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

ON SALE FOR 99C FROM SARAH A. HOYT: Draw One In The Dark (The Shifter Series Book 1)

Deep in the Colorado Rockies, Kyrie Smith has mastered the art of keeping secrets: like how she turns into a panther at will, or how she’s trying to solve a string of shifter murders while serving up the daily special. But she’s not the only one with something to hide.

Take her coworker Tom Ormson—your typical guy next door, if your typical guy could transform into a dragon and might have accidentally killed someone. Then there’s the lion-shifting cop investigating the murders, a guilt-ridden father, and a trio of dragon shifters hunting for something called the Pearl of Heaven.

As if navigating a world of supernatural intrigue wasn’t complicated enough, Tom’s falling for Kyrie, discovering powers that shouldn’t exist, and learning that trust is a two-way street paved with decades of secrets. In Goldport, Colorado, where the coffee’s always hot and the shifters are always watching, solving a murder might be the easiest part of Kyrie’s day.

Welcome to small-town life where everyone has something to hide—and some of those secrets have scales, claws, and a tendency to roar.

FOR REASONS I DON’T UNDERSTAND, IT INSISTS DARKSHIP THIEVES IS ALSO STILL 99C. SO: 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 an intruder in her bedroom forces Athena to flee her father’s luxury cruiser in a tiny lifeboat, her escape leads her straight to the legendary Darkships—mysterious vessels that steal Earth’s power supply. And into the life of the pilot of the Darkship.

Thrust into a hidden asteroid colony and hunted by powerful enemies, Athena discovers shocking truths about her father’s empire and her own identity. As she navigates this dangerous new reality, what began as a fight for survival becomes a battle for freedom that could transform humanity’s future.

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REMEMBER YOU CAN BUY THESE BOOKS ON SALE AND HAVE THEM DELIVERED CHRISTMAS MORNING. NO ONE WILL EVER KNOW.

WITH A STORY BY NICHOLAS ARKISON AND A LOT OF OTHER PEOPLE KNOWN TO THE BLOG: Fantastic Schools Familiars

Have you ever wanted to go to magic school? To cast spells and brew potions and fly on broomsticks and – perhaps – battle threats both common and supernatural? Come with us into worlds of magic, where students become magicians and teachers do everything in their power to ensure the kids survive long enough to graduate. Welcome to … Fantastic Schools.

Come explore the world of familiars, and how they help their human to make magic. Meet a young apprentice whose life is changed forever by her familiar, and the treachery of her closest ally. Meet a bonded couple who isn’t sure which is the patron and which the familiar, then follow the adventures of a familiar helping out from beyond the grave. Learn what it takes to have and hold a familiar, and how to take care of them, and then follow the adventures of two students who take each other as familiars, which will either save their educational careers or destroy them beyond repair.

All this, and more, in Fantastic Schools Familiars …

FROM J. KENTON PIERCE: A Kiss for Damocles (Tales From the Long Night Book 1)

A Kiss for Damocles follows the journey of Shaifennen Roehe, a young homesteader who is the right girl in the right place to serve as a catalyst in her world’s, and eventually, her civilization’s, restoration. She must adapt from merely struggling to survive in a harsh world as her simple homestead becomes a boomtown, and then the keystone of a restored colonial government.

Meanwhile, competing Townie politicians and merchant princes have other plans for Hesperides Colony’s future and take a very personal interest in her as she inadvertently kicks over a few of their apple carts. And all the while, sinister, hidden forces watch and calculate and a centuries-old shadow war comes to a head.

Shai’s universe is one filled with fallen empires, implacable war machines, lost civilizations, hostile xenos, the occasional ancient unspeakable horror, and she’s going to bring the ruckus to every corner of it.

FROM STANLEY WHEELER: Accidental Pirates: A Pirate & Dragon Adventure for Boys

Accidental Pirates: You don’t choose the adventure. Sometimes the adventure chooses you.
Two brothers. One flat tire. One mysterious cave.
What starts as a summer hike with Grandpa turns into the ultimate wrong turn—straight through a crack in the rock and into the Caribbean, 1770s style. Suddenly Chris and Kenny are dodging bloodthirsty pirates, outrunning razor-feathered dragonlings, and facing the fire-breathing Green Lady herself.
With only a pocketknife and a quick lesson in loading flintlock pistols, the boys must outwit Captain Ross and figure out how to get home again. Fortunately, they have an ally.
A rip-roaring, edge of your seats adventure for every boy who ever dreamed of swords, ships, and a chance to be the hero.

EDITED BY D. JASON FLEMING: Bourbon and Lead (Raconteur Press Anthologies)

The dames were trouble. I knew that the moment I saw them. But they knew exactly the siren song that would get me to follow.

“Dime Detective Stories,” one of them said.

“And you can pitch it to the scribblers any way you want,” the other purred.

Yeah. I was doomed from the start.

And that’s more or less how this anthology happened. It was held special for me to edit, because my love of the hardboiled school of writing is well known to my friends. But since noir has been covered six ways from Sunday in various RacPress anthos, I chose both to open up the concept a bit, and to reference the kinds of crime and adventure writing I especially love, but which are disreputable and disdained by the same academy that acknowledges (long after his death) the value of Raymond Chandler.

FROM NATHAN C. BRINDLE: I’m The Beautiful But Evil Space Princess Who Rules A Galactic Empire But Really Wants To Leave People Ruthlessly Alone!

Alice is the Imperial Princess Regnant of the Galactic Empire. At 22, she has been thrust into power after her father (the Emperor) and her two older brothers have all died in various ways. Her Imperial Chancellor, Lord Rupert, does everything he can to support her, but has somewhat different ideas about how the Empire should be run than did his late Emperor.

Alice has one major problem: She cannot be crowned Empress Regnant until she marries and produces an heir.

But Alice, being kept busy three days a week by interminable audiences with petitioners, and the rest of the week with what she terms “mostly busy work”, has no real way to meet young men — well, reasonably eligible young men, anyway, and of her own age — with whom she might eventually take up and form a household. And she chafes at the necessity of trying to rule, hands-on, an Empire so huge it cannot be truly ruled by any one person to begin with.

She just wants to leave people alone, as her father and his predecessors did for centuries.

Then, into her life walks the Crown Prince of a planet many, many parsecs away from the Capital Planet…and her life begins to take on a life of its own…

FROM JAY MAYNARD: Royal Crystal (The Crystal Therapy Chronicles)

A princess is breaking.
The crystal is her last chance.

Princess Helena of England has everything—status, duty, lineage.
What she lacks is the ability to feel anything at all.

Shattered by trauma only her family knows, Helena enters the Laminatrix Mental Hospital, where healing means surrendering mind and body to the seamless black suit and the silent depths of the crystal. Inside, she must confront the memories she has hidden from the world—and from herself.

At LMH, Dalton Ward has taken the white suit to understand the truth behind the magic he once defended in court. His transformation will force him to choose who he is when every illusion of control is stripped away.

And as Helena’s treatment pushes the boundaries of what the crystal was ever meant to do, LMH faces a question with national consequences:

Can crystal magic heal a princess…
or will it remake her into something the Crown never expected?

A story of trauma, duty, and rebirth—
Royal Crystal expands the Laminatrix world into its most powerful, emotional, and politically charged form yet.

FROM CAROLINE FURLONG: Stone and Sky (ExtraOrdinary Beasts Book 3)

They watch. They guard. They endure.

From ancient cathedrals to far-flung planets, gargoyles stand sentinel between the world of stone and the endless sky.

In Stone and Sky, discover tales where winged guardians wake, monsters find new shapes, and legends are reborn in the clash of magic and machinery. Inside these pages you’ll find fantasy, urban fantasy, and science fiction stories that prove gargoyles are more than carved stone—they are protectors, rebels, and sometimes, the greatest danger of all.

Step into the shadows where stone takes flight.

FROM JOHN BAILEY: Castellano, Maestro (The Fantasy Books)

In a quiet Central European village where the night belongs to peculiar guardians, one voice rises above all others—passionate, operatic, and utterly impossible to ignore.

Castellano is Bělov’s most celebrated nocturnal performer, a creature of artistic temperament and boundless ego whose serenades shake windows and test the patience of every sleeping soul. His rival, the massive and mysterious Lord Percy, prefers silence and solitude but is constantly drawn into confrontations with the village’s insufferable maestro.

When a plague threatens their territory, these bitter enemies must choose between rivalry and cooperation. Alongside Grace of the Chimney, Old-Mistress Milka, and a community of guardians who maintain the delicate balance between human settlement and wild nature, Castellano begins a journey from solo performer to reluctant team member—learning that true artistry might require harmonizing with others rather than drowning them out.

Told with romantic ambiguity that slowly gives way to delightful revelation, Castellano, Maestrois a tale of community, growth, and the surprising friendships that emerge when we set aside pride for the greater good. Perfect for readers who love stories where animals have rich interior lives, villages feel like characters themselves, and redemption comes not through grand gestures but through choosing, again and again, to be better than our worst impulses.

For fans of: Watership Down, The Wind in the Willows, Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH, and cozy literary fiction with anthropomorphic sensibilities.

FROM HOLLY CHISM: Gods and Monsters (Modern Gods Book 4)

Here there be dragons…again, damn it.

Deshayna has her sanity back, and forces older than the gods have granted her a new purpose. Chronos, his freedom restored, fights for his sanity, and with it, a purpose in helping Deshayna—now called Shay—with hers. The gods are starting to pull together more…and it’s about time.

Millennia after the last dragons to threaten human existence have been hunted down, they’ve started to reappear, hinting to the surviving gods that something more sinister appeared first: Tiamat.

Instead of a confrontation, though, the gods—major, minor, and genus loci—are drawn into a frustrating hunt for a predator that flees rather than attempting to strike.

FROM MARY CATELLI: The Princess Seeks Her Fortune

In a land where ten thousand fairy tales come true, Alissandra knows she is in one when an encounter with a strange woman gives her magical gifts, and another gives her sisters a curse.

And she knows that despite the prospects of enchantments, cursed dances, marvelous birds, and work as a scullery maid, it is wise of her to set out, and seek her fortune.

BY ROBERT ORMOND CASE REVIVED BY D. JASON FLEMING: The Rider From Hell (Annotated): The classic pulp western revenge novella

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A gripping novel of outlaw revenge!They had heard, those Mexicans, of Gringo honor—and one at least, was willing to gamble that young Dal Givens would return with the many good American dollars for the release of his friend, John Thurston—who otherwise would die of dry rot and torture in the great new Federal prison of Carrizal!

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

FROM BLAKE SMITH: An American Thanksgiving

It is Thanksgiving Day, 1865, and Margaret Browne isn’t feeling very thankful. The war is over, and her grown-up sons have returned from the fighting, but her beloved husband remains absent, last seen a captive in a notorious prisoner-of-war camp. The Browne family muddles through their uncertain path, lost without their leader, but when everything begins to go wrong all at once, Margaret must hold together the farm and her family, and turn a disaster into a true day of thanks-giving.

FROM KAREN MYERS: Tales of Annwn – A Virginian in Elfland (The Hounds of Annwn Story Collections Book 1)

A Collection of Five Short Stories from The Hounds of Annwn.

The Call – A very young Rhian discovers her beast-sense and, with it, the call of a lost hound.

It’s not safe in the woods where cries for help can attract unwelcome attention, but two youngsters discover their courage in the teeth of necessity.

Under the Bough – Angharad hasn’t lived with anyone for hundreds of years, but now she is ready to tie the knot with George Talbot Traherne, the human who has entered the fae otherworld to serve as huntsman for the Wild Hunt. As soon as she can make up her mind, anyway.

George has been swept away by his new job and the people he has met, and by none more so than Angharad. But how can she value the short life of a human? And what will happen to her after he’s gone?

Night Hunt – When George Talbot Traherne goes night hunting for fox in Virginia, he learns about unworthy men from the old-timers drinking moonshine around the fire and makes his own choices.

Who could have anticipated that the same impulse that won him his old bluetick coonhound would lead him to his new wife and the hounds of Annwn? Every choice has a cost, he realizes, but never a regret.

Cariad – Luhedoc is off with his adopted nephew Benitoe to fetch horses for the Golden Cockerel Inn. He’s been reunited with his beloved Maëlys at last, but how can he fit into her capable life as an innkeeper? What use is he to her now, after all these years?

Luhedoc needs to relearn an important lesson about confidence.

The Empty Hills – George Talbot Traherne arranges a small tour of the local human world for his fae family and friends, hoping to share some of the sense of wonder he discovered when he encountered the fae otherworld.

He’s worried about discovery by other humans, but things don’t turn out quite the way he expects.

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: PAINSTAKING