• Wicked Game (book 1)
• Crossroads by Monroe Jefferson (short story tie-in, free read)
• Rave On by Spencer (short story tie-in, free read)
• When The Music’s Over by Jim (short story tie-in, free read)
• Last Request by Shane (short story tie-in, free read)
• Bad To The Bone (book 2)
• Bring On The Night (book 3)
• Thief (short story tie-in, included in Eternal anthology)
• Let It Bleed (serial e-novella, free read, not complete)
• Lust For Life (book 4, final book, Oct 1, 2012)

Jeri and I are working out a date for us to have an online (possibly Skype) chat about the books. I’m shooting for March 12th, since that’s when we’ll be finishing up what’s available of the series… but I don’t have confirmation on that yet. What I CAN confirm is that we WILL be doing a chat with Jeri at some point during our reading.

I’m also working out a few ideas I’ve got for a project for this series. Hopefully I’ll have some details to share at the meeting on the 30th.

I’ve ordered a few copies of all three books for Books-A-Million, so if you need print copies, they’ll be available locally starting this weekend.

OK… I think that’s all. Remember to vote in the sidebar for what our NEXT new series will be. AND… if you’re participating in the Rainbow Reading Challenge, time is running out to read and post about your RED book!

See you all soon!!

Jennifer

What a wild ride the House of Comarré ended up being!!! The pomp & circumstance of the vampire class system, combined with kick-ass, straight up “urban fantasy” action made for an awesome, unique series. And talk about surprises… babies and ghosties and curses, oh my!!

Just as a reminder, a novella and two more novels are on the way to complete the story…

• Forbidden Blood (Maris & Dominic’s story, prequel novella, coming soon)
• Out For Blood (book 4, August 2012)
• Last Blood (book 5, February 2013)

I know we would ALL like to thank Kristen (and her friend, Laura *Elle Saint James* ) for making the trip up to chat with us. It was a lot of fun.

You can keep up with Kristen’s news on her website, HERE… and on House of Comarré information (and story extras) specifically, HERE.

I haven’t gotten all the pictures from that night, yet… but I’ve started a gallery with the ones I have so far. I’ll add more as I receive them. Click the pic below to go to the gallery :-) (I’m also putting this in our main gallery page with our other events.)

So… who’s gonna be next?? Suggestions??

Where was I, oh, yeah… Amy Lane’s Little Goddess series. After many debates over details, mourning the loss of characters, rejoicing in the introduction of characters, and all the ups and downs and crazy loop-de-loops in between… I think we had a winner. (Thank you, Amy!) We all agreed that we liked the overall storyline, and most of the characters. Our main debates came in the pacing of the story, and some of the relationship decisions. I, for one, can’t WAIT for QUICKENING.

For those of you who missed the chat with the author, Amy Lane, below is the edited transcript. (Edited to put things in order better for times when questions came in the middle of other answers.) At the end of the transcript are the additional questions Amy was kind enough to answer later, since my computer died during the meeting. (So there’s NEW info for those of you who WERE there that night.) ***WARNING*** This transcript is very SPOILERY!! If you haven’t read the Little Goddess series, and the Green’s Hill Werewolves novellas, (what the heck is wrong with you… go… now… buy… read!), make sure you read them BEFORE reading this!

Jennifer: almost ready

Amy Lane: Groovy… kids are watching Christmas specials– I’m nuking them some corn dogs..it’s all good  

Jennifer: ok… we’re having a “disagreement” about the time in the fourth book, lol… did Cory add any additional days to her “2 nights from now” ultimatum to Rafael. I say no, that her night healing Green was within that two days… other girls say she added 2 more days because of her going home for the day  

Amy Lane: And Jennifer wins! Cory laid down the ultimatum, Green got hurt, Cory went home to heal him and then hauled ass back to Redding to stop the madness! It was important that they not delay–they had to show that the attempt on Green didn’t stop their resolve. (And ripping their enemies hearts out and setting them on fire certainly sent that message!)

Jennifer: they’re saying that one night was the ultimatum, the next night was her healing green, the next night was them killing the people who attacked Green, and that when they did that, they told Rafael he had two more day, then after THAT was when they went to get Dwight. They’re doing a word search on the book on their respective nooks/kindles now, lol. We’re a stubborn bunch, lol. But i still think it was within that first two days  

Amy Lane: Okay… wow. You guys ARE stubborn–and it’s been a while… let me think… She made the ultimatum. Green was attacked when she got back. She spent a night healing him.  Came back and kicked some ass and said I’ll be back.  

Jennifer: ok… they found it… she gave them two more days… page 359 on the pdf… we’re wrong, hahahaha

Amy Lane: Oh gees– that’s embarrassing. I guess you guys DID just read it–I haven’t read it in two years! (But I did just finish proofing Being for publication–that should count for something!)  

Jennifer: we’re a picky bunch… especially when we like a story… and we all edit so we find all the nitpicky stuff no one thinks about, lol  

Amy Lane: Oooh… where were all of you when I needed an editor so badly for Vulnerable, that’s all *I’m* asking’!  

Jennifer: that’s why we have such a good time at book club… we discuss all the crazy little stuff we like/don’t like… it’s not always pretty, but it’s always fun, lol!!  

Amy Lane: Sounds like a fun bunch!  

Jennifer: ok… now… to the questions we actually PREPARED to ask you, before the 2 days thing came up, lol

Amy Lane: Fire away… and forgive me if I go, “Uhm, it’s been a while, what do YOU think!”  

Jennifer: Is Cory immortal?? How has all of this changed her aging? What makes Green and Hallow believe she’s going to have such a long life?  

Amy Lane: Green and Hallow are going on faith–and, to some extent, literature.  

 Jennifer: what literature?  

Amy Lane: Traditionally, heroes are tested until they become gods–Green and Hallow are convinced that Cory’s testing is not going to stop until she’s able to protect the fey from all the perils that the modern world holds. She’s not immortal yet. She’s still twenty-two and really confused as to how she warrants all this fuss. But Green and Hallow have lived long enough to think that immortality is probably coming–but they’re also afraid of what she’s going to have to sacrifice to get it.  

Jennifer: ohhh, yeah!! you did mention that at some point… I’d forgotten that

Amy Lane: Yay! I’m not completely senile! Oooh… gimme another one!  

Jennifer: hahahaha

Jennifer: we have a request for Green’s story, from when he was with Oberon (sp?… ‘Im not looking at the book, sorry)  Lynn wants a short story about his life before what we know of Green’s Hill

Amy Lane: LOL– I’m afraid Lynn is going to have to wait–but not because I don’t want to write it. I have planned eight books, and a story arc, and everything. In the final book, we are going to see Green, from birth to Green’s Hill–including some parts of Green’s Hill we don’t know about yet. I’ve been planning this book since Wounded, really, and I even know the title.  I just need (everyone whimper with me) time to write.  

Jennifer: what is Green’s full name?  

Amy Lane: It changes. Grace calls him “Vernal Green, Lord of Leaf and Shadows” in the first book. I’m reasonably certain Myst’s title for him is different. In the tradition of sidhe, waiting until they’re old enough to show their personalities before they’re named, their titles change with their company. Green’s full name is a combination of all that went before–and Cory is very aware she may never know it all. I guess it’s my salute to the mutability of a person, depending on the phase of his life. Green has been a solitary woodland creature, a night lover like a whisper in the dark, a victim, a captive, a rescuer, a leader–all the same Green, but different. It’s like his accent. Depending on who he is as he remembers, his voice changes. His title does too.

Jennifer: now we’re having another issue, lol (iIwarned you, lol)… Dolorianne wants more Jack… we all love Jacky now (me, more now at the end of the book than at the beginning, lol, but we’ve already discussed that, lol)… but they’re all saying to ditch Katy… that she’s not necessary to them as a couple, that she was there when things were awkward and she helped them get themselves together, but that as things are now, Teague and Jack are completely devoted to each other, but the girls don’t see the same kind of devotion from either of them for Katy 

Amy Lane: OMG! Poor Katy!  

Jennifer: haha, I had the same reaction, lol  

Amy Lane: I think Katy is necessary–I think everyone will see why when Being comes out, and, if you think about the end of Rampant, you can see it coming too. Teague is… oh God. One of my all-time favorites, actually. But Teague is damaged, and damaged things break easily. Katy needs to be there. She just does.  

Jennifer: they say she’s there to have kids, to round out the “family” idea… but that she’s not necessary to them as a couple. I think that she’s not as big a part of the relationship, but it’s still early. 

Amy Lane: LOL– oh yes. Yes she REALLY is. Teague and Jack would break without her. She has some chapters coming up in Being– and it’s true that Teague loves Jacky best, but she’s not dead weight. She’s got a definite place in the three of them.  

Jennifer: but is it because she’s Katy, or her because she’s a woman to balance the men? They’re just concerned that she’s a lesser third in the relationship, but they’re willing (based on your comment about Being) to wait to see what else there is in that dynamic

Amy Lane: Mostly, we’ll see her and Jack together, and realize that they balance each other too. We see her and Teague–they make sense. But I think maybe the problem is, we haven’t seen her so much with Jack. They seem thrown together–and to some extent they are. But they definitely have some glue between them or they wouldn’t be such excellent mates for Teague.  Besides! You can’t say Katy doesn’t belong, because then you might think Bracken doesn’t belong, and that would break my heart!  

Jennifer: they said that’s not an issue, because we get shown, over and over, the love/devotion between Cory and Bracken… they say they don’t see that with the guys and Katy  

Jennifer: we all LOVEEEEEEE Bracken… and Andres

Amy Lane: Yay on Bracken! And Andres– zomg… people ADORE him. I had not anticipated how much people wanted to see Cory and Andres together, or how much they REALLY loved the boat scene between the three of them.  I guess they like to see a guy who can dominate Bracken–cause, yanno, that IS special. 

Amy Lane:  And back to Katy–I hope she’ll be more a part of them for you guys after you read Being. You’ll have to let me know–it’s out on Saturday  

Jennifer: We’ll keep you posted, lol

Amy Lane: DO!  

Jennifer: Dolorianne has a question, which is silly cause we’ve already answered it, but I’m asking anyway, lol…. when Bracken says “twins” at the end… was he saying there were two babies… or that there were two of HIS babies (making the total 3)… I know… silly question, but Dolorianne really wants there to be 3, lol… not sure why  

Amy Lane: No, no– one for Bracken, one for Green–she’s awfully little!  

Jennifer: thank the LORD, lol. how long will Cory be pregnant??  Will it be the normal length, cause she’s human, or whatever the Elf pregnancy period is?  

Amy Lane: It’s only about two or three weeks longer–but it is twins!  

Jennifer: we LOVED all the “real world” funny things… the bikini issue Cory had… all the pop culture references, made everything more relatable… and I SWEAR, I ’bout woke my family up in the middle of the night laughing at some of the one-liners and phrases. Cory is a WEALTH of LOLzZ

Amy Lane: And thank you– Cory is grumpy and insecure like the rest of us. That’s one of the reasons I really love to write her!

 Jennifer: (this is how we do things… sorry… we pick things apart first… then finish up fangirling all our favorite parts, lol)  

Amy Lane: Oh, I like the fangirl part! But seriously– you’re welcome to ask more questions!

Jennifer: and we loved the pace of the fourth book (I didn’t have a problem with the pace of the rest of them, but some of the girls said there were parts that seemed a bit repetitive… and we’re all thinking that’s because they started out as webstories, and the repetition was necessary for THAT format)

Amy Lane: I’d learned a lot by the fourth book–writing the Bitter Moon books was REALLY GOOD practice for pacing a longer work.

Jennifer: speaking of… how much of what is available to this point WAS part of your blog? was all of it there? or is there some of the story that is new to novel form?

Amy Lane: They actually didn’t start out as web stories. I did the Jack and Teague stories while I was writing Bitter Moon–those got posted on the web–but I’d already written the first three books by then. It was mostly because I was eeking out time and some of the continuity was lost!

Amy Lane: Vulnerable started out as a short story for my master’s class in creative writing. We published as sort of a gift to me–I never expected people I didn’t know to read it, much less enjoy! Wounded was like a favor for friends–my friends all wanted to know what happened next, so I told them. By the time I got to Bound, I sort of had the idea that this writing thing was going to be pretty damned important.

Jennifer: where did you get the photos for the covers of the books? did you take them? do you know where that is?  

Amy Lane: Cory is compared to a Sentinel Oak tree a lot– and before the area got overdeveloped, their were probably more oak trees than people. I had my husband take a picture of an oak tree on a rural road at twilight. He was actually in the car–it hadn’t quite stopped moving–but the effect was so lonely and, well, Vulnerable.  Wounded was the picture I took–and yes, the worst! I wanted a picture from San Francisco, but we just didn’t have a chance to visit there and take the skyline around Christmas, but we DID have a chance to go by that sign. EVERYBODY goes by that sign on the way from the foothills to San Fancisco–it seemed appropriate.  Bound is the Auburn bridge–it literally connects Foresthill (where Green’s Hill resides) to the rest of the world. That journey Bracken took with Adrian in Bound (when he was dreaming/remembering) was taken before that bridge was constructed, and it really was sort of scary/long/twisty. Cory had just become the bridge for these three different men–that seemed very symbolic. (ftr– that’s the same bridge Vin Diesel jumped off of in XXX. It’s one of the highest bridges in the US!  And the fourth one, my mom took. It’s actually of Mount Lassen, because Lake Shasta is miles away from Mount Shasta, and it seemed important to have a body of water in there too, since so much of the action happened on the lake.  

Jennifer: I love them… and now the girls are looking at them again, lol

Jennifer: we all HATED HATED HATED… did I mention we HATED WITH A FIERY PASSION Annette? And we all cheered like teenyboppers when Phillip ripped her head off, lol  

Amy Lane: lol–I hated her too. It was so hard to write her. I wanted someone real… but with a world view so diametrically opposed to Green’s Hill that she simply could not coexist. I was glad she was dead by the end too. 

Jennifer: OH OH OH OH OH… what are you plans for SAM??  

Amy Lane: Oh yes, Sam– Sam has some fun stuff to do. He’s going to be an adolescent at the hill, and give Cory a taste of parenthood before she’s fully ready. He’s also a chaos generator–the whole hill dynamic is going to be skewed. *rubs hands* SO much fun! *cackles*  

Jennifer: we loved how he just KNEW to touch her, such an amazing thing for someone so young and unsure of himself  

Amy Lane: He has some elfin wisdom–the other is not entirely devoid of it (or compassion either)–just chooses not to use it. Sam is unique in that he’s human–he’s all about free will!  

*******TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES AROSE*******

Jennifer: thank you sooooooo much for chatting…

Amy Lane: It’s been my pleasure– you guys ask REALLY GOOD questions!

Jennifer: see in the twitterverse

******** ADDITIONAL QUESTIONS ASKED/ANSWERED VIA EMAIL*******

Jennifer: Cory mentions that Adrian can’t visit as often as they’d like, because they called him and drained his “ability” to stay with them. Will he eventually stop being able to come to them, or will he continue to be able to visit through the rest of the story? (There are two reasons I ask… one.. because you know we all love Adrian and want him around… the other is that we lost one (only one) of the girls in book club after book 1, she refused to read any others because she was so upset Adrian died. I think after last meeting we finally convinced her to go ahead and read the others, assuring her that Adrian pops in from time to time, if only as a ghost. If we lose him again, she may never forgive us, lol. And it would suck for us, too.)

Amy Lane: Did you read “Guarding the Vamprie’s Ghost”?  Because in Ghost, Adrian is planning to be in a position where he can visit them until their reign on earth is over–your friend is safe.  Adrian will be there.  (But he’s going to have a hard time visiting while she’s pregnant.)  I couldn’t let him loose entirely–I loved him too;-)

Jennifer: We noticed aspects of the story that reminded us specifically of other stories (namely Laurell K Hamilton’s Anita Blake series: with the bonding increasing everyone’s power, and Cory being marked by the vampire, her becoming their “weapon”, and her being the “Queen of Every Damned Thing”, lol, and Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight series: with the ordinary girl who ends up having extraordinary power, the abomination of turning children into vamps, and other things that I can’t remember right now, lol… both of which we all love). Are you fans of these stories, and were the resemblences intentional?

Amy Lane: Let’s see–I’d read to book eight in the Anita series when I wrote Vulnerable, the short story.  I can’t deny it–there are some DEFINITE similarities, especially in the beginning of the first book, and I was definitely inspired.  However, I’d finished the second book before Anita started becoming the Queen of Every Damned thing–I think that was just a natural story arc progression.  And actually, Vulnerable came out about a year and a half before Twilight.  (No, I’m not bitter, not at all… okay.  Maybe a little:-)

Jennifer: You mentioned in chat that there are 8 books planned. Will you be introducing many new characters? Or does the overall story arc keep our core group as it’s center? Do you plan to have many other novellas/side stories?

Amy Lane: There will be new enemies, of course, and I have a few novella people to introduce, but mostly, we’re going to stick to the core.  There’s already so many people I need an inventory at the beginning!  But everyone has a purpose, right?  It’s got to stay that way.

So… A HUGE THANK YOU to Amy Lane for putting up with our sillyness and chatting with us about her Little Goddess series. I honestly CAN’T WAIT to get my hands on QUICKENING!! *I suppose I should let her write it first, though, right?*

You can read my review of the last Green’s Hill Werewolves novella, BEING, here.

In future news… our next series will be Kristen Painter’s House of Comarre series. Kristen will be joining us on January 16th for our book club meeting/dinner, to discuss the series !! I can’t wait to hear what everyone thinks of the the story.

Don’t forget to keep voting in the sidebar for the NEXT series we’ll be reading. And I’ll see you all next week!!

****Late edit****

I hope you all had a FANTASTIC Christmas, and that you’ll be having a safe, fun, wonderful New Year celebration tonight!!