Tag: books

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

ON SALE RIGHT NOW: (A new section for this time period, and after when a lot of people have a lot of things for sale)

(Oh, and if you have things on sale, why haven’t you sent them in to be promoted? Allergy to money? Chafing at the thought of lucre? Hives at the idea of wealth?)

YES THE FIRST TWO ARE ABOVE IN THE PERMA PINNED POST, BUT SOME PEOPLE ARE INSUFFERABLE IN THEIR SELF PROMOTION, WHAT CAN I SAY?

Also I wish to remind everyone that you can order now on sale, and have a bunch of books delivered to your loved one’s kindle on Christmas morning and look like a big spender!

FROM SARAH A. HOYT: Draw One In The Dark (The Shifter Series Book 1)

Something or someone is killing shape shifters in the small mountain town of Goldport, Colorado. Kyrie Smith, a server at a local diner, is the last person to solve the mystery. Except of course for the fact that she changes into a panther and that her co-worker, Tom Ormson, who changes into a dragon, thinks he might have killed someone. Add in a policeman who shape-shifts into a lion, a father who is suffering from remorse about how he raised his son, and a triad of dragon shape shifters on the trail of a magical object known as The Pearl of Heaven and the adventure is bound to get very exciting indeed. Solving the crime is difficult enough, but so is — for our characters — trusting someone with secrets long-held. Originally published by Baen Books.

FROM SARAH A. HOYT: Deep Pink (Magis Book 1)

Like all Private Detectives, Seamus Lebanon [Leb] Magis has often been told to go to Hell. He just never thought he’d actually have to go. But when an old client asks him to investigate why Death Metal bands are dressing in pink – with butterfly mustache clips – and singing about puppies and kittens in a bad imitation of K-pop bands, Leb knows there’s something foul in the realm of music. When the something grows to include the woman he fell in love with in kindergarten and a missing six-year-old girl, Leb climbs into his battered Suburban and like a knight of old goes forth to do battles with the legions of Hell. This is when things become insane…. Or perhaps in the interest of truth we should say more insane.

FROM SARAH A. HOYT: Here Be Dragons: A collection of short stories

A collection of short stories by Award Winning Author Sarah A. Hoyt. From dark worlds ruled by vampires, to magical high schools, to future worlds where super-men have as many problems as mere mortals, this collection shows humans embattled, imperiled, in trouble, but never giving up. Angel in Flight is set in Sarah Hoyt’s popular Darkship series. The collection contains the stories: It Came Upon A Midnight Clear First Blood, Created He Them, A Grain Of Salt, Shepherds and Wolves, Blood Ransom,The Price Of Gold,Around the Bend,An Answer From The North, Heart’s Fire,Whom The Gods Love,Angel In Flight,Dragons as well as an introduction by fantasy writer Cedar Sanderson.

THE REST OF THE BOOKS!

FROM L. JAGI LAMPLIGHTER: Guardians of the Twilight Lands: The Sixth Book of Unexpected Enlightenment (Books of Unexpected Enlightenment 6)

An old enemy returns!

With the Heer of Dunderberg dead, Rachel Griffin is determined to save her beloved Roanoke Academy before time runs out, but to do this, a new covenant must be forged with the island’s fairies. On top of this, an old enemy has escaped and might reappear any moment

Rachel has learned not to wish on stars, but what should she do when she yearns for help? She is troubled by other questions, too: Where do the dead go? What became of her beloved late grandfather? Most annoying of all, with such a wonderful boyfriend, how can she be in love with two boys?

As her fourteenth birthday approaches, the answer to these questions awaits her, along with wonders such as she has never seen.

But there are terrible things ahead, too.

FROM KARL K. GALLAGHER: Trouble In My Day (Fall of the Censor Book 6

Cut off by an enemy offensive, Marcus Landry must take his ships behind Censorate lines, fighting to find a way home and find new support for the rebellion.
After leading the resistance against the Censorate occupation of his adopted homeworld, Marcus Landry is the natural choice to lead Corwynt’s new ships against the enemy. He’s never commanded a warship before. But his crews are as new on the job, and someone has to be in charge. He’ll take his rebels out to liberate other worlds from the Censor’s grasp and give them ancient books proscribed by the Censorate. Some were even written on Old Earth, before the Censor depopulated it.
Admiral Pinoy has been granted the ultimate gift of the Censor: command of a fleet to crush the rebels and barbarians disturbing the proper order of humanity. He will correct his past mistakes over the bodies of his enemies. First, he must teach troops used to ruling defenseless subjects how to fight an enemy who fights back.
Marcus Landry is racing the enemy to rejoin the free people. Rebels are gathering to defend their new freedom, but will they be enough to defeat the forces of the Censorate?
Read book six in the nine book Fall of the Censor series. The first four books were finalists for the Prometheus Award for Best Libertarian Science Fiction Novel.

FROM MELISSA MCSHANE: Warts and All The Expanded Deluxe Edition

Beginner witch Chloe has a problem. There’s a frog in her tub who says he used to be a man. Worse, his memory is slipping away from him. Magic doesn’t work, so there’s only one way she can think of to turn him back—but can she bring herself to do it?

And that’s only the beginning of her challenges…

In these fourteen short fairy tale retellings, including “Little Red Riding Hood,” “The Frog Prince,” and “The Princess and the Pea,” follow the adventures of Chloe and her family as they fall into one fairy tale after another.

This expanded, deluxe edition includes three new stories and illustrations by Caitlin Walsh.

FROM JAMES DAIN: Everyone Dies in Youngstown: A Noir Action Thriller Mystery

Can a man stand by when his brother’s been murdered?

It’s a dog-eat-dog world in rustbelt Youngstown, Ohio–but MJ Shea, a small-time cocaine runner, is making out just fine, thank you.

Until his crack-addicted brother turns up on the street, his brains blown all over the pavement.

The cops can’t be bothered investigating a simple gangland murder.

And no one wants to tangle with Waylay May, the city’s brutal drug lord.

But with his own life on the line, MJ must fight his way through the lies and hidden dangers of the forbidding streets to get justice for his dead brother.

And what he finds will change everything, forever.

Prepare to stay up late reading this gritty, fast-paced novel by best selling thriller writer James Dain, Best Novel Winner at the Los Angeles Neo-Noir Festival.

Click the BUY button now to join the action!

FROM DEVON ERIKSEN: Theft of Fire: Orbital Space #1

At the frozen edge of the solar system lies a hidden treasure which could spell their fortune or their destruction—but only if they survive each other first.

Marcus Warnoc has a little problem. His asteroid mining ship—his inheritance, his livelihood, and his home—has been hijacked by a pint-sized corporate heiress with enough blackmail material to sink him for good, a secret mission she won’t tell him about, and enough courage to get them both killed. She may have him dead to rights, but if he doesn’t turn the tables on this spoiled Martian snob, he’ll be dead, period. He’s not giving up without a fight.

He has a plan.

Miranda Foxgrove has the opportunity of a lifetime almost within her grasp if she can reach it. Her stolen spacecraft came with a stubborn, resourceful captain who refuses to cooperate—but he’s one of the few men alive who can snatch an unimaginable treasure from beneath the muzzles of countless railguns. And if this foulmouthed Belter thug doesn’t want to cooperate, she’ll find a way to force him. She’s come too far to give up now.

She has a plan.

They’re about to find out that a plan is a list of things that won’t happen.

Order your copy of Theft of Fire today

FROM SCOTT MCCREA: Tom Mix And The Wild West Christmas: A Western Adventure (Tales of Tom Mix Book 9)

Marshal Tom Mix plans on spending a quiet Christmas at home when he gets an urgent message from Buffalo Bill Cody. The famous showman is doing a special Christmas performance of the Wild West Show for an orphan asylum where he will distribute thousands of dollars’ worth of presents, and he wants Tom to guard them.

When the presents are stolen just before Christmas, Tom and Buffalo Bill team up to find them, resulting in a raucous Christmas Caper that will fill you with holiday cheer!

Join acclaimed Western writer Scott McCrea for this special Christmas book in the Tales of Tom Mix series!

The Critics Say:

“Well done, Mr. McCrea.” – Western author Jeremy Perry

“It’s easy to read; fast paced; packed with action; and full of characters you’re soon rootin’ for, as well as those you can’t wait to meet a grizzly end. It’s great fun to read.” – Western author Andrew Weston

“Scott McCrea’s prose is tight and smooth, and delivers a fair number of smiles.” — Evan Lewis, Davy Crockett’s Almanack

“Recommended!” — Jeff Arnold’s West

“Looking forward to the next one!” — Toby Roan, Fifty Westerns From the Fifties Blog

FROM HOLLY CHISM: Pendragon Resurgent (Legends Book 2)

Life is much better when nobody is trying to kill you.

Sara Hawke, now a university professor, has had five years where nobody was trying to kill her…if you don’t count her course load’s grading. Five years of watching over and helping raise orphaned young dragons.

Her comfortable life comes to an end when she’s attacked by Eastern Dragons, once again—this time, though, her attackers aren’t in the ruling elite. She’s in for the fight of her life again, only this time, Mordred is on the other side of the world, and she must first reach his side before they can succeed.

The running fight to survive brings to light old treachery, blackest magic…and new hope and new allies.

FROM ANNA FERREIRA: Christmas at Blackheath

Agnes Rawlins would never dream of showing a melancholy face to her brother’s guests. She may be a spinster, and treated little better than any common housekeeper, but she is responsible for bringing Christmas cheer into the dark and rambling Blackheath Manor, and she does not shirk her duty, even when she has little reason to celebrate.

William Marlowe, Viscount Claridge, has reluctantly accepted an invitation to spend the Christmas season at Blackheath. It’s not his first choice- how anyone could wish to spend time in the gloomy manor house is beyond him- but when he meets the kind and gentle lady of the house, he finds that Christmas at Blackheath might not be so bad after all.

FROM KAREN MYERS: Broken Devices: A Lost Wizard’s Tale (The Chained Adept Book 3

CHAINS WITHOUT WIZARDS AND A RISING COUNT OF THE DEAD.

The largest city in the world has just discovered its missing wizards. It seems the Kigali empire has ignited a panic that threatens internal ruin and the only chained wizard it knows that’s still alive is Penrys.

The living wizards and the dead are not her people, not unless she makes them so. All they have in common is a heavy chain and a dead past — the lives that were stolen from them are beyond recall.

What remains are unanswered questions about who made them this way. And why. And what Penrys plans to do to find out.

FROM LEIGH KIMMEL: Time Slips

What if our most treasured verities were in fact wrong?

To be selected for Project Mercury and be one of America’s first astronauts was a dream come true for test pilot Deke Slayton. But fellow Mercury astronaut Al Shepard kept telling old stories from his native New England, tales of monstrous entities like Cthulhu and Yog Sothoth. Earlier generations had viewed them as demons, but might they in fact be aliens, here long before humanity?

Soon Deke discovers evidence that something is watching the US space program. Something that begrudges humanity the stars and would put a ceiling on human attainment. Something that can manipulate time itself.

HP Lovecraft wrote that we dwell on a placid island of ignorance amidst the dark ocean of infinity, and that we were not meant to travel far.

What might the US space program have looked like in a cosmos filled with hostile eldritch entities? Would they notice us as playthings? Or as a nuisance to be dealt with?

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: LIGHT

Stars In Their Eyes

Posted on by Sarah A. Hoyt

This is one of those practical posts I have to do from time to time.

I’m not going to cover everything, so there might be a guest post on this later.

First, before you start, will the gentleman in the back stop chewing gum quite so loudly? please note the pinned post at the top of the blog. The books on sale have rolled over. And yes, as of right now there’s only one, but two more will join on the 9th.

Thank you. Now, let’s resume our unscheduled insanity explanation of rating and reviews, particularly for books, not that anyone is hinting at anything ever, but also for things like etsy, ebay, etc.

Many years ago, before we moved from the house downtown, older son and I opened a “bookshop” on Amazon. You see, we had a lot of used/second hand/lightly used because someone had given them to me and I didn’t care enough about them, books that I was never ever going to use. A lot of them were reference books, accumulated over 20 years. And I was never likely to use them again.

For explanation, I used to accumulate a lot of tangential historical and such references, because as a pro I was likely to get called to do a story for an anthology on “Cats in Egypt” or something equally off the wall, and the defense was to have a lot of references, so I could check quickly and go “Oh, yeah, I can do that.”

But research for short stories, as opposed to novels, is the sort of thing that can now — and could by 2013 — be done with a quick scramble through the web, if you know how to cull good information from bad. So, I had a lot of reference books I could get rid of, because the chances of my writing a novel set, say, in Mexico before the Spaniards arrived was very very low. (But a short story might be requested.)

There were various reasons the endeavor failed after about 6 months, and we ended up having to donate something like 4000 books. (Yes, you read that right, hence the attempt to sell them, and donating them when that failed. We still moved over 5k for things I intend to work in again. What the kids will do with all that after I’m gone is a puzzle.)

One was that after about three months the market fell out from under the books. We were positioned at just that point when people seemed to be giving up on paper books. (Judging by the amount of FREE bookshelves on craigslist too.) That’s just our luck, okay? And there seems to be a come back in those, from the reader side, but I suspect that’s a dead cat bounce, related to preparedness for a possible fall of civilization. When the turmoil doesn’t work that way, it will go away again.

But before that we’d run into problems that made the whole thing onerous. One was that there were (perhaps there still are?) a lot of scammers, that do things to the book, or claim the book arrived destroyed, and are you going to refund it. I immediately made it a point of asking for pictures. Never came. The person would vanish. But complaints affected your rating.

The other thing that affected your rating was stars. And because we were just a woman and a young man, not a bookstore staff, and we didn’t frankly have much margin (probably priced too low, but we wanted to sell) we shipped media mail. Which could get interesting. So we started getting three stars because the book was too slow to arrive, or the packaging was torn, or — things we had no control over.

Note there was nothing substantive and negative, just piddly stuff. But our rating dropped, and our appearance in searches dropped, until we were selling almost nothing, the books needed to be got out of the house, and we spent a couple of weeks just boxing and donating, after closing the shop.

Now I’m 99% sure the people who gave three star ratings didn’t mean for that to happen. And the ones where the book took a long time had a right to do that, because, well… been there too. And the ones where the packaging was torn probably thought they were giving us valuable information. But the ones — and there were more than a few — who rated with three stars and said something like “It’s a book. It got here on time. it’s as described. What more can I say?” Those are the ones that made me pull my hair out.

They are up there with the people who leave reviews for fiction that say something like “I liked this book. It was perfectly enjoyable.” And give three stars. I know some of these people. heck, some are friends. And if you ask them why they say “Well, three stars is for a normal book I liked,” “Four is for something extraordinary that I’m going to hand sell to all my friends.” “Five is for one of those rare perfect books that I’ll re-read twice a year and will stay with me for the rest of my life.”

Look, you’re right. I’m not disputing that you’re right. THAT’s what the rating SHOULD be.

The problem is that this is not what the rating means, from the POV of the corporation that is creating algorithms that allows people to find my book, or, alternately, decides it’s a defective product and buries it so deeply even people looking by name and author can’t find it.

Because you see, the problem is you’re thinking of a grading system for BOOKS. And in a grading system for “How good do I think this book is?” the middle — 3 — is what most books WILL be. And it will mean “perfectly enjoyable. Would read more like it.” And four is better than that and five is just about perfect. Right? I get it.

As book readers, we would appreciate that system, because it would tell us something like “Most people found this book enjoyable. That means it’s okay for an afternoon.” Or “wow, it’s nothing but five stars. Let me read the comments to see if it’s some insanely partisan thing. No? Wow. I have to read this.”

That would be great, if it worked like that, and save me a ton of time wading through insanity in hip boots trying to find something I won’t wall in five minutes.

UNFORTUNATELY THIS IS NOT A RATING SYSTEM FOR BOOKS.

Yes, Amazon applies it to books. But it’s not a rating system for books. Or, for etsy and such, a rating system that applies or should apply to any small business with handmade product.

What it is is a rating system for widgets, which are shipped out from a factory by dedicated personnel.

Your order a banana cutter, say, and if it doesn’t arrive when it said it would, you deduct a star because it was a day late. Or you give it three stars because it arrived a day late, and the box was smooched. Below that it’s serious problems.

Note, this is not a matter of taste, or “there’s a small problem on x, so two stars.”

When you order a widget, it should arrive on time and perform as described. That’s it. If it does that, it’s five stars.

So if it’s less than five stars, Amazon — and ebay, and etsy, and etc — penalizes you. Because you’re not performing as you should.

Of course, as illustrated above, there are always *ssholes, even when rating shipping and products, but this is particularly pronounced in books and readers, because well… it shouldn’t be that way.

How the book looks or is delivered, or if it matches the description, has nothing to do with whether an individual reader enjoys it. My husband and I share, among other things, a library, and our tastes run fairly close, but even there they’re not the same. He liked one particularly “witchy mystery” series which I forbid him from even mentioning scenes from. He thought the scenes were adorable, but they read to me as twee and talking down to the reader, and I could feel IQ points dropping off my ears every time he talked about it. So his review of those books would probably be 5 stars, and mine 1. Okay, mine would probably be 3 for “it’s okay but get this off my face, already.” If either of us had reviewed, which we don’t because we’re both authors, and Amazon has issues with authors reviewing books. (Don’t ask. It’s stupid, is what it is. But I also understand why. Sometimes the only way to stop mega-scams, usually not in-country is a stupid rule.)

So, while the “real” star rating as it should be for books, would indeed be a wondrous thing and save us a lot of trouble, that’s not what we have. And given how Amazon approaches business, your doing it your way isn’t going to convince them either.

What it’s going to do is hurt the writer (or crafter, or small seller.)

Because if my rating is something like 4 stars overall, Amazon will assume the books kind of stink on ice, and just disappoint everyone, and so will shuffle me to the end of the pack.

Also putting in a three star review because “there’s a typo on page seven” is what’s known as a “dick move” because frankly, everything has a typo somewhere, even trad pub that has a lot more readers and copyeditors. Yes, it’s a quality issue, but in the realm of books it’s like saying “It exists.” Or “this carafe is a terrible tool to dig in my flowerbeds with.”

Oh, yeah, also because trad pub buys reviews from services (no, seriously) and doesn’t get penalized, which indies do and can get kicked out for, you also get penalized for having less than a gazillion reviews.

I’m not telling you whether or how to review. That’s between you and your conscience. I’m just going to say this is one of those things that has consequences you probably don’t intend when holding your purist view.

And I’m going to say the star rating isn’t a private “In my mind” thing, but a means of communicating.

Like, in Portugal, grading went from 1 to 20 with 9.5 being passing. But in fact the grading didn’t exist above 14 because anything above was “superhumanly good” by common accord. This was fine in Portugal where university, grad schools and employers looking at an average of 14 realized it was an A, but when I transferred over as an exchange student, the school wanted to know why I’d failed almost all my classes, and did I need remedial?

This is exactly the same thing: in your mind and the minds of purists, and frankly in “how it should be” a book with a 3 star rating is pretty good and you want the next in the series.

But what Amazon sees in that rating is “What an utter pile of cr*p, please don’t show me books by this loser again. In fact, don’t show them to ANYONE.”

So, again, not telling you what to do. But if you like a book or a series, and would like to see more of that or by the author, I’m sorry, but you have to rate it 5. In fact, even if that book wasn’t your fave by the author, but it was okay, and you don’t want to hurt the author, rate it a 5.

I have so far — I can’t review, but I do rate on my kindle — rated a book two stars ONCE. I’ve had many books not to my taste, but that one was not only chock full of typos and grammatical errors, to the point it looked like it was written by a non-english-speaking AI, but it had glaring historical errors in the first four pages, which is as far as I got.

BUT note, that’s one book, in… good lord. Probably tens of thousands. I haven’t counted recently.

The rest? Well, if I don’t hate either the book or the author, I give five stars.

And while I can’t give reviews, because I’m an author, if I could I would. Because there are some amazing books being ignored for not having 100 or 200 or 500 reviews. Again, that is something the Amazon algorithm likes.

I often get told “but I don’t know what to write in a review.”

You really don’t need to write much. “I loved this book” is enough, though it won’t get you “most helpful” status. But it still counts.

If you have a little more time, and it’s not a spoiler you can say the part you liked best. Like “I loved this book. I particularly liked it when the Great Sky Dragon interrupted the wedding” Or whatever. Or “I particularly like that the people all wore purple at the same time without planning.” Anything like that is catnip to the author who likes knowing their little jokes or cute scenes were appreciated.

If you really are bucking for “most valuable” you usually give a little synopsis. So, for Draw One in the Dark and touting my own horn, mostly because I don’t want to offend anyone by doing theirs and doing it wrong (Blanket mice were hunted at six am, okay?):

“This is an urban fantasy but not quite in the ordinary way. To begin with it takes place in the diner, and to continue, it involves a group of young friends who are just discovering they are shape shifters, and what this means.

All this while a mysterious series of deaths has the town on edge, and the dragon triad is looking for a thief.

It’s exciting and interesting, but even the shape shifting doesn’t involve a magical element, which makes it unusual.”

Something like that will be helpful to other readers, and bump the book, because it’s a review. Oh, if you give it five stars, of course.

Unless, of course, you want indie authors to starve.

No pressure.

<Exits stage left, pursued by a reading bear.

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

ON SALE RIGHT NOW: (A new section for this time period, and after when a lot of people have a lot of things for sale)

(Oh, and if you have things on sale, why haven’t you sent them in to be promoted? Allergy to money? Chafing at the thought of lucre? Hives at the idea of wealth?)

YES THE FIRST TWO ARE ABOVE IN THE PERMA PINNED POST, BUT SOME PEOPLE ARE INSUFFERABLE IN THEIR SELF PROMOTION, WHAT CAN I SAY?

Also I wish to remind everyone that you can order now on sale, and have a bunch of books delivered to your loved one’s kindle on Christmas morning and look like a big spender!

FROM SARAH A. HOYT, 1.99 TILL THE 6TH – Darkship Renegades

When you save the world, you expect a hero’s welcome.

Maybe a ticker tape parade.

Instead, Athena Hera Sinistra and her husband Kit find themselves arrested,

threatened, accused of crimes they don’t even understand.

Tyranny has seized the free world of Eden.

With Kit wounded, his life in peril, they must go to Earth and risk all to save him.

And perhaps, perhaps, to save Eden once more.

If it can be saved.

Join Thena and Kit in their desperate quest to save the world. Again.

BY ELISE HYATT — WHICH IS REALLY SARAH A. HOYT — A French Polished Murder ON SALE FOR 99C TILL THE 6TH

Old murder casts long shadows

When Dyce Dare decides to refinish a piano as a gift for her boyfriend, Cas Wolfe, the last thing she expects is to stumble on an old letter that provides a clue to an older murder. She thinks her greatest problems in life are that her friend gave her son a toy motorcycle, and that her son has become unaccountably attached to a neurotic black cat named Pythagoras. She is not prepared for forgotten murder to reach out and threaten her and everything she loves, including her parents’ mystery bookstore.

A Dyce Dare Mystery.
Originally published by Prime Crime.

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

The Tale of the Crane Princess (Timelines Universe Book 6)

Ordinary, everyday shopkeeper Horiuchi Tsurue is running a little general store and mini-café on a small island in Japan’s inland sea, two centuries after mankind was nearly wiped out by a virus.

One day, Yamaguchi Yukiko, the kamaitachi of legend (The Cross-Time Kamaitachi), and her daughter Mikoko, appear in front of Tsurue’s shop, and she invites them in for tea.

That’s when Tsurue discovers she is anything but ordinary. And in the end, the island she is sworn to protect will depend upon it.

THE REST OF THE BOOKS!

FROM JASON HANSON: Double Track

A shocking, perfectly planned abduction. A race against time. When two cops butt heads, can they learn to work together before their case becomes murder?

Anna Harlowe dots every “i” and crosses every “t”. So when two men dressed as state troopers kidnap a beautiful crypto analyst, the smart and capable county deputy takes the assignment, determined to do everything by the book. But after a special investigator arrives to look into the dirty-cop angle, Harlowe fears her handsome but unwelcome partner will blame her if things go sideways.

James Riley isn’t a team player. Assigned to recover a kidnapping victim as quietly as possible, he’s ready to cut corners to nail the perps even if it means stepping on the toes of the attractive lead detective. And when the inquiry immediately goes sour with a hospitalized eyewitness and zero video footage, the free-wheeling lone wolf suspects an inside job.

Furious as one thing after another goes wrong, Harlowe believes the criminals are always a few steps ahead of them. And while Riley grudgingly begins to respect his associate’s steady hand, a breakthrough witness getting gobbled up by a dirty lawyer convinces him someone in their midst is sabotaging their every move.

Can they decrypt the clever ploy before they’re left with blood on their hands?

Double Track is a jaw-dropping standalone techno-thriller. If you like dogged protagonists, noir-style mysteries, and a splash of romance, then you’ll love Jason Hanson’s pulse-pounding rollercoaster ride.

Buy Double Track to plunge into danger and deception today!

FROM MONALISA FOSTER: Threading the Needle

A NEW START—OR AN OLD CALLING?

Talia Merritt, a former military sniper once known as Death’s Handmaiden, is a woman haunted by her past. Her cybernetic arm and her phantom—the implant that allows her to control it—serve as a constant reminder of what she’s lost. But Talia is hoping to leave her past and her reputation behind and start anew on the colony world of Goruden, a hardscrabble planet of frontier-minded people seeking a better life. And she’s finally earned enough to start to make that dream come true.

In the bucolic town of Tsuri, she interviews for a job as a marksmanship instructor for local bigwig Signore Ferran Contesti. But Contesi is not what he seems. A recent arrival on Goruden, he hopes to mold the colony world in his own image—an image at odds with the unencumbered life free of government and corporate meddling that Talia has come to find.

Soon, Talia finds herself thrust into the start of another conflict. Talia desperately wants to stay out of it, but she may not have that luxury.

With the fate of a planet and her own peace of mind hanging in the balance, Talia must decide whether or not to once again take up the mantle of Death’s Handmaiden. . . .

At the publisher’s request, this title is sold without DRM (Digital Rights Management).

FROM JAMES YOUNG: Wonder No More: An Alternate Leyte Gulf

October 1944. After almost three years of titanic struggle, the United States Navy has forced their Japanese opponents into one final titanic struggle: The Battle of Leyte Gulf.

Aboard the battleship Yamato, Vice Admiral Matome Ugaki is the sole survivor of an American airstrike. With the Center Force Ugaki now commands having suffered grievous losses, the sky full of American warplanes, and an uncertain situation in front of him, no rational person criticize a retreat. Bushido, however, is not rational, nor does Japan have the luxury of seeking battle another day. The Center Force must reach the American beachhead…or die trying.

Vice Admiral Willis Lee does not understand Bushido, but he can read a map. Despite aviators’ claims to have sent the Japanese fleet fleeing, Lee is considering insubordination when an engineering casualty forces his hand. Regardless of what dawn will bring for the carriers of Third Fleet, Lee will take Task Force 34 south to guard the exit of San Bernadino Strait.

Meanwhile, the U.S.S. Johnston rides herd on a small group of aircraft carriers designated “Taffy 3” off the coast of Samar. To her captain’s disappointment, the tides of war have prevented her from participating in the unfolding battle in Surigao Strait. For Ensign Jack Murphy, things couldn’t be better. He’s happily counting down the days until the United States Navy strangles the Empire of Japan by fishing aviators out of the ocean and hunting for nonexistent submarines. Pure Fate has brought him to the Johnston, and he is ready for the fickle goddess to carry him just as safely off the destroyer’s deck when she next docks.

Unbeknownst to all three men, when dawn breaks on the 25th of October the lives of thousands will turn on their decisions. Titans will clash, with the fate of the Philippines hanging in the balance!

FROM HOLLY CHISM: Holidays and Holy Days (Modern Gods)

Hera was hard at work in her counseling office when her clients started cancelling for Thanksgiving travel. She…hadn’t realized that a) that was coming up, or b) what it actually about…until she did a little research and decided to celebrate. In the process, she learns about Christmas coming, and decides that it’s high time somebody threw Christ a birthday party.

Of course, nothing goes as planned, but when does it ever?

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 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?

BY FREDERIC BROWN, REVIVED BY D. JASON FLEMING: The Screaming Mimi (Annotated): The classic pulp serial killer mystery

A drunken Irishman named Sweeney — well, to be fair, he was only five-eighths Irish, and only three-quarters drunk — made a resolution. Sticking to it took him through murder, and blood, and tracking down a sculptor on the far side of nowhere, and delivered him right up to the doorstep of a serial killer!

  • This iktaPOP Media edition has a new introduction giving the book genre and historical context.

FROM CLEVE F. ADAMS, REVIVED BY D. JASON FLEMING: Too Fair To Die (Annotated): The classic hard-boiled pulp noir

Cherchez la femme, they told McBride. Find the woman. He hit the trail in the suburbs of L.A., and wound up in the heart of Montana; in the heart of a bitter, bullet-baited gubernatorial election; in the heart of the one woman he would have given his life to put behind bars.

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

FROM LINDSEY PETERSEN: The Wizards’ Duel: Magic, Technology and Justice (The Reluctant Chrononaut Adventures Book 3

Reluctant time-traveler Kate Thomason races against a self-proclaimed King of the Elves and his plots destroy Tesla’s energy-beaming towers and retrieve a powerful ancient book of magic. He would ruin the global economy, cause geological catastrophe and gain occult powers.. In her journey she partners with Mata Hari, Aleister Crowley, Arsène Lupin, and others to avenge her murdered husband and save humanity.

As Kate Cameron sat on an Ulster balcony the Tesla earth-energy broadcast tower across the strait collapsed, taking her husband Dougray down to certain death in the rocks and waters below. Kate sensed that the peculiar gentleman at the next table was somehow responsible – and she vowed to do whatever she must to avenge Dougray’s death. Since H. G. Wells abducted her from her life of ease two hundred years in the future Kate had chased the Loch Ness Monster on the Nautilus, thwarted a plot to kidnap Queen Victoria, and found love and a life with an annoying Scot in kilts. And now he was gone, and with his death all her future dreams collapse to one single point – ending the life of the man who called himself Errol Koenig. Kate trails her prey to the continent on the hypersteam train, pausing briefly in London for the devices and gear needed to hunt a killer. Along the way she meets allies in Mata Hari, Winston Churchill, Nicola Tesla, Arsène Lupin, and others, as she follows Koenig’s trail of destroyed Tesla towers to Paris, where she boards the Orient Express to close with her prey as he flees eastward. The nearer Kate gets to the man the more she feels herself falling victim to his charisma. Is this man truly the King of the Elves he proclaims himself to be? How else to account for the bewildering allure of the man she intends to kill? But wait, there’s more! Lupin claims Koenig is also a criminal mastermind, with a vast network of criminals and secret information available to mislead and mystify. Tesla worries that as his earth-power-transmitting towers are brought down, the disruption of earth’s energies will cause cataclysmic destruction. Is that part of Koenig’s plan too? To destroy modern civilization? Her simple plan to pursue and kill her husband’s murderer thrusts her into a strange world of automatons and magic as she gathers friends to save the world from a maniac, culminating atop an ancient tower in a thunderstorm. The second book in The Reluctant Chrononaut series.

FROM A. PALMER: Hope is the Second Door on the Left

Hope is the Second Door on the Left is a collection of poems centered around facing difficulties of life, directing the reader toward goodness and hope, and then attempting to describe life after hope is chosen.

We all must face such a choice in our own lives, eventually.

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.

FROM LEIGH KIMMEL: Red Star, Yellow Sign

Whom the gods would destroy, they first drive mad.

It’s 1934, and the assassination of Sergei Kirov, Leningrad’s Communist Party chief, has rocked the Soviet Union. When an up and coming young Party official is assigned to investigate, it looks like an open and shut case.

The further Nikolai Yezhov looks into the case, the stranger things become. Mysterious entities lie beneath the swamps upon which Leningrad was founded. Because he has stumbled upon these secrets older than humanity itself, Yezhov must be eliminated. But first he must be led to commit acts that will ensure that history will forever remember him as a vicious criminal.

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: YELL

The promo post! Good for What Hails You!

Posted on by Sarah A. Hoyt

Happy Saturday, Huns & Hoydens! We’ve a good load of books again this week, including an entry from the elder scion of the House of Hoyt! Go, read, review, enjoy; that is all. Well, except to note that future entries can (and should!) be sent to my email. Happy reading!

Jason Dyck, AKA The Free Range Oyster

Horde Herder, Mercenary Wordsmith, and Keeper of Useless Secrets

Robert A. Hoyt

Cat’s Paw

King of Cats Book 1

Many humans know there is a mountain at the end of the universe to which a bird flies every thousand years to sharpen its beak, until the end of the mountain comes, and thus the end of eternity. What few of them know is that of the mountain only a few small grains of sand remain. And the bird that is to end eternity is alive and ready to fly. At half past noon at the end of the universe, the last great hopes of everything that exists, ever existed or has yet to exist, rests with a stray cat with alcohol issues, a Siamese cat with gender issues, and a Persian cat with pregnancy issues. Things are just about to get fun.

Alma Boykin

Cities and Throngs and Powers

Honor or freedom or yes?

The Salazar family lost everything in the Collapse of 2015 except their pride. Two years later, Mr. Salazar pays a debt with his youngest daughter, Alicia. She must work at Illif House, the mysterious mansion on the plains near the Flatirons. Alicia discovers more than she could have guessed, including a chance at independence. When blood ties threaten to drag her back into the world she’d hoped to leave forever, Alicia must choose between her family’s honor and her heart’s desire.

Laura Montgomery

The Sky Suspended

A generation has passed since asteroid scares led the United States to launch its first and only interstellar starship. The ship returns and announces the discovery of another Earth. People are star-struck, crowds form in Washington, DC, and a boy from Alaska and two lawyers grapple with questions surrounding whether ordinary people will emigrate to the stars. Calvin Tondini is one of those lawyers, and he works his way to the heart of that question.

This is human wave science fiction.

Michael Kingswood

Glimmer Vale

Glimmer Vale Chronicles Book 1

Free this weekend!

Lydelton, a small fishing town in a remote valley called Glimmer Vale, is the perfect place for two fighting men on the run to stop and decide on a plan. But when Julian and Raedrick arrive they find the town besieged by a ruthless band of brigands. Worse, the brigands have taken up station in the mountain passes, blocking the two friends’ escape. With no way around the brigands and no option of returning the way they came, Julian and Raedrick accept an offer of employment. Their mission: defeat the brigands and restore peace to Glimmer Vale.

They are outnumbered at least twenty to one, long odds even if they recruit help. But that help may not be enough when the specter of their past rears its head, forcing Julian and Raedrick to openly face what they are fleeing or risk losing not just their freedom but the lives and fortunes of Lydelton’s inhabitants.

Glimmer Vale is a short, fun fantasy adventure novel, the first installment in the Glimmer Vale Chronicles.

Also available from these fine booksellers:

Tollard’s Peak

Glimmer Vale Chronicles Book 3

Winter in Glimmer Vale – a time to remain close to shelter or, preferably, indoors. Most definitely not a time to brave the mountain peaks surrounding the valley. Raedrick and Julian certainly have no intention of doing so until a man from their past, nearly dead from exposure, appears at the outskirts of Lydelton. Once recovered, he tells them of his friend who lies injured on the flank of Tollard’s Peak, the tallest mountain in the region. Unable to ignore the stranded fellow’s need, the two Constables form a party to rescue him.

But there is more to the story than it first appeared, and very soon Raedrick and Julian find themselves struggling against far more than the elements as they brave the perilous peak. It will take all of their strength and resolve to survive their quest and get to the bottom of the mystery that drew these men into the bleak cold of the mountainside. And they are not the only ones who are searching.

Also available from these fine booksellers:

C.J. Carella

Bad Vibes

Occult consultant Dante Godoy arrives to the small town of Redemption, Nevada, just in time to help Sheriff Matilda Knobb deal with two impossible murders. Together they will confront unspeakable evils in the night.

“Bad Vibes” is a 7,900-word short story introducing a horror setting that will be explored in future novels by C.J. Carella

Steven G. Johnson

Keep of Glass

Girls can’t be knights. Not in the real world. But lately, with all the strange things happening, the real world’s gotten a lot less predictable. So why can’t Galehodin fight for the King like her brother? Well, besides the strangers trying to kill her, there’s always the angry immortal who wants her soul… literally.

Michael A. Hooten

The Curses of Arianrhod

A Bard Without a Star Book 4

There is no magic strong enough to break a mother’s curse.

On the day Gwydion ap Don discovered he had a son, the boy’s mother Arianrhod cursed him to never have a name unless she gave him one herself. Now he wanders Bangreen, exiled from his home, and trying everything he can think of to break the curse.

Left with no other option, he takes the boy to Caer Sidi, where Arianrhod lives in her own exile. But even when confronted, she refuses to name the boy, or even acknowledge him. She wants to punish Gwydion for the rest of his life, despite the fact that he still loves her.

Gwydion almost loses hope, but a tiny sparrow leads him to the wise Ousel of Penwyth, who tells him not to break the curse, but fulfill it. So Gwydion and his son return to Caer Sidi, disguised as shoemakers, to trick Arianrhod into giving the boy a name. She calls him “the fair one with the sure hand”—Llews Llaw Gyffes—and the curse ends. But in her fury at being tricked she curses him again, this time that he will never bear arms until she gives them to him herself. Gwydion swears that he will trick her again, but can he come up with a plan that both fulfills the new curse and keeps his son safe from his mother’s wrath at the same time?

Euclid talks about books and tail and stuff

Posted on by Sarah A. Hoyt

(A guest post by Euclid Hoyt, the patriarch of the Hoyts’ tame pride and known in the family as Neurotalon.)

Hi to everyone out there. My human, Sarah, says that there are many many people you can reach through this computer thing. I don’t know what she means, because I’ve walked up behind this computer thing — and coughed a hairball or two on top of it, and let me tell you, it’s not touching anyone. But then humans are weird that way. I mean, it’s like the whole thing with water. what sane species keeps water in their lair, ready to dump on them at a moment’s notice. They could just lick themselves clean like normal people, or have their friends lick them, at least. I mean, it’s fun and no sudden water on head.

But Sarah-human is looking over my shoulder, and anyway, I didn’t mean to make this a post about humans. You know, I’m not complaining. Oh, well, okay, I’m complaining, but it’s not that bad. They give us food twice and a day and everything, even if Havey eats most of it. Of course, I can’t figure what they put into those cans. I’ve never seen animals that shape running around. Perhaps they just press squirrels really well? Sometimes I have nightmares where those wheel shaped things are spying on me with beady little eyes. They have purple fur, and they hate me, becaus ethey know I’m going to eat them some day. But then my tail… Uh… no, Sarah, I don’t need to see the vet for more valium. Whatever gave you that idea?

Sarahhuman says if I’m going to blog — like it was my idea! — I might as well promote her stuff, so look, Sarahhuman has books out this month. And last month and things. Only she doesn’t write as Sarahhuman — apparently there’s a lot of them, though I’ve never met another one — but as Sarah Hoyt, where she has this great book called Gentleman Takes A Chance. It’s all about this cat called Not Dinner and how brave he is and the adventures he has, though there’s some boring parts about a guy who changes into a dragon and a girl who changes into a panther some ancient canine trying to kill them or something and this whole courtship thing humans do, but they don’t yowl or anything, so it’s boring. Then there’s one called Dipped, Stripped And Dead about this cat named Fluffy, though Sarahhuman says it’s really about some girl who refinishes furniture and dates this hot policeman and solves mysteries. Whatever. It’s written under Elise Hyatt, because Sarahhuman was asked to have another name, like when you go to the humane society and they give you a name. Let me tell you about that.

They called me Tootsie. TOOTSIE! As if it weren’t obvious that my name was Euclid. And they were going to put me down till Sarahhuman and Danhuman and their two cubs came and rescued me at the last minute. My tail was so scared that it’s never been the same since. I can’t sleep without its sneaking up on me and trying to strangle me, and then Sarahhuman makes me swallow valium, which only makes the tail take advantage of my confused state and it just isn’t fair.

But Sarahhuman is coming again, and if she reads this she’ll say I need to see the vet, so let’s keep that between us. Buy her books, because then she buys us kibble and toys and stuff, and is too busy to think I need valium.

Till next time.

Euclid Hoyt

Footprints in our minds

Posted on by Sarah A. Hoyt

(crossposted from mad genius club — http://madgeniusclub.blogspot.com/)

I suppose everyone has seen the hallmark-like poem that goes "Some people come into our lives and quickly leave, but others stay for a while, leave footprints in our hearts and afterwards we are never, ever the same."

For a while now, I’ve been thinking about writers and the special relationship between a writer and a reader. Those of you who know me have heard my occasional rant about the big conglomerates controlling publishing houses today and mandating publishing by the numbers. If anyone truly hankers to hear me get on my soap box, please feel free to ask. This isn’t it. This is more about how much – as a reader – I miss the way writers and readers used to have a relationship.

Continue reading “Footprints in our minds” →