This is just a quickie blog blurb — I’m doing a chat tonight on Twitter at 9pm EST at #YAlitchat and will be giving away books… also will have a contest running for a month at the following site. Now’s a chance to win your free copy of Shadow Walker!
Happy Holidays, everybody! Wow… what a CRAZY Year, huh?
SHADOW WALKER IS HERE!(Book 1 in the YA Trilogy)
Well, despite the madness, I decided to venture out into the world of self-publishing and epublishing. I wanted my “babies,†the children of the famed Neterus in The Vampire Huntress Legend series… and all the kids of the Guardians, to be set in a universe that I had envisioned. Seemed like nobody was gonna let that happen but me – yeah… they ‘took me there’ this year! 
Therefore, with great trepidation, I stuck my toe in the water and ya know what…? WOW! Not only wasn’t it as hard as I expected, it wasn’t as scary. What a way to celebrate my birthday (12/11) I was up into the wee hours and got the file out on 12/12… it felt like giving birth, LOL!
So armed with Joe Konrath’s able crew (Rob, Cheryl, and Carl), we set out and pulled together a cover, interior layout, and got the files converted… then uploaded and Voila! But I can’t forget the savvy editors, Leslie Wainger and Chandra Sparks Taylor – plus Lissa Woodson’s hand-holding and expert graphics for marketing materials.
Now we’re ready to go – just in time for the holidays! Here’s the links to get it on Kindle, PDF, TEXT, Sony Reader, and iPad.
Here’s the link to get it on Nook at BN.Com.
But I DIDN’T FORGET ABOUT PRINT FOLKS, nooosiree!
In about a week you should see it on Amazon.
The Vampire Huntress Legends series is alive… yep… it lives on in many modes. We’ve also got the comics out… issues #1 & #2 are out now, issue #3 will be out in late January, issue #4 in late March, and the graphic novel/trade will be out in April 2011.
So, we have the parent’s entire saga (12 books), now the next generation (appropriate for Young Adults) – Shadow Walker, in both ebook and print (soon)… plus the comics!
If Vampires are getting old for you, though… look for Surrender the Dark (April 2011) and Conquer the Dark (October 2011) — a brand new angels vs demons series from Pocket Books/Simon and Schuster – Yaaay! These are definitely angels with dirty wings though, LOL! (muy caliente, these angels are Hawt)
Then, of course, if you just want hot-action… Sizzle & Burn (July 2011, St. Martin’s Press — writing as Alexis Grant); this is Men of Delta Force non-stop action. What can I say… doesn’t the cover say it all about this series, LOL?! (OMG!)
May your Holidays be HAPPY!
Much Love and Stay in the Light!
Here’s the Back Cover Blurb from Shadow Walker:
Sarah Rivera has a lot going on in her life. It’s bad enough that she’s being shipped off to Temt Tchaas Academy also known as Neteru Academy, a high school for future Guardians of the Light who have special powers, but she has to go there with her cocky twin brother and the rest of her compound brothers and sisters. To make matters worse, everyone has ridiculous expectations of her all because her parents are like supernatural rock stars for saving the planet sixteen years ago. But what nobody—not even her best girlfriend Tami—seems to be getting is the fact that Sarah doesn’t think she’s special, doesn’t want to be a demon-hunting hero and is even afraid of the dark!
So what that her mother was a Warrior Angel and her dad used to be a Hell Council-level Vampire? Opposites attract. Go figure. As far as Sarah is concerned, all she got from the combination was a pair of fangs that lengthen at inappropriate times to embarrass her in front of her secret crush; whereas her brother, Alejandro, got the good looks and cool wings. However, what her parents’ status has created is drama in her life by ensuring that the mean girls at school will make her life a living nightmare. Sarah knows her family’s renowned slayer reputation will also ensure that everyone at school will assume she had it easy and should be able to do everything her famous rebel parents can do, when the heartbreaking truth is, she can’t. Not by a long shot.
Once at the hidden boarding school in the Appalachian Mountains, things go from bad to worse as Sarah tries to fit in. Her nightmares increase, and it isn’t just anxiety; her second sight is suddenly developing at a record pace. Layers of secrets are held in the building, held by her parents, and nothing is as it seems. There is something really bad going on at the school, worse than bad—deadly. Only, faculty and administrators don’t know where to begin to look for the cause as students start to disappear. Sarah must then make a choice to stand on the sidelines or to help use her gifts to save someone dear. But to do that means facing all of her greatest fears—along with a demon or two.
Hey folks… much going on, gotta download the intel fast, LOL… got in a gazillion contest essays from the good people at The Devil’s Candy Store–so I’m gonna be wading through those anonymous entries (the DCS strips off identifying info, I read and pick–to keep it all fair)… but I have to say it is SO AWESOME of them to have donated that really kewel and expensive item to the VHL family, you know.
Then, let us not forget, in about a week and a half, The Twelve Tribes Compound Summit will hit Philly, OMG–talk about crazy logistics and a packed weekend! Whew! The City of Philadelphia’s entertainment and event portal, GOPHILLY.COM put us up in cyberspace That was also very, very cool. We posted artists that are coming and panelists, so if you haven’t been by www.NeteruTour.com stop by and check it out, the site has been updated.
Meanwhile, I’m working on werewolves and other things that go bump in the night (yay!) I was having “Damali & Carlos” withdrawal until I began working on the graphic novel–but Sasha and Hunter are kinda like methodone (BIG SMILE.)
OK… gotta run… we also updated the appearances page at www.vampirehuntress.com as well as at www.LeslieEsdaileBanks.com with a whirlwind tour. A DC stop will be added this week, too
Back to work for me… you all have a good one and stay in the Light!
BIG PHILLY HUG (and go Steelers! I’m a PA resident, smile, what can I say?! LOL!)
This is just a quickie post–but when I saw this, I had to share. The University of Pennsylvania Gazette showed some serious love in this article and I thought you all might enjoy! Have a great night, Leslie
Happy Halloween!
Just got back from The Bahamas… was at the Come Out & Play Event hosted by marketing maven, Lissa Woodson, and we had a ball! I’m still struggling with downloading pics off my camera (LOL), but Lisa has some crazy blackmail shots of me and my cousin Vicky playing jax like we used to a hundred years ago on the porches of Philly We almost sat on the dance floor to get down and get serious old skool style, LOL! But that would have messed up the folks doing the cha-cha slide!
The event was awesome… Atlantis was GORGEOUS! We walked through glass tunnels with sharks and stingrays overhead, watched them feed the sharks, rode on water tubes… and my daughter and her girlfriend were brave enough to slide down the pyramid slides. I would have needed paramedics, so my sister (who also went) and my cousins, hey—we went to the casino (that’s how you know you’re getting old—we left the youngins to do their water sport madness, ha ha ha!) We took in a little local flavor, going down to the “fish fry†– which is a strip of local restaurants and the main drag in Nassau – before heading back to Paradise Island for the sugar sand beaches and balmy blue surf.
Then got back here just in time to see, what? THE PHILLIES WON THE WORLD SERIES!!!!! Philly is on FIYAH, LOL! Between all that I’m still trying to get this book finished in fits and starts. Tonight my excuse is that it’s Halloween and I have to hand out candy—BIG GRIN… it’s all good!
Much love… Trick or Treat!
Leslie
Oh, one last thing before I get back to writing, I forgot to mention–the new Red Rose Publishing eBook I did, “Finders Keepers,” is out now. It went live October 9th. Check it out
Also, I know a LOT of folks have been asking for one last BTB for the VHL. Right now I’m working on a YA, the first book in the new young adult series. So, if you guys let me get past my newly revised (from Nov. 1 to Nov 15th deadline), I’ll see if I can get one done in December. But here’s the problem, while working on the YA stuff, I cannot allow Carlos and Damali or any of those hot couples from the Neteru Guardian Team to enter into my mind, LOL–muy caliente! Nope. It takes my brain somewhere else, then it’s too hard to get back into a teenage mindset. Crazy, but the one deep thing is, I really found my genre-hopping limit. I’ve learned that I can do werewolves and vampires, crime, and romance all at the same time, but YA… wow, I just can’t think on that plane and then do the sizzling scenes needed for my darker paranormal work and vice versa. (Maybe that means I’m not as crazy as I thought, smile! That’s a good thing I can’t mentally blend youth with the other stuff, I think.) How much it all lived inside my head while writing it, that was truly a personal revelation. I mean, as writers we know that we have to noodle things in our brains for a while, but just how much you take your head into a world isn’t apparent until you can’t do it… ok, I’ve been up way too early this morning and therefore babbling
Soooo, I just ask y’all to be patient with me as I explore some new mental territory, BIG SMILE!
Last thing… while the tickets for the Neteru Tour are sold out–there are still tickets for the Saturday night event… so you don’t have to feel left out. I’ll be writing a special epilogue to the epilogue (smile) for book #12, The Thirteenth, for the event program book, too. That night will be FUN and you’ll get to meet a lot of the folks you probably interact with in the forum and on the yahoogroup… so we’d love to have you if you can make it.
OK, that’s my two cents for the day… back to teen adventures, LOL! Hugs and much love to all, and THANK YOU for always having my back!
Stay in The Light… Leslie!
Hi, folks… I was up at no o’clock in the morning messing with twitter, LOL–yeah, 4:30am, trying to link this blog there so people could get the feeds from one location to another I so need to get a life, LOL! But I think i was victorious, yaaaay… and a big shout out to my girl, Chantay, who told me that was even possible. Then I got happy and linked twitter to my MySpace profile page… whooo… I think I’m getting scary-technical now for me, ha ha ha! Well, back to writing!
Hugs and Love, Leslie!
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