READING AND WRITING

Yolanda Renée © 2016

I can't resist the colors.

Hi, everyone. I'm at a bit of a standstill when it comes to the NANO challenge, due to other issues popping up, but I'm not giving up. I hope during this last week I'll make good progress, although making 50,000 may not be possible, the story is coming together.

I hope you'll check out Patrick Hatt's guest post over at the WEP blog. He's giving advice on writing. It's great stuff!

Today I'm posting on the Parallels Blog about "Challenging Yourself!" Please visit.

While on a break this week I read Christine Rains first book in her Totem series,

Dark Dawning. 

I loved it. 

Christine is one of my favorite authors. This time she took me back to Alaska with her Polar Bear shifters. 

Ametta Dorn is a sexy, headstrong designer with big plans, and Lucky Osberg is a handsome firefighter with a desire to alter those plans, but a killer is on the loose and family is the target.

It's an exciting journey through the wilds of Alaska with Ametta and Lucky and a host of shifters. Christine weaves her tale of the paranormal and romantic suspense with mystical native lore that only adds to the adventure. 

A page-turning mystery that does not disappoint.

***

Blurb for Dark Dawning

It’s a dark day when someone murders one of their own.

Shifters across Alaska are going missing. When up and coming interior designer Ametta Dorn rescues the gorgeous Kodiak shifter Lucky Osberg, she comes into the crosshairs of two relentless hunters. While Lucky sets his sights on wooing her, the killers seek to not only capture her in her powerful polar bear form but to also take her skin.

To prevent her murder and the deaths of other shifters, she must work with Lucky to track down and stop these merciless hunters. After all, their enemy’s plan for shifter skins is something much more terrifying than collecting mere trophies.

     Silent Whispers

It’s not only the dead who whisper upon the wind.

An ancient totem pole has gone missing, and its pieces are scattered across Alaska. Restoring the seven totem tokens may be the only way to save every shifter in the world.

Kinley Dorn, a geeky architect with a heart of gold and a polar bear shifter, jumps at the opportunity to help her family find the lost pieces. Their idea of “helping” involves staying indoors to research online. Work leads Kinley to sexy lynx shifter Ransom Averill. He coaxes her away from the safety behind her computer and into the path of a rampaging giant. Terrifying as the monster might be, she must brave its mountain because the owl totem is calling to her through silent whispers.

                     Cloak of Snow

No one messes with Saskia Dorn’s family and gets away with it.

The same murderous shifters who had hunted her sister have attempted to steal a magical totem pole. Since the pieces are scattered across Alaska, Saskia, a polar bear shifter, takes her search to the tundra for any signs of the lost totems.

Instead she finds Sedge, the latest reincarnation of the old Inuit Bear god, who just happens to be the man who broke her heart.

They come across a small native village tormented by the Jinxioc, evil gnomes with an appetite for human flesh. Sedge declares he will rid the people of the menace, believing a totem token is nearby affecting the devils’ behavior. At his side, Saskia battles to save the tribesmen, but it could mean sacrificing herself.

Have you finished NANO, are you almost there? 

Is turkey on your menu this week, and did you heed Pat's writing advice?

Are you a Christine Rains fan?

Either way, it's a great weekend to curl up with a good book and the

Totem Series might just be it!

Happy Reading

&

Happy Thanksgiving!

ALASKA IN ANY GENRE!

My Review:

Polar Night

by

Julie Flanders

When I learn that a books setting is Alaska I am immediately drawn to it and with Polar Night by Julie Flanders, I hit the jackpot. Reading her paranormal mystery not only left me homesick for my most favorite place, it had me looking at the genre with a new appreciation. She takes the reader on chilling ride through the street of Fairbanks and makes the Alaskan setting as much a character as her handsome and wounded detective Danny Fitzpatrick.

Detective Danny Fitzpatrick and the evil Aleksei Nechayev, are both mourning a lost love, and it leads to an interesting dynamic between the two. Polar Night is a mystery well crafted, with well-developed characters, and a setting that adds even more drama. 

I'm looking forward to Julie's next paranormal mystery with Detective Danny Fitzpatrick set under the midnight sun! 

Yolanda Renée 2014

 

Book Blurb: 

When Detective Danny Fitzpatrick leaves his hometown of Chicago and moves to Fairbanks, Alaska, he wants nothing more than to escape the violence and heartbreak that left his life in pieces. Numbed by alcohol and the frozen temperatures of an Alaskan winter, Danny is content with a dead-end job investigating Fairbanks' cold cases. That all changes when a pretty blond woman goes missing on the winter solstice, and Danny stumbles upon some surprising connections between her disappearance and that of another Fairbanks woman three years earlier. Forced out of his lethargy, Danny sets out to both find the missing woman and solve his own cold case.

The investigation points Danny towards Aleksei Nechayev, the handsome and charming proprietor of an old asylum turned haunted tourist attraction in the Arctic town of Coldfoot. As he tries to find a link between Nechayev and his case, Danny's instinct tells him that Nechayev is much more than what he seems.

Danny has no idea that Nechayev is hiding a secret that is much more horrifying than anything he could ever have imagined. As his obsession with finding the missing women grows, Danny finds his own life in danger. And when the truth is finally revealed, the world as he knows it will never be the same.

 Julie Flanders is a novelist and freelance writer who has written for both online and print publications. She is an animal lover and shares her home in Cincinnati, Ohio with her dog and cat. Her debut novel Polar Night, a paranormal suspense thriller, is now available from Ink Smith Publishing at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Smashwords. Her second novel, The Ghosts of Aquinnah, was published by Ink Smith in December, 2013. Find Julie online at her website, and on her blog, Twitter, Goodreads, Pinterest, and Facebook. 

 And please check out Julie's latest!

 The Ghosts of Aquinnah

by

JULIE FLANDERS

A brilliant flash of light transcends through time.
Another freezes a cloaked figure within a frame of salty mist as waves crash against a rocky shore. Her harrowing expression shadows the beacon to a pinprick.
By the next blaze, she is gone. Only the lighthouse remains.
Hannah’s eyes blink in step with each heartbeat. Images of her deceased parents and Martha’s Vineyard explode like firecrackers inside her mind.
She shakes her head.
For weeks this eerie woman dressed in nineteenth century garb has been haunting my webcam, but tonight she stared into my soul.
Why? ...
Who is she? ...
Casting aside months of research on historic lighthouses, Hannah drives to the coast and boards a ferry.
What is the strange connection she has to this mysterious woman suspended in time?
Hannah finds out.
But, it’s not at all what she expects...
Hannah unravels a century old murder.

Amazon