Goodreads Giveaway!

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Demon Fare

by Cory Dale

Giveaway ends January 15, 2015.

See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

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Demon Fare for Sale NOW!

Today is the official release day for Demon Fare! However, the print edition came out a few days ahead of time. It's so hard to synchronize a publication date, but I at least came close for most of the online retailers. All but iTunes. I'm stuck in error limbo regarding sales territories and Apple has been less than helpful. I'll keep trying.

Here are the buy links:

Google Play

Kobo

Amazon

Barnes and Noble

I'm having a book giveaway on Goodreads for the paperback edition.

I was interviewed by Electric Spec Magazine earlier this month and answered some intriguing questions about Demon Fare. 

There will be a book blast tour starting on the 29th with 11 blog stops.

Spotlights, interviews, reviews, excerpts and guest posts will appear on the following blogs:

Blog Tour Schedule Dec 29- Jan 5

December 29 Guest blog

Helen Treharne

www.helentreharne.wordpress.com

December 29 Spotlight

Books N Pearls 

http://booksnpearls.com/blog

December 30 Spotlight

3 Partners in Shopping, Nana, Mommy & Sissy, Too!

http://3partnersinshopping.blogspot.com

December 31 Guest blog

Sapphyria's Book Reviews  

http://saphsbookblog.blogspot.com/

December 31 Spotlight

Ashley's Paranormal Book Blog

Http://www.ashes86blog.wordpress.com

January 1 Guest blog

Fang-tastic Books

www.fang-tasticbooks.blogspot.com

January 1 Spotlight

CBY Book Club

http://cbybookclub.blogspot.co.uk

January 2 Interview

The Reading Pile 

http://thereadingpile.com 

January 2 Review

Paranormal Romance and Authors That Rock

www.pratr.wordpress.com

January 5 Interview and review

happy tails and tales

http://happytailsandtales.blogspot.com/

January 7 Guest blog

Jill Archer

www.jillarcher.com 

Thank you for reading! :)

Wattpad

I've had a few sample chapters of Demon Fare (previously known as Mystic Taxi) up on Wattpad for about a year now. I've now replaced them with the revised and edited chapters, and added another chapter to what was already there. So now there's a total of 7 chapters for you to read.

I think Wattpad is a good way to showcase sample pages from a work in progress, or as a way to post teaser chapters as an introduction to a self-published book, which Demon Fare will be. If you're a member of Wattpad, please follow me.

Over the next few days I hope to have Demon Fare up for pre-order on Amazon, as I format ebooks for the various distributors: Apple, Barnes & Noble and Kobo. Maybe Smashwords, I haven't decided yet. I've heard too many horror stories to feel comfortable having my book sold through them. I'm also making a print version of the book.

The official release date for Demon Fare is December 15, 2014. My stomach is tied up in knots, and I don't know why. After all, this isn't my first rodeo, so to speak, and I have almost everything set to go. I guess it's because this book is so special to me. I feel that way about all my books, but there's something about this one that gives me butterflies every time I think about it. Maybe it's because the idea is so unique, or because the characters have become like best friends. Anyway, I can only hope others enjoy reading it as much as I loved writing it.

I'm looking for reviewers so if you or anyone you know reviews urban fantasy, dystopian, paranormal or alternate history fiction, please let me know.

By the way, I have a sequel planned that I hope to have out by spring of 2015. I'll talk about it more after Demon Fare has been out a while.

Thanks for reading! :)

DEMON FARE - What's it all about?

As promised, here is a short synopsis of my upcoming urban fantasy novel (writing as Cory Dale), DEMON FARE.  

In an alternate history New York City—one hundred and fifty years after an earthquake from hell nearly destroyed the planet—the twenty-first century clings to an industrial age. Steam engines rule, and demon-powered technology is the up and coming thing. Henry Paine, a half-demon taxi driver, is the go-to guy for just the right demon to possess your machine and automate any mechanical gizmo with or without an engine. The creatures are tame as pets. Or at least they have been… until now.

Wanda Snow is an exorcist who grudgingly admits to having a few drops of demon blood herself. She's come to New York to rid the city of demonic vermin as well as any other demons that get in her way. Wanda and Henry are naturally at odds, but the two are forced to become partners in a mutual goal to round up the rogue demons biting the Big Apple.

A third of the U.S. is populated by Hellspawn: half-breed demons, like Henry. A rebellion has been brewing for decades, and Henry's former best friend Jasper is leader of a gang known as The Demon Lords. Jasper, like all Hellspawn, outlived his abusive human family, and he despises the human race. Starting with NYC, his goal is to wipe out the humans and make Hellspawn the dominating race that will someday rule the world.

            Henry and Wanda must use their psychic gifts to fight Jasper and foil his plans, but there's a lot working against them: insane cultists, ghost sickness, rogue machines, hungry demon minions... Their list of adversaries grows daily, and preventing themselves from becoming each other's enemy is a constant challenge that almost undoes them both.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

My goal is to release the book before the end of the year, ideally the first week of December 2014.

Blog Hop

Hello, Blog. My, my, my, I've missed you. Time rushes by in the blink of an eye, but luckily I have good friends who give me a nudge now and then to post something. Today's post is prompted by my pal Yvonne Montgomery. *waves at Yvonne*

I had the most wonderful weekend last weekend in Colorado with all my Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers friends at the annual Colorado Gold conference. It was inspiring to be around so much intense creative energy. I came away with a few ideas and some career decisions, so I feel energized going forward.

The mission of this Blog Hop is to answer four basic questions about my writing. So here goes:

What am I working on?

Now that's a loaded question. I actually have a few projects in the hopper at the moment, and no contracts, which is a bit disheartening, but that's how it goes in this business. I can't imagine myself not working on a book, contract or no contract. I have to write. 

I currently have two completed novels, one of which I used to talk about on this blog quite often and even posted some excerpts. That one was called Mystic Taxi and I recently retitled it Demon Fare. It's the first in a planned series. My agent submitted the manuscript to a number of publishers, but there were no takers. It's been a while since it made the rounds, but no matter because I've decided to publish it myself.

I was hoping to have it out by last fall, but I got back into it, rewrote quite a bit, got involved in another project, and then I decided to work on a better plan than my last self-publishing attempt (which was a re-release of a perviously published book). This one will be very different. For one thing, it's an urban fantasy and not a romance. You'll be hearing more about Demon Fare in the weeks to come. It's currently being copy edited before I make advance reader copies. But at least I can share my cover with you:

Oh, yeah. I almost forgot to mention that I'll be using a pen name for my self-published books. I'll post the synopsis for Demon Fare at a future date. Really. I promise I will.

I've also finished a fantasy romance called Mirror Reader that's the first in a series. The fate of this one is uncertain, but my goal is to have it traditionally published. Last week I had sample pages from the manuscript critiqued by Peter Senftleben, editor with Kensington Books, in a critique workshop at the Colorado Gold conference. Peter is a great guy, lots of fun. He said he enjoyed reading my pages, was impressed by my unique concept, gave me some great comments and wonderful compliments, but he apparently didn't like it enough to ask for more. I was bummed, but you know, life goes on. Avon expressed interest when I won second place in a contest a year ago, so there's still that opportunity waiting for when my agent decides to send it to them.

Here's a very short blurb for Mirror Reader: 

Alice Dodgson, a descendant of Alice from Wonderland, possesses a psychic ability to read the past in mirrors. She faces a painful past when a dangerous god abducts her little girl out of revenge for a crime Alice didn't commit. She is forced to ask for help from the man who broke her heart eight years ago… the man who fathered her child and doesn't know he has a daughter.

How does my work differ from others of its genre?

I write weird stuff. I can't explain it much better than that, but my stories are... different. It's a blessing and a curse because even though publishers ask for something new and different, they don't always want to take a risk on something too new and different. That was the fate of poor Mystic Taxi/Demon Fare. It's a unique concept that blends urban fantasy, alternate history and steampunk with a dash of dystopian. Which brings me to...

Why do I write what I do?

I write what I like to read. I often struggle to find well-written books that hold my interest. So writing what interests me and gets me excited seems to fill my need for good storytelling. I still read a lot, I just don't always finish reading the books I start. 

How does my writing process work?

Sometimes I start with an idea, sometimes a character. I never know which it will be. For Mirror Reader, the idea came to me in a dream. I can't remember how I got the idea for Demon Fare, but the sequel starts with a character. 

Once I have a general idea, I "storydream" for a few weeks before I set pen to paper or finger to keyboard. My storydreaming usually happens when I get up in the morning, when I'm drifting in and out of sleep. It's kind of a hypnotic state and it's when ideas flesh themselves out in my mind. Sometimes it happens at night as I drift off to sleep.

Next I draft out a synopsis with my inciting incident, three to four turning points, black moment, climax and resolution. These may change, and probably will, as the story unfolds. I don't really plot, though it wouldn't hurt if I spent more time on plotting, but that's the joyous part of writing for me. The "aha!" moments of creativity. Yet I also need structure, which is why I draft a synopsis before I begin. And I also complete character sketches of the main characters, protagonist and antagonist, and a few ancillary characters as they come up. 

I'm not a fast writer, but a methodical one. My first draft is usually pretty clean, but it's very thin. It always needs bulking up and layering in of various story elements. That's the "pre-writing" part that comes before the fun part, when I can dip my hands in up to my elbows and really work the story out. That's like heaven to me.

Thank you for reading!

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New Fashion Art to Share

I'm no fashion plate, but I LOVE designing clothes. Therefore, I design virtual clothing. Here are two fashion motifs I've created for this 3D model.