Friday, June 28, 2013

Book Blast: Her Honor's Bodyguard by Johnny Ray Giveaway


Her Honor's Bodyguard

by Johnny Ray  
 Do first loves ever really die? While reunions can take many forms, there is always one question that has to be answered sooner or later—what happened? Vance had always been extremely proud of Noella, and just because his life had been ruined, he saw no reason why she had to have the same faith. When his dad died, leaving him and his mother penniless, he dropped out of law school and ended his relationship with Noella, but in doing so, he stopped a scandal that could have ruined her family. These secrets he would never let her know. Ironically, years later, he would have never guessed she would be instrumental in ruining his career with the Tampa police force. After Noella finished law school and started pursuing her goal of working up the ranks in judgeships, she never considered inviting another guy into her life. As such, when someone attempts to threaten her into vacating her seat on the bench, and by force if necessary, she knows of no one else she really trust as much as Vance, who now has a successful bodyguard and private detective business. She knows that Vance might hate her for her part in having him dismissed from the police force, but what he will never know is that she actually saved him from going to prison. Additionally, she now thinks he was framed, and perhaps by the same people who are threatening her. She had to talk him into taking her on as a client . . . but would he agree to her request? As the number of attacks on her life increases, Vance soon has no choice but to offer her his protection, and in spite of everything, when they see each other again their old attraction for each other returns. She wants the truth. He wants the truth. However, making the ultimate sacrifice is not always easy to understand, whether given or received. Ultimately . . . could they now trust each other with these secrets? While their lives depend on discovering the truth to their past, these truths are locked in deep secrets that could also destroy them.

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About the Author: Johnny Ray has a passion for life and adventure that he loves to share with his readers. As an avid traveler and professional businessman conducting business worldwide for years he has made many interesting contacts and received numerous awards for top production. He has owned and operated several real estate companies, several insurance companies, and a stock brokerage company. He loves radio and TV talk shows, as well as speaking in front of various audiences. Feel free to contact him if you need a guest speaker. When it comes time to play, he is very active in many sports including dancing, swimming, tennis, biking, and skiing. While he loves adventures that are new, interesting and challenging, making friends that share his passions is a special gift. Johnny lives in Clearwater, Florida where he works full time as a writer, and he can be often found in one of the hundreds of coffee shops along the beach working on his next novel. He belongs to the Florida Writer Association where he recently won the Royal Palm Literary Award for best thriller, the Romantic Writers of America, and the Mystery Writers Association. He attends various national writer conventions throughout the year, as well as several local writing groups in the Tampa Bay area of Florida.
 Follow Johnny: Website | FaceBook | Twitter | Blog | Goodreads | Literary Addicts Prize: $50 
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Thursday, June 27, 2013

Book Tour: How (Not) to Kiss a Toad by Elizabeth A Reeves Interview & Giveaway


Genre: Contemporary Fantasy/Paranormal
ASIN: B00AKR2UCE
Number of pages: 314
Word Count: 51,638
Cover Artist: Angela Nelson
Amazon 

Book Description:
Cindy Eller is a witch with a gift for creating decadent desserts highlighting the exotic and spicy flavors of her native Southwest. However, life isn't always sweet for this magical baker. All her life she's been cursed-- every man she's ever kissed has turned into a toad. Love isn't likely to come her way, she knows. 
If that weren't a big enough problem, her 'curse' has come to the attention of the Council of Magic and she may never be able to use her powers. 
Enter the perfect man-- handsome, sweet, and loves food just as much as Cindy does. It would seem to be a match made in Heaven, or is it? 
Cindy isn't the only one keeping secrets. 
With toads, cupcakes, romance, magic and ice cream, life never has time to get dull!

Interview:
1.  Where did you get the idea for the novel?
I’ve wanted to write a book about a normal everyday witch that anyone could relate to and identify with. I’ve also felt that the Southwest has been rather misinterpreted or underappreciated in the written word—so Cindy Eller was born—a true-to-life Magical baker with a complicated love life.

2.     Your title. Who came up with it? Did you ever change your title?
This particular book had at least ten different titles. Finally I took it to the people and lay out all of my ideas. How (Not) to Kiss a Toad was a flyaway favorite. Other possibilities were A Real Toad or even Kissing Toads.

3.     Which came first, the title or the novel? 
The novel was completed and edited before I finally settled on a final title. I have worked both ways, but this time the story was absolutely DONE first.

5.     Since becoming a writer, what’s the most exciting thing to ever happen to you?
Having people I don’t know ask me when the next book is coming out. It makes me realize that I am touching lives in my small way and that my books are being enjoyed enough that people are begging for more.

6.     What book are you currently reading or what was the last book you read?
Debora Geary’s latest! She’s amazing and very ‘real’ and down to earth. I love her books.


7.     What was your first book that you ever wrote (very first one you wrote, not published)?
Wow. That would have to be… my version of the princess in the tower (she was a mermaid no less) that I wrote when I was six. Every character in the story ended up dying.


8.     What is your writing process?
I sit down at my computer and just start writing. It’s fascinating to see where stories go on their own. Usually I will have some sort of idea of where I am heading. Once I get a firm feel for the story I will stop writing and then create a basic outline. The outline will usually change about fifty times as characters take unexpected detours or (occasionally) the story decides to take a ninety-degree turn and change courses on me.



  1. Who are your favorite authors of all time?
Connie Willis, Debora Geary, Anne McCaffrey, Douglas Adams, Sharon Shinn, Lois McMaster Bujold, Jacqueline Carey, Linda Wisdom, Neil Stephenson, Stephen J Gould … can you tell I’m a bibliophile?


10.  At a book signing, do you just sign your name or do you write a note? How do you come up with stuff to say? 
I’ve never done a book signing! I would probably write a note if there was any way I could come up with something.

  1. What is something people would be surprised to know about you?
I’m a total and complete recluse. I’m most comfortable at home with my four young sons and my crazy array of animals and my husband. I don’t reach much further than that circle.

12.  How do you react to a bad review?
I had one review tell me that How (Not) to Kiss a Toad was a cookbook and had ruined her diet, so she gave it one star. That one made me laugh hysterically. It just really made me ecstatic that my book had the power to make someone lose their ability to resist sugar! I try to be resilient and learn from negative reviews. The hardest ones to take are when it’s obvious that the reader never even finished the book.
Emotionally, bad reviews can be tough. These books are my babies, after all. I try to learn and grow from the criticisms without letting them get to me.


13.  How did you celebrate the sale of your first book?
I remember sticking the computer under my husband’s nose and getting all excited. He was like, “Oh. Neat. That’s like 35 cents, right?” LOL! These days he’s much more supportive!
  

About the Author:
Legend has it that Elizabeth A Reeves was born with a book in her hands and immediately requested a pony. Though this story is questionable, it is true that books and horses have been consistent themes in her life. Born in Massachusetts, she was quickly transplanted to Arizona by a professor father and creativity-driven mother, who is the one responsible for saying "If you can't find a book that you want to read, write a book you want to read."
In her spare time, she likes to knit, weave, hatch chickens, and chase after her husband and four sons. 


issylthesthlia.wix.com/cindy-eller-cupcakes

@SelkieHorse


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Sunday, June 23, 2013

Book Tour: Girls Love Travis Walker by Anne Pfeffer Interview & Giveaway



New Adult Contemporary
Date Published: 3/15/13

To nineteen-year-old high school dropout Travis Walker, women are like snowflakes-- each one different, but beautiful in her own way.He can charm any girl he meets, and yet down deep he fears he'll always be a loser like his jailbird father. As the landlady threatens to evict him and his sick mother, Travis takes a job he hates and spends his evenings picking up girls at a nearby night spot.When he enlists in a teen program at the local fire station, he finds out he’s amazing at it. Then he meets the smoking hot Kat Summers, enlists Kat’s friend Zoey to help him woo her, and falls in love for the first time ever.But he keeps the details of his life secret. His girl will never love him back if she knows the truth about him….

Interview:

* What's the book about?  Give us the "pitch".
Think of it as Will Smith’s film The Pursuit of Happyness (a man struggling to keep his family off the streets), combined with a classic romance novel (boy meets, pursues, and gets girl), combined with the character Tim Riggins  in Friday Night Lights (off-the-charts gorgeous bad boy with a heart of gold.) It’s a book about first love and second chances. It will make you cry, but in a good way.

* What inspired you to write the book?  A particular person? An event?
Several things came together to inspire this book: a chance encounter with a boy not unlike Travis, a visit to a fire station, and my desire to write a love story.  I’d been thinking for a while about the Travis character and had written some pages about him. Then one night I sat down, and out came the first twenty pages of the book, almost exactly as they are in the final version.  I wish the rest of the book had been as easy to write!

*  What's the most distinctive thing about the main character?  Who-real or fictional-would you say the character reminds you of?
Travis is cocky, charming, and self-confident with women, yet at the same time feels he has little to offer them long-term. He sees himself racing, against his will, down the fast track to loserdom. The book is about how he saves himself.
As I said above, he reminds me of Tim Riggins in Friday Night Lights, a series I watched recently, after this book was written.  For sheer amazingness,  go check out actor Taylor Kitsch as Tim Riggins!
* What's the main reason someone should really read this book?
Read it for the emotions it brings out.  Some reader comments:
“Little did I know that what I was about to read would have such a huge impact on me…. This book hit me right in the heart.”
“While there is romance aplenty in this wonderful novel, Girls Love Travis Walker is far more than that….”

“I really loved Travis…. I cried and was scared with him.”

“This book will make you fall in love for so many reasons…”



Author Bio:
Anne Pfeffer is the author of Any Other Night and The Wedding Cake Girl. She lives in Los Angeles, CA.

Contact Links

Website
Twitter @AnnePfeffer1

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Friday, June 21, 2013

Book Tour: Welcome to Adelheid by Mia Darien Interview & Giveaway


Genre: Paranormal Suspense
ISBN: 9781476224244
Number of pages: Approx 375
Word Count: Approx 160K
Cover Artist: Mia Darien
Kobo     iTunes   Audible

Book Description:
Welcome to Adelheid, CT. Freak central. Unofficial capital of legal preternatural creatures in the Northeast. Focal point for anti-preternatural sentiments in the United States.

Who would ever guess that this otherwise sleepy New England town houses many of the most powerful beings known to exist?

* * *

In "Cameron's Law," meet Sadie Stanton, vampire poster girl for preternatural rights. She's just trying to start a business to help the community, but when vampires and werewolves start attacking each other, she gets thrust in the middle.

In "When Forever Died," Dakota is a rare shifter and hunter who has lived a long, hard life. But the past never sleeps and two simultaneous cases are going to test the personal defenses she's built over the centuries.

In "Voracious," the life D wants isn't what it seems. He certainly never planned on the fangs, but he's going to need a lot more than the pointy teeth to survive the first weeks of his new existence.

Interview:
  1. Where did you get the idea for the novel?

The ideas for Adelheid actually came to me a long time ago, when I was sixteen, and I don't mind saying that was more than a decade ago. It happened as a combination of reading the books of Laurell K. Hamilton and then just having that "what if..." thought that catches so many writers.

It originally started in Salem, MA, being a place so steeped in preternatural history, but several years ago, I wrote "Cameron's Law" (the first book in the "Welcome to Adelheid" bundle) and had decided to create an entirely new city elsewhere in New England, to give me full freedom to play.

Past that, I can't say where the idea came from! I'm the type of writer who gets random ideas all the time, writes them down, stuffs them in a folder, and uses them years later when she's forgotten where it came from.

  1. Your title. Who came up with it? Did you ever change your title?

I come up with all of my own titles. I have to have a title before I start writing. I'm not sure why, but it helps me keep things organized and helps me think when I'm writing. As for the title of the bundle, it's fairly simple: "Welcome to Adelheid." It bundles together the first three books of the series as an introduction to the world, the characters, and the series. It's welcoming readers to join them in this strange little Connecticut town. I came up with it, and it's always been the same.

  1. Which came first, the title or the novel? 

The title came before the completed draft, but the ideas and concepts came before the title. That's how it works with all of my stories, except for that odd occasion where the title comes before almost any idea!

  1. Since becoming a writer, what’s the most exciting thing to ever happen to you?

Oh, goodness... That's a good question. I've had a lot of great moments. The first time someone downloaded "Cameron's Law" or the first five star review for it were just...utter elation. Holding the paperback copies of my book were also wonderful. But I think the most exciting moments are always when I finish the draft and my beta readers tell me that it is not, in fact, as awful as I'm always sure it is!

  1. What book are you currently reading or what was the last book you read?

I now live in Alabama, but I flew up to Connecticut for a weekend over the beginning of the month. On the plane, I read "The Ridge" by Michael Kortya, which I thought was fantastic. It actually held my attention and kept me from thinking of how much I hate flying. I also just read a beta version of a novel by my fellow paranormal author BR Kingsolver, who has a fun world created in his Telepathic Clans series.

  1. What was your first book that you ever wrote (very first one you wrote, not published)?

That depends on your definition of "book," lol. I wrote a little story that I "published" when I was seven! It was about a good and an evil wizard, and something about a unicorn horn. I write it on yellow legal pad paper, drew a cover on the same paper, and stapled it together. There was a forty page epic fantasy with fated lovers, girls with silly flower names, magical powers, and a quest to go save the world. Wrote that at fourteen. Otherwise there was a paranormal story at about one hundred and fifty pages, age fifteen, about a group of friends that has once gone to defeat a very powerful vampire, lost some of their friends and family, but now had to go defeat her again.

They were all pretty goofy, really. What do we know at that age, really? But this was where the seeds began.

  1. What is your writing process?

I keep folders for each story, and spend weeks and months collecting ideas for the story bit by bit. Then when I have enough and decide it's time, I start working on plotting. I'm not a seat-of-pants writer. I plot my stories out scene by scene. Now, these plots sometimes change while I'm writing because I find something doesn't work, but I always start with an outline. Then I write whenever I have time, which can be the tricky part!

After the first draft is done, I usually do a read-through of my own to make sure things seem to make sense, and then I send it to my beta readers. Family, friends, fellow writers. I always have at least three readers, but aim for more. If suggestions make sense, I make revisions. If it's a bigger issue, or there's conflicting opinions, I go with a combination of my gut and majority decision, which is why I prefer at least three.

Once the beta phase is done, it's editing, and assorted other tasks to get it ready for release.

  1. Who are your favorite authors of all time?

Well, I talk a lot on this topic about the Big Four--these were the four authors I started reading in my early adolescence, beginning with Piers Anthony and Xanth at age eleven, who created my love of the adult fantasy genre, and made me want to write. These were Piers Anthony, Anne McCaffrey, Terry Brooks, and Robert Jordan. Now, I don't read as much of these authors as  I did then. Some I can't reread, but they were much beloved in my youth and put me on the path I'm on today.

When I was older, authors like Laurell K. Hamilton, Anne Rice, and P. N. Elrod put me more firmly on the road for paranormal stories. The first and last in that list cemented my love of the writing style I call First Person Sarcastic, which Adelheid is written in.

Today, my favorite authors are Joe Abercrombie (from the traditional publishing world) and Diantha Jones (from the self-publishing world).

  1. At a book signing, do you just sign your name or do you write a note? How do you come up with stuff to say? 

When I actually have a book signing, I'll let you know! I've sent out autographed books, though, and I usually put a little signature along with my name.

  1. What is something people would be surprised to know about you?

My hair is chameleon like, having been every natural color there is, and then teal for a while and purple for another while.

  1. How do you react to a bad review?

Like any author should, I think. I read it, I think about what was said and consider if it was anything useful I can use to improve in the future. I let it sting for a bit, because it's always going to, and then I move on. Reading is incredibly subjective, and not everyone is going to like everything. I try to learn if I can, and otherwise just move forward.

  1. How did you celebrate the sale of your first book?

I don't even remember, but I'm sure a little happy dance of some kind was involved.


About the Author:
Mia Darien is an indie author of speculative fiction, and a New England Yankee transplanted into Alabama clay. No matter her geography, she continues to stubbornly and rebelliously live the life of her choosing along with her family and pets. She doesn't miss the snow.








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