EVE OF DARKNESS is now available on Amazon in Kindle format:
www.amazon.com/Eve-of-Darkness-ebook/dp/B002FSTJLQ/

And also in the Sony eBook Store:
ebookstore.sony.com/author/s-j-day_111324

The June 27th Snippet Saturday is over HERE.

Tor Books (publisher of the Marked series) is sponsoring a giveaway of the first three books in the series on Darque Reviews.

“Ms. Day’s very kind publicist at TOR has offered to share three sets of the first three releases in Marked! That includes the books released to date, Eve of Darkness and Eve of Destruction, as well as the upcoming release of Eve of Chaos. Three sets, the first three releases in each! This is a release day giveaway, so you have the month of June to enter, and the winners will be drawn on June 30, 2009 just in time for the release of Eve of Chaos. See the contest page for instructions on how to enter.”

- Kimberly Swan, DarqueReviews.com

If you’d like more information on how to enter, visit here: Marked Giveaway

I just saw the PW review for EVE OF DARKNESS and I’m so thrilled with it! I wrote the partial of the MARKED series back in Summer 2006 and now it’s finally almost here. I’m giddy with excitement.

Eve of Darkness S.J. Day. Tor, $6.99 (368p) ISBN 978-0-7653-6041-0

Exhilarating adventure in an edgy world of angels and demons highlights the opener of Day’s Marked trilogy. After a steamy encounter in a stairwell, Evangeline Hollis discovers that she has been branded with the Mark of Cain, unfairly punished because of a man’s attraction to her. She is now a Mark: a celestial bounty hunter charged with sending rogue demons and other Infernals back to hell. Agnostic Eve feels trapped and wants to leave “the firm,” but that requires the aid of the most famous brothers in history: Alec Cain, God’s top Mark and Eve’s former lover, and Reed Abel, who assigns her bounties. Dynamic and vibrant, Eve is an impressive protagonist, and her fierce spirit and determination to make the best of her circumstances will keep readers enthralled. (May) — Publishers Weekly

Well… not entirely new. Same art, more text. Why? Because of the super, awesome quote from the phenomenal Patricia Briggs that has been added to the final cover. I’ve been giddy about it all week. In addition to the quote itself, she had some personal comments about the story and characters that made me teary. Really, there’s nothing in the world like hearing good stuff from an author whose work you’d camp out on a bookseller’s doorstep to get to.

There is also a wonderful quote from Jeri Smith-Ready and ARCs are out with a few other authors who hopefully will like the book, too. I’m trying not to think about that, though. It’s a bit nerve wracking…

I’ll have new jpgs to post on the site in a couple weeks!

I’ve been a bad blogger, I know. Part of it is due to how swamped I am right now and part of it is due to an identity crisis. With three pen names to promote, I’m feeling torn in three separate directions. Where should I blog? What should I be talking about? It’s something I’ve been wrestling with ever since Kensington asked me to take on a third pseudonym. Frankly, I need to focus on one name since all my other identities — wife, mother, entrepreneur — are having issues with my writing identity having a split personality.

But which one do I focus on? hmmm… Crazy days. I just don’t know.

So for now, I’m going to try Twittering and posting the Tweets in daily digests here on the blog. Maybe we’ll all hate it. Maybe it’ll be brilliant. *g* We’ll see. Thank you for bearing with me and my silence. It was lovely to get this from a reader who’d just finished reading EVE OF DARKNESS for the second time:

I really can’t believe how deeply I loved it – I see why you have been missing – I foresee this book really taking off…

I’m putting everything I have into the books I’m writing now. Hopefully next year, you’ll be able to see that in the finished projects!

Tonight, I found CRY WOLF by Patricia Briggs in my local WalMart. I was so excited I could hardly contain myself! I have been waiting for this book for A YEAR! I was desperate for it. I checked BN.com every day, hoping they were shipping it early, because I needed CW in a bad bad way.

And now it’s MINE! I found one perfect, unblemished copy and raced with it to the check out. I had other things I needed to buy and I FORGOT what they were! Seriously.

I’m so excited!

Yay! Yesterday I sent off the latest MARKED book! It was late, and very long (longest book I’ve ever written), but I am so glad to have finished it! I still — after publishing 9 single titles, with 3 more in the queue, plus novellas, shorts, etc. — stare at a finished book and go, “OMG! I wrote all that! I made that whole story up in my head, then mashed all the words together to tell it to someone else!” It’s amazing when I think about it that way. I always start off a book looking at the giant mountain of pages I have to fill and think, “How the heck are you going to do that?” I’m always surprised when I manage to get to the end.

So, now I will quietly freak out while I wait for word from my editor. Is it brilliant, boring, bad, best-ever, or something else entirely?

I’m taking the rest of the week off. I have a pile of books I’m eager to read. I also have some ARCs winging their way to me from writer friends and I can’t wait to dig into them! I have two movies that have been impatiently waiting to be watched until I finished my book. Plus housework stuff — laundry, vacuuming, etc. On Monday, I will start a new book and begin the process all over again.

What’s been happening over the last couple weeks since I blogged?

• We adopted a dog from the local animal shelter. A white and tan chihuahua mix. Her name is Jesse and we think she’s soooo pretty. She is such a lovey dog and she adores the kids. We’re very happy to have her.
• I am impatiently awaiting the release of Cry Wolf by Patricia Briggs. Seriously. The wait is killing me. I’m dying for this book!

So what are your plans for the rest of the week/weekend?

So today the UPS truck arrived bearing gifts — ABMs (Advance Bound Manuscripts) for EVE OF DARKNESS!

Aren’t they lovely? I’ve never received ABMs before. ARCs (Advanced Reading Copies), yes. But not ABMs.

What’s the difference? Well, a bound manuscript is just that — the original manuscript bound into book form. This is often done before edits or copy edits for quote solicitation purposes and for certain media/distribution outlets that require far advance notice. An advance reading copy, on the other hand, has usually been edited and sometimes copy edited.

The ARCs for my other publishers look similar to these ABMs — text-only covers (in various colors) and bright white pages. Tor ARCs are prettier, usually bearing the cover art and sized to match the actual book. (These ABMs are trade-size, but the actual book and ARCs will be mass market.)

So now I’m faced with a unique dilemma. What to do with them? One copy is earmarked for the winner of the Brenda Novak auction (a lovely and generous person who paid over $300 for it.) I’ll keep one for me. That leaves me with four copies. Ideally, they should help to promote the book in some way, but it’s way too early to send out to booksellers and review outlets. However, hanging on to them until it’s time to send out ARCs would be silly. By then I’ll have actual ARCs with covers on them and I’ll be sending those out instead.

As far as dilemmas go, this isn’t a bad one to have. Still I’d love to do something with them that serves the purpose of making them. Hopefully, I will think of something…

In the meantime, I’m happy to hold them!