Category Archives: Guest Blogging

10 Things You Can Do Around the House to Avoid Writing

Posted on by Joanne Guidoccio

I’m happy to welcome author Kelly Byrd. Today, Kelly shares ten tested, tried and true procrastination tips and her new release, Great Big Ocean Sky, Book Two of the Far from Home Trilogy.

Here’s Kelly!

10. Organize a closet

We all have at least one that’s overflowing. Avoid your desk or workplace by taking apart another part of your home. Pull all of those old clothes out and start making piles of what to sell, donate, and keep. Your characters can wait while you complete this most important task!

9. Make an elaborate recipe

Everyone eats! And, of course, you can’t think clearly enough to write on an empty stomach. Step away from those complicated plot lines and make a nice risotto or a cake. You’ll be happy you did, even if your editor is frustrated you missed a deadline.

8. Fold some laundry

Some people love laundry; some people hate it. No matter your take, laundry has to be done. Plus, no one wants to write naked! Don’t let writing get you down. Fold that clean pile of laundry in the corner. The chair in your room will thank you.

7. Read someone else’s writing

We all need inspo to get the juices flowing! One of the best ways to shake the words loose is to read other people’s work. Grab a book, get cozy, and do some research. Because that’s exactly what you’re doing! You’re not avoiding your WIP; you’re researching.

6. Catch up with an old friend

I generally have a ‘people to call list’ as long as my arm. One way to get out of writing for the day is to catch up with your missed contacts. Plus, you can tell them all about your work in progress, and then you’re technically working and not avoiding writing.

5. Walk your dogs (or your cat, I guess?)

This is my personal favorite. When I hit a wall of writer’s block, I leash up my loyal pups and take them all over the place. We walk the neighborhood, we walk the trails around Nashville, and we hike by the lake. It’s a great way to reset your brain when writing days get long.

4. Go to the gym

Exercise is a necessity, but sometimes I feel like my procrastination has hit new heights when I go to the gym to avoid writing. Get some oxygen flowing to your brain and let your characters languish. They’re working your mind all the time. Give them a break and work your body.

3. Mop the floors

What’s the saying: A tidy house reflects a tidy mind? Fool the world that your brain is well organized by mopping the floors and getting your home into tip-top shape. It will make you feel better, even if you get behind on storytelling.

2. Practice a different art form

Want to get into painting? Stained glass? Pottery? Taking on a new hobby is a great way to distract from your current craft. Plus, exercising your creative brain in a different way can help your writer brain function better. Help yourself and your creative process by flexing a different creative muscle.

1. Take a nap

This is my numero uno, the absolute best way to procrastinate during writing. Plus, the written word exhausts me like no other form of expression. Improve your work and take care of yourself by catching a few much-needed Zs during a long day of writing.

I hope these procrastination tips helped! They’re all tested, tried, and true. Take my word for it

Blurb

Catch up with Mary Jingo as she trains with her friends in the Great Big Ocean Sky-side city of Festdelm. She may have survived the danger in Luminos, the City of Lights, but new challenges await as she, Teeny, Van Clare, Corb, Mikeala, and WindRunner continue their fight to save the Everything. When a new Shadowlander comes to LeeChee, will Mary be able to trust him—even if he is one of her closest friends?

Join Mary Jingo and her motley crew as they travel to the far ends of the world on their quest to save the Everything.

As more of LeeChee falls under Thrall, Mary must choose wisely. Whom will she trust? What bonds will endure? And… how did a Yorkshire Terrier end up as a part of this crazy experience?

The answers, dear reader, await inside as we set sail on the Great Big Ocean Sky.

Excerpt

WindRunner shot into the air, following the great ‘Dragon through the sky. Peregrina’s wake was strong and fast, and WindRunner put himself in the center of her air stream. Mary looked around, sensing for the other Thoughtdragons that had attacked the Garnet Revenge, but did not feel them.

It doesn’t mean they aren’t nearby, WindRunner said.

Really?

Do not become overconfident with this power, Mary Jingo. The Thoughtdragons are dangerous. Older even than my Kin. While I face the same temptation as you—I am drawn to her great power—remember that Peregrina wanted to be found. Otherwise, we would not have been able to follow her.

That couldn’t be possible, Mary puzzled to herself. She had known where Peregrina was. Mary had made this decision to follow Peregrina, hadn’t she? A stab of doubt hit Mary in the chest. Had they walked into a trap?

Peace, Warrior, WindRunner said soothingly. Peregrina wanted us to follow her. I don’t think she will harm you. I think she wishes to speak with you. Or, that is what Mikeala said to me before we left the boat.

You had a private Mindspan with Mikeala?

Yes. She told me I should take you if you wished to go.

Private Mindspans are rude when they are about someone else. The Father says so.

WindRunner laughed in her mind.

Suddenly, Peregrina stopped in midair and whipped around. WindRunner dove to keep from running straight into her serpentine length, ending their conversation. Peregrina beat her wings softly to stay stationary, and WindRunner flew around until he was face to face with the great Thoughtdragon.

Mary’s stomach sank. The last time she had been face to face in the air with someone like this, it had been the evil Mellie. She had won that battle, but only barely. She was not certain she could win a battle like that again. Peregrina was even more terrifying than Mellie. Her head was twice the size of WindRunner. The Thoughtdragon only needed to barely open her mouth to swallow them both whole.

WindRunner sent courage through their bond, but Mary felt his unease. He was being strong for her, just like she wanted to be strong for him. Peregrina spoke then to them both, her voice rich, gravelly, and musical, like a bass note dropped beneath a perfect melody.

“Well, you followed me out here, Shadowlander. What is it that you want?” She slithered her great head to the side as she said this, and Mary felt and smelled the Thoughtdragon’s untamed power. It blotted out her fear.

“I need your scales. Three of them. We need them in LeeChee. The Everything is shrinking, and I am fighting with the Resistors. We are trying to save it,” Mary said, breathing deeply. She spoke clearly and with confidence. “Please help us, great Peregrina.”

The ‘dragon shook her head and laughed.

“Save it? Save the Everything with my scales? Child, in your tiny mind, I might as well be the Everything. You cannot save the Everything with the Everything. And that world, that island, has been pitiful and beyond saving for many annuals now. Your Keeper is the size of a child. Don’t you see? It is lost. Go home to your dark, dark world and leave us in peace. Your People are causing the problem anyway.”

“My People?” Mary responded, trying to hide the hurt in her voice.

“Yes—you Shadowlanders. The Everything is created in the Shadowlands. It cycles up and up to places like LeeChee to be kept safe. Over time, it drifts back down to the Shadowlands and the cycle continues, with the ebb and flow of time. Do they not teach you anything in school down there?” Peregrina paused and turned her livid golden eyes to WindRunner.

“And you, the Lumon’s son. Bound by oath to protect a girl from the Shadowlands. Why have you done this?”

“She can save us,” WindRunner blasted back.

“Can she?” Peregrina replied with a grin on her giant mouth. “How? It is the greed of her People that has caused the blight in your lands. They don’t go outside anymore. They are trapped in their own heads, in their own tribes. They don’t listen to each other. They hardly interact with anyone who doesn’t think exactly how they do. How does one child heal rifts and tears that are hundreds of years old? This is why the Everything shrinks. Do you not know, WindRunner, son of Spearwing? Or are you all much too blind to see it?”

“Mellie is to blame for the Void. Mellie has been warping the Everything to her own purposes,” Mary said, yelling across the distance.

“Fool! Mellie was once like your precious Mikeala. As tall as a mountain and charged with keeping the Everything and the flow of the Cycles safe. She could no more turn the Everything into the Void than I can. It is against her nature. But to regain her former strength and form, she may have been tempted to help someone corrupt the Everything. The Void is powerful, even if it is unnatural. She may be helping the flow of the Void, but no, no. She did not create it.”

“Her scars,” Mary said to herself and WindRunner, thinking of the marks that marred the woman’s face. “Her scars are from the Void.”

“Yes,” Peregrina said. Her hearing must be excellent to perceive Mary over such a distance. “Yes. She has paid dearly in service to the Void.”

“You must help us,” Mary cried desperately. “Mikeala said you brought me out here to talk to me. Help me. I know you can.”

The giant Thoughtdragon swirled her body in the air in front of Mary. Small flames burst from her mouth when she laughed. Mary could feel their heat as they crackled in the air.

“Why would I help you? As I said, the greed of your people is what is causing LeeChee to die. It will grow dark and cold and fade, and me and my kind will visit it no more. And your land will suffer, Mary Jingo. As we have all suffered.”

“Please—you cannot let this happen.”

“How dare you!” Peregrina boomed. Her jaws opened wide. “How dare you accuse me of letting anything happen. It breaks my very being to know that LeeChee will fall into darkness and the Void, but I cannot intervene. Your People, you Shadowlanders, with your pride and your lack of imagination, your desperation for profit. You will kill LeeChee. I allowed you to follow me here because I wanted to see your face before I send you back to that darkened world of the Shadowlands. You don’t belong in LeeChee, Mary Jingo. You will only make things worse.”

Peregrina dove towards Mary and WindRunner, spinning her long body in the air and flapping her wings hard. WindRunner, always ready for attack, spun out of the way, as Mary gripped the handholds. She cast for Peregrina’s power, but found herself blocked from it.

WindRunner. She has shielded me. I cannot channel or control.

Sensing Mary’s fear, WindRunner burst through the air, the giant ‘dragon following swiftly behind. Peregrina was bigger, which WindRunner used to his advantage, banking and turning quickly through the air, making it hard for the Thoughtdragon to follow. Mary found herself dizzy and out of sorts, casting about for ideas. WindRunner blasted a mighty caw at the Thoughtdragon and watched as a jet of light shot from his beak and hit Peregrina squarely between the eyes. She roared angrily, then continued her wild pursuit.

Buy Links

Amazon Kindle | Amazon Print | BookShop | Barnes & Noble | IndieBound

**********This book will be on sale for only $0.99**********

Author Bio and Links

Stories have crept around the halls of Kelly Byrd’s mind since she was a little girl. Not even the combined will of her two loyal pups, her devoted husband, and all her house plants could keep her from putting this story into the world. You’ll find this happy crew in Nashville. Tennessee.

Website | Blog | Instagram

Giveaway

Kelly Byrd will be awarding a $25 Amazon or Barnes and Noble gift card to a randomly drawn winner via Rafflecopter during the tour. Find out more here.

Follow Kelly on the rest of her Goddess Fish tour here.

Blurb Blitz: Dragon Song

Posted on by Joanne Guidoccio

I am happy to welcome author Shirley McCoy. Today, Shirley shares her new release, Dragon Song.

Blurb

Dragons rule the world. Princess Morgan Talbot of Esterhaven knows one rules her. Rownar, the most powerful dragon of all, forced a magical bond with her at a tender age. He intends to corrupt her soul, then consume her body. Now of age, Morgan knows she must take back her life and defeat Rownar, and all his kind. Connor O’Malley is the greatest dragon slayer alive. He spends one memorable night with Morgan, never thinking to see her again. Until he does. He is deeply shaken to learn the woman he fell for is a princess and determined to conquer Rownar herself. When Connor offers to train her, Morgan reluctantly accepts. Now an epic battle will begin, for a princess’s life, her soul, her kingdom, and the world.

Excerpt

“You make it sound so simple.”

“It is.” When she widened her pretty brown eyes at him, he shrugged. “At a certain point, it becomes that way. After you have trained and done the best you can to prepare, then all you can do is place your fate in the hands of the gods. Entrust yourself to them and do what you are meant to do. I—” He stilled. “Quiet,” he snapped.

At first, she heard nothing then a rushing wind reached her ears. An instant later, a gorgeous sapphire dragon bulleted out of the mouth of a remote cave. In the distance, the dragon banked and wheeled in the darkening sky. He circled above the mountains a few times, then descended back into his dark lair.

In all her life, Morgan had seen only two dragons, Rownar and one other. She could not help her fascination with this one, particularly since they were about to kill him. Or at least try to.

Abruptly, she couldn’t quite manage to move. “Connor, either this dragon is a lot bigger than I remember dragons to be, or it is larger than you said. Are we really going to try to kill that?”

He tossed her a roguish grin. “Yes, we are.”

Author Bio and Links

Shirley McCoy grew up in Baton Rouge, LA and started writing at an early age. Always talkative, when she was eleven, she began to put her thoughts on paper, writing stories inspired by some of her favorite writers, Laura Ingalls Wilder and Madeline L’Engle. As she grew older, she developed a love of romance and in 2009 she decided to try her hand at paranormal romance. The result was The Smoke and the Flame and its sequel, The Wind and the Fire. The Smoke and the Flame is the first novel she has ever completed, although she has written several unpublished screenplays.

Shirley graduated from Nicholls State University where she majored in History and minored in English. Since graduating (she doesn’t like to think about how long ago that was) she has worked at some of the best libraries in the Baton Rouge area. She makes her home there and enjoys spending time with family members that live in town as well as with those that live out of town. She also loves seeing movies, reading, and going to the park with her niece in her free time.

Website | Facebook | Instagram | Amazon Author Page

Giveaway

The author will award a randomly drawn winner a $10 Amazon/Barnes & Noble gift card here.

Follow Shirley on the rest of her Goddess Fish tour here.

Interview with Kate Bristow

Posted on by Joanne Guidoccio

I’m happy to welcome author Kate Bristow. Today, Kate shares interesting facts about her writing journey and her new release, Saving Madonna.

Interview

What was your inspiration for this book?

Many years ago when visiting the Rocca, a fortress in the small hilltop town of Sassocorvaro, Le Marche, I came across the story of Pasquale Rotondi, a museum director who saved thousands of works of art in Italy during WW2. Not many tourists visit this part of central Italy and I realized that very few people knew about the secret, dangerous work undertaken by the Italians living under German occupation to save so many priceless paintings from being stolen by the invaders. I knew then that one day I would share this story with the wider world.

Describe your writing space.

I live in a small three-bedroom one story house in Los Angeles with my older daughter. I converted the front bedroom into a small office, and I sit at my desk facing the street outside. I love seeing my neighbors going about their daily lives, walking dogs, taking their children to school and back again, riding bikes and scooters and generally enjoying the California sunshine.

Which authors have inspired you?

As a child, my favorite author was J.R.R.Tolkein. I was amazed that one man could create such a rich world filled with so many memorable characters and places. I think I have read ‘Lord of the Rings’ at least eight times – it is that good! Barbara Kingsolver is a writer who manages to produce incredible stories about varied topics – because of her writing, I have become engrossed in subjects as disparate as the migration of the monarch butterflies and missionaries in the Belgian Congo.

What is your favorite quote?

I have a few! But I am particularly partial to Sylvia Plath’s line, ‘The only quiet woman is a dead one.’ I celebrate all women who challenge the status quo and who fight for equality in any form. My heroine Elena has to overcome a number of preconceived ideas about what a young Italian woman in 1943 should be doing with her life.

Besides writing and reading, what are some of your hobbies?

I am lucky enough to live close to the marina in Los Angeles and my favorite activity is rowing in a single scull. There is nothing like being on the open water at dawn with only the occasional sealion for company.

Any advice for aspiring writers?

Start writing, finish one draft of your story, take a few days off and then go back to the beginning. I spent so long being concerned about the quality of my writing that I was too afraid to even start. Once I began to get the story down on paper, I thought that it had to be perfect from the beginning. It doesn’t. After several drafts and feedback from editors and people I trust, the final book is so much better than I could have imagined.

What are you working on next?

I would love to tell more stories from Urbino. The one I am most excited about concerns Nicola da Urbino, the renowned ceramicist known as the ‘Raphael of maiolica painting’, and Isabella d’Este, one of the most powerful influential art collectors of the Renaissance. I am currently in the research phase but I can sense there is a fascinating story to share.

Blurb

Inspired by real events, an unforgettable story of love, courage and sacrifice to save a country’s heritage.

Italy 1943. As the Allies bomb Milan, Elena Marchetti reluctantly gives up her coveted job as an art curator in the city to return to her family farm near Urbino. She takes up a new role assisting Pasquale Rotondi, the Superintendent of Arts in the region, in protecting works of art from all over Italy that have been hidden in the relative safety of the countryside.

At a family celebration, Elena reunites with Luca, a close childhood friend. A shattering event instigated by the occupying Germans deepens their relationship, and they start planning a life together. When rumors surface that Italy’s art is being stolen by the German occupiers, Pasquale hatches an audacious plan to rescue the priceless paintings in his possession. Elena and Luca are forced to make an impossible decision: will they embark on a dangerous mission to save Italy’s cultural heritage?

Excerpt

“I don’t want tonight to be over!”

Elena’s younger sister, Giulia, was twirling around their bedroom in her linen nightgown, her brown hair loose around her shoulders. Elena, already tucked up in their shared bed, smiled indulgently as she watched her sister dance to some imaginary tune with an imaginary partner.

“It was a real party, wasn’t it, Elena? I wish we hadn’t left—I wanted to squeeze every last drop out of it.” She stopped dancing, her face flushed, and skipped toward the bed, launching herself onto the covers beside Elena. Giulia sat cross-legged and looked at her sister. “It’s different for you,” she said, pouting a little. “You must have had so many chances to dance in Milan. All those parties and boys! And I was just stuck here, doing nothing fun, ever. When is this stupid war going to be over?”

Elena wanted to laugh at the angry expression on Giulia’s face. Instead, she took her sister’s hands in hers. “You’re sixteen, and there’s time, I promise you. When this is all over, I’ll take you to Milan myself. You can meet all the boys—or men—you want.”

Author Bio and Links

Kate Bristow was born in London. She fell in love with reading when she got her first library card at the age of four. Her first attempt at writing and publishing for a wide audience was a local newspaper typed laboriously at home on her mother’s typewriter while at primary (elementary) school in north London. It is surely a loss to cutting-edge journalism that only one issue was ever produced. Kate divides her time between her small-but-perfectly-formed modern home in Los Angeles and her five-hundred-year-old farmhouse just outside Sassocorvaro in Italy.

Website | Facebook | Instagram | Universal Buy Link

Giveaway

Kate Bristow will be awarding a $25 Amazon/Barnes & Noble gift card to a randomly drawn winner via Rafflecopter during the tour. Find out more here.

Follow Kate on the rest of her Goddess Fish tour here.

Blurb Blitz: The Witch Wars

Posted on by Joanne Guidoccio

I’m happy to welcome author Gail Roughton. Today, Gail shares her new release, The Witch Wars.

Blurb

Ariel Anson thinks she has her life in order. She’s young, smart, and beautiful, even if she doesn’t believe the beautiful part. She’s a paralegal with a great career and a fiancé who’s a CPA. You just can’t get any steadier than that.

Then she meets private investigator, bounty hunter, process server Chad Garrett. What does War-N-Wit, Inc. stand for anyway? Warlock and Witch? For real? Oh, yes! For real. Now every day is full of strange powers, secret societies, clandestine agencies, and out-of-this-world adventure. Her life as she knows it is over!

Excerpt

No lightning bolt streaked from the sky the day my life as I knew it began to end. There was no warning at all. Nothing. There I was, sitting at my desk, minding my own business, doing my job. My official job title is “legal assistant.” The more exotic sounding title is paralegal. In the old days when folks called jobs what they actually were, the title was “legal secretary.” Me? I answer to any of the above. Or just to Ariel. That’s my name. Ariel Anson.

Now, I know the general public thinks a law office is an exciting place, full of fascinating cases and esoteric points of law highlighted with flashes of legal genius, something different every day. Not. Trust me on this. You seen one accident case, you seen ‘em all. And corporate law? Business law? Wills and estates? Oh, man, you don’t even want to go there. Domestic law? Right. The only thing worse than a divorce case is an estate fight. At least folks involved in a divorce are supposed to hate each other whereas a fight over Daddy’s will? Oh. My. God.

Anyway, that’s what I was doing. Just minding my own business in the course of my humdrum day and doing my job at the century-old, prestigious central Georgia law firm of Baker, Lawson, Abercrombie & Hunter, where the partners walk around in blissful ignorance of the fact the firm is referred to in legal circles as BLAH. All us legal assistants think that’s a hoot.

I was the only legal gal who worked for three partners. Some of the girls had just one, most had two. Sort of gave me a certain mystique of extreme competence, you know? In all honesty, most of the time the three attorneys I had were cakewalks, though I wasn’t about to announce such to the powers-that-be lest I end up with four attorneys to babysit. It all depended on who the three partners were. And mine were hand-picked, a luxury I had because I was good, good enough after eleven years in the business to pick and choose the attorneys I worked for. Diplomatically, of course. So diplomatically that nobody knew that but me. And my little sister.

Author Bio and Links

Gail Roughton is a native of small town Georgia whose Deep South heritage features prominently in most of her work. She’s a paralegal who’s lived in a law office for over forty years, during which time she’s raised three children and quite a few attorneys. She’s tried retirement but it didn’t take. Through it all, she’s kept herself sane by writing novels and tossing them into her closet. Thanks to BWL Publishing, Inc., most of those novels have now emerged in published form. A cross-genre writer, her books range from humor to romance to thriller to horror and she’s never quite sure what to expect when she sits down at the keyboard. She usually has a project or two on the backburner but doesn’t discuss them for fear of jinxing herself. Given her affinity for the supernatural, this should come as no surprise to any reader.

Find out more about Gail on her website.

Giveaway

The author will award a $20 Amazon/Barnes & Noble gift card to a randomly drawn winner. Find out more here.

Follow Gail on the rest of her Goddess Fish tour here.

All About Baga Shores

Posted on by Joanne Guidoccio

I’m happy to welcome back author Candace Colt. Today, Candace shares interesting information about Baga Shores, the setting for the Baga Shores Romance Series.

Here’s Candace!

Laid-back Baga Shores is a Chamber of Commerce dream. No wonder 12,845 citizens call it home. And of those, the best guess is that half are Ordinary humans. The others? Let’s say they are anything but ordinary!

Baga Shores is a quaint fictional Florida town nestled between the Intercoastal and the sparkling waters of the Gulf of Mexico.

1. Old-timers embellish tales like nobody else. One story is how, back in the day, kids stood on the Gulf side beach and threw rocks across the county highway until they splashed into the Intracoastal.

2. The town’s name derived from the Tocabaga Indians, who lived along the northern part of the Tampa Bay area from approximately 900 AD to the 1500s. (This was a real tribe, by the way!)

3. Several Tocobaga sacred burial grounds surround Tampa Bay. As a result, legend has it that Baga Shores has been protected from hurricane direct hits.

4. Perhaps fairy tale witches live in tiny huts in the deep forest, but Baga Shores’ venerated witch, Mimi Tanner, lives in a three-story flamingo-pink mansion with a four-car garage and the Gulf of Mexico for a backyard. She runs a mail-order potion business and conducts classes on Zoom.

5. The proprietor of the Spellbound bookstore is a coyote-shifter adopted as a child by the town’s veterinarian, a fox-shifter.

6. The Dockside Grille is a popular local restaurant with the best grouper sandwich in the county. The owner is a reformed bad boy who happens to be a Draio wizard.

7. The Kosmos Arms (known by locals as the Kos) is a 55-plus retirement community for gifted magicals. Although outdoor tropical plants are uncommon in this part of Florida, the Kos has a dense canopy of cocoa, banana, and rubber trees and a layer of lush green fern under it. Orchids hang like fiesta lanterns in a colorful rainbow from reds to violets. The story is that the garden emerged fully formed the morning after a beloved resident—a shaman—passed on.

8. Across the Causeway from Baga Shores is Rosemont Academy, a school for magically gifted students.

9. Baga Shores is home to many enchanted animals, but perhaps the most unique is Alika, a decades-old familiar who is prescient and can talk to humans.

10. One of the part-time bartenders at the Dockside communicates with any critter that lives in water—salt water, fresh water, a fish bowl. It doesn’t matter which kind or where it lives.

Buy Links

Bewitching Andie | Charming Sabrina | Enchanting Robbi

Author Bio and Links

Candace Colt lives the good life on Florida’s west coast with her husband of 48 years. After careers in education and the medical field, she launched her second life as a writer. Since she retired, she’s published nine paranormal romance books. She chose paranormal because it’s fun to write and because even shape-shifters, elves, psychics and time travelers deserve their happily ever after.

Website | Amazon Author Page | Facebook | Goodreads | Instagram

Excerpt Tour: The Pumpkin Butter Murder

Posted on by Joanne Guidoccio

I’m happy to welcome award-winning author Meg Benjamin. Today, Meg shares her new release, The Pumpkin Butter Murder.

Blurb

Their gourmet dinner turned deadly. And now the murderer is after her. Roxy Constantine is looking for a way to spend her winter down time. Her true love Nate Robicheaux has a suggestion: she can serve as his sous chef when he prepares a dinner party for possible investors. But when several guests become ill and the hostess herself dies after eating their food, Roxy and Nate could be in deep trouble. Now they need to find out what really happened, and who wanted their hostess dead, before their culinary reputations go down in flames and the murderer turns his attention to Roxy herself.

Excerpt

I collapsed onto all fours, trying to get my breath. And then I started to sob, great wracking gasps that made my throat hurt even worse.

Susa dropped to her knees beside me. “My God, Rox, what happened? Who did this?”

I shook my head. “I don’t know. Call the cops, Suz. Just please call the cops.”

The patrol car was there within ten minutes. By then Susa had helped me to the gym and found me a place to sit. I was surrounded by concerned exhibitors, none of whom could agree on what they should do. I was handed multiple cups of water and coffee and dampened paper towels. Some of the exhibitors checked the hall but said they couldn’t find anybody, which didn’t surprise me. A campus security guard showed up, but he seemed as helpless as everybody else. I was almost ready to give up and drive home when the doors across the gym burst open and Fowler strode in, followed by a couple of awed patrolmen.

He stopped when he saw me, his eyes widening. “Who did this?”

“I don’t know. He had something over his face and he wore a hoodie covering his head. He was male. That’s all I can say.”

Fowler glanced around at the crowd, apparently noticing them for the first time. “Y’all can move on now. We’ll take care of things.”

Most of the people began to drift away. There weren’t many left since it was so late in the afternoon. Maybe that’s what the guy in the hall had been counting on.

“Go check the halls,” Fowler said to the patrolmen. “See if there’s anyone around who saw anything. Look for anyone who doesn’t seem to belong here.”

The patrolmen jogged off in opposite directions, covering the two halls off the gymnasium. I doubted they’d find anyone either way, but I was just as glad they weren’t hovering around Fowler.

Susa maintained her position behind me, her hand on my shoulder. “I’m not moving. Roxy needs me.”

Fowler raised his eyebrows, but he didn’t make her leave, for which I was thankful. She was right—I did need her. He grabbed a folding chair from another booth and sat down beside me.

“Okay, tell me what happened. And then I’ll take you home.”

“I can drive myself,” I mumbled.

“Nope. Nonnegotiable. So what happened?”

I told him. The footsteps in the hall, the hand grabbing my shoulder, the hands on my throat. And how I’d fought or tried to. I was pretty sure Susa had saved my life. If she hadn’t come to see what I was yelling about… That wasn’t something I wanted to consider. Although I was pretty sure I’d be dreaming about it that night.

Buy Links

Master List | Barnes & Noble

Author Bio and Links

Meg Benjamin is an award-winning author of romance. Meg’s Konigsburg series is set in the Texas Hill Country and her Salt Box and Brewing Love trilogies are set in the Colorado Rockies (all are available from Entangled Publishing and from Meg’s indie line). Her new cozy mystery series, Luscious Delights from Wild Rose Press, concerns a jam-making sleuth based in the mythical small town of Shavano, Colorado. Along with contemporary romance, Meg is also the author of the paranormal Ramos Family trilogy from Berkley InterMix and the Folk trilogy from Soul Mate. Meg’s books have won numerous awards, including an EPIC Award, a Romantic Times Reviewers’ Choice Award, the Holt Medallion from Virginia Romance Writers, the Beanpot Award from the New England Romance Writers, and the Award of Excellence from Colorado Romance Writers.

Website | Facebook | Pinterest | Instagram | Twitter | Email

Giveaway

Meg Benjamin will be awarding a $10 Amazon or Barnes & Noble gift card to a randomly drawn winner via Rafflecopter during the tour. Find out more here.

Follow Meg on the rest of her Goddess Fish tour here.

Blurb Blitz: The Travelling City

Posted on by Joanne Guidoccio

I’m happy to welcome author Adrienne Miller. Today, Adrienne shares her new release, The Travelling City.

Blurb

After a hundred years of watching humans make bad decisions, anyone would be sick of their job as peacekeeper.

Reihan, a seaver created to deal with humans who lose control over their manifestation abilities, is no exception.

Worse still, virtually all humans in the Travelling City can manifest.

That is, shape reality according to their more or less well-formed and often poorly thought-out designs.

That alone would be enough to keep her busy, but then there are people like Phillippe.

Phillippe, who drenched himself in the city’s collective subconscious to strengthen his inborn powers.

Even though he shouldn’t be, he seems fine, crowned as the new star escort in the Brothel of Transformative Curiosities.

But Reihan has seen this story play out before. And Phillippe is far too charming, far too kind, and far too inconsolable for her to simply look away.

The Travelling City is a dark fantasy mystery packed with romance and even more existential dread; set in a whimsical, bizarre and ever-changing world.

Excerpt

“Why would you say that to me?”

Phillippe’s voice was still shrill, but it assumed a layer of calm that Reihan found unusual. His eyes fixated on her, almost as if he was intrigued by the callousness lurking behind her words.

“Because I didn’t cause this, Phillippe. Because I was created to solve a problem that you humans could so easily avoid if not for your petulant greed and insistence on breaking every rule, no matter how well-meaning.”

“We had no choice”, Phillippe replied, still with that eerily resigned tone of his.

“I don’t believe that. All you people can manifest at least to a degree. You’ll never truly go hungry, and you’ll never truly go cold. Hells, if you get sick, you can make yourselves healthy, and when you get old, you can make yourselves young, at least for a little while. Everything else is a choice.”

“You don’t know – you wouldn’t understand.”

Purchase Links

Amazon US | Amazon UK

Author Bio and Links

Adrienne Miller writes in the genre of Dark Fantasy; combining beautiful aesthetics with existential dread. Her stories feature complex romances, found family dynamics, and storylines centred on world mysteries.

She has grown up with both classic and new Fantasy, from Michael Moorcok’s Eternal Hero series, Michael’s Scott’s “Thraxas” magical detective romps, to quiet and heart-felt Science-Fantasy by Becky Chambers.

The Travelling City is inspired by her love for the imaginative worlds of old-school role-playing games like Planescape Torment and the intricate character work of urban fantasy authors like Holly Black.

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Giveaway

Adrienne Miller will be awarding a $10 Amazon/Barnes & Noble gift card to a randomly drawn winner via Rafflecopter during the tour. Find out more

Blurb Blitz: If the Sun Spares Us

Posted on by Joanne Guidoccio

I’m happy to welcome author and community activist Brenda Marie Smith. Today, Brenda shares her new release, If the Sun Spares Us.

Blurb

Two years ago, a solar pulse destroyed modern life. Bea Crenshaw organized her starving, suburban neighbors into a farming community. But now Bea’s gone, and her grandchildren must carry her legacy forward.

In the post-apocalyptic pressure cooker of Austin, Texas, 19-year-old Keno and his younger cousins struggle to ensure their community’s survival even as they’re forced to relocate to safer grounds. Northern Lights that don’t belong this far south grow increasingly intense, making Keno fear what harm the sun will cause next.

Even worse, a marauding militia called the Raiders is closing in, led by a deranged woman who preys on teenage boys. Despite Keno’s debilitating flashbacks from a firefight, he and his wife have a new baby to protect. Though Bea is dead, her spirit desperately searches for ways to shield her grandkids. When Raiders target two neighborhood members, the only hope lies in the community’s strength, Keno’s ingenuity, and the family’s fierce love for one another.

Excerpt

In the next second, thick neon bands of green light shoot into the sky like they’re spewing straight out of the earth at the horizon, the aurora pulsing and soaring hundreds of feet into the air toward the stratosphere. This is nothing like the tame Northern Lights we’ve had off and on over the past year, but crazy-bright and thick and enormous. None of it belongs in Texas. I stare at the lights, getting dizzy from their movement and intensity.

The guys out on the street whistle and shout… I close my eyes to get my bearings.

Residual streaks of light burn my eyeballs and flash across my eyelids, then mutate into the recurring, overly-vivid memories I can’t shake: flaming, screaming boys, falling fiery trees, bursting Molotov cocktails, strafing assault rifles—a hand slaps across my mouth and covers my nose, and Richie’s behind me, yanking me to the ground, hissing, “Shhh! Shhh! Don’t scream.”

“The End of Days is upon us, and we’ve got work to do!” shouts the woman from the street. “Head back north.” The feet start tramping around. “Jonesie, north’s the other way.”

Richie’s pressing so hard on my mouth and nose he’s gonna suffocate me. My tears run over his hand. Flaming bodies still flash before my eyes while green lights burn in the sky overhead…

I grab his hand to yank it off, but he presses harder. I panic. Dude’s gonna kill me.

Buy Links for the Braving the Light Series

IF DARKNESS TAKES US (Book One)

IF THE LIGHT ESCAPES (Book Two)

IF THE SUN SPARES US (Book Three)

Author Bio and Links

BRENDA MARIE SMITH is attracted to stories where everyday characters transcend their limitations to find their inner heroism. She lived off the grid for years in a farming collective where her sons were delivered by midwives. A lifelong community activist, Brenda has managed student co-op housing, produced concerts, and raised a small herd of boys. She and her husband live in Kyle, Texas. They have more grown kids and grandkids than they can count.

Website | Blog | Twitter | YouTube

Giveaway

The author will be awarding a $50 Amazon/Barnes & Noble gift card to a randomly drawn winner via Rafflecopter. Find out more here.

Follow Brenda on the rest of her Goddess Fish tour here.

Book Blast: Balancing Entropy

Posted on by Joanne Guidoccio

I’m happy to welcome author M.H. Cali. Today, she shares her new release, Balancing Entropy

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Blurb

When life catches up with young and brilliant investment banker Lucas Blake in the form of anonymous threats, his existence is exactly what he always wished it could be.

Or is it really?

He can barely remember what his true aspirations looked like a decade ago. All he knows now is that everything he worked so hard to build could crash down in a split second if whoever is blackmailing him decides to act on it.

To make matters more complicated, the team he ends up hiring to silently find the culprit of those menaces includes Raven Collins. A woman Lucas lost touch with, but who he still can’t get out of his head completely even years after having met her.

As the race to keep him out of harm’s ways unfolds, he enters a journey of self-discovery that might very well make him question the core of his life choices.

When greed, power, and old ideals pair together within a perfect storm is it possible to come out of it unscathed?

Can one’s principles thrive in a system that seems to bend even the strongest minded to its will?

Lucas and Raven are about to find out for themselves.

Excerpt

“Some people do tend to become other versions of themselves when they are away from home.” He presses their foreheads together while dropping his tone to a murmur. “I don’t do that. What you saw is all me.”

She doesn’t miss a beat. “Likewise.”

“We could’ve been a phenomenal match, Rae.”

A breath catches in her throat. His voice is laced with sincerity. It sends her mind spinning.

He dangerously feels as if he could fit in her routine. His personality is magnificently complex, and strangely both fits with and complements her own. She hasn’t had that sentiment toward anyone in her life up to this point.

But she’s only in her early twenties. She has her whole life in front of her. Her future is actively being written. Whatever happened between them here was definitely a fling.

A beautifully intense, and delightfully intoxicating fling.

She has to remember their pledge. This is insignificant.

She relishes in the cool seaside breeze and Lucas’ applying entrancing pressure on her lower back vertebrae for a moment.

Existence is full of fleeting instants and inconsequential events while some others open doors to infinite possibilities. She willingly classified this hook up in the former category as soon as they first kissed.

They’ll go back to their occupations, to their social circles, and to constructing their destinies. This ephemeral liaison will become a distant memory. It was solely a bridge between phases of their respective purposes.

This is what counts.

This is what she has to keep in mind.

However, she still can’t shake the thought that they could’ve been legendary together totally out of her brain, so she offers him the closest truth she can think of.

“Maybe in another life, Luke,” she whispers against his lips.

Author Bio and Links

M.H. Cali is my pen name. From as long as I can remember, writing has been my biggest creative outlet. There are tales that take hold in my brain, and I have to write them. Which means that when it happens, I sit down and do just that.

The world is complex and flawed, and so are the characters inhabiting the universes I build. In my fiction novels, I thrive fleshing out stories that explore multiple themes within. If you ever read any of my works, you’ll notice that I love writing layered characters, having a diverse cast, and that to me quiet moments are just as important—if not more—than action-packed ones.

Storytelling is all about balance in the emotions and events throughout the narrative. It’s my motto.

If I manage to make you feel what the characters are going through, live the events with them, and wonder what is going to happen, then I succeeded.

If you ever give my stories a chance, I hope you enjoy!

Master Link | Website | Goodreads | Amazon Author Page | Books2Read | Instagram | Twitter | Bluesky

Giveaway

M.H. Cali will be awarding a $25 Amazon/BN GC plus a special edition paperback copy of the book (which includes a physical copy of the novel, an exclusive signed and numbered bookplate, an original sketch inside the book by Laurie Ya, the artist who made the cover, and drew the interior illustrations, and assorted merchandise including coasters, stickers, a tote bag, and more) to a randomly drawn winner via Rafflecopter during the tour (INTERNATIONAL GIVEAWAY). Find out more here.

Follow the author on the rest of her Goddess Fish tour here.

10 Best Things About Writing Short Fiction

Posted on by Joanne Guidoccio

I’m happy to welcome back award-winning author M. H. Callway. Today, Madeleine shares interesting facts about short fiction and her new release,
Snake Oil and Other Tales.

Here’s Madeleine!

1. Short stories are easier to write

Writing short fiction for me is the difference between training for a 5 km race and a marathon. Both require a lot of work, but work of a different kind. And the marathon/novel is a whole other kind of scary beast!

Perhaps because I started out writing short stories – and had my first professional publication that way – I find them fairly easy to write. Also, I’m an inveterate “pantser” rather than a plotter. I’ve started many novels and gotten hopelessly lost in the middle. Fortunately, some of these misadventures have turned into some of my favorite stories, like “The Seeker”, the last story in Snake Oil and Other Tales.

2. Short fiction allows me to create many new worlds

One wonderful advantage of writing short fiction is that I’ve been able to create many different characters and many weird and wonderful worlds for them to live in. The downside is that I have to leave these characters and their worlds behind when I reach the end of the story.

Belatedly, I’ve realized that Sherlock Holmes was the hero of many short stories and only a handful of novels. Why not follow my friends’ suggestions and write a series of stories with the same hero? That’s how I came to write the novella, Amdur’s Ghost, which was a follow-up to my comic mystery, Amdur’s Cat, starring beleaguered civil servant, Dr. Benjamin Amdur.

3. Short fiction is easier to get published

Short fiction offers many opportunities to get published. There are some well-established crime fiction markets like Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine and Mystery Magazine as well as many calls for anthologies, not to mention writing contests. Many leading crime fiction conferences like Bouchercon, Malice Domestic and Left Coast Crime publish an annual anthology of short stories every year.

4. Short fiction reaches readers more quickly

Every novelist knows that it takes a long time to write a novel and even longer to get it published. Even after the publisher accepts your manuscript, it can be several months, even years, before your book becomes available to readers.

It took me an entire year, working full-time, to finish my first and only novel, Windigo Fire and more than three years after that before it was published and released by Seraphim Editions. By contrast, short stories are usually accepted or rejected within a few weeks and appear in print or on-line after two to three months.

5. Short fiction has a great writers’ community

One of the best things about being a short fiction author is the wonderfully supportive community. The Short Fiction Mystery Society is a free on-line group that welcomes both Canadian and American writers. Together we writers share and discuss many issues facing us today. Serious ones like the use of AI and warnings about scams and more positively, new markets for short fiction. SMFS also has regular Zoom meetings and at major conferences, we always meet up for lunch, dinner or drinks in the real world. It’s a great way to meet some truly interesting and creative people.

6. Short fiction allows me to explore new genres

All authors have an idea that sits in the mind like a sliver. The idea bothers you until you get it out on paper. When my husband and I visited Vancouver a few years ago, we walked past the apartment building where I’d lived as a graduate student. To my enormous surprise, we discovered that the bakery where I’d grab breakfast on the way to the university, was still there. It had the same kind of baked goods on sale and even the same tables and chairs for customers. That got me thinking: what if a bakery stayed constant in time and place? That idea led me to write my speculative fiction story, “The Eternal Bakery of the Fractal Mind”.

7. Short fiction can still surprise you

At a recent When Words Collide conference, I was asked to join a panel on horror fiction. Horror fiction? I knew that some of my stories are noir, but horror? I don’t read much horror fiction and stay away from scary movies. That said, I did write Snake Oil, a novella about snakes and unscrupulous sales people. After a Noir at the Bar reading, this tough-looking tattooed “bro” approached me and told me I was a scary lady. Me? I thought. Turned out he had a snake phobia. So there are some benefits!

Turns out, your writing can stray into another genre without you even being aware of it, if you simply follow your muse.

8. Short fiction can help to get your writing get recognized

In my talk, How to Get Published, I always tell emerging writers, that their goal should be to get their manuscript to move to the top of the publisher’s slush pile. One great way is to show that they’ve been published already. One or more published stories can help build your credibility as a writer and may encourage the publisher to take a closer look at your submission.

9. Short fiction builds confidence in your writing

Getting a story published really helps to build your confidence in your writing. It’s not easy pursuing this isolating creative activity. It can be easy to get discouraged. A new publication, even better an award nomination or win, helps to keep going in this mad activity!

10. In the end, short fiction can become a book!

When I put my 10 most recently published stories and novellas together, I realized that had a big enough word count to make a book. That’s how Snake Oil and Other Tales came to be. This way my readers can find all my work in one place. And my family, including my grandchildren, know that I have put my retirement to good purpose!

Blurb

Welcome to the second collection of my published short fiction. These dark tales include strange guardians, mysterious bakeries, faithful dogs and yes, the slithery reptiles that strike fear in even the toughest bro’s heart. Many were finalists for the Crime Writers of Canada Awards for Excellence. They stretch from traditional mysteries to thrillers to speculative fiction and even to horror. What unites them are the characters struggling for justice – or their own warped perception thereof.

Danny Bluestone and Corazon Amorsolo, the protagonists of my novel, Windigo Fire, return in the thriller, Last Island. And Dr. Benjamin Amdur, the hero of Amdur’s Cat, has a second adventure in Amdur’s Ghost, a finalist for the 2023 CWC Best Novella Award.

Buy Links

Amazon CA | Amazon US | Amazon UK | Amazon AU

About the Author

Margaret Cannon, crime fiction reviewer for the Globe and Mail, called M. H. Callway “a writer to watch”.

Many of Madeleine’s stories and novellas have won or been short-listed for leading awards, including the Bony Pete, the Derringer and the Crime Writers of Canada Awards of Excellence. In 2023, her work was nominated in two CWC categories (Best Short Story and Best Novella), the first time for a Canadian crime writer since the late Peter Robinson.

Her novel, Windigo Fire (Seraphim Editions, 2014) was a finalist for the 2015 CWC Award for Best First Novel and was a Huffington Post “Book for Book Clubs” selection. Under different titles it was a runner-up for the Debut Dagger and the CWC Award for Best Unpublished Manuscript.

In 2013, Madeleine co-founded the Mesdames and Messieurs of Mayhem collective, with Donna Carrick, author and head of Carrick Publishing. Today the Mesdames number 25 crime writers, publishers, editors, film makers and bookstore owners. They are the subject of the CBC documentary, The Mesdames of Mayhem, which you may view on GEM and YouTube.

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