Monday, November 30, 2015

In Her Blood by Janice Jones (VBB, excerpt, and GIVEAWAY) GFT







by Janice Jones

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GENRE: New Adult Romance, Paranormal

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BLURB:

Alex Stone, an ex vampire hunting assassin, is the owner of a hot new clothing company. The only thing she's killing is her competition - until she gets a phone call from her past.

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EXCERPT


She enjoyed seeing those chains of pure silver wrapped around the vampire’s scrawny arms like tattoos. He barely resembled the picture of the old parish priest the Cardinal sent them two weeks ago. His brown skin hung from his bones like an ill-fitting suit. His paunch bounced up and down as he struggled to get loose. It took longer to catch him, much longer than it should have, but all’s well that ends well.

Alex Stone, call-sign Dagger, ran her fingers through her dark hair. Flakes of dried blood and sand fell as she pulled the dirty mess into a ponytail. Benjamin Palmer, Team Commander, snatched her wounded hand back down and tightened the field dressing as he griped at her about how dumb it was to try to catch the sharp end of a knife with her hand. She knew that . . . now.

“Who do you think you are,” he said as he gave the knot one last yank, “Superman?” Ben checked her busted lip with a shake of his head. “That’s gonna hurt like hell till morning.”

Alex just nodded, taking the pills in her good hand and swallowing them with a quick sip of warm water from his canteen.

Under normal circumstances, Alex would be pulled from the field, evaluated and possibly scrubbed from the next assignment for that stunt. But time was running out and this wasn’t normal, not even for the top vampire hunting team in the country.


Buy Links
B&N

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AUTHOR Bio and Links:

Being an introvert doesn’t mean you have no voice. It just means you have the ability to communicate in different ways. For new author and champion introvert, Janice Jones, that way is writing. She began by reading anything she could get her hands on, but after college, she found herself in roles that required more business-focused writing than fiction. This didn’t stop her – she continued to create her own stories to feed her passion for the written word.

Honing her skills as a paralegal for several years, Janice continued to feed the beast by spending every spare minute she could creating the world of her first fictional character Alexa Stone. In Her Blood, the first book in the Dagger Chronicles series, will introduce New Adult Fiction readers to the adventures of an ex-assassin and vampire hunter as she returns to the fight after many years of hiding in plain sight.

The idea for In Her Blood came during a rough time in Janice’s life. Overcoming loss can be tough for anyone. For Janice, writing helped her focus and heal. As a tribute to her late sister, she had the opportunity to release a short story entitled “Dancing on a Sunday Afternoon” in 2009. Receiving positive feedback, she continued to write and focus on improving every way she could. Earning a Master’s in Creative Writing from Southern New Hampshire University, Janice was encouraged to finish the Dagger Chronicles series and pursue publication. Rejections came, but she never quit. Now, her debut novel will soon have a place next to some of her favorite fiction.

Links
Amazon author page


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GIVEAWAY





a Rafflecopter giveaway



The tour dates can be found here

Saturday, November 28, 2015

Blind Trust by Raci Ames (Woodland Creek Series) Spotlight



by Raci Ames

Part of the:  Woodland Creek Series.
30 Authors. 30 Shifter Stories.
www.woodlandcreekseries.com


Blurb:  Healer Pia Matthews is just getting her life back on track after a fire left her blind. After months of depression and rehabilitation, she’s regaining her independence thanks to an Clark, a red wolf shifter who stays almost exclusively in his animal form and. He lived in the woods by her parents house,  watched her struggle during her recovery, and fell in love with from afar. When he overheard her need for a Seeing Eye dog, he followed her around until she adopted his wolf form.

Jeremiah’s a cougar shifter who moved to London to escape the animal inside of him, and to become the person he wanted to be. Though he built a life for himself and a business there, Pia’s handicap makes him question everything. He comes back to Woodland Creek to help launch the Apothecary and finds a wolf guarding her that he doesn’t trust one bit.

Pia’s need for both Clark and Jeremiah sets of a natural competition between the two that threatens Pia’s trust and safety. If they can’t resolve their animal difference in the human world, they will both lose her.


Excerpt:


Smoke. It was everywhere. He choked, unable to see through it at all. He sniffed, concentrating to find the direction that offered the cleanest air, and he ran through a line of fire to get out. The forest around the cave burned quickly. Roaring flames raced from tree to tree, using the wood for fuel and growing exponentially each minute. The red wolf put his head down and ran from the fire at top speed, but it followed him, and overtook him, going out of the woods to a small cottage in a clearing.

There it stopped moving, but kept growing. He drew in huge breaths easily, and studied the structure.

At first sight it seemed abandoned. But more careful inspection revealed a sleeping form.

He steeled himself to go in for the rescue. The fire was his fault, and he was trained to help. But in his current form he wouldn’t be able to get the person inside out quickly enough without hurting them. He heard the sirens of fire engines far in the distance. They were more than likely headed straight for the woods, and even if they weren’t getting to her before the building collapsed was unlikely. He howled loudly, and forced himself to shift for the first time in months. The bones in his legs expanded painfully, fur succumbed to skin and his face condensed into human form. He stood naked and shaky in the clearing, sweating from the heat consuming the small building. He couldn’t worry about clothes, there wasn’t even time to get steady on his feet. Tripping gracelessly he ran into the house just as flames engulfed the front door. They chased him to the back, to a bedroom where he found a woman in the bed.

He ran towards, reaching out to scoop her from the bed, but just as he got her in his arms, the ceiling came crashing down and the combination of flames and oxygen crashed them to the floor.
 


Available 11/15:

BN.com  

About the Author:

Raci Ames is the author of sexy romance novels that make your heart race. They write about couples that are gay, straight and everything in between. The one thing you can count on is that love wins. Always.

Find out more about Raci:
Newsletter



For more information about the Woodland Creek series and to enter the GIVEAWAY, please go to this link.

Friday, November 27, 2015

The Evans Trilogy series: Set Me Free, Open My Eyes, and Bring Me Back by Jennifer Collin (VNBtM, guest post, excerpt and GIVEAWAY) GFT


I have the pleasure of having a guest post from author Jennifer Collin.  She answers...

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What would be your dream place to visit and why?

Like many Australians, I’m reasonably well-travelled. There must be something about being stuck down here at the bottom of the earth that drives us to get on a plane and see the world. The characters in my Evans Trilogy have this is wanderlust as well. Book One, Set Me Free, opens with Charlotte returning from a jaunt to Italy, where, like I did many years ago, she walked the hiking trail along the Cinque Terra. Book Two, Open My Eyes, begins in Kyoto, Japan, another place I’ve visited that has stayed with me. And finally, half of the action in Book Three, Bring Me Back, takes place in New Zealand. My husband and I went to New Zealand on our honeymoon and we often daydream about relocating there.

I’ve ticked many places of my bucket list and most of them met my expectations. In addition to the above, some of my favorite places in the world include Ireland (just all of it), the Scottish Highlands, London, Copenhagen, Berlin, Amsterdam, Krakow (Poland), Prague, Tokyo and Hanoi (Vietnam).

I’ve had misadventures in Paris, where I was accosted beneath the Eiffel Tower by a man who wanted to take me back to his apartment, slip me into some silk trousers, and take photos of me with poking my bottom up in the air. Eww! There was also the time my friend and I were stumbling back to our hut in a northern Thai rice paddy field when two men in full military gear suddenly appeared out of nowhere to watch the spectacle of the drunk westerners. “Did you see that!” we stage-whispered to each other, giggling manically and completely oblivious to the danger we were in.

There are many places I still want to go. I want to see a white Christmas in Canada and pound the pavement in New York. I want to see the west coast of the USA and some of the big landmarks, like Yellowstone National Park and the Grand Canyon. I want to go to Chile, and Brazil and Argentina. I want to see the craziness that is Mumbai (India) and waltz through the Winter Palace in St Petersburg (Russia). I want to see the Terracotta Army in Xian, China and the futuristic cities of Beijing and Shanghai. And I want to take my kids on safari somewhere in Africa and to the Great Pyramids in Egypt.

The world is such a big, beautiful place with so much to see, I’m not sure there is any one dream place for me. I want to see it all. But if I could check out for a few months to go anywhere I wanted to immerse myself in a novel, I dream of overlooking either the lush, green, rolling hills of Ireland in summer, or the snow-capped Remarkables in Queenstown, New Zealand, with a fire warming my back and a cat purring on my lap. Ahh…         

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by Jennifer Collin

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GENRE:  Chick Lit

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BLURBS:

Book 1: Set me free

Disastrous love life aside, Charlotte Evans is rather content with her life. Her quaint little art gallery is plodding along nicely, and her sister Emily’s artistic career is about to take off, thanks to her tireless promotion. She even gets to see her best friend every day and drink his delicious coffee in the café next door.
But when dastardly property developer Craig Carmichael comes along, threatening to demolish her gallery and take everything away, Charlotte has an unexpected fight on her hands. Not only is she battling to stop Craig’s development, she’s also struggling against the mysterious magnetic pull that has her on a collision course with Craig himself.
Craig Carmichael is fighting the Battle for Boundary Street on more than one front. The tenants of the building he wants to knock down are mounting a strong case against him and in a hot-headed moment he put his career on the line for a project that is threatening to fail. If the project doesn’t succeed he will lose everything, but for some reason he’s having trouble maintaining his focus.
As their worlds begin to unravel around them, anyone could win. It’s what they might lose that has Charlotte and Craig wondering what it is they really want.

Book 2: Open My Eyes

Everything happens for a reason, they say. And sometimes the reason is you're stupid and make bad decisions. Sleeping with her sister's best friend is one of the dumbest things soon-to-be divorcee Emily Evans has ever done. But she's determined to put it behind her and move on. She's walked away from her cheating husband, managed to make a new friend, and found herself a real job and somewhere to live so she doesn't have to couch-surf any more. Everything should be falling into place but for one problem – there are some mistakes from which you can't move on.
Meanwhile, Ben Cameron is getting on with his life. After all, it's the only thing to do once your heart has been stomped on by the woman of your dreams. Expanding his business and getting cosy with the girl next door are proving welcome distractions. He's even happy to babysit his nephew, as long as he can to hand him back when he's done! And thankfully, Emily Evans, the woman with the heavy boots, is avoiding him like the plague.

But Emily can't avoid him forever, and when she drops a bombshell that turns Ben's world upside-down, suddenly, getting on with his life takes on a whole new meaning.

Book 3: Bring Me Back
Andy Evans is on the move. For six long, lonely years, he’s been running from his past, leaving his family and his life as a drug-addicted rock star far behind. His latest move takes him to the sleepy seaside town of Oamaru, New Zealand, to sell cigar-box guitars to tourists. The only running he’ll need to do will be training for the half-marathon in nearby Dunedin. But when Andy sets eyes on Steampunk HQ, Oamaru's main tourist attraction, he realises his days of running might not be over, especially if a certain Steampunk fan from his past catches up with him.
Annie Martin is on the cusp of great success. Her career as a Steampunk academic is about to take off, as long as she can convince one disagreeable, New Zealand-based Professor to sign up to the anthology she’s putting together. Thankfully, Annie is a master at maintaining her poise and few people, no matter how nasty, can rattle her. Not any more. In fact, it’d been a good six years since anyone had gotten under her skin, after her best friend’s brother had vanished into thin air.
When Annie finds her future career on a collision course with her secret past, Andy Evans is the last person she expects to find tangled up in the mess. With a vengeful drug-dealer or two hot on his heels, and a vindictive academic determined to ruin her credibility, can Annie bring Andy back to his family before it’s too late? Annie and Andy are used to being alone, but if they don’t work together, there’ll be much more at stake than her livelihood and his sobriety.



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EXCERPTS
Book 1 Set me free



‘You know I’m going to fight you in this development, don’t you?’
‘I do.’ 

They walked in silence until they rounded the corner into her street and crossed the road in front of her building.

Charlotte stopped. ‘You lied to me,’ she accused, finally seeking out his eyes.

‘No I didn’t. Not technically. I failed to tell you something, but I didn’t lie.’ Was he teasing her?

‘Same thing,’ she snapped. ‘I don’t like liars. And I’m not very fond of people who are out to ruin my life,’ she added.

‘I’m not going to ruin your life,’ he said, not looking away, holding her with his dark brown gaze.

‘Well that means that you are because you’re a liar.’

He chuckled softly and gently. ‘Your argument is not sound.’

Charlotte withheld a grin. He was right. She sounded like a petulant child. She decided not to bite back.

‘I’m going in now,’ she said. ‘Thanks for seeing me home, I guess.’

He shrugged. She paused, and her gaze fell on his lips. When the corners of his mouth started to turn, so did she, on her heel, to stomp up the stairs to her apartment.

‘Goodnight, Charlotte,’ he called.

Throwing him one final glare, she closed her door on him and made a beeline for the shower to wash away the sinful desire threatening her good judgment.  

Book 2 Open My Eyes
Excerpt


They walked back to the car, side by side, a little closer this time. It felt normal, like it used to be between them.  Comfortable and safe.  She reached for his arm and wrapped her fingers around his bicep, feeling his muscles twitch beneath her touch.  She rested her head against his shoulder.  He reached around her and pulled her closer, kissing the top of her head, sending a shower of tingles down her spine and all the way to her toes. Keeping her eyes on those toes, she soaked up his warmth.

When he pulled up outside her new home, he asked, ‘So, do you want to book in that shopping trip then?’

Emily didn’t want to get out of the car. She wanted to stay there with him. It was so quiet and peaceful and toasty. It felt like home.

Emily closed her eyes. She could hear the hum of the car engine, the faint sounds of the radio not quite turned all the way down. Another car drove past. And there was Ben’s breathing. The slow intake of air and the whisper of his exhalation.

There had been other days, other times like this, late last year after she split from Geoff, when Ben was the centre of her universe. Back then he was always there, when she didn’t even realise she needed him. Even before she split from Geoff he’d been there, always there to make her laugh, keep her company when she was lonely, amuse her when she was bored. Ben had always been there, but she hadn’t seen him until it was too late.

She could see him now.

Amazon buy link


Book 3 Bring Me Back
Excerpt 
‘You’ll be able to play that one day if you keep practising,’ David told him when he set the guitar down.

‘Do you think so?’

‘I do.’

‘I think my mum’s here,’ Genjii said, looking towards the door that led to the shopfront.

‘Is she? I didn’t hear the bell.’

‘She came in while you were playing.’

Guitar case in hand, Genjii led David through to the front of the shop. On the other side of the door, he stopped unexpectedly, and David crashed into him.

‘I guess it’s not your mum,’ David murmured, taking in the woman staring at the row of cigar box guitars on the wall. Another Steampunk freak, come to check out Oamaru’s famous HQ. David’s heart began to pick up speed. A handful of them had wandered in since he’d been in the shop and they’d put him on edge every time.

From behind at least, this one wore her Steampunk well; the corset cinching her waist rounded her hips nicely. Her long skirts brushed the floor. Unlike the others, who’d always seemed uncomfortable in their costumes, this one looked like she belonged in Victorian England. This one stirred memories of the Steampunk freak he’d left in his past, the one he didn’t want to see again. He shook his head and reminded himself the probability was low. Six months. He was only here for six months.

Then the woman turned around.

David’s heart stopped. His heart, which hammered constantly these days, even when he wasn’t running or remembering, just stopped beating. The rumble of his thoughts, the white noise he was never able to clear, fell into silence.

The woman froze, staring at him, brow gradually puckering. David knew he was staring back, but he was unable to tear his eyes away. It felt like minutes passed, but it must have been only seconds, before she stepped towards him.

‘Andy?’ she said. It came out in a gasp. Her chest rose and fell in short bursts, and the colour drained from her face. She swallowed. ‘Is it you?’

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AUTHOR Bio and Links:

Jennifer Collin writes quirky, and sometimes gritty, love stories about ordinary people dealing with what life throws at them.

She lives in Brisbane, Australia, with her husband, two noisy children and a cantankerous cat.

She used to party, but now her idea of a good time is an uninterrupted sleep. These days, her characters do her partying for her, and she doesn't necessarily let them sleep.

Links



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GIVEAWAY


a Rafflecopter giveaway


Thursday, November 26, 2015

Happy Thanksgiving!

To my fellow U.S. residents...may you have a lovely well-fed Thanksgiving, full of things you enjoy and very little family drama.  I am still recovering from being a little under the weather and we are having a very non-traditional meal but plan to be well-fed nonetheless!


When you get bored (and tired of spending money on all of the Black Friday sales) go visit a few contests (and make sure you check various authors' sites as quite a few are holding contests on their Facebook pages and I don't make note of those since I don't use FB.

Night Owl's Winter Wonderland Booklover Contest is at this link
and there are other contests at this link

Writerspace contests galore are at this link

Fresh Fiction has tons of contests at this link

The Romance Reviews YES (Year End Splash) party is almost over at this link

Coffee Time Romance is going to have a Christmas contest starting Dec. 1 at this link (so mark you calendars)


Good luck, and feel free to share others in the comments as you come across them!

Wednesday, November 25, 2015

Deadly Shot - Dan's Diary - The War of Independence 1920-22 by Patricia Murphy



I have the pleasure of sharing a guest post by author Patricia Murphy who tells us...



ELF:  What do you think is the strongest attraction about the genre(s) you like to write in?


Putting the story into History
by Patricia Murphy

I enjoy the challenge of putting the “story” into history for young readers. It’s not just facts and dead people but a living, breathing thing handed down from one generation to the next.  Knowing the past allows us to make sense of who we are. And it is the power of narrative that makes history compelling.

When I was little, my grandmother Bridie used to tell me about her childhood in 1920’s in Ireland. As a child, she worked behind the counter in her aunt’s huxter shop. It sold twists of tea in brown paper, penny sweets, smoked fish kept in boxes and broken biscuits from Jacobs biscuit factory. It was in Whiskey Row a row of whitewashed terraced cottages in a fishing village called Ringsend, not far from Dublin’s city center. A place of characters – sailors and fishermen. Her mother was a fishmonger who sold fish from a barrow like Molly Malone in the well-known song. In the backroom, her aunt read the tea leaves for people’s fortunes. My grandmother was a vivid storyteller, and I could almost hear the hum of conversation and see the paraffin lamp guttering in the corner as the green half-door swung open and another customer came in to find what fate held in store.

I listened with wonder when my grandfather told me colorful tales of belonging the militarist Fianna boy scouts who supported the rebels during Ireland’s War of Independence by running messages and acting as lookouts. Years later when I came to write about Ireland’s bloody guerrilla war for freedom, I remembered my grandparents stories and wove them into the narrative. My grandfather directly inspired the character of Dan in Deadly Shot – the football genius who gets pulled into the struggle.

But the events themselves are just the starting point. A lot of stories and details get lost in the passage of time. Or just survive in shards or glimpses – a child in a photograph, an old medal or a mention in someone else’s diary. History by itself won’t always tell you what it was like to live through turbulent times. Particularly if it concerns ordinary people, women, and minorities. That’s where the novelist comes in, using the imagination to conjure up another world and flesh out the facts.

Children are often hidden from history. So writing about their lives in the past for children today lets you shine a light into dark places.  But you have to look for the children in key historical events. At first glance, they’re absent or shadowy figures in the background. They aren’t making treaties or leading countries. But the more you look, the more you will see. Flitting in and out of other people’s narratives like ghosts. Or writing their memories down as adults. Powerful and poignant testimonies such as Anne Frank’s Diary are rare. But here and there you can find clues – a letter, an eye-witness account, a newspaper report. Then the novelist can join the dots. 

So all these elements come together, memories, research, the feel of the period. And then it sparks into life. The characters take over, and I weave the plot around true events. I try to stick to the facts for the main narrative and take the characters on a journey through the historical events. But I also feel free to invent, once it is plausible. For history is full of gaps and sources are often contradictory. There is more than one point of view. So it’s a balancing act, this blending of fact and fiction. Then it really comes alive in the hands of the reader. A chance for the child of today to go on a journey with a child from long ago.

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by Patricia Murphy

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GENRE: children's historical fiction/Middle Grade

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BLURB:

Football mad, twelve- year- old Dan is a trusted messenger for Ireland’s rebel leader, Michael Collins. He promises his cousin Molly to never fire a gun, but after the dramatic events of “Bloody Sunday” in Croke Park, he is pulled deeper into the struggle. Hunted by a vengeful Intelligence Officer, Molly and Dan are forced to flee Dublin. But unknown to Dan, he holds the key to a deadly plot. And his enemy will stop at nothing to track him down. On the run, they meet Flying Columns and narrowly escape death But as Cork burns can Dan continue to outrun his enemy?


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EXCERPT
  


 “Has Father been arrested for smuggling arms?” I asked.



“Your father would never do that,” she said. “Do you not remember why he jumped ship when he was young? It wasn’t just for adventure. His father got him a commission in the Royal Navy but he refused to take arms. He hates violence.”



I rubbed my knuckles that were feeling raw now from the rapid changes of cold and heat.



“I can only tell you what it’s like to live,” said my mother. “Feeling pain inside isn’t a good feeling. But it’s part of life. Sometimes you think you are broken but you are being broken open to new things, to grow.”



“Some of the lads say they don’t feel anything when they pull the trigger. Others have nightmares, feel blood in their mouths,” I said.



“If you cannot feel pain, it makes it easier to inflict it. Dan, you are not a killer. It’s not in your nature,” she said.



“I’m too weak,” I said.



She held my face in her hands, her eyes searching into my soul. I looked deep into her eyes full of love.



“No, Dan, you are too strong. You feel other people’s pain. That is strength. May God preserve and keep you so.” She embraced me tight. “We cannot go round it. We must live through it. The only way we know how. Respecting other’s humanity and dignity no matter who they are.”





Links to buy Deadly Shot – Dan’s Diary



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AUTHOR Bio and Links:

Patricia Murphy is an award-winning children’s author and Producer/Director of documentaries. Her most recent novel is Deadly Shot - Dan's War of Independence 1920-22. Previous works include the critically acclaimed The Easter Rising 1916 - Molly's Diary, described as “brilliantly imagined”, “beautifully written and compelling” and “ fantastic at bringing history alive for children”. She is also the author of Chingles trilogy. She was the winner of the Poolbeg “Write a Bestseller for Children” Competition 2004.

She is also an award-winning Producer/Director of primetime documentaries for BBC and Channel 4. These include Children of Helen House on the Oxford children’s hospice for BBC. She created and filmed the launch programmes of Born to Be Different the Channel 4 flagship series following six children with disabilities through the 21st century. Other films include Behind the Crime about criminals and Raised by the State on growing up in care. She has also made Worst Jobs in History with Tony Robinson for Channel 4.







Links to buy Molly’s Diary




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GIVEAWAY





a Rafflecopter giveaway


The tour dates can be found here