Promo Post The D.B. List

Title: The D.B. List

Author: Rebekah L. Purdy

Genre: YA Romance

Seventeen-year-old Ellie Gebhardt has spent the last three years of high school in psychotherapy, trying to fix a very broken her. And her shrink (or therapist as she likes to be called) seems to think that in order to totally heal, she needs to recognize all the good and bad things that have led her to this point. As if a trip down memory lane will suddenly make her better.

She’s given a “homework” assignment to create two lists. One with nothing but happy memories and thoughts on it (otherwise known as the ‘happy rainbow farting unicorns list’). And the other with everything negative that Ellie thinks contributed to “the” day she could no longer cope.

So begins Ellie’s Douche Bag list (or D.B. List for short). And once she gets started, it’s hard to stop remembering all the jerks, the petty crap, the times she’d been bullied or the main focus of the rumor mill.

So when nice guy, Ky Laramie, walks into her life, Ellie instantly puts her shields up. But as she gets to know him and his family, she wonders if she can dare to put herself out there again. Because as everyone knows, once a candle is lit, the wind can always blow it out. And Ellie couldn’t handle it if Ky ends up atop of the D.B. List.

Links

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Author Bio

I was born and raised in Michigan (just look for the giant mitten on the map—it’ll likely throw a snowball at you). I spent most of my time in Michigan, but while in the army got to call KS, SC, MO, and CA home for awhile as well.

As a kid my family moved around a lot. Try spending both your freshman and senior years at new schools (yeah, loads of fun). I could’ve changed my name to “new girl”.

I love writing for teens because those are the years I remember falling in love with most of my favorite books. Some of the authors I couldn’t put down were L.J. Smith, Christopher Pike, R.L. Stine, Richie Tankersley Cusick, Joan Lowery Nixon, Lois Duncan, amongst several others.

My husband and I have a large family. There are six kids total! So we have LOTS of fun on vacations (although hours on the road, cooped up in the Expedition is kind of stressful—although we pass the time with MAD LIBS and hoping no one gets carsick).

Website: http://www.rebekahlpurdy.com/

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Author Interview Fallen Star Dust

Have you been writing for a long time?

My writing journey started in middle school with the power of poetry.  I was a very shy child, so much so that I had trouble verbally expressing my feelings, but I also had an overactive imagination that wanted to be shared. I did a unit in eighth grade on poets with a grand teacher and it opened up a genre I was not familiar with, one that I used to start getting my feelings out and learn the thrill of creating something with merely my mind, heart, a pencil, and notebook. My first collection, A Sweet, Little Dream, my stepping stone, has my poems, short stories, and more that I crafted in middle school and high school. Fallen Star Dust, the book for this tour, is my second collection, focusing on my college and first few years in education works.

Professionally, my first book, Spirit Vision, was published over four years ago on my mom’s birthday on December 17th, 2013, but I started writing on it as a freshman in high school.

What inspired you to start a writing career?

I had one loud, over the top, challenging language arts teacher: Mr. Banger that began this whole ordeal. He would go into rants so passionate that his bald head would turn red.  He was not afraid to talk straight with us and he was tough on his grading.  One day, out of the blue, for that was how he rolled, he declared he was going to write a book. We dismissed it, like several of his other declarations. He came to me and told me, “You would be a fantastic book character for my novel Straughan!” I laughed at this after I jumped out of my seat, but his eyes were so bold, so bright, so full of sincere honesty that it triggered the question in me: “If he can write a book…Why can’t I?” He still supports my dreams to this day as a dear friend and I go to speak to his classes every year to show every student they have a light, a talent to share, and to never give up: Mr. Banger and I believe in them.

It took me four years to complete my manuscript and four to find a publishing company. I received 40 rejections before I got my yes with Paper Crane Books. I never gave up for I wanted to hold this precious work, with the characters I cherished like children, in my hands.

Is this book a stand-alone, or part of a series?

Fallen Star Dust is a collection of poems, short stories, scripts, essays, and other literary works, so it is stand-alone. However, it is the second I have ever compiled and I plan to compile a third one in two or three years.

I do have a young adult paranormal mystery series, Spirit Vision, that is on its third book. I plan to do six in all.

Why did you choose this genre?

I wanted to share another collection to show my readers how I have grown as a writer from my first collection, A Sweet, Little Dream.  Working as a teacher, I never want my students to give up on their dreams, no matter how far out of reach they seem. These collections are made with that in mind. I never imagined I could be a professional author as a teenager, but I wanted to be.  I am so glad I saved these first works, these writing that helped the timid by voice me express myself and fuel my imagination.  You never know what could happen, so save and treasure your dreams. Plus, I like seeing how my writings have changed to fit different situations, and take trips down memory lane.

Do you have any advice for aspiring authors?

Never give up and know that someone always believes in you: me.  I have so many people who support me and their strength shines within me, a light I want to give back to others. Do research and find author groups.  I am in one and it is one of the best therapies I have in my life.

If you do not know what to write, write about what you know, what you love, and let your pen or typing fingers fly. You will be surprised the story you will share, the one always inside you.

About the Book

Title: Fallen Star Dust

Author: Morgan Straughan Comnick

Genre: Collection (Poetry, Short Stories, and more)

When I reached the point where adult life began to make its presence known right after high school graduation, I looked to the sky. I hoped to see a shooting star that would light my way and I wished that it would leave a trail of star dust behind to remind myself to stay young at heart. Thanks to writing, the enchantment of youth has never left me. In the next chapter of my life, I began college to follow my dream of being an educator. I developed my career, found out who I was an independent being, stopped hiding my passions, figured out my role in my lifelong relationship with my now-husband, and realized that it was okay to question the world. There was darkness that needed to be seen as well as the light. The poems, short stories, scripts, essays, and other works in this second collection are my everything: the shoulders I cried on, my joys, my bravery when the road became too twisty or too safe. It led me to a waterfall of creativity. That fallen star dust gave me the drive to become who I am today: a teacher, an author, a nerd, and a person of morals, love, and magic.

 

Author Bio

Educator of young minds by day, super nerdy savior of justice and cute things by night, Morgan Straughan Comnick has a love for turning the normal into something special without losing its essence. Morgan draws from real life experiences and her ongoing imagination to spark her writing. In her spare time, she enjoys doing goofy voices, traveling to new worlds by turning pages, humming child-like songs, and forcing people to smile with her “bubbliness.” It is Morgan’s mission in life to spread the amazement of otaku/Japanese culture to the world and to stop bullying; she knows everyone shines brightly.

For more information about Morgan and her works, check out her website, which also have links to all her social medias: http://morganscomnick.com.

 

Links

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Book Excerpt The Girl Who Talks to Ghosts

Book Excerpt

The woman was hysterical, sobbing so much I couldn’t understand her. As I pressed my cell harder against my ear, the wind sprouted claws and slashed at my meager sweater until I shivered. Phone calls used to be rare, but I’d been getting more and more since Jackson and I had gone public with what had happened to us in China. Now everyone in Vermont seemed to know my name, and they all needed help.

“Hello? This is Kate, please talk to me.”

The crying increased in volume, blistering my ears. I would have hung up if not for the wind. Its power intensified, churning the dead leaves and other debris from the sidewalk around my feet. There was something strange about its sudden force, which drove me against the brick facing of Hildy’s Fine China & Sundries. (Hildy’d had an ampersand before it was trendy.)

“Hello?” The single word contained the edge of my fear. Both my voice and hands were shaking. Something did not want me to talk to this woman. Something did not want me to help her. I’d taken hundreds of similar calls over the past few years, but had never felt anything like this. “Please say something. I’m afraid we’re going to lose our connection.”

Clutching at my sweater to keep it from being blown away, I ducked my head, shielding my face as my hair whipped around in a furious tangle. I huddled against Hildy’s shop, wondering if I should go in, but the older woman wouldn’t be impressed to see me on my phone. Her establishment was a temple, a library. The loyal customers who kept her in business spoke in whispers and walked on tiptoes. By bursting in like this and continuing my shouted, one-sided conversation, I’d have become the proverbial bull. Not good.

“Miss Carlsson? Kate Carlsson?” The woman had regained her composure enough to gasp my name. The grip around my heart tightened, even though I’d known all along the call was meant for me.

“Yes, speaking. What’s wrong?” There was no point wasting time with idle chitchat. Obviously something was wrong—very wrong. Another gust of wind knocked my skull against the side of the building and pain jolted through my brain.

The caller was silent for so long I ordinarily would have assumed she’d hung up, lost her nerve. It happened. It wasn’t easy for people to admit they needed my help. It was a leap of faith, a willingness to open their minds to the possibility that something they’d spent their entire lives denying could be real after all.

But the wind told me otherwise. I waited for her to speak again, raising one arm between my face and the building to protect my head. The chill had seeped into my bones, and what I wanted more than anything was to run home and immerse myself in a steaming hot bath while I drank a cup of the pumpkin spice tea I’d just purchased. I didn’t want to talk to this woman. I didn’t want to hear about what terrible things were happening at her home, for surely terrible things were happening. But I’d learned long ago that my gift was bigger than me, and if this woman needed it, I wasn’t going to turn away from her.

Finally she spoke. I could barely hear her over the gale, which shrieked like a tortured soul. “My mother is attacking my child.” Her voice trembled with fresh tears. “I can’t believe it, haven’t wanted to believe it, but it’s true. I’ve seen it.”

“Is your mother dead, Mrs…”

“Walkins. My name is Walkins. Yes, she died last year. But she was such a good woman. She loved Lily. I can’t believe she would do these things. Why would she do these things?”

I could feel curious eyes burning into me, watching me struggle to stay on my feet. Pushing my hair away from my face, I risked a glimpse and was immediately sorry I had. The leaves around my feet had arranged themselves in the form of a girl, a girl not much shorter than me. As I stared, my pulse throbbing behind my temples, the terrifying apparition raised a rustling arm toward me before collapsing onto the sidewalk.

“Whatever is hurting Lily isn’t your mother, Mrs. Walkins. What’s your address? I’ll be right there.”

About the Books

City of Ghosts

On the day the villagers were forced to flee Hensu, not everyone got out alive.

Jackson Stone is touring the abandoned Chinese city when he slips away from the group to spend the night, determined to publish an account of his ghostly experiences there.

Then he meets Yuèhai, a strange, soft-spoken woman who can tell him the city’s secrets—secrets the Chinese government would kill to keep hidden.

As Jackson uncovers the truth about Yuèhai and the ghost city, he’s drawn into a web of conspiracy, betrayal, and murder. He must risk everything to save himself and bring honor back to Yuèhai and her family.

 

 

The Girl Who Talks to Ghosts

Would you risk everything to save a stranger?

 Off the coast of Venice lurks Poveglia, the world’s most haunted isle, steeped in centuries of innocent blood. A deranged doctor who took great joy in torturing his patients in life continues to rule his abandoned asylum after death.

Few go to Poveglia willingly, but medium Kate Carlsson has no choice. It’s her job.

While struggling to retrieve a young girl’s soul, Kate uncovers some shocking truths about the evil on the island that challenges her own convictions and morals—and even her life.

Is saving Lily worth making a deal with the infamous Doctor of Death, or is the price too high to pay?

 

 

Author Bio

J.H. Moncrieff’s work has been described as early Gillian Flynn with a little Ray Bradbury and Stephen King thrown in for good measure.

She won Harlequin’s search for the next Gillian Flynn in 2016.

Her first published novella, The Bear Who Wouldn’t Leave, was featured in Samhain’s Childhood Fears collection and stayed on its horror bestsellers list for over a year.

When not writing, she loves exploring the world’s most haunted places, advocating for animal rights, and summoning her inner ninja in muay thai class.

To get free eBooks and a new spooky story every week, go to http://bit.ly/MoncrieffLibrary .

 

Connect with J.H.: Website | Twitter | Facebook

Author Interview The Hooligans of Kandahar

Have you been writing for a long time?

I’ve probably been writing since I in 6th grade. Short little stories about nothing, mostly because I was busy not paying attention in class.

 

What inspired you to start a writing career?

I wish I had a good answer to that. I always wanted to be a writer, but to me it sounded like a pipe dream. It reminds me of that scene in Step Brothers when the Dad is told “Stop being a dinosaur and get a job!” Because of how dumb it sounded that someone would actually pay me real currency that they worked for to read what my stupid fingers typed on a laptop.

Is this book a stand-alone, or are you planning a sequel?

Due to the subject of my book and the fact I am no longer a Soldier, a sequel seems unlikely.

What was the most challenging part about writing down your story?

Doing the story, and my fellow soldiers justice all while staying painfully honest with the subject matter. It didnt make a lot of people happy when they read accounts of their actions several years later.

Do you have any advice for aspiring authors?

Go for it. A lot of people are going to tell you you’re stupid for wanting to try to make a living doing this. But the guy from Stepbrothers is right: don’t let them steal your dinosaur.

 

About the Book

Title: The Hooligans of Kandahar

Author: Joseph Kassabian

Genre: Nonfiction / War Memoir

During the peak years of the Afghanistan War, a group of soldiers is dropped by helicopter into the remote mountains outside of Kandahar City. Mismanaged and overlooked by command, how they survive is largely up to them. In the birthplace of the Taliban, some men lose their sanity, others their humanity. They are The Hooligans.

Written in the months and years following his deployment, Joseph Kassabian recounts his time in the isolated and dangerous country of Afghanistan. Pulling no punches, The Hooligans of Kandahar is a sobering, saddening, and often sarcastic first-hand account of America’s War on Terror.

 

Links

Amazon (eBook)

Amazon (Paperback)

Promo Post Ella’s Triple Pleasure

About the Book

Title: Ella’s Triple Pleasure

Author: Anna Lores

Genre: Contemporary Erotic Romance

It takes three men to satisfy one woman’s needs…

Single mom and massage therapist Ella Winthrop isn’t looking for a relationship. She has enough problems without risking a business that barely meets her needs. Then her world is turned upside down by three men, each offering something she isn’t prepared for—love so deep it hurts, sex so hot she’s afraid she’ll melt from the pleasure, and a future beyond her wildest dreams.

Steamy businessman Cade Jackson has it all—money, looks, a giving heart, and a dominant nature—but Ella refuses to date a client even if she’s lusted after him for a year. After his brother’s death, Garrett Winthrop moves back to town opening old wounds and even darker fantasies. Dr. Derek McGregor gives her balance and understanding that speaks to her soul. All three men force Ella to question the limits of a traditional relationship.

 

 

Author Bio

Anna started writing romance as a by-product of insomnia. After a year of late night reading, she borrowed her son’s laptop and set about breathing life to her very own characters. A month later, she was surprised with a new laptop of her own to pursue her dreams.

With a B.A. in English Literature and a desire to fill her world with wonderful stories she and her close friends could not just talk about, but gush over, Anna shed the job as mom of three in the late night hours and assumed her alter ego of Dirty Girl.

 

 

Links

www.AnnaLoresAuthor.com
www.Facebook.com/AnnaLoresUS
www.Twitter.com/AnnaLores
www.Instagram.com/AnnaLoresAuthor

 

Purchase Links:

Amazon US
Amazon UK
B&N
The Wild Rose Press

Book Excerpt Dreamwalkers

Book Excerpt

“Hi, I’m Narciso and I walk in other people’s dreams,” is what I would say if there was some sort of support group for people like me. There isn’t.

Yip, I always know when I’m dreaming. Never need to pinch myself. I know, because my dreams are real. And true. But the weird thing is, they aren’t mine. And the dream I’m entering now isn’t an exception.

I open my eyes, knowing from experience what will be in front of me. Running far beyond the horizon like an endless stretched taffy, is a hall. White. So white that it blinds me and my eyes have to adjust before I can fully open them. The world runs past me and then back again and it feels as if the ground beneath my feet, as white as the walls, is breathing. Like it wants to push me forward. But I stand still for the moment, regaining my world, stitching it back together. When it finally settles, I adhere to the floor’s desire.

Like, okay already!

I walk forward as the hall consumes me like a thick fog.

Then I stop. I know I have to. I turn to the wall. From the whiteness of it, something starts to shimmer into existence. Like a mirage forcing its way into reality. The mirage starts to take a shape. A door. Black, as smooth as darkness itself. A knob, golden, gleaming in the whiteness of the hall, like an inviting smile. My body moves towards it, followed by a slow hand as its smile seems to grow wider. It’s cold.  It burns my palm. I hear a click, feel it run up my arm. And then a latching sound as it echoes past me and into the never ending, ever stretching hallway until it moves with it over the horizon.

I push. It opens.

About the Book

Title: Dreamwalkers

Author: Tiaan Lubbe

Genre: YA Fantasy / Adventure

“You walk the bridges between two worlds, between reality and dreams, Ciso.”

“You are a Dreamwalker”

Narciso di Angelo, a sixteen-year-old boy, living on the streets of Rome thinks he is the only one that can walk in other’s dreams.

He’s not.

When a mysterious and dark woman makes her appearance in one of his dreamwalks, he is rescued from her clutches by Project Somnus, a secret underground United Nations organisation, that recruits and trains children with his gifts, using them to fight against and prevent worldwide terrorist threats.

Here Narciso learns more of his abilities and where they come from as well as what it means to be part of a family and a home.

But, as the threat of the mysterious woman and the terrorist organisation Tantibus increases, he also learns what it is like to lose this.

“In dreams we live. In reality we dream.”

 

Author Bio

Tiaan Lubbe lives in Pretoria, South Africa where he spends his time teaching little monsters, directing
plays, doing what he calls writing and dreaming up the future. Mostly all at once.

 

Links

eBook Pre-order

Facebook

Amazon Author Page

Goodreads Page

Promo Post Ernie and the Evils of Insurance

About the Book

Title: Ernie and the Evils of Insurance

Author: Brent Ayscough

Genre: Mystery Thriller

Ernie, an experienced logger from rural Washington State, loses his job when the logging operation he works for is shut down due to the spotted owl. When he goes in to apply for unemployment, Ernie is persuaded to take a job out of state as a temporary insurance adjuster in Los Angeles. While he knows that Los Angeles will be a lot different than Sedro Woolley, Washington, and insurance adjusting a lot different than logging, really, how hard can it be? And there are lots of downed trees in Southern California after the recent earthquake and storms they had there. So packing up his trusty chainsaw in his saddlebags, Ernie hops on his motorcycle and heads south. But to his dismay, Ernie discovers that LA is a lot farther from Washington in more than just miles. Unprepared for the corruption and callousness rampant in the insurance industry, Ernie soon finds himself not only in trouble with his job, but on the top of an assassin’s hit list. Still, although Ernie might be a hick from the sticks, he’s far from stupid. Blessed with an innate intelligence, an abundance of common sense, and a redneck sense of humor, Ernie will give his enemies a hilarious run for their money…if he can just survive long enough.

 

Author Bio

Brent Ayscough or Ace, as he is known to friends, retired from the practice of law and lives in a house overlooking the sea in Southern California. He has always loved machines, from airplanes to motorcycles, structural design, and other interests. He has enjoyed the acquaintance of diverse and interesting people, and is widely traveled. Bits and pieces of characters he has known, places he has been, seasoned with the spice of his imagination, help him create unusual stories and characters. Extensive collaboration with experts and sources, hopefully, make his stories credible and interesting.

 

Links

Ernie and the Evils of Insurance on Amazon (Kindle)

Ernie and the Evils of Insurance on Amazon (Paperback)

Ernie and the Evils of Insurance on Goodreads