Queen of Tomorrow (Stolen Empire #2)

by Sherry D. Ficklin

Release Date: 07/14/15

Clean Teen Publishing

280 pages

Summary from Goodreads:

Sophie—now Catherine, Grand Duchess of Russia—had a tough first year at Imperial Court. Married at sixteen to Grand Duke Peter, heir to the throne, and settled in their own palace, things are finally looking up. As a new day dawns, she thinks only of securing her future, and the future of their country, during one of the greatest political upheavals of her time. Fighting desperately against forces trying to depose the Empress Elizabeth and put the young Prince Ivan on her throne, Sophie soon finds herself in the middle of a war brewing between her beloved Prussia, and her new empire. But even as she navigates the fragile political landscape, she quickly realizes that she has only begun to discover the tangled web of deceit and infidelity woven over the lavish court of Oranienbaum Palace.

When a strange and delicate alliance forms between the young couple, she glimpses a future of happiness, only to see it lost in a moment at the hands of those who still seek to end her life—and prevent her reign. Out of favor with the empress and running out of options, Sophie will have to sacrifice her own innocence on the altar of Russia if she is to save the nation, and herself. To survive, she will have to do the unthinkable, betray those closest to her and become something greater and more dangerous than she ever imagined she could be… a queen.

Buy Links:

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Queen of Someday (Stolen Empire #1) Links:

Goodreads│Amazon│Barnes & Noble

About the Author

Sherry D. Ficklin is a full time writer from Colorado where she lives with her husband, four kids, two dogs, and a fluctuating number of chickens and house guests. A former military brat, she loves to travel and meet new people. She can often be found browsing her local bookstore with a large white hot chocolate in one hand and a towering stack of books in the other. That is, unless she’s on deadline at which time she, like the Loch Ness monster, is only seen in blurry photographs.

She is the author of several YA novels and in her spare time she co-hosts Curvy Writer Radio.

Author Links:

Website│Goodreads│Twitter│Facebook

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Introduction for the contest:

Books can show us visions. Have you ever found your mind beginning to imagine the characters you meet within the pages? Have you experienced a film projector of scenes in your head as you read about the girl who travels to the fifth dimension, or the boy who’s trying to graduate from being a wallflower? When you read, your mind naturally creates images, almost like watching a movie.  Why not turn those images into a reality by making a movie poster? 

Full Fathom Five and T.A. Maclagan are hosting a movie poster design contest to celebrate the release of T.A.’s debut, They Call Me Alexandra Gastone, a novel heralded by Booklist as “An intricate, debut spy thriller…” The contest will run from July 7th to August 15th. 

One winner will receive a $100 gift card to the retailer of their choice, a book from FFF’s list of authors, and Alexandra Gastone swag! All participants will be featured on T.A. Maclagan’s blog and tumblr and the winner will be featured on the Full Fathom Five website! Artists may use any medium from crayon to photoshop.

They Call Me Alexandra Gastone

by T.A. Maclagan

Release Date: 05/20/15

Full Fathom Five Digital

226 pages

Summary from Goodreads:

When your life is a lie, how do you know what’s real?

Alexandra Gastone has a simple plan: graduate high school, get into Princeton, work for the CIA, and serve her great nation.

She was told the plan back when her name was Milena Rokva, back before the real Alexandra and her family were killed in a car crash.

Milena was trained to be a sleeper agent by Perun, a clandestine organization from her true homeland of Olissa. There, Milena learned everything she needed to infiltrate the life of CIA analyst Albert Gastone, Alexandra’s grandfather, and the ranks of America’s top intelligence agency.

For seven years, “Alexandra” has been on standby and life’s been good. Grandpa Albert loves her, and her strategically chosen boyfriend, Grant, is amazing.

But things are about to change. Perun no longer needs her at the CIA in five years’ time. They need her active now.

Between her cover as a high school girl—juggling a homecoming dance, history reports, and an increasingly suspicious boyfriend—and her mission in this high-stakes spy game, the boundaries of her two lives are beginning to blur.

Will she stay true to the country she barely remembers, or has her loyalty shattered along with her identity?

Buy Links:

Amazon| Barnes & Nobles| iTunes| Kobo| Goodreads

Praise for They Call Me Alexandra Gastone:

“An intricate, debut spy thriller…readers will keep turning pages, and the surprise ending will have them anxiously awaiting a sequel.” —Booklist

“…the intersection of action, espionage, and drama makes for solid…entertainment: readers will gladly sit back and watch Alexandra navigate the obstacle course that comes with playing her role too well. It’s a strong debut for New Zealand author Maclagan.” —Publisher’s Weekly

“Death-threats, global takeover, double-agents, hidden files and a blown cover—by the time you get to the shocking conclusion of this cliff-hanger, you won’t know who to trust…” —Girls’ Life

About the Author:
T.A. Maclagan is a Kansas girl by birth but now lives in the bush-clad hills of Wellington, New Zealand with her Kiwi husband, son and four pampered cats. With a bachelor’s degree in biology and a Ph.D. in anthropology, she’s studied poison dart frogs in the rainforests of Costa Rica, howler monkeys in Panama and the very exotic and always elusive American farmer. It was as she was writing her ‘just the facts’ dissertation that T.A. felt the call to pursue something more imaginative and discovered a passion for creative writing. They Call Me Alexandra Gastone is her first novel.

You can find her online at:

Website: www.tamaclagan.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tamaclagan

Twitter: https://twitter.com/tamaclagan

Tumblr: tamaclagan.tumblr.com/

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/tamaclagan/

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Book Summary:

All Tara ever wanted was to be a mermaid. 

So she takes a year off between high school and college to don a fake tail and tour aquariums across the country in a professional mermaid troupe.

Everything’s great until she meets a gorgeous real-life merman named Finn. Suddenly, what she thought was a dream turns out to be a nightmare — she’s turning into a mermaid herself. For real.

Yet when she returns to the sea to seek out Finn and reverse her transformation, she finds herself in the middle of an impending war between the land and sea. Tara may have always wanted to be a mermaid, but now it’s sink or swim. In order to survive, she has to learn how to be one, too.

How to be a Mermaid by Erin Hayes
(Falling in Deep Collection, #10)
Publication date: July 7th 2015
Genres: Fantasy, Young Adult

Purchase Link: Amazon | B&N 
Price: $0.99
Available on Kindle Unlimited

Book Excerpt:

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a man pulling himself up and over the fence by me. At least, I thought it was a man—he was hidden by the shadows and I couldn’t be sure. Curiosity overtook fear and I straightened from my kneeling position to get a closer look. Maybe it was a cleaner. Or a trespasser, in which case, I should be running.

I walked towards the figure as it began crawling across the ground, recovered from its climb.

It was dark, so I could barely see the outline of a man’s body stop and look at me. Then I saw the impossible, long, single fin on his lower half instead of two feet, and the scales cascading down from the man’s waist.

A mer tail. Not like the silicon kind I used for my performances. Even in the dark, I could see that it writhed and moved with a mind of its own, fully an extension of his body.

Reflexes and survival instinct took over before my mind could react. I backpedaled, trying to get away from the mysterious figure, only I misjudged how far I was from the edge of the water. And how wet the ground was.

My foot slipped and I fell head-over-heels backwards, plunging over the side of the fence and onto the rocky crags below. I screamed for help, but when my head struck solid rock and the rest of my body impacted with the ground, I fell into an unyielding darkness, one that was haunted by merman-shaped shadows emerging from the ocean.

Interview:

  What is your favorite mermaid story or myth?

I’ve always loved Disney’s The Little Mermaid, but when I read the original Hans Christian Andersen tale, I fell in love with it. It’s a dark, sad tale that still gives me chills. If you haven’t read it, you should pick it up and read it! You’ll never watch the animated movie the same way ever again.

  What was the inspiration for How to be a Mermaid?

I stumbled upon the Weeki Wachee mermaids, a professional mermaid troupe based out of Florida. I wondered what would happen if one of those mermaids ever met a real-life merman and the story flourished from there.

  Cast your characters. If How to be a Mermaid was made into a movie, who would play your main characters?

Tara: Katie McGrath is a bit older than Tara in the book, but I think she’d be perfect. I’ve seen her in comedy and I’ve seen her act, and she looks the part too! She’s been in a few things, but I imagine we’re going to see a lot more of Katie McGrath in upcoming movies.

Finn: Liam Hemsworth. Sighs. Imagine him with a mer tail and that’s him!

  What was most challenging thing writing about mermaids?

The most challenging part, actually, was trying to get a behind-the-scenes perspective of professional mermaids. I went to the Georgia Aquarium to see the Weeki Wachee mermaids in action and did a backstage tour to see how the aquarium worked. After that, I was able to incorporate what I saw into the story.

  Ursula or Ariel?

Ursula. Sea witches always have more fun.

  What else should we know about How to be a Mermaid?

Pay attention to the character Jordyn – her character is getting her own story coming up!

About the Author: 

Sci-fi junkie, video game nerd, and wannabe manga artist Erin Hayes writes a lot of things. Sometimes she writes books, like the fantasy mystery novel Death is but a Dream, the sci-fi middle grade book Jacob Smith is Incredibly Average, and the Her Wolf paranormal series.

She works as an advertising copywriter during the day, and she moonlights as an author. She has lived in New Zealand, Texas, and now in Birmingham, Alabama with her husband, cat, and a growing collection of geek paraphernalia.

You can reach her at erinhayesbooks@gmail.com and she’ll be happy to chat. Especially if you want to debate Star Wars.

Author Links:

Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Goodreads | Amazon

Blitz-Wide Giveaway:

A mermaid care package to help you be the best mermaid:

A signed copy of How to be a Mermaid

Tara’s necklace

Two Mermaid Mix soaks

A mermaid mirror compact

Six starfish hairpins

A mermaid wallet

Mermaid perfume

Mermaid Tail Nail Polish

A mermaid makeup bag

Four Little Mermaid Buttons

And one mermaid handbag to carry all your dinglehoppers

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Love In The Gilded Age (Fissure Chronicles, #1)
by Saruuh Kelsey
Release Date: 10/28/14

Summary from Goodreads:

Once in a hidden queendom…

There is an ocean: In the infinite distance, between one hidden world and the next, is an unmeasurable expanse of twenty seas. One sprawling edge of the world to another is filled with waters as beautiful as they are deadly, as miraculous as they are fraught. Treasure and treachery litter their ocean beds, sleeping side by side with adventurers whose travels ended abruptly, lives caught and held under a wave until all breaths fled.

There is a land: Tucked into a corner where four oceans fold together, land rises up illustrious in a jagged slash of mountains and forests, with secrets and wonders as plentiful as any water.

There are chronicles: Not of the twenty savage seas but of the fissure of land and the people who sigh life into it.

In an original epic fantasy world, Love In The Gilded Age reimagines the heroes and heroines of Grimm fairy tales as ethnically diverse, LGBT, disabled, and gender flipped.

Purchase Links:

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“No,” Xanna hissed. “I won’t be the one dying today.”

“Three souls will pass in this last fight.” Her mother dissolved into the senseless chanting of before, only repeated the ominous three souls will pass in this last fight. At least she had the good sense to pump her legs and move her arms to stay afloat.

Xanna had to get the rope off them if her plan was going to work. She pulled at their bound wrists, fearful and frustrated, and the vine uncoiled as if in response to her wish at the same moment the Wolf reached the edge of the pool and leapt in. It loves my mother, Xanna thought, but found she didn’t care. She gripped the rope in a fist as she put three lengths between her mother, watching the Wolf wade sloppily through the water to the woman it loved.
She didn’t have long. Xanna had to act, and she had to be both quick and quiet about it—a impossibility now that her every movement made a splash. Still, she had to try. Koal was shouting at her from the clearing but she blocked out his warnings.

The Wolf only noticed her presence when she wrapped the vine around its neck and pulled it taut. Growling, it fought to face her but couldn’t spin and remain afloat at the same time. Xanna kicked her legs faster, unable to use her arms to keep her from a drowned death as she strangled the animal. She was slipping, on the verge of sinking.

Without warning, the Wolf dipped underwater, testing her grip on the vine. She lost the rope.
Xanna looked around for it desperately. It was her only weapon.
The vine didn’t resurface but the Wolf did.

About the Author

 

 

 

 

 

 

Saruuh Kelsey is the author of several novels for young adults, including the free Lux Guardians series and The Legend Mirror series. Her latest releases include THE BEAST OF CALLAIRE, the first novel of a new YA fantasy series, and a collection of diverse fairy tales in LOVE IN THE GILDED AGE. Find her online at saruuhkelsey.co.uk.

 

 

Author Links:

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Sixteen year old Wendy never knew the world before the Starvation. She’s learned to put her trust in her knives, and her confidence in her fighting ability. When the Skinnies attack her compound, she’s the lone survivor.

Injured and near death, Wendy is rescued and nursed back to health by mysterious strangers. Her saviors offer her a place among them, but trust has never been one of Wendy’s strengths, and suspicion soon leads to evidence that these people might be the group who killed her family.

The decision to get her revenge, and take the settlement down from the inside out is easy. Keeping her distance from those she must befriend in order to make it happen proves to be much more difficult.

Fractured Memories by Jo Schneider
(Jagged Scars #1)
Publication date: May 20th 2015
Genres: Post-Apocalyptic, Science Fiction, Young Adult

Purchase Link: Amazon

 

 Author Interview:

What does your writing process look like?

Imagine a desk, and at one end is a neat, little pile of papers. Next to that is another pile, this one not quite so tidy. Maybe one paper is slipping off the stack, which leads the eye to an array of notes that may have been, at one time, in a pleasing fan shape, but now looks like someone gave it a noogie. This is usually where you will discover the discarded wrappers of whatever snacks I could find. A glass with the glazed on remains of a Diet Coke will be sitting on a Dr. Who coaster, and the little cup for pens will be empty, because the pens are now hiding under the papers. When your eyes reach the keyboard, you’ll see that everything has been pushed aside to make room for me playing of Facebook.

 

What book do you wish you could have written?

Ender’s Game. That book has captured so many people’s imaginations, I would love to have been the person to have written it. Plus, Ender’s Game sits somewhere in the middle of commercial fiction and literary fiction, a place I hope to venture someday.

 

How important are names in your books? Do you choose the names based on liking the way it sounds or the meaning? Do you have any other name choosing resources you recommend?

Names are very important, and I’m sometimes horrible at finding just the right one. Ages ago, I bought a baby name book–a book that my fiance packed up when we got married and moved in together and was a little concerned about–and I often use that to find names. Sometimes I look at meanings. Often I will end up with names that all sound the same (one syllable for instance) or all start with the same letter. When that starts to happen, I find a letter I haven’t used and I flip open the book. Sometimes I use the web too. Especially if I need, say, legitimate last name from Africa .

In my first novel, New Sight, I couldn’t think of a name for the bad guys, so I named them the New until I came up with something better. By the time I got finished writing the book, the New had stuck. It’s a dumb name, but now it’s theirs.

 

What do you consider to be your greatest accomplishment?

This one is easy, and maybe you’re expecting me to say “Finishing my first manuscript!”, but that’s not it at all. While writing isn’t easy, it’s something that I can do. What I struggled for six years to get is my black belt in Shaolin Kempo. I’m a round girl–always have been–and I had to put some seriously hard, physical effort into every single thing I did at the dojo. I can write all day, but ask me to do a push up, and I still inwardly roll my eyes and do them from my knees. So yeah, black belt. I’m pretty proud of that.

 

What writing advice do you have for aspiring authors.

Years ago, I was at a little, tiny writing/Sci-fi/Fantasy convention and I went to a class by a guy I’d never heard of. A guy named Brandon Sanderson. His first Librarians book was about to come out, and he was talking about magic systems. I don’t really remember what he said about that. What I do remember is one simple statement he made, “Don’t be afraid to suck.”

I’ve lived by this creed ever since. Don’t expect to be the best author in the room, don’t expect to get everything right the first time, and don’t expect to wow every reader you encounter. What all authors need to do is keep writing. Find some people who will help you get better and listen to them. It’s okay to suck, as long as you’re willing to try again.

 

What made you want to write a book about a girl with PTSD?

Okay, so I’d written the story twice before I figured out that Wendy had PTSD.

Let me go back a bit.  A few years ago, I was on my way to a writing retreat with two other writers. We’re driving on the freeway, and my sister calls. This is what came out of her mouth.

“I just finished Mocking Jay, and if you ever write a character like that, I will kill you.”

“Uh, hi, how’s it going?”

“Disown you.”

“I haven’t read it yet.”

“Don’t. I hate her. I hate the author. ‘l’ll disown you then kill you.”

“Uh, okay.”

After I read the story, I had to agree with her. Suzanne Collins is brilliant, and she totally got her point across, but I didn’t like the characters in the last book. This is not the reaction I want from my readers.

Fast-forward a few years, and I’m at a writing retreat. At the same place, coincidently. My friend runs it, and she was short a few people, so I’m pretty much there for moral support and to be a warm body. Plus, she’s a chef. Hello, delicious food? Yes, please.

There was an agent from New York there who was going to review whatever we sent her. I sent the first chapter of Fractured Memories, which I wasn’t really working on at the time. Not because I cared about what she said or thought about it, but because my friend told me to.

Well, it’s a good thing I didn’t care, because she ripped it to shreds. Most of her analysis was spot-on, the other part of it was complete B.S. Mostly because she’d skimmed it and missed stuff. I think she took my dispassionate reaction to her rant as offense, so she backpedaled and asked me a few questions about the story.

I told her about Wendy’s compound getting completely destroyed and Wendy waking up with strangers, alone and with a memory full of holes. She seemed interested in that, so I went on and told her that Wendy didn’t remember the attack and therefore didn’t know who betrayed them. She has flashes of memories, but nothing substantial.

This editor, bless her heart, look at me and said, “Have you read the Hunger Games?”

“Uh, yeah.”

“I hate the third book.”

“Me too.”

“Good, then you won’t be offended by this. Your character has PTSD. Katniss had PTSD, but the author didn’t do a good job of explaining it to the reader. Please don’t do that. Do your research and make sure your readers get it, or they’ll all think your character is as bad as Katniss.”

Noted.

New Sight, my fist series, has undertones of addiction. I don’t have a history of mental illness, but lots of people around me do, and I think it’s an area that a lot of people deal with. It kind of fascinates me, and that comes out in my books.

About the Author:

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