Guest Post: Author Deborah Cooke & Giveaway!!

The next generation of shape-shifting dragons from the popular author of the Dragonfire novels.

Zoë Sorensson is perfectly normal, except she's been told she's destined for great things. Zoë's the one female dragon shapeshifter of her kind. But Zoë is at the bottom of the class when it comes to being Pyr and her powers are AWOL, so she's sent to a Pyr boot camp.

Zoë quickly realizes that she has to master her powers yesterday, because the Pyr are in danger and boot camp is a trap. The Mages want to eliminate all shifters and the Pyr are next in line-unless Zoë and her friends can work together and save their own kind.
Catching Up With Zoë and the Dragon Shifters
By Deborah Cooke


Katelyn very kindly invited me to visit her blog again and let you all know what I’m up to. It’s been very busy on my end of things, and not just with writing.

One of the big challenges (and opportunities) available to authors in recent years is that of self-publishing digital editions of books. Many authors have been publishing new content (more about mine below), but I’ve also been lucky enough to have had the rights to many of my back list books revert to me. These are books that were printed by publishers in the past. Many of these titles had never been available in digital editions, so there was an opportunity to find new readers by making them available again. The majority of these books were historical romances published under my pseudonym Claire Delacroix, but there were also eight books published under a short-lived pseudonym, Claire Cross. It seems hard to believe but even ten years ago, we worked on paper, and
with software programs that are no longer supported. Even when I had the book files in digital format, I had only the version that I had delivered to the publisher, not the final edited version, on my hard drive. Those books had to be re-edited and reformatted (if not retyped). It was a lot of fun to have new covers made for those books and get those new editions out in the world—this project included The Bride Quest II, The Rogues of Ravensmuir, The Jewels of Kinfairlie, The Prometheus Project, four time travel romances which are now Claire Delacroix titles, four contemporary romances that are now Deborah Cooke books, and a couple of short stories that had appeared in anthologies. Then we did some digital boxed sets so that readers could catch up for a better price. Phew! :-)

The second thing that I’ve been doing, and this is more recent, is amalgamating my websites and blog in one location. Everything is now at deborahcooke.com—once the links in the backs of my digital books are updated to point to the new book pages and my old blog posts make the transition to the new site, delacroix.net will point to that location too. It’s going to be easier for everyone to have all the books in one place, plus the site matches the new reader newsletter I launched at the end of last year.

I have also managed to publish some new titles in the midst of this endeavor. My medieval romance series The Jewels of Kinfairlie introduced a family of eight siblings, but only three of them had their stories told in that trilogy. Readers have (understandably) wanted to know the rest of the stories, so I’ve introduced a new linked series called The True Love Brides. The first two books in that series—The Renegade’s Heart and The Highlander’s Curse—are both available now, and the next two will be published in 2014. (I’ll be able to spend more time writing now that the back list titles are in good shape.) I’ve also continued the Dragonfire series of paranormal romances: in 2013, I published three linked novellas which follow the adventures of the Dragon’s Tooth Warriors and are time travel romances. Kiss of Danger, Kiss of Darkness and Kiss of Destiny are available individually in digital editions, or together in the DragonLegion Collection in digital or print. The Dragon Legion Collection is Dragonfire #9. In 2014, I’ll publish Thorolf’s story and then Sloane’s story, which will complete this particular Dragonfire cycle. Finally, I’m publishing a new fourth book in my Prometheus Project of urban fantasy romance featuring fallen angel heroes, called Abyss. This gives the continuing character Tupperman his happily-ever-after.

What comes after that? I’m always thinking five years out, and that never changes. I have ideas for a new shorter cycle of Dragonfire (a trilogy) as well as a new medieval romance series of four linked stories. I’m also sketching out an open-ended contemporary romance series of linked books with continuing characters. And then there are the young Pyr...

I first met Katelyn because of the DragonDiaries trilogy, which was a paranormal YA spin-off from Dragonfire: in that series, we watched Zoë’s coming of age as the new Wyvern of the Pyr. She and her friends were all dragon shape shifters, learning to manage their powers. I became a YA author not so much as a deliberate marketing choice as by a decision to follow the story: I wanted to see Zoë master the challenges before her, and since she was sixteen, her story was a YA. When her trilogy was complete, I knew there was more to tell. My idea was that Zoë, Garrett, Liam and Nick would have new roles to play in the world of shifters working in alliance—and there certainly would be challenges. Since the key to those conflicts would lie in their respective firestorms, their stories would have to be romances, like Dragonfire: I wanted to write the stories but was missing a piece of the puzzle. While I’ve been busily managing my back list, a wonderful thing has happened in the book market: since the completion of Dragon Diaries, an entirely new genre has emerged called New Adult. There’s the missing puzzle piece: we could rejoin the team of new Pyr in their twenties in a New Adult spinoff series, which is what I’m starting to think about now. I know that many of you want to see Nick and Isabelle finally work things out, and so do I. :-)

That’s what I’m up to these days. A long list of projects to complete and a lot of exciting stories to tell. Too bad there are only twenty-four hours in a day!

Thanks so much for inviting me to visit, Katelyn!

About the Author:

 

Bestselling and award-winning author Deborah Cooke has published over fifty novels and novellas, including historical romances, fantasy romances, fantasy novels with romantic elements, paranormal romances, contemporary romances, urban fantasy romances, time travel romances and paranormal young adult novels. She writes as herself, Deborah Cooke, as Claire Delacroix, and has written as Claire Cross. She is nationally bestselling, as well as a USA Today and New York Times’ bestselling author. Her Claire Delacroix medieval romance, The Beauty, was her first book to land on the New York Times List of Bestselling Books.

Deborah was the writer-in-residence at the Toronto Public Library in 2009, the first time TPL hosted a residency focused on the romance genre, and she was honored to receive the Romance Writers of America PRO Mentor of the Year Award in 2012.

And now for the giveaway details!!!

Deborah was kind enough to not only stop by the blog with this posting but also to offer up a signed trade paperback edition of The Dragon Legion Collection to one lucky winner! 

This contest will be open to residents of the U.S., Canada & the United Kingdom.

Take a look at the rafflecopter giveaway below and enter for your chance to be our lucky winner!

Thanks so much again Deborah for stopping by and to all your readers out there....good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway