Cover Reveal: Fragments of Darkness Anthology #FODanthology #WOBooks

Today I'm revealing the cover for FRAGMENTS OF DARKNESS, an anthology of thrilling stories. I am so honored to work with this group of amazing authors on this project, and I can't wait for you to dive into these ten fantastic stories. But first, the cover!

Fragments of Darkness
An Anthology of Thrilling Stories
release date: September 13, 2017

From between the cracks of imagination, among the splinters of the unknown, and upon the winds of mystery, lurk the Fragments of Darkness.

With legends of killer mermaids to tales of Civil War era ghosts, ten passionate story-tellers come together to bring you yarns of fantasy, paranormal, and chills and thrills that will entertain, intrigue, and enchant young adult and new adult readers.

Lisa M. Basso -- Heart and Bone

C.L. Campbell -- Reckoner

Dorothy Dreyer -- Under the Surface

Pat Esden -- Black as a Dark Moon, Scarlet as Sumac

E.M. Fitch -- Between Shadows

R.A. Gates -- The Collector

Jessica Gunn -- The Ghost

Debra Jess -- Blood & Armor

Melanie McFarlane -- The Transgressions of Faithe Eileen

Daphne René -- Story of the Unknown Soldier

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Cover Reveal: REACH FOR YOU by Pat Esden

Professional Cover Reveal Tours: Why I chose to use one

Plus, my latest cover! 

Pat Esden

Today is the cover reveal tour for REACH FOR YOU, the third book in my Dark Heart series. It’s easy to understand why I’m excited about sharing my cover. Covers are fun, they give clues about a novel’s plot, hint at what tone and emotions a reader can expect, and showcase genre. Covers are designed to tease and tempt a reader into turning the book over and reading the blurb on its back.  For me, sharing a book’s cover for the first time is like placing the cherry on the top of an ice-cream sundae that I’ve been working on for months and months. It’s the final touch before the book is released and readers can dive in and devour it.

Those of you who are authors can probably relate to those things. But perhaps you’re wondering why I chose to have a professionally organized cover reveal tour rather than simply hosting it on my own social media and in my newsletter. First of all, using a professional tour is not mandatory.  But for me, it is a way to generate maximum excitement without investing a lot of time.

If I only used my own social media site, then I’d only reach people who are already familiar with my Dark Heart series. Reaching those people is vital. But for a relatively small cost, I can move beyond that circle of followers and have hundreds or even thousands of new readers see my latest cover and discover my books existence. Plus, I can choose a tour that specializes in my book’s genre to guarantee my cover reveal will hit the right readers. Hopefully, this will lead to pre-orders that might not have happened otherwise and to new fans discovering my series.

Sure, I could ask my blogging friends to host my reveal. That would expand the circle to a degree. But organizing a tour takes time, time that I could be using to work on my next novel. A professional tour organizer will find the bloggers (this can include my friends), get the material to them, remind them when the posts need to go live, and basically make sure the reveal is timely and professional without my help. If there is an issue, the organizer will serve as the go-to person, removing all stress and allowing me to enjoy the reveal instead.

So what does the cover for my upcoming release look like?

Here it is!

Blurb:

REACH FOR YOU (Dark Heart series book 3)

Her passion is her greatest weakness.

His legacy is his prison.

To reunite, both must fight the demons within.

A world of deception and danger separates Annie Fremont from her mother—and from Chase, the enigmatic groundskeeper with whom Annie’s fallen in love. But she vows to find her way back to them, before Chase succumbs to the madness that threatens his freedom. The only person who can help is the magical seductress, Lotli, a beautiful, manipulative woman . . . a woman who has disappeared.

Annie must stay strong, even as the future she imagined is slipping away. With the help of family and friends, she discovers that Lotli is being held against her will, by those who want to exploit her powers. But though weakened, Lotli remains a powerful ally and adversary. A bargain is struck. And now Annie’s only chance to rescue Chase could also tear them apart . . .

Loyalties will be tested, walls will be breached, and enemies will be fought, yet Annie’s greatest battle lies within her own heart—to trust her love for Chase to overcome its greatest enemy, and to save those she holds most dear from the terrifying realm of the djinn. For all of their lives depend on it.

Buy Links

Pinterest https://www.pinterest.com/patesden/reach-for-you-dark-heart-3/

Amazon  https://www.amazon.com/Reach-You-Dark-Heart-Esden-ebook/dp/B01LZCVLU3/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8

Goodreads https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/32586694-reach-for-you

Barnes and Nobel http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/reach-for-you-pat-esden/1124742503;jsessionid=013D76522AAC7C78C7446A7ECDFCC7DD.prodny_store01-atgap02?ean=9781496700094&st=AFF&2sid=Goodreads,%20Inc_2227948_NA&sourceId=AFFGoodreads,%20IncM000004

Kobo https://www.kobo.com/us/en/search?Query=Reach+for+You&utm_source=linkshare_us&utm_medium=Affiliate&utm_campaign=linkshare_us&siteID=GwEz7vxblVU-m1pG6GMJF6VcalJW15rz7w

About Pat Esden

Pat Esden would love to say she spent her childhood in intellectual pursuits. The truth is she was fonder of exploring abandoned houses and old cemeteries. When not out on her own adventures, she can be found in her northern Vermont home writing stories about brave, smart women and the men who capture their hearts.  

An antique-dealing florist by trade, she’s also a member of Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America, Romance Writers of America, and the League of Vermont Writers. Her short stories have appeared in a number of publications, including Orson Scott Card’s Intergalactic Medicine Show, the Mythopoeic Society’s Mythic Circle, and George Sciter’s Cat Tales Anthology.

The first two books in her Dark Heart series, A HOLD ON ME and BEYOND YOUR TOUCH are available from Kensington Books.  REACH FOR YOU (book #3 Dark Heart series) will be released June 27th.

Guest Post: Using Flashbacks to Deepen Character by Pat Esden

Using Flashbacks to Deepen Character

by Pat Esden

Often writers are told to avoid flashbacks. In some cases this advice is wise. However, if used judiciously flashbacks are a powerful writing tool, especially for deepening character. What’s important is when and why characters choose to remember, what they remember, and the emotion or emotions the memory evokes.

One of the most important things to remember is to only use flashbacks at a point in the story where they will have a direct impact on the ongoing action. For example, a flashback can justify a character doing something that goes against how they have behaved up until that point in the story by showing a past event that serves as a trigger for this seemly strange behavior.

The flashback itself needs to be an emotional high or low point. But it doesn’t have to be a long or extensive memory. In fact, tiny and more personal flashbacks tend to covey a stronger emotional impact on the character and reader.

For example, a withdrawn and prudish Victorian school teacher might risk social rebuff by rescuing a drunk prostitute from ridicule because a yellow ribbon in the woman’s hair reminds the teacher of her own mother who was an opium addict. Perhaps the flashback has to do with her mother putting a yellow ribbon in the teacher’s hair, the sensation of a loving touch in the teacher’s otherwise harsh childhood.

Equally important is the character’s attitude toward the flashback. If the teacher’s memory of the yellow ribbon makes her feel hatred or envy instead of compassion or confidence, then her behavior toward the prostitute might be entirely different.

The flashback doesn’t just deepen the character that’s remembering it. The flashback also can show a lot about the character or characters being remembered. Was the teacher’s mother kind but a victim of circumstance? Or was she in reality abusive and the ribbon was used for both kindness and punishment? Is there a third character in the scene, the teacher’s brother who in the past was ridiculed by the mother and now is treating the prostitute in a similar manner?

Now here’s a tricky thing. A character’s emotional reaction to or understanding of a flashback can change as a story progresses. Instead of being stagnant, the flashback can transform into a marker of a character’s growth. For example, if we go back to the schoolteacher story, perhaps at first she hates the prostitute because of her memories of her mother. But as the story goes on, the teacher’s experiences make her realize that she was cruelly judgmental of her mentally ill mother. At the end of the story, the teacher might see the flashback through new eyes and have a different reaction to a woman and yellow ribbon.

One of the best ways to experiment with flashbacks is to think about your own past. What tiny moments in your past do you recall with strong emotions? Do certain smells or tastes affect you emotionally because of something in the past? Now add similar experiences to your characters’ backstories and let them surface at moments when a hot spike of emotion is needed.

About the Author

PAT ESDEN is an antique-dealing florist by trade. She’s also a member of Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America, Romance Writers of America, and the League of Vermont Writers. Her short stories have appeared in a number of publications, including Orson Scott Card’s Intergalactic Medicine Show, the Mythopoeic Society’s Mythic Circle literary magazine, and George H. Scither’s anthology Cat Tales.

Her new adult paranormal novel, A HOLD ON ME (book #1 in the Dark Heart series) is available from Kensington Books and BEYOND YOUR TOUCH (book #2 Dark Heart series) will be released August 30th.

Author Links

WEBSITE |GOODREADS |FACEBOOK|TWITTER | BLOG |PINTEREST|

A Hold on Me

She never wanted to return.

He wants nothing more than for her to leave.

But the fire between them is as strong as the past that haunts them.

Annie Freemont grew up on the road, immersed in the romance of rare things, cultivating an eye for artifacts and a spirit for bargaining. It’s a freewheeling life she loves and plans to continue—until her dad is diagnosed with dementia. His illness forces them to return to Moonhill, their ancestral home on the coast of Maine—and to the family they left behind fifteen years ago, after Annie’s mother died in a suspicious accident.

Once at Moonhill, Annie is shocked when her aunt separates her from her father. The next time Annie sees him, he’s a bizarre, violent shadow of his former self. Confused, she turns to an unlikely ally for support—Chase, the dangerously seductive young groundskeeper. With his dark good looks and powerful presence, Chase has an air of mystery that Annie is irresistibly drawn to. But she also senses that behind his penetrating eyes are secrets she can’t even begin to imagine. Secrets that hold the key to the past, to Annie’s own longings—and to all of their futures. Now, to unlock them, she’ll have to face her greatest fears and embrace her legacy…

Order Today!

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A Hold on Me Blog Tour: Interview with Pat Esden PLUS Giveaway

Today we're joining the blog tour for A HOLD ON ME by chatting with author Pat Esden. Come get to know more about Pat and her book. And don't forget to enter the rafflecopter at the end of the post for your chance to win a cool prize.

Hi, Pat! Welcome to We Do Write. Tell us a bit about yourself.  

Thank you for inviting me to stop by. My name is Pat Esden and I’m the author of the new adult paranormal series, Dark Heart. The first book in the series, A HOLD ON ME came out February 23.

Tell our readers a bit about A HOLD ON ME.

A HOLD IN ME is a gothic tale of love and revenge.  The main character is Annie, a twenty-year-old woman who has grownup picking and dealing antiques with her father. When her father is diagnosed with dementia, his illness forces them to return to their ancestral home on the coast of Maine where their estranged family lives.

Once there, her father’s situation deteriorates and Annie’s longstanding suspicions about her family grow ever larger. She turns to an unlikely ally for support—Chase a dangerously seductive young groundskeeper.

How did the idea of the story come to you?

Johnny Depp and our shared love for the old TV series Dark Shadows inspired me to write A HOLD ON ME. I was writing a different novel at the time, but when I heard Depp was working with Tim Burton on a remake of the show, it struck me that having fun and creating something you’ve always wanted to try was important to me as well. However, I didn’t have any desire to create a campy remake of Dark Shadows. I wanted to write a gothic novel that had an atmosphere reminiscent of the show and also to the romantic suspense novels from the same time period—but with an updated flare and sizzle to make it appealing to contemporary readers.

That's awesome. Are you a plotter or a pantser?

I’m a plotter. I begin with a story’s turning points, and then fill in the rest of the plot details. In the end, I have a fairly complete chapter-by-chapter outline. I also write a detailed synopsis before I start writing.

What’s the hardest part of writing for you?

The hardest part is writing the last third of the first draft. The beginning of the first draft is all about exploring the world and characters. It’s fun. The next third is about action building toward the climax. But when I hit the last third, I have a hard time pushing forward instead of going back to revise the earlier sections. Revision and later drafts are the part I love the most.

What do you absolutely have to have nearby when writing?

I have different ‘trinkets’ for every book, things that remind me of the story and give me luck. For A HOLD ON ME, I have an ancient coin with a bee on it and a small clay lamp from a dig site in Greece, and a seagull statue that I inherited when my sister passed away.

If you could have any super power, what would it be?

Puppy whisperer! I have a Golden Retriever puppy. I love her dearly, but having to change my daily writing schedule around her needs hasn’t been easy. I’d love to be able to lull her from wild-chewing-crazy-dog into sleepy-bundle-of-cuteness with just a couple words.

What's the weirdest thing you've googled?

This is a hard one. I’ve Google a lot of strange things. Lately, it probably would be ‘intimate massages during pregnancy’. I probably shouldn’t have used the word ‘intimate’. I got the information I wanted for the novel, but I also saw a few things I wish I could un-see.

Finish this sentence: If I'm not writing, I'm probably ...

at an auction, museum, out somewhere exploring something new, meeting new people, or asleep on the couch. Yeah, I’m a little like my new puppy: either busy doing something or I’m crashed.

Here’s the part where you thank the people who are supporting you. Let's hear your shout outs.

I belong to Waiting-On-2016 author group. I’d like to give a shout out to all the members. They are a fantastic and supportive group, and the books they have coming out this year truly open up new territories in the middle grade, young adult, and new adult categories. Check out our blog https://waitingon2016.wordpress.com or every other week there is a twitter chat where you can learn more about the authors, the topics that are important to them, and their books.  #WO2016  

Thanks so much for stopping by the blog, Pat! Good luck with your series!

Find the author online:

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