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Blog Tour Kick Off Fire Burns by Trista Day

Monday, August 12, 2013
Title: Fire Burns
Author: Trista Day
Series: The Unforgiven Series
Genre: YA Paranormal Romance
Publisher: Self Published
Release Date: Mar 2013
Source: Author for Blog Tour and Honest Opinion
Rating:

Callie Demasi just started her senior year at Crystalport High and her life couldn't be any more ordinary. Then the nightmares start, and a strange creature tries to attack her in her sleep. If that isn't bad enough, her body starts to do things she never imagined were possible; like hold fire in the palm of her hand. It seems that the only person who knows what's really happening to her is a ghost creature named Draven - if she can keep him from disappearing on her. It's not until after her best friend Zilla is kidnapped, and she meets the handsome and arrogant Cole, that Callie begins to put the pieces together. Will her newfound powers be strong enough to save the life of her BFF, or will they both be doomed to the same fate?


Spotlight The Moon-Kissed Chi by Grinelda Markowitz

Saturday, August 10, 2013
Title: The Moon-Kissed Chi
Author: Grinelda Markowitz
Series: The Kalaydan Chronicles  (#1)
Genre: Erotica
Publisher: Self Published
Release Date: May 1 2012


From the quirkiness of her daughter to the           equine escapades of Bezhyanya (her sworn bedmate) and Grayt (her serving woman), Arrinay, ruler of Kalaydan, is faced with many concerns throughout her day which she handles with grace, poise and dignity.  Will she be able to meet the challenges to come?
In the City of Kalaydan, Arrinay and Bezhyanya, the senior members of the ruling family, are faced with the early maturation of their daughter, Gayadnae.  She must start the training.  It’s Kalaydan law.  Their daughter has other ideas.  After concocting a plan to avoid responsibility and almost succeeding in carrying it out, Gayadnae’s life takes an unexpected turn.  Grayt, the ever-present serving woman to Arrinay, fills many roles and has her fingers in a number of pies.  There’s definitely more to her than is apparent on the surface.In the city of Kalaydan, Arrinay and Bezhyanya, the senior members of the ruling family, are faced with the early maturation of their daughter, Gayadnae.  She must start the training.  It’s Kalaydan law.  Their daughter has other ideas.  After concocting a plan to avoid responsibility and almost succeeding in carrying it out, Gayadnae’s life takes an unexpected turn.  Grayt, the ever-present serving woman to Arrinay, fills many roles and has her fingers in a number of pies.  There’s definitely more to her than is apparent on the surface.  Along with coordinating activities in the Main House, keeping the young mistress in line, and talking to horses, Grayt has a more secret agenda with a graver responsibilities.
A hint of trouble on the horizon and other darker activities weave their way through the backdrop of this delightful tale which takes place in the city of Kalaydan.

Cover Reveal Burned by Passion by Dez Burke

Thursday, August 8, 2013
Title: Burned by Passion
Author: Dez Burke
Genre: African American Romance/Interracial Romance 
Publisher: Pink Lotus Publishing, Inc.
Release Date: Aug 8 2013

Even good girls make mistakes.
Kira was shocked to meet her boss’s handsome, long-absent son and find him even more lethal in the flesh. He’d always been just a face in a photo - and nothing had prepared her for the way they clashed and burned when they finally met.
Blake Carter returned to America for a reunion with a father he hadn’t seen since he was ten. But Blake had never bargained for falling for his father’s sexy secretary, the beautiful and impressionable Kira Taylor…
Blake caught one glimpse of the gorgeous beauty from across the crowded room and felt the primal taste of desire like he’d never known. The sparks were more antagonism than attraction on her part as they collided over differences about the way he treated his father. But Blake had very strong persuasive skills when it came to bringing the vulnerable Kira to bend to his carnal passions…


Dez Burke grew up in rural Alabama and spent most summers reading worn copies of her Grandmother's Harlequin Romances. Even as a young girl, she noticed the absence of African American characters. So today, she writes hot, steamy romance books featuring black women and gorgeous men of all races.


Places to find Dez 

Cover Reveal Rearranged by Tina Carreiro

Title: Rearranged
 Author: Tina Carreiro
Series: Double D Ranch Series 
Genre: Realistic Fiction
 Paperback: 214 pages
 Publisher: Time and Tide Publishing
Release Date: August 23rd 2013
Print
ISBN – 13: 978-0-9892549-5-3
        ISBN-10: 0-9892549-5-X
Ebook
        ISBN-10: 0989254968
        ISBN-13: 978-0-9892549-6-0


Carly West is good at taking care of herself—she’s been doing it since her mama died. She can even make marrying a man she didn’t choose work. But when gorgeous ranch foreman, Wade Dawson struts into her life, everything changes. Her life starts to unravel, lies are uncovered, and the only comfort she finds is in the arms of a stranger.

Wade Dawson has one thing on his mind, to fulfill his brother’s responsibilities and get the hell out of this small town. But he soon finds out he wasn’t only hired to watch the ranch, but to see that the farmer’s daughter makes it down the aisle. It’s the first job he isn’t sure he can follow through with. But if he doesn’t, his brother’s reputation and freedom is at stake.

Bound by obligation to marry another man…

Bound by blood to save his brother…

Will one night destroy it all?


Tina spends her days writing and creating fantasy worlds until she’s forced back into reality where she pretends to be “normal.” When not writing, she’s a full-time cub scout/camping/gymnastic/PS3 mom for her son and daughter and a devoted wife to her leading man, the love of her life-husband. She’s addicted to writing, romance novels, zombie movies, and coffee with caramel macchiato creamer. She fully believes in karma and pours her heart into everything she does.  She loves life and embraces every moment of it.




a Rafflecopter giveaway


Places to find Tina

Website


Places to fine Rearranged

Goodreads




Spotlight The Journey by Dan O'Brien

Wednesday, August 7, 2013

Welcome to the sixth day of The Journey blog tour. It will run until August 9th and will feature excerpts and new author interviews each day. But first, here is the obligatory blurb about the novel to settle you into this strange world:

The Frozen Man. The Translucent Man. The Burning Man. The Wicker Man. The guide known only as the Crossroads, together these are the signposts and totems of the world that the being called the Lonely inhabits. Seeking out the meaning of his journey, the Lonely is a being consumed by philosophical inquiry and adventure. Filled with exotic places and age-old questions, the Journey is a book that seeks to merge the fantastical and real. Join the Lonely as he seeks out answers to his own existence and perhaps the meaning for us all. 



A few questions for the author:


Do you remember that time 5 years ago when you were extremely upset? Does it really matter now? 

More than likely not. I have managed to get past outright anger anymore. There are frustrations that creep up now and again, but I imagine anything that long ago has no bearing on me today. 


What is your happiest childhood memory? 

Any time spent playing with my brother. We do not get to spend nearly as much time together as I would like, and it seems that this will not change anytime in the near future. I find that when I visit my family, many of these memories become more distinct, more heartbreaking. 


At what time in your recent past have you felt most passionate and alive? 

Right now. I am attempting to do what I love despite the possibility of failure. It is a tremendous feeling that is both frightening and life-affirming. It remains to be seen if I can make this way of like my only way of life.



Here be an excerpt for your enjoyment:


VI
The Crossroads Revisited


The Lonely watched as the world flooded back into view. Slowly ebbing like disturbed water and then eventually setting so that he could see his surroundings once more. 

“You have visited the Frozen Man?” queried the Crossroads. 

The Lonely remembered the tundra and rubbed his hands together. “I visited the Frozen Man, though I’m not entirely certain that it was a man.”

“A relative term I am afraid,” replied the Crossroads. 

“Man?” asked the Lonely. 

He looked upon the Crossroads and the being now resembled a vagrant. A hooded robe covered him, but was torn in places and splotched with dark patches that appeared wet. 

“Yes, the term to which you apply to the being the Frozen Man is not of gender, but of nomenclature. He is no more a man than I am a woman; or you a frog. It is simply what the being is called, only a word.”

The Lonely pondered this for a moment, looking toward the north. He noticed immediately that there was no longer a signpost for the North. 

“Where has the sign gone?”

“Which sign?” asked the Crossroads.

“The one that pointed north,” replied the Lonely. 

The Crossroads moved ever so slightly, his form seemed to shimmer through the air. He gestured with a covered arm, his hands beneath darkness. 

“The North is no longer available to you. Whatever it was that you were to learn from the Frozen Man has been learned. There is nothing for you now in the cold, hence you can no longer reach it,” reasoned the Crossroads. 

“So simply because I have learned it, I cannot return to it again?”

The Crossroads shook his hooded head. 

“Having visited there, you can never visit there again anew. With the knowledge you have now, the visit there would not be the same and the outcome would be different. Hence, you can never truly revisit the North.”

The Lonely crossed his arms over his chest. 

“What was he, the Frozen Man?”

“He was the Frozen Man: the accumulation of the North and its principles––the totem of ice and cold. He was the summation of cold, hard logics that lacked passions of any kind.”

“Was?” queried the Lonely. 

The world around the convergence of the four roads had grown gray and weary. The sky above was darkness and the air around them thick in haze and fog. Had the Lonely walked just meters from his spot, he would have been lost to the fogbank surrounding him. 

The Crossroads shifted yet again, this time taking with him a tendril of the fog around him. “The Frozen Man is no more. For you to have returned, he must be no more.”

The Lonely pondered this. 

“Did I kill him?”

“Would you wish him dead?”

“No, but the way that he thought, seemed to me in many ways to be a form of death. I suppose I felt he was already dead. His logics, his mannerisms, were such that I truly believed him to be the machine that he resembled in the end.”

The Crossroads looked at the Lonely with his vacant stare. “And thus, he is no more. You have yet to understand why you are here. Do you believe that this is a journey with an end or an end to a journey?”

The Lonely shook his head, his arms crossed over his chest. “It is a journey, is it not? I am searching for something, answers to which I do not yet know the questions.”

The Crossroads nodded, but did not respond. 

The Lonely continued. 

“So then my conversation, my words, killed him?”

The Crossroads moved about the dusty patch of land that they occupied. “There are four paths and four totems, one totem for each path, and each life. There is a truth hidden among the four: the Frozen Man, the Burning Man, the Wicker Man, and the Translucent Man.”

“Four totems? Of elements? Totems of what?”

The image of the Crossroads morphed again, now he stood as a wintry traveler. A gray fedora covered his silvery hair and a wool coat wrapped his slender shoulders. Smoke drifted from a pipe at his lips and the bill of his hat covered his eyes. Only his lips moved; the subtle glean of his teeth white. 

“Four totems of life.”

“I don’t understand,” said the Lonely. 

“You are not yet meant to. There is much to search for yet. As I recall, you cannot even remember your name or from whence you came?”

The Lonely hesitated for a moment. 

The Crossroads had not previously been so candid with him. “Indeed, that is true. Can you tell me my name or where I have come from? Even from what time I come?”

“When?” queried the Crossroads. “Have you begun to question your existence?”

The Lonely shook his head, looking to his feet once more: no shoes, tan skin. He was more confused than ever. “I am not certain of anything, though I believe that you know more than you are telling me.”

“I can assure you that I know no more than what it is that I am supposed to know. Just as you are only certain of those things that are most certain to you,” replied the Crossroads. His stoic tone belied the mirth of his riddle. 

“Riddles? Truly?” queried the Lonely with a raised eyebrow. 

The Crossroads seemed incapable of anything except movement––emotions, characterizations; some levels of humanity were beyond him. “I do not wish to burden you with the riddles of the eternal. I will begin again. I believe you remember how this goes. I am the Crossroads.”

The Lonely stood up straighter as if he had been scolded for slouching. “I am the Lonely.”

The Crossroads spread out his hands, the fog dissipating as if it had never been there at all. “What path do you choose?”

The Lonely considered for a moment. “I have already seen the North, witnessed its logics. I feel as though the south calls to me––the Burning Man.”

The Crossroads remained still. 

The fog had settled farther from them now. The Lonely could see clearly the remaining three signposts. “It is just as well, I suppose,” said the Crossroads. 

“Just as well what? What is that you are hiding?” asked the Lonely challengingly. 

The Crossroads shook his hooded head. “There is nothing more than you already know. The South is now your path. Go in peace.”

The Lonely nodded and started south. 

The fog was cold on his face and he closed his eyes, envisioning a broad desert, palm trees in the distance. There in the distance he could see the Oasis, the realm of the South. Time tugged upon him, space toyed with his form, and soon he was transported once again.



Bio: A psychologist, author, editor, philosopher, martial artist, and skeptic, he has published several novels and currently has many in print, including: The End of the World Playlist, Bitten, The Journey, The Ocean and the Hourglass, The Path of the Fallen, The Portent, and Cerulean Dreams. Follow him on Twitter (@AuthorDanOBrien) or visit his blog http://thedanobrienproject.blogspot.com. He recently started a consultation business. You can find more information about it here: http://www.amalgamconsulting.com/.



All of his books are only 99 cents on Kindle right now!


Download The Journey for free on Kindle from 8/5 until 8/9!


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Dragonfairy Press Sale & Giveaway

Tuesday, August 6, 2013


For a limited time, all Dragonfairy Press Kindle ebooks have been reduced in price. All stand-alones and first-in-series titles are $0.99, and all later-in-series titles are $1.99.

Cover Reveal Rekindled Dreams by Linda Carroll~Bradd

Monday, August 5, 2013
Title: Rekindled Dreams
Author: Linda Carroll-Bradd
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Publisher: Entranced Publishing
Release Date: October 7 2013

When museum curator Vena Fenton returns to her small Montana hometown,
she’s forced to live under the same roof as the star of her teenage dreams.
Enter Finnian Quaid, an environmental lobbyist who is contemplating a run
 for state representative.

Finnian needs a more settled image if he wants to progress - he needs a
 wife. With Vena living under his roof, the answer seems clear. But when the
romantic sparks fly, will the just-for-show engagement stay pretend, or
 deepen into a love that will unsettle both their lives?


As a young girl, Linda was often found lying on her bed reading about fascinating characters having exciting adventures in places far away and in other time periods. In later years, she read and then started writing romances and achieved her first publication--a confession story. Married with 4 adult children and 2 granddaughters, Linda now writes heartwarming contemporary and historical stories with a touch of humor from her home in the southern California mountains.


Places to find Linda


Places to find Rekindled Dreams