*First of all, a blessed Easter to those celebrating, and for those who celebrated Passover this week, I hope you passed dry shod from slavery to freedom. And now, the promo!- SAH.*
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, as an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. By clicking through and buying (anything book-related, 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. Remember though all of these submissions are from people willing to be associated with this blog. So if you’re trying to buy from people who don’t hate you, this is a good place to start.– SAH
FROM SARAH A. HOYT, ON PRE-ORDER COMING OUT APRIL 23: Witch’s Daughter
Some letters come from the living. Some come from the dead. This one comes with a formula that turns a rowboat into a miracle.
Seventeen-year-old Lord Michael Ainsling — youngest brother of the Duke of Darkwater, builder of mechanical marvels, survivor of fairyland — receives a letter from a man sixteen years dead. The inventor Tristram Blakley has not perished; he has been imprisoned by his own genius and begs the one mind in all of Avalon brilliant enough to understand his work to set him free. All Michael has to do is find seven missing brothers first and walk a magical path..
Fifteen-year-old Albinia Blakley has spent her whole life under her mother’s iron thumb — and her mother is a witch. The day Al finally escapes down a rope of knotted sheets, she lands in a world she doesn’t recognize, with no money, no magic kit, and no idea that the stranger who catches her is about to become her greatest ally.
Together, a girl with more secrets than she knows and a boy who builds machines that try to murder him must outwit a sorceress, navigate the treacherous courts of Fairyland, and unravel an enchantment years in the making — before a family is lost for good.
Witch’s Daughter is a gaslamp fantasy brimming with wit, warmth, and wonder, for readers who love their magic wrapped in velvet and their adventures served with morning tea.
WITH A STORY BY L. JAGI LAMPLIGHTER: Amelia: Counterrevolution
The UK gambled.
The UK lost.
The right people won.
That didn’t backfire at all.
In a critical moment for British society, the UK government created, not a video game, but a propaganda tool intended to prevent youth from being “radicalized.” In the most stunning of unintended consequences, that game introduced to the world Amelia, now a digital icon for the conservative ideas the creators feared as having too much influence.
Amelia: Counterrevolution is an anthology of Tales from the Lemurverse, celebrating irony, farce, and the embrace of Western civilization, culture and history that the Amelia meme has now triggered world-wide. In Amelia: Counterrevolution, readers will find a varied, entertaining approach to the latest internet phenomenon.
FROM TALEENA SINCLAIR: Everything Beautiful In Its Time
Everything Beautiful In Its Time
A Collection of Poetry
In Everything Beautiful In Its Time, the ancient rhythms of nature interweave with timeless spiritual wisdom to create a contemplative journey through both calendar and conscience. This collection moves from the observable world—spring’s capricious winds, summer’s dappled light, autumn’s memory-harvest, winter’s patient stillness—into deeper territories of the heart where biblical wisdom meets personal experience.
Drawing inspiration from Ecclesiastes’ meditation these poems explore the appointed times of human experience: birth and death, planting and harvest, mourning and dancing, silence and speech. Through intimate narratives of family, marriage, and faith, the collection traces how divine purpose unfolds in particular moments—a child’s escape from garden labor, the forgiveness cycle walked along Pacific Northwest cliffs, the gamble of loving deeply.
Rich with sensory detail and anchored in place, these poems speak to anyone seeking meaning in both the sweetness and sorrow that come to every table life spreads before us.
FROM LEIGH KIMMEL: Never Bind a Fox
If you inherited an antique puzzle box from your world-traveling uncle, would you open it? And if you did, what would you do with the things you found inside it?
Everything started when Terry inherited just such a box, beautifully lacquered with images of foxes. With some help from his buddies, he was able to get it open and discover the treasure inside it: a plate, a comb, and a tiny booklet in Japanese. For a group of college students more accustomed to art-book grimoires and cosplay-prop wizards’ trunks, it seemed like great fun to act out the spell that little booklet described.
Then Yumiko showed up. Cute, cheerful, and a cook like none of them had ever known, she seemed like a dream come true. But then things started getting very strange….
FROM LINDSAY PETERSEN: Shadow Chasers: Steampunk Excursions to View the 1878 Eclipse
A once-in-a-lifetime experience! Adventure you’ll never forget! Irresistible – to some.
In 1878 a solar eclipse was predicted, the shadow’s path to sweep from Alaska across the Rocky Mountains, promising an enthralling event guaranteed to strike envy into the hearts of others for the rest of your life. But how to get to the edge of the frontier safely?
Victoria Bearskin of the Wyandotte tribe and a student in Vassar’s astronomy program is forbidden to go. Nofina Nolana, an oyster pirate scoundrel from San Francisco orders his crew to hijack a ship to Juneau – which turns out to be Captain Nemo’s long-lost Nautilus submarine. From New Orleans Lurie and Clark ride paddle steamers up the mighty rivers of America’s heart to preserve images of the event.
While all eyes are on their sweet moments in moonshadow they overlook chance encounters with bad men, big animals and birthin’ babies. After all that, who would emerge from the mad gambles?
All learn there are no promises in this life, but there are second chances and new beginnings are born from once-in-a-lifetime experiences.
A stand-alone novelette of 14,000 words by Lindsay Petersen.
FROM FAY ELLEN GRAETZ: Brave New Farm
BRAVE NEW FARM chronicles the family of Rose and Sonya, guardians of the Anders’ generations-old homestead in the rolling hills of the Midwest.
The sisters are thrust into a contentious debate when they learn the government chose Greenleaf Township as a test site for clean energy production.
The entire farming community is at odds, pitting families in need of a financial windfall against those who choose to protect the pastoral environment at all costs.
When tragedy strikes Rose, the balance of power shifts and resentments fester.
Suspicions arise after another “farm accident.”
If justice is served, who will be left to tend the farm?
Who will mind the legacy of the homestead?
FROM NATHAN C. BRINDLE: The Cross-Time Kamaitachi (Timelines Universe Book 5)
I did not land here as a warrior, but a warrior I so soon became . . .
One moment, Dr. Yukiko Yamaguchi was in her high-tech singularity research lab in California, busily adjusting an electronically-leaky fitting playing hell with her instrument readings.
The next moment, she was falling through space, and landing hard in a wilderness area she would quickly discover was her family’s ancient stomping grounds in Japan – but with an apocalyptic twist.
A hundred years later, there would be legends of a great yōkai, a demon, whom some called a kamaitachi – a sort-of whirlwind, weasel-like creature with blades for claws, which catches up unwary humans and slices their skin. But this kamaitachi is no ordinary yōkai – rather, she is
The Cross-Time Kamaitachi
FROM HOLLY CHISM: Bar Tabs: A Modern Gods Story
Brief back stories on the characters from the Modern Gods universe.
FROM MARY CATELLI: The Enchanted Princess Wakes
Once upon a time, a princess was cursed at her christening — but not the one you heard of.
When the fairy decreed that Rosaleen would fall into an enchanted sleep, and how she would wake, the grand plans of kings, to unite kingdoms, failed. They sent her to an out-of-the-way castle in the mountains, in hopes the curse would do no harm to anyone else.
There, alone, Rosaleen lived and learned, and realized that she herself had to be ready to face the curse, and when it broke.
FROM JOE HUFFER: Suburban Moon: The Autobiography of Sam Wyatt (Hoosier Flats Book 2)
Sam Wyatt wasn’t always a lonely, one-legged drunk clinging to the dim light of the suburban moon. Once he was a husband, father, and a man who believed the world still held room for hope. Losing his wife shattered that world, and the year that followed buried him in bourbon, bitterness, and memories that cut as sharply as they comfort.
When a new neighbor with troubles of her own moves in next door, Sam is forced out of the bare existence he has lived in for too long. Their budding friendship forces Sam to face the hardest truth of all: If he wants a future he has to let go of the past.
Poignant, funny, brutally honest, and deeply human, Suburban Moon is a sweeping story of grief, redemption, and love. For anyone who has ever lost deeply, loved fiercely, or wondered if second chances happen — this is a story that stays with you long after the last page.
Vignettes by Luke, Mary Catelli and ‘Nother Mike.
So what’s a vignette? You might know them
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: Canvas
According To Hoyt 
But but… I already preordered Witch’s Daughter!!!!
Oh, since I got the eARC of it, I can say that it’s worth reading. 😉
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Remember, o Readers, that you can be FORCE MULTIPLIERS!
When you read books, you can rate and review them.
Even short reviews are of aid to the writer, because sheer mass helps. (And if you really can’t review, still rate.)
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Elisanna gestured at the canvas on which she sat. Wordlessly, he came forward and told how they had told his father the truth, and secured an invitation for King Conrad, and his wife.
“My father insisted that the invitation must be to his court, with only a stop here first.”
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Tornado looming, Dorothy and Toto sought shelter under the Ringling Brothers tent. The winds took the tent, leaving Dorothy unprotected.
Over the sound of the tempest, one could hear Dorothy say “Well, Toto, we’re not in canvas any more.”
—
More things to add to the TBR-kindle; which shall they be?
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“Aim!”
“Aimed!”
“Correct for wind shear!”
“Correcting!”
“On target?”
“Target confirmed!”
“Shoot!”
FWOOSH!! “Carp Away!”
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If a meme’s a picture, and a picture is worth a thousand words, then I’ve already exceeded the 50-word maximum. If a picture is equal to a single character, then it should only count as one word. But if our canvas is text, do we have to count every word?
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That is maybe a push that I was ready to ‘hear’ right now.
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Wait, do you only get paid from book-related purchases, or all purchases? I’ve been routing everything through your links — computer parts, CDs, videos, etc.
Well, when I remember, at least. 🙂
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So, until April 1 I got paid for ALL purchases. Amazon has altered the deal (SIGH) and this is my understanding of the new rules. I could be wrong, mind you. At that CDs and videos might count. They said “same category of purchases” WHATEVER THAT MEANS.
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As part of the political campaign, I worked this neighborhood, talking to the sailmakers as well as an unusual concentration of art students working with paints. I interviewed them about their concerns, and also delivered sales pitches.
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Sounds like you went to Orvan’s applicant’s college, below.
You could also sell some traditional rope preservative and some quill pens, so they might be tarred and feathered.
Picture the sailors in a low-necked apron.
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Muldoon had been tracking the suspects most of the night. Several footprints led to a sparse trail of confetti in the wet grass under a dense canopy of trees. He had followed the trail for the last hour until a break in the foliage revealed the tents of a traveling circus. Curiously, it had arrived in town just before the killings began.
As he stepped from the trees, a canvas flap on the nearest tent whipped back to reveal several figures silhouetted by lights inside. Muldoon raised his flashlight to illuminate the faces of these shadowy forms, then swore blasphemously.
“Clowns. Why does it always have to be clowns?”
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Wot an awkward prompt — it didn’t make me think of anything but camping, and I don’t want to write a camping vignette because the whole thing strikes me as too inte —
Okay, I almost went there, but I didn’t, see?
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“You’re kidding. An entire University for pollsters and the like? Now, a certification and maybe a class or two for such, I could see, but-“
“What ARE you on about?”
“This bit here, says you went to Canvas State.”
“That’s *Kansas* State!”
“You need to edit this, it says *canvas*.”
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“I say, Doctor. What happened? Where did our friend go? Can was here a minute ago.”
“Vat ever zat sing vas, eet grabbed our friend and took heem. Can vas here, but ees not anymore.”
“Dang it. Well, I guess we need to find him and rescue him.”
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Roy Corey was just finishing set-up when the western sky turned dark. Down here in a heavily wooded valley, that was a very bad sign because the storm would be almost upon them.
“OK, everybody, time to get everything under cover and tied down.”
In seconds his family went from a bunch of laughing, joking children to a well-oiled machine. By the time the wind began to rise, the ground around the sales canopy and sleeping tents was bare of anything that might blow over or otherwise be damaged. Stakes were pounded down firm and ropes tested for security.
One last tarp to tie down, and then run for cover at the long hall with its sturdy timber construction and lightning rods.
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Nabbing Amelia sample!
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Totally off-topic, but this morning the neighbor’s black cat trotted past our dining room windows carrying a tiny form in her mouth. I don’t think it was a mouse.
No, the cat got a baby Easter bunny. As the memes say, well, this is awkward.
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She frowned. ”It’s leather.”
”Yup.”
”The bag you think I am going to use for my clothes is made of dead cow skin.”
I nodded. ”Yup. Well, not untanned. That would be gross.”
”This is gross.”
I sighed, pulling on the jacket to my overly expensive suit. ”Look, the bad guys are looking for a skulking furtive broke blonde. Your hair is now dark brown, your heels are about twelve centimeters at the spike, and you are wearing clothes that cost more than my sadly now sold N-20 flyer brought.” I shook my head. “Since the XP-38 came out, they’re just not in demand.” I looked back up at her. “But in about an hour we are going to sashay right up the main first class concourse like we own the place, swan expensively onto that ship, and jet off this rock before they know you are missing. You have to have obviously expensive bags with expensive stuff in them, not some canvas duffel with your spare combat boots.”
”I like my duffel. And my boots.”
”Easier to buy new boots if we’re not dead. Now pack that shi…stuff in the bag, we have a limo ride to the spaceport already paid for that will be here in twelve minutes.”
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Women bustled, with canvas and linen being hastily be put away from working, and the chairs and stools arranged.
Clara remained in her corner. The ladies in waiting who mattered were of higher birth than she was. Though they grumbled. She learned that they knew that Fortunatus was a wizard.
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Coming soon:
“True intelligence is not the ability to build a gateway to the stars. It is the courage to open it only when every hand that reaches for it belongs to a friend.”
— Fragment from the Gateway Builders’ Archive (decoded)
“Some photographs capture a moment.
The best ones capture a choice—the precise instant when humanity decided to become something larger than itself.”
— Josef Kellerman, Reflections on the Gateway Accords
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And somewhere on Mars, Josef Kellerman was planning a wedding, entirely unaware that history had just decided to include him in its next chapter.
He would not have been surprised. He would have been, as he was about most things, quietly resigned and quietly ready.
That was, Liu supposed, what made him the right person.
It was never the people who were eager for it.
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Never ask, ‘How could this possibly get any worse?’
We discovered the ripped seam in the tent canvas at the rental campsite after the torrential downpour began. Everything we owned got soaked. Sleeping bags, clothes, food. Everything.
‘How could it possibly get worse?’ I demanded of the universe.
The universe answered with a skunk strolling in through the rip in the tent.
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“Do NOT taunt Happy Fun Murphy!!! He will win…..”
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