Find your next Kindle Vella read!

The first Potions & Passions Kindle Vella promo is LIVE, my friends, and you can find it here. How excited am I?

This promo runs January 8 – February 7, 2023, and has scifi, fantasy, romantic fantasy and fantasy romance (aka romantasy!) titles. With 18 stories and 13 authors to choose from, the BookFunnel page will help you find your next Kindle Vella read!

You’ll also find my stories Stone Circles: A New Fairy Tale (based on Irish myth) and A Court of Swords and Sugar Plums (which I describe as The Nutcracker meets The Cruel Prince).

This is my first time creating a BookFunnel promo, and I look forward to helping everyone find some new Vella readers. As Vella authors, we’re usually scouring Facebook posts for readers with tokens to burn and interest in what we’re writing, so I think this makes a lot more sense for writers and readers both!

Wondering what the heck Kindle Vella is?

Potions & Passions Kindle Vella BookFunnel Promo January 8-February 7, 2023
Potions & Passions (Kindle Vella) inaugural promo

Kindle Vella is an Amazon platform for serial storytelling.

If you’ve never checked out Vella before, there’s a good chance you have some free tokens just waiting for you to claim them. Besides that, the first three episodes of every Vella story are always free to try. Pretty cool, right?

Every episode costs a certain number of tokens, depending on the length. As readers, you can like, follow (and even favorite, if you have paid tokens) the stories you love, so Vella incorporates a bit of social media into its platform in that way. You can still review stories, too!

Vella authors often break their stories up into “seasons,” which they may break up into separate stories (or not). Anastasis Blythe, whom I’ve interviewed and reviewed ARCs from, is a prolific romantic fantasy author on Kindle Vella, but there are LOADS of authors and genres to choose from. 

The only downside is that this is still a relatively new platform, so it’s only available to US Amazon users. (I know, I have quite a bit of readership outside the US, but authors always have the option of publishing their stories 30 days after removing them from Vella, which IS my plan).

That’s all for now!

Cheers,

CKB

April promos!

April Promos

Now that the third of three BookFunnel promos I’m participating in this month has begun, I thought I’d collect everything in one place!

I’m finally building a newsletter, so it makes the most sense to change how I tell you about these promos. From now on, I’ll be including links to current promos at the bottom of my normal blog entries just like I will my newsletters (and yes, there is a normal blog coming this weekend. My review of Thorn will appear tomorrow).

BONUS: A MINI BOOK REVIEW

I just finished reading  Nghi Vo’s The Empress of Salt and Fortune. What a beautifully written, imaginative book! I’ll be sure to pen a review as soon as possible. I had plenty of highlights in this one (that being said, the ending felt a bit rushed and climax lacked the emotional punch it should have, given Rabbit’s stakes in what happened.

A full review is forthcoming, possibly for May at this rate.

A New Promo

Best Heroes – Fantasy & Science Fiction With Awesome Hero(in)es (April 10-May10, 2021)

This promo is for sci-fi and fantasy works only, so there’s plenty to find! All entries require a giveaway, too, so free content for all!

Other April Promos

Otherworldy Promo April '21
OTHERWORLDLY BEINGS (BOOKS FEATURING NON-HUMANS AND FORMER HUMANS) (April 1-30, 2021)

Otherworldy Beings is a sales promo for books in the romance, fantasy/sci-fi romance and fantasy/sci-fi genres. Time to look for your next favorite read!

Under the Surface Sci-Fi and Fantasy Giveaways
UNDER THE SURFACE (STORIES WHERE THINGS AREN’T AS THEY SEEM) (April 1-30, 2021)

Another all sci-fi and fantasy genre promo! It’s a newsletter builder, too, which means giveaways.

That’s all for now!

Cheers,

– CKB

Spring Break Promo

Spring is heeeeere…ish!

Cherry Blossoms
Cherry blossoms from last spring. Visiting them has become a family tradition.

First, the bookish business. For anybody looking for something to read over spring break (should you have such a thing) there is a new BookFunnel promo featuring CLEAN reads only. That means no swearing, sex or gratuitous violence. One of my favorite authors, Intisar Khanani, writes clean (more on her below). In fact, Girl of Shadow and Glass is clean (yes, a sample is available as part of the promo).

Spring Break Clean Book Promo
This spring break promo is clean as a whistle.

Moving on…

This time of year, my puppy, who may in fact be slightly allergic to grass (but only affecting her eyes…go figure), loves nothing more than to lie in the sun, on the grass, and do nothing, except maybe eat some of said grass. Being a puppy and all, she’s still got that destructive streak, and apparently spring grass tastes DELICIOUS to dogs. I had to make a call to the vet after said habit ended with some…er…messy results.

We took her on a short trip to see the cherry blossoms last year (also a messy trip, but unrelated to the grass. Pupper’s got a car ride time limit and we were SO CLOSE to making it!). Because of the pandemic, she’s had even fewer reasons to get in the car. Ohio weather has kept her close to home for the past few months, too.

I hope to be taking that trip to see the blossoms in the not too distant future. Really, there’s nothing like it.

What about you guys? Do you have any special spring traditions or things you really look forward to?

More Cherry Blossoms
More cherry blossoms...we were a little early last year.

What I’m Reading

The Road to Farringale, by Charlotte E. English. It’s getting good…!

What I’m Crafting

A fabulous model of a Japanese izakaya (drinking establishment). I just love miniatures! And making stuff. It’s the perfect marriage, really.

What I’m Looking Forward to

The Theft of Sunlight, by Intisar Khanani, is soon to be released! In two days, in fact! I’ve been following Rae’s story for quite some time, back when it was a free short story the author made available on Amazon. It’s nice to see her get the full-book treatment. It’s also notable that Rae is the rare fantasy character with a disability (she was born with a club foot).

That’s all for now!

Cheers and be well,

-CKB

Free and 99c Sci-Fi & Fantasy is here!

Hi guys!

The first 9 chapters of Girl of Shadow and Glass will be available as a free download through BookFunnel and this awesome sale…

 

The promo begins today (Feb. 19th) and ends March  1st. Check it out and let me know if you make any great new discoveries! I’ve found some interesting authors through BookFunnel, and it’s used by a lot of the great indie authors I review here, too.

Giant Coffee Mug on Books

What I’ve been reading lately

Twelve Days of Faery, by W.R. Gingell. A quick and joyful read, with Gingell’s unique brand of enchantress as a prominently featured character. I highly recommend it! The full review, though, is forthcoming.

Tapestry of Night, by Elm Vince. Just. Right. I loved all the plot elements, intrigue and especially the alchemist. Another review forthcoming! On a side note, the cover is pretty darn awesome.

What I’ve Been Working On

Comics! Princess Disasterface is in the works, and I can honestly say I’d be done by now if I was sticking with my old program. Sigh…time to go back I think.

What I’ve Been Crafting

Tunisian crochet mask extenders, for the whole family! If you don’t know what Tunisian crochet is, it’s like crochet with a very long hook and a knitting needle-style stopper at the end. And if you don’t know what a crochet hook is…I guess I can’t help you! (On a side note, there’s no shortage of Tunisian crochet patterns and stitch tutorials on Pinterest!)

Cheers and be well,

-CKB

Riveting Reads Promo (KU and 99c Books)

I’m pleased to share a book promo with 90+ titles with you, each in Kindle Unlimited or for 99c. (Yup, I said 90!)

Included genres are action, adventure, mystery, suspense, sci-fi and fantasy. And yours truly is a part! I’ve extended the 99c sale price for Girl of Shadow and Glass until March just for this fun promo. Check it out!

🧜🏽

What I’m reading: Anna Velfman’s Icedancer, at last! The sequel to Snowblind, a previous Indie Book Spotlight, has been high on my TBR list since it came out. And now it’s time!

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