Merry Christmas

The blog is on hiatus for this week as I have a houseful.
I'll be back to posting in January.
Enjoy what ever holiday you celebrate.

Imajin Books Celebrates the Season with a Massive eBook Sale

Here's the perfect opportunity to load up your ereaders (Kindle, Kobo, Nook etc.) over the holidays with fantastic fiction from a wide assortment of authors and genres.

From December 20th to January 3rd, check out the eBook Sale from Imajin Books, part of their 25 Days of Christmas Giveaways event. Most titles will be priced at $0.99 or $1.99, so stock up and/or gift great ebooks to your friends and family this Christmas season.

And don't forget, Imajin Books is giving away prizes, including a Kindle Fire HD or Kobo Vox 7 HD, and two $50 Amazon gift cards. This contest ends December 25, 2013. To enter, visit http://www.imajinbooks.com/contests-events. You can enter multiple times a day.

To check out the ebooks on sale, visit http://www.imajinbooks.com/sale

First Position

by Prescott Lane
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
BLURB:

Emory faces life’s challenges at the one place that’s never failed her, the ballet barre. But even the barre can’t steady her when fate brings her face-to-face with her old college flame, Mason, who’s hoping to return to the NFL after a career-threatening injury. Before they can surrender to their sexual desires and find salvation in each other’s arms, they need to come to terms with their past. Mason must confront the demons that have set him on a path of self-destruction, while Emory must decide whether to keep her painful secrets locked away, or expose them and risk losing the love of her life. But nothing can prepare Mason for what Emory has kept hidden, or the possibility that he himself may be to blame for the very secrets she keeps – and why they continue to haunt her.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~ EXCERPT:

Emory sat between Olivia and Wesley, as three nail technicians worked on their feet. “This is the best idea you’ve had in a while, girl,” Wesley said, wiggling his toes in the water. “Thanks for inviting me.” Emory pointed to Olivia giving her credit.

“She told me about Tomás, and honey, there’s nothing better for a broken heart than hitting the spa.”

“Thank you, Olivia, I’m feeling better already.” Wesley leaned his head back, easing his mind. “We’re not just doing feet, huh?”

“We’re doing it all!” Emory said, giggling. “Manis, pedis, facials, massages, and Olivia, you’re getting your hair and makeup done for our shoot.”

“We deserve it all,” Olivia said, “for all the shit we put up with from our men.” Wesley and Emory nodded in agreement, but then Olivia turned serious. “But what I really need is a wax. Must be a damn forest down there by now!” Wesley and Emory, along with the technicians, erupted in laughter. “Was that inappropriate?”

“No way,” he said. “I come here once a month to take care of that area. They have this hard wax they use. Hurts less.”

Olivia appreciated the tip. “I might try that.”

“Too much information, Wesley,” Emory said.

“Whatever, it’s not like I said she should vajazzle herself.”

Emory hid her face, mortified, regretting she’d allowed Wesley to come, but Olivia was intrigued. “Is that popular in Charlotte? It seems all the Texas housewives are doing it.”

Wesley quickly asked, “Emory?”

“I wouldn’t know,” she said, then apologized to the technicians for her friends.

“Oh, come on,” he said, “we ballerinas are all bare down there. You can’t have more than a landing strip.”

“I prefer Brazilian,” Olivia volunteered.

Emory turned bright red. “Someone help me!”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~
AUTHOR Bio and Links:

Prescott Lane is originally from Little Rock, Arkansas, and graduated from Centenary College in 1997 with a degree in sociology. She went on to Tulane University to receive her MSW in 1998, after which she worked with developmentally delayed and disabled children. She currently resides in New Orleans with her husband and two children.

Social Media
https://www.amazon.com/author/prescottlane
facebook.com/PrescottLane1
www.twitter.com/prescottlane1

Prescott will be awarding an eBook copy of "First Position" to 5 randomly drawn commenters during the tour.

The Protectors Series

by Margaret Daley
Excerpt

Samantha entered the lobby of the Grand Hotel and instantly understood why Mark had said the hotel didn’t live up to its name. The furniture with its faded material and scratched wood had seen better days. The tiles were worn and several ceiling fans were the only means of cooling the room. The humidity of the jungle city at the “wedding” of two mighty rivers, the Amazon and the Rio Negro, was stifling.

But at the moment Samantha didn’t care about those things. She only wanted to locate her brother, and this was the last place he had been heard from. Mark hadn’t returned to Rio as she had hoped; no one there had seen him in weeks.

She squared her shoulders and walked up to the reception desk, setting her suitcase on the floor beside her, then rummaging through her purse until she found the pamphlet she had been looking for. Spanish for the Traveler was the only thing she had had in her store, and though she had known Spanish wasn’t the official language of Brazil, she had grabbed it as she had left her store.

She flipped through the pamphlet until she came to the phrase she wanted, praying her high school Spanish would be enough in a country that spoke Portuguese. Why hadn’t she stocked up on some phrase books in Portuguese?

“Do you speak English?” Samantha winced at her awful imitation of Spanish. She had barely made passing grades in the subject in high school.

The young man behind the desk frowned and looked at her questioningly.

“Uhh…” Samantha scanned her phrase book. Weren’t the Portuguese and Spanish languages alike, at least enough for her to be understood? She tried again in her stilted Spanish, “Do you speak Spanish?”

The clerk began to speak rapidly, but not in Spanish or English. Samantha didn’t understand a word he said. Why did Brazil have to be the only country in South America that didn’t speak Spanish? Then she would at least have a fighting chance—well, maybe a fighting chance to be understood.

Samantha held up her hand to stop his flow of words, but it seemed he didn’t even understand sign language. She glanced about frantically, and her gaze collided with a man’s across the lobby. Amusement brightened his gray eyes. He rose to his feet and strode toward her in one fluid motion.

Blurb:

Reading about danger never prepared Samantha Prince for the desperate phone call from her brother in Brazil that sent her from the safety of her New Orleans bookstore into the rugged, inhospitable Amazon in search of him and a hidden treasure. And reading about romance never prepared Samantha to resist the mysterious appeal of Brock Slader, a guide she hired to help her in her quest.

Alone with Brock in an alien world of orchids and anacondas, primitive headhunters and very up-to-date gunmen, she struggles to keep their relationship strictly business. Will Samantha survive the dangers in the jungle only to have her heart broken by a man who lives on the edge—no strings attached?

Bio:

Margaret Daley, an award-winning author of eighty-five books, has been married for over forty years and is a firm believer in romance and love. When she isn’t traveling, she’s writing love stories, often with a suspense thread and corralling her three cats that think they rule her household.

To find out more about Margaret visit her website at

http://www.margaretdaley.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/margaretdaleybooks
Twitter: @margaretdaley
Buy Dangerous Pursuit at Amazon
Buy Dangerous Pursuit at Barnes and Noble

Join the Imajin Books Twitter Party

Ever wonder what life must be like for a writer? Ever want to ask an author how they come up with their plots? Want to ask a publisher what they're looking for? Now you can!

On December 14 & 15, from 5-10 PM ET, join the Imajin Books Twitter Party, part of their annual 25 Days of Christmas Giveaways event. You will have the opportunity to chat with various Imajin Books authors and the publisher herself, international bestselling author Cheryl Kaye Tardif. Cheryl will be giving away random prizes to participants during the Twitter Party, so get your questions ready.

To join the Party, simple use #ImajinAuthors in all your tweets and follow the #ImajinAuthors thread on Twitter.

And don't forget, Imajin Books is holding a massive eBook Sale and giving away lots of prizes, including a Kindle Fire HD or Kobo Vox 7 HD, and two $50 Amazon gift cards.

To learn more about all these events, please visit http://www.imajinbooks.com/contests-events.

My paranormal romantic suspense, Corpse Whisperer, is on sale today and the next two days. $1.99.

Celebrate the Season with Imajin Books' 25 Days of Christmas Giveaways

This Christmas season, Canadian publishing house Imajin Books decided to do things a bit differently. Instead of only 25 days of contests and discounts as in past years, they're holding various events from December 1st to January 3rd. Okay, so they can't count, but they believe readers deserve to be rewarded. And we agree!

From December 1-25, Imajin Books will be awarding random prizes to those who leave comments on their Facebook page. So drop by, check out their posts and leave a comment or question.

Want to win even more? Check out their Share the Imajin Books Buzz contest. You could win a Kindle Fire HD or Kobo equivalent, or one of two $50 Amazon gift cards. This contest also runs December 1-25. To enter, visit the Rafflecopter contest widget below or at http://www.imajinbooks.com/contests-events. You can enter multiple times a day.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

The Girl from Long Guyland

by Lara Reznik
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
BLURB:

Laila Levin enjoys a successful marriage and a thriving career as an I.T. executive in Austin, Texas, but she can't quite shake her lifelong sense of not truly belonging anywhere.

When her company announces a major layoff, Laila finds herself caught between an unscrupulous CEO and her promiscuous boss. Then news of her college roommate's suicide stirs up a dark secret involving three devious friends from her past. One has betrayed a vow, another wants to rekindle their romance, and the third is out for revenge.

Suddenly for Laila, it's 1969 again. She's only seventeen, and she's left her sheltered home in Long Island for college in Connecticut. Amid protests of the Vietnam War, she's tempted by the sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll that rule her generation. Laila gets swept up in a deceptive love triangle with two older locals and initiated into their unethical hippie family. Too late she realizes her search to belong has led to tragedy.

Laila must now juggle the demands of her perplexed husband and her baby boomer past forcing her to make choices that endanger her survival and challenge her conscience.

She learns that the lines between right and wrong are often blurred, and sometimes you have to risk everything to be true to yourself.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~ EXCERPT

Easy Rider

Bridgeport, Connecticut, 1969

The guy in the passenger seat of the Mercedes ordered Joey and me to get into the back seat of the car. He had a bushy mustache streaked with grey, and a sparkling diamond stud in his ear. He brushed my cheek with his finger and said, “I’m Angel,” then poked the driver’s arm. “Get a move on.”

I caught the driver winking at me in the rearview mirror and realized it was Rojo.

“You got it, boss.” Rojo said, and stepped on the gas pedal.

I clung to the plush leather seat as Rojo sped the car down the icy roads.

Angel turned up the volume of the radio and sang along to Jefferson Airplane’s “White Rabbit” in an off-key raspy voice. When the song ended, he leered at me through rimless spectacles. “So, what’s a nice girl from Long Guyland doing with a couple of jerks like Ben and Chris?”

Did he know I’d been with both of them? Did everyone know?

I-I guess I’m not as nice as you might think.”

Angel laughed. He had perfect white-chicklet teeth and a sexy smile. “You’re cute, honey.”

Joey cleared his throat. “Laila’s a classy chick. Too good for those dudes, if you ask me.”

Angel whacked Joey’s head with his hand. Not hard, but enough to show he called the shots.

“No one asked you, jerk-face. Let her speak for herself.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~ AUTHOR Bio and Links:

Lara Reznik grew up on Long Island but escaped to New Mexico in 1970 in a Karmann Ghia that she and her boyfriend jump-started cross-country. As an English major at the University of New Mexico, Lara studied under esteemed authors Rudolfo Anaya and the late Tony Hillerman. She also attended a summer program at the prestigious Iowa Writers Workshop.

Ambidextrous from birth, Lara preferred her right-brained creative side, but discovered she could make a better living with her left-brain skills, so entered the I.T. field in 1985.

Lara published her first novel, The Girl From Long Guyland in November 2012. The novel ranked #1 during its recent Amazon Kindle promotion and has over 115,000 Kindle downloads. In addition to her novels, Lara has written and optioned three screenplays that have garnered semifinalist and finalist wins in the Austin Heart of Film, Southwest Writers, TV Writer, Chesterfield and Writer's Digest contests. Currently, Lara is working on a new novel based on her screenplay, The M&M Boys.

LINKS
AMAZON LINK:
http://www.amazon.com/Girl-Long-Guyland-ebook/dp/B00A45OYD0/ref=sr_1_1_bnp_1_kin?ie=UTF8&qid=1369930673&sr=8-1&keywords=THE+GIRL+FROM+LONG+GUYLAND
FACEBOOK
https://www.facebook.com/LARAREZNIK23?ref=hl&bookmark_t=page
WEBSITE
https://www.larareznik.COM

Brenda Maxfield

Brenda Maxfield 1. How did you pick the genre you write in?

I think my YA actually picked me! I teach high school so I’m plunged into teen drama every day. I really appreciate my students: what they share with me and what they teach me. So, writing about teen life was a natural outgrowth.

2. Do you plot or do you write by the seat of your pants?

I’m a mix. I do plot the overall story line, and I know where I want the story to end up. But my characters take over! Often, they’ll do something totally unplanned and I’ll cry, “Wait! You can’t do that.” But they talk right back and tell me that they most certainly can – and in fact already did! I’ve learned to leave them alone when that happens. Ha! I do admire those writers who can plot down to the last detail. Wow, totally amazing.

3. What do you know now that you are published that you didn’t know pre-published that you wish you knew?

Hmmm. I’ve learned so much, and I continue to learn. I think one happy thing I’ve learned is how wonderfully generous and knowledgeable my fellow writers are. We all know that writing can be lonely work, yet I can’t count how many times wonderful writers have stopped in (via Internet) and given friendship and support. I appreciate them so much!

4. How many rejections have you received?

I haven’t kept count! Ha! Plenty. It’s part of the game. The trick is to see rejections as proof that you’re going forward as an author. (Which, admittedly, is sometimes easier said than done.)

5. What was the best writing advice someone gave you?

Put butt in chair. Write. That’s really what it comes down to, isn’t it? Produce those words. You can edit them later.

6. Describe your book.

Seeking Christmas is a short story about forgiveness. I often hear my teen friends talk about their struggles to forgive absent parents or parents who neglect or abuse them. I’ve seen their determination to put it all behind them and go forward with their lives. It’s hard. More than hard. In Seeking Christmas, Courtney wants to do the right thing, not only for herself but for her brother. But she finds that the right thing is often the hardest thing of all.

7. What’s your writing schedule?

I get up very early and attempt to get 1,000 words written before school starts. After school, I work on editing, social media, promotion, etc. (Will someone please figure out how to add 3 – 4 hours to the day?)

8. What is your favorite word?

I love this question! I don’t really have a favorite word, but I do love words. When I teach vocabulary at school, I sometimes have the students repeat a word aloud over and over because it feels so good on the tongue. They think I’m nuts, but it’s fun!

9. What’s your favorite food?

I adore pizza. Now, that I’m vegan, I’ve learned to love pizza without cheese. (Sounds impossible, but actually, it’s quite good!)

10. What would you like to learn to do that you haven’t?

I’ve often thought it’d be cool to learn how to fly an airplane. I’ve been on hundreds and hundreds of flights, and I think it’d be fun to do the driving!

Author Bio

My passion is writing! What could be more delicious than inventing new characters and seeing where they take you?

I've lived in Honduras, Grand Cayman, and Costa Rica. Presently, I live in Indiana with my husband, Paul. We have two grown children and three grandchildren, special delivery from Africa.

When not teaching, I love to hole up in our cabin and write -- often with a batch of popcorn nearby.

I enjoy getting to know my readers, so feel free to write me at: contact@brendamaxfield.com.

Join my newsletter gang: http://mad.ly/signups/85744/join. Visit me to learn about all my books: www.brendamaxfield.com

Book Blurb
Seeking Christmas (an Ocean Mist short story Two)

The Christmas season has eighteen-year-old Courtney crossing the state line with her little brother Dennis to rendezvous with the man who deserted them years ago. Courtney remembers him only as the tall man who ran away. Dennis doesn’t remember him at all.

Courtney is furious, but Denny is curious. Will their meeting result in a happy Christmas memory or another miserable disappointment?

Seeking Christmas Purchase Links:
Amazon: http://tinyurl.com/ky7oxzu
Barnes and Noble: http://tinyurl.com/jvktfxz
Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/373439


Contact Links for Brenda Maxfield:
Website: http://www.brendamaxfield.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/AuthorBrendaMaxfield
Goodreads Page: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6570620.Brenda_Maxfield
Twitter: https://twitter.com/BrendaMaxfield
Blog: http://www.brendamaxfield.wordpress.com
Email: contact@brendamaxfield.com
Amazon Author Page: http://tinyurl.com/psj82bj
Newsletter Sign-up: http://mad.ly/signups/85744/join

Timeless

Chadwick Bed and Breakfast
Old Louisville

I tried to go to sleep. My new life would be better in daylight. I could at least get a better look at my surroundings. Falling asleep would make the day come sooner.

But it didn’t work. Even though my eyes were shut tight, I couldn’t relax. Time went by. I don’t know how much time. And then I heard a faint noise.

It was the giggling of a child.

Could it be television from someone’s room?

But it didn’t sound like television. It sounded real, as if a child was playing in the hall maybe. It was a high-pitched laugh, like a little girl’s. My skin prickled, and my stomach tightened. Another chilly sensation swept over me. I was being watched. But there was no one in my room with me.

Tossing back the covers, I jumped out of bed and ran to the nearby window. Could the sound be coming from outside? A streetlamp pooled light on the sidewalk. Gray fog swirled in the air making the deserted street below seem spooky as if from a B-rated horror movie. I shivered at the thought and turned to hop back into bed.

At that moment, a flash of white raced past me, and I caught it out of the corner of my eye. I heard the giggling again, louder now. Looking back at my bed, I spotted a little girl standing on the other side of it. She was dressed in white and her slender hand reached toward my doll as if she wanted to touch it and play with it.

“Hey!”

She looked up, startled, and smiled at me as if she knew me. And then she ran from the bed toward the door to the parlor which was shut. My heart raced. I followed her, flinging open the door to stare out into the empty parlor with the gray streetlights creating a defused, half-light glow in the room.

How had the little girl gone through the door? It had been shut! How could she have disappeared so quickly? Was I dreaming? Hallucinating? I pinched myself to see if I was awake.

I was. The floor was cold even through my socks. I crossed the parlor and unlocked and opened the outer door to the hall. All was quiet except for the deep tick-tock of a grandfather clock at one end. I bit my lower lip and retreated to the parlor, making sure the door to the hall was locked.

Standing silently for a moment, listening for laughter, I let my heart settle into a normal rhythm. What was the matter with me?

Thinking back at the vision of the little girl, I realized something was wrong about it. The child’s clothes were more fitting for the nineteenth century, not the twenty-first. In fact, her clothes reminded me of the lacy frills of my doll. And the girl’s hair was long, curled in dark blond ringlets down her back, and she wore a white ribbon in her hair. Her body didn’t seem solid. It was transparent, almost ghost-like.

Ah, shit!

Timeless Blurb

When Beth Abbott receives a surprise inheritance from her birth mother, she travels to the family’s nineteenth century mansion in Old Louisville, now a bed and breakfast. There she meets the resident ghost, a little girl whose crying not only scares, but also intrigues guests. Beth sets out to discover the identity of the ghost and why she appears happy to Beth, not sad.

Jeff Halstead, a man with several secrets, runs the bed and breakfast. But he’s more than that to Beth, and she feels their connection immediately. A psychic medium who doubts his skills, Jeff slowly uncovers the truth of their past lives. Will he be in time to reveal the identity of Beth’s enemy? Will the love they shared in the past follow them into the future?

Jan Scarbrough Bio

Jan Scarbrough is the author of the popular Bluegrass Reunion series, writing heartwarming contemporary romances about home and family, single moms and children, and if the plot allows, about another passion--horses. Living in the horse country of Kentucky makes it easy for Jan to add small town, Southern charm to her books, and the excitement of a horse race or a big-time, competitive horse show.

Jan also contributes to the Ladies of Legend series, a collaboration with writers Maddie James, Janet Eaves and Magdalena Scott. Set in fictitious Legend, Tennessee, these romances bring together the small town family atmosphere so many readers enjoy.

Leaving her contemporary voice behind, Jan has written a medieval romance MY LORD RAVEN, and several sensual Medieval romantic short stories. Her Gothic romance, TANGLED MEMORIES, was a Golden Heart finalist. TIMELESS is her newest Gothic romance.

A member of Novelist, Inc. and the Romance Writers of America, Jan has published with Kensington, Five Star, ImaJinn Books, Resplendence Publishing and Turquoise Morning Press.

Follow me on Twitter @romancerider

Website: http://www.janscarbrough.com/

Elysa Hendricks Interview

1. How long have you been writing?

I've been writing as long as I can remember. I've always been a storyteller, so I'm pretty sure as soon as I figured out that those funny squiggles on paper were words I began writing down the stories in my head.

2. Do you plot or do you write by the seat of your pants?

I'm definitely a panster or as I prefer to say "I write into the mist." If I plot out my entire story before I start writing, I tend to lose interest. Heck, if I know everything that's going to happen, why write it? Besides, even when I plot things out, my characters always object and do what they want anyways.

3. What drew you to the subject of MUST LOVE CATS: The Nine Lives of Thomas Cash Riley?

I adore cats and I wanted to write a book that featured a cat as more than just a pet. Thomas Cash (TC) Riley fit the bill. Though the book is a romance between two humans, TC has his own story to tell.

4. What was the name of the first novel you wrote? Did you try to publish it?

My very first novel CHILDREN OF THE MIND (btw - Orson Scott Card's book by the same name came out years after I wrote mine) will probably never see publication. I didn't realize it until long after I shoved the manuscript under the bed, to be guarded by killer dust bunnies, that the story borrowed way too heavily from Star Trek: Next Generation. Maybe someday I'll pull it out and see if I can salvage it, but right now I have too many other stories in my head clamoring to be written.

5. How many rejections have you received?

Let's just say that if my husband would agree to it, I could probably paper a room with them.

6. What was the best writing advice someone gave you?

No matter what, keep writing. Never give up. Never surrender.

7. If you could ask your readers one question, what would it be?

What can I do to make my books more appealing to you?

8. What’s your favorite quote?

"There are three rules to writing. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are." Somerset Maugham

9. What three things would you want with you on a desert island?

Assuming there's food, water, and shelter of some kind, the only other three things I'd need to survive would be my husband, paper, and pencils. Oh, an eraser would be helpful, too.

10. What do you do when you are not writing?

I'm not very adventurous, so my non-writing pastimes are pretty bland. I read. I walk. I putter around in the garden. And I do crafts like beading and needlework. Other than when I'm reading or watching TV my mind is always "writing." I often wonder what people who don't write, think about.

Author Bio:

Elysa Hendricks is 5'6" tall. She has curly hair and brown eyes. She's an author, a wife, a mother and a daughter. Everything else is subject to change without notice.

Her "real life" motto is: Boring is good. Excitement is vastly overrated, so she saves the adventure and excitement for the characters in her books.

You can learn more about her books at: http://www.elysahendricks.com

Book Blurb:

MUST LOVE CATS: The Nine Lives of Thomas Cash Riley - Book a

Killed in a car wreck Thomas Cash (TC) Riley is given one last chance to redeem himself for living a selfish, unfulfilled life.

With the help of a lonely little girl and a brash young boy, can TC bring together two damaged people, remember his past, and save his soul in the allotted time?

And can he do it all as a cat?

Buy Links:
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Must-Love-Lives-Thomas-Riley-ebook/dp/B00FXCWTHW
Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/366089

The Scottish Selkie – audio book

I have always found selkies fascinating. These fey beings from Celtic mythology, mainly of Scotland and Ireland, shape shift from seal to man. My interest in Celtic mythology is equaled only to my interest in Celtic history. My favorite Celitc King is Kenneth Mac Alpin. So naturally, I combined my favorite Celtic beings and my favorite Celtic King and wrote a novel containing both of them. It’s called The Scottish Selkie and it’s now available as an audio book.

http://www.audible.com/search/ref=a_mt_ps1zx_tseft?advsearchKeywords=the+scottish+selkie&filterby=field-keywords&sprefix=the+scottish+selkie

From ancient druid lore, springs the tale of a mysterious, dark warrior, a fiery Pict Princess, and the shadowy secret standing between them. A bow and arrow carrying Pict beauty takes vengeance on a royal target but fails at her attempt to slay the Scot King, Kenneth Mac Alpin. To save her life, she is forced to wed the king’s cousin, Malcolm. Just as the Scot warrior and the Pict princess begin to forge a bond, Malcolm must reveal his incredible secret and choose between two worlds, one with Bethoc or one without.

Here is the book trailer with the talented, voice actor, Dennis Kleinman reading the blurb:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SLOm5ucN5Ao

The voice actor for The Scottish Selkie, Dennis Kleinman, has the smoothest, sexiest, so-very-masculine voice. This links to two excerpts from the audio book, The Scottish Selkie:

https://soundcloud.com/dennis-kleinma....

Here is a pinterest board of the World of The Scottish Selkie:

http://www.pinterest.com/corneliaamiri/the-scottish-selkie/

Contest:

I I’m giving away an audio book of The Scottish Selkie, a 19.00 value. To enter the contest, just comment below with your email, so if you win I can send the audio book of The Scottish Selkie to you.

I You can visit Cornelia Amiri on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/CelticRomanceQueen and or her website at http://CelticRomanceQueen.com and twitter at @corneliaAmiri, and her email is CelticRomanceQueen@gmail.com

VAULT OF SECRETS

By
Hawk McKinney
BLURB:

Vault of Secrets is a compelling tale of intrigue, murder, deception and redemption that leads retired Navy SEAL/part-time private investigator Craige Ingram in search of the connection between seemingly random murders and a banking conspiracy. Working with the local homicide investigator, who just happens to be a former Navy buddy, Craige Ingram's attempts to protect a lonely widow and solve the case before another person dies are only thwarted by a psychotic killer whose motivation is based on pure pleasure. The instincts and skills Ingram and his buddy acquired as Navy SEALS are tested to their limits.

One randomly drawn commenter will win a $20 Amazon Gift Card.

EXCERPT:

Predawn risers were at Duke’s breakfast diner in booths and at tables. The aroma of fried eggs, pancakes, grits, bacon and country ham filled the air. Gray caught Craige up on Sedgewicke’s autopsy reports—chronic degenerative heart condition, sky high cholesterol and arterial disease.

“His heart wasn’t what killed him. Got us a crafty one here,” Gray sighed. “CDC Atlanta verified Fred’s gas chromatography runs on the poison.” Handed Craige the folder.

Craige’s eyes zeroed to the big, bold word—ACONITE. “Lethal dose of aconite in Royce’s tissues,” Craige said. “Gives the how but not the way it was slipped to Sedgewicke.” He looked through the rest of the toxicology report. “Not very original. Rome’s Julio-Claudian's treacherous family of brigands was in some ways a lot more honest than most of us and far more sophisticated with aconite. They called it wolfsbane and used it often. Wife of old Octavian Augustus, a determined old dowager, the Empress Livia, it was rumored to be her favorite method for eliminating rivals. She kept her supplier on call. Augustus wouldn’t eat anything except food prepared by his own slaves. Livia wanted her son Tiberius to succeed to the purple. She was afraid Augustus meant to be rid of Tiberius, so she dusted her husband’s figs with the bane. People do get away with murder and simple makes for better odds.” Craige glanced at the next page. “This gone beyond your office?”

“Only CDC,” Gray said. “Your crack about possible killings we don’t know about keeps troubling me.” He scratched his wiry mustache. “Marshall’s suicide, Sedgewicke murder, two women dead, the Stanley break-in.”

Craige closed the folder, his face stony serious. “I’ve never done, what I’m about to do. Ask you for a favor...”

“No…” Craige’s monotone hardness surprised Gray. “But I gather that’s about to change.”

AUTHOR INFORMATION:

With postgraduate degrees and faculty appointments in several medical universities, Hawk MacKinney has taught graduate courses in both the United States and Jerusalem. In addition to professional articles and texts on chordate neuroembryology, Hawk has authored several works of fiction.

Hawk began writing mysteries for his school newspaper. His works of fiction, historical love stories, science fiction and mystery-thrillers are not genre-centered, but plot-character driven, and reflect his southwest upbringing in Arkansas, Texas and Oklahoma. Moccasin Trace, a historical novel nominated for the prestigious Michael Shaara Award for Excellence in Civil War Fiction and the Writers Notes Book Award, details the family bloodlines of his serial protagonist in the Craige Ingram Mystery Series… murder and mayhem with a touch of romance. Vault of Secrets, the first book in the Ingram series, was followed by Nymrod Resurrection, Blood and Gold, and The Lady of Corpsewood Manor. All have received national attention. Hawk’s latest release in the Ingram series is due out this fall with another mystery-thriller work out in 2014. The Bleikovat Event, the first volume in The Cairns of Sainctuarie science fiction series, was released in 2012.

www.hawkmackinney.net
http://www.amazon.com/Vault-Secrets-Hawk-Mackinney/dp/1933300256/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1384707403&sr=1-4
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/vault-of-secrets-hawk-mackinney/1103301288?ean=9781933300252

INTO THE FIRE

by Lindsey Fairleigh and Lindsey Pogue
~~~~~~~~~~~~~ BLURB:

The Virus changed them, but that was only the beginning… …death…mutation…insanity…corruption…terror… …all that remains is hope.

In the wake of destruction left behind by the Virus, it took Dani and Zoe months to find each other. But their reunion was short-lived. Dani has been taken, and though little distance separates them, they might as well be worlds apart.

From the moment she hears Dani’s scream, Zoe’s only goal is to save her best friend. She and her companions scramble to come up with a rescue plan, but when a ghost from Jake’s past reappears, lines are blurred, decisions become harder, and secrets are revealed…and some secrets are best left buried. To keep heartache and fear from consuming her, Zoe must cling to her determination. She will see Dani again.

Dani awakens inside the final hold-out of civilization: the Colony. Remnants of the former world surround her—electricity, safety, social order—but all is not what it seems. As she faces her most manipulative adversary yet, she loses sight of who she is and who she can trust. Friends become enemies, enemies become allies, and allies will betray her. Dani will have to decide what she’s willing to do and whose lives she’s willing to risk if she is to have any chance of breaking free.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~ EXCERPT

I froze. He’s leaving. I glared at Jake’s back, but feeling his misery, my anger quickly subsided. “We can figure something—”

“Stop!” He pulled his arm back and slammed his fist into the wall, denting it. “There’s nothing to figure out. My sister will not be used as a pawn.” His face fell. He leaned back and brought his hand up to pinch the bridge of his nose. “I wouldn’t be able to live with myself.”

He’s already made up his mind. Instantly, I started to question everything about Jake and me…about us. My reservations from the first time I met him—the first time he saved me, opened his mouth, and pushed me away—flared to life, and I chided myself for being so naïve. I knew something like this would happen.

The questions jumped off my tongue before I could contain them. “What about Dani? What about me? You’re just going to leave?”

When he didn’t respond, reality burst overhead like a looming storm cloud, clearing away the fog that had settled in my heart and mind. How could I have been so stupid?

The conversation we’d had on the dock back in St. Louis resurfaced from under a month’s-worth of foolhardy emotions. Jake’s words replayed in my mind.

“For whatever reason, I know you don’t want to let me in…or maybe you just don’t know how…what are you afraid of?”

This. This feeling of inexplicable loss was what I’d been afraid of—the living lump of hysteria swelling in my throat, the desperation in my heart. I couldn’t swallow it away.

Biting the inside of my cheek as hard as possible, I willed myself to calm down. Keep it together, Zoe.

Jake strode past me to Becca, pulling her up to her feet.

Lunging at him, I pushed against his chest as hard as I could. “You’re leaving?” He stumbled away from Becca, and I pushed him again. “You’re going to kill Dani!” I shoved against his shoulder. “You’re going to kill us all if you take her!” I smack his chest. “I won’t let you ruin everything.” I won’t let you break my heart! I pushed, shoved, and slapped him again and again. “You son of a bitch!”

Jake gripped my arms firmly, immobilizing me and forcing me to look up at him. His eyebrows lifted with sympathy…or is it sorrow? I was too upset to differentiate between his emotions and mine.

“Let go,” I warbled.

As he opened his mouth to speak, a gunshot cracked through the air, and Jake yanked me down to the floor.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~ AUTHOR Bio and Links:

Lindsey Fairleigh lives her life with one foot in a book—as long as that book transports her to a magical world or bends the rules of science. Her novels, from post-apocalyptic to time travel and historical fantasy, always offer up a hearty dose of unreality, along with plenty of adventure and romance. When she's not working on her next novel, Lindsey spends her time reading and trying out new recipes in the kitchen. She lives in the Napa Valley with her loving husband and confused cats.

Lindsey Pogue has always been a little creative. As a child she established a bug hospital on her elementary school soccer field, compiled books of collages as a teenager, and as an adult, expresses herself through writing. Her novels are inspired by her observations of the world around her--whether she's traveling, people watching, or hiking. When not plotting her next story line or dreaming up new, brooding characters, Lindsey's wrapped in blankets watching her favorite action flicks or going on road trips with her own leading man.

The authors will be awarding a $15 Amazon GC to one randomly drawn commenter during the tour.
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Links: Website: http://www.theendingseries.com/
Blog: http://aftertheending-ae.blogspot.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheEndingSeries
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AfterTheEnding
Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/series/99139-the-ending

Buy links:
Amazon:

Into The Fire (The Ending, #2) - not available yet
After The Ending (The Ending, #1) - http://www.amazon.com/After-Ending-ebook/dp/B00BJDUBLU
Barnes & Noble:

Into The Fire (The Ending, #2) - not available yet
After The Ending (The Ending, #1) - http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/after-the-ending-lindsey-fairleigh/1114702967

AN INNER FIRE

by Jacki Delecki
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
BLURB:

Grayce Walters, animal acupuncturist, harbors a secret. She hides her intuitive gifts from the world until she becomes embroiled in arson on Seattle’s waterfront.

As a key crime witness, Grayce must convince the attractive, logical, by-the-numbers fire investigator, Ewan Davis,that the fire she witnessed is part of a larger criminal conspiracy. Grayce embarks upon a mission to gather proof of the dangerous threat. She enlists the help of her cross-dressing best friend, her street-wise assistant, and Davis’ poodle, to conduct her own investigation.

As her feelings for Davis shift between white hot passion and cold fear, Grayce must risk exposing her secrets to save Davis’ life. Davis must accept things, he can neither see, nor understand to solve the mystery and finally find the love he has stopped believing in.

With nudges from the protective poodle, Grayce and Davis confront shocking betrayal and international crime on the rain soaked streets of Seattle.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~
EXCERPT

“Grayce, you’re exhausted. You had a big week, your trip to LA. You need to get some rest. I’m going to take you home.”

“I am tired but something is wrong. When I’m with you, I experience overwhelming sensations. I know you’re in danger.”

He pulled both her hands back into his, he had to touch her. “Grayce, you’re absolutely right. I’m in danger, but not from that thug.”

Her whole body stiffened. “Someone else has threatened you?”

He squeezed her hands and gazed into her eyes, trying to communicate his need for her. “Yes, there is a person who is a threat to me.”

She gasped. “Who?”

I’m not tense from the investigation but from trying to deny what is between us. Don’t you know when we’re together the room vibrates? All those sensations you’re feeling are between us.”

“What?”

He didn’t usually have to convince women they were attracted to him. Grayce definitely needed some convincing, judging by the astonishment in her voice.

“All the strain is us trying to ignore what’s happening.”

“You think everything I’m feeling is…is an attraction between us?”

By the shock on her face, Grayce wasn’t driven by desire for him.

“Don’t worry, my feelings aren’t hurt.” At least, not that he would admit. “I’m going to give you time to realize what a wonderful guy I am.” He liked a challenge and convincing Grayce Walters was going to be a challenging pleasure.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~
AUTHOR Bio and Links:

Descended from a long line of storytellers, Jacki spins adventures filled with mystery, healing and romance.

Jacki’s love affair with the arts began at a young age and inspired her to train as a jazz singer and dancer. She has performed many acting roles with Seattle Opera Company and Pacific Northwest Ballet.

Jacki has set An Inner Fire in Seattle, her long-time home. The city’s unique and colorful locations are a backdrop for her romantic mystery.

Although writing now fills much of her day, she continues to volunteer for Seattle’s Ballet and Opera Companies and leads children’s tours of Pike Street Market. Her volunteer work with Seattle’s homeless shelters influenced one of her main characters in An Inner Fire.

Jacki’s two Golden Labs, Gus and Talley, are her constant companions. Their years of devotion and intuition inspired her to write dogs as main characters alongside her strong heroines.

A geek at heart, Jacki loves superhero movies—a hero’s battle against insurmountable odds. But her heroines don’t have to wear a unitard to fight injustice and battle for the underdog.

Her debut novel, AN INNER FIRE, releases November 14, 2013

The author will award a $25 Amazon GC and eBook copy of "An Inner Fire" to one randomly drawn commenter and to one randomly drawn host during the tour. LINKS: WEBSITE: www.jackidelecki.com
FACEBOOK: www.facebook.com/Jacki.Deleck
TWITTER: http://twitter.com/jackidelecki
AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL: www.amazon.com/author/jackidelecki
GOODREADS: https://www.goodreads.com/jackidelecki
LINKEDIN: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/jacqueline-delecki/34/839/741
Buy Links:
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Inner-Fire-Jacki-Delecki-ebook/dp/B00GGPX3CA/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&sr=8-1&qid=1384887947
BN: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/an-inner-fire-final-jacki-delecki/1117323174?ean=2940148883265

NYMROD RESURRECTION

By
Hawk McKinney
BLURB:

Investigating an unlikely murder, Ex-SEAL and part time PI Craige Ingram discovers an officially sanctioned assassination. His investigation quickly stirs beyond the dirty backrooms of the nation’s capital with more killings across Europe and the Middle East. The dead woman is somehow connected to stolen artifacts from a time before Babylon. As he probes apparently unconnected clues, he locks horns with an enigmatic enticing secret agent with her own agenda and her own way of doing things. Craige faces train wrecks and deadly assassins doing business with a rich mercenary selling biotoxins, rare stamps, deadly nerve gases, and smuggled nuclear material to the highest bidder. As Craige peels away at the shadowy Operation Nymrod, he finds an elusive power-hungry dead-set mind – a driven obsession with a frightful arsenal of bioweapons ready to fulfill ancient prophecies with a very personal Armageddon that makes the monstrous last day of the twin towers of the World Trade Center pale in possibilities.

EXCERPT

On the second-floor landing I spotted familiar faces from the department's forensic team. The smell was worse inside. With that first look I didn't need to be told that the pulpy lump with swollen pumpkin dimples where eyes should have been was one very bloated dead body. The corpse was well into being recycled. It no longer looked human. The body had been cooking in the sweltering oven of a Dixie mid-August scorching summer in this dreary one-flight walkup of apartments with no AC and painted-shut windows. Near the peeling paint archway and a worse kitchenette beyond I spotted Gray huddled with just over five feet plus, roly-poly Coroner-Medical Examiner Fred Dinkins.

"What you got?" I asked.

Gray indolently heaved a getting-paunchier fried chicken and beer belly and idly mumbled, "We’re not quite sure...." threw me that MacGerald we-got-trouble look. "Right now all I know for sure is, it's no run-of-the-mill homicide."

There was more in his look than his words. It was all over his face that things weren't going the way he liked. I’d known that from the moment I disconnected from his call. He wouldn't have made the call for a squabble between drifters over street drugs or a grocery cart of scrounged throwaway clothes. When a corpse is concealed, long term or otherwise and left to rot, decomposition can alter forensic evidence until it tells other stories—but not usually ones you want to hear. Dinkins had his work cut out for him and his crew. It’s one way perps buy themselves time, and concealment usually means there’s considerable more that went down. In my wildest night-stalks I could never’ve imagined how right-on-the-money that would prove to be. Ignorance is bliss…our SEAL team learned real quick. It can also get you killed.

Without looking up Dinkins said, "One more pitiable devil that died alone.” Piercing blue eyes peered over his ever-present black wire-rim glasses perched unsteadily on the end of his nose. In low-key measured words, "Prelim exam leads me to believe the corpse is female, but we'll wait till we get the body to the morgue, see what the autopsy and lab tests tell us. I don’t want any second guessing the evidence. Besides, we’re about finished up here."

The dreary apartment was busier than it’d seen in decades with double shifts of the forensic techs bustling-sorting the whens and hows of death. The cracker box kitchen adjoined a corner next-to-nothing squalid dinette area furnished with a dirty Masonite wobbly table barely big enough for two. In the front room the melon-round, no-neck head squatted square on the bloated chest of the oozing corpse. The whole misshapen inhuman mess had sagged into the soggy sofa.

One randomly drawn commenter will win a $20 Amazon gift card.

AUTHOR INFORMATION:

With postgraduate degrees and faculty appointments in several medical universities, Hawk MacKinney has taught graduate courses in both the United States and Jerusalem. In addition to professional articles and texts on chordate neuroembryology, Hawk has authored several works of fiction.

Hawk began writing mysteries for his school newspaper. His works of fiction, historical love stories, science fiction and mystery-thrillers are not genre-centered, but plot-character driven, and reflect his southwest upbringing in Arkansas, Texas and Oklahoma. Moccasin Trace, a historical novel nominated for the prestigious Michael Shaara Award for Excellence in Civil War Fiction and the Writers Notes Book Award, details the family bloodlines of his serial protagonist in the Craige Ingram Mystery Series… murder and mayhem with a touch of romance. Vault of Secrets, the first book in the Ingram series, was followed by Nymrod Resurrection, Blood and Gold, and The Lady of Corpsewood Manor. All have received national attention. Hawk’s latest release in the Ingram series is due out this fall with another mystery-thriller work out in 2014. The Bleikovat Event, the first volume in The Cairns of Sainctuarie science fiction series, was released in 2012.

"Without question, Hawk is one of the most gifted and imaginative writers I have had the pleasure to represent. His reading fans have something special to look forward to in the Craige Ingram Mystery Series. Intrigue, murder, deception and conspiracy--these are the things that take Hawk's main character, Navy ex-SEAL/part-time private investigator Craige Ingram, from his South Carolina ancestral home of Moccasin Hollow to the dirty backrooms of the nation's capital and across Europe and the Middle East."

Barbara Casey, President
Barbara Casey Literary Agency


www.hawkmackinney.net
www.amazon.com
www.barnesandnoble.com

This week on my blog November 18

TRACKS: JOURNEYS IN TIME AND PLACE

By Genni Gunn
This particular excerpt comes from “Ouroboros,” a journey into my past as a musician travelling on the road.

I have no photos, no film, no videos of the journeys during my twenties and early thirties, when I travelled ten to eleven months a year, crisscrossing Canada as a rock musician, on tour, as the agents called it. The words on tour conjure tall, air-conditioned buses with smoked windows, Internet access and on-board toilets; hotel rooms with impeccable sheets and starched pillowcases; windows with a view of the sea, or the mountains, or whatever; audio-guide visits to museums, art galleries and famous/infamous dead people’s homes. We were on the road, on hard grey asphalt from Vancouver to Newfoundland, though most often, our travels occurred in Western Canada: Vancouver, Kamloops, Kelowna, Vernon, Calgary, Red Deer, Edmonton, Grande Prairie, Fort St. John, Medicine Hat; some continued on to Swift Current, Saskatoon, Regina, Winnipeg; and others further still to Kapuskasing, North Bay, Toronto, Montreal, Fredericton, Saint John, Halifax, St. John’s, Corner Book.

Those twelve years on the road—the trips back and forth across the country—have become one long journey in memory, city to city, bar to bar, 624 weeks of setting up on Sunday, playing Monday to Saturday, tearing down Saturday night, driving, driving, driving to the next gig. Set up. Play. Tear down. Drive. Same venues, same people, same same. After the first few road trips, the novelty evaporated, and people ceased to be individuals, towns ceased to have names, dates ceased to exist. I was aware only of Sundays (when we set up) and Saturday nights (when we tore down and drove all night, all day, sometimes all night again).

I was the night driver. It was the best time, night: the silence, and everyone asleep. The road streamed before me, boundless and mysterious, to the edge of the forests, the gullies, the deserts and lakes, the Canadian landscape as varied and ominous as our musician life was repetitive and predictable: each night, we played till 2:00 a.m., then wound down for a couple of hours, slept till noon the next day, rehearsed all afternoon, ate at the cheapest salad bar in town, showered, dressed, and were on stage by 9:00 p.m. There was no time to hike or sightsee, to swim, see movies, attend barbeques and birthday parties. We barely noticed the life transpiring outside bars and taverns, caught as we were in a whirl of beer-stained carpets, burly bouncers, skimpily dressed waitresses, and drunken patrons, coloured lights softening the edges of everything ….

BIO:

Genni Gunn’s ten books include three novels, Solitaria, Tracing Iris and Thrice

Upon a Time, two story collections, Hungers and On the Road, two poetry collections, Faceless and Mating in Captivity, and two poetry translations by Dacia Maraini from Italian, Traveling in the Gait of a Fox and Devour Me Too. She has also written an opera libretto, Alternate Visions (music by John Oliver). Her works have been translated into Italian, Dutch and Chinese, and her novel, Tracing Iris, has been made into a film.

She has been a finalist for the Commonwealth Prize, the Gerald Lampert Poetry Award, the John Glassco Translation award, the Premio Internationale Diego Valeri for Translation. Her most recent novel, Solitaria, was longlisted for the Giller Prize 2011.

Blurb:

All experience is an arch wherethrough Gleams that untravelled world, whose margin fades For ever and for ever when I move

— Alfred, Lord Tennyson

Tracks is a compilation of personal travel essays that range across three continents, from Italy, where Genni Gunn was born and spent her early years, to Canada, Mexico, and through Asia, where she has travelled many times, both reconnecting with her sister and witnessing the emergence of new political realities in Myanmar. Journeys into the new and unknown also trigger the inner journey to the realm of memory. These pieces dig deep into personal territory, exploring the family ties of an unusually peripatetic family.

Forward to Camelot

A Letter to My Younger Self

Wow. All those times people asked if I talked to myself, I said no. Yet here I am, talking to myself, my younger self, age 16, in your room recovering from pneumonia as you watch the 1980 U.S. Olympic Hockey team celebrate it’s shocking gold medal victory. You’ve just made the two biggest decisions about your life and you haven’t a clue you’ve done it.

You want to live in that kind of moment, broadcast history to the world. More importantly, you want to write about it. So start writing now. Jot down all those dreams and ideas about what you want to live and experience. That makes them real. Palpable. Something to live for, work towards, achieve.

Done? Good. Keep that list forever. Now go, get out of your room and do the things on that list. Every day. Every time you achieve or experience something on that list, cross it off and add two more to the bottom. Then write about what you did or where you went.

Here’s the secret; You can’t do this timidly. Live, kid, with a lack of fear or regret, and total devotion to your passions. Sitting in your room waiting for shit to happen doesn’t get it done.

You’ve already made your biggest decisions. Go live with conviction and never look back. To quote Yogi Berra, “When you come to a fork in the road, take it.” It’s not real hard to figure out what ‘ol Yogi means. Commitment is a mental strength you need to survive and persevere.

You’re going to let the love of your life walk out of it, you’re going to lose loved ones including me, you’re going to live through tragedy, and none of that compares to the pain and mental debilitation that being a writer requires.

Afraid? Afraid of Life? Success? Life is simply doing those things on your list and every time you cross one of them off, you’ve succeeded. Fear of failing? Rejection? Of course you’re going to fail and be rejected. That pal of yours who just had a whopping book sale? You watched him fail for 14 years before he landed that sale. The most successful novel series of your time, of all time, will be rejected 106 times before it makes it to print.

In three years you’ll see ‘Back to the Future’ for the first time, but young George McFly’s words on writing will haunt you, if you let them; ‘What if it isn’t good enough or someone said they didn’t like it?”

SOMEONE will say it isn’t good enough. Some won’t like it. That’s their problem. A lot of people don’t like Steinbeck. I don’t like Steinbeck....but Dumas? Rostand? Thrills!

Never write for the approval of others, kid. Write because it fills your soul and makes you happy and never write merely what you know. Write what you love. When others see your passion, it will fulfill them, touch them inside in ways you cannot imagine. Then they will approve. Most importantly, write because it’s fun.

Don’t think you’re ready? You’re NEVER ready to be where you want to be or do what you want to do. If you always wait until you think you’re ready to do something, you’ll never do anything. Rise to the next level, ready or not.

The blind ignorance of youth is to be applauded; when you’re 18, six months out of high school, you’ll walk in to the local TV studio, tell them you want to be a writer, and be writing for television news the next day. That’s not how it's supposed to be done but that’s how you’ll do it. When you seek your first agent and blindly walk into their office at 5;45pm after the secretaries have gone home, and come face to face with said agent...well, that’s not how it’s done. That’s how you’ll do it.

You weren’t timid those days and that only proves there is no right way to do things, only the way that gets it done.

If you don’t believe me, trust your influence on your own daughter at almost the same age you are now. She’ll follow your cue, win her first lead role on stage by being different, by auditioning with an English accent. Not what’s supposed to be done, but what get’s it done.

You can’t do this timidly. You can have fun doing it. Let me know how it works out.

by Susan Sloate and Kevin Finn
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
BLURB:

WHERE WERE YOU THE DAY KENNEDY WAS SAVED?

On the 50th anniversary of the JFK assassination comes a new edition of the extraordinary time-travel thriller first published in 2003 with a new Afterword from the authors.

On November 22, 1963, just hours after President Kennedy’s assassination, Lyndon Johnson was sworn in as President aboard Air Force One using JFK’s own Bible. Immediately afterward, the Bible disappeared. It has never been recovered. Today, its value would be beyond price.

In the year 2000, actress Cady Cuyler is recruited to return to 1963 for this Bible—while also discovering why her father disappeared in the same city, on the same tragic day. Finding frightening links between them will lead Cady to a far more perilous mission: to somehow prevent the President’s murder, with one unlikely ally: an ex-Marine named Lee Harvey Oswald.

Forward to Camelot: 50th Anniversary Edition brings together an unlikely trio: a gallant president, the young patriot who risks his own life to save him, and the woman who knows their future, who is desperate to save them both.

History CAN be altered …

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

~~~~~~~~~~~~~
AUTHOR Bio and Links:

SUSAN SLOATE is the author of 20 previous books, including the recent bestseller Stealing Fire and Realizing You (with Ron Doades), for which she invented a new genre: the self-help novel. The original 2003 edition of Forward to Camelot became a #6 Amazon bestseller, took honors in three literary competitions and was optioned by a Hollywood company for film production.

Susan has also written young-adult fiction and non-fiction, including the children’s biography Ray Charles: Find Another Way!, which won the silver medal in the 2007 Children’s Moonbeam Awards. Mysteries Unwrapped: The Secrets of Alcatraz led to her 2009 appearance on the TV series MysteryQuest on The History Channel. Amelia Earhart: Challenging the Skies is a perennial young-adult Amazon bestseller. She has also been a sportswriter and a screenwriter, managed two recent political campaigns and founded an author’s festival in her hometown outside Charleston, SC.

After beginning his career as a television news and sports writer-producer, KEVIN FINN moved on to screenwriting and has authored more than a dozen screenplays. He is a freelance script analyst and has worked for the prestigious American Film Institute Writer’s Workshop Program. He now produces promotional trailers, independent film projects including the 2012 documentary SETTING THE STAGE: BEHIND THE SCENES WITH THE PIRATES OF PENZANCE, and local content for Princeton Community Television.

His next novel, Banners Over Brooklyn, will be released in 2014.

For updates and more information about Forward to Camelot: 50th Anniversary Edition, please visit http://susansloate.com/CAMELOT.html.

Susan and Kevin will be awarding a $25 Amazon GC to a randomly drawn commenter during this tour and their Super Book Blast Tour.

THE UNHOLY

Paul DeBlassie III
BLURB:

A young curandera, a medicine woman, intent on uncovering the secrets of her past is forced into a life-and-death battle against an evil Archbishop. Set in the mystic land of Aztlan, The Unholy is a novel of destiny as healer and slayer. Native lore of dreams and visions, shape changing, and natural magic work to spin a neo-gothic web in which sadness and mystery lure the unsuspecting into a twilight realm of discovery and decision.

EXCERPT

“Help me? Help yourself! Face what is yours to face,” Elizabeth hissed. She yanked the door open then forced it to slam behind her.

Claire stood still for a moment, feeling as if a tornado had swept through the room. Elizabeth’s demand had left her shaken. She drew a deep breath, then went to her desk and picked up her tea, noticing her trembling hands.

Turning toward the window, Claire saw a muscular orderly accompanying Elizabeth to the locked ward at the far end of the hospital compound. A flock of crows circled high overhead, seeming to follow the two receding figures. As they arrived at the outer doors of the locked unit, the orderly reached for his keys. The crows circled while the two crossed the threshold of the unit, Elizabeth suddenly pausing, turning, and looking outside, her gaze riveted on the flock of birds.

All but two flew off, disappearing into the piñon-covered hills. The two that remained came to rest on the red brick wall adjacent to the locked unit, their black eyes boring into Elizabeth. She looked panicked then enraged and, shaking a finger at the creatures, yelled something. Her frantic gestures told Claire that she was screeching curses to ward off evil.

Claire took a step back from the window, from the impact of Elizabeth’s rage.

The orderly grabbed Elizabeth roughly by the arm and pulled her inside.

The crows waited, watched, then flew away.

AUTHOR INFORMATION:

Paul DeBlassie III, Ph.D., is a psychologist and writer living in Albuquerque who has

treated survivors of the dark side of religion for more than 30 years. His professional consultation practice — SoulCare — is devoted to the tending of the soul. Dr. DeBlassie writes fiction with a healing emphasis. He has been deeply influenced by the mestizo myth of Aztlan, its surreal beauty and natural magic. He is a member of the Depth Psychology Alliance, the Transpersonal Psychology Association and the International Association for Relational Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy.

LINKS
Author Links
Amazon Author Page: http://www.amazon.com/Paul-DeBlassie-III/e/B00E5TBJXY/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_pop_1
Website: http://www.pauldeblassieiii.com/
Blog: http://pauldeblassieiii.blogspot.com/
Buy Links
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/The-Unholy-Novel-Paul-DeBlassie/dp/0865349592/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1379592287&sr=8-1&keywords=the+unholy+paul+deblassie
BN.com: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-unholy-paul-deblassie/1116061527?ean=9780865349599

One randomly drawn commenter will receive the choice of a $50 Amazon/BN gift card. a Rafflecopter giveaway ">a Rafflecopter giveaway

If you have difficulties with the code, feel free to use this html link:
http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/28e43419//

This Week on my Blog

Genni Gunn

I Believe

I don’t have to see it, to believe it. Until someone proves to me that Bigfoot doesn’t roam the mountains in the northeast, that there isn’t such a thing as aliens or mermaids, that ghosts don’t exist, I will go on believing. I believe we don’t die, but leave our bodies behind, while our souls move on to another dimension, and that the dead communicate to us in different ways.

Just look at the article that came out recently about Australia’s lost world. Three new species discovered in a remote area that had never been explored, a mountain range so impassable that the scientist and film crew had to be dropped by helicopter. Proof that there’s still a lot of mysteries out there, not yet discovered. You can read more on this article here -http://news.yahoo.com/lost-world-discovered-remote-australia-024127998.html

I believe that anything is possible. Maybe that’s the writer in me, maybe I’m a little bit crazy, but I like believing there are things out there that we haven’t discovered yet. Mysterious, wondrous things that are just waiting to be explored, found, and appreciated. I think we all have a little something that we are on the very brink of believing in, and ask ourselves, I wonder…

With that thought in mind, I’ve decided to try my hand at writing a new genre. That brings me to my first paranormal story, The Mating Ritual, which comes out on November 15th, at Smashwords and Amazon. Below is a blurb.

THE MATING RITUAL by Tory Richards

Blurb -

On the run for her life, Toni finds safety with the mysterious Oh-Mah people living deep in the Carolina Mountains. Direct descendants from a legendary creature, they are more human than beast. With the exception of being big and tall, they no longer carry any of the original Bigfoot hairy, monstrous traits. Yet they prefer the simple, uncomplicated life their beastly ancestors lived. They remain far away from civilization, feeding the surrounding small, town locals with rare sightings that keep the myth alive.

Captured by their rugged leader, Cormac, Toni must undergo an ancient mating ritual in order not to be claimed and mated by any of the other males. Once Cormac mates with her in a public ceremony, she will be off limits to everyone but him, something Toni is grateful for. She gradually falls for the powerful leader, willingly giving in to his ravenous demands for sex. He vows to protect and love her, but can she give up her old life to live with him in the mountains?

Links - Website - http://www.toryrichards.com/
Smashwords - https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/toryrichards
Amazon - http://www.amazon.com/Tory-Richards/e/B002DBFNUQ/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_1
Twitter - https://twitter.com/ToryRichards
Goodreads - https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/2291635.Tory_Richards
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/pages/Tory-Richards-Author-Page/111597422277528?ref=hl

Bio -

Tory Richards is a daughter, mother, aunt, sister, friend, and grandma who writes smut. For as long as she can remember she's wanted to be a writer. And she did write, for many years, as a hobby. It took the encouragement and support of her family before she submitted to a publisher. And the rest, as they say, is history. Her first book under her real name, Cupid's Arrow, was on the publisher's best sellers list for two consecutive months!

Tory likes to travel, collect art and antiques. She loves chocolate, who doesn't? And her weakness is sweet ice tea. Well, just one of many. She also likes good coffee. Her favorite food? Any kind of sandwich.

Tory was born in Maine but has spent most of her life in Florida. She lives with her daughter and her family, and shares her woman-cave with four furry felines. Writing is still a hobby for Tory, but since she's retired from Disney she has plenty of time on her hands for plotting and promoting. But family always comes first.