Showing posts with label The Lost Letters of Brother Gabriel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label The Lost Letters of Brother Gabriel. Show all posts

Thursday, November 10, 2011

Full Moon Extravaganza #2: Kids Need To Read

Once again the full moon is upon us. Which means, once again it is time to celebrate my favorite werewolves and the fact that it is only 4 months until the release of THE SAVAGE GRACE.

I am especially excited because today's extravaganza is not only something super cool for fans of the DARK DIVINE series, but also will go to support a cause I am passionate about. So what is it you ask?

EGMONT USA has released an eBook version of THE LOST LETTERS OF BROTHER GABRIEL (A Dark Divine Original Story) for only $1.99!


Story Description:

Brother Gabriel, Daniel’s mentor and an ancient Urbat, plays an important role in The Lost Saint as well as the upcoming conclusion to the Dark Divine trilogy, The Savage Grace. We were first introduced to Gabriel in The Dark Divine when Grace recieves a book of ancient letters that Gabriel (a young monk at the time) wrote to his sister during the Crusades, detailing his search to know more about the Urbat. The book of letters ends just before Gabriel falls to the Urbat curse, leaving us to wonder what happened to him in the following years to turn him into the man he is today.

Most of Gabriel’s letters were written during the thirteenth century, and later translated and compiled by an Orthodox priest in the eighteenth century. For whatever reason, some of Gabriel’s letters were lost after translation and did not make it into that original book. But good news! A few of these “lost letters,” detailing Gabriel’s fall to the Urbat curse and his quest to seek revenge on the man responsible for his demise, have recently been “discovered” by the indomitable crew at Egmont USA, and are compiled here for your reading pleasure.

I hope you enjoy The Lost Letters of Brother Gabriel. I think they give a lot more depth to Brother Gabriel’s character and the mythology of the Dark Divine trilogy.

But that's not all. Today's extravaganza gets so, so much better...

As many of you know, I spent a summer in college writing and directing plays for underprivileged kids from New York City and Philadelphia. It was one of my most cherished life experiences. One I can look back on and pinpoint as literally life-changing. I had grown up in a fairly safe and average middle-class neighborhood all my life, and to be a part of helping kids who had to struggle so much just to have a portion of the quality of life I had enjoyed as a kid, was not only an eye opening experience, but it was humbling as well.

One of the things that I learned the most from this experience was how important reading and stories are for helping kids, teens, adults . . . everyone find a place in this world and encourage them to help others do the same. This is what made me re-commit to my dream of being an author.

But today, I get to do a little more. Because today, I get to tell you that from now until June 2012 all of my proceeds from the sale of THE LOST LETTERS OF BROTHER GABRIEL will be donated to the charitable organization Kids Need To Read (KNTR). Their mission is to to create a culture of reading for children by providing inspiring books to underfunded schools, libraries, and literacy programs across the United States, especially those serving disadvantaged children. For more info you can go to their website (www.kidsneedtoread.org) or watch this video from one of my most favorite Hollywood crushes and co-founder of the organization, Nathan Fillion:



Ah, Nathan Fillion. I love that guy. Remember when we fan-casted him to play Pastor Divine in a TDD movie? That'd be beyond cool. Ok, enough daydreaming because . . .

THERE'S MORE!!!

I want as many people as possible to know about this fantastic organization and their mission, so I am offering a signed book prize pack to anyone who helps spread the word about THE LOST LETTERS and how the proceeds will be donated to KNTR.

What you get:
Signed copies of
1.) SILENCE by Becca Fitzpatrick
2.) DEMON GLASS by Rachel Hawkins
3.) THE DEATH CURE by James Dashner
4.) CROSSED by Ally Condie
5.) THE SAVAGE GRACE (ARC) by Bree Despain... or, you know... me.

How you get it:
Blog, tweet, facebook, yell down the street, call your mom. Ok, the last two are great, but won't work for the contest. Just tell people about THE LOST LETTERS eBook and KNTR fundraiser. Then come back here and show me what you did (with links). One entry per person, but the more you do, the more money you help raise for KNTR. But as an extra added bonus, I've decided to give an extra entry to the first 10 entrants.

When you get it:
Give-away ends November 30th. I will then pick the winner via Random.org and announce it on or before Dec. 2nd here on the blog. If it's you, then you will have 30 days to claim the prize by emailing me your shipping address. If it is not claimed by then, I will assume the you do not want the prize and will pick another winner.

Seriously, I'm really excited about this. Please help me make it awesome and help put some great books in the hands of some great kids.

Oh, and don't forget to buy THE LOST LETTERS either here, or here, or you can get it in the iBooks store from your iPhone/iPad/Mac, or anywhere else eBooks are sold. Go forth and share the joy of reading!

P.S. FYI, in preparation for upcoming release of the paperback edition of THE LOST SAINT on November 22nd, the eBook version of THE DARK DIVINE is now available on Amazon for only $3.99!!

Friday, February 11, 2011

Wanna grab some samples at COSTCO with me?...And winner of the LOST LETTERS contest

2/11/2011

Hey friends-

Good news! THE DARK DIVINE and THE LOST SAINT are now available in Utah/Idaho/Arizona Costcos. Which means I'll be doing signings at Costcos all over Utah in the next few weeks. Here's the schedule--I'd love to meet you if you're in the area:

2/12/2011 Sandy, UT 1:00 PM

2/26/2011 Orem, UT 1:00 PM

3/5/2011 South Ogden, UT 1:00 PM

3/19/2011 St. George, UT 1:00 PM

I'll also be speaking on several panels at the LTUE conference hosted by BYU next weekend (Feb 17-19th) and speaking at the Whitmore Library on March 12th. So when will I have time to finish writing TDD3?--Ahhhh! I don't know. Anyone want to stop time for me for a few weeks? Pretty please????

Anyway, on to the part you've all been waiting for. Thank you everyone for reading and enjoying THE LOST LETTERS. I'm glad they've been so well received and I'm hoping to "discover" more of them in the future because Gabriel's story is so darn interesting to explore. I hope you'll want to read more. Thank you to everyone who entered the contest. The winner (chosen by Random.org) is: Pamk

Pamk, please email my admin at readbree(at)gmail(dot)com with your address, and be sure to specify whether you'd like the English audio-book of THE LOST SAINT or the Spanish print edition of THE DARK DIVINE.

That's all for me this week. Hope to see some of you soon at Costco (we'll have to grab some yummy samples together!)

Wednesday, January 5, 2011

THE LOST SAINT launch party recap...and Top Secret Project revealed!

1/5/2011

UPDATE: Lost Letters Schedule can be found here

Hey all,

I FINALLY have permission to share the details about my Top Secret TLS-related project...but first I wanted to share a few thoughts and pictures from my TLS launch party.

I seriously can't believe THE LOST SAINT has been out on bookshelves for more than a week. That's just plain crazy. The launch party was loads of fun and the turn-out was awesome. Not gonna lie, I felt like was going to puke when I walked into the 15th Street Gallery and I saw all those people waiting to listen to me speak. But I managed to hold it together.

After I did a little book-talk and read a selection from TLS, we headed over to The King's English Bookshop for blue-frosted cookies and I signed books until my special blue pen ran out of ink--which luckily didn't happen until after the last person made it through the line.

One of my BFFs, Michelle Sallay (of Michelle Sallay Photography) brought her trusty camera along and snapped a bunch of awesome pictures. They were all so great that it was hard I couldn't choose just a few, so I wanted to make a slideshow of all of them--but apparently that is far too great a task for someone as technically deficient as I am. Since hubs isn't around to help, I'll have to be content with posting a few of my favorite pics to help you get a feel for the event .




Many thanks to Michelle for the awesome pictures, and many thanks to everyone who came out for the event. If you weren't able to attend and you're in Utah, you can still catch me at the West Jordan B&N (in Jordan Landing) at 2pm on January 8th. For details on other events and happenings, check out THIS post.

Okay, now on to the TOP SECRET project...

If you've been following the blog for the last couple of months, you've probably (or hopefully) have been wondering about this secret writing project that I've been hinting about for like ever (or at least that;s how it felt to me). I finally have the go-ahead to share.

Introducing:


As many of you know by now, Gabriel (Daniel's mentor and an ancient Urbat) plays a rather important role in THE LOST SAINT. We were first introduced to Gabriel in THE DARK DIVINE when Grace is given a book full of old letters that Gabriel (a young monk a the time) wrote to his sister during the crusades, detailing his search to know more about the Urbat. The book of letters ends just before Gabriel falls to the Urbat curse.

Well the exciting news is that a few letters not originally included in that ancient book have been "discovered"-- five of them in fact. These letters detail Gabriel's fall to the curse and then his quest to seek revenge on the man he feels is responsible for his demise.

I am really excited about these "lost letters" because they give a lot of depth to Gabriel's character, and also the mythology of the Dark Divine trilogy. The letters are the perfect lead in before reading THE LOST SAINT (i.e. no TLS spoilers and will hopefully get you excited to start TLS) and are also still a good read for those of you who have already read TLS.


The lost letters of Brother Gabriel will be released one at a time over the next 5 weeks, starting TOMORROW (1/6/2011) on different blogs across the blogosphere.

Which means you need to come back here tomorrow for a detailed schedule and links to where to find the letters. And as a bonus, each blog hosting a letter will be giving away a signed first edition of THE LOST SAINT and a bottle of TLS nail polish. You'll get a entry for each letter you read and comment on.