Sandra Cox's Blog, page 261

The Mangrove Coast Quote-isms

It's Monday. I trust your weekend was filled with fun and frolic or if not lots of rest and relaxation.
I spent part of mine reading another Randy Wayne White novel. Per usual several  insightful--and some just plain funny--quote-isms caught my eye.

"The awareness of individuality is implicit in the face of anyone, who as a child, is forced to stand apart from the crowd. The reason doesn't matter.  It might be because of skin color, problems at home, clothing that doesn't come up to the expectation of peers, perceived differences in social worth, acne...or one wayward, lonely eye."(Referring to a lazy eye)

"A right-hander's curveball spins in the same direction and with the approximate same degree of inclination as the Earth."

"A little known but potentially useful fact: When children wander away from their parents while on a beach, they almost always go in a direction that puts the sun at their back.
Same with aging runners."

"Love can be extremely painful."
"No shit, Sherlock."

"In baseball"..."the good feelings don't last long enough, and when you screw up, they last way too long..."The same with life."

"Oxygen and assholes--the two most common elements on earth."
~*~I also worked in the garden. Here's some pics.

Weekend and The Difference Between Dog and Cat Trust

Men of Foxwick and Hard-Boiled Eggs

Men of Foxwick by Cherie Reich is now available! This fantasy short story collection features five men from the Kingdom of Foxwick.
A blind teen seeks a place in the kingdom. A dragon seer journeys to Wintermill to spy on the queen. A sword master’s worst fear comes true when he fails to protect the royal family. A king falls in love with an herb witch, but will she feel the same way? A hunter will rise to the challenge to hunt down a man-eating monster.
For more information about Men of Foxwick, please visit Cherie Reich’s blog. Also, Cherie has a special announcement for her email newsletter subscribers. Click here to sign up for her updates and receive a coupon for a free copy of Women of Foxwick. ***  Okay, so the H.H. and I go to lunch at one of the restaurant chain's that's known for its home-style cooking. I order a salad and a hard-boiled egg. I specifically did not ask for the egg on the salad because the last time I did, they did strange things to it. Seriously. So my salad comes but no egg. I ask the waitress for the egg and she comes back with a hard-boiled egg cut in half and the yolk removed.  I know its healthier to just eat the white but I want my yolk. So I reiterate that I would like a hard-boiled egg. The next time she comes back it's with deviled eggs. Really? How hard can this be? But at this point I've given up and say that's fine. I eat my salad and have almost finished when another waitress shows up. Yup, you guessed it, she'd brought my hard-boiled eggs.  The moral of this story...if you want to 'have it your way' better go to Burger King.

Six Thousand Without Power

last week in our county alone. I was at work when the storms went through. The building I work in is  sturdy, but when the winds hit their peak the outside doors were being blown open and slammed shut. By the time I was ready to go home, the worst was over. A block from the college a huge old tree had been uprooted and was blocking the sidewalk and leaning against a fence. I got to my lane and a tree was leaning over the road into the power lines. See pic. Needless to say, no one on my road had power.
I woke up in the middle of the night to the dog barking and flashing strobe lights. I immediately think, yay the power company's here to repair the lines. I look out the window, still seeing flashing lights, but they aren't coming from outside. I look out the other window, same thing. Since I'm barely awake and having problems keeping my eyes open I do this a couple of times before I realize its my computer warning me my battery is running low. sigh.
The next morning we stop by the power company to report the downed tree. After taking the information, the weary clerk tells me she worked thirteen hours the day before and was back in at eight o'clock. They called in help from surrounding counties. That afternoon we regained power.

SBB: Fatal Exposure

[image error] BLURB:“You promise to answer my questions?”
“I said I would.”
He tossed her backpack onto the pile of papers and pulled out the handcuff key. He reached for her wrists and unlocked the cuffs, trying to ignore the alluring fragrance of her skin and hair. Then he stepped back, his impatience mounting as he waited for her to do her part.
But she took her time, righting the chair, taking off her peacoat and draping it over her bag. At last she turned to face him, and for the first time, he got a close look at her in the light. She was even more attractive than he’d expected with her wary green eyes and delicately winged brows, that long tumble of auburn hair. Her mouth was evocative and full, her high, sculpted cheekbones tinged with pink. A smattering of freckles dusted her small nose.
[image error] He raked his gaze down the rest of her—over her small, high breasts and slender waist, slim hips clad in low-slung jeans—and his heart began to thud. She looked amazingly like the computerized image, but softer, far sexier. More vulnerable.
Vulnerable? He stifled a snort. He wouldn’t make that mistake again.
He returned his gaze to hers. And without warning, a sense of awareness arrowed between them, a deep tug of sexual attraction that caught him unprepared. His belly went taut, a rush of adrenaline accelerating his pulse.
He bit back hard on a curse. Wrong time. Wrong place. Definitely the wrong woman, considering she was a potential suspect in his brother’s death. And her reaction didn’t help—her eyes going wide and dark, her breath catching on a quiet gasp, impacting him even more.
“I need a drink,” she muttered, spinning around.
That made two of them.AUTHOR Bio and Links: A former RITA® and Daphne finalist, Gail Barrett has received the Book Buyer’s Best Award, the Holt Medallion, the Booksellers Best, The National Readers’ Choice Award, and numerous other awards.  She lives with her husband in Western Maryland.  Readers can contact her through her website: www.gailbarrett.com.
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/gail.barrett.961#!/gail.barrett.961
Links to buy the book:Amazon Paperback: http://www.amazon.com/Fatal-Exposure-Harlequin-Romantic-Suspense/dp/0373278276/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1369410068&sr=8-1&keywords=gail barrett fatal exposureKindle: http://www.amazon.com/Fatal-Exposure-Buried-Secrets-ebook/dp/B00BAT1Q0S/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1369410068&sr=8-1-fkmr0&keywords=gail barrett fatal exposure
Barnes and Noble paperback and Nook: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/fatal-exposure-gail-barrett/1113942081?ean=9780373278275
Gail will be awarding a $25 Amazon / BN (or other bookstore of the winner's choice) GC to one randomly drawn commenter during this tour and her other Book Blast on June 21st.
The tour dates can be found here:  http://goddessfishpromotions.blogspot.com/2013/05/book-blast-fatal-exposure-by-gail.html

VBT: The Rules of Dreaming

Years ago I imagined a story about a patient in a mental hospital who sits down at the piano in the patient lounge and flawlessly plays a difficult piece of classical music.  Although this usually requires years of instruction and practice, the patient’s psychiatrist discovers that he has no musical training or experience.  So the question I started with is:  Where did this music come from?  Where does any music come from?  Does music come to you as a kind of inspired madness, or does it come from outside the human mind?Then I saw the Michael Powell/Emeric Pressburger film, The Tales of Hoffmann, which was made in 1951.  Powell and Pressburger were British directors who also made The Red Shoes and The Thief of Baghdad.  If you haven’t seen their movie of The Tales of Hoffmann, it’s definitely worth renting.  The DVD contains a fascinating commentary by Martin Scorsese, who was strongly influenced by the cinematography.  My interest in the film and the opera led to a study of E.T.A. Hoffmann, a 19-century she was rehearsing—Offenbach’s Tales of Hoffmann—begins to take over the lives of her two schizophrenic children, the doctors who treat them and everyone else who crosses their paths, until all are enmeshed in a world of deception and delusion, of madness and ultimately of evil and death.  Onto this shadowy stage steps Nicole P., a graduate student who discovers that she too has been assigned a role in the drama. What strange destiny is being worked out in their lives?
EXCERPT: Late last summer, after less than two months at the Palmer Institute, I witnessed an extraordinary performance.  One of my patients, Hunter Morgan (that was not his real name), sat down at the piano in the patient lounge and started playing like a virtuoso.  Hunter was a twenty-one year old schizophrenic who had lived in the Institute for the past seven years, and as far as anyone could remember he’d never touched the piano before.  The piece he played was classical music—that was about all I could tell—and it sounded fiendishly difficult, a whirlwind of chords and notes strung together in a jarring rhythm that seemed the perfect analog of a mind spinning out of control.  He continued playing for about ten minutes and then suddenly stopped in the middle of an intense climactic passage.  Without acknowledging his audience—which consisted of his sister Antonia, his nurse Mrs. Paterson, a few other patients and myself—he stood up from the piano and ran out of the room.
Since I was new at the Institute, the impact of this performance was lost on me at first.  I assumed that Hunter had been studying the piano from an early age.  It wasn’t until later that afternoon, when I reviewed Hunter’s chart and questioned Mrs. Paterson specifically about the piano playing, that I realized how uncanny this incident really was.
“You mean he’s never played the piano before?” AUTHOR INFORMATION:Bruce Hartman has been a bookseller, pianist, songwriter and attorney.  He lives with his wife in Philadelphia.  His previous novel, Perfectly Healthy Man Drops Dead, was published by Salvo Press in 2008.    Bruce will be awarding a fifty dollar Amazon or BN gift card to a randomly drawn commenter.
 








The tour dates can be found here:  http://goddessfishpromotions.blogspot.com/2013/04/virtual-book-tour-rules-of-dreaming-by.html

Have a Great Weekend

VBT: Against The Wind

Where the Title “Against the Wind” Came From The title comes from the historical event that is woven through the story. On June 9, 1817, a group of village men from Derbyshire rose up in rebellion against the Crown, intending to march on London with “thousands” of others to take control of the government. It was dubbed “the Last Revolution in England,” though it might have more accurately been called a government-inspired provocation to action, designed to justify repression.
After the war with France ended in 1814, England suffered from great social, economic and political problems. Many of the major issues were the direct result of the war, but others were the necessary product of the changes occurring throughout society, some of which had begun earlier. Machines were replacing workers. Added to that, the Corn Laws kept food prices high and some very bad weather destroyed crops. The discontent these occurrences brought, and the distress in the lives of the working people, culminated in a series of events, including the uprising in the Midlands in June of 1817.
The rebellion was just what the leaders of the British government needed to justify sending a strong signal to the masses that no revolution, such as had occurred in France, would be tolerated in England. The hundreds of villagers who rose up with the pikes and crude weapons (though a few had pistols) to march to Nottingham and thence to London were ignorant of the true facts—that the government itself had stirred their rebellion. In truth, they fought “against the wind,” hence the title for my Regency romance that features this little known event in England’s history. The trailer for my book brings this out—and the love story between Sir Martin and Katherine. You can see it here: http://youtu.be/F39tLElacYM. BLURB:   A night in London’s most exclusive bordello. Agent of the Crown Sir Martin Powell would not normally indulge, but the end of his time spying against Napoleon deserves a victory celebration. Yet, such pleasure will not come cheap. The auburn-haired courtesan he calls “Kitten” is in truth Katherine, Lady Egerton, a dowager baroness and the daughter of an earl as elusive as she is alluring. She flees a fate worse than death. But Martin has known darkness, too, and he alone can touch her heart—as she has touched his. To the English Midlands they will steal, into the rising winds of revolution. EXCERPT:  “Is making love something you do not wish to do?” he said. “As I recall, you seemed to enjoy it as much as I did.” Then, more tenderly: “Besides, I have missed you, Kitten.”
“No…I cannot. I am not your…your…” She could not bring herself to say the word. Their one night together had been a wonderful, amazing, and yes, passionate experience, but it could never happen again. She had escaped for one dreadful night into a dream. Into his arms. As much as she wanted those around her again, wanted to lie with him, she could not allow it. This was not who she was. Not who she was raised to be.
Placing his hands on her waist, he pulled her against him. The heat from his broad chest overwhelmed her as she stared into indigo eyes now stormy with desire. “You opened a door, Kitten, I’m unwilling to close.” AUTHOR INFORMATION: As a child Regan Walker loved to write stories, particularly about adventure-loving girls, but by the time she got to college more serious pursuits took priority. One of her professors thought her suited to the profession of law, and Regan realized it would be better to be a hammer than a nail. Years of serving clients in private practice and several stints in high levels of government gave her a love of international travel and a feel for the demands of the “Crown” on its subjects. Hence her romance novels often involve a demanding Prince Regent who thinks of his subjects as his private talent pool.
Regan lives in San Diego with her golden retriever, Link, whom she says inspires her every day to relax and smell the roses. LINKS:website: www.reganwalkerauthor.com/blog: reganromancereview.blogspot.com/twitter: @RegansReviewRegan will be awarding either Racing with the Wind OR Lunchbox Romances that tie into the triology,The Holly and the Thistle and The Shamrock and the Rose (winner's choice) to a randomly drawn commenter during the tour.The tour dates can be found:  http://goddessfishpromotions.blogspot.com/2013/04/virtual-book-tour-against-wind-by-regan.html

VBT: Hidden

5 Musts Every Story in Your Genre Should HaveI love reading YA fiction. My kindle is bursting with them. While there is no formula (that I have found) that makes a great YA book, a few things stick out in my head when comparing books I love.Compelling CharactersAll of my favorite YA books (mostly Paranormal and Fantasy) have compelling characters. We have to meet someone interesting on the first page, and they have to suck us in enough to continue to care about their lives until the last. I fall in love easily, so I rarely meet a YA main (or supporting) that makes me want to stop reading a book, but it’s possible. The character must be gripping, original, flawed, and loveable. That is much harder to write than it is to notice in something you’re reading, but as a writer, creating characters is one of my favorite things to do.A good opening. The opening sets the tone of the novel. As a reader, I want to be yanked into this world, thrown on a roller coaster, and not allowed to get off until it’s over. As I writer, I beg the gods to show me how to do this. It’s difficult but important. It’s not just the first page. It could be someone’s last. Think about or go back and read the openings from your favorite YA books. Did you fall in love with the character? Feel sorry for them? Want more of them? Of course, you did. That’s why it’s your favorite.High stakes.I’ve read a few books that had a cool premise, started well, and had a loveable character … but the stakes weren’t high enough. Those lose me. I want life or death, not I may be hated at school to the end of eternity. But that’s just me. I want to worry about the character, fear for their life. Others may be different, but I would guess that they at least want interesting stakes, even if it’s not a nail biter.Believable relationshipsJust because YA readers are teens (and those of us who refuse to grow up), doesn’t mean they can’t spot weak relationships. As a believer of love at first sight, it’s easy for me to believe in the relationships in the YA books I’ve read. I love the idea of meeting someone on Monday and not being able to imagine your life without them on Tuesday. For some readers, that annoys the crap out of them. To me, it can be quick, it just has to be genuine and interesting. A big finish. No one likes a let down. I think YA books have to deliver whatever thing they’ve been building up to. I don’t want to read 80,000 words and never get to the big fight, or the break up, or have things summed up so fast I think I may have missed something. I love YA books that finish big, with a shock, yet the answer was there in my face all along. I love to go back to chapter one and say “Ohhhh. I see it now.” It makes the time I’ve invested worthwhile. These five things, in my opinion, are vital to YA books. It certainly isn’t a recipe, and keep in mind that each of these aspects are subjective. A character that is compelling to me may be boring to someone else. Stakes that are high to me may make another reader yawn. But when you find a YA book with the right balance of these five elements for you, you’ll probably find that you can’t put it down.


BLURB:  
Sixteen-year-old Leah Grant has given up on being normal. She’d settle for stopping the voices in her head, intrusive visions of the future, and better odds of making it to her seventeenth birthday.
That’s the thing about pretending to be human in a world where magic used to exist – at any moment, her cover could be blown and she’ll be burned to death like the rest of the witches.
Everything changes when she loses control of her powers and flees the orphanage she grew up in. She desperately wants to be invisible but finds her face plastered on every news channel as humans panic over the possible resurgence of her kind. And now the hunters won’t give up until they find her.Making friends for the first time in her life and falling in love with one of them drives her to discover why she is unlike any being she’s ever met – human or otherwise. The dangerous powers inside of her that would repel Nathan, her new, handsome reason for living, are priceless to some. The locked up forever kind of priceless. And to others, they are too dangerous to allow her to live.
Let’s hope she can stay hidden.EXCERPT:  Sienna snatched last week’s Chemistry test from my desk. I hadn’t turned it over. I knew it was a D minus.She cackled and passed it around.“Leah, you would think someone who spends most of her time alone would have better grades,” she said. Her birds laughed on cue. “What do you do all day? Obviously not study.” She gasped slowly like she’d gotten a revelation in that blonde head of hers. “You fantasize about us, don’t you? You probably sleep in Whit’s old bed to feel close to her.”Laughter spread around the room like an airborne disease. Disease. I shivered. That was an intriguing thought; I could almost hear the sound their bodies would make against the floor when it hit.“Leah, come on. Say something. Scream at me, it’s been a while. At least cry,” Sienna said, laughing and leaning into my desk, closer to danger.I didn’t cry. I never cry. And if I were going to, it wouldn’t be because of Sienna. I had bigger problems. I’d just broken a promise I’d made to God to not think about hurting His people, His children. And today was not the day to piss Him off.My old roommate, Whitney Nguyen, graciously returned my test as she cackled with the rest of the birds. She liked the idea of me pining over her, but she knew I didn’t spend my free time thinking about her or sleeping in her old bed. After fourteen years of hard labor as my roommate, she’d given up on being friends or me being remotely normal. The current theory to explain my oddness was that I was in love with all of the girls and consumed by lust.As long as they didn’t know it was magic.AUTHOR INFORMATION: M. Lathan lives in San Antonio with her husband and mini-schnauzer. She enjoys writing and has a B.S. in Psych and a Masters in Counseling. Her passion is a blend of her two interests – creating new worlds and stocking them with crazy people. She enjoys reading anything with interesting characters and writing in front of a window while asking rhetorical questions … like her idol Carrie Bradshaw.   LinksWebsite: mlathan.comTwitter: @hiddenseriesPinterest: http://pinterest.com/hiddenseries/Buy links: Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=B00A6301BO 
One randomly chosen commenter will win a $50 Amazon/BN.com gift card.
 Encourage your readers to follow the tour and comment; the more they comment, the better their chances of winning. The tour dates can be found here:  http://goddessfishpromotions.blogspot.com/2013/04/virtual-book-tour-hidden-by-m-lathan.html
http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/28e4343/

BBT: Island Shifters

BLURB:The idyllic lives of four elemental shifters living in the exiled land of Pyraan are shattered when a tour of legion duty gives witness to a brutal enemy invasion.  Despite the heroic efforts of the shifters, the land falls to the invaders.  As the only survivors, the four friends are forced to flee south into the lands from which they were banished to warn of the invasion.  Heartbroken and weary, the shifters soon learn that the safe haven they hoped to find is cloaked in danger.  Throughout a journey fraught with prophesy, betrayal and peril, an enduring friendship prevails, love blossoms, and a riveting saga unravels.EXCERPT:Kiernan heard them coming with her heart in her throat and leaned in closer to Beck as they lay side by side in a furrow of soil atop one of the fortifications created by the earthshifters the evening before.  The ominous sound of thousands of feet rushing toward her in the pre-dawn darkness was as frightening as it was meant to be.  Jaimes Atlan warned them that Adrian Ravener would try to intimidate them.  He would want them to make mistakes out of sheer terror.
I am with you, Princess, said Bajan, who was crouched behind her.  Do not be afraid.  Any creature that gets close will have me to deal with.
Bajan, just in case….  she began, but he cut her off.
Do not make it sound like the end, because it is not.  I promise.  You will have time to torment me for many years to come.
I do not mean to torment you.
I would not have it any other way.
Despite her fright, she smiled at the Draca’s words.
The long, sinister sound of the enemy battle horn wrenched Kiernan back to the present in a rush.  Every fiber of her being urged her to run, to get away from there.
Death was coming, and she was right in its path.
Closing her eyes, she took a deep breath and drew on the power of her magic to calm her mind.  She was a warrior, she chided herself.  A protector.  If death was coming for her, it would have a fight on its hands.AUTHOR Bio and Links:Fantasy author, Valerie Zambito, lives in York, New York with her husband and three sons.  After having been involved in a busy sales career for twenty years, a passionate love for great storytelling, world building, character creation, and all things magic have led to the release of her epic fantasy series, Island Shifters, and young adult, paranormal romance series, Angels of the Knights.Books:Book One:  Island Shifters - An Oath of the BloodBook Two:  Island Shifters - An Oath of the MageBook Three:  Island Shifters - An Oath of the ChildrenBook Four:  Island Shifters - An Oath of the KingsAngels of the Knights - FallonAngels of the Knights - BlaneClassroom HeroesWebsite:  http://www.valeriezambito.com/Buy Links:Amazon:  http://www.amazon.com/Island-Shifters-Fantasy-Series-ebook/dp/B0063EONHSBarnes & Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/island-shifters-an-oath-of-the-blood-valerie-zambito/1107956340iTunes:  https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/island-shifters-oath-blood/id489783195?mt=11Smashwords: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/107230Valerie will be awarding several print copies of her book to randomly drawn commenters during the tour (US only) and a grand prize of a $25 Amazon GC to one randomly drawn commenter during the tour. The tour dates can be found here:   http://goddessfishpromotions.blogspot.com/2013/04/virtual-blurb-blitz-tour-island.html