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Saturday, December 16, 2023

Book Blitz ~ PRICK - A Taggart McGill Mystery by DL Hammons

 

Prick
DL Hammons
Publication date: December 12th 2023
Genres: Suspense, Thriller, Young Adult

People are dying under mysterious circumstances in the small town of New Haven. And the city’s best hope of uncovering the truth rests with a troubled teen and the girl who can’t stand him.

Cassie Underwood’s life is shattered when her younger sister dies in a freak car accident. In her grief, Cassie unfairly blames her sister’s constant companion—Taggart McGill—a boy with a sketchy past and abrasive personality. As Cassie attempts to recover from the loss, she struggles to honor her late sister’s memory by befriending the person she resents most.

Things get complicated when Cassie overhears a fellow student asking Taggart to convince the police another death in the accident had nothing to do with the crash at all. Taggart surprisingly agrees and a suspicious Cassie decides to accompany him in his snooping. She soon learns everything she knows about Taggart is wrong… and he has insight into things that link the car accident to other suspicious deaths in their close-knit community.

Now it seems there’s only one thing keeping Cassie’s name off the growing list of victims—finding out who Taggart McGill really is.

Goodreads / Amazon / Barnes & Noble

EXCERPT:

“Didn’t my sister ever tell you that the way you dress is a bit clichéd? I mean, look at you. The isolated loner, the social outcast, in a dark hoodie? Really?”

I wasn’t sure what changed, maybe something in his posture, but he seemed to soften.

“It might be cliché, but it’s practical.”

“How so?”

Taggart pulled a pair of white earbuds from inside the sweatshirt and plugged them into his ears, then pulled up his hood, which completely covered his face, blocking me—and everything else—out.

I leaned over the edge of the table, pulled back his hood and yanked out his buds. He didn’t resist.

“Point taken.”

“Obviously not.”


Author Bio:

DL Hammons wrote his first piece of fiction decades ago … to impress a girl (it was moderately successful), and he hasn't looked back.

He wrote a script for a 15-minute audiotape in the style of old radio shows (i.e., Little Orphan Annie, Dick Tracy), for which his group received an A+ and he was praised for the originality of the story. He was hooked. He later joined the school newspaper and made a name for himself authoring sports articles and feature pieces.

Unfortunately, the seed planted in high school would lay dormant for decades while DL faced the realities of adult life. College exams, school loans, early morning alarms and late-night dinners, business trips, heart-stopping love, dirty diapers, mortgages, coaching clinics, scholarship applications, and everything else that tends to induce follicle disembarkation and enlarged prostates. It wasn't until his children had flown the coop that "the itch" returned, and he had the time to give it the attention it deserved.

Growing up as a military brat, DL moved around quite a bit as a kid. After graduating from LSU and raising a family in several southern states, he now makes his home in Central Arkansas where he has spent the last dozen years perfecting his voice, splitting his writing time between YA and Adult Mystery/Suspense. Other than being an author, DL claims that the most interesting thing about him is that he lacks a sense of smell. Other passions include (but are not limited to) his family (including his two mini-Australian Shepards) music, movies, video gaming, and cool weather camping.

DL is represented by Tina P. Schwartz of the Purcell Agency.

Knight Rise and Fallen Knight are part of his adult Silent Sleuth series, and PRICK is his first Young Adult book - part of the Taggart McGill Mystery series.

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Week Blitz ~ Confessions of a Third-Rate Goddess by Kathy Bichl

 

 

Memoir / Humor

Date Published: 11-28-2023

Publisher: 9th House


 

At the end of the 20th century, while mainstream media popularized an expensively dressed version of modern adult life, a rawer, and definitely weirder, reality was playing out off-screen. Columnist and zinester Kathy Biehl chronicled that from a singular and heavily trafficked intersection - collision point, some might say - of young professionals, performing and outsider artists, Unitarians, gays and lesbians, metaphysicians, traveling statues, and people who defied categorizing, many of whom wanted to sleep together, and some of whom actually did.

This essay collection, a followup to Eat, Drink & Be Wary: Cautionary Tales, romps through antics, sagas, and questionable behavior that Biehl witnessed, experienced and, at times, instigated. With eyebrow firmly arched, she snapshots sexual tension, ambivalence, and confusion; perils of fan mail and professional caroling; Groucho impersonators, snooping repairmen, and divine manifestations; ludicrous journeys, backstage dramas, and driveway parties; close-ups with a strange, frightening disease; her own, accidental attainment of goddesshood; and other mystery-marvels of life on the bridge to the millennium.All of it really happened. Nobody could make this stuff up.


Excerpt


Burning Desire

 

This is not a longstanding, conscious goal. I had to see a couple actually doing it before I formulated this desire. I was sitting at a booth in a ridiculously goofy Hawaiian restaurant, a worthy successor to the tradition of the long-departed Trader Vic’s. (That place had a cachet so powerful that a group of Irish musicians kept a flower-shirted vigil there every night of its last week in business, as if to store up mock Polynesian ambiance against a dreary future of non-accessorized drinking.)

The Hawaiian newcomer offered an ideal setting for lounging about on the receiving end of a garish exotic drink with an equally garish paper parasol. The bar was an island adrift in a mural of sea gulls, clouds, and foamy tide, against which Don Ho sang away with a happy children’s chorus. Beneath its stockpile of Mylar-tipped swizzle sticks and totem-faced ceramic mugs sat a couple who’d opted for the most adventuresome entry on the specialty drink menu. Their straws connected them to a wide-rimmed bowl, big enough to require two hands for carrying, that contained the alcoholic equivalent of the kitchen sink. At the center lept flames.

“I want a man who’ll drink fire with me,” I said to my companion, who is used to such out-of-the-blue revelations. The thought didn’t surprise him; he’s heard something about wanting to shoot fire off my fingertips. He responded enthusiastically, and not out of reciprocal interest or even friendly solidarity. He wouldn’t mind a man who would drink fire with him, either.

The line keeps returning. Days later I think, “I want a man who’ll drink fire with me.” I suspect the thought may contain deep meaning. A Theory immediately begins taking shape.

It resurfaces during a phone conversation with my accountant. I mention the Hawaiian bar excursion. “I want a man who’ll drink fire with me,” I tell him, and he roars with laughter, not entirely as a result of the tension from impending IRS deadlines. As I defend the statement it rises to the level of a Fundamental Truth of my existence.

The concept has now taken on nearly every critical characteristic of the elusive target of my quest. It has fast become my personal Grail.

The image transcends the mere act of sticking a straw in a flame-kissed beverage. It reveals an entire personality. It shows me a complex blend of bravado and flamboyance that makes light of itself, of calculated risk-taking coupled with recklessness and humor, of élan and adventure expressed with panache.

He is a natural showman, skilled in the grand gesture, attentive to appearances without attaching excessive important to them for their own sake. For that reason he doesn’t take himself too seriously. People can start and think all they want he he enjoys himself; what matter are the opinions of people who’ve lost the ability to play?

He’s spontaneous and prone to cast off responsibility in ways that endanger no one. However modest his normal habits, my fire drinker is reckless enough to ingest liquids in colors not found in nature, to throw caution to the wind.

But I detect profound depths, too. Drinking fire demonstrates that he is willing to jump into an experience, even if it’s potentially dangerous. Even if he risks getting scorched. The act places him within flirting range of the flame as well as of me, and who’s to say which could be more threatening?

The risk doesn’t daunt him, though. He saunters up to the flame without hesitation. His sharp, agile mind and natural intuition tell him exactly where to place the straw to keep from getting hurt. And, most importantly, he shares the experience with me. We sit straw to straw, on equal terms, growing tipsy from the same source, and, when the last drop is drained, holding our straws over the flame and watching the heat shrivel them into a misshapen residue that will perplex the bartender.

Granted, this metaphor leaves out a few things, like not smoking and not hunting for sport, speaking a foreign language, and being equally comfortable in jeans or a tuxedo. All of those were on a list of a hundred-plus characteristics I actually wrote out a few years ago. (Don’t worry; I can’t find it now.) Perhaps it is my previous inability to formulate this desire succinctly that has posed the impediment to attaining Relationship. Naming is a step to claiming, they say.

So here goes: I want a man who’ll drink fire with me. You can laugh all you like. Everyone who hears it does. It’s a silly idea. And that’s why it’s so appealing.

It makes me laugh, too. And I’ll still be laughing when you see a flaming bowl between a pair of self-possessed characters engrossed in mirth and each other. Look with a woman with a raised eyebrow and a mysterious smile. That’ll be me.


About the Author

Since childhood Kathy Biehl has scribbled down observations of human behavior and attempted to make sense of it. She gave up writing fiction long ago. Her first anthology, Eat, Drink & Be Wary: Cautionary Tales, was shortlisted for the 2022 Eric Hoffer Award Grand Prize. Her writing has also won awards from the Association of Food Journalists, Houston Press Club, and Texas Bar Journal. She is a former columnist and associate editor of the Houston Press. She is also the publisher, Editrix, and primary voice of the social commentary zine Ladies' Fetish & Taboo Society Compendium of Anthropology, which existed in print from 1988-1998 and continues online in companion blogs.

 

Contact Links

Website

Facebook

Twitter: @kathybiehl

Blog

Goodreads

Instagram: @kabiehl

Threads: @kabiehl

Medium

 

Purchase Links

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Smashwords


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Book Blitz ~ The Modern Teen's Etiquette Playbook by Alla Kesser Gross

 

 

Confidence, Communication, and Online Presence for the 21st Century


Young Adult

Date Published: December 3, 2023

 

 

 

 

Are you a parent searching for a one-of-a-kind social skills guide that helps your teen thrive in both offline and online worlds? Look no further!

 

This groundbreaking book on etiquette for teens is specifically designed for today's digital age, covering not only traditional etiquette but also the essential art of netiquette.

Discover how mastering etiquette and netiquette can boost your teen's self-confidence in unfamiliar social settings and bring numerous benefits, such as impressing future bosses, avoiding conflicts, and steering clear of unintentional faux pas.


This unique book covers essential topics such as:

  • Self-care and personal presentation: hygiene, nutrition, exercise, and deportment.
  • Posture and body language: tips and exercises to improve stance, walking, and non-verbal communication.
  • Navigating various social situations: car etiquette, building entry and exit, stairway safety, and dining decorum.
  • Dressing for success: understanding body types, choosing the right colors, and sending the right message with clothing.
  • Mastering introductions: making a great first impression and handling awkward moments with poise.
  • Conversation starters: breaking the ice, using humor, and engaging in meaningful discussions.
  • Dining etiquette: what to expect from waiters, how to eat different types of food, and managing formal and casual meals.
  • Netiquette: navigating social media, texting, and other digital interactions responsibly, maintaining a positive online presence, and understanding online privacy.
  • Dating manners: cultivating a respectful and attractive presence in both offline and online dating scenarios.
  • Planning for the future: preparing for job interviews, internships, and professional opportunities in an increasingly digital world.

 

Give your teen the tools they need to flourish in today's interconnected world by teaching them the art of etiquette and netiquette. This book will help them build a strong foundation for personal and professional success, ensuring they stand out from the crowd and make a lasting impression both offline and online.

Don't miss out on the opportunity to transform your teen's life – grab your copy today and invest in their bright future!


About the Author

 At the tender age of three, Alla had already begun a tutelage in social mores and manners at an educational daycare in the Ukraine run by etiquette professionals where she learned the importance of making eye contact, polite greetings, and the basics of dining and table manners. She continued formal etiquette training throughout her childhood and teen years, making several pit stops at esteemed manners and boarding schools throughout Europe, receiving a merit/honors diploma as an etiquette teacher at a prestigious British school where she graduated as an etiquette coach, then mastered the skills of flag etiquette, international relations, high-level delegation visits and conferences in Haag. Alla completed her formal global training on the finer points of American decorum and the cultural differences from continental protocols in New York City. To Alla, founder of the Lluxxall School of Etiquette and Manners in San Diego, geared for children and teens, enriching students on the basics of decorum from the dining room, classroom, and dorm room to the computer room and eventually boardroom is a natural and organic passion and her life’s mission. Coupled with an online advice column for teens, numerous magazine articles, live talks, podcasts, and now this compelling and comprehensive handbook, Alla will be repairing the world by molding a future generation of refined, self-confident, and well-mannered students well-equipped to achieve happiness and success both personally and professionally. Alla has earned two Master's Degrees, one in Education and another in Music and Literature.


Contact Links

Website

LinkedIn

Instagram

 

Purchase Link

Amazon


RABT Book Tours & PR

Blog Tour ~ The Legacy - A Thornton Mystery by C. L. Tolbert

 

The Legacy by C. L. Tolbert Banner

The Legacy

A Thornton Mystery

by C. L. Tolbert

November 20 - December 15, 2023 Virtual Book Tour

Synopsis:

The Legacy by C. L. Tolbert

A quiet tree-lined street in New Orleans erupts in panic when the body of Sally Wilcox is discovered by her landlord. Sally had been stabbed, and she was clutching a kitchen knife in her hand at the time of her death. Later, police discover evidence at the scene which implicates Sally’s son, Jeremy, in her murder. He was arrested the next day.

Law school professor Emma Thornton is convinced by a friend to take Jeremy’s case. She begins her investigation into Jeremy and his family, and the facts surrounding the night of the murder. Layer after layer of family secrets slowly reveal themselves, as the numbers of murders and kidnappings multiply.

Holding the key to the killer’s trail and the case’s final resolution, Emma’s success depends on whether she can maintain control over her own reckless impulses.

Praise for The Legacy:

"Fearless, relentless, compassionate, and driven by an unyielding sense of justice, law professor Emma Thornton battles mounting evidence in a race to save a mentally ill young man from a presumption of guilt in the gruesome murders of his parents."
~ Roger Johns, a Georgia Author of the Year and author of the Wallace Hartman Mysteries

"Fearless Law Professor Emma Thompson returns to defend a young man with schizophrenia accused of murdering his mother. Faced with a second murder, an unscrupulous prosecutor, a family with mental health issues, a pusher of pain meds, and a Gitanes-smoking stalker, Emma finds her marriage in jeopardy and her life on the line. Author C. L. Tolbert proves the Big Easy has never been easy, especially for a fighter like Emma whom I would follow anywhere."
~ Valerie J. Brooks, award-winning author of the Angeline Porter Trilogy

"Unwavering in her conviction, law professor Emma Thornton must navigate a labyrinth of lies and deception to arrive at the truth and vindicate a disturbed young man wrongly accused of murder. Not only a suspenseful story, The Legacy represents the triumph of the human spirit to persevere in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds."
~ Lawrence Kelter, International bestselling author of the Stephanie Chalice Mystery Series

Book Details:

Genre: Mystery, Thriller
Published by: Level Best Books
Publication Date: November 2023
Number of Pages: 260
ISBN: 9781685124267
Series: A Thornton Mystery, #4
Book Links: Amazon | Goodreads

Read an excerpt:

CHAPTER ONE

March 19, 1997

Sally Wilcox wiped her hands on the dish cloth and folded it neatly before placing it on the kitchen counter. It had been a long day at the shop. Two funerals down and they had already started preparing for a weekend wedding. She loved working with flowers, but the job triggered her sciatica. She could hardly stand by the end of the day. She was glad to be home.

She hobbled to the TV room, and sat down on the couch, the pain in her body immediately eased by the down-filled cushions. She bumped into the table next to the couch and knocked over her favorite photograph of her kids, Jeremy and Becky. She placed the frame back on the table and stared at it for several seconds. She missed them so much.

The cat curled into a circle on her lap as she propped her legs up on a fluffy ottoman. Comforted by her surroundings, she dozed off almost immediately.

Three hours later she was awakened by the sound of static from her television. Channel Six had signed off for the night and refrains from the national anthem had just begun. An American flag fluttered across the television screen. It was just past midnight. She moved the cat from her lap, turned off the television and all the downstairs lights, and began making her way up the stairs, toward her bedroom.

She stopped when she heard something that sounded like a restrained step. The cat’s ears twitched in the direction of the noise. Could someone, a stealthy burglar or worse, be creeping around the house? She almost laughed out loud, amused by her own foolishness. She was such a worrier. Of course, it had to be Charlie the parrot ruffling his feathers. She couldn’t remember if she draped the cloth over his seven-foot-tall cage.

Still, she waited, and listened, not moving for several seconds. Then she froze as she heard a thump. She glanced out of a nearby window and could see wind blowing in the trees. Thinking that a branch must have bumped against the roof, she stood on the stairs for a few more seconds. Just to be sure. Hearing nothing, and convinced everything was okay, she continued up the stairs. Six a.m. came early.

In her bedroom, she changed into her favorite nightgown, the silk one that felt like butter on her skin, cleaned her face, and flossed and brushed her teeth. No matter how exhausted she was, she always completed her nightly routine. Her mother had insisted on it when she was young and still at home, pointing to an aunt’s ravaged face as an example of what could happen if she didn’t comply. The practice had become her only indulgence.

The cat had already curled up on top of the coverlet when Sally pulled back the sheets. Then she heard another sound. A muffled bump.

She grabbed a robe and stepped into the upstairs hallway. The staircase and the light switch were only a few feet from her bedroom door. She found the switch and flipped the toggle up, but nothing happened.

“What the…,” she whispered.

The cat rubbed up against Sally’s legs, and she jumped.

Then she heard another sound, and glanced out of the window at the end of the hall. The trees were still blowing fiercely. She tip-toed down the first two steps and peered over the banister, unable to see anything in the dark. She continued down the staircase, stopping every few feet to listen.

When she was at the second step from the bottom she stopped.

“Hello? Is anyone there?” Her voice quavered.

“Youuu Whooo!” Charlie was awake now.

She still couldn’t see anything but didn’t hear any unexpected sounds in the house. She shook her head, embarrassed by her over-reaction. The sounds had to be from Charlie, or maybe it was the wind in the trees. But just to be safe, she fled to the kitchen, feeling her way in the dark, and grabbed a knife from the block on the counter. Then she stopped, making certain all was well, and turned to retrace her steps back to her bedroom.

Seconds later she felt a sharp punch in her stomach. She swung the knife she clutched in her hand, wildly stabbing into space until she felt a resistance. She’d nicked something. She turned, and raised her hand, stabbing blindly, then felt another punch in her stomach, and one in her chest. Then another and another. A warm liquid flowed down her legs. Her hand flew to a spot on her chest where she felt piercing pain and she realized that blood was pouring from her body. Something had happened. Someone was in front of her. She could sense their presence. Hear their breathing. She’d been stabbed.

Her robe was wet, and blood was beginning to drip onto the floor. She felt dizzy. Her legs were on fire, as if a thousand needles had been jabbed into her shins. Then her legs started to shake. She collapsed, falling to the ground on her knees.

Then a swift rush of air. She wasn’t certain what it was until it was too late. She saw

the knife this time. And a dark figure.

Charlie squawked, “Youu whooo!”

The last thing she felt was a crushing pain in her chest. Her heart, already broken, had stopped.

***

Excerpt from THE LEGACY by C.L. Tolbert. Copyright 2023 by C.L. Tolbert. Reproduced with permission from C.L. Tolbert. All rights reserved.

 

 

Author Bio:

C.L. Tolbert

Licensed in Georgia, Louisiana, and Mississippi, Cynthia Tolbert retired after thirty-five years of practicing law and began writing full time. After winning the Georgia State Bar Fiction Writing Contest, she developed the winning short story into the first novel in the Thornton Mystery Series, OUT FROM SILENCE, published in 2019. Two additional mysteries in the series have also been published, THE REDEMPTION, in 2021, and SANCTUARY, published in 2022. The fourth book in the series, THE LEGACY, will be published in November of 2023.

Cynthia taught at Loyola Law School for several years where she directed a homeless clinic, and worked with third year law students in actual cases. All of these experiences have informed her fiction.

She is an avid reader, a mother of two, and a grandmother to three beautiful girls. She lives in Austin, TX with her husband and schnauzer, Yoda.

Catch Up With C.L. Tolbert:
www.CLTolbert.com
Goodreads
Instagram - @cltolbertwrites
Twitter/X - @cltolbertwrites
Facebook - @cltolbertwriter

 

 

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Book Blitz ~ Trust No One - A Conor Thorn Novel by Glenn Dyer

 

Trust No One
Glenn Dyer
(Conor Thorn Series, #4)
Publication date: December 11th 2023
Genres: Adult, Historical, Thriller

Loyalists meant to rid their country of a double-dealing collaborator. Instead, they created a threat that could destroy Allied unity.

Algiers. Winter 1942. Conor Thorn is devastated. He’s been fired from the OSS. His wife, Emily, has been fired from MI6. They allowed their morals to bend certain truths concerning the outcome of their last mission. Forever dedicated to defeating Axis powers, these skilled operatives jump at the chance to secretly help General Eisenhower deal with a political time bomb threatening Allied harmony and to redeem their honorable standing. To recover a rumored archive holding the truth about an assassination plot, they must travel deep into perilous Axis territory.

In the crosshairs of those determined to keep the information out of Allied hands, Conor and Emily fall victim to a violent assault. Though the resulting injuries leave him severely concussed and confused, Conor refuses to stand down while his beloved ventures deeper into danger.

Can Conor and Emily piece together a political puzzle in time to keep Allied unity from fracturing?

Trust No One is the high intensity, gritty fourth book in the Conor Thorn WWII espionage series inspired by true events. If you like heart-pounding action and white-knuckled tension, then you’ll love Glenn Dyer’s thrill ride through history.

Goodreads / Amazon / Barnes & Noble

EXCERPT:

Conor stirred. His head was pounding like the bass drum in the US Naval Academy marching band. When he opened his eyes, one person stared back at him. The facial features were out of focus, as if he were looking through cheesecloth. He blinked. The onlooker’s mouth began to flap. He sat up, but his head almost exploded. A hand pushed him back. The cheesecloth dissolved, and he could see someone smiling at him. Given the slow shake of his head, Captain Jack Waddon was not pleased to see him.

“You are one lucky bastard, Conor,” Waddon said.

Conor looked around and recognized that he was back aboard Waddon’s Consolidated PBY-5 Catalina, the ship that had taken him, Emily, and Father Sean Sullivan to Italy on their mission to snatch Ettore Majorana. “What did you say?” He could barely hear his own words. “What the hell happened?” He reached for his throbbing forehead and felt a knot the size of a billiard ball. The surface of his forehead radiated a low heat.

“You were introduced to a blackjack swung by one angry MP, that’s what happened,” Waddon said. “As far as being lucky, well, that’s because Commander Butcher saved your butt. Told the MP that he’d take it up with Colonel Eddy himself and see that you, being nonmilitary, would exit the theater as soon as he could arrange transport.”

Conor rolled over onto his right side. The two men were in the plane’s compartment forward of the waist gunner’s area and aft of the flight engineer’s compartment. He reached for the back of his head and discovered a lump where the blackjack had ambushed him. “Stevens?”

“Hauled out of there to the field hospital. Out cold. Like you were.”

Conor groaned.

“Here,” Waddon said as he handed him a damp handkerchief.

Conor spied white gauze peeking out from under Waddon’s left sleeve. Waddon had been wounded three weeks prior when his PBY approached the beach near Anzio to exfiltrate Conor, Emily, Sean Sullivan, and Ettore Majorana.

“How’s the arm?”

Waddon waved off the question. “On the mend. Already back in the left seat.”

Conor nodded, then held up the handkerchief. “What’s this for?”

“Your ear. There’s some dried blood. Stevens must have landed at least one blow.”

Conor took the handkerchief and dabbed at his right ear, loosening some dried flakes but also coming away with some fresh blood. The bass drummer in his head pounded away. His head had seen better days.

“So you dragged my ass here after Butcher saved it?”

“Yep. Me and DiLazzaro. We thought you had some lead bars in your pockets. You were a load getting you in here.” Seaman Eugene DiLazzaro was one of Waddon’s crew and had wound up part of Conor’s team that went ashore at Anzio. The New Jersey–born Italian American had handled himself like a pro, particularly when the shooting started.

Conor’s stomach roiled. Bile crept upward. A mixture of oil, perspiration, fuel, and grease hung in the air, fanning the flames of his nausea. “Jack, do you have a bucket? I don’t feel too good.”

“Conor, don’t you lose it in my ship,” Waddon said, scurrying forward in search of something to keep his Catalina puke-free. Conor wondered what did the most damage: the blow to the back of his head from the blackjack or the oak bar that gave no quarter when his head collided with it. Waddon returned with a collapsible canvas bucket and shoved it into Conor’s hands. “Here, and don’t miss.”

Conor leaned over the side of the bunk and let loose a stream of vomit that filled the bottom two inches of the bucket. When he finally felt he had no more to give, he handed it to Waddon and lay back. “So you just happened to be in the area when the action started?”

“Hey, I was thirsty.” Waddon went aft and tossed the bucket’s contents out through the open starboard-side blister. He returned and sat across from Conor on the port-side bunk. “When I approached the bar’s entrance, I saw Butcher coming from the other direction. We were about ten feet from the bar when we heard a massive crash. That must have been Stevens doing a back flop on the backbar. Two MPs were already there. We saw one lower the boom from just inside the doorway. We both cringed when your head hit the bar.”

“Well, thanks for the sympathetic cringes. Then what?”

“I already told you. Don’t you remember?”

Conor shook his head and felt the pain surge as if his brain were bouncing around inside his skull.

“Like I said, Butcher jumped in, threw Ike’s name around a bit, and eventually, the MPs backed down. He told them to get Stevens to the field hospital and told me to take care of you, but not to go far. That he needed to see you when you got put back together. He wanted me to get this to you.” Waddon handed over a note.

Conor unfolded the paper. It was short and sweet. He folded the note and put it in his pants pocket, then settled back to let the whitecaps in his stomach calm down.

“Well, you going to let me in on it or not?”

“He wants to know why Donovan shitcanned me.”


Author Bio:

GLENN DYER is a former commercial television executive whose career spanned over thirty-five years. That career took him to cities such as Salt Lake City, Dallas, Washington, DC, and Denver. He returned to Park City, Utah in retirement in 2013 to write full-time. He is an associate member of the International Thriller Writers, the Author’s Guild and The OSS Society. Glenn attended Villanova University and graduated from Boston University. He and his wife, Chris, have three children, all of whom live too far away. Visit his website at www.glenndyer.net and follow him on Twitter @duffy_dyer and Instagram @glennduffydyer.

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Release Blitz ~ Lost in Seoul - A My Summer in Seoul Novel by Rachael Van Dyken & Colet Abedi

 

 


Title: Lost In Seoul
Series: A My Summer In Seoul Novel
Authors: Rachel Van Dyken & Colet Abedi 


New Adult Romance, K-pop Romance, Rockstar Romance
Angsty,  Age-Gap, Best Friend's Sister, Reality Show


SOON TO BE A TV SERIES




Lost in Seoul is a standalone new adult romance set in the competitive world of K-pop from bestselling authors Rachel Van Dyken and Colet Abedi.

A meet cute is supposed to be cute.
Ours was sexy. Chaotic. Not normal.

Less than 10 minutes after we met, I realized we could never be. She was forbidden to me.

She held my hand behind his back.
I gripped hers, knowing it was wrong.

I was on the cusp of superstardom—and still I held her fingertips because it felt right.
Knowing that when it all went wrong, we would be done—the media would destroy us.
After all, not only was she was four years older than me, she was the leader of SWT's sister—my best friend—and someone who could wreck everything we'd worked for.

But I still held on.

I'm lost. So lost.
I'm the youngest in the group, the one everyone sees as the most innocent.
But they don't know the stolen moments with her.
The kisses.
The touching.
They don't know any of that.

So I keep acting as if I’m pure as the driven snow when really all it took was one chance meeting.
To make.
Me.
Sin.

Hi, I'm Sookie, Maknae of SWT, the most famous K-pop group in the world.
And I'm pretty sure I'm not just lost… nah, I'm about to fall.


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Rachel Van Dyken is the #1 New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and USA Today bestselling author of over 100 books ranging from new adult romance to mafia romance to paranormal & fantasy romance. With over four million copies sold, she’s been featured in Forbes, US Weekly, and USA Today. Her books have been translated in more than 15 countries. She was one of the first romance authors to have a Kindle in Motion book through Amazon publishing and continues to strive to be on the cutting edge of the reader experience. She keeps her home in the Pacific Northwest with her husband, adorable sons, naked cat, and two dogs. For more information about her books and upcoming events, visit www.RachelVanDykenAuthor.com.

 

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Colet Abedi is an Iranian American best-selling author, television and film producer. After publishing her first article in a national magazine when she was fifteen, Colet knew she wanted to tell stories. She’s now an American novelist and television and film producer based in Los Angeles. When she's not writing she's either off on an adventure in a far off land or planning her next getaway.

Colet writes in many genres including contemporary romance, young adult fiction, new adult romace, science fiction and women's fiction.

Abedi was head writer and showrunner for the FOX-owned MyNetworkTV serials, American Heiress and Fashion House where she wrote and oversaw over 100 episodes of the telenovelas. She was the creator and executive producer of Unsealed: Alien Files and Unsealed: Conspiracy Files, which originally ran in syndication for four seasons with over 100 episodes and ran on Netflix, Discovery and the Fox stations as well as internationally.

Abedi co-produced the feature documentary, The Medicine, which follows one of the youngest spiritual leaders in Colombia and documents the history of Ayahuasca.

Currently, Colet has two television projects with the West Point Military Academy with Aperture Films and projects at Hulu and Reach TV with her production company, 04 Entertainment. They are set to produce Dying to Be Me, a New York Times Bestseller as well as a documentary on chef Marco Pierre White’s, Devil in the Kitchen.

She sits on the board of directors for HealGrief, a national network for grieving young adults and bereaved individuals. She is also a member of the Brain Trust Committee for the John Wayne Cancer Institute.

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Teaser ~ Cressida's Moon - Empire of the Sky: Book One by Mikala Ash

 


A Steam and Spells Steampunk Christmas Adventure

 

Empire of the Sky, Book 1

 

Steampunk Murder Mystery Romance

Date Published: December 22, 2023

Publisher: Changeling Press


 

History got it wrong. The first live human made it to the moon just before Christmas, 1865. Her name was Cressida Troy.

An assignation in a moonlit graveyard begins a perilous and sensual journey for plucky Cressida as she and her lovers track down an alien plot to conquer Earth.

Rocket ships to the moon, body snatchers, ghosts, aliens, romance, and illicit erotic congress -- Cressida’s Moon has it all.



Excerpt

Copyright ©2023 Mikala Ash

 

I was a bluestocking, eight and twenty years of age, and teaching at Mrs. Nolan’s School for the Poor in a small village in Shropshire when I met Jacob. I had been orphaned before ever knowing my parents. A typhoid outbreak in the year of our Queen’s ascension to the throne took them both away. I was raised by my childless uncle and aunt, he an infirm veteran of the Peninsular Wars, and she a charwoman. We lived in a small cottage just five minutes away from Mrs. Nolan. Though poor, I couldn’t have wished for a better upbringing. Aunt Jenny cleaned for the school, and it was through this stroke of luck that I had a place to learn, and then somewhere to work.

My aunt took in lodgers to augment her meagre wages. There was a succession of spinsters and widows, before Jacob McLeary, a fellow teacher at the school, came to stay. Jacob was a tall handsome man, sandy-haired, with bright azure eyes, and a fine blond moustache over his sensuous lips. When he smiled, which was often, the hint of dimples appeared in his cheeks at the ends of that moustache, and when he laughed, rarer but more affecting to the observer, the intimations were confirmed, and magnetically caught and held the gaze. He was eight years my senior, but his easy manner, quick sense of the ridiculous, and high intelligence captured my lonely heart the moment he was introduced. Though I had all but given up on the thought of love, I was besotted, and my innocent, but strangely feverish dreams were all of him.

Alas, he was a recent widower, and in deep mourning. His wife had been consumptive and had lingered in a nursing home on the south coast to where the majority of Jacob’s money had gone to maintain her in some comfort. I would occasionally catch him gazing at her image in the gold locket he kept in his waistcoat pocket, his eyes glistening with incipient tears. Once a month, if his finances allowed, he would leave us for a weekend to visit her grave and was always very quiet and reflective upon his return. My heart broke for him.

When my uncle followed his dear wife to the grave, I inherited the tiny cottage, and despite the misgivings of Mrs. Nolan, that two of her unmarried staff shared the same roof with no chaperone, Jacob continued to rent the upstairs room next to mine. While we shared a bed at night, we maintained separate bedrooms so as not to arouse the suspicions of the charwoman. Every morning he’d swap the pillows and disarrange the blankets and sheets of his narrow cot.

What Mrs. Nolan didn’t know was that by then Jacob and I were secret lovers. I won’t go over the hesitant and protracted beginnings of our affair, except to say it was I who initiated and progressed it. Jacob was the reluctant party. Betraying his wife’s memory did not come easily.

That I had no similar scruples should bother me, I suppose. My moral judgement was impaired, obviously. I was raw, selfish, and madly in love. Now I am ashamed, I must admit, of the strategies I employed to lead him into his sometimes-crippling self-imposed dishonour. Subtle flirting in the beginning, followed by overt sweet-talking, then the staging of intimate scenarios that I blush to recall.

Our first kiss was everything I dreamed of. The soft warmth of his lips, the hesitant pressure, his surge of passion surprising me when his tongue forced my lips apart to explore my mouth in a most urgent fashion that hinted at long suppressed desire. His soft caresses set my flesh aflame, and inside I felt a sultry heat that echoed my feverish dreams, and his first touch of that sensitive little nub between my secret lips committed me to the roiling flames of passion. I can still remember in exquisite detail the explosion of stars in my head, and wave after wave of prickly heat that flowed through my entire body, leaving me shaking at the knees, and clutching him so tightly lest I fall.

Jacob taught me some of the crude names given to male and female genitalia, and I must admit to becoming somewhat flagrant in using those slang terms instead of the boring old vagina and penis of the medical publications. My private place, as my aunt had referred to my cunny, had a variety of bemusing names: tulip, quimmy, quimbo, horse-collar, poke-hole, nursery, love-trap and cock-trap, pleasure pit, flaps, clam, buttonhole, and Cupid’s furrow, as well as the more familiar curses: cunt, and twat. We had many a laugh over these, as well as those for the male member: dick, doodle, ploughshare, trouser serpent, poker, broomstick, sword, Adam’s dagger, and the buttonhole worker, among countless others. Jacob had garnered these from certain salacious publications he’d purchased to assist him in his loneliness.

Aunt and Uncle were still alive then, and we took to making long walks in the twilight. Those twisted amblings would eventually take us to the old cemetery where privacy was assured beneath the yews. We’d kiss, and he’d lay his coat on the ground between the ancient headstones, and there we would make love.

Oh, how glorious those times were. I learned so much about the breadth of sensations my body could experience. He played my body as if it were a musical instrument, extracting so many types of sighs, building into a spectrum of moans, groans, and high-pitched cries of release, culminating in whimpers of breathless dissolution.

Jacob taught me how responsive my nipples were to the gentlest touch, and how they ached for the next stroke, lick, and suck. How his breath on my neck and throat made my innermost walls throb and moisten. Soft kisses from my breasts to my pelvis sent quivers of expectation along every nerve and cell.

He was always considerate of my comfort and pleasure, and ensured I would experience a breathtaking release before he asserted his own desire with careful penetration. He never spent his lust inside me, fearing to worsen my dishonour with a child. Instead, after I had reached the pinnacle of pleasure and found release, he would withdraw, and his marvellous rod of steel would pulse and jump, firing pearly drops across my quaking belly.

Habits are difficult to break. While we were free to make love at home, we also enjoyed our walks in the parkland surrounding the church, and it was on one such tryst that under a full moon we sat on a crumbling stone burial vault sacred to the memory of Ebenezer Boyse and his devoted wife Maryanne, who had both departed this life in 1722:

“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.”

Jacob’s head was hidden beneath my skirts, his face between my spread thighs, his agile tongue alternating between licking the labial flaps, spearing deep inside my quim, or teasing my clitoris. I was leaning back on my hands, lost in sensation, staring blankly at the silver orb hanging in the sky. My rising excitement inevitably led to a hysterical paroxysm, as the medical books termed it, and I moaned like a madwoman, and shuddered in convulsions of ecstasy.



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.

 

Contact Links

Author on Facebook

Author on Twitter

 

Publisher on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok: @changelingpress

 

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Book Blitz ~ Horses of Healing - Wholeness and Hope by Anna B. Joachim

 

 

How the Gentle Persuasion of Equine Therapy can bring Restoration and Peace to the Wounded and Hurting

 

(HORSES OF EUROPE Book 3)

 

Self-Help / Abuse

Date Published: August 1, 2023

Publisher: Ketanna

 

 

Unleash the remedying potential of horses: How equine-assisted services can improve your mental health and emotional well-being.

Do you or a loved one suffer from trauma or developmental challenges, and are you looking for therapy options to help overcome these complex issues?

Do you know that animals have emotions too, which can positively impact one’s mental health?

Read this comprehensive book to discover some of the amazing aspects of these noble animals and how they can help us find relief in our trials, positively impacting everyone around us.

 

Inside, you’ll discover:

  • How one woman’s love of horses changed the way military horses are treated – discover how her legacy lives on today
  • Why some horses need relief, too – including ways to communicate with and understand horses on a deeper level
  • A look at the art of horse whispering, including its history, snapshots of noteworthy modern-day horse whisperers, and the “join up” method developed by the “Man Who Listens to Horses”
  • What Natural Horsemanship truly is, and many several profiles of the most notable horse experts – with the first dating back to 420 BCE!
  • The ways in which equine-assisted therapy can help with PTSD, lessen the effects of stressful careers, and reduce anxiety
  • Tips on finding the best equine therapy center, including a list of centers that do fantastic work
  • The many benefits of equine therapy for those with developmental challenges, including how it helps people with ADHD, Down Syndrome, and a myriad of other challenges

 

And so much more!

 

About the Author

 Anna B. Joachim is a lifelong lover of horses and the author of Horses of Europe, Horses of War, and her latest title, Horses of Hope, which is due for publication this fall.

Anna’s profound respect for horses is evident in her writing, which explores horses through the lens of history in order to bring the modern reader to a deeper understanding of our relationship with these majestic creatures.

As a Natural Horsemanship and Parelli student, Anna has a sound understanding of equine behavior and the bond between humans and horses, and she has been caring for her own mare for the past sevaral years, having raised her from a yearling. She is passionate about riding and exploring the world on horseback, having ridden in some of the most beautiful regions of Australia, Canada, and the USA.

Anna’s love for horses has been passed down to her family, and each of her daughters are as dedicated to preserving the human-horse connection as she is.

Along with her dedication to horses, Anna has space in her life for a number of other passions, including her work in the field of Fertility Health. And when she’s not engaged in her work or spending time with her horse, you might find her enjoying the world and the people around her in the ways she loves the most: through hiking, golfing, and ballroom dancing with her husband.

Underpinning all of her work and passions is a gratitude to God for granting her the opportunity to enjoy each of these blessings and share her knowledge with others.

 

Contact Links

Website

Twitter: @AnnaBJoachim

Facebook

Goodreads

 

Purchase Link

Amazon


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