Thursday, December 17, 2015

What's Up for the Debut Author Challenge Authors? - Part 4


This is the fourth in a series of updates about formerly featured Debut Author Challenge authors and their 2015 works published since the last update and any upcoming works for 2016. The year in parentheses after the author's name is the year she/he was featured in the Debut Author Challenge.

Part 1 here.
Part 2 here.
Part 3 here.



Sara Humphreys (2011)

Brave the Heart
The McGuire Brothers 1
Sourcebooks Casablanca, September 1, 2015
Mass Market Paperback and eBook, 352 pages

The only fire he can't put out...
Jordan McKenna is back in town, and Fire Chief Gavin Maguire's feelings when he sees her after all these years are as raw as the day she left. Then he was just a kid wearing his heart on his sleeve. Now he spends every day trying to atone for the tragedy he couldn't prevent.

Is the torch he carries for her...
Jordan's life has not exactly worked out the way she expected. A divorced mother of two with a failed acting career, Jordan's biggest concern about coming back to Old Brookfield was seeing her first love. But when a series of suspicious fires breaks out, Jordan and Gavin realize that dealing with the sparks between them may be the least dangerous of their problems.


The Good, the Bad, and the Vampire
Dead in the City 4
Sourcebooks Casablanca, January 5, 2016
Mass Market Paperback and eBook, 320 pages

Book 4 of the Dead in the City series

Beloved author Sara Humphreys’ acclaimed paranormal romance series continues with sweltering attraction between two vampires who have all the time in the world to satisfy their desires…

He wants eternity?
Dakota Shelton is a vampire cowboy with a penchant for cinnamon lollipops and Johnny Cash. Though highly skilled and deadly dangerous to his enemies, he’s still a Texas good ol’ boy at heart. And he has that heart set on wooing Trixie LaRoux—the most badass punk rock chick in town—the old-fashioned way.

Over her undead body...
Trixie is tough as nails and sharp as a silver stake—the last thing she wants is a man to sit on a porch and not grow old with. So it’ll take going to hell and back fighting a new threat to vampires before she admits Dakota’s courtship makes her blood hum. Turns out chivalry’s not dead after all.




Kameron Hurley (2011)

The Corpse Archives
May 6, 2015
eBook, 30 pages

In this short story, a young person tossed into a work camp and categorized as an "imperfect text" becomes an archivist in charge of a historical library etched on human bodies.


Elephants and Corpes: A Tor.com Origional
Tor Books, May 13, 2015
eBook, 25 pages

The corpse-jumping body mercenary Nev is used to filling other people's shoes. When his assistant Tera recognizes the most recent waterlogged cadaver they bought off the street, though, he finds that his new body is carrying more trouble than he bargained for.


Empire Ascendant
Worldbreaker Saga 2
Angry Robot, October 6, 2015
Trade Paperback and eBook, 464 pages

Loyalties are tested when worlds collide…

Every two thousand years, the dark star Oma appears in the sky, bringing with it a tide of death and destruction. And those who survive must contend with friends and enemies newly imbued with violent powers. The kingdom of Saiduan already lies in ruin, decimated by invaders from another world who share the faces of those they seek to destroy.

Now the nation of Dhai is under siege by the same force. Their only hope for survival lies in the hands of an illegitimate ruler and a scullery maid with a powerful – but unpredictable – magic. As the foreign Empire spreads across the world like a disease, one of their former allies takes up her Empress’s sword again to unseat them, and two enslaved scholars begin a treacherous journey home with a long-lost secret that they hope is the key to the Empire’s undoing.

But when the enemy shares your own face, who can be trusted?

In this devastating sequel to The Mirror Empire, Kameron Hurley transports us back to a land of blood mages and sentient plants, dark magic, and warfare on a scale that spans worlds.

File Under: Fantasy [ Empire on Fire | Duplicates at War | The Royal Exchange | All Will Fall ]


The Geek Feminist Revolution
Tor Books, May 31, 2016
Hardcover, Trade Paperback and eBook, 272 pages

The Geek Feminist Revolution is a collection of essays by double Hugo Award-winning essayist and fantasy novelist Kameron Hurley.

The book collects dozens of Hurley's essays on feminism, geek culture, and her experiences and insights as a genre writer, including "We Have Always Fought," which won the 2013 Hugo for Best Related Work. The Geek Feminist Revolution will also feature several entirely new essays written specifically for this volume.

Unapologetically outspoken, Hurley has contributed essays to The Atlantic, Locus, Tor.com, and others on the rise of women in genre, her passion for SF/F, and the diversification of publishing.


Note:  The Stars are Legion, a standalone space opera, is planned for Fall 2016 by Saga Press.




John Hornor Jacobs (2011)

The Incorruptibles
Incorruptibles 1
Gollancz, October 1, 2015
Trade Paperback, 320 pages
eBook, August 14, 2014

In the contested and unexplored territories at the edge of the Empire, a boat is making its laborious way up stream. Riding along the banks are the mercenaries hired to protect it - from raiders, bandits and, most of all, the stretchers, elf-like natives who kill any intruders into their territory. The mercenaries know this is dangerous, deadly work. But it is what they do.

In the boat the drunk governor of the territories and his sons and daughters make merry. They believe that their status makes them untouchable. They are wrong. And with them is a mysterious, beautiful young woman, who is the key to peace between warring nations and survival for the Empire. When a callow mercenary saves the life of the Governor on an ill-fated hunting party, the two groups are thrown together.

For Fisk and Shoe - two tough, honourable mercenaries surrounded by corruption, who know they can always and only rely on each other - their young companion appears to be playing with fire. The nobles have the power, and crossing them is always risky.

And although love is a wonderful thing, sometimes the best decision is to walk away. Because no matter how untouchable or deadly you may be, the stretchers have other plans.


Foreign Devils
Incorruptibles 2
Gollancz, September 17, 2015
eBook, 480 pages
Trade Paperback, May 3, 2016

The world is on the brink of war.

Fisk and Shoe - mercenaries, very much not wanting to get caught in the middle of a political whirlwind - must deliver a very important message, and find a very dangerous man. They have caught the eye of the powerful men of the world, and now the stakes are higher than they like.

And the Emperor has decreed that Livia Cornelius, pregnant with Fisk's child, must travel to the far lands of the Autumn Lords on a diplomatic mission. It will mean crossing half the world, and facing new dangers. And in the end, she will uncover the shocking truth at the heart of the Autumn Lords' Empire.

A truth which will make the petty politics of war and peace unimportant, and will change the world.




Hannah Jayne (2011)

The Escape
Sourcebooks Fire, July 7, 2015
Trade Paperback and eBook, 256 pages

Not everyone who goes into the woods comes out….

It was supposed to be a short hike, a way for Fletcher and Adam to kill time one boring afternoon. But when day turns into night and neither boy returns home, their town is thrown into turmoil.

Search teams comb the forest. Then Avery, the police chief’s daughter, stumbles on a body. It’s Fletcher—disoriented, beaten, and covered in blood. He has no memory of the incident, and worse yet, he has no idea what happened to the still-missing Adam.…

As danger and suspicion grow, one thing becomes very clear: No one can escape the truth.


On the Hunt
   with Alexandra Ivy, Rebecca Zanetti and Dianne Duvall
Zebra, August 25, 2015
Mass Market Paperback and eBook, 384 pages

Four of today’s most intriguing paranormal authors entice readers deep into the shadows, where vampires, immortals, and other supernatural creatures heat up the night...

On The Hunt by Alexandra Ivy
Mika Tanner has loved Bailey Morrell, a beautiful Healer, since childhood. But his duty as a Sentinel, a supernatural guardian of an ancient race, clashed with her rebellious spirit. Now a dangerous new anarchist group not only threatens life as they know it—but any chance of their being together again...

Scorpius Rising by Rebecca Zanetti

With a deadly disease spreading like wildfire across the country, microbiologist Nora Medina needs to focus all her energy on stopping the pandemic. Playing with dynamite—in the form of her way-too-hot ex—is the last thing she should be doing. ​But forced to work with Deacan McDougall against unexpected enemies with the seconds ticking by, she knows the explosion is coming...

Phantom Embrace by Dianne Duvall

Immortal Yuri Sokolov was born with the ability to see spirits, yet he's never seen one as lovely as Cat Seddon, the woman who haunts his home and his dreams. But amid their star-crossed love, a new danger may have Yuri facing a different kind of eternity.

Stake Out by Hannah Jayne

Vampire fashion designer Nina LaShay has a lot on her plate—just two days until fashion week and the model who was flirting with her photographer boyfriend is now a corpse in her studio. But when dead turns into undead and dangerous, Nina must find out who’s responsible…before the beautiful baby vamp takes too many bites out of the Big Apple.




Darynda Jones (2011)

Eighth Grave After Dark
Charley Davidson 8
St. Martin's Paperbacks, October 6, 2015
Mass Market Paperback, 320 pages
Hardcover and eBook, May 19, 2015

Sometimes I wonder if the purpose of my life
is to serve as a cautionary tale to others.
-T-shirt

Charley Davidson has enough going on without having to worry about twelve hellhounds hot on her trail. She is, after all, incredibly pregnant and feeling like she could pop at any moment. But, just her luck, twelve deadly beasts from hell have chosen this time to escape onto our plane, and they've made Charley their target. And so she takes refuge at the only place she thinks they can't get to her: the grounds of an abandoned convent. Of course, if hellhounds aren't enough, Charley also has a new case to hold her attention: the decades-old murder of a newly-vowed nun she keeps seeing in the shadows of the convent.

Add to that the still unsolved murder of her father, the strange behavior of her husband, and Charley's tendency to attract the, shall we say, undead, and she has her hands full...but also tied.


Brighter Than the Sun
A Reyes Alexander Farrow Story
St. Martin's Press, October 6, 2015
eBook, 85 pages

All his life, Reyes Alexander Farrow has suffered the torments of the damned. Only one thing has given him hope: the woman who radiates a light that no mortals can see; a light that only the departed can see...

Told from his point of view, BRIGHTER THAN THE SUN chronicles the first time Reyes ever encountered Charley, and how their relationship has been the one thing that can either save him or doom him.


The Dirt on Ninth Grave
Charley Davidson 9
St. Martin's Press, January 5, 2016
Hardcover and eBook, 352 pages
Mass Market Paperback, May 31, 2016

In a small village in New York Charley Davidson is living as Jane Doe, a girl with no memory of who she is or where she came from. So when she is working at a diner and slowly begins to realize she can see dead people, she's more than a little taken aback. Stranger still are the people entering her life. They seem to know things about her. Things they hide with lies and half-truths. Soon, she senses something far darker. A force that wants to cause her harm, she is sure of it. Her saving grace comes in the form of a new friend she feels she can confide in and the fry cook, a devastatingly handsome man whose smile is breathtaking and touch is scalding. He stays close, and she almost feels safe with him around.

But no one can outrun their past, and the more lies that swirl around her-even from her new and trusted friends-the more disoriented she becomes, until she is confronted by a man who claims to have been sent to kill her. Sent by the darkest force in the universe. A force that absolutely will not stop until she is dead. Thankfully, she has a Rottweiler. But that doesn't help in her quest to find her identity and recover what she's lost. That will take all her courage and a touch of the power she feels flowing like electricity through her veins. She almost feels sorry for him. The devil in blue jeans. The disarming fry cook who lies with every breath he takes. She will get to the bottom of what he knows if it kills her. Or him. Either way.


The Curse of the Tenth Grave
Charley Davidson 10
St. Martin's Press, June 28, 2016
Hardcover and eBook, 352 pages

Part-time PI and full-time grim reaper, Charley Davidson has asked a lot of questions throughout her life: Why can I see dead people? Who is the hot supernatural entity following me? How do I get gum out of my sister's hair before she wakes up? But, "How do I trap not one god, but three?" was never among them. Until now. And since those gods are on earth to kill her daughter, she has little choice but to track them down, trap them, and cast them from this dimension.

But one of them stole her heart a very long time ago. Can a god of absolute death and destruction change his omniscient spots, or will his allegiance lie with his brothers?

Those are just some of the questions Charley must answer, and quick. Add to that a homeless girl on the run for her life, a man who's been framed for murdering a woman who is still very much alive, and a pendant made from god glass that has the entire supernatural world in an uproar, Charley has her hands full. If she can manage to take care of the whole world-destroying-gods thing, we're saved. If not, well...


We (Heart) the Holidays
   Many Authors
Bemis Promotions, October 18, 2015
eBook, 83 pages
[free eBook]

We romance authors love our readers, and this humble holiday cookbook--in which we share a few stories and recipes we genuinely use during the holidays--is a small, heartfelt token of our tremendous appreciation for you. Thank you from the bottom of our collective heart for loving romance. Thank you for being the best readers on the planet. Thank you for believing that reaching out and telling someone you love them matters. May we all change the world for the better in our own little way this holiday season, even if it's through making a cookie from this cookbook and sharing it with a friend, a neighbor, your children, or a stranger. XOXO from the We (Heart) the Holidays cookbook gang.

Posted by Qwill at 7:14 AM
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