Maria Hammarblad's Blog, page 35

Cover Reveal for Greenshift by Heidi Ruby Miller

To celebrate the cover reveal for Greenshift, the e-book will be temporarily 99 cents at Amazon!
 

 A tale set within the world of Ambasadora.
  Mari's rare eye color makes her a pariah within Upper Caste society,
which is why she prefers plants to people...except David,
the former Armadan captain who shuttles
scientists around on a refurbished pleasure cruiser.
But someone else is interested in Mari and her distinctive look --
an obsessed psychopath who tortures and murders women for pleasure.
When the killer chooses Mari as his next victim,
the soldier inside David comes alive,
but it is Mari who must fight for her own life
and prove she isn't as fragile as the flowers she nurtures.
Greenshift by Heidi Ruby Miller
Cover Art by Bradley Sharp
Foreword by Dana Marton
Space Opera/Science Fiction Romance paperback coming from Dog Star Books in August 2013

LINKS:Greenshift on AmazonAmbasadora on AmazonHeidi Ruby MillerBradley Sharp Dana Marton Dog Star Books

Don't miss Bewitching Book Tours Sizzling Summer Giveaway!

Right now, Bewitching Book Tours has a Sizzling Summer Giveaway! Entering is easy and the prize packages awesome.

Check this one out, for instance. Win a Kindle Fire and some awesome book swag!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Enter this one to win a package of print books!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

If young adult is your thing, win a book package here!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Enter here to win an awesome package of e-books!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Cover reveal for Operation Earth

Happy day, I can finally show the cover for my upcoming release Operation Earth. I think it's gorgeous. The cover artists at Desert Breeze Publishing are amazing!

Blurb:

Seven billion people on Earth go about their daily lives, and no one is prepared when a global EMP slows the world to a crawl. With all our technology incapacitated, everything changes. Within days alien soldiers line the streets, and life will never be the same. In the midst of chaos, Rachael Hill struggles to adapt to the new order, doing her best to keep herself and her cat alive.

On a ship far above the planet surface, Peter just got his new Earth name, and can’t even remember his identity from the last world he visited. It’s another day on the job, one more planet on a never-ending list. That is, until Rachael bumps into him, dropping exotic objects all around his feet. His culture taught him females should be obeyed and protected, but he never had an urge to leave himself at a woman’s mercy until now.

http://www.desertbreezepublishing.com/operation-earth-epub/

Happy Midsummer! Contests and release day!

There's so much fun stuff going on today I don't know what to talk about first. Let's start with: Happy Midsummer! This is what I would be doing today if I were in Sweden:




What else is happening today? Lots and lots of fun stuff!

Release Day
Today is the release day of Flashback. Another great reason to be happy! The heroine Anna has her own interview today, and this is the first stop on the Flashback book tour.

Free Book
To celebrate the holiday, I'm also giving away free Kindle downloads of Touch of the Goddess.

Summer Giveaway!
Other events I think you might enjoy include the Bewitching Book Tours Sizzling Summer Giveaway! Prizes include a Kindle Fire and awesome book bundles!

Blog Hop!
Can the day get even better? Yes! Check out the SFR Brigade's Midsummer Blog Hop! The theme is Out Of This World, and besides meeting a large number of fantastic writers, the blog hop has a contest with Amazon gift cards, book bundles, and more! My stop on the hop can be found right here.

That's a lot of links in one post, but I want to make sure no one is bored and everyone has something fun to do. ;-)

Enjoy your day, everyone! Happy Midsummer!

SFR Brigade Midsummer Blog Hop - Out Of This World!

Welcome to my stop on the SFR Brigade Midsummer Blog Hop! 

I love Midsummer. In my part of Sweden, the summer solstice is a Big Deal. This day and night is filled with lore and mystique, and the veil between our world and the unknown is thinner than ever.

My imagination loves this time a year. Growing up, I always imagined fairies dancing in the meadows, and I could almost hear Näcken play in any water nearby.

What? You haven't heard of Näcken? He sits on a rock in any flowing water, playing his violin to lure fair maidens to wade over to him. Then, he kills them and steals their souls.

Young me would keep an eye on the sky as well.

At Midsummer, anything might happen, and maybe this would be the night when the aliens finally arrived. I was clearly in the wrong place, on the wrong planet, with the wrong species. Horrible mixup, that. Surely, my real family would arrive from the stars at any time and bring me home!

Adult me still waits for the aliens and wonders what they will be like. By now I'm biased enough by Hollywood to think the good guys might not be the first ones to reach us, but I still hope.

The heroine of my upcoming sci-fi romance Operation Earth (TBR Aug 11) certainly doesn't expect any aliens to arrive. In her world, rain is the only thing that might ever fall from the sky. Boy is she in for a surprise. Check this out:

*****

Rachael's mind couldn't shut the approaching noise out anymore. Something was falling through the air, something heavy, coming fast. The sound caught the attention of the people by their cars as well. She saw someone raise a hand to point, and she followed the man's gaze to the sky.
"What's an EMP?" Melissa asked, and Rachael barely heard her own voice answer, "Electromagnetic Pulse. It destroys anything electronic. A really old car might work, like 1970s vintage and before, but nothing modern."
Anything electronic, such as an airplane, such as the one falling from the sky over their heads.
The woman over by the cars screamed, and the man who had yelled and thrown his phone put his hands on her shoulders in a gesture of comfort.
Strange how people come together in a time of crisis.
"Why doesn't he try to glide?" Ryan's question made sense, but if her theory was right, the poor pilots had no rudder control whatsoever. The plane fell like a stone and hit the ground a few blocks away with an impact that made windows rattle.
Melissa asked, "Should we... go over? See if we can help?"
He shook his head.
"There's no helping them. We should be happy if it doesn't explode and burn the city to the ground."Melissa tucked her hand into her husband's.
At a time like this, it would be nice to be two. I guess Mom was right. It is the end of the world. Oh boy, she's probably terrified, I hope she's okay.
There was no time to mentally digest the plane crash and its implications. A new sound made itself heard; a deep, low humming.
"What's that?" Melissa whimpered.
Where's my cat? Focus on the big picture. Bonbon can take care of herself, probably better than you. Whoever did this isn't through yet.
Ryan’s voice pulled her back to the present.
"It's the whole friggin' house!"
She turned around to see him hold a palm against a wall. Down the street the little group of people backed away from their cars. Rachael swallowed.
"Maybe... Maybe you shouldn't touch it."
Before she could even finish the sentence, a female voice emanated from the structures around them, from the very ground under their feet. It echoed crystal clear, and in a moment of near hysteria, Rachael wondered if the same thing happened all over the world.
"Rejoice, people of Theta Y. My name is June, and I'm happy to declare the time has come to reunite."
*****Before you go off to visit all the other participants in the blog hop, we have a contest with some really sweet prizes. It is open internationally, and definitely worth entering. You can win:
1st prize: $150 Amazon or B&N gift card (winner's choice) and an ebook bundle consisting of Alien Adoration, Dementional, Wytchfire, Ghost Planet, The Iron Admiral, Games of Command, The Key, Once Upon a Time in Space, Winter Fusion, Wither, Clash, Bayne, Maven, Ghost in the Machine, The Telomere Trilogy, Interface, Keir, Terms & Conditions Apply, Stark, The Plan, and Starburst.
2nd prize: $50 Amazon or B&N gift card (winner's choice)
3rd prize: three lucky entries get a $25 Amazon or B&N gift card eacha Rafflecopter giveaway

Visit the other participants:

News and the house hunt

I've been quiet this last week. Sorry 'bout that. Truth is, I'm exhausted. I've been meaning to write a blog post and talk about it, but I haven't had the energy. Ironically funny, right! I think stress is getting to me. It'll be better once we're settled in a new place, I'm sure.

Who knew finding a new place to live could be so difficult? I have my eyes on a lovely house that would be perfect for us. It has everything I want: a yard big enough for my doggies, a nice kitchen, and the house itself is large enough for both my books and hubby's hobbies. We'll see what happens.

I think my husband secretly hopes we won't get it, because he feels comfortable in the area of town we're in. I don't, I really don't. I'm sure this was a nice area in the past, and in his mind it still is. It's close to work and close to stores, but it also has high crime, some very peculiar people, and at night cars drive by playing rap music so loud it wakes me up inside the house.

In my book - no pun intended - an area where people regularly drive down the street at three in the morning, playing music loud enough for me to heart the lyrics inside my bedroom, isn't really nice and quiet.

He doesn't see the area as I do - he drives past it in his car - but I walk along it with the doggies. Some yards have grass tall enough to reach above my knees. Wildlife loves that, of course, and at the evening walks I encounter both snakes and spiders the size of tape rolls. We are in Florida. Anything creepy crawly you can think of, we have it. During the evening walks, I also get to know much too much about the neighbors...

To be fair, many of the residents work hard to keep it nice. They paint their houses, re-do their roofs, and work diligently on their yards. It's just swallowed up so quickly by the ones who don't care. Maybe I'm wrong to want to leave the neighborhood, but honestly, it's not our house and we can't stay in it once the lease runs out. We have to go somewhere. Might as well upgrade, right?

Anyway, enough of the house talk. Every time I feel about to give up, something happens that makes everything worthwhile.  Today, I got a message saying, "I just finished two of your ebooks. They are just what I've been looking for for a long time." Yay! This person just made my day! She'll probably never know how much those sentences mean to me, but to me, it's a message to keep writing, and to keep pushing forward!

What else? Well, some exciting things are coming up in the near future. IE, tomorrow. It's the summer solstice, and to me as a Swede, this is the second biggest holiday of the year. I've taken a day off work, and will most likely sit in the yard with my feet up, celebrating the day through typing. Haha!

June 21 is also:

The release day for my next novel, Flashback.The start of the Flashback blog tour. Coming soon to a blog near you!


Aaand *drumroll* it's the start of the SFR Brigade's summer blog hop! I'll post more information about this tomorrow morning!

The Siah-dhu calls your name! Post and giveaway by Pippa Jay!

The Siah-dhu
We are the darkness in the far reaches of space. We are the shadow on the edge of your vision, the nightmare you cannot quite remember but that leaves you shaking. We are the Siah-dhu, and we want your mind and soul…
Excerpt:
Gethyon.
Not quite a voice, not quite any sound he had ever heard, the Siah-dhu called his name. The roiling mass drew closer. A chill gale blasted over him and snatched all the breath and warmth away, sucking the life out of him.
“No.” The single word snatched him back from the edge. He hadn’t come so far or lost so much to surrender. As the Siah-dhu pulsed toward him intent on his consumption, he forced himself up again and turned his back on the shadows. It was the hardest thing he had ever done, to resist that pull into oblivion. The edges of the black cloud twined around him, incorporeal fingers striving to grasp him, seething forward to swallow him…
The world disappeared.***
The ultimate villain in Gethyon is the Siah-dhu – a dark, amorphous entity like a black cloud, a hive mind made up of many parts in a single mass. It can travel across space with ease and appears to have no weaknesses. Its origin is unknown. Unlike a human, it cannot be bargained or reasoned with. Money, power – physical things have no allure for it. The Siah-dhu seeks just one thing – Gethyon. And once it has him, all that is human about him will cease to exist. Can he escape it? You’ll only know if you read the story.

To celebrate the release of Gethyon, I’m offering this green crystal charm to one lucky person. Enter via the rafflecopter form below, and tell me what you’re most scared of in the comments.










GETHYON
A YA Science Fiction Novel​Released by Champagne Books 3rd June 2013​His father died. His mother abandoned him. In the depths of space, darkness seeks him.
Abandoned by his mother after his father’s death, Gethyon Rees feels at odds with his world and longs to travel the stars. But discovering he has the power to do so leaves him scarred for life. Worse, it alerts the Siah-dhu—a dark entity that seeks his kind for their special abilities—to his existence, and sets a bounty hunter on his trail.

When those same alien powers lead Gethyon to commit a terrible act, they also aid his escape. Marooned on the sea-world of Ulto Marinos, Gethyon and his twin sister must work off their debt to the Seagrafter captain who rescued them while Gethyon puzzles over their transportation. How has he done this? And what more is he capable of?

Before he can learn any answers, the Wardens arrive to arrest him for his crime. Can his powers save him now? And where will he end up next?

BUY LINKS:
BURST - http://burstbooks.ca/product.php?id_p...Kobo - http://www.kobobooks.com/ebook/Gethyo...Amazon UK - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Gethyon-ebook...Amazon US - http://www.amazon.com/Gethyon-ebook/d...Omnilit - https://www.omnilit.com/product-gethy...









Pippa Jay biography: 

A stay-at-home mum of three who spent twelve years working as an Analytical Chemist in a Metals and Minerals laboratory, Pippa Jay bases her stories on a lifetime addiction to science-fiction books and films. Somewhere along the line a touch of romance crept into her work and refused to leave.

Between torturing her characters, she spends the odd free moments trying to learn guitar, indulging in freestyle street dance and drinking high-caffeine coffee. Although happily settled in historical Colchester in the UK with her husband of 20 years, she continues to roam the rest of the Universe in her head.

Her works have won a SFR Galaxy Award, and finaled in the Readers Favorite Award Contest and the Gulf Coast RWA Chapter Silken Sands Self-Published Star Award.


LINKS:
WebsiteEmailBlogGoodreadsTwitterFacebookGoogle+
To celebrate the release of Gethyon, I’m offering this pretty little green crystal charm, open internationally.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Flashback is going on tour!

Beginning next week, on the release date June 21, Flashback and I will visit a blog near you! Bewitching Book Tours has booked a tour with interviews, book spotlights, guest blogs, and reviews. This is always fun! Come say hi to me, I will be here:
June 21 Interview Laurie's Non-Paranormal Thoughts and Reviews  http://lauries-interviews.blogspot.com 
June 24 Spotlight and reviewMommasez...http://ccclubbs.com/
June 25 Guest blogThe Creatively Green Write at Home Momwww.creativelygreen.blogspot.com
June 28 spotlight3 Partners in Shopping, Nana, Mommy, & Sissy, Too!   http://3partnersinshopping.blogspot.com 
July 16 Guest blogSapphyria's Book Reviewswww.saphsbookblog.blogspot.com 
July 23 reviewVampires, werewolves, book reviews...oh my!!Http://www.rosalindhartmann.com
July 24 Spotlight and reviewSun Mountain Reviewshttp://sunmountainreviews.wordpress.com 
Blurb:
Steve Petersen is a Very Troubled Man. Sole survivor of a Taliban POW camp, he often thinks only parts of him returned; his sanity appears to have been left behind. He seeks solace in alcohol and drugs, but nothing helps block the images from his mind for more than minutes at a time, and he is trapped in horrifying flashbacks.

He is more than surprised when he wakes up in a bright and merry bedroom that turns out to belong to the widow Anna, a woman he has rudimentary memories of meeting. Knowing he should leave isn’t the same as doing it, and before he knows what’s happening, he finds himself pulled into a world with real life problems, such as folding laundry, and what’s for dinner.

Whiskey is no longer his first priority, and not being alone in his waking nightmare is a relief. That is, until Anna disappears. Steve finds himself forced to return to Afghanistan, a place where he’ll have to face both external enemies and himself.
   

A beautiful country

Parts of my upcoming novel Flashback takes part in Afghanistan. When I was a little girl, this was one of the first countries I heard about outside Scandinavia, because there was a war. It lasted for a decade (1979-1989) and millions of Afghans fled the country. Hundreds of thousands were killed.

There's a war there now too, of course. The politics behind both are considerably more complicated than they appear at first sight, and definitely too complicated to get into right here and now. Let it suffice to say, it's a fascinating country with an intriguing history. I've always wanted to go there to see what it looks like, but I'm not brave enough. Luckily, writing Flashback gave me an excuse to do some research.

Before I started, I thought the entire country was a big desert with a few mountains and caves. I was wrong. Look at these photos I found. It's beautiful!

Operation Earth - Coming Soon

Operation Earth is a little something I've been working on in the scifi romance department. It will be released by Desert Breeze Publishing August 11.

Seven billion people on Earth go about their daily business, happily unaware of the planet's place in an ancient re-assimilation schedule. When the aliens arrive, they take out all Earth's technology with a single, global EMP blast. Helpless to do anything but comply, the planet slowly settles into a new way of life.

In the midst of all this sits Rachael, torn between the resistance movement and her own curiosity. She nurtures a dangerous secret: a friendship with one of the invaders. As the hostilities between humans and newcomers escalate, the planet appears doomed. Rachael might be the only one able to save life as we know it.