Monthly Archives: July 2022
Book Blast LOVE BLOOMS IN MORNING STAR
This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.
As Jo Fussner keeps the Marketplace humming, her heart dances with a joyous secret. Jo and Michael Wengerd, a shy nursery owner from a nearby town, have fallen hopelessly in love. When Michael buys a courting buggy, Jo is sure a proposal will follow. But she’ll have to work hard to gain her mother’s approval—because the widowed Drusilla Fussner is convinced that marriage will bring her daughter nothing but heartache.
To win Jo’s hand, Michael enlists his father’s help in convincing Drusilla to give the marriage her blessing—and perhaps even open her heart to new happiness of her own. . . . But just as Jo and Michael’s hope for their future grows, an even bigger obstacle looms. The Amish elders vote to forbid any maidel from working once she marries. Now Jo must choose between the beloved store she’s put her heart into, and the man she can’t live without. Conflicted, Jo will have to trust that anything is possible when true faith guides the way.
Read an Excerpt
Jo was soon pulled out of the ceremonial spell the bishop wove with his words, however, meeting Michael’s gaze again. It had been such a blessing when she’d spotted him earlier this morning, striding toward her. As he’d done in her fondest dreams over the winter, he’d held out his hands and she’d grabbed them as though she’d never let them go.
“I have a surprise for you, Josie-girl,” he’d whispered. “Right after the wedding, you’ll see it.”
Josie-girl. The sound of Michael’s unique endearment had made her eager heart turn somersaults. How was she supposed to pay attention to the wedding ceremony while she wondered about the surprise he’d promised?
But one thing Jo knew, as surely as she could bake cinnamon rolls: Michael had returned to Morning Star loving her even more than when Mamm had sent him and his dat away at Christmas. Michael and Nelson weren’t renting the Fussners’ dawdi haus anymore, but the Wengerds were back in her life, and they intended to move forward with the plans they’d made during her visit to their home in Queen City last December.
Life simply didn’t get any more exciting than that.
About the Author:
In 1983, Charlotte Hubbard sold her first story to True Story. She wrote around 70 of those confession stories, and she’s sold more than 60 books to traditional or online publishers. A longtime resident of Missouri, she’s currently writing Amish romances set in imaginary Missouri towns for Kensington. She now lives in Omaha, NE with her husband of 40+ years and their Border collie, Vera.
Charlotte Hubbard will be awarding a $15 Amazon or B/N GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour.
Last Star Standing
Last Star Standing
by Spaulding Taylor
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GENRE: Thriller (speculative)
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BLURB:
Aiden has always felt like an outsider. After the rebel assassin is captured and imprisoned by the world’s galactic overlords, he awaits execution. Then a mole working for the occupying regime alerts him to a plot that could destroy the entire resistance…
Engineering a daring escape, Aiden’s growing feud with the new rebel leader leaves him out in the cold and smouldering with resentment. Faced with deceit and betrayals on every side, he recruits a group of overlooked outcasts and stakes everything on one last mission.
Can the restless, reckless Aiden take a stand long enough to save humanity from enslavement?
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EXCERPT
Lips parted, the woman pressed eagerly forward. The target smiled at her but instead selected a pudgy lad of about six. He passed a skinny guy – who looked, the poor sap, practically broken-hearted. He was almost upon us. My heart sped until it seemed ready to jerk straight out of my chest. Choose me. Choose me. CHOOSE ME.
The Enlightened One seemed – or was it only my imagination? – to be gazing directly at me. Pushing swiftly past Petra I extended my hand. He turned, made a strange gesture, almost of benediction, then wired the back of my hand with that thick blackened stump. An instant surge of heat pulsed up my arm and throughout my torso. Then a wild swirl of fuchsia-slashed-with-orange flashed beneath my eyelids, as if the same stars, fiery and spot-lit against the black, had been injected into my brain. My every corpuscle felt fired, an almost intoxicating sensation, especially after the chill of the poison. I half-stumbled, almost squashing a smallish alien, and only saved myself from falling at the last second.
Through a haze – my eyeballs felt as if they were swimming in flaming waterfalls – I saw Petra and moved towards her. Of course. She couldn’t risk being stamped, in case the creature died too fast. As we walked the ornate brand began to swell on my hand – a warming, tightening feeling. The sense of strangeness accelerated, though this might have been from my borrowed DNA, the chilled poison in my blood, or the fiery stamp. But nothing could dent my happiness, because – I’d done it. I’d assassinated The Enlightened One.
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AUTHOR Bio and Links:
Alice (Spaulding Taylor) McVeigh has been published by Orion/Hachette in contemporary fiction, by Unbound Publishing in action/adventure and by Warleigh Hall Press in Austenesque fiction. Her novels have won Gold Medal/First Place is the Global, eLit and Pencraft Book Awards, been runner-up in the Independent Press Awards, finalists in the Eric Hoffer, Rone and Wishing Shelf Book Awards and selected by Shelf Unbound as one of the “top indies” of 2021. Two of her novels are currently finalists in the CIBA Book Awards (the Cygnus and Goethe Awards). Her most recent novel (Harriet: A Jane Austen Variation) was just selected as Editors’ Pick “outstanding” on Publishers Weekly.
A professional London cellist, Alice lives in London and Crete with her professor husband: their only child is completing her Masters in Chinese Literature. They also share two miniature long-haired dachshunds and an incurable addiction to tennis.
Links:
https://linktr.ee/ASTMcVeigh
Facebook: (me) https://www.facebook.com/alice.mcveigh.5/
(author me) https://www.facebook.com/alicemcveighauthor
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mcveigh.alice/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/astmcveigh1
Amazon author page: https://www.amazon.com/Alice-Mcveigh/e/B07TDKZPVT/ref=aufs_dp_fta_dsk OR
https://www.amazon.com/Spaulding-Taylor/e/B08TRLNW31/ref=aufs_dp_fta_dsk
Amazon.co.uk: www.amazon.co.uk/Alice-Mcveigh/e/B07TDKZPVT?ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1&qid=1610184384&sr=1-1
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/1108881.Alice_McVeigh
Linked in: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alice-mcveigh-59ab1718/
pinterest https://www.pinterest.co.uk/astmcveigh/_saved/
tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@alicemcveigh0?lang=en
Video for Last Star Standing:
https://www.tiktok.com/@alicemcveigh0/video/7092364955680279813
Sales link: Book will be on sale for $0.99 during the tour.
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RAFFLECOPTER GIVEAWAY
One randomly chosen winner via rafflecopter will win a $50 Amazon/BN.com gift card.
Enter to win a $50 Amazon/BN GC – a Rafflecopter giveaway
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INTERVIEW 5
What is your favorite ice cream flavor?
I never eat desserts. My favourite flavours are all savoury.
Which mythological creature are you most like?
A dragon. A red one.
First book you remember making an indelible impression on you.
Lord of the Rings. Outside of Bilbo’s revolting poetry, it’s perfection. (Note: I always skip Bilbo’s poetry, it is lousy.)
How do you develop your plot and characters?
I don’t. Instead, I allow them to develop, just like people in real life. I sit back and enjoy the ride.
Describe your writing space.
My husband and I – our “kid” is 25 – live mostly in London but we also own a home in Crete, by the sea. In London my study is filled with cello music, and pretty small. In Crete I’m fifty metres from a Mediterranean bay. Which I find just a little more inspiring…
Book Blast COMPLICATING ROY
This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.
Complication doesn’t always have to be a bad thing.Duke Charles needs a break. He’s tired of life on the road and never having a place to settle down. He decides to head to Norville for a rest in his childhood home. Once there, he realizes his life isn’t quite so relaxed—he’s not only inherited the house, but a cat to go with it. When his friend from high school sends him on a date, he finds out how complicated life can be…in a good way.
Roy Mars likes his life as an artist. He paints, sells work and takes his cat, Raphael, for walks through Norville. He channels his emotions into his art…until he goes on a date and meets Duke. His uncomplicated life gets thrown into chaos, not least because Duke has rabid fans who insist on knowing every detail of his life.
Can Roy handle a little complication in the form of Duke, or will he quit before he finds his forever?
Read an Excerpt
Roy sighed. “You’re doing well with your side of the equation. I hear you’re good with your side hustle, too.” He had to ask subtly about getting a date. Unfortunately, he had no subtlety.
“My dating thing.” James laughed again. “Oh, doll, yes. I love when I pair people and it works out, but I do have a sixth sense about it. You know?”
“Yeah.” He hated sounding so withdrawn and sad, but why lie about the truth? “Would you know who to hook up with me?”
“You’re looking for a date? I thought you had a boyfriend. Not Mikael, but Donny? No, was it Bernard? Shit. Who were you dating?” James asked.
“No one. That’s why I’m asking for you to help me. I’ll pay.” He needed to do something to get out of his lonely rut.
James stopped cutting. “I don’t charge. I should, but the matchmaking is me strictly trying to find the right guy for you.”
“Do you have any suggestions?”
“I do.” James resumed styling Roy’s hair. “But I want you to trust me.”
“I do. Completely.”
“Good. I want you to go to Club Jester on Tuesday—in five days if you can’t count—at nine in the evening and go to the Viper suites. All you have to do is say you’re there because James directed it and they’ll let you back. I know Amos and he owes me, so it won’t be a problem.”
“Who am I meeting?” He tamped down his excitement. He hated blind dates, but he couldn’t wait to see who James had picked.
“It’s a surprise, but trust me that this is exactly who you need,” James said. “Think you can do that? I can tell you’re tired of being on your own. I couldn’t name your boyfriend, and I know everyone, so that means you haven’t had one for a while.”
“True.”
James spun him around to look at his reflection. “Well? What do you think?”
He never doubted James would make him look good. The cut and style worked with his face. But the date… Did he trust him? “I think I’m excited to go to Club Jester.”
“Perfect.” James removed the cape. “You’ll love him.”
“I hope so.” He didn’t take many leaps of faith, but this felt right—like he was looking at his future. It sure looked rosy.
About the Author:
Megan Slayer, aka Wendi Zwaduk, is a multi-published, award-winning author of more than one-hundred short stories and novels. She’s been writing since 2008 and published since 2009. Her stories range from the contemporary and paranormal to LGBTQ and white hot themes. No matter what the length, her works are always hot, but with a lot of heart. She enjoys giving her characters a second chance at love, no matter what the form. She’s been nominated at the LRC for Best Author, Best Contemporary, Best Ménage, Best BDSM and Best Anthology. Her books have made it to the bestseller lists on Amazon.com.
When she’s not writing, Megan spends time with her husband and son as well as three dogs and three cats. She enjoys art, music and racing, but football is her sport of choice. She’s an active member of the Friends of the Keystone-LaGrange Public library.
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Megan will be awarding a prize pack featuring a bracelet and necklace made by the author to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour.
Enter to win a bracelet and necklace set handcrafted by the author – a Rafflecopter giveaway
Disaster Dates – Winner 4theatre Film Festival
Very stoked to annouce Disaster Dates is a winner at the 4Theatre Film Festival for Best Comedy 2022!
Disaster Dates – Finalist
Disaster Dates is a FINALIST at the Lit Laughs International Comedy Festival for Best Short Film.
So stoked!
Keeping with more good news, Disaster Dates got an Honorable Mention at London-Worldwide Comedy Short Film Festival.
LIKE A LILY AMONG THE THORNS
Like a Lily Among the Thorns
by Karen S. Bell
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GENRE: Cli-fi, șpec. fiction, fantasy
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BLURB:
There are those who are born into loving families and then there are the less fortunate who must forge their own families through strong friendships. At a local small library in New York City, one such family was born. And just like so many capricious happenstances in life, this family unit embraced newcomers and grew exponentially. But this clan was also charged with far more than spreading love and joy and a sense of belonging. This clan was formed by divine Providence to help save the planet.
Gabrielle Bernstein, the MC of Like a Lily Among the Thorns, is a woman in her twenties and has started her career as a librarian at a NYC public library. Abandoned by her father as a young girl and now orphaned by her deranged mother, Gabby longs for a family connection. Coincidentally, she finds this connection at the same time she inherits a B&B in Vermont from her estranged and now deceased father. This enchanted inn is under the watchful eye of goddesses of myth and legend who have been tasked to save mankind from destroying itself and this planet. These goddesses will use their powers to try and stall the onslaught of the effects of droughts, floods, and rising temperatures. But as a safety net they have collected human saviors all over the planet to erect safe havens at high altitudes away from flood waters and blistering temperatures.
This one group of saviors are ordinary people who have some extraordinary abilities and enjoy a higher consciousness. They are brought together to join forces in Vermont to create one such refuge. Along the way there is romance, misunderstandings, conflict, and internal growth. Locations are Manhattan, London, Brooklyn, and Rutland, Vermont. Woven through this tale is Gabrielle’s inherent understanding that she must be grateful, mindful, and present in this journey called “life.”
The impending devastation that will be brought about by the effects of global climate change is the underpinning of this Cli-Fi/speculative fiction novel. Like a Lily Among the Thorns focuses on how this potential disaster will have dire consequences for us all and is currently becoming more top of mind as people are waking up to strange weather events such as the scorching temperatures that have gripped the Northwestern states and torrential rains in the Northeast.
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EXCERPT
On this ordinary day, we find Gabby Bernstein going about her daily ordinary chores. A lass of modest means, she hummed as she tidied up her small studio apartment. Although bereft of material accoutrements typical of a twenty-something New Yorker, she didn’t dwell on it. Rather, she chose to focus on being grateful for all the kindnesses bestowed upon her by the universe and the miracle of life with the richness and diversity of the flora and fauna that blessed this planet. She was so attuned to the preciousness and beauty of all living creatures that she never was inclined to harm even the smallest insect preferring to capture it and send it out her window to climb down the fire escape or fly away. But most especially, she was grateful for her life, which she never took for granted. In fact, at this very moment, she paused to acknowledge her joy of just being alive and to mark her calendar with the #gratitude entry, giving thanks for each and every day she had her wits and her health.
As she went about her light chores, an unexpected random play on her music app added a spark to her usual sense of wonder and bliss. A coincidental gift from the cosmos of a cherished performance of Luciano Pavarotti singing the aria Addio, fiorito asil from Madama Butterfly, a captivatingly wistful melody that was one of her personal favorites. She gleefully acknowledged this gift and said a silent “thank you.”
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AUTHOR Bio and Links:
All my work is inspired by social issues to which we all can relate. Work/ life stresses, the loss of a spouse and how marriage can sometimes swallow a woman’s identity, and the prevalence of greed in modern society.
Walking with Elephants is my first novel, although I am not new to writing. I was a theater critic and celebrity interviewer for a weekly tabloid in Jacksonville, Fl and I earned a Master’s in Mass Communication from Oklahoma State University. For 15 years I worked in Corporate America as a technical editor/editor/writer. I experienced first hand the politics and intrigue that goes with that territory and the balancing act that comes with being a working mother. I salute all those mothers who are the glue that holds their families together while pursuing the nine to five brass ring and were the inspiration for this work. Audible book is available and narrated by me.
With my second novel, Sunspots, I continue to be in awe of the magical and wondrous phenomenon called life. As an observer and obvious participant in feminine values and approach to our human challenges, I bring this perspective to my work. Fascinated by the mysteries of the unseen forces that perhaps play a role in guiding our choices, I search for answers in the mundane as well as in the cosmic forces that surround us.
Alexa’s pact with the Devil in When a Stranger Comes…is an allegory for the evil lurking in our midst. The social decay of modern society with its excessive greed, the ignorance of our political leaders, and our indifference toward the survival of all species from the effects of climate change, among other environmental pressures, are perhaps brought forth by the darkest forces of human nature. The audible book narrated by me is in production.
The genre of magical realism appeals to me and all my work has elements woven in. My current project is focused on a Bed and Breakfast that becomes a safe haven from the effects of climate change while celebrating the Feminine Divine and is set squarely in that realm.
I am working on my next novel in Ponte Vedra, Fl. where I live with my husband and our two furry kids. Our human kids have flown the nest and are scattered far and wide, alas.
https://karensbell.com
https://twitter.com/karensuebell
https://www.facebook.com/ksbwwe
Buy:
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RAFFLECOPTER GIVEAWAY
Karen S. Bell will be awarding a copy of the book to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour.
Disaster Dates Update
Good news! Our Improv Comedy, Disaster Dates has made the Official Selection to the Lit Laughs International Comedy Film Festival!
C.A. Milson 