Roxanne Rhoads's Blog, page 206

***** When the one that got away comes back… *****

Come A Little Closer
Georgia Boys
Book Two
Chrissy Brown

Genre: Contemporary Romance/ YA Romance

Date of Publication: 1/13/19

ISBN: 1793109397
ASIN: B07MF9BVY1

Number of pages: 220
Word Count: 46166

Cover Artist: Quamber Designs

Book Description:

Sophie was the love of my life. Okay, we were twelve the last time I saw her but still. I've tried everything to move on—whiskey, women, weed. Nothing seemed to fill the void. Now, ten years later, she shows up out of the blue. The problem, I'm not the boy she used to know. I have a reputation that could ruin everything. Still, I have to try. Even if nothing happens between us, having Sophie in my life as a friend is better than not having her at all.

Come A Little Closer is the second installment in the Georgia Boys Series. It can be read as a standalone novel.

https://amzn.to/2U1RyRG

#Romance #GeorgiaBoys #ComeALittleCloser #ChrissyBrown #YA #YARomance

Phoenix Falling by Laura Bickle

Phoenix Falling
A Wildlands Novel
Book Five
Laura Bickle 

Paperback: 384 pages

Publisher: Harper Voyager
ISBN-10: 0062567357ISBN-13: 978-0062567352
Release Date: February 26, 2019
Genre: Urban Fantasy, Horror,Dark Fantasy, PNR,  Paranormal Fantasy
Book Description:
Laura Bickle, the critically acclaimed author of Nine of Stars and Witch Creek, returns with a fiery new chapter in her celebrated Wildlands series.
In the Yellowstone backcountry, a merciless source of evil carries a torch for the past…
Petra Dee and her immortal husband, Gabe, have been trying to gain a toehold in what passes for ordinary life in Temperance, Wyoming—
a wickedly enchanted land founded generations ago by the alchemist, Lascaris. Petra may be adept when it comes to the uncanny, but as a reasoned geologist, Petra still can’t fathom the wildfires suddenly engulfing Yellowstone National Park, or why Gabe claims to have seen the sky explode in flames. The answers could lie in the past.
It was a dreadful night in 1862 when Lascaris went harvesting for souls, only to be set upon by townsfolk determined to eliminate the root of all evil in a trial by fire. Petra can’t help fearing that Lascaris has crawled out of the ashes of history to wreak vengeance—and to complete his mission by claiming every vulnerable soul in Temperance.
With the help of Gabe and her coyote sidekick, Sig, Petra must now venture into Lascaris’s shadow before he turns her world into an inferno burning out of control.
“Bickle is well on her way to establishing her work as a cornerstone of her genre.”—Publishers Weekly
Amazon     Harper Voyager     BN     iTunes     Google Play
Excerpt:
For the first time in centuries, he stood frozen in shock.A black shape as big as a car splashed out of the maw of the underworld. It bellowed a roar that rattled Gabe’s teeth and shook sparks in the air, plunging into the field toward the phoenix. It took him a moment to register that the interloper was a toad, black and roiling like thunder. And the toad was not alone. Dozens of white shapes stampeded from the river behind it. They were pale as bone with oozing black eyes, crested spines undulating in the half-light and hooves pounded like war drums in the half-light. The bones were partially covered in skins that resembled rotting leaves, the legs spattered in black ichor to the knee. Horns were lowered to the grass as they charged, jaws open in rictus grins. They were buffalo, Gabe realized. Or what remained of buffalo, reformed and reanimated in some deadly familiar alchemical process.Whatever they were, they were heading right for him.Gabe swore. He had to get out of the way or be trampled. He pocketed the mirror and ran as fast as he could through the burning grasses, perpendicular to their approach. He’d almost succeeded in getting clear of them when a buffalo clipped him and he bounced, hard, into a ditch.  He dragged himself, gasping, to his feet, to find a wretched stench washing over him and a black eye staring at him—the eye of the black toad. The toad smelled of putrified meat in a forgotten slaughterhouse in the summer, and its loose skin sloughed audibly as it moved.“What are you?” Gabe asked, though he was afraid to know.“I am death,” the toad reassured him. It flicked its tongue out at him, and the black slime slipped down Gabe’s face. The toad burbled in laughter. “And you. You will belong to me when the phoenix is defeated. You will be one of my footsoldiers when this is through, when death rules this land.”Gabe’s eyes narrowed. He had seen great evil before, many times. But this thing was beyond a facile explanation of evil. It was a living personification of the fermentation process, the spirit of rot and dismantling living things to their core. The phoenix might burn everything it touched with the purity of fire, but the toad would rule it in slow decomposition. Gabe’s fingers slid to his pocket, to the mirror.   The toad turned away, plunging after the buffalo. The phoenix descended from the sky, lighting in the field with a contentious shriek. Buffalo raced toward it. Like a toreador, the bird flicked its wings toward them, blackening bones that charged it, sizzling ichor, until the buffalo paled to ash and disintegrated. But there was a herd, and they kept coming. The reanimated buffalo made no sound as they assaulted the fire, splintering and stampeding toward the bird that flitted just out of reach, taunting them with the veil of its wings. Gabe pulled out the mirror. Now that the embodiment of death was on the field, he should plunge in now, while the bird was distracted, and the glitter of the mirror might catch its eye.The phoenix drew itself into the air with two powerful beats of its wings, out of reach of buffalo horns. But that didn’t deter the toad. It leapt up into the air and clamped its jaws down on the phoenix’s burning tailfeathers, dragging it back down to earth and the hooves of the buffalo. The toad and the phoenix fizzled sharply as they wrestled, and the air shimmered with the smell of burnt rubber.Now was his chance. Gabe had taken two steps toward the fray when he heard a plaintive coyote howl, back from the direction of the tree and wrecked vehicles. The howl was full of eerie sorrow, as if it petitioned the heavens for mercy.Sig. And Petra.Heart hammering in his chest, Gabe turned and ran toward the howl.


About the Author:
Laura Bickle grew up in rural Ohio, reading entirely too many comic books out loud to her favorite Wonder Woman doll. After graduating with an MA in Sociology – Criminology from Ohio State University and an MLIS in Library Science from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, she patrolled the stacks at the public library and worked with data systems in criminal justice. She now dreams up stories about the monsters under the stairs, also writing contemporary fantasy novels under the name Alayna Williams.
Her work has been included in the ALA’s Amelia Bloomer Project 2013 reading list and the State Library of Ohio’s Choose to Read Ohio reading list for 2015-2016.
Website: http://www.laurabickle.com/
Newsletter sign up: http://eepurl.com/cOxHJr
Twitter: http://twitter.com/Laura_Bickle
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Author.Laura.Bickle
Instagram: http://instagram.com/laura.bickle/

***** Some secrets are meant to stay buried. *****

Trudy Hicks Ghost Hunter
Case One -The Deceit
Trudy Hicks Ghost Hunter
Book One
Lori Zaremba

Genre: Paranormal Mystery

Publisher: Limitless Publishing

Date of Publication: 2/12/2019

Number of pages: 337
Word Count: 78500

Book Description

My job? I hunt ghosts. Not to prove they exist—because I already know they do—but to figure out why they’re still here.

My first big case leads me to a mansion on the Chicago Gold Coast, the previous home of a wealthy socialite who lived there until she accidentally fell to her death in 1927.

I’ve never been this determined—and excited—to solve a case like this one before. Pity I’m forced to work alongside a man whose sole purpose is to debunk paranormal activity. But the worst part? He’s gorgeous, and the more we work together, the more I realize I might be falling for him.

Together we’re delving deeper and deeper into the spiritual world. But the more secrets we uncover, the more pissed off these ghosts become; and that’s when I start to realize…we might be in way over our heads.

https://amzn.to/2GfHoti

#NewRelease #PNR #paranormalromance #Books #BookWorm #GreatReads #Mystery #paranormalmystery #trudyhicks #ghosthunter
#MustRead #WhatToRead #eBook #BookBuzz #AuthorRT

New Release: Bad Moon by Shyla Colt

***** We're all a little wild *****

Bad Moon
Bad Duology
Book 2
Shyla Colt

What would you do to save the one you loved?

Werewolf, Joss Weber has played the role of Moon Maiden for the White Creek Pack since she was nine. Bullied, belittled, and forced to obey their strange practices, she’d endured to keep her mother alive. As the dawn of a new era approaches, the needs of the many begin to outweigh her own desires.

An apocalypse is looming, and her choices will determine the end of the world or the re-birth of the supernatural hierarchy. Bound to her mate, vampire elder Kazimir, and pack member Isiah Eberstark, she’s trapped in a perpetual tug-o-war.

Sacrifices must be made, and the costs are higher than she ever imagined.

www.shylacolt.net

https://amzn.to/2SeC2Ef

#Paranormal #UrbanFantasy #Books #BookWorm #GreatReads
#MustRead #WhatToRead #eBook #BookBuzz #AuthorRT
#BookMarketing #BadMoonDuology #ShylaColt #BadMoon #BookBoost

A Bewitching Wednesday

WIP it Real Good: Author Lori Zaremba shares from Case Three - The Hex, a paranormal mystery #bewitchingbooktours http://ow.ly/pWm130nWiHM

Phoenix Falling by Laura Bickle: Book Tour Spotlight #bewitchingbooktours http://ow.ly/9kIv30nWiDQ

Palace of Ghosts by Thomas S. Flowers #paranormalthriller #thriller #paranormal #bewitchingbooktours http://ow.ly/2vrg30nWiCZ

Virtual Book Tour: Heart of the Storm by Debbie Peterson #bewitchingbooktours http://ow.ly/VKlg30nVpq6

***** We’re all a little wild *****
Bad Moon by Shyla Colt
What would you do to save the one you loved?
https://amzn.to/2SeC2Ef
#Paranormal #UrbanFantasy #Books #BookWorm #GreatReads
#MustRead #WhatToRead #eBook #BookBuzz #AuthorRT
#BookMarketing #BadMoonDuology #ShylaColt #BadMoon

**** New Release *****
Phoenix Falling: A Wildlands Novel Book Five by Laura Bickle
In the Yellowstone backcountry, a merciless source of evil carries a torch for the past… https://amzn.to/2I6gcz7
#Wildlands #WildlandsNovels #LauraBickle #UrbanFantasy #Horror #PNR #weirdwest #yellowstone #alchemy #darkfantasy #paranormalfantasy #BookWorm #GreatReads #wildlandsseries #MustRead #WhatToRead #eBook #BookBuzz #AuthorRT #BookBoost

***** Some secrets are meant to stay buried. *****
Trudy Hicks Ghost Hunter Case One -The Deceit by Lori Zaremba
Genre: Paranormal Mystery
https://amzn.to/2GfHoti
#NewRelease #PNR #paranormalromance #Books #BookWorm #GreatReads #Mystery #paranormalmystery #trudyhicks #ghosthunter
#MustRead #WhatToRead #eBook #BookBuzz #AuthorRT

Sign up & receive a free ecopy of Bewitching Brews & Devilish Desserts plus receive Halloween news, DIYs and Halloween How To's, decorating ideas, party planning tips, product reviews, event spotlights & giveaway announcements. https://bit.ly/2PRHKIi #bewitchingbrews #Halloween

Palace of Ghosts by Thomas S. Flowers - Book Tour + Giveaway
http://bookreviewsbyjasmine.blogspot....

Trudy Hicks Ghost Hunter Case One -The Deceit Trudy Hicks Ghost Hunter Book One Lori Zaremba #bewitchingbooktours http://ow.ly/sSAe30nVpBn

From War to Pen Learning to Live with PTSD - Guest Blog by Thomas S. Flowers

There’s this quote from Michael Herr in his book, Dispatches, that struck a chord with me some years after getting out of the Army. I was taking night classes for my BA in History and one of said classes was on the Vietnam War in Film. Herr says:
“I keep thinking about all the kids who got wiped out by seventeen years of war movies before coming to Vietnam to get wiped out for good. You don’t know what a media freak is until you’ve seen the way a few of those grunts would run around during a fight when they knew that there was a television crew nearby; they were actually making war movies in their heads, doing little guts-and-glory Leatherneck tap dances under fire, getting their pimples shot off for the networks. They were insane, but the war hadn’t done that to them. Most combat troops stopped thinking of the war as an adventure after their first few firefights, but there were always the ones who couldn’t let that go, these few who were up there doing numbers for the cameras… We’d all seen too many movies, stayed too long in Television City, years of media glut had made certain connections difficult” (Dispatches, 1977).
Herr was a war correspondent for Esquire magazine who sadly passed away in 2016. What he saw during those gut-and-glory days he eventually wrote about in 1977, nearly ten years following the events that took place in the book. It’s an interesting notion, that some things take time to process. If you haven’t had the chance to read his work, you need to. It’s very thought provoking. He’s also the mastermind behind most of the narration of Apocalypse Now and the script for Full Metal Jacket—not exactly what you’d call pro-war movies. The reason why I quoted the above statement of Herr’s is because I feel it sums up my own feelings regarding my experiences in the Iraq War, OIF (Operation Iraqi Freedom), and learning to live with those memories today and learning how to express them. Allow me to explain.
There seems to be a surge of “war stories” finding their way into the media nowadays. I’m in no way saying this is a bad thing; I wish there were more veteranwriters. However, I’m somewhat suspicious when I see books marketed as “another action-packed heroic tale of contemporary military service.” Such as from a Navy Seal’s perspective or some high ranked officer sharing their “retelling” of command with low fidelity storytelling. I’m not trying to be quip here, nor am I trying to call out any one individual or author. What I am trying to call out is similar to what Herr stated in the quote shared above. There seems to be this carnivorous appetite for war stories, but not war as it really is, rather war from a heroic narrative, or worse, war stories where soldiers are nothing more than pawns in a Mad Hatter’s political chess game. I feel these kinds of stories are for people who do not have a genuine interest in the reality of war from the perspective of, say, Joe-Shmoe from Littlerock, Arkansas. These kinds of stories are for people who want to be entertained, not enlighten to the cruel banality of combat and every broken soul that comes when one person begets violence upon another living person.
Those war movies, the ones where soldiers live high adventure lives…they didn’t tell or show you the other stuff. The feeling that comes when someone is trying to take your life. And the feeling of taking a life. Aiming your rifle into a car, looking into the eyes of  a father or brother, someone’s son and the terrified expression of the woman sitting next to them, or the kids in the backseat, but you squeeze the trigger anyways because they could very well be driving a car bomb into your convoy, trying to kill you and your brothers and sisters.  


I signed up for the U.S. Army in Sept 2001 and was honorably discharged in February 2008. Roughly seven years of service, including three tours in Iraq, 2003-2004, 2004-2005, and finally 2006-2007. The last tour was probably the hardest, not only was my deployment extended for the great 2007 Iraq War troop surge (Operation Arrowhead, I think), but my squad were involved in more combat engagements than in any of my previous two tours, and on top of that, I had someone other than my parents waiting for me at home. 
My wife and I had just met a few months before I deployed. She stayed with me the entire deployment. We wrote dozens of letters to each other, we chatted on the phone and on the internet, when circumstances made it possible. She supported me, with more than just care packages, but by giving me focus, reminding me that I was more than just a soldier. I had someone waiting for me. Someone I needed to live for. It’s a sad fact of war, that its easiest when you feel like your life is disposable. The moment it’s not, well…things become complicated. Being away from her was the hardest thing I’ve ever done. 
Let me say, I don’t mean to sound callous towards my parents, I love my parents very much, but with my wife it was different. For the first time, I couldn’t imagine myself dying and not being afraid. Not just for the circumstance (bodily suffering) but for the recompense of leaving her behind (emotional suffering). I didn’t want to die. I didn’t want to be robbed of this imagined life we could’ve had together. I didn’t want to lose that. And I didn’t want her to suffer for my loss.
I struggled with these emotions every day and a buried them. I buried them because you can’t dwell on that shit when you’re in the shit. You have to focus on the day to day, on the mission. Never considering the consequences of what happens to all that emotion, rage, anger, despair, terror, fear when the mission is over and your back home living that dream.When I got out of the Army in 2008, I didn’t have a plan. I was burnt out with deployments—having already served three tours in Iraq and ready to start a new life with my soon to be wife, Kaia. I wanted that. I wanted my American Dream. But I struggled. And for a long time, I didn’t know how to deal with it. I sought help from the VA and was turned away, told I had nothing to worry about, just a bad case of “separation anxiety.” I never went back. I figured I was alone in this fight. No one cared. Just my wife and family. So, I kept myself busy, kept my thoughts focused on tasks and projects. Night school kept me busy for a few years, but once I graduated, I needed to occupy that time with something. Sitting around with nothing but my thoughts…no, I couldn’t do that. It would kill me. So—I wrote. It came naturally. I had penned a few short stories back in the day, even did poetry here and there on deployment, but nothing I was willing to share with anyone, under any circumstance. Well…except for maybe in death, because if I was dead then I guess I couldn’t really do much about someone reading my stuff.  

In 2008, after being pushed by family to do the college thing, I finally agreed. I’m glad I did. College helped with more than just furthering my career. Slowly, through the course from 2008-2014, I began to open up and write about my experiences in Iraq. I didn’t really want to at first, again, back to the “glamorization of war,” I feared any attempt to recount my experience would be a cheapening of it, a cheapening of other veteran’s experiences by attempting to sell my own. I didn’t want to do that, but I felt drawn to write something.
My first attempt was during a creative writing class into my second semester at San Jacinto Community College. The assignment was to write a short narrative story, so I wrote, “There will be Ghosts.” From there I dove head first into fiction-writing. I began a little science-fiction piece which never came to fruition, and probably never will. I consider these first works to be a learning curve, not something I’d want to see published. A dabbling, if you will, in the creative cosmos, finding my voice and all that fun stuff. When I transferred to the University of Houston-Clear Lake to finish my degree, I had to put my fictional writing on the back burner and focus almost exclusively on my history studies. While this may seem like a setback, I do not see it that way. In fact, I believe these years hardnosed historical study gave me an element lacking in my previous fictional-writing attempts. Dedicating myself to my studies gave me a depth I wouldn’t have been able to include in my work otherwise. My studies focused on 20th century Germany, namely the Weimar Republic and Nazi Germany. I also took Vietnam War history classes, Texas history, and a class on the Civil Rights Movement, each class taught from the ground-up. This is a somewhat relative new way of teaching history. Traditionally, history is taught from the top, that is, from famous generals and presidents or other such impressive folk. From the bottom-up, history is taught from the Joe-Shmoe perspective, the everyday lives of everyday people. It was fantastic. A new way of looking at our world and the people that fill it by giving them relevance. And in turn, made me believe that perhaps my story had relevance. In 2014, I graduated from the University of Houston-Clear Lake with a Bachelor of Arts in History…now what?

Suddenly I found this huge pocket of empty space. My mandatory studies were over. I had nothing to keep my mind focused. And as I said before, unable to focus on something forced me to dwell on shit that shouldn’t be dwelt on. I decided to get back to fictional writing as a means to keep my mind busy, keep me sane, and present a challenge. I wrote two short stories soon after graduating. “Hobo: a horror short story,” and “Are you hungry, dear?” Both are of the horror genre. And before you ask, “why horror,” let me be brief and just say that I’ve always been a fan of horror and dark fiction, ever since my big sister let me watch “Night of the Living Dead” one Friday night. And even before then, I read Goosebumps and then grew into Stephen King. It made sense for me to gravitate to the genre that I felt most comfortable. And besides, horror gives us the most honest and straightforward medium for social commentary…sometimes we need that ugly non-decorum.
While these shorts were fun, they also gave me some traction toward my first full-length novel, Reinheit.
Reinheit was published originally under Booktrope’s horror imprint Forsaken, and now currently resides with Shadow Work Publishing. The story was, to be frank, the most serious thing I’ve ever written at that point in my writing career, other than my wedding vows of course. But let me be clear, this was not my “Iraq War” piece, though, as a writer you have to draw emotion from somewhere, and it would seem a lot of my emotion still streams from my experiences in Iraq. I think some of that bled into Reinheit. As for the story, I tapped into my history education and focused on Nazi Germany. I didn’t want this to be just a historical fiction piece, I wanted to say something about some of the issues going on in 2014, in the media, and on social websites, such as Facebook. The total disregard of looking at people as simply that, people. Reinheit drew from real history, but the story was really about the here and now. A school teacher dealing with an abusive husband, an SS officer pushing himself to carry out his ghastly orders, a thug of a husband who views the world from a very narrow hall, an old man looking for redemption, and of course, a curious armchair with a very dark purpose.

While penning Reinheit, I was able to further develop my “writers voice.” When you read a lot, which is a must if you want to write, you kind of take on the voice of the authors you are reading. You need to write to chisel away all those voices, and hopefully find your own in the process. I think this is intended to be an ongoing thing. The more you chisel, the more defined your voice becomes, until maybe reaching some point when your aged and withered and giving lectures to a new generation of writers. Reinheit helped define my own voice and gave me the necessary encouragement to tap into my fears—my PTSD—my suffering and vulnerability. The ugliness I have inside. And expose it for readers to read in the form of storytelling. And so, I’m still writing. Still struggling to capture those buried emotions. I’ve found it therapeutic writing about all this, the people I’ve seen get hurt and the people I’ve hurt. Yes, in fictional stories, but for those who know—those who’ve been there, the fiction is all too real. My latest book, Palace of Ghosts , is my recent conjuring of the memories that have been buried too long. Here I am, ten years since the war and still struggling. But the struggles are being managed better, and I know I have a voice. The pen is my medicine.
Again, I cannot write heroic, though I know a lot of whom I consider to be heroic. I don’t want to pass the war off as some grand adventure. I want to rip the decorum off war, the shininess of it. I want to bring audiences into the preverbal trenches of “All Quiet on the Western Front.” I want to bring an air of hardnosed poetry as Philip Larkin had done for his own generation with his masterpiece, “MCMXIV.” And above all this, I want to be direct and honest, no matter how difficult or depressing that may be. Even for myself, rehashing brutal memories. Pages on real, raw, and utterly difficult subjects. While hopefully still entertainingto read, because of the relationships between characters and the situations they find themselves, but not solely to entertain, but to discuss the reality of war and living with the memory of war. I want to talk about PTSD, anger, war-guilt, and suicide because these are discussions that need to happen by getting away from the myth of supermen and the disconnect of high-adventure combat by focusing on the naked ugliness of it and how we can live with those memories through expression…and the sad gut punching fact that many veterans cannot live with the memories of war…
While there will always be “those” books that do not give much substance to the echoes of war, I’ve been seeing more and more veteran writers coming forward from the trenches, unabashed by unrepentant honesty. BRAVO! There was a Vanity Fair article called, “The Words of War” that included a few of these up and coming writers of poetry, novels, and screenplays. I felt encouraged reading it. Hell, I still do. Seeing fellow veterans picking up the pen and expressing themselves. I’m proud to be part of this “Lost Generation,” for as Elliot Ackerman, one of the veteran writers mentioned in the article, puts it, “it might have been better to be part of the ‘Lost Generation’ than the lost part of a generation.”
Palace of Ghosts
Thomas S. Flowers
Genre: Paranormal Thriller
Publisher: Shadow Work Publishing
Date of Publication: March 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-988819-14-3ASIN: B07NTQWWQG
Number of pages: 275Word Count: 62K
Cover Artist: Luke Spooner
Tagline: Evil resides in Amon Palace. Something worse came to visit.
Book Description:
Four veterans of the Iraq War seeking a cure for Post-Traumatic-Stress Disorder arrive at a notoriously haunted house in the bogs of Galveston Island called Amon Palace.
Samantha Green, a friendless former Army K-9 handler looking for a way to put her loss behind her.
Brad Myers, a lighthearted former Military Police Officer severally wounded in war wanting nothing more than a good night’s sleep.
Andy Lovejoy, an overweight light spoken drone operator who once watched the war from above now questions who he has become.
Marcus Pangborn, a headstrong Marine who desperately wants a dead friend’s forgiveness.
The group joins Doctor Frederick Peters, an experimental psychologist looking to prove his exposure theory hypothesis, and his two assistants, Tiffany Burgess and Dexter Reid.
At first, their stay seems to conjure nothing more than spooky encounters with inexplicable phenomena. But Amon Palace is gathering its powers—and soon it will reveal that these veterans are not who they seem.
Amazon
Palace of GhostsBy Thomas S. FlowersChapter 1        Missing Persons
Detective Carter studied the man across the table through the smoky haze of stale cigarettes. He paid close attention to any clue that could give away some other reasonable explanation than the insanity that had just been confessed. Manila envelopes and folders spread out before him, containing recent photographs and reports of what remained of the old mansion out in the bogs on Galveston Island by Boddeker Road. The fire was substantial to say the least, leaving only skeletal remnants of charred stone and soot of what was once a magnificent estate. And among the destruction spread out on the table in interrogation room 2B, six separate missing persons reports. Reaching down, he switched off the recorder, flipped the tape and resumed the interview.  “Maybe we should throw you back in holding for another twenty-four hours—see if that gets you to start talking reasonably,” Carter’s partner, Detective Harley Warren, growled. He walked around the room and stood behind the suspect. He leaned close to his ear and whispered, “What you’re giving us, Doc—well, we ain’t buying it. I think maybe you’re a shit liar and can’t come up with a more realistic story. You want to know what I think? I think maybe you did something to your patients. Maybe you lost your temper and—" he made a slicing motion with his thumb across his neck.  Squinting against the harsh fluorescent light above them, Carter focused on the suspect’s reaction. But all he saw was more of the same. The suspect propped his head up with his elbows on the table, rubbing his temples, eyes closed. “I’ve told you what happened, I know its hard to believe, but—” “Hard to believe? I’d say this was all a waste of our time.” Warren stood but remained behind the suspect. “There are six people missing—six, don’t you think their families deserve closure? Just tell us where the bodies are and then we’ll let you go see the wizard, get your own personal padded cell.” The suspect scoffed. “Missing? They aren’t missing—they were taken, but long before coming to Amon Palace. Whatever happened to them happened in Iraq.”Warren made a face. “Again with this crazy bullshit.”“Its not bullshit—I’m telling you what happened, you simply don’t want to listen. The suspect glanced behind him, speaking to Warren directly. Warren waved him off. “Fancy talk, Doc. But where does it leave us? I’ll tell you, I think you just scored a free ride to the insane asylum. Three hots and a cot, you’ll be living like a king while the parents of the people you killed suffer. All because you’re too chicken shit to tell us what really happened.” The suspect looked into his palms and said, mostly to himself, “Insane? Maybe I am insane—God, I wish I was.”Carter cleared his throat. “Okay, Doctor Peters, let’s take it slow. Let’s see if we got this straight. What you’re telling us is that you put together this group from patients you were treating at the VA hospital, right? “Correct,” Peters nodded. “An experiment in exposure therapy.”“Jesus Christ, don’t you think these vets have gone through enough without you playing around with their heads?” Warren barked. “I was trying to help them!” Peters cried.“Sure you were—sounds like you were trying to help your own career, if you ask me,” Warren quipped. Carter held up a hand, glancing up at Warren, gesturing for him to ease off. Warren rolled his eyes but said nothing else. “Okay, Doctor. So, you put together this group for a week at Amon Palace?” Carter asked. Rubbing his temples again, Peters said, “I’ve told you all of this already. Yes, I acquired special permission from Mrs. Driscoll. She allowed me use of her estate to conduct the week-long experiment.” “Mrs. Driscoll? As in Elizabeth Driscoll, daughter of John Driscoll?”“Yes, and niece of Sir Christopher Driscoll.”Carter glanced up at Warren. Noticing the exchanged expression, Peters asked, “Why?”Carter shifted in his seat and looked Peters straight in the face, bracing for the reaction that would come. “Elizabeth Driscoll has been dead now for over thirty years. The estate passed on to another member of the family who had never bothered to do anything with it. Amon Palace has been abandoned since the 1980s.” As if on cue, Peters’s hand dropped to the table. His eyes shot wide. “What?” he whispered. Carter nodded, “Whoever you talked with—if anyone, it wasn’t Elizabeth Driscoll.” “That can’t be possible,” Peters stammered. “Let’s assume for now that whoever it was you spoke with, you believed it to be Elizabeth Driscoll,” Carter said, scribbling gibberish in his notebook, a trick he’d used a dozen times with perps. They see him writing something down after getting the rug swept under them and get nervous. And with jittery nerves come mistakes. “Can’t be—I spoke with her…” Peters went on, glancing at the notebook, whispering to himself. He looked up suddenly, “What about the Andersons?”Carter frowned. “Who?”“Marge and John Anderson.”“Are you saying there were others?”“There should be—they were the caretakers hired by Miss Driscoll.”Exhaling, Carter said, “Amon Palace has no caretakers—at least none on record.” He flipped through some of the folders on the table. “And there have been no bodies recovered as of yet at the crime scene.”Peters resumed rubbing his temples. “They have to be there, she hired them to take care of the estate. I spoke with both on more than one occasion. And I saw them both on the night of the fire…they were in the house.”Warren stepped forward and slammed his fist on the table beside Peters, filling the room with a loud pang as he shouted, “Don’t you understand what we’re saying? The woman you supposedly talked with doesn’t exist and there were no caretakers! Which means your story is total fucking bullshit!”Peters flinched. “Okay, Doctor,” Carter prodded on, “you brought this group in for an experiment. And then what, spooky encounters start happening—are you telling us that Amon Palace is haunted?”Warren scoffed. He stood back now, leaning against the wall with his arms folded across his barrel chest.Smiling, Peters said, “Go ahead and laugh, I understand. I didn’t believe either, not at first. Haunted by some specter or specters or demonically possessed? That would be the real question. Those familiar with parapsychology—of which I am not; I’m paraphrasing here from what I’ve read—almost all cases with reports of hauntings, psychic invasions, and the like, all bear a strong parallel to our experiences within Amon Palace. Cold spots, slamming of doors or banging on walls by some unknown; unseen force, retrocognition—and yet, according to documents published by the Vatican, hauntings such as these sometimes serve as the first manifestation of an entity ultimately bent on demonic possession. According to said article, odors of human excrement or rotting eggs, sulfur can be a characteristic clue of demonic infestation.”More laughing from Warren. “As I said, laugh if it makes you feel better. But what would you find more incredible, that Amon Palace is; was indeed possessed, or at the very least haunted, or that we all somehow shared the same hallucinations and grotesque misinterpretations of fact?” Carter leaned back in his chair, pondering the possibility.Warren jabbed Peters with a finger. “If what you’re saying is even true—we only have your statement to go off of. Convenient, wouldn’t you say, Doctor?”   Peters shook his head, “Certainly not convenient for Samantha Green, Brad Myers, Marcus Pangborn, Tiffany Burgess, or Dexter Reid.”Warren wound up as if he was about to punch Peters. “Okay, okay,” Carter offered his hands again, urging his partner to cool down. “You bring your experimental exposure group to Amon Palace and everyone starts seeing things—but didn’t you say you wanted them to see this weird stuff? Triggers, you called them, right?” “The idea—the experiment,” Peters exhaled, glancing sideways at Warren, “was for them to spend a week unplugged from the rest of the world. No phones. No TV. No internet. Completely isolated in an unfamiliar and potentially stressful environment that could possibly trigger certain responses. At the time, I did not believe Amon Palace was truly haunted. Exposure therapy works by triggering patients, forcing them to confront buried trauma. But this was supposed to be a place where I could safely monitor their conditions. There have been cases before, therapeutic exposure experiments that have gone awry. I’m sure you have heard of the former Navy Seal whose post-service time was spent helping veterans with PTSD. He would take them to gun ranges, a known trigger for many soldiers returning from war. The idea is the same—to help patients with PTSD face trauma in order to heal. On one occasion, he had taken a veteran out who had been struggling significantly. The veteran snapped. And in the end, he shot and killed his would-be therapist and his friend. He was sentenced to life in prison without parole. A horrible tragedy with three ruined lives. At Amon Palace I wanted my patients to be able to face the memory of their trauma without the fear of hurting loved ones or themselves. As they began to react to the suggested belief that Amon Palace was in fact haunted, I would guide them toward projecting what they feared the most—their own unique traumas.”  “Jesus Christ,” Warren quipped again.Carter silenced his partner with a hand. “So, the experiment was designed for them to react to being locked up in a creepy mansion under the pretense that the house was haunted, and it worked?”Peters nodded, tears brimming his eyes. “And I confess, I pushed them—more than I should have.”Carter leaned forward, he could sense they were finally getting somewhere. “What do you mean, pushed?” Looking up, tears now trickling down his face, he said, “Hypnosis.” “Hypnotherapy? You put them in a suggestive state when they were already under duress?”“Under duress? No—they volunteered!”“Only because you promised a cure—didn’t you?”“And it would have worked too…but they weren’t who I thought they were—they changed into something horrible.”Carter sneered, tired of this interrogation, tired of the lies and wild fantasies. “And why didn’t it work, Doctor? Did your little hypothesis backfire? Did you have visions of your career burning so you decided to burn everything else? Did you kill them?”   “NO!”“THAN WHAT HAPPENED?”“THEY WERE TAKEN!”Carter shook his head, the feeling of defeat sinking in and the weariness of this prolonged interrogation taking a toll. “Taken? Where, Doctor—and by whom?”

About the Author:
Thomas S. Flowers is an Operation Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom Army veteran who loves scary movies, BBQ, and coffee. Ever since reading Remarque’s "All Quiet on the Western Front" and Stephen King’s "Salem’s Lot" he has inspired to write deeply disturbing things that relate to war and horror, from the paranormal to his gory zombie infested PLANET of the DEAD series, to even his recent dabbling of vampiric flirtation in The Last Hellfighter readers can expect to find complex characters, rich historical settings, and mind-altering horror. Thomas is also the senior editor at Machine Mean, a horror movie and book review site that hosts contributors in the horror and science fiction genre.
PLANET of the DEAD and The Last Hellfighter are best-sellers on Amazon's Top 100 lists for Apocalyptic Fiction and African American Horror.
You can follow Thomas and get yourself a FREE eBook copy of FEAST by joining his newsletter. Sign up by vising his website at www.ThomasSFlowers.com
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New Release: Bad Moon by Shyla Colt #NewRelease #PNR

***** We're all a little wild *****
Bad MoonBad DuologyBook 2Shyla Colt
What would you do to save the one you loved?
Werewolf, Joss Weber has played the role of Moon Maiden for the White Creek Pack since she was nine. Bullied, belittled, and forced to obey their strange practices, she’d endured to keep her mother alive. As the dawn of a new era approaches, the needs of the many begin to outweigh her own desires.
An apocalypse is looming, and her choices will determine the end of the world or the re-birth of the supernatural hierarchy. Bound to her mate, vampire elder Kazimir, and pack member Isiah Eberstark, she’s trapped in a perpetual tug-o-war.
Sacrifices must be made, and the costs are higher than she ever imagined.
Amazon
www.shylacolt.net

A Bewitching Wednesday

Guest Blog: Phoenix Falling by Laura Bickle (@Laura_Bickle, @RoxanneRhoads, @HarperVoyagerUS) #bewitchingbooktours http://ow.ly/yxnB30nQVs1

Heart of the Storm by Debbie Peterson #bewitchingbooktours http://ow.ly/WbrM30nQVqw

With Love From London: Voyages of the Heart Volume 1 #bewitchingbooktours http://ow.ly/UlkC30nQVwS

Child of Mine The Masonville Series Book One by Jana Richards Virtual Book Tour and Giveaway #bewitchingbooktours http://ow.ly/PUHI30nQVo0

PHOENIX FALLING - A Wildlands Novel Book Five by Laura Bickle -- The critically acclaimed author of Nine of Stars and Witch Creek, returns with a fiery new chapter in her celebrated Wildlands series. #bewitchingbooktours http://ow.ly/WHfX30nQVtP

Child of Mine by Jana Richards #smalltownromance #bewitchingbooktours http://ow.ly/iD5B30nQVjG

WITH LOVE FROM LONDON: VOYAGES OF THE HEART VOLUME 1 #bewitchingbooktours http://ow.ly/B7rL30nQVvi

Child of Mine by Jana Richards #bewitchingbooktours http://ow.ly/Ilsl30nQVn2

**** New Release *****
Phoenix Falling: A Wildlands Novel Book Five by Laura Bickle
In the Yellowstone backcountry, a merciless source of evil carries a torch for the past… https://amzn.to/2I6gcz7
#Wildlands #WildlandsNovels #LauraBickle #UrbanFantasy #Horror #PNR #weirdwest #yellowstone #alchemy #darkfantasy #paranormalfantasy #BookWorm #GreatReads #wildlandsseries #MustRead #WhatToRead #eBook #BookBuzz #AuthorRT

***** New Release *****
Stanley and Hazel: The Winnowing by Jo Schaffer
Darkness descends over St. Louis, a city already rocked by the Great Depression. More and more people are disappearing, and some have turned up dead. https://amzn.to/2GvJpAY
#HistoricalFiction #HisFic #StanleyandHazel #Mystery #Murder #thegreatdepression #Stlouis

Join the Release Party for In Search of a Witch’s Soul by D. Lieber
Tuesday, March 5, 2019 at 11 AM – 1 PM
https://www.facebook.com/events/24834...

Heart of the Storm by Debbie Peterson Virtual Book Tour and Giveaway
http://3partnersinshopping.blogspot.c...

Child of Mine The Masonville Series Book One by Jana Richards Virtual Book Tour and Giveaway
http://3partnersinshopping.blogspot.c...

With Love From London: Voyages of the Heart Volume 1

With Love From London
Voyages of the Heart
Volume 1

Cover Designer: T.E. Black Designs

Release Date: 2/14/2019


Genre: Muti-genre Romance
Publisher: Royalty Writes Enterprises
Date of Publication: February 14, 2019
ASIN: B07MDSY7Z3

Number of pages: about 460
Series Description:
Cities around the world have their own charming allure that pulls you in to enjoy all its secrets. They offer love, passion, laughter, healing and even heartbreak that each author pens for you one page at a time. Pack your luggage and join our authors on their voyages of the heart. Our first destination: London.
Book Description:
With Love From London
When the smoke clears, romance fills the pages leading you straight into the worlds created by VOTH’s authors. The sights are unknown. What will be revealed is a mystery. The only promise on this voyage of love is that we’ve sealed each story with a kiss of passion that entices you to come back for more. Bring your passport and enjoy the guided tour through London’s paved way into your hearts.
Amazon
Authors:

Alyssa Drake | Amy Allen | Amy Cecil | Ashlee Shades | Autumn Sand | Bella Emy | Brian Miller | Carrie Humphrey | Gianna Gabriela | Jade Royal | M.A. Foster | Maria Vickers | Natalie-Nicole Bates| Patricia D. Eddy | Rosie Chapel |Roux Cantrell | S.E. Roberts |Tamsen Schultz
The authors of the Voyages of the Heart Anthology Series come from many romance genres which provide the readers with different experiences all in one book. Each new destination VOTH visits will provide a new and exciting list of authors!

Romance sub-genres may include Paranormal Romance, Contemporary Romance, Military Romance, Happily Ever Afters, Motorcycle Romances, and more. Each book will take you through the different seasons of the year: Winter, Spring, Summer, and Autumn offering their own romantic flare in each city we visit. VOTH will travel to multiple destinations annually warming our hearts along the way.

With Love From London Page Facebook: http://bit.ly/VOTHFB
Facebook Readers Group: http://bit.ly/VOTHReaders
Instagram: http://bit.ly/VOTHIG
Website: http://bit.ly/VOTHAnthology

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New Release Stanley and Hazel: The Winnowing by Jo Schaffer #HistoricalFiction

Stanley and Hazel: The WinnowingStanley and HazelBook TwoJo Schaffer
Genre: Historical Fiction
Publisher: Month9Books
Date of Publication: February 26th, 2019
ISBN: 978-1948671385ASIN: B07K4TGFZY
Number of pages: 280
Cover Artist: AM Design Studios
Book Description:
Darkness descends over St. Louis, a city already rocked by the Great Depression. More and more people are disappearing, and some have turned up dead.  A sinister secret society is putting forward their plan known as “The Winnowing,” designed to wipe out those they consider “undesirable.”
After Stanley and Hazel foil the diabolical plans of Charles Chouteau, they become instant celebrities. Hazel is thrust into the role of debutante, and risks loses herself in it. Meanwhile, Stanley must deal with the horrific tragedy of his best friend’s death while being threatened by the unseen forces of the Veiled Prophet.
With things spiraling out of control, Stanley and Hazel’s relationship is tested, possibly beyond repair. As bodies pile up, people become more desperate. The divide between wealthy and poor grows ever wider, threatening to tear their worlds apart. Now, the two must find a way to work together if there is any hope at all of saving their relationship and their futures.
Amazon


Excerpt: As the song ended, there was a slight disturbance from the far end of the room. Hazel glanced up, and her heart paused.Bananas.Stanley stood in the entrance of the conservatory, tall and suited up, a hard look on his face, one eye almost swollen shut. He was flanked by some of his Knights, looking rough and out of place in suits, smirks on their faces as they scanned the room. It was like Eliot Ness and his Untouchables about to raid.The “good people” of St. Louis stared uneasily and made way as the boys stalked into the room. Hazel sometimes forgot what they must look like to everyone else. They were a tough looking lot, battle scarred, and imposing.The song ended and in the pause before the next one began, Stanley took long strides across the room, toward where Hazel and Gabriel stood, still holding hands.Stanley’s eye twitched. “Heya, Haze.” He tilted his head toward Gabriel. “If it isn't soft slugger trying to get to first base.” His jaw flexed, and he breathed in through his nose, and Hazel knew he was counting to ten.Gabriel released Hazel’s hand and calmly replied, “Good to see you, Fields. You clean up nice.”
About the Author:
Jo Schaffer was born and raised in the California Bay Area in a huge, creative family. She is a YA novelist, speaker and a Taekwondo black belt. She’s a founding member of the nonprofit organization that created Teen Author Boot Camp, one of the nation’s biggest conferences for teens where bestselling authors present writing workshops to nearly a thousand attendees. Jo loves being involved in anything that promotes literacy and family. She is passionate about community, travel, books, music, healthy eating, classic films and martial arts. But her favorite thing is being mom to three strapping sons and a neurotic cat named Hero. They live together in the beautiful mountains of Utah.
www.joschaffer.com
https://www.instagram.com/jojo_schaffer/
https://www.facebook.com/authorjoschaffer/
https://www.facebook.com/jo.seableschaffer
https://twitter.com/AuthorJSchaffer
https://joschaffer.tumblr.com/
https://www.youtube.com/user/Jodagirl
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5299769.Jo_Schaffer
Snapchat: jojoschaffer




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