Thursday, December 15, 2016

Christmas Countdown Blitz Day 10








Ann Acton lives with her husband and children in a tiny town in Washington state. She loves the feeling of Christmas and usually finishes her shopping on Christmas Eve. She is also the author of The Miracle Maker.





Liz Adair, a native of New Mexico and mother of seven, lives in southern Utah with Derrill, her husband of 50 years.

A late bloomer, Liz published her first mystery (The Lodger) just as AARP started sending invitations to join. After writing three in the Spider Latham series, Liz moved into romantic suspense. She feels writing in that genre doing so is a service project. "I remember when I was a young mother with all those kids and a slender budget," she says. "I was so grateful for books that let me go places and meet people who carried on adult conversations That's what I want to write--cheap vacations."
"Amy's Star" brings both Liz and her writing to Kanab, Utah. Look for new Spider Latham mysteries set in Kanab.

Terry Deighton lives in Washington, the state not D.C., with her husband, Al. Their six children are grown and gone, and pets tend to complicate life. When she is not visiting her children and grandchildren, writing and revising, again and again, she works as a substitute teacher. Mr. Goetz in the Tweaks series is wiser and cooler, but he's made up, so it doesn't count. Mrs. Deighton started out to be a high school English teacher, but raising kids turned into a full-time job. During those years, her dream of writing books for young people grew until she had to do something about it. Her Tweaks series is a fulfillment of that dream. Her love of Christmas naturally prompted her to write "Whit's End" in this book and "Just Say No-el," a companion novella to these three stories.


Q & A With  Author Ann Acton:

1.  Describe yourself in 50 words or less. I am a human tornado of crazy energy. I live to be busy (with 5 kids and a daycare in my home, it’s never a problem.) I am a little shy, a loyal friend, and emotional. I will probably grab you and hug you, even if we have just met.

2. What do you love most in the world? I love to laugh. It is my opinion, that if I can laugh at something, even a hard thing, I can handle it. Luckily my family provides hours of free entertainment.

3. What do you fear most? I have an unnatural fear of vomiting. I throw up continually with each of my pregnancies from nearly conception to delivery, so when my kids get the stomach flu I become a bleach-wielding germaphobe that could put crime scene clean-up crews to shame. I am usually a very nice mommy, but the inner battle between compassion and terror is a difficult tightrope for me when they vomit.

4. What is your largest unfulfilled dream, and what are you doing to reach it? I am in the final few months of achieving my Bachelor’s degree. I received my Associates 3 days before my youngest daughter was born. She graduates from high school in the spring, so it has been a long time coming.

5. What is the hardest thing you've ever done? My daughter had to have surgery at two months old. Handing that baby over to the doctors and walking away was horrible.

6. Now that we've gotten to know each other, tell me a story. It can be long or short. From your childhood or last week. Funny, sad, or somewhere in between. Just make sure it's yours. What's your story? 
Well, since we’re close friends now I’ll tell you my most horrific mommy moment. When my youngest son was four years old we had some visitors from our church over for dinner. These young men were new to the area, and we had never met them before. Somewhere between, “Pass the gravy,” and “Please have some dessert,” my son decided that he should let our very religious guests know just what was going on in our home.
“My mom won’t let us say the F-word,” he blurts out, “but she says it all the time.”
I froze, a scoop of potatoes midway to the nearest plate. My face blazed crimson. “I don’t,” I said, desperately looking toward my traitor family to back me up. Nothing but shocked looks. “I swear,” I told our new friends. “I don’t.”
“Uh huh,” my son said.
Desperately I scanned through my mommy database, trying to figure out what the heck this kid was talking about while toying with the idea of discretely strangling him with the tablecloth. Then salvation popped into my brain. “What do you think the F-word is?” I asked, half afraid he would know and half hoping he had forgotten every alphabet lesson from preschool.
My son looked shocked by my question. Carefully, he leaned in and whispered, “friggin,” and it clicked—stinking Napoleon Dynamite. My kids had rewatched the movie that week and wouldn’t stop saying friggin in front of everything. After four days, I banned even the mention of the word, and now my son had found a way, even if he didn’t know it, to make me pay. It’s a funny story now, but I’ll tell you at the time I was sweating.




Connect with the Authors here: 


These three Christmas novellas will get you into the holiday spirit. 

Christmas Gift - Christmas for Amanda Grover is usually a chaotic marathon in search of the perfect gifts. This year, she thinks she's got it all under control—until she's roped into doing service on Christmas Eve. What should be a simple night turns into a series of chaotic events and a gift she never expected. 

Amy’s Star: A Spider Latham Christmas Story - A new star rises above the southern Utah town of Kanab and draws some surprising visitors on Christmas Eve. 

At Whit’s End - When Whitney Saunders and her husband buy their first home, it jump starts her desire to make everything, especially Christmas, perfect. She soon finds out it’s more work than she thought, and she begins to wonder what perfect really is.







Amazon ~  Amazon UK ~ Amazon Canada ~



Snippet A Christmas Gift:

I couldn’t do anything but stare, first at the stranger and then my son, waiting for a more rational explanation.
“Jeremy,” I began, trying to find a way out, “We don’t. . .”
             “Come on Mom, he’s never been to Pizza Palace, and you already said I could bring someone.”
I froze. This couldn’t happen. I could not drive around town with some strange, dirty, homeless man. He looked and smelled like he hadn’t bathed in months. And besides that, putting him in the car with my children definitely didn’t feel safe. Who knew what he might do? It would be rude to tell Glen he couldn’t come, but should I sacrifice our lives because I didn’t want to offend a possible serial killer? I searched desperately for Ethan. He could fix this. He had to fix this.

Ten fun facts about Ann Acton

1.   I love to chew ice, especially when I write. (It drives my family crazy)
2.   I once posed for a romance book cover, and the artist drew me with Fabio.
3.   I once rode on a parade float in a remote Alaskan village. We threw candy and the crowd, who had never seen this done before, got angry and threw it back at us.
4.   My family wagon was a monster truck for about a year.
5.   I sometimes pull faces when I am writing. I make the facial expressions of my characters.
6.   The worst job I ever had was baking pumpkins pies all night long.
7.   I clean when I am angry. My family gets jumpy if I just clean for no reason.
8.   When I was in college I was in a bag pipe band.
9.   When I was young, my family owned a western themed restaurant where we performed scripted shoot-outs as a family.
10.One of my books, The Miracle Maker, was made into a movie.



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Wednesday, December 14, 2016

Christmas Countdown Blitz Day 9




Chelsea O'Neal lives in her fantasy world where people can fly, vampires could be real, money is never an issue and the romantic meeting of your true love is a normal happening. When not relaxing in Chelsea-ville, she enjoys talking with animals who talk back and taking long walks with her prince charming.
Actually Chelsea lives in the United States in Nebraska, where she was born and raised, with her black lab Daisey, who hasn't spoken actual words to her but she is pretty sure Daisey understands her. She is yet to meet her prince charming, though she is quite sure he is out there. Chelsea enjoys working in a library as well as a cosmetologist. She is an avid reader and writing has always been her passion. Chelsea has written three novels and a novella, and she is working on her next book now.

Q & A With The Author:

1.  Describe yourself in 50 words or less.
Fun and outgoing, love to create crafty things and teach others how to as well.  I also love telling stories and living in my fantasy world. I love to make people laugh and be happy. In my writing I love to shock people, and invoke intense feelings.

2. What do you love most in the world? This is a hard question as love is a very intense emotion.  I love books, and writing, coffee, chocolate, and of course various people and my dog. But what do I love the most? Feeling accomplished, knowing I have done something that has helped someone for the better.

Connect with the Author here: 

Can Trinity control her power?

Trinity is headed home to celebrate Christmas with her Gran. She hasn't been back in nearly ten years staying away from the man she has longed for since she was young. The man who has starred in every one of her fantasies, her Gran's next door neighbor, Travis. As her emotions run high, her inherent magic is let loose.
Can Travis let Trinity in?
Travis never noticed Trinity, but has grown close to her grandmother after the loss of his parents and his uncle. When Trinity comes swirling into the house an attraction flares in him but he fears loosing anyone else in his life.
The more time spent together the attraction grows, so does a new found realization that Trinity has a magic that has captured his heart.
Will this spellbinding Christmas be merry?







Snippet:




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Tuesday, December 13, 2016

Blog Tour: The Invisible Crown

blogtourbanner-cottrellcottrell-spotlight coverdesignforcottrellRelease date: December 19, 2016 

ABOUT THE INVISIBLE CROWN: 
"The city of Arcadia is a craphole, but it’s my craphole. I’ve walked its streets my entire life, always searching for something: a purpose, a suspect, or a stiff drink. My name’s Eddie Hazzard, and I’m a hard-boiled detective. Yeah, laugh it up. It’s a ridiculous job description, but this is a ridiculous town. It’s full of every cliché you can imagine: corrupt city officials, police officers on the take, greedy businessmen, and crime so organized it has an accounting department, a health plan, and retirement benefits. Which is more than I can say for myself.” 

Meet Eddie Hazzard: he’s tenacious, a certain kind of clever, and usually drunk. When a beautiful woman comes into his office and asks him to find her husband, Eddie takes the case because the alternative is having his creditors show up at his door and do terrible things to his limbs. But the case takes a series of bizarre turns, getting Eddie caught up in a tangled web of reluctant cops, sketchy businessmen, and shadowy crime bosses. The deeper he gets, the worse things look. Will Eddie solve the case? Will he save the day? Most importantly, will he get paid? The Invisible Crown is the first full-length novel of a series featuring Detective Hazzard and the bizarre, bewildering array of tough mobsters, genetically-modified creeps, and ruthless scumbags who inhabit the city of Arcadia.

MY REVIEW: This is one of the coolest stories I've read in a long time. The futuristic setting is Gotham meets Blade Runner (sans the replicants), very dark and dismal and full of interesting characters. The protagonist, Eddie Hazzard, is straight out of 40s noir all the way down to his smoking, drinking, and trenchcoat. The thing I liked most about him, aside from his sarcasm, is that Cottrell didn't try to make him a futuristic version of a noir detective, but left him very much as a man out of time and place. The ending was unexpected and satisfying, which always makes me happy. Definitely read this book!

BE SURE TO READ TO THE BOTTOM TO ENTER TO WIN!

For the next week, Royal James Publishing is going to release pieces of the short story, Solitaire . The short story, Solitaire takes place immediately before novel, The Invisible Crown. It will serve as the introduction into the amazing world Charlie created. Today is the second day! Click here for day one's section! 

Section II. I waited until early evening to go out to investigate. Not because I was hungover – though the mild headache I’d been fighting all day had proven effective at killing any desire I had to go out while the sun was still up – but because the sort of skulking and law bending I’d have to do to investigate was much easier to accomplish if everyone else had gone home for the day. 

I filled the afternoon with a bit of research on Mr. Pennington, half a bottle of whiskey – hair of the dog and all that – and three more lost games of solitaire. I decided to try Pennington’s lawyer’s office first, figuring any important business or financial documents – the sort his ex-wife hinted were taken – would likely be kept in a safe there. Pennington’s lawyer was Caius Vellum, well-known in the fancier circles of Arcadian Society as the guy who could help you get away with just about anything. In my research that afternoon, I’d turned up some news articles from several months ago about Pennington’s, as his ex-wife called them, “nocturnal habits,” and it sounded pretty weird, even by Arcadia standards. But Vellum had managed to avoid getting any charges pressed against his client, and the whole episode had eventually been passed off as just an eccentricity on Pennington’s part. 

Vellum left the office at half-past six, and I sat across the street in a coffee shop for another half hour after that before deciding the place was empty and I could get in. I slipped out of my booth and trotted across the street, my jacket collar turned up against the encroaching October wind and my hat brim pulled low over my eyes. I reached the office building and inspected the lock. The security system was an electronic pad with several security measures, including retina scan, DNA scan, and fingerprint pad. You had to pass all three for the door to unlock for you automatically. The actual lock itself, though, was a traditional deadbolt, and one it was quite easy to jimmy open with a few seconds’ work with a lock pick. I heard the lock’s tumblers click into place, but I waited to open the door until after I’d placed a flat, matte-black square over the security panel next to the door. I pressed a button on the box, which hummed quietly for a few seconds, then beeped. A small green LED lit up, indicating the alarm system linked to the door had been deactivated. Pocketing my lock pick and the security bypass, I turned the doorknob and pushed open the door, which swung silently into the office. I glanced around to see if anyone was watching me, then ducked into the building and shut the door behind me with a muffled click.

I let my eyes adjust to the darkness as I dug through my pocket for my safe cracking kit. The kit was another small box, about two inches on a side, and about as thick as a pack of cigarettes. It would use magnets and some other science-y mumbo-jumbo to rotate the tumblers in the safe’s lock and open the thing up quickly and quietly. While I could pick the lock on a safe manually, as I’d done with the door, it would take a lot longer. The safe cracking box was fast and reliable. I found it and made my way to Vellum’s inner sanctum, sidling around expensive lobby furnishings and deeper into the dark recesses of the office.

I reached Vellum’s private office and crept over to his desk, feeling for a light panel. I found the panel and tapped it lightly, creating a dim ambient light in the room and temporarily blinding me a bit. When I regained my vision, I saw I was not alone. Crouched in front of the safe was someone clad in burglar black from head to toe. They already had the safe open and several piles of important-looking documents strewn about the floor. They were frozen in place, staring right at me as I stared back at them. 

“I’m just here for some documents from the safe,” I said casually, trying to remember if I’d packed the popgun or not. A certain absence of weight under my left arm told me I had not remembered, much to my frustration. “I don’t want to get involved in any violence here, pal. Let me get what I came for, and you can rob this legal leech blind for all I care.”

The burglar stood up, revealing an individual of indeterminate sex and slender dancer’s build. They reached into a pouch strapped to their belt and came out with what looked like a short baton.

“Look, I don’t want any trouble,” I said, backing away and raising my hands placatingly. “I really don’t give a damn what you’re doing here or who you are, I just want to get what I came for and get out.” As the burglar advanced on me, I reached out and slapped the light panel. The panel was set to bring up the light based on intensity of touch; my heavier touch caused the light to flash to full brightness in an instant, temporarily blinding my opponent and giving me the chance to grope around for a weapon.

I found a large, heavy paperweight with my left hand, grabbed it, and quickly twisted away to the right to avoid the already-recovered burglar’s slashing swing with that baton. The baton extended in flight, slapping down across the desk and cracking the smooth, glassy surface. I turned my twist into a full 360, bringing the paperweight up to slam it into the burglar’s head. They ducked my attack, throwing me off-balance a bit. As I recovered my footing, the baton slammed into my midsection, and the burglar touched a button on the end of the baton that sent a few thousand volts coursing through my body. I twitched uncontrollably, dropping my improvised weapon and collapsing on the floor. With no input from me, my body decided to twitch a bit more once I landed.

Meanwhile, the burglar turned back to the safe, gathered up all of the documents and folders they had taken out of it, and started for the door. I had just enough self-control to reach out and grab them by the ankle, but nowhere near enough energy to actually hold on. The burglar shook off my enfeebled hand, striding out the door and the office.

“Nothing personal,” they said in a harsh, robotic tone, their real voice masked, “but you weren’t even playing the same game I was, here.”

With that, they vanished, leaving me alone and twitching on the office floor. It took me a few minutes to regain control of my limbs, and even then it was a pretty shaky proposition. I struggled into a sitting position, clutching my bruised gut and wondering just what the hell had happened. I scooted over to the safe to see if there were any documents left inside, knowing there wouldn’t be. I looked anyway. There weren’t. Being right all the time can be a bit of a burden in situations like these.

“Okay,” I muttered to myself, staggering to my feet, “I know there’s someone out there with the files I need. It can’t be a coincidence someone burglarized this place the same night I came to do my investigation. So, who else would want these papers?”

cottrell-giveaway
Giveaway:
Click here or visit Royal James Publishing’s Facebook page to enter to win a $20 Amazon Gift Card and a digital copy of, The Invisible Crown by Charlie Cottrell.

Don't forget to pre-order your digital copy on Amazon, more retailers coming soon!

Click here to pre-order your copy on Amazon today!


About Charlie Cottrell:



2016-04-20 11.57.41Charlie Cottrell is a history and special education teacher in Northern Virginia by day and a writer of “speculative noir” (near-future, science-fictiony, hard-boiled detective stories) by night. He likes to blend action, mystery, and a healthy dose of humor and sarcasm in his work. He also writes music and draws comics and thinks he vaguely remembers what free time was, but he’s not one hundred percent sure on that. Charlie hates tucking in his shirt, because he is a rebel. To read more about Charlie, you can visit him on his website.

Christmas Countdown Blitz Day 8




Robyn Echols currently lives with her husband in California near the “Gateway to Yosemite.” She is a member of Women Writing the West and American Night Writers Association.

She enjoys any kind of history including family history. Currently she is the editor of her local genealogical society newsletter and occasionally gives family history presentations.

When she is not piecing together novel plots, she pieces together quilt blocks.


Q & A With The Author:
1.  Describe yourself in 50 words or less.

Robyn currently lives with her husband in California, USA, near the “Gateway to Yosemite.” She is a member of Women Writing the West, and American Night Writers Association. She enjoys any kind of history including family history. When she is not piecing together novel plots, she pieces together quilt blocks.

2. What do you love most in the world?

I love my faith, my church and my family.


Connect with the Author here: 


Annie, Celia and Lynn are all that are left of the Relief Society quilting class, but they are still determined to make baby quilts for the new mothers at church. Annie, who is just south of eighty years old, calls the quiltsters (short for quilting sisters) together to ask for more. She wants to make lap quilts to give to some of the “forgotten” oldsters she sings to each week at the nursing home—something to wrap them in love at Christmastime. It’s a good idea, but the trio discovers that life and making quilts don’t always go as planned.

The quiltsters discuss recipes and quilting ideas including a crocheted cat mat to use up their fabric selvage and trim scraps, all of which they share in the book.

Sarah and Brian meet at the university. Their first date is after Sarah’s First Saturday Block of the Month class she attends with her mom at the local quilt shop. Their romance grows, and they plan their future together—a plan that will require them to be separated for six months before their wedding. But, can they bear to be apart that long?

What wraps together this Christmas tale? The Fourteenth Quilt.


~ Amazon ~ Amazon UK



Snippet:

“I think we’re finished. Let’s give it the once over and then move The Beast to the quilt frame.”
          “Oh, no!” Annie cried out as she inspected the fabric. “The Beast drew blood.”
          “What?”
          Lynn hurried over to study the three inch long pattern of red dots near the top corner. “That’s fresh blood. Which one of us is bleeding?”
          They both inspected their fingers.
          “It’s me,” Annie sighed. “Of course I felt the pricks as we pinned this thing in place, but I had no idea any of them were deep enough to make me bleed.”
          The doorbell rang.
          “It must be Celia,” Lynn said. “I’ll let her in and bring a Band-aid, a rag and my stain remover on the way back.”
          “What are you doing?” Celia asked when she saw Lynn grab the spray bottle and rag from the laundry room.
          “Annie accidentally dripped blood on The Beast. We need to get it out while it’s still fresh.”
          Without another word, Celia broke into a run down the hall.
          “Spit on it! Spit on it!” Celia shouted to Annie as she entered the bedroom. 
          Startled, Annie jerked to her full height, her eyes wide as she peered over the top of her glasses.
          “I already bled all over The Beast. Now you want me to curse it by spitting on it?”
          “It’s already cursed as far as I’m concerned,” Lynn muttered as she entered the room.



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Monday, December 12, 2016

Christmas Countdown Blitz Day 7





Railyn Stone, author of The Christmas Tree Guy, A Secret to Keep, Restored Hearts and Lest We Aren't Forgiven, lives in North Carolina with her husband. When she's not behind the screen of her laptop, she's usually enjoying time with her family. The only child of two educators, she learned early on just how magical words can be.

Q & A With The Author:
1.  Describe yourself in 50 words or less.
            This is one of the hardest things for me to do, but I would say that I’m a kid at heart, a child of God and a lover of all things romance.

2. What do you love most in the world?
            My family is what I love most in this world. I’d be truly lost without them. They mean everything to me.

3. What do you fear most?

            I fear most that I will never find my true purpose in life.


Connect with the Author here: 


EnVee McAlister just bought a house. It’s an old Victorian home that needs a lot of work, especially if she wants to get into it by Christmas.

Logan Edwards is the contractor she’s hired to help her. Unfortunately, he’s not like any man she’s ever encountered and his arrogance and crass demeanor is making it hard to deal with him. Both she and Logan hold no punches and their terribly blunt personalities clash like oil and water.

But when she finds out about Logan’s tragic past, it forces her to deal with her own insecurities and emotions she’s desperately tried to forget. And instead of a house for Christmas, EnVee receives something she never expected.




Snippet:

Logan scanned the living room. It was eerily silent in the humongous house. He’d been pleasantly surprised at how well it had stood the test of time. Granted, there were a lot of things that were going to have to be replaced, but all in all, the structure was very sturdy. He liked old houses. It was impressive to him the amount of time and care that was put into each one and he liked the fact they were reliable homes. Nothing like the thrown together fabrications a lot of homes were made out of nowadays. There was nothing wrong with the homes of the present, but he had an affinity for any home that was more than seventy years old. It meant some time had gone into its construction and more than likely there was a story behind it. He was about to turn to head up the creaky stairs when he heard a car pull up outside and he walked to the front of the house. He was there to meet Ms. N.V. McAlister to do a walk through and get her specifications on the changes she wanted made in order to get started on the blueprints. He hoped she didn’t want to make too many changes to the home. It was beautiful the way it was and he could only imagine the big shot she must be would want to modernize every single thing about the house. By the time she was done, it would probably resemble the house from Beetlejuice. He grimaced at the thought of it, clutching his iPad in his hands and opened the door. He waited patiently as the black Audi rolled to a stop and a well-heeled and very shapely leg exited the open driver door followed by another. He headed down the steps of the front porch and his eyes widened when the driver emerged from the car. You have got to be kidding me. That can’t be…
Hello, I’m En…” Both seemed to come to the same realization at the same time. He watched her remove her sunglasses and could see the memory of their first encounter flash through her eyes. “You. What are you doing here?”
Logan swallowed hard and tried his best to control the level of his voice. He could only think about how rude she’d been to him and Gracie a little more than a week ago and it looked like the favor he’d done her hadn’t changed her disposition. “I’m Logan Edwards. You contracted me to do this job.” He almost got a strange satisfaction from seeing her face fall knowing she had hired him to work on her house project.
I spoke with another gentleman.” She pursed her lips and he noticed for the first time, the small beauty mark she had right above the left side of her deep plum stained lips. The night they’d first met, he’d been too preoccupied with her haughty attitude to notice she was a beautiful woman. Her auburn hair was pulled back from her perfectly made up face. And her almond shaped eyes had a russet tint just a tad darker than her hair. Her shapely body was covered in a tailored black pinstripe suit. She had ample curves kept toned by workouts no doubt, but still had the kind of womanly body that could keep a man up all night. He blinked and tried to think of anything else because he was a little thrown by his own admiration of her.
My brother, Alex. He and I run the business together.”
Well, this isn’t going to work.”
Logan breathed deep remembering the words of his brother. Behave yourself. Lots of money riding on this. Big opportunities. Aw, hell. “Look lady, I’m here to do a job. We’re the best you’re going to find when it comes to a task like this. You’ve already signed a contract and I do have other projects I need to tend to today. So if we could just get started, the quicker this is over, the faster you can go back to your ivory tower.” Alex was going to kill him.
Her eyes narrowed and he could see her frustration and anger building. “I would think you would be a little more professional when you first meet someone to do business with them.”
I would, but this isn’t our first meeting and I’m just giving what I get. I would think you would want to be nicer to the person that’s going to restore your new home, but that isn’t the case is it?” He tilted his head and gave her the most insolent smile he could muster. Who does this woman think she is? 
I will not stand here being talked to this way. You are working for me and you could learn a thing or two about customer service.” She started up the steps to the house, pausing for a moment before she reached the top and turned. “Are you coming or will I need to do this alone?”
Logan’s jaw twitched watching her very curvy bottom twist from side to side as she continued to ascend the stairs. His dentist would chastise him during his next scheduled appointment from gritting his teeth down to nubs. He was going to be nuts by the time this job was over. Dear God, give me strength.


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