18 Saturday May 2013
Posted in Blogging Fun Stuff
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Request January Black at your local Library. On June 1st, I will donate a copy of January Black to a library in the winner’s name.
Click here for the Rafflecopter.
The Rafflecopter will be open until midnight, May 31, 2013, US Central Daylight Time.
16 Thursday May 2013
Posted in 5 Stars, Authors I Like, Books, Crescent Moon Press, Reveals & Releases, Series
Son of a Mermaid, by Katie O’Sullivan
May 15, 2013
Crescent Moon PressShea MacNamara’s life just got complicated.
After a freak tornado devastates his Oklahoma farm, the fifteen-year-old orphan is whisked away to Cape Cod. Struggling to make sense of his new surroundings, he’s trying hard to deal with feelings of abandonment… and the emotions stirred by a girl he meets along the shore.
Kae belongs to an undersea world hidden from drylanders. The daughter of royal servants, she knows the planned marriage of her Princess to the foreign King should put an end to the war between the clans. But two things stand in the way of lasting peace: the ambitions of the foreign King’s regent, and rumors of the Princess’s bastard child.
Sparks fly when she meets Shea, but could the cute drylander really be the Son of a Mermaid?
Today, I have Katie O’Sullivan with me to talk about her brand new baby, Son of a Mermaid. Stick around after the interview for a link to a Rafflecopter with cool prizes AND my review of the book.
WSR: Katie, your book is a young adult paranormal fantasy featuring mermaids. Could you tell us a little more about that?
KO: The story is set in the present on Cape Cod, where the main character is a 15-year-old boy who’s just moved to town to live with his grandmother. He’s trying to make sense of the changes in his life after the death of his father. He doesn’t know how to swim and has never even seen the ocean before, but something about the crashing waves calls to him. He befriends a girl on the beach one morning, who tells him her family visits the Cape every summer. What she doesn’t tell him is that her home is at the bottom of Nantucket Sound. And that she’s a mermaid. When Shea falls off a dock and develops gills behind his ears, the girl reveals her secret… and offers to take him to meet the mother who was forced to leave him when he was only a baby.
WSR: Who did Shea live with before his grandmother?
KO: Shea grew up on a farm in Oklahoma, far from either coast. He lived with his dad, Thomas MacNamara. Shea assumed his mom had split long ago because he was an unwanted baby – he never even realized his parents had been married! After a tornado ripped through leaving only death and destruction in its wake, his grandmother showed up out of the blue and took him back to Cape Cod with her.
WSR: Poor kid. Hopefully life is about to start looking up. Paranormal is such a vast playground. Why mermaids?
KO: I’ve always been fascinated by all things mermaid, in books, movies, artwork… and they are definitely a paranormal element that hasn’t been overdone, lol.
Living along the shore there’s always the idea of what if mermaids were real? I loved it last year when NOAA (the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration) felt it necessary to release an official statement that mermaids don’t exist. Doesn’t that make you wonder… why release a definitive statement of the negative… unless you’re hiding something 
WSR: Hmm, very good point! So, what is your favorite mermaid book/movie/artwork?
KO: The original Little Mermaid by Hans Christian Anderson was a book I reread many times as a kid. Part of me was glad Disney revised the ending to be a happy one – the original story was so sad. (But I still read it over and over.) My favorite mermaid movie is Splash, with Tom Hanks and Daryl Hannah (although Aquamarine is a runner up.) In terms of artwork, there are beautiful classical images of mermaids, and wonderful fanciful modern images as well. But. After my trip to Mexico last month, I’m kind of digging these Day of the Dead mermaids, and brought a few home…
WSR: I seriously have a friend who might squee herself to death over those mermaids! How did your family react to your publishing contract news?
KO: They’ve all been great and very supportive. My middle child has promised me a book trailer, since he recently took a music tech class and learned how to do stuff like that… but he’s 15 so I’m still waiting, lol. My daughter made my blog tour badge for me – isn’t it great how kids are so naturally tech savvy these days?
WSR: Oh, gosh. My son’s been Apple literate since he was two! It’s kind of freaky how fast they pick it up! You have kids. Plural. When do you write?
KO: We got the Microsoft Easy-Ball mouse when our oldest was 18 months old. I only just got the first iPad in our house recently and I’m not sharing, lol.
I have three teens, each very active in sports, music and drama. They’re all out of the house by 7:30 in the morning, so I have time to write and edit during the day, until school gets out at 2pm and activities start up. It’s easier (and a little scary) now that my oldest drives because he has the most after school activities, but the other two are catching up. This spring all three of them are in different sports (and the oldest is doing both track and spring soccer. Crazy!)
The house is also currently being renovated (euphemism for half-torn-down-crazy-mess) so the dogs have me up and out to walk the beach by 5 am at the latest (kind of like my character Shea – I’ve been thinking of him as I watch the sunrise each morning.)
WSR: I think Shea and my character, Matty, would get along. Both really smart. Both long to return to the farm. Both kind of socially awkward. Was Shae inspired by someone?
KO: Shea is his own character, but there are elements of both of my boys in him. He’s smart and sweet and strong and loyal… and at the same time insecure about who he is and his role in the world… I think authors who are mothers probably do this a lot, infuse their kids into characters. …And you’re right. Shea and Matty would probably get along great. I loved the shyness and insecurity Matty showed when trying to ask Iris out the first few times. Confident in what he knows. Not confident in what he feels. What your character based on someone specific?
WSR: Actually, Matty is me. Well, he’s smarter and wittier than me, but I am socially awkward. I have very few close friends. Still, I have healthy self-esteem. I imagine that a lot of kids are.
I’ve just met Kae. I love how both Shae and Kae are concerned with authority figures, yet pushing their boundaries. It feels very 15. What were you like at their age?
KO: Up until 15, I was a total rule follower. Straight arrow, athlete, honor student, all that, all through high school. Somewhere in their mid-teens, I think all kids start questioning authority and the world around them. Pushing at the edges of the envelope to see how far it will stretch. It’s part of growing up and becoming an individual. A parent’s job then becomes to let them go. And catch them if they fall.
WSR: Is Son of a Mermaid stand alone? Or is a series in the works?
KO: I’ve already signed the contract (with Crescent Moon Press) for a second book, which starts a few weeks after the end of the first book. I can envision more books about Shea and his friends as they enter the University at Atlantis, and visit some of the other oceans on the planet.
WSR: Ooh, I have to imagine there’s a lot of trouble to get into there. *wink*
Win a Transmutare beach stone necklace!
My Review
In Oklahoma, kids become accustomed to storm drills. Having lived there all his life, Shea MacNamara should be used to them. Still, the strange anxiety he has during the drill remains after its over, despite the blue skies overhead. He and his best friend, John, talk about seeing a baseball game in St. Louis. Two girls fawn over the richest kid in school. From the outside, everything seems normal, even as something potent within him insists that something is very wrong. That intuition is proven correct, unfortunately, when he is pulled out of class. It wasn’t a storm drill that afternoon. A tornado did touch down nearby, and it obliterated his farm. His father was unaccounted for and presumed dead. Abandoned by his mother as a baby, fifteen-year-old Shea is now an orphan, which is how he ends up in Massachusetts with a grandmother he’s never before met.
The title of the book, Son of a Mermaid, is clue enough that Shea is no ordinary kid. He is blessed with a photographic memory, which he hides by intentionally under-scoring on tests, and he has an empathy for animals. While not exactly popular in Oklahoma, he is charming and makes friends easily. He demonstrates talent for leadership, but at the same time, he portrays natural self-consciousness. He cannot swim, but he feels drawn to the ocean. He is concerned with the authority of his elders, with rules and laws, while at the same time pushing at those same boundaries. Shae is a teenage boy…curious, impetuous, with a big heart that he gives of graciously.
Kae (pronounced Kay-ee) is very much a mirror of Shea. She is an only child of a couple who serves a mer royal family, and herself a handmaid of Princess Brynneliana. Her people have been at war for years with the Adluos, the clan from of the Southern Atlantic. The two sides have agreed to settle their differences with a good old-fashioned arranged marriage, between Princess Bryneliana, and her six-year old cousin, King Theo. Of course, where there is a political marriage, there’s bound to be plain old dirty politics, and there are shenanigans aplenty. Kae, for reasons she doesn’t understand, is told to leave Shea alone. Don’t talk to him. Don’t look at him. Forget she ever saw him. But, like Shae, she’s fifteen and prone to push at the boundaries her elders set.
Son of a Mermaid is a solid YA paranormal fantasy, with a little bit of romance, a little bit of political intrigue, and a whole lot of teenagers being teenagers. Older teens may find parts of the book predictable, but I think it will appeal greatly to middle school grades.
Content: Ocean-slang cursing. Mild kissing. Mild violence.
09 Thursday May 2013
Posted in Authors I Like, Crescent Moon Press, Reveals & Releases, Series
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Relics, by Maer Wilson
When the creatures of myth and magic return to Earth, they’re nothing like your mother’s fairy tales.
Most of Thulu and La Fi’s clients are dead. Which is perfect since their detective agency caters to the supernatural. So, a job finding relics for an ancient daemon is simple.
The daemon needs the relics to keep a dangerous portal closed. His enemy, Gabriel, wants the relics to open the portal and give his people access to a new feeding ground – Earth.
Hoping to create chaos, Gabriel opens portals to other worlds and the creatures of magic return to Earth, stunning humanity with their existence.
When Gabriel threatens their family, Thulu and La Fi’s job becomes personal. They’ll need powerful allies in the race to find the relics before Gabriel does. But maybe that’s what grateful dead, magical allies and daemonic clients are for.
RELICS opens at a dire moment for Erik and Fiona Thulukan, whom I will hereafter refer to as Thulu and La Fi. A powerful supernatural being holds her hostage, a blade to her throat, while other beings—humans, creatures, and ghosts—hold their collective breath and try not to make a move that will cause result in La Fi’s death.
There, the author cuts the scene and takes the reader back many years to when La Fi was ten years old and learned that she could see, and talk, to dead people.
Maer Wilson draws her reader in with the short prologue scene, and then describes at length the life that La Fi builds in San Francisco with her adopted family, the Thulukans. (Before you think she shacked up with her “brother,” the adoption was organic. She lived with her aunt and they were absorbed into the Thulukan’s functions as extended family.) The story, which is separated into parts, actually begins in part two, when they take on an unusual case.
The author has an illustrative voice and she has built her story layer upon layer, giving equal attention to building scenes as developing characters. I can’t explain the value of this to the story without spoiling the biggest scene of the book, but I will say that in one moment, I suddenly appreciated every word she had devoted to her details.
Falling under the “Private Investigator” trope, RELICS is an introduction to a series with the potential to grow as long as Ms. Wilson wishes to continue. It lays out backstory, establishes special gifts and powers, enemies and allies, and a cast of strange and wonderful creatures from a network of alien worlds to which Earth is connected by portals. Any sequel will have the advantage of this groundwork already in place, and the author can steam ahead with the dilemma of Thulu and La Fi’s next dead client.
The writing style may be a little mature for teenagers. This book was clearly written for by adults. Having said that, I don’t recall much objectionable content. There is one hint of close door sex, profanity is kept to a minimum, and there is moderate violence.
24 Wednesday Apr 2013
Posted in Authors I Like, Crescent Moon Press, Reveals & Releases
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Medusa: A Love Story, by Sasha Summers
It’s said love can change a person. Medusa wasn’t always a monster…
Medusa is ruled by duty, to her Titan father and the Goddess Athena. She’s no room for the tenderness her warrior guard, Ariston, stirs. When Olympus frees her from service, her heart leads her into the arms of the guard she loves… and curses her as the creature with serpent locks.
Ariston goes to war with a full heart… and dreadful foreboding. He learns too late of the danger Medusa faces, alone, and a Persian blade sends him into the Underworld. But death, curses, nor the wrath of the Gods will keep him from returning to her.
Poseidon will use Greece’s war to get what he wants: Medusa. He does not care that she belongs to another. He does not care that she will be damned. He is a God, an Olympian, and she will be his.
Medusa begins in a scene anyone who’s seen Clash of the Titans will be familiar with. A daring young man, armed with a sword and shield, walks into the ruined temple to slay the cursed Gorgon, Medusa. He knows his chances aren’t good; every man who’s come to this island before him has tried and died. The monster surprises him, though, offering instructions on how to take her head.
The novel then rewinds about a year, to when Medusa was a cherished priestess of the goddess Athena. Her guardian has recently been replaced by Ariston of Rhodes, a loyal soldier who’s worth much more to Athens on the battlefield than babysitting Medusa. He doesn’t really mind though, as she’s beautiful and engaging. His loyalty to Athena becomes a problem for him. His job is to protect Medusa, whose vow of purity demands that she not be touched. Within days, touching her is all he wants to do.
Sasha Summers is a master of the tiny detail. Her characters, Ariston and Medusa, are intimately aware of their own breath, their own heart beats, even the slightest tickle the other causes under their own skin. I am of the opinion that there are few devices quite as powerful as sexual tension, and while the innocent Medusa serves Athena, the desire between her and Ariston builds into a palpable force.
Much of fun of Greek mythology is the tragic course it takes, and the author plots two trails through purgatory for her pair. One leads Medusa to torture, divine curse, and the hospitality of her Gorgon sisters, while the other leads Ariston literally to hell and the mercy of Hades, the god of death.
The characters of this creative twist are exceedingly well rounded, particularly the gods. Poseidon is a selfish, game-playing boar. Yet, while not quite guilt for his actions, he is the god on Olympus who seems most concern that her punishments continue. Athena, traditionally a wise and just goddess, is anything but when she’s offended (and it doesn’t take much.) Hades, typically feared for being heartless, displays great mercy. The author displays the Greek gods as we’ve come to know them: noble and concerned for Greece most of the time, yet at other times, they are conceited, petty, and cruel. And still, Summers manages to make the key players surprising.
I would recommend this book to any lover of Greek myth and romance.
GIVEAWAY ALERT!
Sasha is giving away COOL stuff for Medusa’s birthday!
Enter this Rafflecopter to win!
Tip: Leaving comments on blog posts increases your chances of winning, so visit all of the stops on the tour and comment often! The schedule is here:
http://www.enchantressofbooksblogtours.com/p/sasha-summerss-medusas-birthday-bash.html
Sasha is part gypsy. Her passions have always been storytelling, history, and travel. It’s no surprise that her books visit times past, set in places rich with legends and myth. Her first play, ‘Greek Gods and Goddesses’ (original title, right?), was written for her Girl Scout troupe. She’s been writing ever since. She loves getting lost in the worlds and characters she creates; even if she frequently forgets to run the dishwasher or wash socks when she’s doing so. Luckily, her four brilliant children and hero-inspiring hubby are super understanding and supportive.
17 Wednesday Apr 2013
Posted in Authors I Like, Crescent Moon Press, Reveals & Releases, Series
Urban Fantasy/Paranormal
Crescent Moon Press
Release Date – May 1, 2013
When the creatures of myth and magic return to Earth, they’re nothing like your mother’s fairy tales.
Most of Thulu and La Fi’s clients are dead. Which is perfect since their detective agency caters to the supernatural. So, a job finding relics for an ancient daemon is simple.
The daemon needs the relics to keep a dangerous portal closed. His enemy, Gabriel, wants the relics to open the portal and give his people access to a new feeding ground – Earth.
Hoping to create chaos, Gabriel opens portals to other worlds and the creatures of magic return to Earth, stunning humanity with their existence.
When Gabriel threatens their family, Thulu and La Fi’s job becomes personal. They’ll need powerful allies in the race to find the relics before Gabriel does. But maybe that’s what grateful dead, magical allies and daemonic clients are for.
After a successful career being other people, and later teaching others the many tricks of that trade, Maer Wilson has decided to be herself for a while. Turns out she’s a writer. She’s always loved stories, especially fantasy, mystery and sci fi. She has a dragon-themed room in her home, but sadly no dragons in the back yard. When she’s not writing, Maer plays online video games, teaches college and reads.
Maer has a BA from CSU Fullerton, where she majored in Theatre Arts. As a former professional stage actor in Southern California, she gave over three thousand performances in an eight-year span. This helped tremendously with creating the characters in Relics, Book 1 of The Thulukan Chronicles.
While Maer writes mostly urban fantasy, she also dips into horror and paranormal mysteries. An avid gamer, her current games of choice are Star Wars: The Old Republic and Guild Wars 2. She’s eagerly awaiting a new MMO, Wildstar. Combining two loves, she is a columnist for two popular gaming fansites, Corellian Run Radio and Wildstar Radio.
Maer is also a co-producer and co-host for the literary podcast, MythBehaving. She enjoys interviewing guests from the publishing world and takes the great advice her guests give and applies it to her own career.
She’s currently in revisions on her second book for The Thulukan Chronicles, as well as another fantasy novel and several short stories.
Links:
13 Saturday Apr 2013
Posted in Authors I Like, Evernight Publishing, Reveals & Releases
Paranormal Romance
Evernight Publishing
Release Date – April 17, 2013You only get one chance at life then you die. The game’s over, no second chances. But she was never one to follow all the rules.
In a strange twist of fate, a woman flees purgatory only to jump into a newly vacated body. When she wakes in the hospital, she has a brand new life and a whole lot of unanswered questions. Now she’s Micah Munroe, a real estate agent with broken memories of the messed up life she once lived. A mysterious man who claims to be Death says she’s his granddaughter and that she’s something called a grimm.
Sully knows she’s an imposter because he reaped the soul of the real Micah only a week ago. He suspects she might be a misplaced shadow, what he calls spirits and vengeful ghosts. He becomes obsessed with finding out who she really is and just how she inhabited a new body. He’ll stop at nothing to find the truth and send her back to purgatory where she belongs. What he didn’t bargain on was how his body would react to her or how powerful the white light within her is.
“Light the Shadows” contains adult content.
Even as a child, Michelle Clay wasn’t afraid of the things that went bump in the night. In fact, the thought of a world where werewolves roamed and Dracula reigned king may seem like an eldritch dream to most, but was exciting to Michelle. Instead of turning on a light for comfort, she reveled in the dark, imagining the lives of what was out there roaming the night and frightening those who didn’t truly appreciate how interesting the supernatural really were.
Nowadays, her visions continuously take shape as she brings life to the worlds she has imagined since childhood. The wild imaginings that often got Michelle out of, or more often into, trouble as a young girl have informed and enriched her storytelling as an adult, bringing a fresh new voice to the paranormal romance genre.
Michelle currently writes from her Texas Hill Country residence, surrounded by colonies of bats, Native American spirits, haunted frontier forts and hidden ghost towns.
Stalk Michelle:
11 Thursday Apr 2013
Posted in Blogging Fun Stuff
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No hoops to jump through today. The rafflecopter is simply collecting entries.
Enter your name into the Rafflecopter.
The Rafflecopter will be open until midnight, US Central Daylight Time (five hours.)
Good Luck!
10 Wednesday Apr 2013
Posted in Blogging Fun Stuff
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Beth Reekles, 17, of South Wales, was offered seven figures for her YA romance, The Kissing Booth, by Random House. (Photo: Wales Online)
While Reekles is a member of an exclusive club of young adults, she is also among the older teen set of authors.
Born in 1958, a girl caught the attention of Pantheon Books after her parents submitted the story she wrote for her grandmother.
1. What was her name?
2. What was the title?
3. And how old was she?
You are playing for a January Black prize pack, and you must answer all three questions correctly.
Answers must be entered into this Rafflecopter.
The Rafflecopter will be open until midnight, US Central Daylight Time (five hours.)
Good Luck!
09 Tuesday Apr 2013
Posted in Blogging Fun Stuff
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Emma Thompson as Professor Trelawney in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Property of Warner Brothers)
Emma Thompson was the second choice of the casting director, and she accepted the role to impress her then 4-year-old daughter. The actress who was offered the role first, but declined, played a supernatural character in a film starring Keanu Reeves.
Who was the actress? Which Keanu Reeves movie? And what was her character’s name in that movie?
Please do NOT answer in the comments.
Answers must be entered into this Rafflecopter.
All three answers must be correct to win.
The Rafflecopter will be open until midnight, US Central Daylight Time (five hours.)
Good Luck!
07 Sunday Apr 2013
Posted in Books, Crescent Moon Press, Reviews
About Book Reviews
Reviews are important to authors and books. For one, it provides us with feedback on our work, and two, it provides other readers with information they need when deciding to pick up a book or not.
Two, in an automated world, the content that we see delivered to us is driven by mathematics. Amazon is the biggest bookseller on the planet, with nine international domains in addition to its US site. They manage their ranking/review system with a complex algorithm. Star rankings, text reviews, and the raw numbers of feedback left by customers are all variables weighed by the calculation. The more data it has, the more it knows about a product.
It. Yes, we are talking about technology. It doesn’t feel one way or another about the data given to it, just how much it has and what the data says. Like a book, tell Amazon. Don’t like a book, tell Amazon, and its algorithm will do the rest. Be honest and be respectful, and you have done the author and other readers a favor even if your review is negative.
About the Giveaway
I love readers. I love giving things away. And readers of young adult books appear to be quite enamored with “The Infernal Devices.” To encourage readers to pick up January Black and help me reach my goal of 100 Amazon reviews, I’m offering a hardcover set of “The Infernal Devices,” signed by Cassandra Clare. The giveaway will begin when the 100th review is posted.
Read. Review. Share. Win The Infernal Devices. Hardcover. Signed.
This giveaway will be open to international readers. “The Infernal Devices” prize was purchased by me. Cassandra Clare is not connected to this promotion in any way. Review will NOT be required to participate, BUT we need 100 to get a party started.
This post will be updated as needed prior to the event.
