Book Blast: The Descendant Prophecies by Mary Ting

Today we're featuring FROM TITANS, Book Four in the Descendant Prophecies by Mary Ting. Take a look at the fourth book in this mythological series, read an excerpt, and watch the trailer. Be sure to enter the giveaway at the end of the post!

From Titans (Book #4) by Mary Ting
Everyone is searching for Mason.

Zeus sent Hermes, and the Oracles have used their magic, with no success. A sparkle of hope arises when Eris, the goddess of Chaos, sends an invitation to her wedding engagement party. She’s holding Mason hostage, and Skylar and her friends only need permission to enter Eris’s world to rescue him.

At the party, Eris gives them one condition: In exchange for Mason, they must travel to the Land of Reverse and bring back the bottle of gold water King Midas used to wash himself free of his gift. Further chaos follows when Eris not only sets up a hunt in the Labyrinth of Crete, but makes a bargain with the Titans she rescued.

The Titans possess power more than anyone anticipated, and Cronus is hungry for revenge after his own children locked him up in Tartarus. No one is safe. Not even the humans.



Praise for the Series
"From Gods takes mythology to a whole new level of imagination with its incredible plot and amazing characters. It's full of hotness that you never want to end!" Michele, Insane About Books

"From Gods by the AMAZING AUTHOR Mary Ting is OMGods good!! If you even LIKE Greek Mythology, set aside some time because you will DEVOUR Mary Ting's Demi Gods and Vultures!!!" Mindy, Books Complete Me

Grab a FREE copy of From Gods this weekend ONLY!

From Gods (Book #1) by Mary Ting

Did you just see a flash of lightning across the sky on a clear sunny day?

Don’t blame Mother Nature.

Skylar Rome can’t wait to spend her last summer before college with her cousin, Kayla. Everything changes when they meet the Grand brothers. Skylar is sure she should stay away from Mason Grand, but their attraction is undeniable. Then Skylar’s life erupts into turmoil. She steps into a world where descendants of ancient gods have super powers, evil beings chase her, and questions arise about her own identity. She is running out of time and running for her life, while trying to unravel the mystery of what they want from her.

Forced into a battle set into motion long before she was born, will Skylar find the answers she seeks, or will she die trying?



Excerpt

“Mason, MASON, MASON!” Skylar panicked.

“I know. Skylar, hold on tight. I’m going to brake.”

“But there are cars behind us.”

“We have no choice. Don’t worry. I got this.” Mason pushed down on the brake forcefully. The car hydroplaned to the right. “Hold on.”

Skylar gripped the first thing her hand found. The water from the road jetted up into the air like in a water show, but the car kept gliding sideways, until finally it spun in a full circle and stopped. With no time to waste, Mason turned it to the right and accelerated, hoping to dodge what was coming toward them.

Out of nowhere, a long piece of ice, taking the form of a spear, darted through the trucks’ tires and punctured some of them. More ice spears came soaring out of the rain, but this time ten or more sphere-like ice balls followed, denting the sides of the trucks. One went through a windshield. With flat tires, the trucks now glided as if skating on ice, maneuvering from side to side.

“Did you do that?” Skylar asked excitedly.

“No. Must be Poseidon’s kids. Where the hell are they?” Mason spread his right arm out in front of Skylar as if to protect her. “Bend down, Sky.”

One of the trucks hit another and veered off, hitting yet another one. The crash caused the trucks to flip and tumble, heading straight for Mason’s car. With a look of shock, Skylar held her breath. There was no time to move, think, or get out of the car, so she closed her eyes and prepared for the crash.

Seconds before impact, Mason’s car flew up into the air and over the trucks. Somehow, as if by magic, the water created a liquid bridge, guiding the car safely over, and then it thumped hard onto the ground on the other side. Without looking back, Mason sped away as the sound of screeching brakes and metal hitting metal blasted behind them.



Author Mary Ting

International Bestselling, Award-Winning, Author Mary Ting/M. Clarke resides in Southern California with her husband and two children. She enjoys oil painting and making jewelry. Writing her first novel, Crossroads Saga, happened by chance. It was a way to grieve the death of her beloved grandmother, and inspired by a dream she once had as a young girl. When she started reading new adult novels, she fell in love with the genre. It was the reason she had to write one-Something Great. Why the pen name, M Clarke? She tours with Magic Johnson Foundation to promote literacy and her children's chapter book-No Bullies Allowed.







Blast Giveaway

$50 Amazon Gift Card or Paypal Cash

Ends 6/13/16

Open only to those who can legally enter, receive and use an Amazon.com Gift Code or Paypal Cash. Winning Entry will be verified prior to prize being awarded. No purchase necessary. You must be 18 or older to enter or have your parent enter for you. The winner will be chosen by rafflecopter and announced here as well as emailed and will have 48 hours to respond or a new winner will be chosen. This giveaway is in no way associated with Facebook, Twitter, Rafflecopter or any other entity unless otherwise specified. The number of eligible entries received determines the odds of winning. Giveaway was organized by Kathy from I Am A Reader and sponsored by the author. VOID WHERE PROHIBITED BY LAW.

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Book Blitz: BROKEN FATE by Jennifer Derrick

Broken Fate
Jennifer Derrick
Published by: Clean Teen Publishing
Publication date: April 18th 2016
Genres: Mythology, Romance, Young Adult

Zeus gave her one simple job: Kill every human. Atropos—daughter of Zeus and the third goddess of Fate from Greek mythology —spends her eternal life snipping human lifelines when their mortal lives are over. As if being a killer doesn’t make life miserable enough, she and her Fate-wielding sisters must live amongst the humans on Earth thanks to a long-running feud between their mother and Zeus. Living on Earth means they must mingle with the mortals, attend the local high school, and attempt to fit in—or at least not stand out too much.
Killing and mingling don’t mix, which is why Atropos’ number-one rule is to avoid all relationships with the humans. Caring for the people she has to kill is a fast track to insanity. However, when Alex Morgan walks into her first-period English class, she knows she’s in for trouble. He’s the worst kind of human for her to like—one with a rapidly approaching expiration date. And he makes Atropos want to break all the rules.

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EXCERPT:

I turn off my desk lamp and computer, starting to get up, but then sit back down. My curiosity about Alex has been building all day. I’ve tried to tamp it down, to forget him, but I can’t. Even Chloe’s chatter couldn’t take him out of my thoughts. I boot the computer back up and give in to temptation.

I search for Alex’s record in our database. What I’m doing isn’t forbidden, but I rarely bother to check on the humans once I assign their manner of death. I forget them until I see them again on their date of death. However, tonight, I want to see what kind of fate Lacey devised for him and refresh my memory about how and when he’ll die.
I find his file but just as I’m about to double click and open it, I pull back. Do I really want to know what Lacey has planned for him? He’s already faced grief and loss. What if his fate gets worse than that? Do I want that knowledge?
I think for a few moments and decide it doesn’t really matter either way. He and I aren’t going to become friends. I enjoyed our afternoon together, but that has to be the end of it. If his fate is bad, I can live with it. He is, after all, just another human. Easy come, easy go.
I double click on the file. His entire past and future lies before me. I scroll down to the end of the document, looking for the relevant part, the date of death. I don’t have to scroll far.
May fifteenth of this year.
I read the page again. The date doesn’t change. May fifteenth is a little less than two months from now. I quickly scroll back up, looking for the details on how he will die. I’m furious when I find them.

GUEST POST

Funerals, Book Ideas, and Other Odd Behavior

Whenever people ask me where I get my ideas, I say, “Anywhere and everywhere.” Almost anything can be the seed of an idea for a story. Yet for all that I mine for ideas in every aspect of my life, even I never expected to get an idea at a funeral. But that’s exactly where Broken Fate first appeared in my head.

It was the funeral of a relative who died way too young. Like any sane person, I hate funerals, even more so because I tend to be a snotty crier. Once the tears start, it gets embarrassing. I do everything I can to keep myself together until I can cry in private. So there I was, trying to distract myself from thoughts of death, when I found myself thinking of, well, death. Specifically, what kind of nonsensical, cold, cruel system would claim someone so young?

I remembered the unit on Greek mythology from my freshman English class. That was where I first heard the myth of the three Fates: The first spins human lifelines, the second assigns them their destinies, and the third kills the humans by cutting the lifelines.

[IMAGE 4]

My brain locked on the third Fate. How bad would that job stink, I thought. All you do is kill people, day after day. And you’re immortal, so it never ends. You’re just a cog in the business of life and death. After a while, you wouldn’t even care any more. Your days would just be snip, snip, snip. It’d be like working on a never-ending assembly line.

Beyond the fatigue, you couldn’t possibly have any relationships with humans because loving people you have to kill is insane. “Hey, let me love you so I can kill you and then be sad.” Um, no. But what would happen if one day you did fall in love with a human, and that human had a very short shelf life?

There it was: The idea for Broken Fate. I spent the rest of the service working it out in my head, thus averting the snotty crying crisis.

I wanted to write it down, but that’s not cool in the middle of a funeral. After the service, I reached for my phone, but since we’d carpooled to the service it was still in the car back at the house. I dug around in my purse for a pen but I didn’t have one.

I kept chanting, “Fate, Fate, Fate,” in my head until I caught up to my cousin at the reception.

“I need to use your phone to send myself an email.” I said.

She looked at me strangely, but fortunately my family is great at overlooking weird behavior. She handed over her phone and I sent myself the following:

“Fate, business, crappy job, how could you love someone if you had to kill everyone, person with rapidly approaching expiration date.”

So a novel about death was born at a funeral. Since I can’t separate the funeral from the book, Broken Fate has become a weird, bittersweet, and humorous last memory of my relative. That’s strangely comforting.

AUTHOR BIO

Jennifer is a freelance writer and novelist. As a freelancer, she writes everything from technical manuals to articles on personal finance and European-style board games. Her interest in storytelling began when she was six and her parents gave her a typewriter for Christmas and agreed to pay her $.01 per page for any stories she churned out. Such a loose payment system naturally led to a lot of story padding. Broken Fate, her first novel, earned her $2.80 from her parents.
Jennifer lives in North Carolina and, when not writing, can often be found reading, trawling the shelves at the library, playing board games, watching sports, camping, running marathons, and playing with her dog. You can visit her at her official website:www.JenniferDerrick.com.

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Happy Book Birthday: PROMISE OF SHADOWS, by Justina Ireland

We are happy to feature YA paranormal/supernatural novel PROMISE OF SHADOWS, by Justina Ireland, which releases today.

PROMISE OF SHADOWS
by Justina Ireland
Publisher: Simon &Schuster Books for Young Readers
Amazon, B&N, Goodreads
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Zephyr Mourning has never been very good at being a Harpy. She'd rather watch reality TV than learn forty-seven ways to kill a man, and she pretty much sucks at wielding magic. Zephyr was ready for a future pretending to be a normal human instead of a half-god assassin. But all that changes when her sister is murdered--and she uses a forbidden dark power to save herself from the same fate.

Zephyr is on the run from a punishment worse than death when an unexpected reunion with a childhood friend (a surprisingly HOT friend) changes everything. Because it seems like Zephyr might just be the Nyx, a dark goddess made flesh that is prophesied to change the power balance. For hundreds of years the half-gods have lived in fear, and Zephyr is supposed to change that.

But how is she supposed to save everyone when she can’t even save herself?

Happy Book Birthday!!!

Book Blitz: A Date of Godlike Proportions by Tellulah Darling

We Do Write is please to take part in the Book Blitz for author Tellulah Darling's A DATE OF GODLIKE PROPORTIONS. Take a look at what it's all about.

A Date of Godlike Proportions by Tellulah Darling
(The Blooming Goddess Trilogy #2.5)
Publication date: December 20th 2013
Genres: Comedy, Mythology, Young Adult

Synopsis:

There’s bound to be pressure when it takes 2500 years to get to a second date. Which is exactly why Theo Rockman, a.k.a. Prometheus, would rather not go. With his best friend gravely injured and the fate of humanity still on the line, Theo has all sorts of creative excuses to avoid dating swoon-worthy god and love of his life, Hephaestus.

YA romantic comedy gets an epic mythological twist in the free (at select retailers) short story A Date of Godlike Proportions (The Blooming Goddess Trilogy Book 2.5). Being human hasn’t killed Theo, but this date just might.

Goodreads | Amazon | iTunes | Free at Kobo 

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AUTHOR BIO
Tellulah Darling
noun
1. YA Novelist
2. Alter ego of former screenwriter and instructor
3. Sassy minx

Geeks out over: cool tech.
Squees for: great storytelling.
Delights in: fabulous conversation.
Writes about: where love meets comedy. Awkwardness ensues.

Author Links:
Website: http://welcome.tellulahdarling.com/
Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6429243.Tellulah_Darling
Twitter: https://twitter.com/tellulahdarling
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TellulahDarling

Interview with PJ Hoover

Today I have the pleasure of interviewing the awesome PJ Hoover, author of SOLSTICE. PJ is awesome, folks, and here's a great opportunity to learn more about her and her young adult novel.

Welcome to We Do Write! It's a pleasure having you on the blog.

Thank you so much for having me here! It is my pleasure!

Tell us a bit about yourself. How long have you been writing?

I started writing in December of 2004, so it’s been almost nine years now. Which is just crazy and hard to believe! Time is going by so quickly.

It really does! Tell us about SOLSTICE. What’s the story about?

Solstice is a young adult novel aimed at fans of The Hunger Games and The Lightning Thief. It’s a story set in Austin, Texas in the future when global warming is destroying the earth. Temperatures above 110 are the norm, and food and water are in severe shortage. Amid this dystopic world, a girl named Piper receives a mysterious present on her eighteenth birthday. When she opens it, a world of mythology explodes around her. Her best friend almost dies, Piper has to travel to the Underworld to save her, and yes, there are Greek gods.

Sounds so awesome!  How did the idea of the story come to you?

Well, it came first and foremost from my love of mythology. So many people were writing fairy tale retellings, but as much as I love fairy tales, I didn’t want to jump into that playground. I wanted to hang out in a playground much closer to home. I started thinking about myths. But instead of a retelling, I wanted to write about what came after the myth, and that’s where the idea for Solstice came from.

I love mythology! Do you have a critique group/partner or beta readers, or do you self-edit?

I have two solid critique partners that I send my stories to. Also, my agents are very editorial and give me lots of great feedback. I am definitely someone who benefits from having that extra set of eyes.

Are you a plotter or a pantser?

When I start a story, I always have some sort of plot. It’s even kind of official, like I write it down and spend time on it and everything. But once I start writing, I love when the actual first draft diverges from the story. That’s when I feel like the magic really starts to happen and the story takes on a life of its own.

What’s the hardest part of writing for you?

I’d have to say the hardest part is slogging through those parts of the story when the writing starts to get hard. That’s the time when I wish the magic elves would come out and write the story for me. When I push myself and get through it, I’m always happy that I’ve done it and happy that it’s written.

And that's great advice for writers: push though! What do you absolutely have to have nearby when writing?

A computer. There is no way I’m a “write by hand” kind of person.

If you could have any super power, what would it be?

The ability to clone myself. I could really bring to life the term multi-tasking!

Right? What's the weirdest thing you've googled?

It’s funny because I google borderline crazy things all the time, but I actually try to keep them in the realm of normal so they don’t trigger strange Internet flags and start making weird pop-up ads show up everywhere. So I’m careful.

Don't worry. All writers are guilty of this. Quick writing test! Use the following words in a sentence: sunburned, freezing, and peculiar.

You know that peculiar feeling you get when your skin is so sunburned that it’s actually freezing?

Finish this sentence: If I'm not writing, I'm probably . . . 

 . . . playing Wizard101.

Here’s the part where you thank the people who are supporting you. Let's hear your shout outs.

There are like a million! Like writers and bloggers and booksellers and librarians and agents and editors and family . . .  Seriously, the list goes on and on. But I summed it up nicely in the acknowledgments section of Solstice.

And finally, where can people find you and your books online?

Website: http://www.pjhoover.com

Blog: http://pjhoover.blogspot.com

Facebook Author Page: http://www.facebook.com/AuthorPJHoover

Facebook Personal Page: https://www.facebook.com/pj.hoover1

Twitter: http://twitter.com/pj_hoover

Intagram: http://instagram.com/pj_hoover

Tumblr: http://pjhoover.tumblr.com

Email: http://www.pjhoover.com/contact.php

Thanks so much for taking the time to chat with us, PJ! It's been a pleasure having you on the blog!

Thank you so much for having me here! I hope you have a wonderful fall with some amazing books to read!

Bio:

P. J. Hoover first fell in love with Greek mythology in sixth grade thanks to the book Mythology by Edith Hamilton. After a fifteen year bout as an electrical engineer designing computer chips for a living, P. J. decided to take her own stab at mythology and started writing books for kids and teens. When not writing, P. J. spends time with her husband and two kids and enjoys practicing kung fu, solving Rubik's cubes, and watching Star Trek. Her first novel for teens, Solstice (Tor Teen, June 18, 2013), takes place in a global warming future and explores the parallel world of mythology beside our own. Her middle grade novel, Tut (Tor Children's, 2014), tells the story of a young immortal King Tut, who's been stuck in middle school for over 3,000 years and must defeat an ancient enemy with the help of a dorky kid from school, a mysterious Egyptian princess, and a one-eyed cat. For more information about P. J. (Tricia) Hoover, please visit her website www.pjhoover.com.

Interview with Jay Eckert

I suspect everyone is over at WriteOnCon. I certainly am, and I didn't think I would be this nervous about an online conference, but that's exactly how I feel. All those eyes! Not just the professionals, but fellow aspiring writers as well. I'm all a-jitter!

Speaking of aspiring writers, I've got a great one to chat with today. I saw a small sample of his work on a Secret Agent contest and immediately liked his work. Today's spotlight falls on Jay Eckert.

Welcome, Jay. It's great to have you here. Tell us, how long have you been writing?

I have to answer this as if I've had two lives, which from a writing perspective I have. While in college, I took a lot of theater courses and spent quite a bit of time writing a couple of plays which are, in retrospect, incredibly awful despite the good grades. Then I graduated, started working, got married, had kids. Life happened, but over the years I toyed with the idea of writing again. It was about seven years ago I began to write in earnest again.

What is the name and genre of the manuscript you're currently pitching?

"Urban Mythos". Young Adult Urban Fantasy.

What’s your story about?

Zydeco Cashcan is a former Griffin adjusting to life as a human teenager. After a run-in with the deputy mayor’s security minions, he discovers a plot to capture fellow ex-mythological creatures and expel them to a barren world filled with ravenous hellions. Before long, the former mythic beings Zydeco cares for start disappearing at the hands of the politician’s henchmen.


The deputy mayor demands that Zydeco turn in the leader of their local support group for recovering mythological creatures, or those he loves the most will be exiled as Chimera-Chow. Zydeco despises threats, so he decides to mount a rescue attempt to save his friends rather than betray the support group leader, whose help will be critical to the mission’s success. There’s just one problem—Zydeco hasn’t the slightest clue where the guy is hiding.

What a cool concept! How did the idea of the story come to you?

I decided on the genre first - I write YA, and I wanted to try my hand at an urban fantasy. I went into my "what if" mode and eventually came up with the question, "What if mythological creatures were living in a city among the human folk?" Of course there are about a billion urban fantasies where mythological creatures live in a city among human folk. I set my imagination back to coming up with something a bit unique.

So then I thought, what if these these creatures had become human after being exiled from mythical world. And what if they retained some of their mythological capabilities? For example, Zydeco is a Griffin -- half lion, half eagle. He remains incredibly strong and fearless, and when he sets his mind to it, can retain the elevated senses of those creatures. Finally, it occurred to me that if you had a bunch of former mythological creatures running around a city, they might not be happy and have trouble adjusting to human life. Hence, the support group for recovering mythological creatures.

Sounds great. I'd love to read it. What else are you working on?

I'm mostly focused on submitting Urban Mythos around, but I've toying with the idea of turning it into a series of sorts. I've got a series of notes in case I decide to go for it. On the flip side, I'm in "what if" mode for my next book, which will likely be dystopian, but might be post-apocalyptic. Some of the ideas are a bit deranged, anywhere from zombie mermaids to something conceptually similar to Soylent Green.

LOL, zombie mermaids. Kind of reminds me of the merfolk in the lagoon at Hogwarts. So, do you have a critique group/partner or beta readers, or do you self-edit?

Yes and yes! I subscribe to writing.com and belong to the YA forum there. There are a great bunch of people who write a number of YA genres and we critique chapters as we write -- good, long detailed critiques on everything from plot, voice, character, setting to fairly detailed line-by-line notes. We've got people from all around the world. I consider them my friends, and I don't know what I'd do without them.


But, yes, I do self-edit as well. I've got a whole revision process I documented on my blog.

What’s the hardest part of writing for you?

You mean apart from allocating time? I guess it's writing scenes in which there is very little dialog. I'm a verbal kind of guy. My fingers get twisted up on the keyboard and I over think scenes where nobody talks. It takes me far longer to get those scenes written.

Let’s get to know you on a deeper level. What do you absolutely have to have nearby when writing?

1. Coffee, preferably a Starbucks Cafe Americano along with a few cookies.
2. Music to suit the mood of the day. The selection is wide ranging and ever changing.
3. My sasquatch notebook with all my notes.

Quick writing test! Use the following words in a sentence: baby blanket, missile, and jury duty.

Bobo preferred jury duty to his day job as a circus clown, where he spent countless hours cleaning up after the baby elephants who blanketed the arena floor with baby missiles.

Heehee, very funny. And um, gross.

Here’s the part where you thank the people who are supporting you. Let's hear your shout outs.

Oh, oh, oh. The family first. I'd like to thank Rona, Scott, and Rachel for putting up with me effectively disappearing into my imagination after dinner most nights to write. Big shout-out to my buds from writing.com and to all the other wonderful writers, editors and agents - my tweeple, my blogmates. You've each helped me along my way. And thank YOU, Dorothy for indulging me. :-)

Aw, that's sweet. Thank you. And finally, where can people find you online?

You can check out my blog at - http://jayeckert.blogspot.com

Jay, thank so much for letting us get to know you and your work. I wish you much success on your publishing journey!