Friday, October 31, 2014

Sotto Voce by Erin Finnegan - Guest Blog and Giveaway

10_30 VBT_SottoVoce_Banner

This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. Erin will be awarding a Multi-format Sotto Voce eBook to 10 randomly drawn winners and a Grand Prize of a $25 B&N gift card will be awarded to one randomly drawn winner, all via rafflecopter during the tour. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.

BROODING HEROES AND WHY WE LOVE THEM


When I first started to draft Sotto Voce in the fan community, there was a lot of talk about the Greg Kennedy character, and how he was "dark, brooding and hot."

Dark. Brooding. Hot.

Two of those three make perfect sense when we're trying to sort out what we find attractive in a hero. But what is it about brooding men that we find so hot?

In concept, that shouldn't be an attractive character trait, not really. Because "brooding" is really just another word for "grumpy".

But here we are, time and time again, talking about "brooding heroes". And I won't lie—I fall for them like everyone else.

So what gives? How is it that a brooding man is hot, while a grumpy man is just annoying?

I suspect that a brooding hero suggests that there is something underneath that grumpy external layer—that there is depth to his concerns. And if it's a "brooding hero," it's likely that those layers will reveal something in his back story or in his priorities that make him complex, relatable and maybe even a bit vulnerable in ways we did not first suspect.

That's certainly the case with Greg Kennedy, the winemaker in Sotto Voce. When we first meet Greg, we know him to be smart, hard-working and a bit reclusive. We also discover that he is moody, somewhat volatile, and stand-offish. But we also discover that he is generous with his colleagues, protective of the people he cares about, and yes, a bit lonely.

"That day in the vineyard, when you asked about Rhapsody being isolated?...It is. It was, especially when I was first getting my footing here. I just really felt alone," Greg tells Tom, the wine critic to whom he is drawn, confessing a long-ago fling that haunts him. "He was someone I knew, someone familiar."

And eventually, we find that there are reasons why he has isolated himself from the world, and that vulnerability is what ultimately opens him up to love.

Ah. There it is. Peel back the layers, and underneath than moodiness we find a man we can love.

So for me, at least, it isn't necessarily a brooding nature that makes this character hot, but the suggestion created by his moodiness that there is something more to him that makes me want to know him more.

That, and maybe I have a thing for denim shirts, open-top trucks and dark aviator sunglasses.

10_30 Cover_Sotto VoceNew York-based wine critic Thomas Baldwin can make or break careers with his column for Taste Magazine. But when his publisher orders him to spend a year profiling rising stars of California’s wine country and organizing a competition between the big name wineries of Napa and the smaller artisan wineries of Sonoma, his world gets turned upside-down by an enigmatic young winemaker who puts art before business.

Sotto Voce is the story of love and wine, and how both require patience, passion, an acceptance of change—and an understanding that sometimes, you have to let nature take its course.


Enjoy an excerpt:

Firing up the grill to feed family, friends and crew at the end of the harvest had become a tradition at Rhapsody. It had started as a simple dinner to feed and thank the people who had helped harvest the crop. Then it morphed into a casual, annual party with the closest of Greg’s friends, a break from the backbreaking work with food, wine, music and a traditional grape stomp.

Greg always held back a bushel of grapes that didn’t quite make the cut for the year’s vintage and, in a discarded old oak half-barrel, set up a stomp that let everyone work out their stress by smashing the slippery mass into grape pulp. It was messy, slightly feral and dizzyingly fun.

After the party settled into a comfortable groove, Greg lifted Tom into the cask, jumped in behind him and held him around the waist as they stomped in time to an up-tempo R&B classic on the stereo.

Their stomp became a dance, their feet synchronized and their legs aligned, Greg holding Tom’s hips and leaning into his shoulder.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered in Tom’s ear.

“Why?”

“You know why.”

“For getting grape juice all over my pants?” Tom teased. This drew a smile, and a squeeze.

“For ignoring you. I’m sorry, and I won’t—”

“Don’t. I get it. This is your deadline.”

“It’s going to get worse before it gets better, you know. I pretty much live in the barn during primary fermentation.”

“Then we’ll set up an extra cot, or I’ll make you coffee, or we’ll take shifts punching the caps while you get some sleep,” Tom offered. “But I want to help, and I want to be with you.”


10_30 AuthorPicAbout the Author: Erin Finnegan is a former journalist and editor. She was born and raised in Southern California, where she lives with two sheep dogs and grows, ferments and drinks Syrah and Zinfandel in the foothills outside Los Angeles.

Sotto Voce is her first novel.

Connect with Erin at erin-finnegan.com, on Facebook at facebook.com/ErinGoFinnegan, on Goodreads at Goodreads.com/ErinFinnegan and on Twitter at @eringofinnegan.

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Thursday, October 30, 2014

Black Cats and Ballet Slippers by Iva Valentino - Spotlight and Giveaway


This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. The author will be awarding a $25 Amazon gift card to one randomly drawn commenter via Rafflecopter. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.

Gemma Mayfield feels like middle school is a lot to bite off and chew. School, ballet classes, and planning on how to get Trevor Davis to ask her to the Halloween Dance are a tough balancing act. On top of that, Gemma is convinced that her science teacher, Ms. Pruett, is a witch.

When things start getting fishy at school, Gemma knows that Ms. Pruett is behind it all! Students are getting spells placed on them and start to go missing. Gemma and her best friend, Izzie, vow to stop Ms. Pruett from doing any more damage. Will they be able to save Middleton Middle School from witchcraft?

Enjoy an excerpt:

Today when I came home from school, Mungo greeted me at the door. He does this every day. He was carrying his favorite little yellow ball. So I played fetch with him for a bit, because even though he is a cat, he will never stop thinking he is a dog.

When Mom came home just a few minutes later, Mungo bounded toward the door and started growling. He always does this. He looks a bit scary with his super black fur and yellow eyes. Mom had to step around him so she wouldn’t get nipped. I believe that Mom must have made Mungo mad when he was just a kitten, because he doesn’t seem to have forgiven her. I always try to stay on his good side as well.

I told Mom about what happened today. The conversation went something like this:

Mom: “Hi, honey! How was your day?”

Me: “Not so good. Ms. Pruett put a spell on me. She totally controlled my mind for like five minutes!”

Mom: “Gemma! I think we know better than that. Ms. Pruett is just a nice old lady.”

Then she went to the living room to do her yoga. I am convinced that no one believes me about this witch thing.

About the Author:
Iva Valentino lives in Arizona with her husband and their dog, Lupo. She graduated from the University of Arizona with a Bachelor’s degree in Biology and a Master’s degree in Education. She loves living year-round in the warm desert.

Iva spent many years as a middle school teacher, where she enjoyed doing fun science experiments with her students. She currently works as a science editor at an educational publishing company. She loves travel, yoga, and photography. There is nothing that brings her more happiness than a good dance class!

Website: www.IvaValentino.com
Blog: www.ivavalentino.com/blog
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ivaavalentino

Buy the book at MuseItUp Publishing, Amazon, or Barnes and Noble. (on sale for $1.35 at publisher and Amazon)

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Wednesday, October 29, 2014

An Intimate Murder by Stacy Verdick Case - Interview and Giveaway


This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. Stacy will award a $50 Barnes and Noble GC to one winner, and a signed ARC of An Intimate Murder (US only) to two randomly drawn winners via rafflecopter. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.

Welcome to It's Raining Books. If someone were writing a story about you, what would your blurb say?

Wow! That’s a really tough questions. I can’t imagine anyone wanting to read a book about me.
,br> Probably something along the line of “One of the most boring books you’ll ever read! If you really need a nap, read this one.” Seriously my life is so dull there’s no book there.

Would you tell us a little about your newest release that isn't in the blurb?

An Intimate Murder is a whole lot of brain candy. I write to entertain and I feel no shame about that. It’s the 3rd book in the Catherine O’Brien series and like the first two books it’s a fun, fast-paced mystery. The story starts with a double homicide that pits Catherine and her partner Louise are against a cunning murderer and an interfering reporter. They manage to handle both with their brand of humor and wit. Catherine’s irreverence is in full force in An Intimate Murder so fans of hers will not be disappointed. And for those who have never read another of the other books you will be able to jump into book three without having read any of the other books without fear of not know what’s going on.

What was your favorite scene to write in this story?

There’s a scene with a lawyer named Bennette who is described as looking like a Shar Pei puppy. He’s a little too studious for the situation he’s in. The scene made me laugh while I was writing it and just the other day I was reviewing pieces of the book for excerpts and it made me laugh out loud again. There’s another that I think paints a beautiful picture with Catherine in the fall leaves that I’m proud of, but the scene with Bennette is my favorite. It’s the humor of it that makes me love it so much.

If you could trade places with one of your characters, who would it be and why?

Digs for sure. All his angst for Louise aside, I think it would be so cool to have his intelligence and be able to dissect the evidence the way he does. Of course, having doubt and insecurity would suck but I guess there has to be a trade off somewhere. No one is perfect and if they are, I don’t want to know them.

A Catherine O'Brien Mystery.

When Jonathan and Susan Luther are murdered in their home, St. Paul homicide detective Catherine O'Brien and her partner Louise discover this isn't the first time the Luther family has been visited by tragedy. Is it a case of bad family luck or is there something more?

Enjoy an excerpt:

The world as a whole is a strange place, and the people who inhabit this world are even stranger. The Luther’s neighbors proved to be the strangest I’d encountered in ten years of law enforcement. Considering the whackos and ice-blooded murders I’d run into, these neighbors could be proud of their over achieving ways.

The street looked benign, an affluent tree lined parkway with a BMW or Mercedes in every other driveway. The neighbor across the street had a pickup truck in their drive, but it turned out to be the yard man’s, who happened to be cleaning up the left behinds from the oak and maple fall deposits. Pretty to look at until they rotted into brown slime piles on your grass.

We questioned every neighbor on the block but no one heard the gunshots. They lived behind triple pane glass where the temperature was never too hot or too cold. Only one had dared to steal a glance out their insulated glass when an older car, rusted in too many places and not carrying the pedigree of a classic automobile, sped down the street.

“I knew right away they were up to no good.” Bernice Leigh, who claimed a relation to Janet Leigh, rocked on the edge of her tufted, chintz ottoman.

“Well maybe not right away.” She rolled her hand dramatically in the air. “At first I thought the car could belong to one of the boy’s friends who visit the Luther’s from time to time.”

“Did you know the Luther’s very well?” Louise nibbled the edge of a Ginger Thin Mrs. Leigh had fanned out on a china plate, and placed on the coffee table in front of us.

Bernice Leigh shook her head with such force that her hair, which had been so obviously a wig, dislodged itself and canted to one side. Bernice righted the wig without as much as a second thought.


About the Author:
Stacy Verdick Case was born in Willmar, Minnesota. After a brief stint as a military brat, where she lived in Fort Sill Oklahoma and Fort Campbell, Kentucky, her family moved back to Minnesota.

Stacy has written all her life earning a High School Writer Award and a Daphne Du Mauier Award for excellence in Mainstream Mystery/Suspense.

Stacy currently lives in a suburb of St. Paul with her husband of twenty-years, her five-year-old daughter, and their two cats.

An Intimate Murder is the third book in the Catherine O’Brien series.

Visit Stacy on the web:

www.StacyVerdickCase.com
Twitter @SVerdickCase
https://www.facebook.com/pages/A-Grand-Murder/265021126858004
http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5094848.Stacy_Verdick_Case

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The Sins of the Few by Sarah Ballance - Spotlight and Giveaway


This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. Sarah will be awarding a $25 Amazon or BN gift card to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.

Salem, 1692

The moment he steps off the boat and into his hometown of Salem, Nathanial Abbot knows the rumors about Salem are indeed true. For in the two years since he's left Salem—disowned by his family and seeking a fortune of his own—the town has changed. It is dark with discord and suspicion... and accusations of witchcraft. Now all that remains for him is the woman he's never forgotten.

But Faith Downing isn't happy to see Nathanial. In his absence, his younger sisters have ignited the chain of hysteria that resulted in twenty deaths—including Faith's aunt, to whom Nathanial owed his life. Yet through her acrimony, Faith can't prevent herself from responding to the man Nathanial has become, handsome and kind. A man who kindles something in her that speaks of sin.

Enjoy an excerpt:

“Forgive me,” she said, “but it is not every day I find a brute within the walls of my home.”

“A brute? I suppose I have been called worse.”

“And by my tongue, as you well know.”

“I remember…rather fondly, in fact.” His gaze touched her mouth and lingered.

Instinctively she wet her lips, then pressed them tightly together when his curved into a responding smile. “My tongue is none of your concern,” she snapped. She should take a step back before those eyes rendered her a blathering fool, but she was powerless to do so. Something about this infinitely handsome man held her, and she liked it.

He leaned close, and his nearness flowed through her with a force unmatched by the fiercest storm. They were too close for the heat from the fire to penetrate the space between them, but she was in no need of warmth. She could not imagine she would ever be cold again.

And the slant of his mouth suggested he knew it.

If he came any closer she would know the taste of his lips, and when he spoke she wondered if she did not feel the slightest brush.

“Perhaps not now, little one,” he whispered, “but be assured I am most concerned with yours.”

“Your concerns are wasted,” she shot back, but the words lacked bite. And she lacked resolve, though thoughts of the parade of London patricians he had likely entertained with that tongue straightened her spine. “You can keep all of your well-oiled parts to yourself. I want nothing of you, and you certainly need not worry for my tongue.”

“To the contrary,” he said. “I find your entire mouth delightful. And be assured, before the night ends you will find yourself equally concerned with mine.”


About the Author:
Sarah and her husband of what he calls “many long, long years” live on the mid-Atlantic coast with their six young children, all of whom are perfectly adorable when they’re asleep. She never dreamed of becoming an author, but as a homeschooling mom she often jokes she writes fiction because if she wants anyone to listen to her, she has to make them up. (As it turns out, her characters aren’t much better than the kids.) When not buried under piles of laundry, she may be found adrift in the Atlantic (preferably on a boat) or in search of that ever-elusive perfect writing spot where not even the kids can find her. To learn more about her work in contemporary, historical, and supernatural romance and romantic suspense, please stalk accordingly.

Website: http://www.sarahballance.com/
Blog: http://sarahballance.wordpress.com/
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/sarah.ballance.author.news
Twitter: https://twitter.com/SarahBallance
Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/SarahBallance34/
Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4103362.Sarah_Ballance

Buy the book at Entangled Publishing, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Kobo, iTunes, or Google Books.

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Tuesday, October 28, 2014

The Heart of Christmas by Brenda Novak - Spotlight and Giveaway


This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. Brenda will be awarding a $100 Amazon gift card to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour, and a $50 Amazon gift card to a randomly drawn host. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.

Just call her Christmas Eve…

Eve Harmon has always enjoyed Christmas, but this year it reminds her of everything she doesn’t have. Almost all her friends are married now, and that’s what Eve wants, too. Love. A husband and kids of her own. But the B-and-B she manages and even Whiskey Creek, the small Gold Country town where she was born and raised, suddenly seem…confining.

As Eve turns thirty-five, she’s worried that her future will simply be a reflection of her past. She’s dated all the eligible men in the area. There’s no one she could even imagine as a husband—until a handsome stranger comes to town. Eve’s definitely attracted to him, and he seems to have the same reaction to her. But his darkly mysterious past could ruin Eve’s happily ever after—just when it finally seems within reach. Just when she’s counting on the best Christmas of her life!

Enjoy an excerpt:

She stopped trying to act as if discovering him in her bed was no big deal. “This whole situation embarrasses me,” she admitted. “I’ve never taken anyone home from a bar before and, unlike you, I won’t be leaving this town any time soon. That means I’ll have to face all the people who witnessed my licentious behavior.”

He raised one eyebrow. “Licentious?”

“Promiscuous, debauched. Whatever you want to call it. Waking up with a total stranger isn’t something that’s normal for me.”

He studied her, his gaze…thoughtful. “Last night you told me it was your birthday.”

“And?”

“Quit being so hard on yourself. From what I could gather, it was a rough one. And with the holidays coming up, and knowing you’re going to spend another year alone, you said it wasn’t likely to get any easier.”

Damn. She’d shared that? Hadn’t she revealed enough when she took off her clothes? “My birthday was fine. Spending another Christmas as a single woman is fine. Everything’s fine.” How could she complain when she’d always had it so good?

She could hear the scrape of his beard growth as he ran a hand over his chin. “What’s that saying about protesting too much?”

“I’m not protesting.”

“If you say so.”

Holding the sheet in place, she slid a few more inches away from him, but she couldn’t go far. She was about to fall out of bed. He wasn’t bulky, but he had wide shoulders and he didn’t seem to be concerned about giving her space. “If you know it was my birthday, you remember more than getting dropped off here,” she said.

“It’s coming back to me.”

Bits and pieces were coming back to her, too. How she’d noticed him watching her from where he sat alone at the bar. How she’d danced for him in such a seductive manner, reveling in the appreciation she kindled in his eyes. How he’d eventually gotten up and walked over to join her. How he’d danced with her, so cautiously and respectfully even though the sparks between them felt like they were about to burn the place down.

How she’d slipped through the crush of bodies on the dance floor to catch her breath outside and he’d followed….

There were still things she couldn’t recall, however, and his name was one of them. Had he ever told her what it was?

“Who are you?” she asked.

Without even a stretch or a concluding peck on the cheek, he climbed out of bed and started to dress.

At least she wouldn’t have to ask him to leave, she told herself. It looked as if he planned on walking into the sunset—or sunrise since it was early—as soon as possible. But this wasn’t New York or Los Angeles. He couldn’t just hail a taxi. She lived in the Sierra Nevada foothills of Northern California in one of the many mining towns along Highway 49 that had sprung up when gold was discovered a century and a half ago. It was a community that hadn’t changed as much as one might expect in such a modern, technologically advanced world. And if the lack of urban conveniences in Whiskey Creek wasn’t enough of an obstacle, she lived several miles outside town. There was very little traffic out here and no buses or other public transit.

He’d have a long hike if he intended to make his way back to Whiskey Creek without catching a ride from her.

Or maybe he planned to call someone. He had a cell phone and, for the most part, there was service.

“You won’t answer?” she asked.

“What difference does my name make?” he finally responded.

About the Author:
New York Times & USA Today Bestselling Author Brenda Novak is the author of more than fifty books. A four-time Rita nominee, she has won many awards, including the National Reader’s Choice, the Bookseller’s Best, the Book Buyer’s Best, the Daphne, and the Holt Medallion. She also runs an annual on-line auction for diabetes research every May at www.brendanovak.com (her youngest son has this disease). To date, she’s raised over $2 million. For more about Brenda, please visit www.BrendaNovak

Website: www.brendanovak.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BrendaNovakAuthor

Buy the book at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, or iTunes.

In addition to the Rafflecopter Tour Contest below, please check out Brenda's The 12 Days of Christmas Contest.

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Monday, October 27, 2014

Sean's Sweetheart by Allie Kincheloe - Spotlight and Giveaway


This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. Allie will award a $10 Amazon or Barnes and Noble GC to one randomly selected winner via Rafflecopter during the tour. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.

Sean has spent five years cleaning up his life. He’s shoved his past behind him and built a profitable business in the town’s most popular dance club. Falling in love with a college sophomore wasn’t in his plans. But, from the moment he rescued Talia, she brings out his every protective instinct. He tries to resist getting involved on a personal level. Talia’s persistence, however, is stronger than his will.

Despite just ending an abusive relationship, Talia finds an instant connection with a man unlike any she’s dated before. Older, tattooed, and totally inappropriate for her, Talia couldn’t keep Sean off her mind, especially once he calls her “sweetheart” in that deep drawl of his.

When Talia is in danger, they discover just how strong their relationship is. Can Sean and his sweetheart make things last when horrors from their pasts come back to haunt them and family seems determined to keep them apart?

Enjoy an excerpt:

Leaning against a large boulder, he seemed to be taking in her every movement. His stance brought him down closer to her height. The smile on his face set something fluttering in her chest. Caught off-guard, Talia simply reacted. She stepped up to him and slipped between his legs, tugging his head down toward hers for a kiss. For a moment, he stood as still as the stone he leaned against. Then he growled deeply and wrapped his arms around her.

His lips pressed hard against hers; his tongue slipped into her mouth and battled hers for control. Tangling a hand in her hair, Sean adjusted the tilt of her head and deepened the kiss. He hadn’t shaved that morning. The rough stubble on his chin rubbed against her face.

Clutching at the soft cotton encasing his powerful shoulders, Talia moaned into his mouth. He pulled his lips from hers and kissed his way down her cheek. Burying his face against her throat, Sean nipped and kissed. Her knees began to sag and her toes curled. Tugging his hair, Talia directed him back up and captured his lips with her own once more. And then, as fast as it began, Sean pushed her away and put some distance between them.

“We can’t do this. Talia, I’m not the guy you want. I can’t be what you need. What you deserve. Sweetheart, you have no clue what you would be getting into with me.” His voice was gruff, but he refused to make eye contact.


About the Author:
As a busy mother of five, Allie sneaks time to write between breakfast and tickles. Always a Kentucky girl at heart, she currently makes her home near Nashville.

http://www.alliekincheloe.com
https://twitter.com/Allie_Kincheloe
http://www.pinterest.com/alliekincheloe

Buy the book at Secret Cravings Publishing, All Romance eBooks, Amazon, or Barnes and Noble.

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Friday, October 24, 2014

Return to Emerald City by Sofia Grey and Allyson Lindt - Spotlight and Giveaway


This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. Allyson and Sofia will be awarding a $10 Amazon GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.

Return to Emerald City

A Collection of Sci-fi Romance Novellas Inspired by The Wizard of Oz

Dorothy’s Red Shoes

There’s no place like home… Dorothy is already feeling homesick for Emerald City, and wonders if taking a job halfway around the world was a mistake. When her love life crumbles–again–will she run for home?

His Replay Girl

If he only had the nerve… Ten years ago, Quinn made the best choice of his life, and the biggest mistake. It’s true, his band, Lionheart, is one of the biggest in the world, but how much does it mean if he can’t tell the woman he loves how he feels?

His Reboot Girl

If only he had a brain… Scott woke up with his head spinning and not much else going on up there. Now he’s a suspect in a terrorist plot, and on the run. One woman insists she's the key to his past and his freedom. Too bad he doesn't remember her.

His Rewind Girl

If he only had a heart.... Cam is as much machine as man. There are days he loathes the CyGes implants that saved his life but couldn't do the same for his family. They replaced his limbs, but now he needs someone to mend his heart.

Enjoy an excerpt:

My thoughts swirled and darted in random directions. The big Christmas party, the one for all the Wellington employees, was next week. If I wanted to make a real impression on Matthew, that would be the place to do it. I was flying back to Emerald City for the holidays, but that wasn’t until a couple days later.

How about if I dressed up? Wore a slinky evening gown instead of my usual black slacks and shirt, put on fuck-me heels instead of flip flops, and got my hair and makeup done beforehand? My heart beat a little faster. Could I do it? The women he dated were always well groomed and elegant. That was why I thought he liked me—I was different from his normal floozies—but maybe that was where I was going wrong. I had no idea. I needed a guy’s perspective, but who could I ask?

“Hey.” The familiar voice came from behind me. “You look miles away. You okay?”

Ben. Standing beside me at the cart. How long had he been there? I watched, dazed, as he dug into a pocket, before holding out his phone to pay for his drink. Unlike most of the programmers I worked with, he had nice hands—with long slender fingers and neat, clean nails. I pulled myself together.

“Yeah, just thinking.” Ben was the closest I had to a male friend. Could I trust him?


About the Authors: Romance author Sofia Grey spends her days managing projects in the corporate world and her nights hanging out with wolf shifters and alpha males. She devours pretty much anything in the fiction line, but she prefers her romances to be hot, and her heroes to have hidden depths. When writing, she enjoys peeling back the layers to expose her characters’ flaws and always makes them work hard for their happy endings.

Allyson Lindt is a full-time geek and a fuller-time contemporary romance author. She prefers that her geeky heroes come with the alpha expansion pack and adores a heroine who can hold her own in a boardroom. She loves a sexy happily-ever-after and helping deserving cubicle dwellers find their futures together. Find Sofia online at

http://www.SofiaGrey.com
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6906923.Sofia_Grey
https://www.facebook.com/Sofia.Grey.Romance.Author
http://www.pinterest.com/sofiagrey1/
https://twitter.com/SofiaGreyAuthor
https://www.amazon.com/author/sofiagrey
http://sofiagreynz@tumblr.com

Find Allyson Online at

http://allysonlindt.com
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Allyson-Lindt/116062025108551
https://twitter.com/AllysonLindt
http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7024176.Allyson_Lindt
https://www.amazon.com/author/allysonlindt

The authors blog at http://www.GeminiGirls.com.

Buy the book at Amazon. a Rafflecopter giveaway.

Thursday, October 23, 2014

Blood Brothers by Dean C. Moore - Q&A and Giveaway


This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. One random winner will receive a $20 Amazon gift card via Rafflecopter drawing. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.

Welcome to It's Raining Books and thank you for agreeing to answer our questions. Why do you write in your genre? What draws you to it?

I guess I’m still a kid at heart who’s determined to fly, teleport, move objects at a distance, read minds, shape shift, be in several places at once… and I’ll be damned if anyone tells me I can’t. I’ve always believed reality is just someone else’s fantasy that has been unjustly imposed on me, rather effectively so, thanks to defective parenting, and people in authority insisting they know things that are facts when really they are just superstitions and particularly infectious memes. But, of course, shedding all that early life programming to open my mind to my actual potential takes work. Hence why I write in the genres I do, not just to transform the reader, but to transform myself as well. I don’t want to be Moses pointing the way to the Promised Land; I want to step onto it with you.

What research or world building is required?

It really depends on how you approach the genres. For sci-fi, if you expect your near future and far future stories to be at all prescient, there is quite a lot of reading. It’s rather endless, actually. You have to be a voracious consumer of hi-tech news, because the pace of change is accelerating all the time. And you have to read across the board, from professional journals and online sources, to novels, and stuff that isn’t ready for publication yet because the research is so cutting edge. The trick is to allow this bottomless well of knowledge to enrich and enliven the story as opposed to bog it down.

With fantasy, the potential stumbling blocks to be avoided are a bit different. There, it’s not the need for greater scientific accuracy that will trip you up, but the inordinate amount of world building that’s required for the genre. Too often writers fail to dole this out in bite size chunks, and instead they do data dumps. So the pace of the story is slowed, even stopped entirely, while the writer paints us a never-to-be-forgotten slice-of-life image from whatever alternate dimension their story is taking place in. Curiously, many fantasy readers seem to be more patient with this than you might expect, as I can think of any number of best-selling fantasy writers who are entirely guilty as charged. But as for myself, with the background I have in screenwriting, where—above all else—you must keep the story moving, I could never do that to my readers.

Name one thing you learned from your hero/heroine.

Blood Brothers essentially has four protagonists, two heroes, after whom the book is named, and two heroines (their wives.) Each taught me quite a bit about how different people come at life and how those contrasting views and values can enhance relationships.

From Jared I learned that no matter how much seemingly omnipotent outside forces try to manipulate us and keep us down, using technology and twenty-four hour spycams and supervision, people will always find the one loophole in the system and use it as a way out from under the oppressor’s thumb. Every time. And I’m not just talking about the exceptional among us; I’m talking about the least among us.

From Clay I learned that people can have extraordinary, even paranormal abilities, and still have no idea what to do with them, or any inclination to use those abilities. It’s not until life puts them in a situation where they have to that they will realize their full potential; until then, they may not recognize they even have wherewithal.

From Ellen I learned that the ugly things in our lives don’t have to scar us. Even when we are caught up in alien and hostile situations beyond our control, for which we are clearly not to blame, if we make the most of those circumstances, they can be the springboard to enlightenment instead of to greater suffering.

From Myrna I learned that motherhood too can be an unexpected jumping off point to higher awareness and short of that, some very surprising paranormal abilities that otherwise lie dormant in us. Her willingness to make her kids the chief focus of her life, to do everything possible to foster their imaginations, is what ultimately gets her to own the magic in herself.

And when the couples were together, fighting, clawing their way back to closeness past all the factors in their lives which instead bred alienation, they taught me something special. There is a magnetism in the dance between soul mates that can cut through all of the superficial stuff that gets in the way if only we can own what’s deep inside us. I learned, moreover, that couples who live together a long time, even if they don’t start out as soul mates, do just that, clear a path to what’s essential, in each and everything they do, even if it’s transpiring on an entirely unconscious level. In fact it’s what makes marriage sacred and miraculous.

Any odd or interesting writing quirks, habits or superstitions?

I have these busts and full-figure wood carvings I’ve collected over the years. They’re positioned around my room like guardian angels. Perhaps they function also like steersmen helping to guide me from this realm of consciousness and this reality into so many others. They keep an eye on me from every corner, nook, and cranny in the room. Some would find this a bit spooky. Sort of like inviting ghosts to hang around and be your friends. But to date, looking back on my prolific output over the years, I’d say they’re worth their weight in gold. Superstition? Or Super-reality?

Plotter or pantser?

A bit of both. I need to have enough of a sense of the story structure in my head before I begin to know I’m not writing aimlessly and that I’m not going to run out of steam half way through. It’s sort of like a painter laying down the charcoal drawing. But come time to color things in, the characters do that, and in so doing bring the narrative to life. If I didn’t let them take over, my life would be so much shallower and less interesting! And not just my virtual life, because the things they teach me enrich my real world relationships as well.

Look to your right – what’s sitting there?

A book by Caleb Carr, called The Alienist. Perhaps my favorite novel of all time. It’s out of place, of course, like so much else in the room. It sits before a tower of audiophile electronics that opens a passageway to endless sensorial realms I couldn’t get to without. And stacked above that is my wide-screen TV. And right next to that is a window into an enchanted forest in the backyard. Clearly I’m all about portals into other worlds.

Anything new coming up from you? What?

Nano Man is the tale of the first human to be infected with Nano, thus opening a gateway to any number of paranormal abilities and superpowers. But if you look beyond that, you’ll see that what this story is really about is: what does it mean to be human amidst all this technological largess? Is it harder, easier? Is there something better to look forward to that we’re evolving into? And in the end is it really the technology which will shape us more than anything else, or the old standbys of love, family, and friends? And maybe the ability to get a little distance on ourselves? Or will it be some confluence of factors? Will the two forces of emerging technologies and the emerging consciousness which arises with them forever co-create and reshape one another? My books tend to be thematically rich, so I’m certainly not saying that the reader couldn’t miss these thrusts altogether in favor of another focus that grabs their eye. After all, all great stories boil down to great characters and the conflicts between them. And it is the reader who must decide what the story ultimately means to them.

Do you have a question for our readers?

I find that as we head into the future, the sci-fi and paranormal fantasy genres are merging more and more, as with the example of my novel, Nano Man, mentioned above (debuting in early 2015 incidentally, if not sooner). There are certainly plenty of other offerings I could cite: The Fantastic Four movie franchise for one; the recent Forever and Extant TV series; and things like X-Men, Wolverine, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Is this your feeling too? If so, I and my books may well be ahead of the learning curve. If not, I may be going down a road less traveled.

Fraternal twins are separated from birth, and raised to be assassins. They were never meant to meet. But even when kept apart, they’re just too powerful. Their paranormal abilities cease to be an advantage when they can no longer be controlled. So they are scheduled for cancellation.

Their paths cross before they can be taken out. It is only then that they discover the true depths of their betrayal. Not only are they stronger when they’re together, they’re half-breeds, sired by an all-powerful warlock.

The question is, are they strong enough even together to take him on now that he’s coming for them?

They have an ace up their sleeves they are not aware of. Drawn to the same kind of women, they find themselves married to a pair of sorceresses whose magical abilities are only now surfacing.

But one encounter with dear old dad is all it takes for them to realize, they’re still the underdogs.

From the back of the book: “The series is called Blood Brothers, but this adventure is really a family affair: the brothers, their partners, children and even their old man in a starring role as the villain. Think Disney's Incredibles, but in a violent and bizarre fantasy world.” Rob May, Dragon Killer

“With incredibly detailed world building and action scenes, this story seems like it would make a phenomenal film or TV series. Moore pulls out all the stops with dragons, telekinesis, shapeshifters and insurmountable odds in this battle of good versus evil - and a villain who just won't lay down and die.” Demelza Carlton, Ocean’s Gift

“When you read a Dean C. Moore novel, you can expect rich, original characters, witty dialogue and unexpected plot turns. Blood Brothers doesn't disappoint.” JC Gatlin, Designated Survivor
Enjoy an excerpt:

Just beyond the perimeter of the military encampment, Clay and Jared soared in with the F-14, still moving relatively slowly under the influence of Clay's telekinesis, the jet’s fuel long spent.

They observed the drama with the dragons breathing fire on the soldiers and having it deflected by the force field.

And then they watched as Rydell took out the two-headed dragons one after the other with blasts from his eyes, boring basketball-size holes through each of their hearts.

The beasts emitted agonizing cries as they fell. The first to land, the one with the more pointy snouts, managed to penetrate the shield with her heads as she landed on top of it. With her dying breaths, the fiery boluses she emitted took out a healthy allotment of soldiers already panicked and fleeing beneath the energy dome. Then, with her body limp and arched to accommodate the shield, she slid off.

As the second dragon crashed, it flicked its tail, penetrating the shield, and slicing any number of running soldiers in two, before the shield pushed it back out, resuming its perfect spherical shape.

The last of the second dragon’s heads hammered the ground moments after.

Jared took over the F-14, firing up the afterburners. “We're outta here.”

“And the defenseless women we're arriving like knights in shining armor to save?”

“We'll say a prayer.”


About the Author:
I write sci-fi, fantasy, action-adventures and thrillers, or some combination thereof—usually with a strong vein of dark humor. Though, my works are dramas first; the humor is there to take the edge off as with the Raiders of the Lost Ark, Transformers, and Jurassic Park franchises.

I wrote screenplays for a while, and while enjoying them, I found them a bit confining. After a while you just need the extra page count to flesh out characters better and do additional world building, especially when considering doing anything epic in scope. I also took a run at future forecasting and trend tracking, being as I always had my head in the future, things like Alvin Toffler’s Future Shock. I also relished this, and can certainly see myself releasing a few titles accordingly in the nonfiction area. But since delving into novels, short and long, I’ve definitely found my home and my voice. For the first time I feel the restraints have been taken off of my imagination. I suppose all mediums have their limits, so I may end up doing a mix of things, but I suspect I will continue to spend most of my time with novels. Series add an additional dimension, allowing for even more depth and development both in the character and world building departments. But I remain at heart a divergent thinker, so, no surprise, I seem to have more series going than follow up installments at this point. That too may change over time; we’ll see. Until then, it may be best to just think of these books as one-offs if you’re fond of my writing style and some of the themes I work with.

My current catalog of twelve books represents a little over five years' worth of work. I'm currently averaging a couple books annually. Of my existing franchises with multiple installments, The Hundred Year Clone books can be read in any order, while the 5 books of Renaissance 2.0 must be read in sequence as they form part of a singular story arc (much as with A Game of Thrones.)

I live in the country where I breed bluebirds, which are endangered in these parts, as my small contribution to restoring nature's balance. When I'm not writing, or researching my next book, I may also be found socializing with friends, or working in my organic garden.

http://deancmoore.com/
https://www.facebook.com/AuthorDeanCMoore
https://twitter.com/DeanCMoore
https://plus.google.com/u/0/106904341944230084637/posts
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCegC-5QDQQ7Z9ZChARAhWhA
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7951313.Dean_C_Moore http://www.amazon.com/DEAN-C.-MOORE/e/B00IBYUHXC/ref=sr_tc_2_0?qid=1407520914&sr=1-2-ent a Rafflecopter giveaway

Wednesday, October 22, 2014

The Book Blogger Platform by Barb Drozdowich - Spotlight and Giveaway

 

This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. Barb will be awarding a $20.00 Amazon/B&N gift card to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.

Book Blogging - One of the Best Hobbies in the World!

Join thousands of book bloggers in expressing their joy of reading!

Are you a book blogger or do you want to be one? Are you having trouble handling the technical details of blogging? The Book Blogger Platform can be a "user manual" for your blog! A book written by a book blogger for book bloggers and that answers all your questions!

The Book Blogger Platform covers topics such as:

1. What a book blogger blog needs to contain
2. A step by step guide to manipulating images and videos
3. A description of all the common features hosted by book bloggers
4. A description of the social media aspect to a book blogger platform
5. Being Social - the social aspect of book blogging

If you are tired of always asking other bloggers questions

Let The Book Blogger Platform guide you painlessly. Over 80 color graphics lead you step by step through some of the more difficult technical issues that bloggers face.

Pick up a copy today and approach blogging with confidence!

Enjoy an excerpt:

Just as all book bloggers are different, their approach to book blogging is also different. Some book bloggers consider themselves primarily book reviewers. Some book bloggers consider themselves primarily promoters of books. Some book bloggers will only post about a book they have read. Some book bloggers will post about any book that belongs to a genre that fits the profile of their blog.

Book bloggers who consider themselves primarily book reviewers make their reviews the main focus of their blog. They often take their self-imposed “job” of reviewing books very seriously. They put hours of work into reading a book and then creating the right combination of words to best describe their thoughts and impressions. It’s a labor of love.

Many book bloggers, such as myself, consider themselves primarily promoters of books. I began my blog posting reviews of books I’d read, and I worked hard to grow my blog’s audience. I am very proud of my blog and the work that goes into it. However, I have a full-time job and a family. I don’t have enough reading hours to review one book a day, so I fill my blog’s days with a mixture of reviews and promotions. I don’t post more than once a day, but I use the platform I have built to promote as many books and authors as I can that fit within my reading taste.

As I mentioned above, some book bloggers will only post about books they have read. They feel that posting about a book is a recommendation of that book and they don’t want to recommend a book they haven’t read.

Have I read all the books that are promoted on my blog? No. I fit into the other camp of book bloggers. I see promoting books, whether through blog tours, reviews, or other promotions, as simply sharing information. I leave it up to my readers to decide whether to read the book or not.

Another area in which people hold strong feelings centers on whether or not to post negative reviews. One camp feels that all book bloggers who review books need to post negative reviews. They feel that having an assortment of positive and negative reviews creates balance. It allows readers to read about what the blogger likes and doesn’t like and why. It is often said that reviewers who only post positive reviews risk having their honesty questioned.

I am of the camp that doesn’t bother to finish a book if I am not enjoying it. I feel no need to talk about a book I didn’t like. I have boxes and boxes of books to be read. My Nook (e-reader) is full of little gems waiting for my attention. Maybe it’s my age, but I don’t soldier on, I move on. I do, however, make it clear in my review policy that I only talk about books that I enjoyed reading.

This topic will come up again later; you do need to give some thought to your philosophy on book blogging. Are you going to only post reviews? Are you only going to promote books you have read? This isn’t necessarily something that will be decided on at the beginning and that you can never change. Many book bloggers change their views as time progresses.

Accompanying your philosophy of blogging is your view of how much of a platform you are going to have. I started my blog to express my thoughts about the books I’d read. It never really occurred to me that other people would read what I had read, let alone comment on it or share it with friends!

There is absolutely nothing wrong with creating a book blog to share your thoughts with friends—old friends as well as new. If, however, you actively seek out blog tour posts and post promotions of author’s books, you should also be actively growing your book blogger platform. If someone is paying to post on your blog via a blog tour, you should be able to share this information with as many people as possible.

Everyone starts out as a baby blogger. Everyone has a different view of what they want their blog to be. There is no right or wrong answer. Every blog should be a reflection of its owner and its owner’s tastes.

I hope to use this book to describe the Book Blogger Platform in its entirety. I hope to give you a lot to think about. Please don’t hesitate to ask questions. I’m on Twitter, Facebook, and my blogs every day. My contact links will be listed at the end of this book. I love answering questions and chatting about books!

About the Author:
Social Media and Wordpress Consultant Barb Drozdowich has taught at Universities and Colleges, trained technical personnel in the banking industry and, most recently, used her expertise to help dozens of authors develop the social media platform needed to succeed in today’s fast evolving publishing world. She owns Bakerview Consulting and manages the popular blog, Sugarbeat’s Books.

Bakerview Consulting (Business Site) - http://bakerviewconsulting.com
Author Site - http://barbdrozdowich.com
Sugarbeat's Books - http://sugarbeatsbooks.com
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/BarbDrozdowichAuthor
Twitter - http://twitter.com/sugarbeatbc
Google+ - https://plus.google.com/110824499539694941768

Buy the book exclusively at Amazon.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Tuesday, October 21, 2014

Good Faith by Liz Crowe - Spotlight and Giveaway


This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. Prizes will be awarded via Rafflecopter as follows:

GRAND PRIZE: Kindle Fire pre-loaded with all Liz Tri-Desitny titles
FIRST PRIZE: $50 Amazon Gift Card
SECOND PRIZE: $25 Amazon Gift Card
THIRD PRIZE: full ebook set of STEWART REALTY SERIES up to Good Faith (8 books in all including the prequel House Rules)

Strong personalities—volatile marriages—stressful careers—conflicting goals—difficult children.

Contemporary challenges facing close-knit families form the crucible that forges a new generation.

Brandis, Gabriel, Blair and Lillian emerge from the entanglement of their parents’ longstanding emotional connections, but one’s star will burn brighter – and hotter – than the others.

With a personality that consumes everyone and everything in its path, Brandis Gordon struggles to maintain control as he ricochets between wild success and miserable failure. His life proves how even the strongest relationships can be strangled by the ties that bind.

Brandis and Gabe Frietag are as close as any brothers, bound by both loyalty and fierce rivalry. The strength of their ultimate alliance is tested time and again by Brandis’ choices.

Companions from birth, Blair Frietag and Lillian Robinson share loner tendencies, but come to rely on each other through adolescence. As they mature, both are forced to confront their feelings for the men they knew as boys.

Somewhere between the tangle of good memories and bad, independence and addiction, optimism and despair, the intertwined destinies of the new generation finally collide, leaving some stronger, others broken, but none unscathed.

As a chronicle of three families navigating the minefields of teen years into the turbulence of young adulthood, Good Faith holds up a literary mirror to contemporary life with joys and temptations unflinchingly reflected. Its fresh, real-life voice portrays the sheer volatility of human nature, complete with the hopes, dreams, and unexpected setbacks of marriage, parenthood and “coming of age.”

Enjoy an excerpt:

That morning his father had roused him from a sound sleep. He’d blinked, confused, by the angle of the sunlight. He rarely slept much past eight since he usually had some sort of training or the other.

“Let’s go son. Time for lunch.”

Brandis had dragged himself up, his limbs feeling like they weighed a thousand pounds each. His brain buzzed with a strange sort of energy, his typical state, and not at all welcome considering it normally didn’t hit him until later in the day. The conversation his father began as soon as they were seated at their usual diner did not help.

“So, listen, Brandis. These girls…Katie’s friends from college….”

Brandis sipped his ice water, waiting for his father to finish the thought. His heart pounded, and his face flushed hot with embarrassment.

Jack sighed, as if exasperated that Brandis didn’t pick up the thread on his own, leaving him to carry on with the awkwardness about to ensue. Then he leveled his gaze, his face open, not angry or judgmental. “I think that you may be in for some…I mean, they’re…shit.”

“If you are gonna tell me where babies come from again,” Brandis said, after deciding to ease his father’s obvious distress. He cocked an eyebrow and half a smile. Jack seemed to relax somewhat as Brandis continued. “Don’t bother. I already know.”

He flashed his brightest smile up at the middle-aged woman who stood at their table, coffee pot in hand. She blinked rapidly at him, and at that precise moment, Brandis got his first flash of…something…about his power. Up until now he’d merely been “Brandis the trouble maker, the causer of strife.” Suddenly, he felt strong, amazingly so, stronger than even the man sitting across from him, a taller, older version of himself. His body tingled all over, as he tested the smile out again on the woman, making her slop some coffee out onto the table. His father frowned, but then chuckled as the woman walked away after they gave their orders.

“Son,” he said, leaning back and cradling the coffee mug to his chest. “Your adventure has only just begun.”

“Huh?” Brandis picked up his cup but didn’t drink any. He hated coffee, but had ordered it in a burst of need to be more like Jack. As he sipped the bitter stuff, he was transported back years before when he and his dad would spend every single Saturday morning together, eating breakfast at this very diner. He had adored the man, he remembered distinctly. His chest hurt at the simplicity of their relationship then. He looked away from Jack’s deep blue, knowing gaze.

The subject changed of its own accord, and Brandis let it. Although part of him wanted to ask for advice, a much bigger part would not allow the words past his lips.

They ate, discussing the upcoming football season and Brandis’ part in it. The recruiting company Jack had contracted last year to video his every move would start up with the first game. He’d made varsity again, technically as backup quarterback to a senior boy. Brandis didn’t see this as a setback and had every intention of starting under center by the second or third game.

Finally, when they pushed their empty plates back and sat looking at each other, Brandis felt more comfortable in his father’s presence than he had been in a long time. Jack said, “I am pretty sure at least one of those girls sleeping in the basement is determined to change the status of your virginity for you probably as soon as tonight.”

Brandis choked on the last sip of lukewarm coffee. His face burned, and his body tingled again. “I’m…it’s…uh….” He clutched the napkin in his lap unable to meet his father’s eyes.

“No need to say anything. Let’s just say your mother is an astute reader of female intent. While I was busy admiring your sister’s friend’s ass, she apparently read the girl’s mind or something.” Brandis’ face flushed even hotter.

He resisted the urge to protest, to proclaim his innocence of such things. Because he wanted it back—those mornings between them, father and son, man and boy, not this awkward, man and almost-man bullshit. Because while the thought of one of his sister’s college friends popping his cherry remained a pleasant fantasy, it also made him feel older than he wanted to be right then.

“So, I bought a box of condoms this morning,” Jack went on. “Put some downstairs in the side table drawer and the rest in your room. Use them please.” He sipped the last of his coffee, looked as if he were about to get up, then leaned forward, touching Brandis’ wrist. “Have fun. Don’t be an asshole to women. Let every experience teach you…something. Because you are nothing as a man if you don’t learn from every woman you…love.” Jack looked out the window onto the nearly empty parking lot. Then he turned back, tightened his grip on his son’s arm. “God, you are so…young.” His face fell a moment, then he perked up again, his eyes twinkling. “Okay, so, your mother told me to tell you not to let them corrupt you. But all I’m gonna say is this: always wear protection, no matter what, no matter how much you don’t want to. And don’t let your mom catch you in the act. I’ll handle her otherwise.”

Then he let go, stood and smiled, draping a friendly arm around Brandis’ shoulders as they exited the restaurant.

“You really didn’t tell me you were admiring Katie’s friend’s ass, did you, Dad?”

“No, son. I most certainly did not. You obviously misheard me.” Jack winked as he stood by the passenger’s side of his classic Corvette convertible and tossed the keys to Brandis. “Remember what I told you. Don’t ride my clutch.”

About the Author:
Amazon best-selling author, beer blogger and beer marketing expert, mom of three, and soccer fan, Liz Crowe lives Ann Arbor. She has decades of experience in sales and fund raising, plus an eight-year stint as a three-continent, ex-pat trailing spouse.

Her early forays into the publishing world led to a groundbreaking fiction subgenre, “Romance for Real Life,” which has gained thousands of fans and followers interested less in the “HEA” and more in the “WHA” (“What Happens After?”). More recently she is garnering even more fans across genres with her latest novels, which are more character-driven fiction, while remaining very much “real life.”

With stories set in the not-so-common worlds of breweries, on the soccer pitch, in successful real estate offices and at times in exotic locales like Istanbul, Turkey, her books are unique and told with a fresh voice. The Liz Crowe backlist has something for any reader seeking complex storylines with humor and complete casts of characters that will delight, frustrate and linger in the imagination long after the book is finished.

www.lizcrowe.com
www.brewingpasssion.com
www.facebook.com/lizcroweauthor
www.facebook.com/groups/lizcrowefans
www.twitter.com/beerwencha2
www.a2beerwench.com
www.amazon.com/Liz-Crowe/e/B00573TC7M

Buy the book at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Smashwords, Kobo, iTunes

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Confessions of a Self-Help Writer by Benjamin W. DeHaven - Guest Blog and Giveaway


This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. One randomly chosen winner via rafflecopter will win a $50 Amazon/BN.com gift card. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour. Five other winners via rafflecopter will win a signed hardcover copy of his book (US only).

Lessons I've Learned from my Character


Never carry baggage
The best things are usually done on impulse.
It’s good to ask questions that make people uncomfortable.
A true friend is someone who accepts your faults and collaborates in their realization.
In the face of perfection, unity is a lost soul
Sometimes you only need a taste of success to realize what you've been missing.
If you second-guess your intentions, she will know.
Don’t trust actors.
Don’t let People you hate conform you
When you feel nothing, only death or incarceration gives you a rush.
Escape is impossible without knowledge.
If you’re not ready to receive the message, you will not hear it.
Ninety percent of success comes from showing up.
Give up control or you will surely fail.
Your reality can be as beautiful as you imagine it.
It’s easy to sell people with a glimmer of hope.
There are signs everywhere. The secret is reading them
Sometimes you feel like you don’t have any place to go, even when you’re home
There are some doors that can’t be shut once you’ve opened them.
If you can’t talk to people, you’ll never get anywhere.
It's a bad sign when you are less scared of death than someone who is actually dying.
Everything has a loophole.
Peace is found with honesty among wicked men. #confessionsofaselfhelpwriter
If you’ve got nothing, you’ve got nothing to lose. #confessionsofaselfhelpwriter
A favor that involves money creates change.
Self-destruction is inevitable because existence is a full-time job. #confessionsofaselfhelpwriter
Killing someone’s spirit is worse than murder, but setting someone free is close to divine.
It’s a freeing experience when u realize u teach people how to treat you.
When you bargain with yourself, you always lose
You must accept that your actions hurt everyone @realmichaelenzo
Beware of people who offer advice about problems that aren’t theirs; they usually don’t know what they’re talking about.
It takes no strength to fall in love, but more than most have to keep it.
You have to let guilt go. It’s your past that makes you who you are.
Not everybody can be what he or she wants to be. Suck it up

A ghost, a philanthropist, a con man, a devout Catholic, a gigolo, a savior, an heir, a common man, and an addict are just some of the words used to describe Michael Enzo, who some sources credit with ghost-writing more than 108 self-help books on behalf of celebrities, politicians and business leaders. After failing to make what he considered to be a positive impact on society he began to destroy those closest to him including Benjamin DeHaven, the author of this book, and former collaborator. Defrauding an industry for almost 20 years by exploiting people's insecurities and profiting from them, more than likely these friends contributed more to the field of self-help, while profiting from it, than they will ever know. Believing they could only understand people's problems by suffering along with them, they lived on the razor's edge. If you've ever picked up a tell-all biography of a celebrity or a title from the self-help section at the bookstore, certainly you would question the source.This is an inside look at the mind of Michael Enzo and it is the author's hope that people will start helping themselves again after reading it. Discover what turns someone from preaching salvation towards seeking its destruction. You won't believe this could be true.

About the Author: A Graduate of Columbia College in Chicago, Benjamin DeHaven keeps his heart in Chicago and his soul in New Orleans. He holds a MBA from Tulane and a film degree from Columbia. Once ejected from a community college for arguing Frost cried out for acceptance in Birches, he has since written screenplays, traded futures in Madrid, and was Editor in Chief of the Nola Shopper Newspaper, a free art newspaper and the 2nd largest monthly paper in the New Orleans, MSA. . He also has a "shout out" in a Jay "Z" Song.

DeHaven, who currently resides in Las Vegas began his writing career with Stone United, a Chicago based Film Company, which works primarily in independent film. As an unknown fiction writer, he feels the best description of himself is a sarcastic one and is as follows:

Benjamin W. DeHaven was born on a pool table after a Waylon Jennings' concert in 1977. His personal success is outweighed only by his stunning good looks and adherence to unwritten moral guidelines. He has been described as a thinking man's Tucker Max as well as an idiot's Hunter S. Thompson. His goal is to die from an unwavering commitment to be more like Hemingway.

He and Michael Enzo were friends.

Website: https://bdehaven.com
Twitter: http://twitter.com/ben_dehaven
Facebook: http://facebook.com/bendehavenws
YouTube: http://Youtube.com/benjamindehaven
Amazon Author Page: http://www.amazon.com/Benjamin-DeHaven/e/B00HNEHH34/ref=ntt_dp_epwbk_0
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7701189.Benjamin_DeHaven

Buy the book at BN.com or Amazon.com. a Rafflecopter giveaway

Monday, October 20, 2014

Landslide by Robin Mahle - Interview and Giveaway


This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. Robin will be awarding a $25 Amazon gift card to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.

Welcome to It's Raining Books and thanks for stopping by. Why do you write in your genre? What draws you to it?

I absolutely love to solve problems. It’s kind of my thing. Well, except math problems—not so much. So, I’ve always been drawn to reading mysteries and suspense novels. I love the tension those types of stories create. That tension keeps me hanging on to every word the author writes. It was a natural progression for me to continue in that genre, writing to give the reader the thrill of the chase.

What research is required?

Most of my stories exist in the world of crime. Corporate crime, murders, kidnappings, you name it. These require quite a bit of research. I spend a lot of time learning about true crime investigations, both online and through various former professionals in the industry. In fact, a very good friend of mine is married to a retired police captain. I’ve bounced more than a few ideas off of him just to ensure they were at least in the realm of reality. For this latest book, Landslide, I had to study existing court cases involving white collar crimes, embezzlement and such. It’s really very fascinating.

Name one thing you learned from your hero/heroine.

To be honest, I’ve learned a great deal from all of my heroines. All of my novels include very strong female characters. In this latest book, I can tell you that Claire McKenna ends up being a very courageous woman, perhaps putting herself in more danger than I would ever consider. Most women would do just about anything to protect their families. She takes that to a whole new level and if I could absorb a fraction of her audacity, then I’m going to be just fine.

Do you have any odd or interesting writing quirks, habits or superstitions?

You know, I wish I did. It would make me a much more interesting person, but no, I really don’t. My kids and husband go off every morning, doing their thing and then I write, all day, until they come home from school or work. I suppose the closest thing I’ve got to a quirk is that I need to have my curtains open so I can see my back yard. I must admit, I love the beauty of my back garden. It’s soothing to watch as I think of my next paragraph, chapter or whatever.

Are you a plotter or pantser?

I believe I’m what you would call a hybrid. I loosely outline my story. I create backgrounds for my characters and then I start writing from Chapter 1, rarely deviating from chronological order. Most of the time, my final story ends up looking nothing like my outline. However, it does give me a starting point and then my characters tend to take me where they want to go.

Look to your right – what’s sitting there?

For the moment, my husband is sitting next to me. It’s a lovely Saturday morning and he works weekends, but hasn’t left yet. Later today, I’ll take my son to his soccer game and do some grocery shopping. Fairly routine, some might say boring, but it’s my life and I’m very happy. In fact, my husband and I just celebrated our 15th anniversary last week. Hey, I’m a writer. If I want excitement, I just make up stories!

Anything new coming up from you? What?

As a matter of fact, yes! I’m very excited to tell you that book three in my Redwood Violet series, Law of Five, is now available for pre-order on Amazon. Its release date is 12/1 and I can’t wait to see what fans of the series think of it!

Do you have a question for our readers?

I think this is the first time I’ve ever been asked that and so, yes. I would like to ask your readers a question. As a reader, what is the most important thing you look for when choosing a book? The cover? Reviews? Does it matter to you if the writer is an indie? Ok, so maybe I had more than one question :-)

Author Robin Mahle is pleased to bring you her latest novel, Landslide. A corporate suspense/thriller that will pull you in fast and keep you holding on tight until the very end!

In the sprawling suburbs of Seattle, Claire McKenna finds solace in her perfectly ordinary life. With the daily struggles of raising a family and climbing out of debt, she and her husband Colin, work hard to hang on to what they’ve got.

So when Claire is offered an incredible opportunity to rise in the ranks of her firm, she jumps at the chance. Her joy, however, is short lived at the discovery that her close friend and colleague, Beth Graves has just been accused of embezzlement.

Compelled to see Beth’s name cleared, Claire soon stumbles on a larger, more dangerous conspiracy at the firm. One that involves people she once trusted. One that threatens to destroy her ordinary life.

Enjoy an excerpt:

An odor of car exhaust remained suspended in the parking garage and, when it mixed with the damp air, the smell was obnoxious. Claire reluctantly passed through the invisible cloud towards the elevators leading up to the lobby. Standing in the breezeway of the office entrance, she found that the doors were still locked. But when she looked through the tinted glass, she spotted Jim, the security guard on the night shift. No need for him to open it up for her. She held her magnetic keycard against the white box fixed to the wall. The green light at the top flashed and the doors clicked open.

“Good morning, Mrs. McKenna. You’re in awful early,” Jim said, taking a sip of his coffee.

Her high-heeled steps echoed on the marble floor, the lofty ceilings further amplifying the sound. “Well, good morning, Jim. It’s not often I get to see you. How’s the family? Denise doing all right?”

“She is and thank you for asking. What have I done to deserve such a fine sight on this dreary Tuesday morning?” Jim was a charmer to all the women in the building, but he’d known Claire the longest and seemed to hold a special place in his heart just for her.

She leaned over the high granite counter where Jim sat below the sign that hung on the wall. “Information Desk.” A knowing grin lit up her entire face. “I just found a major problem with one of our reporting systems.”

“And this is a good thing?” A perplexed look began to mask Jim’s previous warm-hearted smile.

“It’s a good thing that I was the one who found it.” Claire slapped the cold black stone. “A girl’s gotta find a way to get ahead in this world, Jim, and I think I just found my golden ticket. It’s going to be a good day.”


About the Author:
Robin Mahle lives with her husband and two children in Arizona. She found her passion for writing, which later became her second career, after spending 20 years in the construction industry.

Having always been a lover of books, Robin attributes her creativity to the wonderful overseas adventures she has shared with her husband of 15 years. Traveling throughout Europe and having lived in England, opened her mind and with that came a steady stream of story ideas inspired by her author-idols in the suspense/thriller genre.

Robin published her debut mystery/suspense novel, Redwood Violet in March of 2013. And in September 2013, the much-anticipated sequel, All the Shiny Things(Redwood Violet II), was released. Both have become Amazon Bestsellers! Now, Beyond the Clearing has also joined the list! Her latest novel, Landslide, was released in July, 2014. This exciting corporate thriller reveals Robin’s unique voice yet again.

www.robinmahle.com
rmbooks@robinmahle.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Robin-Mahle-Author/241664929225135
Twitter: https://twitter.com/RobinMahle
Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/rmbooks/
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22813119-landslide?from_search=true

Buy the book at Amazon or Barnes and Noble.

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