A #Mystery & a #Horror 2day! @WritingDead @marysangiovanni @GoddessFish

Today we have authors Robert Dunn and Mary SanGiovanni visiting. Welcome!

What would you like to tell readers about yourselves?

* Robert Dunn is the author of the novels The Red Highway, The Dead Ground, and Behind the Darkness. He can be found online at robertdunnauthor.blogspot.com or on Twitter at @WritingDead.

* Mary SanGiovanni is the author of the Bram Stoker nominated novel The Hollower, its sequels Found You and The Triumvirate, Thrall, and Chaos, as well as the novellas For Emmy, Possessing Amy, and The Fading Place, as well as numerous short stories. She has been writing fiction for over a decade, has a masters in writing popular fiction from Seton Hill University, and is a member of The Authors Guild, Penn Writers, and International Thriller Writers. Her website is marysangiovanni.com.

A look into...

~ Blurb ~ * The first in a gritty new series featuring sheriff’s detective Katrina Williams, as she investigates moonshine, murder, and the ghosts of her own past…
* BODY OF PROOF
* Katrina Williams left the Army ten years ago disillusioned and damaged. Now a sheriff’s detective at home in the Missouri Ozarks, Katrina is living her life one case at a time—between mandated therapy sessions—until she learns that she’s a suspect in a military investigation with ties to her painful past.
* The disappearance of a local girl is far from the routine distraction, however. Brutally murdered, the girl’s corpse is found by a bottlegger whose information leads Katrina into a tangled web of teenagers, moonshiners, motorcycle clubs, and a fellow veteran battling illness and his own personal demons. Unraveling each thread will take time Katrina might not have as the Army investigator turns his searchlight on the devastating incident that ended her military career. Now Katrina will need to dig deep for the truth—before she’s found buried… ~ Excerpt ~ * “I know your Uncle Orson,” he said. “Been fishing with him more times than I can remember.”
* I crouched to be close to the ground and kept poking around the body with my stick, then sketching things in the pad. Clare’s talk was actually soothing to hear. Normal, even though he was doing it to keep his mind off of something not normal in his life at all.
* “Your daddy too. Way back when.”
* I think I nodded, reacting more to the sound than his words. Tossing my stick aside, I stood, then circled the body. Each time I stopped I added to my sketches. I had to force myself to look into the face. Into where the face had been. I sketched. Then I looked away. I sketched her hair. Then I looked away.
* “There are monsters in the woods,” Clare said, his back still to me. I was listening then. “It used to be a joke. When I was a kid, people talked about Momo, the Missouri monster. It was like a local Bigfoot. But the real monsters are people, aren’t they?”
* I didn’t answer him.
* “Perverts.” He spit the word out. “Monsters that do that to children. There isn’t hate big enough for them nor a hell deep enough. This will rile some people up. He lives in one of those piece-of-crap mobile homes in that big development off of F Highway. You know, over by the McKenna farm.”
* “Who does?” I had stopped writing and was paying very close attention to Mr. Bolin at that point. Buy A Living Grave here... Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Google Play | iTunes | Kobo Find Robert Dunn here... Facebook | Twitter | Website A look into...

~ Blurb ~ * “True Detective” meets H.P. Lovecraft in this chilling novel of murder, mystery, and slow-mounting dread from acclaimed author Mary SanGiovanni . . .
* It begins with a freak snowstorm in May. Hit hardest is the rural town of Colby, Connecticut. Schools and businesses are closed, powerlines are down, and police detective Jack Glazier has found a body in the snow. It appears to be the victim of a bizarre ritual murder. It won’t be the last. As the snow piles up, so do the sacrifices. Cut off from the rest of the world, Glazier teams up with an occult crime specialist to uncover a secret society hiding in their midst.
* The gods they worship are unthinkable. The powers they summon are unstoppable. And the things they will do to the good people of Colby are utterly, horribly unspeakable… ~ Excerpt ~ * Still, most people believed this storm would be the last of them for the year, and patiently suffered the weather to exhale its arctic breath one last time over all. The town of Colby warmed up the snowplows and salt/sand trucks in preparation for winter’s last hur- rah, and the townsfolk swarmed the local supermarkets, the Targets and Walmarts, the Costcos and the gas stations, to stock up on gaso- line and supplies.
* Most were still blissfully unaware of the body found hanging from a tree in Edison Park, but they felt it, in the vaguest, unarticu- lated way. They felt the cold trying to wrench their skin from their bones, and they felt something else, too—a kind of forlorn loneliness trying to wrench peace of mind from their souls. Just as they stocked up on food and bottled water, shovels and gloves, they squinted into the night outside their homes before drawing blinds and locking doors, double-checking on the kids in bed and huddling closer to each other than usual. Something other than a late winter was in the air, and it chilled them just as much, if not more, when they thought too long about it.
* Though not even the gossips would give voice to it, the people of Colby knew something was coming with the snow. Buy Chills here... Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Google Play | iTunes | Kobo Find Mary SanGiovanni here... Facebook | Twitter | Website Thank you for joining us here today, Robert Dunn and Mary SanGiovanni! It was a pleasure getting to know you and your story.

ANNOUNCEMENT! The authors will be awarding digital copies of both books on tour 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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Merry Freer & 'Special Levels of Earthly Hell' @MFreerWriter @GoddessFish #Horror #Supernatural

Today we have author Merry Freer visiting. Welcome!

What would you like to tell readers about yourself?

* Merry Freer is an author of memoir and fact-based fiction. “Special Levels of Earthly Hell: The Story of One Family’s Chilling Struggle with Demonic Possession” was inspired by actual events that were experienced by her nuclear and extended families, tearing relationships apart and making national news headlines. This book comes on the heels of her first book, a memoir named “Doctor, Doctor.” While "Doctor, Doctor" is her debut novel, she has been a writer and editor for many years, including work with the San Diego Chargers and the San Diego Hall of Champions. She holds a Bachelor's Degree in Journalism from San Diego State University and has been a featured speaker for classes dealing with medical ethics.
* Her controversial memoir, "Doctor, Doctor," topped the Best Seller List in True Crime/White Collar Crime for 10 months and received a "Best Books of 2014" award from "Suspense Magazine."

Today Merry Freer will be talking about what sparked the idea for the story.
* When my daughter-in-law-to-be, Adriana, came from deep in Mexico to live at my house a little more than ten years ago, I had no idea she carried a secret with her. She may not have known it herself. Certainly my son, Drew, didn’t know. Not at first.
* Shortly after they were married they began to experience paranormal activity in the confines of my guest bedroom. Drew was stunned. He was an atheist and he began a long struggle with the idea that an evil entity was entering their bedroom and taking possession of his wife. His struggle must have been a tortuous and lonely one because Adriana had no memory of the events and Drew never mentioned them to me. Not for many years.
* As their married life together progressed, they moved from my home and into their own. During this time, Adriana’s sisters came to live in the United States. To my eyes the families of Adriana and her sisters appeared to exist under a dark cloud as tragedy upon tragedy befell them, each one worse than the one before.
* As time went by I tried to help out as I could, but there didn’t seem to be much I could do to stop the heartache that surrounded the entire family. Drew and Adriana had a child, then divorced, but he kept them close, seemingly under his watchful eye.
* More than ten years later, I wrote a memoir about a period in my own life when I was struggling, and the book did well – beyond my expectations. “Why don’t you write another book?” Drew encouraged me.
* “Because I only know how to write about things that are true.” I resisted.
* “Then why don’t you write about Adriana. About how she was possessed by an evil demon. Maybe still is. Her sisters, too.”
* These words from my son floored me. He said them as though I knew that fact. As though it would occur to me that he would believe his own wife had been possessed, given that he held no religious beliefs.
* And so the interview process began. I was aware of many of the tragedies. I had stayed close because of my granddaughter, now in the custody of my son. But the story behind the story had never been disclosed to me until this time and once I heard the details, I knew it was a tale that deserved to be shared.
* “So tell me about the first time,” I told Drew in our first of many interviews. “The first time you heard the scratching at my front door.”
* And so it began. A look into...

~ Blurb ~ * Drew Collins experiences the world in black and white. As an educated man of science, he rejects belief in the paranormal and the existence of demons. Until an evil energy he calls "The Beast" repeatedly enters his bedroom at night and takes possession of his wife's body.
* What he witnesses at night in his own bedroom cannot be reconciled with science. And yet he sees it with his own eyes, feels its presence, ominous and evil, with his entire being.
* Against every instinct, Drew reaches out for help. It is not just his marriage that’s at stake. The evil force has invaded his wife's family, tearing them apart and culminating in bloodshed and murder. Drew must face a stark choice: sacrifice his belief that the world is a rational place and fight an entity he doesn’t understand and is reluctant to label, or abandon his wife and her family.
* Author's Note to the Reader: Sadly, the most frightening and brutal events in this book are factual. The story is loosely based on one family's experience with multiple tragedies, some of them "ripped from the headlines." It is also an excruciatingly factual account of one man's experience with a loved one who is possessed by a demonic presence. However, it transcends genre and is as much a tale of romance, of cultural barriers, of abuse, and of family drama, as it is of demonic possession. The link between the introduction of an evil spirit and the heartbreaking misfortunes that are visited on the family is left for the reader to decide. ~ Excerpt ~ * Drew didn't remember falling asleep. He did remember waking up. Something was wrong. A chill traveled up his spine and enveloped him. With a sickening feeling of familiarity, sweat began to form on his forehead and trickle down his temples as fear overcame him. He quickly glanced at the digital clock on the table beside the bed. The blood-red numbers announced the time eerily – 3:00am - a haunting reminder of the first time.
* Someone was watching him. He was certain of it. His eyes were immediately drawn to the window. A dark fear formed in his gut and sent out tentacles of terror that invaded his thoughts and squeezed his lungs, threatening his very breath.
* The sensation of movement brought him to his feet but his trembling legs couldn’t support him and he allowed himself to fall back onto the bed next to his sleeping wife, Adriana. Turning his head toward the window, he looked closer at what appeared to be vapor, distorted lines of energy waving like the air in the distance over a desert highway in August. A terrifying feeling of knowledge washed over him. It was alive.
* Drew’s mind flashed to the first time he had encountered the demon in the bedroom at his mother’s house, the night it hijacked Adriana’s body - at 3:00am. It was always at 3:00am. Buy Special Levels of Earthly Hell here... Amazon Find Merry Freer here... Facebook | Twitter | Website Thank you for joining us here today, Merry Freer! It was a pleasure getting to know you and your story.

ANNOUNCEMENT! Merry Freer will be awarding a $20 Amazon or B/N 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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Stephen Leather & 'New York Night' @stephenleather @GoddessFish #Horror #Supernatural

Today we have author Stephen Leather visiting. Welcome!

What would you like to tell readers about yourself?

* Stephen Leather is one of the UK's most successful thriller writers, an eBook and Sunday Times bestseller and author of the critically acclaimed Dan "Spider' Shepherd series and the Jack Nightingale supernatural detective novels.
* Before becoming a novelist he was a journalist for more than ten years on newspapers such as The Times, the Daily Mirror, the Glasgow Herald, the Daily Mail and the South China Morning Post in Hong Kong. He is one of the country's most successful eBook authors and his eBooks have topped the Amazon Kindle charts in the UK and the US. In 2011 alone he sold more than 500,000 eBooks and was voted by The Bookseller magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in the UK publishing world.
* Born in Manchester, he began writing full time in 1992. His bestsellers have been translated into fifteen languages. He has also written for television shows such as London's Burning, The Knock and the BBC's Murder in Mind series and two of his books, The Stretch and The Bombmaker, were filmed for TV.

Today Stephen Leather will be talking about what sparked the idea for the story/series.
* When I was a kid I used to love the supernatural books of Dennis Wheatley - books like The Devil Rides Out and To The Devil A Daughter. And I loved scary movies like The Exorcist and The Omen. Thrillers were always my genre but at the back of my mind I always wanted to write a book with a supernatural theme. That opportunity came about eight years ago when my publisher agreed to have a go at publishing two books of mine a year. They were already publishing my Spider Shepherd series, about a former Special Forces soldier who becomes an undercover cop, and they agreed to a second series, featuring supernatural detective Jack Nightingale. I’ve always loved the idea of doing a deal with a devil and that’s what happens to Jack in the first book, Nightfall. He discovers that on the day he was born his father - a renowned Satanist - sold Jack’s soul to a devil. And on his thirty-third birthday the devil is coming to claim the prize. To survive, Nightingale has to do another deal, to save his life and save his soul.
* Hodder stopped publishing the Nightingale series after five books - Nightfall, Midnight, Nightmare, Nightshade and Lastnight - but I didn’t want the character to die so I have continued by self-publshing. I am one of Amazon’s Top 10 UK self-puboishers of all time so I was happy to do it! I have self-published San Francisco Night and New York Night and am planning Miami Night as we speak! The idea is to take Nightingale from city to city across the United States, fighting supernatural forces as he safeguards his own soul! A look into...

~ Blurb ~ * Teenagers are being possessed and turning into sadistic murderers. Priests can’t help, nor can psychiatrists. So who is behind the demonic possessions? Jack Nightingale is called in to investigate, and finds his own soul is on the line. New York Night is the seventh novel in the Jack Nightingale supernatural detective series. ~ Excerpt ~ * Cheryl Perez pulled the cork from the bottle of Chianti and sloshed it into a glass. She drank some and went through to her sitting room. She pulled open the drawer of a side table and took out the framed photograph of herself and Eric. It had been in the drawer for over a month – a new record. The photograph had been taken on New Years Eve three years earlier. They’d flown to Vegas for the weekend and seen in the New Year at a show in the MGM Grand. The casino’s logo was in the bottom right hand corner of the photograph. They were both a little drunk and they were holding hands either side of a champagne bucket that Perez was fairly sure contained their second bottle. Maybe their third. They had got so drunk that they had collapsed on the bed in their clothes and woken up the following morning still clothed and wrapped in each other’s arms. ‘You bastard, Eric,’ she whispered. ‘How could you leave me?’
* She took the photograph over to the dining table and stood it in the middle. She sat down, drank some wine and then picked up one of the two pencils there. She drew a cross on the page, dividing it into quarters. She wrote YES in the top right and bottom left quarters, then wrote NO in the top left and bottom right. She took another drink of wine, then smiled lop- sidedly at the photograph. ‘I know, I know, it’s stupid and my soul will burn in Hell, but I have to try, don’t I?’ Buy New York Night here... Amazon | iTunes | Kobo | Smashwords Find Stephen Leather here... Twitter | Website | Jack Nightingale Thank you for joining us here today, Stephen Leather! It was a pleasure getting to know you and your story.

ANNOUNCEMENT! Stephen Leather will be awarding a $50 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!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Michelle Browne & 'After the Garden' @SciFiMagpie @GoddessFish #DarkFantasy

Today we have author Michelle Browne visiting. Welcome!

What would you like to tell readers about yourself?

* Michelle Browne is a sci fi/fantasy writer from Calgary, AB. She has a cat and a partner-in-crime. Her days revolve around freelance editing, jewelry, phuquerie, and nightmares. She is currently working on the next books in her series, other people's manuscripts, and drinking as much tea as humanly possible. She is all over the internet, far too often for anyone’s sanity, and can be found in various places.

Today Michelle Browne will be talking about how she became a writer and what inspired her in regard to the story she's promoting.
* Hello hello!
* The inspiration for the Memory Bearers series is more complex than it seems at first glance. In a way, I’ve been writing the story backwards, but I also started from the beginning. The original ending of the book, which was intended to be a stand-alone rather than a series, saw Ember and Kerrick literally riding off into the sunset! But who are Ember and Kerrick, you’re asking? Well, before Ember, there was Ambergris, and before Ambergris, there was Iris.
* Iris was a friend of mine in ninth grade. My family had just moved to Calgary, Alberta from Lethbridge, Alberta, and the large city was both daunting and exciting. Staring lovingly out my window at the

Dan Adams & 'Alice Through Bloodstained Glass' @DanAdamsWriter @GoddessFish #horror

Today we have author Dan Adams visiting. Welcome!

What would you like to tell readers about yourself?

* Dan Adams is a Sydney-based writer. When he’s not penning kick ass war stories, he’s working on his guns - the arm variety, rather than the weapons featured so prominently in his books. He loves slushies and always finds himself climbing too many stairs on Wednesdays. Follow him on Twitter at @DanAdamsWriter


A look into...

~ Blurb ~ * Alice is minding her younger sister when the Zombie apocalypse hits. She has to find safety but is thwarted at every turn - by a strange man, by two stoners. The world has gone mad and she doesn't know who to trust. ~ Excerpt ~ * Alice registered the confused look on her sister’s face and traced her line of sight along her outstretched arm to her finger that pointed to a man racing along the edge of the park.

Steve McHugh & 'Lies Ripped Open' @StevejMchugh @GoddessFish #Adventure #Fantasy

Today we have author Steve McHugh visiting. Welcome!

What would you like to tell readers about yourself?

* Steve’s been writing from an early age, his first completed story was done in an English lesson. Unfortunately, after the teacher read it, he had to have a chat with the head of the year about the violent content and bad language. The follow up ‘One boy and his frog’ was less concerning to his teachers and got him an A.
* It wasn’t for another decade that he would start work on a full-length novel that was publishable, the results of which was the action-packed Urban Fantasy, Crimes Against Magic.
* Steve McHugh lives in Southampton on the south coast of England with his wife and three young daughters. When not writing or spending time with his kids, he enjoys watching movies, reading books and comics, and playing video games.

Today Steve McHugh will be talking about how he became a writer and what inspired him in regard to the story he's promoting.
* Before I was about 13, I didn’t want to write, I probably wanted to be a ninja or astronaut or something else that was as exciting to a 10 year old boy. A ninja astronaut possibly, if such a thing exists, and if it doesn’t, it really should because that would be awesome.
* Anyway, I was probably 11 when I was given Treasure Island to read, along with a bunch of Sherlock Holmes stories and some others I can barely remember. The Sherlock ones stuck out the most in my mind, they were the ones that made me go to the library in search of others to read. At some point in the local library, I moved from there into the realm of the choose your own adventure books.
* I devoured these like a ravenous beast, always hungry for more and never really satisfied that I’d read enough, right up until I was 13 and my English teacher told me to branch out, to read something more challenging, more diverse. I took him at his challenge and went to the library again (something I’d find myself doing more and more over the years), and picked up Terry Pratchett and David Gemmell. They were soon joined by Stephen King and countless others, and that was it. I wanted to be a writer.
* When it came to writing out my school report about what we wanted to do when leaving, I wrote author and was told by my teacher to write something more realistic, something more… well, boring to be honest. I choose accountant. I have never been an accountant.
* That’s not to say I went straight from age 16 and leaving school to become an author. It took me 9 years, until I was 25 and about to become a father for the first time, when I finally decided to get serious about it. It took another 8 years before I’d get published, the majority of that time just learning my craft and trying not to suck at something I’d fallen in love with.
* Since that day in April 2012, I’ve become a best selling author with five published books, the most recent of which is Lies Ripped Open. And frankly it’s been an incredible 3 ½ years.
* Lies Ripped Open is the accumulation of the previous four books worth of story and questions. It answers a lot of those questions, and asks several of it’s own, but it’s a story I knew I was looking forward to writing from the first word of book one, Crimes Against Magic.
* I can tell you wholeheartedly that writing is the greatest job I’ve ever had, or could ever imagine doing, the fact that I get to tell stories for people to read and enjoy is something I will never ever get tired of. And long may that continue.
A look into...

~ Blurb ~ * Over a hundred years have passed since a group of violent killers went

A Look At R. L. King & 'The Alastair Stone Chronicles series' @Dragonwriter11 @GoddessFish #UrbanFantasy

Today we have author R. L. King visiting. Welcome!

What would you like to tell readers about yourself?
* R. L. King is an award-winning author and game freelancer for Catalyst Game Labs, publisher of the popular roleplaying game Shadowrun. She has contributed fiction and game material to numerous sourcebooks, as well as one full-length adventure, "On the Run," included as part of the 2012 Origins-Award-winning "Runners' Toolkit."
* Her first novel in the Shadowrun universe, Borrowed Time, was published in May 2015.
* When not doing her best to make life difficult for her characters, King is a software technical writer for a large Silicon Valley database company. In her spare time (hah!) she enjoys hanging out with her very understanding spouse and her small herd of cats, watching way too much Doctor Who, and attending conventions when she can. She is an Active member of the Horror Writers' Association and the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, and a member of the International Association of Media Tie-in Writers.

Today R. L. King will be talking about how she handles balancing life and writing.
* Thank you very much for inviting me to your blog! You asked me to talk a bit about how I balance life and writing.
* I consider myself quite lucky that my situation makes it fairly easy for me to keep a balance between my writing and the rest of my life. For one thing, I have a good job as a technical writer that I like a lot, and best of all they let me telecommute! Since I live in the Silicon Valley and the roads are horrible during commute hours, that saves me about two hours a day where I’d otherwise be in the car.
* When I’m working on a project, I tend to write whenever I can: lunch hours, after work, evenings, weekends—and that’s the other area where I’m lucky. I have a very supportive spouse who loves the fact that I write and who’s proud of my accomplishments, so he’s (mostly!) patient with the fact that I can sometimes let other things slide when I’m in the middle of something. There are lots of reasons why he ends up in the dedications of all my novels, and putting up with my cluttered ways is by no means the least of them!
* We don’t have kids, which also makes things easier—I have a lot of respect for parents who manage to fit writing in around the edges of caring for kids, because I can see by watching them just how much work it is. That’s dedication! I don’t think I could manage that. My “kids” are a small herd of feline assistants, who most of the time either don’t bother me when I’m writing or sometimes even hang out with me (my tabby boy is my “mews”—he’ll sit on my desk and put his paws on my shoulders and go to sleep like that, which is nice.)
* I sometimes wonder if I’d be able to keep up the output rate I do if I had to deal with more obstacles in my life, honestly. I know I would still write—I can’t not write—but probably not as much as I do now. I’m in awe of other authors who manage to write as much as they do while juggling far more real-world responsibilities.
* Thank you again for the invitation! A look into...

~ Blurb ~ * Dr. Alastair Stone, Occult Studies professor, powerful mage, and snarky British expat now based in Palo Alto, California, does his best to keep his academic and social lives separate from his increasingly frequent brushes with various malevolent forces from the supernatural side of the street. A little horror, a little humor, but mostly straight-up urban fantasy.
* Stone and a Hard Place
* Dr. Alastair Stone, Occult Studies professor and powerful mage, has his hands full trying to keep the two sides of his life separate as he trains a new apprentice, deals with a malevolent entity trapped in the basement of a wealthy old woman's massive home, and battles dark mages intent on enslaving it for their own ends.
* Debut novel of the Alastair Stone Chronicles.
* The Forgotten
* Dr. Alastair Stone is back, this time teaming up with Jason Thayer, a young man hunting for his missing sister. Embroiled in a web of odd homeless people, a growing conspiracy, and deadly danger, they soon realize that even if they find Jason's sister, they might not be able to help her.
* What do you do when you discover an extradimensional plot that threatens the safety of the entire world, but you can't tell anyone about it because literally anyone on Earth could be part of it?
* Book Two of the Alastair Stone Chronicles.

~ Excerpt ~ THE FORGOTTEN
* Jason let out a loud sigh, his natural tendency to want to move nearly overwhelming now. “How do we know if it doesn’t work? Do we have to stand in here forever?”
* Stone was about to answer when he stiffened, startled. “It’s back,” he said, pointing at the mirror.
* Jason spun around. Sure enough, the reddish figure had reappeared behind them in the mirror, looking as angry as ever. It said something to Stone in its bones-and-parchment voice, punctuated by many growls and other sounds of displeasure. The mage nodded. “She’s there now, then?” he asked.
* The figure snarled and glared at Stone. It appeared to be contemplating another lunge out into the real world, but eyed the mage warily and decided against it. Instead, it spat at him. The spittle flew out, contacted its own side of the mirror, and ran down toward the table with a sizzle. Then it reached out with a ropy, muscular arm and attempted to sweep all the objects off the table on its side of the mirror. The candles, knife, and chalice went, careening silently over the edge and out of sight. The book remained, and the creature screamed in agony as its arm contacted it.
* “It’s fighting me—” Stone said under his breath. “I’m going to release it now.” He reached up with both hands and put them on the mirror again. Loudly and clearly, he uttered a long sentence in the strange Latin-like language, then pulled his hands back abruptly and clapped them together in a sudden, sharp sound that made Jason jump. He stumbled, reeling back, realizing with horror even as he did so that he had no way of stopping himself. He was going to fall over backwards, taking out a good chunk of the circle when he landed.
* As he went over, he got a last look at the creature’s face. Instead of looking angry, it looked suddenly surprised and triumphant. That lasted about two seconds. It flung itself forward again, clawed hands eagerly reaching in front of it, reaching for Stone, for Jason— Buy The Alastair Stone Chronicles series here... Amazon - Stone and a Hard Place (Book 1) | Amazon - The Forgotten (Book 2) | Magespace Press Find R. L. King here... Amazon Author Page | Facebook | Twitter | Website Thank you for joining us here today, R. L. King! It was a pleasure getting to know you and your story.

ANNOUNCEMENT! R. L. King is giving away a $40 Amazon or B/N 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!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Scott Burtness & 'Northwoods Wolfman' @SWBauthor @GoddessFish #horror #humor

Today we have author Scott Burtness visiting. Welcome!

What would you like to tell readers about yourself?

* Scott lives in the Midwest with his wife and their boxer-pitt mix, Frank. He’s a horror, urban fantasy, and dark comedy fan, and also enjoys beer, bowling, karaoke, and rooting for the underdog. After not nearly enough consideration, he decided to write about the things he enjoys. The result was the Monsters in the Midwest series.


A look into...

~ Blurb ~ * When Dallas is recruited by an ancient order of monster hunters, he's more than happy to sign up. The self-proclaimed Hero of Trappersville did kill a bloodthirsty vampire, after all. As far as Dallas is concerned, monsters are monsters, and they have no place in Wisconsin.
* Or do they? And does Dallas really get to choose which side he's on?
* Book Two of the Monsters in the Midwest series.
~ Excerpt ~ * Randall had whistled through his teeth when Dallas answered the door.
* “You look like Batman and Tim the Tool Guy’s D.I.Y. lovechild,” he chuckled. “What are you planning to do with all that stuff?”
* The look Dallas gave Randall was sympathetic.
* “I know you been doing this for a little while, but I can see why Colton’s looking for new help. You gotta be prepared, right? Covert ops? Surgical strike? Get in, get out, get drunk, get laid, that’s how Big D rolls. You think I’m diving into a nest of, a nest of, um. You know, a nest of… Say, what are we hunting, anyway?”
* “Boo hag.”
* “Gesundheit.”
* “No, we’re hunting a boo hag.”
* “Doo rag?”
* “No, boo hag, you twit. Kinda like a vampire, but they eat life force from breath, not blood. Sometimes mistaken for skin walkers since they don’t have skin of their own and are fond of taking someone else’s to wear for a bit.”
* Dallas nodded authoritatively. “Well, that just proves my point. You think I’m diving into a nest of boo hags with nothing but my sunny disposition?”
Buy Northwoods Wolfman here... Amazon Find Scott Burtness here... Amazon Author Page | Facebook | Goodreads | Twitter Thank you for joining us here today, Scott Burtness! It was a pleasure getting to know you and your story.

ANNOUNCEMENT! Scott Burtness 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!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

A Look At p.m.terrell & 'A Thin Slice of Heaven' @pmterrell @GoddessFish #MagicalRealism

Today we have author p.m.terrell visiting. Welcome!

What would you like to tell readers about yourself?

* p.m.terrell is the pen name for Patricia McClelland Terrell, a multi-award-winning, internationally acclaimed author of more than twenty books in five genres: contemporary suspense, historical suspense, romance, computer how-to and non-fiction.
* Prior to writing full-time, she founded two computer companies in the Washington, DC Metropolitan Area. Among her clients were the Central Intelligence Agency, United States Secret Service, U.S. Information Agency, and Department of Defense. Her specialties were in white collar computer crimes and computer intelligence, themes that have carried forward to her suspense.
* She is also the co-founder of The Book ‘Em Foundation, an organization committed to raising public awareness of the correlation between high crime rates and high illiteracy rates. She is the organizer and chairperson of Book ‘Em North Carolina, an annual event held in the real town of Lumberton, North Carolina, to raise funds to increase literacy and reduce crime. For more information on this event and the literacy campaigns funded by it, visit www.bookemnc.org.

Today p.m.terrell will be talking about how she became a writer and what inspired her in regard to the story she's promoting.
The stories behind the writing...
* I knew I wanted to be a writer in the fourth grade when I won a poetry contest (which I’ll always believe was fixed) and I walked across the stage in the auditorium to accept my award—a book of poetry. My school principal encouraged me to write short stories and by the time I’d reached my teen years, I was writing manuscripts of 300 pages.
* When I was in the eighth grade, I won a state-wide writing contest. I’ve never been called “Pat” but for some reason, my teacher wrote that on the application and the judges assumed I was male. When they discovered that I was female, they rescinded the award and it went to the runner-up. It didn’t bother me that much but Miss Webb was livid.
* I continued writing but life often takes turns that we don’t expect, and I ended up in the computer industry shortly after the Apple computer was invented. (Yes, I am that old.) My writing soon took the form of programming code, technical manuals and occasional magazine articles for computer magazines. I started two computer companies and worked with the CIA, the Secret Service and the Department of Defense, to name a few. That work provided a lot of inspiration for future books.
* When I turned a certain age (you didn’t expect me to name the number, right?) I realized that I had always imagined myself being a published novelist by that point in my life. I began writing my first suspense in many years, titled Kickback, based on true trucking kickback schemes. I knew the subject inside and out because I’d been an FBI informant, passing information about the schemes. It took two years to write it and two more to sell it; during that time, I amassed enough rejection slips to wallpaper an entire house.
* A couple of years later, I retired from my computer businesses and began writing full-time. I find inspiration everywhere, and the toughest challenge for me is to decide which story to write. I began with suspense/thrillers that focused on computer technology (“techno-thrillers”) and which also involved domestic or international crime. Eventually, I began writing a series called Black Swamp Mysteries, about five people tied together through blood or circumstance: a CIA psychic spy, a CIA operative, a computer hacker who prefers the wrong side of the law, a political operative and a CIA section chief.
* I began writing about Ireland several years ago when I began researching my ancestors, who were Scot-Irish. I finally traveled to my ancestral home this past year and ironically, it was in almost the exact location where I pictured the castle in my latest book, A Thin Slice of Heaven—about fifty miles west of Belfast. I’ve been so inspired by Ireland and its rich history that I’m certain the country will play a large role in many of my future books. A look into...

~ Blurb ~ * She had arranged to meet her husband in Northern Ireland for a second honeymoon, but when Charleigh arrives at the remote castle, she receives a message that he won’t be coming—and that he’s leaving her for another woman.
* Stranded for the weekend by a snowstorm that has blocked all access to the castle, she finds herself three thousand miles from home in a country she knows nothing about.
* She is soon joined by Sean Bracken, the great-grandson of Laird Bracken, the original owner of the castle, and she finds herself falling quickly and madly in love with him. There’s just one problem: he’s dead.
* As the castle begins to come alive with secrets from centuries past, she finds herself trapped between parallel worlds. Caught up in a mass haunting, she can no longer recognize the line between the living and the dead. Now she’s discovering that her appearance there wasn’t by accident—and her life is about to change forever. ~ Excerpt ~ * “What’s happening?” Charleigh whispered. Her throat had grown dry and her voice was hoarse with tension. Though she attempted to keep her tone low so they would remain unobserved, it sounded loud and harsh in the strident atmosphere that seemed suddenly to have gripped the village. She felt anxiety growing deep within her and the urge to get back to the castle burgeoned with ferocity and urgency; but she realized with a sickening sensation in the pit of her soul that the growing inharmonious throngs were between them and the sanctuary of her room.
* “Do not be afraid, m’ Leah,” Sean answered. He did not whisper but his voice was deep and taut. After a moment, he said, “They are reenacting an event that occurred… some time ago.”
* “Oh,” she breathed. She should have felt relief but her insides continued to roil as if his explanation did not match the scene unfolding before her. Nervously, she said, “Reenactors. We have them in America.”
* “You have witnessed them, then?”
* “Yes. I find them very interesting…” She forced the words past her dry lips. “They reenact battles from the Civil War and the Revolutionary War, mainly.”
* As the churning skies turned to the color of tar, Charleigh could discern the sources of the strange glow: they were torches held aloft by dozens of people. More were joining them, stragglers rushing from the village to catch up, while they began to spread apart in a more orderly column as they converged on the flat land they’d crossed on their way into the village. One man in the forefront stopped and began pointing and directing those that followed.
* “These reenactments,” Sean continued, “were the people alive?” Buy A Thin Slice of Heaven here... Amazon - Paperback | Amazon - Kindle | Barnes & Noble - Paperback | Barnes & Noble - Nook Find p.m.terrell here... Blog | Facebook | Twitter | Website | YouTube - Book Video Thank you for joining us here today, p.m.terrell! It was a pleasure getting to know you and your story.

ANNOUNCEMENT! p.m.terrell will be awarding a Celtic Butterfly Suncatcher similar to the one mentioned in the book, symbolizing both the never-ending cycle of life and the metamorphosis of a butterfly 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!

a Rafflecopter giveaway