• About the Author
  • About the Author
  • Book Trailers
  • City of Lights: The Trials and Triumphs of Ilyse Charpentier
  • Contact
  • Corcitura
  • Deadmarsh Fey
  • Reviews & Critical Praise: City of Lights
  • Vocal Performance

Books In My Belfry

~ A Writer's Life For Me

Books In My Belfry

Tag Archives: deadly

Another Cover Contest!

Featured

Posted by Melika Dannese Hick in Book Spotlight, Fun Stuff, Missives, News, Updates

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

2018, 2018 Release, 700, award, bellows, bestseller, black cats, blog, blood wood, blue, books, Carver, cats, children of light, classics, Coffyn, contest, Cover, cover contest, dannese, dark, dark fantasy, deadly, Deadmarsh, Deadmarsh Fey, death, demon, demons, dragons, draugr, dwellers of darkness, dyblyg, email, England, everl'aria, faeries, fantasy, fey, gnasher, Goodreads, great read, havelock, havelock deadmarsh, heir, horror, Humor, incendiu, Indie, inspiration, J. R. R. Tolkien, jagged, jagged ones, Kindle, Kip, Kipling, legends, life, Lockie, London, lord of the rings, lux, melika, Melika Dannese Lux, mr green, mythology, names, netflix, Nethermarrow, news, norway, novel, novelist, novels, otherworld, parents, prize, publicity, roger, Roger Knightley, sassy brit, school, series, storytelling, storyweaving, talking animals, tearnach, Tolkien, travel, travers, UK, vote, Wales, woman, woman writers, wraxhall, writer, writing, young, young author, Young Protagonists, young writer

Hi Everyone!

Deadmarsh Fey has a chance to win another contest, this time, the We Love Indie Books Cover of the Month for June! Again, I’d appreciate your vote! And you can cast it by clicking here.

fey_promo

Thank you so much for your continued support!

Best wishes,

~Melika

 

Advertisement

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Email
  • Pinterest
  • Print
  • LinkedIn
  • Pocket
  • Reddit
  • Tumblr

Like this:

Like Loading...

Deadmarsh Fey Cover Award Contest!

Featured

Posted by Melika Dannese Hick in Book Spotlight, Fun Stuff, Missives, News

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

2018, 2018 Release, 700, bellows, bestseller, black cats, blog, blood wood, blue, books, Carver, cats, children of light, classics, Coffyn, contest, Cover, cover contest, dark, dark fantasy, deadly, Deadmarsh, Deadmarsh Fey, demons, dragons, dwellers of darkness, dyblyg, email, England, everl'aria, faeries, fantasy, gnasher, Goodreads, great read, havelock, horror, Humor, incendiu, inspiration, J. R. R. Tolkien, jagged, jagged ones, Kindle, Kip, Kipling, legends, life, Lockie, London, lord of the rings, melika, Melika Dannese Lux, mr green, mythology, names, Nethermarrow, news, novel, novelist, novels, otherworld, prize, publicity, roger, Roger Knightley, sassy brit, school, series, storytelling, storyweaving, tearnach, Tolkien, travel, travers, UK, vote, Wales, woman, woman writers, writing, young author, Young Protagonists, young writer

Hi Everyone!

My new novel, Deadmarsh Fey, is a contender to win the June 2018 Alternative Read Book Cover Award Contest! It will mean a lot of publicity for the book if it does. I’d really appreciate your vote for my freaky darling, guys! And you can do so by clicking here.

fey_promo

 

Thank you so much!!!!

Wishing you the best,

~Melika

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Email
  • Pinterest
  • Print
  • LinkedIn
  • Pocket
  • Reddit
  • Tumblr

Like this:

Like Loading...

Deadmarsh Fey Cover Reveal

Featured

Posted by Melika Dannese Hick in Book Spotlight, Missives, News, Updates

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

2018, 2018 Release, 700, adorable, ally, Amazon, Animals, author, bear, bellows, blood, books, Carver, cats, children of light, Coffyn, complex, concept, Cover, cover reveal, curse, dannese, dark, dark fantasy, dazzling, deadly, Deadmarsh Fey, death, demons, die, dragons, dwellers of darkness, enemy, England, exciting, faeries, fate, Fated, fey, Find Me, firepower, foe, fog, friend, havelock, horror, impossible, inconcievable, jagged ones, Kindle, Kip, Kipling, Knightley, lies, Lockie, London, lord, lux, machen, May, melika, Melika Dannese Lux, mirror, Mystery, Nethermarrow, news, novel, novels, Paperback, peorder, prophecy, rings, roger, sage, secrets, supernatural, Suspense, Talking, Tolkien, travers, unwittingly, Victorian, vizzini, Wales, wise, wolf, Wood

Hi Everyone!

I’m thrilled to finally get to share the details about my new novel with you. Here it is…Deadmarsh Fey!

fey_promo

Flesh and bone and hearts unknown, lead to the rath and your fate will be shown…

Deadmarsh. The name struck terror into the hearts of all who heard it. But to Roger Knightley, neither Deadmarsh the house, nor Deadmarsh the family, had ever been anything to fear. Nearly each summer of his young life had been spent in that manor on the moors, having wild adventures with his cousin, Lockie, the Deadmarsh heir. This year should have been no different, but when Roger arrives, he finds everything, and everyone, changed. The grounds are unkempt, the servants long gone. Kip, the family cat, has inexplicably grown and glares at Roger as if he is trying to read the boy’s mind. Roger’s eldest cousin, Travers, always treated as a servant, now dresses like a duchess and wears round her neck a strange moonstone given to her by someone known as Master Coffyn, who has taken over the teaching of Lockie at a school in Wales called Nethermarrow.

And soon after he crosses the threshold of Deadmarsh, Roger discovers that Coffyn has overtaken Lockie. The boy is deceitful, riddled with fear, and has returned bearing tales of creatures called Jagged Ones that claim to be of the Fey and can somehow conceal themselves while standing in the full light of the moon. What they want with Lockie, Roger cannot fathom, until the horror within his cousin lashes out, and it becomes savagely clear that these Jagged Ones and the Dark Wreaker they serve are not only after Lockie and Travers, but Roger, too.

Joining forces with an ally whose true nature remains hidden, Roger seeks to unravel the tapestry of lies woven round his family’s connection to the death-haunted world of Everl’aria—and the Dark Wreaker who calls it home. The deeper Roger delves into the past, the more he begins to suspect that the tales of dark deeds done in the forest behind Deadmarsh, deeds in which village children made sacrifice to an otherworldly beast and were never seen or heard from again, are true. And if there is truth in these outlandish stories, what of the rumor that it was not an earthquake which rocked the moors surrounding Deadmarsh sixteen years ago, but a winged nightmare attempting to break free of its underground prison? Enlisting the aid of a monster equipped with enough inborn firepower to blast his enemies into oblivion might be as suicidal as Roger’s friends insist, yet the boy knows he needs all the help he can get if there is to be any hope of defeating not only the Dark Wreaker and his servants, but an unholy trinity known as the Bear, the Wolf, and the Curse That Walks The Earth.

And then there is the foe named Blood Wood, who might be the deadliest of them all.

Racing against time, Roger must find a way to end the battle being waged across worlds before the night of Lockie’s eleventh birthday—two days hence. If he fails, blood will drown the earth. And Roger and his entire family will fulfill the prophecy of fey’s older, more lethal meaning…

Fated to die.

To preorder the novel in Kindle format (the paperback edition will be available on the day of the book’s release, May 2nd, 2018), click here.

Below is a short piece I wrote, giving more detail about the creation of the book’s menacing cover art!

The Anatomy of A Book Cover

by Melika Dannese Lux

The title was there from the beginning. The idea for the cover, as well—a vision of the fog-haunted nightmare Roger Knightley unwittingly walks into the moment he sets foot in Deadmarsh, the manor on the moors which shares its name with his kin.

Four years and nearly 700 pages later, I finally had the book. You’d think that would have marked the end of the heavy-lifting. All the hard work of writing was over; now it was time for the fun to begin. Time to jacket the pages in dazzling attire and send the novel out into the world…

But you’d be wrong. It’s one thing to have a vision in your head for what you want the cover to look like; it’s quite another to find an artist who gets that vision and is able to magic it into life. Several designers told me my concept was much too technical and complex to ever be featured on the cover of a book. Images that matched my vision just did not exist, and Carver, that charming little blue fellow (So adorable, isn’t he? *shudders*) lurking behind Roger Knightley (I’d like to see what kind of look you’d have on your face were you in Roger’s position!), would be impossible to portray, not to mention the writing on the mirror from a source that might be ally…or enemy. Actually, forget the writing. Even the mirror itself was in doubt!

I’m a tenacious person. All right, fine, let’s be honest and stop sugarcoating. I’m as intractable as a shark that’s latched onto a seal it has singled out for its lunch. I refused to believe no one could do this! It seemed, to quote that wise sage, Vizzini, “Inconceivable!” And it was! Because very soon after I had cut ties with yet another designer, I was fortunate enough to meet Ravven.

*insert wild clapping for this amazingly talented artist*

A handful of cover iterations were all it took. Ravven was able to reach into my imagination and extract every element that had been racketing around in there for years. From the beautiful woman hovering outside the window, to the blue fog she brought with her from whence she came, to the cat, the mirror, and its writing…and, most of all, to those two combatants in the foreground, the boy and his otherworldly tormentor with talons black as obsidian and sharper than carving knives—it was uncanny how in synch with my vision Ravven was. Her work astounded me, and I am still in awe of it.

Those you see on the cover of Deadmarsh Fey, friend and foe alike, you shall meet within the pages of the book.

Dare you be led to the rath for your fate to be shown?

If yes, then dive in.

And remember …beware what’s hiding in the moonlight.

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Email
  • Pinterest
  • Print
  • LinkedIn
  • Pocket
  • Reddit
  • Tumblr

Like this:

Like Loading...

Corcitura on sale for $2.99!

24 Friday Nov 2017

Posted by Melika Dannese Hick in Fun Stuff, News

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

abroad, Amazon, Austria-Hungary, author, Authors, autumn, Belgium, Belle Epoque, Belododia, best friend, betrayal, black friday, blogger, blonde, blood, book, books, Brasov, bravo, breathtaking, brilliant, British, brothers, Bruges, brutal, burn, carpe diem, catalyst, classical, Cluj, Coming of Age, corcitura, Creative, creatures, creepy, dark, darkness, deadly, deal, death, den of iniquity, devil, doorway, Dracula, draculaesque, Eastern Europe, ebooks, England, entertaining, epic, Eric, Eric Bradburry, eternity, Europe, evil, excitement, Facebook, fall, family, fantasy, fate, fear, female author, female vampires, female werewolves, female writers, Film, flesh, Florida, France, Friendship, genuine, Germany, ghosts, glamour, God, good vs evil, Goodreads, gothic, gothic novel, Grand Tour, Greece, grey wolves, Greydanus, Greydanus Belododia, halloween, hell, hellish, historical fiction, horror, Hotmail, Humor, hunting, hybrid, hybrid vampires, Indie, Insightful, inspiration, into the fire, Italian, Italy, Kindle, lads, laugh, Le Fanu, Legacy, Leonora, Leonora Bianchetti, letters, lies, life, life and death, light, Links, living death, lolly, London, Louvre, Love, Luc, lux, maddie, Madelaine Bradburry, Madelaine Dennison, malevolence, marked, melika, Melika Dannese Lux, Melika Lux, milan, millionaires, mon dieu, money, monsters, moonlight, Moulin Rouge, murder, my brother, my son, Mystery, myth, mythology, Nadia, Nadia Belododia, New York, news, nightmare, novel, novelist, novels, november, November feature, november reads, obsessed, Olga Belododia, opera, original, otherworld, otherworldliness, out of the frying pan, Paranormal, plague, Prague, promotion, publication, publishing, quick, quid, red-rimmed eyes, Reform Act of 1867, Review, rivalry, riveted, riveting novels of psychological suspense, Robespierre, Roddy, Roderick Caldwell, Roman candle, Romania, Russia, sacrifice, sale, sales, scary, secrets, shadows, silver, Spooky, steal, steal of a deal, Stefan, Stefan Belododia, Stefan Ratliff, supernatural, Suspense, tavern, thanksgiving, the Czech Republic, The Lord of the Rings, Thriller, transformation, translucent, travel, travelling, truth, turkey, Twilight, unchosen, undead, uninitiated, unnatural, updates, Upyr, vampire attack, vampire fiction, Vampire Hunter, vampire mythology, vampire novel, vampire novels, vampires, vampiresses, vampiric, vampiric equality, vampirism, vamps, vengeance, Venice, Vladec Salei, Vrykolakas, web site, Werewolf, werewolf transformation, werewolves, wolf infestation, wolves, young author, Young Protagonists, young writer, YouTube, Zigmund, Zigmund Fertig

Hi Everyone,

It’s Black Friday! Tis the season for sales, right? Well, from today through Cyber Monday night, you can bring home the Kindle edition of Corcitura for $2.99! Where else could you get a deal like that without standing in line for hours in the freezing cold, being jostled by crabby people? You don’t even have to leave your house to buy the book. In fact, you don’t even have to change out of your pajamas! ;D

Purchase Corcitura from Amazon by clicking here.

Corcitura

Corcitura.  Some call it hybrid, others half-blood, mongrel, beast.  They are all names for the same thing:  vampire—the created progeny of the half-wolf, half-vampire, barb-tongued Grecian Vrykolakas, and the suave but equally vicious Russian Upyr.  Corcitura:  this is what happens when a man is attacked by two vampires of differing species.  He becomes an entirely new breed—ruthless, deadly, unstoppable…almost.

London, 1888:  Eric Bradburry and Stefan Ratliff, best friends since childhood, have finally succeeded in convincing their parents to send them on a Grand Tour of the Continent.  It will be the adventure of a lifetime for the two eighteen-year-old Englishmen, but almost from the moment they set foot on French soil, Eric senses a change in Stefan, a change that is intensified when they cross paths with the enigmatic Vladec Salei and his traveling companions:  Leonora Bianchetti, a woman who fascinates Eric for reasons he does not understand, and the bewitching Augustin and Sorina Boroi—siblings, opera impresarios, and wielders of an alarming power that nearly drives Eric mad.

Unable to resist the pull of their new friends, Eric and Stefan walk into a trap that has been waiting to be sprung for more than five hundred years—and Stefan is the catalyst.  Terrified by the transformation his friend is undergoing, Eric knows he must get Stefan away from Vladec Salei and Constantinos, the rabid, blood-crazed Vrykolakas, before Stefan is changed beyond recognition.  But after witnessing a horrific scene in a shadowed courtyard in Eastern Europe, Eric’s worst fears are confirmed.

Six years removed from the terror he experienced at the hands of Salei and Constantinos, Eric finally believes he has escaped his past.  But once marked, forever marked, as he painfully begins to understand.  He has kept company with vampires, and now they have returned to claim him for their own.

Thanks so much, guys! Hope you have a great weekend!

All the best,

~Melika

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Email
  • Pinterest
  • Print
  • LinkedIn
  • Pocket
  • Reddit
  • Tumblr

Like this:

Like Loading...

Redaction, & Jagged Ones, & Bears—oh, my!

Featured

Posted by Melika Dannese Hick in Book Spotlight, Excerpts, Fun Stuff, News, Updates

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

afoot, apaw, atrocities, Authors, autumn, believer, bellows, bigger, black cats, blog, blogger, bloodcurdling, boarding school, book series, books, Books In My Belfry, born, burial ground, by your leave, cat, cats, celts, City of Lights, claws, Coffyn, committed, corcitura, creatures, curses, dark, dark fantasy, darkness, deadly, demon, demonic, demons, devoured, dragons, druids, dwellers, earth, editing, eerie, England, epic, Eric Bradburry, evil, exciting, faeries, fall, fall release, fantasy, female author, fey, ghosts, Goodreads, greater than iron, grown, guardians, guys, halloween, hollow, horror, Humor, hunting, Ilyse Charpentier, iron, jagged, jagged ones, joke, Kindle, knew, Knightley, light, light bearer, lightning, Lockie, lux, malevolence, May, Melika Dannese Lux, men, mere, monsters, moors, Mystery, Nethermarrow, new books, news, night, novel, novelist, novels, ones. Bear, otherworld, paws, Penny Dreadful, pict, publication, publishing, pun, rain, redaction, return, roger, Roger Knightley, scary, school, secrets, series, shadowplay, shapeshifting, sharp, silver, slumbering, snippet, soul ties, spies, spring, spycraft, staff, stash, storm, subterfuge, summer, Suspense, tease, teaser, the game is afoot, the return, Thriller, thunder, transformation, travers, Tuesday, updates, valet, wagner, Wales, werebear, Werewolf, what, wild boars, winter, within, woke, woman, woods, years, Yorkshire, young

Well, it’s that time again! I’m only going to be posting a few more teasers from the new book after this snippet, which happens to be one of my favorites. Chapter 9 is quite eventful, and due to the sensitivity of its title, and the identity of a chief character within it, I had to engage in a bit of spycraft and redact said character’s name. Humor me, guys. If I give away all my secrets, there’ll be no reason for you to read the book!

Third Teaser Tuesday post--8-28-17

I bet you’re now consumed with curiosity about the Bear and what exactly those Jagged Ones are, right?  😉

Hope you enjoyed this sneak peek!

All the best,

~Melika

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Email
  • Pinterest
  • Print
  • LinkedIn
  • Pocket
  • Reddit
  • Tumblr

Like this:

Like Loading...

The Darkness Within—Tuesday Teaser

Featured

Posted by Melika Dannese Hick in Book Spotlight, Excerpts, Fun Stuff, News, Updates

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

afoot, apaw, Authors, autumn, bellows, bigger, black cats, blog, blogger, boarding school, book series, books, Books In My Belfry, burial ground, by your leave, cats, celts, child, City of Lights, claws, Coffyn, corcitura, creatures, curses, dark, dark fantasy, darkness, deadly, demons, dragons, druids, dwellers, editing, eerie, England, epic, Eric Bradburry, evil, exciting, faeries, fall, fall release, fantasy, female author, fey, ghosts, Goodreads, grown, guardians, halloween, hollow, horror, hunting, Ilyse Charpentier, inspiration, iron, Kindle, Knightley, light, light bearer, lightning, Lockie, lux, malevolence, May, Melika Dannese Lux, monsters, moors, Mystery, Nethermarrow, new books, news, night, novelist, novels, otherworld, paws, pict, publication, publishing, pun, rain, return, roger, Roger Knightley, scary, school, secrets, series, sharp, silver, slumbering, snippet, son, soul ties, staff, storm, Suspense, tease, teaser, the game is afoot, the return, Thriller, thunder, transformation, travers, updates, valet, Wales, wild boars, within, woke, woods, Yorkshire, young

Hi Guys!

Well, here it is, the second Tuesday Teaser from my new book. This excerpt was taken from Chapter 2, The Darkness Within.

Second Teaser Tuesday Post--8-21-17

Oooo! What did he wake up, I wonder?  😉

Look for another snippet next week. I hope you are enjoying these!

All the best,

~Melika

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Email
  • Pinterest
  • Print
  • LinkedIn
  • Pocket
  • Reddit
  • Tumblr

Like this:

Like Loading...

Teaser Tuesday—The Return

Featured

Posted by Melika Dannese Hick in Book Spotlight, Excerpts, Fun Stuff, News, Updates

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

2017, afoot, apaw, Authors, autumn, bellows, best, bigger, black cats, blog, blogger, books, Books In My Belfry, by your leave, cat's paw, cats, City of Lights, claws, corcitura, curses, dark, dark fantasy, darkness, deadly, demons, dwarf, dwellers, editing, eerie, England, epic, Eric Bradburry, everyone, exciting, faeries, fall, fall release, fantasy, female author, fey, ghosts, Goodreads, grown, guardians, halloween, hunting, Ilyse Charpentier, Kindle, Kip, large, light, light bearer, lightning, lux, May, melika, Melika Dannese Lux, moors, mouser, Mystery, new, new books, news, next, night, novelist, novels, paws, posting, publication, publishing, rain, return, roger, Roger Knightley, secrets, series, sharp, silver, since, soul ties, staff, storm, Suspense, tease, teaser, the game is afoot, the return, Thriller, thunder, tips, transformation, travers, undergone, updates, valet, velvet, week, wild boars, woods, Yorkshire

Hi Everyone!

First, a little update. I finished writing my third novel in May and have spent the last few months editing and taking the necessary steps toward publication, which will FINALLY happen this Fall. But in the meantime, how about a little teaser from the new book? This novel does have a title, I promise. I’m just attempting to draw out the suspense as long as I can.  😉

And now, without further ado, here is a sneak peek taken from Chapter 1, The Return.

(2) First Teaser Tuesday Post--8-14-17

As you can see, things are definitely afoot. Or, rather, apaw.

I’ll be posting another teaser next week. Hope you enjoyed this one!

All the best,

~Melika

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Email
  • Pinterest
  • Print
  • LinkedIn
  • Pocket
  • Reddit
  • Tumblr

Like this:

Like Loading...

City of Lights is an IBD Award Winner!!

Buy Deadmarsh Fey from Amazon.com (Click Image)

Buy Corcitura from Amazon.com (click image)

Buy City of Lights from Amazon.com (click image)

Like what you’ve read so far? Then make sure to click below, so that you can get the latest news, updates, and fun delivered straight to your inbox!

Join 248 other subscribers

Recent Posts

  • Meet the Author
  • Deadmarsh Fey Critical Praise: 5 Star Review from Tome Tender
  • About the Author
  • A Very Personal Interview + Book Giveaway
  • 10 Quotes From Deadmarsh Fey

Archives

  • June 2019
  • February 2019
  • November 2018
  • October 2018
  • August 2018
  • July 2018
  • June 2018
  • May 2018
  • April 2018
  • January 2018
  • November 2017
  • August 2017
  • May 2017
  • March 2017
  • August 2016
  • December 2013
  • November 2013
  • October 2013
  • August 2013
  • July 2013
  • June 2013
  • May 2013
  • April 2013
  • March 2013
  • February 2013
  • January 2013
  • December 2012
  • November 2012
  • October 2012
  • August 2012
  • April 2012

Categories

  • Articles
  • Author Spotlight
  • Book Spotlight
  • Corcitura Feature
  • Deadmarsh Fey
  • Excerpts
  • Fun Stuff
  • Giveaway Announcement
  • Missives
  • News
  • Updates
June 2023
M T W T F S S
 1234
567891011
12131415161718
19202122232425
2627282930  
« Jun    

© Melika Dannese Lux and Books In My Belfry®, LLC, 2011-2018. Unauthorized use and/or reproduction of this blog’s content without the author’s permission is strictly prohibited.

Blog Stats

  • 8,105 hits
Map

Create a free website or blog at WordPress.com.

Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.
To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Cookie Policy
  • Follow Following
    • Books In My Belfry
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • Books In My Belfry
    • Customize
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Report this content
    • View site in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar
 

Loading Comments...
 

    %d bloggers like this: