Co-editor and partner-in-crime Joshua Palamtier (jpsorrow) is running a review contest for AFTER HOURS: TALES FROM THE UR-BAR. To enter, post your review somewhere on the interwebs, then go to Joshua's blog here to post a link to the review.

The contest winner will receive a bag of the extremely rare AFTER HOURS M&Ms candy. Plus an autographed copy of AFTER HOURS, but really, it's the chocolate that's the main attraction, I understand.

fireun is raffling off copies of DEVLIN'S LUCK by Patricia Bray (I've heard it's marvelous), REIFFEN'S CHOICE by S.C. Butler (YA, with a shapeshifting bear who likes beer. I'm in!), and THE SKEWED THRONE by some guy name Joshua Palmatier (I thought it was about bathroom remodeling but it's actually got an assassin. And magic.)

Head on over to to her livejournal to enter.

Romantic Times magazine has given The Final Sacrifice a four star review. Alas only the rating is up on their website--I'll have to wait until the July issue is in stores later this month to read the actual review.

Bantam's publicity department has done an excellent job of getting this book out for review. RT reviewed DEVLIN'S LUCK, the first of my fantasy novels, but hadn't reviewed any of my subsequent titles, so I'm quite pleased.

And a reminder that the book raffle closes at midnight on Friday. Instructions for entering are here.

In my upcoming book THE FINAL SACRIFICE, the emperor's flagship will play a pivotal role, and I've decided to let one of my readers have the honor of naming that ship. To enter, send in your suggestion, and if you have the winning name, you'll win autographed books plus an acknowledgement in THE FINAL SACRIFICE.

To enter simply post your suggestion as a comment to this entry, or visit my website at http://www.patriciabray.com for instructions on how to enter via e-mail.

The ship name should be suitably dashing, heroic, and avoid any names that are already associated with well-known ships, such as The Good Ship Lollipop, HMS Bounty or RMS Titanic, to name a few.

Contest closes at midnight on August 20th. One entry per person, please.

Good luck!

But first a brief word from your sponsor.

Reminder, if you want to enter the contest for a free ARC and chocolate, deadline is Sunday at midnight. Details here.

And this weekend I'll be biking in the Tour de Cure so wish me luck.

Back to Novel-in-90, I managed 8,750 words for the first seven days. Adding in the 1,500 2,250 words that I wrote this afternoon, that takes me up to 11K. Not outstanding, but pretty darn good. That's two entire chapters that didn't exist on May 31st. I'm hoping that I can keep up the momentum despite having two travel weekends in my near future.

The novel_in_90 community has been motivating--I know I need to write so I can post my totals, and so I do. But the community is also a bit like the gym after New Year's resolutions. Lots of folks show up on the first day--then the crowd starts to thin out. It will be interesting to see how many are around and still active by the time we've been at this for a month, and how many are still going when the 90 days is up.

Though I understand why people drop out. Between the day job, writing, and squeezing in time for the gym, I'm frazzled. I nearly had a meltdown trying to figure out how I'd get my hair cut and a grocery run in this week, before I left town. And at least I don't have to worry about children looking to me for food/grooming/entertainment.

Congratulations go out to Valerie Jachimowicz who won the autographed review copy of THE FIRST BETRAYAL, and a bag of custom printed M&M's to snack on while reading.

For those who didn't win, THE FIRST BETRAYAL goes on sale in 44 days (grin). Just in case you needed a reminder.