Win a $50 Amazon Gift Card!

This year I am lucky enough to be involved in a whole heap of boxed sets!

One of those boxed sets contains my New Adult novel, Twisted Dreams, together with nineteen other fantastic new adult and young adult paranormal novels, and at the moment it's available to pre-order for the crazy price of only $0.99! Even better, now, if you order, you can also get extra points to win a $50 Amazon gift card from the authors of the set. Just check out the rafflecopter giveaway below.

We will be announcing the winner on launch day, April 5th! Good luck!


a Rafflecopter giveaway

Winners of My Blog Hop Contest... Was it You???

Hi everyone! Sorry I'm so late announcing my winners. These few days after New Year seem to have flown by and I've been procrastinating, so apologies!

My winners have been chosen via the very technological method of popping names in a hat and getting my two year old to pick out three. Those who facebooked and tweeted were added in three times. So, here are the winners...

First prize of the $10 Amazon gift card and one of my books of their choice is... Malvina Bellatrix!

Second Prize of two of my books of their choice is... Ash Krafton!

Third Prize of one of my books of their choice is... Ryanac32!

I'll be contacting each of the winners via email, facebook or twitter. Congrats everyone and thanks to everyone else for entering.

Something for the Weekend - Win a copy of my vampire novel, 'Alone'!

After a long week, I'm feeling thankful that the weekend is here so I have decided to celebrate by giving away three e-copies of my novel, 'Alone'. Yep, that's right, THREE!

So, how do you win? Just leave me a comment below telling me who your favourite vamp is (from the movies or books) and I'll randomly choose three winners!

I'm looking forward to reading your comments and maybe even discovering a couple of vamps I haven't heard of! Remember to leave me your blog link or email address so I can contact you to let you know if you won and how to collect your prize!

Good luck everyone!

Any movie makers out there???

My good twitter friend Daniel (Di) Davidson-Amadi (@TheSplinterCell) has started up a new competition site for film-makers. He's a great guy to get involved with (whether you're a film-maker or not) and he'd love for all you aspiring movie makers out there to get involved!

Here's a bit more info:

Hi and welcome to Sixty Second Stories.

In case you're not familiar with it, Sixty Second Stories is a global survey of cinematic storytelling from a new generation of filmmakers.

It's about inspiring new filmmakers all over the world to make short one minute films. Then we'll be pulling the best ones together into a feature which we'll present at the Berlin film festival this year.

You can learn more about it at the facebook page! Or follow the twitter account: @SfSixty

Help Needed! Win $25 Amazon Voucher.

On June 1st, my next novel, The Followers, will be released. I'm looking to create as much noise as possible about the release of my new book, and I'm looking for help from each and everyone of you guys.

Here is my proposal. Each person who is willing to blog/facebook/or tweet about The Followers on June 1st will be given two copies of the ebook: one for themselves, and another to giveaway as they see fit. Each person who blogs/facebooks/or tweets about the book (including people who RT on twitter) will then be in to win a $25 Amazon gift voucher. Let me know what you've done by commenting on my post on June 1st or emailing me marissafarrar@yahoo.co.uk. Each blog/fb/tweet will count as an extra entry to win the $25 voucher!

Now, I know June 1st is still quite a long way off, but if you're interested in getting involved, make sure you contact me, but either emailing me or leaving me a comment. I'm happy to email out a synopsis/cover/etc to be included in blog posts.

Hoping to hear from you all! Marissa.

Something for the Weekend! Win a personalised signed copy of Peter Labrow's, The Well!

From now on, every Friday I am going to be running, 'Something for the Weekend' right here on my blog! What's it going to involve? Author interviews, guest posts, and lots and lots of giveaways! The competitions will be open all weekend, so get entering!

So my first author interview please welcome fellow horror writer and Brit, Peter Labrow, author of the psychological horror novel, The Well.

M.F.    Let’s start with the most important thing: your books. Give us a brief description of the novel you want to talk about today.



P.L.    The Well is my first novel. On the face of it, it’s a simple ‘bottle’ story: two teens fall into an ancient well. One is badly hurt. There’s no way they can climb out. They have very little food or drink. Worse, their parents are away for the weekend, so the fact that they’re missing won’t be known for two or three days. But the story soon expands beyond that.


Every missing person leaves some kind of gap – in the case of Becca, the girl in the well, there are two key people: a predatory man who has been stalking her and her estranged best friend, Hannah. As Becca goes missing, the man turns his attentions to Hannah, who in turn is increasingly worried about her friend. But there’s worse to come – two women know exactly where Becca and her step-brother are and are desperate that they should remain trapped, else a curse hundreds of years old will be fulfilled.


I really want to say more, but part of the horror of The Well is the surprises that it throws at you – characters, situations, challenges and terrible choices. It’s very fast-paced, the most common comment I’ve had from readers is that once they start, they can’t put it down. That’s so satisfying for me – it’s what I was aiming for. Not ‘worthy’ fiction, but a darned good yarn. Several people have told me that they’ve stayed up to the early hours to read it, one girl had nightmares and a few confessed to breaking down in tears. That’s me, bringing misery to the world, one paragraph at a time.

M.F.  So what are you working on at the moment? Have you got any new projects in the pipeline?


P.L.   I’m currently writing my second novel, which is as yet untitled. Well, it did have a title, but I’ve started to dislike it so I’m considering other names. It’s set in the same location as The Well but with different characters, although there are some crossovers, name checks and nods.


On top of that, I’m plotting the next four or five books. My novels and stories are going to be interrelated – they’re not a series as such, but there will be connecting threads and some overreaching story arcs. The connection between the first two is loose, but I’m going to pull things together as I move forward: I’m not plotting the rest out in detail but I am working out what the connections will be. I’ve had a lot of positive response to the characters in The Well and I’m going to develop some of those already created and add to the community. Sometimes in very surprising ways: just because someone’s a protagonist in one book doesn’t mean they’ll remain safely in that pigeonhole. Anyone who’s read The Well will know that my characters are often conflicted, flawed people. Someone said to me on Twitter yesterday that he was around halfway through the book and he didn’t know which characters to trust. Let’s keep it that way.


I’m also working on a collection of short stories, which is likely to be published first. The latter I’m doing as a writing exercise, really – I grew up as a fan of short stories, in the days when new writers cut their teeth in fiction magazines. They also allow me to explore some of the characters from The Well and upcoming novels in different situations. One of the stories is a ‘challenge accepted’ from a follower on Twitter, it sounds like a daft idea for a story but I’m going to make it work – and make it horrific. I’m not sure I’m on board with the trend of selling one story for 70 cents – it’s cheap but it’s not good value for the reader. My current notion is that the collection will be around a fifth or a quarter of the size of a novel and be priced accordingly, still cheap but better value.

M.F. That sounds like an excellent idea, Peter, something I may have done myself *winks*. When did you first start writing?


P.L   I’ve written all my life – though non-fiction. In my day job, I develop websites and write copy for them. I’ve written marketing copy for twenty-five years and also written for magazines. I’ve always wanted to write fiction, though, ever since I was a child. I started to write my first novel in my forties, but didn’t stick at it – mainly because my marketing/website design business was so busy and demanding. When I hit 49, I decided I really had to get on with it. I wrote The Well during that year and published it two months before I was 50.


M.F.   What type of writing style do you adopt? Are you a pantser or a plotter?


P.L.   A bit of both. I plot meticulously but I leave myself a lot of wriggle-room too. Tightly plotted stories can be predictable – so I tack into the wind every so often. I remember the writer of The Wire, David Simon, saying that he would throw thunderbolts from the gods at his characters, just as they did in Greek tragedies. I do the same – because that’s what life is like. It’s what creates those ‘oh my God did that just really happen?’ moments and keeps readers guessing. So, although I plot in detail, I often leave situations unresolved until I’m writing them – although I may have plotted several routes from the situation I don’t always know which one I’m going to take until I have to.


My stories are very character driven, I think a lot about the characters and especially how they interact with other characters. In life, you may have one friend who another doesn’t get along with – you don’t see that as much in fiction. Also, my characters are like real people: they’re flawed, conflicted and sometimes don’t get to choose between good and bad, but between bad and terrible. Good people making bad choices because they’re the only ones available, for example.


Despite plotting in detail, I have no issue with a radical change if a good one occurs to me. The difference between the first and final drafts of The Well, and my pre-writing notes, is astonishing. One thing you often find in books is that once ‘the world of the book’ takes over, reality steps aside. People don’t need a coffee or to go to the toilet. In my writing, the real world is always there – I think it makes the supernatural more horrific, actually.


M.F   Who is your greatest influence?


P.L.   I assume you mean as a writer? I’d probably say Stephen King, though I know it’s become unfashionable to like him. I like King because reading one of his books is like watching a movie: the language becomes transparent. That’s how I want to write. Indeed, many of my revisions were to make the writing less showy. Having said that, I love authors whose prose is a joy to read again and again, people like John Irving or John Steinbeck. I adore Poe. I don’t just read horror and I’m not especially worried about genres either. I’ll read chick lit if the book’s good. Yes, I’d say King as a writer, though I’d say Alan Moore is overlooked or underrated, simply because he writes graphic novels: but Watchmen, V for Vendetta and From Hell are superb. The films are great, but the graphic novels are outstanding and so much richer.

M.F. Well, I guess I’m equally unfashionable! Which brings me strangely enough to my next question. Stephen King says when he writes, it is for his wife Tabitha. When you write, is there anyone you are writing for?


P.L.   Now that is a good question. I don’t write for my wife, Ruth, or my sons Dave and Mike – though they are all very supportive. I don’t think they’re ‘my readership’. Now, having said that, my second novel my wife refers to as ‘her book’ because she likes the story and characters so much. I don’t think I write for a specific person, but for the reader I want to reach, the person who likes the things I like – horror, but in situations that are grounded and real, with characters that have depth. I’m writing for the reader. I want to take people on a ride: they get on the rollercoaster and don’t know what happens next.


M.F.   Great answer! What is the last book you read?


P.L.    I’ve recently finished Dating my Vibrator by Suzanne Tyrpak, because I wanted to read something light and short. It was fun and honest. The last novel I read was The Kraken Wakes by John Wyndham. I really like Wyndham – The Chrysalids is one of my favourite books ever – but I’d never finished Kraken. I think it’s a bit slow in the early stages. I stuck with it this time and really liked it. I’m currently reading Dead Spell by Belinda Frisch and Somme Mud by EPF Lynch. I frequently read more than one book at once.


M.F.   Now for some more abstract questions: If you could be any character in fiction, who would you be?


P.L.   The Doctor, from Doctor Who. Anywhere, any time – what a great format for a series, no wonder it’s been running for so long. I’d possibly like to be less asexual though. I’d like a time machine. Can I have one?


M.F.   If I figure out how to build one, I’ll be sure to let you know! If aliens landed in front of you and offered you anything you wanted, what would it be?


P.L.   Please put away the probe. A ride in their spaceship – my wife was fairly disturbed when I said that if I were Richard Dreyfuss at the end of Close Encounters I would get on the ship, family or not. I would love to go into space. There’s a great book called simply Moon which has massive pictures from the Apollo missions – the moon is, as Buzz Aldrin said, “Beautiful, beautiful. Magnificent desolation.” I’d like to hitch a ride there.


M.F.  Tell us something quirky or interesting that people probably don’t know about you.


P.L.   I used to help run a rock music venue in Bury, back in the late 70s and early 80s. I did lights for Joy Division. Anyone who’s seen the film Control (which I really do recommend) will remember the fight scene just a couple of weeks prior to Ian Curtis committing suicide. That was at The Derby Hall, the venue I used to run, and I was doing lights that night. When it all kicked off, I hid under the table. To be honest, at the time I thought Joy Division were rubbish but my taste is often slow to catch up – I really like them now, I think they were on the brink of genius. I met my real music hero, Peter Gabriel – he had a competition for a private gig at his recoding studies and I won. It was a great gig and wonderful to meet him. I love curry. I hate sprouts and custard.


M.F.   Yeah, sprouts and custard wouldn’t work so well for me either! Thanks so much for stopping by, Peter, and for sharing a bit about yourself.

Now giveaway time! Peter has most generously offered to giveaway a personalised, signed copy of his novel, The Well (something to keep for when he is rich and famous!). So just leave him a comment below and you will be entered into the draw on Monday. The competition will be open all weekend and I will put the winners name up here Monday morning! Remember to leave you email addy or blog address so we can contact you if you win.

Good luck!

Peter Labrow is a writer of psychological horror, based in Cheshire in the UK. His goal is to write 'dark, gripping stories' that people find hard to put down. Populated by flawed characters with ambiguous motives, his writing deftly mixes the supernatural with frighteningly normal terrors. Having written marketing copy for over twenty years, Peter published his first novel, The Well, in 2010 - fulfilling a lifelong ambition to author fiction.

The Well is available in both paperback and ebook format from Amazon, Amazon.UK, Amazon.Germany, Lulu and iBookstore. If you would like to know more about Peter, he would love it if you stopped by his blog or followed him on twitter!

Competiton time ~ Win some books!

I came across this competition on the great horror site, Indie Horror. Over on the site they have seven paperback copies of The Well by Peter Labrow to people who submit a review of an indie horror book they have read.

Pretty good deal, huh?

So here's my part of the competition. If you've read or plan to read one of my novels, and have either left or plan to leave me a review, then email me at marissafarrar@yahoo.co.uk or leave me a comment together with your email addy (so I can get in touch with you if you win). Tell where the  review was left (or again, where you plan to leave your review) and in two weeks time I will do a draw for a paperback copy of 2013: The Aftermath, the anthology which includes my short story After The Revelation.

Then all you need to do is email the same review to Indie Horror in order to win The Well!

So you, could  win 2013: The Anthology AND get the chance of winning The Well by Peter Labrow if you submit your review of one of my novels to the site!

Good luck everyone!

The Get Loaded Blog Tour! Win a Kindle or $20 Amazon gift card and ebook!

Whoo-hoo! It's my turn to blog on what is turning out to be one hell-of-a blog tour. I'm stop #4 in Get Loaded, Blog Tour de Force's first tour. For stop 3 click here!. We've had some amazing response from all you guys out there, and long may it continue!

Santa wasn't good enough to me to bring me the gift I most wanted this year--a Kindle. (I was obviously on his naughty list.) Only a few months ago I swore I would never want one, but now so many books I am dying to read are out as ebooks only, so now I'm desperate to get my sweaty little mitts on one. Unfortunatly I can't enter this competition, but you guys can and if you're feeling really generous, you can always pass it on to me!!!

Yesterday we met  Rebecca Tsaro Dickson  who introduced you to her novel, I Could Tell You Stories. Her novel is an intense memoir of a woman trapped in an unloving relationship and who cheats. Written in the first person, it is not a read that should be taken lightly, and I loved some of her language and the way she describes how she is feeling. It really is a breath-taking novel.

For those of you who are new to my blog, here is a bit about me and my work:

I've been lucky enough to spend much of my life either travelling or living in different countries. I've lived in Australia and, more recently, Spain. I've also travelled to a number of different countries, backpacking from place to place, sometimes hitching rides, other times enduring twenty-four hour long bus rides.

When I was twenty-two I backpacked round Greece and Turkey, and then a year after that headed out to South-East Asia where I spent a number of months travelling around Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos.

It was during this second trip that the idea for The Dark Road came to me.

The journey from Thailand into Cambodia was certainly one of my more hair-raising experiences. I’d only been away for a week and getting the bus from Bangkok to Siem Reap (just as the characters in my book do) was an eye-opening experience. Just like in my book, I quickly discovered that when people say there are no roads in Cambodia—there really are no roads in Cambodia! We were basically travelling on dirt tracks in the middle of nowhere. Then night fell and the most incredible electrical storm I have ever seen started up around us. The lightning was like a strobe, and we were literally in the middle of nowhere. We had to cross some of the most rickety bridges, and every half an hour or so the driver would stop the bus and peer underneath it with a torch (to this day I have absolutely no idea what he was looking for).

So while this was all happening, I was sitting in my seat, watching the light show going on around me, wondering what the hell I had gotten myself into, when I thought I saw something long and black, loping alongside the bus.

Of course it was just my over-active imagination playing tricks on me, but it got the brain cells whirring, and I thought, what would happen if a group of backpackers got stuck in this situation? What if there was something out there chasing them, something that was unnatural and desperate for their blood?

And so The Dark Road was born.

Next head over to stop #5, George H. Siros and his sci-fi novel, Excelsior. His novel is action packed from the start, so hop on over to his blog, especially if you love your sci-fi!

If you're after scavenger hunt clues to  help you win that kindle, you must stop by our wonderful sponsors sites:
The Pen & Muse
Mark of the Stars
Your Need to Read
Parayournormal
Thrillers Rock
Indie Book Collective
Brighter Scribe
Chicago Culture and Events Examiner

Lastly, we authors are competing to win a book trailer and I would absolutely love to have one made for The Dark Road.  So, on Jan. 31st, go the the Indie Book Collective blog and vote for me! (Pretty please!)

My goodie bag is a £10 or $20 (depending on which county you live in!) Amazon gift voucher and an ebook copy of The Dark Road. Just leave me a comment telling me what your favorite country or place to visit is. And if you'd like to check out some more free ebooks, my dark take on a vampire romance, Alone, is now free to download for a limited time only from  Smashwords. And, as if that were not enough, as an exclusive offer for anyone who likes my facebook page,you will also be given the free code for my short story collection, Where The Dead Live.

Good luck everyone!

Amazing new blog tour starting--Win a Kindle plus heaps of other prizes.

Starting on the 17th, through to the 31st, I am taking part in a huge blog tour called 'Get Loaded' Blog Tour de Force. Each of us twelve authors has a gift basket of our very own to give away to 12 lucky readers, and our grand prize – given to one very lucky reader – is an Amazon Kindle, pre-loaded with all 12 eBooks.

My turn to blog is on the 20th, when I'll be giving away a goodie bag comprising of a £10 or $10 Amazon gift voucher, my novel The Dark Road, and my short story collection, Where The Dead Live.

There are loads of ways to enter, including shouting out the event on Goodreads, installing one of our badges or widgets onto your own site, or but for a full list head to the tour's website here!

I hope you'll all sign up and make sure you're in with a chance to win.

Win 'Let The Right One In' and more NaNo whining...

Eleven days to go and I cannot wait for this whole thing to be over. I am bored, bored, bored.
I don’t think it is the story—though it is women’s fiction, and I’ve not been able to introduce any ghosts/demons/vampires and general spooky/violent/gory stuff that I love. I read plenty of women’s fiction quite happily.
The thing that is throwing me is not being able to work on anything else. I normally veer between different projects, which keeps me excited and interested in what I am doing. I’ve got loads of other things I want to do and so feel resentful towards my poor Nano project, which really has done no harm to anyone.
I’m currently at 30555 words. Do I think I’ll make it to 50K? I don’t know, it’s doubtful at the moment, though I hate giving up on something or letting anything beat me! So I will continue to plod on and see what comes out the other end.
If you, too, wish to escape the tedium of NaNo, you can head to my Facebook Page where I am having a competition to win a copy of the novel, Let The Right One In.

Gorgeous Handmade Christmas Card Giveaway!

Okay, I know it’s still November, but let’s face it Christmas is just around the corner – and I love Christmas!

So my competition this week is for a pack of five handmade Christmas cards from the extremely talented Karen Jones, over at True Images Cards.

True image cards is based in Devon and Karen makes and packages the cards to order.

Most of the images are taken locally in and around Devon. Karen focuses on creating fun and modern images mixed with classic photography to make  a contemporary card range. All cards are handmade to order.

So, if you would like to win a pack of these gorgeous cards, all you need to do is answer the following question:

How many different designs of Christmas card are on the true image website?

And the address for the site is http://www.trueimagecards.co.uk/

Sorry, guys, this one is for UK based people only. Just leave your answer as a comment below. Good luck!

Halloween giveaway – Amanda Norman Gothic mirrors and Vamplit titles!

 

Right guys, tomorrow (Friday) will be the start of my big Halloween Giveaway!

Three winners will not only get a pocket mirror OF THEIR CHOICE from the talented gothic photographer, Amanda Norman, but they will also get an Amanda Norman bottle-opener/keyring, AND get to choose a Vamplit e-book!!!!

So check out these links to see what you could win:

Your choice of Gothic Pocket Mirrors

Keyring/bottle opener

Vamplit titles!

So how do you enter? Starting at 10am (London time) just pop over to my Facebook page and tell me what your favourite movie to watch on Halloween is. Easy.

On Sunday night, at 6pm, I will be announcing the three lucky winners!

Happy Halloween everyone and good luck!

THE BIG DAY!!! TRUE BLOOD SEASON 1 DVD GIVEAWAY!!!

So, what do you get when two vampire literature writers, one in England, the other in the US, team up to do a blog?

A giveaway on BOTH sides of the pond!

Our True Blood Season 1 DVD giveaway starts today!

First off, thanks to all our new followers, some of whom came over here from All Things Smart and Scary and the contest for Blood Ties over there -- congrats to the winner!

So, what draws us to these TV series?

Blood Ties: A hot, sexy vampire, a strong, smart female, and a cute police detective -- what more can I say? I'm not too into love triangles, but Blood Ties made it work really well -- I almost rooted for Mike at times ;-) Or maybe because I only wanted Henry all to myself! This series captivated me and captured my imagination -- it got me thinking into my own vampire protagonist's history (Henry Fitzroy, the vampire in the series, was based on the actual illegitimate son of Henry VIII), and thus Release was born.

Sadly, this series ended only after two short seasons. In order to get my Henry fix, I actually bought some of the books by Tanya Huff -- believe it or not, I'd never really read 'vampire fiction' before, other than Dracula or Interview With the Vampire! I loved the books, but I really enjoyed Ms. Huff's 'Smoke' series -- featuring Henry, but with Tony as the protagonist (instead of Vicki). I do encourage you to check them out if you haven't already!

So, onto True Blood. Marissa is a huge fan of both the HBO series and Charlaine Harris’s novels it seemed only fit that we get things going this week with a review and a competition.

Set in the deep south, the existence of vampires has been revealed. The Japanese have invented a type of synthetic blood which gives the vampires the option of ‘main-streaming’ (living alongside humans), without the need to feed on them.

Sookie Stackhouse is the female ‘heroine’. Twenty-five, blond, sexy, she can also kick-ass and, on top of that, she is a mind-reader. This makes it very difficult for her to date – imagine trying to having dinner with someone when you know all they are thinking about is what your boobs look like? So when she meets Bill and discovers that she cannot hear his thoughts she is thrilled. Except for one small problem; Bill is a vampire.

Sookie never goes through the whole ‘make me a vampire so I can spend the rest of eternity with you’ thing. She is confident with who she is and though she loves Bill, she also loves her life. This is refreshing in these days of angst-ridden, vampire-human relationships. But her involvement with Bill takes her into a whole new role she never imagined for herself. In the novels her ‘talent’ is used to help both vampires and humans, generally to find out who committed murders and disappearances.

True Blood, (both the series and the novels) is full of hot, dirty vampire sex, drugs (in the form of vampire blood), and plenty of rock-n-roll. These are vampires for grown-ups. At no point do the vampires go through the angst of who they are – instead they are more, ‘yeah, we’re vampires. Deal with it.’

The television series does the books proud. Although it follows different characters more closely than the books, it does stay true to the characters and most of the first novel. It involves a series of murders where Sookie’s sex-obsessed brother is implicated, but each of the murder victims also have vampire bites. The series has a great edgy feel to it and the music at the start of the show, Bad Things by Jace Everett, is fantastic - check out the post below.

The second series of True Blood has just started here in the UK (finally…), so what better way of catching up then by entering our competition.

And keep your eyes peeled as we’ll be giving away some of Charlaine Harris’s novels very soon!

So there you have it -- True Blood and Blood Ties: hot women, even hotter vamps, and some cute human guys thrown into the mix! What more could a girl ask for? ;-)

Today's contest question is: What would you prefer as a boyfriend/girlfriend (amended the question per Taliesin's suggestion ;-) -- a human, shape-shifter or werewolf -- and why?

Have fun!