Book Release Highway to Hell

About the Book

Title: Highway to Hell

Author: Lydia Anne Stevens

Genre: Paranormal Fantasy

Death. Reapers. Atonement.

Catriona Clarke is a mercenary demon leading a gang of reapers and working with Lucifer to atone for her sins. The Hellcats’ mission is to collect the marked souls of the damned and bring them to Hell once they perish. When Catriona returns from collecting a soul, she discovers the rival gang of demons, the Hellhounds, have marked her ex-boyfriend.

Conflicted about going to reap Zeke’s soul, she reluctantly goes to collect. In a whirlwind of chaos, Catriona discovers that the son of Satan, Damien, has mistakenly marked the innocent and pure soul of Zeke’s twin brother, Lowell. Her gut instinct tells her to stand up against Lucifer and the demons of Hell, but in doing so, she will lose everything she’s worked hard for.

Is her ex-boyfriend’s brother worth the trouble?

Readers of Patricia Briggs, Darynda Jones, and Kevin Hearne will devour this Hellishly fantastic series.

 

Author Bio

Lydia Stevens is a full-time author and freelance writer having written over 75 novels for clients – with two series having become Amazon Bestsellers. She is an active member of the Maine Romance Writers Association, The Horror Writers of Maine, The Fantasy Writers of Maine, The Maine Women Authors, The Maine Writers and Publishers Alliance, Sigma Alpha Pi’s, National Society of Leadership and Success, and Sigma Tau Delta’s, International English Honor Society. Lydia graduated from the University of Southern New Hampshire with a Bachelor of Arts in Creative Writing and English on May 12^th, of 2018 and she graduated with a Master of Arts in Creative Writing and English on May 11^th, 2019.

She’s the author of a paranormal/humor trilogy, The Ginger Davenport Escapades and is contracted with a second trilogy, The Fire Series with LM Vintage Publishers. The first book, Phoenix Fire, is slated to be released in 2019. Lydia currently works as an internist in the second semester within a literary agency and plans to pursue future endeavors within this line of work, as well as a PhD in Creative Writing. Her creative writing research proposal is under review at Lancaster University in Lancaster, England.

Lydia lives in Maine where she enjoys living life with an active eight-year-old and a black cat, Sirius Black, who is equally competitive for her attention. In her spare time, Lydia loves knitting, reading, coaching soccer, completing fantasy-themed jigsaw puzzles for inspiration, traveling and having a laugh with her best friends.

 

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Character Interview The Fire God Tour

Character Interview

1.Tell us a bit about yourself?  My name is Miles Aridio Moore and I am the hero of the novel, The Fire God Tour. I have been fortunate to be born in a loving family that supported my aspirations to be a hip-hop star. I’m the owner of AriMusic, an international musical conglomerate.

 

2. What is your role in the story?  I’m the hero of the story which recounts my adventures as an adult on my international music tour starting in California and travelling throughout Europe named The Fire God Tour. I also have a role in the prequels Act I. Seed on Fire and Act II. Playing with Fire. I’m known as a masterful entertainer who can set the stage on fire, but I’ve been hiding another fact about me. I reveal to Bella despite knowing I may lose her love for me.

 

3. When and where were you happiest? Prior to meeting Bella Wahlberg, my Chief Marketing Officer at AriMusic, I was happiest in my studio creating music. After meeting Bella and falling in love with her, I’m happiest in her presence and spending time with her.

 

4. If you could make one wish, what would it be?  I try to spread love through my music and my one wish would be to have more love in the world.

 

5. What are your best / worst attributes?  My best attribute is that I’m accepting of different attitudes and beliefs and I respect that we have more in common with each other as human beings than differences. My worst trait is I can be impatient at times.

 

6. Describe yourself using one word. Passionate

About the Book

Title: The Fire God Tour

Author: Michele Sims

Genre: Contemporary Romance, Suspense

Miles Moore is obsessed with fire. He can’t help it—it’s in his genes. He’s also the famous performer Ari, an international hip-hop sensation. There are some negatives that come with fame—death threats and life on the road among them—but there’s also a lot of good: fast cars, fast women, international travel, and more money than he can handle. When Bella Wahlberg joins his team as the chief of marketing, she seems like the antithesis of what he’s looking for, so much so that Miles dubs her Belsa the Ice Queen. It would be unprofessional for them to get together, but more than that, she’s unavailable—and deathly afraid of fire. But as they prepare for The Fire God Tour, Miles can tell something is changing. Is he ready to commit himself to one woman? Can fire and ice come together?

 

 

Author Bio

Michele Sims is the creator of the Moore Family Saga and the Fire God Series. She loves writing hot love stories and women’s fiction with multidimensional characters in multigenerational families. She is the recipient of the 2018 RSJ Aspiring Author Award and first runner up in the Introvert Press Poetry Contest for February 2018.  She is a member of the LRWA, in Charleston, SC and the From The Heart Romance Writers’ online group.

She lives in South Carolina with her husband who has been her soulmate and greatest cheerleader. She is the proud mother of two adult sons and the auntie to many loved ones. When she’s not writing, she’s trying to remember the importance of exercise, travelling, listening to different genres of music, and observing the wonders of life on this marvelous planet.

 

Links

Amazon Autor Page

Email: michelesims2122@gmail.com

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Purchase Act I. Seed on Fire and Act II. Playing with Fire.

Guest Post: Clemency Crow (Author of Taking Wing) about the Editing Process

 

Please welcome Clemency Crow to my blog today, the author of Middle Grade adventure “Taking Wing”. Welcome, Clemency, and thank you for taking the time to write a post about your editing process!

Guest Post – My Editing Process

I visited 5 schools last week during my Book Tour, and the most common question that was asked was “how long did it take you to write the book?”

My answer was always the same.

It took me two months to write the first draft and over a year to get the book to publishable standard.

 

Scrivener

I have found this programme to be an invaluable asset. After completing my first draft, I would fill in the character sheet using the information I had written in the book. If there was not enough detail or juicy bits, I knew I’d have to go back in and develop that character more. I didn’t do this for everybody, just my main 5 – Freya, Winnie, Elialdor, Elamra and Rald.

 

Sentence Crafting

When I am satisfied that the characters are in tip-top condition, I go back through each chapter at a time and read it with the eyes of a book reviewer. I have a conversation in my head, as you do!

“If I was reviewing this for Crowvus, how many stars would I give it?”

“Well, probably about 3 stars at the moment.”

“Hmmm, would I be happy with 3 stars?”

“3 stars is a respectable score, but I think you could do better.”

“What would take it up to 4 stars?”

You see, it helps to be a little bit bonkers when you’re writing!

 

Proofread, proofread and then, guess what…proofread again!

When I am satisfied that the book is well written, I start the slog of painstakingly glaring at every sentence to find mistakes in the actual spelling and grammar. The computer will pick up some of this, but not all. I make myself promise that I will never say editing is my least favourite thing. Proofreading is now the bain of my life.

 

It’s time to pass the baton

Finally, the manuscript is ready to pass onto the editor. For me, that’s my sister. Some people would frown at using their sister as the editor but I’m lucky in two ways. Firstly, she is the professional editor for Crowvus so she knows her stuff. Secondly, I can give her full licence to be as mean as she possibly can…

“But do you really want the editor to be mean?”

Absolutely! The meaner the better! You can trust a mean editor, as you know they will not give you false praise. I wanted Judith to rip apart my novel looking for flaws. I would much rather that than have ‘proper’ (sorry, Jude!) readers do that when the book is for sale.

When a book is published, it’s very hard to change it. You have to get a new ISBN, and make a big hoo-ha about it being the 2^nd edition. It’s really not worth it for a fiction book.

No, you want the mean comments out of the way before the book gets published. My advice would be to get an editor (or a group of beta readers first if you prefer) to look at your manuscript with the meanest, wickedest eye possible. Then, brace yourself.

There is some passing back and forth between the editor and you and the occasional argument can ensue…

“Elialdor is too disrespectful.”

“That’s part of his character.”

“Well, it doesn’t work.”

“But he develops through the book.”

“Not enough.”

“Well…I don’t like you.”

…but there’s occasionally some compromise…

(Judith’s favourite meme)

 

Finally…after much work and exhaustion…you’re done and you can be sure you’re putting a polished, quality book out there.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Taking-Wing-Feather-Down-Book-ebook/dp/B07S63XNQS

www.clemencycrow.co.uk

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/46847925-taking-wing

 

About the Book

Title: Taking Wings

Author: Clemency Crow

Genre: Middle Grade Adventure

12-year-old Freya enjoys karate and is the only one in her class who’s trusted with a part-time job. But everything changes when she meets a boy with yellow eyes. She learns about the guardians, and how an age-old fight has stopped them from fulfilling their purpose. Freya finds new friends in the crow tribe but not everything in the castle is blissful. A destructive shadow lies within her and all she needs to do to summon it is close her eyes. But as the guardian’s war rages on, Freya realises that, although the shadow’s power can be useful, it can’t create peace. Freya and her friends must solve the crime that began the war, but can they bring the guardians together before they destroy each other?

 

 

Author Bio

I can’t remember when I wrote my first story. We had a word processor when I was very little. It was an archaic piece of technology with no mouse, which meant you had to know the codes for it to work. My sister, Judith, and I wrote several stories using this. I think one of my stories was about a mammoth, probably during my I-want-to-be-a-mammoth-when-I-grow-up stage.

When I was a bit older, during Year 3 at Primary School, another sister brought home several A5 grey jotters and gave one to Ginny and Judith to plan and write their stories in. Naturally, I wanted a notebook too, so I said I was writing a story called “The Rule of the Unicorns”. I never finished that rather peculiar tale, but it meant I got one of those A5 grey jotters!

A good few years down the line and I’m a Primary Teacher in the tip-top north of Scotland. To encourage a love of reading in my pupils, I write a story with them in for their Christmas present. The first thing they do is flick through and try and find their name – but I hope they enjoy the story too!

When I’m not teaching, I love writing, working on my allotment and I’m crazy enough to be doing a Science degree at the same time.

 

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Guest Post After Gardens

Today I’m hosting a guest post by author Katharine Coldiron, the author of women’s fiction “After Gardens”. The author is sharing her editing process with us.

Guest Post

Most of the best writers I know who’ve shared their writing process seem to be quick drafters and painstaking revisers. Writing is rewriting, they say, and my unscientific study has told me that writers who enjoy revising are going to keep writing in the long term instead of giving up in frustration. Writers who dash off something that’s immediately perfect are so rare as to be nonexistent; most need heavy editing to be any good at all.

Which kind of leaves me out in the cold. Although I’ve gotten used to it over the years, I hate revising. It depletes me, makes me depressed that I couldn’t write it ideally the first time. (Perfectionist much?) Instead of writing and revising the way a normal writer should, I’ve created an entire writing process with the explicit aim that I spend as little time revising as possible.

Here are my seven steps:

1. I draft by hand. I used to be quite precious about which notebooks and which pens I’d use, but I’m more indifferent to all that now. As long as the paper’s generous and the pen writes smoothly, I’m good.

1. As I’m writing, I correct the draft by hand. The arrangement of words in one sentence affects the next sentence, and vice versa, so I’m keeping around three sentences in my head at once. Also, sometimes I feel like two or more synonyms might work, so I’ll write all three in just in case. My drafts are a mess! Sometimes I’ll X through whole paragraphs and start over. It feels safer to do this by hand, because the paragraph isn’t lost forever to the delete key.

1. I type the draft into my computer, correcting as I go. Sometimes the paragraphs I Xed out in the previous step are better than I thought. Sometimes I have a “what was I thinking?” moment and leave out whole pages of drafted material.

1. I set the project aside for a bit—at least a week, preferably a month. I’m too deeply inside the story right after drafting to even comprehend what a non-me reader will make of it.

1. I come back to the project and check carefully for revisions. Because of steps two and three, this step is like a third revision rather than a first. Sometimes this step involves physically cutting and taping paragraphs together!

1. I give the story to my husband. He’ll be the first to tell you that he’s awful at feedback—most commonly, he returns to me and says “It’s good,” and that’s about all—but if I press him, he can tell me things about the story I can’t see for myself. It’s important that he’s my first reader, because he knows me well enough to know what I was probably thinking vs. how it came out on the page.

1. I go through the draft once more to correct for what my husband has explained, if anything, and to catch any other issues. If it doesn’t seem finished, for any reason, I’ll go back to step 4.

Then, it’s ready for prime time. And it was relatively painless! All I had to do was come up with a writing process that no normal writer would ever use.

A bit of advice to close us out: don’t be like me. Learn to love revision. It’s the best way to sustain a writing life, and it’s the most effective way to make finished writing better than a first draft ever could be.

About the Book

Title: After Gardens

Author: Katharine Coldiron

Genre: Women’s Fiction

Maya, a weekend at a hot springs with her boisterous friend Rhondey is just what she needs to move forward after her divorce. For Rhondey, it’s an opportunity to help Maya cut loose a little, shed some of her inhibitions. Maya doesn’t see the need to shed anything, and she’s not looking for a teacher. But the more Maya clings to her privacy, the more difficult it is for her to recognize her true teachers…and the right moment to step free.

Author Bio

Katharine Coldiron’s work has appeared in Ms., the Times Literary Supplement, the Rumpus, the Manifest-Station, horoscope.com, and many other places.

Find Katharine at kcoldiron.com or on Twitter @ferrifrigida.

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Book Release: After Gardens

About the Book

Title: After Gardens

Author: Katharine Coldiron

Genre: Women’s Fiction

Maya, a weekend at a hot springs with her boisterous friend Rhondey is just what she needs to move forward after her divorce. For Rhondey, it’s an opportunity to help Maya cut loose a little, shed some of her inhibitions. Maya doesn’t see the need to shed anything, and she’s not looking for a teacher. But the more Maya clings to her privacy, the more difficult it is for her to recognize her true teachers…and the right moment to step free.

 

Author Bio

Katharine Coldiron’s work has appeared in Ms., the Times Literary Supplement, the Rumpus, the Manifest-Station, horoscope.com, and many other places.

Find Katharine at kcoldiron.com or on Twitter @ferrifrigida.

 

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Release Blitz Anathema

 

About the Book

Title: Anathema

Author: Yoshiyuki Ly

Genre: Historical Fantasy Romance

Prepared to die for her country, Solaire Copeland is drafted to the Drakengard knighthood at twenty-two years old, and vows to stop running away from the one she loves. Guarding over her dark secrets in shame, she nevertheless takes a leap of faith and entrusts herself to her intelligent equal in Stella Azrith, an alluring, measured, and methodical young woman of magic. Solaire elevates her love for Stella in romantic showmanship and subservience, even as the two of them struggle to understand one another through their temperamental differences. Anathema is a historical fantasy romance that tells the tale of Solaire and Stella’s courtly relationship in their youth, as they grow into their characters—Archangel Vespair and Mistress Fury—from The Scorpion’s Empress, Venus and Lysander, and Black Waltz as a prequel to the existing trilogy.

 

Desperate to keep Solaire at home, Stella conspires to prevent her from getting sent off to fight in an unjust war for their country, the Monomyth of Astora. In her scheming at the highest levels of government, she forms an unstable alliance with Fey Murasaki, the wicked and wily ambassador from Astora’s closest foreign ally. Stella and Fey’s influence across the land slithers in the darkness while Solaire’s knightly powers shine to alarming levels in the light, causing them to become targets—for both good and ill—of the nation’s most powerful leaders. Through intensifying mortal perils, Solaire’s love for Stella deepens to maddening levels, restrained only by her distinct sense that her free will erodes more each time she kneels in fulfilling servitude.

 

Independent streaks contradict religiosity in service of loving a woman with a will so strong—Solaire bears both the light and the dark of enlightened empathy and burning hatred, with her secrets fueling her rise as the strongest knight of an age.

 

 

Author Bio

Yoshiyuki Ly was born in San Diego, CA. Her pen name represents her multiracial heritage and a unique, diverse outlook that reflects in her work. She is a writer and a gamer, primarily inspired by thought-provoking, well-written video games such as the Shin Megami Tensei, Dark Souls, NieR, and Drakengard franchises.

 

Buy the book: http://mybook.to/anathema

Website: http://yoshiyuki-ly.livejournal.com/

 

Links to previous publications:

mybook.to/blackwaltz
mybook.to/venusandlysander
mybook.to/thescorpionsempress

Promo Post Risking Forever

About the Book

Title: Risking Forever

Author: Tara Gallina

Genre: New Adult Romance

Risking Forever: Vol 1 (The Forever Series) by Tara Gallina

My best friend has been obsessed with Sebastian since our freshman year in college. She wants him to herself, which is fine by me. He’s a paycheck, a means to an end goal. He’s temporary. But he’s also tempting—the way he looks at me, the things he says, the way he touches me… If I’m not careful, I might do something I’ll regret. ~Ainsley Belle

THE FOREVER SERIES
At twenty, Ainsley knows it’s time to follow her own dreams and not the future her that was planned for her—a future she never wanted. Losing her job couldn’t have come at a worse time.
Sebastian Gianni isn’t the ideal boss, but he has a position to fill and Ainsley is desperate. The sexy twenty-two-year-old comes from money, owns a successful business, and graduates from college in three months. He has his life together in a way Ainsley could only dream.
No wonder her best friend is obsessed with dating him. Even his ex-girlfriend is determined to get him back, although threatening him seems like the wrong approach. Ainsley would be a fool to fall for the guy, too.
By no means, should she trust him. He has more secrets than anyone she knows, which makes her wonder if the mafia rumors about him are true. It doesn’t matter that he’s a good listener, and sweet and protective at times. That playful flirty side he shares with her alone means nothing. Right?
When a kiss turns into a secret romance neither can give up, Ainsley learns the truth about Sebastian’s corrupt family and why his ex-girlfriend won’t go away. A future together is near impossible and comes with a risk that could get them both killed—or give them everything they’ve ever wanted.

 

 

Author Bio

Tara Gallina author of Risking Forever: Vol 1 (The Forever Series)

Tara Gallina grew up breathing the salty air in a small town near Clearwater Beach, Florida. The sun and sand were her playground, bathing suits and jean shorts her go-to wear.

After moving to Orlando, FL with her hubs, she left the workforce to enjoy motherhood and rekindled her love of writing. While romance is one of her favorite genres, she writes young and new adult and has a soft spot for retellings.

She has two furry writing companions who often steal her seat when she’s working: a mini shih-poo named Bella, and an exotic cat named Tigerlily but who answers to Kitty because the menfolk in the house like it better. Speaking of kitties, she is obsessed with Hello Kitty, has a pink office, thinks everything is better with sparkles, freezes in temperatures below seventy, and is happiest when visiting local hotspots like Disney World or Harry Potter with her family.

 

 

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Risking Forever is a serial novel and 1 of 3 volumes in The Forever Series.

Risking Forever: Vol 1

Daring Forever: Vol 2

Claiming Forever: Vol 3

 

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