Justin D. Herd & 'Of Gods and Madness: The Faithful' @justindherd @GoddessFish #UrbanFantasy

Today we have author Justin D. Herd visiting. Welcome!

What would you like to tell readers about yourself?

* Justin D. Herd is a Fantasy Noir author, who has been writing novels for ten years. He absolutely loves dark, twisted stories that take readers into unexpected places. Horror movies are his passion and he often takes stories to task for not logically thinking out their concepts. His home has been invaded by three eccentric cats, one of which is obsessed with all things digital. He is married with two children.

Today Justin D. Herd will be talking about how he handles balancing life and writing.
* It’s all about priorities. I’m a gamer, a writer, a reader, a movie fanatic, and a television binger. This does not leave a lot of free time in the day, considering I am also a full-time store manager and a father of two children under three. What it comes down to is: What is important to you?
* As a 45-hour-a-week, salaried manager, I only get a handful of hours a week to myself. When I am working on a writing project, I tend to leave the house and go to sit at one of my local coffee shops and write for eight to ten hours. Sometimes, it’s me fighting the words, sometimes it’s me doing fifteen minute sprints that result in just about a thousand words every quarter of an hour. But, at the end of the day, I leave my fulltime job to work on my other fulltime job.
* When it comes to balancing home life, I make sure I’m there when my kids get home and spent time with them while they’re awake. Once they go to bed, I try to unwind with different types of media, but, even then, you have to decide where your interests are. When I’m writing, I’m not using my off hours to play games or read, it’s there for writing. But, if I’m in an editing mood, there are podcasts to listen to, television shows to leave on in the background. If you still have the drive, it’s worth using the night time to edit or develop your brand.
* Now, personally, I’m a night man. In my past, I wrote best between the hours of one and four am. I tend to make better connections, to string thoughts together and notice gaps in my logic. If given the chance, I try to take those hours to do some hard editing with my finished projects. But, most of the time, I just have to take what little I can gather and make the best of it. A look into...

~ Blurb ~ * The right hand of the dominant mob family, Raine Morgan is tasked with hunting down two miscreants messing with the bottom line. He finds them on the docks, but, in the confusion of the fight, accidentally kills their victim and lets them escape. Horrified at what he's done, Raine seeks redemption as well as revenge.
* Things spiral out of control when a greedy middleman overthrows Raine's mob organization. It's only with the help of a friend inside the crumbling mob as well as a streetwise artist that Raine remains undetected as he searches for the men who started this all. Raine doesn’t realize, however, he has caught the attention of a disparate conclave of gods in the process.
* As the pantheon returns to the city they'd abandoned, old conflicts re-emerge, causing divine civil war. Both sides try to pull Raine to their side, expecting to find a naive god for them to manipulate. Instead, they find a man stripped of everything, intent on playing both sides as they learn an awful reality - even gods can die. ~ Excerpt ~ * The figures disappeared around a jagged line of barrels. Cale kept the same speed, listening to their movements. Running his fingers along cold steel of the shipping container, he moved around to catch one of them, the largest one, venturing towards the labyrinth, retreating moments later. Quiet laughter followed as they teased and jostled each other.
* Coming to a stop, he stared at the silhouettes, considered his action. The children crept forward, toying with the lines of shadows as they went. Cale balled his hand into a fist and rapped on the metal with the white bone shards that wrapped his fingers like a gauntlet. One, two, three times in a slow, measured beat. A breeze coalesced with the beat, twisting into something entirely inhuman.
* The whispers stopped. So did the thump of the children’s footsteps. The three children froze, stared into the darkness. The sound of happy jostling was gone, replaced with the splashing of choppy waves.
* Cale struck the crate once more.
* Shrill shouts hit his ears as the silhouettes retreated, tripping over each other in their haste. Cale watched them, making sure they didn't stay. He rested a hand on his gun, wondering what he'd do if the Stalker actually showed up again. His heart thudded, anxiety creeping into his chest. As he watched the last leg disappear over the last step, he turned back to the docks. He had a long night ahead of him.
* With the area empty once more, he felt a wave of relief wash over him. Buy Justin D. Herd's books here... Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Createspace | Google Play | iTunes | Kobo | Smashwords Find Justin D. Herd here... Amazon | Facebook | Patreon | Twitter | Website Thank you for joining us here today, Justin D. Herd! It was a pleasure getting to know you and your story.

ANNOUNCEMENT! Justin D. Herd will be awarding a $10 Amazon/BN GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour! So be sure to leave a comment AND use the Rafflecopter below. Also, visit the other tour stops for a greater chance of winning!

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