Sunday, August 31, 2014

COVER REVEAL: TIME SQUARE UFO by SW LOTHIAN


 

BLURB

The effects of the Shift have caused havoc at Time Square. Time itself is in danger of imploding and Operation Slingshot has been activated to save the day. Team ELMR embark on their first mission to locate and rescue the first of the missing travellers.

Mission: ELMR-01
Date: 8-July-1947
Location: Roswell, New Mexico, United States of America

Mission Brief: Readings indicate that the target traveller has possibly been captured by a brilliant, but eccentric, scientist who is investigating reports of extra-terrestrials that have crashed in the Roswell area.

Due to this, it is essential that the target is located and rescued before he unwittingly reveals our secret. If the secret of time-travel is revealed to such a random mind, then it could spell disaster and have a huge impact on the world.

 

OR …  IF YOU PREFER …..

Here is the second half of the blurb as it appears in the book.




 


 


 


Amazon link – Available now for pre-orders before launch date of 1st October 2014

http://amzn.com/B00N3XEXPY

 

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About Me

S.W. Lothian is a funny and cool guy from Australia. His kids call him 'Phil Dunphy', because he reminds them of the dad from Modern Family. He isn't sure whether this is a compliment or not, but he takes it as a compliment. As an imaginative kid he dreamed of creating exciting worlds and funky characters, and thought he'd be the most famous person to ever do this. He loved to draw and was dux of Art in High School. Top of his dream list was to be an animator. He loved watching all those classic cartoons on TV - Scooby Doo, The Flintstones, The Jetsons, Road Runner, Wacky Races, The Simpsons, the list goes on and on.

BOOM! Reality hit. The dreams were parked as the corporate world beckoned. Then, 25 years later, the long-held dream to create erupted like a jam donut in a microwave and S.W. started writing fiction for kids of all ages.

His books can be summed up as fun-action-packed-time-travel-adventures-for-the-kid-in-everyone. He writes stories to excite, inspire, teach and thrill. Stories with awesome edge-of-your-seat fun. Stories that let kids escape to new places, and adults remember the dreams of their own childhood.

He is the author of the very popular Quest Series (The Golden Scarab, The Cursed Nile, The Fallen Pharaoh), and the first book in his new series, TIME SQUARE | THE SHIFT was let loose on readers in April 2014.

His debut novel, The Golden Scarab, was a 2013 READERS' FAVORITE BOOK AWARD FINALIST.


Saturday, August 30, 2014

Review: THE HARLOT by Ernie Lindsey







REVIEW: THE HARLOT by Ernie Lindsey

Author Ernie Lindsey comes packed with wisdom, and his writing reveals it. I think he's classed by himself when it comes to character-revealing. Some of his descriptions actually figuratively transport me: for example, an individual with sea-green eyes and potentially a hidden and ugly disposition, whose characterization immediately transported me in imagination to the lowest recesses of the ocean where a bottom-feeding predator lurked. Now that was scary!!

Then, scarcely any time passes, before the characters start acting out of character, and violence erupts, followed by worse. The tension is ratcheted so tight I kept expecting the torque wheel to come loose and fly off into space! Imagine confinement with no sense of safety, no recourse, and no escape--I've tensed up just recounting this. I must go back and reread this, just for the sheer resounding pleasure of the terror!

Friday, August 29, 2014

BROKEN FOREST (DAATH CHRONICLES BOOK ONE) by Eliza TILTON





BOOK BLURB:

Hopeless he'll never be more than the boy who didn't save hisbrother, 17-year-old Avikar accepts his life as the family stable boy, trying to forget the past. But when his sister, Jeslyn, is kidnapped, the thought of losing another sibling catapults him on a desperate quest. With his best friend by his side, and using the tracking skills he learned from his father, he discovers Jeslyn has been taken, kidnapped by one Lucino, the young lord of Daath, a mystical place thought only to exist in fables. 

And Lucino has plans for Jeslyn.

His shapeshifter brethren feed off the auras of humans, andJeslyn's golden hue is exactly what Lucino needs to increase his power. The longer it takes Avikar to reach her, the more entranced she becomes with Lucino's world, and the harder it will be for Avikar to set her free.

He failed his family once. He won't fail again.



Author Bio:

Eliza graduated from Dowling College with a BS in Visual Communications. When she’s not arguing with excel at her day job, or playing Dragon Age 2, again, she’s writing. Her stories hold a bit of the fantastical and there’s always a romance. She resides on Long Island with her husband, two kids and one very snuggly pit bull.

 

BUY LINKS:

Amazon / Barnes & Noble / KOBO

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Author links:

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Wicked Path: Book Two of The Daath Chronicles releases Oct 6th, 2014, add to your Goodreads TBR HERE

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REVIEW: BLOODY RIPPER by T. A. Uner

This excellently written, enticing, story is part of The Leopard King Saga, but functions finely as its own stand-alone. The author treats of my favorite historical horror, the Whitechapel (London) slaughters of 1888; but in.all my many decades of studying Ripper fiction and nonfiction, I've never seen an approach like T. A. Uner's. Here we have the sci first/paranormal/multiple dimensions/horror, and I love it. The thought that these beings can cross dimensions to find their.victims does give me some pause. (What if--it were real?) If you like your horror drippy--bloody, it's right.here. (Remember, Saucy Jack was kind of a messy murderer himself.) Can't wait to read all of this series.


http://archiestandwoodsreviewsandwritings.blogspot.com/2014/08/review-bloody-ripper-by-t-uner-leopard.html

Review: BLOODY RIPPER by T. A. Uner. (LEOPARD KING SAGA 1.5)






REVIEW: BLOODY RIPPER by T. A. Uner

This excellently written, enticing, story is part of The Leopard King Saga, but functions finely as its own stand-alone. The author treats of my favorite historical horror, the Whitechapel (London) slaughters of 1888; but in.all my many decades of studying Ripper fiction and nonfiction, I've never seen an approach like T. A. Uner's. Here we have the sci first/paranormal/multiple dimensions/horror, and I love it. The thought that these beings can cross dimensions to find their.victims does give me some pause. (What if--it were real?) If you like your horror drippy--bloody, it's right.here. (Remember, Saucy Jack was kind of a messy murderer himself.) Can't wait to read all of this series.

Wednesday, August 27, 2014

Review: STICKS, STONES, AND DRAGON BONES (BOOK ONE DRAGON BONES Series) by Evelyn Ink





Review: STICKS, STONES, AND DRAGON BONES by Evelyn Ink
(THE DRAGON BONES SERIES BOOK ONE)

Without in.any way being derivative, this lovely middle-grade fantasy reminds me of the exciting fantasy adventures of the 1950's and 1960's, with dedicated authors such as John Bellaire and Lloyd Alexander. Today that tradition is amply continued by Dan Poblocki, and now, Evelyn Ink.

The Darlingtons are a very special family, in a very special household, in a delightfully SPECIAL home. Oh, if I could only.have lived a childhood like this, abundant to overflowing with imagination, joy, fantastical adventures (literally), research and study and experimentation--and virulent sibling.rivalry.

Review: STOLEN by Dawn Kopman Whidden




Review: STOLEN by Dawn Kopman Whidden

Wow--what a gritty, realistic, story this is: author Dawn Kopman Whidden is unafraid to.focus on some of the most serious and disturbing issues of contemporary society: health issues like cancer and brain.tumours; crime issues of brutal murder, child abduction and sexual abuse, pedophilia, adolescent runaways. Despite the horrible situations presented, both past and present, confirmed or uncertain, the.novel is compelling and very.fast-paced. The story practically turned its own pages.

Review: SIX FEET UNDER by Jennifer Longo




I LOVE THIS BOOK! It's perfect!  I love the protagonist, her life, the setting,  the secondaries--and I.totally especially love the theme. Over the last year and a half or so, I've approached every YA book with a mental-emotional "?" before me: am I going to love it or hate it? Will I be enthusiastic--or bored to stone? There's a reason for my confusion:  I used to love the YA genre, beginning about the time I.discovered Kimberley Dert' s The Body Finder, and I.gleefully devoured YA books...until one afternoon in mid-March 2013, when I reached 51% of a novel (to.remain unnamed) and metaphorically tossed up my Kindle, silently and melodramactically shouting, "I can't take any more of this high school angst!!!"  Since that time, I approach the genre with tenterhooks. Sometimes I get lucky--very lucky (Aramintha Star Matthews' Return of the Loving Dead leaps to mind) and now, my newly beloved favorite, SIX FEET OVER IT. I'm in love.

Monday, August 25, 2014

Review: THE SIXTEEN (Soul Jumpers Book Two) by Ali B.




A fast-moving tale aimed at middle school and preteen readers, THE SIXTEEN is the second entry in author Ali B.'s SOUL JUMPERS series, with plenty of action, metaphysics, and philosophy to keep adults turning pages too and anticipating the next installment. Poor Iris Brave: her father dies, he's held culpable, and her mother goes broke trying to pay the damages. But: Iris' s dad Micah Isn't really deceased, and he was not at fault: he was framed. He isn't "dead" because he's a soul jumper, and he took over an adolescent boy's body. And much to her surprise, Iris discovers she is a soul jumper too.

COVER REVEAL: NIGHT OF PAN by Gail Strickland


 

Night of Pan, by Gail Strickland

 

Genre: young-adult, historical-fantasy

 

Publisher: Curiosity Quills Press

 

Date of Release: November 7, 2014

 

Series: Book One of The Oracle of Delphi Trilogy

 

Cover Artist: Ricky Gunawan (http://ricky-gunawan.daportfolio.com/)

 

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22391588-night-of-pan

 

Description:

 

The slaughter of the Spartan Three Hundred at Thermopylae, Greece 480 BCE—when King Leonidas tried to stop the Persian army with only his elite guard—is well known. But just what did King Xerxes do after he defeated the Greeks?

 

Fifteen-year-old Thaleia is haunted by visions: roofs dripping blood, Athens burning. She tries to convince her best friend and all the villagers that she’s not crazy. The gods do speak to her.

 

And the gods have plans for this girl.

 

When Xerxes’ army of a million Persians marches straight to the mountain village Delphi to claim the Temple of Apollo’s treasures and sacred power, Thaleia’s gift may be her people’s last line of defense.

 

Her destiny may be to save Greece…

…but is one girl strong enough to stop an entire army?

 

Pre-order on Amazon nowhttp://amzn.com/B00MQGNYVS

 

--


 

About The Author:

While studying the Classics in college, Gail Strickland translated much of Homer’s ILIAD and ODYSSEY, Herodotus’ prophecies and THE BACCHAI by Euripides. Living on the Greek islands after college, she discovered her love of myth, the wine-dark sea and retsina.

THE BALTIMORE REVIEW and WRITER’S DIGEST have recognized Gail’s fiction. She published stories and poems in Travelers’ Tales’ anthologies and the San Francisco Writer’s anthology. Her poetry and photography were published in a collection called CLUTTER.

Born in Brooklyn, New York, Gail grew up in Northern California. She raised her children; was a musical director for CAT children’s theater; taught music in schools; mentored young poets and novelists and introduced thousands of youngsters to piano and Greek mythology. Gail is passionate about bringing the richness of Homer’s language and culture to today’s youth.

Find Gail Strickland Online:

Website (http://www.gailstricklandauthor.com/)Facebook(https://www.facebook.com/pages/Gail-Strickland/236766709783010) | Twitter(https://twitter.com/Gailstrickland1)Goodreads(https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/8287635.Gail_StricklandGoogle +(https://plus.google.com/+GailStrickland/posts)

Review: REVENGE & RETRIBUTION (The Graham Saga Book 6) by ANNA BELFRAGE



Review: REVENGE AND RETRIBUTION by Anna Belfrage

Historical fiction advocates ought to devour this series,, THE GRAHAM SAGA, of which REVENGE & RETRIBUTION is number 6. Author Anna Belfrage has a deft touch in.presenting 17th century Massachusetts Bay Colony, a locale which commenced with an intent to religious freedom, but is narrowing in scope and tolerance. A multiply-charactered cast keeps readers' attention. For those who are not yet familiar with the series, the heroine, Alexandra (Alex) is a 21st-century Scottish gal who inadvertently time-traveled to.1658.

GUEST POST by Author ANNA BELFRAGE:

Sometime around 1620, a boy was born in Suffolk, England to a Puritan clergyman called John Hopkins. The little boy was named Matthew, and whatever childish dreams he made have had regarding what he wanted to be when he grew up we will never know, as essentially nothing is known of Matthew Hopkins until that day in 1644 when out he pops of the woodwork, a self-proclaimed Witchfinder.

To understand his choice of profession, one needs certain context: England at the time was in the throes of Civil War, Puritan factions instilled a rampaging fear of evil, and to further add spice to this particular soup, it wasn’t all that long ago that the previous king, James VI of Scotland and I of England, had presided over the infamous Berwick Witch Trials, emphatically stating that witches did exist and had to be fought with all possible means.

In difference to most of Europe, England had an established judicial process that required there to be proof before anyone was found guilty of anything. This in turn means that England has a relatively low number of convicted witches – estimates land around 500 people all in all. Of these, 300 can be attributed to Matthew Hopkins, who obviously took to the role as Witchfinder as fish take to water.

He extracted confessions through various creative procedures, such as sleep deprivation and “pricking”, whereby the accused was shaved of all body hair and submitted to being pricked with a long, sharp needle. Should Matthew hit upon a point that didn’t bleed – well, obviously the naked terrified woman being inspected was a witch.

Fortunately for the women of England, Hopkins died in 1647 – still a number of years shy of his thirtieth birthday. Unfortunately for several women in the New World, Hopkins was very proud of his methods – so proud he wrote a handbook, called The Discovery of Witches in 1647. This book was taken as the ultimate guide in how to find witches – at least in the Colonies – and indirectly Hopkins would thereby cause a number of further deaths in America – long after he was dead.

This little handbook offered a number of alternatives as to how to reveal a witch. Sleep deprivation and pricking have already been mentioned, but Hopkins was also a warm advocate of the swimming test, whereby the unfortunate woman was tied up and thrown into the water. If she floated, she was a witch, if she sank she was innocent. Most people float – at least initially – when thrown in water. And once they start sinking, chances are they’re already more dead than alive…

Over the coming years, Hopkins’ methods would be applied to a number of unfortunates, staring with poor Margaret Jones, a Boston midwife who was hanged as a witch in 1648. His suggested approach to witch discovery was also used at the notorious Salem Trials of the 1690’s, and the swimming test would be continued to be used for a number of decades after that, as testified by the sad case of Grace Sherwood, who was ducked in 1706, had the misfortune (or not) to float, and accordingly spent the following eight years in prison for witchcraft.

In Revenge and Retribution, my main character, Alex Graham, faces accusations of being a witch. No wonder she is more than unnerved when she hears this. Just the thought of being subjected to one more humiliating inspection after the other – plus the fear that she might be found guilty – must have led to an endless number of sleepless nights!

Review: THE MORTIS



Review THE MORTIS

Apocalypse Now: and it doesn't always need to be on a global pandemic scale. An implacable process or event is just as damaging to those who endure it (or fail to survive) as is a planetary collapse. Married couple Lee and Park vacation on a remote, isolated, mostly "uncivilized" tropical resort island, where the language difference bis not the only.barrier. Soon, the Caucasian tourists begin to be overtaken by something that seems to remove higher intelligence, and replace it with feral intensity. On an island, there really is nowhere to escape.

COVER REVEAL: THE WICKED PATH by ELIZA TILTON

 

 

Wicked Path, by Eliza Tilton

 

Genre: young-adult, fantasy

 

Publisher: Curiosity Quills Press

 

Date of Release: October 6, 2014

 

Series: Daath Chronicles (#2)

 

Cover Artist: Michelle Johnson at Blue Sky Design (https://www.facebook.com/pages/Blue-Sky-Design/1401031006827361?sk=timeline)

 

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22452354-wicked-path?from_search=true

 

Description:

 

In Wicked Path: Book Two of the Daath Chronicles brother and sister are forced to opposite sides of Tarrtainya on a fast-paced adventure where the wildlife isn’t the only thing trying to kill them.

 

Three months have passed since Avikar defeated the Reptilian Prince, and he still can’t remember his battle with Lucino. On the hunt for answers, he returns to the scene of the fight and discovers a strange connection between his family’s dagger and the mysterious kingdom of Daath, and it seems only his distant father can reveal the truth behind it all.

 

Before Avikar can travel back home, Lucy assaults him in the market and forces him to flee to Nod Mountains—a place few dare to enter, and even less return from. With Raven and her childhood friend by his side, they must survive the treacherous journey through the pass with a vengeful Lucy hunting them. If they don’t, they’ll never see home again.

 

Jeslyn’s new life in Luna Harbor is the perfect remedy for her confused and broken heart. But when a group of mercenaries kidnap her beloved Grandfather, interrupting her daily routine as his jewelry apprentice, she's forced to join forces with the one person from her past she tried to forget.

 

And his assistance comes with a price.

 

--

 

About The Author:

Eliza graduated from Dowling College with a BS in Visual Communications. When she’s not arguing with excel at her day job, or playing Dragon Age 2, again, she’s writing.

Her YA stories hold a bit of the fantastical and there’s always a hot romance. She resides on Long Island with her husband, two kids and one very snuggly pit bull.

Find Eliza Tilton Online:

Website (http://elizatilton.com/)Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/pages/Eliza-Tilton-YA-Author/245765852217133) | Twitter (https://twitter.com/ElizaTilton)|Goodreads (https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7047768.Eliza_Tilton)

Sunday, August 24, 2014

Reviews: Gary A. Caruso: THE PROMISED LAND and OUR SOULS TO KEEP



Review: THE PROMISED LAND by Gary A. Caruso

A short story prequel to the OUR SOULS TO KEEP trilogy, THE PROMISED LAND demonstrates once again that, like all human con artists, Satan tells a potential victim what they want to.hear, either carrot or stick or both. Seventeen-year-old Wake, altar boy, student, brother of five-year-old Jacob, us offered both, when his mother dies: save her soul by collecting others, or let her be doomed to a torturous eternity. {Shiver!} Scary choice, indeed. The story is well-written and believable, leading smartly into the series.






Review: OUR SOULS TO KEEP by Gary A. Caruso

Consignment to Hell is a torturous eternity, but for young Wake, who thought he sacrificed his soul to save his mother's, Hell is an eternity of waking moments, scouring Phoenix for adolescents prone to suicide: souls he can collect for his lord Satan. Suddenly, during one such encounter, some of Wake's lost human memories begin to reappear, just as he is summoned to.a new, essential task by Satan: collecting the souls of an angelic teenager and her unborn child.

OUR SOULS TO KEEP is realistic and gritty, detailed about Hell and its Narcissistic, megalomaniac overlords; but it is also founded in.the shining light of hope and will compel readers to eagerly anticipate the next installment. (I recommend the prequel short story, THE PROMISED LAND).


Friday, August 22, 2014

Review: A DARK AND TWISTED TIDE by S. J. Bolton


Review: A DARK AND TWISTED TIDE by S. J. Bolton

Each of Ms. Bolton 's Lacey Flint novels I have found fascinating, but emotionally wrenching. Certainly this is the case for the newest entry. Author Bolton is talented at weaving complicated murder cases,  with motives either seemingly pointless or unrecoverable, and murderers who emotionally are "inhuman." So I always read on, intrigued to discover what new has percolated in Ms.. Bolton 's fertile imaginings. Always, I am surprised. Always, I am perturbed, if that is the right word--or tripped out of joint, by her protagonist, the truly "alien" Lacey Flint, who is just not.like any other character--anywhere.

Thursday, August 21, 2014

Review: MEAN STREAK by Sandra Brown


The veneer of civilization is thin-very much so--and like ice over a frozen lake in winter, easily cracked and stripped away. In MEAN STREAK prolific author Sandra Brown demonstrates how easily civilized behavior and circumstances.can be surrendered. Dr. Emory Charbonneau of Atlanta, top-flight pediatrician and multiple marathon winner, suffers a concussion and unconsciousness while training in the higher elevations of the Appalachian Mountains. When she eventually awakens, in a log cabin inhabited by an enigmatic nameless male, she can't leave because of dense fog, she can't recall what caused the blow to her head, and she can't allow herself to trust this alleged "rescuer."

FURTHERMORE