Bells and Bombshells by Trixie Silvertale

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A pattern of murder. A threadbare case. Can our psychic sleuth pick out the guilty before time spools out?

Mitzy Moon is finally tying the knot. And she’s loving the whole town’s excitement for their upcoming big day. But when their tailor is found buttons up behind a jazz lounge, the almost-newlyweds will have to hem in a murderer before their dreams rip apart at the seams.

Knowing they’ll get no help from the new sheriff in town, the couple embarks on a tightly woven undercover assignment. But Mitzy fails to heed ominous warnings from her mentor, Ghost-ma, and her entitled feline. When another body drops, she could be the next target erased by the mounting powers in the darkness…

Can Mitzy and Erick unravel the twisted clues, or will their wedding be eclipsed by a funeral?

Bells and Bombshells is the first book in a hilarious new paranormal cozy mystery series, Harper and Moon Investigations. If you like snarky heroines, supernatural intrigue, and a dash of romance, then you’ll love Trixie Silvertale’s wedded whodunit.

Buy Bells and Bombshells to stitch up a killer today!

Read an Excerpt

At long last, Erick turns to me and exhales dramatically. “How about we take a little drive, and I bring you up to speed?”

What am I going to say? First and foremost, I’m a diehard snoop. I absolutely have to know what’s going on. “Sure, Sheriff Harper. I can’t wait to be ushered into the inner circle.” My snarky tone is not lost on my intelligent boyfriend.

“Don’t get a burr under your saddle, Moon. It’s all good, I promise.”

He grabs his thick uniform jacket, takes my hand, and leads me out to his cruiser.

As he opens the door for me, a cloud of sadness blows over me. Is this my last time riding in the cruiser with the sheriff? What is he going to do next? And more importantly, where is he going to do it?

He closes the door, jogs around the front of the vehicle — making his plain uniform look like an Armani European-cut suit — and hops into the driver’s seat.

He cruises down Main Street, past Rex’s Drugstore, the boarded up Montgomery Wards, and a few other abandoned buildings whose signs have long-faded. When the iron ore mines shut down, most of Birch County took a massive financial hit. Towns like Pin Cherry Harbor have been able to keep afloat by repositioning themselves as enviable tourist destinations.

The sheriff turns right and heads across Third Avenue, past my favorite patisserie, and right again, eventually making it back to First Avenue.

We’re only a few blocks past my bookshop, back on the corner of First and Main, when he turns into an old gas station. This particular abandoned petrol station played a key part in a previous case I solved, and I happen to know it used to belong to local criminal mastermind Leticia Whitecloud. Not to mention, it connects to a warren of underground tunnels used during the prohibition era.

Despite the little pout I’m having, my curiosity is piqued.

Erick jumps out, opens my door, and instructs me to close my eyes.

“Close my eyes? I don’t think I like any part of this, Sheriff. You do know I have quite a lot of other senses I can rely on, even when my eyes are closed.”

He circles his arm around me, leans tantalizingly close, and whispers in my ear. “I’d consider it a personal favor if you would turn off all of those other senses, and let me have this moment. I promise I’ll make it worth your while.”

And I’m dead

About the Author:

USA TODAY Bestselling author Trixie Silvertale grew up reading an endless supply of Lilian Jackson Braun, Hardy Boys, and Nancy Drew novels. She loves the amateur sleuths in cozy mysteries and obsesses about all things paranormal. Those two passions unite in her Harper and Moon Investigations series, and she's thrilled to write them and share them with you.

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I Dream of Demigods by Alexa Sullivan

This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. Alexa Sullivan will be awarding a $50 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.

Ro Baird can't cast a spell without setting her own pants on fire—until she kisses her hot new boss, Alex. Suddenly, she's able to access her magic…sort of…and she now has a familiar, who may be more trouble than she is helpful.

Alex Kouris happens to be a soul-stealing demigod of the Underworld. He claims he's trying to leave the life, but can she really trust a man whose magical talents are manipulation and charm? When Alex enlists a shady ex to help him, Ro must risk her heart and her life to save him and humanity from Hades’s evil scheme.

Can she harness her true power to set Alex and herself free?

Read an Excerpt

I turned from side to side in front of the mirror, examining my half French braid. My dark-brown hair wound across the top of my head, like a crown. I tucked the end under the rest of my hair and twisted it into a side ponytail, tying it off with a clear elastic.

“Pretty.” Tabitha stood in my bathroom doorway. With her flat tone of voice, she might as well have been describing broccoli or glue.

I plucked a beaded fringe earring off the counter and slipped it through the hole in my right earlobe.

Lenti, who sat on the counter, trilled and swiped the earring with her paw.

“Nope.” I jerked my head away. “I got these at a craft fair, and you’re not destroying them.”

“What’s that?”

“Never mind.” Should’ve known this was going to happen. Gritting my teeth, I removed the earring and tucked it into a drawer. I tugged the neckline of my clingy black dress a little lower, then turned to Tabitha. “Is it too much? Should I wear my strappy sandals or my ankle boots?”

She crossed her arms. “Explain to me how this happened. You were supposed to talk to him, not go out with him.”

About the Author:

Alexa Sullivan writes humorous, contemporary paranormal romance. She imagines a world where the mundane meets magic -- and where vampires, werewolves and witches have normal jobs. Oh, and there are cats, too. She sets all her books in the beautiful state of Oregon. When not writing, she can be found walking her cat on a leash, hanging out with her husband, and watching far too much Bravo reality TV.

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Slaves of an Alien Game by Nina Schluntz

This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. One randomly chosen winner via rafflecopter will win a $25 Amazon/BN.com gift card. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.

Welcome to It's Raining Books. What books/authors have influenced your writing?

I grew up reading a lot of Stephen King and Dean Koontz. You just can’t go wrong with those guys.

Tell us something you hate doing. Why?

Big social events. I’m always that quiet guy who can’t get a word in. Although now I try to use it as an opportunity to “people watch” and gather info I think I could use to create a character. Ops, I probably shouldn’t say that, huh?

Share a funny incident in your life.

My husband once gave our cat an oatmeal bath. Yeah, I can’t picture it either, but he claims she enjoyed her day at the spa…

Have you ever had one character you wanted to go one way with but after the book was done the character was totally different?

That actually happened several times while I was writing Slaves of an Alien Game. Initially, Game Warden Vicr was not supposed to be a love interest, but once he met Caden at the banquet there was so much chemistry on the page I realized I couldn’t keep them apart. Caden was never supposed to be involved with Vicr and sure takes a while to pry them back apart.

Jenny also got away from me. She was supposed to be the main character for book 3. The whole book was going to be from her point of view, but she didn’t have the charisma to pull off being a main character. So, I had to nudge her to the side and give the spotlight to Game Warden Ivard. His whole storyline was a last minute edition.

What’s you next project?

I’m working on several stories at the same time. The sequel to “Kidnapped Killers” will be out this March, shortly after the third book in this series. I’m also working on an audiobook release for “Slaves of an Alien Game.”

A contemporary story about a school bully “Faking it with the School Bully” will be out soon too. I basically had six books all in the works at the same time, and now they’re all getting completed close to each other.

What's the one thing, you can't live without?

Slurpees!! I love me a good frosty coca cola slurpee! I have been known to drive to three different 7-11 stores in an effort to find a working machine.

What is your favorite song?

I am really big into Adam Lambert right now, anything he sings, goes right on the playlist.

Game Wardens rule most of the galaxy by a fierce empire built on enslavement and brokered deals. The only means to earn one’s freedom is by playing in the Alien Games. Two slaves go in the arena, the survivor, if there is one, is given their freedom and crowned a king, earning them a small country to rule and slaves of their own.

To make the battle more fun for spectators, genetically enhanced monsters, sahalias, are given to the combatants, but they must found in a scavenger hunt. Five orbs, each hatching into a lizard that will bond with their keeper, are hidden on a random planet. If the competitor finds all five, they have a great imbalance of power over the other, who will have none. The sahalias are created with one purpose, to battle to the death and destroy the other competitor.

Caden works at an all night diner in a small town near the interstate. When a man comes in late at night, asking for access to the roof, Caden knows the man is a bit off. But his ruffian nature and a small bribe makes Caden decide to let him go up.

“It’s a scavenger hunt,” the man says. Caden thinks he’s being helpful when he finds the item, a black orb, but when he touches it, he unknowingly becomes a competitor in an intergalactic competition that ends in a battle to the death. Manipulated and lied to, drugged by the alien Incubus, Raghib, whom he is now allied with, he must train his lizard battle creatures to fight for him on an unknown planet with rules he barely understands.

He has little chance to survive and although he wants to trust, Raghib, who will earn his freedom if Caden wins the battle, he worries he is simply being used. A bit of truth is revealed when one of the Game Wardens takes a liking to Caden, but his alien species is known to eat humans, so Caden isn’t sure if the desire is that of hunger or true romance.

Either way, Caden is nothing but a slave to their alien games.

Caden is free. He won his battle and got what he wanted. Sent back to Earth with his won kingdom given to the slave, Raghib. However, life on Earth, back at the diner isn’t the same after living on an alien planet. He still suffers from withdrawals from the Incubus influence and drugs Raghib forced on him, and nightmares from the horrible battle to the death.

When a woman arrives, the latest competitor in the alien games, she offers him a chance to visit Raghib. All he has to do is be her slave during the games and help her find the orbs. He agrees and finds she is a higher level competitor than Raghib was, the hunt is on a deadlier planet, one covered in darkness and monsters.

Caden is eventually reunited with Raghib and gets to see the kingdom he won. Raghib is more broken from the battle and haunted by the brutality of it than Caden. He has a new lover and is driving his country to poverty so he can buy drugs to forget the pain. Caden turns to the Game Wardens for help, offering to go back in the arena again, with the woman he helped in the scavenger hunt. He is a fan favorite and knows their ratings will improve if he goes in again.

He arranged to go in as her pretend slave, in a role that will have safety features turned on so he will be in no real danger. He thinks its his idea to go back in. Confident he’s messing with the structures in place and trying to leverage the Game Wardens to change the deadly games into a nonlethal form.

However, it was their plan for him to go back in from the start. Caden is still nothing but a slave to their alien games.

Caden’s long-term girlfriend on Earth is pregnant, and Caden is missing. Jenny worries he has been kidnapped and drugged again. A strange woman arrives, saying she knows Caden and where he is. She offers to take Jenny to him, if she helps her… they just need to find some orbs in a scavenger hunt. Jenny agrees, but is careful to not touch the objects. She doesn’t trust this woman.

They find four orbs and encounter the other competitor. The fifth orb is there, and Jenny is forced to pick it up. The other competitor forfeits and Jenny finds herself now in the games, the woman she’d been helping now announced as her deadly competitor.

She is taken to an alien planet and united with a distraught Caden. He confesses that he has a relationship with a man, an alien man, an Incubus named Raghib, and the woman Jenny must fight is Raghib’s daughter.

Caden is in an impossible situation, either his lover’s daughter dies or his childhood sweetheart dies, but there is a rule in the games, a protection for slaves and their offspring, who are viewed as profitable future slaves. A pregnant woman may not enter the arena, instead the sire must.

Caden is again forced to play in the games, but this time he has no sahalias to battle on his behalf, and safety features are not allowed. If Caden is to survive, he must find a way to not be a slave in their alien games.

Read an Excerpt from Book Three

Battle of a Thousand Deaths-Day 1-Jenny is Officially a Competitor! Join Team Jenny Today!

The hurried man only paused for a moment before running a hand down the front of his suit to smooth the wrinkles. “I heard she might be interested in the game.” The excitement was noticeable in his tone. He was practically jumping around like a giddy child.

“Ivard, she will hear her options and gauge her decision without bias,” Vicr said.

“I know, I know.” He raised a hand to silence Vicr and looked at me. “But you would be…,” he took a deep inhale, “a hero. The fans. They love you. They want to see you win. Hell, I want to see you win.”

“Fans?” I asked.

“Ivard,” Vicr growled.

He waved his hand dismissively again and held up a tablet. He had a photo of me and lots of writing that I quickly recognized as a fan page full of comments.

“They are furious Caden’s girlfriend was betrayed, and they want to see justice. They want you to slay Erum in the arena,” Ivard said. He looked at Vicr. “You’re the one who said we need to start moving away from barbaric fights. People want stories and background. She’s proof. It doesn’t even have to be a real fight. We can stage it, and—”

“Please excuse Game Warden Ivard,” Vicr said, grabbing his shoulder and pushing him out the door.

“We can make it worth your—” The door was shut before he could finish.

“I apologize,” Vicr said. “Please resume.”

“What exactly is this?” I asked. “What are the Games?”

One of the lawyers slid a tablet across the table in front of me. I’d taken a few history classes in college and recognized the words were in Old English.

“This is the historical context. If you care to read it.” He pushed a second tablet. “This goes over the rules of the game, including what you would win as the victor and what you lose should you opt to go into the game with safety features.”

“Why wouldn’t everyone use the safety features?”

“A deal must be made with a Game Warden. Someone must sponsor you. That’s the only way for the safety features to be on. If you win, you are free of the contract. But should you emerge after losing, you are obligated to whatever commitment you agreed upon with the Game Warden.”

“You would make the deal with me,” Vicr said. “I would do it for Caden. I’ll have something drafted. Your obligation to me would be marginal, but some trade would be required.”

“Why would you do this much for Caden?”

“He’s good for business,” Vicr quickly said, making me think there was more to his words than he was saying.

About the Author:

Nina Schluntz is a native to rural Nebraska. In her youth, she often wrote short stories to entertain her friends. Those ideas evolved into the novels she creates today.

Her husband continues to ensure her stories maintain a touch of realism as she delves into the science fiction and fantasy realm. Their three cats are always willing to stay up late to provide inspiration, whether it is a howl from the stray born in the backyard or an encouraging bite from the so called “calming kitten.”

Website:https://mizner13.wordpress.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/mizner13
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nina.schluntz.novels
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/1980193.Nina_R_Schluntz
Queer Romance Ink: https://www.queeromanceink.com/mbm-book-author/nina-schluntz/

Series link: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BMXTJLSV
Book 1: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0BM4HLGJL
Book 2: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0BMY6H3P7
Book 3: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0BMZC24SF
Kindle Vella (serialized version of the series, available in USA only): https://www.amazon.com/kindle-vella/story/B0BKTF9LMF

Book Video Links:

Book 1: https://youtu.be/uN3P7D3oY4c
Book 2: https://youtu.be/4AXEX23pA3A
Book 3: https://youtu.be/_d_7Ki4S_MI

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The Phantom Glare of Day by M. Laszlo

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.

How to Handle Negative Criticism

To the best of my knowledge, there are only three ways to handle negative criticism.

First, a writer may seek to learn something from the negative criticism so as to make some big changes. This option works especially well for young writers, self-published writers, and independent writers perhaps just starting out.

Second, a writer may choose to ignore the negative criticism. He or she may consider the source and deem the source to be something less than reliable. This type of writer will often feed off the negative criticism and let it inspire said writer to persevere in an almost spiteful manner.

I believe that there is third way to handle negative criticism, and it seems to me that this third way is the best way of all. The third way does not involve learning from the critique nor resisting it. The third way simply obliges the author to remain faithful to his or her muse or inspiration. The third way requires a great leap of faith on the part of the writer or artist or musician. The creator understands that many pan his or her efforts, yet the creator continues with more or less peace of mind—and is not at all spiteful or bitter. The writer who chooses the third way simply remains faithful to the impulses that drive his or her work. The writer who chooses the third way does not necessarily blame the self for the negative or mixed reviews. Often, the writer who chooses the third way does so because said writer feels that God and/or biotic evolution and/or the force of destiny has chosen the maligned individual to do the precise kind of subversive work that many readers reject. Perhaps, too, the writer who chooses the third way holds out hope that someday society will come to judge the work differently. In that sense, the rejected writer does not die in misery. Indeed, the rejected writer may very well die whilst devoted to an unshakeable faith.

In this trio of novellas, three game young ladies enter into dangerous liaisons that test each one’s limits and force them to confront the most heartrending issues facing society in the early twentieth century. The Phantom Glare of Day tells of Sophie, a young lady who has lived a sheltered life and consequently has no idea how cruel public-school bullying can be. When she meets Jarvis, a young man obsessed with avenging all those students who delight in his daily debasement, she resolves to intervene before tragedy unfolds. Mouvements Perpétuels tells of Cäcilia, a young lady shunned by her birth father. She longs for the approval of an older man, so when her ice-skating instructor attempts to take advantage of her, she cannot resist. Not a month later, she realizes that she is pregnant and must decide whether or not to get an abortion. Passion Bearer tells of Manon, a young lady who falls in love with a beautiful actress after taking a post as a script girl for a film company—and is subsequently confronted with the pettiest kinds of homophobia.

Read an Excerpt

London, 29 September, 1917

In the dead of the night, Manon returned to her hotel suite and lay down in bed. Please, no more nightmares.

At dawn, she had a terrible dream.

A long, plump, phallic, pulsating Zeppelin approaches the city.

Like every other tenant, she exits Chelsea Court Hotel. Alas, as she races past one of the refuge islands rising above the thoroughfare, she trips and falls.

From all directions, meanwhile, various artillery units open fire—and the terrific cacophony of battle roars and blasts and rumbles and bawls.

As the shell-shocked crowds rush down into the neighboring tube station, a lady beggar approaches. “Stay where you are,” the wretched woman tells her. “It’d be your destiny to perish during a tribulation such as this.”

In time, a fragment of what looks to be the Zeppelin’s rudder plummets into the park not thirty feet from the place where Manon stands.

And now she looks up to find that a torrent of flames has engulfed the airship’s nose.

As the doomed Zeppelin drifts this way and that, the bittersweet-orange blaze spreads down the length of the passenger gondola.

With an awful hiss, the airship’s carcass descends toward her and then . . .

She awoke from the dream, quite certain that she must be tangled up in the gondola’s guy-ropes. Blinded by the morning light, she thrashed about.

Ultimately, she fell out of bed. How to go on living here?

At one o’clock, when she arrived at the offices of the London Moving-Pictures Company down on Coronation Avenue, she paused before the reeded-glass doors and debated whether she ought to resign her post. Why not go home to Manchester?

A dark presence rolled through the sky. Could it be a Zeppelin passing by overhead, the bomb bay slowly opening?

The darkness proved to be nothing more than a large skein of geese, but even so, she felt positively frantic—and now she continued through the door. Hopefully, the hall porter would be willing to tell Mr. Pomeroy that she had decided to back out. If so, she could be on her way before the production manager had even had a chance to protest.

About the Author:

M. Laszlo is the pseudonym of a reclusive author living in Bath, Ohio. According to rumor, he based the pen name on the name of the Paul Henreid character in Casablanca, Victor Laszlo.

M. Laszlo has lived and worked all over the world, and he has kept exhaustive journals and idea books corresponding to each location and post.

It is said that the maniacal habit began in childhood during summer vacations—when his family began renting out Robert Lowell’s family home in Castine, Maine.

The habit continued in 1985 when, as an adolescent, he spent the summer in London, England. In recent years, he revisited that journal/idea book and based his first work, The Phantom Glare of Day, on the characters, topics, and themes contained within the youthful writings. In crafting the narrative arcs, he decided to divide the work into three interrelated novellas and to set each one in the WW-I era so as to make the work as timeless as possible.

M. Laszlo has lived and worked in New York City, East Jerusalem, and several other cities around the world. While living in the Middle East, he worked for Harvard University’s Semitic Museum. He holds a bachelor’s degree in English from Hiram College in Hiram, Ohio and an M.F.A. in poetry from Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, New York.

His next work is forthcoming from SparkPress in 2024. There are whispers that the work purports to be a genuine attempt at positing an explanation for the riddle of the universe and is based on journals and idea books made while completing his M.F.A at Sarah Lawrence College.

https://www.amazon.com/M-Laszlo/e/B09PGPTWQ5/ref=aufs_dp_fta_dsk

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The Beautiful Misfits by Susan Reinhardt

This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. The author will be awarding a $15 Amazon/BN GC to a randomly drawn winner via Rafflecopter. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.

Eighty-four seconds can change your life. Or destroy it. Josie Nickels is an Emmy-winning news anchor, poised to rise through the ranks of television journalism. On a bitter March evening on live TV, the pressures and secrets burbling behind the closed doors of her ridiculous Victorian mansion explode and the overwhelmed journalist spills family secrets like a Baptist at altar call. The aftermath costs her much more than a career. It robs her of a beloved son—a preppy, educated millennial trapped in the deadly world of addiction. Desperate for a new start and a way to save her son, Josie packs up her pride, her young daughter, and accepts a new job slinging cosmetics at a department store make-up counter with other disgraced celebs. In the gorgeous mountains of Asheville N.C., known for hippies, healings, and Subarus, Josie is faced with a choice for her son: Take a chance on a bold, out-of-the-ordinary treatment plan for her son or lose him forever. This heart-wrenching and, at times, hilarious novel, will delight fans of book-club women’s fiction and inspire and give hope to those with addicted sons and daughters.

Read an Excerpt

Josie finally managed to reach the woman stroking the La Belleza products as if she were examining the finest porcelain from the Qing dynasty. The jars and hour-glass-shaped bottles, in that rich lapis blue, were where the money grew.

“Hola. May I help you, ma’am?” Josie always gave her customers space, not making them feel the intense pressure they might endure at another counter or from a sales associate who hadn’t hit her goal in a month.

“I was wondering if I might have a sample of this new oil?” she asked. Her lips hardly moved. She had one of those manmade faces, tight and swollen baboon-fanny traits, courtesy of plastic surgery that left her of an undeterminable age and species. Every feature hardened like papier-mâché as if mummified. Oh, and her hair! Josie couldn’t peel her eyes from the woman’s updo, rising hive-like and so stiff with lacquer a gum wrapper was embedded near the top. Two white petals from the Bradford pear trees had blown in and settled near a neck so tight you could all but see her thyroid.

“Why, we certainly can arrange for a sample,” Josie said. “At La Belleza, if you have a seat for a few minutes and give me the honor of demonstrating our award-winning skin care, we are happy to treat you to a gift with your visit.” Into the chair and out with the Brigman’s charge card. Twenty minutes later the woman left with Josie’s personalized skincare guide, three small samples in a lapis-and-white polka-dotted La Belleza cosmetics bag, and nearly five hundred dollars on her card.

About the Author:

Susan Reinhardt grew up in LaGrange, GA. and Spartanburg, S.C.where most girls twirled batons, entered beauty pageants, and became debutantes.

Bucking the norm, Susan spent her free time water skiing almost every day, fishing, and pining for a ragamuffin boy who was always up to no good.

Earlier in her college years, she pursued nursing, but most of her patients were terminal and her mastery and frequency of giving enemas had her questioning this line of work, though she adores nurses and often wishes she’d have stuck with the field.

She recently took a part-time job caring for adults with disabilities and loves the work, figuring it would at least make up for past misdeeds and get her a better shot at the Pearly Gates.

Writing has always been her first love. And she became good enough at it to earn many dozens of awards, including three Best of Gannetts for her feature stories and columns. Along with a bunch of other junk that really doesn't matter in the end.

What matters to Reinhardt is making people laugh. And think. And love others.

She is married to her second and final husband, country and genius lawyer Donny Laws who is bald but has a ponytail and loves to ride a bike. She has two adult kids, three steps, and a granddaughter.

She’s been on national TV, has modeled for one glossy magazine, and was the subject of a British documentary on aging and body image. She hopes that the documentary is lost and never resurfaces.

She once had a radio show called Susan Uncensored; a sold-out one-woman show called “From Hilarity to Insanity and Back.”

She no longer water skis but performs fairly decent front and backflips from a diving board and half-ass rides a unicycle and twirls a baton simultaneously.

Her hobbies include a vintage camper obsession and she’s owned three. Recently she’s settled on her 1968 Scotsman, which she hopes to paint pink and teal with polka-dots and haul on book tours.

She has two rescue cats who vehemently hate each other.

In her next life, she’d like to be a figure skater.

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Moon Life by Marlene Fabian Stiles and Hank Fabian

This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. One randomly chosen winner via rafflecopter will win a $25 Amazon/BN.com gift card. Click on the tour to see the other stops on the tour. One of the authors, Hank Fabian, did a really fun TV interview recently. You can see it here.

Welcome to It's Raining Books. What are your favorite TV shows?

We are sustaining members of PBS and prefer their programs, especially Masterpiece Theater, Mystery and Nova.

What is your favorite meal?

Hank’s favorite meal is fish and chips. Marlene likes salmon so much she dreams of being reincarnated as a bear in a salmon stream.

If you were to write a series of novels what would it be about?

We plan to turn our current YA sci fi project into a sci fi adventure series based on hard science.

Is there a writer you idolize?

Hank and Marlene agree that Joseph Heller, author of “Catch 22” is one of our most admired writers. Hank also likes Herman Melville and Jonathon Swift. Marlene admires Shirley Jackson, George Orwell and Mark Twain.

How did you come up with the title for your book?

Following the principle of Occam’s Razor, we kept the title of our book simple and to the point. “Moon Life” is about life on a moon.

It is the year 2051 and the International Space Institute has just sent two rival astrobiologists to search for extraterrestrial life on Europa, the mysterious ice moon of Jupiter. What they encounter could not only revolutionize science, it might make one of them the most famous person on Earth. Or does the Universe have other plans?

Read an Excerpt

Charlie found himself drifting on a cosmic wind toward a mound of skulls that looked curiously familiar. His pain had vanished, but he felt disoriented. The skulls appeared to be gigantic but he couldn’t be sure if they were large or if he had become exceedingly small. A swift, turbulent wind carried him into one of the skulls, through the orbit of an eye then its optic canal.

A dazzling light appeared before him, gradually fading into an aerial view of Sleeping Woman Mountain. Now he discovered he was a mere speck riding between what he perceived to be two enormous insect eyes. He immediately thought of the Ngala totem and concluded these were the eyes of a dragonfly.

Rainforest shadows parted below him to reveal the ruins of his former camp filled with soldiers lounging casually near the bloodstone, the site of Gnesh’s murder. Their arrogance fueled Charlie’s rage.

On his command, thousands of wasps flew out of the forest and descended on the soldiers.

The men screamed as the insects stung them. They swatted at the horde, firing their weapons uselessly. Desperate to escape the swarm, they dived into the river where they met a pack of hungry crocodiles. The waters ran red with blood.

Now Charlie saw Prime Minister Jahuara’s distinctive helicopter appear, hovering above the carnage. Charlie directed his dragonfly into the cockpit. The insect buzzed up to the head of the prime minister sitting at the helicopter’s controls, repeatedly biting the tyrant’s eyes with its great mandibles. Jahuara tried to swat it away but the dragonfly was too quick. He shrieked in pain as blood flowed from his sockets.

Flying blind, he lost control and the helicopter plummeted into the trees. Charlie and the dragonfly escaped the craft in time to watch it explode in a mass of flames.

Charlie found himself drifting above the forest canopy. He turned his gaze toward the black sky shimmering with starlight. One by one, stars fell from the night like droplets of a celestial mist. The Pleiades constellation was the last to fall. Merope lingered for a moment, then disappeared into the darkness. A feeling of immense tranquility settled over him as he relished the embrace of this sacred void.

The world was back in balance. He closed his eyes…and succumbed to peace.

About the Authors:The family that writes together stays together, so siblings Marlene Fabian Stiles and Hank Fabian co-authored a science fiction adventure that explores Jupiter’s moon Europa as two rival astrobiologists race to be the first to find extraterrestrial life. This discovery should ensure the winner fame and fortune, but the Universe has other plans.

Hank is the guy walking around with a long lens camera and binoculars, a tourist of the world fascinated by every creature that moves and every plant that grows. He teaches biology and helped devise a college genetics program. As a scientist he likes to work with facts, so there's a possibility that the creatures he’s created actually exist!

Marlene is the president of a nonprofit, The I Will Projects, dedicated to advancing educational venues that include a middle school aquaponics program in partnership with the Boys and Girls Club which received a NASA grant. She writes in multiple genres and also has published “Elderchild,” an Alzheimer’s narrative written in the first person. She shares Hank’s love of the natural world and is dazzled by the interconnectivity of all living things.

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/21747101.Marlene_Fabian_Stiles
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/21747100.Hank_Fabian
Hank Fabian Amazon Page: https://www.amazon.com/Moon-Life-Hank-Fabian-ebook/dp/B09BPMVX44

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Icarus Over Collins by Hector Duarte, Jr.

This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. Hector Duarte, Jr. 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.

After her friend Sandy Mangual tragically falls to his death, Bailey Cohen discovers images of his grisly corpse have been uploaded and shared through social media, by someone very close to her.

Fed up, in a stagnant relationship with an emotionally-abusive boyfriend, Bailey enlists the help of quiet, unnoticed, underappreciated Bernardo Castillo, who works the luxury Miami Beach high rise in which she stays.

Bernardo will have to dredge up the shady past he’s long worked to tamp down in order to set off on a journey of vengeance that will reshape and morph each person engulfed along its way.

Icarus Over Collins is a short, punchy revenge story as cracked and slivered as hot Miami pavement.

Tras la trágica caída accidental de su amigo, Bailey Cohen descubre que imágenes del cadáver han sido clandestinamente descargadas a redes sociales. Por alguien muy cercana.

Bailey contara con la ayuda de Bernardo Castillo, empleado del condominio lujoso en Miami Beach cuya Bailey habita.

En nombre de su amigo fallecido, Bernardo y Bailey tendrán que excavar sus pasados umbríos en camino hacia la venganza. Un viaje que reformara a todos envueltos.

Icarus Over Collins es un cuento de venganza tan caluroso y rajado como las aceras bordeando todo Miami.

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It feels good doing bad.

Tears, heartache, sleepless nights, embitterment with God, obsessively planning everything down to the last detail. All come down to this.

Once this is over, Ximena Mangual disappears from the real world we know, the illusion of what the real world is and begins existing as Sandy Mangual’s mom until I die. I’m an actress. Whatever works, I can do. Here, tonight, is the end of the small-time telenovela actress gracing so many covers of Spanishlanguage magazines. I’m grateful for the opportunity and the massive amounts of positive energy it fostered. Pero, como dice Marc Anthony, Todo a su Tiempo. Taking things any farther than they need be is, plain and simply, greedy and tragic.

If it wasn’t because I was so tired, I’d move on to directing. I was always better at giving orders than taking them. Por esa precisa razón fue que se fue Tomas. But that’s another story for another time. I’ll have plenty of time to tell it once this is over.

Janaina looks beautiful. Her dress leaves nothing to the imagination except that her two beautiful, perky melons might spill out any moment. Tits and teeth, like she likes to say, pero tonight she’s not saying much. Says she’s nervous and repulsed.

About the Author:

Hector Duarte, Jr. is a writer/educator out of Miami, Fl, where he lives with his wife, son, and cat. His fiction has been published widely online and in print, like the recent anthologies Pa Que Tu Lo Sepas: Stories to Benefit the People of Puerto Rico, and Shotgun Honey Presents Volume 4: Recoil. In September of 2018, Shotgun Honey Books published his full-length short story collection Desperate Times Call. He welcomes you to follow him on Twitter. https://cinnabarmoth.com/hector-duarte-jr/
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/63308671-icarus-over-collins
https://cinnabarmoth.com/icarus-over-collins-hector-duarte-jr/
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/icarus-over-collins-hector-duarte/1142641430
https://www.overdrive.com/media/9403116/icarus-over-collins

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The Legend of the Mick by Jonathan Weeks

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Five Things You’d Probably Never Guess about Me

1. Despite my passion for baseball, it’s actually not my favorite sport to watch. I know more about baseball than any other game, but given a choice, I would watch hockey nine times out of 10. It’s faster and more exciting. The difference between baseball and hockey is like the difference between classic rock and heavy metal. I do love baseball, but I prefer the thrill of a hockey game.

2. I’ve had more than 10 books published, but writing is not easy for me. In fact, it’s a grueling process. I’ve suffered from writer’s block in the past. It’s very difficult to break out of once it hits. The act of writing for me is not like painting with watercolors. It’s more like blasting a tunnel through bedrock. I really have to hammer away at it. There are days when I churn out two or three full pages and end up having to completely rewrite them later.

3. I’m very superstitious. I never put the volume on “13” in my car because I believe the number is bad luck for me. If I’m heading to a sporting event, I’ll try to wear the same outfit I had on the last time I saw my team win a game. I’ll never predict a championship in advance for any of my teams because that’s just tempting fate. I knock on wood to reverse bad luck and avoid crossing paths with black cats. Yeah, I know it’s a little nuts. But that’s just me being me.

4. I like to watch romantic comedies. I’ve been a movie fan for most of my life. Horror and Sci-Fi are my preferred genres, but beneath my hard exterior I’m soft inside. I’m a sucker for movies like Jerry Maguire, As Good As it Gets, and Silver Linings Playbook (three of my all-time favorites). I’m not ashamed to admit it. I like what I like.

5. I’m very shy. I cover it up by cracking jokes and talking a lot when I’m in social situations. But I’m actually uncomfortable being the center of attention. I avoided doing presentations when I was in high school and college. I’d get anxiety bordering on panic. And if I had to get up in front of a group to speak, my face would turn bright red. (Very embarrassing) I did some radio work during my college days and it helped a little, but I found that I was only comfortable if the dialog was scripted.

In the 1950s, America entered the television age. And Mickey Mantle, a country boy from Commerce, Oklahoma, was made for the moment. Signed by the New York Yankees as a teenager, he made his major league debut in 1951 as a right fielder alongside Joe DiMaggio. When DiMaggio retired at the end of the season, Mantle inherited not only Joltin’ Joe’s position in centerfield but also his stature as the face of the franchise. His boyish good looks, breathtaking power from both sides of the plate, and blazing speed on the basepaths made him an instant superstar. He won league MVP three times, came in second three times, was a 16-time All-Star, a Triple Crown winner in 1956, and a seven-time World Series champion.

Mickey Mantle’s career was the stuff of legend and in this book, Jonathan Weeks tells us why. Mantle’s extraordinary (and at times incredible) tales carry readers on an enthralling journey through the life of one of the most celebrated sports figures of the twentieth century.

Read an Excerpt

WHERE HAVE YOU GONE, MICKEY MANTLE?

Born in Newark, Jew Jersey, and raised in Queens, New York, singer-songwriter Paul Simon forged an illustrious career that spanned six decades. A winner of mutiple Grammy awards, he is perhaps best known for his collaboration with Art Garfunkel on the song, “Mrs. Robinson,” which was featured in the 1967 film, The Graduate. Simon had no idea when he wrote the lyrics that he would offend two of the greatest Yankee players of all time.

Simon grew up attending Yankee games and was a self-proclaimed fan of Mickey Mantle. “Mantle was my guy,” he told a reporter from the New York Daily News. “Mantle was about the promise of youth.” In spite of those sentiments, Simon paid homage to Joe DiMaggio when he penned his most famous song, which contains the iconic lines:

Where have you gone, Joe DiMaggio?
A nation turns its lonely eyes to you---woo, woo, woo
What’s that you say, Mrs. Robinson?
Joltin’ Joe has left and gone away—hey, hey, hey

Mantle never understood why he was never mentioned in the song and, during a 1970 appearance on the Dick Cavett Show, he decided to ask Simon about it in-person. Simon assured the former slugger that there was no intentional slight. “It’s about the syllables, Mick,” he explained. “It’s about how many beats there are.” Mantle seemed satisfied with Simon’s response and there were no hard feelings. But it was not the first time Simon was forced to explain himself.

As the song began climbing the pop charts in 1967, rumors swirled that DiMaggio believed he was being ridiculed and was considering a legal suit against Simon. A chance encounter between the two at an Italian restaurant in Central Park South helped smooth things over. Simon approached DiMaggio at his table and introduced himself. Well aware of who the singer was, “The Yankee Clipper” invited him to sit down. Simon explained that there was no insult intended in the lyrics and that DiMaggio was actually being hailed as a hero. The Yankee icon was relieved to hear it.

Proving that Mantle was still “his guy,” Simon recruited “The Mick” to appear in a video for the song, “Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard.” Originally released in 1972, the song reappeared on Simon’s 1988 greatest hits album, Negotiations and Love Songs. The opening sequence of the video, which was shot at Mathews-Palmer Park in Hell’s Kitchen, features appearances by Warner Brothers recording artists, Big Daddy Kane and Biz Markie. NBA point guard Spud Webb is pictured playing basketball with neighborhood kids in another scene. Mantle turns up a bit later in a stickball segment. Batting left-handed, he swings through one of Simon’s pitches and then launches another one clear out of the schoolyard. The video ends with former NFL coach John Madden attempting to offer advice to some kids engaged in a pick-up football game. “They don’t listen to coaches the way they used to,” Madden grouses as the players ignore his instructions. Simon’s Negotiations and Love Songs attained certified platinum status, selling over a million copies.

About the Author: Jonathan Weeks spent most of his life in the Capital District region of New York State. He earned a degree in psychology from SUNY Albany and currently works in the mental health field. He has written several sports biographies and two novels, one of which was a posthumous collaboration with his father.

BLOG: http://www.jonathanweeks.blogspot.com
GOODREADS AUTHOR PAGE: https://www.goodreads.com/author/list/5862273.Jonathan_Weeks
AMAZON AUTHOR PAGE: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Jonathan-Weeks/author/B00DXL3JM4

Buy Link: https://www.amazon.com/Legend-Mick-Mickey-Mantle-Stories/dp/1493070177/ref=sr_1_1

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One Helluva Gig by Kevin R. Doyle

This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. Kevin R. Doyle 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.

Rob Jeffers has it all: fame, money, and the life of a rock and roll star. Frank Peters is a regular guy, a newspaper reporter who just happens to have a passing acquaintance with the Great Jeffers. As Jeffers's career shoots up, Peters's fortunes follows in his wake.

And when Jeffers passes away at the height of his fame, Peters’s life begins a steady unravelling. Until a chance encounter on a minor story gives him a new outlook on the celebrity lifestyle, and new hope for his own future.

Read an Excerpt

After graduating, I decided to make a stake for my future in California. Naturally, imbued with youthful naïveté (a nice euphemism for stupidity), I submitted my portfolio at the L.A. Times and The San Francisco Examiner. I naturally figured that it would require only a cursory examination for them to see my undeniable genius and hire me on to work on their front pages.

Didn’t work out that way, not at all, and by the time I’d worked my way through the second tier, and then the third tier papers, I finally managed to snag my first professional newspaper job.

In Lodi.

Lodi, for Chrissakes. I mean, that Fogerty guy even wrote a song once about the dumpiness of Lodi. However, by the time they floated the offer, I was so hungry, cold, and desperate that I would have taken anything. Then, once I’d moved my few knapsacks of belongings down there and found a room I could rent by the month, came what seemed like the final indignity.

They put me to work writing obituaries.

Understand, in the early eighties, practically everyone in newspaper work got started in the obits. Even so, it seemed like the drudgiest of drudge work. Six days a week, I sat at my desk, scanning the death notices, calling hospitals and checking with the cops to fulfill my daily quota of morbidity.

About the Author:

A high-school teacher, former college instructor and fiction writer, Kevin R. Doyle is the author of numerous short horror stories. He’s also written three crime thrillers, The Group, When You Have to Go There, and And the Devil Walks Away and one horror novel, The Litter. Recently, he’s begun working on the Sam Quinton private eye series. The first Quinton book, Squatter’s Rights, was nominated for the 2021 Shamus award as Best First PI Novel. The second book, Heel Turn, was released in March of 2021, while the third in the series, Double Frame, came out in March of 2022. The fourth Sam Quinton book, Clean Win, will be released in March of 2023.

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