Tuesday, November 26, 2013

**Release Day Blitz** ARV-3 by Cameo Renae



Title: ARV-3
Author: Cameo Renae
Genre: YA Post-Apocalyptic/Dystopian
Release Date: November 26th 2013
Publisher: CHBB
Cover Design: Regina Wamba at Mae I Design Photograpy

Blitz Host: Lady Amber's Tours

Blurb:
June 6, 2014: The beginning of the end. The Apocalypse.
A nuclear fallout wiped out every living thing on the planet, except for a few thousand of us who took shelter in underground bunkers across the globe. Now, after thirteen long years, we were finally able to return to the topside to begin to rebuild.
We thought we were alone. We were never more wrong.
Before the fallout, scientists had worked on creating an anti-radiation vaccine (ARV). The first two attempts failed, but despite the incomplete tests and results, the government approved and distributed the third serum to the masses in an effort to aid those who had no shelter.
It worked, keeping those who remained on the topside alive, but it also altered and mutated them. This new and infectious threat had completely outnumbered us. Now, we not only had to rebuild our planet. We would have to fight for it.
My name is Abigail Park. I’m seventeen, and this is my story.


My family is what keeps my heart beating, and my world a happy place to be.

I love reading great books that whisk me away from reality, even if for a little while. :) Writing is my passion. I love creating new worlds and new characters, and taking wondrous adventures with them.

In My Dreams & Hidden Wings were both recently published through Crushing Hearts and Black Butterfly Publishing. Descent (A Hidden Wings novella) will be released May 15, 2013, and Broken Wings (Book 2 in the Hidden Wings Series) will be released June 1, 2013.

One day I will find my magic wardrobe, and ride away on my magical unicorn... ♥ Until then... I'll keep writing! ;)



Follow Cameo on:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CameoRenaeFanPage
Blog: http://cameorenae.blogspot.com/
Website: http://cameorenae.com
Twitter: @CameoRenae



Thursday, November 21, 2013

Blog Tour: The Last Three Words by Ashley Heckman





Title: The Last Three Words
Genre: Young Adult
Release date: November 15th 2013
Publisher: Evernight Teen

Blurb:


Seventeen-year-old Christian Marx never belonged anywhere but with his best friend Maye. Life with her beats the hell out of the dingy apartment he shares with his neglectful mother. Mom may be blood, but Maye and her little sister Rowe are family. Life would be perfect if only Maye loved him the way he loved her.
Last night, she did. Today, she's dead—a tragic accident no one could have predicted.
With Maye gone, it's up to those she left behind to figure out how to move on. Only one person can drag Christian away from the ledge. Only one person can save Maye's little sister from making a huge mistake.
Sometimes the only way to un-break yourself is to fix someone else.



Ashley is a thirty-something perpetual teenager. She (slowly) writes young adult fiction that pulls no punches and rarely conforms to the unspoken rules. Home is upstate South Carolina, where Ashley lives with her daughter, working for a living and striving to better herself and her craft.



Author Links:
http://www.ashleyheckman.com
Goodreads link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18718865-the-last-three-words?from_search=true



“Yeah, 387 Greer Highway,” my voice was flat over the sound of sobbing, begging, in the background. “Overdose…barely…bourbon and something prescription, I’m not sure.”
The dispatcher pledged to stay on the line until the ambulance arrived, but I abandoned her first, setting the receiver on the kitchen counter and grabbing the car keys before walking out the front door, unnoticed. What was one more unforgivable act? Besides, I'd done my part. The rest would have to be on the two of them. I stood in the driveway looking back at for a few moments at this place that used to feel like home, and continued on my way to anywhere but here.
I don’t remember the three point turn, or creeping under the canopy of trees that shaded the long gravel drive from the house to the road. Time was lost and instinct took over steering, the gas pedal, and the brake, though I had no need for it. There was no traffic this time of night, when morning hung only a couple of hours over the horizon. I just drove, the lazy speed of the car moving through the dark echoing the numbness I’d succumbed to after struggling against it for so long. It felt almost nice.
I watched, lost in thought, as the darkened houses and pastures passed. I'd considered the existence of fate many times in my life, but only for the past few weeks with any real seriousness. The mistakes made tonight were no accident, no coincidence. Had any of it ever been?
Without realizing, I pulled the car off to the shoulder and into the grass, at that place on Greer Highway that had haunted me for what seemed like a lifetime. It felt like another life, when we’d been happy. I stared out the windshield, willing myself to see something real, something to anchor me in reality, but there was nothing.
I needed to feel it, this road I'd been avoiding in the weeks since. To touch it, know if there was anything left there. It felt like the natural place to make peace with all that had happened, apologize. There had been a purpose to all of it. Maybe she could forgive me. But would I ever forgive myself?

Dream Cast:
This was really difficult for me. I don't generally keep up with a lot of celebrities (I had to go "window shopping" on IMDB for some of these picks), and those I do know by name, I pretty much stopped following when they faded into the annals of Hollywood--as the types of actors and actresses I generally like tend to do.
 
Anyway, I took this as an opportunity to put together an ensemble of people at their best ages to play the characters in my book, regardless of their present day age. Of course anyone reading a story will have their own thoughts and ideas, which I'd welcome in the comments! I've done my best, but I wouldn't be surprised at all to find some up-and-coming young Hollywood types that would be an even more perfect fit. Enjoy!
 
Maye Miller - Alexis Bledel (early 2000's)
Alexis has a plain beauty about her that anyone playing Maye would have to possess. She's not flashy (naturally or otherwise). She looks at the ground a lot. Most would consider her cute, but average. It just takes the right person to figure out how beautiful she is on the inside.
Rowe Miller - Chloe Grace Moretz (2010ish)
Besides proving her ability to play the epitome of a little girl/badass combo in the Kick-Ass movies, Chloe Grace is just visually stunning. Give her a dark chocolate brown hair color and some ice blue contacts, and you have Rowe.
Christian Marx - Leonardo DiCaprio (late 1990's)
Gilbert Grape through Romeo+Juliet era Leo strikes the perfect balance of gangly awkwardness and "wait, he's suddenly REALLY cute" that's inherent in the character of Christian. Plus, the boy could/can ACT.
Stephen Miller - Nestor Carbonell (present day)
Loved him on LOST. There's no one who comes closer to the look I had in mind for the girls' dad.

Wednesday, November 20, 2013

Book Blitz: Daughter of the Goddess by Rita Webb



BLURB

The Heart.
The God of Love seeks a bride who is pure in heart and full of life—full of soul. Instead of a woman, he finds a child with laughter in her heart. Waiting for her to grow up, he befriends her, pretending to be nothing more than a blue-eyed boy with wild, tangled hair.

The Soul.
Left on the temple doorstep, a young girl turns the lives of the priestesses upside down . . . until one summer day before her eighteenth birthday, a traveling oracle tells her she is to marry a stranger in a foreign land.

The Nightmare.
An ancient demon—half-man, half-snake—wants to destroy anything the gods love. When she was a child, he haunted her dreams, but now he stalks her across the countryside. If he catches her, he’ll devour her.

 Leaving the house to go to school, I had schoolbooks spilling out of one hand, the other holding my place in a Nancy Drew novel, and bunny slippers still on my feet. My mom was a wee bit upset.

I haven't changed much. Still always have a book (or two) in my hand or creating stories in my head, and although I don't have any bunny slippers, I love writing in my jammies and snuggly slipper socks.

With my husband TJ (my own cuddly werewolf), I home-school our three girls, who keep us busy with art, science projects, books to read, dance classes, and walks about the park.


LINKS
Amazon:  http://www.amazon.com/Daughter-Goddess-Rita-J-Webb-ebook/dp/B008NZY6J0
B&N:  http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/daughter-of-the-goddess-rita-j-webb/1112212001
Kobo:  http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/daughter-of-the-goddess-rita-j-webb/1112212001
Goodreads:  https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15761890-daughter-of-the-goddess

**Book Blitz & Giveaway** The Confessions of Sylva Slasher by Ace Antonio Hall




Title:  The Confessions of Sylva Slasher
Author:  Ace Antonio Hall
Published:  April 14th, 2013 by Montag Press
Word Count:  84,000
Genre: YA Horror
Recommended Age:  12+

Synopsis:
SPRING BREAK GETS WILD ON THE LIVELIEST CRUISE IN THE PACIFIC UNTIL THE UNDEAD CRASH THE PARTY.

Eighteen-year-old Sylva Fleischer and her friends raise the dead for a living for police investigations and mourning families. Two years after her high school crush, a hot guy named Brandon, is assumed dead, Sylva’s friends convince her to go on a spring break cruise in an effort to suppress her depression over him. But when passengers mysteriously die and reanimate into flesheating zombies like she’s never seen before, Sylva plunges into a horrifying struggle between a ship infested with the undead and the scariest thing of all: a second chance with Brandon after she discovers he’s still alive. This is a zombie story that eats right to the core and leaves you licking your chops for more.

 

Ace Antonio Hall graduated from Long Island University with a BFA. He is a former NYC middle school English teacher who can't get enough of zombies and Spider-Man comic books. When he's not in the gym working off the extra calories from eating way too many donuts, Ace writes young adult horror fiction.

His novel The Confessions of Sylva Slasher was released April 14, 2013 by Montag Press. The second book in his series, Crystal Coffin, will be available next year.

Ace's short story Dead Chick Walking made the Fall 2013 edition of the best-selling Calliope Magazine and his science fiction story, They, won the Honorable  Mention distinction for the 2013 Writers of the Future Award.

For updates and news, follow him on Twitter @aceantoniohall, like his facebook author fan page or visit www.aceantoniohall.com where you can read his blog, updated regularly.

The deadheads slithered, scraped, and shuffled closer and closer. There must have been more than twenty of them ready to tear me apart like hungry wolves. The stench of old rot surrounded me like poison vapors. A chorus of low moans, high whines, and wispy breaths oozed hymnals of my persecution into my ears.
Judgment day. I laid at the altar of the dead waiting to be sacrificed to whoever won ownership of my soul, fear or fearlessness.
I’m not afraid.
Their mangled, distorted faces came into view. How could eyes be so distant, yet so full of hunger? It seemed like they were looking past me—through me into another dimension. Or maybe they could already see which organs they wanted to devour. Their moans found a common craving for death, but their minds were lost somewhere in those useless bodies that kept creeping closer and closer to me, bending and turning in awkward movements. From the ground looking up, they lurched over me like oversized lumps of tumorous blobs, drooling with their mouths agape on their sagging grotesque faces.
I lied. I am afraid.
Pure terror crawled into my ears, listening to their sliding and scraping—more and more deadheads appeared, crowding around me, stretching their necks, and spilling those long vacant looks all over me. They filled my blurry vision with various shapes of disheveled hair and blended shades of disfigured bodies.
The horror of my eyes being torn from my face and viscera clenched between their teeth as they gnawed on my bones and licked the fluids from the insides of my body from their lips became too much to bare.
Something ticked on the ground like an animal approached, its claws pecking as it crept cautiously.
Kla-tick. Kla-tick. Kla-tick. Kla-tick.
It came toward me from a distance. Each step grew louder, bigger. I inhaled, realizing that for some time, I had been holding my breath, frozen with fear. Could it be? No, not now—not now. With my head too stiff to turn and my back broken, I locked my tearful blurry vision on a hazy full moon that seemed to shine a spotlight of death upon me. I spat out a tiny whisper. It’s time to die, again.

Tuesday, November 19, 2013

*Blog Tour* Possessed by Dana Michelle Burnett




Title: Possessed (A Spiritus Series Novel)
Author: Dana Michelle Burnett
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Tour Host: Lady Amber's Tours


Blurb:
Every story has two sides...
Alastor truly believed that his life was over the night his wife Becca shot and killed him over a century ago, but now he has returned as a spirit to haunt the reincarnation of his traitorous, murdering wife. Why now? Why Becca after all this time?
When Becca moves into her ancestral home in Corydon, Indiana, her life takes a puzzling and thrilling turn when she meets the ghost haunting the halls. As the seductive spirit lures her closer and closer, she learns about her own past and starts to understand that some mistakes are meant to last.
To Becca, Alastor is a seductive spirit that seems to see straight into her soul. To Alastor, Becca is what he has waited a century for--A second chance. But a second chance at what? Love...Or revenge?
How far will each of them go to rectify the wrongs of the past?

Dana Michelle Burnett spent most of her life writing short stories and sharing them with family and friends. Over the years, her work was published in numerous commercial and literary magazines including Just Labs, Mindprints: A Literary Journal, Foliate Oak, and many more.  Her short story John Lennon and the Chicken Holocaust was include in The Best of Foliate Oak 2006. 
Dana Michelle's Spiritus Series introduced the idea of a ghostly romance and became a Kindle bestselling series.  She's an avid reader of anything dark and romantic.  Dana Michelle lives in Southern Indiana with her dancing diva daughter and an assortment of pets.




It was easy enough for me to go to the school and find the dance simply by following the sound of the music. I floated invisible through the students in their formal attire, searching for Becca.
I found her and the boy standing along the edges of the dance floor. She was taking the paper cup of punch that the boy was offering her. I moved closer when she coughed after taking a sip.
“I’m sorry,” the boy said as he stroked her back. “I should have warned you that a couple of guys from the football team always puts a little something extra in the punch.”
“It’s okay,” Becca said between gasps of air. “I think I’ll just step out in the hall and get some water.”
I followed her, listening to the litany of thoughts going through her mind. She questioned if this was what she was supposed to want. She couldn’t understand why this was so hard for her.
“He’s not me…” I whispered inside her head.
She jumped and looked around.
“Go away,” she said aloud. “Don’t ruin this for me.  Let me have this night.”
I did go away. I left her and went out to where the boy stood waiting for her to return. I looked at his boyish profile, unlined and unworn with adolescent stubble on his jaw. This was my rival. This was the “man” that was trying to take my Becca away.
The boy was speaking with that hateful Ashley girl, but I didn’t hear what he was saying. My mind was already turning to darker things.
So Becca wanted this one night...Well, so did I.
I pulled in my strength, gathering myself small and hard. I rose up above him, glaring down, before blasting myself into his body. There was a dizzy feeling, a sickening lurch to the left, and then I was back on the outside looking at him standing there with Becca at his arm.
I was weak, feeling the darkness trying to reach up and pull me down into the nothingness, but this time I wouldn’t go. I concentrated on the two of them, watching him try to recover just as I was.
The boy swayed a little from side to side as he smiled down at her, “I was just about ready to send a search party out for you.”
 “Sorry,” Becca said as she reached up to stop the boy from falling right into her. “Are you okay?”
The boy staggered a little to the right and blinked as if trying to focus, “Yeah that Ashley just gets under my skin. She doesn’t know when to shut up and go away.”
“That’s not what I’m talking about,” she said as she took the paper cup from him and threw it in the trash barrel. “How many of those have you drank?”
The boy blushed and raised his hand to his forehead as he staggered to the right again, “I am so sorry.”
She reached up and grabbed his arm again to steady him, “Are you going to be alright?”
The boy shook his head, this time leaning dangerously to the left. “I’ll be fine.”
“Are you sure?”
“Not really,” the boy said, looking quite sick. “Why don’t I go splash some water on my face?  Will you wait for me?”
“Sure.”
I followed the boy as he lurched off, staying close as he walked out into the hall. I was determined this time. I gathered again, pulling all of my energy before I dove directly into the center of his chest. There was the sickening spin as his consciousness fought mine, but at last there I stood living and breathing again, an interloper in the body of the boy.
There was no turning back now. I walked back out to where Becca was waiting. Seeing her there, looking so beautiful, it seemed impossible that in mere moments I would be able to feel her in my arms again.
“May I have this dance?” I asked, reaching my hand out to her.
It seemed to take an eternity for her to turn and put her hand in mine. My heart leapt the instant our hands touched and I felt her fingers in mine. I pulled her close, holding her against my body and lowering my nose to her hair. I inhaled deeply, there it was, the scent of honeysuckle and vanilla.
Becca...
“My beautiful Becca,” I closed my eyes and whispered against her forehead.
I felt her watching me, but I just stood there holding her close. She tried to shift away, but I held there against me.
“Don’t,” I begged and lowered my lips to hers. I tasted the delicious softness of mouth, so gentle at first, afraid at any moment that I would fade and this moment would vanish.
For a moment, neither of us moved. We stood there with our lips barely touching. I was shaking, near crying myself. This was real...This was happening...
I pulled her closer, this time allowing my mouth to linger over hers, my tongue licking the seam of her lower lip. I felt her tremble, her body pushing against me.
Suddenly she pushed me away and gasped, “Alastor!” 
She looked up at me, searching another man’s face, but still somehow seeing me inside.
“How?” She whispered.
“Please don’t scream,” I said as I pulled her to me again and lowered my face into her hair.
“How did you do it?” She asked, a note of hysteria creeping into her voice.
“Does it matter?” I asked as we waltzed about the floor, “You asked for a kiss and I gave it to you.”
Becca began to tremble, shaking so badly that her teeth began to chatter, “Alastor…I can’t…”
“Please,” I begged. “Please, you asked me to give you this one night.  I’m asking you to give me this one moment.”
Tears filled her eyes, “What do you want me to do?” 
“Close your eyes,” I whispered against her eyelids.
“Now what?”
“Just be,” I said as I lowered my face to hers so that our cheeks touched. “Just be.”
“Kiss me again,” she said without opening her eyes.
I gladly took her face in my hands and brought my lips to hers. She brought her own hands up to cover mine as her own kisses became more urgent.
“I’m sorry,” she whimpered, holding my closer. “I’m so sorry for everything.”
I kissed her again, tasting her mouth like a man starved. The answer was clear...My soul would always belong to Becca...Always...

DREAM CAST


Thanks so much for having me on the blog today!  I’m super excited about having the chance to introduce everyone to my characters and the story of a love that refused to die.
When I write, I always have a picture in my head of what my characters should look like and I hope that it stacks up to what my readers have pictured...
Alastor:  My poor misunderstood Alastor. After fighting in the American Civil War and returning home, his life is cut short when his “loving” wife kills him in cold blood.  A century later he hears her, now reincarnated, calling him back from death, but can he forgive her?
For my Alastor, I always pictured Nick Strong.  Now you may not know who that is unless you follow the Hillywood Show on YouTube, he played Damien in their Vampire Diaries Parody and I just loved how he looked with Hilly Hindi. 








Becca: For Becca, I always pictured a timeless beauty with a touch of frailness to her. After all, Becca is first a Civil War bride, bravely facing an attack on her town and welcoming her shell shocked husband home. When his drinking and adultery becomes too much, she kills him. A century later she is reincarnated and haunted by his spirit. Did he return for love or revenge?
To me, the perfect Becca (if only she had blue eyes) would be Hilly Hindi of The Hillywood Show fame. She’s got that same mix of fragility and strength.  That, and she looks damn good with Nick Strong.
Jonah:  Jonah is always described as classically handsome. I always pictured him as sort of the typical Mr. Popular. I also pictured him as being this person filled with light, a perfect contrast to Alastor’s dark brooding. Jonah loves Becca deeply, but how can he ever compare to a love that crosses the boundaries of life and death?
I always pictured Alex Pettyfer as the perfect Jonah. I first saw him in Beastly and he had the sort of charm and arrogance that Jonah would have possessed in the beginning.
Dr. Langdon:  The good doctor tried so hard to be the voice of reason in Becca’s madness, but he couldn’t help her. He knew she was disturbed, but it wasn’t until the end of Becca’s stay in the mental hospital that Dr. Langdon understood exactly how she was haunted.
I always pictured Dr. Langdon as David Tennant without the beautiful accent. It wouldn’t be so bad being committed to a mental hospital if that was your doctor.

Madame Marie DesMarais: This was always a little harder because I always looked at actual paintings and pictures of voodoo madams.  It wasn’t until I was working on this that I had to search for a face that fit.  Madame DesMarais had to have beauty and a creepy stare that looks right through you.  She has to be something really amazing to be brave enough to try to bring back the dead, but has she met her match with Alastor?
Toni Braxton has that beautiful face and you can just tell that no mere spirit is going to shake her up.

So, that’s the cast of characters for Possessed and my Spiritus Series.  Are they what you expected?