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Special Edition of FINDING POE Released!

3/26/2015

New Special Edition! Calling all die-hard Poe fans....

Finding Poe is a riddle to be solved, and this edition caters to both those who feel up to the task and those who may have read the book but failed to solve the puzzle embedded within the story.

If you’re a Poe fan, you’ll already know he was the father of the deductive detective story. Many scholars will argue that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes series was inspired by Poe’s Detective Dupin stories.

This book asks the reader to assume the hat of the deductive detective. Throughout the text, there are numerous clues to direct the reader toward an alternate speculation about Poe’s untimely death. Before you set out to solve the riddle, however, you must first find the question….

Click here for details.

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KEY TO LAWRENCE by the Cargills

3/20/2015

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Today, the Cargills are here to promote the special edition of Key to Lawrence. They will be giving away a historical, 100-year-old postcard of the Lusitania--a valuable collector's item. For your chance to win, enter using the Rafflecopter box below.

About the book:

Water rushed into the four, great smoke stacks of the ship as they, too, hit the waves. Tremendous, churning whirlpools sucked victims inside. A few were ejected, blackened with soot. Propellers rose above the maelstrom. The rudder lifted higher than the smoke stacks. The ship's prow pointed down toward the deep. It looked as if the ship's nose would hit the sea bed hundreds of feet below. The Lusitania sank in only 18 minutes after being torpedoed on May 7, 1915. Dora Benley vowed revenge on the enemy. Key to Lawrence tracks the beginning of her quest for justice in this special edition of the first volume of the Edward Ware Thriller Series. It commemorates the 100th anniversary of the Great War.

Excerpt:

Manhattan — Saturday, May 1, 1915

The stranger stared at Dora’s package. A wide-brimmed hat shaded his face, revealing only a dark beard and mustache. Smoking a small, cheap, stubby cigar, dressed in a nondescript, ill-fitting dark suit, the man strutted towards her in a menacing fashion. Blueish-white cigar smoke curled upward in a lazy corkscrew. It vanished into the air several yards above his head.

Twenty-year-old Dora Benley quickly stuffed the surprise birthday gift for her father into her satchel. Holding a green parasol edged with black fringe over her head she skirted crowds of well-dressed, gossiping passengers waiting to board the Lusitania. Dressed in a full-length, aquamarine dress with white lace around the sleeves, Dora moved as far away from the intruder as she could without falling off the edge of the pier.

She searched impatiently for her parents. They were supposed to rendezvous with her at 11:00 AM. By now it was almost noon!

A man and woman reporting team burst upon the crowd at Cunard’s Pier 54. They were trailed by a photographer and his assistants carrying a large folding camera and a tripod. The reporters hurled themselves at the passengers.

“What do you think of the German announcement?” The male reporter thrust a copy of The New York Times at Dora. He pointed to the advertisement prominently displayed on the front page....

About the authors:

The Cargills docked at Southampton and explored the South of England in preparation for this thriller, Key to Lawrence. They also sailed the North Atlantic just like Dora Benley. But their transatlantic voyages were on the Queen Mary 2 instead of the Lusitania. They made use of the American Southwest where they live to depict the Syrian Desert that was home to Lawrence of Arabia. For more about the Cargills, visit their website, stop by Linda's Facebook fan page, check out their Pinterest page, or visit them on Goodreads.

Key to Lawrence is available at Amazon.

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K. Williams on Writing Deceit

3/18/2015

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Today, guest author K. Williams is here to share about her recent release, Operation Deceit. She'll be giving away one paperback copy and ten electronic copies of her book at the end of her blog tour. For your chance to win, enter using the Rafflecopter box below. I asked Williams if she would share a little about the main theme in her book, and the following was her response:

Deceit of Nuance by K. Williams

Throughout the narrative of OP-DEC: Operation Deceit, I weave secrets. From the start, you’re introduced into a situation of which you know little and by the end of that scene, you know very little else, but the nuance suggests to you that you might already have a handle on what is going on. The point is to make it clear that the book is about those things that cannot be readily understood with any certainty. I use deceit, cunning and nuance to string you, the reader, along.

Deceit is invaluable to understanding and sensing the quirks of the work. Should too much be said, then too much would be clear and the reader isn’t meant to be let in on the secrets anymore than the spies who keep them. They wouldn’t be doing their jobs very well if they did—neither would I. Some might state that this reduces the tension of the novel, whereas I find it actually makes for far more tension, by leaving matters unsettled and the mystery thick. Likewise, whatever is said cannot be counted on as accurate. The deceit makes the reader think they know what is happening, later pulling the rug from under them to reveal they hadn’t the grasp they were led to believe they had.

One of the most deceitful aspects of the book is the figure of Carsten Reiniger, who sweeps in on the eve of the closing of the biggest secret that Claire has experienced, up until that moment, in her life. His appearance at her home is unexplained. Moreover, no one apparently knows why he is there. You’ll be told many times, who and what Carsten Reiniger is, only to have that information unwound around him to reveal something quite different. Imagine having to rely on such a person for your very life.

The hallmark of thrillers, and in fact screenwriting as well, is the tidal cycle of tension. It is what keeps the reader moving forward with the story. So thus, sharing the inside of secrets deflates the exquisite tension that holding back better provides. Where is the fun in already knowing the secret which should have shattered the bonds that keep the characters together? Subjectively, it is a choice one makes and it can be an important one. Keep in mind that a good mystery doesn’t come out and tell you who dunnit until the end. Instead, they provide the cycle of tension and release, dotting the landscape of the narrative with clues. Strong mystery readers pride themselves on being able to put together those clues and accurately predicting who the criminal is before the investigator does. They prefer that puzzle be tricky to resolve. Otherwise, the fun of reading is lost. No thrills. No challenge.

Nuance is the bedrock of deceit and tension building, a tool for the thriller or mystery writer utilized with care to do their job well. I will avoid listing all the things in the book that provide nuance and thus clues to what is going on (spoilers from the author are the worst kind). But, I can speak to setting and this effect. Yes, nuance can be setting, mood, the way a character speaks or acts, or even items mise-en-scène. Temporal concerns, though they are an overt intertext (relationship between literary and other ‘texts’ such as conversations, experiences, films, games and culture and how they create meaning together), they additionally carry nuance. For instance, the year the novel starts is the same year that the Nazi party grabs power away from the Weimar Republic, 1931. When you read the prologue, picture that bit of history. The parallels are unsettling. 1942 is the height of Nazi occupied Europe. The parallels continue: boldness, invasiveness, violence and danger. The nuance of those emotions manifests clues along with constructing setting.

If I have done my job correctly, the nuance (or intertexts) and the painstaking reveal will converge to create an exciting ride, where the reader can’t see what’s beyond the end of their speeding vehicle. It’s a gamble, because the pieces I choose to weave together may or may not trigger an intertext in the manner I assume. Subjectivity allows us to enjoy (or not) art on our own terms, regardless of the intent of the author. It also makes my deceit that much more complete—your enjoyment may be on your terms, but I have a means to manipulate those terms by the words that I weave… So many assumptions floating around, one can never tell what the intent is of the author or the characters. The reader remains upended.

This bedrock is what makes the story possible. The give and take between the author and reader, hanging on the edge of truth and lies.

On a side note, don’t get too settled in what you believe by the end of OP-DEC. A sequel is coming. It’s very likely to destroy everything you think you know about Carsten Reiniger. Or, maybe you’ll see right through my cloak and dagger parrying.

About the novel:

A shadowy past becomes a sinister future… It's 1933 and the height of Boston's social season. Claire Healey overhears a terrible argument between her industrial-tycoon father and her socialite mother. Claire's father sends her mother away, declaring she is hysterical with fatigue. Displaced by this disastrous outcome, Claire is brought to New York by her spirited aunt, to be raised beyond the reach of the damaging turn of events.

Nine years later, Claire returns to her childhood home to face her past once more. The world has long since exploded in war. A mysterious stranger named Carsten Reiniger has infiltrated the scene, placing his commanding presence among the old familiar faces of Boston's elite. Intrigued by the newcomer, Claire struggles to piece together his identity and finds a dangerous connection to her troubling past. When Claire's prying comes to light, she and her aunt are whisked away in the middle of the night to ensure their silence. Can Carsten Reiniger be trusted or is he implacably loyal to duty alone?

Excerpt:

Fantasies of jumping from the moving vehicle or pushing Carsten out with a display of sudden and great strength filled Claire’s mind the entire ride back to her father’s house. The night somehow clung more darkly to their street. A roll of thunder echoed in the distance, barely audible above the growl of the engine. The driver steered the car up to the gate, pausing for it to open. The menacing groan of the iron barrier awakened Claire’s need to escape. She moved, but Carsten’s alertness obstructed such notions. His hand tightly grasped her wrist, planting her hand firmly on the seat between them. The concealed gun glinted, catching the reflection of the headlights. Pain and fear played on her face.

“Not just yet,” he said in low tones as the car proceeded slowly up the drive.

Carsten released her hand and patted it, wearing one of his grins. Claire tore her hand away, clutching it to her chest. Her owlish eyes kept a close watch on him. He only chuckled, amused by her fear. She was at his mercy with not a soul to help her.

The driver remained focused on his task. Claire wagered the driver had already known about the plans for the night, and he played along to keep his cushy job. The car coasted up to the overhang and came to a gentle stop. This time, he didn’t get out and open the door. He waited, allowing Carsten to do it instead.

Carsten reached across Claire and opened her door.

“Slowly,” he instructed, brandishing the weapon more boldly.

About the author:

Born in Saratoga Springs, New York, where she continues to reside, K.Williams embarked on a now twenty year career in writing. After a childhood, which consisted of voracious reading and hours of film watching, it was a natural progression to study and work in the arts.

K attended the State University of New York at Morrisville, majoring in the Biological Sciences, and then continued with English and Historical studies at the University at Albany (home of the New York State Writer’s Institute) gaining her Bachelor’s Degree. While attending UA, K interned with the 13th Moon Feminist Literary Magazine, bridging her interests in social movements and art.

Currently, K has completed the MALS program for Film Studies and Screenwriting at Empire State College (SUNY), and is the 2013-2014 recipient of the Foner Fellowship in Arts and Social Justice. K continues to write and is working on the novels of the Trailokya Trilogy, a work that deals with topics in Domestic Violence and crosses the controversial waters of organized religion and secularism. A sequel to OP-DEC is in the research phase, while the adaptation is being shopped to interested film companies. Excerpts of these and more writings can be found at: www.bluehonor.com. You can also follow her on Facebook, Twitter, and Goodreads.

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ONE CRAZY NIGHT Collection

3/16/2015

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Today, I have the pleasure of hosting Nightshade Reads in promotion of its recently released paranormal fantasy anthology, One Crazy Night. The authors are giving away a handful of prizes including a $10 Amazon gift card, an electronic copy of the entire Enigma Black Trilogy by Sara Furlong Burr, an electronic copy of Hunters by Aoife Marie Sheridan an electronic copy of For the People: Post-Secession by R. Holland, and an electronic copy of The Prophecy of Arcadia by M. H. Soars. Enter for your chance to win using the Rafflecopter box below.

About the anthology:

Nightshade Reads presents their debut fantasy anthology, featuring eight of the genre’s freshest up-and-coming independent authors. Get ready for One Crazy Night, packed full of magical encounters, dark secrets and shocking revelations.

Get a glimpse into a powerful queen’s dark and brutal backstory in Aoife Marie Sheridan’s Bellona.
In Louise Nick’s Love Magic, a homemade love spell goes disastrously wrong for two amateur teen witches.
A young woman is captured by beautiful, dangerous creatures in M.H. Soars Elements.
A teenage boy falls in love, but things quickly become complicated in R. Holland’s Lady in Black.
Sara Furlong Burr brings a broken man’s troubles to light as he is offered a solution by a mysterious stranger in The Recruit.
Emma Faragher spins a dark origin tale of sisterhood and magic in Necromancer Lineage.
The kindness of a stranger takes a homeless young man by surprise in The Keymaker by Teshelle Combs.
Sharon Stevenson’s Reanimator brings death and magic together to change the fate of one young man’s life.

All proceeds from this Anthology's sale will go to The Leukaemia & Lymphoma Research Organisation.

You can find One Crazy Night, currently available in e-book, at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Smashwords, and Kobo. You can read more about the book on Goodreads.

Nightshade Reads is a group of YA and NA authors who love to spin Paranormal and Fantasy stories. The group is composed by Sara Furlong Burr, Teshelle Combs,Emma Faragher, R. Holland, Louise Nicks, Aoife Marie Sheridan, M. H. Soars, and Sharon Stevenson.

Connect with the Nightshade Reads authors:

Facebook: Sara Furlong Burr, Teshelle Combs, and M. H. Soars
Goodreads: Emma Faragher, R. Holland, and Louise Nicks
Amazon: Aoife Marie Sheridan and Sharon Stevenson

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THE BROTHERS' KEEPERS by Matthew Peters

3/13/2015

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Today, guest author Matthew Peters is promoting his new release, The Brothers' Keepers. He will be giving away a $10 Amazon or Barnes and Noble gift card to one guest, so make sure to enter using the Rafflecopter box below.

I asked Peters if he might share a little about the themes prominent in the story, and he offered some insight into the social and political commentary threaded throughout the work.

On Doctrine and Truth:

Two major themes run throughout The Brothers’ Keepers. The first is that we need to be careful of accepting doctrine in a wholesale manner—regardless of who is force-feeding it to us. What we’ve always believed to be true isn’t necessarily the whole story, or even part of it. In The Republic Plato talks about the concept of a noble lie, which is a story put forth by the political and religious elite in order to keep harmony in society. The Brothers’ Keepers is essentially a meditation on whether the Judeo-Christian tradition is one of these noble lies. Question what you are told is a concise way of stating this theme.

Secondly, the book cautions that just because someone has found the “truth” of a situation, doesn’t mean that this truth should be revealed. For sometimes, the truth is more dangerous than the lie it exposes. At the end of the book, Branson is faced with a tremendous decision, involving whether to reveal or keep hidden the contents of an ancient treasure. His conflict is between knowing the “truth,” and revealing the “truth,” the latter of which might hurt society more than help it.

About the novel:

Most of us are familiar with Jesus’ parents, Mary and Joseph, and Jesus’ purported spouse, Mary Magdalene. But what about Jesus’ siblings? What role did they play in early Christianity?

Contemporary Jesuit and renowned religious historian Nicholas Branson is about to find out…and the answer will shake the foundations of the Judeo-Christian world.

It all starts with the murder of a United States Senator in a confessional, and the discovery of a strange religious document among his possessions. At the urging of his FBI friend, Branson joins the investigation. His effort to uncover the truth behind the murder draws him into the search for an eight-hundred-year-old treasure and into a web of ecclesiastical and political intrigue.

Accompanied by a beautiful, sharp-tongued research librarian, Jessica Jones, Branson follows a trail of clues, from the peaks of the awe inspiring French Pyrenees to the caves of war-torn Afghanistan. Along the way, shadowy powerful forces trail the pair, determined to keep safe a secret buried for centuries.

Excerpt:

The bus moved up Viadotto and turned right onto Rene. Smells of fried food and burning incense wafted through the open windows of the bus. A left turn brought them to Emilia, past white stone buildings, statues, and street vendors, past the fountains toward the heart of Pisa. The further north they went, the closer they came to the Arno, where a vast migration of darkly-clad figures moved in the opposite direction, southeast toward Rome. It was a black exodus of grief, one of almost unreal proportions; swarms of people with lowered heads and bent postures, heading desperately, slowly, inexorably toward a common ill-fated destination. The dark edges of the black clothes stood out in stark contrast to the gray day that blurred the corners of buildings and churches. Rain fell, blended with human tears, and smudged the scene like a charcoal sketch. Open, dark umbrellas resembled the conical piles of volcanic ash upon which the country was built. On that gray morning Pisa wore a death-mask.

About the author:

Dual diagnosed* from an early age, Matthew Peters dropped out of high school at sixteen. He went on to obtain an A.A., a B.A. from Vassar College, and an M.A. and Ph.D. from Duke University. He has taught various courses in a variety of disciplines throughout North Carolina. He is committed to increasing the awareness and understanding of the dual diagnosed. In addition to The Brothers’ Keepers, he is the author of Conversations Among Ruins, which features a dual diagnosed protagonist. Currently, he is working on a sequel to The Brothers’ Keepers.

*The term dual diagnosed refers to someone suffering from a mood disorder (e.g., depression) and chemical dependency.

For more about Matthew Peters and his work, check out his website, blog, Twitter page or Facebook author page. His book is available through Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Kobo, and MuseItUp Publishing.

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Zombiepalooza: Women Rocking Horror

3/7/2015

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This evening, I had the pleasure of being a guest on the Zombiepalooza Radio Show, hosted by Jackie Chin, for a special Women in Horror segment that included Sephera Giron, Mercedes M. Yardley, Suzi M., and Chantal Noordeloos. If you happened to miss it, you can catch the archived copy below. It was a fantastic show with some entertaining and insightful interviews, one well worth your time.

zombiepaloozaradio on livestream.com. Broadcast Live Free

Can't see the video above? Click here to watch the archived show directly at Livestream.

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PASSING THE TORCH by L.L. Sanders

3/3/2015

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Today, guest author L.L. Sanders is here to promote her new release, Passing the Torch. L.L. will be giving away a $10 Amazon or Barnes and Noble gift card and three electronic copies of the novel. Use the Rafflecopter box below to enter.

About the novel:

Deep in the Arizona desert live a girl and her dad, burying secrets--and bodies.

Mesa Kingston's first memory of burying a corpse was at eight years old. Back then it had been the carcass of a large lizard her dad found that they buried in the backyard of their isolated cottage. At age fourteen, the body of a young lady accompanied the reptile's remains, and ever since, an accumulation of female bodies began to grow. Now, the only way Mesa can stop the haunting screams of the dead is by drowning them out with flames. Or is there more to the blaze than even she can perceive?

Excerpt:

Good girls do anything for their fathers, including rob, cheat, and kill, and I always considered myself a good girl. The time I first came to that conclusion will stay with me forever. Years later, here I am, still fulfilling my daughterly duty.

After wiping the sweat from my palm onto my jeans, I press the bulbous tip of the match against the strike strip on the side of the small carton. My hands shake worse than Grandma's had when trying to slice her ninety-first birthday cake just a few hours ago, but I manage to run the match across it anyway. The flame comes alive at my fingertips, dancing merrily at the prospect of latching on to something and disintegrating it into smoldering embers. Although the light breeze causes the flame to flicker at the end of the matchstick, I'm aware of the control I have over it. I watch the glow change shape through a veil of tears and with that the decision was absolute.

The flame will get to perform its destructive duty.

I flick the match toward the pile of wooden planks that used to be the porch. Instantly the fire catches the fumes of the pooled liquid and expands so quickly a wall of gasoline-scented hot air rushes me before the blaze travels deeper into the house. I back away to a safe distance as the straw-like grass crunches beneath my feet. Nearing the homemade fence, which is nothing more than a double row of chicken wire, I hear the screams from the distance, cries of agony that meld with my memory like two spreading pools of melted wax. I can't stop the waterworks. I don't even make an attempt.

About the author:

L.L. Sanders, who also writes erotic romance and post-apocalyptic/dystopian fiction under Leslie Lee Sanders, feels most inspired by horror and thriller fiction, which is what she grew up on what began her pursuit to authorship.

She's a huge fan of horror and psychological thrillers in every fashion, including movies, books, art, campfire tales, etc. Some of her favorite stories are those that twist at the end or are ambiguous with deep societal or morality themes. This includes dystopias like Hugh Howey’s Wool, psychological thrillers like Shutter Island, and popular and classic horror/romances like V.C. Andrews’s Flowers in the Attic, her favorite.

According to the author: "All my ideas start with a twist, which is exactly how most of my stories end."

For more information about L.L. Sanders and her work, visit her on Facebook, Twitter, or her website. Passing the Torch is available through Amazon.

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Special Edition of FINDING POE Released!

KEY TO LAWRENCE by the Cargills

K. Williams on Writing Deceit

ONE CRAZY NIGHT Collection

THE BROTHERS' KEEPERS by Matthew Peters

Zombiepalooza: Women Rocking Horror

PASSING THE TORCH by L.﻿L. Sanders

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PASSING THE TORCH by L.L. Sanders