Friday 24 March 2017

Book Promo - Through the Ashes


Through the Ashes (The Division: Book Two)
By Connie L. Smith
ISBN: 978-1-945910-09-8
$3.99
BUY LINKS



The war has begun. The battle’s unfolding. And victory feels so distant…
The Essenced had prepared and trained, but never imagined the true horror of watching demons tearing through the Division to invade the realm. Every claw is horrific—every snarl disgusting—and the responsibility of keeping that vile terror from expanding beyond the battlefield’s borders rests in the teenagers’ hands. They thought they were ready for that challenge…
But then their confidence is shaken when a deadly new weapon emerges from the enemy’s arsenal, and well-kept secrets from the Essenced’s angelic superiors begin to surface.
In the midst of the carnage, can the teens find the strength within themselves, and among themselves, to grasp victory in blood-tainted hands?


Excerpt #1:
Rightfully interpreting the sudden urgency of her hold, he soothingly traced his hands up her back and through her hair. “I’m not going anywhere.”
After pinching her eyes closed against her fears, AJ reopened them and pulled back to give him a hard, unblinking stare. “You’d better survive this war, Julius. If not, I’m gonna get Clint to yell at you. I’ll write an angry speech and everything.”
He smirked at her words, even chuckled. “Yeah, I didn’t think you’d let something as tiny as death get in the way of arguing with me.”
“I’m serious,” she insisted with a glare that contradicted the smile hinting on her lips.
“I know you’re serious, and saying how heartbroken you’d be if I died would be much too normal to fit into your ‘you better survive’ lecture.” He shrugged lightheartedly. “Truthfully, I’d have been a little disappointed had you chosen that angle.”
She kept the harsh expression, but had to keep wrestling back her grin.
“And you might as well go ahead and smile.” He tapped the right edge of her mouth with his index finger. “I can see it practically begging to spill out.”
Finally caving, she let her smile blossom, but rolled her eyes in mock irritation. “I’m still serious. You better survive.”
“I’ll survive if you will,” he softly told her while his right hand trailed over her brow, down her cheek, and to her neck.
With a hum of agreement, she collapsed against his chest and hugged him with all the strength she could spare.
Tugging her closer, he gave her a whole new wave of strength to dip into.


Excerpt #2:
“Yeah,” Travis spoke up. “What’s the big strategy here?” He confidently held his hands out to either side of him. “This can’t be the whole plan. We killed hundreds of demons, and now we’re waiting for hundreds more to show up. Then we’ll kill them and wait for more. And we’ll keep doing that until the Division’s so huge that humans and demons alike can walk from one realm to the other without any real effort at all. This strategy doesn’t have an end, so either there’s more or it’s pointless.”
Paige frowned at the Incubus-Essenced warrior. “That was my point.”
Travis nodded. “And it was a good one. How about we get it answered?”
After silently debating how much he should tell the soldiers, Nicholai uncomfortably cleared his throat and settled more of his weight on his desk. “There’s more to the plan,” he hesitantly offered.
Travis shrugged. “Then what is it?”
“I’m afraid I don’t know all of the details as of yet,” Nicholai confessed.
“Could you give us the ones you do have?” Johnny asked with a new cigarette shamelessly dangling from his lips. “Our neighborhood pervert has a point here.” He tipped his chin toward Travis in what he meant to be a quick motion, but what he saw with that glance had him doing a double-take to glare at the Incubus-Essenced pack leader. “Hey! Stop staring at my girl!”
With his own shrug that seemed to embody the phrase, “I can’t help it,” Travis reluctantly brought his stare back to Nicholai. “We’re putting trust in you here. We’re fighting, and we’re winning for the most part. Don’t you think we deserve the same trust? Shouldn’t we know what’s going on?”
…Nicholai’s gaze never wavered, but it grew more serious with each second. “The Tomes.”


Excerpt #3:

“I hear, at the facility, you were barely capable of communicating.”
“That’s because I was,” Shane admitted. “Even when I was there for Nicholai’s debriefing after the battle, I was unfocused. Not as much as I’d been in the past, but more than I am here because this,” he tipped his chin toward the Division, “was nowhere near me. You said yourself that my protective instincts have a place now to channel themselves, so I don’t have to be so spacey all the time.”
“Yes, I did, and I meant it.” After a quiet moment where the angel watched the alpha pensively, he shrugged and looked away. “I suppose I didn’t fully appreciate the difference in mindsets. Complete preoccupation to boredom is quite a transition.”
“Not a hard one to make when we’re stuck in Catoosa for days without even a 3DS or a book.”
Stephan absorbed Shane’s comments, and a feeling of unease rose within him when he pondered the implications lying somewhere beneath the actual words. Bored? A Syragh-Essenced in these circumstances? Granted, he hadn’t seen an actual Syragh in millennia, but as memory served, they never tired of their purpose. In fact, on occasion, the creatures’ impulses made them some of the most annoying beings in the universe. One could only be forced to pause walking so a helpful entity could remove a banana peel from his path so many times before the consideration became taxing. And they’d always done those kinds of things with giant smiles.
But then again, these soldiers had been human a great while longer than they’d been Essenced. Perhaps the boredom and monotonous outlook could be explained as lingering human characteristics within the pack. Stephan sincerely hoped the reasoning could be so logically addressed. Otherwise…
I’ll not even think it, the angel silently decided.




About the Author:
Connie L. Smith spends a decent amount of time with her mind wandering in fictional places. She reads too much, likes to bake, and might forever be sad that she doesn’t have fairy wings. And that she can’t swing dance. Much of her preferred music is severely outdated, and as an adult she’s kind of obsessed with Power Rangers. She has her BA from Northern Kentucky University in Speech Communication and History (she doesn’t totally get the connection either), and her MA in English and Creative Writing.

Websites:

Friday 17 March 2017

Book Promo - Luminous Spirits


Luminous Spirits Release, Giveaway, and Promo
Promoting a Sequel without Spoilers

Thanks for hosting me! It’s been way too long since my young adult, urban fantasy, Shadow Eyes was first released in 2012 by Musa Publishing! Now, finally, after 5 years, I’m releasing the sequel, Luminous Spirits. I am super excited to finally release the next installment in the Shadow Eyes Series and get it out there! I apologize to anyone who read the first version of Shadow Eyes five years ago and who had to wait that long for the sequel. This book is dedicated to you. J

(Everyone, don’t forget to enter the rafflecopter below for a chance to win a print copy of Luminous Spirits or Shadow Eyes – your choice! Also, Shadow Eyes is on sale for just 99 cents until 3/24!)

I HATE spoilers. As a teacher, it is super annoying when my students read ahead and then blab about the ending or some critical part in the story we haven’t reached yet. It takes the fun away. It ruins that moment whenever we do finally reach it. The shock factor is lost. The big aha epiphany is gone. There’s nothing to wait anxiously for anymore.


Going into promoting the sequel for Shadow Eyes, one of the most frustrating things about trying to promote and post about Luminous Spirits is trying to avoid spoilers about the first book in the series, Shadow Eyes. It may not be that hard for other series if they don’t have major twists and reveals at the end of the first book. But for Shadow Eyes, I feel like I’m playing taboo where I have to carefully watch what I say and constantly backtrack to avoid saying something revealing.

Shadow Eyes has SO MANY big surprises and reveals at the end that I don’t want to spoil. So many things change by the end that influence the action in the sequel, so I can’t just carry on and talk about Iris the same way as I did in the synopsis of Shadow Eyes. It doesn’t all apply now. But most readers don’t know that. The vast majority of readers who will see these promotions won’t have read the first one yet, and they may not want to if they realize I’ve given everything away for them already. I even have to be careful of names since just saying certain names will give away things that you may not realize until you start reading Shadow Eyes.

Still, I need to give enough information to make it seem interesting and give them an idea of what it’s about. I don’t want my synopsis, for example, to be like those early movie trailers where you go away not even knowing what the plot is.

So…in conclusion, I love that Shadow Eyes ends with a bang of huge reveals. But that bang sure as heck is making it difficult to promote its sequel, Luminous Spirits.


Check out my synopsis for Luminous Spirits below and see if you think I was able to balance vague with interesting.


Old habits die hard. Old enemies, even harder.

Iris must now perfect her newfound abilities in order to help her shadow-oppressed family and friends, but more importantly, she must prepare for an impending fight with her most hated adversary. After the arrival of a new mean girl who seems to have history with Iris’s boyfriend, Iris quickly figures out that she is anything but the typical mean girl. She not only creates havoc and conflict among Iris and her friends, but her presence also means that Iris’s inevitable confrontation with her enemy may, in fact, be closer than she thought.

If Iris can figure out why the new girl is there and what her enemy is planning, she’ll at least be one step ahead of their game. But will she be ready when the time comes to face her biggest challenge yet? Or will they succeed in tearing Iris apart before she even has the chance?


Author Bio
Dusty Crabtree loves a good story, but she also loves young people. These two loves are evident in all parts of her life. She has been a high school English teacher since 2006 and a creative writing teacher since 2014. She's also been a youth sponsor at her local church for as long as she’s been teaching. She feels very blessed with the amazing opportunities she has to develop meaningful relationships with teens on a daily basis. With her love of reading in the mix, becoming an author of young adult books was just a natural development of those two passions in her life. She lives with her husband, Clayton, in Yukon, Oklahoma, where they often serve their community as foster parents.

Check out Dusty’s blog at http://dustycrabtree.wordpress.com/
Follow her on twitter at https://twitter.com/dustycrabtree
Follow her on Instagram – dustycrabtree12
Check out Luminous Spirits on Goodreads – https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34533934-luminous-spirits
View the book trailer for SE – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v7UP9A0Fm78&t=2s
View the Book trailer for LS - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O2_C1o113Ok&t=9s
Buy Luminous Spirits on Amazon (eBook or print) – https://www.amazon.com/Luminous-Spirits-Shadow-Eyes-Book-ebook/dp/B06XGTSS34



Rafflecopter Code: a Rafflecopter giveaway

Rafflecopter Link - http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/share-code/YWE3ZWZiMTk2MTVmOWMwMjUxOTc4ZWZmM2JhZjBjOjI=/?

Saturday 11 March 2017

Book Promo - Here Be Witches


THE SEQUEL TO HERE BE DRAGONS – A PERILOUS ADVENTURE INTO THE MAGICAL AND MURDEROUS REALM OF MYTHICAL SNOWDONIA.

All Ellie Morgan wants is to be with her one true love, Henry. But she’s caught in the middle of a BATTLE as old as SNOWDON itself. A battle between GOOD and EVIL.
A WITCHES’ SPELL, cast high on the mountain, has sped up time and made matters MUCH WORSE. The dragons are awake; mythical creatures and evil ghosts have risen. And nearly all of them want Ellie DEAD.
Thank heavens for loyal friend George, disloyal bestie Rhi, and mysterious stranger, Davey. Armed with Granny Jones’s potions, Ellie and her companions must set out on a journey to REVERSE THE SPELL, stop the EVIL White Dragon and find Henry.
As an eternal winter tightens its grip on Snowdon, Ellie and her friends have just THREE DAYS to SURVIVE and complete their quest.

Author Bio

Sarah Mussi is an award-winning author of children’s and young adults’ fiction. Her first novel, The Door of No Return, won the Glen Dimplex Children’s Book Award and was shortlisted for the Branford Boase Award. Her second novel, The Last of the Warrior Kings, was shortlisted for the Lewisham Book Award, inspired a London Walk, and is used as a textbook in Lewisham schools. Her thriller, Siege, was nominated for the CILIP Carnegie Medal (2014) and won the BBUKYA award for contemporary YA fiction. Her thriller, Riot, was longlisted for The Amazing Book Award amongst many others and won The Lancashire Schools Award. In 2015, Hodder Children’s Books published her novel, Bomb, followed shortly after by Here Be Dragons, the first book in the Snowdonia Chronicles trilogy, published by Vertebrate Publishing. Here Be Witches is the second title in the trilogy. Sarah was born and raised in the Cotswolds, attended Pate’s Grammar School for Girls, and graduated with a BA in Fine Art from Winchester School of Art and an MA from the Royal College of Art. She spent over fifteen years in West Africa as a teacher and now lives in London where she is the current Chair of CWISL (Children’s Writers and Illustrators in South London). Sarah splits her time between writing, visiting schools as an author and promoting creative writing for children. Sarah also teaches English in a Lewisham School.

Book link

 

Wednesday 8 March 2017

Book Promo - Ignite

Inline image 2

In the ruins of dystopian London, the Empire rules through fear and fire. “Everyone knew about ‘The Flames’ and how much trouble they had caused the Empire. They were the only rebel group anyone knew of that had lasted longer than a few months without getting caught, leaving candles behind whenever they snatched somebody out of the Empire’s grasp. To get involved with people like them is stupid. So stupid.”
Ever since her parents were murdered by the empire’s agents, Jacks has been living on the street as a pickpocket trying to keep away from trouble. When she accidentally witnesses the rebel group ‘The Flames’ in the middle of an operation she is unwillingly swept up into their world, and has to decide if she’s going to go back to looking after herself or join the rebellion and help them fight for the people of London Ruins.
She knows that getting involved was stupid, but does she really have a choice?




Author Bio
Danielle Rogland began writing Ignite at the age of 17, and finished at age 21. She is now 25 and lives in Seattle, Washington, where she earned her English degree from Seattle Pacific University, and works in marketing and freelance writing while working on her second novel. She grew up near Portland, Oregon, and was always one of those kids who carried around giant books like The Lord of the Rings to read during recess. She can currently be found frequenting comic conventions, pestering her three younger siblings, or hiding out in her home and posting things on social media. You can follow her on twitter @daniellerogland or facebook @danielleroglandauthor. 



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