Book Promo And Vignettes By Luke, Mary Catelli and ‘Nother Mike

Book promo

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. A COMMISSION IS EARNED FROM EACH PURCHASE.*Note that I haven’t read most of these books (my reading is eclectic and “craving led”,) and apply the usual cautions to buying. I reserve the right not to run any submission, if cover, blurb or anything else made me decide not to, at my sole discretion.SAH

YES THESE ARE ABOVE, BUT SOME PEOPLE ARE INSUFFERABLE IN THEIR SELF PROMOTION, WHAT CAN I SAY?

FROM SARAH A. HOYT, ON SALE FOR 1.99 TILL THE 29TH: Darkship Thieves

Athena Hera Sinistra never wanted to go to space.

Never wanted see the eerie glow of the Powerpods. Never wanted to visit Circum Terra. She never had any interest in finding out the truth about the Darkships.
You always get what you don’t ask for. Which must have been why she woke up in the dark of shipnight, within the greater night of space in her father’s space cruiser, knowing that there was a stranger in her room. In a short time, after taking out the stranger—who turned out to be one of her father’s bodyguards up to no good, she was hurtling away from the ship in a lifeboat to get help.
But what she got instead would be the adventure of a lifetime and perhaps a whole new world—if she managed to survive….
A Prometheus Award Winning Novel, written by a USA Today Bestseller.

FROM ELISE HYATT (WHO YES, IS ALSO SARAH A. HOYT) STILL 99C: Dipped, Stripped and Dead.

A Dyce Dare Mystery When she was six, Dyce Dare wanted to be a ballerina, but she couldn’t stop tripping over her own feet. Then she wanted to be a lion tamer, but Fluffy, the cat, would not obey her. Which is why at the age of twenty nine she’s dumpster diving, kind of. She’s looking for furniture to keep her refinishing business going, because she would someday like to feed herself and her young son something better than pancakes. Unfortunately, as has come to be her expectation, things go disastrously wrong. She finds a half melted corpse in a dumpster. This will force her to do what she never wanted to do: solve a crime. Life is just about to get crazy… er… crazier. But at least at the end of the tunnel there might be a relationship with a very nice Police Officer.

FROM NATHAN C. BRINDLE AND EACH ON SALE FOR 99C: The Lion of God (Timelines Book 1)

John Wolff has been handed a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Again.
He’s already saved the love of his life from an early death – thirty years after she died.
Now, a beautiful young woman, who is clearly his daughter, has appeared from the timeline branch where that same love of his life survived and married his counterpart.
She says they need his help fighting off invaders from the far future. Who, by the way, are looking for him. Why? Because they want the starship drive he and a friend invented, the precursor to their time machine. Problem is, in her timeline, it hasn’t been invented yet.
What man can resist a cry for help from his own daughter?
Particularly when the invaders think she’s a saint. Or possibly, a devil wearing saint’s clothing. And they’re looking for her, too.
Thus begins the Timelines Saga, and the story of the Lion of God.

The Lion and the Lizard (Timelines Book 2)

Thirty years ago, Dr. Ariela Rivers Wolff, M.D., Ph.D., AKA The Lion of God, had a pretty exhausting week.

Her world was invaded by time-traveling soldiers, she was nearly turned into human toothpaste by an experimental dimension jumper when she went to find her parallel “Dad,” who just happens to be able to borrow a Space Force fleet to come and take out her world’s invaders . . . and then she found out she was considered by those same invaders to be a saint in their odd religion, and one of the targets of their invasion. If that wasn’t enough, she nearly fell completely out of the universe into a time rift, being saved only by the skin of her teeth by her parallel “Dad”.

After all that, learning she was going to be the one to bring universal healing and long life to the human race in her particular timeline was just the icing on the proverbial cake.

Anybody else would go home, turn off their phone, pull all the blinds, lock all the doors, and take the rest of their life off. But Ari isn’t “anybody else”. And her cult of admirers across two timelines won’t take “nobody home” for an answer.

Fast-forward thirty years. Scientists have detected radio transmissions in an unknown language from several hundred light years away. And now she’s been asked to use her special “saintly” skills as demonstrated on her last “mission” to make first contact with whoever they are.

And that’s only the beginning.

The Lion in Paradise (Timelines Book 3)

All Col. Dr. Ariela Rivers Wolff, M.D., Ph.D., USSFM – the Lion of God – wanted was a little piece of paradise to call her own.

Being stuck on a desert world – even if she was the CO of the premiere battalion of the 1st U.S. Space Force Marines that was based there – was not getting her any beach time. Mostly because, without an ocean, there’s really no beach at all.

But she’s got a fix for that problem.

Now, if only the academics studying the problem of terraforming the exile world of al-Saḥra’ would get out of her way . . .

. . . and if only the religious fanatics who want their planet left as a desert, despite all the water from the planet’s former oceans being accessible only a few miles down, will leave the terraforming project alone long enough to see the good it will bring them . . .

. . . then, the Lion would truly be in Paradise.

But even in paradise, black clouds – and black ships – can herald danger for the Lion, herself, and for her daughters as well.

FROM CELIA HAYES: That Fateful Lightning: A Novel of the Civil War

There wasn’t much of an outlet for an ordinary American woman with ambitions in the 184os; marriage and family was as good as it got back then, for most women … But Minnie Vining wasn’t an ordinary woman. A spinster in her forties, of a respected old Boston family, possessing an independent income and an education worthy of any man among her peers. Minnie took up a noble cause – campaigning for the abolition of slavery. The matter of slavery roiled political and social life in the United States for more than thirty years, splitting apart families, friends, comrades … and eventually the nation. And when the war began in earnest, Minnie followed her heart and her calling … as a nurse, tending to sick and wounded soldiers … but at what personal cost?

FROM CEDAR SANDERSON: Running Into Time

Time travel isn’t possible. Is it?
If it was feasible, how would it work?
And what price would the world’s powers pay to have the inventor under their control?

Garry never asked to be assigned to protect the girl he really liked in his classes. He just wanted time to get to know her better.

Pol never minded being called a mad scientist. He had good reasons for being mad. His top priority was protecting his sister, no matter the cost.

Both men were about to run headlong into a surreal reality, where the only answer might be held by a little white mouse cupped gently in a woman’s hands…

FROM HEATHER STRICKLER: Bearskin (To Shame The Devil Book 1)

No one beats the Devil.

Cut loose and abandoned after a losing war, Gregor seeks to bury the past and find a future. Any future.

When his own stubbornness leads to a desperate deal with the devil, Gregor must forge a new path. Can mortal man beat the Devil at his own game? And who will he drag down with him if he fails?

FROM TONY ANDARIAN: Dawn of Chaos: (Sanctum of the Archmage, Volume One)

It wasn’t demons, death, and slavery to the Dark that truly frightened her. It was the woman she would have to become to fight them.

Dawn of Chaos: Full Trilogy Edition (Includes Prologue to Chaos, Hell Gate, and Aftermath)

A new constitution prepares Carlissa for an era of enlightenment. The old order fades, and a promise of freedom stirs the air. In the space of one terrifying day, that promise is shattered in a bloodbath of fire and magic.

Thousands of years ago, an epic battle was fought between good and evil. The demon lords had opened a door to the realms of hell itself, and their horde threatened to overrun the earth. But the Kalarans, led by the hero Calindra, destroyed their hellgate and drove them from the world.

The Great War has long since been lost to myth and legend. The Church struggles for relevance as the people forget their covenant with the gods. A renaissance of freedom and learning stirs the air in the modern age of Carlissa, led by the royal family, and the wisdom of the Archmage.

All that comes to an end when a dome of shimmering magic appears in the capital city. The people fight desperately to survive in the chaos that follows, and wonder bitterly why the gods seem to have abandoned them. Their only hope lies with the magic of the Archmage — and his, with a free-spirited princess who never wanted to rule. She must find the strength to set aside her bard’s calling and take up a battle against impossible odds, or surrender her land and people to the Black Magus and his demons.

Dawn of Chaos finally brings the award-winning Sanctum of the Archmage role-playing games to the world of fantasy fiction. Get it today and don’t miss this exciting first volume in the series!

Note to Readers. This is an omnibus volume that collects previously published books in the Dawn of Chaos series.

BY MAX BRAND, REVIVED BY D. JASON FLEMING: The Smiling Desperado (Annotated): The classic pulp western

From boyhood, Danny Cadigan only found joy in life when his life was in danger. But while he never got close to people, he also didn’t have any particular dislike for them.

But after showing legendary bad man Bill Lancaster up for a coward, Danny finds himself blamed for train robberies, stage robberies, and kissing the wrong girl!

With his life now constantly in danger, Cadigan should be happy… but he can’t be, because the right girl believes all the lies about him. How can he ever prove to her that he’s not the man that poison gossip would make him?

  • This iktaPOP Media edition includes a new introduction giving the novel genre and historical context.

BY MALCOLM JAMESON, REVIVED BY D. JASON FLEMING: Tarnished Utopia (Annotated): The classic pulp space operahttps://amzn.to/46z9wj1

Allan Winchester was fighting in World War II when he and a girl named Cynthia became trapped underground… and woke up over a thousand years in the future!

Immediately captured by the cruel elites of an interplanetary techno-dictatorship and separated, Winchester becomes a slave in a world he does not comprehend. He must figure out how this slave new world works, and work his way up the cruel hierarchies of tyranny, if he will ever have a chance to find his girl, destroy the powers that be, and set the solar system free!

  • This iktaPOP Media edition includes a new introduction giving genre and historical context, with an aside about drugs.

FROM THADDEUS BLACKHEART: Alien Harem

The wildly humorous coming-of-age story of Jason Andrews, who thought he was an ordinary guy. He had just graduated high school and would be starting college next year.

Only he wasn’t normal, or it turns out, human or even originally from Earth.

They had issued a recall, and he soon found himself on a spaceship heading to a strange planet.

A spaceship where he is the only male, and every female on the ship is beautiful, and they only want one thing…

They all want to join his harem of sexy alien females, and they all want sex, lots and lots of sex.

When they arrive at the alien planet, things get even more amusing. But if he plays it right, then his harem grows even larger.

FROM KAREN MYERS: Monsters, And More: A Science Fiction Short Story Bundle from There’s a Sword for That

A Science Fiction Story Bundle from the collection There’s a Sword for That

MONSTERS – Xenoarchaeologist Vartan has promised his young daughter Liza one of the many enigmatic lamedh objects that litter the site of a vanished alien civilization.

No one can figure out what they’re good for, but Liza finds a use for one.

ADAPTABILITY – The Webster Marble Deluxe Woodsman, Model 820-E, has been offline for quite some time. Quite some time indeed.

Good thing Webster has a manual to consult, and a great many special functions.

FROM LEIGH KIMMEL: Grandmaster’s Gambithttps://amzn.to/4a7mCqP

The disastrous war of 1913 is over, and young journalist Isaak Babel has used his fame as a war correspondent to win a peacetime job covering an international chess tournament in New York City. However, trouble is aboard the airship Grossdeuschland, in the form of the notorious Bolshevik terrorist Koba and his henchmen. Men with a dark plan, and New York City will not welcome their visit

Vignettes by Luke, Mary Catelli and ‘Nother Mike.

26 thoughts on “Book Promo And Vignettes By Luke, Mary Catelli and ‘Nother Mike

  1. Bothered by noisy crows? Wish you could ‘murder’ them?

    Don’t do that!

    Use our Silencing Spray, ‘Cautious’ (caw-shush) for instant relief!

    Just ten Euros per spray bottle – one bottle treats about a thousand crows, jays, and other strident corvids. Does not work on mockingbirds – for mockingbirds, try our product Glottal Stop (mimus polyglottos)!

    Like

        1. Thanks! I will probably keep dropping in and out during Fall/Spring semesters… It’s difficult to manage reading/commenting here around college, and I end up skipping a lot. I’m alive and (mostly) well, just very, very busy.

          Liked by 1 person

  2. Ah Sarah, I haven’t view it (via KU) but is “THADDEUS BLACKHEART: Alien Harem” something you want to promo? :wink:

    Like

    1. Meh. It’s not …. So, there is some really in your face erotica that the description pisses me off.
      This one, if you buy, you know it’s erotica, the cover isn’t offensive, and it’s caveat emptor.
      for context, I refused to promo erotica with specifically frum Jews because if FELT weird. And would reject similar with other religions.
      Same with say erotica involving children or animals.
      BUT aliens? Meh. I’d probably allow unicorns or dragons or dinosaurs too. Yes, even that one.

      Like

      1. I suppose it would depend on how the story actually went. Looking at the description, it seems like an adolescent boy’s fever dream, but I could (maybe, maybe) see it playing out as a comedy, in which our amorous hero finds out that it ain’t all a bed of roses.

        Liked by 1 person

    2. I dunno, folks here might get a kick out of this one:

      It’s not quite as good as CV Walter’s Alien Bride series, but it’s the same sort of groove. Same author’s Contagnation and Contaminated (in order of quality, not continuity) are a bit sillier, but likewise.

      Tiffany Roberts’ Kraken, or Alien Next Door series.

      Honey Phillips’ Fairhaven Falls.

      All pretty explicit.

      More on the hilarious and fantasy side, A. K. Caggiano’s got the Villains and Virtues series, which is… kinda Shrek but with more of the quality of Patricia Wrede’s Dealing with Dragons, as non-explicit romance novels?

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      1. Oh, the novel that I linked for image?

        It’s a reverse harem with space pirates who have the personalities of space ferrits, I swear… very hard to take seriously enough to be upset by anything, even when there’s death.

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  3. I figured this would make for good practice with this character.

    It didn’t take long for Carys to find her target. If the insane laughter didn’t give her away, the towering plumes of flame did. How gauche. Of course, if Lysandra Hasapis had any concept of being cautious in any matter nobody would call her the Mad Empress. She did have a retinue of Ajax, Aquila, and Ippotis mechs with her along with some she didn’t recognize – custom pieces for her elite warriors no doubt – but the Diamond Paladin Alpheratz was absent from her company. That could only mean one thing.

    Edmund and Vincent must be fighting elsewhere.” she thought before turning her gaze at the Mad Empress of Arev.

    She could end everything now. Lysandra’s mech Yurena was unusually powerful, especially for one built under a totalitarian nightmare state like Arev, but still came up short next to Zornitsa. Carys doubted any of the Mad Empress’ bodyguards would stand by her once she demonstrated her own skill with elemental magic. That would just leave her and Lysandra and she had no doubt she would win that battle.

    Yet before she could turn on Zornitsa’s arcana boosters the Mad Empress let out an ear-splitting screech. Yet it wasn’t in her direction, she was looking off to the side. She swore in her native language before hissing “How could you let this happen, Edmund dear?!”

    Carys stopped and turned Zornitsa’s gaze in the direction Lysandra was looking. That’s where Edmund and Vincent were, and Vincent had indeed gotten the upper hand against the Lord Protector! Ashleshia’s ebony wings were fully spread as Vincent rained one charged gunblade slash after another on Edmund, who could barely keep even Alpheratz’s impressive shielding mechanisms up in response. The Mad Empress took off, shoving her way past her stunned retainers to intervene in the battle.

    “I suppose assisting Vincent was unavoidable.” Carys sighed, moving Zornitsa towards him and Ashleshia.

    “Perhaps,” the Amethyst Sage responded. “It is, however, the right thing to do for both of you.”

    I wonder if Vincent hears this sort of chatter from the Jade Tempest…” Carys thought with a sigh as she prepared to counter whatever unholy magic Lysandra was preparing.

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  4. Captain Appius calmly offered the roasted yams, while the expressions of the two cowering waifs changed from loathing, to fear, to uneasy caution. Appius knew if he waited long enough, each waif would at least have something to eat.

    “Where are these elves coming from?” he wondered. “And why now?”

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    1. “Them two are likely In-Betweens,” said the Centurion, “Outta High Elf country. Don’t blame ‘em for running.”

      “Why?” asked Captain Appius.

      “Everyone looks down on ‘em. High Elf army drafts ‘em, sends ‘em where they’re scared to go themselves. Cheap, too, since they don’t usually live long enough to pay.”

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    2. The two waifs cautiously approached Captain Appius, and bowed respectfully. Captain Appius returned the gesture.

      “Why are they called In-Betweens?” he asked.

      “Uncertain parentage, mostly,” replied the Centurion, “one elf parent, one human parent. High elves frown on that. Not all of ‘em, but enough to make their lives tough.”

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  5. “At that,” said Lucie, “I think that he had some help. Drusilla’s talking about getting it, but she’s talking about a woman. She calls her Reynardette.” She waved a paper in the air. “She even sketched her.”
    Autumn came over, and Lucie held it out.
    “Yes, that’s Reynardette,” said Autumn.

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  6. The Eastern Gate loomed up ahead, walls of shining white stone stretching out to either side. The road was surprisingly clear, given the chaos of the crown prince’s anointing ceremony. A few merchants’ wagons were visible up ahead, the merchants themselves presumably having decided to pull up stakes and flee rather than remain in the capital city. But apart from them, the Crown Guardsmen milling around the gates were the only ones visible on the road.

    Kailen didn’t like it. He turned to face the wagon behind him, ostensibly to pull the fabric covering a little tighter over the temple relics they were returning, and hissed, “Why isn’t anyone else leaving? These roads were busier before the demon attack.”

    The ‘relics’ shifted slightly, and the newly crowned king of Avigan peeked out from under the blankets. “The walls protect the city. Sigfrey raised them himself.”

    “They didn’t do much good yesterday!”

    His Majesty Respail, Son of Glory, Anointed of Sigfrey, and youngest monarch in Avigan’s history, flinched slightly, then covered it by rolling his eyes. “I know that. You know that. But that was one exception in one hundred and ten years, and the other nations around us have been fighting off demons nearly every year. It’s easier for them to assume this was a one-off and remain where they are. Besides, isn’t this a good thing? The sooner we’re out-”

    “The less likely they are to spot you, yes. Remind me why I agreed to this again?”

    “Because your king commanded it,” Respail sniffed, any trace of pain hidden away like hoarded treasure. Now, Kailen rolled his eyes.

    “Whatever His Highness wishes.”

    “Majesty!”

    “You don’t need to call me-” before Kailen could finish, Respail’s eyes had widened to the size of melons and he ducked under the blanket again.

    Kailen whirled to face forward again, but no demons had appeared to stalk the road. A pair of guards in battered armor were walking in their direction from the gates, but there seemed no further threat.

    “Why so cautious, Your Majesty?” Cylene piped up from the other side of the wagon, finally glancing away from the numerous vials that made up her latest concoction.

    “Shut up!” hissed the blanket. “Ignore me!”

    Cylene shrugged and went back to her experimenting.

    “I thought you said the guards followed your orders!” Kailen hissed back, raising a hand from the reins to wave at the approaching guards. Upon closer inspection, their armor wasn’t so much battered as burned, old scorch marks patterning their armor with charcoal grey.

    “The Crown Guards, yes! And the Temple Guards now, kind of… I guess.” For someone carrying Sigfrey’s own anointing, the first time such had been given to a mortal in more than a century, Respail sounded less than enthusiastic. “But that’s the Fyreguard!”

    “We’re not on fire,” Cylene astutely pointed out, before glancing up suddenly from her work. “Are we on fire?”

    “Hsssst!” was the only answer the blanket gave. Kailen gave the guardsmen his best smile as they approached, expertly flanking the wagon.

    “What can we do for you, guardsmen?”

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  7. Much as Lucius Belfontaine wanted to get this job done and return to the American moonbase, he knew better than hurry through it. Not just because the cosmonauts — and quite possibly good relations between the US and the troubled Soviet Union — were depending upon his doing good work, but also because the work itself posed dangers for the hasty.

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  8. The capital came into view. Autumn swallowed. It swarmed with people, pouring into it as they poured into the village for a festival. Except that all the people in the festival would not have filled one of those roads.
    “Do you have the horn ready?” said Liam gravely.
    Autumn nodded.

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  9. “I don’t like horses,” Fixx grumbled.

    “You will be fine if you are cautious. Don’t startle them.” The two men stared into the livery stable, packed with horses. “I spent a lot of time around horses, in my early days,” Passepartout added, as he moved quietly into the stable.

    “Is there any job you haven’t held? You seem to have experience with any number of professions.” Not wanting to cause offense, Fixx hastily added, “That is a useful thing, Passepartout. In my days at the Yard you would have been an excellent partner.”

    The other man chuckled. “Thank you, my friend. Now take your cue from me. Give this fellow a chance to catch your scent, then gently take his bridle and lead him this way so I can examine his gait. If he is lame, he may be the one we are looking for.”

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