SHINDIG WINNERS

THANKS FOR COMING TO OUR SHINDIG

We hope you enjoyed the evening chat with the 12 SHADES authors

Darlings!

Here’s the enormous list of our winners from our shindig! Phew, y’all, we're still hungover. LOL!

***IMPORTANT STUFFS—please read carefully***

1. You have 48 hours to claim your prize!  See the FB event for email/contact information. Or email 12ShadesOfMidnight @ gmail.com (no spaces)
2. All easy peasy winners are for a copy of Twelve Shades of Midnight!
3. If your name is on the winners list, contact the author email listed and when contacting them, please title your email with the subject header “12 SHADES SHINDIG” so it won’t be missed!
4. Thank you ALL for such an amazing party—you were the shizblat rolled in fantabulous, with some amazeballs sauce on top!

Congrats to everyone!

~Dakota & Robyn

#1 Ann Voss Peterson 
Six winners, digital copy of Pushed too Far 

1. LaVida Brisco
2. Jennifer Zabel
3. Shirley Williamson
4. Jennifer Santiago
5. Sheila Raper
6. Maria Grover
#2 Ann Voss Peterson Easy Peasy

Lacy Cosme

#3 Angi Morgan 
One autographed copy of The Sheriff 
1. Nicki Dwyer Mooring
#4 Angi Morgan Easy Peasy

Tamran Sullivan Thigpun

#5 Rachel Grant

One autographed copy of Midnight Sun 
1. Susan O’Sick Cambra

Four digital copies of Hometown Heroes
1. Jennifer Coffman Love
2. Sharon Chu Salyer
3. Brigette Thoroughman
4. Shelly Hoyer Rogers
#6 Rachel Grant Easy-Peasy

Mercedes M Prizmonte

#7 Robin Perini

One autographed copy of Game of Fear
1.Ruth Stewart

Two digital copies of Game of Fear
1. Emily Christensen
2. Leila Kytta

Two digital copies of Secret Obsession
1. Maryann Abbott
2. Kristal Hubbard

One autographed Copy of Christmas Justice
1. Anne Marie Keesler
# 8 Robin Perini Easy Peasy

Kimberly DeSha Crowder

#9 Robyn Peterman 
Three HOH FDDU tote
1. Tiffany Aranki Long
2. L.A. Williams
3. Mandi Detwiler Shultz

#10 Robyn Peterman Easy peasy
Alicia Kerner

#11 Claire Cavanaugh 
Five $20.00 Amazon gift cards

1. JoAn Varner
2. Donna M Peterson
3. Renee Sass
4. Tina Hargis
5. Carol Cobun
#12 Claire Cavanaugh Easy Peasy

Angie Parish

#13 Shea Berkley

Two $10.00 digital gift certificates
1.Leigh Cramer-Espinosa
2. Heather Eades
#14 Shea Berkley easy-peasy

Laura Van Guilder

#15 Jenn Stark 
Five digital copies of Getting Wilde with a Tarot reading

1. Candi Fox
2. Pam Biddlecome
3. Stephanie Puterbaugh
4. Karen Henderson
5. Josette Reuel
#16 Jenn Stark easy peasy

Elizabeth Robbins

#17 Darynda Jones 
Five winner's choice of a Darynda Jones' digital book 

1. Stephanie Fredrick
2. Jane Bassett-Nelson
3. Pam Roberts
4. Sue Sattler
5. Mary Davis
#18 DARYNDA Easy Peasy

Jasmin Christensen

#19 Trish McCallan
Three digital copies of both Forged in Ash and Forged in Fire with a T-shirt 

1. Karen Burner Michul
2. Nicole Nikki Swopes
3. Sabrina Joy
#20 Trish McCallan Easy Peasy

Marie Brown (will work on a trade)

#21 Dakota Cassidy

One $20.00 Amazon gift certificate
1. Donna Pyke
One digital copy of An American Werewolf in Hoboken
1. Kimberly Perry
One digital bunndle: Fangs of Anarchy-Forbidden Alpha 
1. Krystle Watts
#22 Dakota Cassidy Easy-Peasy

Brandy DM LovesBooks

#23 Liliana Hart 
One Kindle Paperwhite

1. Kimberly Violette Monnelly
#24 Liliana Hart Easy-peasy

April Prentice

EARLY-EARLY BIRD EASY-PEASY CONTEST
One $5.00 Amazon gift certificate
1. Amy Frye

EARLY-EARLY BIRD: Tag a friend
One $5.00 Amazon gift certificate for each of you
1. Jeanette Frizzle 
2. and your buddy Sharon Rowlands

IT’S ALL ABOUT THE WITCHES

Robyn & Dakota are still having fun at the 12 Shades Shindig-o-rama. There’s still time to get in on the prizes.

Dakota: My witch Winnie’s inspiration came from a combination of two things—every crazy Hollywood trope you can think of for a witch (magic wands, levitation, a snap of a finger), and a whole lotta crazy J

* 12 SHADES OF MIDNIGHT  * 12 authors *

* 12 unforgettable, never-before-released stories *

The stroke of midnight ushers in many things. From hijinks and mischief to danger and evil, romance is the magic that binds these paranormal novellas together. Join 12 bestselling and award winning authors as they explore the different shades of midnight in exclusive, never-before-released stories.

Facebook | Amazon | iBooks | Kobo | Barnes & Noble

Liliana Hart - THE WITCH NEXT DOOR

Darynda Jones - A LOVELY DROP

Shea Berkley - DARK SECRETS: STONE COLD DEAD

Dakota Cassidy - WITCHED AT BIRTH

Claire Cavanaugh - MIDNIGHT RENEGADE

Rachel Grant - MIDNIGHT SUN

Trish McCallan— SPIRIT WOODS

Angi Morgan - BODYGUARDS IN HEELS: HIT & RUN HALLIE

Robin Perini - NIGHT OF THE JAGUAR

Robyn Peterman -SWITCHING HOUR

Ann Voss Peterson - THE SCHOOL

Jenn Stark - GETTING WILDE

~ ~ ~

ABOUT Robyn Peterman’s WITCHING HOUR

Released from the pokey and paroled with limited magic is enough to make any witch grumpy. However, if you throw in a recently resurrected cat, a lime green Kia and a sexy egotistical werewolf, it’s enough to make a gal fly off the edge.

Not to mention a mission…with no directions.

So here I sit in Asscrack, West Virginia trying to figure out how to complete my mysterious mission before Halloween or get turned into a mortal.

The animals in the area are convinced I’m the Shifter Whisperer (whatever the hell that is) and the hotter-then-Satan’s-underpants werewolf thinks I’m his mate.

My biggest challenge up until now was wondering if I could get away with last season’s Prada purse and shoes…Now apparently I was slated to save my people?

Deny, deny, deny. That was my new motto. Falling for the sexiest werewolf alive? Nope. Starting to care about the fur balls who needed my help? Nope. Wondering if there was more to life than next year’s Fashion Week? Nope. Nope. Nope.

Sadly no one seems to believe me.

If they think I’m the right witch, they’ve swallowed some bad brew.

CHECK OUT THE BEGINNING:

   “If you say or do anything that sends our asses back to the magic pokey, I will zap you bald and give you a cold sore that makes you look like you were born with three lips.”

I tried to snatch the scissors from my best friend’s hand, but I might as well have been trying to catch a greased cat.

   “Look at my hair,” she hissed, holding up her bangs. “They’re touching my nose—my fucking nose, Zelda. I can’t be seen like this when we get out. I swear I’ll just do it a little.”

   “Winnifred, you have never done anything just a little. What happened the last time you cut your own bangs?”

   She winced and mumbled her shame into her collarbone. “That was years ago. They rebuilt the building and no one was killed.”

   “Fine,” I snapped. “Cut your bangs, but don’t come crying to me when you look like the dude from Dumb and Dumber.”

   “You know what?” she shouted, brandishing the shears entirely too close to my head for comfort, “we’re here because of you, asshead.”

   That stopped me dead in my pursuit of saving her from herself. What the hell did I care? Let her cut her bangs up to her hairline and suffer the humiliation of looking five.   Maybe I wasn’t completely innocent here, but I bore far less of the blame than she did.

   “No. We’re in here because of you, Winnifred.”

  She rolled her eyes. “No. It was definitely you, Zelda.”

  “You.”

   “Nope—you.”

   Winnie’s selective memory was messing with my need to protect my ass. “Oh my Goddess,” I yelled. “I didn’t sleep with Baba Yaga’s precious nephew—you did.”

ABOUT Dakota Cassidy’s WITCHED AT BIRTH

Freshly sprung from witch jail, Winnie Foster just has to fulfill the conditions of her parole and she's home free. Too bad that parole takes place in Paris. (Texas!) Where she'll work at a school for the magically inclined. (KIDS!) And be forced to endure the ex who's one of the very reasons she landed in the pokey to begin with. (GAH!!) Bratty tots, sexy ex, timed showers, creepy dolls, magic restrictions and a GPS with an attitude, all wrapped in a Texas town hotter than the surface of the sun? Oh yeah. No way this could go wrong.

CHECK OUT THE BEGINNING:

    “I’m warning you, Winnifred Foster. If you say or do anything today that sends our asses back to the pokey, I’ll zap you bald and give you a cold sore that makes you look like you have three lips,” her best friend Zelda groused as she futilely tried to snatch a pair of scissors from Winnie’s hand to prevent her from giving herself bangs.

   Winnie hopped on the sagging mattress of her cot, looking down at her partner in crimes of abusive witch magic and current cellmate in witch jail with an accusatory glance.

   She held the scissors up in the air. “I’m sorry, me? As in moi? If I say anything? Er, wasn’t it you who told Baba Blah-Blah she was wearing the wrong color leg warmers for that wart on her nose? Or was I just imagining things?”

   Zelda swiped for the scissors again. “It’s Baba Yaga,” she corrected, reminding Winnie she’d purposely twisted their jailor’s name out of spite, and it was one of the reasons they were in magic jail to begin with. “You’d better get that right at Council so we appear respectful.”

   “Call her whatever you like, Z, but you insulted her, not me. I love you, and while I totally agreed with your fashion assessment, and she did look hideous, I bet pointing out Baba DooDah’s flaws aren’t going to win us favor at Council today. She’s an elephant, my friend. She remembers everything.”

   She hopped back off the cot when Zelda stopped trying to make a grab for the scissors.   She was worried. They were up for review for parole today and she didn’t want anything screwing that up. She wanted out of this rank-smelling cell with its gray concrete walls and equally gray sheets.

   She wanted to go to parties and laugh and drink champagne like they used to.

   Drown herself in luxury and forget Ben…

   Their cell was barren of any modern conveniences, especially those they could perform magic with—like mirrors. Locked up in Salem, Massachusetts, like serial killers in an old hotel built in the early 1900s that had been converted to a jail for witches.

CHECK OUT THE ANTHOLOGY TRAILER

~ ~ ~

Robyn Peterman writes because the people inside her head won’t leave her alone until she gives them life on paper. Her addictions include laughing really hard with friends, shoes (the expensive kind), Target, Coke Zero Cherry with extra ice in a styrofoam cup, bejeweled reading glasses, her kids, her super-hot hubby and collecting stray animals. A former professional actress, with Broadway, film and T.V. credits, she now lives in the south with her family and too many animals to count. Writing gives her peace and makes her whole, plus having a job where you can work in your underpants works really well for her. You can leave Robyn a message via the Contact Page and she’ll get back to you as soon as her bizarre life permits! She loves to hear from her fans!

Contact   Website  Facebook   Twitter   @robynpeterman  Pintrest   Backlist 

Dakota Cassidy lives for a good laugh in life and in her writing. In fact, she almost loves a good giggle as much as she loves hair products and that's saying something.

Her goals in life are simple, (like really simple): banish the color yellow forever, create world peace via hot rollers and Aqua Net; and finally, nab every tiara in the land by competing in the Miss USA, Miss Universe, and Miss World pageants, then sweeping them in a stunning trifecta of much duct tape and Vaseline usage, all in just under one week. Oh, and write really fun books!

Dakota lives in Oregon with her dogs  and has a husband who puts the heroes in her books to shame.

Contact          Website         Facebook       Twitter  @DakotaCassidy  Backlist

~ ~ ~

Don’t forget to enter the Midnight  week-long Rafflecopter giveaway where the grand prize is a $100 gift card.

Who’s your favorite witch? Real or fictional… Leave your comment for a chance to enter.

The 12 SHADES SHINDIG-O-RAMA

We're throwing a Shindig

&

YOU

get all the party favors!

Just stop by our Facebook Event Page: http://bit.ly/12ShadesShindig 

Leave lots of comments.

And be eligible for lots and lots of giveaways.

Party is open for 24 hours. Winners announced 10-31.

Here's the schedule in central time:

5:00 Ann Voss Peterson
5:30 Angi Morgan
6:00 Rachel Grant
6:30 Robin Perini
7:00 Robyn Peterman
7:30 Claire Cavanaugh
8:00 Shea Berkley
8:30 Jenn Stark
9:00 Darynda Jones
9:30 Trish McCallan
10:00 Dakota Cassidy
10:30 Lilianna Hart

When Life Mimics the Movies

TRISH: I’ve been a fan of scary movies all my life. Stasher movies or horror stories based on torture and violence aren’t my favorite; they have no residual effect on me. I can watch one and still sleep like a baby, not a nightmare to be found.  For me, the movies that have a lasting effect, and invade my sleep are storylines that are more intellectually spooky, or plots that mirror something that happened to me in real life.

The new movie Ouija is a perfect example of a movie that’s likely to haunt me long after the credits roll. Back when I was a kid I had a seriously spooky encounter with an Ouija board. My brother had found an old Ouija board in my grandmother’s storage shed when we were visiting over Christmas, and we (my brother and sister and I) decided to give it a whirl. The board was missing the piece you were supposed to rest your fingers on, so we used a crystal that my grandmother had given my sister for Christmas. I don’t remember what questions we ask. What I do remember, vividly, is when the crystal started moving on its own. We didn’t even have our hands on it, and the board was flat on the table, and the crystal just started sliding from letter to letter. It spelled out HEL—before we freaked and fled upstairs. 

Flash forward to the movie the Mothman Prophecies—this movie gave me chills and nightmares for days, partly because it was based on a true story and partly because it tapped into my subconscious fear that there are malevolent supernatural entities in this world that exist to torment us. Again, my reaction to this movie was based on something that had happened a year or so earlier.  I used to work swing shift at this mini-mart. We were the last stop before tourists left town to climb the canyon to Stevens Pass.  During a shift in early December a young family came into the store—a man, a woman and their young daughter. The woman bought a pack of cigarettes and the price came to $6.66. Quite often when the price on their items came to $6.66 the customer would laugh and say they didn’t want the bad luck and they’d throw something else on the counter to bring the price up.

The woman in this case tossed a pack of gum down. But the husband grabbed the gum and put it away, saying he didn’t believe in such silly superstition. He paid the $6.66 and they left the store. About an hour later a bunch of ambulances went screaming up the canyon. In the paper the next day there was an article about the family. Apparently the husband had lost control of their car on a patch of ice and the car spun into the opposite lane where it was stuck by oncoming traffic. The wife and daughter were killed instantly, but the husband escaped without a scratch. It was such an eerie, creepy thing to happen. There he’d been an hour earlier making fun of his wife’s superstition and then in the blink of an eye he’d lost his entire family. It felt like the accident had been some malicious prank designed to teach him a lesson.

Wishing you all a very spooky and fun-filled Halloween!  

DARYNDA: I kind of like all scary monsters and all scary movies. LOL. I love zombies and vampires and werewolves and slasher movies. Pretty much anything works for me. I really was scared of Nightmare on Elm Street. And for a lighter flavor…loved Hocus Pocus.  

Here’s a little teaser from A LOVELY DROP

The female detective watched my every move with purpose. Studying. Assessing. While Murphy watched my every move with something other than the most noble of intentions. There was both hunger and disgust when he leaned in to me, which did not speak well of his marriage. I wasn’t psychic or anything, just a wicked-good observer. I had trust issues.

“Well?” he questioned with a raised brow. “You gonna show us your dog and pony?”

“Back off,” a male voice said from behind me.

We all turned as the man with issues and a duster walked in followed by the older gentleman he’d been conversing with on the lawn, the one who looked like he ate nails for breakfast.

“We’ll take it from here,” he said.

Murphy shrugged, clearly not giving a fuck. “As you wish, Special Agent Strand.” He backed away and swept his arm in a gallant gesture of surrender. Then he smirked again, waiting for the show to begin.

Good luck with that.

The duster, or Special Agent Strand of probably some obscure branch of Homeland Security nobody’d ever heard of, ignored him and turned toward me, stepping so close I had to crane my neck to look up at him. His sculpted mouth, the most revealing of all tells, remained impassive, making him unreadable. He took his time absorbing my features while his gave nothing away. After a long and quite unnerving stare-down, he began.

“September, 2010. Two murders in the girls’ dormitory at Purdue. No suspects.” 

My attention snapped into place so fast, it cracked audibly in my ears.

“August, 2011,” he continued. “Elderly man run down in Chicago with his grandson. No suspects.”

My gaze didn’t stray a hairsbreadth from the cerulean depths of his. The world around us faded away.

“November, 2011. Seven-year-old girl vanishes from an elementary school in Wheaton. No suspects.”

I didn’t blink.

“February, 2012. Woman found beaten and barely alive, dumped outside of a Des Moines emergency room. No suspects.”

I didn’t breathe.

“March, 2013. Teller killed in bank robbery in Grand Rapids. December, 2013. Arsonist sets fire to half of Milwaukee. March, 2014. Con man steals the life’s savings of every single resident at the Sunny Hills Retirement Home in Indianapolis.” He stepped closer, staring down at me until we were practically nose-to-nose. “Those and a dozen others. All with no suspects.”

I stood in shock that someone had put it together so thoroughly. My mind raced for an answer of how. What did I do wrong?

“Shall I continue?” he asked, his voice as smooth as bourbon.

I swallowed audibly but stood my ground.

He offered me a quick nod of acknowledgement, as though accepting my silence as his cue to continue. “All of those crimes had no suspects. Zero. Yet all were solved through a series of tips from either anonymously-delivered phone calls or letters that contained names, addresses, and even drawings of the person or persons the informant IDed as the perps. All letters dropped at the corresponding police stations by a woman who kept her face hidden from cameras. Not a single clear shot of her in the bunch.”

His face softened as his gaze slid to a lock of hair that had stubbornly refused to stay put behind my ear. “But in one, the woman was delivering a letter during a storm and one lock of curly red hair fell out from under her cap.”

My lids drifted shut in disbelief. One lock of my ridiculous hair gave me away. Then again, how much could they get off of one lock of hair? I lifted my lashes and stood in silence, afraid to say anything that might incriminate me.

“No comment?”

After a long moment in which my fight or flight response warred with the logistics of the situation—How far could I get, really?—I forced myself to calm and think about this rationally. I didn’t do anything illegal. What could they charge me with? Aiding and abetting an investigation?

Collaboration. Of course. There were sicko serial killers who collaborated all the time. Terrorists were notorious for having an entire cell of like-minded individuals.

I lifted my chin with a new determination. “I asked for a lawyer three days ago.”

“I asked for a pony when I was seven. Clearly, we’ve both been disappointed. What do you need to make this work?”

~ ~ ~

AVAILABLE TODAY !

* 12 SHADES OF MIDNIGHT  * 12 authors *

* 12 unforgettable, never-before-released stories *

The stroke of midnight ushers in many things. From hijinks and mischief to danger and evil, romance is the magic that binds these paranormal novellas together. Join 12 bestselling and award winning authors as they explore the different shades of midnight in exclusive, never-before-released stories.

Facebook | Amazon | iBooks | Kobo | Barnes & Noble

SPIRIT WOODS

When an old flame brings a stray golden retriever into Kaylea’s clinic she’s stunned by the dog’s resemblance to Max, her childhood companion. But when the golden recognizes her and knows all the tricks she’d taught Max, a chilling question arises—if this dog really is the beloved family pet she’d buried beneath Spirit Woods’ canopy seventeen years earlier, what else might be making its way home from the grave?

Facebook    Twitter    Website

A LOVELY DROP

A woman who claims she can drop back in time to solve crimes meets a special agent who believes her. Now, the one thing she’s been able to manipulate her whole life is the one thing she needs more of, as she races against time with a special agent hell-bent on saving the world. 

Facebook    Twitter    Website    Backlist

~ ~ ~

Enter the 12 Shades week-long RAFFLECOPTER drawing. Lots of ways to enter. Lots to give away. 

So what about the rest of you? What kind of movies scare the bejesus out of your? Or have you ever had a creepy, real life event that’s stuck around and haunted you?

Celebrating Halloween Traditions

Rachel: First I want to thank Maureen and everyone at Just Romantic Suspense for letting us take over JRS this week, I’m super excited to be here to talk about my first foray into paranormal romantic suspense! I’m also thrilled to be here with Jenn Stark, who is three of my favorite people in the world (you may also know her as Jenn McGowan and Jennifer Chance) and talking about one of my favorite holidays: Halloween.

When I was growing up, Halloween wasn’t just about the costumes, trick-or-treating, and jack-o’-lanterns, it was also about the most important day of the year, which happened two days later—some call it All Souls’ Day, in Mexico it is El Día de los Muertos, but in the Grant household, it is known as my birthday.

Having your birthday fall on the third day of the triduum of Allhallowtide is about the coolest thing, ever, because it means the party starts with costumes and candy on October 31^st and doesn’t end until about 60 hours later, when it’s capped off with cake and presents. 

But naturally, sharing my birthday with the Day of the Dead led to an interest in the traditions around the holiday… an interest shared by Jenn as well!

Jenn: Thanks as well to Maureen and the whole JRS team—it’s great to be joining you! For me, Halloween is a fabulous mix of past and present celebrations. I love the story of “soul cakes”, popularized in Tudor and Elizabethan England, which were small currant-crossed, white-frosted pastries sold on All Hallows Eve. These little cakes were not only delicious… they could free a soul from Purgatory if consumed before midnight. What kind of awesome sales pitch is THAT?

Also, I’m a huge fan of an even older superstition, which holds that the veil between the worlds thins dramatically on the feast of Samhain, such that the spirit world can mix with the realm of the living. So all those amazingly ghoulish costumes you see? Just good folk trying to confuse (or imitate) the spirits! This acceptance of magic as part of our world fits well with my Twelve Shades anthology novella, Getting Wilde. My heroine hunts down magical artifacts with the use of Tarot cards—and encounters more than she bargains for while pursuing her newest job. The festival of Samhain would be right up her alley!

A relatively new Samhain tradition that I’ve adopted is to create a costume that represents the person you most want to become in the coming year, so you literally “dress the part” of your future self. Since I want nothing more than to be a successful, full-time author, my costume is pretty easy: tank top, pajama bottoms, slippers… and bags of mon-eh. J

But while my tradition focuses on how life goes on, Rachel can take us back to remembering lives that have ended: or The Day of the Dead celebration!

Rachel: The Day of the Dead celebration is intended to encourage the souls of departed relatives to visit and hear the praises and prayers of the living who are celebrating them. Families visit cemeteries and often decorate graves with Mexican marigolds; some families create altars in their home, which they fill with favorite foods and beverages as well as photos and keepsakes. Stories told about the deceased can be funny, and my understanding is the Day of the Dead can be quite joyous.

I’m particularly intrigued by this idea of reaching out to a departed soul with offerings, as the reverse is true in my novella in the Twelve Shades anthology. In Midnight Sun, a departed soul in an ancient Iñupiat shaman’s mask needs to reach out to the living, and unfortunately, when information needs to flow the other way, it’s not always joyous for the living or the dead…

~ ~ ~

* 12 SHADES OF MIDNIGHT  * 12 authors *

* 12 unforgettable, never-before-released stories *

The stroke of midnight ushers in many things. From hijinks and mischief to danger and evil, romance is the magic that binds these paranormal novellas together. Join 12 bestselling and award winning authors as they explore the different shades of midnight in exclusive, never-before-released stories.

For more information on Twelve Shades of Midnight

 Facebook | Amazon | iBooks | Kobo | Barnes & Noble

Find Rachel and Jenn on the Internet

RG Website | JS Website | RG Facebook | JS Facebook

~~~

Your BLOG COMMENT also counts for the 12-Shades week-long RAFFLECOPTER drawing. Lots of ways to enter. Lots to give away. 

TO ENTER THE GIVEAWAY, share your favorite Halloween (or, as Rachel prefers to call it, triduum of Allhallowtide) tradition!