Saturday 18 September 2010

Guest Post: STEPHANIE DRAVEN & Giveaway


Little Known Facts About the Daughter of Ares

Ares, God of War, was known to the Greeks as “the bane of mankind, all crusted in blood."

But it’s a little known fact that he was apparently also quite the family man. Ares not only had numerous progeny, but he wasn’t a neglectful father. He liked to ride into battle with his kids. I guess he thought, the family that slays together stays together!

You may have heard of his twin sons, the charioteers, Phobos and Deimos. Then there were the Amazons, all his famous butt-kicking daughters. But you may not have heard of Kyra, the nymph of the underworld, who is Ares’ most rebellious daughter, and the heroine of my debut novel, Poisoned Kisses. So to help you get to know her a little better, I’ve assembled this list of little known facts about her:

She collects gravestones. As a nymph of the underworld, Kyra has lost many mortal friends and lovers. She can see the shades of the dead, and converse with them, but it's never the same as when they were alive. Since she's been around for thousands of years, she's taken it upon herself to collect the headstones of people she knew. People that the world has forgotten. She keeps them in her apartment with pots of asphodel flowers.

She hates angels. Until people started believing in angels, lampades like Kyra were responsible for guiding souls into the underworld. Now that angels have taken over her cosmic portfolio, Kyra has a hard time finding a place in the modern world. She's convinced that it's those little winged cherubs that are to blame.

She loves explosions. As a daughter of Ares, Kyra has more than a little battle-lust in her veins. As much as she'd love to deny it, a fiery grenade blast turns her on, and her relationship with the hero starts with a bang!

She hates to fly. Sure, Kyra is a dagger wielding immortal with the power to make mortals see whatever she wants them to see, but put her in an airplane and she goes white with fear. A plane crash won't kill her, but Kyra doesn't feel as if she belongs in the sky, above the mortal world. She's a dark nymph of the underworld, meant to reside with men and their shades. Just her luck to fall in love with a man who can pilot cargo planes.

Her Ringtone is a Funeral Dirge. Kyra guides souls into the underworld. A funeral dirge sounds positively cheery to her ears!

And speaking of music, I made a nice soundtrack for my dark debut novel, and I'd love to hear what you think of it!

Stephanie's website: www.stephaniedraven.com

Giveaway:
One lucky commenter will win a signed copy of Poisoned Kisses courtesy of the wonderful people at the Publicity Muse.

To Enter:
Post a "meaningful & relevant" comment at this guest post with your email add and that's it!

If you do not want to leave your email add here, you can email it to me with your name (so that I could marry your email add with your entry) at cherrymischif-stephaniedraven [at] yahoo [dot] com.

You do not have to be a follower to enter this giveaway. Open to international readers. Ends on September 24.

Extra Entries:
You can gain extra entries by spreading the word about this guest post. One extra entry credit per site, i.e., you can tweet as many times as you like, but that will only count as one entry credit for Twitter. However, we do appreciate it that you are twitting about this guest post many times :)

Void where prohibited.
Questions? Ask! cherrymischif-stephaniedraven [at] yahoo [dot] com.
Please read the Disclaimer as it forms part of the giveaway rules.


It's not easy to be a Daddy's Girl when your father is Ares, Greek God of War. As a nymph of the underworld, Kyra has made it the mission of her very long life to thwart her father and all those who serve him. To answer her calling in the modern world, she intends to assassinate a notorious shape-shifting arms dealer. To get close enough to kill him, Kyra pretends to be the woman he once loved, but Marco Kaisaris isn't the monster Kyra thinks he is--and even if he doesn't break her heart, he may still be the death of her.
Source: Info in the About Poisoned Kisses was taken from Goodreads at http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8531289-poisoned-kisses on 15/08/2010.

Buy Link(s):

42 comments:

  1. I absolutely love the cover for Poisoned Kisses. I think the only thing I love more about this post is the fact that I just found out Kyra collects gravestones. That is magnificent! I haven't heard of anything of the sort... what if they're massive grave stones? Is she going to eventually run out of room in her apartment? ;)

    Can't wait to read this one.

    rexreadingrobot at gmail dot com

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  2. Ares' daughter? Ohh now that sounds interesting!
    A steamy cover, a great "facts about character" post... Gotta love the humor.
    I'm not a fan of angels either.. Except for fallen ones and, well, that's a whole other story.

    Enter me please!

    mayarend -at- yahoo.com.br

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  3. I'm such a dork for Greek mythology, so I am loving the premise of this!
    b(dot)cardone(at)hotmail

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  4. I love Greek mythology also and i love the cover of this book. The book sounds interesting. Please enter me in contest. Tore923@aol.com

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  5. I have recently started reading this genre. This book looks absolutely intriguing especially the fact that she collects gravestones!
    Tweet
    http://twitter.com/Misha_1989/status/24809576633

    Mishamary@gmail.com

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  6. Ares has always been one of my favorite Greek Gods, the god of war. So, I think this book sounds different and a lot of fun.

    justpeachy36@yahoo.com

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  7. Daughter of Ares, yeah, she's going to like big bangs and destruction, but who's her mama? Just curious....

    Sounds like a great read, I love it when I find a new book with a mythological background!

    Thanks!

    Dottie :)

    gymmom_027@yahoo.com

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  8. Kyra definitely sounds like a kickass heroine and it's even more interesting how she collects tombstones. I love it when mythology is incorporated into stories! Please count me in!

    lilazncutie1215[at]yahoo[dot]com

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  9. I love reading about Greek gods, but I have a terrible memory, so I can't remember who was god of what. BUT...knowing that Kyra collects tombstones is something that I won't forget. She is my new favorite goddess!
    mom1248(at)att(dot)net

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  10. Oooh!!! I love all kinds of stuff relating to the Greek gods and goddesses...this looks amazing! :D
    Poor Ares, everybody liked Athena better :P
    I'm definitely going to read this book sometime in the future, whether I win it, or not. :)
    Thanks for the chance to win it, it looks and sounds fantastic!

    I also tweeted about it: http://twitter.com/AmburHostyn/status/24828466686

    Ambur

    ambiepie_6(@)hotmail.com

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  11. Well I certainly know a lot more about Ares than I did before !

    Dusting around the house is one of my pet hates so I don't know how Kyra copes with cleaning all those gravestones ?

    Do you plan to write future books about more of Ares children?

    Thanks

    Carol T

    I am a Follower via GFC

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  12. Oops ! Email address.

    Carol T

    buddytho {at} gmail DOT com

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  13. This book sounds too cool, I must confess I have a crush on Ares (hihi, Xena is too blame for that). She sure must be kickass.

    I do wonder, does Ares show up?

    blodeuedd1 at gmail dot com

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  14. I am in love with Cherry's readers. The fact that you guys dig Kyra's gravestone collection makes my day!

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  15. Rex Robot, Kyra doesn't make friends easily, so she would probably say that there's no danger of overfilling her apartment, but by the end of this novel she has found a VERY rich boyfriend who could probably help her rent out some storage space :P

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  16. Dottie, Kyra's mother figures into the book, so I don't want to give any spoilers!

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  17. This is a really unique and clever idea for a book. I have never read anything like it before. I would love to read it.
    twoofakind12@yahoo.com

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  18. BuddyT/CarolT:

    Kyra's not big on dusting, sadly. People with allergies should probably avoid her creepy home. But she has other redeeming features ;)

    As for the other children of Ares, the first story I wrote for the Mythica line was about Kyra's twin brothers, Deimos and Phobos. It's called MIDNIGHT MEDUSA and its an ebook that *coughcough*You can download right now*coughcough*.

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  19. Blodeuedd--As it happens, Ares is a major character in this book. Sexy, dangerous, and a little overprotective. Still evil, of course, but I've had readers tell me that they'd like me to give him his own romance!

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  20. Also, thanks Ambur and all my other Cherry readers who love Greek mythology! I'll check in later this afternoon to see what else we can chat about.

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  21. Wow! What a neat book concept. I have always loved Greek Mythology, so I'm sure I'd enjoy this book. =)
    auroralux@gmail.com

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  22. Aloha Stephanie!=)

    I have Poisoned Kisses TBR'd but after reading this post_ I really want to read this one.
    A rebellious heroine who collects headstones like I collect shells... hahaha, wicked interesting!


    Mahalo Stephenie, Cherry and Publicity Muse for the chance to read this book. And thanks for this awesome post Stephenie. This post definitely gives a potential reader a better idea of what to expect!!=)



    lllinthe808 AT gmail DOT com

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  23. Great post! I like the idea of a story about Ares' most rebellious daughter. Especially one that involves explosions and shape-shifters, and lots of action!

    Grenades are such a modern weapon, I wonder what Kyra would have used if she had been in Ares' place?

    PolarisGreen[at]gmail[dot]com

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  24. Wow. This sounds very interesting. I bet there will be explosions of all kinds. lol

    dorcontest at gmail dot com

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  25. tweet
    http://twitter.com/DoreenRiopel/status/24870726959

    dorcontest at gmail dot com

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  26. I really want to read Poisoned Kisses. It sounds like it is going to be a great page turner.

    jellybelly82158 at gmail dot com

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  27. The synopsis sounds really good, and kyra sounds like a character i definitely want to read about!


    Littopandaxpress(At)yahoo(dot)com

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  28. Wow, I'm intrigued. Ares's daughter, I love finding a book that has greek mythology undertones and she sounds amazing. Thanks for the giveaway

    june111@att.net

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  29. When I was a teenager I loved reading Greek mythology - my copy of Bullfinch's mythology had to be replaced several times because it kept falling apart. However, I must admit that I didn't know that Ares was such a family man. That's a fun fact to know. I'll definitely be on the lookout for this book.

    jen at delux dot com

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  30. While I don't think I could hang out with this character, I do admit I'm intrigued by anyone that collects headstones.

    Great post :)

    (not an entry)

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  31. I think I agree with everyone else - she collects headstones? This is not a girl to be taken lightly!

    baychriz at gmail dot com

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  32. I love anything with the Greek gods in it. What a neat character! Collects gravestones? Now that is definitely unique. I can't wait to read this one.

    Ladytink_534(at)yahoo(dot)com

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  33. I feel exactly the same way about flying. Kyra has it right, daggers or no. We should remain planted.

    robin [at] intensewhisper [dot] com

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  34. I really love Greek mitology when I was in school. I remember a beautiful book in my school library about it that I borrowed once a year till I finished school. I never saw it again, and couldn't find it in bookshops :-(

    So an story with Greek Gods is a plus for me :D

    Thanks for the international giveaway.
    I'm a follower and put a link to this giveaway in my blog sidebar

    martasder[at]gmail[dot]com
    ...Resumiendo...

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  35. I'm currently in the middle of a distance learning degree with a heavy weighting towards Classical Civilisations - My just started course is all based on Greek and Roman Myth & I'm (understandably) a complete sucker for anything with a classical weighting. I picked up (and really loved!) Gena Showalters Lords of the Underworld series on that premise alone.

    This book is going on my 'to be bought' pile - But I'd love to be entered into the competition! It sounds like something a little bit different & fresh, and who could resist a gravestone collector! (Beats stamps any day of the week!)

    Lindsey
    rustedivory(at)hotmail(dot)com

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  36. I wish you all could win this giveaway, but if you don't, remember to sign up for my very infrequent newsletter for another chance!

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  37. I love the cover. I also love the fact that the book has mythology in it. There are always surprises when gods are involved. Thanks for the giveaway.

    smccar1(at)hotmail(dot)com

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  38. This sounds really good. I like Greek mythology so it's interesting when it's woven into a paranormal story.

    juliecookies(at)gmail.com

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  39. I love Greek mythology and this book sounds great.
    I love the cover.

    twitter: http://twitter.com/Forceofstars/status/25391737904

    facebook: http://bit.ly/bB52Uy

    myspace: http://mysp.ac/9Hv7uI

    link on sidebar: http://mysteriousrose.blogspot.com/ (left sidebar under win win win)

    I dugged it: http://digg.com/news/entertainment/cherry_mischievous_guest_post_stephanie_draven_giveaway (forceofstars)

    forceofstars(at)yahoo(dot)dk

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  40. this looks like a great read. I love the cover
    floatingonabiscuit@gmail.com

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  41. The premise of this book sounds exciting! I'm a big history/mytholgy buff, so I find it fascinating to read about a modern retelling or adaptation of ancient Greek mythology!

    Please enter me, I'm an old follower.

    Thank you! :-)

    stella.exlibris (at) gmail (dot) com

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  42. I think Kyra needs a more cheerful ringtone!

    meredithfl at gmail dot com

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