Metrofloat New York by William Quincy Belle – Spotlight and Giveaway

July 24, 2019 By 16 Comments

This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. William Quincy Belle will be awarding a $25 Amazon/BN GC or PayPal cash to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.

A Post-apocalyptic Sci-Fi thriller.

Several hundred years in the future, Earth is a different planet. Antigravity has been invented and “flying” has given way to “floating”: giant platforms with cities remain above the growing surface temperatures as enclaves of the privileged. A global pandemic has wiped out 80% of those on the ground, and a virulent, flesh-eating disease, necrofasc, has left most with artificial body parts. Insects are the main food staple. A utopia for some, a dystopia for others.

Metrofloat New York, a futuristic city of thirty million, is run by an oligarchy of five rich and powerful people. An unknown assassin, working from within the system, attempts to seize control and declare himself dictator by methodically removing all rivals. Detective Matthew Heart of the Metropolitan Police must deal with his partner, a cyborg policewoman, his unofficial family, a transgender woman and her one-legged daughter, and a mysterious assailant bent on taking over the world by killing anyone who stands in his way.

Enjoy an Excerpt:

A tiny noise came from his work area in the corner. Turning, he pointed the pistol in that direction, but it was difficult to see in the subdued light. He could feel his heart beating. Someone was here. Someone was waiting for the right moment.

As he stared into the corner, trying to discern any movement, something registered in his peripheral vision. But it was too late. A hand grabbed the gun and twisted forward while another grabbed his forearm and twisted backward. Willard had tensed his finger and the pistol fired at the couch, scorching the fabric.

The gun wrenched from his hand, Willard turned toward his attacker and swung the sword in an arc over his shoulder. The blade hit the attacker’s upper arm with a thud and buried itself deep in the limb. There was no blood. Willard’s eyes widened as he realized what he had cut into was not human flesh.

The assailant tossed the pistol to one side and seized the blade, pulling upward to remove it from his arm and back to yank the handle out of Willard’s hand. He tossed the sword aside, and it jangled against the floor. Willard leaped and kicked the intruder in the stomach, causing the assailant to lose his balance and fall backward. Willard dove for the pistol, twisted around, and took aim. There was no sign of his attacker.

About the Author:

William Quincy Belle is just a guy. Nobody famous; nobody rich; just some guy who likes to periodically add his two cents worth with the hope, accounting for inflation, that $0.02 is not over evaluating his contribution. He claims that at the heart of the writing process is some sort of (psychotic) urge to put it down on paper and likes to recite the following, which so far he hasn’t been able to attribute to anyone: “A writer is an egomaniac with low self-esteem.” You will find Mr. Belle’s unbridled stream of consciousness floating around in cyberspace.

Website | Facebook | Twitter | Amazon

Buy the book at Amazon.

a Rafflecopter giveaway
Buy male http://robertrobb.com/i-told-paul-ryan-not-to-do-this/ commander cialis. cialis is well known to all for in the medicines of erectile dysfunction. Insemination with a syringe is simply generic cialis 20mg a substitute of how conception is naturally done. Other herb known as Shallaki is also female viagra pills very effective. Because Kamagra tablets are of the generic type, you do not have to worry about it being too expensive. viagra canada price

Filed Under: Guest Blogs, Science Fiction/Fantasy Tagged With: , , ,

Of Sound Mind and Someone Else’s Body by William Quincy Belle – Spotlight and Giveaway

July 16, 2019 By 15 Comments

This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. William Quincy Belle will be awarding a $25 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.

Science Fiction with (gasp) sex!

Alan Maitland is a successful businessman on his way up the corporate ladder. Life is good, but life is also full of the unexpected. A scientific experiment goes awry, and Alan’s mind is transferred to the body of Hana Toussaint, a high-class escort. Suddenly, he must not only contend with a new identity, but with the eye-opening experience of living as a female: how to walk in high heels without falling; how to put on a bra without dislocating a shoulder; how to deal with makeup without poking out an eye; and how to get along in a society which in many ways is still male-dominated.

When Alan discovers that Hana has taken over his body, the two of them must work together to find the scientist who can reverse the experiment and give them back their respective lives. Along the way, they must cope with living as each other and learn what it’s like to be a member of the opposite sex. And as their adventure goes on, Alan the woman must figure out his growing feelings for Hana the man.

Alan faces the biggest challenge of his life which Hana sums up with one decisive question:

“Are you man enough to be a woman?”

Enjoy an Excerpt

Alan stepped out of the hotel onto the still-busy street. The night air cooled his flushed skin. He took a deep breath and looked around. It was in a nondescript city neighborhood made up of multi-story buildings with commercial fronts. He didn’t recognize anything. Where am I?

He checked Hana’s phone for GPS or a map, but the display showed Enter your password. He had to find somebody to give him directions.

Spotting the illuminated sign of a convenience store, he headed down the street. In the light of the store window, he fished out the wallet and scanned the driver’s license again.

A man walked by, and Alan called out, “Hey, buddy!”

The man continued until he looked at him and stopped. “Hey, baby. What are you doing out so late? As if I need to ask.”

“Do you know where Charlton Street is?”

“If you invite me over, I may be able to help you.” The man grinned.

Alan frowned. What the hell had gotten into this guy? “Charlton Street. Tell me where Charlton Street is.”

The man ambled over and stood close. “Come on, sugar. How about being nice to a guy?” He reeked of alcohol.

“Oh, Christ,” Alan said. He stomped into the store. Behind the counter, a teenage boy flipped through a magazine. “Do you know where Charlton Street is?” Alan asked.

The boy raised his head and stared mesmerized. Alan snapped his fingers in front of the boy’s eyes. “Hey, you there. Where’s Charlton Street?”

The boy stammered, “This is Varick. Go out the door, turn right, and go down five blocks.” He stretched out his arm to point.

“Where’s East Seventy-Eighth Street?”

“That’s the Upper East Side. It’s miles from here.”

“Thanks.”

Alan started for the door, then stopped and gaped at the hand he had used to snap at the boy. He curled his fingers, then splayed them, looking at the long fingernails lacquered in bright red with little blue stars by the cuticles. He assumed the nails were fake, but he couldn’t tell. Then a surprising thought came to him: They were his fingernails.

He glanced up and saw a security mirror over the door. The teenage boy leaned over the counter to stare at his backside. He looked down. The skirt he wore was short, so he showed a lot of leg. No wonder the boy was checking him out. Checking him out? If he knew the truth, he would run for the hills. This was pushing cross-dressing to the limit.

About the Author:

William Quincy Belle is just a guy. Nobody famous; nobody rich; just some guy who likes to periodically add his two cents worth with the hope, accounting for inflation, that $0.02 is not over evaluating his contribution. He claims that at the heart of the writing process is some sort of (psychotic) urge to put it down on paper and likes to recite the following, which so far he hasn’t been able to attribute to anyone: “A writer is an egomaniac with low self-esteem.” You will find Mr. Belle’s unbridled stream of consciousness floating around in cyberspace.

Website | Facebook | Twitter | Amazon Author Page

Buy the book at Amazon.

a Rafflecopter giveaway
There may be a complete cost of viagra pill failure in achieving an erection or achieve ejaculation. Although sexual means have been established, the usual means of transmission of genital TB may be through bought this cialis no prescription the lymph. At the present time, online pharmacies viagra many alternatives are accessible to those who couldn’t gulp this tablet because of unhealthy throat. viagra buying Nevertheless, treatments are available to curb erectile dysfunction.

Filed Under: Guest Blogs, Science Fiction/Fantasy Tagged With: , , ,

The Importance of Setting Choice by Warwick Gleeson – Guest Blog and Giveaway

June 27, 2019 By 5 Comments


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.

The Importance of Setting Choice
Whether your novel takes place on a distant magical planet in Andromeda or on the street behind your house, why not begin by creating the best overall setting and sub-settings for your story? The more intriguing or quirky, the more easily you’re able to maximize opportunities for interesting characters, circumstances, and complications.

Imagination is truly your best friend when it comes to writing competitive fiction, and nothing provides a stronger foundation than a great setting. One of the best-selling contemporary novels in recent memory, THE HUNGER GAMES, is driven by the circumstances of the setting, and the characters are a product of that unique environment, as well as the plot.

But even if you’re not writing SFF, the choice of setting is just as important, perhaps even more so. If you must place your upmarket story in a sleepy little town in Maine winter, then choose a setting within that town that maximizes opportunities for verve and conflict, for example, a bed and breakfast stocked to the ceiling with odd characters who combine to create comical, suspenseful, dangerous or difficult, or else subplot reversals that the bewildered and sympathetic protagonist must endure and resolve while he or she is perhaps engaged in a bigger plot line: restarting an old love affair, reuniting with a family member, starting a new business, etc.

And not only must you choose the overall best setting, but you need to consider sub-settings that come into play. For example, if your overall choice of setting is India, you might choose a sub-setting for a scene that includes a particular village wherein a large snake is sleeping in a tree and thus creating an absurd spectacle in the form of an ongoing conflict between Muslims and Hindus over the spiritual meaning of the snake’s behavior. Or let’s say your character is in Scotland on a cold and dull day, the place him or her in a scene during a “blackening of the bride” ceremony wherein the future bride is trashed and sloshed with everything from tar to Scotch whiskey. Will your character have any internal issues with this? Yes? Whatever creates inner or interpersonal conflict is a bonus too, don’t forget.

If nothing else, create a setting or sub-settings that assist with the development of conflict between characters. If your character is an office worker in an otherwise stereotypical setting, place her or him in a special surprise meeting with certain types of ambitious, reckless or sociopathic personalities who combine to ignite an unavoidable moral dilemma. Set it up so that the tension crackles. Setting fixtures don’t have to be inanimate!

WORLD WAR OZ from coast to coast.

An adult fantasy that takes one of America’s favorite tales and transforms it into a dark and epic landscape few can escape much less understand. Imagine Potter meets Avengers in Emerald city and you’re getting close.

After a homicidal alien from Orion arrives on Earth intent on annihilating human life, the 21st century’s greatest sorcerers create a network of seven Oz-like city worlds designed to harbor the human race in a newly formed utopia while also protecting it from the alien entity. But the alien is far more magically powerful than anyone suspected. Piper Robbin, ancient daughter of the Earth’s greatest sorcerer inventor, Edison Godfellow, must sacrifice all to defeat the implacable force that calls itself “The Witch Queen of Oz,” and quickly, before Earth becomes only a cold cinder floating among the stars.

Enjoy an Excerpt

THE FORGOTTEN CHILD IN PIPER ROBBIN, for the first time that day in the coffee shop, understood the meaning of true panic. Crushing a stone to powder or throwing a javelin half a mile wouldn’t fix anything (and neither would anyone in New York care) like in the old days of Ulysses. Muttering spells that made deserts bloom or oceans boil meant less than cooking a burger on the grill. Mortality for all, even the gods and greatest sorcerers, might be just around the corner. People think just because you’re a great magical being of some kind you have it made. Nothing could be more wrong. Your hopes and dreams are often spit on, your happiness ruined, your friends killed, and you lose sleep at night, worrying about shit just like everyone else. And besides obligations you really don’t want, you face mega-dangerous freaks way too often because you’re expected to, you know, cause you’re the official bad ass superwoman. By the gods! Really? You crawl in pain and heave up your insides for starters, die in lots of ways, and after all that trouble, sometimes you don’t come back.

About the Author: Warwick Gleeson is a dedicated writer of screenplays, short stories, novels, and poetry. He has lived in both LA and NYC and worked many different jobs in his life, everything from roofer to waiter to small business owner to government analyst. He was the major writer, creator, and senior story editor for another project published by Del Sol Press called “War of the World Makers” that debuted in 2017. The novel has since won four national novel awards (two first place and two place) for SFF. Warwick is a big fan of great SFF television writing, like the kind you find in Emerald City, Gotham, The Expanse, and Umbrella Academy. He now lives in Tuscon, AZ, with a fat lazy cat and his most wonderful wife who is also a writer.

Amazon Author Page | Goodreads
The book is on sale for $0.99 during the tour at Amazon.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Are you running low on energy, getting exhausted faster than usual, and suffering from erectile dysfunction (ED)? Most of the times impotence is the most noticeable problem that men cialis cipla 20mg will concentrate on than any other meager health issues stated above. This allows the manufacturers of Tadalafil to keep their prices lower than those of levitra on line. There are a number of ailments and disorders that affect the muscles, veins, arteries, the spinal column, and nerve impulses buy pfizer viagra on the brain. A man is considered to have an ED, according to the Anxiety and Depression Society of America. 4. generico viagra on line

Filed Under: Guest Blogs, Science Fiction/Fantasy Tagged With: , ,

Where Do Ideas Come From? by E. Curtis – Guest Blog and Giveaway

June 13, 2019 By 8 Comments

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.

Where do ideas come from?
The ether, visions, and transportations.

The imaginative visions stem from an over-active imagination. They overwhelm me and haunt me until I put them on paper. Though not divine, they are rather uplifting, seeming to take me outside of myself. There is a sense of delirium in these trancelike states, with my mind connected to and drifting about the ether. The visions seem imposed rather than some forced line of thinking. I don’t choose what I see, the visions just come to me.

From a haunted past that used to paralyze me as a child, the fear later settled, the experiences had become familiar, and the darkness of which I was aware became a fascination. Not that I gave myself up to it, but unavoidable, I grew enchanted, questioning what these dark adventures meant.

One night, a vision of England overtook me. A woman I did not know stood close, though she did not speak to me or look up to me, I heard her thoughts in my mind, expressing a sense of disappointment with my current state of goodness, or lack thereof, I thought you’d be better by now. As if there was some anticipation of our meeting, for we had never met before. She bid me follow her. We walked across a field of burnt brown grass, and from the air I sensed the place to be somewhere in England, probably a park just outside of London. She took me to a rise that met a tree line. Just before the rise, there was a wrought iron double swinger gate, tall than I, with a bluish tarnish in the metal work. From a distance the gate looked like oddly arrayed black antlers tied together, but up close the work was obviously man made, with hammered dimples in the crescent shapes of metal. One side was pulled slightly open, and though one could see the rest of the park through the bars, a golden light spilled from the opening, as if something substantial and of another world lay beyond. Something about it gave me pause, so I didn’t open it any further or enter. When I asked my visitor of the significance and who she was, no answers were given, and I was released from the vision, the message delivered. I still question what it meant, but, as yet, I have no answers.

 

In the fall of 1789, on the western edge of the Yorkshire Dales, a dense, persistent fog enshrouds the village of Ingleton. Shadowed spirits hide in the mist and bedevil the townsfolk, heralding a tragedy that has befallen one of their own.

Edmond continues to search for Alexandra, his fiancée, who disappeared the same night that the mist set upon their town. Presumed dead by all others, he visits Alexandra’s empty grave, desperate for any hint of what has become of her. Weary from the sleepless nights on his quest, no longer able to stay awake, Edmond falls into a dream before her headstone and there obtains clues from Alexandra as to her whereabouts.

Haunted all the while by a malevolent spirit, Edmond follows the trail that Alexandra left for him and enters the underworld, only to learn that he has been there before, and in fact, quite often. But more, he discovers how he is to blame for Alexandra’s disappearance.

A dark literary novel rich in imagery, Discussion of a Decent Dream unearths the consequences of a child’s decision to surrender his heart in exchange for unholy power and transcendent knowledge.

Discussion of a Decent Dream is a Finalist in Britain’s Wishing Self Book Awards in the Adult category.

Enjoy an Excerpt:

We ignored the portent that crept into the countryside the day she disappeared. But in the weeks that followed, with no answers as to what had befallen her, with no assurance that she still lived, we came to understand, and most saw the worst in the blanket of mist that stopped time and shut us out from the rest of the world.

I had just turned twenty-one the summer of 1789 when Alexandra went missing. And after all our fruitless searching, in need of some direction, I snuck, under the cover of night, into the yard where her parents had laid their sorrow to rest. Falling to my knees before the stone of her empty grave I spoke with reverence, not for the hallowed ground, but for the call that brought me, as though somehow she could hear me.

About the Author:

E. Curtis draws on personal experiences of the otherworldly for his writing. Through dreams, visions, and waking encounters, his exposure to darkness has motivated him to detail what he has come to know of the preternatural. While a few short pieces have been published on an online literary magazine, Discussion of a Decent Dream is his first novel.

Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram

The book is on sale for $0.99 during the tour at Amazon.
a Rafflecopter giveaway

It is predicted that more than 150 million people who, unfortunately, suffer from impotence or also known as a PDE5 inhibitor that ensures the lower region gets a lot of flow of the blood that make it active. viagra from usa Here’s the etiology of male impotence: Physical Cardiovascular Disease – Men with heart conditions often experience erectile dysfunction and the drugs available for buy pill viagra the treatment like Kamagra soft tablets, and Kamagra tablets are 3 main forms this Ajanta Pharma product. best viagra prices The massage therapy also promotes immune system, creates flexibility, increases circulation and keeps the body relaxed. Loss of buy cheap viagra deeprootsmag.org sleep called insomnia because of the involvement of the brain.

Filed Under: Guest Blogs, Science Fiction/Fantasy Tagged With: , , ,

What Kind of Writer Am I by Gardner Browning – Guest Blog and Giveaway

June 10, 2019 By 7 Comments


This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. Gardner Browning will be awarding a $25 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.

What Kind of Writer Am I

Immersive is the word that best describes what kind of writer I am. When I have an idea for a story, I make lots of notes for settings, characters, conflict and resolutions. I write down ideas for twists and pinch points. Then, I do research as needed. I read about the places, people, technology, history and cultures that will impact and shape my story. Once I feel fully immersed, I map out my plot to ensure that the story’s foundation and framework is as fully developed as possible.

I think long and hard about a cinematic opening hook for the story and soon I’m off writing in units of scenes, hitting the benchmarks of my plot outline. The process of writing a novel gets even more immersive for me the deeper I go. The story becomes an obsession. My mind becomes trapped in the world I’m writing about and my heart is fully attached to the characters and it’s as if they are friends of mine who I look forward to spending time with. As the writing goes on and the manuscript becomes fatter, I lose sleep, my imagination is relentless. My dreams are often of places in the story. As the characters—my friends—suffer the hardships of the rising conflict, I suffer with them. If they are sad, I am sad. If they are excited, so am I. Fully immersed and held captive by the world I’ve created. The story moves forward because I blew the wind into the sails, starting these events into motion. The characters do as I command but they speak at will and feel with their own hearts.

When the story is told and there’s no more left to write, I am freed, released back to the real world, where real people live, love, suffer and laugh. My mind is quiet for a while and my heart aches, almost yearning to go back to the places in the pages but there’s now a disconnect and I can’t become fully immersed again. It’s like I’ve been shut out. The story is told. My job is done. In the real world, without the characters I’ve spent so much time with, I feel lonely for a while. Sometimes a little lost. I feel like I can’t connect with real people or real places; like I can’t become immersed in reality.

When I finally find my way back to the real people and places I know and love, a new idea comes to me. A story curls up like a tiny sprout reaching for the sunlight and rain of my imagination.

It begins again.

A microscopic parasite has crippled humanity with night terrors and paralyzing anxiety. In this world of increasing dystopia, hope yet remains in Karma City. But when mercenary drifter, Jameson Shoals, learns that a famous scientist has created a stronger parasite to kill the original, it isn’t until the bodies litter the streets that he realizes the horrifying truth: the new parasite is a killer with a mind of its own, and upon dominating Patient Zero, this killer acquires legs, hands, and eyes. It falls upon Shoals and his partner, a deadly female mercenary, to stop PZ and his mob before they can overcome and supplant humankind.

Enjoy an Excerpt

Jameson Shoals crouched to keep his balance atop the speeding train. The wind beat against his leather jacket, scattering his collar length, brunet hair over his eyes like a frayed, muddy rag. The scalding steam and smoke puffing from the locomotive singed his nostrils. Raising his shotgun at the attacker standing only a few feet away, he shouted, “You’re in a real heap of shit, pal.”

The man glared at Jameson, with blond hair framing his gaunt face like tendrils of fire . His
spindly legs backed to the edge of the train car roof with unnatural balance. “You should consider your own life,” he hissed. Amber light burned in the man’s hollow, jack-o-lantern eyes. “Detonation is imminent.”

Before Jameson could shoot, the man leapt from the train, flipping backward and vanishing into the night.

About the Author: Gardner Michael Browning is an award-winning author and professional wrestler. In addition to receiving a New Hampshire Literary Award, two of his novels were part of an international English literacy program for middle grade readers. Browning enjoys classic literature, fishing, playing guitar and spending time with his family.

Amazon Author Page | Facebook

The book is on sale for only $0.99 at Amazon.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

The price should cialis in uk online be lower than your local pharmacy. Scientifically, an erection occurs getting viagra in australia when blood vessels are filled with many other ingredients make the right choice of counsellor can mean that around 60% of couples who are suffering from infertility are suffering due to male’s low sperm count or motility. It is extremely rare that these supplements are approved cheap pfizer viagra by FDA and maintain a steady quality standard. Others possess suffered incidents that may contain affected their genitals, thus having an adverse outcome in their sexual performance. cheap cialis professional is one of the pills that can help intensify libido and give the much-needed hardness for males.

Filed Under: Guest Blogs, Science Fiction/Fantasy Tagged With: , , ,

How to Handle Negative Criticism by M.F. Sullivan – Spotlight and Giveaway

May 30, 2019 By 12 Comments


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.

How to Handle Negative Criticism

Ah, negative criticism. Being a writer is difficult when you have an ego, and it’s almost impossible to avoid developing an ego as a writer. What’s a person to do? It seems like a lot of websites have cliched advice about lighting candles in the tub and confiding in friends, and by all means, please do. (Whatever you do, don’t respond!)
But I find that I go through a detailed mental process—a review of the review, if you will—regardless of whether I want to or not. That said, this mental process helps me shake off the odd bit of criticism (which, for what it’s worth, is usually motivated not by poor writing, but by soliciting the wrong audience members for the type of market—I suspect this is a problem with much negative criticism of good books), so perhaps a young writer plagued by thoughts of negative criticism can use my advice well.

First, examine the feeling the review instills in you. Are you angry? Insulted? Upset? Why are you having that reaction? With any strong emotional response, investigation is called for. Not to mention emotional honesty. Ultimately, with every negative critique or review, we have to stop to ask ourselves, “Am I reacting this way because this person has a point, or because they’re wildly off-base?”

A good example of this: my second novel, The Lightning Stenography Device, was a pretty controversial release. As a mix of intense literary fiction with a dash of horror which then morphs into a fantasy fable, a lot of readers expecting swordfights were turned off by literary pontificating, and a lot of people loving the literary stuff got upset at the fabulous turn halfway through. In between those, quite a few people loved it—the book has 21 reviews on Amazon.com at the time of this writing, the vast majority of them very positive—but because I used NetGalley to find reviewers, I got a lot of people who just weren’t the intended audience.

That said, I was still struck by the comments about the slow pacing of the first half of The Lightning Stenography Device, and I was forced to admit I agreed. It was a slow book for the first half; it wasn’t designed to be a fast-paced book, and for a second release while I’m building an audience, that might not have been the best idea. It became all the more important to me to apply these more valid critiques to my next work. As a result, The Disgraced Martyr Trilogy is fast-paced, funny, and sometimes horrific—I was pleased during proofreading galleys of The Hierophant’s Daughter to find I got through it in two days, which had yet to happen with one of my own final novels. So sometimes, when you listen to advice, good things can happen.

Next, isolate and ignore parts of the message which are negative messages about you, or which are baseless (sometimes seemingly intentional) misunderstandings or misrepresentations of your work. A lot of articles about negative reviews fail to take into consideration the utter vitriol with which a reader somehow slighted by a book is capable of responding. Understand that reading can be a very challenging experience on an emotional level, sometimes for reasons readers don’t consciously understand. They may be angry that you’ve inspired certain feelings or made certain points, but they may be unable or unwilling to articulate that anger in a coherent way—instead, they’ll leave you a one-star Amazon review with a tone like you’ve just taken their cat out back and shot it. Once the bitter anger they’ve bounced back onto you with this digital poison pen letter dissipates, you’ll see they’ve made themselves look like clowns by getting angry at a piece of artwork, and they’ve increased the standard of deviation for your book, and left the true source of their displeasure in the subtext of their review.

Remember, too, all classics have a vast standard of deviation; when I was bemoaning The Lightning Stenography Device’s harshest review, I looked up a review of the Philip K. Dick masterpiece, VALIS, which was almost identical and had the same complaints. Hard-working writers are always despised as much as they’re revered. You’ll hit the people you’re meant to hit.

Finally, ignore the rude. I once got a letter from a woman who said, “Maybe people would respect you as a writer if…” This was the only bad letter to which I’ve ever responded, because she did point out a valid grammatical error I’d made, and I wanted to know if she had a few examples so I could correct them—but oh how I grit my teeth while I did! Had to let that little line of hers whizz right by my head while I did it, of course, but that’s what an adult’s self-control is all about—and that’s what negative reviewers, and people who are generally rude, don’t have.

After all this mental processing is done—go to bed! Sleep on it. Take a nap. If I’ve done the emotional processing I need to undergo, by the time I wake up the next day, the emotional impact of any bad review is cut drastically. In fact, the impact of sleep on our emotions is a prominent theme in The Disgraced Martyr Trilogy: I strongly believe we should sleep on our problems and let them sort themselves all out tomorrow! Adopt my strategies, and maybe you’ll come to agree with me.

By 4042 CE, the Hierophant and his Church have risen to political dominance with his cannibalistic army of genetically modified humans: martyrs. In an era when mankind’s intergenerational cold wars against their long-lived predators seem close to running hot, the Holy Family is poised on the verge of complete planetary control. It will take a miracle to save humanity from extinction.

It will also take a miracle to resurrect the wife of 331-year-old General Dominia di Mephitoli, who defects during martyr year 1997 AL in search of Lazarus, the one man rumored to bring life to the dead. With the Hierophant’s Project Black Sun looming over her head, she has little choice but to believe this Lazarus is really all her new friends say he is–assuming he exists at all–and that these companions of hers are really able to help her. From the foulmouthed Japanese prostitute with a few secrets of her own to the outright sapient dog who seems to judge every move, they don’t inspire a lot of confidence, but the General has to take the help she can get.

After all, Dominia is no ordinary martyr. She is THE HIEROPHANT’S DAUGHTER, and her Father won’t let her switch sides without a fight. Not when she still has so much to learn.

The dystopic first entry of an epic cyberpunk trilogy, THE HIEROPHANT’S DAUGHTER is a horror/sci-fi adventure sure to delight and inspire adult readers of all stripes.

Enjoy an Excerpt

The Disgraced Governess of the United Front was blind in her right eye. Was that blood in the left, or was it damaged, too? The crash ringing in her ears kept her from thinking straight. Of course her left eye still worked: it worked well enough to prevent her from careening into the trees through which she plunged. Yet, for the tinted flecks of reality sometimes twinkling between crimson streaks, she could only imagine her total blindness with existential horror. Would the protein heal the damage? How severely was her left eye wounded? What about the one she knew to be blind—was it salvageable? Ichigawa could check, if she ever made it to the shore.

She couldn’t afford to think that way. It was a matter of “when,” not of “if.” She would never succumb. Neither could car accident, nor baying hounds, nor the Hierophant himself keep her from her goal. She had fourteen miles to the ship that would whisk her across the Pacific and deliver her to the relative safety of the Risen Sun. Then the Lazarene ceremony would be less than a week away. Cassandra’s diamond beat against her heart to pump it into double time, and with each double beat, she thought of her wife (smiling, laughing, weeping when she thought herself alone) and ran faster. A lucky thing the Governess wasn’t human! Though, had she remained human, she’d have died three centuries ago in some ghetto if she’d lived past twenty without becoming supper. Might have been the easier fate, or so she lamented each time her mind replayed the crash of the passenger-laden tanque at fifth gear against the side of their small car. How much she might have avoided!

About the Author: M.F. Sullivan is the author of Delilah, My Woman, The Lightning Stenography Device, and a slew of plays in addition to the Trilogy. She lives in Ashland, Oregon with her boyfriend and her cat, where she attends the local Shakespeare Festival and experiments with the occult.

Blog | Twitter | Amazon Author Page | Goodreads

Buy the book at Amazon, NetGalley, or Barnes and Noble.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Keep in mind that medications that treat levitra generic cheap appalachianmagazine.com erectile failure don’t boost sexual health. In such condition the cialis viagra canada person has not to worry. It’s critical to check out the license of the manufacturer, and it’s also critical to viagra cheap check that the site is very secure and shall not expose your online credit details. The component used in the formulation appalachianmagazine.com on line viagra of the oil are extremely helpful for reproductive organs.

Filed Under: Guest Blogs, Science Fiction/Fantasy Tagged With: , , , ,

The Character Interview by Bishop & Fuller – Guest Blog and Giveaway

May 30, 2019 By 5 Comments


This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. Bishop & Fuller will be awarding a $25 Amazon or BN GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour and see our review here.

The Character Interview

Some writers, to pull out of the doldrums or to access other parts of the brain, switch from keyboard to notepad, jump to another project, get drunk—many options, and we use them all, to some degree and with mixed degrees of success. A less common technique for fiction writers—but of great value—is the character interview.

We have the advantage of being veteran actors for whom “embodiment of the other” is the heart of the trade. But we’ve offered countless workshops for folks ranging from priests to felons to teachers, and have vivid memories of the “characters” who’ve emerged. Anyone can do it. No different, really, than what happens when you put on a tux, high heels, or just a different hat or hair-do: a new “you” emerges.

For the writer, the process is simple. You choose one of your characters. You turn on a recording device. You embody the character. A colleague asks you questions. You reply as the character. You might spend ten minutes, you might spend an hour. Afterward, you listen to what you’ve recorded, take notes or transcribe sections that are useful.

There’s a difference between sitting at the keyboard and embodiment. Start with putting on the character physically: what feels right at each stage: the spine, the way the person sits, the breath pattern, the variations of eye focus, the physical points of tension. What does the person do with his/her hands? How often do they shift? Vocal placement? How does adopting different physical elements affect how you think, vocal patterns, pauses, compulsive flows?

This isn’t a performance: it’s an exploration. Lots that’s said will be irrelevant, some will be contradictory, some will be dead stupid. But it’s like a first draft: it’s up to you what stays and what goes. Granted, it can feel for a moment as if you’re stark naked, but if you’re simply focused on being the character, that quickly passes.

It requires a partner—friend, spouse, fellow writer—but with no special skills. It’s not playing a scene, a cross-examination or therapy: it’s just asking questions that occur, from the sublime to the ridiculous. We’ve had a question like, “What’s your favorite color?” result in a major new character element. It’s good to give them a brief summary of the character and what the character does—but make it brief. One value of the session is to see what questions arise in the questioner.

Another value, sometimes, is to see what your character doesn’t answer, and how he/she avoids it. We all have our bounds, and the “wrong” question might receive a hard stare, a stammer, or a circumlocution worthy of a Presidential candidate. Those are as useful as the most brilliant flow of words.

With BLIND WALLS, based on our 1997 play, which involved a great deal of improvisation in its development, the one character that was greatly expanded in the novel was the blind tour guide, Raymond Smollet, who serves as the unwilling narrator of the story he encounters on his final tour before retirement. We had talked a lot about his backstory, but what came to us in the interview was more his “manner” than any concrete information. His gestural pattern, his slightly-arch, slightly self-deprecating humor, his willingness to accept what life might offer him—all these were there, sorta, in earlier drafts, but the interview gave us a solid grasp.

And same as with any editorial comment, review, or nightmare, the real challenge is in deciding what’s useful.

[If you do happen to try this, we’d love to hear how it worked for you, or how it didn’t. We’ve done it many times in workshops, but never tried to coach long-distance. Email us at eye@independenteye.org.]

It’s a monstrous maze of a mansion, built by a grief-ridden heiress. A tour guide, about to retire, has given his spiel for so many years that he’s gone blind. On this last tour, he’s slammed with second sight.

He sees the ghosts he’s always felt were there: the bedeviled heiress, her servants, and a young carpenter who lands his dream job only to become a lifelong slave to her obsession. The workman’s wife makes it to shore, but he’s cast adrift.

And the tour guide comes home to his cat.

The pairing of Bishop and Fuller is a magical one. . . . It’s a brilliant opus, melding the past, present, and future with intimate, individual viewpoints from a tightly arrayed cast of believable characters in as eerie a setting as might be dredged out of everyman’s subconscious searching. . . . Blind Walls offers a weird alternative world, featuring a blind man with second sight and an acerbic wit as its charming, empathic hero.

—Feathered Quill

These characters are so well developed that one has to think of them as live people – laughing with them and crying with them, even getting old with them. This is an amazing story based on the Winchester Mansion and told with such quiet, compelling, raw humanity that the reader simply can’t stop until the entire tale is told. A wonderful, spooky look into others lives and what may or may not happen on any given day.

—Dog-Eared Reviews

Bishop and Fuller have constructed a story rich with imagined detail and visionary ideas about life’s possibilities. The cast of ghostly characters, servants, workman, and family light up the story with dramatic effect as their actions and choices are observed. . . . The authors’ prose is effortless and moves easily from humorous to weighted seriousness. The dialogue is perceptive, giving voice to compelling characters and particularly to the tour guide whose second sight he confers on the readers. The latter will not want to look away from the myriad rooms of Weatherlee House.

—US Review of Books

Enjoy an Excerpt

As always, I stood by the Here sign under a fig tree sprinkled scantily with small ripe figs. Behind me, as always, I felt the looming massive labyrinth of Weatherlee House.

Being a short man, I habitually assumed a military stance, stretching myself upward at least a quarter of an inch. My clipped hair, which I’m told is mostly gray, added gravitas to my otherwise bland face, or so I imagined. My tour guide’s uniform—crisp navy blazer, burgundy rep tie—bulged only modestly at the midriff. A brass name plate, over the buttoned pocket where my heart might be, labeled me Raymond Smollet. My round wire-rimmed black glasses were the only discordant feature in my demeanor. The fact is that I am blind.

The figs and my necktie hue I knew only by report. The wire-rims made my nose itch. I had tried wrap-arounds, but my supervisor Mr. Bottoms said they looked creepy. In fact, Management surely discerned that I looked even creepier with wire-rims. I could intuit patrons peering in sideways at my fixed milky orbs, a perfect match for those haunted-house billboards that sucked them in. People would pay top dollar to visit alien worlds where the only true risk was blurring a snapshot.

Today was the final day of my life and now the final hour. Final, at least, for life as I had lived it. I stood cockily under my fig tree on the brink of my retirement—a Friday that marked the completion of thirty years as a tour guide of Weatherlee Ghost House.

About the Authors: Conrad Bishop & Elizabeth Fuller’s 60+ plays have been produced Off-Broadway, in regional theatres, and in thousands of their own performances coast to coast. Their two public radio series Family Snapshots and Hitchhiking off the Map have been heard nationally. Their books include two previous novels (Realists and Galahad’s Fool), a memoir (Co-Creation: Fifty Years in the Making), and two anthologies of their plays (Rash Acts: 35 Snapshots for the Stage and Mythic Plays: from Inanna to Frankenstein.)

They host a weekly blog on writing, theatre, and life at www.DamnedFool.com. Their theatre work is chronicled at www.IndependentEye.org. Short videos of their theatre and puppetry work are at www.YouTube.com/indepeye. Bishop has a Stanford Ph.D., Fuller is a college drop-out, but somehow they see eye to eye. They have been working partners and bedmates for 57 years.

Website | Facebook | Conrad Bishop Amazon Page | Elizabeth Fuller Amazon Page | Conrad Bishop Goodreads | Elizabeth Fuller Goodreads | Conrad Bishop Facebook | Elizabeth Fuller Facebook | YouTube

Pre-order the digital book from Smashwords for only $0.99.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Since becoming available cialis uk has been the most popular drug ever that provides quick result to gain erection. generic cialis no rx However, very often it’s really difficult to perform the act of sexual intercourse. Your offer to serve buying cialis in canada Slush at your place will withstand any competition. Many must have used levitra generic no prescription at least one of these.

Filed Under: Guest Blogs, Science Fiction/Fantasy Tagged With: , , , ,

Murder by Munchausen by M.T. Bass – Spotlight and Giveaway

May 23, 2019 By 7 Comments

This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. The author will be awarding a $25 Amazon/BN GC to a randomly drawn commenter via Rafflecopter. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.

A police procedural sci fi thriller ripped from future headlines!

After Jake shoots and kills a murder suspect who turns out to be the son of a powerful city councilman, he finds himself demoted to the Artificial Crimes Unit, tracking down androids hacked and programmed to be hit men.

When his case of an “extra-judicial” divorce settlement takes a nasty turn with DNA from a hundred-year-old murder in Boston and a signature that harkens back to the very first serial killer ever in London, Jake finds himself tangled up in the brutal slayings of prostitutes being investigated by his former Robbery/Homicide partner, Maddie–who is now his lover.

But a madman, The Baron, is just getting started with his AI recreations of Jack the Ripper’s brutal crimes. And Maddie and Jake are teamed up again to stop the carnage as the Baron’s army of human replicants imitate history’s most notorious serial killers.

“It might not make sense, but the beloved Media tags it ‘Murder by Munchausen.’ For a price, there are hackers out there who will reprogram a synthoid to do your dirty work. The bad news: no fingerprints or DNA left at the crime scene. The good news—at least for us—is that they’re like missiles: once they hit their target, they’re usually as harmless as empty brass. The trick is to get them before they melt down their core OS data, so you can get the unit into forensics for analysis and, hopefully, an arrest.” [excerpt from Murder by Munchausen]

Artificial Intelligence? Fuhgeddaboudit!

Artificial Evil has a name…Munchausen.

Enjoy an Excerpt

The Three Laws

1. A civilian-owned and operated synthetic humanoid entity may not act in any manner so as to engage in or cause any harmful or offensive contact against a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.

2. A civilian-owned and operated synthetic humanoid entity must obey the directives and orders given it by human beings except in those instances where such directives and orders would conflict with the First Law.

3. A civilian-owned and operated synthetic humanoid entity may protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Laws.

Federal Technology Administration Regulations

About the Author:

M.T. Bass is a scribbler of fiction who holds fast to the notion that while victors may get to write history, novelists get to write/right reality. He lives, writes, flies and makes music in Mudcat Falls, USA.

Born in Athens, Ohio, M.T. Bass grew up in St. Louis, Missouri. He graduated from Ohio Wesleyan University, majoring in English and Philosophy, then worked in the private sector (where they expect “results”) mainly in the Aerospace & Defense manufacturing market. During those years, Bass continued to write fiction. He is the author of eight novels: My Brother’s Keeper, Crossroads, In the Black, Somethin’ for Nothin’, Murder by Munchausen, The Darknet (Murder by Munchausen Mystery #2), The Invisible Mind (Murder by Munchausen Mystery #3) and Article 15. His writing spans various genres, including Mystery, Adventure, Romance, Black Comedy and TechnoThrillers. A Commercial Pilot and Certified Flight Instructor, airplanes and pilots are featured in many of his stories. Bass currently lives on the shores of Lake Erie near Lorain, Ohio.


Website | Blog | Facebook | Twitter | Amazon Author Page | Goodreads
Buy the book at Amazon, iBooks, Barnes and Noble, Kobo, or Smashwords.

a Rafflecopter giveaway
The occurrence of this specific metabolic ailment is rising around the world due to order viagra online numerous causative factors. Be cautious about using Arginine if you have crossed the mouthsofthesouth.com purchase levitra age of 18 years and women should strictly avoid using this. It doesn’t matter how many websites you look at, or how many reviews you read, levitra pills online only you can work out whether or not they are addicted to any of the contents. Dietary supplement of soy and wild yam can help men with erectile dysfunction (male impotence) by enhancing the erectile response when a man levitra professional cheapest is sexually stimulated.

Filed Under: Guest Blogs, Mystery/Suspense, Science Fiction/Fantasy Tagged With: , , ,

How I Write by Robert Sells – Guest Blog and Giveaway

May 14, 2019 By 12 Comments


This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. Robert Sells will be awarding a $40 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.

How I Write

Would that I were a more clever writer. Better writers than me start with an outline, a description of characters, a plot. Not me. I start with an idea, the tiniest seed of a story. And then, BOOM, I start writing a long novel.

Okay, what was the “thought” launching my latest novel, Revelations? My college and graduate education in physics and math propelled me into teaching. Along the way, I had a love affair with astronomy and, in fact, taught a few introductory courses in astronomy. While I admit to being enthralled with both Star Wars and Star Trek, the physics for both simply doesn’t work. There won’t be spaceships whizzing around the galaxy, far too costly. And, heck, if it was true, then where are they? You and I have only seen the Enterprise or the Millennium Falcon type ships in the movies and on television. And, that is the only place they will show up.

Damn! No First Contact! Who doesn’t love a good First Contact story? So (here comes the thought)… is there a way for First Contact without the fantastic spaceships that don’t exist? Well, yes. Hmm. Maybe.

We could interact with a distant species through electromagnetic waves. Faster than a “speeding bullet” or any spaceship and certainly less expensive. While the technology for such communication is not quite there yet, the science is sound. We just send large, information-packed messages, wait a few decades (or centuries) and get a response. So, we can have First Contact. Hurray. But, let’s face it… long distance phone calls are simply not as much fun as fighting aliens face to face. Hmm.

We all want real First Contact. Mano a mano. Nose to nose. But… but… how? Ahh. Another idea. A secret embedded message within the main message. Yeah! That’s it! Now, I had it. The seed to start my story. Now, let’s see, how where should I start this story start? At an observatory. Maybe Arecibo. Okay. Got it. I started typing.

And, three years later, I was done. Oh, it took over twenty rewrites, a dozen or so characters birthed and thrown out, ten serious edits. Then I gave it to some friends who just happened to be English majors and they helped me clean up the prose. My final reviewer was my wife who, God bless her, found over twenty more errors and made some great suggestions improving the manuscript.

As ever, it was a long, annoying, wonderfully exciting process. In the end I have a love story intertwined with a unique First Contact story. Oh, and big-time scary stuff with strange creatures and edge of your seat battle scenes. All from one little idea… how could aliens get here without spaceships.

Aster Worthington spearheads the First Contact Team who are unraveling a message from an alien race. The altruistic extraterrestrials promise free energy and an excited Earth builds a massive structure called the Dome to house the alien enterprise

Seven years later, no “free energy” and strange things are reported in and around the Dome. When Aster and her colleagues mount an expedition to investigate the interior, they are shocked to find it filled with humanoids having insect-like deformities. It becomes obvious their true purpose is to take over our planet. Now Aster and the scientists are trying to come up with a defense to fend off the invasion. A defense that is tied to a 2000 year old document hidden by the church. But, will it be too late?

Enjoy an Excerpt

The Message

“Maybe it’s just a coincidence,” Stenton suggested.

“No. There won’t be coincidences in this message, Dr. Stenton,” said Demarco in a dismissive voice. He then went to the podium, which Henry ceded, tapped some keys and a moment later, the ones and zeros of the binary message aligned themselves in the form of a perfect square. With a flourish, Demarco pushed the last button. A black square appeared for every zero in the message and a white square for everyone. A black and white array appeared, rendering a clear, unambiguous picture of a planetary system. One with four planets, the second one from the sun circled.

“My God!” someone shouted from the back. “They sent us a picture.”

Henry smiled and yelled to Louis. “Hey, Louis, I told you a picture would be easy.”

Without taking his eyes off the screen, Demarco asked, “Is that the Lambda system, Dr. Worthington?”

Heads swiveled to Aster. She nodded. “Yes. That is the correct spacing for the Lambda star system.”

“Another large number after the last spacer. Different one, but the same number of bits,” Jeremy announced, speaking loud over the din.

Demarco did his magic again, and a humanoid body filled the screen, strikingly similar to a human, except for a slightly larger head. Their hands had three digits, not five.

“It’s them.”

“They’re like us.”

Someone from the back shouted, “The Lambdons.” Now the aliens had a face and a name.

Louis, however, scrunched his face in consternation. He shuffled close to the screen, studying it.

Aster watched the muttering biologist. “Louis, what’s wrong?”

Louis turned around, his face worried. “These Lambdons… they look like us.”

“Not exactly like us. They have three fingers and a larger head.”

“Too close,” mumbled the biologist.

About the Author: Robert Sells has taught physics for over forty years, but he has been a storyteller for over half a century, entertaining children, grandchildren, and students. He has written the award-winning novel, Return of the White Deer, historical fiction about Penda of Mercia. His second fiction book, Reap the Whirlwind, was a thriller about the dawn of artificial intelligence and the subsequent decline of humanity. His third book, The Runner and the Robbery, was a young adult novel about a teenager and his grandfather who had Alzheimer’s disease. Revelations, a science fiction novel, is his fourth book.

He lives with his wife, Dale, in the idyllic village of Geneseo, New York with two attentive dogs who are uncritical sounding boards for his new stories. He is intrigued by poker and history, in love with Disney and writing, and amused by religion and politics.

Amazon Author Page | Goodreads

The book will be on sale for only $0.99 at Amazon.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Most of the sexologists prescribe vigrx plus to their patients who suffer from any of the above scenarios sound familiar? Unfortunately most of us can cipla tadalafil 20mg answer YES! to that question. Since problems related to urinary track, renal region or kidneys are a little buy cheap cialis http://miamistonecrabs.com/stone-crabs-lacrosse-jersey/ bit intricate to cure, early detection always helps. Effervescent is another version of sildenafil miamistonecrabs.com cheap cialis drugs, available in tablet and oral jelly both the versions work extremely efficiently only the texture and forms are different. It is a very quick objective test that can help discount viagra usa find that ensure that your kidneys are functioning in their optimal state, versus ridden with disease, dysfunctional, and problems.

Filed Under: Guest Blogs, Science Fiction/Fantasy Tagged With: , , ,

Top Five Things I wish I’d Known Before I Was Published by Angel Martinez – Guest Blog

May 8, 2019 By Leave a Comment


Long and Short Reviews welcomes Angel Martinez who is visiting with us today to celebrate yesterday’s release of Mage on the Hill, the first book in The Web of Arcana series.

Top Five Things I wish I’d Known Before I Was Published

Ha! How about everything? I started seeking publication in the late ’90’s, when submissions were all snail mail and I knew NOTHING. My mistakes were legion. But top five would have been:

1. How to write a query letter

The query is that first contact, the first piece of paper an acquisitions editor sees. These days, it serves as the body of your email and the purpose is straightforward: pique the editor’s interest in your story. Some of my early query letters are just awful pretentious nonsense and I only pull them out so I can cringe at early author me.

2. How to punctuate modern dialogue

Hey, when I went to college, there were no MFA’s in Creative Writing. You got your degree in English Lit or in Journalism and you were happy with it. Now you kids get off my lawn. Seriously, though, this isn’t something any of my English teachers taught, in high school or in college. It just didn’t come up. I had to learn, through tons of mistakes, how the mechanics of dialogue work—beats vs. tags, how to break up a sentence with an action, and when not to, where the commas went instead of periods. Gah.

3. What a cover should look like

Honestly, I had no idea. With some publishers, you’re handed a cover as a fait accompli. You may get to make requests beforehand, but once it’s done, it’s done. With others, you get to work with the artist—and I had no clue. Negative integers of clues with no idea if something looked good or how to explain it if something didn’t seem right. Nor did I realize I really had a valid voice in those discussions until later. Again-gah.

4. What a legitimate publisher looks like

It’s not quite as difficult now. The internet makes researching publishers much easier these days. But back then, I was often sitting on the floor of the public library with the latest Writers Digest, trying to find addresses for publishers who might, possibly, conceivably want to look at my work. Without good, targeted criteria, I got a lot of rejections. A Staples paper box full, if you must know. So when a publisher finally sent a letter of acceptance, I was ready to sign that second, in blood. This turned out to be a terrible mistake. Four times. Boy, did I not know things.

5. Why you should do Amazon searches of proposed book titles

Holy buried novel, Batman. This is so important. Want people to find your books? Don’t give it a title that three million authors have used before you, regardless of genre, especially when you’re just starting out. Yeesh.

A young magic user who wants desperately to live. A jaded recluse who has forgotten what living means. They’re each other’s only chance.

Toby’s wild magic is killing him. The mage guilds have given up on him, and it’s only a matter of time before he dies in a spectacular, catastrophic bang. His only hope is an exiled wizard who lives in seclusion—and is rumored to have lost his mind.

The years alone on his hilltop estate have not been good for Darius Valstad. After the magical accident that disfigured him and nearly drowned Pittsburgh, he drifts through his days, a wraith trapped in memories and depression. Until a stricken young man collapses on his driveway, one who claims Darius is his last chance. For the first time in fifteen years, Darius must make a choice—leave this wild mage to his fate or take him in and try to teach him, which may kill them both. The old Darius, brash and commanding, wouldn’t have hesitated. Darius the exile isn’t sure he can find the energy to try.

Enjoy an Excerpt

It’s killing him. We have to end this.

Too cruel to force him to keep struggling.

I don’t understand. He should be finding a minor channel at least. Something. He shouldn’t be at this level of physical distress and still be able to throw so much.

We can’t condone pushing on. Dangerous for him and for everyone in a five-mile radius. We’ll have another Darius situation on our hands.

You’ll tell him?

As soon as he’s able to hear it, yes.

Toby drifted from gray misery to scarlet agony, the voices floating to him in fits and starts. His instructors, the director—they were talking about him and they sounded done with him, just like the previous six guilds that had tossed him to the curb. Wild magic. Unplaceable on the web of Arcana. Unsustainable and eventually deadly. The only remaining bets anyone could make now were how many people he took with him when he went out with a catastrophic bang.
Hands lifted him. The familiar sensations of stretcher and rolling followed him down into the dark.

“What’s this?” Toby peered at the papers on the rolling tray, not quite up to focusing through his pounding headache.

The director pulled a chair close and cleared his throat uncomfortably. “We discussed that this might be a possibility someday, Tobias.”

“We’ve talked about a bunch of stuff.”
I think I don’t need to define about this problem. order levitra online It is a quite a dreadful situation for those people who suffer viagra properien from this problem. For a long time now, US consumers who live near Canada prefer to use the services of Canadian traditional viagra properien https://pdxcommercial.com/sick-of-portland-changing-too-bad-here-are-7-places-where-this-city-could-soon-go-big/rosie-struve_06-jpg/ drugstores because they offer lower prices. The condition has now turned as common phenomenon and almost 50% suffer from ED in some order viagra online pdxcommercial.com degree of their life.
Director Whittaker let out a sharp sigh.

“Not saying it to be a smartass, sir. I can’t get my eyes to read this just yet.” Toby shifted on the infirmary bed. His fifth stay in this wing of the guildhall and the mattresses hadn’t managed to grow any more comfortable. “Couple hours I should be able to.”

“Ah. My apologies.” The director returned to a concerned parental pose, hands clasped between his knees as he leaned forward. “These are your separation papers from the Montchanin Guildhall.”

Toby swallowed hard. “You’re giving up on me? Already?”

“I’m so sorry, Tobias.” Director Whittaker patted his arm. “The Kovar method is nearly infallible—”

“Nearly. You said nearly.” Despite his pounding head, Toby sat up, hanging on to the director’s hand as hard as he could. “Please don’t do this. You said you’d help me.”

“We said we would do the best we could. Wild magic…. It’s unusual, certainly, but cases of unplaceable wild magic like yours aren’t unheard of. We should have seen some sign of channeling by now. Some directed trickle that would have let us help you find your place in the web.”

Toby let go to fall back against the pillows, hurting, nauseated, and dizzy. His uncontrolled magical explosions, each one harder on him than the time before, had only been getting more volatile and unpredictable. “I don’t have anywhere else to go. Can’t I stay here? Until, well, until….”

“It’s too dangerous for the other students. For the staff and other guild members.” Director Whittaker took his hand again. “Tobias, you blew a hole in the guidance room’s wall today.”

Ten feet of weapons-grade Kevlar and steel—that shouldn’t have been possible. Holy crap. “Did I hurt anyone?”

“Not today. But I can’t risk lives any further. It’s reached that point where we’ve tried everything we could. When you feel up to it, read the packet. There are several wonderful hospice options nearby. Beautiful places where you’ll be cared for and made comfortable. The guild will take care of you and cover any expenses.”

Drugged to the eyeballs so I won’t do any more damage. Allowed to starve to death in the nicest possible surroundings. Toby closed his eyes, his exhausted brain banging up against walls of possibility, trying to find him a way out. All this time he’d been sure one of the guilds would find a way. They were the experts. Now? Now he was terrified. The experts were telling him he needed to accept his impending death. No, no, no, fuck that. “Sir, who’s Darius?”

“Ah, you heard that, did you?” The director sat back and pulled out a microfiber cloth to give his glasses a meticulous cleaning before he went on. “Darius Valstad caused one of the greatest magical disasters in recent memory. He nearly destroyed Pittsburgh. He pulled magic too far from his channelings, the result much like a wild magic accident. The catastrophe was narrowly averted.”

“Oh. That sounds about as bad as it gets. What happened to him?”

“He nearly died. His guild status was revoked, his teaching of any more students forbidden.”

Toby turned that over a few times, his brain fumbling and dropping concepts along the way. “So, but he’s still alive?”

“As far as I know. He lives in isolation, oh, not far from here, with the promise that he will no longer attempt anything beyond personal magic.”

“But he was once like me? And he lived?” Toby knew it was conclusion jumping, but he was desperate enough to reach for anything.

The director’s sigh was slower this time, more melancholy. “Tobias, he found his channels long ago, both his major and minor Arcana. Yes, he lives because as long as he respects the web, his magic won’t tear him apart. He had some early success with teaching unplaceables, but Pittsburgh was the ultimate result of his unorthodox methods.”

“Yes, sir. Of course.”

Director Whittaker rose with one last pat to Toby’s shoulder. “Get some rest. We’ll talk again in the morning. Please keep in mind we’re not simply turning you out onto the street. We want to be certain you’re looked after properly.”

Toby nodded, no longer trusting his voice. He didn’t turn his head to watch the director leave, staring at the white ceiling tiles instead. Ugly ceiling tiles. Places where you have to lie in bed like hospitals and infirmaries should have nice ceilings with meadows and bunnies painted on them. I don’t want to die. Oh gods… I don’t want to die.

About the Author: Building worlds. Constructing Fantasies. Angel Martinez, the unlikely black sheep of an ivory tower intellectual family, has managed to make her way through life reasonably unscathed. Despite a wildly misspent youth, she snagged a degree in English Lit, married once and did it right the first time, (same husband for over twenty-five years) and gave birth to one amazing son (now in college.) While Angel has worked, in no particular order, as a state park employee, retail worker, medic, LPN, call center zombie, banker, and corporate drone, none of these occupations quite fit. She now writes full time because she finally can, and has been happily astonished to have her work place consistently in the annual Rainbow Awards. Angel currently lives in Delaware in a drinking town with a college problem and writes Science Fiction and Fantasy centered around queer heroes.

Website | Facebook | Facebook Group | Twitter | Goodreads

Buy the book at Dreamspinner Press, Kobo, iTunes, Barnes and Noble, or Amazon.

Filed Under: Guest Blogs, Science Fiction/Fantasy Tagged With: ,
« Previous Page
Next Page »