February 2024 - A Life Through Books

Thursday, February 29, 2024

Teaser: The Freaks of Lark Street by Harvey Havel #teaser #fiction #excerpt @RABTBookTours
10:30 PM1 Comments

 

Fiction

Date Published: 01-04-2024

Publisher: Pageturner Press and Media


 

Julius T. Downer has lost his job at a prestigious Wall Street firm, his lovely girlfriend who has run off with his best friend, and his shoebox of an apartment where he and his girlfriend have been locked up in Pandemic-stricken New York City during COVID. Without much money left, he has little choice but to dump it all and relocate to Albany, New York, where he lives hand-to-mouth at a Motel 6.

Demoralized, Downer knows he must get on his feet. He ventures to the most cosmopolitan street in Albany, which is Lark Street, hoping to find another girlfriend similar to the one who just abandoned him and also hoping to have a little fun before he searches for another job. Instead, he finds an antagonistic and unwelcoming crowd who snub him at every turn. The only ones who welcome him in are those he terms as "freaks." These are the homeless, the drunks, the addicts, and the sex workers on Lark Street.

But his downward slide is mitigated by an outsider artist who takes up residence in one of the few coffee shops that are established there. With the help of this outsider artist and his group of "freakish" friends, Julius T. Downer finds that he has a special supernatural ability when it comes to viewing art.

And Downer enters Albany already hating artists and everything about them. But after finding that he has this new ability bestowed upon him by this outsider artist, he finds that his new relationship to art and the art world around him can help many people who are suffering and struggling through their own lives. Downer finds a new path to follow with the understanding that he is just a "freak" himself.

 

Excerpt

Chapter Three

 

Even on the crowded subway, he grew impatient while hanging onto the overhead handlebar, his weight rocking to and fro, the train car abruptly jarring its passengers off their feet.

As soon as he opened the door to their studio apartment, he dropped his bag to the floor and embraced his girlfriend.  He loved feeling her skin again, his body reconnected to hers.

“God, did I miss you,” he whispered on her earlobe.

“I did too,” said Elisa, “but you know we can’t continue this way.”

“What way?”

“Well, I was talking to my mother today, and she said that we need to do things differently, now that we’ve been locked in here for so long.  It’s unhealthy, at least emotionally.”

He wanted to say that her mother should go fuck herself, but he didn’t say that.  Instead, he slid his hand down her back in an obvious attempt to seduce her and return to the single organism they had been during the Pandemic.

“We’re not going to go through all of that again, are we?” she whispered.

“It has to be gradual, sweetie.  A gradual separation.  Otherwise, it will hurt too much.”

She removed his hand from her back and held it between their bodies, as though he were a kid caught stealing candy.

“It’s not healthy,” she said.  “It’s like we’re addicted to each other.”

“I can’t stand being away from – ”

“ – my body.  You can’t stand being away from my body.”

“That’s not true,” he said.  “We are one body.”

“It doesn’t work that way.”

“Who says?” he insisted.  And then more seriously, “honey, we can’t listen to your mother all of our lives.   It’s our lives together, and not all three of ours.  You and me alone are ones who have to live it.”

“Why don’t I make us some dinner, and we can talk about something else for a change.”

“Like what?”

“How about we watch the news or start reading books?”

“The news?  That will only make us angry and depressed.”

“We have to get into something new.  How about music?”

“It’s all the same recycled, trained-monkey girl garbage.”

She pulled away from him.  She wasn’t happy with him now, he guessed.  Maybe he should have opened himself up to her new ideas.  Then, he remembered to ask her about Mace’s party that weekend.

“Hey, I’ve got an idea.  We’ve been invited to a party this weekend.  My buddy at the firm.  We can go to that and meet other people.  That will definitely help.”

“Honey, it’s only Wednesday.”

“So?  We maintain the status quo until Saturday night.  I don’t see anything wrong with that.”

“We have to start changing right now,” she said matter-of-factly, as though her mother were a doctor who had written a prescription for them.  “It has to be immediate.  Cold turkey.  I’ll make you some dinner, and when we go to sleep, we shouldn’t be touching each other.  Think of it as an experiment.”

His heart sank.  All day staring into a computer screen, and this is what he gets.  He had been daydreaming about his lean body pressed to hers, his body on her body, as though nothing had mattered more than the prospect of holding her in bed until the time came to enter her.  He couldn’t imagine what their individual bodies would feel like or mean.  But he could tell that she stood firm on this new policy of hers, all to his detriment, proving once again that Elisa could handle it much more easily than any man.  She was much stronger in this sense, as though the new policy had been written in a textbook for all couples to follow, or at least advised in couple’s therapy when man and wife wonder how they went bankrupt or no longer had a place in each other’s hearts.  Maybe she was right, though.  Maybe their physical closeness was unhealthy.  Nevertheless, it did not alter his need.  Nor did she want to take off her clothes and crawl into bed with him.

“How about grilled cheese and tomato soup?” she asked him, smiling as though a new day had dawned.

“I’m not very hungry,” he said.

“Oh, c’mon, honey.  Don’t feel bad, okay?  We’re adults.  We’re not children.  We have to grow up.”

Nevertheless, Julius peeled off his clothes and climbed up the ladder to the loft above.  Under the covers, he could not lie still.  He kept rubbing his feet together, the back of his head pressing down on the pillow, his body fumbling to find a cool spot in the sheets.  Nothing worked.

Elisa cooked downstairs, and he couldn’t stand it.  The cooking became a new part of her happiness instead of cuddling with him.  A curse had set in.  A new life without touching her had manifested itself.  One part cleaving from the other.  If only she would stop her damned cooking and comfort his gaping vulnerability, he would have given her anything.  Instead, she ate her grilled cheese sandwich and turned on the television to a useless show about the lives of celebrities.  He needed her to say something, say anything, to rid him of this horrible curse, this unfathomable separation from her skin, breasts, and hips.  His need was immediate.  He became a lost soul in the hell created by his longings and her bodily absence.  It was visceral.  The acuteness of it cut through him like a surgeon’s blade.

Julius waited a couple of hours for her to join him in bed.  When he curled up against her in the middle of the night, she moved away, deliberately separating her body from his.  He tried several times, until she grew irritated by his gestures.

“Do you want me to sleep downstairs?” she asked.

“Please,” Julius said, “let’s not do this.  And besides, there’s no room downstairs.”

“Then sleep on your side of the bed.  You don’t have to touch me all night.”

“Why are you doing this to us?”

“Because I’m sick of being your plaything.  Now please, you have work again in the morning, and I have to research how I’m going to get back to college.  Go to sleep, or we’ll never get up.”

He blamed her mother for filling her head with these new ideas.  It came straight out of a Women’s Studies class, he figured.  Surely, a woman had to stand on her own two feet, but that didn’t mean abandoning her significant other.  Deflated, he rolled away from her, admitted defeat, and even though he longed to spoon into her backside, he didn’t want to anger her.  His childishness was now her annoyance, the unhooking of their flesh painful.  She cut off the umbilical cord and sent his body into a cold, shivering sleep.

 

About the Author

Harvey Havel has been a short-story writer and novelist for over thirty years. His first novel, Noble McCloud, A Novel, about a young, struggling musician was published in November of 1999. He now has nineteen books which include novels, short stories, and two collections of essays on current affairs and political matters.

His latest book is a serialized novel, The Queen of Intelligence: A 9/11 Novel, has just been released through Kindle Vella on Amazon.com in 2021.

Havel is formerly a Lecturer in English at Bergen Community College in Paramus, New Jersey. He also taught writing and literature at SUNY Albany and the College of Saint Rose, also in Albany, New York.

He currently lives there with his pet cat, Marty, and has many more books in store for his many fans in future.

Copies of his books and short stories, both new and used, may be purchased at Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble.com, Smashwords.com, or at your favorite local bookstore.

An excellent interview with Harvey Havel by Robert Nagle of Personville Press in Katy, Texas, can be found at Imaginary Planet.net.

His readers are encouraged to leave their honest comments about his work anywhere his fine books are sold.

 

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Book Blitz: Improbable Possibilities by Linda E. Rawlings #nonfiction #business #memoir #rabtbooktours @Lrawlingsbooks @RABTBookTours
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Nonfiction / Entrepreneur / Business Memoir

Date Published: October 25, 2023

Publisher: MindStir Media


 

Observe Possibilities.

Entangle Possibilities.

Create Possibilities.

 

Throw spaghetti against the wall of life and see what sticks.

Multi-business entrepreneur Linda Rawlings is perhaps best-known as co-creator of California-based Otis Spunkmeyer, Inc. Her debut book "Improbable Possibilities", reveals other entrepreneurial quests through childhood, a business career, a dance career, and three marriages--in twenty episodes of you-can't-make-this-up and you-can't-put-this-down true stories.

Diverse San Francisco entrepreneurial adventures include Robert C. Brown and Company, investment advisors; Triple 888 Manufacturing, the sheet metal company purchased created to manufacture ovens for baking Otis Spunkmeyer cookies; and Sentimental Journeys, the DC3 airline that promoted Otis Spunkmeyer Cookies. Her other entrepreneurial activities include founding and producing New Shoes Old Souls Dance Company, producing Yoga Garden Dancers, and working with Heterodoxy Magazine and George Magazine. Rawlings helped develop MANA!, a food brand in Hong Kong.

 

Praise for Improbably Possibilities

 

Reading "Improbable Possibilities", is like catching up with your most adventurous and entertaining friend.

Carolyn Wyman, author: "The Great American Chocolate Chip Cookie Book"

 

"The author, who describes herself as a baby boomer with an old soul, opens with an account of her youth in Connecticut, and in a series of chapters filled with quotes from rock music . . . these chronological self-portraits unfold with a wonderfully readable combination of inner exploration . . . A lively, colorful memoir of corporate and personal growth."

KIRKUS REVIEWS


About the Author

Linda’s entrepreneurial endeavors include the improbable creations of a start-up investment firm, Robert C. Brown & Co., Inc.; a cookie company, Otis Spunkmeyer, Inc.; a sheet metal company, Triple 888 Manufacturing; a DC3 airline, Sentimental Journeys; two dance companies, Express Dance Company and New Shoes Old Souls Dance Company; and--producing the Yoga Garden Dancers and two daughters.

Linda has a BA in Mathematics and a BFA from Bates College in Lewiston, Maine, and an MBA and an MA in Journalism from UC Berkeley. Past board memberships include Bates College, Mark Morris Dance Group, UC Berkeley Cal Performances, Yoga Journal, and she has been a member of the Young Presidents' Organization and Dancers' Group in San Francisco. Her writing has appeared in Heterodoxy, the Oakland Tribune and Newport Life Magazine. This is her first book, inspired by theoretical physics.

She believes in "observing, entangling, and creating possibilities, and throwing them against the wall of life to see what sticks". Linda lives life as a quest, not as an algorithm.

 

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Virtual Book Tour: Oaky with a Hint of Murder by Dawn Brotherton #interview #giveaway #mystery #cozymystery #rabtbooktours @RABTBookTours
10:04 AM0 Comments

 Eastover Treasures, Book 2


Cozy Mystery

Date to be Published: 12 Mar 2024

Publisher: Blue Dragon Publishing, LLC

 


Aury and Scott travel to the Finger Lakes in New York’s wine country to get to the bottom of the mysterious happenings at the Songscape Winery. Disturbed furniture and curious noises are one thing, but when a customer winds up dead, it’s time to dig into the details and see what ferments.

Is there any truth to the Native American legends that cluster near Seneca Lake? Is the warrior’s disapproval of wineries growing legs?

Aury will need to pour over the clues to unearth the mystery before the winery’s reputation is crushed. With the annual wine festival just around the corner, Aury harvests more than she bargained for when the killer tries to bottle her up for good.



INTERVIEW

What is the hardest part of writing your books?
Finishing. Lol. Tying up the loose ends without rushing is rough. And by the time I get to the end, I’ve been working with the book for close to a year, and I’m ready to start the next one.

 

What are your most played songs?

Lately, AJR. I have two daughters (21 and 23) who got me hooked. “Don’t Throw Out My Legos” and “Yes, I’m a Mess” are two of my favorites. I also enjoy Taylor Swift. She always has something that will fit my mood.

 

Do you have critique partners or beta readers?

Absolutely. Critique partners are an important part of the writing process. They help me get the story going, chapter by chapter at the beginning. Then I don’t share it again until I’m done. My daughters act as my Alpha readers. Once I make their corrections, it goes back to my critique group, then to Beta readers before the editor gets it. It’s a long process but well worth every step. I didn’t do that with my first book, and I learned a harsh lesson. It was rejected many times until I fixed it by not skipping steps.

 

What book are you reading now?

I read three books at a time usually. I’m listening to Brave New World on audio. On Kindle, I’m reading Melanie Cellier’s fairy tale rewrites. I’m working my way through her many books. She is absolutely brilliant. For the book I hold in my hand, I’m reading The Last Mayor’s Son by Leslie Heath. I write across many genres, so I read the same way. Fantasies are my favorite though. Anne McCaffrey and Dragonriders of Pern got me started.

 

How did you start your writing career?

I was in the Air Force for 28 years. During my first duty assignment, I had a stalker. Someone was breaking into my house, messing with my phones, and generally scaring the crap out of me. My friends thought it was a fascinating story that I should write down. I finally did, but it wasn’t exciting enough. I added a few murders to make the story more interesting and created The Obsession. After that, I thought I was done. After all, I had written my story. But readers kept asking for more Jackie (my main character). The opening scene from my second book, Wind the Clock, is a true story from when I was working for the inspector general in Germany. After that, the ideas kept coming. Oaky With a Hint of Murder is my 19th book.

 

Tell us about your next release.

Oaky With a Hint of Murder is the second in the Eastover Treasures cozy mystery series. In the first book, Eastover Treasures, Aury and her sewing sisters are on a quilt retreat when a storm rolls in. They get stuck inside a manor house where they find a diary that was written during the Civil War. In the diary, Mary has left clues to a hidden treasure, so they go on a treasure hunt. In Oaky, Aury and Scott go to the Finger Lakes area of New York where they are helping their cousin flush out the Seneca Warrior who is supposedly haunting the winery. My cozy mysteries have chapters that take place in the past, so readers can also get a taste of historical fiction. The series will follow Aury and Scott, but each story is a standalone. Because they are cozy mysteries (no graphic violence, sex, or swearing), I’m finding a lot of younger readers who read higher than their grade level are enjoying them. Aury is like a thirty-something Nancy Drew.


About the Author

Dawn Brotherton is an award-winning author of nineteen books and featured speaker at writing and publishing seminars. When it comes to exceptional writing, she draws on her experience as a colonel retired from the US Air Force as well as a softball coach and Girl Scout leader. Her variety of interests has led to a range of genres including mystery, romance, young adult fantasy, middle grade sports, picture book, and nonfiction. When she isn’t using her words, Dawn is in her craft room in Williamsburg, VA, quilting, painting, or taking online classes. Her affection for travel and all-things-crafty keeps her imagination in high gear for the next Eastover Treasure Mystery.

 

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Wednesday, February 28, 2024

Book Blitz: Hidden Treasure at Little Lake by Dawn Lenée Reed #childrensbook #mystery #rabtbooktours @RABTBookTours
10:30 PM1 Comments

 

Children's Mystery

Date Published: January 29, 2024

Publisher: Mindstir Media


 

It seemed like it would be another quiet, summer morning of fishing for 11-year old Charlie, her older brother, Finn, and his best friend, Tyler. Their friendly lakeside town in west Michigan was usually peaceful and a bit boring during summer vacation for these three mystery-loving middle schoolers. Little did they know, they were about to stumble upon a thrilling treasure hunt with tricky clues and a sinister thief who is determined to beat them each step of the way. Join these three amateur detectives for a small town Michigan mystery with twists and turns that will keep you guessing.


About the Author

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Book Blitz: Brake Check by Gitte Tamar #horror #psychologicalthriller #darkfanatasy #rabtbooktours @brigittetamar @RABTBookTours
10:00 PM1 Comments

 

Horror, psychological thriller, dark fantasy, occult, fiction

Date Published: February 18, 2024


 

When winning turns deadly…

It's 1972. On a scorching summer day in North Carolina, the sight of Rut, the father of her child, cheating with the next-door neighbor, sends pregnant Loretta into labor. Amidst the chaos, she promises that her baby boy, Rich Richardson, will not follow in his father's footsteps as a loser, but become something much greater - a professional race car driver. Loretta leaves the hospital's entrance, filled with anticipation of a fresh start and dreams of her baby's prosperous future. However, the fairytale life she had sold herself quickly takes a dark turn, when she is left with no choice but to go back home to the child's waiting father. Driven by a sense of entitlement to fame and fortune, her impulsive decisions forever change her and her son's fate.

Are you ready to face the horrors that await?

Get your copy today and uncover the rollercoaster of frightening evil that lurks beneath a young man’s life of fame.

 

About the Author

Brigitte, "Gitte," Tamar was born in a small rural Oregon town. Growing up, she was enthralled by scary tales featuring poetic tones and consistently gravitated towards writing darkened narratives. In the different storylines, Brigitte explores the harsh realities of social issues faced by today's generations. This includes the dark outcomes brought on by peer pressure, addiction, homelessness, mental illness, childhood trauma, and abuse. She feels it is essential to share narratives that refrain from sugarcoating the topics society tends to shy away from.

 

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Tuesday, February 27, 2024

Release Blitz: Before the Emerald Crown by Michelle Deerwester-Dalrymple #releaseday #giveaway #fantasy #newbooks @RABTBookTours
10:30 PM1 Comments
 

The Before Series, Book 5


Fantasy

Date Published: 02-28-2024

Publisher: Sword and Thistle LLC


 

In a time nearly ancient, before a brave Scottish princess defied her mother, a young woman has lost everything.

Except for her unexplainable talent for magic.

Now Magda's being hunted, and in her attempt to survive, loneliness and desperation take control.

Until she meets someone who offers her a chance at happiness, at normalcy, at the fullness of life. Then she discovers something wrong, so shockingly wrong with this hopeful future, and she must make a harrowing decision to ensure her survival.

And she will have to draw on all her magic to do it.

Actions have repercussions -- Magda knows this better than anyone else -- and with her magic, she will ensure everyone else learns that lesson as well.


About the Author

Michelle Deerwester-Dalrymple is an award-winning author of historical romance -- Scottish, Highlanders, and Ancient! To Dance in the Glen was recently a bestseller! She also writes contemporary romance as M.D. Dalrymple -- police and campus romances, and as Strawberry Chase, paranormal romance author.

Winner of the Top Ten Author Academy Award for 2018, Best Indie Book 2019, and N.N Night's 2021 Winner for Scottish Romance.

 

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Book Blitz: What We Were Making by Peter Cloutier #comingofage #romance #rabtbooktours @PeterCloutier13 @RABTBookTours
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Adult Coming of Age / Romance

Date Published: February 23, 2023

 

 

A #1 Amazon Bestseller, Peter Cloutier's "What We Were Making" is a must-read for those who love ocean adventures, political thrillers, romance, or coming-of-age stories!

 

When the lives of two expatriates intersect at the edge of civilization, opportunity, duty and deception collide. Jane is a budding ambassador of heightened motivation, insight, and curiosity. Relentless in her pursuit of justice, ethics, and the common good, her life lacks love. Enter Bill, an adrenaline-fueled waterman who lives breath to breath, wave to wave, and fish to fish. A schoolteacher by day, he embodies the island life but without partnership. When catastrophe unfolds, the two must respond to those in need while attempting to dismantle the deeper collusion around them. In the end, the only winners are those who have the resilience to stand.

 

What others have to say about Peter Cloutier's "What We Were Making":

 

"A masterful blend of two contrasting worlds, political and natural, Peter Cloutier's What We Were Making is a sensational and evocative journey into the lives of two lovers suffering the greatest challenge of all: meaning. With a new layer of domesticity, romanticism, policy, and reality in each chapter, it is as multidimensional as it is tragic, and a must-read in any event." - JJ Hebert, USA Today, WSJ and #1 Amazon best-selling author

 

"A tremendous homage to the worlds of land and sea, of beautiful conflicts of interest, and I hope that all readers may find the same grace, eloquence, and courage that I found in..." - Mariel Hemingway, Oscar-nominated actress and author, granddaughter of Nobel Prize-winning novelist Ernest Hemingway


About the Author

Peter is a waterman with over twenty years working in the South Pacific, Southeast Asia and Southern Africa. He has enjoyed working with countries and communities in the development of greater marine conservation and access to justice, more resilient water, sanitation and hygiene systems, and better maternal-child health and control against infectious diseases. He is married and a proud father of two children. He is disabled after suffered a traumatic brain injury while working in Afghanistan and has pledged to donate a significant portion of the revenue from his writing to charitable groups located in the countries where he has worked. Learn more about Peter and his family on social media and www.seatheworld.org.

 

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Monday, February 26, 2024

Teaser Tuesday: Northman's Pleasure by Kate Hill #comingsoon #excerpt #historical #romance #rabtbooktours @katehillromance @RABTBookTours
11:00 PM1 Comments

Northman's Brides 2

 

Historical Romance

Date Published:  03-02-2024

 

 

Stories say that in the heat of battle, Grim Hammerhand becomes a two-legged wolf. His prowess prompts the king to send Grim after his daughter Asgerd who has been captured by the brutal warrior Stein. In return, the king offers Grim Stein's land as well as Asgerd's hand in marriage. Mistrusting of all women, Grim vows never to marry. He reserves his passion for battle and the forge.

Asgerd has loved Grim for years, but the handsome red-haired warrior has never noticed her. Defiled by Stein, Asgerd doubts she could ever desire any man again, but when Grim defeats Stein and claims Asgerd as his wife, she realizes her feelings for Grim are stronger than ever, but can she win the trust and heart of her reluctant husband?

 

Excerpt

 

“Come face your destiny,” Grim bellowed. “I grow tired of waiting.”

A moment later, Stein and Asgerd emerged from the longhouse. She was more beautiful than ever. Even her worn tunic couldn’t hide her generous curves. What impressed him most was that her eyes shone with rage instead of fear despite the rough hold Stein had on her and the threat of his blade against her throat. She had always been an uncommonly beautiful woman. Now he saw that she had courage as well.

“You know why I’m here, Stein.” Grim tightened his hold on his sword. “You have cheated the king and abducted his daughter. Now you'll pay your debt.”

“If you want to kill me, Grim, you’ll have to go through her—the king’s daughter.”

Stein’s attraction to a woman as luscious as Asgerd was understandable, but it was no reason to abduct her, and nothing could excuse his behavior at this moment.

Grim had once fought alongside Stein years ago, but the man who stood before him was a shadow of that young warrior. Dressed in filthy clothes, his hair and beard matted, he stared at Grim with eyes glazed from too much drink. What had happened to him over the years Grim couldn’t say, and he had no time to ponder it. Asgerd’s safety mattered more than figuring out the reason for Stein’s downfall, as did reclaiming this land that the king had given to Stein when he’d been in favor. Clearly the king hadn’t realized how low Stein had sunk over the years.

“You call yourself a warrior?” Grim curled his lip in disgust. “What manner of man hides behind a woman? It seems you haven’t lived with dignity, Stein, but perhaps you can die with it. Release her and face me.”

A look of defeat and terror passed across Stein’s face. A bit of reality must have penetrated his madness and made him realize that no matter what he did there was no escaping Grim’s blade.

Surprisingly, Asgerd took advantage of her captor’s moment of doubt. With a mighty effort against the hold of Stein’s burly arms, she managed to thrust all her weight to one side and slam her fist between his legs.

Grunting in pain, he loosened his grip. She tried to flee, but only managed a few awkward steps before tumbling to the ground.

Grim howled, a battle cry that never failed to instill fear in his enemies. He raced for Stein who managed to deflect several blows before Grim’s blade rammed his gut.

The defeated warrior’s eyes bulged. He dropped his weapon and sank to his knees.

With a fierce tug, Grim withdrew his bloodied weapon from its cocoon of flesh and bone. Stein fell to the ground, dead.

Grim turned to the crowd of villagers who had gathered to watch the spectacle.

“By order of the king I lay claim to this house and lands,” he said in his most resonant voice. “Obey me and we will live in peace. Cross me and suffer Stein’s fate. Now go about your business.”

The crowd dispersed, and his men went about interrogating Stein’s warriors, deciding who would take orders and who might cause problems.

Grim turned to Asgerd who had risen awkwardly to her feet, her face and tunic stained with dirt from her fall. She stared at him warily. The delicate tip of her tongue moistened her full pink lips and her blue eyes gazed into his.

For years he had tried to ignore her. Grim wouldn’t allow a woman’s claws to sink into his heart. Bedding them was one thing, but caring for them was another. Something about Asgerd had always tempted him far too much, which was why he paid so little attention to her. She was almost irresistible, and that made her dangerous.

Now he realized her beauty was only a small part of her charm. The way she’d used her wits and meager strength against Stein inspired his admiration, and he wasn’t easily impressed. Still she was a woman and they were crafty.

“Are you hurt?” he asked.

“No,” she replied.

“Then we should go inside and talk.”

Asgerd nodded and took a few awkward steps. It was then that he noticed the chains on her ankles.

“Wait,” he ordered, placing a hand on her shoulder. When she stopped, he squatted in front of her. His hand curled around her slender ankle that was luckily protected by a boot. The soft leather was worn from the shackle. He checked the strength of the chain and realized he would need tools to free her.

Grim lifted his gaze to her face. “He kept you like this?”

She nodded, staring at him. He imagined looking into her large blue eyes while coupling with her. Those beautiful eyes looked wary, but deep inside he saw a spark of desire. No doubt Stein had used her badly, but he hadn’t killed her passion.

Grunting softly, he stood again and swept her into his arms.

 

About the Author

Kate Hill is a vegetarian New Englander who loves writing romantic fantasies. When she's not working on her books, Kate enjoys reading, working out, watching horror movies, and researching vampires and Viking history. She runs the Compelling Beasts Blog that is dedicated to antagonists, antiheroes, and paranormal creatures. Kate also writes as Saloni Quinby

 

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Cover Reveal: Hatfield 1677 by Laura C. Rader #coverreveal #bookcover #historicalfiction #comingsoon #rabtbooktours @RABTBookTours @PublishingAcorn @LauraWriter2B
10:30 PM1 Comments


Historical Fiction

Date Published: May 21, 2024

Publisher: Acorn Publishing


 

Colonist Benjamin Waite, a devoted husband, father, and skilled military scout in King Philip’s War, reluctantly obeys orders to guide an attack against a camp of Algonquian Natives.

After the catastrophic event, Benjamin is burdened with guilt and longs for peace. But the Algonquians, led by the revered sachem Ashpelon, retaliate with vengeance upon Ben’s Massachusetts town of Hatfield, capturing over a dozen colonists, including his pregnant wife Martha and their three young daughters.

Hatfield 1677 is a tale of three interwoven yet diverging journeys of strength and survival: Benjamin, driven by love and remorse to rescue his family; Martha, forced into captivity and desperately striving to protect her children; and Ashpelon, willing to risk everything to ensure the safety and freedom of his people.

Based on the lives of the author’s ancestors, this riveting and unforgettable novel gives voice to three vastly different experiences in North America during a time before the creation of the Declaration of Independence. Then, the land was but a wilderness and a battleground; equality was not yet perceived as self-evident; and liberty and happiness were nothing more than dangerous pursuits.


About the Author

Laura C. Rader earned a BA in psychology from San Diego State University, where she minored in history and took creative writing and literature classes. She drew on those passions in her thirty-year career as a history and English teacher of elementary and middle school students. Now, a full-time historical fiction writer, Laura also enjoys studying genealogy, attending neighborhood book club meetings, taking forest walks with her Rough Collie, and visiting her adult daughter in Brooklyn. Originally from California, Laura lives twenty miles north of  Raleigh, North Carolina.  Hatfield 1677 is a work of historical fiction inspired by a story Laura discovered about her ninth great-grandparents while researching her family’s genealogy.

 

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Teaser Tuesday: Cressida's Betrayal by Mikala Ash #steampunk #excerpt #comingsoon #romance #rabtbooktours @RABTBookTours @ChangelingPress @ash_mikala
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A Steam and Spells Steampunk Adventure

 

Empire of the Sky, Book 2


Steampunk Romance

Date Published: March 1, 2024

Publisher: Changeling Press LLC

 


Things are going well for Cressida. Egged on by Marjorie, the spirit who has taken shelter in her mind, Jacob proposes marriage as they flee the moon and its goblin king. However bigger things are at stake, and their mission to save all of humanity is jeopardized by mistrust and magical chicanery. Sexual energy flares as the danger to the empire overflows in an orgy of lust and violence. Can Jacob and Cressida’s love survive?


EXCERPT

Copyright ©2024 Mikala Ash

 

December 1865 -- Earthbound

Making love in the absence of gravity is a pleasure experienced by few. In this regard my beloved fiancé Jacob and I, and of course Marjorie, made full use of the three-day journey from the moon. Whenever the mood to clicket like a pair of foxes took us -- as it often did -- we’d strap ourselves into our cocoon -- the Lunarians’ term for the soft woollen bag designed to keep slumbering space travellers from drifting about -- and had at it with unbridled enthusiasm.

We were not the only ones. The dozen or so “marionettes” -- as Jacob termed the human bodies possessed by the spirits of goblins -- also took every opportunity to experience the joy of sex. In their natural form, the small leathery-winged creatures, which resembled the ugly statues of gargoyles, were denied by their nervous systems the ability to derive pleasure from copulation. For them, the act of coitus was simply a procreational chore, and so the ecstasy of sexual intercourse that the human body provided was to them as addictive as laudanum is to opium eaters.

Thus, the mid-section of the ship presented a scene straight from a nightmare. Cocoons bolted to the metal wall jostled their neighbours as they twisted and bucked like angry caterpillars. The contortions were accompanied by a discordant symphony of grunts, groans, and ultimate cries of climactic release.

I blush to recall that Jacob and I were no different. I was in seventh heaven with his cock relentlessly sliding, piston-like, in and out of my accommodating quim, causing my heart to gallop and my breathing to quicken into ragged gasps. I wasn’t alone, of course. Marjorie was enjoying it as well, albeit deep inside my head.

Oh, his cock is so very hard, she bellowed.

She didn’t have to tell me that. I could feel every inch of his rigid shaft stretch my tight fleshly sheath. Having a ghost possess me had added a new dimension to the constant monologue people conduct with themselves in their heads. Marjorie knew my thoughts before I could even express them to myself, and she had access to all my memories as well. The most amazing fact of her residency in my mind was that she could “feel” everything I did, from stubbing my toe to the ecstasy of sexual climax, and everything in-between.

Marjorie could also massage my body from the inside, as it were, stimulating my nipples and nub, and creating the sensations that Jacob would make with lips, tongue, fingers, and cock. She was thoroughly enjoying her demise, making liberal use of this ability, and wasn’t a passive member of our unconventional ménage which united the living and the dead.

I’m not dead, she would protest. Just misplaced, and very grateful I found you.

Murdered while she was a virgin, Marjorie’s spirit had, for some unknown reason, been irresistibly drawn to me, and had possessed my body to alert Jacob and I that her corpse had been stolen from her grave. Marjorie’s body was now possessed by a goblin who named herself Esther. One of our goals once on Earth was to return Marjorie to her rightful home. We were confident that I could perform the swap, as I had successfully done the same for Jacob in the chamber of the dead on the moon.

That Esther was writhing in ecstasy in the cocoon next to us, being ploughed enthusiastically by her so-called husband Warrick, both angered and intrigued her. He’s fucking her now, she said bitterly. I wonder what his cock feels like.

“Ugh!” I groaned, as much in disgust on her behalf as from the jolt of Jacob’s thrust. A half dozen followed, and my rising excitement was reflected in the increasing cadence of my whimpers and moans.

Jacob paused, his body tensed, but not from imminent climax.

“What is it?” I asked.

“Something’s changed. I’ll have a look.”

Now that we were not wholly engaged in pleasure, I noticed that the previously muffled grunts and groans were no longer stifled, but clear as a bell. I lifted Jacob’s arm so I could see out of our woollen shell. The agitated caterpillars, not content to remain in their cocoons, had erupted like butterflies from their chrysalides. With no gravity to keep them to the floor they twisted and tumbled through the air until the space became a mass of undulating human flesh. Jacob and I remained inside our woollen bag. The thought of intimacy with stolen bodies repelled us.

I shuddered at the memory of fucking the king of the Lunarians, Mon Ilson, and his concubine Gloria, but that had been in the cause of buying time and favour till our escape. I had only suffered the act by imagining I was making love to Jacob and Marjorie.

My memory of that awkward situation was suddenly interrupted by our cocoon being ripped open, and before I could react, Jacob and I were separated by gentle but insistent hands. In an instant Esther was kissing Jacob full on the mouth.


About the Author

Aussie Mikala Ash used to be a mild-mannered training & development consultant by day, and a wild sci-fi and paranormal adventure writer by night. Now she is a brazen full-time writer and nature photographer who is concentrating on having among other things, “… bags, and bags of fun!” Mikala can be found on Facebook and on Twitter.

 

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