Alison Kent's Blah Blog

The randomly drawn winners of Joe Konrath’s Jack Kilborn book AFRAID are:

Kim Campbell at comment 17
Breia Brickey at comment 7
Jo Leigh at comment 9

You guys send me your mailing addresses and I’ll send them along to Joe.

Jaci Burton is giving away a copy of NO LIMITS today.

At GenReality, I’m talking about naming characters, my MOST favorite thing to do ever! Well, most favorite writing thing. Well, besides cashing checks! And at Access Romance, come visit for a chance to win one of three Lisa Jackson books, including her brand new not even released yet (until tomorrow) hardcover MALICE.

And if by chance you missed it, stop by and check out my latest (and probably last unless I get a bug) new Website that launched on Friday.

J.A. Konrath wants to know. I can tell you (him) right now that for me it’s PET SEMATARY. I know exactly where I was when reading it, and exactly how creeped out I was getting to the end. Under the name Jack Kilborn, J.A. has written a horror novel AFRAID, and is offering up copies to three readers who answer his question.

What’s the scariest book you’ve ever read?

The US government spends billions of dollars training soldiers to kill. Now they’re attempting an alternative approach. Instead of turning soldiers into killers, the military has trained five psychopathic murderers to be part of a classified Special Forces unit.

Codename: Red-Ops

They are the most fearsome weapon ever created, meant to be dropped behind enemy lines. Their goals: Isolate. Terrorize. Annihilate. Five Hannibal Lectors with Rambo training. But something horrible has happened…

Welcome to Safe Haven, Population 907

A tiny community of families, retirees, and artists, nestled between Big Lake and Little Lake MacDonald in the northwoods. One road in, one road out, thirty miles away from everything. A town so small and peaceful they don’t even have a full time police force.

Hell has come to Safe Haven

On their way to a mission, the Red Ops helicopter has crashed just outside of town. The team is now roaming free in the wilderness, heading for the nearest lights. Heading there to do what they do best.

Soon the phone lines are cut, the cell phones jammed, and the road blocked. Safe Haven’s only chance for survival rests on the shoulders of an aging county Sheriff. And as the body count rises, he’s quickly realizing something terrifying—maybe the Red Ops haven’t come to his small town by accident…

Safe Haven, Wisconsin. Population 907. . . 906. . . 905. . .

Are you afraid of the dark? You should be. You will be.

I remember when Joe was talking on his blog about his concept for this book and I pre-ordered it from Amazon.UK as soon as it was available. It’s now available in the US. To read the first section for free, visit www.JackKilborn.com. If this sounds like something you’d like to read, comment here with your answer to Joe’s question by Tuesday, March 31, 2008, 8:00 p.m. CDT.

In case you haven’t noticed, I haven’t been here much lately. For awhile, I was busy writing – then revising – ONE GOOD MAN, then with that done, and no more books contracted at present, I decided to do things that didn’t involve the computer. Like cleaning. And reading. And leaving the house. And playing. And sleeping. I’ve done some writing, too, but that I’ve done by hand on or on my Alphasmart, and since the writing is for me rather than to a deadline, it’s more like play. I need 5K words to finish up a short project to send my agent, but I’ve been working on a big project instead, one that’s making me think, so I go back and forth. I’ve also been taking a class online, not participating a lot but soaking up the brilliance that’s given me a lot to think about. Writing stuff, but not craft, more like a class on me, nurturing the author.

It’s funny, but all my life I wanted to be a SAHM. I was lucky that I didn’t have to work until my oldest two were in grade school; at the time, I lived in the same city as my parents, and only a few blocks away, so my youngest stayed with her grandparents for a year until we moved. When I was a kid, my mom was home, not going to work until my younger sister was in school, and then working only part time. My kids did have their dad at home with them a lot of the time, but they also did a lot of latch-keying. And about half of the last twelve years of being married to @cuppacafe (the husband’s Twitter name), he’s worked from home. So this is the first time in my life I’ve been the only one in the house during the day, and I’m here with no deadline pressing down on me. I’ve gotta say it’s nice, though I do get bored. I’m still doing some web work, and then I’ve got a dozen years worth of spring cleaning and organizing I’ve begun tackling, slowly, VERY slowly, since #1 daughter moved home and made me.

#1’s cat has usurped Snickers’ nap basket. It’s not such a tragedy since Snickers wasn’t using it much, having gotten too big. (We tell her she’s a big girl, now that she’s 3.) The two of them aren’t quite friends, but they do both sleep with #1 at night, and they pass in the hallway without any fur flying. Jazzy has this thing about sitting and drinking out of Snickers’ water bowl for like five minutes at a time. I’m thinking it’s more of a power play than her being that thirsty. But dang is that a loud cat for being as small as she is. She’ll suddenly realize no one is paying her any attention and caterwaul. I call her an alarm cat, because she’s usually the one to wake me in the mornings. Of course, if our goldfish could talk, they’d be the ones waking me. I’ll be in the living room watching TV and hear a loud gulp and splash as water hits the floor.

That’s about all that’s been happening here. I’m finishing a new website to launch today, then doing some updates for another client, then doing a small one page site and updates for a third client. I’ll be all caught up then, and I guess there’ll be no more excuse for not writing! Oh, I found this at Amazon yesterday and had to share. Love seeing upcoming books listed for sale and the hard work paying off!

If you are an author, come talk to me at GenReality and tell me how you got started. You might win something.

I stole this from the husband’s blog because it was just too hilarious.

The winners of Robert Gregory Browne’s WHISPER IN THE DARK are: Cheryl Kellery @ comment 34 and Christina Brunetti @ comment 48. You guys send me your mailing addresses and I’ll pass them along to Rob! Thanks for playing, and thanks to Rob for the freebies! And you still have a chance to win a copy of my May Brava release, NO LIMITS, at Access Romance. That one ends Sunday night, so don’t delay! *g*

Today at Access Romance, I’m blogging about the reasons I don’t reread books, and giving away a copy of NO LIMITS! My author copies showed up a couple of days ago, so I figured it was time! Just comment to be eligible to win, though you can guess the answer to the question I asked if you want!

THE SOULS OF THE DEAD

Naked. Incoherent. Covered with blood. That’s how Detective Frank Blackburn finds her—a beautiful Jane Doe brandishing a pair of scissors near the scene of a brutal murder. Is she the perpetrator? Or is she the only eyewitness to the handiwork of Vincent Van Gogh, a twisted serial killer with an “artistic” bent?

THE SINS OF THE LIVING

To find out, Blackburn takes her to renowned psychiatrist Dr. Michael Tolan. But Tolan has problems of his own. One year ago today, his beloved wife Abby was savagely slaughtered by the very same serial killer. And when Jane Doe starts saying things that only Abby could know… about long-buried secrets…about the night of Abby’s death…Tolan finds himself headed for a confrontation with his past that could well lead to a breakdown. And it’s up to Frank Blackburn to find the connection between Jane, Tolan…and Vincent—before the killer strikes again.

I follow Rob Gregory Browne on Twitter, and when he tweeted the other day about wanting to give away some books, I was like, whoa, my readers LOVE books, and since I read Rob’s KISS HER GOODBYE, I jumped at the chance to get his work into the hands of a couple of you. Good good stuff, Rob writes.

He’s offered up two copies of WHISPER IN THE DARK for me to give away here. To tease you a bit, you can read a .pdf excerpt here, and you can listen to an excerpt here. To be eligible, you must post to the comments here by Friday, March 20, 2008, 8:00 p.m.ish CDT and you must tell me what you did to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day. Corned beef? Green beer? Parades? Anything?

Here’s what it’s like living with a writer.