Piles Of Paperbacks And Swag 🎁
Apr 20, 2025 7:31 pm
It's Easter Sunday in my neck of the woods ✝️, so I figured I'd better crawl out of my writing cage just long enough to give you some writerly updates. What shenanigans are happening in Claimed by the Undead this time around? How much progress have I made in getting Helena and Konstantin's adventure onto the page...or the Word document?
Find out all the details in the next section, because first it's time to let you know about a massive multi-author giveaway happening right this second.
Clicking the above graphic will take you to the BookFunnel page hosting the giveaway along with a link to enter for your chance to take home a pile of bookish swag. Entering will sign you up to the participating authors' newsletters (some of which you're probably already a part of since you're here, after all!), and it'll toss your name into a hat for winning a pile of paperbacks, hardbacks, audiobooks, signed copies, and more. 🎁
My input for the giveaway is a paperback copy of Gift of Stone, my absolute favorite story in the Elemental Bloodlines series. Enter the giveaway today by clicking the button below (that one bypasses the BookFunnel link), or by clicking the graphic to the BookFunnel page above. Then get ready for your chance to dive into a physical copy of Zehra and Henning's fated mates romance!
Writerly Updates ✍️
As of around four o'clock this morning, I've made it to Chapter 21 in Claimed by the Undead. This means we're officially past the halfway point of the first book in Helena's love story with Konstantin! For you word count gurus, we're at the 56,000 words and some change. 🥳
If you've been hanging out on my newsletter for a while, you might remember I spent the greater part of last year battling creative burnout. Since I finished Gift of Snow—the last (and now first) book in my Elemental Bloodlines series—I've published only 2 novellas in an entire year. 😨 Which makes me feel like a lazy bum letting you and every other reader down, since it takes a lot less time to READ a book than it does to WRITE one.
I've hit a few snags throughout the process of writing Claimed, but so far the story continues to march toward its expected end. To be honest, it's been liberating to begin an entirely new saga that follows the same two main characters throughout the course of what looks like 9 books...and what looks like 60+ years! This new series leans toward His Name Was Augustin territory, because what Teuton witch could manage to have a "brief" love story with an undead Black Priest trapped on earth for an infinite amount of years?
Who indeed?
Not Helena.
(And not Swanie either.) 😝
Here's a funky graphic I generated from Bing AI that depicts Helena learning ways to conjure her elemental light in a place that could be a haunted chapel. Yes, OBVIOUSLY I'm not selling this graphic or using it for anything except to inspire myself and you. In fact, there might be some commissioned artwork of Helena and her priestly muse coming around the corner later this year. 🤩
Ready to reserve your copy of Claimed by the Undead, and join Helena in a convoluted journey through love, loss, life, and death?
Pre-order at my book shop right here:
https://clcarhart.com/products/claimed-undead-ebook
Or get it at your favorite retailer:
https://bf.clcarhart.com/fd9deoy799
Other Books You Might Like
I've got three indie books to share with you today, each of which should scratch separate itches in your novel-reading brain. 💖 We've got a why choose romance set in a shifter pack, a sci-fi romance where human brides get matched to alien mates, and a time travel romance loaded with magical twists. Support other authors like me by adding some to your TBR today!
One rejected mate + two sexy werewolves = a match made in fated heaven?
Harlow has been ready to stand at her mate’s side as he Ascends to the position of alpha for years. But he crushes that dream and wrenches her heart out when he chooses another female to be his mate.
Unable to stay and witness her would-be mate’s continuing betrayal, Harlow flees to the small town of Forest Crest and finds work at a local vet. But malicious hunters are hot on her scent and she’s forced to seek Sanctuary with the enigmatic Gravecrest Pack where she’s drawn into the orbit of powerful Alpha Atlas and steadfast Beta Colt.
Despite the pain of rejection, Harlow is captivated and craves both men. But can her heart whether the storm of possible rejection a second time? Or is she brave enough to reach for a connection that defies the norms of her shifter world?
It was only supposed to be a social media quiz.
When her sister encourages her to take the social media quiz she shared so they could compare results, Laurel thought nothing of it. So it was about aliens, that was a hot topic lately, what with the recent arrival of the Mylos. She certainly didn't expect to come home to find the police cordoning her street off so she could have a tête-à-tête with the Prime Minister and the alien ambassador!
Being named ambassador was an honour.
First contact achieved, the next step was to convince the aliens who called themselves Humans to agree to genetic trade with the Mylos. Little did Tellan know that his job was about to become a whole lot more complicated as he finds the first mating being arranged is his when he's alerted to a match. As for his bride, she didn't even know what she was completing the questionnaire for. Having discovered his match, his biological imperative means he must complete his mating or die. His sense of ethics means she must be willing.
Can he get her to see that theirs is a love truly fated by the stars?
Kellen Tavist has had the same dream most of her life. A dream of battle. Of war. Of loss. During a Halloween séance, she and her friends try to conjure the spirit of a departed loved one. Instead, they conjure a ghost from Kellen’s past life.
Unnerved, Kellen’s life soon begins to unravel. Not only are her dreams growing stronger, but someone seems to want her dead. She turns to freelance journalist Raney Williams to help her figure out what she saw that warrants her silence.
The past and present are intertwined, and she can only have a future if she can figure out the conflicting feelings that have come across everlasting time.
April Book Fairs
If you haven't found enough reading to tide you over while you wait for Claimed by the Undead to make its debut, here's a hefty batch of BookFunnel collections to keep your e-reader fed and happy. Each book fair ends at the end of this month, so browse all of them now and enter a wide array of magical realms!
I'd better let you get on with your fleeting weekend (or Monday if you reside in the early section of the world), so I can find out what happens after the mayor kicks Helena out of her hometown. 😱 Nope, she wasn't expecting that.
And neither was Konstantin.
He isn't exactly pleased about this development. 💀
I'll know more when I send my next email on Tuesday this week. We've got a big bash of a book fair heading your way, so we'll meet up again when it lands!
Talk to you soon,
C.L. Carhart
Pre-order Claimed by the Undead for 99¢:
https://bf.clcarhart.com/fd9deoy799
Check out Gift of Snow for free:
https://books2read.com/ebgiftofsnow
Start Swanie's saga with Arcane Gateway:
https://bf.clcarhart.com/901trdtwd8
Enter the giveaway loaded with books and swag: