It’s “Love Your Werestag” Week!

Today is the semi-official something-annual “Buy a Book Not Written by Courtney” day, again!  It is also the start of a relatively unknown, minor holiday, keyed to the moon.  This week-long celebration has been traditional in certain cultures since the time of the Ancient Visigoths.  Yes, my lovelies; today is the start of “Love Your Werestag” Week.  If you don’t have a Werestag to love, today would be a good day to find one.

In modern, post-Visigothic times, this has presented a problem, as there has been a dearth of Werestags available for loving. You could not find a Werestag, not for any amount of salt licks left in the woods.  You could not find a Werestag for ready money.  But  today we see an astonishing synchronicity.  You can celebrate these events–two holidays that have not seen adequate ceremony for a clear millenia–“Buy a Book Not Written by Courtney” day, and “Love Your Werestag” Week–with just a few clicks of your mouse.

To give you an idea how momentous this occasion is, this is like Jupiter coming into conjunction with Mercury with Halley’s comet streaking by in the background.  This is the mountain coming to Mohammed.  This is the Visigoths entering into a treaty with the Mayans, for the joint purpose of peaceful exploration of Mars. (Little known fact: they actually attempted to do so, but they never could agree on a preamble, and so that was the end of that.)

That’s right.  Today, you can purchase Tessa Dare’s novella, which sports the catching title of . . . THE LEGEND OF THE WERESTAG.

What?  Was that too ridiculous?  Too over the top?  Fine.  I know what you’re thinking.

You’re thinking, “Courtney, everyone that reads your blog already knows about the awesomeness that is Tessa Dare. Could we have possibly missed the Smart Bitch review in which Smart Bitch Sarah praised The Almighty Werestag? In which she said ‘I was hard pressed to find a shortcoming,’ when Smart Bitch Sarah is normally all over the shortcomings?  We have already all been slavering over this novella.  Your puny promotional attempts are preaching to the loudest choir ever, and I don’t know why you keep talking about Visigoths.”

I know, I know.  But the truth is, I’ve been reading Tessa Dare for a very long time, and this is the first time I’ve been able to point a link somewhere and tell you, BUY THIS.  Tessa and I got serious about writing around the same time; we exchanged draft after draft of our first novels.  When Tessa decided to write seriously, she took the brave step of quitting a paying job so she could have the time to do it.  She was awake at all hours of the night, working; she believed in herself enough that she took a financial risk with two very young children. And she went for broke–every sentence, every chapter, every word that she wrote, she examined critically.  And when it didn’t work, she ripped it out and did it again.  Tessa’s writing is a tribute not only to her talent as a writer, but to a strength of character that led her to believe in herself enough to sacrifice time, sleep, and financial security.

I love that you are finally going to have the chance to see what it is about Tessa Dare’s writing that makes me admire her so ardently.  She makes it look so easy and effortless when you read her writing.  But I know it wasn’t easy.

In the next handful of months, the entire world will be able to read not just about Werestags, but about strong huntresses with secret vulnerabilities, about unhangable pirates who find a core of honor after a lifetime of mistakes, and about men who are not werestags, but who make up for their lack of prongs with a hidden, smoldering passion.  Tessa’s books are brave and daring and perfectly crafted.

But there’s more to Tessa’s writing than just stellar writing, captivating and different settings, and poignant emotion.  What raises Tessa’s work up above mere technical perfection is the humor that she brings to every page.  Even in the depths of the darkest moments of her books, her characters maintain an inner grace and a sense of tongue-in-cheek proportion.  The writing makes these books phenomenal; the emotional intelligence makes them keepers; but it’s the humor that makes you want to read them again and again and again.  Even when your heart is aching for the characters on the page, you’ll do it with a smile on your face.

I want you to buy and read Tessa Dare not just because she is one of the best writers out there, but because I want you to be as filled with wonder for her as I am.  I want you all to squee with real delight and e-mail her about how much you love her.  I want her to get letters from people she has never heard of before in her life, telling her how much they have loved her work.  I know what she’s put into this book, and I want to see it repaid a thousand fold, not only in sales, but in the excitement she deserves.

So go and buy a copy of the Werestag today, even if you aren’t a Visigoth. This is the start of something really, really special.

You can buy it from Books on Board (for $2.78), or for your Amazon Kindle (for $2.80), or you can buy it from Samhain directly (but I can’t put up a link since I will be on a plane when this post goes live, and Samhain doesn’t set up reasonable preorder links–fix this, Samhain!)

In any event, I am so excited about this story that I am going to give away three copies.  Leave your name in the hat, and let me know you want it.

And above all, remember: LOVE YOUR WERESTAG!