Release day, and Happy Halloween!

It's official! CRY WOLF is available for download in eBook and audiobook format today. I just wanted to say thanks to everyone who has bought it. I'm still floored by the positive review on USA Today's HEA blog. If you missed it, check it out here.

It's also Halloween, and I hope everyone has a safe and fun holiday! I was walking around a Halloween Express the other day, and I saw this creepy Halloween decoration. What struck me about it was that it reminded me of the Woodbine Werewolf I imagined when writing this story.

See why this story would make a good Halloween read?

Mwahahahaha! Happy Halloween!

Roundup of giveaways and blog tour posts

Three days and counting until Monday when CRY WOLF releases for sale. In the meantime, I am providing giveaway copies through some review sites who were nice enough to either provide a review or host me for my blog tour.

Here's a complete list of contests and blog posts so far. If you have a few minutes to check it out or want to enter to win a free copy of my book, I would really appreciate your time.

Win a $10 Amazon gift card and a copy of CRY WOLF at Katie Reus' blog. To enter, just leave a comment:
http://katiereus.blogspot.com/2011/10/cry-wolf.html

Win a copy of CRY WOLF at Rage, Sex and Teddy Bears, which also provided a review of my book:
http://ragesexandteddybears.blogspot.com/

Win a copy of CRY WOLF at Jen's Bookshelf, where I received a 5 out of 5 rating for CRY WOLF:
http://jenisreading.blogspot.com/2011/10/halloween-e-book-giveaway.html

Win a copy of CRY WOLF and read my Q&A at Fierce Romance (Note: Contest has ended):
http://fierceromance.blogspot.com/2011/10/guest-angela-campbell-book-giveaway.html

I'll update this list as more giveaways/posts are added. Thanks again, and good luck!

My personal obsessions are...

I just discovered an awesome blog from some fellow authors (including my Carina Press Oct. 31 release mate Natalie Damshroder) who are passionate fans of the CW show "Supernatural." It's called Supernatural Sisters. Check it out. I'm also a diehard fan of the show, and I have been a loyal fan of Jensen Ackles for many, many years ("Dark Angel" is still one of my favorite shows, dammit! Why was it canceled? Why?! Why?! Why?! *bangs head against keyboard*). I'm still sad I had to stop referring to him as My Future Husband Jensen Ackles when he got married, but that's a subject for a whole 'nother blog post.

On the off chance people care, I thought I'd post a little about myself...or more specifically, my interests outside of writing. Well, that's a funny story, because I always combine my passions with writing. I actually have two other blogs that have become sorely neglected in recent months. One is "Confessions of a fangirl" where I have spent years blogging about my favorite shows (including Supernatural) and comic books and such. If you want to see how geeky I am (and how scary my mind can be), feel free to wander over and check it out.

I have also been collecting celebrity autographs since I was in middle school. It's more than a hobby. It's a passion! I love the challenge of seeing just who I can get a response from through the mail, and occasionally, in person. My collection includes Jimmy Stewart, Shirley Temple Black, Jennifer Lawrence, and (yes I have both through the mail and in-person sigs from) my former future husband Jensen Ackles. That blog gets a lot of traffic, so if you're interested, you can check that one out too.

Yes, I'm a blogging fool.

Online appearances this week

We're officially less than a week away from the release of CRY WOLF, and you know what that means. Yep, I'm prancing around the cyber-verse spreading please-buy-my-book fairy dust and doing the usual promo. If you'd like to follow and give me a shout out, believe me, I won't be offended. In fact, I might name my next pet after you. Seriously.

My guest post at the Here Be Magic blog is now up and just begging for comments. I'm not kidding. Please go comment, even if it's to call me a big fat weirdo, cause that post is entertaining nothing but crickets right now. It's kind of sad, really.

Later today, my friend Esmerelda Bishop (well, we're in the same critique group anyway) will be kind enough to host a Q&A with me at the Fierce Romance blog.

Jen's Bookshelf is also holding a contest to give away a copy of CRY WOLF this week at her blog, with my blessing. Head on over and enter to win it or the audiobook. Winner's choice. And check out some of Jen's reviews while you're over there.

And don't forget to check out fellow author Katie Reus's website, where she's currently hosting a slew of authors (including yours truly) to celebrate a month-long Monster Mashup. My post, and a contest, goes live this weekend. Check it out and enter to win some goodies.

Wow, us authors sure are a mixed bag of weirdos

First of all, if you’re an author and you’re reading this, I’m sorry if I just offended you by calling you, me and JK Rowling weirdos in this blog title. But come on. You gotta admit it’s probably true — right? I mean, some of us love being in the spotlight. Some of us hate it. Some of us take offense at reviews. Some of us don't.

I had this epiphany today at lunch when I was talking about my book with my good friend and co-worker — I’ll call her Candy to protect her identity.

“I got two more reviews,” I told her happily. “I got a 3 out of 5 on one and a 4.5 out of 5 on the other.”

“That’s pretty good,” she said.

“Yeah, well, the 3 out of 5 reviewer said she liked the first two-thirds of the book, but then it went downhill from there. It’s weird because a lot of people have said the opposite. I’m just confused.” I sighed.

Candy — God bless her — gave me a mini pep talk that led to a discussion about a friend of ours who also writes books — I’ll refer to him as Bob to protect his identity. He’d had a awesome fantasy series published a few years ago with a publisher that has since gone out of business, and when he was laid off a few months ago, he self-published his next novel. Now, I know Candy loved his fantasy series and she really liked his new story too, but she had some issues with his newest book. Mainly some gratuitous sex. She said she told him the truth about that -- that the book would have been better without the explicit sex.

Well, he asked Candy to go on Amazon and give him a review to try and boost his sales.

Gasp! This idea horrified me! I would never ask someone I know to give me a review. In fact, it's hard for me not to ask people I know NOT to read my book because it creeps me out, imagining them inside my head that way. Strangers, okay, but people I know?! I could not ask them to review my book. Never! Well, okay, so maybe if a psycho killer were holding a knife to my cat’s throat and ordered me to do it then yes, yes, I would. But I would also really hope I don't know any psycho killers who would do that to me. Anyway.

“Well, did you give him a review?” I asked.

“Of course,” she said. It turns out he'd asked some other friends to give him reviews too.

Wha?!

As I was listening to this, I didn’t grab my chest and gasp for breath in horror — but I wanted to. But I am weird like that. I mean, the mere idea of asking a friend to review my book...uh uh. Can't do it. Call me Queen Weirdo. I don't care.

I can’t really judge Bob for what he did though. Books are a tough business. Yeah, I said it. BUSINESS. Naturally, we’d all love to write for the fun of it, but the reality is, we all have bills to pay, which means we have editors and publishers to impress, along with multitudes of readers to tempt into buying our books.

And reviews are a funny thing too. I actually appreciate the comments that come along with them because they’re helping me to figure out where my weaknesses are. I'm not sure I would trust anyone who knows me to be honest though. A certain book — you know, the one I’m working on now — has changed a little since I started it because I realize now I have a tendency to do certain things that shall remain between me and my computer’s DELETE button. Ehhh-hmmm.

So, please, if you read my book and are kind enough to give me a review, be honest. I might cry a little at first. I might even pound my head against the wall if it’s really negative, but I have a thick head so it’s okay.

And I’d probably hug you if I could, just knowing you read my book. I won’t, cause that would be silly, but still. You read my book, so thank you.And thank you, hopefully, for helping me to become a better writer.

A book trailer, reviews and a blog tour - oh my!

Whew, where does the time go? Can you believe there’s only two and a half weeks before my book will be released? I’ve posted a list of blog tour stops I’ll be making in the next few weeks, so feel free to stop by and give a shout out. Plus, there will giveaways! After all, I figure anyone who puts up with my quirkiness deserves the chance to win a little something.

In the meantime, the reviews for “Cry Wolf” are starting to trickle in, and (thank you, God!) folks have been largely positive. Some people have LOVED it and some people have rated it average on Goodreads, but I’m grateful no one has yet given me a 2, 1, or (gasp!) a zero. I’m sure those will come — after all, you can’t please everyone — but I’ve been too busy to really think much about it. I suppose there’s nothing better to cure neurosis than a little bit of preoccupation with something else.

I’m working on my own book trailer and hope to get that up soon. I don’t expect it to do much in the way garnering me readers, but as a wannabe, amateur filmmaker, I simply could not let the opportunity pass to dabble around with it. I’m having fun, anyway.

I’m thisclose to cutting out pictures of my book cover characters, attaching them to Popsicle sticks and using them to act out certain scenes. Or — too much? I don’t want people to think I’m not taking this serious enough, but that’s how my mind works. I always wanna go for the funny. And wouldn’t that be hilarious? I giggle just thinking about it.

I’m sure I could find a cheap wolf hand puppet at Toys R Us, after all…

Hmm….