Category Archives for News

Announcing the Above Ground Blog Tour!

To celebrate the release of my first novel, I’m organising a month-long blog tour.

From November 1st to 30th, there will be prizes and fun times, plus guest posts, interviews, excerpts, short stories, reviews, and anything else you can dream up.

This is where YOU come in. I want to get a blog tour slot for every single day. Do you run a blog? Do you want to join the fun and earn my undying gratitude?

Fill in the form below with your availabilities and what type of post you’d like to run, or email me at annamharte [at] gmail [dot] com.

Above Ground: the end is nigh!

With only 3 more chapters to go until the end of _Above Ground_, I am neck-deep in getting the story ready for print/ebook release.

Yes, there are revisions… even though what is now posted online is supposed to be the rewrite. I’m silly, I know. Most of the changes smooth out scenes, fix timelines and little plot holes. I’ve reworked the first chapter, and will also do whatever my lovely editor, Terra Whiteman, orders me to do. (If you haven’t read Terra’s series, The Antithesis, it’s awesome.)

So I wanted to take a moment and say thank you to my qazyfiction fans, especially those who’ve followed me from the very beginning. This story wouldn’t exist without you.

Which brings me to:

Everyone who has commented, supported me, and been generally lovely is going on the acknowledgements page. If you have a preferred internet handle/name, let me know. Otherwise I’ll go with the name I know you by. :-) (And if you don’t want to be included, let me know too. But it’ll make me sad.)

Regarding the print/ebook release:

  • Estimated publication date is mid-end of October.
  • On October 1st, I will reveal the cover and a special offer to pre-order ebook/print copies to my mailing list only. The ebooks will be signed. Pre-orders will be limited; sign up so you don’t miss out.
  • I haven’t announced this anywhere else yet, but I’ll be running a blog tour throughout November. If any of you have active blogs and want to take part, fill in this form — you’ve got first dibs on dates!
  • If you want to stay on top of the latest news, I’ll be posting about it more on amharte.com, facebook and twitter.

As for sequels to _Above Ground_… One book at a time, eh? ;-)

And Above Ground’s cover art illustrator is…

As you all know, a (truly final!) print/ebook version of _Above Ground_ is due out this October.

I’m super excited about getting the story DONE so that — after four(?) years — I can finally move on to the next project. I’ve been looking into the possibility of getting signed copies available, although that may be expensivo. We’ll see… I’ll let you guys know.

But let’s not jump ahead of ourselves here!

First things first:

Jeffrey Thompson has been signed on to do the cover art for _Above Ground_. Check out his Tumblr; he does great moody atmospheric work.

So what’s the cover going to look like?

Well, Afifa suggested an awesome idea of having a diagram of earth, stylised to show different levels. But the problem was that I couldn’t make up my mind on the levels and the diagram, so I couldn’t go with that!

In the end I pitched Jeffrey with two ideas:

Kunama suggested having an above-ground town/landscape on the top half, and a more technological-type city on the bottom half. This matched my original ideas too.

Jaid suggested a shot looking up at a sink hole in the ceiling, leading to the outside world. I tried to draw it and failed miserably.

Jeffrey Thompson, being an expert, made excellent mock ups of both, and I’ve ultimately decided to go with Jaid’s suggestion.

I’ll reveal the final cover in Octoberish, so keep an eye out for it!

(_Pst, if you sign up for my mailing list, you’ll get to see it before anyone else._)

And lastly: thank you Jaid!

Woo!

MERGE: Sparks and Tinder

If you still haven’t cottoned on that I’m taking part in the MERGE series, then… then… well now you know!

What is MERGE?
A 13-story paranormal thriller series written by me, Kit Iwasaki, Yvonne Reid, and MCM. Four authors, four storylines, all published over four weeks. Each story is stand alone, so you can jump in and start reading wherever… or just read mine, heehee!

And guess what? Follow the blog tour and you could win an iPad!

Previously…
The first week in the blog tour has seen the release in each author’s first stories!
1. 5 Days At A Time by Kit Iwasaki
2. Long Way Down by Yvonne Reid
3. Everything Must Go by MCM

Today’s Release!

Of course the reason I’m talking about MERGE today is because my first story in the series has come out. Woo!

Sparks and Tinder by AM Harte

Kate thought she was safe, but she was wrong.

The death of a transhuman has sparked riots in the city, only minutes from her front door. Policemen guard every street corner, but there is no one to protect Kate from herself, and the danger may be closer to home than expected…

Is she really safe from the transhumans, when her newest neighbour might be one of them?

Set in a world reeling from the discovery of transhumans, MERGE is a series of thirteen short stories that charts the loves, the betrayals, and the struggle for survival in a world where humans and transhumans are uneasy neighbours. Tensions are high, riots are brewing. The human race is about to come undone.

Exclusive Excerpt

“The protest got out of hand,” he said, quietly now. Now that they were facing each other, she noticed the dark circles under his eyes, his cheeks thin with little sleep. Even tired he was handsome, his high cheekbones dusted with the faintest hint of red. Sun-kissed, her mother would have said.

“Her death….” Adam paused, looked away. “The city’s already unstable as it is, and we all know what you get when you mix sparks and tinder.”

Kate glanced at her watch. 8:30am. Only half an hour to get to work, and she was spending precious minutes talking about ghetto residents. For a moment she felt a surge of irritation, strong enough to overcome her crush. “So, that favour?”

“I—” An awkward pause, then: “Kate, if anyone asks….” He closed his eyes as if in pain, opened them. “Tell them I was with you last night. Please.”

Kate’s stomach tightened. Adam had been at the riots. Either he was a sympathizer, or he was something much, much worse. “Are you…?” And again she couldn’t finish the question.

“Please, Kate,” he said, staring right at her, through her, as if he could see her every secret. “Trust me.”

The elevator doors closed, swallowing her reply.

Buy it today on Kindle!

Want to an iPad? Enter to win now!

Bleagh.

I’ve been poo at updating lately, I know.

What with things going full speed at work (big deadline coming up mid June) and the panic about organising MERGE, and fighting off some weird stomach bug and having low-level headaches for the last five days, and overdue editing work, and, and, and… I’m… well, “bleagh” is a good description.

My boyfriend says I let myself get too stressed about things. He’s probably right. I just hate not being able to do everything I’ve decided I want to do — and updating here weekly is one of those things.

So in order to not kill myself, I’m officially declaring a semi-hiatus. “Semi” because I’m going to do everything I can to get the chapters written and published, but “hiatus” because I predict they’ll be running late for a while.

I intend to get back on track in 2-3 weeks. I think I just need a breather.

In the meantime why not battle it out over what should happen in chapter 33? It’s from Lilith’s point of view and is set in Rivton — if you can write convincingly, I may just include your suggestion…

Thanks for your patience, guys.

— Anna

(ps: MERGE is a paranormal thriller series of 13 stories co-written by myself, MCM, Kit Iwasaki and Yvonne Reid. From May 28-June 18 there’s going to be a blog tour… follow along for the chance to win an iPad!)