Cynsations: New Voice: Leanna Renee Hieber on Darker Still

What era calls you?

The fabulous author Cynthia Leitich Smith has me over at Cynsations today, talking about why I write Victorian and how I adapt for the YA voice and market. Come tell us what era calls to you!

Cynsations: New Voice: Leanna Renee Hieber on Darker Still:
Leanna Renee Hieber is the first-time YA author of Darker Still: A Novel of Magic Most Foul ...

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New Contest: featuring Hope Tarr's TEMPTING and more...

New Contest! Victorian Goodness Galore!
Please visit one of my favourite authors and dear friend and Lady Jane's Salon co-founder Hope Tarr and join in the incredible giveaway she's hosting not only for her own work, but for a copy of DARKER STILL! Hope is celebrating the re-release of her incredible and award-winning novel TEMPTING so don't miss this opportunity to learn more about Hope's work and you may just get a copy of DARKER STILL too! :) 


Cheers!

"At Will" To be featured in WILFUL IMPROPRIETY: 13 Tales of Society and Scandal!

Anthology Announcement! I'm SO EXCITED to be included in this collection!

Reposted from EKATERINA SEDIA's Blog:

"I am extremely pleased to announce the project that’s been under wraps so far: I am editing an anthology for Constable&Robinson, WILFUL IMPROPRIETY: 13 Tales of Society and Scandal (to be published in the US by Running Press). I will post the cover as soon as it is available, but for now, enjoy the ToC:


Introduction by Ekaterina Sedia

THE DANCING MASTER by Genevieve Valentine

THE UNLADYLIKE EDUCATION OF AGATHA TREMAIN by Stephanie Burgis

AT WILL by Leanna Renee Hieber

STEEPED IN DEBT TO THE CHIMNEY POTS by Steve Berman

OUTSIDE THE ABSOLUTE by Seth Cadin

RESURRECTION by Tiffany Trent

MRS BEETON’S BOOK OF MAGICKAL MANAGEMENT by Karen Healey

THE GARDEN OF ENGLAND by Sandra McDonald

FALSE COLOURS by Marie Brennan

NUSSBAUM’S GOLDEN FORTUNE by M. K. Hobson

THE COLONEL’S DAUGHTER by Barbara Roden

MERCURY RETROGRADE by Mary Robinette Kowal

THE LANGUAGE OF FLOWERS by Caroline Stevermer

I am really pleased about this one, even though YA is not something I do a lot of. But here’s an excerpt from my intro anyway!  “Recently we saw a great rise in both Victorian and Young
Adult categories of fiction, and to me these two go hand inhand. If being a teenager is about disobedience, the notion of Victoriana (at least the way it is perceived by a modern reader)
is often centered around propriety and convention, rigid social structures, and impermeable class, race and gender barriers. Yet, where there is convention, there is also defiance, and the opposite side of this Victorian coin is the realization that as long as there are barriers and conventions, there will be those who will rise up against them.”"

(End of Ekaterina's post)

SO THRILLED! As soon as we've a cover and release details in UK / US I'll post it all. I'm in such wonderful company!

And so excited to see my authorial niche being featured in such a way!

"At Will" features a talented teenage Shakespearean actress who gets caught up in a gender experiment of epic proportions on the Victorian London stage...

More to come! I've another anthology announcement I hope to share soon!

National Tell-a-friend-about-Darker-Still Day!

Greetings, fair friends!

Today marks the 3 month anniversary of the publication of DARKER STILL: A NOVEL OF MAGIC MOST FOUL from Sourcebooks Fire. So I've decided it's National Tell-a-friend-about-Darker-Still Day! :)

To mark this day I'm encouraging you all to tell a friend about DARKER STILL if you loved it. Or tell an enemy if you hated it. Regardless, first books in a new series always need a little extra love, oomph, and marquee attention, especially on a debut effort onto new shelves. So I'm incentivizing your word-of-mouth action by entering you dear book-talkers into a contest for one of the limited ARC (Advanced Reader Copy) copies I will receive sometime in June of the Magic Most Foul sequel, releasing this November, titled THE TWISTED TRAGEDY OF MISS NATALIE STEWART.

5 reasons to check out DARKER STILL: A NOVEL OF MAGIC MOST FOUL if you haven't already:

1. There’s a haunted painting. A British Lord is trapped inside. And he’s really good looking. (See, that’s three reasons just in one). Feel free to snag that #Denburylicious badge and use it on your site! (Just please link to my site or a Darker Still product page).


2. Natalie Stewart, a spirited and opinionated young woman everyone can cheer for, overcomes danger, incredible personal odds and adversity to save lives and save the day.

3. It will give you the shivers. Lots. Promise. I’ve been told that Natalie’s dreams are not to be read right before bedtime.

4. Set in 1880 New York City at the brand new Metropolitan Museum of Art, Darker Still is full of danger, intrigue, mystery, curses, spooky magic, nightmares, disguises and pretty dresses!!!

5. It was chosen as an INDIE NEXT recommended book by the American Booksellers Association, and considering the sequel will be out this fall, you'd best start now…


THE RULES to be entered to be one of the first to receive an ARC of THE TWISTED TRAGEDY OF MISS NATALIE STEWART: (Again, my ARCs will arrive in June from Sourcebooks)

It's easy. Just comment below and share how you told friends about DARKER STILL in any number of ways. Just please be sure to comment, I'M NOT PSYCHIC. (Some of my characters may be, but I'm not). As you share, please leave some link as to how to contact you if you win the ARC!

Possible ways to participate in National Tell-a-friend-about-Darker-Still Day - any one of these is an entry:

- Mention the book to a friend.

- Or share this blog post via the share buttons below.

- Or Tweet about Darker Still. Did you find something #Denburylicious.

- Or you could click and "Like" the book on the Barnes & Noble product page or via any bookstore platform that has a "Like" or share option.

- Or put Darker Still on a wish list.

- Or you could share something about Darker Still from any of my Facebook community page posts with your Facebook friends by clicking their share button.

- Or you could buy it if you haven't already (It's currently on promotion in your local Barnes & Noble store! Check out their yellow end-cap signs that say something like "buy books and get a book free"!). It's also featured at Indie Bound, due to the Indie Next List ranking.

- Or check your local library and if they haven't ordered DARKER STILL, suggest it for their collection, it's a nice tie-in to classic literature, a big plus for library systems.

- Or use your imagination. :)

Just comment as to how you've shared this first installment in the Magic Most Foul saga with a friend and you'll be entered to be one of THE VERY FIRST PEOPLE IN ALL THE LAND to recieve an ARC of the sequel!! thanks and blessings! Without readers, we writers couldn't be writers. There are no words to express how much we writers appreciate you readers.

CONTEST ENDS 2/15/11 - Winner's name drawn via Random.org from comments below.

Apocalypsies Features

I'm a proud member of THE APOCALYPSIES debut crew of YA novels releasing in late 2011 and 2012. Due to the madness of the DARKER STILL tour, I'm belated on shoulting out my fellow 2011 Apocalypsies releases. Here's what 2011 and early 2012 has brought us SO FAR in our Apocalypsies realm. Very exciting books!

August 23, 2011


POSSESS by Gretchen McNeil (Balzer + Bray)
October 13, 2011

DARWEN ARKWRIGHT AND THE PEREGRINE PACT by A.J. Hartley (Razorbill)
November 8, 2011

DARKER STILL: A Novel of Magic Most Foul by Leanna Renee Hieber (Sourcebooks)
December 1, 2011

CATCHING JORDAN by Miranda Kenneally (Sourcebooks)
January 1, 2012

THE BOY PROEJCT (NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS OF KARA McALLISTER) by Kami Kinard (Scholastic)

LIVING VIOLET: THE CAMBION CHRONICLES by Jaime Reed (Dafina)

LOVE AND LEFTOVERS, by Sarah Tregay (Katherine Tegan Books/HarperCollins)
January 3, 2012

CINDER by Marissa Meyer (Feiwel & Friends)

THE CABINET OF EARTHS by Anne Nesbet (HarperCollins)

UNDER THE NEVER SKY by V. Rossi (HarperCollins)

CRACKED by K.M. Walton (Simon Pulse)
January 5, 2012

LITTLE DOG LOST by Mônica Carnesi (Nancy Paulsen Books)
January 10, 2012

THE GATHERING STORM by Robin Bridges (Delacorte)

DITCHED by Robin Mellom (Disney-Hyperion)

MAY B by Caroline Rose (Schwartz and Wade)

DESTINY'S FIRE by Trisha Wolfe (Omnific)
January 17, 2012

NEVER EIGHTEEN by Megan Bostic (Graphia)

FRACTURE by Megan Miranda (Walker/Bloomsbury)

THE BOOK OF WONDERS by Jasmine Richards (HarperCollins)
January 24, 2012

EVERNEATH by Brodi Ashton (Balzer + Bray)
January 31, 2012

INCARNATE by Jodi Meadows (Katherine Tegen Books)

ARTICLE 5 by Kristen Simmons (Tor Teen)
February 1, 2012

HALFLINGS by Heather Burch (Zondervan)

THE OTHER LIFE by Susanne Winnacker (Marshall Cavendish/Usborne)

February 2, 2012

HARBINGER by Sara Wilson Etienne (Putnam)
The whole list is over on The Apocalypsies Blog and it is the best way to keep track of all of us as a whole and what we're up to.

BUT, in the coming months and through 2012 I will bring some of the Apocalypsies here to elaborate upon themselves and their work in a few brief questions. You know, like what their favorite fluffy animal is. And if they were a ghost, where would they haunt. Burning questions I want to know. Oh, and a little about their books too. :)

So stay tuned!

Natalie and Jonathon star in DARKER STILL art!

Those who follow this blog know how much I love art from readers; when readers befriend my characters and are compelled to create visual representations of them, it's such a compliment, I love seeing what artistic readers come up with. I was treated to my first art received in the Magic Most Foul world this weekend from fellow Victorian era enthusiast, artist and talented writer Katrina Bender, ( @KatBender on Twitter ) who made this picture of Natalie and Jonathon. Isn't it wonderful?

Thanks Katrina!

Soon, I'll have some teasers and links for the Magic Most Foul sequel, THE TWISTED TRAGEDY OF MISS NATALIE STEWART, releasing this November, so stay tuned!


Cheers!