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Friday, December 2, 2016

Review: Person Suit

Title: Person Suit: An Anthology of Life, Loss, Love, Pain, and Mental Illness 
Editor: Kristi King-Morgan
Amazon
My Rating: 4 TURTLES: A great read, I definitely recommend.


Description:

This collection of poetry, memoirs and stories of short fiction presents to the reader such themes as depression, suicide, hopelessness, grief, loss, love, mental illness, and abuse both emotional and physical experienced by the writers or someone close to them. This collection serves to demonstrate that hiding behind shame or fear rather than sharing emotional pain as the authors in these works do is tantamount to “putting on a mask” or “wearing a person suit.” It is pretending. It is a state of existing but not truly living life to the fullest. The 11 authors featured in this collection have taken off their “person suit,” exposed their true selves to the world so that others may find their own voice and the courage to speak about mental illness and abuse of any kind.

Review:

Person Suit is a very powerful anthology of short stories and poems about people's experiences with love, loss, mental illness, and trauma. Some of the stories were very gritty and hard to read because of how emotional and difficult the subject matter was, but I really appreciated the authors telling these stories whether it be their own or a fictional character's. It takes a lot of courage to write about some of these topics. These are topics that are often either ignored or used just for dramatic effect in stories, so to read such sincere like these was really great.

While I enjoyed the majority of the stories and poems, there was one that felt a bit out of place in the anthology to me. I won't spoil anything, but it was science fiction where the rest of the stories were contemporary fiction. It did deal with loss and rejection and coping with it, so technically it fit the theme, but it stuck out to me. This might also be because I didn't enjoy its format as much as the others. It is written to be meant to be confusing for the reader, but it jumped around so much I had hard time getting my bearings in the sci-fi story world. That might be other people's cup of tea, it just isn't mine.


I would definitely recommend Person Suit. It has many powerful stories and I think it is really important that people read and get a glimpse into these lives and situations. Whether to build empathy or understanding for the life experiences of people who may be very different from us. That's part of what I love about literature in the first place, and Person Suit definitely accomplishes this.











Disclosure: this post contains links to an affiliate program (Amazon), for which I receive a few cents if you make purchases. 

Saturday, November 5, 2016

Spotlight: Primogénito: The Fuentes Legacy

About the Book:
“I wake up in the middle of the night sometimes and see him standing at the foot of the bed, staring at me. Some nights I don’t think he sleeps at all.”

Ashley Preston has a problem. Her husband Nick has fallen victim to a mysterious illness, alternating between bizarre physical symptoms for which doctors cannot determine a cause and alarming personality changes which have Ashley fearing not just for Nick’s health but for her own safety as well. Desperate to save her husband, she turns to the only person she believes can help her: Damian Fuentes.

Ashley knows Damian’s family has dabbled in some kind of dark magic over the years. She also knows that when Nick was ten years old, Damian’s grandfather performed a strange ritual on him. Convinced that this ritual is at the root of her husband’s problem, Ashley begs Damian to delve into the Fuentes family’s darkest secrets in search of a cure. But Damian has spent the past five years trying to distance himself from his family and his traumatic past. Helping Ashley will mean resurrecting the long-dead ghosts of his most disturbing memories. If he saves Nick he may very well lose himself.

About the Author:
Greta Cribbs has worn many hats over the years, from mom to schoolteacher to church choir director. She constantly seeks out opportunities to indulge her many interests, but writing is the passion that has been with her the longest. She wrote her first poem at the age of nine and has been creating stories ever since. She published her first book, Amelia’s Children, in 2015. Primogénito is her second published work. You can follow @GretaCribbs on Twitter for the latest information about her writing and other projects she is working on.


Check Primogénito out on Amazon
Greta's Website



Disclosure: this post contains links to an affiliate program (Amazon), for which I receive a few cents if you make purchases. 

Thursday, November 3, 2016

Release Blitz: Don't Wake Me Up

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About the Book

dontwakemeup_500x750Title: Don’t Wake Me Up
Author: M.E. Rhines
Genre: Young Adult Paranormal Romance
He’s charming, funny, and incredibly hot. The only problem is, he’s a ghost. When the chaos of school, her over-reactive mother, and her abusive boyfriend gets to be too much, sixteen-year-old Colleen turns to astral projection to escape it all. In the sanctuary of the astral plane, she mingles with the lost souls of the departed. They all need help to move on to the Summerland, and Colleen never turns down a spirit in need.
Until she meets Daemon. With just a glance, Daemon makes her forget all the turmoil back home. The calm is welcome and addictive, but Colleen knows the peace he offers will leave with him once he crosses over, forcing her to make a desperate decision: sever her ties to her physical body, or sabotage his salvation.

Author Bio

ef9b2f78cb082bd5ad26925d698c8940ME Rhines a southwest Florida native currently living in North Port with her two beautiful children and a third, much larger child whom she affectionately calls husband.
She writes young adult paranormal romance to feed her belief that fairy tales are real and nonsense is necessary.
She also writes adult romances under her edgier alter-ego, Mary Bernsen.


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Saturday, October 29, 2016

Guest Post: Andrew Joyce

My name is Andrew Joyce and I write books for a living. I would like to thank Larissa for allowing me to be here today to promote my latest, Yellow Hair, which documents the injustices done to the Sioux Nation from their first treaty with the United States in 1805 through Wounded Knee in 1890. Every death, murder, battle, and outrage I write about actually took place. The historical figures that play a role in my fact-based tale of fiction were real people and I use their real names. Yellow Hair is an epic tale of adventure, family, love, and hate that spans most of the 19th century.

Now that the commercial is out of the way, we can get down to what I really came here to talk about: the Sioux people. The people we know as the Sioux were originally known as the Dakota, which means ally. The name Sioux came from the Chippewa and the French. The Chippewa called them Nadonessiou, which means adder, or enemy, and then the French shortened the name to Sioux.

Every culture has an origin myth. We in the West have Adam and Eve. The Ancient Greeks had Gaia. According to the Norse people, Odin and Ymir founded the earth. If you will allow me, I’d like to tell you the creation story of the Dakota.

In the beginning, before the creation of the earth, the gods resided in the sky and humans lived in darkness. Chief among the gods was Ta՜kuwakaŋ, the Sun, who was married to Haŋyetuwi, the Moon. He had one daughter, Wohpe. And there was Old Man and Old Woman, whose daughter, Ite, was wife to Wind, to whom she gave four sons, the Four Winds.

Of the other spirits, the most important was Iŋktomi, the devious trickster. Iŋktomi conspired with Old Man and Old Woman to increase their daughter's status by arranging an affair between the Sun and Ite. His wife’s discovery of the affair led Ta՜kuwakaŋ to give the Moon her own domain, and by separating her from himself, created time.

Old Man, Old Woman and Itewho was separated from Wind, her husband—were banished to Earth. Ite, along with her children, the Four Winds, and a fifth wind—the child of Ite but not of Wind—established space. The daughter of the Sun and the Moon, Wohpe, also fell to earth and later resided with the South Wind. The two adopted the fifth wind, who was called Wamŋiomŋi.

Alone on the newly formed Earth, some of the gods became bored. Ite prevailed upon Iŋktomi to find her people, the Buffalo Nation. In the form of a wolf, Iŋktomi went beneath the earth and discovered a village of humans. Iŋktomi told them about the wonders of the Earth and convinced one man, Tokahe, to accompany him through a cave to the surface. Tokahe did so and, upon reaching the surface, saw the green grass and blue sky for the first time. Iŋktomi and Ite introduced Tokahe to buffalo meat and showed him tipis, clothing, hunting clubs, and bows and arrows. Tokahe returned to the underworld village and appealed to six other men and their families to go with him to the Earth's surface.

When they arrived, they discovered that Iŋktomi had deceived Tokahe. The buffalo were scarce; the weather had turned bad, and they found themselves starving. Unable to return to their home, but armed with a new knowledge about the world, they survived to become the founders of the Seven Council Fires.

The Seven Council Fires . . . or Oćeti Šakowiŋ . . .  are the Mdewakanton, the Wahpeton, the Wahpekute, the Sisseton, the Yankton, the Yanktonai, and the Lakota.

After Tokahe led the six families to the surface of the earth, they wandered for many winters. Sons were born and sons died. Winters passed, more winters than could be counted. That was before Oćeti Šakowiŋ. But not until White Buffalo Calf Woman did the humans become Dakota.

Two scouts were hunting the buffalo when they came to the top of a small hill. A long way off, they observed the figure of a woman. As she approached, they saw that she was beautiful. She was young and carried a wakiŋ. One of the scouts had lustful thoughts and told the other. His friend told him that she was sacred and to banish such thoughts.

The woman came up to them and said to the one with the lustful thoughts, “If you would do what you are thinking, come forward.” The scout moved and stood before her and a white cloud covered them from sight.

When the woman stepped from the cloud, it blew away. There on the ground, at the beautiful woman’s feet, lay a pile of bones with worms crawling in and among them.

The woman told the other scout to go to his village and tell his people that she was coming, for them to build a medicine tipi large enough to hold all the chiefs of the nation. She said, “I bring a great gift to your people.”

When the people heard the scout’s story, they constructed the lodge, and put on their finest clothing, then stood about the lodge and waited.

As the woman entered the village, she sang:

‘With visible breath I am walking.
A voice I am sending as I walk.
In a sacred manner I am walking.
With visible tracks I am walking.
In a sacred manner I walk.’

She handed the wakiŋ to the head chief and he withdrew a pipe from the bundle. On one side of the pipe was carved a bison calf. “The bison represents the earth, which will house and feed you,” she said.

Thirteen eagle feathers hung from the wooden stem. White Buffalo Calf Woman told the chiefs, “The feathers represent the sky and the thirteen moons. With this pipe, you shall prosper. With this pipe, you shall speak with Wakaŋ Taŋ՜ka (God). With this pipe, you shall become The People. With this pipe, you shall be bound with the Earth for She is your mother. She is sacred. With this pipe, you shall be bound to your relatives.”

Having given the pipe to the People, and having said what she had to say, she turned and walked four paces from the lodge and sat down.

When she arose, she was a red-and-brown buffalo calf. She walked on, lay down and came up as a black buffalo calf. Walking still farther, she turned into a white buffalo and stood upon a hill. She turned to bow in the four directions of the four winds and then she vanished.

Because of White Buffalo Calf Woman, the Dakota honor our mother the Earth; they honor their parents and their grandparents. They honor the birds of the sky; they honor the beasts of the earth. They know that Wakaŋ Taŋ՜ka resides in all animals, in all trees and plants and rocks and stones. Wakaŋ Taŋ՜ka is in all. They know that Wakaŋ Taŋ՜ka lives in each of us.


Because of White Buffalo Calf Woman, they have become Dakota.

About Andrew Joyce:
Andrew Joyce left high school at seventeen to hitchhike throughout the US, Canada, and Mexico. He wouldn’t return from his journey until decades later when he decided to become a writer. Joyce has written five books, including a two-volume collection of one hundred and fifty short stories comprised of his hitching adventures called BEDTIME STORIES FOR GROWN-UPS (as yet unpublished), and his latest novel, YELLOW HAIR. He now lives aboard a boat in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, with his dog, Danny, where he is busy working on his next book, tentatively entitled, MICK REILLY.

Wednesday, October 26, 2016

Release Announcement: The Meddlers of Moonshine

Albuquerque, NM (Octobert 25, 2016) – World Weaver Press has announced The Meddlers of Moonshine, the upcoming fantasy novel by A. E. Decker, and second book in the Moonfall Mayhem series, is available today, October 25, 2016.

Something is rotten in the town of Widget, and Rags-n-Bones knows it's all his fault.

In book one, The Falling of the Moon, Ascot Abberdorf left her home in Shadowvale to find True Love and a Happily Ever After, and instead discovered that it is often wiser to write your own story than to follow another.

Now traveling with a ragtag quartet of friends, Ascot heads to the sleepy-seeming town of Widget that has tales of its own to tell. No sooner has she arrived than Ascot finds herself the foremost investigator hired to rid Widget of the ghosts plaguing its streets.

While Ascot hunts spooks, her companion, Rags-n-Bones, discovers old friends and adversaries from a past he completely forgot he had. Are his lost memories connected to Widget's present woes? He's sure he could find out, if people would just stop locking him up.

Someone's meddling with Widget, and it's up to Ascot and Rags-n-Bones to discover who, before the town consigns itself to the graveyard of history!

The Meddlers of Moonshine follows Decker’s 2015 release The Falling of the Moon as the second book in the Moonfall Mayhem series. The Meddlers of Moonshine is available in trade paperback and ebook via Amazon.comBarnesandnoble.comKoboiTunes, and World Weaver Press, and for wholesale through Ingram.

A. E. Decker hails from Pennsylvania. A former doll-maker and ESL tutor, she earned a master’s degree in history, where she developed a love of turning old stories upside-down to see what fell out of them. This led in turn to the writing of her YA novel, The Falling of the Moon. A graduate of Odyssey 2011, her short fiction has appeared in such venues as Beneath Ceaseless SkiesFireside Magazine, and in World Weaver Press’s own Specter Spectacular. Like all writers, she is owned by three cats. Come visit her, her cats, and her fur Daleks at wordsmeetworld.com.
Praise for THE MEDDLERS OF MOONSHINE:

"If you’re looking for a great Autumn and Halloween read then look no further, this series has everything you need for a cozy fall evening spent reading. This one is 5/5 stars for me, it’s absolutely perfect and a must read!"
"I give The Meddlers of Moonshine five delicious avocados. The story is as tasty as the fruity treat. I devoured it all and I am hungry for more."
"This was a good fantasy story...you can bet I'll be watching for the next book in this series."
Publication Date: October 25, 2016 • Fantasy • Young Adult
$14.95 trade paperback, 337 pages  • $4.99 ebook
ISBN-13: 978-0-9977888-3-9

Publicity/Reviews: publicity@worldweaverpress.com

Information:
http://www.worldweaverpress.com/store/p119/Meddlers_of_Moonshine.html

Wednesday, October 12, 2016

Blog Tour: Affliction




Title: Affliction  

Author: Marilee Brothers 

Series: Soul Seeker #1 

Release Date: 29 February 2016 

 Publisher: Wild Rose Press 

Goodreads | Amazon 


Summary: 


Twenty-two year old Honor Melanie (Mel) Sullivan has an affliction. Due to childhood trauma and inappropriate social behavior, she is diagnosed with Aspergers, a form of autism. But, Mel knows Aspergers is not her true affliction. She prefers not to gaze into a person’s eyes because she is a soul reader, and what she sees can be frightening. It can also get Mel into trouble. After a brush with the law, Mel leaves her family home in Southern California and travels to Oregon where she meets Harley-Davidson riding William McCarty (Billy the Kid) and stumbles upon a human trafficking/baby-selling scheme involving a foreign girl from Kazakhstan and others. Even though Mel’s life is in danger, she won’t stop until she finds the answers that will help those unable to help themselves.


~ Except ~


His cheek scrapes across mine, his mouth just inches from my lips.
“Look at me, Minnie,” he whispers. “Tell me what you see.”
I lift my gaze and stare into his eyes, fully expecting to see my own face, possibly streaked with bits of sticky syrup and framed with flattened helmet hair. Nothing scary. Just something I’d rather not experience right now. But someone changed the channel.
My breath hitches in my chest. “Fire,” I say. “I see a smoldering fire.”
Billy’s mouth grazes my cheek. “Smoldering, huh? Let’s make it burn hotter.”
His lips touch mine, tentative at first, until I wrap my arms around his neck and try to climb inside his skin. He deepens the kiss, his silky tongue slipping into my mouth. I’m transported to another place. My world consists of all things tactile. The sound of our breathing. The smell of his leather jacket. The warmth of his body against mine. The softness of his lips. The heat spiraling through my body like wildfire. More. I want more.
I’m brought back to earth by the sound of a honking horn and a raucous shout, “Hey, you two, get a room!”
Embarrassed, I push away from Billy and stare at the ground, trying to get my breathing under control. Billy grabs my hand and kisses the back of it like an errant knight wooing a fair maiden. This strikes me as hilarious and I snort laugh. Also embarrassing.

Billy releases my hand and tilts my chin back. “I’m not leaving until you look at me one more time. I promise you, it’s safe.”


 ~ Book Trailer ~



~ About the Author ~


Marilee0708h
Marilee Brothers is a former teacher, coach, counselor and the author of ten books. Marilee and her husband are the parents of three grown sons and live in central Washington State. After writing six young adult books, Marilee is once again writing romantic suspense for the adult market. She loves hearing from people who have read her books. Feel free to contact her at Website  and sign up for her newsletter The Obsessive Page Turner. Her author page on Facebook is: www.facebook.com/marilee.author and she occasionally tweets @MarileeB. Check out Marilee’s Amazon page here Marilee’s blog is Book Blather, http://bookblatherblog.blogspot.com where she features aspiring and published authors as well as some tidbits of her own.


~ Other Books by this Author ~ 



Series: Unbidden Magic 

Goodreads | Amazon 

Summary: 

MOONSTONE A Fictionwise Fantasy bestseller Young Adult A sickly mom. A tiny house trailer. High school bullies and snarky drama queens. Bad-guy dudes with charming smiles. Allie has problems. And then there's that whole thing about fulfilling a magical prophecy and saving the world from evil. Geez. Welcome to the sad, funny, sometimes-scary world of fifteen-year-old Allie Emerson, who's struggling to keep her and her mom's act together in the small-town world of Peacock Flats, Washington. An electrical zap from a TV antenna sets off Allie's weird psychic powers. The next thing she knows she's being visited by a hippy-dippy guardian angel, and then her mysterious neighbor, the town "witch," gives her an incredible moonstone pendant that has powers only a good-hearted "Star Seeker" is meant to command. "Who, me?" is Allie's first reaction. But as sinister events begin to unfold, Allie realizes she's got a destiny to live up to. If she can just survive everyday life, in the meantime.


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