Hey- I did it again!

Enjoy the continued adventures of Merci Lanard in THE TRUTH ABOUT BLOOD!

Release in eBook and Paperback on August 4th from Amazon

PREORDER NOW

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As an investigative journalist, Merci Lanard always gets her story but she doesn’t always get the truth she wants.

After discovering her mother passed along a demon lineage, Merci goes to her mother’s active retirement community to ask the tough questions about their blood, their power, and the truth about her father’s death.

Instead of answers, she is gifted a dead body and a plea to find out what happened. Since Philly is peaceful and things aren’t exactly perfect with Rafe, she stays in New Haven to hunt down a killer and answers about herself.

Navigating wakes and themed parties, Merci finds herself at home with drug rings and a conniving political arena threatening her mother’s community of Wanderers. But as another body puts Merci in jail, she needs to draw on her own community to help- Rafe.

As she fully realizes the power of what her mother has built and the dark side of that, she finds the truth behind the killings, the truth about family, and the truth about the real power of her blood.

So first things first.

There will be a MASSIVE give-away for the big release  with thewinner announed on the Supernatrual Undergraound post on Sept 3rd. So Stay tuned.

Okay, now that’s out of the way, I can talk about the weirdest part of my trip to RWA. Yes, I managed to survive five days of romance writers packed into the Anaheim Marriott and we all had an amazing time.  There was much networking, crafting, and general good fun.

However, while perhaps at the bar with some authors who will not be named (but if you ask me, I will totally tell you), we met a group of young men who were fascinated by the fact that we were romance writers. Once they got over their star-struck shyness, one of them asked me, “What does your day as a writer look
like?”

I’m pretty sure he thought I’d say, “I wake up in my satin robe and eat chocolates and type until my fingers burn.”

We writers talk a lot about our image as writers. We know that people think of writers as crazy people  with pencils in their hair and drinking their fifth cup of coffee. To dissuade any thoughts of fluffy high-heeled slippers, I was honest with this young man. I  work a 40 work week at a desk job, and then come home and transform into the awesomeness that is Amanda Arista, the author.

Okay, its really not that awesome, but its not all typing away at the computer. And I don’t feel I eat nearly enough chocolate.

This is my life.

I go to work.

I come home and get attacked by my dogs.

On the weekends, I try to do something new, like get in touch with my Italian side
by making wine.

I do make stuff with lots of chocolate, so that might not just be a myth.

I sit  around and drink coffee. So the coffee part is completely true.

Life is how you interpret it. I interpret mine as pretty darn awesome and I wouldn’t
change it for the world.

Here is a complete list of the Diaries of an Urban Panther Blog tour that runs from July 5th – July 18th. I’ll be all over the place as you can see, answering questions and telling tales about the writing process. Pen me a line on any of these blogs and you’ll enter a chance to win a $25 gift certificate to the e-book retailer of your choice.

July 5th: The first stop in the tour:  Romancing the Pen
July 6th: The Life (and lies) of an inanimate flying object
July 7th: Black Velvet Seductions Readers’ Blog
July 8th: Book Junkie
July 11th: Fantasy Unbound
July 12th: Caridad Pineiro- For Those Who Live to Love on the Edge
July 13th: Desiree Holt Tells All
July 14th:  Minding Spot
July 15th: Sexy Adventures, Passionate Tales
July 18th: Parajunkee’s View

You will have to forgive me if I am just a little excited, but I have less than three weeks until the release of my debut novel Diaries of an Urban Panther. I’ve got cover flats and lapel pins and handmade diaries. I am ready for this!

Come back soon for the lists of the blog tour that I will be doing following my release.

Look for me at RWA. I’ll be the tall one in the corner starstruck.

And as you can see, the website is a work in process. I’m learning as fast as I can.