:  $25.00
Genre:  Science Fiction / Humor
ISBN:  978-0-345-53441-5
Fiction debut

An alien advance party was suddenly nosing around my planet.
Worse, they were lawyering up. . . .

In the hilarious tradition of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Rob Reid takes you on a headlong journey through the outer reaches of the universe—and the inner workings of our absurdly dysfunctional music industry.

Low-level entertainment lawyer Nick Carter thinks it’s a prank, not an alien encounter, when a redheaded mullah and a curvaceous nun show up at his office. But Frampton and Carly are highly advanced (if bumbling) extraterrestrials. And boy, do they have news.

The entire cosmos, they tell him, has been hopelessly hooked on humanity’s music ever since “Year Zero” (1977 to us), when American pop songs first reached alien ears. This addiction has driven a vast intergalactic society to commit the biggest copyright violation since the Big Bang. The resulting fines and penalties have bankrupted the whole universe. We humans suddenly own everything—and the aliens are not amused.

Nick Carter has just been tapped to clean up this mess before things get ugly, and he’s an unlikely galaxy-hopping hero: He’s scared of heights. He’s also about to be fired. And he happens to have the same name as a Backstreet Boy. But he does know a thing or two about copyright law. And he’s packing a couple of other pencil-pushing superpowers that could come in handy.

Soon he’s on the run from a sinister parrot and a highly combustible vacuum cleaner. With Carly and Frampton as his guides, Nick now has forty-eight hours to save humanity, while hopefully wowing the hot girl who lives down the hall from him.

Author:  James Treadwell
Publisher:  Atria/Emily Bestler Books
Pub Date:   July 3, 2012
Format:  Hardcover,  464 pages
Price:  $26.00
Genre:  Fantasy
ISBN:  9781451661644

A drowning, a magician’s curse, and a centuries-old secret.

1537. A man hurries through city streets in a gathering snowstorm, clutching a box in one hand. He is Johann Faust, the greatest magician of his age. The box he carries contains a mirror safeguarding a portion of his soul and a small ring containing all the magic in the world. Together, they comprise something unimaginably dangerous.

London, the present day. Fifteen-year-old Gavin Stokes is boarding a train to the countryside to live with his aunt. His school and his parents can’t cope with him and the things he sees, things they tell him don’t really exist. At Pendurra, Gavin finds people who are like him, who see things too. They all make the same strange claim: magic exists, it’s leaking back into our world, and it’s bringing something terrible with it.

First in an astonishingly imaginative fantasy trilogy, Advent describes how magic was lost to humanity, and how a fifteen-year-old boy discovers that its return is his inheritance. It begins in a world recognizably our own, and ends an extraordinarily long way from where it started—somewhere much bigger, stranger, and richer.

Author:  Michael R. Underwood
Publisher:  Pocket Star (Simon&Schuster)
Pub Date:  July 10, 2012
Format:  eBook, 400 pages
Price:  $1.99
Genre  Urban Fantasy
ISBN:  9781451698138

Clerks meets Buffy the Vampire the Slayer in this original urban fantasy eBook about Geekomancers—humans that derive supernatural powers from pop culture.

Ree Reyes’s life was easier when all she had to worry about was scraping together tips from her gig as a barista and comicshop slave to pursue her ambitions as a screenwriter.

When a scruffy-looking guy storms into the shop looking for a comic like his life depends on it, Ree writes it off as just another day in the land of the geeks. Until a gigantic “BOOM!” echoes from the alley a minute later, and Ree follows the rabbit hole down into her town’s magical flip-side. Here, astral cowboy hackers fight trolls, rubber-suited werewolves, and elegant Gothic Lolita witches while wielding nostalgia-powered props.

Ree joins Eastwood (aka Scruffy Guy), investigating a mysterious string of teen suicides as she tries to recover from her own drag-your-heart-through-jagged-glass breakup. But as she digs deeper, Ree discovers Eastwood may not be the knight-in-cardboard armor she thought. Will Ree be able to stop the suicides, save Eastwood from himself, and somehow keep her job?

Please welcome Lou Morgan to The Qwillery as part of the 2012 Debut Author Challenge Guest Blogs. Blood and Feathers, Lou's debut, will be published on July 31, 2012 in the US and Canada and on August 2, 2012 in the UK.



"Oh dear god, no! You can't put that on! Turn it off: are you trying to *kill* me?"

(My husband stands, bewildered, at the foot of the stairs; a remote control in his hand.)

"Turn it off! Turn it off! I used that song for a short story, and you'll put me back in work mode!"

(Husband - still bewildered, but also looking a little pained now - obligingly turns the music off, and puts another album on.)

Welcome to the world of writers' playlists.

It seems to happen more and more often these days: writers post playlists to accompany their latest book online, and many will have favourite albums to work to. Film scores are apparently a favourite (probably because they don't usually have lyrics) and a while back, I knew of at least ten authors who were using the "Tron: Legacy" soundtrack to score their own writing. I'm not surprised, by the way: it's a brilliant album.

With the rise of digital, music is a more integral part of our lives than it has ever been. It goes with us everywhere, and that's why it's so useful to writers. A very, very long time ago, I remember reading an article with a Properly Famous, Serious Author who said he couldn't listen to the radio while he worked because it was unpredictable: you had no idea what the next song would be, and there was no way of controlling the pace or the tone of what you heard - and that would seep into the writing.

An interesting idea.

I've heard other writers say they will only listen to orchestral music (besides Daft Punk's music for "Tron", thanks to his scores for Christopher Nolan's films in particular, Hans Zimmer has become something of an unofficial patron saint to authors) or some who will only play songs with lyrics in a language they don't speak. In an interview a few years ago, Joe Hill summed up the writer's playlist as being a "mental trick"; a way to get back into the right mood when picking up a story again.

For a lot of writers, it seems to be part of the ritual. Others may not need it; may want to work in silence.

I'm on the side of the playlisters. I've killed more than one song for myself by listening to them over and over and over again while I worked on a short story (and when I say "killed" them, I mean it. At the last count, one of them registers as having been played 200 times. Over the course of a weekend. I weep every time I hear it, a year and a half later. This was the musical choice of my unfortunate husband… hence the freak-out on my part. Excusable? Not really. Understandable? Maybe.) In my case, I might find a song that matches a character, a scene, an aspect of what I'm writing; that sums something up… and on the playlist it goes. Sometimes, it's a song which gets me thinking, and the rest of it falls into place from there.

And while I might weep and wail and gnash my teeth and pull my hair and generally make life miserable for whoever happens to be nearest to me if a "work song" is sprung on me unexpectedly, it's also quite nice to be able to revisit not just the stories themselves, but the memories of working on them. I can still hang the whole of my experience plotting and writing "Blood and Feathers" on one Linkin Park song.

There are other songs which came after it, which fitted around what I was doing, what I wanted to do… but that song will forever be the beginning; the start of something quite new.

And after all, isn't that what inspiration means?


You can find the BLOOD & FEATHERS playlist printed in the back of the book, and listen to it on Spotify.



Blood and Feathers

Blood and Feathers
Blood and Feathers 1
Solaris, July 31, 2012 (US and Canada)
August 2, 2012 (UK)
Trade Paperback and eBook, 384 pages

"What's the first thing you think of when I say 'angel'?" asked Mallory. Alice shrugged. "I don't know... guns?"

Alice isn't having the best of days. She was late for work, she missed her bus, and now she's getting rained on. What she doesn't know is that her day's about to get worse: the epic, grand-scale kind of worse that comes from the arrival of two angels who claim everything about her life is a lie.

The war between the angels and the Fallen is escalating; the age-old balance is tipping, and innocent civilians are getting caught in the cross-fire. If the balance is to be restored, the angels must act - or risk the Fallen taking control. Forever.

That’s where Alice comes in. Hunted by the Fallen and guided by Mallory - a disgraced angel with a drinking problem and a whole load of secrets - Alice will learn the truth about her own history… and why the angels want to send her to hell.

What do the Fallen want from her? How does Mallory know so much about her past? What is it the angels are hiding - and can she trust either side?

Caught between the power plays of the angels and Lucifer himself, it isn't just hell's demons that Alice will have to defeat...

Blood and Feathers: Rebellion (Blood and Feathers 2) will be published in 2013!




About Lou

Lou Morgan grew up in Wales, before moving to London to study medieval literature at UCL. She now lives in Brighton with her husband and son.

Her first novel, BLOOD AND FEATHERS will be published by Solaris Books in August 2012 with the sequel, BLOOD AND FEATHERS: REBELLION to follow in 2013.

She wastes a lot of time on Twitter as @LouMorgan, and occasionally commits short fiction.