I’ve pulled a name out of the proverbial hat and we have a winner for the Heart of the Nile Contest.

CONGRATULATIONS Gayle from Illinois!

You win the specially designed necklace with silver Egyptian pendant of Anubis. Check your email. I’ve already sent you mail.

It’s springtime and the cherry blossoms are blooming! It’s also last days for my Heart of the Nilecontest. For rules to enter click here, see the post below or click on this link:
http://www.gabriellahewitt.com/blog/?p=298.

The last day to get your entry in is April 30th. The winner of the specially designed Anubis necklace will be announced the beginning of May. (So check back!)

Also, if you haven’t seen the rockin’ interview I gave Midnight Moon Cafe, posted April 24th, get yourself on over there and read all the stellar things I had to say.

For those of you who have read and loved Heart of the Nile, stay tuned. I’m almost done writing the second novella in this trilogy, Tears of the Nile and I think you’ll find it just as exciting as the first story, with that blend of Egyptian lore and sexy cat shifters.

Heart of the Nile

Enter to win a one of a kind designer necklace from Egypt!
This gorgeous silver Anubis pendant was designed in Egypt. The chain is designed by Japanese jeweler, Satomi Yamagishi.

Rules to enter contest

Read the excerpt and Send an email to gabriellahewitt@hotmail.com with the name of the heroine in the novella HEART OF THE NILE. Put your name and email address in the body of the email.

Contest begins April 1st and ends April 30th. Winner will be contacted via email.

HEART OF THE NILE available now at Cobblestone Press.

Take a leap and read a good book!

Heart of the Nile available today at Cobblestone Press.

Kat, Stealer of Memories, brings the wrath of Ra down upon her. She risks her status among the pride by freeing her mortal enemy, an Anubian dog named Nikos, Keeper of Secrets. They have 48 hours to find the HEART OF THE NILE or die. Can a cat trust a dog?

EXCERPT

Leather slapped against flesh. “Who sent you, dog?” Tor commanded. “I’ll strip the flesh off you piece by piece. You’ll talk. You’ll beg to tell me everything.” Muscles bunched as the whip came down again.

Kat’s stomach lurched. The push came stronger nearly bringing her to her knees. The cat in her tensed, her muscles tightened up, and only sheer will kept her on her feet.

Get out of my head!

Free me, and I’ll stop channeling my pain into you.

Kat would not be commanded, especially not by a lowly dog. Anger welled up. She used the energy to carve hieroglyphics in the air. She drew the symbols, focusing on her mind, strengthening her shields.

“Enough,” she suddenly roared, finally pushing the enemy out of her head.

Tor paused. He lowered the whip. His gaze raked her with contempt. “You don’t give orders to me, Kat.”

“This is getting us nowhere.” Kat said. She walked forward, unable to find the calm that usually grounded her. Her eyes surveyed the prisoner, his body strong just like his will. He dripped blood and power.

This was no easy man to defeat. But everyone had a breaking point.

She walked up. Kat placed her hand under the hood and cradled his jaw in her hand. “Who are you?”

She forced him to look into her eyes. Circling pools of blue looked directly at her, stealing her breath. She felt herself drowning in his gaze.

Stop! Kat cried out in her mind. He released her from his hold but she still felt his presence lingering. It shook her to the core, but she would not let the dog catch a whiff of it. Instead she pushed harder into his mind, letting her lioness growl. The dog backed off.

With Tor watching her through narrowed eyes, she had to watch herself. “We need the information fast. There must be a better, more effective way.”

“You’re right,” Tor agreed, a feral smile touching his lips. “Steal it from his mind.”

Title: Heart of the Nile
Author: Gabriella Hewitt
Genre: Paranormal
Line: Shifters
Publisher: Cobblestone Press
Release Date: 02-29-08

Blurb:
Kat, Stealer of Memories, brings the wrath of Ra down upon her. She risks her status among the pride by freeing her mortal enemy, an Anubian dog named Nikos, Keeper of Secrets. They have 48 hours to find the HEART OF THE NILE or die. Can a cat trust a dog?

Keep your eyes open for the contest coming in March!

Found this little tid bit posted and thought some of my fellow authors might find it interesting:

2/15/2008: (from Cynthia Sterling’s Market News) Mills and Boon, Harlequin Enterpises’ venerable British subsidiary, will launch Black Star Crime in August — a new series featuring thrillers and crime fiction. After one hundred years of publishing romance, Mills and Boon plans to release five crime and thriller titles every two months. Following its successful category romance model, Black Star Crime will be heavily branded and priced at 3.99 British pounds each (the same price as Mills and Boon Historical Romance). The books will be racked together in stores — away from romance titles. Mills and Boon expects the series to sell 250,000 to 500,000 units a year (no word on whether that is world-wide or solely in the UK.) Black Star Crime will feature a wide range of stories, from cozy mysteries to thrillers. Editors will be working with both new and established authors. No word on names of acquiring editors, but the address for the Mills and Boon offices is Harlequin Mills & Boon Ltd, Eton House, 18-24 Paradise Road, Richmond, Surrey, United Kingdom, TW9 1SR

I’ll be hanging out at Romance Junkies this Feb. 13th from 9-10pm EST. I’ll be chatting about my new book Heart of the Nile and whatever anyone wants to talk about. I’ll be joined by Cobblestone authors Kris Eton and Jayne Rylon. Hope to see you there!

This is another picture by my student who did the New Year’s sunrise picture. We had an unusual snowfall on Sunday. I say unusual because it doesn’t snow much in Tokyo anymore it seems. And when it does, the ground is usually too warm for the snow to stick. This time we collected about 5cm. This view is from his balcony (about a 20min walk from my place down the road). You can see the water on the leftside.

The thing about snow is that it melts. It started Monday and continued to Tuesday. I was sick the whole weekend and looked forward to peace these two day with my sons back at school. But Monday, ds#3 (my six year old) decided he had a tummy ache and didn’t want to go. Amazing, how five minutes after his big brothers left his tummy is well enough to be bouncing around the bedroom playing ninja. I took him to the doctor to learn it was a small case of constipation. [rolling eyes] Ds#1 (my 11 year old) came home with his nose dripping like a faucet. So, back to the doctor. The doctor says allergies, something I don’t want to hear. Let’s say no rest.

Tuesday arrives. Ds#2 (my 9 year old) leaves early for soccer practice before school. I then have the other two to get out the door. Finally, a little before eight they’re on their way. Peace, at last. I sit down, thinking about the coffee I’m going to make and what I want for breakfast when the phone rings. It’s ds#2’s teacher. He slipped on the minimum of snow that still existed in patches and put a nice bump on his forehead. So long coffee and morning meal. I go to school to see the goose egg and decide I should probably get it checked. So off to the doctor AGAIN. A nice long wait, X-rays, more waiting, and a nine year old who does his variation of “Are we there yet?”, except it’s “Can we go now? followed by “I don’t want to go back to school.”

Can the day get any worse? Of course. I have to run around getting errands run, miss meeting a friend because we go to different places, then have to get all three boys to the dentist. The kicker is dh who decides to be concerned parent over the two-left-feet second son (despite my telling him said son was fine) and forgets his key, but since I forgot to tell him we had the dental appt., he waited an hour in the cold for us to come home.

Ah, blessed snow, you gotta love it!

Is this gorgeous or what? Cobblestone’s cover artist, Chris, got the image I wanted on the first try. I couldn’t be happier. Heart of the Nile mixes Egyptian mythology with a cats vs. dog theme (think Bast vs. Anubis) and plenty of romance and suspense. This story will be released February 29th through Cobblestone’s Shifter’s line, so expect me to blog more about. Also, in honor of the release I will be holding a contest (details to come).

You know how things just fall into place? Well, I had to go into Tokyo to a bookstore last Friday and as I was leaving the store I noticed an elderly gentleman standing near a table he’d set up with Egyptian jewelry and knick knacks. I couldn’t resist, I picked up a silver ring with various Egyptian symbols carved on it, such as the ones gracing the cover of Heart of the Nile. Apparently, this man visits Egypt once a year, buys these various Egyptian handicrafts and then brings them back to Tokyo to sell at the major bookstores in the city. Today, I went back to find his daughter manning the table. I picked up a pendant that I am going to ask a Japanese friend to make a chain for, which some lucky winner will win at the end of this month.

So stay tuned and check back!!