Sunday, April 16, 2017

Now on Tour - Sorrow's Turn by Danielle DeVor

The Review/Spotlight tour for Sorrow's Turn by Danielle DeVor kicks off this week! Make sure you check this one out and don't forget to enter the giveaway!

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April 18th
CD Yess Writes
Review

April 19th
Teresa Noel
Review

April 21st
Books are Love
Review

April 24th
Apocalipstick the Book
Spotlight

April 26th
Books and Banter
Spotlight

April 27th
Mel’s Shelves
Spotlight


Book Description

Some Things are Worse Than Demons.


Jimmy Holiday, reluctant exorcist, is finally getting the help he needs from the higher-ups. The Order of Markers is sending him to the Vatican’s exorcism school. Now, he’ll receive the training he should have gotten at the beginning. One problem, someone wants to sabotage him.

When his time at the school is cut short, Jimmy receives an interesting new case. It is the assignment that no one wants—a corpse has come back to life. And it isn’t a zombie.

Too bad nothing goes as expected. Armed with his usual bag of tricks, Jimmy thinks everything will eventually be all right. Well, that is until his betrayer turns out to be the person he trusts most.

Excerpt

If ever I thought stuff couldn’t get any weirder in my life, boy was I wrong. Getting out of Arizona was—well, interesting to say the least. No way could we take Lucy on a plane—not without documentation or permission from her parents, which wasn’t going to happen. Poor kid had it rough learning how to walk on real feet again. Then there was the airplane itself. She’d been through enough having been possessed, separated from her body, and ultimately left with me to take care of her. Now this.

How did you call up someone to ask if you could take their daughter’s spirit that had just developed its own body on an airplane while they still had her real body in Virginia? It was enough to make my brain bleed.

And of course, I didn’t have their new phone number, but that was beside the point.

Like I said, things had gotten a whole heap weirder.

“Are you going to help me or not?” Tabby stood behind the car, fiddling with the suitcase.

I was in trouble again. It was starting to become a trend. One of these days she would clobber me. I could see it coming. I got out of the car, took the monstrous suitcase from her, and loaded it into the trunk.

“Car rental place said we can have the car, but there’s a fee,” I said, closing the back hatch.

Of course there would be. It wasn’t like some big organization was going to be nice or anything. Hell, I had trouble with people in general. Why would a corporation be any different?

“How much?”

I shrugged. “I didn’t ask.”

Thwap. My head rocked forward.

“Did you hit me?” I stared at her. Maybe being psychic was another added bonus to this marker thing. Nah, if that were the case, I wouldn’t have screwed up in Arizona.

Tabby stood with her hands on her hips. Her red hair framed her face like she was some sort of pissed-off goddess. Her eyes darkened, and I was reminded of that guy on TV who kept hitting his workers on the back of the head.

“Yes, I did,” she said. “Just because you love that magic black card, it doesn’t mean you don’t have to worry about it.”

I rubbed my head. Damn, she hit hard. “If this was my sort of normal I’d be worried. But how else are we getting this menagerie home?”

“Good point.”

I was glad she saw it that way because there wasn’t another option. It wasn’t like I had some amazing powers like flight or anything.

“Was that the last of it?” I asked. The trunk was almost full. I could maybe fit a small stuffed animal in there, but that was questionable.

“Yep.”

“Okay. Let’s blow this popsicle stand.”

Bio

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Named one of the Examiner’s 2014 Women in Horror: 93 Horror Authors you Need to Read Right Now, Danielle DeVor has been spinning the spider webs, or rather, the keyboard for more frights and oddities. She spent her early years fantasizing about vampires and watching “Salem’s Lot” way too many times. When not writing and reading about weird things, you will find her hanging out at the nearest coffee shop, enjoying a mocha frappuccino. 


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Friday, April 14, 2017

My Dream Bookish Panel

This post a bit different from our usual fare, but Eventbrite inspired me to write a post where I would share which authors I would most love to have on a book panel. So here goes!

When I started thinking about which authors I would write about, the list came fairly easy. There are tons of great modern writers, of course, but I think I would love to hear from a few writers from the past:

1. Frances Hodgson Burnett

The Secret Garden is one of my favorite childhood novels. To this day I am not the type to re-read books, even if a book is amazing, one go tends to be enough for me. The Secret Garden is one of the few books I have read numerous times, well into adulthood. It really resonated with me as a child, the 'magic' the children believed in, the garden hidden away from the world that they brought back to life and became their secret haven, I loved it! So I think it would be great to be face to face with the author of a book I have loved for most of my life.

2. Yukio Mishima

I have a love of post-modern Japanese novels, and have read a few of Mishima's novels. The Sound of Waves is another book I have read more than once, and is another favorite of mine. Yukio Mishima's life story is fascinating and tragic, and I would love to hear from him in his own words.

3. Emily Bronte

Another book I've read more than once -- Wuthering Heights. It's dark, gothic, romantic (in a dark, twisted, violent way). The dynamic between Cathy and Heathcliff has always been once I have been drawn to. I would love to meet Emily and talk to her about the book and hear her own thoughts on her characters.

4. Emily Dickinson

I have found the biography of her life to be very interesting. Someone who spent so many years as a recluse, writing poetry and communicating with others largely by written correspondence only -- I'd love to meet her, maybe find out why she choose to live that way, and talk to her about her poetry. Hopefully she would show up, right?


I think I chose authors from the past, not only because of how much I love their work, but because other than what they may have left behind, a lot of times we can only speculate about what someone who is long dead was like, guess at why they made decisions they made or wrote what they wrote. We don't have the ability to sit and talk to them, can only peruse what was left behind, and though there is beauty in the enigmatic and unknown, sometimes it's nice to have answers too. So if I were to have a dream panel of authors, those four are who I would choose.

Hope you enjoyed reading my choices!

Check out Eventbrite's online event registration page if you're interested in hosting or organizing your own local event!

Sunday, April 9, 2017

Now on Tour - Deadly Inheritance by Karen Randau!

The Review/Spotlight tour for Deadly Inheritance by Karen Randau kicks off this week! Find the schedule below and make sure you check this one out!

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April 10th
CD Yess Writes
Spotlight

April 11th
Hollow Unrest
Spotlight

April 13th
Natural Bri
T: @natural_bri
Review

April 14th
Books are Love
Review

Rough seas in the Med
Review

April 18th
Books and Banter
Spotlight

Book Description:

A poisoned hotel clerk, a ruined Scotland honeymoon, and a hidden Viking burial site, Deadly Inheritance is the second book in the fast-paced Rim Country Mystery series.

Rita and Cliff are together again, this time on a long-awaited honeymoon in Scotland, where Cliff also plans to meet his grandfather for the first time. While the newlyweds check into the honeymoon suite at a luxurious Scottish hotel, the reception clerk dies after opening a note meant for Cliff. The action shifts into high gear when a mysterious woman uses the hotel clerk’s car against Rita and Cliff.

The couple team up with Detective Ian MacDougal to discover who wants them dead and why. The search for answers takes them on a one-of-a-kind tour of Scotland.
Murder and a fistful of action combine to make Rita’s Scottish honeymoon something she didn’t envision!

Excerpt:

A swirl of damp chill startled me when I entered the jetway in Edinburgh, Scotland. I snuggled against Cliff’s warmth, longed for the sweater in our checked luggage, and blamed honeymoon jitters for my headache and upset stomach.

An airline employee herded us onto a bus then told us to collect our luggage before going to the Customs area. Cliff secured a cart and stacked our luggage. I pulled out our sweaters.

We cleared Customs, found our way to the car rental counter, and approached a thirty-something agent in an ill-fitting red company blazer. It took deep concentration to understand his heavy accent as he retrieved our reservation and described our rental. Despite his dialect, I was sure I’d never heard of that make of car.

“Could we get something larger and with an automatic transmission?” Cliff asked.

“We have no automatics available,” the agent said. “If ye get a larger car, yu’ll have problems findin’ a place to park.”

Cliff nodded.

The agent flipped a map onto the counter and asked if we needed directions to our hotel. Cliff said we could use the navigation app on our cellphones. The agent cautioned that our app might not be accurate on some of the rural roads along our route, that we may not have cell coverage in the mountains, and that we should watch for sheep in the Highland countryside. With a yellow highlighter, he traced our route to the Eagles Nest Hotel and Spa, then he directed us to the “car park.”

The tightness around my head eased when we left the terminal and entered the relative calm of the rental car parking lot. I wrapped my sweater tighter and wished for a jacket while a twenty-something attendant with dark hair and a red company blazer introduced himself. He gave us a short lesson on how to drive our tiny red car.

“It looks more like a rollerskate than a car,” Cliff said.

The attendant offered a courteous smile, as if he had heard the rollerskate joke a million times.

He described how to drive a stick shift from the right side of the car, and on the left side of the road.

We looked at each other and nodded.

The attendant seemed skeptical. “I’ll just review th’ most important highway codes with ye.” We listened politely and thanked the attendant for his help.

Cliff opened the trunk and handed me the map. A wind gust ripped it away.  It swooped up, hovered for a second, and landed in a puddle.

“We don’t need it, Rita.” Cliff gestured for me to get into the car.

Cliff didn’t have to tell me twice. I happily deposited myself onto the passenger seat and blew into my hands to warm them while the attendant chased after the map.

The attendant opened my door and handed me the map. “Yu’ll need this, believe me.”

I tossed the soggy map onto the back floorboard.

The attendant closed my door and offered to help Cliff put our luggage “in th’ boot.” When everything wouldn’t fit in the trunk, Cliff laid our garment bags onto the backseat.

Cliff attempted to cram himself behind the steering wheel, gave up, and suggested I drive. As I slid in, he entered the address to Perthshire’s luxurious Eagles Nest Hotel and Spa into his cell. A welcome female voice with an American accent said to turn east. Unfortunately, I was too disoriented to know east from south. I shrugged at the attendant, who pointed toward the Exit sign.

Despite heavy traffic on the streets of Edinburgh, and rain like I’d never seen in Rim Vista, Arizona, everything went well … until a large truck entered the lane beside us in a busy roundabout. I felt like an insect about to get crushed and drove as close to the center as possible. I forgot to downshift, and the car stalled.

Horns blared behind us, sending my nerves into overdrive. I got the car moving, and drove the front tire over the curb. The tiny vehicle felt like it might tip over. “I don’t think we’re supposed to be driving on this part.” The wobble in my voice seemed to alarm Cliff.


“Don’t panic,” he said in his calm detective’s voice. “Breathe.”

Bio:

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A native of the southwestern U.S., Karen Randau has been writing and telling stories since elementary school. She holds a degree in journalism/public relations from The University of Texas at Austin and has enjoyed a long career in marketing communications.

After a short stint working in a psychiatric hospital, when she wrote three self-help books, Karen joined an international relief and development organization to use her skills to help people struggling with extreme poverty. She has traveled to numerous developing countries, witnessing famines, violence, and hopeful people working to overcome a generational cycle of poverty.

She loves to read and write fast-paced mysteries and thrillers, especially those with intricate plots, lots of action, and rollercoaster-like twists and turns.

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