Tuesday, November 8, 2011

How cool is this?



So I had an amazing Halloween and to put the cherry on top, when I got home I saw on facebook that someone had dressed up like Thomas Riley for the holiday. This is a really cool milestone for me. I never really thought that anyone would dress up in character as anyone from the Thomas Riley books but this just takes the cake in coolness. And I don't know this person! So color me stoked as can be. Here's the pic I saw on Facebook: (Thank you awesome fan!) Oh, and if anyone knows this fine fellow, please let me know. I'd love to send him some goodies.

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

The Southern Festival Of Books



I'm back! I can't wait to do another book festival and I finally get to start back up with the awesome Southern Festival of Books in Nashville, TN. The festival goes from Friday October 14-16 at the War Memorial plaza in downtown Nashville. What makes it even sweeter is I will be sharing a tent with fellow amazing authors and top notch people Elizabeth Darvill and Teresa Burrell.

We'll be in booth 43 and with any luck you shouldn't be able to miss us. We'll have pirate flags flying and all manor of gaudy steampunkery around the tent. This year, we will have:

By Nick Valentino:
Thomas Riley, Dreams of Steam I and Dreams of Steam II Brass and Bolts

By Elizabeth Darvill:
Love in a Time of Steam, Love's Immortal Pantheon and will be promoting her new Harlequin release, Steam Heat

By Teresa Burrell:
The Advocate, The Advocate's Betrayal and her brand spanking new The Advocate's Conviction.

So come by and say hi, we'll have all types of shenanigans going on.

Monday, October 10, 2011

Kindle Gold



I want to make you all aware of a new website called Kindlefinds (located at Kindlegold in the blogosphear)that features all types of awesome books. Many of which have super great prices. I've always wanted a Kindle or Ipad so I could pick up all the wonderful short stories and inexpensive books. It just seems like such a steal for some great entertainment.One day... one day...

So check this new site out, you won't be disappointed.

Friday, October 7, 2011

Dreams of Book fests



I got my author copy of Dreams of Steam II Brass and Bolts today which is an anthology published by Kerlak Publishing featuring a ton... and I mean a ton of awesome steampunk authors. This book is HUGE! It looks like I'll be debuting Dreams of Steam II at the Southern Festival of Books in Nashville, TN next weekend. I'll be sharing a booth with Elizabeth Darvill and Teresa Burrell at booth 43. Trust me, you'll see us, look for the pirate flag. So if you're in or around Nashville, come and say hi, we love hanging with our friends and readers. More to come on this...

Sunday, October 2, 2011

OUT NOW



Yesterday marked the release date for Elizabeth Darvill's first Harlequin release, "Steam Heat" in the "Love in a Time of Lust" mini-series. So, it's time for celebration and much rejoicing. I also get to be the first to announce that Elizabeth will be changing her name (writing and legal) to Elizabeth Valentino. So, check out Steam Heat on Amazon and get a super sexy and super steampunk story for the low low low price of $2.99! Treat yourself today.

Click here for the Amazon Link

Sunday, September 18, 2011

Steam Steam Steam Heat & Dreams of Steam II



Steam Heat
We found out today that Elizabeth Darvill's first steampunk/romance story "Steam Heat" published by Harlequin is now available for pre-order from Amazon.com. This is super exciting news so join us in our bliss and take a peek!
Click here to see the pre-order on Amazon.



Dreams of Steam II Of Brass and Bolts
Also available now is the wonderful steampunk anthology "Dreams of Steam II" from Kerlak Publishing. This one is HUGE and has like 25 stories from 25 amazing authors. My steampunk/horror story "Bedeviled" is in this one and I can't be more excited. Click here for the e-book version.

Saturday, September 3, 2011

Real Life Romance (His)



Two days ago I proposed to the love of my life Elizabeth Darvill and I'm so excited. So this is my companion story to her blog post which can be found HERE.

I've been planning this for a while and due to constraints, I haven;t been able to get the ring I wanted until recently. So I toiled over how to ask, what I would say and where I would do it for quite some time. Every night I would drift off to sleep planning and contemplating how when and where.

Liz wanted a Claddagh ring so I wanted to get her a real one made in Ireland. Ok, check. Then it was where do I pop the question? I wanted it to be in Nashville, and I wanted to do it at a memorable place. You know, one we could drive by in the future and say, "Wow, that's where it happened." After many Internet searches and running through every local cool place in my head, I decided that The Parthenon would be the best and most permanent location. Now how do I get her up there without raising suspicion?

A few years ago I helped one of my best friends in the world hatch a plan to propose to his girl at the same location. So I took the story we came up with and slightly modified it.

Before hand, she didn't have anything to wear so she mentioned she wanted to go get a dress of a shirt for date night. She wanted to run to Goodwill(Yeah that's how we roll) but when we left the driveway, I totally spaced out and went the other direction. Liz, said, "oh are we not going to look for a shirt?" So I turned around and we went to look. The ring was burning a hole in my pocket and while she looked for something fun to wear I feel like I was distant. Hey, my mind was elsewhere. She found an amazingly hot dress and all was well.

Keep in mind, this was going to be our date night anyway, so we had plans to go out, have dinner then a few drinks at the amazing Patterson House here in Nashville. So I concocted a story that there was a pop art exhibit that I wanted to stop by before dinner. Hey, that's totally plausible. That's something we would do. So I parked on the opposite end of the actual entrance of the gallery under The Parthenon which forced us to walk around the giant place. I was totally nervous and honestly, I'm not sure what I said. I had a bunch of things I wanted to say, (Like it was rehearsed) but I think I still hit the main points. In the end, I got on one knee and asked Liz to marry me. Well, she said yes. And I am the happiest boy in the world.

We finished the night actually going out to The Flying Saucer for dinner then to Patterson House for wonderful drinks from scratch and finally to ChaChah for a nightcap. Again... happiest Boy in the world.