Shadows of the Highridge by Jay Swanson - Guest Blog and Giveaway

This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. Jay Swanson will be awarding a e-book of Shadows of the Highridge to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.

Five Things You Didn’t Know About Jay Swanson

I’m currently sitting in the American Airlines Admiral’s Club in Paris, which sounds about three times more glamorous than it is, but the free croissants and Bailey’s do kick it up a notch. Here are five things you might not know about me (and I’m going to pretend you had an idea who I was before you started reading):

ONE: I’ve Lost 35 Pounds in Just Under Four Months.

I plan to lose a little more (and who knows, maybe I did while I was in France), but the end goal was 40 pounds by the end of 2015. I run about 20 miles a week now and try to pretend like I can lift weights when no one is looking. What makes the weight loss even more surprising is if you know something else about me:

TWO: I Eat in Restaurants 95% of the Time

Again, not nearly as glamorous as it sounds (in fact, food and I are on an emotional break at the moment). Eating in restaurants makes losing weight a bit more of a challenge as you’re never really sure what exactly it is you’re putting in your mouth. You hope it’s actually food. How did I do it? I counted calories and did my best to stay hungry.

Why eat in restaurants all the time (why not)? The same reason I traveled so much over the last two years: Work. But day jobs are boring interview material so let’s move on to something more fun:

THREE: I’m a Lord in the UK, But I Wasn’t Born into My Title

I’ll just leave that one as is; feel free to ask in the comments.

FOUR: I’ve Lived in Eight Countries (give or take depending on how you define “lived”)

Personally I don’t count Italy, though they do know how to live. Between North America, Europe, and Africa, I’ve spread out a little. The reason behind all this jet-setting is still a bit of a mystery, even to me, but I’d blame a large portion of it on reading the entire TinTin series as soon as I could form sentences without mouthing them silently to myself. So, like three months ago (shut up, Steve).

Suffice it to say that when I was little I fell in love with France and just never let it go. I taught English there after college, and again in the middle of my stint with Mercy Ships – a volunteer operation running the world’s largest private charity hospital ship. It was with Mercy Ships that I lived in South, Central, and Western Sub-Saharan Africa; how I saw the world, but not how I saw the country.

FIVE: I Took a State-Side Travel Job to Fund Into the Nanten

I didn’t know what project I would launch myself into when I got back, but I knew that I would need money for my future as a writer. I’m just too into production to leave my projects to someone else. I did this for the same reason that I chose to remain independent for so long: creative control.

Into the Nanten, the world’s first real-time fantasy blog, was born of a combination of my desire to reach a new audience, tell an episodic story, and process my experiences abroad (in a much more cannibal-infested manner). After a successful round at Kickstarter, I was able to launch a second season of Into the Nanten in September and a spinoff novel on Halloween: Shadows of the Highridge.

Shadows of the Highridge is born of dual inspirations: Tremors (yes, that cult classic with Kevin Bacon) and Cry the Beloved Country (Alan Paton would probably cry anew to see this amalgamation). The principal mystery in Into the Nanten, Brin Salisir, is a secondary but vital character within Shadows of the Highridge. A standalone fantasy horror featuring intelligent, murderous worms and some very inconvenient soldiers, Shadows of the Highridge can be read on its own, but it’s also a great way to delve a little deeper into the Nanten.

It’s a short fun read, and while you’re waiting for it to download (or get shipped to you) let me know in the comments one of two things: 1) What combination of inspirations do you think made the original creators cringe to see? 2) What’s one of the weirdest things that’s ever happened to you while traveling?

Moving along the soil is the quickest way to die; for Tolly to survive she must learn to stay silent. Life on farms like hers was difficult enough in the face of plague and a decade of drought, but something worse has come to the foothills under the Highridge Mountains. Something that will destroy everything she loves.

Mere miles away, Vanig’s search for water to revive his farm is cut short when soldiers arrive bearing dark news of disaster striking farms throughout the region – and they suspect he is the root cause of it all. Those suspicions spike when a disheveled warrior appears hundreds of miles from home and takes Vanig hostage.

Death looms in the shadows of the Highridge.

Enjoy an excerpt:

Tolly had never run so hard. The house was so far off. How could she make it?

The certainty grew within her: Time was short. Why was she so sure? She could feel the panic rise.

“Tolly!” Nym was chasing her. “Come back!”

No, she thought. Bring them this way! But her lungs were already burning. She couldn’t yell any more. All she could do was run. Please, Nym, just listen.

“Little sister!” A Truan hand heard the commotion and came running from the other side of the house. “Little sister, stop! Kanda says it is not safe!”

Get out of my way, she wanted to yell. Run with me. But all of her air was spent on sprinting. The man was closing on her. She would have to dodge him somehow. She couldn’t let him stop her. He was ten feet away. Then the ground exploded beneath him.

Tolly fell, skidding to a halt as her skirts flew up around her. Scrapes burned along her thighs and up her backside. She heard screams behind her. The dust obscured her view. And then, through falling earth, she saw half of the Truan’s body thrown into the air by a tower of dirt.

No, not dirt, it was living. A snake. A worm. The monster was thicker than ten men standing together and jutted out of the ground twice as high. Three massive jawbones worked separately to hold the torso of the Truan in place. Whatever was happening within the mouth, Tolly didn’t want to see it.

About the Author:

Jay Swanson is the creator of Into the Nanten, the world’s first real-time fantasy blog. He is also author of a spin-off novel, Shadows of the Highridge, the standalone short novel Dark Horse, and the Vitalis Chronicles trilogy. Jay grew up in Washington State, and has lived all over the world since then. Jay served for three years with Mercy Ships, a medical charity that runs the world’s largest private hospital ship, the Africa Mercy. In each country they visit, Mercy Ships donates free surgeries to the world’s forgotten poor, alleviating the suffering that so often accompanies a lack of access to medical care. He started in IT, then worked as the editor for their international Creative Pool, and finished as the on board Media Liason.

Paris will always have a place in Jay’s heart; he lived in France for two years, but he’s currently working in the US as a consultant on electronic medical records. Basically, he lives on planes.

Jay has a background in design and video production which have been instrumental in his self-publishing endeavors. Jay was telling stories from an early age, and latched on to video as soon as he discovered he could borrow people’s cameras. The stories that would one day become the Vitalis Chronicles began to take form in Jay’s head as movie ideas while he was still in college, and he began writing them down when he realized that they might make good books as well as films (and that if he died in Africa, there would be nothing left to prove they ever existed). He started writing White Shores in May of 2010 and finished on Christmas day of that year in Applesbosch, South Africa.

Website: http://jayswanson.me/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jay.swanson.author
Twitter: https://twitter.com/jayonaboat
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/27203157-shadows-of-the-highridge

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Whiskey Devils by Brandon Zenner

This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. Brandon will be awarding a $20 Amazon or B/N GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.

Evan Powers has become the new manager in Nick Grady’s well-established marijuana growing operation. Led by his roommate and best friend, little has changed in Nick’s secretive business since the late ‘60s, which is just the way the aging hippie would for like it to remain. However, Nick’s complex past comes full circle, thrusting Evan in a scramble to decipher the truth behind the enigmatic lives of the people he holds dear. Deep in the woods, demons will be unleashed.

Enjoy an excerpt:

We walked directly across the hall, to a second door leading to a second warehouse. It was like those Russian Matryoshka dolls that get pulled apart to reveal smaller dolls nesting inside. A warehouse within a warehouse.

Nick took me to the door and knocked.

My previous work took place down the long hall to the left, in a room around the corner in the rear of the building, and I looked over my shoulder to where I normally worked with Becka. She was nowhere to be seen. Whatever Nick was about to show me was entirely new, but I had a very good idea of exactly what was behind that thick door.

A sliding viewing port opened, and a set of eyes looked out. The viewing port closed, and the sound of a heavy lock clacked from the hollows of the metal door. A moment later it opened and we stepped inside, shielding our eyes from the glaring light.

“Holy hell,” I muttered, stepping into the room. The temperature was hot in there, muggy, and my eyes were practically blinded from the succession of thousand-watt high pressure sodium light bulbs lining the ceiling. A sea of tall marijuana plants filled the room, all set in carefully arranged rows, some attached to an elaborate hydroponic system. The smell of fresh marijuana was as thick as soup. A silver tray holding orange slices and a knife sat on a table by the door.

“So.” I turned to Nick. “What exactly do you need me to do?”

About the Author:

Brandon Zenner is an American fiction writer. His short fiction has been published in both print and online publications, the first being submitted when he was just 19 years old. THE EXPERIMENT OF DREAMS, his debut eBook thriller, has reached Amazon's top-ten charts within its genre many times. His categories of choice are thrillers, dystopian, crime, and science fiction.

Kindle Scot Page: Kindle Scout Page- Vote for the book here
Information about the Kindle Scout program here.

Website: http://www.BrandonZenner.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/brandon.zenner
Twitter: https://twitter.com/SlapstickII

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Let's Stalk Rex Jupiter by Allison A. Spector - Guest Blog and Giveaway

This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. Allison Spector will be awarding a signed copy of book with original plot outline notes (loose sheets of paper) inside and additional notes at end or in margins of story (US/Canada only) to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.

Five Things You’d Probably Never Guess about Allison A. Spector

The fun part about being a writer, and participating in blog tours, is that you get these opportunities to plumb the depths of your soul and share random flotsam and jetsam about your Inner Being. It’s really an intriguing exercise, and leads to an extraordinary amount of navel-gazing.

Well, my navel is ready to be gazed (lint and all). So per the request of my lovely and talented hosts at It's Raining Books, here are five fun-facts for current and future (readers, lovers, haters, neutral-ers, analysts, over-analysts, browsers and grazers) of my work.

These revelations have been provided haphazardly, in no particular order:

1) I’m an extrovert, but I live in my head

These things may sound contradictory but it’s true. I’m a genuine extrovert. I love parties, social gatherings, dancing, and generally keeping company with other human beings. It energizes me, and makes me feel refreshed. And yet I’m pretty much always deep in thought, running social algorithms, daydreaming. My exterior is just a means to an end—a jar for my brain to play in, pulling levers and pressing buttons to move my ungainly form point-to-point. I give a speech. I twirl. I laugh. But I take my home with me, peering out the curtains of my eyes as I interact with the big wide world.

2) I’m an energy policy geek

My greatest dream in my college years was to get into political management and spin-doctoring, (sweet naïve thing that I was.) So I found a job in DC after I graduated and served as an advocate for a decent environmental cause. I’m pretty good at building bridges and giving impassioned speeches so it worked out for me. But I soon learned that not everyone wants to build bridges. So over the years, I’ve moved further and further into program development and policy analysis and finding ways to get people to work together in the formation of meaningful, nuanced partnerships that are good for the Earth and support sound business principles. Yup, I am a total People, Profits, Planet geek. And I love every minute of it!

3) I am a lucid, sensory dreamer

For as long as I can remember, I have been able to interact with my dreamscapes. I find myself wandering the same locations over and over. I have entire imaginary campuses, and city blocks mapped out in my mind, that I explore at leisure in my subconscious. And since I usually know I’m dreaming, it allows me to “test play” story concepts and work out spiritual and emotional conundrums. It’s an awesome tool to have as a writer. Strangely, however, I struggle greatly to mentally picture and/or form tangible images in my mind during waking hours so I’m an extremely poor visual artist.

4) I try not to eat smart, cute animals

I remember vividly in middle school I had a rather young and idealistic health teacher tell the class that one day we would all realize that eating meat was wrong. The words stuck with me until this very day. Ultimately, I developed a personal philosophy that leads to me avoid meat in general, although I don’t really have any major problem with dairy as long as the animals are treated in a humane manner. However I do have a dietary code that I stick to do matter what, and it goes as follows:

(1) I won’t eat mammals. They are fuzzy, complex, and have mothers.

(2) I won’t eat anything that is capable of problem-solving and/or emotions.

Pretty much anything else is food. So fish and chicken are sometimes on the menu. But never pigs or squids. This can end up being quasi arbitrary, but it’s my compromise with The Universe (and or my middle-school health teacher).

5) I totally invented cake-pie!

It was back in the summer of 2011. I was 38 weeks pregnant, and ready to give birth like you wouldn’t believe. It was days away from my husband’s birthday. I was feeling exhausted and didn’t have anything to give him. All I could think about was f-o-o-o-d!

There was this awesome cake shop in the town were we lived. It is called Barbs Pies and Pastries in Ferndale, WA. Barb and her team are amazingly talented people. I called and told her I wanted to commission a New Kind of Dessert for my husband. Something that had never been done before. They offered some suggestions of the different types of cakes and pies they were capable of making. But my hungry, pregnant brain was not satisfied.

So I said the words that would change the course of culinary history…forever. “Can you combine cake and pie together? Like, you know, into a CAKE PIE?” Barb was intrigued. She began to talk through the structure such a creation would require in order to maximize both stability and deliciousness.

The work she made was so delicious and amazing that the gods wept tears of happiness. Or at least, I did cause it was super tasty and amazing. My husband was absolutely thrilled and felt very loved that someone cared about him enough to commission a special dessert just for him.

From there, folks started hearing about Cake Pie and requesting them for themselves.

So, let it be known, oh great Internet. Cake Pie (what is now known as pie-cake, or pie-caken)was originally commissioned by Allison Spector, as a love letter to her husband, Charles Van Zee.

And was created by the amazing and talented Barb’s Pies and Pastries.

Thanks again for the opportunity to post some fun facts about myself. This has been a ton of fun to write. For more zaniness and hijinks be sure to check out my novella, Let’s Stalk Rex Jupiter! And also, check out the other fine books available through 1888.center and Black Hill Press!

Trouble’s brewing in the Evergreen Jungle. When controversial author Rex Jupiter plans a visit to a Bellingham bookstore, news of his arrival attracts the attention of the mysterious Paladin, who plans on leading a mob of rioting housewives against him. But the Paladin has competition. Sleuth-extraordinaire Marian Krause has her own bone to pick with Jupiter as she scrambles to solve the death of a woman who has stolen her identity. Rex may think he has the situation under control, but when the wrath of the local Druids is incurred, pitchforks and torches may be the least of his concerns.

Enjoy an excerpt:

The Paladin knew just where to go. The Shipment had arrived an hour beforehand if his Intelligence was to be trusted. It could be. His Sources never failed him. He was sure the payload would be kept in the stockroom before it was added into the inventory. And he was correct.

The Paladin grabbed a box cutter from the pocket of his cape. It was hard to see in the dark and the eyeholes of his Guy Fawkes mask were too small, but these were mere trifles. Soon, dozens of the Heretic’s novels of Shameful Smarm would be loaded into his bag and artfully recycled in a socially responsible manner. No longer would readers be burned by the white-hot radioactivity of the inflammatory passages he knew lurked within those covers.

Passages housed within chapter titles like "How to Fan a Flame War," “White Privilege Rocks!," and “I Objectified Your Mama (and She Loved it).”

Whether the appropriations of the tools of troll-dom were ironic or non-ironic, it mattered little to the Paladin. The only thing that mattered was that he would soon be the agent through which a great Cultural Transformation would take place. And a glorious new age would dawn…

Or something like that.

But for now, he would start small. Yes, for now, he would have to be satisfied that the five hideous cardboard cut-outs of the arrogant, smirking Rex Jupiter would be hacked to—no, wait! Only four would be shredded. On the fifth, he would draw devil horns and a twirly moustache with, dare he imagine it, Permanent Marker.

About the Author:

Allison Spector was born and raised in the hedonistic playground of the Jersey Shore, but finds herself oddly allergic to spray tan. She is a proud graduate of Goucher College, and started her environmentally-focused career in Washington DC in 2005. She moved to the Pacific Northwest in 2008, and fell in love with its beauty and people. Allison is currently on a Midwestern Adventure and is determined to live as much life as possible—to accomplish her dreams one at a time—and to nurture her loving family, and blaze a trail of wit, whimsy, and eccentricity wherever she goes.

Twitter: https://twitter.com/inspectorallie
Website: http://www.allisonspector.com
Buy the book at Amazon.

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Commander Henry Gallant by H. Peter Alesson - Spotlight and Giveaway

This post is part of a cover reveal virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions for H. Peter Alesso's newest release Commander Henry Gallant which will be available February 12. H. Peter Alesso will be awarding a $20 Amazon/BN GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.

He thought Alaina loved him, but now she’s found someone else. A tidal wave of loss and grief swept over Henry Gallant, leaving him undecided about what to do next, or how to move forward.

Despite his sorrow, he goes on a dangerous mission to an invading aliens’ home world in the Gliese-581 star system. There he uses a neural interface to penetrate their communication network and steal a high ranking alien’s identity. Through this artifice he learns about their history and society, and discovers a way to hinder and possibly defeat them.

A side-effect of linking into the alien network—which was created for autistic savants—is that Gallant’s mind was stimulated and enhanced to the point where he begins to experience superintelligence abilities.

Upon returning from his mission, there is concern that Gallant might pose an even more serious threat than the aliens. While he struggles to fend off those who doubt his loyalty, he fights to win back Alaina.

This is the fourth book of The Henry Gallant Saga, but it can be read as a standalone story.

About the Author:

As a scientist and author specializing in technology innovation, H. Peter Alesso has over twenty years research experience at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL). As Engineering Group Leader at LLNL he led a team of scientists and engineers in innovative applications across a wide range of supercomputers, workstations, and networks. He graduated from the United States Naval Academy with a B.S. and served in the U.S. Navy on nuclear submarines before completing an M.S. and an advanced Engineering Degree at M.I.T. He has published several software titles and numerous scientific journal and conference articles, and he is the author/co-author of seven books.

Website: http://www.hpeteralesso.com/Default.aspx
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/413852.H_Peter_Alesso
YouTube: http://youtu.be/2eciKOBFBSM
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheHenryGallantSaga
Amazon Page for Series: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B011M9O9RC/ref=series_rw_dp_sw

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Cargo by DV Berkom - Review and Giveaway

This review is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. DV Berkom will be awarding a $10 Amazon or Barnes and Noble GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.

Haunted by memories of an op gone bad, former assassin Leine Basso travels to Bangkok in search of a missing backpacker. With help from an old contact, she discovers the man responsible for the girl’s disappearance is connected to a violent Hong Kong triad and is the linchpin of an extensive trafficking network—both animal and human.

Making enemies isn’t new for Leine, but making one in the triad is—she soon finds herself a prisoner onboard a cargo ship headed for sub-Saharan Africa. To ensure her survival and to continue her hunt for the missing girl, she must join forces with Derek, an ivory poacher who promises to help her.

For a price.

Another great book from DV Berkom--I absolutely love her kickass heroine Leine Basso. This is the fourth book in the series (you can read my review of the book just before this one here, but it can be read as a standalone. However, you don't have to because for a limited time, DV is offering the first three books as a boxed set and it's ON SALE! Treat yourself to an early Christmas present!

Leine Basso is not a woman to mess around with. She is doing a favor for a friend and looking for said friend's daughter, who has gone missing on a backpacking trip to Bangkok. Leine finds way more than she expects, though, when it turns out Kylie is more than just missing--and it will take all of Leine's skills and former contacts to retrieve her from a very dangerous situation.

I don't want to say too much for fear of giving away spoilers, but this is definitely a book you do not want to put down once you start--so I recommend you don't start it if you have an appointment soon (or dinner to get ready). The action is non-stop!

I love all the characters (even the bad guys... you're gonna love to hate 'em!) and I really liked Derek-- I would love to see a series with him as he continues his path in Africa (just a hint, DV). And Leine is just as kickass as ever. She does not put up with anything from anyone-- and it was great to see an unmovable force in the person of Leine meet an immovable object in the case of Derek-- both strong characters and both determined in their own way.

Great job! I'm already looking forward to the next book in the series. 4 flowers! Take a look at one of the scenes from this book.

With a deep inhale, she low-crawled to the apex of the roof, expecting to feel the hot bite of a bullet with each meter gained, or, alternatively, the hair-raising buzz and crack of a lightning strike. The storm hadn’t yet washed away the dirt and dust on Derek’s roof. The resulting slurry made progress even more challenging.

She reached the top and removed the rifle, then released the bipod, setting it up so only the tip of the barrel cleared the roofline. She lay on her stomach, flipped up the front and rear dust covers on the scope and sighted on the house across the street. Her body relaxed into the most efficient position naturally, as though it hadn’t been years since she’d done this. Muscle memory was a powerful thing, especially after spending hours upon hours learning a specific weapon.

Part of her missed the familiarity. This was something she was good at.

Leine scanned the area across the street through the night scope, pausing at the positions she might have chosen, but didn’t notice anything out of the ordinary. She wondered where the police were, or if anyone had called them. The neighbors had probably confused the crack of gunfire with the sound of the storm.

She kept coming back to a dark area near the house across the street. All she could make out at first were two garbage bins. She scanned the bushes next to them.

A shadow near one of the bins moved. A man in a dark shirt and pants broke away from the house and headed across the street in a crouch, a machine gun in both hands.

About the Author:

DV Berkom is a slave to the voices in her head. As the bestselling author of two award-winning thriller series (Leine Basso and Kate Jones), her love of creating resilient, kick-ass women characters stems from a lifelong addiction to reading spy novels, mysteries, and thrillers, and longing to find the female equivalent within those pages.

Raised in the Midwest, she earned a BA in political science from the University of Minnesota and promptly moved to Mexico to live on a sailboat. Several cross-country moves later, she now lives just outside of Seattle, Washington with the love of her life, Mark, a chef-turned-contractor, and several imaginary characters who like to tell her what to do. Her most recent books include Cargo, The Body Market, Bad Traffick, A One Way Ticket to Dead, and Yucatán Dead.

Website: http://www.dvberkom.com
Blog: http://dvberkom.blogspot.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DvBerkomAuthor
Twitter: https://twitter.com/dvberkom
Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/dvberkom
Google+: http://google.com/+DVBerkom
Instagram: https://instagram.com/dvberkom/
Amazon Author Page: http://amzn.to/oMUb1Z US or http://amzn.to/pBwClD UK
Smashwords Profile: https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/dvberkom

Buy Cargo at Amazon, iTunes, Barnes and Noble, Kobo, or Smashwords.

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Peace, Love, and a Dead Hippie Chick by N.R. Leigh - Interview and Giveaway

This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. N.R. Leigh will be awarding $20 Amazon/BN GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.

Why do you write in your genre? What draws you to it?

I write mainly for women, about women and their journeys of personal growth. I ultimately believe that it is and will be women who create positive change in our world. Not that it is our responsibility, rather reality. So, I see potential in other women’s stories to inspire others and myself. It’s that break from our own lives, that vicarious adventure we take with the characters that inspires me to read and to write. It’s good for our souls, our minds. So, if I don’t stay within one genre, I lead with female characters that are always evolving.

What or world-building is required?

Peace, Love, and a Dead Hippie Chick is not necessarily a fantasy / Sci-fi, but I had to create a world of people living off the grid. I researched many topics on survival tactics, wilderness and nature, subcultures, and travelers to write this novel. In my upcoming Sci-fi series, Imagine Yasmin, I have been researching world cultures, religions, and spiritual practices for several years now. It’s an epic story of a young woman who inherits school for youth savants and an ancient power she must use to battle an evil warlord with the same power, to save the school and our world from destruction. I know it sounds like a familiar plot, but of course; there are aspects I can’t yet divulge!

Name one thing you learned from your hero/heroine.

I’ve learned from The Hippie Chicks to take chances! They take a big chance by leaving their homes in search of a better life—a live they want to live. I make most of my decisions using my intuition. When something feels right, I act! If it feels wrong, I walk away. It so simple, it’s often forgotten. Life becomes less complicated when you follow your instincts.

Do you have any odd or interesting writing quirks, habits or superstitions?

Honestly, I can only write without distractions. I have to drink coffee or tea the entire time. Wind chimes and candles help keep me relaxed. I don’t write when I’m tired, stressed, or otherwise feeling poorly. I don’t want it to taint my writing. So, I guess I try to keep the process very pure.

Are you a plotter or pantser?

I actually had to look up what the work “pantser” meant, so I guess that automatically qualifies me as a plotter! But really, I do plot. A lot. I mentally plot for years before I write. I take notes I call “Key Concepts,” abbreviated “KCs.” I keep them in composition books. Then, when I plot, I organize the KCs under each plot scene. Then, I make note cards for the scenes, and time lines using the three-act structure.

Look to your right – what’s sitting there?

No one is sitting to my right, but my sweet little dog, Sydney, is curled up in a little ball on the couch, to my left! She loves when I’m writing or on the computer because that means I’m home with her!

Anything new coming up from you? What?

I have several titles I am developing. Imagine Yasmin has been begging me to write it for several years, so I think I will start the full process Summer 2016. However, Peace, Love, and a Dead Hippie Chick was such a complex project, I’m considering something a little lighter, like a humorous, Chick-lit, Sci-Fi I’m working on!

Do you have a question for our readers?

I’d love to know how they discover their favorite books. Do they stick to the charts, blogs, and social media for suggestions or do they go searching through the slush piles for something “undiscovered?”

Thank you for having me! I welcome correspondence from readers! Please visit my website www.NRLeigh.com to connect.

Peace, Love, and a Dead Hippie Chick follows the intertwining journeys of three young women in the mid-1990s who go on the road and off the grid, and leave their worlds behind. Each woman falls into a dangerous subculture of sex, drugs, and rock and roll in an attempt to attain her own sense of peace, love, and freedom.

KARA, a middle-class Midwestern girl, flees her painful past after a tragic accident claims a loved one, only to learn—after a violent attack—that there’s no safety among friends or strangers. Survival rests in her hands alone as she escapes into the wilderness of New Mexico.

NATASHA, born into privilege, rebels against her family’s expectations as she follows the Grateful Dead concert tour circuit, selling contraband and exploring her sexual freedom.

AMY, an impoverished Southern belle, becomes love-struck when an exotic drifter passes through town, deciding to leave home and follow him.

This intricately interwoven coming-of-age tale delves into the connection between strangers and the premise that the grand orchestration of life goes well beyond chance.

Enjoy an excerpt:

>Grae
Friday, April 13, 2012
Eighteen Years Later

I’ve heard it said that Volkswagen buses choose their owners and not the other way around. Some believe they’re engineered and built with a secret mojo that allows this to be true. Ask anyone who’s ever owned one, and they’ll tell you it’s so. I wonder whom this one chose. During my entire life, it’s been sitting like a convict on death row, imprisoned in the rear corner of our jungle property next to our dog Parker’s grave—over eighteen years now, grass growing over its wheel wells and tropical foliage climbing onto the windshield, awaiting execution by vegetation. I hadn’t paid much attention to it until this morning. My parents had never spoken of it.


*****

Daylight broke through the fronds of the areca palms as I stepped onto the sod—the lawn was wet with morning dew—and began to dribble my soccer ball along the length of it. I drilled the ball, sending it sailing across the yard and directly onto the van’s back door, popping it open. Cursing my crooked instep kick, I pushed through the tangled waist--‐‑deep flora in an attempt to close the hatch but climbed inside out of curiosity. The license plate reads New Mexico, Land of Enchantment. Although born in Arizona, I’ve never technically set foot in the United States. We moved here when I was an infant.

About the Author: N.R. Leigh began her writing career in 2007 as a featured columnist for the guerrilla newspaper The Uncommon Sense. She since has written books as an expert on personal health and wellness under the pseudonym Nicci Leigh.

She was inspired to write her debut novel, Peace, Love, and a Dead Hippie Chick, by a conversation with a friend, who described a newspaper article regarding the events that surrounded a group of hippies' visit to her small town and the havoc they caused. This crazy, fascinating account, coupled with N.R.’s experiences traveling the United States in her early 20s, gave birth to her story.

N.R. has a background in education and teaches aesthetics, yoga, Reiki, and related holistic modalities. Born and raised in Flint, Michigan, she currently lives in a rural coastal community in southwest Florida with her family and their Australian Kelpie, Sydney, who believes she’s a Tasmainian Devil.

N.R is inspired by funny people and those who create positive change and peace. Her friends and family describe her as driven, strong, silly, and independent. Something most people don’t know about her is that, at age eighteen, she aided police in the capture of a team of bank robbers.

N.R. is working on her first fiction series, Imagine Yasmin.

Please visit her website to connect.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NicciRLeigh
Twitter: https://twitter.com/IamNRLeigh
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/IamNRLeigh/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYZOO78dsDbjt62hr70Kp1Q?view_as=public
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6425003.Nicci_Leigh

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Yours Truly 2095 by Brian Paone - Guest Blog and Giveaway

This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. Brian Paone will be awarding a $25 Amazon/BN GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.

Five Things You Might Not Know About Brian Paone

1. I grew up living in a funeral home. Sleepovers as a kid at my house were always interesting. Either my friends would flat out refuse to sleep over, or the ones who would sleep over would sneak downstairs and play hide and seek in the empty caskets at 2 in the morning. I used to get in trouble a lot as a kid by “zooming” my Matchbox cars around the dead people’s faces… because that meant someone was going to have to fix the makeup again before the wake that night. Oddly, we moved out when I was a senior in high school, and the very first apartment that my fiancé (now wife) and I shared together before we got married, was back in the same funeral home in the same upstairs apartment. The experience has made me desensitized to dead people, they are just another piece of furniture to me, however, it also made me terrified of death, because looking at new dead people every day, year after year, in my house, made me really question what happens to us after we die.

2. I have webbed feet. Both toes next to the big toe, on both feet, are stuck together like one big toe. When I was born, the doctor asked if my mother wanted him to split them, and she asked if having it would impede me in anyway. When he said, no, she chose to keep my feet like that. My first novel, “Dreams Are Unfinished Thoughts,” is about my friendship with a rock-star who was a drug addict. His nephew, who I kind of adopted as a surrogate nephew after my friend died, has the same exact two toes, on both feet, webbed just like me. He’s the only person I’ve ever met who has the same 4 toes stuck together, and it’s because of his uncle that I’m even a published author in the first place. Crazy coincidences weird me out.

3. I was as close to buying a 1983 DeLorean as one can possibly get without actually buying one. I found a guy in NJ who was selling one for $30,000 and it was in almost mint condition. I had about $10,000 in a savings account and I contacted him and asked if he could hold it for me while I applied for a loan from a bank for the remaining $20,000. Well, my loan was approved for the rest of the money and my best friend and I were going to fly down to NJ from Boston and drive the DeLorean back to MA. Then, the Patriots made it to the Super Bowl. And I blew my $10,000 saved on going to the game (plane, hotel, car rental, Super Bowl tickets etc.) So I never got my DeLorean, even though I had the money and a seller. But, the Patriots did beat the Eagles in that game, so…..

4. I have this weird thing/tick that I do when I get super super super excited about something. But because I’m embarrassed about it, I will only do it in private. I will either wait until I am alone, or if I can’t wait, I’ll go into another room to do it. My wife says that its borderline Tourette’s because I almost can’t control it. It’s like I get so excited about something, that I don’t where to put that energy. Over the years I’ve learned how to do this tick discreetly while in the company of people so I can still get out that energy in a physical manner, but also so it doesn’t look like I’m having a stroke. Well, when my band, Drop Kick Jesus, flew to Texas to mix our 2000 album, “Depress The Heart,” I was alone in one of the studio rooms and got excited about a piece of music we had just mixed, and I did my “tick.” I had no idea my guitarist was outside the window. When he saw it, he was like WTF? He called the whole band over and they were all in the studio window watching me do my thing. I was so embarrassed that I made sure that my little tick was never seen by anyone accidentally ever again.

5. I’m a ninja. Seriously. My 6-year old and my 8-year old can’t get me down when we wrestle. And this week, I KNEW I was a ninja when my 14 month old crawled at me, and I took him down. BOOYA! Ninja skills.

Jeff Blue-the victim of a time-travel conspiracy-wakes up trapped in the year 2095. The only familiar face is J0; a robotic copy of the wife he left behind in 1981. But can she be trusted?

J0 could be the only key to unlock Jeff's journey home, but it will require her to do something against her programming-something human.

During Jeff's perilous journey through the future, he will have to discover the truth about J0's origins, and solve the mystery behind how he wound up in 2095, in order to uncover the reality of his own destiny.

Armed with a one-way ticket to the moon, Jeff must race against the clock to seize what might be his last chance to return home to his time. A time without hover cars, Justice Computers, or TeleSkins-a time over one hundred years ago.

Enjoy an excerpt:

“Are you okay?” Julie asked through the window.

I was surprised I could hear her.

“Yes! Can you let me out?”

I was expecting her to answer with something snide and sarcastic, but she didn’t say anything at all. She just disappeared from my view. I leaned forward in the chamber so I could see where she went. Julie was standing in front of one of the computers typing on the keyboard very quickly. After a few moments I heard a hiss, and the cover swung open. I felt like a rising vampire as I stood up and stepped out of the pod.

I almost fell backward into the chamber when she turned around. Julie was missing half of her face. Where the left side of her face should’ve been was only wires and metal.

“This isn’t a dream, is it?” I asked cautiously.

“No. I’m sorry, Jeff, and it only gets worse.”

“J0?”

“Who else?” J0 asked. She turned back to the computer and typed in some more commands. The hydraulics of another seclusion chamber hissed as its cover opened.

“Oh, no,” I said quietly and covered my mouth with my hand.

Bruce’s mouth and eyes were unnaturally stuck open.

I knew he was dead before I even asked. “Is he—?”

“I’m pretty sure. I already called the police. We’re going to meet them out front to let them in. They should be here in a few minutes.”

I took a step toward him.

“Don’t touch him!” she yelled.

I stopped in my tracks.

“Whoever did this was trying to kill both of you.”

About the Author:Brian Paone was born and raised in the Salem, Massachusetts area. An award winning author, his love of writing began through the medium of short stories at the young age of twelve. After almost 20 years of consistently writing short stories for only his friends and family to read, Brian’s first full-length novel, a personal memoir about his friendship with a rock-star drug addict entitled, “Dreams Are Unfinished Thoughts,” was published in 2007. Brian’s second novel, “Welcome to Parkview,” was published in 2010 and is a macabre journey through a cerebral-horror landscape. Brian’s latest novel, “Yours Truly, 2095,” was published in 2015 and follows a man who wakes up one morning, trapped in the future, to discover he’s been the victim of a time-travel conspiracy. Brian is married and has 3 children. Brian’s wife is an Officer in the US Navy. He is also a self-proclaimed roller coaster junkie, and his favorite color is burnt-orange.

Website: http://www.BrianPaone.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/BrianPaonesNovels

Buy the book at Amazon.

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Dragon Apocalypse by Josh Powell

This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. Josh Powell will be awarding a $25 Amazon/BN GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.

Why do you write in your genre? What draws you to it?

Funny fantasy draws me in because first, I like to make people laugh. Josh is an apt name, because I’m always joshing around. I honed this skill throughout high school by saying things I thought were funny and watching the blank stares of people looking back at me. Occasionally, someone would laugh instead. I said more things like the thing that made people laugh, and less things that drew blank stares. Being funny also got me out of trouble, if my parents were laughing they were unable to dispense punishment for transgressions. It also got be into trouble, I was forced to write a letter in high school apologizing for skipping out on a liturgy (christian high school)... apparently apologizing for exercising my religious freedom was not what they were looking for. Oops.

I’m drawn to the fantasy component of funny fantasy, but I can’t tell you why. I’ve always been drawn into tolkeinesque worlds of excitement and adventure. There are advantages to fantasy, for example, you can discuss topics that would be otherwise taboo or start a heated argument but because it’s wrapped in a layer of metaphor people don’t get so wrapped up in defending their beliefs and can have a conversation about it. But that’s just a bonus, it’s not why I’m drawn to fantasy. I just am and have been from an early age.

What research or world-building is required?

That’s six questions wrapped up in one! I think the levels of research or world-building differ for these genres, at least they would for me. I’ve been so wrapped up on fantasy my whole life, that I’ve a firm grip on what my fantasy world looks like. For sci-fi writing, there is a focus on technology and decisions have to be made about where technology is at. Technology often becomes a character in the book, either literally like the ship in Star Trek having a voice, or metaphorically like the Death Star. Technology also defines a society, what kind of society would create a planet sized device made for destroying planets? My knee jerk reaction is to say an evil one, but I think almost any society with the capability to do it would. The US certainly would, and I don’t consider us an evil society (usually).

Name one thing you learned from your hero/heroine.

The four main characters in these first two books have been an exploration of different aspects of my personality for me. Gurken Stonebiter, the berserker dwarf is stubborn to the point of stupidity, when I’m hungry I get that way. Arthur Gimble, wizard of the tenth rank, is a stickler for grammar and can’t stand it when others make mistakes, restraining himself from correcting others only through heroic effort. Pellonia is the snarky, wise-cracking little girl and is the glue that binds everyone together. Maximina Nobility is someone that learns very quickly, but gets bored and wants to keep trying new things so never quite masters any one thing.

Are you a plotter or pantser?

Both. I plot and outline, then write trying to keep to the outline but sometimes the characters or story won’t let me. And I usually get better ideas later that throw the outline out and force me to write a new one.

Look to your right – what’s sitting there?

A cup of coffee. It’s 5:52am. I do my best writing before 7am, when my family is asleep. I’m actually very lucky if they sleep in until 7am, 6:30 is normal for my daughter to wake up (she’s 2) and sometimes she gets up at 6.

Anything new coming up from you? What?

Dragon Apocalypse was just released, it’s the sequel to The Berserker and the Pedant, which was also released in 2015. I intend to keep writing at the pace of two books per year, which means this series will be finished in 2016 (it’s a trilogy) and the next one started.

Do you have a question for our readers?

Yes, how do you decide which book to read next?

On their way to apprehend a temple thief, Gurken Stonebiter, a templerager of the temple of Durstin Firebeard, and Pellonia, a little, but infuriatingly clever, girl stumble onto a quest to save a town from an evil dragon. The dragon is demanding sacrifices of maidens, and the town is fresh out. Can they discover a way to sate the dragon's bloodlust and save the town?

Along the way, Gurken and Pellonia meet up with Maximina, a half under-elven woman that also happens to be a tad psychic, a ranger with a dash of necromantic ability, a smidgen of samurai training, and just enough time living as a rogue to acquire the ability to sneak up on and stab a foe in the back. Maximina is full of clever ideas on how to gain a tactical advantage over her foes, and on occasion they even work.

During their adventures, Gurken, Pellonia, and Maximina face a snarky unicorn, do battle with a terrible frost giant, contend with a rival adventuring party bent on their utter humiliation, and confront the end of the world in the form of an evil sorcerer and a teeming dragon horde. Can they save the world one more time?

Enjoy an excerpt:

“We’ve run out of maidens,” the mayor told the crowd in the morning, shaking his head sadly. The mayor stood beside a wooden pole with chains and manacles attached to it. The manacles were empty. “I’m afraid that last night, the last maiden in the city, shall we say… disqualified herself.

“Trollop!” said a voice in the crowd.

“In about five minutes, the dragon will be here and we’ll all be scorched and eaten alive. Please, don’t panic. There’s nothing to be done.”

The people in the crowd looked around at one another.

“Can’t we still pretend she’s a maiden?” said a voice in the crowd.

“A good idea, for sure,” said the mayor. “But the dragon can tell these things, he’s got a unicorn with him. I’m afraid we’re doomed. Nothing to be done about it.”

“You can’t fool a unicorn,” someone in the crowd shouted.

“How about a male maiden? I’m sure we’ve plenty of those. Roger here, for example.”

“Hey! I’m not a maiden!”

“Sure, sure, we all believe that.”

“It’s no good anyway. The dragon quite prefers that the maiden in question be a woman,” said the mayor.

“The dragon’s really quite particular,” another voice criticized.

“What about a young maiden? I mean, technically, if we can just find someone young enough…” said someone in the crowd. He turned and looked at Pellonia, as did the rest of the crowd.

About the Author:

JOSH POWELL, wielder of the Sommerswerd, destroyer of the thread, expeditioner to Barrier Peaks, discoverer of his magic talent, and venturer into the Tomb of Horrors is known for having survived a harrowing adolescence full of danger and fantasy. He's gone on to write The Berserker and the Pedant and Dragon Apocalypse and is currently working on the yet to be named third book in the series.

He also spends some not inconsiderable amount of time wiggling his fingers over a keyboard as a software engineer. He lives with his wife, Marianne, and two amazing children, Liam and Chloe, in sunny California, where winter is, most decidedly, never coming.

Website: http://www.pedantpublishing.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/seasoup
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/26492210-dragon-apocalypse
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0108J28XE.

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Her Captain by Taryn Kincaid - Spotlight and Giveaway

This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. Taryn Kincaid will be awarding a $10 Amazon/BN GC + a download of the book to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.

Capricorn Slate Claybourne, an ex-SEAL, returns to his bucolic hometown on Pieberry Island, desperate for the mundane, everyday routines he once wanted to escape.

A broken, soul dead man unable to be around people, Slate doesn’t count on the arrival of animated Aries Holly Harper, who storms the island set on turning decrepit Pieberry House into a tourist inn, and even more determined to yank Slate back into the land of the living.

First she crashes into him at the island’s holiday Winter Festival, dumping a towering stack of pies at his feet. Then she drags him off to a fortune teller. Except for the sizzling attraction smoldering between them, they’re incompatible in every way.

Enjoy an excerpt:

Yin meet yang. Night meet day. Mutable force meet immoveable object.

Every one of Holly’s most compulsive, impulsive brain waves fluttered like a hummingbird wing. Slate Claybourne affected her like the aftershock of an earthquake. Abuzz with excited tremors, she didn’t know whether to leap into his arms and climb him or run screaming away in the other direction.

Oh, yes, you do know, girlie-girl, one of the imps on her shoulder crooned.

Danger, danger, Will Robinson, the imp on the other shoulder screamed in warning protest.

Why had her father told her to search out the former SEAL? The “if you’re reading this” letter he’d sent—not to be opened until she’d met Captain Claybourne—burned a hole beneath her pillow at Pieberry House, still unopened and unread. Had Dad thought the infamous Sand Shark would protect her from her string of notoriously bad choices?

Just looking at the ripped and cut former SEAL in the flesh made her stupid and silly and all but dissolved the remnants of her filter, always fragile during the most mundane of times and less than a wisp of thread now.

“So how about you help me get what’s left of these back to Pieberry House, Captain? And we take it from there?”

His square, sharp-edged jaw solidified like frozen iron, so rigid over his clenched teeth, a muscle ticked in his cheek. She almost laughed at his stunned expression, his cold, gunmetal- gray eyes unblinking, his brows zooming skyward like tarnished McDonald’s arches. Except that the face in question devastated her. If she’d thought him ruggedly handsome in the photos her dad had sent home, the giant, live-action figure totally stole her breath away, turned her knees to jelly, and melted her core. Hell, in another second, she’d be coughing and wheezing, trying to draw in a sip of the sustaining oxygen the hot-as-sin SEAL all but sucked out of the surrounding atmosphere. Jeez Louise. Raw, overpowering masculinity poured off him in waves.

Yet, the smiling face she’d often drooled over in pictures had disappeared. Did the grim man before her smile at all anymore? His sharp eyes seemed haunted in a profound way, his stares hyper-vigilant and unwavering…focused on her but, at the same time, a million miles away. She detected no humor dancing in them at all, despite the comical barbs they’d traded over the smashed pies. Hell knew bottomless grief gripped her still from time to time, wringing tears from her when she least expected the reminders of her loss. But whatever embroiled Slate seemed worse, as if he’d slipped into a dark crevice of endless, dismal eternity and couldn’t find his way back.

I need to fix him. I have to.

Yeah, and good luck with that, girlie-girl.

The dueling imps on her shoulders clamored again, and she batted them away with a flip of her hair to still their strident voices.

About the Author:Taryn Kincaid writes paranormal, historical romance and contemporary romance, sometimes spiced with a little humor or a lot of snark. She enjoys pinching and tickling words to make them dance. Her latest, RAIN, a post-apocalyptic retelling of Sleeping Beauty, is out now from Decadent Publishing. HER CAPTAIN, a Tempting Signs romance (Capricorn) from Fated Desires Publishing, is available now. WEBSITE: http://tarynkincaid.com
BLOG: http://dreamvoyagers.blogspot.com
TWITTER: http://twitter.com/TarynKincaid
FACEBOOK: http://www.facebook.com/tarynkincaid1
GOODREADS: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4414704.Taryn_Kincaid
PINTEREST: http://www.pinterest.com/tarynkincaid
Buy the book at Amazon, iTunes, Google Play, Kobo, Barnes and Noble, or All Romance eBooks.

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The Wynning Way by Maisha Wynn - Guest Blog and Giveaway

This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. Maisha S. Wynn will be awarding a $15 American Express GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.

Five Things You Might Not Know About Maisha Wynn

To my family and friends, I am known as Maisha Wynn. However, the outside world knows me as “WYNN WIN.” For me, Wynn (my last name) and Win a homonym of my last name is no accident at all because I am truly a “wynner.” As a Chicago-based lifestyle specialist and soon-to-be New York Times Best Selling Author, here are 5 things most do not know about me:

1). I am horrified of pigeons. I go into deep prayer, each time I see one near me.

2). My first on-air job was in Numazu, Japan. Numazu is a small city right outside of Tokyo. I was known as DJ Summer Wynn on Coast-FM. We played the best of the best in old school hip hop.

3). After graduating from Spelman College, I worked as a bank teller making $8.75 an hour. It was not my dream job after college. However, I needed to take a mental rest before law school. That was the plan until I read the book, Who Moved My Cheese? The rest is "wynning" history.

4). At eleven years old, I spent the summer in Vedado, Cuba, with the Venceremos Brigade. I met children from all around the world. We would meet daily to talk about various social issues facing our country. Certain days, we didn’t have running water to take a shower or lights to see. After this life-changing experience, I came back to Chicago truly grateful.

5). I’ve never eaten pork. My family was not Muslim. However, my mother went to a farm as a child. After her field trip, she stopped eating pork. As her child, I followed in her footsteps.

I'm so thankful for each experience I have shared with you today. My past is a part of my bright future. Make sure you embrace your journey!

The Wynning Way: A Guide To Creating Success Your Way shows you how to develop your own winning lifestyle through exercises that inspire self reflection and strategies for creating the mindset of a winner. Throughout the book, Wynn shares her personal journey from tragedy to triumph and offers inspirational nuggets on the power of prayer, the effect of positive thinking plus affirmations to help you live abundantly!

Get ready to transform your existence by digging deeper to unveil the power that truly lies within you! Your time for wynning is NOW!

Enjoy an excerpt:

Early in my youth, I knew that I wanted to attend Spelman College, the famed African American women’s institution in Atlanta. The women I’d read about there reminded me a lot of the woman I admired all my life, my mother. They had a powerful presence about them and were extremely intelligent. Though she was a single mother, my mother made sure I was able to attend this esteemed institution. She left her entire world in Chicago (including family and friends), to start a new life with me in Atlanta. I mean, my mother was my biggest cheerleader.

In order for me to live the best, she made weighty sacrifices—no matter how major they may have been—so much so that she depleted her entire retirement plan so that I could not only go to Spelman, but graduate. Losing her in recent years was like losing the air you breathe. My once vibrant world felt dark and depleted. For months, all I could do was cry my sadness away. It was too painful to realize she was no longer just a phone call away. My mother was truly my favorite girl and best friend. People who I didn’t even know, knew who I was and my story because she was that proud of me. The unconditional love she showered upon me daily is what keeps me going to this very moment.

About the Author:

Lifestyle specialist, Maisha Wynn, gives credence to the mantra "a changed mind is a made-up mind." She heads up Live To Wynn, a Chicago-based lifestyle agency that provides aspirational and practical guidance for women and men who desire to live their lives more abundantly. As a former size 20 who now maintains a size 4 through exercise and healthy eating, Wynn knows firsthand how difficult and rewarding it can be to transform your life. She speaks around the nation and provides uplifting editorial content to various media outlets.

Website: http://www.livetowynn.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LiveToWynn/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/LiveToWynn1
Instagram: https://instagram.com/livetowynn/
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/14592582.Maisha_S_Wynn
Amazon Author Page: http://www.amazon.com/Maisha-S.-Wynn/e/B0170LA76S/
Live To Wynn website purchase page: http://www.livetowynn.com/about-the-book-1.html
Amazon Buy link: http://www.amazon.com/Wynning-Way-Guide-Creating-Success/dp/0692545735
Book video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GVAhU-Z0K2Y&feature=youtu.be

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Sunset at Rosalie by Ann L. McLaughlin - Spotlight and Giveaway

This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. Ann will be awarding a $10 Amazon or B/N GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.

SUNSET AT ROSALIE tells the story of a young girl, Carlin McNair, and her family on a failing cotton plantation in Mississippi during the early 1900s. The coming of the boll weevil and the sharp decline of cotton prices cause drastic changes in the life of the plantation and in the lives of the family members. Carlin adores her Uncle Will. But like the plantation, Will is doomed and his story is an important part of Carlin’s growing up. McLaughlin describes this part of Southern culture in vivid detail, which brings Carlin’s young life close and makes that almost extinct plantation life come alive once again.

Enjoy an excerpt:

Carlin pushed back her brown braids and squinted down the long drive, hoping to see Papa and Uncle Will riding up to Rosalie. The ball of sun had turned the sky yellow-white beyond the pine trees, and she lifted one hand to shade her eyes from its slanting light. They were late. The dark, live oak trees that lined the road made a shadowy tunnel between the plantation’s cotton fields stretching out green and white on either side. But there was no sign of Papa on Graylie, his tall mare, nor of her uncle, whom her father had gone to meet at the train station.

Soon Uncle Will would dismount right there, Carlin thought, and sucked in her breath as she stared at the black hitching post at the end of the red brick walk. He would glance up at the white house for a moment with its columns and wide front gallery, and she would jump up from her seat on the top step and rush down. “Carlie!” he would shout and stoop, opening his arms wide to enfold her.

Of all Uncle Will’s returns, from Paris or from New Orleans, this was the most exciting because next Saturday he and Carlin’s Aunt Emily would be married. Carlin could see the slanting letters on the ivory wedding invitations, with Uncle Will and Aunt Emily’s names at the top, the name of the church, the date, August 28, 1909, and Warrington County, Mississippi, at the bottom. The whole plantation was getting ready.

About the Author:Ann L. McLaughlin is the author of eight highly acclaimed novels including Lightning in July and Amy and George. She teaches at the Writer's Center in Bethesda, Maryland and lives in Chevy Chase.

Website: http://www.annmclaughlinwriting.com/index.html
Publisher: http://www.baconpressbooks.com/#/sunset-at-rosalie/
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/65645.Ann_L_McLaughlin
Amazon Author Page: http://www.amazon.com/Ann-L.-McLaughlin/e/B001K7ZSB8
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BaconPressBooks
Twitter: https://twitter.com/baconpressbooks

Buy the book at Amazon or Barnes and Noble.

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Only Wheat Not White by Varsha Dixit - Spotlight and Giveaway

This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. One randomly chosen winner via rafflecopter will win a $50 Amazon/BN.com gift card. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.

What if following your heart means failing your family? Eila Sood leaves India for the U.S., hoping to unite her family and mend fences with her estranged older sister. She soon learns that her sister’s intercultural marriage, which outraged their parents, has hit rock bottom. To help pay the bills, Eila accepts an accounting job at a strip club, working for the fascinating yet infuriating Brett Wright. As their friendship and mutual desire builds, Eila chooses keeping family peace over following her heart. After Brett misinterprets her fears and accuses Eila of prejudice, his ex-girlfriend steps in to offer solace. Eila realizes that whichever choice she makes will rip her life apart. What will Eila choose? Love of her life or a life ruled by tradition? Fall in love with love, in this steamy saga from a best selling romance author.

Enjoy an excerpt:

“Shoot!” All her required paperwork sat snug in a folder in the carry-on. Abruptly Eila dropped her carry-on. She mindlessly bent down to unzip the bag’s front pocket. A push from behind nearly sent her flying to the floor. Someone caught Eila at the waist and brought her back to her feet. Her face just missed kissing the mosaic floor.

The grip was firm and steadfast. Eila felt the stranger’s fingers through the layers of her clothes.

“Hey!” Peeved, Eila pushed herself up, struggling against the stranger’s lean length. Thoroughly vexed, she swiveled glowering over her shoulder.

Eila found herself staring into a pair of rapier blue eyes – the blue so deep, so intense and so mesmerizing that for an instant she was speechless. The angry sheen in the stranger’s eyes brought Eila back to reality. Hurriedly, Eila moved away.

“This is a place to stop?” His arrogant tone stung.

“I don’t see a sign that says otherwise.” The Caucasian man in his late twenties, was tall, well over six feet. Eila hated that in her sensible traveling pumps she had to look up at him.

“Common sense!” he barked.

“I had stopped for a reason. And. You, pushed, me.” Eila’s eyes boldly viewed the horrible man with his sharp straight nose, high cheekbones and a mouth pulled in grim lines. What an utter waste of good looks! A red ball on that beak, a multi colored wig on that uncouth head and a red and white polka dot jumpsuit would do wonders for his personality. Eila tried to avoid the completely unexpected grin at that sudden thought.

At Eila’s impudent smile, his eyebrows came together as his chin lowered challengingly. He gave a disparaging glance to her heart-shaped face, with its dark almond shaped eyes and long thick eyelashes, cheeks plump around the middle and high at the end and mouth that was small but perfectly bow-shaped with a fleshy lower lip.

About the Author:Varsha Dixit is the best selling author of four successful contemporary romance books. Her debut book, Right Fit Wrong Shoe was a national bestseller for the year 2010. Varsha was a part of the Indian Television Industry and worked as an assistant director and online editor. She considers herself a dreamer who thinks deep but writes light. Even though creativity is gender free, Varsha feels blessed and enriched to be a woman. Currently, with her family, Varsha resides in CA, USA.

Website: http://www.varshadixit.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Only-Wheat-Not-White/705660732873230?fref=ts
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Varsha20

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Shatterproof by K.K. Weil - Guest Blog and Giveaway

This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. K.K. Weil will be awarding a $20 Amazon/BN GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour. Click on the tour banner for the other stops on the tour.

Five Interesting Things About K.K. Weil

Thanks so much for having me! Five interesting things? Hmm, to divulge the crazy or not to divulge the crazy? Okay, here goes…

I don’t have many bucket-list items, but one of them is to see the Seven Wonders of the World. (Does that count as one item or seven?) There’s just one problem, aside from needing tons of time and endless amounts of money. When you research them, there isn’t one cohesive list. There are the ancient wonders, the natural wonders and the modern wonders. I can either make my goal to see the 21 Wonders or pick and choose to create “Kelly’s Wonders of the World.” So far I’ve seen one.

I am freakishly skilled at Wheel of Fortune. I can glance at the television with my arms loaded with laundry, my daughter screaming from the shower that she’s out of shampoo, my son trying to practice his latest karate move on me and two letters showing on the board…and solve the puzzle. Conversely, I am a terrible Scrabble player. Go figure.

I started dating my husband because he made me laugh. I love dark humor and his delivery was, and still is, completely deadpan. Now, whenever my daughter tells me about her latest “crush”, and I ask her what he’s like, her answer always starts the same… “He’s really funny”. I guess the apple is falling close to this tree.

I have the worst sense of direction known to man or woman. Seriously. A lot of people think they do, but that’s only because they haven’t met me. The fourth happiest day of my life (after the births of my children and my wedding) was the day GPS invented the “reverse directions” option. It’s the only way I ever got home from anywhere.

I’m very quirky. Whether my quirks are endearing or insane is in the eyes of the beholder. One of them is that I like my food to be a certain way on my plate. One night, I went out for Mexican food. When my order came, my enchiladas were on the right and the rice and beans were on the left. Now, in my world, the main dish goes on the left, so I turned my plate around. (Good, common sense, right?) Only much to my dismay, that caused the restaurant’s logo, which was at the top of the dish, to be upside down. There was no way I could eat with upside-down words staring at me. As I figured out how to rectify this horrible situation, both of my sisters looked at my meal and said at the same time, “Oh this is gonna be a problem.” I don’t know what was worse – the fact that this was an issue for me, or the fact that they knew my issue before I’d spoken a word. The solution, by the way, was simple. I covered the words with my rice and beans and ate the way nature intended – entrée on the left, side dish on the right. And my sisters breathed a sigh of relief.

My website reveals more of my quirks if you’re interested, but I think I’ve revealed enough of my insanity for one day.

Griffin Stone knows the stats. Sons of abusers become abusers. This is his single fear.

After witnessing firsthand his parents’ tumultuous marriage, Griffin worries that he, too, harbors an explosive dark side. Can he escape from his father’s rage-fueled ways or is he destined to become part of the cycle?

Unable to persuade his mother to leave and wrestling with his resentment towards her for staying, Griffin volunteers at Holly’s House, a safe haven for abused women. Through sculpture, Griffin gives these women pieces of themselves they’ve long forgotten. Holly’s House is the only place where Griffin finds peace and purpose.

Until he meets Frankie Moore.

Frankie is an aspiring photographer, finding beauty in things most people miss, including Griffin. Griffin is attracted to her free-spirited, sassy attitude but fears Frankie will trigger the most intense part of him, the one he must keep buried.

Frankie’s got to get her act together. Her anything-goes behavior is leading nowhere fast. She’s hopeful that her latest hobby will be a building block for the future. But when a stranger appears on the other end of her camera, looking as complex as he is handsome, Frankie thinks this might be just the change she needs.

Enjoy an excerpt:

“You need to grow up, Griffin,” my father spat at me. “Life isn’t perfect. You need to get over it and move on. Your mother can. She’s happy with me and whatever we have between us is our business, not yours. Grow the hell up, and start acting like a man instead of a petulant child.”

Heat shot through my body at lightning speed. “Act like a man—like you?” I shouted. “What should I do, go pick some amazing woman who’s full of life and beat it out of her until she can’t even recognize herself any more, until she can’t even differentiate between love and pain? Is that what a man does, Dad? Is that what I should do?”

My father broke into a smile. An evil, condescending, terrifying smile. “You think you’re so different from me?” He hovered over me. His tone was sinister, as if he was trying to cut through my skin with nothing but his voice. “Get up.” He yanked my arm and pulled me by the elbow into the bathroom. He grabbed the back of my head and forced me to face the mirror. “Look at yourself, Griffin. And look at me. Everything about you comes from me. You may deny it now. You may put yourself on a pedestal, thinking you’re above being human, but just know that the fire inside you, that’s my fire. That passion, it’s mine. And when you have an uncontrollable desire to love, to hurt, to possess a woman, it’s from me. Nothing is yours alone. Even this face.” He snagged my chin between his strong fingers. I tried to yank it away from his grasp, but he held on too tight. “It’s mine. And there’s nothing you can do about it. You can try to mask it in this mess of hair and clothes and tattoos you have going on, but know that every time a woman falls in love with that face, every time she says she can’t resist you because of it, every time she can’t walk away from you…it’s because of me. It’s because you are me. We. Are. The. Same.” He released my chin with a shove and left the bathroom.

About the Author:K.K. Weil grew up in Queens, but eventually moved to New York City, the inspiration for many of her stories. Weil, who attended SUNY Albany as an undergrad and NYU as a graduate student, is a former teacher. She now enjoys writing her own dramas and lives near the beach in New Jersey, where she is at work on her next novel.

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/KKWeilAuthor
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/KK_Weil
Blog: http://www.KKWeil.blogspot.com

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