The Christmas Dragon and Strings! Blog Tour! (+$50 Amazon GC Giveaway!)

*The Christmas Dragon*

All Katie Lin wants is to get away from her family: from the magic, from the mayhem, and from the never-ending war.

Unfortunately, someone has other ideas, and sends her a box. A box that jumps.

The tiny fire hazard inside may just force her back to Wales - and right into the path of a dragon war, the Crow King, and at least one reluctant elf prince. Sometimes, running away just doesn't work as planned.

*Strings*

 Need help? You probably shouldn't ask Grey.

A runaway Unseelie prince, Grey feeds on love -  a commodity he conjures via music and magic in late-night Manhattan. It's a sweet gig, if lonely, and Grey is almost sure the dire warnings he was given about New York in December won't come true.

Then a monster from his childhood attacks in the middle of the night, and everything changes. 

He survived, but he's marked, and more monsters are coming for him and everyone who survived. Grey has no plans to be a hero but fate doesn't care what he wants. Sometimes, no matter what you do, you aren't the one pulling the strings.

~Ruthanne: Exposed (ha)!~

Hi, Andra! Thanks so much for having me here today. It’s my pleasure to share a few quirky facts I never knew before. Let’s call it 10 Things I Didn’t Know About Becoming a Published Author.

1. The urge to spy on what COMPLETE STRANGERS are reading (just in case) will put more kinks in your neck than Zumba.
2. If you’re an introvert like me, you’ll want to tell everybody you have a book. Then when you try, you fuddle it, and somehow end up talking about pumpkin strudel instead.
3. When asked about your book, your elevator pitch goes right out the window and you still end up talking about pumpkin strudel.
4. Your spouse is really proud of you. I know that should be a given, but it feels more like a gift.
5. Your cats don’t care. They do, however, make terrific interruptions by walking on your typing hands.
6. It doesn’t actually get easier to write the next book. They SAY it does, but for me, that never happened. Each tome is a product of blood, sweat, and tears, and that’s okay.
7. Don’t worry about running out of ideas. Nobody on earth has “just one” book in them. If you don’t have any ideas right now, it just means it’s coming later. Don’t Panic.
8. Opening a box of your own books is amazing every time and deserves a party. Or at least fresh cookies.
9. Confidence won’t come from having “made it” and being published. It will come from knowing you’ve created something good and sharing your job!
10. Writing needs to be fun. Don’t lose track of that. Publishing is a business, yes, but creating is NOT. If it ever loses its fun for you, don’t be afraid to take a break until it’s fun again.

~Try an Excerpt!~

The Christmas Dragon

The box jumped.

Boxes are not supposed to jump. It’s a law somewhere, I think. Maybe Guyana. Apparently not in New Hampshire, because the box kept jumping.

I sat in my idling car, puffs of exhaust rising in my rear-view mirror, and stared at the uncoordinated box-dance. It was wrapped in the loveliest paper, too, which was a shame, because bouncing on my boot-scraper had roughened all the corners and torn one edge. The bow was big and purple and covered in small green somethings. I wasn’t close enough to make them out.

I didn’t want to be close enough to make them out.

If I didn’t do something soon, the neighbors would notice. The box probably hadn’t been jumping all morning, or there’d be a crowd. Or maybe it was already on YouTube. I didn’t know.

So much for a safe, boring life among the Ever-Dying. New Hampshire, you have failed me.

I turned off the car. Time to go see what invaded my (mostly) magic-free space. 

~Meet Ruthanne!~ 

Indie author Ruthanne Reid writes about elves, aliens, vampires, and space-travel with equal abandon. She is the author of the series Among the Mythos, and believes good stories should be shared. Subscribe to her free email newsletter for free books and more at http://amongthemythos.com. You can connect with her on Twitter (http://twitter.com/ruthannereid), Facebook (http://facebook.com/mythos), or Tumblr (http://ruthannereid.tumblr.com), where she looks at too many kittens and Avengers blogs.

Ruthanne’s love of magic, urban environments, and deep space birthed a strange world with undercurrents of faith, magic, villainy, and heroism (along with swords and lasers, on occasion). Among the Mythos showcases aliens with all-too-human feelings, entire societies on the decline due to greed and fear, protagonists who might actually be the bad guys (or vice-versa), and endings every bit as messy as the world that creates them.

Ruthanne knows from experience that endings are messy. No matter how exotic the setting, how many limbs the characters have or what (if any) genders, the problems and questions addressed by a good story are very real, and that’s why they have power. If she has a theme, it is this: keep fighting, and keep pushing toward hope, because the struggle is worth the finish-line.

Ruthanne will be awarding a $50 Amazon or B/N GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour, and a $15 Amazon or B/N GC to a randomly drawn host.

a Rafflecopter giveaway