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

Posted on by Sarah A. Hoyt

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

FROM DAN MELSON: The Fountains of Aescalon: Connected Realms Book 1

The first thing Alexan knew was standing over an impossible corpse with an ichor-stained sword.

Exiled from home for reasons of politics and health, he has to orient himself in a new home, but he still has the skills he was ‘born’ with, skills which make him a wizard in his new homeland. A blasted, sterile cavern has many portals, but the one he chooses leads to the top of a huge tree, the source of magical power for an entire world.

Power is plentiful in Aescalon, but those who have it want to keep it all for themselves, and the arrival of a new wizard upsets the balance. It seems everyone who doesn’t attack immediately wants something from him – including a cursed demi-goddess desperate to escape her fate who thinks Alexan may be able to help her.

But Alexan can’t even help himself until he unravels the secrets of The Fountains of Aescalon

WITH A SHORT STORY BY ROBERT MILLER: Face the Storm (J. R. Handley Presents Book 6)

In the darkest corners of space…
They protect the galaxy.

When chaos strikes and the unknown threatens, only one force stands between civilization and destruction: The Space Coast Guard.

Rescue. Defend. Survive.

Elite officers face hostile aliens, deadly storms, and intergalactic warfare in a fight for survival. No mission is ever routine. No sacrifice too great.

The stars are waiting. Answer the call.

Are you ready to FACE THE STORM?

FROM MEL DUNAY: Loving A Deathseer (The Jaiya Series Book 3)

Journey to the country of Jaiya, in a world not quite like ours. Here, humans ride trains, drive cars, and use cell phones, but they share their world with insect people and trollfolk, and stranger things lurk in the shadows… In a place like Jaiya, a servant has to obey his employers’ every whim, even if the whim isn’t in the job description. Erno spends his days rushing around while his wealthy employers bark orders at him. By night, he cases out his employers’ homes and sells the information to his burglar friends. He has only three rules: don’t get close to anyone, don’t let anyone get hurt, and don’t let anyone get framed for the crime. But his latest job will plunge him into a world of political intrigue,and test his rules to the breaking point. His only chance at redemption lies in the love of a persecuted young woman named Zeni, with the power to foresee his death…. Note: Zeni is related to a couple of characters from Monster and Dreamlost, and the heroines of those two books show up in this one. However, Deathseer is meant as a standalone.

FROM HOLLY CHISM: Fire and Forge (Modern Gods Book 3)

Long after their worshipers are forgotten, the gods are still holding up a corner of the bar at the Godshead Tavern. Some have learned since their stories became myths, some never did, and some are still finding old curses coming back to haunt…

Poseidon wants Artemis to lift Medusa’s curse so he and Medusa can resume relations, while Chronos seeks another chance to be whole and get to know his kids.

Meanwhile, Ares falls head over heels for a mortal half his size who manages to kick his ass not once but twice, and Loki’s son is trying to rebuild his life (and his credit) after a short marriage to Pandora.

Life and love runs smoothly for no one, god or mortal. And another disaster is brewing…

FROM DAVE FREER: Storm-Dragon

On the treacherous Vann’s World, Skut battles a savage wind and deadly hamerkops to rescue a mysterious, telepathic creature. Fleeing a rising tide and a menacing Loor-beast, he forms an unexpected bond with the tiny, electric-charged being that sees him as its protector. As Skut navigates the perilous tidal tiers, his impulsive escape from Highpoint Station unravels into a fight for survival—both for himself and his newfound companion.

Podge is the new kid in town, trying to keep his head down. Meeting Skut is about the only bright spot in his introduction to this strange new world. The boys bond over Skut’s creature, and trying to avoid the class bullies. This is only the beginning; soon Skut finds his new friends do not ease the growing concerns of the adults around him while the town is coming under a mysterious threat. What can two boys and a tiny storm-dragon do?

FROM SARAH A. HOYT: 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.
When escape becomes discovery…
After waking to an intruder in her bedroom aboard her father’s luxury space cruiser, Athena’s desperate fight for survival catapults her into a small lifeboat and the vast darkness of space. But her attempt to find help takes an unexpected turn when she encounters the legendary darkships—legendary vessels rumored to steal the energy-producing Powerpods that orbit Earth for their own secret purposes.
As Athena is drawn into the hidden world of a secret colony nestled within an asteroid in our solar system, she begins to question everything she thought she knew. The truth about her father’s empire, the true nature of the darkship thieves, and her own place in this complex web of secrets will challenge her understanding of power and freedom.
With dangerous forces hunting her and nowhere left to run, Athena must navigate a new reality where old legends prove true and new allies might become something more. What started as a desperate escape becomes an adventure that will forever alter her destiny—if she survives.
Darkship Thieves—the Prometheus Award-winning space opera that combines high-stakes action with thought-provoking exploration of liberty, authority, and human resilience.

FROM DECLAN FINN: Wyverns Never Die (Honeymoon from Hell Book 3)

THE SEQUEL TO THE DRAGON AWARD NOMINATED “LOVE AT FIRST BITE” CONTINUES!

Marco and Amanda have been hounded from Chicago to San Francisco by all the forces of Hell. Surely, Wyvern Con science fiction and fantasy convention in Atlanta would be safe? Who would dare attack a convention the size of a small city?

Everyone.

Before the newlyweds even arrive, they are nearly killed by Chinese assassins. The local vampire nest has turned on them. Cyber-zombies have been unleashed on the streets.

Somebody has been playing a game with Marco and Amanda. But this is one honeymoon couple that like to play chess. And now, it’s time for their gambit to commence.

FROM LEIGH KIMMEL: The Shadow of a Dead God

What secrets lie beneath an alien world?

A routine archeological dig on a world once ruled by the mysterious Star Tyrants. For Moon-born Liu Shang, working on a planetary surface might be unsettling, but she could manage — until the dreams started.

Unwilling to drag others into a harebrained search, she headed out alone, contrary to mission rules. Just as she was about to give up, she found an unlikely artifact.

Handling it connects her to the mind of a long-ago rebel against the Star Tyrants’ rule. Nothing will ever be the same.

A short story.

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: DIFFICULT

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

  1. Her gaze went between them. “One wonders what the knights do,” she murmured.

    “We wonder,” said Leonid, “whether the magistrates keep these things to themselves in folly. And whether people expect us to know things without being told. No knight has that power.”

    She smiled a little. “Still they wonder.”

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  2. A dark young man raced toward her, along the road. She blinked. Along it, but over it. He flew toward her.

    He landed beside her and grinned. “Sorry that it took so long. I know it’s hard to find your feet, but it was a bit tricky to find you.”

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  4. A dark young man raced toward her, along the road. She blinked. Along it, but over it. He flew toward her.

    He landed beside her and grinned. “Sorry that it took so long. I know it’s hard to find your feet, but it was a bit tricky to find you.”

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    1. She should collect her wits. She was in a strange and familiar place, and the first thing was to not look like a madwoman. She could make plans better if they thought she had her wits.

      “Violetta.” Her mother looked severe. “I spoke three times without a word from you.”

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  6. One of the modes of failure for a forecasting model is an autistic with a just so story.

    The Norse sagas tell us that cheese causes violence and feuding.

    Therefore, the American federal government stockpiles of cheese must inevitably cause civil war.

    There I will be, after the bloody slaughter. Alone on some nearly deserted battlefield. After some difficulty.

    I will recover my axe, and find a shady spot to lean up against something. Then I will speak.

    “I don’t even value dairy products; I have been gluten and caisen free for over forty years.”

    Then snot will drain out onto my white button up dress shirt, as my sinuses void on death.

    Data is something that an autistic can source.

    It is not persuasive, even if all the data supports a specific conclusion. All behavioral modeling at group and historical scales is reduced order

    If all data unconditionally fits a single just so story, than one might have the case of someone working through the fuller and more raw data, and doing the data reduction to only fit the just so story.

    Data analysis is time, and it is perception, and it is narrow and specific skills.

    To stay motivated, fresh, and open to being wrong through the complete analysis is a seperate journey each and every time.

    For what reason might I do all of that work? If I am motivated by the inner sense of the magic of a theory being completed in my own mind, then I am likely to select my next data for giving me a hit. Or to prefer selecting that data.

    If someone’s story of a behavioral model and of the data supporting it is of how perfect the support is, and how few ambiguities and flaws can be found, then that itself can impeach the model.

    This isn’t obviously so to everyone, because the common knowledge about large number of person behavioral modeling is based on some popular and deeply flawed models.

    From intelligence analysis, we know that it is actually better to have a bunch of models we know are flawed, and combine them to make narrow and near predictions, that can help use learn about the things that our current collection does not predict. Because there is always potential for humans to surprise us.

    One reason we might ignore these caveats is when we are sick inside, and need for other people, far outside, to be something in some specific way that is mostly lying to ourselves for the sake of our own damage.

    We were mostly people who got a lot of our foundational training for aggregate behavioral models from people who used deeply flawed behavioral models. We would need to develop the rest of the arts pretty early on to have much time for picking out the bugs from our thinking and feeling, and to have found and fixed all of our emotional flaws with the class of aggregate behavioral models.

    Depression, needing to be correct, needing to have certainty, these are all some relevant types of sick.

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  7. First, eating the ritual mayonnaise, and soon wholly absorbed in the sacred text New Directions in Cryptography , Bob became a key member of the Diffie-cult.

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  8. Buying an airline ticket wasn’t hard — just tell the website where you wanted to go, and options would appear.  The difficult part was the seats, which, in descending order of comfort, appeared as follows:

    • Business Class
    • Premium Economy
    • Toilet
    • Cattle car

    The first two were unaffordable; the third was unavailable.

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  9. Why is it so difficult to tell her to leave? Just pack up your crap and go. No divorce, no lawyers. Take the Lexus in the driveway, I don’t care. Simply go. Go now! I can’t take it anymore. And take the knife from my broken heart when you leave.

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  11. If WP(DE) behaves itself, this should be a stand-alone comment. [Narrator voice: The salt barrel goes in the pantry, not the root cellar.]

    For obscure reasons, Amazon decided to make it difficult impossible to rank/review Storm Dragon on the Kindle. Normally, after the last page, I’ll get the rank/review form, though it insists on 25 words for a review, so I’ll do that on the computer. My fingers don’t do touchpad keyboards with ease. For this one, it points to another book (collection with a short story by Dave in it), as well as “Also bought”.

    I went to the ‘zon and left a review, but sheesh.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. WP(DE) dancing today for me; let’s try this again;

      Just finished Storm Dragon myself. For some odd reason, Kindle on my ‘phone let me do the review just fine, and despite throwing what LOOKED like an error, said review showed up in under 24 hours. Very good juvenile form novel. A bit short for me, but given what seems to have happened to today’s youth, understandable. There are probably a few rural intellectuals out there with a 45 minute+ bus ride home, but in my day that was spent on homework without a lot of writing, occasionally tutoring cute girls (Who always seemed to have easily offended athletic boyfriends) and reading library books. Which often got finished in three or so days. I HOPE Storm Dragon makes it into many libraries; it is a great “first sample is free” offering to create more fans of Dave!

      Liked by 1 person

  12. …he had been coming home from the grocery store with a couple small purchases when he was suddenly thrust into another place and time that he knew naught. A grim warrioress with drawn sword was backing him against a rock wall. There was a small cleft that he could just squeeze through where she might not follow. Then a low growl and a large paw appeared originating from a gaunt hungry saber tooth cat on the other side. Truely a difficult decision. He chose the one that might have the most compassion for a lost wayfaring stranger. Opening the can of tuna he had bought he offered it to her, trying not to tremble “Nnnnice Kitty”…

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  13. You want difficult?  Competing with younger folks.

    After age 40, your body is not flexible, doesn’t heal fast, doesn’t want to stay toned.

    Programming in the ‘70s/’80s < Object-Oriented programming.  The syntax can easily be adopted; but it’s used differently.

    But it’s more difficult to get me to shut up.

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  14. In theory, it should’ve been an easy job. I’d done this sort of work since I was a kid growing up on my folks’ farm.

    However, my employers neglected to inform me that I’d be tending a “farm” suspended in the upper atmosphere of a gas giant. Here the pressure was such that I’d just need a breather rather than a full EMU — but I didn’t relish the idea of having to walk across those huge girders on which were mounted the poles that supported the vines.

    On the other hand, the ghost flower was the only known source of several important biologicals that were critical to the war effort. And given that peace with the Tchiador was impossible, thanks to their belief that non-hive sapients were an abomination, we needed every edge we could get.

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