*Note these are books sent to us by readers/frequenters of this blog. Our bringing them to your attention does not imply that we’ve read them and/or endorse them, unless we specifically say so. As with all such purchases, we recommend you download a sample and make sure it’s to your taste. If you wish to send us books for next week’s promo, please email to bookpimping at outlook dot com. If you feel a need to re-promo the same book do so no more than once every six months (unless you’re me or my relative. Deal.) One book per author per week. Amazon links only. Oh, yeah, by clicking through and buying (anything, actually) through one of the links below, you will at no cost to you be giving a portion of your purchase to support ATH through our associates number. I ALSO WISH TO REMIND OUR READERS THAT IF THEY WANT TO TIP THE BLOGGER WITHOUT SPENDING EXTRA MONEY, CLICKING TO AMAZON THROUGH ONE OF THE BOOK LINKS ON THE RIGHT, WILL GIVE US SOME AMOUNT OF MONEY FOR PURCHASES MADE IN THE NEXT 24HOURS, OR UNTIL YOU CLICK ANOTHER ASSOCIATE’S LINK. PLEASE CONSIDER CLICKING THROUGH ONE OF THOSE LINKS BEFORE SEARCHING FOR THAT SHED, BIG SCREEN TV, GAMING COMPUTER OR CONSERVATORY YOU WISH TO BUY. That helps defray my time cost of about 2 hours a day on the blog, time probably better spent on fiction. ;)*
THIS IS A RE-EDITION (THOUGH CONSIDERABLY PROOREAD AND EDITED FOR COHERENT TIMELINE) OF AN EARLIER WORK, NOW CHANGED TO MY P&P PENNAME:
FROM ALYX SILVER AND SOFIE SKAPSKI: A Touch Of Night: Pride, Prejudice, Werewolves and Dragons, Oh, My!
A Pride and Prejudice Variation.
In a world that puts shape shifters to death, Mr. Darcy was unfortunate enough to be born as a were-dragon.
But the cruel laws don’t always find their victims. Mr. Darcy has survived and protected Mr. Bingley who is a werewolf.
Meanwhile, in Hertfordshire, Lizzy has been protecting her sister Jane who turns into a beautiful hunting dog.
When Mr. Bingley rents Netherfield, the Were-Laws and the shape shifting of three of them add extra complications to the flowering of romance between the well-loved couples. And Mr. Wickham. joining the Royal Were Hunters, lends additional danger to the situation.
Will they get together despite the danger, Lizzy’s active imagination and Mr. Darcy’s excessive nobility of character?(This book was previously published with Sarah A. Hoyt and Sofie Skapski as the authors. Sarah’s name has been changed to match her other published Austen fanfic.)
FROM MARY CATELLI: Where There Is Smoke.
Who but her old master can tell Marisa what secrets lie in the spellbook that even the Nameless Necromancer kept hidden away?
FROM J. L. CURTIS: Tales Around the Supper Table: -An Anthology of Texas Writers.
This collection is from ten different Texas authors. There was no ‘world’ or set up for the stories. It was up to the individual authors to write their stories, so you get a wide variety! Vampires, dragons, werewolves, enchanted swords, runaways, SciFi, and cowboys… Stories for everyone in this collection of Texas authors!
FROM ALMA BOYKIN: Judiciously Familiar: Familiar Tales Book Fifteen.
“By the Pricking of my thumbs/ Something wicked this way comes!”
“Caw! Caw!”
A raven the size of an eagle appears in Riverton. When it begins haunting Familiars, Lelia and André Lestrang have to decide if it needs their special attention. Lelia, battling fatigue and postpartum depression, juggles family, magic, and working at Belle, Book, and Blacklight. Her employer, Arthur Saldovado, too wonders about the raven and its meaning.
Something from the past stirs, something dark and deep. A new sorceress and the raven hint at dangers hiding in the shadows. Shadows perhaps too dark even for shadow mages to master.
FROM MARGARET BALL: Tangled Magic
After waiting ten long years for Richart Dalkey to realize she’s no longer the awkward young girl he grew up with, Elspet is thrilled when he finally comes to pay her court . . . until he divulges the true reason for his visit. His proposition? A sham engagement to discourage debutante Dorothea Turvoll, who’s infatuated with Richart and whom his mother wants him to marry. Elspet convinces him to pretend he’s desperately in love with her and actually court her instead, certain that with time—and a little bit of magic—he’ll see they’re meant to be together.
But another woman in Din Eidyn has her sights set on Richert, as well as some dark magic of her own, and she’ll stop at nothing to win the one man who can give her the social standing she desperately desires. Before long, the charade gets out of hand, and as scandal engulfs the ton, Elspet must decide how much she’s willing to sacrifice for the love she’s always wanted.
Vignettes by Luke, Mary Catelli and ‘Nother Mike.
So what’s a vignette? You might know them as flash fiction, or even just sketches. We will provide a prompt each Sunday that you can use directly (including it in your work) or just as an inspiration. You, in turn, will write about 50 words (yes, we are going for short shorts! Not even a Drabble 100 words, just half that!). Then post it! For an additional challenge, you can aim to make it exactly 50 words, if you like.
We recommend that if you have an original vignette, you post that as a new reply. If you are commenting on someone’s vignette, then post that as a reply to the vignette. Comments — this is writing practice, so comments should be aimed at helping someone be a better writer, not at crushing them. And since these are likely to be drafts, don’t jump up and down too hard on typos and grammar.
If you have questions, feel free to ask.
Your writing prompt this week is: PIG
According To Hoyt 
“Hey, I don’t know what you’re worried about? It’s just a large Pig!”
“Says the man who has never faced a wild boar that wants to kill you. This “pig” is the size of a rhino and much tougher & smarter.”
We’re going to need a bigger barbecue. And a helicopter.
Sound Good.
But first you have to kill it. 😈
That’s what a .700 Nitro Express is good for.
That’s what the Carl Gustav is good for.
I wonder if Barrett could make a useable 30mm rifle, for those GAU-8 Avenger cannon rounds?
“Nothing I shoot ever gets back up again.” — Alucard, from ‘Hellsing’
Anzio makes a rifle that fires 20mm Vulcan. It makes a Barrett look like a GI Joe gun.
I thought GAU-8 Avenger rounds were fired BY flying pigs.
Boys anti-tank rifle.
Fluffy points out that he has a Behemoth-sized BBQ and the pig’s not that big.
(He’s smart. He can tell by the way the ground doesn’t shake when it walks. Regardless of distance.)
But of course, the Pig isn’t that big… by Dragon standards. 😆
Flying pigs don’t shake the ground, except when they land hard.
The typhoon force winds give them away if they are too large for the Behemoth-sized BBQ.
Thanks for the promo!
My pleasure.
“You’re gonna need a bigger gun.”
“Bigger gun?! This here’s a .45-70 Marlin! It’s loaded with HSM Bear Loads! It’ll knock that pig flat!”
“Mutant pig.”
“What?”
“It’s a mutant pig. Roughly the size of a Type B schoolbus.”
“… I’m gonna need a bigger gun.”
“.700 Nitro Express, anyone?”
20mm Solothurn anti-tank rifle. That ought to do it.
There were pigs wandering in the village streets. Not pink and fat, but brown and somewhat plump. At least, no pig was lean.
“Is that safe?” said Rose. “They can attack people. And there are children about.”
“Safe compared to what?” said April. “Not having the meat when winter comes?”
“Well, *hell*.” Granny Maddox planted her fists on her hips and craned her neck back to gaze some thirty feet up into the pine trees. Bad enough her great-grandson had come into his powers early, worse that his familiar was almost as big as he was, but this, *this* was why Wise-hearts learned to govern their speech. Metaphors were bad enough, but slang was worse than a shotgun with the safety off. “Ben! Get out here and get your damn pig out of the tree!”
Angela sniffed the air. Pigs grunted from a stall. She sighed. You could bring in bacon, but much easier to be rid of the scraps within the gates, and then eat the bacon.
She trudged down the street. So many buildings. She suspected the people here made all they needed.
They’d been friends for years, in spite of their different personalities, much to the surprise of all who knew them.
Louise Literal asked Danny Dyslexic; “Danny my friend, tell me, when are you going to finish building your house, you keep saying it’s almost done?”
Danny replied: “When figs ply.”
Dyslexia affects reading; nerve impulses from photoreceptor cells in the retina do not arrive at the visual cortex with consistent timing, making the letters seem to move around when your view shifts.
What you have presented is a Spoonerism, which can be caused by some speech disorders, but is more often simply a momentary lapse of attention.
So, maybe your second character should be Sonny Spooner?
———————————
What’s more dangerous than a polar bear? A bipolar bear!
I cand selected.
Well played, sir!
“Jim, I’ve bee reviewing your business proposal and advertising material. I really think you need to change your acronym on your business card.”
“Huh? Why to you say that?” I asked.
Because you’re not going to get much business as a doctor describing yourself as a, “PIG (Private Investigator: Gynecologist).
“What was that??”
“Flying pig wearing ice skates. Why?”
“We are in REAL trouble.”
“Yeah, but we knew that already.”
“It just got worse. That one is wearing roller skates.”
“A sounder of swine!” said Julian proudly, where he stood at the window.
“Early isn’t it?” murmured Tiffany.
Ivan stood. “They have a ways to go, and they want the pigs to start their feasting as soon as possible. Enough acorns, and the sounder wants to stay with the oaks.”
“Look at the bright side,” said Carrigiana. “They had slaughtered the cows, the pigs, the sheep, and we get to eat the meat for winter long. As much as we like, because it’s far more than we could ever eat in a winter.”
“And burn all their wood,” said Robert.
“Shhhh. Be vewy verwy quiet. We’yeh hunting wild piggies.”
“I always thought you hunted rabbits. One rabbit in particular. Now you’re hunting pigs?”
“That’s wight. The South is ovewwun with fewal pigs these days. This is a pubwic seahvice.”
“Oh. So, you’re giving up your vendetta?”
“Hey, who wants to bahwbecue a tough old stwingy wabbit anyway?”
“I-ob-I-ob-I-ob-I object to being called ‘wild’!”
Lawdog’s story in the Texas collection is particularly good. I hope he does more in that setting.
Seconded.
The confectioners busily made the bright pink candy pigs for the Harvest Feast, and sold them.
Rosine calmly bought half a dozen before turning back to the castle.
Edwin sat by Florio’s bed, carefully checking his injuries.
“Is he well enough to have these?” she said, holding up the candies.
The old man spoke: “Some say the pig is your friend—lighter than the Ma Deuce and with plenty of firepower. Others are of the opinion that the SAW will get the job done. But I say there’s nothing like mashing the clapper on a whole string of claymores. Properly sited and sighted, you can take out light vehicles or a squad or two of infantry!
“Oh, use earplugs if at all possible because it will be as loud as all get out.”
I fired Expert with the M-60 in the Guard, much to my chagrin – I got to hump one for the next two ‘summer camps’, ’til I got promoted to E-4. Then they let me play with the M-203. 😀
It is a signal honor to be invited into this august body of representatives from every inhabited system in the galaxy. Be on your best behaviour tonight.
They’re just a bunch of stuffed shirts.
Even a snicker and you’re not in.
They’re called the Premier Interstellar Guild . . .
The banners flapped. A open book, an apple, a pig, because this was the merchants’ row. A dirigible hung over one shop, casting a shadow on the street as the goods were lowered into the building, with birds flitting about.
Autumn, not being there to buy, flitted down the street.
“Yes, we probably could charge double for the giant wall fans. We might do so at some of our largest events, where our booth costs are higher. However, for most of the conventions we do, we’re in that sweet spot where we’re making good profit on them and our customers feel like they’re getting a bargain but don’t wonder whether a lowball price means shoddy workmanship.” Roy Correy gave his cousin a pointed look. “There’s a saying in the business: pigs get fat, hogs get slaughtered.”
“The trick to cooking bacon just right? Chopsticks. They make it easy to pick up each piece and lay it back down in the pan without getting my fingers close enough to get burned.” He smiled. “Just think of them as scaled-down tongs I use on the grill for sausages. Either way, you just grip, hold the pig steady, and move smoothly.”
She gave him a suspicious look. “That’s a joke, isn’t it?”
“Nah, song lyrics. The chopsticks, though, that’s real. Ask me to cook breakfast tomorrow, and I’ll show you. Unless you want breakfast in bed.”
“Keep those ingots off my ship!” Captain Osnar shouted. The stevedores froze. Harold of Harold looked a question. Osnar continued with less heat. “Sandpiper is under a geas. She may not transport swine in any form, or disaster will strike. That’s why I insisted on salt beef. That’s why the hams are mutton hams, and why I struck off bacon from the list of cabin stores.”
“I understand that, Captain,” Harold said. “I certainly don’t want my cargo to be lost. But what do those iron ingots have to do your geas?” A blink. “You’re not suspecting them of being coated with hog fat to keep them from rusting, are you?”
“It’s not that. We’re sailing for Port Ior, in Aquewikal. Do you know what the Aquewikans call those crude ingots?” Osnar paused to let the merchant look another question before he spat the answer. “Pig iron.”
Reblogged this on Cyn Bagley's Shadowland.
I left a review for Margaret Ball’s book Tangled Magic. I think it was even better than the first one.
I’ve bought but not read yet, mostly due to being loopy on pain pills because I threw out my back…
Damn. Take care of that back. I’ve been dealing with gout this week so I understand the pain. Hate it though.