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Raising the Stakes

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(Cover for Colleen Gleason’s forthcoming third novel in the Gardella Vampire Chronicles series, Feb. 2008)

Two days remain before the ‘official’ start of the R.I.P. II Challenge and here I am, raising the stakes, announcing the second giveaway opportunity for you dear Challenge readers (The first is mentioned in the R.I.P. II post, if you’ve forgotten).

As you may know, I have a special place in my heart for author Colleen Gleason. She is the first author I ‘met’ through the wonder of blogging and she has been a great supporter of my site ever since the first time she came for a visit. It has been a great pleasure watching her become a published author. It has been an even greater pleasure to be able to honestly say how much I have enjoyed her first two novels in the Gardella Vampire Chronicles series. That enjoyment, coupled with the fact that Colleen Gleason is just a wonderful person, means that I do my best to lead the cheer squad in promoting her work.

And so, the mini-skirt is on again, I am picking up my pom-poms, and awaaaaay we go…

For everyone who reads one of Colleen Gleason’s novels for the R.I.P. II Challenge and posts a review (linking to it on the review site, of course) between now and the witching hour of October 30th, 2007 an entry will be placed in the hat for a chance to win a special Venator Prize Pack (details to follow). For those who do not have a blog you are certainly welcome to guest review on my site. I will announce the winner on October 31st.

If you read one book, you get one entry. If you read both books, you get two entries.

The Venator Prize Pack includes:

1. An Advanced Reading Copy of The Bleeding Dusk (read it months before anyone else, be the envy of all your friends) signed and personalized to you.

2. Signed cover flats for all three books. I assume these are roughly postcard size, but Colleen can elaborate.

3. At least one Gardella Chronicles bookmark, also signed.

4. An ultra cool replica stake (example pics here and here)

If that isn’t encouragement enough, go read my review of The Rest Falls Away, my review of Rises the Night, and interview one and two with Colleen. These are perfect R.I.P. reads, so pick yours up and sink your teeth into the adventures of Victoria Gardella.
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In other Colleen Gleason news, her series has been picked up for a fourth book. The reason I know this is that she is holding a wonderful Immortalize Your Friend in a Book Contest:

This is your chance to nominate a friend for a unique opportunity: to be immortalized by being a character in a book. (And there’s even something in it for you too!)

Colleen Gleason is giving away the chance to name or be a walk-on character in When Twilight Burns, the fourth book in her Gardella Vampire Chronicles, due to be released in August 2008.

Follow this link for further details and to nominate your friend(s).

It is such a fun idea. Best of luck to the fortunate people who are nominated by their friends!
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And last, but not least, isn’t the cover for The Bleeding Dusk great?!?! So artfully seductive. Thankfully this new cover will not cause me to draw comparisons between myself and the cover model! 😉 Also, I am unlikely to get a picture like this because of the new cover! (Although I wouldn’t put anything past Jeff after that contest entry!) In fact, Jeff and I were joking today that it was our wives’ turn to be the ones posing for pictures since Jeff and I did so for the last book! 🙂

Seriously though, all three covers for Colleen’s Gardella Vampire Chronicles books have been fantastic and I look forward to seeing what the artists have in store for book four.

If you haven’t read any of Colleen’s works, you are in for a real treat. Her work starts out strong and just gets better and better as you read it. This is a prize pack worth getting, so start reading!

43 thoughts on “Raising the Stakes”

  1. What a perfect way to up the pre-challenge ante!

    I’ll be trying to squeeze one of these in as a bonus read.

  2. I’m going to try to squeeze them in as well. It’s about time I read her work.

    I really love that cover. It’s sexy in a very classy way.

  3. oh…! you bad man, carl!! just when i thought it was safe to visit your site, along comes another fantastic recommendation and with siren-like tempting incentive…!!!!

  5. Now is the time Angela, you could win the ARC for the next one!!! 🙂

  6. Aii! Need to add her books to my wishlist. My ever-growing wishlist. My wishlist which threatens to gain sentience any day now.

    The covers are indeed absolutely gorgeous, but I do wonder what it is with the tendency of cover artists these days to chop off people’s heads. It’s getting to be a bit much.

  7. Carl, as always, thanks so much for going above and beyond the call of duty in your support of the Gardella books!

    As I said last night, I wish I could clone you into about a hundred Carls (complete with pompoms and mini-skirts, and stakes!).

    Just FYI, the cover flats are about the size of a book opened and spread flat–it’s the actual cover, exactly as it would be before it’s bound onto the book.

    They’re very pretty, she says innocently.

    Thanks again and I hope everyone enjoys the challenge! I’m jumping in too, I just need to post my intentions and let Carl know to add me.

  8. Oh, and Carl, I meant to suggest that you add to the Venator Prize Pack a replica of the stake pictured on The Rest Falls Away.

    How’s that sound?

  9. aw, I have already read both books. Great prize, though, good luck to everyone! Colleen is one of my favourite authors as well, so everyone really should read her if they haven’t done so already. It’s a great series, I am looking forward to book 3. 🙂

  11. I actually considered the first book for part of the RIP challenge, but decided to stick with books I already purchased. But how can I pass up such a cool contest? Sign me up! I will pick up my copy tthis weekend and will adjust my list of books. Thanks Colleen and Carl!

  12. Okay…just the kick I needed! I swear I’ve been meaning to pick up both of these ever since she visited our little town and said such nice things about it on her blog. Colleen just seems like such a cool, classy lady!

  15. How Cool. I’m so glad I added Rises the Night to my RIP II list.

    I will tell you I shared the book cover for The Bleeding Dusk with my lovely wife Keri today and shared the whole it’s her turn to dress up as the cover model this time idea. Well let’s just say I don’t think that’s happening. If you could have only see her give me the ” look “. Priceless 🙂

  16. What a great contest! I’ve already read the books, but this will be such an awesome package for someone new to the series. Recommendation…if you buy the first book, just pick up the second at the same time, you’ll want it right away!

    The cover for The Bleeding Dusk is…well…hot! Looking forward to that one. I can’t imagine a book better than Rises the Night, but I’m sure it will be. February is just so long to wait :/

  17. I have been gone for eons from this site. Looking through everything this evening had made me miss this site so much. I have gotten so caugth up in life that I have simply lacked visiting here. 🙁
    Since i have been gone for at least 9 months I would like to add this back into my list of daily visits.
    Over the 2.5 years I have ben coming to this site, I have always wanted to get into a RIP challenge. I hope its not to late to join in on the challenge!

    I think I am Wonder Woman!~

    I am going to try my hand at this. I think I will make this my goal. I am not sure if it will be a peril or not.

    But here is my list.
    1. Harry Potter 7
    2. A few more Demons – Kim Harrison
    3. Colleen Gleason book1
    4. Colleen Gleason book2

    With work 4 jobs it will be almost impossible for me to do this but it is my goal. Three paying and one that does not pay. I no longer have a blog so can I post the reviews on this site Carl?

  18. Of course Jamie, just let me know when you want to post. Glad you’re joining in. At the very least even if you just get one of these books read you’ll be getting into the spirit of the thing! It is definitely not too late. Heck, the thing doesn’t “officially” start until the first, and with one of the perils only being one book long, people can join in with the rest of us any time throughout the next two months!

  20. Loved the first book but until now haven’t gotten around to book two (which I will rectify when my copy arrives on Monday) so you can count me in on this one!

  22. Woo-hoo! I have The Rest Falls Away as one of my challenge picks and it’s probably going to be the one I read first.

  23. Since Carl is prominently featuring book #3 do I (I mean Carl) get a sneak preview copy of the book? I mean as his wife it would be unfair of me to win the contest, but a little prize…

    Heather, I don’t know why other cover artist cut of the heads of their models, but it only makes sense with a vampire book!

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  27. A compelling giveaway; I have The Rest Falls Away waiting to be read. Plus, it’s nice to see my picture on The Bleeding Dusk.

  28. I was wondering who that was, Bellezza!!! 🙂 You crack me up!!!

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  32. Can you possibly twist my arm any more??? OK. I won a copy of Colleen’s first book from her on her blog. Then I went out and bought her second book the first week of release. And now I am hanging my head in shame saying I haven’t read either one! SO…..I will definitely add both to my bonus reads for this challenge. I want me that stake!!

  33. I didn’t finish Rises the Night when I started to read it on release – I got sidetracked…

    So, I think I will indeed add it to my RIP II list!

  34. I’m adding The Rest Falls Away to my “peril pool” of RIP books. I picked it up today at the bookstore and have already started it 🙂

  35. I have Colleen’s first book on my TBR pile and it is one of the ones on my list for this challenge–I am hoping to get to it. That’s very kind of her to offer an ARC of her new book as a prize!

  36. It was very sweet of her to offer such cool prizes for this giveaway, I’m very excited about the chance to give this stuff away.

  37. Well, I’m going to read Colleen’s books for the challenge. I’ve picked them up and will get to read them. Thanks for the rec!

  38. I tried to pick up Gleason’s books at B&N today, but they weren’t on the shelf. 🙁 At least, I couldn’t find them (had baby niece in tow, so I couldn’t really ask a sales person). So, looks like it’ll be Amazon for me!

    I haven’t read many vampire books (just Anne Rice’s Interview with a Vampire), but you’re so enthusiastic, how can I resist? 🙂

  39. They should have been in the romance section of B&N, most likely, if they had any. I think you’ll enjoy these books quite a bit, at least I hope so.

  40. Ohhh-didn’t think to look in romance. Well, my amazon package is currently winging its way towards me, and the books were part of a buy 4-get-one-free giveaway, so between that and getting to $25 for free shipping, I also bought Marked, Lud-in-the-Mist, and (randomly) The Decameron. Yay for book buying!

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  42. Hey, Carl –

    Way back up there you say we need to link our review of Colleen’s books on “the review site”.

    What review site would that be? I’m a tad bit confused…

    cjh

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