Wednesday, May 27, 2020

Cover Reveal Hurricane Vignette by Avery Kilpatrick



Hurricane Vignette
Avery Kilpatrick

Genre: Poetry, Inspirational, Women Poets
Publisher: Avery Kilpatrick
Date of Publication: June 18, 2020
ASIN: B088KTYWPS
Number of pages: 64 pages
Word Count: 4,354

Cover Artist: Anna Claire Garrard

Book Description:

From debut poet and author Avery Kilpatrick, Hurricane Vignette tells the story of a difficult time in her life—a time of struggle, depression, suicide, recovery, and triumph. This poetry collection is a personal diary of Kilpatrick’s most inner thoughts and her journey of healing.

These poems are filled with raw emotion and contain sensitive subjects such as suicide, depression, and anxiety. However, like most stories, there is a happy ending—a moment of clarity that evokes peace and victory over the chaos of life.




About the Author:

Avery Kilpatrick was born in Flowood, Mississippi, in April 1996. Raised in a small town in the Mississippi Delta, she has a fondness for nature and the cotton fields that create Southern snow pastures in the fall. After writing her first novel when she was thirteen, Avery decided to pursue her dream as an author at a young age.

An alumnus of Delta State University in Cleveland, Mississippi, Avery graduated with a Bachelor’s in English. She also worked on the student-run newspaper, The Delta Statement, during her four-year career at Delta State as copy-editor and Editor-in-Chief.

Avery currently lives in a ranch-style home in her hometown in Greenwood, Mississippi. The mother of three fur babies, Cinnamon the spoiled cat, Ginger the rambunctious old lady, and Remington a.k.a. Remi the service dog, Avery has enough fur from shedding animals to make a fourth pet. When Avery isn’t busy writing her next novel, she goes on walks with her mother and dogs, watches Outlander or Criminal Minds on Netflix, or can be found curled up on the couch with Cinnamon reading a good book.








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Thursday, May 21, 2020

Pre-Order Pumpkins and Party Themes: 50 DIY Designs to Bring Your Halloween Extravaganza to Life



Pumpkins and Party Themes
50 DIY Designs to Bring Your Halloween Extravaganza to Life
By Roxanne Rhoads

Paperback: 176 pages

Publisher: Skyhorse 

Release Date: August 4, 2020

ISBN-10: 1510751165

ISBN-13: 978-1510751163

Bring your Halloween party theme to life with these quick tips and tricks!

Pumpkins and Party Themes features ten unique party themes with five do-it-yourself pumpkin designs for each theme. The pumpkin projects have a variety of decorating ideas that include carving, painting, and mixed media craftiness and easy-to-follow steps on each creation. Author Roxanne Rhoads also includes quick ideas on how to bring the theme to life through décor, costumes, and activities. These fun party themes range from gothic elegance to Edgar Allan Poe, under the sea, let's get literary, and more!

With beautiful full-color images to illustrate the tools needed, steps to follow, and final products, this book makes for the perfect gift for Halloween enthusiasts and party hosts alike!


Pre-Order at 

Amazon      IndieBound      BN      Kobo     Chapters     

Simon and Schuster      GoogleBooks     Target     Books-A-Million

Wednesday, May 20, 2020

Interview- The Dark Awakening by D.L. Blade #YAParanormal #authorinterview



- If you were not a writer what would you be doing?

I’d actually love to produce and direct films someday. I love creating stories, so if I wasn’t a writer of books, perhaps I can do it on film.

- If you wrote a book about your life what would the title be?

Wine and Chocolate with a Side of Dogs

- What is the hardest thing about being an author?

Time. I have the ideas, but getting the time, on top of caring of a 4 and 7-year-old, is tough. Really, really tough.

- What is the best thing about being an author?

Sharing my imagination with others and hearing someone tell me that my story helped their teenager or themselves love reading.

- Have you ever been star struck by meeting one of your favorite authors? If so who was it?

Having lunch with the author of Skinny Bitch, Rory Freedman, was pretty freaken awesome.

- What book changed your life?

The Vampire Diaries. I wasn’t a reader until I picked up that book and it led me on the journey to love reading, and then create my own.

- What were your some of favorite books growing up?

Twilight, The Vampire Diaries and Evermore. They hooked me from the very start.

- What books are currently in your to be read pile?

Too many. Right now, I’m reading The Hunger Games and Little Fires Everywhere

- Which do you prefer ebooks, print, or audio books?

eBooks unless it’s a signed paperback. I love paperback but eBooks are more affordable, so I can buy more, but also, my eyes have a tough time with paperback. I like to be able to make it big and bright.

- If you could live inside the world of a book or series which world would it be and why?

The Vampire Diaries again. Mystic Falls is adorable and I’d love to kick with Damon Salvatore anytime. 


The Dark Awakening

The Chosen Coven

Book One

D.L. Blade



Genre: YA Paranormal

Publisher: Fifth Element Publishing

Date of Publication: October 2nd, 2018

ISBN: 9780578416458

ASIN: B07G22WH8H
Number of pages: 252
Word Count: 69,000

Cover Artist: Redbird Designs

Tagline: Darkness is coming, and she’s their last hope

Book Description:

She's stalked, hunted, and a villainous vampire desires her blood.

Mercy’s life is anything but ordinary. A stalker lurks in the shadows, and a man rescues her from a life-threatening car accident, but vanishes right before her eyes.
But this man who she thought was a hallucination, tracks her down at a nearby cove, and claims they were once in love from another time. Another century.

Mercy has no memory of this world he shares, and instinctively doesn’t trust him.
He also reveals to her a life-changing secret—she’s a powerful witch, vampires are real, and she's destined to destroy them.

Mercy finds herself dragged into a centuries-old battle against the undead, and a sadistic vampire leader has set his sights on her. And he will stop at nothing until he claims Mercy as his own.

She and her coven won’t go down without a fight. She needs to discover the truth about her past, and the power she holds, before it’s too late.


Amazon       Universal Link     Audible     Goodreads


EXCERPT 3

When I turned around, he was nowhere to be seen. A heavy sigh escaped as I eyed Lily’s truck about a hundred feet ahead. I looked around one more time and then sprinted to the truck. Once inside, I locked it and pulled my phone out of my pocket. My phone had been turned o.
This is going to take too long.
He would reach me before my phone powered on. I powered it on anyway and put my hands back on the keys which were still in the ignition. I tried again. The car didn’t make a sound.
Please turn on, please turn on.
I gripped the keys so tightly that the house key was digging into my palm. “Turn on!” The feeling of electricity sparked in my hand, followed by a green light from my fingertips. I quickly removed my hand and the car started up.
What the hell?
The shock of what had just happened stunned me. I couldn’t move or think straight.
I sensed movement ahead coming out of the forest and I looked up. He was standing there. His sleeves were now pulled up to his elbows, revealing his muscular arms. My eyes narrowed down to his wrist, revealing a red flame tattoo that reached from his wrist to his elbow. My stomach churned and I felt like throwing up. It was him; it was the man who had pulled me from my car after the accident.

About the Author:


D.L. Blade grew up in southern California, but relocated to Colorado with her family in 2014.

She always loved writing, concentrating on poetry rather than prose when she was younger. That changed however, when she had a dream one night and decided to create a story about it.

In her spare time, D.L. enjoys a wide variety of hobbies, including reading, attending rock concerts and volunteering at local animal shelters where she can indulge in her passion for all forms of life.

In the future, D.L. hopes that she can continue to write exciting novels that will captivate her readers and bring them into the worlds that she creates using her imagination.















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Tuesday, May 19, 2020

Release Day Blitz Interview- Altered Helix by Stephanie Hansen #YASciFi #authorinterview


- If you were not a writer what would you be doing ? 

Animation Producer

- If you wrote a book about your life what would the title be? 

Somehow I survived…again

- What is the hardest thing about being an author? 

There aren’t enough hours in each day to accomplish all that I would like to as an author

- What is the best thing about being an author? 

Does it have to be one thing? The best thing about being an author is the freedom to creatively grow. If I’m allowed a second, it’s the author community.

- What book changed your life? 

I’m not going to include the book of my youth but the book that helped save me during a hospital stay. It was The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson. I was having to relearn how to walk and reading about Lisbeth Salander was the perfect inspiration.

- What were your some of favorite books growing up? 

😊 Growing up I read a lot of Mary Higgins Clark, Stephen King’s Dark Tower Series, and older the Harry Potter series.

- What books are currently in your to be read pile? 

Mila 2.0 by Debra Driza, Followers by Megan Angelo, & Look Both Ways by Jason Reynolds

- Which do you prefer ebooks, print, or audio books? 

Audio during my commute. When I’m able to sit back and relax I prefer print. When I’m on the go travelling I prefer ebook. I didn’t answer that question well because I like all books. #bibliophile


Altered Helix
Altered Helix Series
Book One
Stephanie Hansen

Genre: YA science fantasy - Novella
Publisher: Hypothesis Books
Date of Publication: 5/19/20
ASIN: B087X9X2JZ
Number of pages: 176
Word Count: 35,000
Cover Artist: inkE Cover Design

Tagline: Some dangers come barreling at you like a freight train. Others slide right under your nose without being noticed.



Book Description:



I didn’t want to take the traditional path. First, I wasn’t ready for college. Second, I was going to live with my best friend, Tiff, and work at the Haunted House. Third, did I mention the hot guy Josh that works there too?



The most exciting thing about Austria’s new job, at a local haunted house, was the fact that the toughest looking people screamed the loudest. But when she meets the boy without a home, Josh, Austria's life takes intriguing and eventful turns. Up until now, Josh has managed to hang with his Street crowd, but they’re in danger, and so is Austria, the girl Josh recently fell for. The group finds themselves joining forces with previously considered enemies who also now find themselves in danger.

Deeply compassionate and full of twists, Altered Helix captures the struggle of polarized people that must work together for the greater good.


Amazon      Books2Read
Excerpt:
As I walk through the hallway to the living room, it’s disturbingly silent.  I don’t hear my mother’s fingers brilliantly strumming piano keys. The Silver Clouds Chasing the Moon by Lang Lang, music sheets are strewn chaotically about the room. I close my eyes and focus on my mother’s energy. A vision of her on the bench in the garden under the pergola comes to mind.

I leap the stepping-stones, skipping every other. Blue hydrangeas and orange daffodils blur by me. As I approach, I notice the yellow roses are in full blossom, their smell fresh as the tide rolling in. My mother’s holding a picture in her hands. When she looks up, I see tear streaks on her cheeks. I sit down and put an arm around her. She’s holding the last photo we took as a family. My eyes zero in on a male, mirror image of myself, my father. I was fourteen then; now I’m seventeen and graduated early. I wish he could’ve been there to see it. Mother should be holding a photo of my graduation day with all of us in it, smiling.

I squeeze her shoulder as my throat constricts in pain. Without looking up, I can feel my mother’s eyes turn to me. I close my eyes and place my wrists on my knees. I begin playing the piece thrown from the stand in our living room by heart, moving my fingers to the rhythm and placing them where the notes should be. She squeezes my shoulder in return.

Walking to the house, she stops and points at the tire swing, offering an aching smile. I hold her hand as the visualization takes me. My father’s pushing me at the age of four, and I feel like I’m on one of the roller coasters we drive by on Route 435. One of the old ones with only a handlebar for safety, no seatbelts. At the top, my stomach floats up, and the view down becomes daunting. The velocity forces me to squeal. I can still picture his smile seeing me enjoy the ride. In the excitement, I let go to raise my hands in glee. I still remember the way his face turned from elation to horror. He moved faster than I could imagine and caught me before I met my imminent doom.


About the Author:

Stephanie Hansen's short story, Break Time, and poetry has been featured in Mind’s Eye literary magazine. The Kansas Writers Association published her short story, Existing Forces, appointing her as a noted author. She has held a deep passion for writing since early childhood, but a brush with death caused her to allow it to grow. She's part of an SCBWI critique group in Lawrence, KS and two local book clubs. She attends many writers’ conferences including the New York Pitch, Penned Con, New Letters, All Write Now, Show Me Writers Master Class, BEA, and Nebraska Writers Guild conference as well as Book Fairs and Comic-Cons. She’s a member of the deaf and hard of hearing community.









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Wednesday, May 13, 2020

Author Interview - Spawn of the Cataclysm by Robert Hoppensteadt #authorinterview


- If you were not a writer what would you be doing ? 

I would have been an archeologist working in the field. I have always loved history, and as a kid I was going to do that but as many of us do I would up going to college and finding out I was pretty good with computers just as they were coming into the world in a big way. I had a varied career but was able to retire young. I still love history but  spending my days with a brush and trowel bent over in the elements is less appealing than it was when I was 12.

- If you wrote a book about your life what would the title be?

I am writing a book about my life (or a small piece of it) but I can’t share the working title just yet. I will instead plagiarize a famous film title and say “The Good, The Bad and The Ugly” covers it pretty well.

- What is the hardest thing about being an author?

For me it is the initial writing. It is an odd thing, in that when I am writing time flies and I am happy. It is really hard for me to get started though, to sit down and not find a hundred little distractions that keep me from making progress. Once I am deeper into the project, maybe at the 20K word mark or so, it gets easier as I begin to have confidence that it will be good and I will be able to finish it.

- What is the best thing about being an author?

Creating characters and worlds that didn’t exist until I wrote them, and breathing enough life into them that another person can visit and feel the experience of being there.

- Have you ever been star struck by meeting one of your favorite authors? If so who was it?

I have not really had that happen, though I was in a poetry writing group years ago and there were several people in there who were really very good. I am much better at writing prose, though I will say I had some poetry published as well. One of the poets in my group that really stood out was Lisa Ortiz, and she, along with a few of the others, has had some publication success herself though not nearly enough in my opinion.  

- What book changed your life?

The first time I read the ancient writers I was amazed that I could connect with someone who sat in daylight or before an oil lamp and wrote his (or in the case of Sappho her) very human thoughts on what passed for paper back then. One of the first of those I read was The Satyricon, (probably by Gaius Petronius, a friend of Nero’s), which is really only fragments of an ancient “novel” that gives a direct look into what the street life in ancient Rome was like during the first century. I like the looser styles of Julius Caesar, Tacitus and Suetonius as opposed to the more dry histories.

- What were your some of favorite books growing up?

I was really into the Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Pellucidar and Barsoom books as my first real reading interests. Before that I had books that were primarily about dinosaurs and butterflies.

- What books are currently in your to be read pile?

Since I have started writing another novel I tend not to read much, but when I do I like quick read thrillers like John Sandford’s Prey series and spin-offs, Lee Child’s Reacher novels or less heavy historical novels like Simon Scarrow’s Gladiator novels or some of the older Roman detective novels like the Steven Saylor’s books about Gordianus the Finder.

- Which do you prefer ebooks, print, or audio books?

Print, I still like to hold them in my hands and turn the pages.  I have read a few books on my wife’s Kindle though and I suppose I could get used to that.

- If you could live inside the world of a book or series which world would it be and why?

The past was really interesting but in reality it was a much harder place to live. In most cases the “good old days” weren’t all that great. I would want to go into the future, someplace where the universe had opened up and spilled many more of her secrets. Maybe an adventurous life as well would be good. To be honest I have not read a lot of science fiction recently but I think the worlds of the Heritage series of novels by Charles Sheffield would be a great place to be. I could get a do-over on being an archeologist in the realm of Builder artifacts.


Spawn of the Cataclysm
Robert Hoppensteadt

Genre: Post-Apocalyptic Adventure

Publisher: Solstice Publishing
Date of Publication: March 2. 2020
ISBN:  979-8620552344
ASIN:  B085DN3K5V

Number of pages: Print 227; Kindle 194
Word Count: 70K

Book Description:

Humans carelessly wielded their power to create new things, a power that far outpaced their understanding.  It was only a matter of time until something went terribly wrong.  Something did. 

Technology has been erased for millenniums, monsters spawned at the end of a world infest the forests and seas, and a new civilization has slowly risen from the long darkness. In sight of the looming ruins of what was once called San Francisco there is an evil growing. 

The people of New Gate are about to face their greatest challenge. 


Excerpt Chapter One

“We didn’t create the virus, it lived in the wild. We found it when Howler monkeys began starving to death even though they stripped every local crop in the area. The virus triggered their metabolism to speed up ... we were paid by the Defense Department to develop an offensive application, said we could keep exclusive rights to all its commercial uses if we delivered. It could have changed the way we grow food but they pushed us. It wasn’t ready to test, and when the earthquake hit… is out now. The death toll will be on their heads. And ours.”

Translated from the Cataclysm


Rik Arrowen leaned over the gunwale, his gaze following dancing green shafts of sunlight that plunged into the depths. He strained his eyes, thought he saw movement.  A huge shadow drifted slowly below the light. He knew the creature they Hunted was down there, a hungry thing that lurked unseen.
“It is here,” he muttered.
A school of silver fish darted upward, their bodies flashed like a thousand mirrors. Rik’s heart jumped in the instant before a sail-sized fin, jagged and scarred, cut slowly into the green twilight before receding back into the murk. He had no time to catch his breath, or shout a warning, when the great misshapen spawn rose fast and straight into the light, its gaping jaws filled with teeth. The thing ignored the weighted haunch of bloody meat they had drawn it in with, and hit the wooden galley on the port side with enough force to knock four Hunters into the bay.
As the hull rocked, the water turned red and raw screams filled the air.

***

“What a beautiful day to be alive.”
The voice blew away Rik’s memory and brought him back to where he stood, high above the countryside on the windy battlement of Stonehaven’s north wall.
“Oh, forgive me,” the voice continued. “Did I startle you?”
Rik did not bother to turn around.
“No, Jerold,” he replied. “I was watching the bay. It’s been six days since we lost those four Hunters to the spawn. I can’t stop hearing their screams as the thing ate them. Nothing we could do. We hit it with five harpoons and it still swam away. On the way down, it swallowed the bait haunch whole, and would have pulled us under if we hadn’t cut the rope.” He paused for a moment. “I have never seen one that big. I hope it has gone back out to sea.”
“May the Mystery welcome them all,” Jerold said. “I don’t often see anyone else up here this time of day. I like the solitude, the view calms me when the Council is crawling up my back about money.”
Rik scanned the horizon. The morning mist had burned away, and the sea breeze held a hint of pine. To the west rose a low range covered with giant redwoods, some of them hundreds of feet tall.  The ridge continued to wind its way from the south, ending in cliffs at the mouth of the bay. The wide channel reflected the blue of the sky, and ripples that ran counter to the waves marked strong currents that carried the tide out to sea. Across the water, the redwoods picked up again and became the great northern forest. Long ago, when the seas were lower, a famed bridge the ancients called Golden Gate stretched above the treacherous waters from shore to shore. Nothing was left of it now but a few worn mounds of concrete piles at each end.
Below the fortress, starting near the base of the hill, the city of New Gate sprouted like a garden. It spread down to the bay, a bright jumble of buildings and spires that tumbled to the busy harbor. There, sailing ships and galleys crowded together, bare masts bobbed within the walls of the breakwater. New Gate was home to almost twenty thousand souls and a passing refuge for a few thousand more at any given time. Now, it was bursting at the seams with wagons and people who could be seen crowding the streets and setting up stalls in the Market Square for the upcoming Equinal Games.
To the east and scattered around the bay were ruins. Most were settled into oddly geometric mounds and small hills covered in green, but in some places, they rose like monstrous patches of black lace from the dense hardwood forests that covered the lowlands around the bay. The largest cluster of these, called Lily’s Bones for reasons nobody could remember, contained broken and crumbling towers so immense that their ragged peaks were sometimes lost in the clouds.


About the Author:



Robert Hoppensteadt lied about his age and started working in Reno when he was fourteen, washing dishes on the late shift at a casino restaurant.  Since then he has been a grunt in the Forest Service, a carpenter, and, after receiving a degree in Information Systems, a recruiter and senior manager.  Now he writes full time.  He has lived on both coasts and several places in between but currently resides in Virginia with his wife and two seriously spoiled and obnoxious cats.