Excerpt from YA fantasy Heartbound by P.I. Alltraine

I have a special excerpt for the young adult fantasy novel Heartbound by P.I. Alltraine today.

As P.I. does a virtual book tour, she will be awarding a $20 Amazon or Barnes and Noble (winner’s choice) gift card to a lucky randomly drawn winner. To be entered for a chance to win, use the form below. To increase your chances of winning, feel free to visit her other tour stops and enter there, too!

A little bit about Heartbound:

Petyr has never found it necessary to consider the humans as anything more than distant, inferior beings–until now. They are the cause of the fatal disease that has plagued his realm, taking the lives of too many of his kind. As a future leader of a realm in peril, Petyr must find a way to resist and cure the affliction. He must enter the unfamiliar realm, appear to be an ordinary eighteen-year-old human, observe and learn.

However, things don’t exactly go according to plan. Instead of embarking single-mindedly on his sober mission, Petyr meets an 18-year-old girl who does things to his emotions that he can’t quite fathom or control. Petyr is falling in love, and he almost forgets the gravity his choices have on his entire world. Despite the risk it poses to his life and hers, he wants to know her, and he wants her to know him–and his world.

Excerpt from Heartbound:

I defied my fate the moment I leapt out of my apartment’s third-story window. I landed on the pavement without a sound. In the same instant, my feet blended into the measured pace in which humans carried themselves.

Gazing up at the sky, I tried to find something to remind me of my home, of my duty. The future leader of a realm in peril cannot be overcome by irrational desires, I thought.

Thick smoke obscured the heavens so much even the brightest stars were dull and barely visible. A reminder I was trapped in this city, in this realm. Too far away from everything I knew, too restrained, too human.

Through the chaos in my mind, I captured the image of the girl with brown and dark-auburn tones in her hair, the shine that bounced from her loose curls, the depth in her hazel eyes, and even the awkward half-smile when she caught me looking at her. But the memory wasn’t enough. I needed to see her again.

I kept walking until I reached the riverbank in the heart of London. The water rippled with a disheveled mesh of gold and red, reflecting a large architectural structure. My gaze lingered on the clock tower adjacent to the building, gauging its height. A temptation to feel even a fraction of my true nature became a need in every fiber in my body. No longer able to rationalize, my muscles coiled, and I let go. Wind enveloped me with its familiar warmth as I sprang across the River Thames. I aimed to land on the lower portion of the tower, to indulge in the pleasure of my ascent. Though too fast for human eyes, each maneuver, each somersault, each back flip was slow enough for me to savor every moment of my liberation.

On a part of the roof concealed from the passersby below, I was closer to the heavens than I’d been since arriving in the city. Still, I didn’t belong here. Hundreds of lights sparkled below me, each representing a life I didn’t comprehend. Allowing myself to break free from my human façade had made me a liability to the others. For a few moments of freedom, I let myself forget the importance of my purpose here—the lives that depended on it.

Somehow, having the girl’s image in my mind brought calmness within me. One that felt permanent. One that extinguished the sense of entrapment, despite the thick layer of smoke that was still very visible to me. I held on to the calmness as I regained the confidence to face the others.

The first three chapters of Heartbound can be read online at: http://www.amazon.com/Heartbound-P-I-Alltraine-ebook/dp/B0125TOMNO

A little bit about the author:

P.I. Alltraine is an award-winning poet and author. She has won several international poetry competitions, and her poems have been published in separate anthologies.

She teaches English Language and Literature in London. She earned her degree in BA English from Queen Mary University of London, a Post Graduate Certificate in Education and Master’s in Teaching at the UCL Institute of Education, University of London.

Before moving to London, she lived in the Philippines where she was ensconced in the rich culture encrusted with dark myths and enchanted tales. She draws inspiration from these in her writing. Although she has lived indifferent places and experienced different cultures, she always enjoyed the constancy of writing in her life. Her favourite authors include John Milton, Virginia Woolf, and James Joyce.

Links:

Website | Blog | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads | Pinterest | Authors Den | Amazon author | Amazon UK | Amazon CA | Book trailer

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Interview with crime fiction novelist Eric Matheny

Today’s highlight is the legal thriller, The Victim, by Eric Matheny.

Bio:

Eric Matheny was born in Los Angeles, California, where he lived until he went away to college at Arizona State University. At ASU he was president of Theta Chi Fraternity. He graduated with a degree in political science and moved to Miami, Florida, to attend law school at St. Thomas University. During his third year of law school, he interned for the Miami-Dade State Attorney's Office, where he worked as a prosecutor upon graduation. In 2009, he went into private practice as a criminal defense attorney. He is a solo practitioner representing clients in Miami-Dade County, Florida, and Broward County, Florida. He has handled everything from DUI to murder.

In his free time, Eric enjoys writing crime fiction, drawing from his experience working in the legal system. He published his debut novel Home in 2004, which centers around a successful drug dealer catering to the rich in Orange County. His second novel Lockdown, published in 2005, follows a law student trying to prove that an inmate serving a life sentence in one of California’s toughest prisons might actually be innocent. Eric’s latest novel The Victim, is a tense, fast-paced, legal thriller/psychological suspense novel that centers around a young defense attorney whose horrifying misdeed from his college days comes back to haunt him. It was published by Zharmae in August 2015 and is available for sale on Amazon.

Eric lives outside of Fort Lauderdale with his wife and two young sons.

Welcome, Eric! Please tell us a little bit about The Victim.

Anton Mackey is a 32-year-old Miami defense attorney who has tried desperately to forget about the horrific mistake he made eleven years earlier while a student in college.  But that mistake has come back to haunt him in the form a new client’s wife - a victim of what appears to be a brutal act of domestic violence.  The fee is great and everything seems normal until Anton realizes that this new client - rather his new client’s wife - is a figure from his past.  What follows is a nightmare as Anton frantically tries to keep this woman from destroying everything he has built.  Though at the same time, he begins to learn that this woman - the victim - may be connected to an unrelated murder case.

What inspired you to write this book?

A few years after I graduated from college, I heard a story about a guy I knew from school who had been charged with two counts of vehicular homicide after smashing into a disabled car on the highway, causing a fire, and killing both occupants.  The individual responsible got out of his car and began to run away on foot.  I thought, what if you did that and got away?  Using my knowledge of physical evidence from my career as an ex-prosecutor/practicing defense attorney, I understood the technical aspects of how a person could get away with such a crime.  Now what if that person went on to live a normal life, perhaps became an attorney, and then the past came back to haunt him?  I think all good thrillers start with a “what if?”

Excerpt from The Victim:
Chapter 1

March 16, 2003

Payson, Arizona

He thought he was dead.

Steam hissed from the crumpled front end of the RV that had folded accordion-style against the guardrail. His face stung from the punch of the airbag. His lungs burned from that awful talcum powder that drifted through the cabin as the bag deflated. The chemical dust, suspended in the air, seemed to be frozen in time.

His nose was numb and swollen. He tasted blood trickling down the back of his throat like a cocaine drip. He peered through the cracked windshield, his eyes adjusting to the reddish glow of a desert sunrise. The crushed-in hood had jarred upward. The chassis was off balance. The whole vehicle wobbled as he shifted his weight in his seat.

Oh my God.

He cranked the door handle and heaved his shoulder into it to pop it off the jamb. He hopped down onto the highway. The winds were heavy and dry, rustling the sage and scrub oaks that dotted the rugged landscape along the Beeline Highway. A sliver of fiery light barely illuminated the peaks of the Mazatal Mountains, which rose and fell against the horizon. Giant saguaros stood like sentries.

The back half of a red two-door sedan lay beneath the shredded front tires of the RV. Flattened like an aluminum can. On impact the RV must have bucked forward, rolling up onto the rear bumper of the smaller car, coming to rest on its roof. The significant weight of the RV crushed the sedan into something you might see stacked in a junkyard.

The highway was quiet. Just the rush of hot wind crackling the delicate spines of the sagebrush. He got his bearings quickly, the initial shock of the crash having passed. A sobering experience. Literally. Half a handle of Jack Daniels coursing through his veins had been replaced by something stronger.

Panic.

He saw long hair, a young female’s. How he could tell her age by the back of her head, he would never know. Maybe by its length and sheen—bright, yellow-blond. Slick with blood. Her forehead propped on the steering wheel. The driver-side window blown out. The windshield was a shattered web.

The man beside her—or boy, he was arguably young—was out cold, his body positioned in the passenger’s seat in a gimpy, off-kilter fashion. The passenger side had been thrust into the guardrail, which molded itself to the frame of the car. His head lolled against the door. Blood leaked from his ear and ran down his neck.

“Are you okay?” he screamed, although he knew he would get no reply. His voice resonated throughout the valley. “Hello?”

He braced himself against the ruined front end of the RV. He felt a surge of bile and whiskey come up in the back of his throat. He heaved forward but held it in. He was lightheaded.

Oh God, please let this be a dream. Oh God, please...this can’t be happening, this can’t be happening. This isn’t happening. This isn’t happening...  

What exciting story are you working on next?

A standalone crime thriller set in Los Angeles during the April 29, 1992, riots.  Aside from the standpoint of law enforcement, namely a tough female sheriff’s deputy,

the story examines a crime from several gang perspectives - a violent South Central Blood set; a ruthless outlaw biker club; and the Korean Kkhangpae (Korean Mafia) that maintains a stranglehold over its piece of the city. 

I lived in Los Angeles at the time of the riots and it was a frightening and oddly fascinating time in history.

When did you first consider yourself a writer?

When I was 7 and I wrote stories on my mother’s word processor.  Throughout my life, even if I wasn’t putting words down on paper, I felt like I had a monologue going on in my head, as if I could watch events unfold and then narrate them to myself.  I started writing seriously when I was 21.

Do you write full-time? If so, what's your work day like? If not, what do you do other than write and how do you find time to write?

I am a full-time defense attorney, part-time writer.  I work all day, usually starting early in the morning.  I try to bang out a page or two before court and then I am off to handle my morning calendar, sometimes multiple calendars in multiple counties.  After the morning and once my pressing matters are handled, I go back to my story and crank out a little more.  I try to write 2000 words a day. 

What would you say is your interesting writing quirk?

I almost always know the title of a story before I begin and the first thing I do before I put down a single word is find a quote to start the book. 

As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?

A detective, a fighter pilot, a cardiovascular surgeon, a sports agent, and finally - a criminal defense attorney. 

Anything additional you want to share with the readers?

I have traveled through Transylvania and been to the house where Vlad Dracul (the inspiration for Count Dracula) was born.  It is now a vampire-themed restaurant.  Folklore aside, Transylvania is one of the best kept secrets of Eastern Europe.  Driving through the Carpathian Alps, you will see real horse-and-buggies, farmhouses that are hundreds of years old, and folks who live without any modern conveniences.  The scenery is breathtaking and full of real history - the hotel where my wife and I stayed was the “new” building in town because it was constructed around 1600.  I love Europe and have been to many of the popular tourist destinations in the west - Barcelona, Vienna, Amsterdam - but cannot stress enough the mystique and untouched beauty of the east.  Plus Romania is still on their own currency (not the euro) so the exchange rate is about four Romanian Leu to one U.S. dollar.  While Eastern Europe is relatively inexpensive to begin with, Romania is a bargain.  If you want something completely off the beaten path, not touristy, and entirely unique, fly to Bucharest (no direct flights from U.S., connect in Rome, London, or Paris), rent a car, and head north out of the city.

Readers can connect with me on Facebook, Twitter, and Goodreads.  And to learn more, go to http://www.ericmathenybooks.com/

Thank you, Eric!

Special excerpt from Travel Bites by The Hungry Traveller

Today I have a special excerpt from the non-fiction travel story collection, Travel Bites, by The Hungry Traveller.

As he does a virtual book tour with Goddess Fish Promotions, The Hungry Traveller will be awarding a $10 Amazon or Barnes and Noble (winner’s choice) gift card to a lucky randomly drawn winner. To be entered for a chance to win, use the form below. To increase your chances of winning, feel free to visit his other tour stops and enter there, too!

A little bit about Travel Bites:

Travel Bites is a collection of anecdotal travel stories that crisscross the globe. It is the first work by The Hungry Traveller who has combined his two great life passions: travelling and eating! The Hungry Traveller has been travelling for the last fifteen years and, along the way, has experienced many different sights, tastes, and cultures. Central to his travel experiences has been the role of food. Through his unique and very personal style of storytelling, you too can share in the highs and the lows of his stories from around the world. At the end of each story is a recipe for a dish inspired by his adventure. Travel Bites will capture your imagination and curiosity; and will leave you yearning to plan your next holiday, adventure or escape!

Excerpt from Travel Bites:

The Taverna

Location: Lesbos, Greece

Arguably the best place to eat reasonably priced food in Greece is at a taverna. Like any restaurant these can vary in quality, but by and larger, if the taverna cooks fresh food, the food will most likely be very good. When in Greece, like most other places in the world, if you see an establishment full of local people, chances are that the food there will be of good quality.

A little bit about the author:

The Hungry Traveller is a travelling enthusiast who loves to eat! When travelling, he enjoys meeting new people and engaging with locals to learn about their culture, history and the food that they eat.

Excerpt: http://travelbitesbythehungrytraveller.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/Travel-Bites-excerpt-americanized-text2012.pdf

Links:

Twitter | Facebook |  Website | Publisher Twitter | Publisher Facebook |  Publisher website 

Buy Links:

Kindle US | Kindle UK | iBooks | Kobo | Paperback US | Paperback UK | Wordery

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Interview with dark fiction author J.A. Crook about his short story collection

As we near Halloween, it’s always fun to have dark fiction authors on the blog. Today I have horror writer, Joshua “J.A.” Crook answering questions about Amid the Recesses: A Short Story Collectionof Fear.

Bio:

J. A. Crook is an independent American horror and literary fiction author. He writes anthologies that combine terror, suspense, and supernatural elements. His short literary fiction focuses on the human condition with southern gothic influence. His inspirations include the modernist writers Ernest Hemingway, Carson McCullers, and Flannery O'Connor. Contemporary inspirations include Stephen King, Clive Barker, Cormac McCarthy, and Raymond Carver. He has written and released two horror anthologies and has published a series of short fiction pieces. His style involves the use of intertextuality between stories and anthologies, with a focus on keen dialogue and minimalism.

Welcome, J.A. Please tell us about your current release.

Amid the Recesses: A Short Story Collection of Fear is a second edition release of my first horror anthology. It’s also the first book I wrote. Amid the Recesses was a practice in intertextuality and humanity, in understanding people and how their minds work. I wanted to dig into the very depths of ourselves, of parts of our society that are plagued by diseases and distress, that are lost in this world and are healed or left for dead. I wanted to talk about love and horror and about how these two ideas, this intensity of emotion, of fear which sometimes hangs in the balance of the two, can manifest itself. I wanted to understand myself as a writer, to export my ideas and imagination onto a page. The second edition is a sort of “purifying” of an old work with new, grown talent. I wrote this book when I hadn’t known myself. I know more now and wanted to infuse my old art with it. Besides, it’s one of the few luxuries of self-publishing—the ease of editions.

What inspired you to write this book?

I was drunk. I was sick. I didn’t know anything about anyone or myself for a long time. I’d trapped myself in my own world and hid and tried to prevent myself from doing things that made me evil or angry. Somewhere in the middle of this book I gave into myself and damaged a lot of important things in my life. Writing this book was a way to keep me sane when I was certainly becoming less and less so. Writing became that way, truthfully. It saves me from myself. I had to get the darkness out of me and that’s what this book was about: expelling demons.

Excerpt from “The Horse, the Elephant, & the Lion”:

The carpets were bloodied. The walls were streaked with red. Everything she had cleaned was soiled again. Her mouth fell open and her lips quivered toward a scream, but she could not. A trembling hand shot over her mouth.

            “How? How is this possib—“

She heard a metallic lullaby. The sound chimed through the hallway and came from the room in the middle of the hall. She recognized that it was the song from the mobile over the cradle. Her legs weakened and sweat sprung at her forehead. She stepped toward the door of the middle room. The sound became louder. She braced herself against the wall. Hand over hand, she scaled along flat surface. She depended on the wall for support. She depended on the wall to remind her of reality.

“This isn’t real. This isn’t real.” She said over and over again.

The door to the room was cracked. She reminded herself that she had closed it. She considered a weapon—a lamp or a knife. She took a broad step toward the end of the hall before the door opened fully. She froze.

            Patterns of light projected from the room onto the hallway wall. Irene pressed her back against the wall and watched the ghostly shapes float by. The light projected a horse, an elephant, and then a lion. One appeared after the next in their endless circus march. She wanted to hide inside of the wall. When nothing came from the door, she slid closer to it.

            She shook from head to toe as she peered into the dark room. The mobile turned around and around. It sang its provocative lullaby. The light in the center of the spinning mobile beamed through the carved shapes of each animal and they circled the room. Each projected animal crawled along the wall with more confidence than Irene. When the light hit her eye with the passing of each projection, she was blinded. Light faded into darkness and darkness into light as she stared at the spinning mobile.

            The sound was too much for Irene to bear. The melancholy melody ripped at her heart. She stepped into the threshold of the door. Her bare feet rose over obstacles—she dodged animal-printed wallpaper and she stepped over unopened bags from the baby shower. She scanned the room for an intruder. She eyes scanned the room and followed the projected shaped across the walls. She waited to see if something would be revealed when the light passed. Nothing was. She reached the cradle to brace herself—it was a grounding point in the center of the room. She stared down its emptiness. The horse passed. The elephant followed. The lion stalked behind. The room became colder. The door ticked closed and remained cracked.

She grabbed the spinning mobile and it clicked as the motor fought to turn against her grip. The parade stopped but the song played on. She ripped the mobile from the hook above the cradle. The hook fell into the cradle and the rattle of plastic was heard as it impacted. The light in the mobile shut off and there was complete darkness. The song played on.

            Irene reached for something to hold her up far from the cradle. She heard plastic shifting again coming from the center of the room.

What exciting project are you working on next?

I’m writing my first full novel. It’s about a character named Joe who’s a detective. He’s suicidal and hates everything except that he falls in love with a dead woman, whose death is a mystery. It invigorates him, enough, and on his own maniacal terms he works his way toward vengeance and understanding.

When did you first consider yourself a writer?

I’ve written nearly as long as I could. I remember being in love with writing when I was a young child and we were made to create our own books in second grade for some parent-involved show and tell. I strengthened my writing in online roleplaying forums and chatrooms in the early days of MSN and AOL and internet service that somehow survive for reasons beyond me. I left the military in 2012 and decided to go to school for writing, but always questioned the validity of it as a “career choice” and people are pretty good about reminding you that it’s a poor one. However, I decided eventually that they’re both right and wrong. They’re right in that I may never make a dollar. They’re wrong because it doesn’t matter. I truly embraced “being a writer,” with the title and all recently. I was slated to go to law school next year. I decided not to. I’ll write. That’s it.

Do you write full-time? If so, what's your work day like? If not, what do you do other than write and how do you find time to write?

I don’t know what writing full-time entails. Daily word counts seem to vary between writers. Some say 500 words a day is enough to call yourself full-time. Stephen King claims to write at least 10 pages a day. I strive to write as much as I can when I can. I’m a student, too, and I’m stuck often reading uninteresting Victorian-era junk while I’d rather be writing. But I’m also a dedicated student, so I read what I need to. If I have a moment to myself, I write. If I think I should be doing something less productive, I try not to, then I write. I find any moment I can.

What would you say is your interesting writing quirk?

Quirk? Hm. Sometimes I make the voice of my characters as I’m writing their dialogue. I don’t even notice I’m doing it sometimes. It’s especially unusual when I’m writing a monster or some sort of intense villain. In moments like those, I’m glad I’m alone. But it helps me to tighten the dialogue and get the feel. It’s weird, I don’t know.

As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?

An architect. I was an ignorant little fool.

Anything additional you want to share with the readers?

I suppose I’d like to thank any supporter of indie writers like myself. We walk a fine line between trying to be enjoyable and avoiding being outright annoying, but I hope readers understand that we’re entirely in and of our own business. I should add our business is full of pitiful writers, too. We try hard to distinguish ourselves, us that truly care about the craft. Be patient with us. Give us a chance. Consider something unusual, whether it be my writing or someone else’s who’s trying to compete with the Stephen Kings of the world—you might be surprised.

Amid the Recesses releases on December 8.

Links:

Website | Facebook | Twitter | Amid the Recesses (Amazon) | A Penny Down the Well (Amazon)  

Thanks for being here today, J.A.! Happy writing.

Interview with YA fantasy author Jadie Jones

Young adult fantasy author Jadie Jones is here today talking about her series, The Moonlit Trilogy, made up of Moonlit, Windswept, and Wildwood.

Jadie is in the midst of a virtual book tour with WOW (Women on Writing) and you can learn more about her and her writing by visiting her other tour stops.

Bio:

Georgia native Jadie Jones first began working for a horse farm at twelve years old, her love of horses matched only by her love of books. She went on to acquire a B.A. in equine business management, and worked for competitive horse farms along the east coast. The need to write followed wherever she went.

She lives with her family in the foothills of north Georgia, and is co-founder of Aradia Equestrian. When she's not working on a new project, she is either in the saddle or exploring the great outdoors with her daughters.

Welcome, Jadie. Please tell us about your current release.

Wildwood, the final book in the Moonlit Trilogy, just released last month, and it’s my very favorite piece of Tanzy Hightower’s fantasy/adventure story.

In Moonlit, book #1, she loses her entire life in a single night. In search of answers, she comes across a water witch who tells her that her trials in this life stem from unresolved decisions from her first mortal life a thousand years ago.

In Windswept, book #2, she learns there are a lot more girls just like her, and what purpose they’ve been brought back to fulfill.

In Wildwood, book #3, the chips are down, Tanzy has been forced to take up residence with her worst enemies, and her friends are under attack by an even larger threat. They must to choose whether to try to save each other, or to save the world as we know it.

What inspired you to write this book?

Moonlit is a blend of so many inspirations – quiet mornings at the barn as a kid, predawn trail rides where magic seems a blink away, the realization of every adult that the world has a lot more secrets and shadows and teeth than it first seemed. I heard that humans see less than one percent of the color spectrum, and it made me wonder what in the world is in all this “clear.” And now, as a mom, in re-watching all the old kid shows and movies, I have to wonder if “Shera” and “The Last Unicorn” have had some subconscious effects.

Excerpt from Wildwood (Book #3):

I race for the aisle, where a stream of horses gallops down the center. I punch off the ground and launch myself at the lead horse. My hands tangle in his mane, and I throw myself on its back. The horse jumps forward and we rush toward the opening. I keep my eyes trained on the sun. Its sphere breaks free of the horizon. Beneath me, the horse gathers, preparing for flight. He takes three more increasing strides and then powers off the ground.

As the lip of the cliff passes under us, I fling myself sideways and twist in the air, catching myself on a crag. I cling to the side of the fortress and peer down, watching the horses cascade over the edge and down the hill made from tens of thousands of Taigo, their forms hardened into stone. At the bottom, living Taigo bob in the sea, their numbers stretching far into the distance.

Flames appear in the line of the closest Taigo. Then the second line, and the third, rippling outward, and igniting the churning water for a solid mile. Their wailing cry haunts the open air. The first group mounts the reborn horses, and begins their surge up the hill. The incredible, impossible sight makes me forget for a split second that they’re coming to kill me. I clamp the knife between my teeth, climb up to the opening, and swing inside.

What exciting story are you working on next?

There’s an important secondary character in the Moonlit Trilogy that has become a fan favorite, and has earned a new adventure as she seeks answers of her own. I’m also working on a crime mystery set in the North Georgia Mountains, with a serial killer obsessed with fate and the number three. Figuring out who dunnit is just the beginning.

When did you first consider yourself a writer?

I have two answers for this question. One: I wrote my first “full length” story in seventh grade. It was a ghost story inspired by R.L. Stine’s goosebumps series, and I was positive I could publish all 104 pages. Two: when I drafted Wildwood – book #3 in the series. Moonlit (book #1) felt like a fluke. Writing book #2 was brutal. I feel like I barely survived. With Wildwood, I felt like I was finally in control of the plot and the pace from word one.

Do you write full-time? If so, what's your work day like? If not, what do you do other than write and how do you find time to write?

My dream is to one day write full time. For right now, I also train horses and coach hunter/jumper riders, and I’m a full-time mom to two small children. I literally write whenever and wherever I can: on my steering wheel while I’m waiting in the carpool line, on the living room floor during an episode of Dora the Explorer, you get the idea. I have an office in the basement, and when the stars align and I have enough energy, I actually make it down there to write, and I definitely do my best writing there, but I take what I can get.

What would you say is your interesting writing quirk?

I like to draft with pen and paper because I doodle when I’m brainstorming.

As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?

A writer and a professional equestrian. I guess dreams do come true.

Links:

Website | Facebook | Twitter | Amazon

Thanks for being here today, Jadie!

Interview with author L.S. O'Dea about Lake of Sins

Today is a special interview with L. S. O’Dea about her new novel Lake of Sins.

During her virtual book tour with Goddess Fish Promotions, L.S. will be awarding a $50 Amazon or Barnes and Noble gift card to a lucky randomly drawn winner. To be entered for a chance to win, use the form below. To increase your chances of winning, feel free to visit her other tour stops, too!

A little bit about Lake of Sins:

In a world where class distinction means the difference between imprisonment and freedom and even life and death, being chosen to stay in the encampment and breed is the only way to guarantee survival for a teenage Producer.

Every year after harvest, the finest examples of teenage Producers are assigned mates; the rest are loaded onto carts and hauled away, never to be seen or heard from again. Trinity, a sixteen-year-old Producer, knows that she has no chance of being chosen to stay. She isn’t even full-blooded Producer. Her father is a House Servant and she’s spent her entire life hiding her differences, especially her claws and fangs.

She has one week to sneak into the forest and discover what happens to those who are taken. Her plan is simple, but she doesn’t count on being hunted and captured by predators long believed to be extinct. Can she elude her captors to uncover the fate of her kind and return to camp before her escape is discovered?

Have you ever had an imaginary friend?

Oh, definitely yes. I still have imaginary friends. They are the characters in yet untold stories. I was the youngest of seven. My closest sibling was almost five years older than me. That was a huge age gap for a child and I played by myself often. I don’t recall having any particular imaginary friend so much as having entire stories with numerous friends and characters to keep me company.

Do you have any phobias?

I am slightly afraid of heights (it is weird that I’d love to be able to fly), but I’d have to say that my biggest phobia is the fear of water. Not chlorinate water but the ocean and lakes. To be more precise, it isn’t a fear of water so much as a fear of those creatures lurking under its depths just waiting to eat me (sharks and alligators mostly).

When I first moved to Florida, I had a lot of nightmares about alligators. It’s subsided a bit since I moved to the country, but they still trickle out of my subconscious sometimes and into my dreams.

Do you listen to music when you're writing?

No. The voices in my head are enough noise for me.

Do you ever read your stories out loud?

I have just finished reading both books to my great niece and nephew. Their mother (my niece) is one of my beta readers, so they have been hearing us talk about the story for years. They really wanted to read it but they are only nine and ten and there are some things in the books that are not appropriate for kids their age. They stayed with me this past summer, so I read the books to them, skipping and glossing over the parts that I felt were too adult for them.

Tell us about your main character and who inspired him/her.

My main character is Trinity. At the start of the series she is sixteen. She is different than all the other kids in the encampment and does not truly fit in with them. She is lonely.

I’m not sure if anyone really inspired me for her creation. I don’t create characters with someone else in mind. Truthfully, I’m not even sure that I create them. I flesh them out on paper but they already exist in the fog of my brain. I just help them into a body.

Excerpt from Lake of Sins:

“Something’s following us,” he whispered as he unsheathed his knife. 

The quiet rustle of vegetation behind them signaled that night was not the only thing approaching.  He pointed to a large tree.  She scurried up it and stopped on a limb high off the ground.  He signaled for her to wait and then walked several yards farther before climbing another tree.  He crouched on a low branch, knife in hand.

The woods were gray, the shadows growing wider as time passed.  She waited, scanning the forest below, her heart pounding in her ears.  What was hunting them, besides Guards?  She pulled her knife out of the sheath and adjusted her position.  Gaar always said that predators had to have patience, so the smart prey would too.  She was still working on that.  She shifted around again for a different angle.  So far, she hadn’t seen anything dangerous in the forest, but she had traveled mostly with Mirra.  She tried to relax her breathing, but it was coming in short pants.  She had to calm down.  Fear could be smelled.  Fear attracted predators. 

There was a soft whisper in the vegetation and a pair of glowing red eyes appeared in the brush.  A few feet away were two more eyes and then another set.  There were at least ten pairs, shining in the darkness.

Bio:

L. S. O'Dea grew up the youngest of seven. She always wanted to do what her older siblings were doing, especially reading stories.

At a young age, she immersed herself in books. Her life changed when she read a short story written by her older brother and realized that normal (somewhat anyway, since her brother was a bit weird in her opinion) people created these amazing stories. From that day forward, she wanted to write.

However, as with all good stories, obstacles rose in her path (mostly self-created obstacles) and it took her many years to put finger to keyboard and type her first book.

Links:

Goodreads | Facebook | Twitter | Website | Blog | Amazon Author Central | Amazon Buy Link

The first book of the series is on sale for $0.99 until the end of the tour.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Interview with Sarah Tauber about romance novel The Story She Had to Tell

Sarah Tauber is here today talking about her romance novel, The Story She Had to Tell.

As she does a virtual book tour, Sarah will be awarding a $40 Amazon or Barnes and Noble (winner’s choice) gift card to a lucky randomly drawn winner. To be entered for a chance to win, use the form below. To increase your chances of winning, feel free to visit her other tour stops and enter there, too!

Bio:

Sarah Tauber is a world traveler who retired four years ago from a corporate job to pursue her passions of dressage riding and writing. Her first book, For Dear Life, is a memoir covering two years she lived in Tehran, Iran in the 1970’s. It is available on Amazon.com, BarnesandNoble.com, and Xlibris.com. The Story She Had to Tell is her first novel. Sarah lives in San Diego County with her husband of eleven years.

Welcome, Sarah. Please tell us about your current release.
The Story She Had to Tell is a fictional love story about an old woman who wants to share her secret past with the world before she dies. She hires an old friend who is a writer to come live with her, interview her and create the book. Her secret has to do with what happened to her as a young woman when she travelled to Havana, Cuba with a girlfriend. The story runs between current day and Cuba, circa 1952.

What inspired you to write this book?

It is my second book. My first was a memoir. I wanted to write a novel. I awoke one morning with a working title in my head, “A life lived well.” It evolved into the idea of an old woman wanting to share stories of her life before she died. The Cuban theme came from the fact that my mother, as a young woman, travelled to Havana with a girlfriend before she married my father. Stupidly I never asked her what happened over there and now she is gone. I thought it would make a good storyline.


Excerpt from The Story She Had to Tell:
We continued to dance, and I continued to breathe him in. What are you doing, Madeleine? What do you expect out of this? You have had only one real boyfriend, a guy back home who wanted to marry you, but you felt nothing but friendship for him. And here is this amazingly handsome man with a Spanish accent who has swept you off your feet, but is it real, or am I going to discover later that I’ve made a terrible mistake? I’ll discuss this with Georgiana tonight when we’re back at the hotel and see what she says. She’s more worldly than I am. She’s probably had lots of boyfriends. She’ll help me decide what to do. I’m only twenty-three. He must be at least ten years older than I am. Maybe he’s a masher! Oh dear, now I am worried!

He walked me back to the table, kissed my hand and said he would see me tomorrow. I watched him leave the club. I sighed heavily.

I came back down to earth long enough to tell her that Carlos had invited both of us to go sightseeing tomorrow. “He said he would pick us up at 11:00 a.m. That will give us time to sleep in and have a late breakfast. Please say you’ll join us. I don’t really know him and don’t want to risk going alone.”

“Of course I’ll go with you, if only to chaperone!”

What exciting story are you working on next?

I have written and published two books, one short story and a travelogue for a travel agency. I will be doing more travelogues in the coming years. When an idea for a new book hits me, I will start writing it. I’m certain there is at least one more book in me, probably a novel. When writing a novel you are only as limited as your imagination and I have a big one!

When did you first consider yourself a writer?

I suppose after I held my first published book in my hand. That made it official.

Do you write full-time? If so, what's your work day like? If not, what do you do other than write and how do you find time to write?

There are probably as many writing disciplines as there are writers. With my two books I wrote usually twice a week, when the words in my head were about to explode. I couldn’t sit down at my computer every day and write. That didn’t work for me. But when I did write, I wrote between 2-3,000 words. No, I don’t write full time. I am also very involved in dressage riding which takes up much of my time.

What would you say is your interesting writing quirk?

I only write when inspired but then it pours out of me. Both of my books were written in under a year and within fifteen months of each other.

As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?

As a young child it was a nurse or a ballerina. As a young adult it became a wife and mother. (It was the 50s and 60s.)

Anything additional you want to share with the readers?

The urge to write my memoir came suddenly after listening to a friend for over a year talk about her memoir. I signed up for an online memoir writing class and began my book about half way through it. In about four months I was finished. That was the easy part. I was overwhelmed at my choices for a publisher. That was another process. And then the hardest part, promoting your book.

There are three kinds of writers: “I want to write a book someday.” (Usually never happens.)

“I’ve started my novel. I have three chapters already!” (Usually never gets finished or published.)

“I’m writing a book. My goal is to write at least three chapters a week. So far I’m on track!” (Usually gets finished and published.) It takes discipline and commitment. And then you have to step out of your comfort zone, especially if you are introverted, and tell the world why they should buy your book!

Thank you so much! I’ve really enjoyed this opportunity.

Links:

Website | Facebook | LinkedIn | Goodreads | Amazon

You’re quite welcome. Thank you for being here today!

a Rafflecopter giveaway