DYSUS DREAMER

I am thrilled to be part of J. A. Garland's  release of her paranormal romance DYSUS DREAMER!

Synopsis: 

Demon warrior, Slade Aesus, is determined to destroy the werewolves controlling his cousin. But a beautiful elf, consumed by her own vengeance, finds the wolves first. Botching her assassination attempt, Annwyn has the most powerful Packs in the world biting at her heels.  Both fiercely independent, can the two join forces long enough to fulfill their missions and stay alive?

Amazon | GoodReads

Excerpt from Dysus Dreamer by J.A. Garland:

A solid assassination operation takes one part opportunity, two parts discipline, and three parts disposition. Having two out of three this chilly Seattle evening, Slade considered himself in abundance of good fortune.

Parked in front of a solitary office building, in the zone clearly marked “No Parking,” Slade cleared his mind of distractions consisting of the little here and there that could creep in and throw him off, just a hair, but enough to jeopardize his mission. Satisfied, he slid out of the rental car and re-tucked a stylish black golf shirt monogrammed with “Constantine Vineyards” into a pair of crisp, steel gray slacks. In this particular scenario, image was crucial.

Tonight, the element discipline presented itself by his waiting for the precise moment to strike. He made a living analyzing people and their habits, so he knew his targets relaxed around the holidays and were less likely to see the danger lurking behind his smiling façade. The current festivity du jour was Christmas, and coupled with his gift, destined Slade a popular man. I'm counting on it.

He moved around to the trunk, where he heaved free a slatted, wooden case. It smelled of musky oak. The peaceful scent hinted at candlelit dinners shared with a long time lover. His jaw clenched. Not in my past and not in my future.

Slade lugged his precious cargo toward the sprawling metal office building. Immense, the structure stabbed farther into the heavens than any other in the area, yet fell short. Just like my target. Outwardly, Joe Larsen appeared a dedicated family man, a real pillar of the community whose flourishing internet and telecommunications business, ProCom, employed hundreds. In reality, the werewolf belonged to the Dirty Dozen, a group of the twelve most ruthless wolf Packs roaming the earth.

How ironic. I was once your target. A year ago, the Dozen kidnapped his cousin Amber, a half-demon, half-human. Able to keep a shifter from shifting, Amber's ability proved irresistible, since more times than not, the Dozen's meetings devolved into an unproductive, fur-flying brawl. We saved Amber, but left behind some unfinished business. Starting with Larsen, the wolves would learn a lesson...a demon’s memory rivals the most scorned woman, and paybacks were indeed a bitch.

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About the Author:

Writing under the pen name, J.A. Garland, Jennifer is a full time firefighter in the state of California, an addicted trail runner, a connoisseur of all things cheese puff, and a urban fantasy author. When she isn't slogging through the obstacles at a mud run, you can find her hunched over her computer unleashing demons, vampires, and werewolves upon the world.

Giveaway Details:

There is an international tour wide giveaway. Up for grabs is a $50 Amazon Gift Card!

 a Rafflecopter giveaway
 

 

Dysus Dreamer by J.A. Garland:

• September 12th – Ladies @ One More Chapter (Book Review)
• September 12th – Tiffany & Ryan @ Book-Marks the Spot
• September 12th – Dafeenah @ Indie Designz
• September 12th – Flora @ From the Bootheel Cotton Patch
• September 12th – Rania @ Urania’s Distractions (Book Review)
• September 12th – Dalene @ Dalene’s Book Reviews
• September 12th – Jaidis @ Juniper Grove
• September 12th – Marcy @ Marcy Rachel Designs
• September 12th – Beppe @ Rose & Beps Blog
• September 12th – Amber G. @ Lady Amber’s Reviews
• September 12th – Autumn @ Fallen Over Book Reviews
• September 12th – Yolanda @ Defending the Pen
• September 12th – Carrie @ Indy Book Fairy
• September 13th – Sophie @ Book Suburbia
• September 13th – CCAM @ Mythical Books
• September 13th – Bianca @ Bianca2b
• September 13th – Vicky @ Deal Sharing Aunt
• September 13th – Jessica @ Jess’s Book Blog (Book Review)
• September 13th – Corey @ Corey’s Book Reviews (Book Review)
• September 13th – Laurie @ Laurie’s Paranormal Thoughts and Reviews
• September 13th – Brenda @ Daily Mayo (Book Review)
• September 13th – Sabrina @ Sabrina’s Paranormal Palace (Book Review)
• September 13th – Jocelyn @ Jocelyn Adams (Book Review)
• September 13th – Bridgette @ BookwormBridgette’s World
• September 13th – Aja @ Aja Hannah Blog

TEASER TUESDAY AND BOLERO

I'm following the lead of Christine Rains  – it's called Teaser Tuesday! Felt like being a copy cat today!

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following: 

Grab your current read

Open to a random page

Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page

BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!) 

Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

Bolero is a novel by Joanie McDonell and introduces Private Eye Nick Sayler. It's a great read, fun, fast, and engrossing!

Here's your teaser:

… Julia Carteret had become, over only one decade, an almost mythic figure. Ironically, it took the circumstances of her death to prove that she was human. (page 137 of the book!) 

Blurb:

Bolero introduces Nick Sayler, the private investigator who lives aboard a Hudson River barge with a brilliant savant, a retired psychiatrist and a stunning Creole girl. But Sayler’s haunted by memories of the woman who took a bullet meant for him, so his good life is belied by a bad drinking habit.

Then an emergency room doctor’s desperate call about a ballerina with no memory and nothing on her except his card, changes everything. If he can dip into his notorious past to uncover the secret that will save the dancer, maybe he can finally save himself.

The Author:

Joanie McDonell, who once spent a lot of time aboard a barge very much like the Dumb Luck, now lives on the beach near the eastern end of Long Island. She's written poems, screenplays, the novel Half Crazy, and The Little Book of Hope. She is currently at work on the next book featuring Private Investigator Nick Sayler.

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Happy Tuesday!

POLAR NIGHT WITH JULIE FLANDERS

Today I welcome Julie Flanders the author of Polar Night; she's agreed to answer a few questions. 

1.  Tell us a little about the journey of Polar Night – inception to publishing. Based on your journey do you have any advice for novice writers?

The idea for Polar Night came from a dream I had back in 2011. I dreamed that I was on an ocean liner in the 1920s and met a man who talked about a woman he had loved and lost in Russia during World War I. It was a strange dream and involved significantly more detail than the dreams I usually have! I originally planned to set the story in Finland but I realized quickly that I was way out of my depth and it would be much better for me to set it in the United States. Eventually it all came together in Alaska and the Russian history of Alaska fit amazingly well with the story.

Once the ideas were in place I wrote the story fairly quickly and began shopping it around in the spring of 2012. I sent out queries to agents and to small presses and eventually found my home with Ink Smith Publishing in the fall of 2012. The book was released in February 2013 so there really wasn’t a big time gap between the inception of the story and its publication.

I still think of myself as a novice so I don’t know if I am qualified to give any advice, but I would definitely encourage writers to look into all of the different publishing avenues that are available. I have friends who have gone with agents and traditional publishing houses, friends who have published with small presses like I did, and friends who have self-published. I don’t think there is any right way to do it – do your research and decide which path is the right one for you to pursue.

2.  Polar Night is a supernatural thriller, is that your favorite genre? What are your long-term writing goals? Tell us a little about your next project.

I don’t really have a favorite genre, but I definitely enjoy writing stories with some kind of supernatural or paranormal element. My next project is called The Ghosts of Aquinnah and it will be published in December 2013. As you can guess from the title, it features at least one ghost, so while it’s not a thriller it does have a supernatural element. It’s a combination love story, ghost story, and mystery and it takes place in both 1884 and in the present day on the island of Martha’s Vineyard.

One of my writing goals is to continue writing novels and I hope to have the sequel to Polar Night written by next year. I also want to do more freelance writing and hope to write features for print and online media outlets.

3.  If you could change anything about the world today, what would it be and why and if you could change one thing about your life what would it be?

If I could change one thing about my life, I would go back in time and start writing earlier. I didn’t start taking my writing seriously until I was in my 40s and I wish I had realized this was what I wanted to do much sooner. I feel like I wasted quite a few years! But then I also think maybe I needed to make the mistakes I did in order to get to the place I am now.

If I could change one thing about the world, I would stop the treatment of women as second-class (or worse) citizens in so many places. I recently became familiar with the Half the Sky movement, which works to halt the oppression of women and girls worldwide, and it was both eye-opening and horrifying. The gender-based violence, forced prostitution, and lack of education and opportunity for girls that is all too common in many areas is simply infuriating.

4. What is our favorite quote, why, and how have you applied it to your life?

My favorite quote is “It is never too late to be what you might have been” by George Eliot. I went through a difficult period of depression around the time I turned 40 and came upon this quote at that time. I put it up on my refrigerator and it’s been there ever since. It helped me stop focusing on the past and what I hadn’t done and focus instead on the future and what I wanted to do. I started writing and my whole attitude about life changed.  

Thanks Julie, for sharing your journey with us!

Book Blurb:  Polar Night

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, will be published by Ink Smith in December, 2013. Find Julie online at her website, and on her blog, Twitter, Goodreads, Pinterest, and Facebook.

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Julie is hosting me today on her blog as I talk about my Alaskan Adventure and the inspiration for my books.

THAT FATAL KISS

Today I am thrilled to be presenting the debut novel of Mina Lobo of the blog Some Dark Romantic.

Mina Lobo has long held a passion for Greek mythology. The story of the goddess Persephone's marriage-by-kidnap to Hades, Lord of the Underworld, has particularly fascinated her, and thus came about Mina's debut novel, That Fatal Kiss. Coming September 2013, the revisionist tale features a fiery and noble heroine, a handsome and broody hero, and some heated, earth-shakin' lovin'!

Given Mina's self-professed neurotic nature, it took her and cover artist Steven Novak a few go-arounds before settling on the cover design for That Fatal Kiss. It had to be curiously compelling, slightly spooky, and yet super sexy—and so it is!

The Book:

Feared by mortals for his inexorable power, and loathed by his fellow Greek gods for the same, Hades rules the Underworld alone. A stark eternity looms before him until he discovers Persephone. Struck by the youthful goddess’ beauty, kindness, and spirit, he must have her. But Hades believes Persephone could never love him, and so he conspires with his powerful brother, Zeus, to take her by force.

Persephone too seeks a mate but her possessive mother, the goddess Demeter, frustrates her husband hunting. Then Hades abducts Persephone, tearing her away from the Upperworld she loves to reign with him in the dank depths below. Though outraged, Persephone cannot deny the desire ignited within her by the dark lord’s touch. And even as she hopes that Demeter will unearth her, Persephone aches to surrender to the heat in Hades’ immortal soul.

The Teaser:

“Enough,” Hades said, closing the distance between them. “I have taken you with your father’s consent, as custom allows. You are in my kingdom, under my rule, and if you have any care for your continued well-being, you will get into my bed. Now.” And with the removal of the pins that held together the black cloth about his waist, he stood naked before her.


The anger warming Persephone clashed with another fire that roared to life within her. She choked on a breath and turned her face from him. “Be warned; I will resist you with the full force of my being, through violent means, if necessary.”

His large, unyielding hands encircled the soft flesh of her upper arms as he said, “If you must. Though your surrender to me would prove more satisfying to us both.”

The Author:

Mina Lobo has a lot of Scorpio action going on in her natal chart, which makes for a rather sybaritic and lust-driven Sagittarian. She aims for a wildly successful future as a writer of dark and whimsical romance while dodging the slings and arrows of her outrageous teenaged son, who's buggered off to college (hence the "Lite" in her Twitter handle, below). She enjoys comedic horror and alt rock, goth, & new wave music, as well as quality Belgian chocolates.

Mina invites you to keep abreast of updates regarding That Fatal Kiss, as well as the development of any new neuroses, by stalking her at her usual haunts:

Her blog: Some Dark Romantic

On Facebook: mina.lobo.1

On the Twitter: @GothMomLite

And GothMomLite Will Tumblr For Ya as well

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Wow! That is one hot introduction! Congratulations Mina!