Welcome to #FeatureFriday! Today we have the lovely Lex Chase talking cosplay! It’s a great way to bring your book to life, give it even more character, and interact with fans on a unique level. Have a look below and see what you think!
Guest Post: Mona Hanna
Welcome to #FeatureFriday! Today I have my friend Mona with me. I’ve been working with Mona for a few years now, and have really gotten to see her grow as a writer. I’m currently doing a reedit for the book she features below and have another of her WIPs to look at after. I can’t wait to see what’s next!
Guest Post: Marcus Damanda
For today’s #FeatureFriday, I have with me Marcus Damanda, author of The Salvation State. He’s bringing us a treat: a sneak peak at book two in the Salvation State series! Be warned, it’s unedited and subject to change, but here it is!
(You can find The Salvation State, as well as Marcus’s other books, here.)
Guest Post: C.S. Poe
Hello friends! My name is C.S. Poe, and I will be your train conductor today.
That’s not true.
I’ve never been a train conductor. Although I have ridden many trains.
I was happy to write a guest post for Trish’s blog, then realized afterward I had no idea what to talk about. So let’s look at topic options.
I have a new short story being released February 24th with Dreamspinner Press, as part of their anthology, Simmer. Its theme is men and food and happily ever afters. My piece is “Kneading You,” and features a super cute librarian, an equally sexy, tattooed repairman, and lots of bread baking. (Not a euphemism.) So I could talk about cooking, but really, I don’t like cooking. I do it only under duress. For someone who talks about food so much in her writing, you’d think it was my favorite hobby. I love eating. The work prior to— not so much.
So instead I’m going to talk about music and movies in books.
Didn’t expect that, did you?
I really enjoy adding these little tidbits to my writing. The mention of a television show or a particular song can, when used correctly, set a tone to the story without the author detailing it through additional or unnecessary words. There are pieces of art that are widely known, that move us as an audience, where just the mention of it subconsciously changes the reader’s mood.
An example of this is from one of my all-time favorite series, The Adrien English Mysteries by Josh Lanyon. Now and then there are mentions of songs by Rufus Wainwright, (particularly in one of the codas), which for those familiar with his music, you know what I mean. How his voice and melodies set the somber tone that matches Adrien’s mindset. I get shivers thinking about it! Heidi Cullinan is another excellent example of an author who knows how to use media in writing. Carry The Ocean focuses heavily on the film, The Blues Brothers, and that sense of hope and humor from the movie is deeply engrained in the novel.
In “Kneading You,” I mention a film and make reference to a particular scene, but it’s such a widely known moment in cinema that many readers will undoubtedly understand both the sexy suggestion, as well as how it can be found funny. Ghost, I admit, is one of my favorite movies. The love story is very powerful and beautiful, but it isn’t without its moments of hilarity. It was the perfect film to reference in “Kneading You,” because like I said, while there isn’t any pottery being done, there is quite a bit of dough kneading. If you can’t wait until release on the 24th, I will be sharing an exclusive excerpt to my newsletter followers! You can sign up for that here: https://tinyletter.com/cspoe
So what about you? Are there any books that mention songs or movies that changed the mood for you? Please share them with me!
Thank you for stopping by! Please feel free to friend me on social media. I love talking about cats, coffee, books, and meeting new people. I hope you’ll stick around as my releases roll out this year. May you always find love in the end!
C.S. Poe
Bio:
C.S. Poe is an author of gay mystery and romance. She lives in New York City, but has called a host of different locations home in the past, most recently being Ibaraki, Japan. She has an affinity for all things cute and colorful. C.S. is an avid fan of coffee, reading, and cats, in no particular order. C.S. Poe can be followed on her website, www.cspoe.com, for more information.
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/c.s.poe1
Twitter: https://twitter.com/cs_poe
Tumblr: http://cspoe.tumblr.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cspoe/
Blogger: http://authorcspoe.blogspot.com/
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/13832392.C_S_Poe
Website: http://www.cspoe.com/
Dreamspinner Press: http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/AuthorArcade/cs-poe
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/C.S.-Poe/e/B00YNHOV4W/ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1?qid=1452981229&sr=1-1
New Release: The Salvation State
“This is what the truth is. Second Salvations murdered my parents, and I’m running away.”
It’s here! The latest from Marcus Damanda is a dystopian take on the world, bringing Rebecca and Daniel together for a journey that will change their lives forever.
With beautiful cover art by the talented Jay Aheer, and and ~Editor’s Pick~ from yours truly, and great characters, The Salvation State has it all. It’s the beginning of the end, and you’ll want to stay up to find out what happens next!
Blurb:
A single post over unregulated Internet channels. A sleeping society awakens to a chase, broadcast live on television screens all across the New United States of America…
Rebecca and Daniel have never met. A fifteen-year-old preacher’s kid and a sixteen-year-old atheist outcast, they appear to have little in common. And yet they have both attracted the attention of a recruiter for Angel Island, where bad kids go to be remade—or destroyed.
Agents of the all-powerful New America Unity Church will stop at nothing to get them. They’re building an army, a modern children’s crusade, in which Rebecca and Daniel may be just the kind of future leaders they need.
If not, they might be just the kind of sacrifice necessary to keep the rest of the faithless in line.
New Release: Broken Bones
Happy Release Day to Deja Black! Her newest novel, Broken Bones, introduces readers to a type of paranormal they don’t often see — Sandmen!
Blurb:
Dan Tolliver, the adopted son of alpha pack leader Jeremiah Tolliver, has suffered his last moment of abuse by his lover Keith Mulligan and finds himself in the hospital. There he meets dark and sharp-tongued Dr. Aiden Kavanaugh, who believes Dan needs some of his straightforward kind of medicine. Still, there is something different about the doctor.
Aiden is a sandman, a weaver of dreams, and has been on earth far longer than even he knows. He’s at the end of his time, ready to transition, and needs a human mate to keep him connected to the world he’s grown to love. Only he hasn’t found a special person who makes him want to stay. He doesn’t despair, because not every sandman has the chance to choose, but he knows if he doesn’t find a partner, he will soon lose his physical form and exist only in dreams.
When Aiden realizes Keith is a far greater monster than Dan has any idea, they grow and work together using the support of the pack—and Dan’s inner strength—to overcome impossible odds.
Publisher Link:
https://www.dsppublications.com/books/broken-bones-by-deja-black-120-b
Bio:
Deja has always had fantasies of men loving men, men who felt strongly, loved hard, and needed a hero. Then, one great day she came across a book, and she discovered the world of m/m writing, happened upon others who shared her obsession as much as she did and found her world where she could be not only be accepted for the lives and loves she envisioned, but she could create them, too. So, why not?
Why not take the stories that she would write and throw away as a teenager, grow them, dream them and make them a reality where she could know her own characters, live their story and make them real for someone else?
And, she did. Now, with the support of her hubby and some intense time management she is learning to balance her family of two children at home and the many others she teaches each and every day with her passion, writing what she loves to read.
New Release: Bones of the Empire
Today it is with great pleasure that I bring to you the final book in the Fall of Eldvar series: Bones of the Empire. As epic as this series has been, the final book is that much more epic. I’ve been honored to be a part of it.
Now, go see how it all ends for Estin and Feanne!
Blurb:
With the war between Turessi and the rest of the known world spinning out of control and the mists closing in, a small group heads into the heart of Turessi on the chance that they can make a difference. The armies they had attempted to gather are nowhere to be found and the Turessian armies grow stronger every day. The few free cities left have closed their gates, trying to slow the invasion from Turessi. Hope is dwindling fast.The few heroes left know that they have no chance of winning against the Turessian forces. Can six people, who everyone–including the gods–has abandoned, possibly be enough to turn the tide of war?
Links:
Paperback Coming Soon
New Release: A Time for Everything
The war might be over, but their battle has just begun…
Hiya!! I’d like to show you a bit about my new release, A Time for Everything. It’s a Civil War/Restoration era novel about a Confederate widow and a Union veteran who find love while trying to survive in a country that’s still reeling from the aftermath of war.
Check it out:
After losing her husband and only child to the ravages of the Civil War, twenty-five-year-old Portia McAllister is drowning in grief. When she sees an ad for a live-in tutor in another town, she leaves everything behind in hopes of making a fresh start. But as a Confederate widow in a Union household, she is met with resentment from her new charge and her employer, war veteran Beau Stanford.
Despite their differences, she and Beau find common ground and the stirrings of a second chance at love—until his late wife’s cousin, Lydia, arrives with her sights set on him. Burdened with a farm on the brink of bankruptcy, Beau is tempted by Lydia’s hefty dowry, though Portia has captured his heart.
In another time and another place, his choice would be easy. But love seems impossible amid the simmering chaos of Reconstruction that could boil over at any moment into an all-out battle for survival. Will Beau and Portia find their way into each other’s arms, or will they be swept away by raging forces beyond their control?
New Release: Turning His Life Around
Hello and welcome back to the Turning His Life Around blog tour! I am doing something a little different with this tour and, I’ve put together a running short story. This story happens a couple of years before Turning takes place, when Ian is learning he’s in love with Kane but hasn’t quite accepted what all that means for him yet, since Kane doesn’t return that love.
The story goes for all nine tour stops! You can start it at Charley Descoteaux’s blog and follow the rest of the tour from the link at the bottom.
Be sure to catch each one because everyone who reads all nine and can answer a scavenger hunt questionnaire based on the story will be entered to win $25 a Dreamspinner Press!
New Release: High Witch: Next Generation
Happy Release Day to Mona! Her latest is a spinoff of her High Witch series (more info below).
High Witch Next Generation (Generations Book 1)
Blurb:
This series is a spin off to my High Witch Series.
Seventeen years have passed since Ariel and Hallie worked together to defeat Innes. The child High Witches Erica and Julia are now teenagers, facing their own challenges.
When Erica meets Gareth, she feels excited that she may have found her first love and wants to see him as much as possible. But a vision featuring Erica and the dreaded test darkens her world and leaves her wondering who the mysterious blond man from her vision is.
Gareth is falling for Erica, but he’s hiding a dark secret. If she knew, she would despise him forever. He hates deceiving her but feels trapped. He has to choose between saving his father or protecting the woman he’s falling in love with. He can’t bear to hurt either, but a dark stranger has other ideas.
This is a NOVELLA of approximately 22,000 words.
Buy link: Amazon
Musings of a Writing Reader 