COVER REVEAL: Redgates Secrets by Kim Koning

I'm thrilled to be a part of my writer friend Kim Koning's cover reveal for her book REDGATES SECRETS. I love books that tickle my dark side so I'd like to introduce you to her work.

Redgates Secrets

(The Redgates Secrets #1)

 

The Redgates Secrets where shadows become monsters and the chilling truth is revealed in secrets better left untold…

 

Alicia and Joseph Jackson are a couple at cracking point. After years of trying and failing to conceive, Alicia has finally fallen pregnant. But worried for her safety, her doctor prescribes a complete change of pace. What better change of pace but to buy a mortgagee sale smallholding in the country-side? The house has a name: REDGATES. Alicia is immediately charmed by this beautiful sprawling mansion. She can see her baby being born and nurtured here. Joseph is taken with the mysterious history of this old homestead. But digging around in the house’s past may uncover more than just cracks in their marriage. Some secrets are better left untold. Some nightmares hide in the shadows of the day. The locals have another name for the house: The House of Blood & Secrets.

 

Like The Redgates Secrets on Facebook!

 

 

Kim Koning

 

Kim is a dark fiction writer with the heart of a poet and the soul of a gypsy while the ancient rhythms of Africa, the birthplace of storytellers, courses through her veins. Wanting to be either a pathologist or a criminal psychologist, life took her on a few twists and turns while studying journalism and after a couple of meandering offshoots that did not involve fiction, fiction finally chose her when she was asked to write a short story for a NZ anthology (which was a National Award Winner). Kim now lives on the beautiful East Coast of New Zealand’s North Island and is lucky enough to call the Pacific Ocean her backyard. She can often be found wandering the cliff tops above the crashing ocean and walking through the lush farmlands that surround the area. But with a heart caught between two lands, the sunburned, ancient Africa and the lush, green islands of New Zealand, she finds her true home within the white pages covered in ink. Her fiction is caught between the dark and mysterious, the truth and the what ifs, secrets and reality, shadows and light. Kim really does see ghosts and her loved ones believe ghosts and extreme weather phenomenon follow her around. She grew up spending holidays and weekends at her grandparents’ large old farm homestead which had a hidden wing that was haunted. These early experiences with haunted homes ignited her imagination and started a spark that made her question what else is out there that we couldn’t see, what is around us observing us? Why could she see these ghosts/spirits and many others couldn’t? The spark was lit and the stories started coming as fast as she could write them down. One of these real life experiences sparked The Redgates Secrets, Kim’s debut 6 part novella series.

 

Website – Blog – Twitter – Facebook – Goodreads

Pretty Shadows, Wicked Smiles, and Book Blogs

I know what you are thinking…

"I'm in the mood to read a great book blog. I'd like book reviews, blog-of-the-week spotlights, and interviews delivered to my inbox. And, while I'm fantasizing, might as well wish for a great giveaway, too!"

Well, I'm not the only one who can read minds. :D
Meet Dark Franny, head mistress of the Mind Reader Blog. She's recently given her digs a new 'do and, to celebrate the new look, she'd like you to stop by and take a look around.

She has a real thing for books of beautiful darkness, including but not limited to urban fantasy and paranormal romance. When she's not reading and reviewing, she's interviewing authors and featuring other great blogs.  And she doesn't stop there...she uses her considerable talents to promote authors through Dark World Books. (She did an amazing job with my BLOOD RUSH cover reveal tour this past December!)

Stop by the Mind Reader blog, peer into the pretty shadows, and wink at the wicked ones smiling at you from within them.
AND--Don't forget to enter the giveaway! She's got some great books to surrender to a lucky winner.
Come on. We both know you want to…

Writers and Resolutions at the QueryTracker Blog

Resolutions. I hate 'em.

Well, maybe not hate. Strongly dislike. And not even resolutions themselves--just the idea of them.

Why? Because New Year's resolutions are stereotypically weak-willed attempts to fix glaring deficiencies within ourselves, using a calender date as our chief driving force instead of simply admitting there is something about ourselves we don't like but are too lazy to jumpstart our own change. < /end rant >

I know, I know...you're probably thinking, Why The Frown? Resolutions are good things! And, honestly, I believe they could be--but only if we back those words up with more than intent. We only succeed when we give ourselves the tools we need to achieve success.

One tool I use to reach my goals is to form a plan. Now, I'm not a strategist. I simply accept the fact that there is no magic transporter that can take me from START to FINISH with the press of a button or the utterance of a resolution. A plan will give me direction, identify milemarkers, and remove obstacles, making that journey a do-able thing--and not some monumental roadblock that makes it easy for us to abandon our cause.

After all, I'm pretty sure the motto isn't "If at first we don't succeed, eff it."

This week, I blogged over at the QTB about my New Year's Resolution to spend more time writing. I'm still going strong, too...using the plan I set up for myself, I've sent in first pass revisions on a novel to one editor, last pass revisions to another, and finished the first draft of my latest work in progress. If I keep up like this, I'm going to be well-accomplished come next New Year's. Fingers crossed!

Are you guilty of making a New Year's Resolution? Well, I want you to follow through on it. Check out my article at QueryTracker Blog: Writers and Resolutions and maybe you'll find a little help in creating your plan to succeed at your resolutions.

Make 2013 a happy and accomplished one, everybody!