Tuesday, 31 January 2017
Monday, 30 January 2017
New Year New Novels Blast and Giveaway
WELCOME TO THE NEW YEAR - NEW NOVELS BLAST!
Click on any of the below book covers to be taken to the page that has more information on the novel as well as the Buy Links!
Novels Available for Pre-Order!
Novels Currently Available!
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Thursday, 26 January 2017
Wednesday, 25 January 2017
Friday, 20 January 2017
Book Spotlight: Planted by C.T. Collier
Cozy Mystery
Date Published: June 2016
Publisher: Asdee Press
It’s Monday of spring break when Professor Lyssa Pennington’s backyard garden project unearths a loaded revolver. With no record of violence at their address and no related cold case, the Tompkins Falls police have no interest. But the Penningtons and a friend with the State Police believe there’s a body somewhere. Whose? Where? And who pulled the trigger?
Excerpt
Lyssa sobbed and punched her pillow and finally fell deeply asleep.
Sometime after midnight, a hand rose from the hole in the center of the garden, found her in the guest room, and grabbed her by the throat.
She bolted upright and sucked air with noisy gasps. Stroking her throat, she scanned every corner of the room. She was alone.
White window curtains fluttered as the heat came on. She studied the lacy pattern traced on the linen panels by the streetlamp as it shone through the branches of a tree.
Her breathing eased, and her hand slid instinctively lower, to her breastbone, where she massaged with soothing pressure. Her newfound calm brought awareness. She wasn’t alone.
Death was in the room with her.
About the Author
C. T. Collier was born to solve logic puzzles, wear tweed, and drink Earl Grey tea. Her professional experience in cutthroat high tech and backstabbing higher education gave her endless opportunity to study intrigue. Add to that her longtime love of mysteries, and it’s no wonder she writes academic mysteries that draw inspiration from traditional whodunits. Her setting: entirely fictional, Tompkins College is no college and every college, and Tompkins Falls, is a blend of several Finger Lakes towns, including her hometown, Seneca Falls, NY (AKA Bedford Falls from It’s a Wonderful Life).
Contact Links
Facebook: /kate.collier.315
Twitter: @TompkinsFalls
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Thursday, 19 January 2017
Book Spotlight: A Bronx Boy's Tale by Jimmy Newell
Family, Relationships, memoir
A Bronx Boy's Tale details the life of the author as he witnessed the major historical events on the 1960's and 1970's. Although it was a time of social upheaval and strife, Jimmy's family, friends and the Beautiful Bronx all made the experience glorious.
It is a lesson to us in modern times who despair about the state of things. Family, friends, and having a strong community in which to thrive can supersede any perceived threat from a world thought to be mad.
About the Author
A Bronx Boy's Tale AuthorJimmy Newell has a degree in law as well as a Masters in History. But, more than that, Jimmy grew up in the Bronx and wishes to share that with you and to make you see that you probably had a similar experience wherever you may have come of age.
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Wednesday, 18 January 2017
Book Spotlight & Giveaway: Shadow Heart by Pamela Taeuffer
Broken Bottle Series, Book 1
Coming of Age, Family Saga, New Adult
Date Published: February 2014
Publisher: Open Heart Books
What if you were afraid to even turn the doorknob to your front door when coming home because of what might wait inside? What would it take to make you step out of your shadows, to once and for all break free from the twisted security of familiarity, and take a chance, a little risk, that could change everything?
Nicky Young is a woman who has come of age and is beginning to realize the first layer of her fears carried through her childhood from growing up in a family battling alcoholism. They have impacted her severely when forming relationships.
Abandonment, devaluing, fear of everything good ending—all are why she has been happy to stand back in the shadows. Watching. Observing. Stepping out only when safe. Until Ryan Tilton, a professional baseball player who also has abandonment issues of his own, promises her a relationship that could be like no other.
Now, in order to transition into a life she'd always imagined, she needs to take the first steps of risk to embrace the rise and fall, the love and heartache, and joys of life. Through small steps she struggles to trust, most importantly herself, but also others, enough to let them a little closer. The rage of her father's addiction pushes and pulls her back, but with all her heart she wants to break free and start a life that is brilliant and unafraid of failure. But can she?
Other Books in the Broken Bottle Series:
Broken Bottle Series, Book 2
My heart is on fire. For the first time in my life I am awake and the desires I’ve pushed down are smoldering. The shadows of my youth are daring me to step away from them, and new visions are circling through my head that include having intimacy in a way I never dreamed of.
My name is Nicky Young. This is my coming of age story and family saga. I have begun to understand if I want to live differently than my parents—an alcoholic father and co-dependent mother—I need to love, forgive, trust and live with an open heart. As I look in the mirror, I am seeing a new woman emerging—one I’m not sure of and trying hard to discover.
Through family dysfunction and by the lack of affection in my household I learned not to get too close. Rage and violence lurked when we became vulnerable and the way I learned to protect myself was to build high and thick walls of defense around my heart. I dream about having a full, open, and intimate relationship. I want a real adult romance with every beat of my heart. But I can’t trust anyone enough—especially myself.
That was until I met Ryan Tilton, a very sexy professional baseball player who lost his father at only fourteen. In many ways we seem to be ancient spirits. He promises to hold me in his arms like I’ve never been held, and is offering me a chance to step out of fear and experience what is like to ask for what I want without being afraid. I feel my heart opening. I feel . . . joy.
This is my battle: A fight to break generational chains of dysfunction and addiction, to understand the choices of my parents, to love and trust myself, so that I can love and trust another. This story is about transitioning into joy. I invite you to follow me on my journey and the struggle I’m desperate to overcome.
Broken Bottles Series, Book 3
Swept into a romance with professional baseball player, Ryan Tilton, we've just had an evening of dreams—until I wouldn't have sex with him. I couldn't risk it. To me, sex means marriage. It means love and forever. I tried to explain. I didn't hide it. But to him, it means love, acceptance, and that he wouldn't be abandoned the same way he was when a boy of fourteen and his father was killed in the Middle East. He's pleaded with me to tell him my feelings and openly tells me he loves me. I can't repeat the words. Once I do, he'll abandon me just like my parents—discounting my feelings because they can't deal with their own. I couldn't risk it. I knew he'd leave.
Dad battles his alcoholism. Mom embraces her co-dependency. They've gambled with their daughters' mental and physical safety multiple times over the years.
I'm at a crossroads trying to understand this threshold of being an adult, yet emerging from childhood. It's as if a tornado has taken me into it's roar spun and tossed me around, breaking me away as I cling to the twisted security of my family—even the word "secure" sends a shiver through me. I've never been.
Being raised in an dysfunctional family battling alcoholism whispers, stay hidden in the shadows, be safe, don't be noticed or share too much.
I know this is it.
I need to take a risk.
I need to let go of old fears, forgive my parents, embrace intimacy and move forward. I need to trust—especially myself—so that I can transition into joy.
Broken Bottles Series, Book 4
It's Amazing, but for the first time in my life I have let go of the control. I've battled so hard to hold onto the twisted security of my family's battle with alcoholism—it's what I've known—never risking too much, holding back, so the hurt didn't cut too deep. Now?
I feel a new life
An unknown.
Vulnerable.
It's magnificent.
It's . . . intimacy, being held, letting someone see into my dark places so the light, hidden since a little girl, can finally become brilliant.
It's amazing. I'm about to shout my love for a man who seems to understand me like no one ever has. After I do, will everything fall apart? In my heart of shadows, the fear of being abandoned beats inside my head with regular rhythms.
"Please take me in your arms," I say silently. "Accept my dark places. Help me understand you won't leave me." Maybe I'm dreaming when he says, "Whatever path we choose, whatever arises, we'll overcome our fears."
Have a finally been set free from generational mistakes that are passed forward in our family? Dare I ask for what I want and trust myself enough to share my thoughts, wishes, dreams . . . dare I actually hope in another person? Will he break his promises like my parents did to me? Can I really, really, be alive, be vulnerable, open and reach for deep, sensual intimacy? Can I take a risk and transition into joy?
Excerpt
I always prayed the same way at night: “Now I lay me down to sleep. I pray the Lord my soul to keep. If I die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take. Please bless my mother, father, sister, everyone in the world, and me. And please make my father quit drinking.”
As a child growing up in a family battling alcoholism, this is what I know:
Something bad is coming; it always does.
I can’t ask for help; I’m too ashamed.
I can’t talk about our secrets; no one understands.
I can’t trust anyone; they always leave.
The evening begins when I am eight and my sister, eleven. We were trying to finish dinner before he'd unraveled. Within minutes, I’m hiding under the dining room table, cowering; praying that he won’t see my hiding place.
I hear my sister face the wrath of our father’s anger.
My small body curls into a ball.
It’s as if the desert storms from our mother’s childhood have come to us, their thunder and lightning crashing. I pray, "Please, God, protect me from the monster in my house.”
Tonight, we try to avoid our dad’s drunkenness and count down the minutes until Mom comes home from her night shift at the Juvenile Hall in San Francisco.
These evenings occur frequently in our house. Jenise and I are caught in a spider's web, wrapped in our father’s terrible addiction.
We prepare for the coming terror.
My sister has refused to eat a scoop of creamed corn, given to us for dinner without a second thought of how we hated it.
Once he’s done with Jenise, I know he’ll turn to find me.
I clench my teeth in fear. I'm shaking under the dining room table.
About the Author
My passion is writing books that tell a love story and family saga of leaving old fears behind as the characters embrace intimacy and transition to joy. My first series, Broken Bottles, details those fears of growing up in a family battling alcoholism. Along with the struggle and pain of a parent's rage, there is intelligence, strength, and survival. How to love intimately in all relationships is the challenge. For children of trauma, it can take years to let another person come close. When they do? It's like rainbows cover their heart.
Slowly, you'll read how my characters become vulnerable, reach for deep, sensual intimacy, and try desperately to let go of their fears. They struggle and risk everything to trust others—and themselves. My stories are about daring to take the baby steps that let them really come alive and in every way, experience and give love.
MAKING MONEY TO CREATE: The small, vacation rental/ property management company I run with my husband and son in Sonoma County, California allows me to have the money for my creative life. I love that I was born and raised in San Francisco. My father introduced me to baseball when I was six. I've rung a cable car bell, and went to concerts in Golden Gate Park with my sister where Jimmy Hendrix, Jefferson Airplane and Santana once played.
WHAT I'VE DONE/AM DOING – IT'S A JOURNEY OF DREAMS: Broken Bottles is a four part series. Two books, Shadow Heart and Fire Heart, are ready. Soon to follow are Jagged Heart and Amazing Heart. I'm honored to have 3 poems in an anthology called The Beats Go On, and a story in Sisters Born, Sisters Found. I have released the first book in a series for Introverts called The Introverts Guide to the Galaxy: Attending Conferences.
My Dream? To create beautifully decorated and custom journals with gorgeous paper that accompany each book series: The Introvert's Journal, A Family Saga Journal, My Body's Journal, and Trauma: You Can't Stop Me Journal. Journaling was a lifesaver for me. I was in shock. You may be in shock. Don't let that keep your heart frozen!
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Tuesday, 17 January 2017
Book Spotlight & Giveaway: Cottage in the Mist by Dee Davis
Time Travel Romance
Date Published: March 2016
Mo Chridhe Gu Brà th. My heart forever.
Ancient words, a powerful legend, a timeless love…
Lily Chastain has lost everything—her family, her inheritance, and her fiancé. Desperate to escape her pain, she heads for a remote castle in Scotland, but is trapped by a violent storm along the way. Injured and alone, she is drawn by a lighted cottage in the mist. What she finds there will change her life forever.
Attacked by a vicious rival and betrayed by someone from his own clan, Bram Macgillivray finds himself alone and on the run. His father is dead, his holding all but destroyed. Wanting vengeance, he seeks out the help of his cousins, but finds instead a beautiful woman who calls to his heart.
After losing herself in an unexpected and wonderful night of sensuality, Lily wakes to find Bram gone. But even more disturbing, when she leaves the sanctuary of the cottage, she finds that it has disappeared as well.
Separated by over five hundred years, yet tied together through a magic stronger than the bonds of time and place, Lily and Bram fight to find each other again. And as Lily uncovers the secrets of the past, she must race to find a way back to save the only man she’s ever truly loved.
Excerpt
Scotland – 1468
There was danger. Bram could feel it all around him. Fire raced up the wooden steps that lead up to the door leading into the tower. And he could see more flames thrusting out of the windows, black smoke spiraling into the night sky. Throwing his plaid over his face, he ran up the steps, but was stopped by one of the tower’s guards.
The man raised his claymore, his eyes narrowed as the deadly blade began its descent. Bram pivoted, and then swung his own weapon, confused as to where he was and why he was fighting. The man fell, only to be replaced by another. Bram called to him, some part of him recognizing a face that still seemed a stranger, but this man, too, seemed intent only on stopping him.
His mind argued that nothing made sense, even as his heart screamed that he must get inside. If he did not then that which was most precious to him would be lost. He knew this as surely as he drew breath.
With a twist and a parry he drew the man off, and then made quick work of him, dashing through the opening of the tower, down the hallway and into the great hall. A place meant for comfort it offered only danger now. It too was full of flame, and lined with enemies.
Again the thought brought him up short. But there was no time to try and understand. Fear pushed him forward. He surged into the fray, moving toward the stairway at the far end of the room. It gave access to the chambers above and it was there he knew he would find her.
His brain recoiled. Find who? But his heart urged him forward, and he fought his way to the bottom of the steps, then ran up them, taking them two at a time, knowing the other swordsmen were fast on his heels.
At the top he froze for a moment, the thick smoke disorienting him. The fire was much worse here. Pushing forward, he breathed through the heavy wool of his plaid, keeping sword at the ready. The first chamber was empty. As was the solar and the chamber beyond it. But then from down the narrow hallway he heard a cry.
Heart thundering in his ears, he ran through the flames and smoke. A timber fell, glancing off of his shoulder, and he hardly felt it, the need to find her overriding everything else.
He called for her, his voice swallowed by the raging fire. Another timber fell, and a wall collapsed. He jumped across a gaping hole in the floor, landing hard, but still moving. The doorway ahead was edged in flames, the smoke and fire roiling like some kind of evil spirit.
Ignoring the danger, he sprinted forward, through the opening, again calling her name.
And then, through the shimmering heat, he saw her, tied to the bedframe, her long hair unbound, her green eyes wide with fear.
“Go back,” she screamed.
But he pushed onward, stumbling as still more of the burning tower fell. “I’ll no’ leave you.” His words were whipped away by the inferno surrounding them. But he knew that she had heard him.
There were only a few feet between them now. There was bruising on her face, and a trickle of blood at the corner of her beautiful mouth, and he swore there would be hell to pay.
But first, he had to free her.
He reached out a hand, but as he did so, the ceiling above him crashed to the ground. One moment he was looking into her eyes—and the next, she was gone.
About the Author
Bestselling author Dee Davis’s highly acclaimed first novel was published in 2000. Since then, she's won the Booksellers Best, Golden Leaf, Texas Gold, Golden Apple and Prism awards, and been nominated for the National Readers’ Choice Award, the Holt and three RT Reviewers Choice Awards. She is the author of over thirty novels and novellas and is an honor roll member of NJRW. When not frantically trying to meet a deadline, Dee spends her time at her Connecticut farmhouse with her husband and Cardigan Welsh Corgis.
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Monday, 16 January 2017
Book Spotlight: Toltec Dawn by R.J. Hore
Science Fiction
Date Published: 2016
Publisher: eTreasures Publishing
Fergus mac Ogma, a youthful Irish acolyte at the Toltec Temple of Cashel has a burning desire to survive, and become something more than a native underling in a land controlled by invaders from across the ocean.
Captain Mixcoatl is settling in with his wife as commander of the Toltec fort at St Albans when he is suddenly summoned to meet with the new governor in London and learns of the plan to invade the Continent.
Rowena, the young Saxon girl, is fleeing England with her uncle the monk and attempting to reach the Continent across the Channel. Their flight is interrupted by a band of outlaws who offer to guide them.
Set in the years after the Toltec conquest of Ireland and England, three lives become entwined as they face personal desires and challenges of an occupied land, religious tension, and threat of an invasion.
Excerpt
Fergus’ gaze wandered to the dust motes captured in the wayward beam of sunshine that entered through the narrow window. For some reason the fine specks reminded him of grains of gunpowder. He might not be squatting here if not for the gray magic of the overlords.
The headmaster’s stern stare swept the class. “Who can tell me the significance of today’s date?” The tall redhead’s hand was the first raised.
Fergus rose to his feet and shook a cloud of ash from his shoulders, the residue from the morning’s flagellation. “This is the one hundredth anniversary of the first landfall in Connaught by the Golden Jaguar.” He couldn’t help adding, “From this year of 1215AD, according to the peasants.”
“And what is the significance of the landing, Fergus mac Ogma?” Frowning, the headmaster tugged at his jade earplug, one of the signs of his impatience with the seminary students.
Fergus allowed a smile to flicker across his broad, freckled face. He made a slight bow. “This landfall brings civilization to the five kingdoms, and enlightenment to the rest of the world.”
The headmaster frowned. “Not yet to all of the rest of the world, young pup.”
“Is it not simply a matter of time, Master?”
“You presume to know the wishes of the Smoked Mirror, my unworthy pupil?” The ancient priest’s dry voice dropped to the level of a fading autumn breeze.
The other novices shrank into their threadbare robes. The temperature in the stone cell fell by several degrees.
Fergus remained unconcerned. “Is it not our duty, as missionaries in the name of Tezcatlipoca and the Great Khan himself, to carry the word to every corner of the world?” He sat back on his straw mat.
“It will be, if any of you ever leave the shelter of this abbey as graduates and acolytes.” The headmaster shook his high priest’s robe and surveyed the crowded chamber, pointing with stick-thin fingers laden with gold and emerald rings. “To make certain you remember to humble yourself before the gods, and the Great Khan, run outside, around the abbey grounds, six full times. Then take your willow switches, go to the courtyard, and flagellate your bare backs until the dinner bell is sounded.” He smiled. “Cell partners will take turns. Finn, you will start on Fergus until he bleeds, and next it will be your privilege. Go!”
“See what trouble you have created,” Finn hissed at Fergus as they jostled through the doorway.
Some of the other students glared at Fergus, others simply bowed their heads and shuffled off toward the exit.
Fergus smiled calmly. “This only makes the body and mind stronger to carry on our divine work.”
He ran, soon leaving Finn and the others behind. As Fergus dashed across the uneven ground he glanced up at the rock and the castle, the high, round tower black against the sun. Adjacent to the castle, the half-completed stone pyramid stretched toward the sky, smoke rising from the temporary altar at the summit. “Someday, I too will sit upon a rock and judge, I swear it.”
About the Author
After winning a Canadian Authors national contest, Ron connected with Champagne Books of Alberta to complete “The Dark Lady” fantasy trilogy, followed by “The Queen’s Pawn” trilogy, and his fantasy detective series of eight novellas: “The Housetrap Chronicles.” His latest novel with Champagne is “Alex in Wanderland.”
Ron recently signed with a second publisher, eTreasures Publishing of Florida with, “We’re Not in Kansas,” a near-future thriller, followed by a what-if, “Toltec” trilogy. The first book in the series, Toltec Dawn is available now, with the second, Toltec Khan, available shortly.
Ron, a member of several writing groups, reviews genre novels for an on-line magazine and sometimes escapes to his sailboat on Lake Winnipeg.
Follow Ron at: www.ronaldhore.com and www.facebook.com/RonaldJHore
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Friday, 13 January 2017
Tuesday, 10 January 2017
Monday, 9 January 2017
Sunday, 8 January 2017
Saturday, 7 January 2017
Friday, 6 January 2017
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