Catherine Stine's IDEA CITY

Welcome Visitors

Friday, September 7, 2018

Viviana MacKade's Fall Book Fair Hop, Sept 3-7


Viv's Fall Book Fair Hop starts September with a bang!

This amazing Fall Book Fair hop brings me back to my own blog, after a long hiatus to write (I finished two novels and a novella - phew!) and to raise and train my beagle pup to the one-year mark, where he is  more mature and independent. Say hi, Benny.

I hope you enjoy this hop, as it has a genre for just about everyone - contemporary, suspense, historical, paranormal fantasy, young adult and new adult. The link to the entire listing is here, at Viviana MacKade's blog.

Friday is YA and NA day. Heart in a Box, my YA is on Friday's list, Below is the full Friday lineup of great reads!

Victoria Adams
Contemporary romance. First book in Circles Trilogy
***

Barb Caffrey
Allen and Elaine are graduate students in Nebraska, and love each other very much. Their life should be idyllic, but Elaine's past includes rape, neglect, and abuse from those who should've loved her—but didn't, because from childhood, Elaine identified as transgender.

When Elaine tells Allen right before Christmas, he doesn't know what to do. He loves Elaine, loves her soul, has heard about transgender people before, but didn't think Elaine was one of them—she looks and acts like anyone else. Now, she wants to become a man and is going to leave.

He prays for divine intervention, and says he'll do anything, just please don't separate him from Elaine...and gets it. Now, he's in Elaine's body. And she's in his. They'll get a second chance at love.


Why? Because once you find your soulmate, the universe will do almost anything to keep you together—even change your faces.
Amazon
***
Mara Gan

Duty and prophecy get in the way of everything.

All I ever wanted to do was read my books, play my sports, and help people. Life and prophecy had other things in mind. Helping people is what I do; as an empath and semi-frequent telepath, I can easily sense and understand people's needs and emotions. Sometimes even before they do. Being able to read everyone’s thoughts and feelings all the time can drive me crazy with anxiety, but that moment when I can finally make someone’s life better makes everything worth it.

Unfortunately, I’m also the next in line to rule the galaxy, I’m the only diplomat most planets will listen to, assassins try to kill me on an annoyingly regular basis, and a much-vaunted Prophecy has decreed that I’m going to die. Oh, and someone blew up my home planet. Kind of a lot to deal with, right?

Too bad I just got another problem: a big, irritating, overbearing bodyguard with serious anger management issues. And I think I’m falling for him.
***

Julie Gardner
17-year-old Lily Anderson is ready to wrap herself in a big red bow and give Zach Hewitt the greatest gift in the history of Christmas: Her. But when she pulls a pair of booties from her stocking and learns her forty-year-old mother is pregnant, Lily finds herself adrift, unsure of Zach’s commitment.

Lily hopes Zach will anchor her with promises of love. Unfortunately, his chaotic home-life makes him afraid of those three little words; and Maddie Franklin-in her Amazing Technicolor Dream Thong–makes sure Zach can have her whenever he wants. With the help of her best friend Sarah, Lily plots to secure her place in Zach’s heart. But after a series of awkward rejections, Lily loses faith in her dream boyfriend, in herself, even in Sarah.

That’s when Lily turns to Adam Connolly, a transfer student whose lash-y eyes and comfortable silences make her question who it is she wants and what she needs. But Adam’s support can’t help her the day Lily discovers her parents’ game-changing secret. Faced with the truth, Lily must decide how to deal with her family’s past, take hold of her own future, and accept that there are many names for love. Don’t bother making wishes; what you get is more than enough. 
***
Scarlett Kol
A girl looking for a way out.
Being the daughter of New America’s leader, Mercury Masters has everything a girl could want. A glamorous life full of beautiful people, and the power to have anything she wants, except for one thing—to escape. Because Mercury’s perfect life comes with secrets to keep. Dangerous secrets that if made public would destroy her, her family, and her father’s reign. Then she meets Hawk. A boy looking to be a hero.

Hawk, a handsome prep school dropout turned vigilante, has his own family secrets. Deadly secrets that have haunted him since he was fifteen. But instead of fighting the ghosts of his past, Hawk has assembled a group of misfit hackers and thieves to save the future from the corrupt government of New America and the mysterious virus that is killing off its citizens. But trying to do the right thing is tough when the person you really want to save is your enemy’s daughter.

A love that could kill them both. 
Powerful forces keep them apart, but coming together could be the key to saving New America from destruction—even though it may cost both their lives.
***
Adam Mann

Two very short stories about a boy meeting a girl, or girls.
The first is at college, where it is not the number of girls but one very special girl who is as inexperienced as the boy. Hopefully she will take the lessons she has learned into her married life.
The second is a young man meeting a series of young ladies, but not always at work, although sometimes work related.
***
Brooke Moss
Posey Briggs has a chip on her shoulder the size of Whidbey, the island off of the Washington Coast where she’s stuck with her annoying foster family, and their band of mismatched, screw up kids. The last thing she needs while she rides out these last few months until she’s eighteen and finally free from the system, is to be saddled with some bogus tutoring assignment given by an English teacher with a God complex.

Drew Baxter has the world in the palm of his hands. Best athlete in school, coolest guy on campus, nailing the hottest girl in school whenever he wants. What more could he ask for? Except for his dad to stop making his life a terrorizing game of whose face will get pounded tonight? He’d rather do just about anything other than sitting around listening to the school loser lecture him about Shakespeare every day.

Sometimes the universe has a way of thrusting two people together, even though they’d rather drink poison than sit across a library table from one another. And in this case, the universe knew something Drew and Posey never saw coming: they would become the single most important person in each other’s lives, and save each other from completely unraveling.

Will the explosion, save them or destroy them?
***
Connie Smith
Lila and Austin have known each other since she befriended his younger brother when she was a toddler. In fact, since her parents moved from her hometown, Lila's lived with Austin's family. The two are friends, though more of the teasing, taunting breed than the BFF variety.
But all it takes is one moment for everything to change...
For Austin, that moment comes when Lila performs a rumba in the school's auditorium to qualify for the state dance competition, the young woman on stage so far-removed from the little girl in his memories.
For Lila, the moment is a reflected image of Austin preparing for prom, the guy standing in front of his mirror hardly resembling the child that spent so much of his youth pestering her.
Will they find a way to admit to themselves and their families that their feelings are deeper than friendship? And can Lila focus on this building relationship – and deal with her unstable ex – and still win the dance contest?

***
Catherine Stine
Each heartbeat leads Joss closer to a shocking truth that will change everything.

Joss Olstad wins the fight to switch from her private school to a public high to “find her pieces” she lost when the artist father she never knew died. There, Joss struggles with a slutty friend, who flirts with her new love, Will; girls who press her on her embarrassing past, as well as her stoner mother’s lies back at home. Armed only with her handmade heart boxes that hold private messages, Joss’s search for identity leads her to a scary industrial section of Queens, and a shocking family secret that changes everything. This novel has been on Amazon’s top 100 in Teen and Alternative Family for over two years.
***
Lisa Voisin
A fallen angel seeking redemption. A demon seeking revenge. The teenage girl caught between them.

Mia Crawford is being hunted. When a horrible creature appears out of thin air and attacks her, she knows Michael Fontaine is involved, though he claims to know nothing about it. Secretive and aloof, Michael evokes feelings in Mia that she doesn't understand. Images of another time and place haunt her. She recognizes them--but not from this lifetime.

In search of the truth, Mia discovers a past life of forbidden love, jealousy and revenge that tore an angel from Heaven and sent her to an early grave. Now that her soul has returned, does she have a chance at loving that angel again? Or will an age-old nemesis destroy them both? Ancient history is only the beginning.

Winner of the Chanticleer Grand Prize for supernatural fiction, The Watcher is the fast-paced, achingly romantic start to The Watcher Saga, a Young Adult urban fantasy series.

***
Lee Ann Ward
No nightmares about my dad’s car crashing or my sister’s tiny face vanishing in a window of red. No, not anymore. Now when I sleep I fall into an expanse of frozen wilderness, the other life I’ve lived…

The one I’ve lived with him.

Anna experiences vivid dreams from a past-life she lived in the 1800s with her husband Robert and their children in the wilderness of the Michigan Territory. Much like her own mother grieving the man and child she lost, Anna can’t simply let go of the memories that haunt her.

But when she runs into Robert in this lifetime, a whirlwind of their past lives—and deaths—rocks her modern world to the core. What will she be willing to risk to spend every lifetime with Robert? 

In the twists and turns of “repeating” their lives over and over through time, Anna must sacrifice everything for a glimpse of immortal love.
***




Tuesday, October 24, 2017

Spirits in the Water, Elements anthology #4 is OUT! Plus Elements book #1 goes FREE.

Spirits in the Water is a new anthology of eleven magical tales by Untethered Realms, masters of fantasy & sci-fi. Take a haunted journey on a riverboat, meet water sprites borne of pennies, preternatural creatures, ancient serpents, and the Lady of the Lake who lurks in dark waters. Experience raging storms and magical rainbow fountains. Water is beautiful but treacherous. To celebrate the launch, Spirits in the Water is only 99 cents & book 1, Twisted Earths goes FREE!

Get Spirits in the Water (bk. 4): Amazon, UK, AU, CAApple, Kobo, B&N, Google Play, Smashwords

Get Twisted Earths (bk. 1) : Amazon, UK, CA, AUApple, Kobo, B&N, Google Play, Smashwords

Gwen Gardner gives us Shake, Rattle and Row. Harlow Grayson has the chance to rid herself of a pesky ghost but she must first brave a haunted riverboat and recover a family heirloom. What she finds might be more than she can handle.

Jeff Chapman offers The Water Wight. When a drowned girl changes her mind about suicide, Merliss and associates face a fearsome, preternatural creature.

M. Pax presents The Wallows. Evernee Weems wants to escape this world in the worst way. Her daughter needs everything, the rent is being raised, Evernee’s job barely pays minimum wage, and she has little hope for better. Inside a puddle is a different reality. She jumps in, happy to trade her problems for a life in which worries don’t exist. Or do they?

Angela Brown gives us Extraordinary. Puberty hits Angelique like a gut punch and brings about a change, forcing an unexpected revelation about her past. All seems well until a vicious storm tears through her Texas community, and Angelique learns there are worse things than a little change.

River Fairchild presents You Can’t Go Home Again. A young woman, filled with regret about the past, goes on a journey and discovers more than she bargained for.

Simon Kewin offers The Waters, Dividing the Land. Hyrn the horned god of the woodlands is learning the meaning of fear. Death magic blights the land, threatening everyone and everything. To save what he can from spreading corruption, he turns to the ancient river serpents, but they’ve grown old and distant and may not hear his call.

Christine Rains gives us Frozen. A necromancer is on the frozen moon of Saturn where the dead do scream.

Meradeth Houston presents The Flood. Sometimes a flooded kitchen isn’t the unluckiest thing to happen to you.

Catherine Stine offers Maizy of Bellagio. April still searches for her mother who vanished nineteen years ago from the fountain at Hotel Bellagio in Vegas. Can Maizy, a water sprite who works the fountain’s pink colors, help the three generations of eccentric women tortured by this tragedy?

M. Gerrick gives us The One Who Would Wield the Sword. Nikka is supposed to be dragon bait so a real dragon hunter can do his job, but the Lady in the Lake has other plans for her.

Cherie Reich presents The Folding Point. Aimee’s fight against those who banned paper magics has begun.

The Spirits in the Water tour with Silver Dagger Tours has started! Check the stops here. Enter the Rafflecopter with amazing prizes below:

Friday, August 11, 2017

Two great book events and WIN FREE TICKETS!



Hi dear readers, bloggers and authors! Geez, it's been a while since I've posted. But the awesome bookish community is never far from my mind. Life just had me spinning in its tornado-like grip. Even so, I am cooking up new stories - another witch book, this one set in Philadelphia in 1854, and a romantic suspense set in contemporary LA. I am also participating in some really fun literary events that I want to invite you all to. Anyone live near or in NYC? How about the UK?

WINE & SIGN, NYC, SEPT 9, 3 to 5 pm
Wine & Sign on the rooftop lounge of the Delancey Hotel is part happy hour, part meet-n-greet & part book signing. Come party with me and some very intriguing, bestselling novelists like Skye Warren, Shannon Mayer, Denise Grover Swank, Katie M John and more.
Better yet, you could win a FREE ticket (or two)!!! 
Tickets are $15 but I have FOUR FREE tickets to hand out! To win one or more, just preorder one of my books and fill out this form to let me know which one you ordered. Easy Peasy, right? Winners will be notified by email, and their names will be added to the special guest list.
For author bios and event details click here.
***
CHAPTER CON, AUG 25 & 26, UK
This conference is only 20 minutes on train or bus west of London in Twickenham, set in a university that looks like a castle! Join us in the beautiful surroundings of St. Mary’s University and Strawberry Hill house for an intimate two-day reader, author and blogger conference, including a public Saturday signing event.

Whether you are a best-selling established author, an aspiring author, a blogger, a reader, a publisher or a book seller, we would like to invite you to ChapterCon, one of the U.K’s very first conventions of its kind designed to connect, educate and inspire. Book fair tickets are only 5 British pounds. Check out all event options here. Overall conference deets here.
To reserve one of my signed books preorder here.

I’m on a panel on Friday, Aug 25 and I have a book table on Saturday, Aug 26. My panel:

HOW TO KEEP THOSE STORIES FLOWING Friday, Aug 25, 11:15 – 12 noon
Patti Larsen. Catherine Stine. Carrie Elks. Justine Winter. Mia Hodell. 
Dealing with writers block. 
Tools to help you structure stories 
Finding inspiration. 
Workspaces. 
Feeding your readership. 

Happy August! It would be wonderful to see you at one of these amazing events.
Catherine

Thursday, April 27, 2017

Witchy Storybundle limited time Deal plus RT Booklovers convention deets

Do you like witchy paranormal tales? You're in luck! This witchy storybundle features lots of spooky great novels. Plus part of every sale goes to cool writerly causes like Girls Write Now and Mighty Writers, which help aspiring authors to reach their dreams. Here are the books, including my Witch of the Cards. Below I'll tell you how to order and start reading!

All About The WITCHY BUNDLE
Spring has always been a time for witches, magic and the influence of the Other World in pagan folklore. The Celtic festival of Beltane is traditionally observed on May 1st, and April 30th is also known as Walpurgis Night – or in Germanic folklore Hexennacht, literally "Witches' Night." What better time, then, to partake in the Witchy Bundle, your chance to grab a collection of ten truly magical books that involve witches of one sort or another.

This collection takes us across our own world and into others. There are American witches and witches battling the Nazis in war-torn Europe. There are dark twists on fairy tales and witches in the wild west. There are witches who don't know they have the power or the sight until dire need comes upon them. Thrillers, fantasy, romance, horror, mystery –These ten books feature bestselling authors as well as rising stars. The list includes Simon Kewin's urban fantasy Hedge Witch, first in the Cloven Land Trilogy. We also have my Witch of the Cards, David Neth's The Full Moon, the first in his Under the Moon series. Christine Pope gives us Darknight, a Witches of Cleopatra Hill tale, and Alesha Escobar has her thrilling Gray Tower trilogy. Matthew S. Cox contributes his Nine Candles of Deepest Black and Sara O. Thompson her Muddy Waters, the first in the Otherwhere series. Milo James Fowler's Coyote Cal omnibus takes us to the gunslinging weird west and Steve Vernon gives us his spine-chilling Tatterdemon omnibus. NY Times bestselling author K. N. Lee's book in the bundle is Academia of the Beast, a dark retelling of Beauty and the Beast.

At StoryBundle name your price — whatever you feel the books are worth — and a portion of the proceeds goes to Mighty Writers and Girls Write Now. For $5, get the basic bundle of five books in any ebook format—WORLDWIDE. If you pay $15 (or more, if you feel generous), you'll get the five bonus books as well. The Witchy Bundle runs for three weeks only.
The five initial titles in the Witchy Bundle (minimum $5 to purchase) are: The Tatterdemon Omnibus by Steve Vernon •    Hedge Witch by Simon Kewin •    Coyote Cal by Milo James Fowler •    Academia of the Beast by K.N. Lee •    Muddy Waters by Sara O. Thompson
If you pay more than the bonus price of just $15, you get the regular titles, plus these five more:   The Full Moon by David Neth •    Nine Candles of Deepest Black by Matthew S. Cox •    Darkknight - The Witches of Cleopatra Hill Book 2 by Christine Pope •    Witch of the Cards by Catherine Stine •    The Gray Tower Trilogy by Alesha Escobar.

This bundle is ONLY available until May 18 via this link. So if it sounds good nab it before the time flies away.

Storybundle allows easy reading on computers, smartphones, and tablets as well as other ereaders via file transfer, email, and more. Also, give the gift of reading with StoryBundle, thanks to gift cards – which allow you to send someone a code to redeem any future StoryBundle bundle – and timed delivery. Get quality indie reads for only about 67 pennies per book while you donate to great writing programs! What a cool source of curated quality titles for thirsty readers.
*******
On another note...



I am an attending author May 3 to 7 at RT Booklovers Convention in Atlanta, Georgia! Come visit my Catherine Stine/Kitsy Clare booth at the RT Roundup on Sunday, May 7 from 10 am to 1 pm! Reader Roundup tickets here.  To see all of the attending authors click here. Or head over to my events page for details. I will also participate in the Teen Day Match Game on Saturday, May 6, which you can read about there too. So, if you're in or near Atlanta, stop on by! Want to reserve copies of my signed books? Click here.

Sunday, March 19, 2017

NYC Teen Author Fest kicks off March 18-26 & info on my panel for March 24

 The NYC Teen Author Fest kicks off this week. All events are free, and there's a stellar lineup of signings, forums and themed symposiums with everyone from debut authors to veterans like Laurie Halse Anderson.
I will be on a panel on Friday, March 24th at 3:55 pm at the New York Public Library, at 42nd Street (and corner of Fifth Ave), South Court Auditorium. So, if you are in or near the city I would love to see you! Here are details of my panel:

3:55-4:40:  Difficult Characters
moderated by Melissa Walker

Explanation: Many of the best YA characters take readers outside their comfort zones – they may not be instantly likable or understandable, but over the course of a novel, they come to have an effect by coming to life (in all its messiness) on the page.  This is a conversation about writing “difficult characters” – where they come from, what they’re like to deal with as an author, and what response do they get from readers (and does that response matter?).

Panel authors:
Kayla Cagan, Lisa Selin Davis, Pete Hoffmeister, AR Kahler
Amanda Panitch, Alyssa Sheinmel, Catherine Stine
***
To see the full March 24 NYPL free Symposium lineup click here. 
To see the entire Teen Author Fest event lineup click here

Soon, on Idea City will be sneak peeks of the forthcoming Spirits in the Water anthology (Elements #4), out this fall with Untethered Realms, including an excerpt of my story. In the meantime, I leave you with all the pretty Element covers. Start reading them now. 


Cheers, Catherine

Sunday, December 25, 2016

Happy Holidays and Best for the New Year!

I'm wishing everyone a fun holiday season and inspiration for 2017!
via GIPHY


Friday, September 30, 2016

Back from a Hiatus! The Lowdown & Plans

Hi dear blogging, reading, author community!

I've missed you all. I kind of fell off the face of the earth toward the end of June. Well, maybe a bit before that. The highs and lows:
A high * I got super-busy trying to get ready for a bunch of amazing book conventions.
A high * I splurged for my first professional author photo (this one).
A low * I got bedbugs at one of the conventions!!! So did the unlucky photographer. Luckily, my exterminator had me well trained and I took care of business the second I hit home. NO bugs survived my war to the death. But my bites and resulting scars lingered for months. Yuck!
A high * I hit the USA Today bestseller list with a boxed set I'm in!!!
A high * I went to a writing retreat in Cape Cod and wrote every day, all day. Except for our sailboat ride and long dinners. Oh, and watching the Olympic Women's Volleyball teams kick some serious you-know-what!
A high * Attended a different book con in Saint Louis, sold lots, made new friends and had a blast! Penned Con to be exact, which gives all of their profits to Action for Autism. Mad respect to founders, Amy and Rick Miles.
***
I've had a long time to think about the blog. About how often I want to post, and more importantly, WHAT I want to post. I will post a bit less, but I will post. And yes, I will post about amazing books, and my own books... because I do love books and I do write. Just not 24/7.

The new Fireseed series covers
Ghosts of Fire anthology,
Untethered Realms Elements book 3
Shades of Prey, book 2
 So, happy fall, and wow, the Halloween season! And, I do have book stuff. A re-release with new covers and sales/freebies for my future shocker Fireseed series, including a new sequel novella called Blue House Magic. Untethered Realms has new story anthology out, Ghosts of Fire, book 3 of the Elements series. My story in this is Rollerskate Boys. Put the anthology on your Goodreads TBR list if you like. And I'll be doing a bunch of Facebook parties like Haunted Halloween Spooktacular on OCT 20 from 4 to 5 (EST) and A Magickal Samhain on Sunday, OCT 30 from 12 to 1:30 pm (EST) - all to help spread word of Ghosts of Fire and other spooktastic boxed sets I'm in, like Shades of Prey, Mystical Magic. Join the parties to chat with lots of authors and play games for giveaways if you like!!!

I'm happy to be back, and blogging. I will be checking into my fave old blogging haunts, and new ones, too.   xo Catherine