It's happening! It's really happening!

Well, my friends, it's been quite some times hasn't it? I'm excited to share some good news!  Melted Tears, the sequel to Frozen Heart, has been contracted with Inkspell Publishing! It will be released this August and will be available at all major ebook retailers. Yes, it's still erotic romance, but hold on to your seat and your heart because Beckett and Cressie will set out on the most dangerous adventure of their lives.

I will have more details to come soon. Keep your eyes open for teasers, the cover reveal, and sneak peaks!



Two lovers face off against a government determined to keep them apart. It’s only brave if it’s hard.    

After a decade of being alone in the wilderness, Cressenda is still adjusting to life with the man of her dreams. When Beckett hatches a plan to break her parents out of The Affinity prison work camps, Cressenda must make the biggest sacrifice of her life; trading her freedom for her parents’. Cressenda’s fortitude is tested at every turn, from surviving the conditions of West Fallen work camp to believing in Beckett’s dedication to their plan and their love, even when it looks like all hope is lost. With the help of a unlikely ally, Cressenda learns to stop fighting against her fears and embrace the power of fighting for her dreams.

Will trusting Beckett to take down The Affinity be the ultimate show of faith or a fatal mistake? 





XOXO,
Annabelle

*NOW WITH MORE AUTHOR-Y GOODNESS* It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year- Halloween!

**CONTEST CLOSED**

Not *that* time of year. It's HALLOWEEN!

I love all things spooky, scary, supernatural, and spine chilling. And the costumes! I mean, who doesn't love a good excuse to be someone else for a night? Don't even get me started on the candy, my willpower isn't strong enough to resist the temptation of all that chocolate. All these exciting elements rolled into one makes for an awesome night of celebration. Ergo, I love Halloween.

From zombies to demons, serial killers to Grim Reapers, the variety of monsters ready to pop out of the dark can really run the gamut. They terrorize us in our favorite movies, popular TV shows, and, of course, our beloved books. In celebration of those books that bring us the fun, frightening, and fantastical, I'm sharing with you some great Paranormal and Urban Fantasy books! One of them is even FREE! But one lucky winner will be receiving all FIVE books for FREE!

Leave a comment telling me YOUR favorite part of halloween (with your email or twitter handle included in the body of the comment) and ENTER TO WIN! (18+ only please)

You'll receive an ebook cope of Last Friday Night by Brien Michaels, Lost Hope by Rebecca Hart, and Reaper's Novice by Cecilia Robert as well as an AUTOGRAPHED print copy of The Zombie Always Knocks Twice by E. Van Lowe AND The Life and Death of Lily Drake by T. Michelle Nelson.* Read below to find out more about these great books and follow the link to download your free copy of Lost Hope by Rebecca Hart.

*Contest open October 29 through Nov11th. Winner Announced November 12th. Each author will be notified of the winner and will handle delivery of their portion of the prize package. Annabelle Blume assumes no responsibility for the delivery items offered by the afore mentioned authors.

After a lifetime of unsuccessful attempts, Hope Matthews may have finally found a way to escape her undead pirate guardian. That is, if she can make sense of the map her foster father left behind and locate the legendary amulet, Poseidon's Tear before her demonic pursuer finds her and drags her back to to his lair.

Genre: Historical Fantasy Fiction

Download your FREE COPY here 

Hollywood California, Swimming pools, movie stars… and now the risen dead

Hollywood can be a difficult place to grow up, especially if you’re Kristine Golden, a fifteen-year-old necromancer with a sworn duty to lay the risen dead back to rest and no desire to be in the movie business.

When handsome deadie Alex Romero swaggers into her life, Kris must keep her promise, despite her growing feelings for him. If that’s not enough to give a girl a headache, a murderous zombie comes knocking at Kris’ door, rocking her world and threatening her family.

Can Kris solve the mystery of the rampaging zombie before someone else winds up dead? Or will the walking dead take over Hollywood and turn it into… Hollyweird?

Genre: YA Paranormal
Find out more on Goodreads and E. Van Lowe's website

17- year- old Ana Maria Tei’s life has always been perfect: loving parents, good grades, and a future so bright it outshone the sun. But now words like “separation” and “divorce” are sending her world plummeting to hell. Determined to keep her family intact, Ana plans a family-bonding trip from Vienna to Tuscany. Except fate has other plans. Ana’s parents and siblings are killed in a car accident on their way to pick Ana up from school.

Enter Grim, aka Ernest. He promises to relinquish the four souls if Ana agrees to trade her soul for theirs and serve a lifetime as his novice. In order for Ana to graduate from her Reaper’s Novice station to a Soul Collector graduate, Grim puts her to test. To her horror, she finds out becoming a Reaper’s Novice didn’t happen by chance. It was preordained, and she is forced to make a choice: save her family’s souls or come to terms with who she really is and complete the task set for her.

Genre: YA Urban Fantasy

Rerelease December 5th 2012

Find out more on Goodreads and at Cecilia Robert's website.

For Lily Drake, slaying vampires is easy...Dating them is the hard part.

Lily Drake is your everyday hard-working single mom…until a gorgeous vampire shows up on her front door who she mistakenly assumes is her blind date for the evening. As one crazy scenario after another unfolds, Lily finds herself falling in love with two vampires, slaying the evil ones, and being prophesied as the savior of the entire undead race. 
Deciding between pizza and Chinese take-out will no longer be one of the hard decisions facing Lily Drake once she is emerged into vampire society. Humanity or immortality? That doesn't hold a candle against this question - which of the two handsome vampire cousins?

The Life and Death of Lily Drake is not your typical vampire love story. It’s a tale about the humorous mistakes a woman makes simply trying to survive not only life, but the dating scene. How will Lily manage working full-time, taking care of her young son and fighting the undead at every turn? Lily will have to figure it out, but who better to save the world than a mom?

Genre: Paranormal Romance
Find out more on Goodreads and T. Michelle Nelson's website




Coming out might be the only way to save the ones you love…

Jessie Nalick used to be married, until his wife left him for another man. But things are looking up–he’s moved to a new place and his new house is almost finished. But when one of the men on the construction site calls him in a panic, something deadly is unleashed.

Tyler Mack is with a different woman night after night, secretly longing for the one who will make him feel something besides soul-crushing emptiness. He’s so straight he’s nearly homophobic, until he’s forced to confront some very uneasy feelings–and other things–that grow between him Jessie as they’re kidnapped and forced to do the unthinkable.

With a kidnapper threatening the lives of their loved ones, the time for self-delusion is over. Tyler must face the one thing he’d rather die than do…but the thought of Jessie so close, so hard, makes him willing to take the chance…(

                                                       Genre: Horror Erotica
                                                       Find out more on Goodreads and Brien Michael's website



Happy Halloween and Good Luck!

Congratulations Cammie!

What does "Self Published" mean to you?

The debate over the legitimacy of self publishing is heated and very, very long. Some people argue the mainstream publishing industry is dying and that self publishing is squeezing the Big Six out of the market. Other's balk at the thought that self publishing will ever eclipse the stronghold these publishing powerhouses have over the industry.

I've read both sides of the debate many times over. One thing is clear – it's complicated. Regardless of what I read, and what side it's supporting, I'm left with a very important question. So I will ask you, my friends, this very same question. Because maybe someone, somewhere, might give me a definitive answer.

What constitutes self publishing?

Is it only those who publishing their own work via companies such as Smashwords and the like? Is it those who form a publishing co-op, providing services such as editing and cover design for each other, and then sharing the cost of publishing? Does it include authors like myself, who have been published by a small, independent publisher?

These questions arose for me mainly because of various articles I've read on the publishing phenomenon known as Fifty Shades of Grey. I know, I've stayed away from discussing this book, for the most part, and I intend to stay away from discussing the book itself. The only part that truly intrigues me is almost every article I've read describes the initial publication of FSOG completely differently. The dominance of this book over the NYT Best seller list, the fact that it was picked up by a major publishing house, and it's origins raise many questions for authors in a variety of areas.

But mainly, I'm curious about how the rising tide of changes in the publishing industry are reflected in this phenomenon. Some articles I've read referred to Fifty Shades as self published. Others called TWCS Publishing a "vanity house". A few made reference to it coming from a small independent publisher. This got me to thinking – what does "self published" really mean?  And I still haven't found an article that provides a clear answer.

I'll tell you what I think, though. Concerns over publishing fanfiction aside, posting fanfiction online is a work of self publishing. Yet, I consider TWCS Publishing an independent publisher and not a vanity press (as authors do not pay to have their book edited, produced, or published in any way by TWCS). Therefore, Fifty Shades falls into all three categories: self published as fanfiction, indie published by TCWS, and then picked up by Random House.

Maybe I'm biased, but I believe wholeheartedly that indie publishers are carving out their own niche in the publishing industry. They're creating a space for those books that have been passed over by agents mainly because, as the gatekeepers and voluntary filters of crap-writing, they're struggling to fit reading over 100 queries a day into their schedule. Indie publishers are providing an alternative platform for amazingly talented writers to get their stories out to readers. And they're giving readers the opportunity to find authors who would have otherwise remain unheard simply because the machine of the Big Six can only produce so much. But what indie publishing is not, is "self publishing".

I think traditional publishing is fantastic, I think self publishing is a valiant labor of love, and I think independent publishers are the Steve Jobs of the publishing world. Each path is a valid path (albeit challenging in different ways) to follow and I'm very excited to see where the industry goes these next ten years.

What Makes a Writer?

Over in Writer-ville, there's a lot of posturing and "real" writers versus "wannabees" ego trips. It makes me sad. The kind of sad that makes me bake huge chocolate cakes and eat fettuccine alfredo. So sad that hurts my heart. Not because *I* feel like I am not a real writer, but because NO ONE should feel like they're not a real writer.

Anyone who writes simply because they enjoy the process is a writer. I see the most terrible "guidelines" for what makes a "real writer" thrown about. Proclamations like, "If you you have to write every day or you'll absolutely DIE, then you're a REAL writer." Or, even better, "A REAL writer cranks out a minimum of eight meeeeeellion words a day." And my very favorite, "If you only write XYZ, then you're not a REAL writer."

I write romance. In fact, it can possibly be classified as erotic romance, depending on your definition. I also write completely non-sex related articles as a journalist (okay, sometimes they're about sex, too). I ALSO write a weekly blog about sex. Okay, we've established I write about sex quite a bit. Anyway, that's not my point. My point is, even if you only read high concept literary fiction and you think romance is utter crap, it doesn't not negate the truth: I'm a writer. If you don't believe me, then my publishing contract and various paychecks for my writing kind of solidify the fact.

I cannot write every day. Caring for my family is my first priority. When that takes up the majority of my time, writing takes a back seat. Do I miss it? Of course! Do I wish hadn't fallen asleep at 8:30 last night and instead has spend an hour writing my new book? Absolutely. Does this personal striving for balance (and sleep) mean I'm not a real writer. No Way.

So, I challenge you, my friends, to stop investing in the writer-wars (which are like the mommy-wars, but with more paper). Let's celebrate each other; our successes and our failures, the bumps in the road and the shining star moments, our struggles and our achievements, no matter how big or small. Let's be writers and leave it at that, because, honestly, being a writer is hard enough all on it's own.

Cover Reveal: Reaper's Novice by Cecilia Robert

Hi friends! I am so happy to share with you the gorgeous cover of Cecilia Robert's book Reaper's Novice (coming Dec 2012).

17- year- old Ana Maria Tei’s life has always been perfect: loving parents, good grades, and a

future so bright it outshone the sun. But now words like “separation” and “divorce” are sending her

world plummeting to hell. Determined to keep her family intact, Ana plans a family-bonding trip from

Vienna to Tuscany. Except fate has other plans. Ana’s parents and siblings are killed in a car accident

on their way to pick Ana up from school.

Enter Grim, aka Ernest. He promises to relinquish the four souls if Ana agrees to trade her soul

for theirs and serve a lifetime as his novice. In order for Ana to graduate from her Reaper’s Novice

station to a Soul Collector graduate, Grim puts her to test. To her horror, she finds out becoming a

Reaper’s Novice didn’t happen by chance. It was preordained, and she is forced to make a choice:

save her family’s souls or come to terms with who she really is and complete the task set for her.

Genre: YA Urban Fantasy

Rerelease December 5th 2012

Find out more on Goodreads and at Cecilia Robert's website.

FROZEN HEART RELEASE DAY!

It's here! It's finally here! My debut novella Frozen Heart is available today!

You can get it on Amazon, B&N, Inkspell Publishing, All Romance Ebooks and various other online retailers.

I've been lucky enough to have an amazing publicity team in Bewitching Book Tours and have been having a blast on my blog tour. I've had the opportunity to guest post on many amazing blogs as well as be interviewed by some fantastic book bloggers. The fun isn't over! There are still more interviews, more guest blogs, more reviews, and chances to win a FREE COPY of Frozen Heart!

Don't miss the Facebook Chat with me on the Vitacost Facebook page where we'll be talking about our favorite sexy book and movie characters and giving away 2 ebooks and 1 print copy of Frozen Heart.

Thank you to everyone who has been by my side on this exciting journey. I hope that this is the beginning of an amazing new path in my life.

Love, hugs and kisses to all. I leave you with some Maroon 5 fantastic-ness in celebration.

Opinions are like...

Well, I don't need to finish that sentence. You know where I was headed. I make this point because as the release of Frozen Heart approaches, the issue of reviews becomes...complicated. I'm not talking about the book bloggers and general reviews from strangers on Goodreads and Amazon. Some of them will like it, some of them will be unenthused, and some of them will wish they could beat me with a sock full of pennies for every single word. That's how this whole thing works and I'm totally prepared for it.

The tricky part is friends and family. All of my wonderful friends who have supported me through the ups and downs of this roller coaster want to read it. Aunts, uncles, cousins, and parents want to read it. And while I want them to read it, I don't. Because there is absolutely NO WAY they can be objective. And even if they think it's so bad that they can't help but hate it, they will be compelled to tell me they loved it. It's a terrible situation.

Then there is the very heated debate about whether or not you should "allow" your friends and family to review your books in public arenas (ie:Amazon, Goodreads, B&N.com, et al). I'm torn. On the one hand, *I* want to do nice things for my friends and *I* would want to leave a positive review for any friend of mine. Yet, this is often seen as "padding" the reviews. But what if my friend really does like my book and wants to leave a review saying as much? Do I ask her not to because in the eyes of half the literary world she's not an impartial judge and has no right to review my book? Or do I thank her and bask in the glow of her 5 star review?

It's quite the conundrum.

So, I'm taking this moment to say, officially, to all of my friends and family:

I TRUST YOUR JUDGEMENT.

There, I said it. You're all adults (well, most of you, anyway) and you can, and will, do what you feel is best. You don't need me to chase you down and tell you that a host of people who think they're better writers than everyone else and will nitpick every review under my book so please, please, pretty please don't make it obvious you're my friend if you review my book. You know what? If I didn't have any friends that wanted to review my book, there'd be a good chance I was a recluse living in my mom's basement. So, THANK YOU for reading my book at all, no matter what you decide to do in the end.

One caveat: if you hate my book, please don't give me that awkward smile and say "it was nice".  Just tell me you hated it and why so I can write something better next time. That is, unless you hate books with sex in them, then you're SOL because my books will always have sex in them *nods*.

Frozen Heart comes out exactly 3 weeks from today...