Phoebe's Blog Page

FREEBIE

2012-01-22T11:48:00.000-08:00

Guard Dog? is free for Kindle thru Jan. 25th. It contains three short stories, one from each of the Wicked Good collections.

2012-01-20T10:34:00.000-08:00

The Neverending Story on Judah Raine's site is up and running again! Always good for a giggle.

2012-01-19T18:40:00.001-08:00

That's me braving the big snow in Seattle. Okay, so I walked around the block and then back inside for coffee.

2012-01-17T19:50:00.000-08:00

Waiting for snow - it is supposed to hit heavy in the wee hours so we spent today stocking up on the important stuff like popcorn and cocoa and donuts from TopPot. Now we're set for a day of writing. My latest is a new Tarvik and Claire novel. Last week ghosts attacked Claire's cousin, a sidewalk attacked Claire, a wild bear moved into the back yard, Tarvik's ex moved into their house, and a funeral ended in murder. Last week was easy compared to this week. Beastly Week is debuting on Kindle.

2012-01-16T16:44:00.000-08:00

Demonspell will be on sale thru Friday and today on the first day of the sale is now

#7 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Fiction > Fantasy > Contemporary

2011-12-29T20:26:00.000-08:00

A friend who works in a store that sells ereaders emailed this:

"If you are one of the generous people who gifted your grandparents with an ereader even though they have never sent an e-mail and don’t know what WiFi is, I hate you!"

A friend commented, “My seven year old learned to use her new ereader by herself. Would you like her to help you at the counter?”

Another friend replied, “Oh, I guess you met my Auntie Margaret.”

Christmas sale

2011-12-28T08:10:00.000-08:00

From now to January 8 the folks on BacklistEBooks at http://backlistebooks.com are doing a 99 cent sale of many of their most popular novels. I am loading up my ereader. They have an easy to use front page that let's me pick the genre I want to see. From there I can go to the individual books and find the sites where they are available. Cool. This group includes a large number of bestselling and award winning authors.

If you would like to know more about this group Henry Kiser has done an excellent description of them at http://henrykisor.blogspot.com.

Loner Vamps

2011-12-17T21:37:00.000-08:00

If you enjoy vampire novels, check out Lori Devoti's website where I did a blog about Loner Vamps. Lori is featuring a vamp article a day for 30 days, lots of fun followed by some good comments.

Podcast

2011-12-06T19:33:00.000-08:00

The amazing Morgen Bailey reads aloud flash fiction. If you haven't seen her site, it is full of marvelous tidbits, info for and about writers, and all sorts of things. I was a guest blogger on her site last autumn and also gave her a flash fiction story for Halloween week. It is Lorna Doomed. Yes, I know, it is a terrible pun, but where better to use a pun and not cringe than as a title for a zombie story? Lorna Doomed originally appeared in an anthology by Pill Hill Press and then was included in Nine Horoscope-in-Catsup Stories. So here is the information from Morgen for the podcast:

Full link , shortcut to the FFF, podcast and Contributors pages. The shortcut page summarises the episode and provides listeners with a choice of how to listen.
Morgen Bailey's site

Nine Horoscope-in-Catsup Stories

Demonspell gets top ratings!

2011-12-03T09:23:00.000-08:00

Friday, Dec. 2 Demonspell by Phoebe Matthews, first book of Sunspinner series

# Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #232

#1 in Kindle Store - Occult
#2 in Bargain Books
#6 in Books - Literature & Fiction - Horror

Great way to start the day -

2011-11-23T09:11:00.000-08:00

This review just out from http://www.bestsellersworld.com -

Vampire CareerReviewed by Douglas R. Cobb
...Vampire Career is a great beginning to Phoebe Matthews’s Turning Vampire series. Her publisher, Dark Quest LLC, already has plans to publish three more novels in the series. The next one will be Vampire Disaster... Reading about how Georgia copes with being a vampire, tries to keep attending college, have a romance, and a career, makes for a really fun and entertaining way to spend a few hours. I highly recommend it to anyone who loves reading vampire novels.

99 cent specials

2011-11-16T10:30:00.000-08:00

Current 99 cent ebook SPECIALS to introduce you to several series include:
Nine Horoscope-in-Catsup Stories, the first book in the Wicked Good series, on nook or Kindle. .
Demonspell, the first book in the Sunspinners series, on Kindle or nook
Tarbaby Trouble, the first book in the Mudflat series, on Kindle or nook

Tippy Tree's Christmas

2011-11-14T11:01:00.000-08:00

I received a great note from a seven year old's adult friend who said she had downloaded Tippy Tree for him and he was delighted to find he could read it to himself. He liked the story so much he is now working on a review. I look forward to reading it!

Full color 30 page picture book Tippy Tree's Christmas 99 cents for holidays at nook and kindle. Just for fun. I mean, if you're stored in a box in the attic most of the year, getting out is exciting, right?

Cover art

2011-11-03T09:55:00.000-07:00

A friend in advertising says a book cover should offer the sizzle, not the steak. So here is a new cover for one of my novels to try out the theory. Whatchathink? Does it have sizzle? The story does. It is available with its new cover at nook and Kindle.

Steampunk Widow and More

2011-10-04T09:55:00.000-07:00

Compared to handling a mother and mother-in-law through the wedding planning, facing Death seems like a piece of cake. Or not.

Steampunk Widow and More is the third collection of short stories in the Wicked Good series and includes a steampunk bride, a ghost, a genii, an aging vampire, a romance writer and a wailing witch.

On Amazon click the cover illustration to go inside the book and read the sample . Nook link

99 cents for Tarbaby

2011-09-15T12:38:00.000-07:00

To introduce readers to Mudflat, the publisher reduced the price of the ebook version of Tarbaby Trouble to 99 cents. The other titles in the series are $2.99 each. They are available on most sites. All the Mudflat books are also available in print. If you are already a Mudflat fan, the first two books in the Wicked Good series contain several Mudflat short stories.
Kindle Links:
Tarbaby Trouble, EPIC Award 2009 Best Fantasy
Nine Horoscope-in-Catsup Stories, Wicked Good 1
Steampunk Man and More, Wicked Good 2

Rachel Caine's novels

2011-09-02T09:27:00.000-07:00

Okay, I just finished reading the first book in Rachel Caine's new Revivalist series, Working Stiff. Loved it! I've been a big fan of her Weather Warden series, and this looks as though it will be equally fun. Caine starts with a real location, La Jolla, CA, and then sticks in a fictional funeral home. (At least, I hope it is fictional, especially what's getting stored in the basement cooler.) And as always, her characters are real and believable and if a few have slightly different talents or physical problems, well, hey, none of us is perfect.

What makes Caine's work stand out? For me it is that close tie to reality. Sure, I enjoy superheroes and galactic wars and doomsday tales, but on a limited scale. My take on the appeal of the Harry Potter stories is that they have all the over-the-top elements, but at the core is a totally real and believable group of characters the reader cares about. And Caine weaves that same magic.

Caine owns a couple of pet iguanas. Do you think those iguanas might be a major trigger for her imagination? There they are, living in our world, and looking more like ET than like earth critters. Anyway, read the book. It's great. And then if you'd like to meet more real people in a real city, maybe you'd enjoy Demonspell, the first of my Sunspinner series. As you might guess from the title, besides the people, there are demons in Seattle.

Links: KINDLE, NOOK, IPAD

Urban fantasy series by Phoebe Matthews include:
Mudflat, BookStrand
Sunspinners, LostLoves
Turning Vampire, Dark Quest

Urban fantasy is contemporary -

2011-08-22T08:59:00.000-07:00

and set in the real world. After that, the rules are flexible.

My writing crosses genres but is primarily contemporary urban fantasy, heavy on plot and mystery, light on romance, and described by one reviewer as off-the-wall humor. I like to combine a strong fantasy story with a true crime story. In Mudflat the true crimes are the sort where TV reporters say, “How could anyone be that dumb?”

The first Mudflat novel grew out of several ideas and then came together when I remembered Joel Chandler Harris’s classic Brer Fox and Brer Rabbit stories. Tarbaby was the bait used to catch the rabbit, and in my book the blond guy on the cover is Tarbaby and the girl is the rabbit. Everyone knows what happened to the fox and the rabbit, but what happened to Tarbaby? Okay, you have to read the book to find out.

From Nancy Eriksen at ParanormalRomance.org, who has reviewed all the Mudflat books, the fourth book brought this lovely comment: Every year I wait to hear from our dear Dee that Phoebe has written another Mudflat book. This one is as good if not better than the last three.

I guess I should also mention that the second book was reviewed in the April 2010 RT Book Reviews and given a 4.5, which was pretty exciting and brought some fun fan mail. 4.5 is RT’s highest rating and they identify that rating as “Fantastic - Keeper.”

The Mudflat books are in ebook and print. Ebook of Tarbaby Trouble is now selling for 99 cents
to introduce new readers to the series. Kindle here. Nook here.

Vampire Career Review

2011-08-16T14:16:00.000-07:00

5 stars, by Brenda C. for ReadersFavorite.com
I loved this story... really held me from the first pages!...uniquely different from other vampire tales...twist at the end, with the vampire hunters, was great...This is a fantastic book that will appeal to teens and adults alike!