March 2020 - A Life Through Books

Saturday, March 28, 2020

Release Blitz: Eating the Forbidden Fruit by @reppin_bpent #promo #crime #fiction #drama #womensfiction #releaseday #rabtbooktours @RABTBookTours
12:00 AM0 Comments


Crime Fiction / Family Drama / Women's Fiction
Date Published: March 30, 2020

 photo add-to-goodreads-button_zpsc7b3c634.png

Eating the Forbidden Fruit is a gritty fiction novel loosely based on true events in author Roland Sato Page’s life. The newcomer author delivers a personal journey into his rise and demise as a St. Louis City Police Officer. He takes the readers on a roller coaster ride of good ole family memories to the nightmarish reality of being a police officer indicted on federal drug charges. During his trial, he wrote memoirs as a testimonial of redemption. Roland’s case stems from the conflict of his childhood affiliation and his oath to uphold the law. What is certain is one can't run from sin for karma is much faster.


About the Author


Roland Sato Page was born in Brooklyn New York in a military household with a mother from Osaka Japan and a combat trainer father with three war tours under his belt. He grew up in a well-disciplined home with five other siblings. As he got older his family relocated to St. Louis where the author planted his roots and also pursued a military life in the Army Reserves.
Roland married his high school sweetheart and started a family of four. Roland joined the St. Louis police department were his career was cut short when he was convicted of federal crimes due to his childhood affiliation.
After enduring his demise he rebounded becoming a famed a tattoo artist opening Pearl Gallery Tattoos in downtown St. Louis Mo. The company grew into a family business yet another unfortunate incident tested his fate. He was diagnosed with Lupus which halted his body art career. However, with tragedy comes blessings. Roland’s sons took over the business and propelled the shop to a higher level. Roland consumed with depression began writing to occupy the time. With a newfound passion, he traded visual art for literary art. 


Contact Links

Purchase Link
RABT Book Tours & PR
Reading Time:

Friday, March 27, 2020

Release Blitz: Please Return To: Toby Solano by @frankmoewriter #promo #middlegrade #mghumor #releaseday #rabtbooktours @INtensePub @RABTBookTours
12:00 AM0 Comments


PLEASE RETURN TO: Book #2
Middle Grade Fiction; Humor; Action; Adventure; Epistolary; Middle Grade
Publisher: INtense Publications LLC
Published Date: March 27, 2020

 photo add-to-goodreads-button_zpsc7b3c634.png

Toby Solano is the new kid in town. No one in Mapleton knows he exists, which is tough to swallow for a boy who descends from Lucha Libre wrestling royalty. Back in El Paso, Toby could snap his fingers and the seas would part as he walked the hallways at his old school.

But when his dad gets body slammed into submission and his career goes into a tailspin, Toby decides to take his anger out on his classmates, which gets him kicked out of school and shipped off to Mapleton with his mom.

Toby hates his new town, he hates his classmates and, most of all, he hates Mr. Finkelstein. But when he finds his teacher’s missing journal under the tires of a moving truck, the drama of the famed Mapleton Wrestling Federation opens wide for him. Armed with a journal’s-worth of wrestling lore, will Toby be able to build friendships and help the Mort-tician regain his title? Or, will he fall back on his old ways and bully himself right out of Mapleton Middle School? Find out on the slightly-wrinkled pages of Please Return To: Toby Solano.

About the Author


Frank Morelli is the author of No Sad Songs, a 2019 YALSA Quick Picks nominee and winner of an American Fiction Award for best coming of age story. The first book in his debut middle grade series, Please Return To: Norbert M. Finkelstein, was released in September 2019. His fiction and essays have appeared in The Saturday Evening Post, Cobalt Review, Philadelphia Stories, and Jersey Devil Press. A Philadelphia native, Morelli now lives in High Point, NC where he has been a classroom teacher for almost twenty years. He holds an MFA in Fiction from National University and thinks dogs are the most respectable beings on the planet. Connect with him on Twitter @frankmoewriter or on his website frankmorelliwrites.com.

Contact Links
Twitter: @frankmoewriter
Instagram: @frankmorelliauthor


Purchase Links

RABT Book Tours & PR
Reading Time:

Thursday, March 26, 2020

Virtual Book Tour: Once in a Black Moon by D. Lieber #blogtour #paranormal #fantasy #timetravel #romance #giveaway #review #rabtbooktours @AuthorDLieber @RABTBookTours
3:30 AM1 Comments


Paranormal/Fantasy Time-Travel Romance
Date Published: March 3, 2020
Publisher: Ink & Magick

 photo add-to-goodreads-button_zpsc7b3c634.png

Chicago journalist Erin Nichols isn’t about to give up when she’s fired for writing an exposé. But when a combination of murder, magic, and celestial events transports her through time and space to 1900 western Canada, city hall corruption becomes the least of her worries.

But the past isn’t any safer. Awaking to learn she may be the victim of some unknown crime, Erin takes shelter with the local Mountie—the picture of upright Canadian fortitude. As tragedy stalks the nearby First Nation reserve, Erin learns from a Romanian mystic that magic is dying, and the fae are turning to their darker natures to survive.

While the reserved and sexy Mountie helps her navigate a time in which she doesn’t belong, the mysterious and seductive conjurer helps her try to find a way home. As they alight feelings and desires Erin never knew she was capable of, she begins to wonder where she truly belongs.



Review

What a wonderful read! I loved Erin as a lead from the very beginning. I loved her backstory and who she was throughout the book. She was fun to follow and I felt connected to her. 

Such a unique and whimsical world D. Lieber managed to transport us to. I loved the way her vision came through the pages. 

This story has so many great elements and I think everything comes together seamlessly. It's a wild ride! 


About the Author


D. writes stories she wants to read. Her love of the worlds of fiction led her to earn a Bachelor’s in English from Wright State University.
When she isn’t reading or writing, she’s probably hiking, crafting, watching anime, Korean television, Bollywood, or old movies. She may also be getting her geek on while planning her next steampunk cosplay with friends.

She lives in Wisconsin with her husband (John) and cats (Yin and Nox).

Contact Links



Purchase Links

RABT Book Tours & PR
Reading Time:

Wednesday, March 25, 2020

Virtual Book Tour: A Truth About... Cecile Correa #blogtour #nonfiction #selfhelp #giveaway #rabtbooktours @_cecilecorrea @RABTBookTours
4:30 AM1 Comments
Non Fiction / Self-Help / Motivational / Personal Development
Date Published: 19th of January 2020 (ebook) – Paperback

 photo add-to-goodreads-button_zpsc7b3c634.png


“A Truth About…” is a composition of 52 poems for nurturing your ever -growing soul. Exploring topic from mind, body and intuition to love, parenting and life goals, the book embraces the broad and wondrous spectrum of the human experience. Covering 52 keys areas of our life, this book provides one insight per week. A year of inspiring poetry.





          



Interview

What was your main drive to write this book?

The reason why I have written this book was when I was in an unhappy period of my life. At that time, I was feeling sad, depressed and unsatisfied about my current situation.
I was also known for always being the happy and optimistic girl. So I feel I couldn’t share my sadness and I buried my emotional pain and stayed silent about my pessimistic state of mind.
I then decided to find a truth, a beautiful truth about myself and I jotted down some words in a search of something positive about me that would counteract any negatives I was also feeling.
What do you hope readers will learn by reading this book?
I want them to realize that they are always two sides in their life. Like there are two sides in any stories, there are two sides of themselves and of any situation and circumstances and that they should always pay attention on the side that make them smile, the side of the story that inspire them, the side of their lives that make them feel alive, happy and make them feel empowered. Because as they focus on the positive side, they will create a positive unbalance that will minimize the impact that negatives could have had on their life because they put the weight of their thoughts and the weight of their focus on the good side of their life.

Did you do much research when planning this book?
I have not done any research for the book as initially, I didn’t plan for it to be a manuscript. But as the lineate prose I have written started to accumulate, I thought I should share these healing words with people who might have not find yet the uplifting advice they needed to put them back on their feet.

Did you have any main people who helped you in the process of this book or influenced you to write it?
My husband has definitely influence me to write this book. Many times, I had given up on this project and he pushed me to keep going as he believes in me and believes in the messages I wanted to convey. He was a key element for the completion, the success and achievement of this book. 

How long did this book take you to write from initial thought to hitting publish?
From the initial thought to publishing the book, it took me five years. These five years were a roll coaster of excitements, doubts, fears, self-discovery and inspiration. Nevertheless of all of the negative emotions I have felt, I kept going because I wanted to deliver to the world a set of poems they could rely on to better themselves emotionally in order to take the action that will change and improve their life.
So, I would advise anybody that wants to write a book or that has written a book that is sitting in their computer drive, to share your work. If your words, your book can positively impact even just one person then you have set their path into a brighter destiny.

Do you have plans to write more about this topic or new topics?
Yes, I am writing at the moment my second self-enriching book and I am planning to publish as well a book series for kids so I can help the parents install into their little ones’ subconscious mind, empowering words that will allow their child to build a strong self-loving foundation. Because when you love yourself, then it is the vibration that you give out into the world and that we will also receive from the world.


Cécile Correa


Contact Links



Purchase Link

RABT Book Tours & PR
Reading Time:

Tuesday, March 24, 2020

Book Blitz: Like Fire and Powder by Shannon A. Hiner #giveaway #paranormalromance #pnr #excerpt #kindleunlimited #rabtbooktours #ku @RABTBookTours @ShannonAHiner
5:33 PM0 Comments


Prequel novella to The Immortal World series (release #5.5)
Paranormal Romance
Date Published: 3/20/20

 photo add-to-goodreads-button_zpsc7b3c634.png

She’s Risqueen.

Celeste was never meant to be a vampire. She never wanted to die, or be undead, or drink blood. And the vampire who turned her, Angela Estrada, certainly didn’t want her either. Celeste has never been a fan of Angela’s cynical overly religious ways and she’s spent two whole centuries asking the same question: Why her?

He’s Fraccas.

Tanner is in a bind. Even as Second in Command to the Fraccas clan, he’s never been completely on board with the leader’s view of the world and their place in it. Now there’s a strong likelihood that Ignatius is looking for a way to replace Tanner. Permanently.

Sworn Enemies. Until . . .

Eyes meet across a crowded ballroom. The world stops. And then starts spinning again…in the opposite direction. Moving them toward each other when everything about who—and whose— they are is designed to keep them apart.

When your world won’t let you have the one thing you desire most, what other choice is there than to burn it down and build a new one?


Excerpt

Celeste didn’t know what she’d been expecting. Clearly, she hadn’t been thinking. Just reacting. Moving on instinct. She’d never had an instinct so strong as the one that had pulled her across the room to that man.
She hadn’t bothered to ask herself what she would do once she stood in front of him.
Seeing the leggy brunette in a skin tight red dress had been a serious wake up call.
Celeste slipped out the back door and into the cool night air with a sigh. Autumn was nearing its second half, where the trees were barren and the cold mornings were slow to relinquish their hold, returning with a vengeance as soon as the sun turned its back again.
Celeste didn’t feel the chill. No gooseflesh rose on her arms, she didn’t shiver or pace about to keep warm. Instead, she took a deep breath of fallen leaves and impending dew and leaned her back against the wall of the building.
It was quiet outside. Quiet and deserted. Above, music and conversation escaped the hall through the open balcony doors. Couples who thought no one could hear them rendezvoused on those balconies. Their whispers floated down almost incoherent to where Celeste stood. She closed her eyes and listened without really paying attention.
When she opened her eyes again, she already knew she wasn’t alone. The breeze moved past another before reaching her.
He stood only a few feet from her. Silent and imposing as a gravestone. His eyes rested on her with a curious sort of ease, as if he was able to relax for the first time in ages.
Celeste didn’t move from where she leaned against the building. She stared back at him and waited. He hadn’t thought it through either. The “what came next” part. The side of her mouth lifted. What a pair they were.
He took in her smile, eyes lingering on her mouth, flicking back to her eyes, then spanning the curve of her cheeks and jaw.
Celeste had never felt so seen in all of her life . . . or death, for that matter. He took in every aspect of her and kept on looking. She swallowed back the jumble of words that rose in her throat. Nothing she attempted to say would make any sense. Jibberish, all of it. And the first person who spoke might break the moment. Dispel the magic.
And it was magic.
Celeste stared back at him just as intently. Admired the breadth of his shoulders and the straight line of his nose. The unforgiving slant of his jaw and the steady warmth of his light eyes. What color were they? Impossible to tell in the starlight.
He opened his mouth, but only a small sigh of air escaped before Celeste moved forward, cutting him off with a shake of her head. She stopped barely a foot from him. The space between them wavered, pulled like a magnet to its mate.
Celeste took a deep breath. Cotton and pine and bourbon whiskey. Clean and warm and welcoming. She closed her eyes with a smile, opening them again when his hand touched her hair, smoothing over her curls so lightly, it was as if a butterfly had landed against them.
They were closer somehow.
Time and space vanished until only their senses ruled them.
His hand curved around the back of her neck, tangling in her hair. Celeste’s fingers found their way into his coat, curling around the lapels.
Nothing in her life had made sense for so long. Nothing had fit. Nothing felt right. There was always a “but.”
Until him. Until this. Until . . .



About the Author


SHANNON A. HINER lives in far Northern California with her feline roommate, Pangur Ban. She attended and graduated from Butte College in Oroville, CA. Having believed in faeries, vampires & all sorts of immortal creatures her entire life, it came as no surprise to her family and friends when she started writing down her stories in a grossly exaggerated fashion.

After finishing her first book in 2009, Submerged In Darkness, she realized she had written not the first book of many, but the last in an epic series. Since that time, she has been laboring to write & publish all prior books.

She wishes you would follow her on Twitter, Facebook & Instagram where you can enjoy quotes from works in progress, grammar puns, music that inspires and irregular updates on future works. @ShannonAHiner

Contact Links

Purchase Link
Read FREE With Kindle Unlimited!


a Rafflecopter giveaway

RABT Book Tours & PR
Reading Time:
Virtual Book Tour: Jungle Beauty Goddesses: Dirty Ball by C.G. Sturges #fantasy #interview #fiction #mythology #erotica #giveaway #rabtbooktours @RABTBookTours @georgesturges
5:32 PM 2 Comments

Jungle Beauty Goddesses Book Series 3 of 7
Fantasy, Fiction, Mythology, Erotica
Date Published: November 9, 2019

 photo add-to-goodreads-button_zpsc7b3c634.png

Dirty Ball by Cassandra George Sturges is the third book in the fantasy fiction mythological series Jungle Beauty Goddesses, preceded by book one, Pretty Blue Ball, and book two, Aquatic Ball. In this installment, the Jungle Beauty Goddess Afar is the star as her journey goes from youth through her evolution as an independent and dynamic deity—Goddess of Earth—and how she wields such an extraordinary responsibility and uninhibited power. As she sculpts and molds and creates, she finds that the one thing she cannot control is the free will of her creations...not their emotions, not their hearts. She also steps back and lets her children (the people of Earth) rule themselves, watching as they rise and fall by color and continent alongside her reluctant partner, Mada.



Interview

What is the hardest part of writing your books?

Preventing writer’s block by allowing myself to be the channel and vessel from which the story comes into existence on Earth’s plane in this dimension. I realize that in writing my Jungle Beauty Goddess Series I am not the storyteller, I am taking diction from the Universe. When I disagree with the story that is coming through to me—I get writer’s block. Yes, there have been many stalemates between the Universe and myself and that is why there are year gaps between each book. I try to negotiate to change the storyline to no avail. The second hardest part about writing is the necessary loneliness. I sequestered from my family and friends, and even when I am with them I 70 percent still living in my head taking diction from my imagination. The characters dominate my dreams and all of my quiet moments while waiting at lights, or standing in lines… I become so weird to say the least.
Lastly, the hardest part of writing for me  is the depression that follows the completion of a book. It’s like saying good bye to your imaginary friends. I wonder if they are going to be okay while I am gone. I miss them, and I am struggling to reconnect to my current life of consciousness.


What songs are most played on your Ipod?
I love songs by Barry White, Never Gonna Give Ya Up, Love Serenade, I have so Much to Give; Waylon Jennings, I have Always been Crazy, Amanda, and Come With Me; Dolly Pardon – It’s All Wrong but it’s All Right; Jolene; Annie Lennox -  “Why”; Bill Withers, “Ain’t No Sunshine” Drake, “Hotline Bling.” I love songs about love that tell a story no matter what Genre

Do you have critique partners or beta readers?
I hire beta readers from Fiverr. I have found the services to be beneficial. Make sure you read the reviews and listen to your intuition before selecting a beta reader.

What book are you reading now?
Convoluted Universe Book 3 by Dolores Cannon, Harry Potter Book 5


How did you start your writing career?

I signed up to write before I incarnated into this body. Being a writer is very very difficult. You are living in between two worlds --the physical world where your body resides with all of its issues and life experiences; and in your imagination where you are communicating with muses and characters in another dimension. No one sane—choses a writing career in this dimension. The two worlds start to merge and you realize that you made an unconscious promise to exchange data between the 2 worlds.


If your creator asked you, “Are you happy? Have you enjoyed your stay on planet Earth?” What would you say? Book 4, explores these questions as well as the differences between the male and female earth suites (bodies) and why they exist from a sensuous, erotic, toe curling, mind blowing perspective . The story line will dance back forth between the mermaid’s role in the bubonic plague, and slavery, the history of witches and the possible demise of humans on Earth as we know it. 


About the Author

Cassandra George Sturges is the author of “A Woman’s Soul on Paper,” “Success & Beauty is an Attitude,” “The Illusion of Beauty: Why Women Hate Themselves & Envy Other Women,” and “Why Racism is a Mental Illness.” For many years, she was an advice columnist for Today’s Black Woman Magazine and is currently a full-time psychology and sociology professor at a college in the mid-west. She is a high school dropout who graduated with her General Education Diploma and eventually earned five college degrees including two masters and a doctorate degree. In her late forties, she began making life-size fabric sculpture, cloth dolls that turned out to be the main characters in her Jungle Beauty Goddesses coming of age, modern creation Nubian Mythology fantasy fiction, sensuous, romantic series. She is the mother of two adult children, a grandmother, and for over 20-years has shared her life with her twin flame.


Contact Links





Purchase Links




RABT Book Tours & PR
Reading Time:

Friday, March 20, 2020

Virtual Book Tour: Venom! by Thomas A. Burns, Jr. #booktour #interview #mystery #giveaway #kindleunlimited #rabtbooktours @3Mdetective @RABTBookTours
3:00 AM 2 Comments


Mystery
Publisher: Tekrighter, LLC
Date Published: 1 March, 2020

 photo add-to-goodreads-button_zpsc7b3c634.png

A spooky mansion in the Georgia mountains with an outrageous cast of characters. Spiders, snakes, meth-heads and serial killers, oh my! Venom! ain’t your average gothic mystery, folks.

But who would expect it to be when Natalie McMasters is involved? She’s fallen madly in love with two people—her wife, Lupe, and Danny, her partner at the 3M Detective Agency. Rather than choose one of them as her life partner, she’s decided to have them both, and roped them into a relationship retreat in rural Georgia to learn how to live as a polyamorous family.

But Nattie finds more than she bargained for in the sleepy town of Greypeak. A methamphetamine operation. A snake-handling preacher. A retired FBI agent hunting a serial killer. And a charismatic psychologist who just might have his own agenda for his clients.

Nattie ultimately finds herself in the most dangerous situation she’s ever faced, which may well solve her relationship problems by costing her life. Is this really the last book in the Natalie McMasters series?





Interview

What is the hardest part of writing your books?

I don’t outline – I make up the story as I go along. The Natalie McMasters Mysteries are famous for their multiple, intertwining plot lines, so I have to be sure each subplot is given sufficient space and is properly resolved. That means there are a lot of balls in the air all the time. I usually have a beginning, an end and a couple of key scenes in mind when I begin, and other things occur to me during the writing process. I have to continually go back and forth to ensure everything is consistent.

What songs are most played on your Ipod?

I can’t write to music – too distracting. I sometimes play nature sounds on the PC, or an English change ringing CD.


Do you have critique partners or beta readers?

Yes. I have a monthly critique group that reviews my WIP as it’s being written to keep me on track. After revising according to that group, I submit to another two readers. I will even make changes at the ARC stage if my ARC readers have valid concerns.


What book are you reading now?

Angels Flight, by Michael Connelly. His Harry Bosch books integrate the daily events in Harry’s life with the current mystery, and that is the model that I use for Natalie McMasters.

How did you start your writing career?

As a kid, I watched many adventure TV shows. Some favorites were The Man From U.N.C.L.E., and Jonny Quest. I also read a lot – the Hardy Boys, Rick Brant, and Ken Holt, Tarzan, John Carter and I was a huge Doc Savage fan. I used to write stories about my fave characters in marble copybooks and actually completed several novellas that I never did anything with. I was educated as a scientist, but I soon found out that writing was my calling, so I worked as a technical and science writer for many years. I always wanted to write fiction, but I just couldn’t come home from a hard day at the office and sit down for several hours to write some more. When I was laid off from my last gig as a toxicologist at 62, I decided that the time to launch my bucket list mystery series has come. So Natalie McMasters was born. I wrote a short story called Stakeout!, which you can read for free on my website, but it was too violent and sexy to sell to the magazines. The second story was Stripper!, which I didn’t realize was actually a novel at that time. When I did, I banged it out in six months, wasted a year hunting an agent, then decided to publish the series independently through my tech writing company. I’m so glad I did!

Tell us about your next release.

The fifth book in the Natalie McMasters Mysteries is Sniper! It tells the story of the early days of the throuple of Nattie, Lupe, Danny and their son Eduardo against the backdrop of a series of terrifying sniper attacks throughout the city. It’s shaping up to be the longest, most complex book. Nattie’s life will undergo major changes, some good, some tragic. It will be a political book highlighting the gun control debate, with all sides represented. I expect to have it out in autumn of 2020, hopefully before election day.


About the Author

Thomas A. Burns, Jr. is the author of the Natalie McMasters Mysteries. He was born and grew up in New Jersey, attended Xavier High School in Manhattan, earned B.S degrees in Zoology and Microbiology at Michigan State University and a M.S. in Microbiology at North Carolina State University. He currently resides in Wendell, North Carolina. As a kid, Tom started reading mysteries with the Hardy Boys, Ken Holt and Rick Brant, and graduated to the classic stories by authors such as A. Conan Doyle, Dorothy Sayers, John Dickson Carr, Erle Stanley Gardner and Rex Stout, to name a few. Tom has written fiction as a hobby all of his life, starting with Man from U.N.C.L.E. stories in marble-backed copybooks in grade school. He built a career as technical, science and medical writer and editor for nearly thirty years in industry and government. Now that he's truly on his own as a novelist, he's excited to publish his own mystery series, as well as to contribute stories about his second most favorite detective to the MX anthology of New Sherlock Holmes Stories.

Contact Links



Purchase Links

FREE with Kindle Unlimited!





RABT Book Tours & PR
Reading Time:
Release Blitz: Bobby Robot by Michael Hilton #promo #youngadult #yascifi #sciencefiction #releaseday #rabtbooktours @mhiltonbooks @INtensePub @RABTBookTours
12:00 AM0 Comments


Young Adult Science Fiction
Release Date: 3-20-20
Publisher: INtense Publications LLC

 photo add-to-goodreads-button_zpsc7b3c634.png

Sixteen-year-old Bobby is the only human on a robot-inhabited planet. Aided by LINC, his cybernetic haywire task assistant, he must prove to the bots that the human race is worth restarting by passing his Programming, the training he receives to think and act in perfect precision—and without emotion. Failure will force him to upload his mind into the Tether, a robotic host, stripping him of his humanity and terminating his species’ last chance for survival. As he repeatedly falls short of the bots’ rigorous standards, he begins to question if the human race is even worth reviving. But when a beautiful girl named Jen crash-lands on his planet, she makes him question everything the bots have told him, including what it means to be human.

About the Author

Michael Hilton is a time traveler from the future who’s come back to warn us of the impending literary apocalypse. An avid reader of Young Adult science fiction and fantasy, he writes to stave off the coming wasteland of soulless fiction. One day his Wikipedia page will describe his warnings as “mildly prophetic” and “wildly exaggerated.” He lives in Irving, Texas, working as a chiropractor by day, a vigilante by night, and a writer all of the time.
Michael Hilton is a nerd. Like, a big one. Using a right brain filled with stories of adventure, mystery, and romance and a left brain stocked with experience in the fields of biology, neurology, and engineering, he writes science fiction and fantasy worlds worth geeking out over. When he’s imagining battles in a far-off galaxy, he’s usually treating patients as a chiropractor, working out, writing music, or watching too much TV. He currently lives on Earth but is thinking about moving soon.

Contact Links

Purchase Links

RABT Book Tours & PR
Reading Time: