Book Blitz: Lucid Dreaming by Cassandra Page

Lucid Dreaming
Cassandra Page
Publication date: November 2rd 2015
Genres: New Adult, Urban Fantasy

Who would have thought your dreams could kill you?
Melaina makes the best of her peculiar heritage: half human and half Oneiroi, or dream spirit, she can manipulate others’ dreams. At least working out the back of a new age store as a ‘dream therapist’ pays the bills. Barely.
But when Melaina treats a client for possession by a nightmare creature, she unleashes the murderous wrath of the creature’s master. He could be anywhere, inside anyone: a complete stranger or her dearest friend. Melaina must figure out who this hidden adversary is and what he’s planning – before the nightmares come for her.

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EXCERPT

I closed my eyes and looked into Larry’s dreams.

I was expecting to find a tortured psyche, an aspect of his subconscious manifesting itself there. Daddy or mummy issues, arachnophobia, anxiety, even garden-variety stress: I’d seen them all at one point or another. I couldn’t fix his psychological issues, but I could put a temporary block on his dreams until his doctor’s referral came good.

That was what it usually was.

What I found was a thing.

The creature was an amorphous black cloud about the size of my torso. Greasy as a burger shop floor, it had yellowing eyes and writhing tentacles … if tentacles could be covered with fine hair and worm into your skin like something from a bad horror movie.

I’d seen manifestations of people’s nightmares before, more times than I could count. But this wasn’t part of Larry. It was an interloper. A blight.

“Hello,” I said.

The blight hissed like a feral cat over a broken-backed lizard that wasn’t quite dead. Around us, the dreamscape resolved into a rolling hillside, distinctly Australian in its gentle undulations. No sharp-edged peaks here. The grass underfoot was withered, not by the summer sun but by the blight’s corruption. A single eucalypt wept tears of black sap. Clouds loomed, obscuring the vast sky.
I wouldn’t have picked Larry for the rural landscape type. You can never tell. “You’re an ugly little grease-ball, aren’t you?”

The blight’s eyes were flat, uncomprehending and angry. I wasn’t going to be able to goad it into letting go. And I didn’t want to attack it while those tentacles were embedded in the reddish dirt beneath the tree. What if one of them tore off? That could result in residual badness for Larry, like leaving a bee sting under the skin to spit toxins long after the bee has died.
Still, the blight was only small. I could take it.

Author Bio:
Cassandra Page is a mother, author, editor and geek. She lives in Canberra, Australia’s bush capital, with her son and two Cairn Terriers. She has a serious coffee addiction and a tattoo of a cat — which is ironic, as she’s allergic to cats. When she’s not reading or writing, she engages in geekery, from Doctor Who to AD&D. Because who said you need to grow up?

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Book Blitz: Silverwood by Betsy Streeter

Today we are happy to take part in the Silverwood Book Blitz. Silverwood is a YA Science Fiction novel by Betsy Streeter. Check it out!

Silverwood by Betsy Streeter
(Silverwood #1)
Publication date: March 15th 2015
Genres: Science Fiction, Young Adult

A story of finding where you belong, even if it involves time travel, shape shifting, and hacking.

Helen Silverwood, fourteen, is sick of life on the run with her mom and her younger brother. Nothing makes sense. She doesn’t understand why she has recurring dreams of shape-shifting creatures, why her mother is always disappearing, and how her brother can draw things that haven’t happened yet. Most of all, Helen longs to know what happened to her dad—is he imprisoned, a fugitive, or gone forever?

When someone blows up the apartment where Helen lives, the stories of the ancient Silverwood clan—and her role in it—begin to unravel. All Helen wants is to feel like there’s someplace she belongs—but getting there will prove very, very complicated.

Book trailer: https://youtu.be/p2fWEyjCAok

           

EXCERPT

(This is the opening of the book)

Helen Silverwood, fourteen, sits dangling her legs from the roof of a twenty-story brick apartment building. Her boot heels bounce off the wall in rhythm as she swings her feet.

The noise of the city echoes from below. Helen’s straight black hair flies across her face in the wind. She peels it off and pulls it back behind her ear with one hand.

With her other hand, Helen carves a symbol into the brick with a folding knife. It’s a circle, with a square in the middle, and a spiral that goes from one corner of the square out to the edge of the circle.  Once it’s done, Helen admires her work.

She folds the knife’s blade into its handle. The knife was a gift from Helen’s father, Gabriel. It’s really much than a knife; the handle sports a variety of buttons and a tiny screen. One of the buttons, when pressed, lights up red and blinks on and off. This is the button that Helen uses to record her journal.

Helen recorded her latest journal entry a few minutes ago on this roof:

RECORDING

Hi Dad, It’s Helen.

Sorry it’s been a while, we were moving. Again. And I didn’t have a roof to get some privacy so we could talk.

Currently, I'm sitting on top of our lovely apartment building in this, our latest greatest home. It's grimy and wet up here, and you have to avoid the puddles. I'm going to do the customary carving of my little symbol up here somewhere, like I do everyplace we stay. I like the way it says: Helen was here. Helen was somewhere. Since I’m sure I’ll be gone again soon. I’m not from anywhere.

When I woke up this morning, I thought the bio reader in the handle of my knife was lit up and I almost fell out of bed. You know, the reader that’s supposed to go on when you come near. Well, the light from the window hit it, I think, and for a split second it looked lit up. But it wasn’t. It’s never lit up. 

Mom has been gone every night this week, every night since we moved here. She seems really edgy. The kid brother Henry says so too. 

I wish I knew what mom was doing at night. All she ever says is, she has to go to work. And that her job is to keep us safe, and that’s why she does what she does. When she comes home in the morning she looks pretty rough, like she’s been fighting. I’m sure you know all about it, but since this is strictly a one-way conversation, I don’t suppose you’re going to tell me much. Mom is going to have to tell us herself. That is, if we don’t figure it out first.

I have my theories. Theory one: She’s a bodyguard for some mob boss or musician and they tour around and we have to follow. Theory two, which is better: She’s a repo-woman. You know, a person who goes out and takes people’s cars back when they haven’t paid for them and if they fight she kicks their butts and takes the car anyway. Whatever she does, it involves combat skills I’m pretty sure.

Henry has theories too, but his approach is to interrogate mom which doesn’t get very far. He’s only nine, so you have to excuse him, but he’s as smart as any grownup. I think that bothers the grownups.

I’ve got to talk to mom about Henry. He’s having a really hard time. I mean he’s always had a tough time with all this moving around, and he cries every time we pack up and leave. It makes my stomach hurt when I hear him cry.

At his last school Henry got in a lot of fights. And now he’s really quiet. I don’t know, something gives me the feeling he might try and run away. I’m worried about him. And he’s making more drawings of stuff that looks… bad. That’s all I can think of to say.

I say to Henry, someday we’re going to stop moving around, and we’ll have a real home, and dad will come live with us. And we’ll have friends. And a real bed, not just some stuff on the floor. Someday, we will be from somewhere.

I don’t want to be too dreary, so I’ll end on a positive note. Mom always tells me, say something positive. She says she got that from you.

So here it is: At least when we move, I get a break from the dream I always have about the big ugly Tromindox creatures. You know, the ones with the black scales and the tentacles. They look like if I could smell in my dreams, they would smell really bad.

The Tromindox dreams don’t show up for a few days after we move to a new place. Not that it’s all that bad. The dream is the same every time – this slimy thing shows up, and I turn it into a person, and they say thank you about a thousand times and then they leave. That’s it. It’s not a terrible dream, it just happens over and over. I get tired of it, even though the people are different. It’s nice to have a break when we move.

That’s my positive thought for today. No dreams. Maybe instead I can dream about flying for once. Until the Tromindox catch up with me again.

That’s it from the roof, and Dad if you ever get this, I hope I see you soon. We miss you.”

END RECORDING

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Betsy Streeter grew up on a steady diet of Star Trek, The Muppet Show, Atari, and musical rehearsals in her family's living room. Her habits of making up stories and drawing and painting on everything within reach eventually led to degrees in art and communication from Stanford University. She has worked in film and video production, design, and video games, and has served as president of a community theatre. She and her family are voracious consumers of books, music, movies, art, action figures, and musical instruments, resulting in inadequate storage space. Betsy has published single-panel cartoons, comics, art, and short fiction in paper, digital, graffiti, and tattoo form. She lives in Northern California with her husband, son, daughter, two peculiar and disruptive cats, and a mellow but hungry tarantula.

                 

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Book Blitz: Bittersweet by Kimberly Loth

Happy Monday, folks! Today we are happy to feature an excerpt of Bittersweet by Kimberly Loth, a YA Contemporary Romance that features one of my favorite things, roller coasters!

Bittersweet by Kimberly Loth
Publication date: March 21st 2015
Genres: Contemporary, Romance, Young Adult


Every Sunday Savannah Ray gets an email from her dead dad. She doesn’t know how the emails work and she doesn’t mind either as she’s not ready to let go.

Now that her mom is fed up of her rebellious behavior, she has to go to the one place she swore she’d never set foot in after he died—Haunted Valley, the amusement park. Once there and bullied by co-workers & customers, she is distracted by the charming Dallas and falls hard for him.

But Savannah and Dallas both hold secrets that threaten their new relationship. Will Haunted Valley help her move on, or will it destroy her from the inside out?

           

EXCERPT

On Monday, Becca sent me to the Headless Horseman. The ride sucked. Especially during the last two weeks of May. School days. The ride stayed mostly empty except for teenage boys who thought it was the one ride in the park where they didn’t have to follow the rules. They laughed when I stopped the ride and kicked them off. 

I approached one guy who’d been goofing off. He had a Twins cap on backwards and would probably be cute if he wasn’t my current source of annoyance.

“You can’t stand on the saddle. I thought I made that clear when I said no standing during the ride.” He grinned at his friends, climbed off the horse, and stood about six inches from me.

“Yeah, what are you going to do about it? Kick me out?”

“Not from the park, but you’ll have to leave the ride.”

He looked at me for a second and shook his head. Then he spat on my shoe. Bright cotton candy blue spit on my almost-new white shoes. So gross. 

I knew the right thing to do. I should walk away, call security, and let them deal with him. I knew that. But for some reason I couldn’t help myself.

I spat right back at him. But I got his face instead of his feet. Unfortunately, Becca chose that moment to walk up to the ride. She witnessed the whole thing.

“Oh my gosh, I’m so sorry,” she gushed.

The boy wiped the spit out of his eye and snarled at me.

“Bitch. What’d you do that for?”

“You spit on my shoe, I simply returned the favor.”

I dropped the key to the ride into Becca’s hand.

“I need to go to the bathroom. Good timing.”

I turned on my heel and stalked off to the bathroom. I sat in the stall for a minute and tried to process what I’d just done. I ran my hand over my head. There was stubble now. A few more weeks and I’d be able to style it. 

I knew I was in trouble. Anger wasn’t an issue. The move was instinctual. He spit on me and I spit back. But I should’ve controlled myself.

I took a couple of deep breaths and went back.

A slew of people stood near the Headless Horseman. Becca, the area manager, and Karl. The queue line was empty.

Here it comes.

I played the stupid card.

“Thanks for watching the ride for me. Drank too much water.” I held out my hand for the key and all three of them stared at me like I’d grown horns. Which I suppose I could have, since when I looked past them into the mirror on the ride my head was missing.

Karl was the first one to speak.

“Did you really spit on a guest?” He spoke slowly like I wouldn’t quite understand if he didn’t fully annunciate his words.

“Yeah, got him right in the eye. He deserved it.” I bobbed up and down a bit to see if my head would appear. Nope. The technology was incredible.

“Spitting is neither courteous nor good customer service. We’ve pulled someone from the Demon Drop to take your place for the rest of the day. You need to think about what you’ve done. This stunt earned you four points. Don’t let it happen again.”

I focused on him. “How many points until I'm fired?”

He narrowed his eyes at me. I hated the fact that I couldn’t feel a darn thing. I knew I should feel shame. That’s what any normal person would feel, but since I had no feelings I knew I came across as flippant. I didn’t want to be fired. Not really.

“Twenty-four.”

I nodded to show that I understood.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Kimberly Loth can't decide where she wants to settle down. She's lived in Michigan, Illinois, Missouri, Utah, California, Oregon, and South Carolina. She finally decided to make the leap and leave the U.S. behind for a few years. Currently, she lives in Cairo, Egypt with her husband and two kids. 

She is a high school math teacher by day (please don't hold that against her) and YA author by night. She loves romantic movies, chocolate, roses, and crazy adventures. Kissed is her first novel.

                 

Book Feature PLUS Excerpt: Seeking Sorrow by Zen DiPietro

Hello and happy Monday, everyone! Notice the new look of the blog? What do you think? I have to confess, I'm such a nut about digital scrap book kits. I practically fall in love with everything I see. Crazy, right? Yeah, well, I'm a writer; what do you expect?

Today we're featuring SEEKING SORROW by Zen DiPietro, the first in the Guardians of Terath series. Here's the blurb:

Seeking Sorrow
by Zen DiPietro

An earth-like world of high-tech humans faces the reality that their world is not as safe as they thought it was. Five people are thrown together to quietly get to the bottom of an unfathomable mana event that must stay quiet. If the population of Terath becomes aware of the truth, it will spark a civil war. That war would pit the majority of the population against the powerful minority with the ability to harness and manipulate mana. The resulting cataclysm would decimate the population and tear apart the foundation of society.

The five people chosen for this must reconsider everything they thought they knew about mana, even as they learn to trust one another’s abilities. They must embrace everything they never wanted in order to prevent the devastation of their world. One of them will be forever changed. Love will be denied, badassery will be unleashed, and Terath will never be the same.

Even success comes at a price.

Excerpt

Being an avid admirer of art, albeit a total failure at creating it, Will was pleased to spend his morning perusing the offerings. Examining the artwork in the gallery hall relieved his mind momentarily of the burdens he carried. He was admiring a particularly intriguing sculpture of a nude male holding a ladder when the back of his neck prickled. He sensed someone standing directly behind him, and he immediately felt uncomfortable and alert. He focused on the sculpture and sidestepped around the display, under the guise of examining the art from another perspective. He adjusted his stance to allow him to see the newcomer in his peripheral vision.

Fine, light blue hair grazed the woman’s jawline in a blunt bob. The unusual shade was surprisingly well-suited to her whiskey-colored eyes and lightly tanned complexion. She was a good bit shorter than he was, and in her mid-twenties, he estimated. She wore a long, casual dress that did not shy away from the curves underneath. His appraisal skidded to a stop when he noticed her wide mouth curving into an even wider smile. Like his own, her gaze remained on the artwork, but she nonetheless had realized that he was studying her. And she apparently found it amusing.

He straightened and began to move toward another art display.

“You don’t like it?” the woman questioned.

He really didn’t want to talk to her but didn’t want to be rude. Will re-oriented himself back toward her and the art. “I do. The lines are fluid but convey a great deal of energy. I have to wonder about his plan for the ladder.”

Her enthusiastic nod sent her hair swinging gently. “Yes, energy. Male energy. This piece has definite appeal for anyone who enjoys nudes of men, as you do.”

He nodded politely, then froze when he considered the potential subtext of her words. He didn’t care for the familiarity she’d assumed.

He looked straight into her eyes for the first time, and her smile grew wide again. As he struggled for a proper response, she chuckled.

“Never mind. It’s nice to meet you, Will Azrith. I’m Izzy Gin, your reader for this adventure.”

Zen DiPietro is a lifelong bookworm, a fantasy/sci-fi writer, a dancer, and a mom of two. Also red-haired, left-handed, and a vegetarian geek. Absolutely terrible at conforming. Particular loves include badass heroines, Star Trek, British accents, baba ganoush, and the smell of Band-Aids. Writing reviews, author interviews, and fun stuff at www.womenofbadassery.com. Very active on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest.

Excerpt: Trust by Tim Mettey

Today we have an excerpt of TRUST, the second book in The Hero Chronicles series by Tim Mettey. Check it out!

 

Nicholas Keller has come to terms with his Thusian heritage and has finally achieved some normalcy in his life. But when new neighbors move in next door at the beginning of his junior year, everything changes. He is launched into an impossible search, uncertain of who to trust, and this time it’s not just his own life that hangs in the balance—it’s the lives of countless others and everyone he loves.

            

EXCERPT

It had been nearly three months since I was told that I was part of an ancient group called the Thusians, the secret guardians of mankind destined to sacrifice our lives at any given time. I would have thought that after finding this out everything would have become really complicated for me, but it hadn’t. It was nice and quiet.

Everything I went through to get to this point was worth it, because now I had Elle. I still couldn’t believe how such a wonderful, amazing girl ended up with me. We were inseparable during the summer. Unfortunately now I was keeping more secrets from her. It was for her protection, but I still hated it.

Elle and I were lying in my front yard under the shade of the towering oak trees, enjoying each other’s company like we had done most of the summer.

“Nicholas, what’s wrong?” Elle asked for the hundredth time.

“Sorry, I’m just preoccupied today.”

“It’s okay. I just wanted to make sure it wasn’t me.”

How could it be her? She was nothing but wonderful, my reason for living.

“Elle, it’s not you. You know that. I’m just thinking about the last interview I did. It wasn’t very good.”

Last year when I confronted the mob of reporters at the school’s entrance, I told them if they would leave me alone I would do interviews. To my dismay, Cora, my aunt and guardian, made sure I did every interview they requested. It had now become the thing I dreaded most. I had to relive the worst day of my life, the 10-10 Earthquake, like it was some recurring nightmare from which I couldn’t wake up.

“Sorry, Nicholas, I know how much you hate doing interviews, but at least that was your last one until next summer.”

In addition to me only doing interviews in the summer, Cora had told the media that I would only answer questions over the phone. She also required that they never say where I live or where I go to school, even though they were camped outside of my school last year telling the world all of that information. Cora thought, better safe than sorry.

Cora had even talked to Ester Theasing, the head of the Thusian Council and a friend of ours, about doing the interviews to make sure it was safe for me because of Xavier and the Seekers who were trying to eliminate me and any other Thusians. Ester didn’t have a problem with it.

Chase Letterby started visiting us more midway through the summer. After the attack last year he left as soon as his doctor talents were no longer needed. No one had heard from him for a while. Even his regular TV appearances had stopped. But as more time passed during the summer, he started to frequent our house again. Cora didn’t seem to mind his company, despite his countless attempts to get her to go out with him. He was fixed on the one woman he couldn’t have, Cora.

Elle and I continued to lie beneath the trees. She went back to reading her book while rubbing my head. Her hand moved slowly through my hair, making me forget all of my worries. With every pass, a wave of relief went through me. I had positioned myself on her lap facing our driveway, so I could watch my new obsession. A large house was being built next door. It was hard to believe that the lot had been completely wooded just a month ago, and now the house looked close to being completed. Cora was not happy about the new house and the new neighbors that came with it. She still wanted our privacy, and the trees surrounding us had given us ample protection, but now they were gone. She even tried to buy the lot, but it had been sold exactly a week after we moved in last year.

The workers swarmed over the site like ants working hard on their hill. It was amazing to see such a large home being built so quickly. For some strange reason it was fascinating to me. I had no interest in design or architecture, but it still captivated my attention.

Cora and I had been in five different houses in six years, but never a brand new house—one freshly built just for us. Our new neighbors were about to get the fresh start I had wanted after the earthquake, but never got. Maybe that was the reason for my obsession.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Tim Mettey serves as CEO and Disaster Relief Coordinator at Matthew 25: Ministries, an international humanitarian and disaster relief organization. Tim uses his many experiences and expertise in responding to disasters around the world to set the background for his The Hero Chronicle series. Tim struggles with and has overcome his learning disabilities with reading and writing to create this series, and hopes his journey can be an inspiration to others. He says, “Our disabilities do not define who we are, they make us stronger.”