Holly Blackstone

I’ve installed some new add-ons and configured them so the spam I was getting should be drastically reduced and as a result I have turned comments back on so you don’t need to log in to comments (merely fill out the fields). As always, email me holly (at) hollyblackstone.com if you have problems!

Greetings, loyal readers. =) Hope you’ve had a great holiday season so far!

I intended to get this book up earlier, but my new job has been busy! A little over a week after I started, my boss collapsed his lung (the third time in a year), and has had surgery and been out since. Needless to say its been a mad scramble to come up to speed and help where I can while he’s out.

As a result it has been slow going with book 5 in the Liliana Batchelor series as well as preparing this book for publication. I am still working on book 5, “Step in to the Light”, and hope to have some time during Christmas to make more progress. I”m sorry it’s not finished right now, as I hoped it would be!

I have finished editing “A World Away”, the first book in the Void Chronicles and I hope you will give it a look. It’s the story of Julianna, who awakens to find herself in a different world, where magic is real and the land is about to be plunged in an epic struggle against the Void and its minions, including necromancers and dragons.

With no way to get home, she is forced to make decisions that may affect the entire future of this new world. With her on this journey is a mythical sword VoidCleaver, which some believe to be a godsword, a fabled weapon that will return to them in time of great need. Complicating matters is Tristan Roarke, leader of the Templars and nephew to the current king.

This book includes explicit depictions of sex and warfare, and is not recommended for readers under 18. I look forward to hearing your thoughts on it!

I am going to change comments back to their original formatting this evening; I haven’t been able to debug the problem with creating an account and being able to post, so I will just try to handle spam as best as I can. Please be patient! 😎

Thank you, and Merry Christmas!

Warm wishes,

Holly

 

 

Banish the Darkness is now available at iTunes/iBookstore here. Sorry it has taken so long, iPad readers. Lulu said that it was accidentally miscategorised or some such hand waving. Regardless, it’s up there now, and hopefully there won’t be any more of these delays with future books!

I was informed that people are having difficulty with the new register/comment scheme I implemented to stop the spam (sounds like a horror movie – and it is!). I’ll look into that in the next few days and if I can’t figure out the problem, I will just reset it back to the way it was and look at other alternatives!

Hope everyone is having a brilliant week. =)

 

Kind regards,

Holly

So I recently accepted a full time contract position with a small(ish) local (computer) game company as a testing co-ordinator. Up to this point, my commitments had been part time, which has allowed for a lot more time writing. This full time commitment (starts Dec 2), will mean I have less opportunity during the day to write but I still will be writing!

I am hurriedly trying to get rough drafts (if nothing else), down of “Step in to the Light”, the Void Chronicles and a vampire book (most likely standalone and not a series), down because it is far easier to pick up editing than it is to write. Currently I can arrange for a fairly large chunk of time to be free so I can write (which is the nicest situation), but with full-time work that is going to be a little more difficult – editing a book that is already (mostly) written is something that can be done in smaller time chunks without any negative effects.

I am a little concerned because since I changed my website to use a new spam-blocking tool I haven’t seen comments so please take a moment to check in and help me verify that real people can get through. =) If you can’t, email me at: holly (at) hollyblackstone.com and I will see what I can do to fix the problem!

Hope everyone is excited for the holidays – I am! – and that life has been kind to you lately.

Warm regards and wishes,

Holly

P.S. I received a nice review from someone on Goodreads – three star review because it was a little difficult to initially get into the format (3rd person), but she got hooked she said and loved it and read all the rest of the books! She was kind enough to post props on an Alpha male book thread on Goodreads, which I appreciate. Thank you to all my readers who have done things like that – spoken to friends, reviewed my books on Amazon or elsewhere. It means a great deal. Thank you!

 

I just completed the first draft of book one in the Void Chronicles; currently it is 79,121 words and will probably grow slightly during editing.

It’s a fantasy story with erotic and adult themes and follows the journey of Julianna Foss as she becomes immersed in the world of the hero, Tristan Roarke. That’s all I’ll say for now about that. =)

I try to write more than just erotica, as I hope my readers know by now. I want to tell a story but as an adult I enjoy erotic story lines and a sensual environment. Just like The Liliana Batchelor series shows Lily evolving as a person and the Sine Qua Non cycle deals with a murder mystery and how Abby deals with sudden fame, The Void Chronicles has our heroine Julianna faced with a choice and shows how she rises to meet the challenge in a difficult environment.

I’ll now be working on book five in the Liliana Batchelor series whilst I edit book one of the Void Chronicles. Thanks for stopping by, I hope you’ll check in again!

All the best,

Holly

First off, had a nice night last night at Mercury/Machinewerks… my car was intact when I went to the parking lot to retrieve it – not even a scratch – yay!

Second, I’m pretty excited that The Liliana Batchelor Series has made some lists on Goodreads!

• Tied for 17th place in ‘Erotic Delights‘

• Tied for 194th place in ‘Top Self-Published Erotica‘

You can see all the lists that “An Accidental Affair” is part of here. It may not seem like a lot, but until late March of this year I had never published a book. All four books in the series have an average rating of over 4.0 on Goodreads as well, which is gratifying!

Hope to be able to post more information about my latest novel, book one in “The Void Chronicles”, within the next few days.

Don’t forget to follow me on Twitter – @HollyBlackstone .

Warm wishes,

Holly

 

 

 

Currently I have a lot in the hopper, and I wanted to fill in my loyal readers on what is going on. =)

I am nearly done with book one in the Void Chronicles, a fantasy series with erotic elements. Once that is completed I will start on book five in the Liliana Batchelor series, “Step in to the Light”. Book one of that series, “An Accidental Affair” is nearly done with a once-over edit, and I plan on ordering several hardback copies. One of them will be part of a giveaway here and on Goodreads, and I will make the others available for purchase and I will gladly autograph it for you. I will post details as soon as I have something concrete.

I have also begun book two in the Sine Qua Non cycle, my cyberpunk-erotica offering with trillionaire visionary Dyson Pearce and programming jock Abigail Pritchard. If you’re interested at all in future books, cyberpunk or technology themed novels you might want to grab the preview; there’s also a mystery involved, which makes it an interesting read.

I will probably go dancing again to-night at Mercury/Machinewerks in Seattle, despite the fact that last time I was there someone broke into my car and stole my purse. I’m determined not to let some thieving bastard discourage me from doing something I want to do.

Hope everyone has a great weekend and a gentle reminder… if you like my books, PLEASE post on Goodreads/Amazon/iBooks/B&N… suggest it to a blogger to review… word of mouth means a lot! THANK YOU!

I will post a tease/description of the Void Chronicles book soon. Title TBD!

Warm regards,

Holly

 

So I went dancing Saturday night, had a great time… until I went to the parking lot around the corner and found out my truck had been broken into and my purse, which I thought I secreted away properly, was gone. I called the police and then my credit card companies and then waited for nearly two hours for the police to NOT show up (they said they were busy); I was freezing and went home. (They said I can file a report to-morrow). The thief used one of my cards a few times, and tried to even use it AFTER it had been cancelled.

When I spoke with the dispatcher (she called back almost two hours after my initial call), I was left with the impression that this wouldn’t be high priority for them. I took the licences of all the cars in the lot, spoke with several owners of the cars when they returned to them, taped the window when I got home… Monday I am looking at calls to the insurance company, the police, scheduling my window getting replaced… what a damn mess. The purse was a gift from someone – I don’t have another, but luckily my licence was in my pocket. I have a new job interview on Wednesday… ugh. I was so wound up and upset I didn’t get to bed until about 5 AM.

Greetings, lovely readers!

Although iBookstore has yet to post my book, Barnes & Noble has – here is the link.

Unfortunately I have one rating on the B&N site, it’s for “Banish the Darkness”, and it is only a three star review, with no text! So if you’re a Nook reader, I would really appreciate it if you would take a moment to head over to the site, rate one of the books and give an honest review. It’s so bizarre that the only book that has a rating is the fourth in the series!

Some progress anyway… now to push on iBookstore!

Best regards, and Happy Halloween!

Holly

 

UPDATE: I should add that I have sold NO COPIES of “Banish the Darkness” on the Barnes & Noble site – up until yesterday it was only available on Amazon (where I have only received four star reviews and above), and Lulu’s own site, through which I have also sold no copies. As a result I am concerned that this is someone who has deliberately tried to give my book a poor rating, for unknown reasons. =( That’s what is so troubling! I’ve sold no copies at B&N and then receive a blah rating. Very odd.

I don’t usually do too much for Halloween – it’s a pretty busy time and I generally save my culinary craziness for Thanksgiving and Christmas.

This year, after watching too many cooking shows at night during supper, I decided I was going to take the plunge and make some dessert type things. I settled on cake pops, with the idea that I would give them to friends and waitstaff at my favourite restaurants (I’m friendly with owners of several nice lunch time eateries), and enjoy a few small little treats myself. I thought I’d even pawn some off on my boyfriend for him and his friends, hoping for a best girlfriend of the year nomination.

Since it is a spooky time of year, I thought I would make ‘eye ball’ and ‘spider’ cake pops. In preparation I made some lovely semi-sweet chocolate ganache and stayed up late night before last making vanilla buttercream frosting. I had my boyfriend try it and he said it was one of the best things he’s ever tasted.

So to-day I was going to make the cakes – a yellow one for the ganache and a dutch-chocolate one for the vanilla buttercream.

I was ALMOST done adding the flour to the creamed butter and sugar for the yellow cake when… I saw something in the flour. Upon closer inspection it was an insect wing.

I was just about out of cake flour and so bought a new box yesterday and made my dry ingredient mix. Well, I guess it must have been contaminated – it happens sometimes, it’s not the first time I’ve seen it – but I have a lot to do, no more cake flour (I threw it all away), and time is ticking away.

So instead of being able to post pretty pictures of bloodshot eyeball cake pops and black-widow spider pops, I’m stuck with six cups of the most sublime vanilla buttercream frosting and four and a half cups of chocolate ganache.

I guess I’ll just get a mix, make sure there’s no wings, and bake a cake from a box so I can at least enjoy the frosting! Halloween treats were not meant to be this year.