Wednesday, June 19, 2013

Cover Reveal: The Swan Bonnet by Katherine L. Holmes


Book Title: The Swan Bonnet
Author: Katherine L. Holmes
Release Date: July 16, 2013
Genre: YA Historical Fiction
Presented by: As You Wish Tours


BRIEF SYNOPSIS 

Unbeknown to Dawn, her grandfather has shot an old swan out of mercy. In their coastal Alaskan town, her father buys the swan pelt, preventing her Uncle Alex, a fur trader, from selling it for export. Dawn’s father surprises her part-Aleut mother with a hat she helped to make and also with an idea to catch poachers. Shooting swans has become illegal but Alaska is a territory and Prohibition occupies the Sheriff. Dawn and her mother become involved with the suspicious effects of the swan bonnet besides its haunting effect. Because Dawn’s grandparents see the swans first, Dawn agrees to secretly watch the migration with the deputy sheriff’s son. But after she and her mother encounter women from a ship and find out about a hunting party, they ride to the inlet. There are townspeople roving the shore too but who is the vigilante and who is the poacher?

ABOUT THE AUTHOR 
Katherine L. Holmes’ first published book was The House in Windward Leaves, an MG fantasy which became an E-book Finalist in the 2013 New Generation Indie Book Awards and a Juvenile Fiction Finalist in the National Indie Excellence Book Awards. Also, she won Prize Americana for her short story collection, Curiosity Killed the Sphinx and Other Stories, published by Hollywood Books International. In April 2013, The Wide Awake Loons was released by Silver Knight Publishing. The Swan Bonnet, a historical novel, will be published in July, 2013, by GMTA Publishing. Katherine has worked with used and rare books in the last years. She lives in Duluth, Minnesota.

AUTHOR LINKS

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Itara

Tuesday, June 18, 2013

Release Event: The Mirror by Candace Bowser



Book Title:  The Mirror
Author:  Candace L. Bowser
Release Date:  June 18, 2013
Genre:  Paranormal Romance/Horror
Length:  280 Pages
Publisher:  GMTA Publishing LLC
Presented by:  As You Wish Tours

BLURB

Adrianna Bristol stood before her grandmother's antique mirror and stared at the black velvet cloth covering it. She just couldn't believe her nana was gone. The mirror had hung in that exact same spot for the last twenty years, never once had it been moved from the alcove. Adrianna remembered the stern words of her grandmother when she was a child. Annabel Bristol had told her, "promise me Adrianna that you will never uncover the mirror. No matter what it may whisper to you, you must never remove the cover." Adrianna laid her hand against the cool velvet which covered the glass. As she walked away the mirror whispered to her, "you belong to me now. You belong to me." A four hundred year old curse has  plagued the Bristol family since the 1600's. A curse born out of a love so rich and a betrayal so deep, that time itself has no power to stop it. Only Adrianna has the courage to find the truth behind the curse and set her family free. But will the Mirror release its darkest secrets?



EXCERPT

My dreams were of Tuscany. I stood on the balcony of a villa overlooking fields and fields of grapes and olives. Sheep grazed on the lower terraces and the terrain was as green and vibrant as any I had seen. A young girl was playing in the vineyards, running in between the rows. Her dress was long and flowing with an empire waist. She obviously was a child born into wealth by the fine quality of her clothing and could not have been more than five years old. My eyes followed her as she came to the house and went inside. She stopped momentarily in front of the mirror and whispered something but I couldn’t understand her. I watched as she reached to touch the glass.
I awoke abruptly unable to catch my breath and covered in sweat. The mirror the little girl reached to touch was the same mirror hanging downstairs. I grabbed my robe off the end of the bed and ran down the stairs. I stopped in front of the mirror wrapping my around me tightly.
“What do you want from me?” I whispered.
I stared into the mirror for a long time but it said nothing to me. Still no reflection was cast. I was hoping you would show me the little girl. The longer I stood there the more amusing the whole situation became.
            “Not only have I taken to talking to myself, I have started talking to inanimate objects like you. What kind of control do you exact? Is it purely the mystique that surrounds you that makes everyone believe you are cursed?” I spoke loudly in the hopes that if anyone was hiding in the house they would hear me.
Still nothing but silence surrounded me. I turned to go back upstairs and could have sworn an image appeared in the mirror out of the corner of my eye. I swirled back around quickly but nothing was there, just the mirror and nothing more. I decided to retrieve the book from nana’s room, bring it downstairs where the fire could be lit, and where reading in the parlor until morning broke would be more pleasurable.
            I had fallen asleep in my clothes and decided to change. A pair of blue jeans and a white blouse would suffice. I sat down at the dressing table and brushed my hair using one of the combs to pull my hair back from my face. Was my mother’s hair blonde like mine? Did she have green eyes the same as Sam and me? Sighing deeply with the book clutched tightly to my chest, I walked into the hallway and closed the door behind me. The front door burst open suddenly and a giant gust of wind blew into the house. The force of the wind was so great it took every ounce of strength to close it.
            That door was locked when I went to bed. How could the door have unlocked itself? No more chances. This time you get the deadbolt and the chain. I locked the door with the key and checked the knob to make sure it was still locked and it was. How could there not be someone else here with me? A locked door cannot just fly open on its own.
            The house was cold. The embers from last evening’s fire were long gone and building a fire would take too much time. I fumbled to find the matches and light the kerosene lamp with my hands still shaking. It took nearly five minutes to regain the composure needed to strike the match. My hands trembled as though I had no control over them. Nana’s shawl around me would help to ease my distress and allow me to sit down in the chair and resume reading about the woman and her child





AUTHOR BIO
An avid writer, Candace works nearly every day on one of her manuscripts. Though she predominately composes works of horror, she also writes mystery, suspense, and adventure. During the 1990’s she was a featured columnist for PRS in Kansas City. In 2011, Candace was honored by being voted one of the Top 20 Most Prolific Authors by AKG mag.. Her books are an unusual blend of historical places and events, along with fictional and non-fictional characters, which she seamlessly weaves into the story .Originally from south-central Pennsylvania, she currently resides in Kansas City with her husband Todd.

AUTHOR LINKS

BOOK LINKS



Itara 

Guest Post by Jessica F.F. Evans Author of Flames




Title: Flames
Author: Jessica F.F. Evans
Release date: May 5th, 2013
Genre:  Romantic Suspense
Tour: Irresistible Reads Book Tours

Book Description: 
Seven years ago Jenna Farley left her hometown of Cedarville, Indiana and vowed never to look back. She created a thriving business and a quiet life on the sunny beaches of Gulf Shores, Alabama. But seven years and hundreds of miles can’t keep the nightmares of her past and visions of a hellish future from plaguing her dreams.

With the fate of her first love resting solely in her hands Jenna must go back to the town she despises and risk everything for a man who is not at all pleased to find her on his doorstep talking about a murderer on the loose and asking him to trust her.

Nathaniel McGregor has put many years and many women between him and the memory of the only woman he ever loved. Now she's back and doing what she does best. Turning his life upside down and warning him of an obsessed pyromaniac hell bent on killing him. Can he trust her? Does he even have a choice? The clock is ticking, both their lives are on the line and they must work together to stop a determined killer or die.


 

About the Author:
Jessica F.F. Evans lives in a little village in rural Indiana with her husband, daughter and crazy large family. She spends every chance she gets on the Gulf Coast. When not writing romance novels she enjoys woodturning, hiking and passing on her love of reading to her daughter.

Flames is her debut novel. Carry On is coming in September 2013 and is her second romantic suspense novel followed by her suspense novel: Under the Cajun Moon in December 2013 and her Young Adult novel: Lessons Learned by Arnold St. James in June 2014.




Guest Post - Nice Girl, Evil Villain

              Anyone who meets me generally describes me in one of four ways: polite, sweet, happy or very family oriented. So you can imagine that when they find out I write Romantic Suspense novels and read how truly twisted my antagonists are they don’t quite believe “Sweet Little Jessica” could have wrote that book. Well… “Sweet Little Jessica” didn’t write that book, there’s nothing sweet about writing those kind of characters. When I write I have to kind of shut off myself and get into the minds of the characters I’m creating. I have to develop a back story, figure out what motivates them and let them live on paper. I enjoy creating all my characters but my favorite part of writing Romantic Suspense is developing the villain.  As a “good girl” I can honestly say there’s something that is so fun about creating a character that is so bad.
            The antagonist brings a lot to the table when you’re writing Romantic Suspense novels. They usually serve as a catalyst in the main characters’ relationship. They keep your audience at the edge of their seat waiting to see what happens next. And don’t discredit how important it is to have someone your audience can root against especially in this genre. Romantic Suspense could never be Romantic Suspense without a strong, believable antagonist. So if you find yourself venturing into depths of writing in this genre remember that your antagonist had better be very well developed.
            Every author has their own way of developing their characters.  I research. I observe. I chart. Only when I know every random fact, quirk and motivation about the character I’m writing do I allow myself to kind of get into my character’s head. That’s when those characters seem to come alive and the plot of my novels begin to form. My writing style is a bit of a combination between completely mapped out and free-flowing. My characters are very much planned but the story they take me on is all their own and I usually find myself veering off in a totally different direction than I had originally planned.
I really found myself intrigued by my plot in my recent novel: Flames. The antagonist was truly an awful person and I found myself wanting for there to be some kind of justice for the victims. But more than anything I wanted something good to come out of such an awful situation. In real life bad things happen to good people all the time and all too often there is no sense of justice for the victims. The beauty of being a writer is that you can create that justice for your characters.
I guess that’s why I enjoy being a writer so much. I get to create the kind of world on paper that I would have liked to see in reality. The kind of world where good always triumphs. And I guess that’s why this nice girl loves writing such awful villains. Because the more twisted the villain the sweeter it is to watch them fall.

Much Love and Kind Regards,
Jessica F.F. Evans

Thanks Jessica for a great post!
Itara

Monday, June 17, 2013

Cover Reveal: Immortals (Runes #2) by Ednah Walters


Release Date: August 5th 2013 by Firetrail Publishing




Nothing can stop Raine Cooper when she wants something… Raine finally knows that her gorgeous neighbor, Torin St. James, is a legend straight out of Norse mythology but that doesn’t stop her from falling hard for him. Torin is crazy about Raine too, breaking the one rule he lives by: Never fall for a mortal. The problem is he no longer remembers her or that she saved him by making a deal with Norns—Norse destiny deities—the same Norns who have now erased his memories of their past together to punish her. So Raine comes up with a plan... She will make Torin forget his one rule a second time and fall in love with her all over again. But before Raine can put her plan into action, the Norns return. This time, they demand she protects Eirik Seville, her best friend since childhood, from an evil so dark even the Norns are scared. But you know what they say about well-laid plans… Caught between protecting Eirik and convincing the stubborn, cocky Torin St. James that the two of them are meant to be together, Raine's life slowly unravels. Friendships are tested. Enemies become allies. Desperate, Raine makes choices that could not only tear her and Torin further apart, but lead to the destruction of everything and everyone she loves. 


About Author: EDNAH WALTERS grew up reading Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys and dreaming of one day writing her own stories. She is a stay-at-home mother of five humans and two American short-hair cats (one of which has ADHD) and a husband. When she is not writing, she’s at the gym doing Zumba or doing things with her family, reading, traveling or online chatting with fans. Ednah is the author of The Guardian Legacy series, a YA fantasy series about children of the fallen angels, who fight demons and protect mankind. AWAKENED, the prequel was released by Pill Hill Press in September 2010 with rave reviews. BETRAYED, book one in the series was released by her new publisher Spencer Hill Press in June 2012 and HUNTED, the third installment, will be released April 2013. She’s working on the next book in the series, FORGOTTEN. Ednah also writes New Adult paranormal romance. RUNES is the first book in her new series. She is presently working on book 2, IMMORTALS. Under the pseudonym E. B. Walters, Ednah writes contemporary romance. SLOW BURN, the first contemporary romance with suspense, was released in April 2011. It is the first book in the Fitzgerald family series. Since then she has published four more books in this series. She's presently working on book six. 

You can visit her online at Here or Here 
Connect with Ednah: Website
Goodreads
Facebook 
Twitter
Vote For Torin St. James at The YA SISTERHOOD Crush Tourney on June 17th. 
Rafflecopter Code: a Rafflecopter giveaway

Itara

Cover Reveal: Wicked Hope by Tabatha Vargo





Title: Wicked Hope
Author: Tabatha Vargo
Release Date: Fall 2013
Genre: Paranormal / Fantasy Romance
Presented by: As You Wish Tours



BLURB

There isn’t anything that Mage McPherson wouldn’t do for love, including steal someone’s spirit. After Adam is tragically lost to her, Mage discovers a spell that can bring him back. But things can never be that simple, and she learns the hard way that there are always consequences when it comes to magic. Adam isn’t quite the Adam she remembers and now whatever he feels, she feels...times two.

Adam Westcott knows three things. One, Mage McPherson is the love of his life. Two, thanks to Mage’s wonder spell they are now somehow physically connected. And three, there’s a part of him, right next to the heart that beats for her, that wants to kill her. The only option is to run, but it’s impossible to run away from yourself. The inner struggle within himself makes for a hard fight when yet another dark magic comes to call.

Sometimes it’s not evil that you must defeat, sometimes it’s love, and when the line between love and hate is at its thinnest, there’s no telling what can happen. But Mage won’t lose hope, even if destiny is being a witch.

                            

EXCERPT
He’s here, just inside the electric-blue doors that mark the entrance to hell. I can sense him. The part of me that lives inside him calls to me. The connection is so strong that it takes my breath away. For a brief moment I begin to hyperventilate. Even if it wasn’t a matter of life or death, I’d still want to be here more than any other place on earth. Here, in a back alley of the city of sin.

I’m pulled towards him, so I waste no more time and push the doors open. The stench of lust and cigarette smoke invades my senses. The distinct smell of pheromones and overly sweet perfume mixes in for a very nauseating scent.

He’s knows I’m here. He can sense me the way I sense him and even though I can’t see him, I feel his eyes on me.

The loud techno music is distracting as I make my way through the crowded room. Half naked women rub themselves like horny cats against silver poles. One in particular catches my attention. She bends with the music allowing her platinum hair to fall over before she shakes it back and forth. She runs her hands up her knee high boots before throwing her head back—platinum locks thrashing around her narrow face. She looks down at me from her mini stage and mirror eyes flash with her overly seductive smile.

I turn away quickly and my eyes land on him. The moment I see him, the side of his mouth twitches into an evil smirk. Adam would never smile at me that way, and yet, there he is.


AUTHOR BIO
Tabatha's been writing since she could pick up a pencil. Her first publication was a little poem in her elementary school paper, from that point on she was hooked. When she was a teenager, she traded in her girly magazines for personalized writing notebooks.

At nineteen, she met her own personal prince charming and writing took a back burner for a while. She's now married to that prince and the mother of a beautiful seven-year-old princess/rock star. Once her daughter was born, writing came back into her life, and she finished her very first novel, Wicked Fate, in May of 2009.

She's now pursuing her English degree and she hopes to one day teach while continuing to write.
STALKER LINKS
BOOK LINKS


                                                   As You Wish Book Tours

Itara

Tuesday, June 11, 2013

Spotlight & Excerpt/ Release Event: Soul Awareness by Carol Murto


Book Title: Soul Awareness
Author: Carol Murto
Release Date: June 5, 2013
Genre: Spirituality, Healing, Alternative
Publisher: GMTA Publishing LLC
Presented by: As You Wish Tours

BLURB

Soul Awareness – A Spiritual Awakening to Self Knowledge and Healing is a Spiritual self help book, designed to bring a fresh awareness of what our Soul is and to serve as a guide to help heal at the deepest level – the Soul level. With clear, practical instruction and fascinating case histories from Carol’s 16 years as a healing practitioner, Soul Awareness will provide Spiritual direction and support through the text itself; true life stories of personal Soul healing and meditations. Soul Awareness offers tools that are appropriate for the beginner who is exploring the process of their deeper spirituality and the function of the Soul as well as individuals who may have been exploring their Soul connection and Spirituality for a life time. The direction provided in this book can lead the individual to heal on all levels; the Spiritual, physical, and psychological. Once healed, each individual life is opened to new possibilities including finding one’s life purpose.


Excerpt

Many children go quickly from birth to the experience of the maturing adult, missing the early opportunities of innocence because as infants they did not receive the love link that was needed to sustain their transition from the heavenly realm to earth. The separation from love came early and hurt entered in early. And so in our journey we lose touch with the truth of what our feelings mean. We lose our emotional balance and we truly feel alone. On a deep level we begin to yearn for something, and yet we continue to deny, stuff, and repress all that is calling to us. It is our Soul, that Divine spark, communicating with us and offering us a chance to receive information and loving direction. But life teaches us how to ignore this valuable information.

In this process, as we stuff, deny, and block the flow of natural energy, we break down, again, physically, emotionally and spiritually. And there is a price to pay for this disconnection. In this weakened emotional state we develop a weakness of being. Weakness of being is a vulnerability of self. We simply become weak in our environment and become victim to what we are exposed to. The way in which we process what we are exposed to is from a weakened place. Our center is not strong therefore we are exposed. We feel the weakness more. We feel stress more deeply. An entire host of secondary emotions, which have developed as a result of our disconnection from our Soul, then creates our overall health.

In the process of the development of our emotional being, we develop behavioral patterns, which help to determine how we will respond to our environment. It is now common knowledge in scientific communities that the emotion of stress can lead to high blood pressure, heart disease, and even some cancers. You can think of stress as an everyday occurrence, and it is; however, the way in which we perceive and process stress/pressure/strain - the way that we handle it – has everything to do with the outcome.
BOOK LINKS


About the Author
Carol grew up in a small town in Northern Minnesota. At a young age she realized that her family home held spirits. Although a practical child by nature, because she held the gifts of intuition, clairvoyance, psychic and empathic abilities she was open to that which could not be seen or understood by many. After years of living with these spirits Carol chose to communicate with them in an effort to create harmony in the household. Additionally, with these gifts, Carol’s awareness, care and compassion for others was expressed at an early age. People were naturally drawn to her and they consistently opened up their hearts and minds within minutes of meeting. Her experiences with animals - companion or otherwise has been similar to her connection with humans. This has remained true throughout her lifetime.

The experiences of those early years were an indication of what was to come in the future for Carol and they were the first steps in preparation for her healing work.

As an adult, she took employment in a traditional field. After working a number of years for the government, she became seriously physically ill with a diagnosis of systemic lupus. This bodily wake up call led her to seek out alternative forms of healing, and so she began her journey; her journey of self healing and awareness. She developed an understanding of Spirituality and her connection to the Divine. She studied Qi Gong, Quantum Healing and hypnotherapy. She learned in her journey that ultimately it is the Soul itself that plays an integral and undeniable part in our human journey and it is the health of the Soul that directly affects our whole health as human beings.

Carol has been working as an alternative healer for 16 years and has worked with hundreds of client’s and has accumulated as many session letters and testimonials which support and document her healing work. She is the author and teacher of her Soul Awareness Class materials, and has designed, written and constructed her business website. In addition to teaching her Soul Awareness classes and doing her healing work, she holds public healing forums and hosts prayer/healing gatherings. She has also co authored a series of middle grade novels.


Cover Reveal: The Mirror by Candace Bower





Book Title:  The Mirror
Author:  Candace L. Bowser
Release Date:  June 18, 2013
Genre:  Paranormal Romance/Horror
Length:  280 Pages
Publisher:  GMTA Publishing LLC
Presented by:  As You Wish Tours

ONE LINER

A betrayal so deep it has transcended 400 years is now haunting Adrianna Bristol. Will she have the courage to break the curse?



SYNOPSIS
            Adrianna Bristol came from a long line of strong, very successful women. Raised by her grandmother after her mother’s unexplained disappearance when she only three years old, her memories of her mother were vague at best. The only mother she and her twin brother Sam had even known was Anabel, her beloved grandmother.

            After her nana’s unexpected and sudden death, Adrianna begins to experience the unexplainable and is given an intense lesson as to why the mirror in her grandmother’s alcove was cover in black velvet. A curse plaques the Bristol family; a curse that gives them long life, wealth, and an immortal lover who cannot release them.

            Determined to break the curse, Adrianna sets out to learn the truth, the horrible truth behind what happened to her family nearly four hundred years ago and why her family is bonded to a specter only a handful of people have ever seen. Between despair and bliss lies the truth, and only Adrianna has the power to save them all.

 

AUTHOR BIO
An avid writer, Candace works nearly every day on one of her manuscripts. Though she predominately composes works of horror, she also writes mystery, suspense, and adventure. During the 1990’s she was a featured columnist for PRS in Kansas City. In 2011, Candace was honored by being voted one of the Top 20 Most Prolific Authors by AKG mag.. Her books are an unusual blend of historical places and events, along with fictional and non-fictional characters, which she seamlessly weaves into the story .Originally from south-central Pennsylvania, she currently resides in Kansas City with her husband Todd.

AUTHOR LINKS

BOOK LINKS


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 Itara

Review: Beasts Of The Frozen Sun by Jill Criswell

Title: Beasts Of The Frozen Sun Author: Jill Criswell Series: Frozen Sun Saga #1 Genre: YA Fantasy Publishing Date: August 6, 2...