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Tuesday, September 30, 2014

Release Announcement: Blood Sin

“BLOOD SIN” / JENN LYONS

Alpena, MI (September 30, 2014– World Weaver Press (Eileen Wiedbrauk, Editor-in-Chief) has announced Blood Sin, the sequel to the paranormal mystery Blood Chimera by Jenn Lyons, will be available in trade paperback and ebook Tuesday, November 4, 2014.

Everything is permitted… and everyone has their price. Zander Sin is the bad boy of rock-n-roll, known for his wealth, his temper tantrums, and his love of hedonism, but to K&R expert and newly born maran vampire Jackson Pastor, Zander Sin is something else: murderer, monster, and kidnapper. After Zander’s Whore of Babylon tour comes to Los Angeles, Jackson also learns that Zander Sin has a grudge with Jackson’s family that goes way beyond money or power, and stretches all the way back to ancient Rome.

Zander may be on everyone’s hit list, human and supernatural alike, but when Jackson learns that Zander’s keeping his younger sister Monika prisoner, he finds himself face-to-face with the most objectionable of outcomes: being forced to help Zander Sin get what he wants. Even if it means Jackson may have to betray everyone he loves to do it.

Blood Sin will be available in trade paperback and ebook via Amazon.com, Barnesandnoble.com, Kobo.com, WorldWeaverPress.com, and other online retailers, and for wholesale through Ingram. You can also find Blood Chimera on Goodreads.
Jenn Lyons lives in Atlanta, Georgia, with her husband, three cats and a lot of opinions on anything from Sumerian creation myths to the correct way to make a martini. At various points in her life, she has wanted to be an archaeologist, anthropologist, architect, diamond cutter, fashion illustrator, graphic designer, or Batman. Turning from such obvious trades, she is now a video game producer by day, and spends her evenings writing science fiction and fantasy. When not writing, she can be found debating the Oxford comma and Joss Whedon’s oeuvre at various local coffee shops.
World Weaver Press is an independently owned publisher of fantasy, paranormal, and science fiction. We believe in great storytelling.


Publication Date: November 4 • Paranormal Mystery

$14.95 trade paperback, 370 pages  • $6.99 ebook

ISBN: 978-0692297339

Publicity/Reviews: publicity@worldweaverpress.com

Information:


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Monday, September 29, 2014

Spotlight + GIVEAWAY: The Siren


Title: THE SIREN (LAMENTS OF ANGELS & DARK CHEMISTRY, # 1)
Author: Meg Xuemei X
Genre: YA sci-fi/fantasy romance

Length: 258 pages
Publication Date: 8/10/2014
Publisher: Silver Wheel Publishing

Blurb:
Two boys tied to her irrevocably. One offers life disguised as death; the other leads to death with unfathomable love. Her choice decides whether the world turns or ends.




Lucienne Lam, born to rule as the last of the Sirens, is running out of time. If she fails to find the TimeDust, an ancient power, her enemies will have their wish—her head on a spike. And she’ll never know the love promised by Vladimir, a fierce warrior of the Czech royal bloodline.


Except Ashburn, a genius ‘farm boy,’ has found the TimeDust first, and its power binds Lucienne to him. She must convince him to sever this forced bond so she can return to her first love. But breaking the link seems insurmountable when the TimeDust launches its own ominous agenda and the two boys prepare to duel to the death over her.


Wednesday, September 24, 2014

Blog Tour Stop: Under the Shadow

Guest Blog by J.M. Kay, 
Author of Under the Shadow: Children of the First Star, Volume I"
[Release date: October 1, 2014; Publisher: BooksEndependent, www.BooksEndependent.com]"
"
Friends and family members often ask me what the inspiration was for my novel, Under the Shadow. I couldn’t answer, “It came to me in a dream,” or something equally as romantic, because dreams are fleeting and provide only incongruous collections of images which can be interpreted in many ways. What drove me to write this book was more powerful than a dream; it was an attempt to describe a concrete feeling deep within me that has no name. Along with this desire came the conviction that the proper way to express this feeling was by telling a story. "
I never thought I would write a book. My writing had always found its way into much shorter venues: poems, funny short stories, cartoons, even a short play here and there. I thought I didn’t have a story that warranted a piece of novel-sized length, until one afternoon, at the age of twenty-seven, I re-read an animated half-hour television pilot I had written. It was about two friends forced against their will to take part in a grand space adventure. In re-reading the script, I realized there was a much larger story beneath the surface that lent itself to a different format all together. I had the feeling that these characters could encapsulate something greater than “Every week they travel to planet x, and then y happens and blah blah blah...” Instead, I could use these characters, and the backdrop of space and time, to tell a far more personal journey of self- discovery. "
I remember in middle school, and through the rest of my teenage years, being full of wonderings and questions to which, I assumed, there must be answers that some human, either alive or long since dead, had gleaned. And yet that was not the case. There were no answers to a lot of the questions I had about the nature of life and God, and our purpose. At that point in my life I didn’t know how to reconcile that an answer wasn’t necessarily needed, and further, if somehow received, probably would be incomprehensible to my limited understanding of reality. But I remember the need to have that understanding very clearly. In this way, Jason, the protagonist of the trilogy, also seeks an understanding, and feels he can’t move on with his life unless he receives a very clearly defined answer to mollify his grief. But he will find, as I did, that simple answers to complex questions usually don’t bring a hoped for catharsis. Rather, they just set us forward on a longer journey of discovery than we ever might have anticipated."
!" "
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The hardest part for me in writing the book was deciding what kind of science fiction it was going to be. I have no great expertise or background in the hard sciences, other than my general fascination, especially with astrophysics. I knew right off the bat the book wasn’t going to be what many might describe as “hard” science fiction. I also chose not to try the route of an author like Kim Stanley Robinson (Red Mars, Blue Mars, Green Mars), whereby in-depth scientific research and description drives the plausibility of the technology. I’m glad I didn’t attempt this because it seems a far less fitting approach for the aliens involved in Under the Shadow. These aliens, the Shantar Anar, and even the Ranis Aun, are so far beyond human beings in their technological evolutions, what would it say about them if a human (me), alive not much more than thirty years -- with a background in economics, who has never invented anything in his entire life -- could readily explain the inner workings of technologies, bordering on magical, in their power? If I could tell you exactly how the Archivist’s ship works, then the Shantar Anar would be far too ignorant and human for my liking."
The inner workings of the technologies of the Shantar Anar are ancillary, at best, to their importance to the story, which is: what people, or conscious beings in the context of the book, choose to do with their power. What sense of morality guides them in the constraints they have willingly chosen to place upon themselves? "
The technologies of the Shantar Anar also serve the purpose of making a point about perception. Jason, and his classmate, Daniel, imagine the Shantar Anar to be as powerful as gods, which the archivist, Nierion, is quick to dismiss. But how do the Shantar Anar feel about themselves? What happens when these beings with powers, which to others seem godlike, are convinced that perhaps they are more than what they are? This is the central theme of the story: How to know what to make of oneself, what one’s own limitations are, and what they are not. How do we move past our many and powerful fears in order to become a better version of ourselves? Perhaps most importantly, how do we see the things that are essential to the worth of our own life, namely our home and the people we love? "
My love of fantasy and science fiction made the conduit of this tale seem obvious, but the inspiration was The Waste Land by T.S. Eliot. For all of The Waste Land’s complexities and cryptic nature, there is a clear, emotional component of the awareness the poet has for the world he inhabits, which resonates through the immense scope of the poem. My recognition of this awareness is the basis and the inspiration for the trilogy I’m writing: Children of the First Star Volumes I-III: Under the Shadow, A Moment in the Glass, and What the Thunder Said. All three titles are taken from The Waste Land. And each book can be defined, in essence, by the three words of Sanskrit Eliot borrows from the Upanishads -- ancient works of Indian wisdom – used in the concluding piece of his poem: Datta, Dayadhvam, Damyata – give, compassion, control. " ---"
For more information about J. M. Kay, visit his website at: http://www.jmkaywriting.com

Monday, September 22, 2014

Guest Post: Amalia Dillin + Giveaway!

BEYOND FATE Playlist Party


I definitely listen to music while I write, and again while I edit. When FORGED BY FATE came out last year, I talked about a few of the songs that felt like themes for the book, and the Fate of the Gods series itself. And now that BEYOND FATE has hit virtual shelves, I thought it’d be interesting to share the songs that are still relevant, along with a few new ones that are maybe more fitting for this closing chapter.



BEYOND FATE’s playlist has some old favorites – It’s All Been Done, by the Barenaked Ladies is still the most perfect song for Adam and Eve! – along with some new songs for some new characters who I’m thrilled to be able to share with you at last. But I’ll let you decide which songs fit which characters best in BEYOND FATE. And hopefully you’ll enjoy the conclusion of Eve, Adam, and Thor’s story as much as I do!


a Rafflecopter giveaway

Friday, September 19, 2014

Giveaway: Recipes and Road Stories





Recipes and Road Stories: From Life on the Road with Sisters Hannah and Caroline Melby of the duo HanaLena was released in September 2014 and is available for sale on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Recipes-Road-Stories-Caroline-HanaLena-ebook/dp/B00N5ZVH2C. This book is a remarkable coming of age story about two girls growing into womanhood on the bluegrass circuit.

Genres: Non-Fiction / Memoir / Cookbook

By the time Hannah was in the 11th grade and Caroline was in the 7th grade, the Melby sisters were touring the country in bluegrass bands, with Hannah on fiddle and Caroline on mandolin. Today the sisters are the front persons of a very popular Nashville-based country music touring band named HanaLena.

Do they ever have some great stories to tell about coming of age on the concert trail! 

Recipes and Road Stories blends touching and rollicking road stories with an assortment of tasty recipes, and then tops everything off with plenty of exciting photographs.

Also contributing recipes are friends they made on the road, including Rhonda Vincent, a 5-time Grammy nominee who has been called the "Queen of Bluegrass," and Claire Lynch, who is the reigning Female Vocalist of the Year for the International Bluegrass Association.   

The sisters, who grew up in Starkville, Mississippi, performed from an early age—Hannah is now 28, Caroline is 24—evolving from bluegrass to progressive country as they perfected their songwriting and performance skills out on the road. In 2008 they won the “Best New Act in Country Music” competition at the Colgate Showdown in the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville—and took home a check for a cool $100,000 presented by country music star LeAnn Rimes.

In their off-hours, the sisters focused on the business end of music, with Hannah receiving a degree in public relations from Mississippi State University and Caroline receiving a degree in music business from Belmont University in Nashville.

“Hannah and Caroline remind me so much of the Dixie Chicks,” says SLG president James L. Dickerson, whose biography Dixie Chicks: Down-Home and Backstage, was the first in-depth analysis of that group’s road to success. “Their musicianship is superb—and they have the grit, vision and good humor to make it to the top.”

To learn more about HanaLena, go to http://nashstreet.com/ 





A High Lonesome Cowboy Wedding Never to Forget

This is one of our favorite stories. It is dear to our hearts, but it is a hard story to tell for reasons that soon will become apparent.
It was a hot summer day in Mississippi.  We drove for hours from Nashville, down to Sallis, Mississippi, located outside of the “big city” of Kosciusko.  Once we arrived in Sallis, we turned down a winding, gravel road that led us to an old high school gym.
We unpacked our gear for what we thought would be a typical wedding.  What we didn’t know was this would be anything but a typical wedding, and it would probably change all of our lives a little, even if we didn’t know it at the time.
 We were greeted by a handful of handsome boys dressed in heavily starched white shirts and jeans.  They had matching tan cowboy hats to top off the outfit.  They helped us carry our sound equipment into the small, but inviting gym that had been transformed into a beautiful wedding venue.
The groom stepped up and introduced himself with a firm, good ole boy handshake that made you feel like the world would be in good hands with him.  The bride was a beautiful mother of five with a smile as wide and bright as if she had won the lottery.
We set up for the ceremony and got ready to perform.  But before the wedding began we all gathered around to say a prayer. It was a well-spoken and beautiful prayer, the kind that made you feel like God was watching over the couple at that very moment.
When the wedding began, we played "Ashokan Farewell" as the doors opened and the bride began her long walk to meet her husband at the altar.  As she began that journey, she was accompanied by one of her sons who walked at her side. Then after a few steps they paused long enough for another child to replace the first child—and so it went, the bride alternating her children so that each of them ended up walking her closer to her soon-to-be husband.
Something about the togetherness of that moment touched every heart in the room. The bride finally reached the spot where she would change her last name and hopefully her entire life.  On either side of the couple were a line of finely dressed boys and girls, each of whom was one of their kids.  I say "their kids" because I have never seen a family as close as they were on that day.  They didn’t point out whose children were their biological ones.  They were a family.  That is all they needed.
After the “I dos” and the every so anticipated kiss, they turned and walked down the aisle a second time, but now as husband and wife.  We played the reception soon after.  They cleared the chairs and got ready for a good ole time!  They had their first dance.  They looked at each other was with such compassion and adoration.  They somehow knew they were supposed to be there together at that very moment.
The bride and groom each danced with the children, one by one. During one song, the bride’s youngest boy walked on stage and pulled on my dress like you would expect any small child to do when he wants to ask a question.  I bent down to listen to his request. It was the sweetest and saddest question I have ever heard.
“Would you play a song for my mommy and me?" he asked. "I haven’t danced with her yet and I am afraid she has forgotten about me.”
I hugged him and said you bet!
I'm not sure, but I might have stopped the song we were playing half way through to honor his request.  I was so touched by his innocence and his need to have a dance with his mom.  As I watched with awe, the bride came over and grabbed her youngest boy from the stage and held him close while she danced with him.  
After the last song was played and the last dance was danced, we loaded our instruments into the car and were ready to head home.  The boys in starch all came up and gave us their going away present; I believe it was almonds tied up in a red bandana.  We had the best time.  Before we left we got a big hug from the bride and groom.  They told us "thank you" as most people do.  But, they decided to tell us why this wedding was so special to them.  We knew a little background about them, but nothing prepared us for the story they told.
The bride had lost her husband a little while back.  She was left with five kids.  She was doing all she could to hold the family together, but it never seemed like enough.  One day she was praying for the Lord to send her a man that would love her and all of her children, and it wouldn’t hurt if he was tall, dark, and handsome.  She told God that the man would have to come to her, because she didn’t have any time to go out and search for him.
While she was on her knees praying, one of her daughters came looking for her and told her someone was at the door.  She got up with tears in her eyes and opened the door.  There stood a man.  He was tall, he had dark hair, and he was handsome.  He asked her if her husband was there.  He had known him a while back and heard he lived here.  She invited him in and told him of her late husband’s passing.  They talked for hours.  His wife had passed away as well.
Shortly after that meeting, they fell in love and got married.  God had answered her prayers.  He had sent her a tall, dark, and handsome man that loved her and all of her children, and she loved his children as well.
We left the old country place with tears in our eyes and a new-found appreciation for love and an acceptance of the mysterious way God works.  We traveled home in silence, reflecting on the life changing day we had experienced.
I wish my story stopped there.
A few months after their wedding, the mother of her five children and of his three, answered a knock at her door.  A man was standing there.  With a pained look upon his face, he removed his hat.  She knew something was wrong before any words were spoken.  He told her he regretted to inform her that her husband's train had derailed, and that he had not survived the train wreck.
For the second time, her world fell apart.  She had to put aside her pain.  She had eight children to take care of now, so for the second time, she was forced to become strong.Hannah 


SAMPLE RECIPE



Deep Fried Oreos
Cleek Farms, Kingsport, Tennessee
Host of annual Cleek Farm Corn Maze

  1 1/2 cups milk
  2 eggs
  2 cups all-purpose flour
  1 teaspoon baking powder
  1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  1/2 teaspoon salt    
  3/4 cup confectioners' sugar (sift for best results)
  8 cups vegetable oil for frying

Mix first 6 ingredients. Heat oil. A deep fryer works great, but you don't have to use one. Dip the Oreo in the batter, place in fryer until golden brown. Remove, cool slightly, and apply sifted powdered sugar. This is a simple funnel cake mix.