Genre: Contemporary / Women’s Fiction / Coming of Age
Date of Publication: April 7, 2017
Number of Pages: 160
Ana Petrescu (aka Miss Vulpe) is a troubled teenager determined to solve the mystery of her parents’ double suicide. Escaping the scrutiny of her legal guardian and the unwanted interference of several therapists, she starts looking up people from her mother’s past. Her sleuthing requires her to lie about her identity, her age, and her lack of experience with men. While impersonating Miss Vulpe is more fun than going to school, there’s bound to be trouble and heartache when her web of lies unravels.
Next to an illegal GPS, the cabbie has a whole display of Greek Orthodox icons. Praying probably comes in handy since he drives like a maniac, the car is a piece of junk, and there are no seat belts in the back. She loves this last detail, especially since Rogers asks her to buckle up, and she can disobey through no fault of her own. The music blasting through shabby speakers is delightful. New music has come out since she’s been gone. New songs to form a soundtrack to her city. The trees are still in bloom, birds chirp, and there is a lyricism to everything that contrasts with the heavy traffic, the honking, and the swearing. Her city is a beautiful and complex universe, a labyrinth of the absurd and the delightful. She takes in the wide boulevards lined with trees, promenades, and stately mansions with the same delight with which she surveys the grey buildings, vestiges from hard times she hasn’t lived, the shop windows displaying new and colorful wares, the travel-weary commuters waiting at bus stops, and the occasional spiffy-dressed cyclist upon whom their pot-bellied driver finds it appropriate to bestow a whole litany of insults. Apparently hipsters on bicycles are destroying the city. Ana smiles. She’s been gone three years, and her city has a new energy to it. Her magical metropolis has even more zest for life than before, and whether the cab driver wants to accept this or not, both he and the pretty girls cycling in skirts on colorful bicycles are part of this, like a yin and yang. There’s so much old stuff she’s missed, and so much new stuff she wants to discover. Chic coffee shops and bookstores and boutiques, cobbled streets and renovated facades, old dusty shacks about to crumble, and through it all that penchant for both romance and anxiety that no other city in the world, she’s sure of it, can throw in your face with such self-deprecating humor.
Maria Elena Sandovici lives in Houston with her dog. She travels to Bucharest often and also to Spain, but her favorite trip remains 45 South to Galveston. She has an art studio at Hardy and Nance in the Warehouse District, open the third Saturday of every month, blogs daily at havewatercolorswilltravel.com, and writes poetry in the voice of her dog. She is also the author of three previous novels about women who are struggling with finding their place in the world.
Genre: Historical / Western / Action-Adventure / Romance
Publisher: Redhook
Date of Publication: May 23, 2017
Number of Pages: 384
Outlander meets post-Civil War unrest in this action-packed follow up to Sawbones.
Laura Elliston and William Kindle are on the run — from the Army and from every miscreant in the West eager to claim the $500 bounty for Laura’s capture as their own. But the danger isn’t just from those pursuing them. Laura and Kindle have demons of their own and a past that won’t stay dead. Exhausted, scared, scarred and surrounded by enemies, neither realize the greatest danger is yet to come.
Watch Lone Star Book Blog Tours for the Badlands tour starting June 27th – with reviews of Blood Oath, Badlands, and Special Features with the inside scoop!
Melissa Lenhardt is the author the Jack McBride mystery series, as well as the Laura Elliston historical fiction series. Her debut mystery, STILLWATER, was a finalist for the 2014 Whidbey Writers’ MFA Alumni Emerging Writers Contest, and SAWBONES, her historical fiction debut, was hailed as a “thoroughly original, smart and satisfying hybrid, perhaps a new subgenre: the feminist Western” by Lone Star Literary Life.
A lifelong Texan, she lives in the Dallas area with her husband and two sons.
Genre: YA, Suspense/Thriller Publisher: Inkspot Imaginarium Date of Publication: May 2nd, 2017 Review Rating: 5/5
Books Synopsis:
Secrets and survival in the Amazon
Emily Duran is the sole survivor of a plane crash that left her and her teenage friends stranded and alone in the jungles of the Amazon. Lost and losing hope, they struggle against the elements, and each other. With their familiar pecking order no longer in place, a new order emerges, filled with power struggles, betrayals, secrets and lies. Emily must explain why she’s the last left alive.
But can she carry the burden of the past?
Discover the gripping new adventure novel that explores who we are when no one is watching, and how far we’ll go in order to survive.
My Review:
Emily wakes in the drowning waters of the Amazon, not able to recall what had just happened to her. Then to her surprise, she’s not alone. There’s a small band of survivors that managed to live through the horrible plane crash. They set out to find a village, desperate for help. They trek through the Amazon, unaware that the real danger isn’t what creatures are found deep inside the deadly rainforest, or the starvation that gnaws at their bellies. The real danger is much worse than that.
This book had me hooked at page one. Emily Duran is the sole survivor of a plane crash. We’re first introduced to Emily as she is healing from her encounter deep in the Amazon, a place that brought out much more than fear in Emily. James Morris tells the story through a series of flash backs, giving us bits and pieces of the story as it unfolds. Throughout the book I couldn’t help but keep asking “What happened to Emily?” “What happened to the other survivors?” Eager for the answers, I finished this book in one day. These characters literally transformed on the page, from who they were, to the survivors on the Amazon. And their transformation is truly the beauty in Feel Me Fall. Not to mention it had quite a marvelous ending.
This survival story is gripping and intense, with quite a few unexpected turns. Layer by layer, James Morris reveals to us just a little more of each of the characters that has you questioning their morality and honesty as you race to finish the ending. This book is fast paced, and places you on the edge of your seat. Each character has their own story to tell, and each of them demands to be heard. Their past, their present… They’re the kind of characters whose story seems to leap of the page.
If you like stories that are suspenseful and intense, filled with amazing characters, a captivating survival story, and a kick ass ending, then be sure to check out Feel Me Fall!
After serving seventy years in prison for the murder of her sister, Eula, Della Lee has finally returned home to the Texas town of Puerto Pesar. She’s free from confinement—and ready to tell her secrets before it’s too late.
She finds a willing audience in journalist Mick Anders, who is reeling after his suspension from a Boston newspaper and in town, reluctantly, to investigate a mysterious portrait of Eula that reportedly sheds tears. He crosses paths with Dr. Paloma Vega, who’s visiting Puerto Pesar with her own mission: to take care of her ailing grandmother and to rescue her rebellious younger sister before something terrible happens. Paloma and Mick have their reasons to be in the hot, parched border town whose name translates as “Port of Regret.” But they don’t anticipate how their lives will be changed forever.
Moving and engrossing, this dual story alternates between Della’s dark ordeals of the 1940s and Paloma and Mick’s present-day search for answers―about roots, family, love, and what is truly important in life.
Check out the book trailer!
Praise for Before the Rain Falls:
Still wiping away tears! Before the Rain Falls is simultaneously heartbreaking, hopeful, and joyous: a story of complex characters with varied pasts and bright futures. Loved it! – Jennifer B. on Goodreads
This novel takes readers on an emotional, fast-paced, ride through one sister’s journey to self, redemption, and the true meaning of “freedom.” – Nicole W. on Goodreads
There is romance, mystery, and secrets that are kept till the very end that will have you not wanting this beautifully written story to end. – Carol B. on Goodreads
A common question for an author is, “Where did you get your inspiration for your book?”
This was an easy one for my debut novel, The Memory of Us. It was inspired by the classic Beatles song, Eleanor Rigby. Immediately, people’s eyes would light up in recognition and it was a great starting point for conversation.
The answer for my second novel, Before the Rain Falls, is much more convoluted. Like the kind of dream where a red elephant tiptoes through a bed of nails blowing bubble gum.
Nothing there seems to be connected, but in your head, in your sleep, it all makes perfect sense.
So, how’s this:
A mysterious, possibly crying portrait.
A murder.
A grandmother who won’t let anyone buy her an air conditioner even though she swelters day by day in the Texas heat. (That was my grandmother. Wouldn’t let any of her ten children try to relieve this particular suffering.)
A journalist who is trying to resurrect his career after a scandal.
A doctor who is trying to find her purpose.
It did start with the portrait, however, and like the air conditioner, my grandmother was the inspiration. She was the sort who believe in every kind of Jesus-on-a-pancake apparition.
So, along with a documentary I caught on tv about whether or not various “miracles” were real or staged, the image of a portrait, reputed to be shedding tears, came to mind.
That begged the question:
Is it crying? Or is it a fake?
Which begs more questions, like one of those darned factor trees in middle school Math.
If it’s crying, why? How?
If it’s a fake, why did someone do that? What did they gain from it?
I mulled this over. And discovered that this seed of a story I had was not really about the portrait. The portrait was a launching point of something that I knew was bigger.
I do tell you, later in the book, about the tears. But, no spoilers will be had here.
Back to more questions, which I self-answer. This is how an author’s mind, or at least mine, works. We talk to ourselves.
Who is in the portrait?
Immediately, I thought of a beautiful young girl.
Why might she be crying?
She was murdered.
Why was she murdered?
Her sister did it.
Why did her sister do it?
Well, maybe she didn’t. She just went to jail for it.
Oh, new set of tangents.
If she did it, why?
If she didn’t do it, why didn’t she fight her sentence?
Ah! Now we have something.
(See? Conversations for one. An author would have no problem taking herself to dinner. The chatter is riveting.)
That last thread became the bones of my story, and I began to flesh it out.
If she did it, why?
If she didn’t, why didn’t she protest her imprisonment?
I thought on these questions. And thought. The ending came to me pretty quickly. Again, no spoilers. And early reviewers have told me that they didn’t see it coming.
It’s the how to get there that is fun.
And difficult.
And so my dual-timeline, triple-narrator story came into existence as I wove those unusual threads together into something that I hope will be a compelling read to you.
One more thing. I began writing it during a particularly hot and humid spell in a Texas July. So there’s a lot of heat, and I don’t meant the sexy kind. Because I was just too sweat-soaked and droopy to imagine any other kind of setting. All the reviewers who told me that they felt the heat, it’s because I was living it for you.
I took that bullet. If you need to warm up a bit in January, pick it up as a winter read and let it warm you up. Then, let me know what you think!
Camille recently left an award-winning real estate career in San Antonio to become a full-time writer. Along with her husband of 19 years, she enjoys raising their four children. She has a bucket list that is never-ending and uses her adventures to inspire her writing. She’s lived in Texas, Colorado, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and California, and spends enough time in Hawai’i to feel like a local. She’s traveled to four continents (so far), and met Mother Teresa and Pope John Paul II. She just about fainted when she had a chance to meet her musical idol,
Brighton and Leah have been the best of friends since seventh grade. Where Brighton is the quiet one who is focused on school, Leah is the bold and daring one who craves the adoration of an audience. It’s always worked for them, until now.
Heading into their senior year, Brighton is challenged with an opportunity that can change the course of her future. The only problem? She just might have to step out of her best friend’s shadow.
But when Leah doesn’t support the choices she makes, Brighton is forced to reevaluate what true friendship is.
Brighton is changing and exciting doors are opening. A new world of music, friends, and even love are falling at her feet. But it’s hard to enjoy it when Leah’s life is spiraling out of control.
Now Brighton must try to not only save her friendship, but also her friend, before it’s too late.
Excerpt
“Stop looking at me like that,” he said with a sigh as he reached down and squeezed my hand. “I told you, I’m fine. The breakup was mutual. It made no sense to do the long distance thing. I mean, it’s not like I planned on marrying her.”
“I know, but still…”
“Still nothing, Bright. I’m not upset. Actually, I’m really good.”
“Good? Matt, you and Devan have been together for almost a year.”
“Yeah, but we’ve been growing apart for a while. I guess she just figured it was time…I wanted…never mind.”
“What do you mean it was time?”
He placed his hands on my shoulders and slouched so that he was at my eye level and smiled. “Not now, Bright. Okay? But I promise you, I’m fine.”
I pushed off the lockers and slipped my arm into the crook of his, pulling him down the hallway as we searched for our lockers. We planned to share if we were on opposite sides of the school, to make it easier for storage. Granted, the principal frowned upon that sort of thing, but it was harmless.
“I’ve missed you, Matty,” I said, resting my head on his shoulder as we walked.
Matthew Larkin was easy to like as both a crush and a friend. He was reliable, sweet, and easy on the eyes, despite Leah’s claims that he was nothing more than a geek.
TK Rapp is an author living in Houston, Texas with her husband and two daughters.
Prior to writing, she spent over ten years as a photographer and photo editor, specializing in wedding album design. She left photography to pursue her dream of writing a story and it was in 2013, she self-published her first novel, Being There. It was a standalone story about long-lost friends finding each other. She has since written both contemporary and young adult novels.
Rapp grew up in Texas, but has lived in California, South Carolina, and Virginia, all of which serve as inspiration for her writing. With several more works in queue, she doesn’t anticipate stepping away from the computer anytime soon, especially since she makes friends with all of her characters.
One bullet is all it takes to shatter Houston Legend’s world. He swore he’d never love again, but with the future of the Lone Star Ranch on the line, he finds himself at the altar promising to love and cherish a woman he’s never met—a woman whose vulnerable beauty touches his heart.
All Lara Boone wants is a name for her baby. The best she can hope for is kindness and acceptance. She never expected to fall in love with her own husband—or any man—after the heartache she’s endured.
In an effort to save the Lone Star Ranch, Houston decides to drive two thousand longhorns up the Great Western Trail to Dodge City. The day before he leaves, the cook quits. When he can’t find another on such short notice, Lara offers to go along and fill in. Over his best judgement, he lets her. Three days out, he notices riders trailing them. Things go from bad to worse and it’s an all-out fight to try to save themselves and the herd.
And when Lara’s troubled past catches up with them, Houston will move heaven and earth to protect his bride…and discover depths to a marriage of convenience neither realized could be theirs to claim.
“Broday brilliantly captures Lara and Houston’s hesitations and growing love. The exciting plot, rich setting, and superb writing will delight fans of historical romances.”~~Publisher’s Weekly *Starred Review
“This compassionate, poignant marriage-of-convenience love story demonstrates Broday’s ability to bring a wide range of emotions to her characters in a fast-paced plotline without losing a bit of the powerful love story. Add this to your Western romance collection!”~~Romantic Times
“Ms. Broday’s conclusion of this phenomenal book is heart gripping, blood pounding drama at its finest. This one will keep readers revisiting again and again in years to come.” ~~ Tonya Lucas- Goodreads Review
“One of the best historical Western authors.”~~ Fresh Fiction
“Broday will appeal to fans of such authors as Georgina Gentry, Leigh Greenwood, and Jodi Thomas.”~~Booklist
Author Interview : Linda Broday
How has being a Texan influenced your writing?
Someone told me early on to write what I know. I know Texas. I know the plants, trees, landscape and more importantly—how we think. Texans are unique. Most scoff and say we’re nothing but braggers who talk big and carry a pistol on our hip. I beg to differ. We’re proud of our history. We know where we came from and we don’t mind sharing it. We’re all descendants of Sam Houston, Stephen F. Austin, William Travis, Jim Bowie, Davy Crockett—all those early men who fought for the right to live free and independent. Texans carry the torch for the rest of the world in a lot of ways which isn’t a bad thing. I love our people’s determination to survive and make things better for everyone. Those are the characters in my books. They have this pride and determination embedded deep in their souls. My characters are these early settlers who paved the way for us. They don’t give up. They work until they achieve their goals.
I love Texas and I’m so proud to live here. In what other state do people proudly display their state flag and hang symbols of it on their walls? I have reminders of Texas all over my house. I want my stories to have people with the same type of pride, to know who they are, where they belong, and what matters most.
What kind of writing do you do?
I write historical western romance. When I first started writing, I didn’t know where I fit. I tried various genres but they just didn’t feel right. Then I read several western romances and suddenly everything clicked. I immediately felt at home. And I’ve lived around cowboys most of my life, so it simply made sense to write about them.
Are you a full-time or part-time writer? How does that affect your writing?
I’m a full-time writer, and I approach it as a job. Most mornings, you’ll find me at my desk by 9:00 am. I stop for lunch, then write until around 6:00 pm. And that’s six days a week. I find that keeping that constant connection with my characters and story makes for a top-quality book, and that’s what I always strive for. Also, staying at it allows me to publish two 100k novels a year. I couldn’t do that if I was a part-time writer.
What is your favorite quote? “Never compare yourself to other writers. Someone will always be better than you, and you’ll always be better than someone else.” Jodi Thomas
I’ve found this to always be true. It’s a waste of time and energy comparing yourself to others. Just be you and worry about how to make your books better. Saves a lot of angst.
How important are names to you in your books? How do you choose names?
Names are so important to me, and I can never begin a story until I have the main character’s name right. In this second book of my Men of Legend series – The Heart of a Texas Cowboy – the protagonist is Houston Legend. I named him and his brother Sam after Sam Houston. And I named the brother who died Travis. Their father fought in the Texas War for Independence, and he idolized those larger-than-life leaders, so it simply made sense.
I always give my characters names that were used during the time period I’m writing in, but I also keep in mind their ancestry as well as nationality. My #1 book to go to when I can’t think of a good one is The Character Naming Sourcebook by Sherrilynn Kenyon. It’s an excellent Writer’s Digest publication.
A name has to fit the character’s personality in addition to everything else. Often it pops into my head with no thought, and other times I may go through a dozen or more before I decide.
If you could time travel, what time period would you first visit?
I think that would have to be Texas in the 1830s. That was such an interesting time. The fight for independence was going on and the country was changing. I’d love to have met Sam Houston, Davy Crockett, Jim Bowie, William Travis and other notable figures. And it was when the Texas Rangers was beginning to get organized. I’d like to have seen that.
After I visited there, I would go to 1700s Ireland, which is where my ancestors lived.
If you had a superpower, what would it be?
Cloning myself, most definitely. In this business, writers have to wear such an assortment of hats and are often stretched beyond what is humanly possible. If I could clone myself, I’d put one of me to work doing nothing but social media. Another would answer these darn emails that I never seem to have time for. And another would run errands—grocery shop, go to the post office, etc. Then I’d do nothing but write, which is the part I love. That would be pure heaven.
What’s something interesting, fun, or funny that most people don’t know about you?
I believe in ghosts. Maybe that’s because I’ve seen quite a few. I don’t necessarily seek them out but neither do I shy away from where a ghostly presence is suspected to be. None have frightened me—so far. In fact, I got the feeling they were as curious about me as I was about them. Some ghosts have actually comforted me, and that was pretty darn cool.
Also, I know this sounds silly but…I can’t stand for a plastic shower curtain to touch my bare legs. I simply hate it. I tell myself that’s illogical but I just can’t stand the feeling. For one thing, it’s usually ice cold (and feels like bony fingers) and it just gives me the heebie-jeebies. So when I travel and stay in hotels, I often put the curtain on the outside of the tub then mop up the water once I’m done. What can I say? I’m weird.
What would you want your tombstone to say?
She wrote stories that speak to the soul and made the world a better place.
Linda Broday, Historical Western Romance Author
I’m a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of 8 full length historical western romance novels, with another set to release 2017, and 10 short stories. Watching TV westerns during my youth fed my love of cowboys and the old West and they still do. I reside in the Texas Panhandle on land the American Indian and Comancheros once roamed.
At times, I can feel their ghosts lurking around every corner. Texas’ rich history is one reason I set all my stories here. I love research and looking for little known tidbits to add realism to my stories. When I’m not writing, I collect old coins and I confess to being a rock hound. I’ve been accused (and quite unfairly I might add) of making a nuisance of myself at museums, libraries, and historical places.
I’m also a movie buff and love sitting in a dark theater, watching the magic on the screen. As long as I’m confessing…chocolate is my best friend. It just soothes my soul.
Understanding the Stars by X. Culletto Publication Date: December 30, 2016
Book Synopsis:
Alexandra Blackwood is minding her own troubled life when she unknowingly gets caught up in an extraterrestrial conflict. Ronan, a human with his own alien-entangled past, has been keeping an eye on her and sets out to help her escape looming abduction, and maybe win her heart.
Check all social media / email accounts to make sure I’m caught up on everything and won’t be tempted to check them
Open Thesaurus.com
Read through the previous session’s work and make improvements
5 things I do after writing:
Reread the passage I’ve written, making improvements
Backup my files—it’s not fun to lose your work!
Plan what parts of the plot I’m going to cover in my next writing session
If I finish a chapter, share it with my beta reader, who likes to get one per week
Daydream about selling a million copies and buying a boat!
About the Author:
Xela is a working mother of three, living in the Utah. She teaches secondary English and after talking to students for years about following their dreams and doing whatever it takes to achieve them, she decided to take her own advice and complete her lifelong goal of writing a novel. The idea of life on other planets has always fascinated her, and she wondered what they would think of humanity, which is what spawned the idea for the plot of “Understanding the Stars”. When she’s not playing with her kids, or sorting through the endless laundry, you’ll find her watching The Walking Dead, horseback riding, or working on her next book.
Genre: Short Stories / Literary Fiction / West Texas
Publisher: Midtown Publishing, Inc.
Date of Publication: May11, 2017
Number of Pages: 206
Scroll down for Giveaway!
Characters in the eleven stories in Nowhere Near act in ways that some might call “divinest madness.” Some of them have been pushed near their limits by years of stress. Others mourn and grieve and discover feelings they can’t admit aloud. A sense of duty drives another to believe in aliens, at least for a while. Some of their behavior is simply laughable, other flirts with death, and the rest ranges from dangerous to near heroic. These characters vary widely, yet all have in common that they live in or come from West Texas, where spaces are wider and tolerance for strangeness seems just a bit greater. Whether readers agree these characters are nowhere near crazy, they may admit they all are doing what humans do—what makes sense to them at the time.
“Teddy Jones writes about plainspoken people whose lives are entangled and wrought and marked by routine—routines they cherish, routines they wish to escape—and who glimpse, now and again, a sense of something beyond their ability to reason. The stories in Nowhere Near are deep, honest, and unsentimental, and they pierce you to the bone.—Robert Boswell, author of Tumbledown & The Heyday of the Insensitive Bastards
“There’s so much goodness in these stories, the kind of goodness that grows out of characters who endure hard lessons leading them to revelations and deep understanding. You’ll find real people here, with real heartaches and mistakes and regrets. With language as true as music, a steady and perceptive eye, and at times a blazing humor, Teddy Jones creates fully imagined and realized worlds. Subtly, she makes strangeness ordinary and the ordinary strange. You will recognize the people in this book the way you recognize your own neighbors and friends and co-workers and family: full of annoying quirks and surprises and, finally, a saving grace.”—Eleanor Morse, author of White Dog Fell From the Sky
“Teddy Jones is the real deal. With her characteristic wit and goodhearted characters, Jones draws a bead on West Texas life as it’s currently lived. Her precise ear for the rhythms of life and language guides the reader confidently from dry land farming to the double life of dreams and secrets. These stories stuck with me and left me wanting more.” –Summer Wood, author of Raising Wrecker
Excerpt from “Between Us,” a short story in Nowhere Near by Teddy Jones
Author’s note: I tend to resist writing (and reading) stories in which the protagonist is a writer. For some reason they often strike me as tales of the misery some attribute to choosing to be writers. They belong in the same category for me as victim memoirs—perhaps therapeutic for the writer, but not entertaining to me. But this woman spoke to me and said to tell her story.
One hundred seventeen. Another record! Until now, the greatest number of new emails for a single day on her Gia Caraway fan site had been sixty-nine. That was three years ago when her third book came out. The writer, subject of the fans’ interest, wasn’t the only one who kept up with the numbers. Her editor had administrative access to her website and could see the incoming mail and Jean’s responses. Occasionally the editor furnished Jean, who used the pseudonym Gia, a report that showed the number of views of her website correlated with sales of her print and e-books. Website views demonstrated a weakly positive correlation with sales. Fan e-mail numbers correlated strongly with sales.
Plus, now that Jean’s publisher supplied a person to tend to her social media presence, the reports also contained far more than she cared to know about the number of page views, likes, and followers for her author pages and/or her books on Facebook, Pinterest, Goodreads, Amazon, Instagram, and Twitter. For all she knew, her editor, Audra Camp, could also document a running inventory of the contents of Jean’s underwear drawer.
What Audra didn’t know was that Jean was as much a fabrication as Gia. Johnnie Lyn Berry had created Jean Barlow just as surely as she had birthed Gia Caraway. Jean dealt with the editor, signed contracts, owned a telephone and a bank account of her own, had a g-mail address and a social security number, and employed her own accountant. Gia, whose name stood in bold print on more than 400,000 copies of paperbacks and electronic books, had no time for those details. She lived an exciting life that her fans were certain was the source of the erotic, romantic escapades her heroines enjoyed.
If Johnnie Lyn hadn’t done another smart thing in her life, deciding to create Jean qualified. Johnnie Lyn thought of Jean as the buffer who represented her in the world of romance fiction. Since the amazing numbers of sales of her first book with the publisher, Jean had complied with all of Audra’s wishes, accepted all her guidance. Audra used the words “guiding your career development.” Jean thought about Trilby and Svengali.
So far, the only disagreement between her and her editor had been about having a social media person at the publishing house respond to her fan mail. Jean preferred to do that herself. …..So here she was, at nine o’clock on a perfectly beautiful Monday evening in June, 2011, sitting in her writing room, dealing with fan mail. She should be outside enjoying the West Texas sunset. The first one she opened said, “Dear Gia, I’m sixty-two this year and have read every one of your books since the first. You’ve outdone yourself with this eleventh one. I love that you’re telling MY story without our ever having met. I don’t know how you do it, but it’s clear to me that somehow you know about the adventures I had in my earlier days. I often said I should write an autobiography. Thanks to you, honey, I don’t need to. Keep up the good work. Your fan always, Carla in Ft. Worth.”
This wasn’t the first fan who was certain she was the subject of Gia’s novels. Her template file held a response which she quickly personalized, assuring Carla in Ft. Worth that it was all fiction and congratulating her on having led such an interesting life.
The next email in the queue replaced Jean’s smile with a wrinkle between her eyebrows. Not fan mail, it was from Audra, who usually wrote to her Jean Barlow email address, or just called Jean’s phone. (Gia didn’t have a phone.) This email, here in Gia’s fan mail, was flagged High Priority—in red letters.
It didn’t even begin with Audra’s usual gushy greeting Dearest Jean, my star of stars. This one opened with Jean, This is important for both of us.
Jean scanned the first paragraph. Her publishing company had wangled a spot on the program at a romance fiction conference coming up in San Antonio in September. It was to be a huge event, bringing together fans and authors—presentations for writers on the first day, the next day open to fans, also. THINK STAR TREK CONVENTION! THINK SALES OPPORTUNITIES!! Audra had been assigned, as Editorial Director of Body Heat, the company’s line of erotic romances, to make a major presentation.
Gia didn’t attend conferences and neither did Jean, ever.
Teddy Jones has been a nurse, nurse practitioner, university professor, college dean, and occasional farmhand. She grew up in a small north Texas town, Iowa Park, and gained college degrees in nursing at Incarnate Word and University of Texas, a Ph.D. in Education at University of Texas at Austin, and an MFA in Creative Writing from Spalding University. She held nursing, teaching, and administrative positions in Austin, Denver, and Lubbock and as a family nurse practitioner in Texas and New Mexico. Writing fiction was her “when I know enough and have the time” dream all those years. Now she and her husband live near Friona, in the Texas Panhandle, where her husband farms and she writes full time.
One Grand Prize: Signed copies of both Nowhere Near and Jackson’s Pond, Texas, set of 10 hollyhock notecards, and a 11×15 print of the cover art from Jackson’s Pond.
1st Runner-Up: Signed copy of Nowhere Near + choice of notecards or print
Hey everyone! Haley and I have been working hard on our new site for Unbound Book Tours. Soon we will be able to reveal what all our new site will have to offer. We will also have a huge reveal for our page logo and banner soon too. Haley’s been working hard on it, and it’s amazing! I can’t wait to share it with all of you. In the mean time we are collecting as many bloggers as we can to sign up as tour hosts. If you think you may be interested in signing up, please do so. Or, if you think a friend may be interested, please share. Unbound Book Tours is going to be a little different than other blog tour sites. I can’t share it all with you yet, but I promise it’s going to be very exciting and we’ll definitely be sharing all that information with everyone soon!
What does signing up with us mean? It means you’ll be on our master emailing list when authors have requested a tour with us. We will email you a sign up form, and if it’s a book you would be interested in you will be able to use the form to sign up and specify what kind of post (review, interview, guest post, or excerpt) and which days you would be available for the tour. It does not mean you have to sign up for a book tour, only that you are willing to receive these emails from us. We will also send out emails for cover reveals, book trailers, and blitzes, which will all be optional on if you want to sign up for them or not. We will also have a rafflecopter giveaway each month for our participating bloggers. This means you will get an opportunity to win books, signed books, amazon gift cards, and books swag. If this sounds like something you are interested in, please sign up below!
For questions you can email me directly at thepageunbound@gmail.com
On the brink of extinction, being human means more than just surviving.
In Lib’s world, it’s dangerous to stray from the Norm. In fact, for someone who doesn’t live up to the AI’s standards, it’s practically a death sentence. Lib learns this the hard way when she wakes up with her memories erased in a barren wasteland, and only one thought lodged in her mind:
It’s all her fault.
Lib is a Glitch—an imperfect human component of the utopian Norm. Utterly alone, she’ll have to team up with her fellow Glitches Skye and Raj and the mysterious Rogue Wolf and his clan to survive. Wolf only cares about the survival of his group, but Raj thinks they can hack the AI and change the Norm for the better.
Now, Lib will have to decide which path to choose—whether to go with handsome loner Raj or stay with Wolf and his tight-knit group. Her heart is drawn to both, but she’s carrying a deadly secret that could jeopardize them all. Will she be able to save her newfound family and stop the AI before it’s too late?
I love audiobooks for all the benefits it has. I can listen to an entertaining story while doing other things like driving and cleaning. This book, however, floored me and I spent a good portion of the end completely involved in listening and nothing else. Despite it’s fast pace, it offers a variety of genres in action, mystery, betrayal, and love. It definitely leaves the listener, or reader, wanting more in the sequel.
Lib is an interesting character. Although she wakes with no memory of who she is, her instincts immediately help her and keep her focused. She soon finds out she is a Glitch and the brief memories of a voice tell her to find the other glitches. With this goal, she observes her new and sometimes unwelcoming surroundings and does her best to determine the person she will become. Her own reactions to the leader, Wolf, confuse her and start a chain reaction to branching off and distracting her from her mission. This book has an interesting play between human and machine. For a while, when it described the AI that controls the Norm, I believed it to be run solely by machines. Instead, it is filled with people and even families that serve the AI. Willingly or unwillingly it seems. Lib discovers there is so much more than just a war between the tyrant AI and the Clans.
Lib continues to stay with a Clan after saving a fellow Glitch and quickly shows her value to them with her efficient skill at hacking the Norm. Just when it was starting to development these characters more, the action starts. I am not kidding when I say this book is a whirlwind. When I first started listening, I thought it was actually longer and assumed where it was going. In a flash, another Glitch named Raj convinces Lib to go with him back to the Norm and fix the AI. Together they set off into the Norm and Lib discovers more about herself and her mission. Kaplan does a great job at narrating. While there are certain errors like volume changes, she continues to speak clearly and attuned to each character. I especially liked the subtle ways she brought excitement to each scene and the action as well. I only wish it had been longer so we could get more character development and backstory. I will definitely be getting the next installment!
About the Author
Ramona Finn
Ramona Finn writes about courageous characters who fight to live in broken, dystopian worlds. She believes a person’s true characters is often revealed in times of crisis, and there is no greater crisis than the worlds that she drops her characters into! She grew up sitting cross-legged on her town’s library floor–completely engrossed in science fiction books. It was always the futuristic world or the universe-on-the-brink-of-extinction plotlines that drew her in, but it was the brave characters who chose to fight back that kept her turning the pages. Her books create deep, intricate worlds with bold characters determined to fight for their survival in their dystopian worlds–with a little help from their friends. And, of course, romance is never out of the question.
For the past fifteen years I have received extensive training in lyric diction and classical voice. Various experience includes lead roles in multiple opera production through Santa Clara University with semi-professional recording obligations. For a minor in Lyric Diction at Santa Clara University I was required to take 6 units of Lyric Diction learning the correct pronunciation of languages including Italian, German and French (and of course English) as well as four years of private vocal training. Outside of musical endeavors I have experience with various characters and voices of my own creation included in my stand up comedy set.
The Page Unbound 