She’s the One Who Doesn’t Say Much by S.R. Cronin – Exclusive Excerpt and Giveaway

This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. S. R. Cronin will be awarding a $20 Amazon or B/N GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.

Do you know what your problem is?

Olivine knows hers. This quiet thirteenth-century artist has been hiding a secret as she travels to K’ba to meet her friends. Others assume she’s fallen in love with another artist, but it’s much worse than that. For on the way to K’ba is the dirt poor nichna of Scrud, a place scorned by other Ilarians. And in Scrud is the one man who understands her.

However, Bohdan recognizes the dangers posed by an impending Mongol invasion. When he learns of Olivine’s unusual visual powers, he convinces her to pick up her bow and start practicing.

She does, though she’s more concerned with moving to K’ba where she can paint all day and see Bohdan whenever she wants. If only her sister hadn’t decided Olivine and her fellow long eyes held one key to defending the realm.

Then, as if life wasn’t complicated enough, Olivine learns the artist community she yearns to be part of has developed a different take on the invasion. They’re sure the only way to survive is to capitulate completely to the Mongols’ demands. Artists who feel otherwise are no longer welcome.

Where does her future lie? The invasion is coming soon and Olivine doesn’t have much time to decide.

Enjoy an Excerpt

I let my mother know I’d be celebrating Noruz in K’ba. She said nothing; I think she expected it.

“I’ll be back after the holiday. Then I’ll probably be around here a lot more. I hope that’s okay.”

She smiled. “Problems with your young artist?”

“Something like that.” At least the lie sliding out of my mouth was partly true. “We’re going to take a bit of a break from each other after the holiday.”

“That’s so wise, dear. Make time to get out there and socialize. Consider those other options.” She reached out and took both of my hands in hers and looked into my eyes. “Remember. It’s just as easy to fall in love with a prince.”

The best I could manage was a slight nod as I disengaged my hands and walked outside.

I found my father in the barn and asked him if he had any objection to my conducting archery practices on the farm with a few boys from Gruen.

“Of course you can practice here. We’ve plenty of room.” He gave me a questioning look. “Are all you girls involved in this thing Ryalgar is doing?”

“Probably. I don’t know how the others see it, but I can’t imagine life without this farm, or without Vinx to always come home to.”

He turned away as I said the last part, but when he turned back to face me, I saw the tear in his eye.

“Neither can I. I’m proud of every one of you.” He said it fast, in a quiet tone, so I wasn’t sure I heard him right. I started to say something back, but he walked out of the barn before I could.

About the Author: Sherrie Cronin is the author of a collection of six speculative fiction novels known as 46. Ascending and is now in the process of publishing a historical fantasy series called The War Stories of the Seven Troublesome Sisters. A quick look at the synopses of her books makes it obvious she is fascinated by people achieving the astonishing by developing abilities they barely knew they had.

She’s made a lot of stops along the way to writing these novels. She’s lived in seven cities, visited forty-six countries, and worked as a waitress, technical writer, and geophysicist. Now she answers a hot-line. Along the way, she’s lost several cats but acquired a husband who still loves her and three kids who’ve grown up just fine, both despite how odd she is.

All her life she has wanted to either tell these kinds of stories or be Chief Science Officer on the Starship Enterprise. She now lives and writes in the mountains of Western North Carolina, where she admits to occasionally checking her phone for a message from Captain Picard, just in case.

Twitter | Facebook | Instagram | Goodreads | Amazon Author Page | BookBub | Website | Series Blog

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Woman Suffrage by David McCracken – Guest Blog and Giveaway

This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. David McCracken will be awarding a $10 Amazon or Barnes and Noble GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.

*****

Woman suffrage—wasn’t that just about women in long skirts getting the vote years ago? Didn’t the 19th Amendment settle that in 1920? No, the “Prices of the Vote” in my subtitle alludes to that ongoing struggle. The first price was to exclude non-white women from the discussion, and it is still being paid, even by Native Americans. The fact that a major political party in the United States is actively working to curtail voting, especially by non-whites and, yes, women, indicates the struggle is not won. As my novelette makes plain, by the 20th century, the resistance to woman suffrage was intimately bound up in resistance to black woman and black man suffrage. And look where the resistance is focused now. It is even using the filibuster that was the center of the South’s resistance to civil rights. Now the “party of Lincoln” is leading the repression, though it previously led the civil rights fight.

The struggle for woman suffrage was one of the great dramas of our time. Imagine, throughout most of the world, half the human race, men, held the other half, women, in bondage. Yes, even white women were chattel, limited in their right to education, occupation, and property, even in their rights to their children. I choke up, still, when I read my account of the conclusive fight in the Tennessee House. I hope that by humanizing the struggle through a fictitious heroine with her hopes and feelings, the drama will come through for you and thus bring the necessary historical background alive. It is more current than we (men) would like to think. I am gratified that many reviewers have felt it.

I will continue the story in coming volumes. I hope to have the next one, Far Beyond Woman Suffrage: Testing the Limits, ready by 2/2/22. You can see how I’m coming on that through my website for all my books, DoFancifulFlights.com. In addition, I’m working on a couple of other books to fill out the promise of that title. Stay tuned in.

And VOTE!

Far Beyond Woman Suffrage: The Prices of the Vote

It isn’t just about women in long skirts finally voting. The racists and the rich know that, and the politicians worry.

Mercy Martin has an inside view as the battle for woman suffrage nears a climax, but she encounters many puzzles:

• So many women and Southern states oppose votes for women;
• So many people are afraid it would bring on free love, abandonment of family, economic catastrophe, or communism.
• So many suffragists are willing to abandon black women voters.

From an innocent teen to a young adult, Mercy has a central role in the campaign. She advances from confinement in a suffragist jail cell to the national campaign for the suffrage amendment. She campaigns around Tennessee, ending at the capitol for the explosive climax in the last state that might ratify the amendment and grant the vote to women.

Why should something so clearly right be so hard, and why were some bitter compromises made? Mercy is right in the middle, relied on by key players. Along the way, she acquires a husband, a baby, and better parents than she was born with.

This is an intimate view via alternative historical fiction, as accurate as it can be and as thoughtful and moving as it must be. In this first novella of a series, Mercy jumps into the campaign for woman suffrage and prepares for a vital role in the coming decades. She’ll continue on into the wider civil rights struggle growing out of woman suffrage.

Enjoy an Excerpt

Progress? 1/12/1918

I excitedly wait before my shift on the line to discuss with Miss Sue news I heard about, that the House approved the woman suffrage amendment 274 to 136 two days ago! “So, we’re almost there?” I ask her when she’s passing by, checking how we pickets she’d assigned for the day are doing.

Her mouth tightens: “Sweety, we’ve just begun. That’s just over the required 2/3, and I understand the Senate will refuse even to debate it until October. “

“How can that be? Don’t they know it’s right … and important?”

“They’re afraid of the heat they’ll get from both sides and probably can’t line up the votes to pass it. In Southern states, a vote for woman suffrage is political suicide because negro women there would be able to combine their votes with Northern liberals.”

I look down: “Then it’s hopeless?”

“No, an election is coming. If they postpone a vote until after the election, we might win the few more seats we need.”

“Oh.”

“Don’t worry. We’re not letting any of them off the hook, especially not Woodrow Wilson. It’s his Democratic party, his responsibility. No excuses. He’s got to produce the votes.”

About the Author David McCracken became a political activist when the Supreme Court ruled against school segregation. Fellow students joined him in urging the school board in Winchester, KY, to integrate immediately. He campaigned for a Democratic governor and joined the ACLU before he graduated from the University of Kentucky. After debating at U.K., he got a degree in economics and a job with the U.S. Department of Commerce.

When his daughters approached school age, he became increasingly concerned with how he wanted them schooled. Researching that, he decided teaching was what he really wanted to do. He got a master’s degree in elementary education at Murray State University. He taught for several years, until the fact that his girls qualified for reduced-price lunches based on his salary got to him. Ronald Reagan’s anti-government policies prevented him from returning to government work, so he took programming courses and shifted careers again. Programming was like being paid to solve puzzles all day, but teaching eventually drew him back until retirement.

For many years of this time, he was working intermittently at a novel that became Fly Twice Backward: Fresh Starts in Times of Troubles. This concerned his waking on his twelfth birthday, trying to figure out what had happened, following his new opportunities, and ultimately outliving an evil president resembling Donald Trump. After thirty-six years, David finally published it as an interactive alt-history Kindle novel. He soon started, Far Beyond Woman Suffrage: The Prices of the Vote, an alt-history novelette dealing with the campaign for woman suffrage. He finished this piece in just ten months. At 81, he is bold(?) enough to plan this as the first of a six-volume set dealing with the far-reaching results and implications of woman suffrage. His completed novels and another in the works are presented for discussion on a new website, DoFancifulFlights.com

David now lives with his third wife, stepdaughter, and step-grandson near Winchester, VA. He has a son from his second marriage, six grandchildren, and two stepchildren. And a wonderful black dog with four white feet.

Website | Goodreads

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The Cairns of Sainctuarie series by Hawk MacKinney – Spotlight and Giveaway

This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. Hawk MacKinney will be awarding a $20 Amazon or B/N GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.

The Cairns of Sainctuarie
Volume I – The Bleikovat Event
Volume II – The Missing Planets
Volume III – Inanna Phantom

From a rocky outcrop a battle-widowed Etkaa, gazed down at the death and upheaval. Rancid green Murian blood stanched the dusklit breezes from the haze-dimmed river marshlands. Nothing has been spared by the Green Dragon forces of Bleikovia. In skirmishes along the Feldon River, Etkaaâ’s mate is fatally wounded with deadly selvon poison. Through a gruesome mountain trek of icy blizzards, they elude the Green Dragon. The battered starving Feldovats reach the coast at Eedov City only to be confronted by their implacable enemy determined to destroy the remaining Klarvkon rabble. Taking passage on crowded Maalon freighters, the refugees escape toward a new life among their Maalon hosts. Enraged Bleikovats move against the Klarvkons, bringing indiscriminate bloodshed. War once again surfaces, as it did in the muddy filth along the Feldon River of Malfesov, and becomes a different kind of war.

Generations after the great Murian upheaval of the Malfesian War against the Bleikovats, the Accords between planets Terato and Myr are signed.

Provisional Outpost Terato is under construction near a farm where Teratoan orphan Eklam a’Qoc lives with his uncle and cousin. Inquisitive strong-minded Eklam, Ek to everyone in the village, is captivated by the off-worlders technology, and becomes an apprentice to the Outpost Terato’s Murian commander, Grand Duke Korvo. Uncle a’Qoc disapproves; wants nothing to do with these outlanders, wants their shimmering doorway portals-of-travel banned from Terato. As Outpost Terato becomes operational it seems to become a harbinger stirring ageless secrets of The Old Ones and their frightful weapons, of ancient Teratoan ruins, mysterious glowing lights, unexplained killings, a sacred book in a language no Teratoan can read, a moon that doesn’t behave like a moon in its wobbly orbit.

From cosmic reaches beyond space and time the ominous secrets of Terato’s ancient ruins become more threatening. Ek and Korvo realize both their worlds face extinction with any hope buried somewhere in unknown galaxies far beyond a pastoral Terato or the sophisticated star-empire of the Murians; of missing planets in a star system with its single star in a galaxy far-removed unknown to Terato or Myr. They travel across the universe to a place long forgotten to fight this unknown foe with weapons only dreamed of. Together they face the beast that wishes to consume the entire universe.

The threat of rift invasions seems long passed. Plentiful harvests abound. The Murian first-contact Terato Outpost has grown into the sprawling Terato-Murian Terminus Terato with a hub of relay portals reaching across the vast uncharted galactic expanses and connecting with its eon-extinct Lantaraan prehistory. An exploratory Terato-Murian Jupiterr outpost is established on the gas giant seventh planet, and its quantum and gravitational energies are used to power outpost portals for an archeological survey of the fourth planet, Eorthe. The Lantaraan database aboard Terato’s ancient Downday moon shows that one or more planets of the Solaris planets have apparently been lost. Expanded archeological records on other Lantaraan orbital bodies in the Solaris system show the fourth planet from the star—Eorthe—to be a sterile wasteland. Except it is not. Eorthe’s civilization is not to the level of the Murian Empire, but it is far advanced to those of a pastoral Terato. Terato and Eorthe form the confederated United Terran League under the nominal figurehead leader of League High Judikarr Eklam a’Qoc. Jupiterr outpost expands into a major League stronghold, Jupiterr Base, when civil unrest erupts in the League, the unexpected return of rift intrusions threatens, and the Murian Emperor Klarvko Celo is assassinated. As they prepare for confrontations with an unknown ancient enemy, the internal tensions on Myr and Eorthe push Murians and Teratoans to dangerous discords.

Enjoy an Excerpt from BOOK ONE: THE BLEIKOVAT EVENT

The catafalque of the old Dowager Queen rested on the high rostrum of the Temple of the Goddess Myraa. There was little ceremony to the cremation of dead. Yet, all that had passed made this requiem for the Dowager Queen Klarvkaa Etkaa Bremanova Celovaa Bremanova symbol of the changes which had swept so many lives. Long annuals before the ascendancy of The Klarvkon Dynasty, the massive wood and granite Temple to the Goddess Myraa had been destroyed in the firestorm which laid waste Eedov City. After the close of the Malfesian War the temple was rebuilt, but not the city. On the ashes of the old temple, immense columns rose above the sanctuary and vaults. Iridescent alabaster and polished marbles greeted pilgrim supplicants who had come to the shoreline plains washed by the Green Sea.

Dowager Etkaa Klarvkaa…wife, myäat, founding matriarch of the Klarvkon Dynasty, gave hope from a time without hope. As was her wish, she would be cremated on the soil of her birth, her ashes to mingle with those of her consort, Klarvko Celo. Their son, His Imperial Majesty Klarvko Celo the Second, decreed it would be. At the enormous base of the great temple…a spectacle never seen before and seldom since those times, came an undulating ocean of banners. Some of clans which no longer existed, even the once-hated Green Dragon of Bleikovia. Murians had taken her to their hearts…and never relinquished her. Her shadow would reach across the centuries, and measure all who followed.

About the Author:

With postgraduate degrees and faculty positions in several medical universities, Hawk MacKinney has taught graduate courses in both the United States and Jerusalem. His professional writing includes articles on chordate neuroembryology, and aerospace research on muscle metabolic behavior in multi-orbital environments.

In addition, Hawk has authored several works of fiction including a historical romance Moccasin Trace which was nominated for both the prestigious Michael Shaara Award for Excellence in Civil War Fiction and the Writers Notes Book Award. His Cairns of Sainctuarie Science Fiction Series and his Moccasin Hollow Mystery Series have received national and international attention.

Website | Publisher

Buy The Bleikovat Event, The Missing Planets, and Inanna Phantom on Amazon.


3 Self-Care Tips for Writers by Zhanna Hamilton – Guest Blog and Giveaway

This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. Zhanna Hamilton will be awarding a $75 Amazon or Barnes and Noble GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.

3 Self-Care Tips for Writers

As a writer, self-care is just as important as improving your craft. Here, I list three essential tips for taking care of yourself while on your writing journey.

Don’t Compare

Someone might be an award-winning author with a large fanbase. Another might be writing their seventh novel. A different writer could have just sold their first screenplay.

None of these writers have anything to do with you.

Their success does not take away from your future success. In fact, every time a writer wins, they show what’s possible for you, too. There’s no need to compare your journey to others since they are on a different path. Trust the divine timing of your life.

Move Your Body

As writers, we sit around a lot. We sit at our desks. We sit in cafes. We sit whenever we are ready to write.

That’s a lot of sitting, isn’t it?

While exercise takes us away from our work, it will help us become better in the long run. Don’t skip it!

Healthy body + healthy mind = better writing.

Focus On the Craft

It’s not about you. The faster you realize this, the faster you can take the ego out of the process and concentrate on perfecting your craft. Get curious about how good you can get at writing and then put in the work. With a focus on mastering the craft instead of questioning if you’re good enough, you’ll naturally advance over time.

I hope these tips help you improve and enjoy the writing process a bit more.

A former human turned military spy bot escapes the oppressive Solar Government, leaving behind a secret that turns order into chaos. Now, she’s being hunted.

Blank: Madam Doesn’t Like That (Short Story 4 of The Blank Series):

An unexpected visit from sex bots turns into a secret mission with deadly consequences

Enjoy an Excerpt

Arlo read a large sign passing by on the boulevard.

KILL ALL BOTS!

“What the hell is Razor doing?”

“She’ll be fine. She does it all the time.”

“Does what all the time? Never mind. Don’t tell me. We have to stop her.”

Zen crossed her legs, tapped the console with long, golden nails and stared past the protest.

“You stop her.”

He watched Razor lift a helmet off the ground and put it on, pumping her fist as she walked into the chanting crowd.

“I can’t be in a protest, Zen. I have a career to protect.”

“Sounds inconvenient.”

“Don’t we have somewhere to be?”

“And we’ll get there.”

“This is ridiculous,” he said, stepping out of the pod. He tried to spot her. Nothing but angry strangers. Walking towards the crowd, he felt the electric energy of frustration.

“PEOPLE OVER BOTS! PEOPLE OVER BOTS!”

He stood at the edge of the moving spectacle and scanned for Razor.

Against the grain of the crowd, he spotted the oversized biker’s helmet with flowing blonde locks extending beyond the edges. She grabbed a bat off the ground near a closed psychedelics store.

“Razor, no!” he yelled, his voice drowned by the raging chorus.

About the Author: Zhanna Hamilton is a science fiction writer and the creator of The Blank Series. In May 2019, she released the first installment of the scifi series on Wattpad, “Blank: Begin Again,” which has been named in the top 100 list of femme fatale stories and chosen as an “Undiscovered Stories” Wattpad Pick on the independent storytelling platform–home to 90 million readers worldwide. Readers and future readers can follow Hamilton on Twitter.

Twitter

Read “Blank: Begin Again (Short Story 1 of The Blank Series)” on Wattpad

Read “Blank: Where Do Machines Go When They Die? (Short Story 2 of The Blank Series)” on Wattpad:

Read “Blank: You Heard Me (Short Story 3 of The Blank Series)” on Wattpad

Read “Blank: Madam Doesn’t Like That (Short Story 4 of The Blank Series)” on Wattpad

Follow The Blank Series on Wattpad

Follow Zhanna Hamilton on Wattpad

The book will be Free during the tour.


Pixies in the Mist by Rasta Musick – Guest Blog and Giveaways

This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. Rasta Musick will be awarding a $25 Amazon or B/N GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.

Jake had drifted to Japan without any serious intent, and it was going… okay. He had made friends in the local Salsa community, his Japanese was improving, but for Jake the familiar feeling that had dogged him most of his life—that something special should be happening—had struck again.

Kenneth had been assigned to Japan by the pixie queen years ago, which is just enough time for a pixie to get bored and complacent while keeping tabs on the local talent. Most humans had no magic, and most magical humans didn’t know it was their power that made their food taste better, their paintings more vibrant, or people like them more.

When the two met, the spark in Jake gave Kenneth’s role a new urgency. Jake didn’t just have magic, he had a wild and unpredictable kind seen only once in a generation. How could Kenneth keep Jake’s magic from falling into enemy hands? Kill him? Recruit him? Somehow keep him ignorant?

Jake’s magic had quietly led him to Japan, subtly influencing every choice in his life. That something special Jake had been waiting for was about to happen, ensuring his and Kenneth’s lives would never be boring again.

Enjoy an Excerpt

Jake stood up and walked into his shower room to get ready for a night of dancing. It was only recently that the separation of his toilet and shower didn’t make him uncomfortable. To someone else, it might have been strange that he felt pride from having gotten used to such a minor aspect of his life in Japan, but it was part of his life that he had to deal with daily. Every small comfort mattered when adjusting to a new country, as Jake had quickly found out. Things were different than visiting on vacation. It had already been a few months since he had moved to Japan on a student visa. The five-day-a-week Japanese course he was taking filled up his mornings and some of his afternoons. Jake once again wondered why he had signed up for morning classes when he hated waking up early. Thankfully, he had studied Japanese before coming. He couldn’t imagine being as lost as some of the people he met during class. The thought made him shudder as he started the water.

About the Author:

Rasta Musick spent the first 12 years of his life in California before moving to Japan with his family. After graduating from college with a Bachelor’s in economics at the age of 16, he spent the years after learning Japanese and working. Having spent more than half his life in Japan, he’s confident that it’s his home.

With many different hobbies, chief of them being Latin dance, he keeps himself physically active as well as mentally active as much as he can. The Latin dance community in Japan is alive and, surprisingly, quite large.

Rasta has lupus and hereditary coproporphyria. Given their complicated nature, he’s had to learn a lot to adapt and manage them. The process also taught him a lot about managing other aspects of his life, and all of this influences his writing.

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The Hotel Series by Michael James – Spotlight and Giveaway

This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. Michael James will be awarding a $50 Amazon or B/N GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.

No one has ever escaped from the Hotel at the End of Time. Until now.

Vain only wants to be left alone, but the Hotel has other plans. Forces will align against her: a group of multi-dimensional felons collectively named The Wyatts; and their leader, Trick, a mild-to-medium psychopath with a fondness for impractical jokes.

The only way forward is to go back. Back to the one place in the world she swore she’d never return.

Back to the Hotel.

Vain is the only person to ever escape from the Hotel at the end of time. On her way out, she took their prized possession: A Padlock that grants immortality.

They will do anything to get it back.

The forces of the Hotel are aligned against her: mundane items turned into weapons; a group of multi-dimensional felons collectively named The Wyatts; and their leader, Trick, a mild-to-medium psychopath with a fondness for impractical jokes.

Everything changes when Vain meets Emma, a timid grad student with impossible and terrifying powers. Together, they are propelled into an adventure that will see them battle the Wyatts, blow up several objects of significant value, and quite by accident, discover a way to stop the Hotel.

Even with Emma, Vain has a lot of problems to deal with.

She’s exhausted from being hunted.
Stopping the Hotel might kill them.
She has a hangnail.

But Vain is resourceful. Vain is clever.

And she always has a plan.

Vain thought destroying the Portal to the Hotel at the End of Time would mean freedom for her and Roman, but her happy ever after is coming to an end.

A horrible mistake and a stray bullet force her to infiltrate the Hotel and contend with a new and terrible power: The Well at the Bottom of Everything.

Friendships will be tested. Loyalties will be broken.

The Hotel will have its revenge.

Enjoy an Excerpt from The Hotel at the End of Time

The woman glanced over. “I’m Emma, by the way. Thank you for helping me.”

“I’m Vain.”

Emma blinked and positioned the rear-view mirror so it showed Vain her reflection. “Is that better?”

Vain shook her head. “My name. My actual name is Vain.”

“Are you, like, a street artist?”

Vain sighed. “I’m just me.”

“How did you know who those men were? How did you know they were after me?”

“They’re not men,” replied Vain. “They’re things. Their name is Wyatt. Their only job is to find people like you and take them back to a place called the Hotel. It’s a place I escaped from.”

“How are they all called Wyatt? Why do they look the same?”

“They’re from alternate Earths.” Vain waved her hand, shooing away the explanation.

“I don’t believe you,” Emma said. “I’m sorry. I know I’m supposed to humor crazy, but I’m exhausted. Please tell me the truth.”

“How about this? You go first. Explain how you threw a person with your mind in a way that doesn’t violate a couple dozen natural laws, and once you’re done, I’ll come up with a better explanation for duplicate psychopaths from various incarnations of Earth.”

About the Author
Michael James spent his formative years writing, and when he wasn’t writing, he was writing. A mistaken belief that a “real” job would be more satisfying led him down a dark path that did not involve writing but did involve meetings. Fortunately, he has since course-corrected and is back on the right (write? Ha!) path. The Hotel at the End of Time is not his first book, but it is the one with the most Hotels in it.

He lives in Canada with his family. When he’s not writing, he does Canadian things – saying sorry a lot, being polite, talking about the weather, you know how it goes.

Website | Twitter | Facebook | Instagram | Amazon Author Page

Buy The Hotel at the End of Time and The Well at the Bottom of Everything at Amazon.


The Rewired Series by Alexander Mukte – Q&A and Giveaway

This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. One randomly chosen winner via rafflecopter will win a $50 Amazon/BN.com gift card. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.

Do you have any tattoos? Where? When did you get it/them? Where are they on your body?

I have a boring answer here, but I don’t have any tattoos. I wanted to get one or several in college, but I could never decide what to get. I definitely appreciate how tattoos enable self-expression and have such artistic value.

Is your life anything like it was two years ago?

My life today vs. two years ago is like night and day. Two years ago, I was working in a large corporation. My days were filled with PowerPoint slides, Excel spreadsheets, and conference calls. Then my wife and I made a plan for me to pursue writing full-time. Now, my days are spent being present with my family and trying to be the best author I can be.

How long have you been writing?

Though I have gotten lost in stories in my head for as long as I can remember, I’ve been writing a relatively short time. I started putting pen to paper on The Recruiter, my debut novel, four years ago.

What advice would you give a new writer just starting out?

While I only have a few years under my belt, the advice I would give to myself at the start would be:

1. Discipline is critical. You’ve got to figure out how to break things down into smaller tasks so that progress doesn’t seem so daunting.

2. Feed your brain. Keep a reading list of things you are interested in learning so that you can continually absorb new information. Your imagination appreciates the input.

3. Foster positivity. Identify a process that keeps you feeling positive. Embrace the value of affirmations, yoga, and meditation.

Tell us something about your newest release that is NOT in the blurb.

There’s a lot of symbolism in this series. Certain characters are embodiments of something much more significant, like fear, war, ego. Also, the colors in the cover art for each book are inspired by the chakras. Hopefully, this can create some fun dialogue for those who like to dissect and analyze the works you read. There’s both a discussion guide and a character map in the back of both books to aid in that too.

Also, Atlanta is a primary setting in both novels. So, for anyone who has lived or spent time in Atlanta, you can hopefully recognize some of the nods to areas in the city.

This is a fantastic, genre-bending series that weaves together the best mystery, visionary, and speculative fiction elements. With characters that span across books and time, The Rewired Series explores what plagues humanity and the impact each person can have while leaving you with the promise of a better tomorrow. Alexander Mukte wraps all of these themes inside edge-of-your-seat, engaging mysteries with larger-than-life characters you’ll want to revisit again and again.

A fast-paced and thought-provoking mystery that will keep you on your toes until the very end. The Recruiter is an entertaining and thoroughly enjoyable start to the series, full of intriguing twists and turns.

Leslie may be an idealist, but she’s no fool. She trusts her boss, Ori, implicitly. He has vision, principles, and a way with people. When a bomb is detonated at work, she finds herself caught up in a whirlwind of events. All of a sudden, their lives are on the line, and every choice matters.

Is Ori who she thinks he is? Why would anyone want to hurt him? And how do they get out of this mess? Leslie doesn’t have it all figured out, but what becomes clear is that there’s a lot the world doesn’t know about Ori Clayborn.

Jessica is driven to make a difference by uncovering the truth. Investigative reporting is her life. One day she gets a unique assignment that leads her back to her hometown and into Ori’s orbit. What will she find, and what’s her role in this?

The Recruiter is a captivating, imaginative story that draws you in deeper and deeper, page-by-page. Alexander Mukte creates a universe that pulls you in and doesn’t let you go.

This bold and compelling sequel is an evocative page-turner on the journey to a better future.

Since her encounter with Ori years ago, Jessica, an investigative journalist, has continued her mission to print the truth that the world needs to hear. Her pursuit has led her to meet with a source, Zach Carver, a leading mind at Singularity Group. The meeting goes awry, and Jessica awakens to find that she has a gap in time and memory and that Zach is now missing.

What happened? Who is responsible? And how can she help Zach? It is imperative that Jessica find out, and to her surprise, Ori has reappeared to help her do just that.

Malik, an intelligent and inventive young man, is determined to find a way to overcome the virus that has impacted the world. When he crosses paths with powerful people at Confidence Biotech, the leading treatment and contact tracing company, they take an unusual interest in him. Then, all of a sudden, they paint Malik as public enemy number one, forcing him to go on the run.

What do they want from him, and does this mean that he is close to discovering something they couldn’t?

Deeply Rooted Dreams is the second installment of The Rewired Series, unveiling more of the universal trial that Ori alluded to in The Recruiter. Alexander Mukte’s second novel creates an even more intricate world, striking an engaging balance of mystery and wonder.

Enjoy an Excerpt from The Recruiter

Every man must decide whether he will walk in the light of creative altruism or the darkness of destructive selfishness. This is the judgment. Life’s most persistent and urgent question is, “What are you doing for others?” ~ Martin Luther King Jr.

Prologue

“Did you think we were going to let you get away with it?” The man’s voice was both incredulous and triumphant. The light from the full moon began to fill the room as Ori’s eyes adjusted. He inhaled deeply. The man continued as if he was talking to himself, “We knew you were up to something. Did you actually think that you stood a chance?” Ori surveyed the room. He squinted to focus on his surroundings.

“Are you listening to me?” the man continued speaking while Ori remained silent, not acknowledging him. Ori made out three bodies in the room with him: one talking, one holding a flashlight, and a third one close to what looked like the door.

The shack was an old cabin but was well built. No lights were turned on, nor was there a fire burning, so as not to attract any unwanted attention. The natural moonlight was perfect to illuminate most of the space. In the areas where the moonlight did not reach, there was the glow of a bright flashlight. This flashlight was suddenly pointed directly into Ori’s eyes.

About the Author:Alexander had an active imagination his whole life, but it wasn’t until the birth of his son that he began putting the stories in his mind on paper. He wanted to be an example of someone pursuing his passion, dreaming big, and taking chances.

Alexander loves people, their stories, and their backgrounds as well as what shapes them, how they think, and what they dream about. He has a passion for learning and is known by most as an intensely curious person who eagerly soaks up anything and everything he can. He dreamt of a career that allowed him to learn new things every day. In writing, he has found a life that allows him to do just that.

After graduating with a degree in business, Alexander volunteered in the U.S. Peace Corps where he aided in creating sustainable small business ventures in Central America. Before taking this leap of faith, Alexander did Business Development and Consulting for large domestic and international companies. These experiences weave themselves into the characters, places and stories he creates.

An avid traveler, Alexander enjoys exploring new places with his family. He was raised in Southeastern Arizona, and now calls Georgia home, along with his wife and two sons.

The Recruiter is Alexander’s first novel, though perhaps the 39th in his mind. We hope you enjoy it, and Deeply Rooted Dreams, as much as we have.

NOTE: The Recruiter just won a 2021 American Fiction Award in the African-American Fiction category. It was also a finalist in the Cross Genre and Mystery/Suspense: Multicultural & Diverse categories.

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Buy The Recruiter at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, iBooks, or Kobo.

Buy Deeply Rooted Dreams at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, iBooks, or Kobo.


LASR Anniversary Scavenger Hunt: The Darkest Sum by Micki Miller

Thanks for joining us on our 14th anniversary scavenger hunt! There are two ways to enter to win and it’s easy to play– first read the blurb below, then answer the question on the first Rafflecopter. You might win a $100 Amazon or Barnes and Noble GC (along with other prizes). Follow and visit authors’ social media pages on the second Rafflecopter and you’re entered to win another $100 Amazon/BN GC (along with other prizes)!

The embodiment of the world’s evil has but a single fear, one homeless girl.

Twenty-two year old Liz Linden and her nineteen year old brother, Jacob, have lived in the storm drains that run under Las Vegas for almost one year. There are many others living in the makeshift camps. She does her best to make their concrete camp into a home until she can save enough money to get them out of the tunnels and into an apartment.

Of late, her wish to get out has become desperate, as she’s come to realize something else is down there, too-the offspring of malice and hypocrisy. It lives, it grows, and if not stopped, it will fully exist. It is the total of mankind’s evils-The Darkest Sum.

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LASR Anniversary Scavenger Hunt: Dragon(e) Baby Gone by Robert Gainey

Thanks for joining us on our 14th anniversary scavenger hunt! There are two ways to enter to win and it’s easy to play– first read the blurb below, then answer the question on the first Rafflecopter. You might win a $100 Amazon or Barnes and Noble GC (along with other prizes). Follow and visit authors’ social media pages on the second Rafflecopter and you’re entered to win another $100 Amazon/BN GC (along with other prizes)!

“Dragon is hard to overcome, yet one shall try.”
– Nowe Ateny, Polish Encyclopedia, 1745
Diane Morris is part of the thin line separating a happy, mundane world from all of the horrors of the anomalous. Her federal agency is underfunded, understaffed, and misunderstood, and she’d rather transfer to the boring safety of Logistics than remain a field agent. When a troupe of international thieves make off with a pair of dragon eggs, Diane has no choice but to ally with a demon against the forces looking to leave her city a smoldering crater. Facing down rogue wizards, fiery elementals, and crazed gunmen, it’s a race against time to get the precious cargo back before the dragon wakes up and unleashes hell.

 

 

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LASR Anniversary Scavenger Hunt: Origins by Celia Breslin

Thanks for joining us on our 14th anniversary scavenger hunt! There are two ways to enter to win and it’s easy to play– first read the blurb below, then answer the question on the first Rafflecopter. You might win a $100 Amazon or Barnes and Noble GC (along with other prizes). Follow and visit authors’ social media pages on the second Rafflecopter and you’re entered to win another $100 Amazon/BN GC (along with other prizes)!

In HAVEN & DESTINY, San Francisco nightclub owner Carina Tranquilli finds love and fights her vampire family’s enemies. Now, in ORIGINS…

En route to reunite with her estranged father in Italy, Carina is kidnapped by a human organization intent on vampire genocide. Beaten, starved, and forced to fight fellow captives, she finally manages to escape. Along the way, she encounters the group’s leaders—their identities shock her to the core.

Once home, Carina warns her family of this new threat, but dear old dad is missing. In his absence, the Tribunal, the governing body for all vampirekind, lies in disarray, with an old enemy making a bid for her father’s throne. What’s worse? The usurper wants her for his queen…and slave.

With a human-vampire war looming on one side and a vampire-vampire battle brewing on the other, Carina will have to rally her troops, take back the throne, and fulfill her destiny as the Chosen One. If not, her whole world will fall, taking everyone she loves with it.

 

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