Blog Stop: The Mirror of the Moon by Travis Simmons
About The Mirror of the Moon by Travis Simmons
With the death of one of the companions, Grace must answer for the secrets she’s kept. The path before them is ever lengthening in their quest for Amber. There are changes they all must face, and when Joya enters her trials of sorcery, danger lurks around every corner. The power within Angelica and Jovian is strengthening and with it comes confusion. What are they? It is painfully obvious nothing like them has ever existed before. Why is it at times they seem more one person than two separate people? With all the mystery surrounding their latent power, Angelica stumbles upon a passage in a book of sorcery indicating she is evil. Could she be the Mask prophecy speaks of? Is she destined to turn against her own flesh? To make matters worse, the Well of Wyrding (a giant well that controls all sorcery) has been breached and wyrd itself is spiraling into chaos.
Excerpt:
The sound of children laughing in the street outside gusted through the patio doors, ruffling the gossamer curtains and bringing the soapy smell of flowers to her. The knock sounded again, and she pushed herself off the sofa and went to answer the door.
The Tall Stranger, looked worse than Angelica had remembered him looking upon their first meeting. With a gasp she took an involuntary step back into the room, which gained him entrance.
“Don’t worry,” he said. Listening to his voice gave her the same feeling that coming in contact with his wyrd for the first time did; she felt as though insects crawled over her. “I can’t use my wyrd against you for someone has stolen it from me.”
JOVE! she screamed down her link to her brother, but he must have been too far away from her because there was no response.
The first punch caught her by surprise and sent fire through her jaw. She stumbled back and almost fell into the divan. Quickly she regained her footing and took a defensive stance, which only made the Tall Stranger laugh at her.
“Don’t think this will be easy for you,” he told her matter-of-factly. “I am a skilled fighter.”
“So am I,” Angelica said and took a swing at him. The Tall Stranger easily ducked away from, kneeing her in the stomach as he sidestepped, effectively pushing her off balance and knocking the wind out of her.
An elbow to the back of the head sent her mind swimming, and her body crashing to the floor.
“I told you this would not be easy,” he chided. He straddled Angelica and, gripping her hair in his fist, pounded her head off the wooden floor twice. Blood flooded her mouth and drizzled out her nose even as darkness formed in splotches at the edge of her vision. A strange thought came to her then that told her she was losing consciousness.
The Tall Stranger lifted her from the floor and threw her face-first into the wall. Angelica stumbled, arms reeling as she tried to gain her footing again, but it was in vain. The darkness at the edge of her vision became more than splotches, and soon it was not only invading her vision, but her muscles as well. She stumbled into a table near the door. The knick knacks and unlit oil lamp smashed on the wooden floor and oil soaked into the Balageshian run.
Blackness chased her into oblivion.
Moments later strong yet pliant arms lifted her and sat her on something soft, yielding, and when she forced her eyes open it was to look into the warm encouraging face of Rama.
The attendant cupped her hands before her face and Angelica could feel the gathering of wyrd. She had never thought sorcerers were as prominent as they were here in Fairview, but she was wrong.
The space before Rama’s face glowed with power, lighting her face in golden relief. Angelica had never seen a message orb wyrded before.
“Dalah, emergency, Joya has been taken, Angelica beaten, the room penetrated … somehow.” In haste Rama stood the folds of her red gown rustling as she threw her hand out toward the patio, the golden ball of light quickly tracing its way to the intended recipient.
Author Bio
I have been writing since I was 14. I began writing a book called “The Calling of the Two” and while writing that on and off I started uncovering another idea.
“Yes, this is all well and good, but what about before? What happened in the world before these characters came into it?” I always knew there was a “before” and as I started wondering about it I got ideas. At first they were little ideas but as I discovered the names for my characters a whole story about them emerged.
I started working on The Revenant Wyrd Saga several years back and I am very happy I did because hearing and documenting Jovian and Angelica’s story has been one wild ride.
I live in a remote part of upstate New York and honestly just hoofing around my neck of the woods gives me a ton of inspiration for my novels. I love research, and I love speculating on different ideas and theories.
Author Links
Website: http://www.travissimmons.net/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/authortravissimmons
Twitter: https://twitter.com/TravisSimmons5
Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4342608.Travis_Simmons
Giveaway
Bookblast & Giveaway: IXEOS by Jennings Wright
Ixeos
The McClellands are enjoying a lazy summer vacation at the beach when they are lured from our world into Ixeos, an alternate Earth. Finding themselves lost in a maze of tunnels under Paris and surrounded by strangers, they discover that they have been brought to Ixeos for one purpose: to take the planet back from humanoid aliens who have claimed it. With the aid of the tunnels and a mysterious man named Landon, the teens travel the world seeking the key that will allow them to free Darian, the long-imprisoned rebel leader. But the aliens aren’t the only problem on Ixeos — the McClellands have to deal with brutal gangs, desperate junkies, and a world without power, where all the technology is owned by the aliens, and where most of the population has been killed or enslaved. The worst part? There’s no way home.
Author Jennings Wright
Born and raised in Florida, Jennings spent her early years reading anything she could get her hands on, when she wasn’t spending time in and on the water. She won a prize in the 6th grade for her science fiction stories.
Jennings attended the University of Tampa, graduating with a B.A. in Political Science, and almost enough credits for B.A.s in both English and History. She attended graduate school at the University of West Florida, studying Psychology. She spent time over the years doing various kinds of business writing, editing, and teaching writing, but mostly having and raising her family, homeschooling her children, owning and running a business with her husband, and starting a non-profit.
Thanks to a crazy idea called NaNoWriMo Jennings got back into creative writing in 2011 and hasn’t stopped since. She currently lives in North Carolina with her husband, also a business owner and writer, and two children, and travels extensively with her family, and her non-profit in Uganda.
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Book Blast Giveaway
$50 Amazon Gift Card or Paypal Cash
Ends 4/7/13
Open only to those who can legally enter, receive and use an Amazon.com Gift Code or Paypal Cash. Winning Entry will be verified prior to prize being awarded. No purchase necessary. You must be 18 or older to enter or have your parent enter for you. The winner will be chosen by rafflecopter and announced here as well as emailed and will have 48 hours to respond or a new winner will be chosen. This giveaway is in no way associated with Facebook, Twitter, Rafflecopter or any other entity unless otherwise specified. The number of eligible entries received determines the odds of winning. Giveaway was organized by Kathy from I Am A Reader, Not A Writer http://iamareader.com and sponsored by the authors. VOID WHERE PROHIBITED BY LAW.
Blog Stop: Fixer by Gene Doucette
Today we have author Gene Doucette as part of the blog tour for his new release Fixer. Read the blurb and guest post then go get yourself a copy. I haven’t read anything from this author before, but I’m really excited to read this one!
About Fixer:
What would you do if you could see into the future?
As a child, he dreamed of being a superhero. Most people never get to realize their childhood dreams, but Corrigan Bain has come close. He is a fixer. His job is to prevent accidents—to see the future and “fix” things before people get hurt. But the ability to see into the future, however limited, isn’t always so simple. Sometimes not everyone can be saved.
“Don’t let them know you can see them.”
Graduate students from a local university are dying, and former lover and FBI agent Maggie Trent is the only person who believes their deaths aren’t as accidental as they appear. But the truth can only be found in something from Corrigan Bain’s past, and he’s not interested in sharing that past, not even with Maggie.
To stop the deaths, Corrigan will have to face up to some old horrors, confront the possibility that he may be going mad, and find a way to stop a killer no one can see.
Corrigan Bain is going insane . . . or is he?
Because there’s something in the future that doesn’t want to be seen. It isn’t human. It’s got a taste for mayhem. And it is very, very angry.
Behind the Science of Fixer:
One of the nicest compliments I’ve gotten in the early reviews of Fixer is that the science in the book is complicated and difficult to follow. I know this seems like a strange thing to find complimentary, but since the science that the premise of the story is based on is science that I invented for the story, having it lumped together—as it has been—with actual and actually very complicated theories like superstring theory and general relativity is pretty cool.
The complexity of the book itself, along with the invented theories, invites the usual questions like: how did you come up with this? Or perhaps why did you come up with this, as it makes my head hurt? Well, I didn’t set out to do that. It just sort of happened.
Let me back up. I don’t customarily jump into new novels knowing a great deal beforehand. Most of the time I have a notion of an ending and a good idea of a beginning, with almost no clue how to get from one end to the other. What I do have at the start is an idea. I don’t mean an idea for a story, I mean an idea that might become a story if I fiddle around with it for long enough. In the case of Fixer I began with the idea of a person who could see a tiny bit of the future, and who saved people using this talent.
That’s a simple idea. But then come the questions. How certain is the future he sees? Does that certainty impact how far he can see? What happens to the future he saw when he changes the present? If this is a testable thing, is it something that could be reproduced scientifically? How does my main character tell the difference between the present and the future? Can he tell the difference? Does he see a discrete point in the future or a constant flow of time between the present and whenever he can’t see any further?
And so on. So those were all the kinds of questions that I asked myself while I was writing, and the answers ended up helping develop the plot. This was especially true when it came time to developing a central conflict, and the question that got me there was: (spoiler alert) what if someone lived in the future? How would our present look to them? What would happen to them if my main character changed the future that they lived in? Finally: how would you protect yourself from someone like that?
This is how you end up with a complicated plot, a scientific-sounding theory, and a horror story all rolled into one, I guess. At least it’s how I got there. Really, I was just trying to understand how it could work, and everything that came after was me trying to make sense of the implications.
Plus the whole thing was just really cool, and I can’t pass on that.
Bio:
In addition to ghost writing for an immortal man, Gene Doucette has been published as a humorist with Beating Up Daddy: A Year in the Life of an Amateur Father and The Other Worst Case Scenario Survival Handbook: A Parody. He is also a screenwriter and a playwright. Gene lives in Cambridge, MA with his wife and two children.
Gene Doucette’s site: genedoucette.me
Links:
iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/
The Writer’s Coffee Shop: http://ph.
Blog Stop: Hunted by Lorenz Font
Today author Lorenz Font joins us on the blog tour of her debut novel Hunted. Enjoy the guest post and excerpt of this exciting new book.
Hunted, Book One of The Gates Legacy
Deep in the heart of New York City’s underworld, a horrible disease is ravaging the vampire community. The Vampire Council is on a crusade to obliterate those infected, and Harrow Gates is target Number One. The unwitting source of the plague, he suffers from the same nightmarish symptoms as his victims. The world he’d been thrust into was cold, cruel, and intent on eradicating him, and the legions of afflicted vampires he created with his bite.
A bounty hanging over his head, satisfying his hunger has become an enormous challenge for Harrow. The less he feeds, the more hideous and painful his lesions become. Constantly running for his life and learning new tricks to survive, Harrow is in no position to refuse when Pritchard Tack offers him a unique opportunity. Pritchard not only gives Harrow a new beginning, but also a purpose and a chance to rectify the chaos he created in the vampire world. However, the multi-billionaire has an agenda of his own.
Jordan is a reluctant new vampire and a woman on a mission. After the demise of her family and her own transformation at the hands of Goran, the ruthless leader of the Vampire Council, her only focus is revenge. Constantly faced with one frustrating dead-end after another, a stroke of luck leads her to an underground facility that she suspects is the lair of the monster for whom she is looking.
Upon learning more about the truth behind the secret bunker, Jordan must fight against her growing feelings of friendship and concern for the facility’s inhabitants. One man in particular threatens to pull her heart away from her sworn mission. There is something behind Harrow’s dark lenses that unsettles the hardened female. Once again, she trembles and hungers for something other than red-stained revenge. Is love strong enough to override her hate-fueled thirst for vengeance?
Balance of writing and a full-time career and family
As I’ve said in one of my blog interviews, I see writing as a full-time job on top of my day job as a Business Office Manager. To be quite frank, it’s hard to excel at both. It’s a constant juggling act on my part to meet deadlines on both ends.
Balance, I’ve found, is a relative term. One must try different methods to find out what works best for them. In my case, I try not to think of what I have to write while I’m at work. I write notes during my break or I play scenes inside my head. Wearing several hats can get confusing at times. I have to mentally check myself to make sure I’m not drifting into dreamland while working with numbers.
Home life is quite easy, in part because my hubby rallied the kids and even the dogs to make it easy for me. The kids responded by taking some of my chores, with hubby bearing the brunt of cooking and running errands. The dogs, however, are another story. They think that just because I’m sitting on the sofa for countless hours, they can tear their toys to shreds, rip papers and magazines on the coffee table to give me something else to do.
I’m thankful for everyone stepping up to the plate to help me get more writing time. There’s a saying that you reap what you sow; I believe it now more than ever. I’d given my family all my time and attention, and they’re giving that back to me now.
This is a perfect example of having a cake and taking a big bite. Finding the perfect balance will come with time. For the now, the troops and I are making it work, one day at a time.
Excerpt from Hunted:
“There really isn’t a second scenario, we’re dead set and conceptually right about the first one.” Pritchard chuckled. Harrow hissed under his breath, unable to control his hunger any longer. “You need to feed. I know Tor rudely interrupted your dinner. Intel confirms that needle in your pocket, meant you’re not advocating the spread of the disease, am I right?”
Harrow shuddered before nodding. His could feel his strength fading and there wasn’t a damn thing he could do about it. This human, in all of his infinite wisdom, should give him his neck and be done with.
“I know what you’re thinking Harrow,” Pritchard laughed without humor. “I’m not the enemy here, or your dinner. I will take you to a cell for now, where you will be fed donated blood until we find a cure for that ailment. Neither of you are prisoners here, but until we are certain that you’re not a threat to us humans, you will not be allowed to move around freely.”
Pritchard rose to his feet. “Follow me,” he told Harrow.
“What about these damn cuffs on our leg, we’re not animals you know.” Tor said and his voice thundered through the room. He was already up on his feet and facing off with Lambert, who was sporting a push dagger, notably of Dangeran material.
“They are trackers, in case you are out there,” Lambert motioned with his hand. “We will know how to find you.”
“Just like we’re dogs, right?” Tor said distastefully.
“Yes, but very special dogs,” Lambert said, taunting as he grabbed Tor’s elbow and shoved him forward to follow Pritchard and Harrow. They were already walking down the long corridor that eventually led them to a windowless suite. The furnishings were top-rated, lavish to be exact. There were two king-sized beds, a state of the art sound system sitting next to a giant television, expensive looking art adorned the wall, and plush carpeting to boot.
Author Bio:
Lorenz Font discovered her love of writing after reading a celebrated novel that inspired one idea after another. Hunted, the first book of The Gates Legacy trilogy, is her debut novel. Written in forty-five days, the grueling writing schedule was a personal challenge, even though she thought it was madness at first.
She enjoys dabbling in different genres with an intense focus on angst and the redemption of flawed characters. Her fascination with romantic twists is a mainstay in all her stories.
She currently lives in California with her husband, children, and two demanding dogs. Lorenz spends most of her free time writing while also working as a Business Office Manager for a skilled-rehabilitation hospital.
Blog Stop & #Giveaway: Death of a Shrinking Violet by James Robinson, Jr.
About Death of a Shrinking Violet by James Robinson
James Robinson, Jr. has experienced a lot in his sixty years of living. He documents many of his life experiences in his new book: Death of a Shrinking Violet: A Collection of Essays For Our Time. Death of a Shrinking Violet—which consists of thirteen humorous essays covering a variety of topics—has nothing to with death or the sadness associated with a shrinking violet. Written by award winning essayist and satirist James Robinson, Jr., it celebrates all of the daily moments and collective events that we all share; all of the things we have in common as living, breathing members of the human race. As you read, you’ll find yourself saying: “That happened to me,” or “Oh, that’s so funny!” But mostly, you’ll nod and say: “I know exactly what you mean.”
Get ready to smile, laugh, and cry; Death of a Shrinking Violet is about you and me.
A Bit About Me as a Person:
I had a very interesting home life—so interesting in fact that I chose to include large amounts of it in my book: Fighting the Effects of Gravity. I am an only child. Both of my parents are still living. My father is 85 and my mother is 83. Both are now retired. My mother was an educator who went on to start her own after school in 1972 and later opened a pre-school in 1984. My father was the famous one of the family—so famous in fact that my young cousin—when he was about ten years old—said: “uncle James, you’re famous” and began referring to him simply as “famous.” My father was a great athlete who was the first black to play football for the University of Pittsburgh in the mid-forties. He went on to become a Presbyterian minister who was very active in the Civil Rights Movement in Pittsburgh the 60’s. He met Martin Luther King at one point who—when he ran in to him again—didn’t call him famous like my young cousin did—but did refer to him as “Pittsburgh.” My parents opened a charter school on the north side of Pittsburgh ten years ago for grades K-8 which will solidify their legacy.
When I began writing “Death of a Shrinking Violet,” I got away from the memoir style and ended up writing 13 separate essays about different topics which had always caught my fancy or struck me as noteworthy. All of my essays are humorous. My essays usually start with a germ of material or a topic. In “Death of a Shrinking Violet” for instance, I got the idea to write an essay about Sam’s Club after dozens of visits to the stores. After giving some thought to the idea, sitting down and sketching it up (doing some brainstorming with pencil and paper in hand). Very little research is usually required; my experience is all I need.
In the essay, “Where’s your Coat?” I realized that it really bugged me that some people didn’t wear coats even in bitter cold weather. What’s the problem with these people? How can you wear a t-shirt in the winter? People never did this when I was young. Is this some sort of new phenomenon? It didn’t take long to realize that there was a wealth of humor and oddities in our daily lives and that we can all laugh at one another.
Author Bio
James Robinson, Jr. retired from the working world at the age of fifty eight to pursue his passion to be a writer in 2010. He is the award winning author of the humorous memoir Fighting the Effects of Gravity: A Bittersweet Journey Into Middle Life. Robinson resides in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania with Deborah, his wife of thirty-six years. He has three adult children and four grandchildren.
Giveaway
Ms. Grammar Grouch
Poor grammar and punctuation make me ragey. I’ve spent a lot of time grumbling to myself about it. Not all that productive, is it? As a believer in the “put your money where your mouth is” credo, I decided to come out of the closet–the Grammar Grouch Closet.
I’m a self-taught grammar snob. When I read poorly edited material, I spew snarky comments as my blood pressure rises. Instead of imploding, I’ve decided to open my arms wide to anyone who wishes to join me in floating on clouds of literacy. Do I have all the answers? Nope. That’s why I have Sassy Sue (she’s an English teacher, and all my stories fall under the spell of her red pen before they go anywhere else).
I’ll be posting segments related to grammar and punctuation, and there’s also a place for you to ask questions under the GrammarGrouch tab on the website. You can also follow @MsGrammarGrouch on Twitter for grammar related commentary. If I don’t know the answer to a question, I’ll find out. Let’s do this one cheese curl at a time…
Blog Stop and Giveaway: Loki’s Game by Siobhan Kinkade
About Loki’s Game by Siobhan Kinkade
Unemployed museum curator Lily Redway responds to an advertisement in the newspaper, thinking she is applying for a job. On the other side of that small, black-and-white box waits two things: a fantasy world come to life and a man named Rowan Keir.
Rowan is a man with many secrets. He is a shape-shifter, a descendent of old world mythology, and the guardian of a rare and valuable Nordic artifact. He is also being hunted by the god Loki and has spent the last six hundred years outsmarting and outrunning him.
With the fury of Asgard on Rowan’s trail, Lily finds herself caught up in a real-life fantasy story, a love triangle, and an ages-old war that pitches her into a different world and one very hard truth: All is fair in love and war.
EXCERPT:
Lily’s mind reeled. They knew each other. And they hated each other. And Rowan owned the damn club. This must be the trouble Rowan talked about.
“All right, outside…both of you,” she shouted, and started for the front door. Rowan caught her wrist and pulled her around behind a curtain, into a dark hallway. The touch of his fingers on her skin burned; threatened to derail her completely. Then the cold night air rushed over her and his touch left her. Lily turned to face the pair of them, taking a deep, hard breath to steady her jangled nerves. “Now, will one of you please explain to me what the hell is going on?”
Loren and Rowan caught each other’s stare, holding in that pattern for a long moment. Neither spoke.
“Rowan…how do you know him?”
“We go way back,” he said through clenched teeth. She was afraid of what that meant. “Your boyfriend,” he spat the word at her, “has a bad habit of stealing things from me.”
“First of all, Loren isn’t my boyfriend.”
“Didn’t look that way inside.”
“I work for him, you idiot. As for that kiss…I hardly had time to process it before you threw him halfway across the room!”
“My prerogative as owner,” Rowan replied, unrepentant.
“Go to hell, Keir,” Loren snapped, obviously having had enough of this game.
“Fuck you,” Rowan said. “Fucking poacher.”
“If you wanted her, you should have marked her.”
“I am not a barbarian.”
“What?” Lily interjected, but went unnoticed.
“So the chest-beating He-Man bullshit is considered civilized in your world?” Loren asked with a smirk.
“You will destroy her.”
“And it is no concern of yours.”
“It is.”
Loren rolled his eyes and laughed, a deep, sardonic chuckle that rattled Lily’s nerves. She had no idea what this argument was really about, but at the center of it was not where she wanted to be. “Don’t give me some lame line about her being your mate.”
“Hurt her and I will tear you limb from limb,” Rowan threatened.
“I’d like to see you try.”
“There won’t be any trying, kitten.” The air shimmered around Rowan’s form. His eyes, normally that soft sea-and-sky color Lily loved, had dilated, shifting to black. His teeth looked sharper, his fingernails more like claws.
“BOTH OF YOU SHUT UP!” Lily screamed, and both men froze. She swallowed around the frustrated lump in her throat. She knew how close Rowan was to losing it, knew that Loren had provoked him. No matter how she spun it in her head, Rowan was the monster she wished he wasn’t, and while the offered protection flattered her, it also frightened her.
There was something deeper happening here, she knew. She had no idea what they were really arguing about, but she knew without a doubt that she was at the crux of the fight, and was ultimately the catalyst for whatever would happen from here on out.
“Now will one of you idiots please put aside the testosterone and calmly explain to me what is going on? Loren?”
“Keir here is jealous because he let you get away.”
“No,” Rowan countered, his voice taking on an edge of desperation that set her nerves on high-alert. Even with what little she knew of him, she knew he was reasonable. And he did not sound reasonable right now. “He is dangerous, Lily.”
“I knew this was a mistake,” she muttered, pinching the bridge of her nose. This had to end or someone was going to get hurt. “Look,” she started, forcing calm into her voice, “I don’t know where this misguided sense of duty has come from, but as flattering as it is on both sides, it’s a little creepy.”
“He’s jealous,” Loren said at the same moment Rowan muttered, “He is dangerous.” Throwing her hands up in disgust, Lily turned and stalked away, hailing a cab despite both their protests, and gave the driver Loren’s address so she could pick up her car.
Author Bio
At a very early age, Siobhan developed a love of reading. By first grade she was on a fifth grade level, and by the time she was a teenager she spent every penny she earned on new books. Oddly enough she gravitated toward science fiction, fantasy and horror while avoiding the romance genre at all costs. It wasn’t until her mother introduced her to Nora Roberts that she realized romance could be fun.
Not much has changed since then. She is still a voracious reader and recovering grammar junkie.
Left to her own devices, she plots interesting ways to seduce, frighten, and destroy. While she finds herself drawn to the dark and eerie, she is also very much a free spirit and hopeless romantic. With multiple stories in publication and several more on the way she spends her time writing happy-ever-afters for the underdogs.
Siobhan writes both contemporary and dark paranormal romance (and a little bit of fantasy and horror under another name, omitted to protect the guilty), much of it of a highly erotic nature. Having never really enjoyed reading romance, she finds writing it to be a cathartic act. By manipulating the characters, she can make the happy endings much more satisfying for herself, and hopefully for her readers as well.
Author Links
Blog: http://siobhankinkade.wordpress.com
Facebook Author Page: https://www.facebook.com/AuthorSiobhanKinkade
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/#!/siobhankinkade
Amazon Author Page: http://www.amazon.com/author/siobhankinkade
Giveaway
Blog Stop: The Cure by Bradlee Frazer
Today, Bradlee Frazer joins us on the blog tour for his debut novel The Cure. You can read my review of this captivating story, and enjoy a guest post from the author (below).
About The Cure by Bradlee Frazer
What if we had the cure for a catastrophic illness, but it lay hidden inside the blood and bones of just one man?
A mysterious new contagion is decimating the population. It starts in the lungs, like the flu, then moves to the bones, where it weakens and breaks them, eventually killing the host. The disease’s origin, methods of propagation and means of contraction are all unknown. There is no vaccine, and none is expected, as the virus is protean and elusive. If it remains unchecked and mutates into a more virulent form, it will become an extinction level event.
Jason Kramer has the disease, known by its nickname “Trips Lite” (the CDC doctor who discovered it is a fan of Stephen King’s “The Stand”), but his body produces a unique antibody that kills the viruses inside him. This component in Jason’s blood can be harvested and given to anyone who needs it—his blood can heal. But pharmaceutical magnate Phillip Porter needs to keep people believing that only his expensive drug cocktail will slow Trips Lite down, and so if there’s any chance someone with the disease will live, Phillip Porter must make sure that Jason Kramer does not.
Interweaving the styles of John Grisham and Michael Crichton, The Cure is a thriller that fuses genres while retaining its own unique voice to tell the story of Jason—burdened with the knowledge that he is mankind’s last hope—as he struggles against Porter’s avarice and greed in the face of an impending viral apocalypse.
ON THE ART OF WRITING LYRICALLY–BUT NOT WRITING LITERARY FICTION
Of my many writing influences (Stephen King, Caleb Carr, Michael Crichton), the one author I would most like to emulate in my fiction is Ray Bradbury. I began reading his short fiction as a boy, and it has inspired and moved me for all the intervening years.
Consider this excerpt from “Mars is Heaven,” first published in 1948: “The ship came down from space. It came from the stars and the black velocities, and the shining movements, and the silent gulfs of space.” Read critically and literally, the ship could not have come from the “black velocities,” as “velocities” is not a place.
Bradbury’s genius, among many, was his ability to use words in atypical ways to create vivid imagery, creating extremely efficient, lyrical prose. In reading that the ship is coming from the “black velocities,” one can see the ship coursing through lightless space at incredible speeds, only to slow as it approaches the Martian atmosphere to begin its descent. That mental picture is created with just two words.
I think of this as “lyrical” because of the powerful way music lyrics employ the same trick. In the song, “She Talks to Angels” by The Black Crowes, Chris Robinson sings, “She keeps a lock of hair in her pocket/She wears a cross around her neck/ Yes the hair is from a little boy/And the cross from someone she has not met/Not yet.”
The subtle genius of those last two words “Not yet” is hard to fully appreciate, but in just two words Robinson serves to speak a sermon on faith and forgiveness and piety that would not be well served by a longer discussion. Just two words, “Not yet,” convey volumes about the protagonist’s situation and foreshadow her destiny.
Again, in “Mars is Heaven,” Bradbury describes “a shrill of fifes,” using an adjective as a noun to paint a picture of the sound. We listen as he tells us that a brass band has “banged off around the corner,” and anyone that has seen a brass band knows that they bang and clank as they go. Unconventional word choices, playing with the words in ways that cause them to behave like colors in a palette and not as mere ink on paper, is the secret to lyrical writing.
I do not confuse this with “literary fiction,” however. I do not aspire or attempt to write literary fiction. My school is good old commercial genre fiction, as evidenced by my debut novel, The Cure. But I do aspire to write lyrically, like Ray Bradbury, to infuse life and vitality without being verbose. That is the challenge: to add vivid detail using only the bare minimum number of words, such as is accomplished in the lyrics to a song. This creates rich, compelling prose.
Author Bio
Bradlee Frazer is an author, speaker, blogger and Boise, Idaho native who loves the blues, Ray Bradbury short stories and his wife, daughter and dogs. He is also the lawyer who successfully registered the color blue as a trademark for the iconic artificial turf in Boise State University’s football stadium.
Bradlee’s nonfiction has been published in national legal treatises on matters of Internet and intellectual property law, and he is a frequent speaker on those topics. His works of fiction include the short story “Occam’s Razor,” which was published in an online literary journal, and he has co-authored two screenplays, Dangerous Imagination and Spirit of the Lake. He has written scripts for sketch comedy, radio productions and short films, and in college Bradlee was a film critic who wrote and hosted a weekly half-hour television program called Premiere!. The Cure is his first novel.
Author Links
Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5831140.Bradlee_Frazer
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Bradlee-Frazer/e/B007SWVZ66
Barnes and Nobel: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-cure-bradlee-frazer/1112713504?ean=2940014249324
Itunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/the-cure/id512211453?mt=11
Diversion Books Cure:http://www.diversionbooks.com/ebooks/cure-thriller
Diversion Books Author Page:http://www.diversionbooks.com/authors/bradlee-frazer
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book for review from Jitterbug PR and from the author as part of a virtual book tour. I was not compensated nor was I required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am posting this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”
Cover Reveal: IXEOS by Jennings Wright
Cover designed by Glendon Haddix at Streetlight Graphics
IXEOS by Jennings Wright
The McClellands are enjoying a lazy summer vacation at the beach when they are lured from our world into Ixeos, an alternate Earth. Finding themselves lost in a maze of tunnels under Paris and surrounded by strangers, they discover that they have been brought to Ixeos for one purpose: to take the planet back from humanoid aliens who have claimed it. With the aid of the tunnels and a mysterious man named Landon, the teens travel the world seeking the key that will allow them to free Darian, the long-imprisoned rebel leader.
The aliens aren’t the only problem on Ixeos — the McClellands have to deal with brutal gangs, desperate junkies, and a world without power, where all the technology is owned by the aliens, and where most of the population has been killed or enslaved.
The worst part? There’s no way home.
Author Bio:
Born and raised in Rockledge, Florida, Jennings spent her early years reading anything she could get her hands on, when she wasn’t spending time in and on the water. She won a prize in the 6th grade for her science fiction stories.
Jennings attended the University of the South and the University of Tampa, graduating with a B.A. in Political Science, and almost enough credits for B.A.s in both English and History. She spent time over the years doing various kinds of script doctoring, business writing, editing, and teaching writing, but mostly having and raising her family, homeschooling her children, owning and running a business with her husband, and starting a non-profit to Uganda.
Thanks to a crazy idea called NaNoWriMo Jennings got back into creative writing in 2011 and hasn’t stopped since. She’s written four novels and a screenplay in less than a year, with more ideas on the drawing board. She currently lives in North Carolina with her husband, also a writer, and two children, and travels extensively
Author Links:
- Website : http://www.jenningswright.
com - Twitter : http://www.twitter.com/
JenningsWright - Facebook : http://www.facebook.com/
JSWwrites - GoodReads : http://www.goodreads.com/
author/show/6450269.Jennings_ Wright
Young love blooms. Got a Secret . . . Can You Keep it?
The bloom of young love amongst more secrets in Got a Secret . . . Can You Keep it? (Part Six)
If you’re just beginning the story, you can go here.
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