YA fantasy

Kingdom of Ashes available for pre-order (and EVERYONE who pre-orders wins a prize!)

/ Elena May / 1 Comment

Nightfall: Kingdom of Ashes is now available for pre-order on Amazon!

You can pre-order the book now for 0.99 USD. After release on Oct. 30th, you will be able to purchase the book at the regular price of 3.99 USD.

EVERYONE who pre-orders will receive a signed character card! In addition, all pre-orders will enter a lottery and be eligible to win one of the following:

  • 3 Nightfall: Kingdom of Ashes t-shirts
  • 3 Nightfall: Kingdom of Ashes coffee mugs
  • 3 Nightfall: Kingdom of Ashes signed paperbacks
  • 1 box of chocolates

OPEN WORLDWIDE

Also, I always include a small bar of luxury chocolate with each paperback / gift I send:)

So how does it work? Go here for more information.

Happy reading!

~Elena

Kingdom of Ashes Goodreads Giveaway

/ Elena May / Leave a comment

Kingdom of Ashes - PNG - EbookI have 3 signed advance copies of Kingdom of Ashes, and I’m very willing to share! If you’re already on Goodreads, you can enter the giveaway here. If you’re not on Goodreads, what are you waiting for? It takes 20 seconds to create an account, and it’s a great way to discover new books.

If you win the giveaway, you’ll receive an autographed paperback and a character card of your choice.

I ship worldwide!

Best of luck and happy reading!

 

Nightfall Art: Armida and Prince Vladimir

/ Elena May / 4 Comments

If you are anything like me, then you:

  1. A) Dream to see your book characters illustrated,

and

  1. B) Cannot draw a believable humanoid if your life depended on it.

Luckily, this is where my personal superhero, TheSwanMaindeN, comes in.

When you get an artist to illustrate your characters, you can take different routes. You could describe in detail what exactly you want to see, you could give them complete freedom, or you could go anywhere in between.

When I asked TheSwanMaideN to illustrate my book cover, I gave her a detailed description of what exactly needed to be there. However, when it came to Armida’s portrait, I decided to try something different and to give her only a vague idea about the character. “You are great at drawing hair,” I said, “and even better at drawing dresses. Go for it.”

This was one of my better decisions because – surprise, surprise! – it turns out her imagination is way better than mine. What I got was this:

Armida - PNG

Continue reading →

Nightfall Art: Tristan

/ Elena May / 2 Comments

I’m happy to present this beautiful character portrait by the talented Nadica Boshkovska (aka TheSwanMaideN on DeviantArt):

Nightfall Kingdom of Ashes Tristan character portrait

If you’ve read the free sample, you have already met Tristan. He is the vampire who first finds Myra in the dungeons and accidentally saves her from interrogation and torture. Arrogant and vain, he is viciously disliked by mostly everyone at court. At a first glance, his loyalty to the Prince is his only redeeming quality, but Myra discovers further bits and pieces of his past, secrets and motivations as the story goes along.

I think the portrait does a great job capturing his personality, or at least the face he shows to most of the world. Once again, I’m very grateful to be working with this skilled artist.

Kingdom of Ashes split into two books

/ Elena May / 2 Comments

I finished the first draft of Kingdom of Ashes back in summer 2014. After that the manuscript has gone through numerous revisions and has evolved beyond recognition. The story kept growing, until one of my editors suggested that there is enough material for two books. After some thinking I decided the story indeed works better split in two, so now you’ll be getting two novels, Kingdom of Ashes, and Men and Monsters. This means I still have a lot of editing to do to make sure you don’t feel like you’re reading half a book, but I believe I can get the books ready for publication early 2016 and 2017 respectively.

Note that Nightfall is still an ongoing series, and I expect 6-7 books total. I know some readers are hesitant to start a new series, out of fear of series fatigue, and would like to know if the first book can be read as a standalone. To be honest with you, Kingdom of Ashes and Men and Monsters together can definitely be read as a standalone, without reading the following books. However, I wouldn’t recommend reading Kingdom of Ashes without Men and Monsters since a few questions are raised in the first book and answered in the second. You can give it a try, but I’m not sure if it will be satisfactory enough. I just wanted to let you know before you decide to jump into the series 😉

Happy reading!

~Elena