Resolving to resolve

Everyone is all about saying “I don’t make resolutions,” and “I don’t believe in resolutions” these days. Personally, I think that’s a copout. It says, “I can’t accomplish one single thing this year,” and ascribes to some kind of negative magical thinking that if you write it down, you’ll fail. Whatever. (Not trying to be mean to those of you who’ve said it. I’m trying to light a fire under my own derriere.) I haven’t been making resolutions for the past several years, using this same excuse. This year, I’m changing my tune.

First, I’m resolving to blog at least once a week, and to that end, this.

Second, I’m resolving to read at least one book a week. That’s right; I have not been reading even a book a week. I know many writers somehow read books in the triple digits annually. I am in awe of you. (I do wonder if you remember a word of any of them, but I admire your ability to devour literature just the same. And I don’t mean that snarkily. Be quiet, spellcheck. That is too a word.) I, on the other hand, have not even been reading one book a month since I started working on The House of Arkhangel’sk. So yesterday, I read a book: The Restorer, part of the Graveyard Queen series by Amanda Stevens. (I don’t do book reviews, but it was an enjoyable read, and I gave it 4 stars on Goodreads and B&N.)

Third, I’m going to finish three novels this year. This one is a bit of a cheat, because I’m closing in on the end of my Nano book, Prince of Tricks, and I’m planning yet another revision to Anamnesis (aka The Neverending Story), but I will write at least one novel from start to finish, and probably a novella somewhere in the mix. Again, this probably sounds silly to writers who crank out four or five books in a year, but unless you want to see 300 pages of “All work and no play makes Jane a dull girl,” this is all you’re going to get from me. Yesterday, I managed to get in my standard 1,000 words for the day on Prince of Tricks after being sidetracked by edits on The Armies of Heaven for a couple of weeks, so that’s three resolutions whose face I’m all up in already. (In whose face I’m all up…up in whose face…oh, forget it.)

Fourth, I’ve been telling myself for years “I’m going to learn to knit this year”…but I never made it a resolution, and thus let myself off the hook before I’d even begun. (That was a little knitting joke, there. Sort of. Well, a crocheting joke, anyway. Okay, more of a fishing joke, really, but I don’t have any interest in learning to fish.) And to that end, I’ve just purchased my first set of knitting needles and some pretty aubergine yarn, and have picked out a pattern for a scarf. Boom. I have pwned you, Resolution #4. (Which is not to say that I may not crumble under the weight of my January bravado as soon as the needles arrive, but I mean to give this a real go.)

And finally (aka Number Five), I resolve to cook at least one meal a week—in a real oven—that does not come out of a box, a can, or a freezer. I’ve, uh…made and eaten an entire batch of cookies this week; does that count? (No. No, it does not. And I can’t believe I just admitted that publicly. It was a small batch. ~shifty eyes~)

And why did I not just use ordered list tags to number these? Because this blog template refuses to show the numbers. Perhaps Number Six should be "get a better blog template or hire a pro to design a new site."

And as a bonus, I shall throw at you a random half-naked man. You're welcome. (And yes, I purchased this image. He's a potential Belphagor.)

Are you a resolver or a rebel in the great Resolution Revolution?

More Mistletoe Madness!

Welcome to my giveaway for the Mistletoe Madness Blog Hop! In addition to chances to win at over 50 blogs in the hop, the Grand Prize from the core author sponsors is a brand new Kindle Fire along with ebooks from 14 authors!

Enter my giveaway at the end of the post and then be sure to enter for the Grand Prize on the main hop page. And don't forget to visit the rest of the blogs in the hop!

If you're  familiar with my House of Arkhangel'sk series, you know that it's set in modern-day St. Petersburg, Russia, as well as in a celestial city called Elysium patterned after Imperial St. Petersburg. And if you're a Twitter follower or Facebook fan, you also know that I'm totally obsessed with all things Russian.

So it should come as no surprise that my giveaway for this blog hop is Russian-themed as well: along with signed copies of the first two books in my Arkhangel'sk series and a signed Fallen Queen cover flat, I'm giving away a gift sampler of Kusmi Russian Blend teas (includes my favorite, Prince Vladimir, as well as their Earl Grey blend, Anastasia, and their Troika, St.Petersburg, and Bouquet of Flowers teas). (This giveaway is international.)

You can skip to the bottom now to enter via the Rafflecopter, or read on to learn a little about holiday traditions in Russia.

While Orthodox Christians in Russia celebrate Christmas, it isn't the big to-do it's become in the US and Western Europe. Instead, Russians have a large celebration on the New Year—Novy God—with a decorated yolka (fir tree), and instead of Santa, a similar figure named Ded Moroz (Grandfather Frost) delivers presents with his assistant Snegurochka, the Snow Maiden. This secular holiday became more popular during the Soviet era, but has been a Russian tradition since the time of Peter the Great.

And as a bonus holiday treat, here's an awesome Russian cartoon about a tech-savvy Ded Moroz and a plane-flying Snegurochka:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

And if you haven't entered the other hops yet, hop to it!

Get Entangled Under the Mistletoe!

Don’t forget to check out what the other authors participating in the hop are giving away!

Welcome to my giveaway for the Entangled Under the Mistletoe Blog Hop!

The pagan origins of many of the rituals around this time of year have always been my favorite: kisses under the mistletoe, decorated  trees, and pretty lights at the darkest time of the year. (At least for us Northern Hemisphere folks!) The season, to me, is about ancient magic and the wheel of the year, no matter what religion—or none—one happens to follow.

That same magic is encapsulated in the tarot, and the Russian Tarot of St. Petersburg, in particular, adds to that magic with beautiful paintings depicting the Fool's Journey, which echoes the wheel of the year itself: beginnings and endings all wrapped up in an ever-returning cycle.

To kick off the season, I'm giving away signed copies of Books One and Two of The House of Arkhangel'sk: The Fallen Queen and The Midnight Court, along with a gorgeous Russian Tarot of St. Petersburg deck and an accompanying book that discusses the Russian-specific meanings of the cards.

Arkhangel'sk Trivia Note: Several scenes in Book Three, The Armies of Heaven, due out in May 2013, were actually written with the help of the Russian Tarot of St. Petersburg.

Enter via the Rafflecopter below. And don't forget to check out the rest of the blogs on the hop!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Missed my interview?

Missed me on Other World of Romance last night? You can listen to me reading a steamy excerpt from The Midnight Court here:

Listen to internet radio with Linda Mooney on Blog Talk Radio

Catch my guest spot tonight on Other Worlds of Romance

Join me tonight at 11pm Eastern/8pm Pacific time on Linda Mooney's Blogtalk Radio program, Other Worlds of Romance, where I'll be reading an excerpt from The Midnight Court.

Jumping bonfires - An Ivan Kupala giveaway

Today is Russian Midsummer, or Ivan Kupala. On this pagan holiday sublimated by the Orthodox Church into the feast of John the Baptist, young people jump over bonfires, play tricks with water, and float candles in flower garlands with their wishes for the coming year. And if they're lucky, they may find the elusive flower of the fern. (Belphagor would tell you it's a euphemism for getting laid, but he's jaded. Don't listen to him.)

In honor of Ivan Kupala, I'm giving away a $10 gift certificate to B&N or Amazon, along with the flower of the fern itself. That's right, at midnight last night, Tvorila Night, I was traipsing through the woods and I found the flower of the fern, which I'm offering to you.

Fern Flower Pendant

Okay, so I may have slightly exaggerated the part about the woods. It's actually an original art necklace from Gray's Crafts Etsy store, made of polymer clay, aventurine, jasper, premium Japanese seed beads, and copper wire. According to the Etsy store:

In Slavic mythology, fern flower is a magic flower which only blooms for a very short time on the eve of the Summer Solstice. To the one who finds it, fern flower gives the gift of clairvoyance, ability to understand animal speech, and to see all hidden treasures, no matter how deep they were hidden. The flower is believed to be guarded by the hordes of evil spirits, and those seeking it can pay with their lives for the attempt to take the flower.

And all you have to do to win it is enter via the Rafflecopter below and tweet about the giveaway once per day until the giveaway ends on July 11, 2012. The winner of the FOTF (flower of the fern) will be announced next Wednesday on my cover reveal for The Midnight Court, where you'll have another chance to win (not the FOTF; there can be only one). No nechysta syla (evil spirits) to worry about. Plus, this piece should help protect against any nechysta syla or rogue Seraphim who might be skulking about.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

And now an Ivan Kupala treat for you:

Angels vs. Demons: And the winner is...

Well, it's my blog, so demons it is! LOL. No, truly, I like angels, fallen or otherwise, I just have a rather soft spot for two demons in particular. ;) But since my demons and angels are actually just the peasants and nobility of a single race, it's all one and the same. As for the blog hop, the Grand Prize winners are Stephanie Huff (#1291 from I Smell Sheep), winner of the Kindle Touch, and Drake (#4695 from Dani Harper’s Blog), winner of the Amazon $60 Gift Card!

And the winner of my giveaway of a signed copy of The Fallen Queen and cover flat is Kassandra! Kassandra, you should be getting an email shortly to request your mailing address for your prize. Email me at jane at janekindred dot com  if you don’t receive it.

Congrats to the winners and thanks to everyone who participated in the hop, and for all of the great comments!

And as a consolation prize for those of you who didn't win, here's a bonus pic of my favorite demon (pre-tattoos):

An Angels vs. Demons Blog Hop!

Angels vs. Demons Blog Hop: June 28-July 1

If you've come here via the Angels vs. Demons Blog Hop, welcome! If you just stumbled in here by accident, read on.

Authors Leia Shaw and Carrie Ann Ryan are hosting the blog hop in celebration of their new paranormal romance releases, Destiny Bewitched and Dust of My Wings, and they want to know which you'd rather have to...uh...cuddle up with at night—angels or demons? And what are your favorite angel or demon books?

At the end of this post is a table full of blog links. Every single one of those authors and bloggers is offering their own giveaway, in addition to the blog hop grand prizes: one lucky entrant will win a Kindle Touch and one will win a $60 Barnes & Noble Gift Card! All you have to do to enter is comment on any post in the hop...which means you can enter 103 times. Comments on this post will also enter you in a drawing for a signed copy of my novel, The Fallen Queen, and an autographed cover flat.

This is a long post, so I don't blame you if you want to skip to the contest entry—just scroll to the end (but you're going to miss some man candy!). ;) Just be sure to leave your email address or we won't have any way of contacting you.

The heroes of my House of Arkhangel'sk series, Belphagor and Vasily, aren't your typical demons. But rather than make this post even longer, I'll let you learn all about them on my virtual book tour: Belphagor | Vasily. Separately from this blog hop, I'm also giving away ebook copies of The Fallen Queen at both of those links. (Note that entering the giveaways on those two blogs will NOT enter you in any of the blog hop drawings.)

But if you want the quick down-and-dirty on my wily demons, here are their stats:

BELPHAGOR An airspirit demon of Raqia in the Third Heaven

Build: Wiry but muscular

Height: 5’8”

Weight: 160lbs

Eye color: Ebony

Hair: Dark, short, spiked on top

Body art: Numerous Russian prison tats, including on hands and fingers; pierced eyebrow; pierced nipples

Strengths: Fiercely loyal; able to manipulate the element of air, including influencing the mind; as a BDSM top, he makes people feel cherished and protected with an almost paternal sensibility

Weaknesses: Has difficulty trusting others and keeps things to himself to his own detriment, resulting in getting himself into trouble he might otherwise have avoided

Favorites: The game of wingcasting (a kind of celestial poker); cigars; spanking naughty “boys”; a good Russian tea

Occupation: Gambler and thief

Nickname: Prince of Tricks

Quote: “I can't imagine why you think I'd have sex with a girl.”

:::::::::::::::::::::::

VASILY A firespirit demon of Raqia in the Third Heaven

Build: Built like a Cossack warrior

Height: 6’4”

Weight: 220lbs

Eyes: Hazel, with a tendency towards flaming red with Seraphic fire

Hair: Dreadlocks, lava red, tied back at the crown to expose his neck, with long, scruffy “mutton chop” sideburns

Body art: A row of spiked barbell piercings down both sides of his neck

Strengths: Can light a cigar with his tongue, illuminate the darkness and stoke a fire with his breath, generate healing Seraphic fire, and keep you very warm throughout an Arkhangel’sk winter

Weaknesses: Volatile temper, insecurity/jealousy

Favorites: Vodka, spankings

Occupation: Thief

Quote: “You touch Bel’s marks and I will kill you with my teeth.”

Want to meet my sexy demon duo? Check out my debut novel, The Fallen Queen, Book One in The House of Arkhangel'sk, published in December 2011 by Entangled Publishing and just re-released in mass-market trade paperback with a new, gorgeous cover:

The Fallen Queen by Jane Kindred

Heaven can go to hell.

Until her cousin slaughtered the supernal family, Anazakia’s father ruled the Heavens, governing noble Host and Fallen peasants alike. Now Anazakia is the last grand duchess of the House of Arkhangel’sk, and all she wants is to stay alive.

Hunted by Seraph assassins, Anazakia flees Heaven with two Fallen thieves—fire demon Vasily and air demon Belphagor, each with their own nefarious agenda—who hide her in the world of Man. The line between vice and virtue soon blurs, and when Belphagor is imprisoned, the unexpected passion of Vasily warms her through the Russian winter.

Heaven seems a distant dream, but when Anazakia learns the truth behind the celestial coup, she will have to return to fight for the throne—even if it means saving the man who murdered everyone she loved.

Read an excerpt from The Fallen Queen

The Fallen Queen is available now at Amazon | on Kindle | Barnes & Noble Nook | Books On Board. Pre-order your copy of Book Two in The House of Arkhangel’sk trilogy, The Midnight Court(Amazon | Barnes & Noble), coming in August 2012.

Nargles...at this time of year?

There seems to have been a small hiccup in the mass-market trade paperback release of The Fallen Queen, scheduled for May 15, and the new edition is not yet available. As a result, some of the pre-order links have stopped working (or have disappeared entirely), while others are still indicating that pre-orders can be taken.

My publisher is currently trying to sort this out with the distributor, but we expect the book to be available by June 1 at the latest. My virtual book release tour, originally scheduled to begin this week, will resume once the distribution has been sorted. My sincere apologies to anyone who pre-ordered the book and was expecting it to be delivered yesterday, as well as to the bloggers whose schedules have been or may be inconvenienced by the rescheduling.

As a small consolation, if you're still awaiting your book, drop me an email with your mailing address and I'll send you a signed Fallen Queen bookmark.

TFQ bookmark

Crits for Water

Clean water is something we take for granted, but not everyone has access to it.

You can help change that. Team Megibow agent-mate Kat Brauer is once again organizing her annual Crits for Water drive, where I'm offering a query letter critique in exchange for a donation to this important cause. Writer Mary Baader Kaley was also kind enough to interview me on her blog about my thoughts on critiquing.

In case you're wondering why the picture of a fountain in Russia...surprisingly, the water supply in St. Petersburg, a major European city, is non-potable, and must be boiled before drinking. But lots of places have it worse.

Acknowledgments

While working on my Acknowledgments page for The Midnight Court, it occured to me that many of the people I thanked in The Fallen Queen may have missed that they were mentioned. So for those who didn't see it in the back of the book or just haven't had a chance to pick up a copy, I thought I'd print it up here: My deepest gratitude goes out to the people who believed in me even when I didn’t believe in myself: Martin Pedersen, for reading my fanciful stories from his home across the sea and always telling it like it is; Stephanie Rossi, for listening to me talk about the people in my head as if they have lives of their own (they do) and only occasionally looking at me as if I’m certifiable (I am); Cat Ellen, my cheerleader, for reading voraciously and wanting more; Daphne Phillips, whose invaluable critique made my work stronger and whom I adore for adoring my boys; Diana, my first reader, whose appreciation of my dark side sometimes prompts me to write scenes where somebody eats a baby (which didn’t make it into this book); Jon and Beth and everyone at Wednesday afternoon tea, for listening to me whinge; my son Samson, for putting up with a mom he only saw over the top of a computer screen for most of his childhood, and who, for some reason, seems to like me anyway; and a special thanks to my late husband Jack, for letting me plot out loud (also known as “listening to me whinge”) and for providing much loving inspiration for the relationship between my naughty demons—I wish you were here to meet them.

I’m also grateful to Allison Pang, for being Vasily’s first fangirl, and for encouraging me to dig deeper; to my agent, Sara Megibow, for believing in Anazakia and the boys and putting them into the right hands; and to my editors, Liz Pelletier, for loving the book and believing in my voice (and for not changing that line that contains the word “gluttonously”), and Catherine Kean, who did the heavy lifting.

Lastly, I’d like to add a special thanks to Lynn Flewelling for inspiring me with her magical world and her inimitable rogues, and for bringing together the wonderful writers of Writing on the Waves—as well as to the writers on those waves with whom I’ve shared the voyage; to the Bling Babes of Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers 2010 Colorado Gold, and the amazing writing community on Twitter with too many to name, who’ve provided unending support along the journey even as they embark upon their own; and to Kate Bush, whose album Aerial accompanied the all-important dreamtime of my writing.