If you are subscribed to the newsletter and did not get a copy in your inbox let me know – we’re trying a new system 🙂
Hello! It’s been a long time since I’ve done a newsletter, but the husband has made me a handy dandy form that should make the process go much faster than it used to (aka no more hand coding! yay!), so let’s give it a whirl.
I’m going to be MIA for two weeks, starting the 6th and ending the 22nd. I may make it out to a few blogs, depending on time, but I won’t be taking on any new book covers during that time.
That said, there’s a new feature on my Amaranthine Night blog; Character interviews with my own characters – and YOU get to ask the questions! Verchiel has already been interviewed, and next up is Jorick. Stop by the blog and leave your questions for him and I’ll try to make him answer them. Check this post for the full schedule.
Now for the obligatory “blah, blah, go buy my books, blah, blah…”
You may remember the old 101 Tips for traveling with a Vampire booklet? Well, after two years, I’ve revamped it by adding a new, shorter intro, changing the sneak peek to several pages from the upcoming book 4, and also crediting Jonathan Harvey as co-author. For more details check out my blog post.
Speaking of book 4, I am still hoping for a spring release. I am sending it off to two beta readers while I’m gone, and the third when they get back to me. I am also hoping to release book 5 at the end of the year, so I had best get cracking on that soon!
Be sure to check out the seven short Vampire Morsels; Adam, Alexander, Arowenia, Ashton, Benjamin, Bethina and Claudius and look for Elsa later this month. They are available on Barnes & Noble, Kobo & Smashwords for FREE.
And if you’re in the market for a book cover, or book cover art, you might want to check outCoverart.JoleeneNaylor.com and see what I have to offer.
Now, let’s get on to the
Random Fun
The Interesting link: Free Art Lessons
designed for parents and children, anyone can use this site to learn the basics of several mediums, including pastels, watercolors and pen and ink. With easy to follow directions, anyone can be drawing in a matter of minutes!
The Read of the month: Two billion reasons to Kill???
(from smashwords)A Chicago area tycoon, T. Jackson Bender, is brutally murdered at his home in Winnetka on the Fourth of July. The motive seems obvious. After all, the man was worth billions. The big question is: who stands to profit the most from his sudden demise? Burton James, along with his longtime buddy Patrick Murphy of the Chicago Police Department, set out to solve the crime. The pair will take you on a journey with more twists and turns than a cornfield maze in the month of October. But don’t assume the obvious…you do know what assume spells, don’t you??? – even better, it’s FREE
The Video of the month: Jeffery Dallas – Akbar
A bizarre song about a kid who goes into the cornfield and makes a new friend… Strange but worth a watch.
(if you have suggestions for the links of the month please email them to me atjoleene@joleenenaylor.com ā€“ you will be credited by whatever name you choose.)
My Updates
The Terrible Turtle Conspiracy:
The Terrible Turtle Conspiracy is a weekly manga/comic written by Jonathan Harvey and illustrated by Joleene Naylor that tells the story of the giant turtle attack in Tuttlesville and the interconnected aftermath. You can read current and previous chapters at http://terribleturtles.com
In January we posted the following pages:
Chapter 8
Chapter 20 ā€“ Page 7 ā€“ END
Chapter 7: page 19
Look forward to more turtle fun next month!
Website Updates
I have added a few new things this month to the Ramblings from the Darkness website atwww.joleenenaylor.com
In the Poetry Section I added one new poems. Cold. It was written off the cuff for a random MySpace blog. I know, I’ve pretty much abandoned MySpace, but now and then I miss the poetry community.
This month I added 34 new Book Covers including mysteries, thrillers, historic romances, sci-fi, erotica and a fantasy novel.
I’ve also added 24 new Photos. Here’s a sneak peek at a couple of them:
Flickr Updates
In the last month I added the following albums to my Flickr account. All of my photography is licensed under Creative Commons license unless otherwise noted. You do not need a Flickr account to view these. Clicking on the links will take you to a photo album with thumbnails.
Blood
46 photos of blood running down wood, splattered on a floor, on a couch and more. There are more of these photos coming later.
Walking Home
73 photos of random things I encountered when walking home after my brother and I ran out of gas. Includes photos of some cool, creepy trees, an abandoned, half torn down house, and a mysterious glittery substance.
Random November
11 photos of my cat and some fall trees.
Praying Mantis
6 photos of praying mantis that wanted to eat me.
Night Photography
29 photos of barbed wire, trees, a highway, road signs and more – all in the dark!
Corn Maze & Pumpkin Patch
114 photos of pumpkins, an old rocking chair, random farm scenes and, of course, corn.
Blog Updates:
AMARANTHINE NIGHT (AUTHOR BLOG)
Ask Jorick a Question!
Verchiel’s interview is up, so next is Jorick! What doĀ you want to ask him?Ā Leave your questions in the comments below before Friday, Feb 10th, and Katelina will attempt to make him answer them this Saturday!
Interview with Verchiel
Hello! My name is Katelina and Iā€™m from Joleene Naylorā€™s Amaranthine series. Using state of the art-mumbo-jumbo-author magic, Jo has had me interview other authorsā€™ characters but now Iā€™m finally going to interview my fellow Amaranthianā€™s. Even better, the questions come from you, the readers! So letā€™s get this party started! Today I am interviewing […]
101 Tipsā€¦ Revamped!
It’s been two years since I published 101 Tips for Traveling with a Vampire. At the time I expected it to have ten downloads, but since then it’s had over 27,000. I’m sure when it comes to free ebooks that’s not an astronomical number, but since it is getting downloaded I thought it might be […]
Ask Verchiel a Question!
As winner of the poll, Verchiel gets interviewed first! So what do you want to ask him?Ā Leave your questions in the comments below before Friday, Feb 3rd, and Katelina will attempt to make him answer them this Saturday!
Winners of the Interview Poll
Thanks to everyone who voted in the Character Interview Poll! Here are the results: Verchiel Jorick Katelina Patrick Claudius Oren Malick Jamie Torina Micah Loren Kateesha So, that is the order they will be interviewed in Ā Sue has volunteered her character Mistress to interview Katelina, so that should be fun!
Six Sentence Sunday
Six sentence Sunday is a fun blog event where authors share six sentences of something they’ve written. Be sure to check out the other participants. Today’s six is again from my unedited WIP – which happens to be book four in the Amaranthine series. A continuation from last week’s scene: ************ ā€ Letā€™s call it a […]
Last Day to Vote
It’s the last day to vote on which characters get interviewed! The poll closes Sunday at midnight (aka Saturday night), so if you haven;t made it there yet, be sure and go vote. All you have to do is click radio button(s) so it’s not a real mind puzzle Go Vote! I’ll announce the winners […]
Lots-O-Links #22
ThisĀ is the twenty-second edition of Lots-O-Links, posts where I randomly share links. Fun, huh? I can now call it the weekly post that two people have gone on record as liking. Pretty cool! Writers – have a tough time with punctuating conversation? Donna has a great breakdown of the right way to use quotation marks […]
Six Sentence Sunday
Six sentence Sunday is a fun blog event where authors share six sentences of something they’ve written. Be sure to check out the other participants. Today’s six is again from my unedited WIP – which happens to be book four in the Amaranthine series. This is another bit from Chapter 1 – Jorick, Oren and […]
Thanks, Stephannie!
Just a shout out to one of my favorite authors, author Stephannie Beman, for taking to time to post about Ties of Blood.Ā If you haven’t read her books before, be sure to check them out.Ā She has three series ; The Children of Khaos series (featuring the very hot Hades!), Forever Loved series (featuring […]
Lots-O-Links #21
ThisĀ is the twenty-first edition of Lots-O-Links, posts where I randomly share links. Fun, huh? I can now call it the weekly post that two people have gone on record as liking. Pretty cool! Especially for Blogger.com bloggers – ever wish you could let people subscribe to your posts via email? Now you can!http://feedburner.google.com will […]
New-ish Segment ā€“ Come Vote!
A new segment? My subscribers might have noticed that there haven’t been any Weekend Interviews for a few weeks. Why? Because I’m out. That’s not to say I won’t post anymore, if someone sends one, I’ll happily post it. Until then, I’m out. So who is Katelina going to interview? That’s up to you. Who […]
Vampire Morsels: Kariss
As I prepped my notes for work on Ties of Blood, I noticed that I have a lot of side characters who, for one reason or another, donā€™t get any ā€ meā€¯ time.Ā so, I’ve decided to remedy that in a collection of short stories calledā€¦ Kariss (You can find Kariss in Legacy of Ghosts. Her […]
Claudius now on Smashwords!
The seventh Vampire Morsel, Claudius, is now available as a free read on Smashwords.com. Short Story. The seventh in a collection called Vampire Morsels about different vampires from the Amaranthine universe. Claude wants revenge against his father; a nobleman who abandoned him as a baby, and covets his father’s charge, the beautiful Arowenia. Now that […]
Back ā€“ And I Have a Link and a Question to Ponder!
Hope everyone had a great holiday! I took advantage of the season and have finished my edits on book 4 (I think Web of ___Ā may be the title). The lovely Bonnie *cough* is giving it a final typo check and then it is off to the mighty Ed, and then the Beta readers. Yay! […]
RAMBLINGS FROM THE DARKNESS(PERSONAL BLOG)
Photo(s) of the Day ā€“ Week 8
I’ve been taking a photo a day since December 9th and uploading it to facebook – then I ran into a cool blog where they take a photo a day and post the photos in a weekly blog. So I thought, hey, I should steal that idea (before they pass a law to make that […]
Self Photo Challenge
I got this from Ang’s blog (again! ). There is a challenge on The Paper Mama to post a photo of yourself, and answers to the questions below, then link to her blog. Since I JUST took a photo of myself for the photo of the day I thought “why not?” Obsessing overā€¦ […]
20 Things I Love
This comes from Stephannie Beman’s blog. These are not in any particular order. Friends & Family. I’m not going to list each one or this will become a “20 People I Love” list instead. My pets. Even the ones that were only supposed to be “visiting” and have never gone home. Anime. It’s not just […]
Photo(s) of the Day ā€“ Week 7
I’ve been taking a photo a day since December 9th and uploading it to facebook – then I ran into a cool blog where they take a photo a day and post the photos in a weekly blog. So I thought, hey, I should steal that idea (before they pass a law to make that […]
TTTC ā€“ Chapter 8
What is the TTTC? It’s a webcomic written by Jonathan Harvey and illustrated by me. we add a page every week, so be on the lookout. Why not visit http://TerribleTurtles.com and subscribe? It’s time to start a new chapter… Click the images above for full sized turtley-goodness!
48 Questions
I got this from Ange’s blog Being a lover of all things blog tag, I had to repost! 1. What time did you get up this morning?Ā Bizarely I was up at 9am. That’s because I spent Thursday sleeping coz I was sick. Normally it;s more like 4pm. 2. How do you like your steak?Ā Well […]
Photo(s) of the Day ā€“ Round 6
I’ve been taking a photo a day since December 9th and uploading it to facebook – then I ran into a cool blog where they take a photo a day and post the photos in a weekly blog. So I thought, hey, I should steal that idea (before they pass a law to make that […]
Photo(s) of the Day ā€“ Round 5
I’ve been taking a photo a day since December 9th and uploading it to facebook – then I ran into a cool blog where they take a photo a day and post the photos in a weekly blog. So I thought, hey, I should steal that idea (before they pass a law to make that […]
Photo(s) of the Day ā€“ Round 4
I’ve been taking a photo a day since December 9th and uploading it to facebook – then I ran into a cool blog where they take a photo a day and post the photos in a weekly blog. So I thought, hey, I should steal that idea (before they pass a law to make that […]
Photo(s) of the Day ā€“ Round 3
I’ve been taking a photo a day since December 9th and uploading it to facebook – then I ran into a cool blog where they took a photo a day and then at the end of the week posted the photos in a blog. So I thought, hey, I should start putting mine in a […]
Photo(s) of the Day ā€“ Round 2
I’ve been taking a photo a day since December 9th and uploading it to facebook – then I ran into a cool idea somewhere (I think it was on Lariats and Lavender, but now I can’t find the post) where they took a photo a day and at the end of the week posted the […]
Photo(s) of the Day ā€“ Round 1
I’ve been taking a photo a day since December 9th and uploading it to facebook – then I ran into a cool idea somewhere (I think it was on Lariats and Lavender, but now I can’t find the post) where they were taking a photo a day and then at the end of the week […]
TTTC ā€“ Chapter 7: Page 20 END
What is the TTTC? It’s a webcomic written by Jonathan Harvey and illustrated by me. we add a page every week, so be on the lookout. Why not visit http://TerribleTurtles.com and subscribe? Click the image above for full sized turtly fun! And don;t fear, it may be end of Chapter Seven, but Chapter Eight starts […]
TTTC ā€“ Chapter 7: Page 19
What is the TTTC? It’s a webcomic written by Jonathan Harvey and illustrated by me. we add a page every week, so be on the lookout. Why not visit http://TerribleTurtles.com and subscribe? Click the image above for full sized turtley-goodness!
Kariss ā€“ Blogophilia 45.4
It’s time for Blogophilia,Ā the fun blog group where Marvin gives participants prompts to use in their weekly posting. This weekā€™s prompts are: Blogophilia 45.4 Topic: “Angels in the Snow” Bonus Points: (Hard, 2pts): use a pick-up line (Easy, 1pt): include “rules are meant to be broken” This week is another vampire morsel, a story […]
If you have ideas or suggestions on what could make this newsletter better, or just want to give me your opinion on something, drop me a line at Joleene@joleenenaylor.com.
Have a great February and hopefully I’ll see you all again in March!
Jo 😀
Amaranthine by Joleene Naylor 
Ruth Ann Nordin
/ February 6, 2012Only you can make a sale pitch interesting. I love the “Now for the obligatory “blah, blah, go buy my books, blah, blah…”
When I see stuff like this, I actually read the sale pitch. LOL 😀
Roger Lawrence
/ February 7, 2012I’ve always been of the “buy my books or I’ll kill myself.” school. Maybe I should try yours. Couldn’t do any worse.