Happy Release Day to The She-Wolf of Kanta!

I am so thrilled to share that The She-Wolf of Kanta is now out in the world!

If you read the previously published She-Wolf, this edition has been expanded out to prepare for the following four books that will be part of The Wolves of Kanta series. This book explores Mercy’s home life, her relationship with her father, and even mentions her mother. It also includes the following map created by my talented sister, Kelley M. Frank with Morbid Smile Art.

Watch the Release Day Youtube video where I reflect on where She-Wolf came from and the journey this book has taken from when it was first published by Aurelia Leo.

I’m so thrilled how this series has evolved, and I can’t wait to see where it goes next!

The She-Wolf of Kanta

Book 1 of the Wolves of Kanta Series

The daughter of a werewolf hunter will become so much more.

Thirteen-year-old Mercy Pinkerton thought her days of cleaning house, fixing the barricade, and wiring electric prongs were over. She would finally get to train to be a werewolf hunter, what she has always wanted.

She doesn’t know that there are worse monsters in Kanta than the werewolves that plague Kanta each night. Danger lurks around every corner. She’ll have to avoid her father’s temper and follow his orders, even if it means risking her life.

It is supposed to be Mercy’s big day, but will take a drastic turn for the worse. She’ll have to keep her wits about her, remember her training, and prepare for the ultimate test of bravery if she hopes to survive.

The She-Wolf of Kanta is a re-release of the acclaimed novella, now expanded into Book 1 in The Wolves of Kanta series.

Enter the Stolen Giveaway!

I’m in the middle of a number of bookish projects right now, but I wanted to remind folks that the Giveaway for Stolen is still going! You have until the end of February to get your entries in to win a number of potential prizes – and yes, this is open to international fans!

Giveaway Rules

To get some free Stolen swag:

  • Follow me at @authorlenafrank on Instagram OR on my Facebook page MarlenaFrankAuthor
  • Order a copy of Stolen and email me a screenshot of the receipt at: MarlenaFrankGiveaway@outlook.com

Make sure you include your:

  • Name
  • Your Instagram or Facebook handle (I’ll be posting thank-you messages in my story!)
  • Postal Address

I’ll confirm these as they come in! Once received, you’ll get:

  • A Stolen bookmark
  • A hand-stamped bookplate, signed by me
  • Entered into the Stolen Grand Prize Giveaway

Stolen Grand Prize Giveaway!

🎉 One Grand Prize Winner will receive: 🎉

  • A hand-felted, custom Mawr plushie by @louisalings – these are all unique pieces complete with a stack of books and golden spectacles. Only 5 of these exist!
  • A magnet of Stolen’s cover
  • A signed copy of Stolen

🎉 2ND Place Winner will receive: 🎉

  • $10 Barnes and Noble gift card
  • A magnet of Stolen’s cover
  • A signed copy of Stolen

🎉 3RD Place Winner will receive: 🎉

  • $10 Starbucks gift card
  • A magnet of Stolen’s cover
  • A signed copy of Stolen

🎉 4TH Place Winner will receive: 🎉

  • $10 iTunes gift card
  • A magnet of Stolen’s cover
  • A signed copy of Stolen

Official Rules:

  • Winners will be announced and tagged on Instagram or Facebook on March 1ST.
  • I’ll give 48 hours for the winners to reply back to me to confirm their information before shipments are sent. Otherwise the award will pass to the next random choice.


World Read Aloud Day with Stolen

Happy World Read Aloud Day, everyone!

It’s a day when we pull together people we care about and read our favorite books aloud to them. I personally love doing this and have read entire books with friends this way.

To celebrate, I’m reading the first paragraph of Stolen aloud! I hope you enjoy it!

So Much Red Tape

I feel so bad for Shaleigh. It’s not just the terrible events and situations she has to deal with, but my goodness does she also have a lot of red tape to cut through! It doesn’t matter if she’s talking with Dean Hammond or a leader of a land, there always seems to be some red tape to tear apart before she can get anywhere.

I’d like to say that this was something completely pulled out of my imagination and that I’ve never had to deal with anything like that in my life, but I think everybody would see right through that one.

Red tape is part of life, regardless of where you encounter it. Even if it’s in another world and you have no idea that it’ll be there until you walk right into it. Like I said, I sure do feel bad for Shaleigh, but isn’t that what writing is all about?

Project: Broken

A land has fallen. An escape was made. It’s a victory of sorts, but at what price?

Shaleigh has made a terrible mistake, one she may not ever be able to fix. Lost and in a strange land with anger and death all around her, she must navigate her way through treacherous lands on her quest for redemption. Along the way she’ll have to negotiate with the mercurial Queen of the Fae, survive the dangers of the Masked King’s realm, and seek out a terrifying fire dragon.

With two powerful beings hot on her trail, Shaleigh has no choice but to keep moving, or else face the dangerous magic of the Madness that has already caused so much pain and heartache. With her sights on helping her friends and her heart longing for home, Shaleigh is determined, but will it be enough?

BROKEN is Book 2 of the Stolen series

Words Written:
1/29 – 2,096

Current Word Count: 50,181

Progress:
The negotiations have ended, and it seems like there is a lull.

Next Up:
There is never really a lull. You would think my characters would get used to that by now. And everything is about to get turned upside-down. I’ve been gearing up for months (years?) to write these scenes. I’ll feel so good once they’re finally put down on paper!

Commentary:
It felt so good to hit that 50k mark! That puts me over 60% through the book and even though it’s not as far as I’d like, I’m really pleased with the big chunk of 2k words I wrote today. Once this next action piece hits, things are going downhill quickly from there. This is probably the last lull of the book and I’m buckling up for the rest.

That said, am I on track for my March deadline for this piece? I’m not sure, but I sure hope so. Fingers crossed, folks, and I hope you enjoy these updates cause there will certainly be a lot of them coming soon!

Oh and by the way I’ve been working on finalizing the events for this year and there will be several! Expect to see a big update for the Appearances page coming soon. So far I have 3 events finalized, 1 finalized and not yet paid for, and many more in the planning stages. Lets just say April through June are going to be some busy months!

Such a Busy January

Whew, it has been a busy week! Between Stolen’s release day back on January 22nd to helping my sister with her art festival all weekend, I’m mentally pretty tired. I finally got to do one thing that I’ve wanted to do for a while since I’ve been working on promotions and prep work for the last few weeks. I finally got to write on Broken some more.

Now granted, it’s not a lot, nowhere near to where I need to be, but it’s also a really intense place so I’m fine with it. I’ve been talking about Stolen and about the characters in it so much that it was fun to dive into what I think of as their current timeline again and pick up where I left off. Dang, it’s so cool to see the changes!

Here we go, my latest updates on Broken, the sequel to Stolen, which I can now say is an Amazon Bestselling novel!

Project: Broken

A land has fallen. An escape was made. It’s a victory of sorts, but at what price?

Shaleigh has made a terrible mistake, one she may not ever be able to fix. Lost and in a strange land with anger and death all around her, she must navigate her way through treacherous lands on her quest for redemption. Along the way she’ll have to negotiate with the mercurial Queen of the Fae, survive the dangers of the Masked King’s realm, and seek out a terrifying fire dragon.

With two powerful beings hot on her trail, Shaleigh has no choice but to keep moving, or else face the dangerous magic of the Madness that has already caused so much pain and heartache. With her sights on helping her friends and her heart longing for home, Shaleigh is determined, but will it be enough?

BROKEN is Book 2 of the Stolen series

Words Written:
1/28 – 787

Current Word Count: 48,085

Progress:
Some very tense political negotiations at a time when things could easy go very bad very quickly.

Next Up:
Making some progress politically, but not much, and the storm is coming on fast. Shaleigh really doesn’t have time for these people.

Commentary:
Considering how long it’s been since I’ve worked on Broken and posted about it here, I’m really pleased with the progress it’s made! I still have a lot left to do but I’m excited to see how this story will go. I know I still have quite a bit to have to go back and clean up later, but for now I’m very happy with it.

Originally I wanted to try to get my rough draft of Broken done by the end of January. Clearly I didn’t anticipate the amount of work I had ahead of me at the time that had nothing to do with Broken. But I’m still moving forward and I’m happy about that. Nothing has stagnated.

Considering tomorrow has been declared a snow day though, I foresee me getting a lot of cleaning and writing in tomorrow! Hopefully I have a much more impressive wordcount on this book by then.