Tuesday, 31 May 2016

SERIES PROMOTION - THE SKYSCRAPER THRONE SERIES BY TOM POLLOCK

Title: The City's Son
Series: The Skyscraper Throne
Author: Tom Pollock
Genre: YA, Sci-Fi, Dystopian, Paranormal, Fantasy
Publisher: Jo Fletcher Books
Release Date: 2nd August 2012

BLURB from Goodreads
Hidden under the surface of everyday London is a city of monsters and miracles, where wild train spirits stampede over the tracks and glass-skineed dancers with glowing veins light the streets.

When a devastating betrayal drives her from her home, graffiti artist Beth Bradley stumbles into the secret city, where she finds Filius Viae, London's ragged crown prince, just when he needs someone most. An ancient enemy has returned to the darkness under St Paul's Cathedral, bent on reigniting a centuries-old war, and Beth and Fil find themselves in a desperate race through a bizarre urban wonderland, searching for a way to save the city they both love.


Title: The Glass Republic
Series: The Skyscraper Throne
Author: Tom Pollock
Genre: YA, Sci-Fi, Dystopian, Paranormal, Fantasy
Publisher: Jo Fletcher Books
Release Date: 1st August 2013

BLURB from Goodreads
Pen’s life is all about secrets: the secret of the city’s spirits, deities and monsters her best friend Beth discovered, living just beyond the notice of modern Londoners; the secret of how she got the intricate scars that disfigure her so cruelly – and the most closely guarded secret of all: Parva, her mirror-sister, forged from her reflections in a school bathroom mirror. Pen’s reflected twin is the only girl who really understands her.

Then Parva is abducted and Pen makes a terrible bargain for the means to track her down. In London-Under-Glass looks are currency, and Pen’s scars make her a rare and valuable commodity. But some in the reflected city will do anything to keep Pen from the secret of what happened to the sister who shared her face.


Goodreads Link
Amazon US
Amazon UK


Title: Our Lady Of The Streets
Series: The Skyscraper Throne
Author: Tom Pollock
Genre: YA, Sci-Fi, Dystopian, Paranormal, Fantasy
Publisher: Jo Fletcher Books
Release Date: 7th August 2014

BLURB from Goodreads
Four months ago, Mater Viae, the Goddess of London, returned from London-Under- Glass to reclaim her throne. And ever since then, London has been dying.

Streets are wracked by convulsions as muscles of wire and pipe go into spasm, bunching the city into a crippled new geography; pavements flare to thousand-degree fevers, incinerating anyone and anything touching them. Towers crash to the ground, their foundations decayed.

As the streets sicken, so does Beth, drawn ever deeper into the heart of the city, while Pen fights desperately for a way to save her. But when they discover that Mater Viae’s plans for dominion stretch far beyond London’s borders, they must make a choice: Beth has it within her to unleash the city’s oldest and greatest powers – powers that could challenge the vengeful goddess, or destroy the city itself.
 


Goodreads Link
Amazon US
Amazon UK

COVER COMMENTS

This is another series that I have to say I love the covers. They work so well together and would look beautiful on a bookshelf! Though I am yet to read any of this series, I feel they fit the blurbs of the books and are striking enough that I would be intrigued by them and want to pick them up in a book store to learn more about them. I think the thought of having those matching covers would more than likely make me purchase the full series to ensure I had the full matching set! ~ Jeanz


Monday, 30 May 2016

BOOK BLAST - CORNERED - HOLLOWAY PACK BY J.A. BELFIELD

Title: Cornered
Series: Holloway Pack
Author: J.A. Belfield
Genre: Paranormal, Shapeshifter, Werewolves, Romance
Release Date: 30th May 2016

**Note from author** - Cornered contains scenes that some readers might find upsetting**

BLURB supplied by J.a. Belfield

Daniel Larsen is playing a dangerous game, and he doesn’t even know it.

 A two-wheeled speedster. A little redhead in a bar. Evenings spent away from his pack. Innocent enough for most, but for Danny, the combination leads down a path of destruction and straight to a hell he doesn’t even see coming.

Entangled in a nightmare that started with his own brother and the cat he brought into their home, Dan’s driving himself toward a solitary existence—except for the curvaceous Olivia Fanella. Seduced by his new companion, and happy to ignore the divide growing between himself and the pack, Danny is oblivious to the trap being laid out for him.
Before long, Danny’s integrity gets questioned. His loyalty gets questioned. Hell, he even questions himself.


On top of that, just when he believes life might be going a little better, he gets served the roughest shot he could never have imagined—not even in his worst nightmares—and Danny has no idea how to come back from a hit like that.


TEASERS




ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Best known for her Holloway Pack Stories, J. A. Belfield lives in Solihull, England, with her husband, two children, two dogs she treats like babies, and a cat that drives her nuts. She writes paranormal romance, with a second love for urban fantasy.

AUTHOR LINKS


***GIVEAWAY***
This is a Book Blast Tour Wide Giveaway
The Prize = The Whole Holloway Pack Series!

Titles included: Darkness & Light, Blue Moon, Resonance, Caged & Unnatural.



Sunday, 29 May 2016

PROMOTION & AUTHOR INTERVIEW - THE ÁLFAERÉN LEGACY BY MARC JACOBS

Title: The Álfaerén Legacy
Author: Marc Jacobs
Release Date: 28th January 2016

BLURB from Goodreads
There are some places in Teynia none were meant to go, hiding secrets none were meant to find. But one morning, sisters Kali and Kilyn Middlethird stumbled upon such a place, and uncovered such a secret. They stood before an enchanted Gate left behind by the Álfaerëns long ago to imprison the Spirit, an evil capable of destroying all of Teynia. If only someone had told the Middlethirds about the Gate, they might not have opened it. Now, Teynia’s fate hinged on the Middlethirds, aided by Ice and the wizard Marac, surviving long enough to find the legendary Portal of Worlds, and the lost descendants of an ancient hero hidden somewhere within the Portal. To save their world, they would have to leave it. Their journey would lead them to Earth, where they would have to decipher age-old clues to find what they were looking for. But if Pennsylvania high school senior, Alexandra Castellano, failed to unravel a thousand year old mystery of her own, buried deep within her family name itself, Teynia would be lost to the Spirit, and Earth was next. And none of them would ever find out who they really were…



AUTHOR INTERVIEW
How long did it take you to write The Álfaerén Legacy from the original idea to finishing writing it? 
25 Years.  That’s what happens when a wonderful idea meets a wonderful family and a full time career.  But when my 12 year old daughter challenged me to finish the novel, I embraced the opportunity complete a story that inspired me, and could not be happier with the result.

What genre would you place The Álfaerén Legacy  into?
Fantasy, although what sub-genre is more challenging.  The book has elements of epic or high fantasy, and falls in the Young Adult Fantasy genre as its three main female protagonists are in the 15-18 range. The story also incorporates elements of urban fantasy (as the characters journey through the libraries, museums and universities of Europe and New York) and science fiction as well.

What genre would you put The Álfaerén Legacy  in and what made you decide to write that genre of book?
I believe fantasy and science fiction offers great food for one's imagination, keeps people dreaming and believing in a greater world of possibilities. I have enjoyed fantasy and science fiction my entire life, and have always found inspiration in those genres.

What can we expect from you in the future?  ie Is The Álfaerén Legacy the start of a series?
While The Álfaerén Legacy is a stand-alone book in that the story line is “complete,” meaning you don’t have to buy 6 more books to see how the story ends, I am writing a second installment, “The Álfaerën Legacy: The Fate of Time.”   The second book will continue to follow the adventures and challenges of the story’s three main protagonists, sisters Kali & Kilyn Middlethird, and their other-worldly cousin, Alexandra Castellano.

Where did you get your book plot ideas from for The Álfaerén Legacy? What/Who is your inspiration?
So many authors have inspired me over time, from J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit, to CS Lewis’ The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, all of J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter books, and even the recent work by Ernest Cline, Ready Player One.  But for true inspiration, my two daughters and wife provide the main inspiration, and my main characters draw most of their personality traits from them.

How did you come up with the Title and Cover Designs for The Álfaerén Legacy? Who designed the Cover?
I designed my cover myself.  Although I am an attorney by trade, I am also a published cartoonist and as a result, I am very proficient with Photoshop.  As for the name, that was a combination of my family members voting on the name, although I won’t lie, I steered them in the direction I most wanted them to go.
  
Did you basic plot/plan for The Álfaerén Legacy, before you actually begin writing it out? Or do you let the writing flow and see where it takes the story?
The overall plot structure and subjects of the chapters, were planned out in advance of writing the book.  As for how the chapters play out, and how my characters interact with what is happening, I let the writing flow, and the humor follow.

Did you choose the title first, or write The Álfaerén Legacy then choose the title?
I wrote the story first and then chose the title.

How did you come up with characters names and place names in The Álfaerén Legacy?
At first, the characters’ names were based on the family members that inspired them, meaning, I used their real names.  Eventually, once that decision was overridden, I worked to select names that fit the mood and feel of the chapters, characters, and backgrounds.
  
Are character names and place names decided after their creation? or do you pick a character/place name and then invent them?
All of the “minor” or non-main characters were decided after creation as the flow of the story required.

Do you decide on character traits (ie shy, quiet, tomboy girl) before writing the whole book or as you go along?
I went with the flow of writing as for the character traits, although being that my main characters were based on real-life personalities, in that sense, they were decided ahead of time.

Have you ever based characters on people you know or based events on things that have happened to you?
Sisters Kali & Kilyn Middlethird, and Alexandra Castellano, are all based on people I know – at least insofar as their personality traits are concerned.

Do you have a favourite character from The Álfaerén Legacy? and why are they your favourite?
Like my daughters, I love them all equally, although some are funnier than others.

If you had to choose to be one of your characters in The Álfaerén Legacy which would you be? and why?
Marac, a wizard of practical magic and the wisdom to handle all that is ongoing around him.  I believe we can all use traits like that once in a while.

Do you think The Álfaerén Legacy would transfer to a movie well? Do you already have ideas for who you would like to play your characters?
I do believe it would transfer well into a movie because of the pace of adventure and the dynamic that unfolds through Europe and New York.  My daughters have already claimed their characters should the book ever be made into a movie, so casting is complete on that front.

Where can readers follow you?
Blog:
Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/TheAlfaerenLegacy-1573489206314417/
Goodreads author page: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29074616-the-lfaer-n-legacy?from_search=true&search_version=service

Twitter:  https://twitter.com/AlfaerenLegacy?lang=en
Google+:
Smashwords:
Pinterest:
Tumblr:
Instagram:
Other:  My daughters are scheming… 


Saturday, 28 May 2016

GIVEAWAY & PROMOTION - DR WOLF SHOCKWAVE - THE FAE RIFT SERIES BY CHEREE ALSOP

Title: Dr Wolf Shockwave
Series: The Fae Rift
Author: Cheree Alsop
Release Date: 26th May 2016

BLURB supplied by the Author
When the divide between the fae world and the human world is torn apart, Aleric Bayne is thrown into the ensuing chaos. Hurt and disoriented, the werewolf finds himself in a hospital emergency room. When other fae creatures begin to show up, Aleric sneaks them into the D wing of the hospital. With no one else able to treat their unusual conditions, Aleric steps into the role of Dr. Wolf. He has one goal in mind, to help the fae and close the Rift. But Dr. Wolf has walls around the memories of his own broken past that threaten to unravel the world he is holding together by a thread.


ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Cheree Alsop is an award-winning, best-selling author and the mother of a beautiful, talented daughter and amazing twin sons who fill every day with joy and laughter. She is married to her best friend, Michael, the light of her life and her soulmate who shares her dreams and inspires her by reading the first drafts of each book. Cheree is a fulltime author and mother, which is much more fun than work! She enjoys reading, riding her motorcycle on warm nights, and playing with her twins while planning her next book. She is also a bass player for their rock band, Alien Landslide.

Cheree and Michael live in Utah where they rock out, enjoy the outdoors, plan great adventures, and never stop dreaming. 

OTHER SERIES BY CHEREE ALSOP
(Links to Goodreads)

(7 books so far)

(3 books so far)

(7 books so far)

(3 books so far)

(1 book so far)

***GIVEAWAY**
Cheree Alsop has generously offered 3 ecopies
so that's 3 winners!
I usually use Rafflecopter but of late it seems
people do not enter those anymore!
So please leave your name & email address
and I will pick the Winners using random.org.

PS. Don't forget to drop by my Giveaways & Competitions Page to see more prizes to be won!



PROMOTION - GIOVANNI GOES TO MED SCHOOL - THE MED SCHOOL SERIES BY KATHY BRYSON

:
Title: Giovanni Goes To Med School
Series: The Med School Series
Author: Kathy Bryson
Release Date: 23rd March 2016

BLURB from Goodreads
You don’t have to be a medical student to know the dead do not get up and walk around. Anyone who’s buried a pet in the backyard knows the dead don’t walk. They don’t even lurch.


The night-shift in the morgue was supposed to be a chance to study in quiet and off-set ridiculous student loans. Giovanni is stunned when his patient sits up and starts scolding. Now he’s got to convince an unbelieving medical community to take action, so he can get back to learning about the dead – not the undead!

Kobo 

EXCERPT
“New, huh?” Fred scrawled something across the bottom of the page and handed it back to Giovanni. “Don’t worry about it. Everybody freaks out at first, but you get used to it.” He waved vaguely at the back wall with its row after row of file drawers that didn’t hold paper. “C’mon, I’ll help you put her away this time.”
More grateful than he could ever express, Giovanni helped Fred maneuver the recalcitrant gurney over to the back wall and nervously unlocked and opened a square metal door. What looked like a file drawer was actually one part of a self-contained refrigeration unit. This was a small morgue according to the manual. Everyone got his or her own drawer, but shared a central cooling and back up system unlike the county facility where everyone shared shelf space in a refrigerated room.
Fred had no nervous qualms and instead had the white cloth whipped off the gurney and the drawer’s metal tray pulled out in one smooth move. “Okay, you lift the feet and I’ll get the head.”
Giovanni looked down and was surprised. The white swathed figure on the gurney looked like a load of laundry more than anything. “It’s so small.”
“Yeah.” Fred carefully angled himself in between the wall and the head of the gurney.  He gently slid both hands under the figure’s shoulders so its head rested on his forearms. “Most of the elderly are by the time they pass. Just wasted away. It’s the fat bastards who die of heart attacks that are a pain. On the count of three, lift.”
Giovanni hurried to slide his hands under the figure’s legs and lifted. The body shifted easily to the sliding tray. Fred stepped back and reaching for the white cloth, began folding it. “Shame really,” he said, regarding the body solemnly and shaking his head. “Mrs. Harris was a real nice lady.”
“Wait? Mrs. Harris?” Giovanni’s glance darted between the still figure and the clipboard of papers he held in one hand. “I know her. She was in the ER this morning.”
Fred nodded. “Regular customer. Guess this was her last trip.” He squinted at Giovanni as he put the folded cloth down. “You okay, son?”
“Yeah, yeah, of course,’ Giovanni pulled himself together. “I just thought she’d made it. She had a dislocated elbow.” His mind skittered away from the memory of Mrs. Harris not breathing as she lay in the ER exam room.
“Well, it happens.” Fred eyed him from underneath lowered brows, and then shrugged. Apparently he wasn’t going to concern himself any further as he proceeded to wrestle and curse his gurney back into the freight elevator. He didn’t even look back or wave as he pressed the button for an upper floor.
Giovanni did wave, but absently, and hurried back to the morgue as soon as the freight elevator doors closed. He flipped urgently through the paperwork on his clipboard, but there were no patient records included, just blank forms waiting for the morgue manager's signature to ensure the right body was handed off to the right funeral home. At her age and in her physical condition, Mrs. Harris wouldn’t merit any attention from the medical examiner. She was simply an old lady who had passed as everyone did eventually.
Giovanni sighed and put down the paperwork. He didn’t see where he could do anything more for Mrs. Harris and the hope that maybe he’d done enough started to creep up on him. After all, the other, fully qualified doctors had administered the actual anesthetic. He was probably just feeling indoctrinated guilt from being raised in a large Catholic, Italian family.
Dimly in the background, he heard a mournful howl. Rufus, he thought with an inward eye roll and it didn’t even occur to him how eerily appropriate it was for the dog to howl just then. Instead, he reached for a pen and the toe tag on the bundle in front of him, determined to ensure that Mrs. Harris reached her final rest without mistake.
The toe tag pulled away. Frowning, Giovanni reached again. The toe tag slid away from him and he watched horrified as the swathed figure writhed, then sat up. From somewhere behind him, he could hear frantic barking and a high-pitched wail. When he gasped for breath, he realized the wail came from him even as the cocooned corpse bent forward and mumbled, “Sonny, you scream like a girl.”

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Kathy Bryson knew she wanted to be a writer when she finished reading through her school and local children’s libraries. She honed her writing skills on marketing brochures, websites, and several unfinished manuscripts before going into teaching and finishing award-winning books with all the stuff she enjoys most – from coffee to love to Shakespeare! Kathy lives in Florida where she caters to the whims of spoiled cats and wonders what possessed her to put in 75 feet of flower beds.


AUTHOR LINKS
Blog 



Friday, 27 May 2016

PROMOTION INCL INTERVIEW - VISIONSIGHT BY CONNIE LACY

Title: VisionSight
Author: Connie Lacy
Genre: Magic Realism, Contemporary, Woman's Fiction
Release Date: 17th October 2015

BLURB from Goodreads
Jenna Stevens sees the future. But only when she looks into her loved ones’ eyes. And it’s driving her crazy because she can’t prevent all the misery and heartache lying in wait. 

She quickly decides the gift of “vision-sight” she inherited from her mother is actually a curse. So she distances herself from everyone she cares about, throwing herself into her acting career and the arms of a young director. 

But she’s haunted by her visions and begins drinking as her life spirals out of control. VisionSight is the story of a young woman’s search for courage as she tries to figure out how to help the people she loves. What she doesn’t realize is that she must save herself as well. A heartfelt novel of secrets and unexpected love.

Amazon UK

I love this cover, the beautiful colour and the detailed eye, make it very striking and would certainly draw your attention encouraging you to pick it up from a book store shelf. ~Jeanz

AUTHOR INTERVIEW
What is your name, where were you born and where do you live now? 
My name is Connie Lacy.  I was born at Ft. Campbell, Kentucky while my father was stationed there in the Army.  I’ve been living in Atlanta for a long time and think of it as home.

Did you always want to be a writer? If not what did you want to be?
When I was 8 years old I thought I’d like to be a hair stylist.  At 11 years of age I wanted to be an astronomer.  When I was 14 I thought I’d like to be a lawyer and live in a high-rise apartment in New York.  But I gravitated toward journalism in college and worked for many years as a radio reporter and news anchor.  I started writing fiction when I was in junior high.  But it wasn’t until last year that I finally self-published my first, second and third books.

What is the name of your latest book, and if you had to summarise it in less than 20 words what would you say?
My latest book is “VisionSight: a Novel.”  It’s magical realism for women readers.  It’s about a young woman who inherits the ability to see the future when she looks into her loved ones’ eyes. 

Which of your books were easier/harder to write than the others?
My first book, “The Shade Ring,” was a real challenge.  It’s Sci-fi – Climate Fiction – and is set a hundred years in the future when runaway global warming has caused a fifteen foot rise in sea levels.  I did a ton of research preparing to create the world of 2117.  I actually love doing research.  The only problem is sometimes I have to tell myself to quit researching and get on with writing.

What can we expect from you in the future?  ie More books of the same genre? Books of a different genre?
Right now I’m working on two sequels to “The Shade Ring.”  Book 2 will be published this summer and Book 3 will come out in early 2017.  After that, I’ll be working on a novel about a high school girl set in the 1960's.

Do you have a favourite character from your books? and why are they your favourite?
I like the protagonist in each of my first three books.  But I’m most partial, I think, to 17 year old Megan McConnell – the main character in my second book, “The Time Telephone.”  She’s determined to try to save her mother, who’s a foreign correspondent, by calling her in the past.  She has to deal with feelings of abandonment but… without giving too much of the story away… she learns a lot about life and love.

Where do you get your book plot ideas from?What/Who is your inspiration?
Ideas pop into my head.  The idea for “The Shade Ring” came from all the media coverage of global warming.  I started wondering what a hotter world would be like and developed a character who actually gets sucked into efforts to deal with climate change.  The idea for my third book, “VisionSight,” came to me while watching my son’s high school soccer game.  I was wondering what a group of teenagers several rows in front of me would look like in thirty or forty years.  And it occurred to me that I could write about a character who can see the future.

Do you basic plot/plan for your book, before you actually begin writing it out? Or do you let the writing flow and see where it takes the story?
With all of my books I come up with a basic idea or a character I want to write about and then make tons of notes – pages and pages of ideas and possible scenes – until I know where I’m going with it.  Before I start writing a manuscript I know where the story is supposed to go, including how it ends.  Of course, sometimes once I’m writing, a character may not do exactly what I had planned.  But the ending is always what I aimed for.

Have you ever based characters on people you know or based events on things that have happened to you?
I draw on all kinds of experiences and people in my own life.  But I never lift a real person and write him or her into a novel.  I do borrow traits or habits and write them into characters, including certain parts of myself.  I think a good many writers do that.  And I’ve taken some events from my life and included them in stories but the specifics are so transformed and altered that not even my family members recognize them.

Where can readers follow you?
Blog: www.connielacy.com
Facebook page: www.Facebook.com/ConnieLacyBooks
Goodreads author page: www.Goodreads.com/ConnieLacy
Twitter: @cdlacy