Sandra C. Lopez's Blog, page 50
January 9, 2025
Blog Tour: UNDER THE OAK TREE & THE COSTUME BOX by Peter Hynes
Under the Oak and The Costume Box
Peter Hynes
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GENRE: Poetry
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BLURB:
Although his poetry has been published in several anthologies withother poet's work, it has never been collected in a book of his own. This isthe first. Under the Oak collects poems previously shared, and some that willbe new to readers. We have tried to include a broad sample, hoping to findsomething for everyone to enjoy and re-read in the future.
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EXCLUSIVE EXCERPT FROM UNDER THE OAK:
in memory of
twin guitars
dancing over melodies
and underpinning vocals
they soar and weave
a magic of their own
like no other has ever done
and probably never will
because more than genius
died in that crash
forcing those in the shadows
to come forward into the light
where they carried the flame
into their last days
unapologetic, and rightly so,
creating the only memorial
such creativity deserved
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
AUTHOR Bio and Links:
Peter Hynes is a Canadian. He began writing poetry many years ago,in high school. His poetry has been published in various anthologies andelsewhere since. This is his first book of poems. He was born in southwesternOntario. He still lives in the province with his wife and their smallmenagerie.
WEBSITE: www.peterhynespoetry.com
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/poetrybypeter57/
Goodreads author profile -https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/18656375.Peter_Hynes
Bookfunnel promo:https://books.bookfunnel.com/ReflectionsinWords/6nob4jg2l2
Under the Oak: Poems by Peter Hynes (book 1)
Amazon ca -https://www.amazon.ca/Under-Oak-Poems-Peter-Hynes/dp/1773709682/
Amazon ca Kindle -https://www.amazon.ca/Under-Oak-Poems-Peter-Hynes-ebook/dp/B07C598Y91/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&sr=
Barnes & Noble -https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/under-the-oak-peter-hynes/1128518346
Booktopia -https://www.booktopia.com.au/under-the-oak-peter-hynes/book/9781773709680.html
Walmart -https://www.walmart.com/ip/Under-the-Oak-Poems-by-Peter-Hynes-Paperback-9781773709680/304304438
iBooks -https://books.apple.com/us/book/under-the-oak-poems-by-peter-hynes/id1390252033
The CostumeBox: Poems by Peter Hynes (book 2)
Amazon - https://www.amazon.com/dp/1779623313
Barnes & Noble -https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-costume-box-peter-hynes/1146521274
Walmart -https://www.walmart.com/ip/The-Costume-Box-Poems-by-Peter-Hynes-Paperback-9781779623317/13930810916
Booktopia -https://www.booktopia.com.au/the-costume-box-peter-hynes/book/9781779623317.html
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
GIVEAWAY
PeterHynes will be awarding a $15 Amazon/BN gift card to a randomly drawn winner.
a Rafflecopter giveaway
January 8, 2025
Blog Tour: SECRET PLANS, VOL. III by Tami Knight
SECRET PLANS, VOL. III
Tami Knight
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GENRE: Cartoons/Humor
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BLURB:
TamiKnight started drawing cartoons about climbers when the glaciers were a lotlarger. C'mon in and enjoy Knight's rats and humans as they get up to mountainsof mischief! This book may even help you re-work yer primal scream!
And,dang, Jon Krakauer wrote the forward.
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ExcerptTwo:
Tami Knight began drawing cartoons when she was four yearsold. In addition to being a gifted artist, she was a brilliant young gymnast.As an eighteen-year-old student at the University of British Columbia studyingto become a veterinarian, Knight won the Western Canadian University GymnasticChampionships.
Spoiler alert: Knight never became a veterinarian, andshortly after her Championships victory an automobile accident brought hergymnastics career to a screeching halt.
In the aftermath, friends taught Knight to rock climb atSquamish—the vast, breathtaking granite escarpment sixty minutes north of herhome. She was a natural, and she instantly became infatuated with her newpastime. Before long, Knight was one of the top female climbers in Canada.
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AUTHOR Bio and Links:
TamiKnight has been drawing cartoons and illustrations about climbing since 1981.Her work is a regular feature in Alpinist Magazine but has appeared in climbingmedia all over the world. She was the 2003 recipient of the American AlpineClub literary award. Knight lives in Vancouver, Canada.
CONNECTWITH TAMI KNIGHT
https://www.instagram.com/tamiknightcartoons/
PURCHASELINKS FOR SECRET PLANS: VOL. III
https://www.amazon.com/dp/177962266X
https://www.amazon.ca/dp/177962266X
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/secret-plans-tami-knight/1146482273?ean=9781779622662
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
GIVEAWAY
TamiKnight will award a $15 Amazon/BN gift card to a randomly drawn winner.
a Rafflecopter giveaway
January 7, 2025
Blog Tour: HE. by Gregory Pakis
HE.
Gregory Pakis
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
GENRE: Erotic Horror
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
BLURB:
Asexually open-minded couple, Lester and Val, have recently moved into a stylishyet eerie apartment building.
Val'scuriosity is piqued when she starts to receive unusual messages and requestsfrom an anonymous messenger.
Lesteris also cautiously intrigued, as Val starts to fulfill the requests.
Asuspected sex club soon becomes media headlines when a former memberdisappears, and the club is reported to have vacated its last premises.
Asthe messages persist, Lester and Val start to question whether the anonymousmessenger is connected to the clandestine club mentioned in the media, and ifthere is any link between him or the club and the odd newcomers in theapartment next door.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
ExcerptThree:
She walked over to the kitchen and stared out the windows.Everything was still. An uneasy feeling came over her. She looked back atLester’s door.
was he acting a bit strange lately
he did seem distracted
that night he seemed more excited than usual
wasn’t that a dream
She remembered the things he had said and she felt excitedabout the possibilities. There was another party in a few weeks. They were alsopossibly going to meet with a couple Lester had met online. But she felt dreadabout mixing her and Lester’s energy with others. She wasn’t sure she neededto. She still found Lester compelling; his brooding mysterious presence, hisbody. He took care of himself. And she wasn’t sure there were many men thatcould be with her as intensely.
Her phone beeped. She looked down at it on the kitchentable. It wasn’t
often she received messages. She preferred it that way. Sheread the message.
‘the stencil’
It wasn’t from a contact. That was odd.
what stencil
She’d received her share of messages over the years. Notespressed in her hand. Under her windscreen wipers. Written on napkins in bars oron the back of business cards. But it was usually just a phone number and aname. She then realised which stencil the message was referring to.
did something just click in or out of place
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
AUTHOR Bio and Links:
BIO
GregoryPakis is an Australian author, film-maker, actor and wacky vlogger.
Hehas written the short story, The Lonely Australian of the Asian Night; the soonto be released horror-suspense novellas, The Regressor and He., and Memoir of aSuburban Hoe-Bo, which is partly an account of when he lived out of a van forten years in Melbourne.
GregoryPakis is also the writer / director of the feature films, The Garth Method(2005) and The Joe Manifesto (2013), which have won national and internationalawards and been distributed through Accent Entertainment, Label, VanguardCinema.
Gregory'smore informal video projects are the feature documentaries, Garth GoesHitch-Hiking (2007) and Garth Lives in a Van (2011) which have screened at filmfestivals in Australia.
Morerecently, he has created the comedy series, suBURPieS and his Wacky Vlog whichcan found on his socials.
Gregoryhas been featured in articles in newspapers, The Age, The Herald Sun, BeatMagazine, Inpress, FILMINK, and the Neos Kosmos. He has been interviewed onradio by the ABC, 3RRR, SYN FM, 3CR.
HE.LINKS
AMAZONSALES LINK
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DJYRJK5W
BOOKTRAILER
AUTHORCHAT TO CAMERA VIDEO
WEBPAGE (WITH MEDIA KIT)
CONTACT
GREGORYPAKIS
SITES
FILMShttps://guerillafilmnite.com/
SOCIALS
Instagram /https://www.instagram.com/gregorypakis/
TikTok /https://www.tiktok.com/@gregorypakis
Facebook / https://www.facebook.com/gpakis
YouTube/ https://www.youtube.com/@Films_Books._Vlogs
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GIVEAWAY
Theauthor will be awarding a $25 Amazon/BN GC to a randomly drawn winner.
a Rafflecopter giveaway
January 6, 2025
Blog Tour: WHERE IS LOVE? by Annie Caboose
This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. Annie Caboose will be awarding a $10 Amazon/BN gift card to a randomly drawn winner. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.
While walking in the garden one day, Annie, a curious little ant from Hillsville, meets a single poppy flower called Love. They become instant friends, sharing stories, laughing and talking for hours on end. Then one autumn day Annie goes to visit Love, but Love is not there. Remembering the rhyme that Love told her, she sets off on an adventure to find Love.
Love is with you every day.
Love is never far away.
Go search, go find and then you’ll see
All the places Love can be.
But don’t forget to look within
For often, that’s where Love begins.
May Annie’s story inspire anyone who has experienced the loss of a loved being, to look and perhaps still find them within their lives and within themselves.
Read an Excerpt
Review: This is the story of Annie, theant, who likes to go exploring on her own. One day, she meets and develops afriendship with a sunflower. The friendship with the sunflower continues stronguntil its wilting end. But in between it all, the ant learns what true love canbe.
“Love is with you every day. Loveis never far away Go search, go find, all the places Love can be.”
Lovely and poetic. A cute andsweet story about love.
Rating:4 stars
About the Author:
Annie, a.k.a. the Caboose, is the youngest of nine children. Her loving mother read her lots of children’s stories, including some she wrote herself. Inspired by her mom, Annie wrote her first book, Where is Love? She resides on a lake in the beautiful Okanagan Valley, fascinated by the many birds that live there too.
Website: https://anniecaboose.com
Amazon: https://a.co/d/4MLCYGf
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/anniecaboose/
a Rafflecopter giveaway
January 4, 2025
Review: MANSIONS, MACAROONS, AND MURDER by Cindy Bell
Imagine just making a delivery andthe butler drops dead right at the door. Wow! The police suspect poison. Whowould’ve thought that delivery macaroons could be so dangerous? Can Lucy’sstrange dreams reveal the answer to the man’s death? I love a mystery thatmakes you think!
A quirky and gripping mystery!
Rating:5 stars
Review: AFTER Vol. 2 by Anna Todd
Again, I don’t like the horizontalformat as it makes it too hard to read and see the pictures. The frames andtext are too chaotic that you don’t know where to focus on. Additionally,there’s too much text. From what I can tell in the pictures, Tessa dumps herboyfriend for Harden.
Story was just too dull for me. Alot of the same boring drama and not much excitement. I thought this series wasgoing to be way better than it was. Perhaps I should try the book instead ofthe graphic novel though I doubt the book would be any better. What a waste ofmoney!
Rating:2 stars
Review: AFTER Vol. 1 by Anna Todd
Right away, I wasn’t too thrilledabout the horizontal format of the comic book. It made it too hard to read andsee the pictures with the constant scrolling. So basically, from what I cangather based on the pictures, we have a young girl going away to college forthe first time ever. There, she’s introduced to parties and men (not boys.) Shejust had a hard time fitting in with that scene. Then she meets bad-boy Hardenand is caught between him and her long-time boyfriend. No matter how hard shetries to resist him, she gets intimately close to him.
Story was pretty mild. Nothingreally too exciting happens. It’s okay to read as far as just looking at thepictures goes.
Rating:3 stars
January 3, 2025
Spotlight: SAVING THE FOOL by Donna Del Oro
SAVING THEFOOL by Donna DelOro—BOOK TWO
In the DINASALAZAR ROMANTIC-SUSPENSE SERIES!
If it’s toogood to be true, there’s probably a catch...
Summertime andDina Salazar, a Latina school teacher with an inquisitive mind, finds herselfwith a mystery involving her brother-in-law, Jesus, lovingly referred to as “eltonto”, or the fool, by the family, and yet somehow this fool has latched on toa lucrative and easy job. Every Friday night, he drives a van filled with SiliconValley gamblers to a faraway casino. While they gamble, he sits in a hotelroom, eating and drinking, then drives them back in the morning. All for a cooltwo thousand dollars in cash! What’s wrong with this picture? As Dina investigates,she suspects there’s a ruthless criminal enterprise involved, especially whenshe crosses paths with one of their enforcers. Has Jesus unwittingly puthimself and his family in great danger?
As if thisisn’t bad enough, Dina’s on-again, off-again relationship with fiancé RickRamos is stalled. Enter handsome P. I. Gil Luna, and all bets are off! Can hesave Jesus and Dina... and, if so, at what cost?
Book Releases Nov 29, 2024
Meanwhile, check out Book 1, SAVING LA FAMILIA.
Can smart, scrappy Dina Salazar find the heart and strength to overcome her hatred of an ex-fiancé so that she can fulfill her immigrant grandmother’s wish and rescue a long-lost cousin in Mexico?
A smart, scrappy teacher is called upon by her traditional Mexican-American grandmother to help a relative in Mexico escape the clutches of a dangerous cartel. Reluctantly, she agrees, but in coming to her grandmother’s aid, she needs the help of The Hated One, an ex-fiancé who broke her heart years before. Together, they must devise a plan to rescue her desperate, long-lost cousin and her cousin’s child. To do so, Dina Salazar must enter the dreaded turf of the Zetas, a ruthless Mexican drug cartel. Such a mission is not for the faint of heart!
Available on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Saving-Familia-Donna-Del-Oro-ebook/dp/B09PN7K2S8/
Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/saving-la-familia-donna-del-oro/1141253084
Connect with the author on her website at: https://donnadeloro.com/
December 30, 2024
Blog Tour: JURY DUTY IS MURDER by Kate Damon
JURY DUTY IS MURDER
Kate Damon
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GENRE: Cozy Mystery
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BLURB:
Theverdict is in; a famed athlete is headed for prison. The jurors have done theirjob and are free to go back to their lives.
Butafter being sequestered for four months, life as some knew it no longer exists.
HAROLDASHMAN’s house is almost destroyed by a careless driver. Exotic dancer, CEECEELAINE, discovers that her boyfriend is two-timing her, and she no longer has ajob. Actor ALEX MANNING learns his career is down the tubes, and 72-year-old,HELEN RYDER, discovers her family is plotting to put her in an old folks home.
Thenthings take a turn for the worse. When former jurors start dropping like flies,CeeCee, Helen, Harold, and Alex are convinced there’s a killer on the loose.Now the feuding foursome must find him before he kills them—or before they savehim the trouble by killing each other.
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ExcerptTwo:
The ringing telephone woke me up. Without opening my eyes, Ifelt around until I touched the nightstand and finally, my phone. “Hello.”
“Wake up.”
I groaned. “Alex, what do you want?”
“I need you to wake up.”
I forced myself to sit up. The clock on the radio said itwas after ten. “This better be important.”
“Something is terribly wrong,” Alex said. “It’s thethirtieth and nobody’s dead.”
“Hallelujah.” I hung up and dived back into my pillow. Thephone rang again, and I groaned. Only Alex would think that no dead bodiesmeant something was wrong.
I rolled over and grabbed the phone. “Now what?”
“No one’s dead.”
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AUTHOR Bio and Links:
WhenKate Damon is not writing, she and her husband enjoy RVing, spending time withfamily and friends, raising Monarch butterflies, and playing a wicked game ofbridge.
Writingas Margaret Brownley, she has published more than 40 novels and is a New YorkTimes bestselling author. Known for her memorable characters and humor, she isa two-time Romance Writers of America Rita finalist.
Notcounting the book she wrote in sixth grade, and the puzzle of the missingsocks, this is her first mystery.
Links:
Twitter:http://www.twitter.com/katejuryduty
Instagram:http://www.instagram.com/juryduty17
Tiktok:http://www.tiktok.comKatedamon1
facebook:https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61565155275435
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GIVEAWAY
Theauthor will be awarding a $25 Amazon/BN GC to a randomly drawn winner.
a Rafflecopter giveaway
December 19, 2024
Blog Tour: SANTA CLAWS by Denise Alicea
SANTA CLAWS
Denise Alicea
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GENRE: Children's Picture Book
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BLURB:
Itis Christmas. Apollo, sleeping on his new cushion, is a rescue cat who has justfound his forever home. He is surprised to hear a man coming down the chimney,but his first sight of Santa Claus reassures him that this man is friendly.They talk for a while, and Santa Claus explains who he is and what Christmas isall about. Apollo listens carefully and has just one wish – that all catseverywhere could be as lucky and cared for as he is. Will his wish come true?Read on and find out all about Santa Claws!
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EXCERPT:
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Review:
This is the sweet and loving storyof a dear cat that came from a shelter and found a forever home. See how Apollospends his first Christmas with his new family. What will happen when he meetsSanta Claus himself? What a delightful wintry adventure! Such adorable picturesof the cat. He’s the Santa Clause for cats. A sweet animal tale!Rating:4 stars
AUTHOR Bio and Links:
Bornin Manhattan and raised in Connecticut, Denise Alicea started writing whendrawing and painting simply weren’t enough. A writer of poetry, fantasy, timetravel, romance and more, Denise has won several awards and has had severalfinalist nominations. She loves technology, reading, watching movies, andmanaging her blog over at The Pen & Muse Book Reviews
SocialMedia:
Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/AuthorDeniseAlicea
Twitter:https://twitter.com/denisealicea
Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/aliceadenise/
Tiktok:https://www.tiktok.com/@authordenisealicea
Amazon:http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DJ2594T3?tag=thpeanmubore-20
AppleBooks:https://books.apple.com/us/book/santa-claws-a-christmas-tail-for-cats/id6736948013?uo=8&at=
Kobo:https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/santa-claws-a-christmas-tail-for-cats
Smashwords:https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1633838
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GIVEAWAY
DeniseAlicea will be awarding a $15 Amazon/BN gift card to a randomly drawn winner.
a Rafflecopter giveaway
