Hi! Having a giveaway here on BookLikes - you can win an e-copy of the first book in my new series :)

Roguish 'Never' is on a quest to both lift a curse on his blood and to learn his true name; but upon joining a group of treasure-hunters he soon finds himself unearthing world-altering secrets that have long lain dormant within the Amber Isle.

First in a series of epic fantasy novellas to be released in March 2016.

http://booklikes.com/giveaways/show/2201/the-amber-isle-book-of-never-1-ashley-capes

As part of his holiday push to get Opprobrium into as many hands as possible before the end of the year, Wade has generously offered three (3) lucky winners a copy of the book in their choice of formats:

Signed hardcover (USA / Canada / UK only)
Signed paperback (USA / Canada / UK only)
Mobi format e-book (Worldwide)

Click here to enter

Remember how the best episodes of any TV show were the ones that came in two parts? Remember how awesome the two-parter episodes of Magnum PI were? Anyway, this here is part one of a three part post on the rules of a responsive reality. Part two will be hosted by the Mighty Thor (James Schmidt) at https://wordpress.com/post/82427466/1416/ on November 11th, and part three will be hosted by the excellent Wendell at http://bookwraiths.com/.

Some background: My dark fantasy novel, Beyond Redemption, takes place in a world where reality is responsive to the whims and desires of humanity. Mass belief—be it shaped by religion, politics, or public opinion—can cause sweeping changes in physical reality. Conversely, a single person, if insane enough to believe the impossible with utter conviction, can also twist reality. What follows is a brief discussion of some aspects of that reality

Click through to read more about the best fantasy novel you haven't read this year!

Today's book, television, game, and movie climate contains an abundance of fantasy heroines, with all kinds of styles and mannerisms.  The prevalence of female heroines is one of the biggest changes of the past couple of decades, as there have been heroines in the past who have been center stage in fantasy-driven tales.

In the area of sword and sorcery, or dark fantasy, there have certainly been some iconic ones such as Red Sonja in the book and comic book world (Roy Thomas and Barry Windsor-Smith's Red Sonja growing from the seed of a Robert E. Howard short story) , and Xena, the great warrior princess, in the television series named after her.  Though I find Rayden Valkyrie very different than these two characters, they both inspired me growing up in terms of depictions of fantasy heroines.   Both were strong and also protective, and courageous in facing daunting odds.

Second books in series get a bad rap. I understand why, of course: if you look at a trilogy as one work split into three parts, the second book is the gluttonous middle, the gooey stuff that you built up to in the beginning and that you must climb over to get to the end. If it’s not done right it can feel like you come into it swinging and get left hanging for a year or more until book three just to get some kind of resolution to the story.

But I wanted to write a second book that was more like the middle installment of the original Star War trilogy, The Empire Strikes Back . . .

Click through to read the rest of Kameron Hurley's guest post.