Lizzy Ford's Blog, page 42

Book Feature and Guest Post: “We Can Be Heroes” by Scott Fitzgerald Gray

Please welcome to Lizzyland author Scott Fitzgerald Gray. He’s sharing his novel, “We Can Be Heroes” but before I tell you about his book, here’s a few words from the author himself.

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I think that all of us as writers maintain a strange and wonderful umbilicus of memory that connects us to the people we used to be. Sometimes those lines are strong. We remember the things that hurt us, the things that scarred us, and we tell of those things as a means of healing. Sometimes those lines are subtle and tenuous. A thought comes to mind when sketching out a story. An image works its way into a bit of description and seems familiar somehow. We find ourselves writing character story effortlessly, only to realize that the reason it comes so quickly, so easily, is because we already know these characters. We’ve collected them, along with the trinkets and shards and tokens of every moment that’s ever passed through us.

_We Can Be Heroes_ is a book that’s been a long time in the writing for me. Not in the sense that I labored over it for years and years, knocking off draft after failed draft, but in the sense that the story and I go back a long, long way. The book was written as a kind of homage to my experience of high school, and being a particular kind of fantasy/sci-fi geek and gamer, and developing the core friendships that let me figure out what my life was supposed to look like. It’s a book whose first-person narrator is a kind of Through-the-Looking-Glass version of me as I was in high school, and whose events are detailed as having actually happened — even though they pretty obviously didn’t. But the Inside the Writers’ Studio secret behind the book is that every bit of its fiction is an actual touchstone to my own life. With the exception of some bits of backstory, there’s not a single thing in the book that actually happened as written — but at the same time, the feel of that particular part of my life and the way that feeling layers itself into memory infects every part of the story’s dramatic DNA.

The setting of the book is a kind of impressionist triptych of the rural countryside, the small town, and the high school that defined my adolescence. The characters in the book are gestalt versions of the friends who helped shape my life during the last years of that adolescence. The humor in the book is our humor, and the way that humor inflects the characters’ view of the world is exactly how it shaped our viewpoint a lot of years ago. The brief passages of gaming culture in the book will look real to anyone who’s ever been a gamer, because they are real. The unrequited romance between Scott and almost-girlfriend Molly that underpins the novel’s emotional throughline should feel real to anyone who’s ever suffered through the relationship meatgrinder that high school can be, because that throughline is built on the painfully reconstructed angst of my own inability to ever… actually, never mind about that.

The larger point is that as writers, we tend to collect things without realizing it. Most of us are aware of the conscious ideas, whether simply filed away in our heads or jotted down as rough notes in some form. Books we want to write ourselves. Books we wish other people would write for us. Things we want to know more about but never seem to have the time to study. But above and below that level of conscious creative possibility, all writers collect bits of information and ephemera. Things we know, things we wonder about. Stray thoughts that never manage to percolate up into consciousness, but which embed themselves into the strata foundations of our creativity like layers in the fossil record.

Whether we know it or not, I think that everything we write begins and ends with our own experience. And although much of the time this remains a subconscious process, it’s good to remind ourselves of it once in a while. It’s good to be able to say and acknowledge that the stories at the heart of our own life are worth telling.

Book Description:

I try to focus. I need to bring the previous days into some sort of relief that will let me sum things up.

“Me and some friends of mine, we got caught up in something. We thought we were beta-playing a game. An online tactical simulation, but the game turned out to be… you know what, that doesn’t matter. But none of it was our fault, and now we have something this guy Lincoln wants. A piece of tech. I want to give it back to him, but I can’t trust him to leave things alone after that.”

“What kind of tech?”

“A Soviet-era mobile weapons platform, whose heuristic on-board systems developed advanced artificial intelligence capability while it sat forgotten in a bunker in Smolensk.” Saying it sounds just about as ridiculous as I expect it to.

“I didn’t think you wrote fiction.” Connor tries and fails to laugh. It’s like he has some sort of esophageal deformity that routes all intent to guffaw straight from his lungs to his nose.

“Not fiction. This is the truth…”

Available at Amazon and Insane Angel Studios

Author bio:

Scott Fitzgerald Gray has been flogging his imagination professionally since deciding he wanted to be a writer and abandoning any hope of a real career in about the fourth grade. That was the year that speculative fiction and fantasy kindled his voracious appetite for literary escapism and a love of roleplaying gaming that still drives his questionable creativity. In addition to his fantasy and speculative fiction writing, Scott has dabbled in feature film and television, was a finalist for the Jim Burt Screenwriting Prize from the Writers’ Guild of Canada, and currently consults and story edits on projects ranging from overly obscure indie-Canadian fare to Neill Blomkamp’s somewhat less-obscure _District 9_ and the upcoming _Elysium_.

http://insaneangel.com/

https://www.facebook.com/sfgray

https://plus.google.com/113186072198960441401

https://twitter.com/scottfgray

Book Review: “A Hint of Murder” by Lia Fairchild – intriguing with awesome characters

Time for another review!  Wahoo! 

In Lia Fairchild’s “A Hint of Murder” anthology, the whodunit mystery is taken to a new level.  Fairchild manages suspense like a pro, revealing everything in a way that still left me guessing what exactly the outcome would be.  The stories are short but well-written and intriguing enough that I read all three in one sitting. The clues are all there, and there’s an AHA! moment when the outcome is revealed.  Even I couldn’t figure out who the killer was in two of the stories until the ending.  This, in my humble opinion, is the sign of a great mystery writer: someone who can lay all the cards on the table yet keep the reader guessing and – most importantly – reading.

The anthology consists of three short stories.  The first is about an author who descends into madness.  The second details killings at a hospital, where nearly everyone has a potential motivation to kill.  The third combines the seedy underworld with one of mankind’s oldest motivations to commit murder.  All three stories have red herrings among the suspects, people I really wanted to be the killers but who weren’t.

All three stories also share a common detective team that’s working the cases.  I thought this was a great idea, because there were characters I could take with me from story-to-story and learn more about while I met the flawed people and glimpsed the broken worlds of those involved in the murders.  The detectives, Frank and Lewis, were colorful and unique, and they didn’t fall prey to the stereotypical detectives I’ve read in other books.  I loved their exchanges and how Fairchild portrayed the connection they had from years of working together while maintaining each man’s unique perspectives.  I found myself grinning every time Frank came along in the story.

I have to say that what impressed me most was Fairchild’s ability to frame the events and the mindset of her characters without unnecessary prose.  It’s difficult to create a new world with new characters in a novel let alone in a short story and balance the need for both exposition and brevity.  I suspect Fairchild’s true gift is the economical use of effective words, especially in the creation of her characters.

And I loved her characters, all of them.  Fairchild could bring a character to life with one sentence in a way that made me smile.  Their motivations were unique, their backgrounds diverse and even their word choices in dialogue different.  Not all of them were honorable or decent, but I could connect to each of them.  Even better – I felt like I’d always known all of them, which is rare when I read a book.  There’s usually a cardboard character or two in most books I’ve read whose name I don’t bother to remember, because the character’s addition to the story felt forced or like an afterthought.  I didn’t have that sense in any of these stories. I left the stories feeling as if I’d learned something new about my neighbors of five years.

Aside from Frank, my favorite characters were Alicia – the author – and Bobby – the bouncer.  I was also rooting for Nicole – the crappy nurse – as well, I think because I wanted her to succeed when everyone else wrote her off.

All in all, I highly recommend this one.

Available as an anthology from: Amazon and Amazon UK.

Stories are also available individually from BN: The Writer, The Doctor, The Bouncer

About Lia [taken from her website]

“I am a native Californian who loves reading, writing, movies and anything else related to the arts. Writing is something I’ve thought about all my life, so the completion of my first novel, “In Search of Lucy” is truely satifisfying. I hold a B.A. degree in Journalism and a Multiple Subject Teaching Credential. My most enjoyable moments are spent with my family, traveling, spending time outdoors or simply laughing and being together.”

Contact Lia via her website, Facebook or Twitter!

 

Book Feature: “Blood Duty, A Fantasy Romance” by J.R. Tomlin

Please welcome to Lizzyland fantasy romance author J.R. Tomlin. She’s sharing her novel, “Blood Duty”, which is on sale for a discounted price of only .99. Be sure to get your copy soon as the special discount is for August only.

Tamra Dervon, Captain of the Guard of Wayfare Keep, thinks her biggest problem is her love affair with Jessup. The scout is holding things back from her, and she doesn’t know what. But when a seemingly unbeatable army of demons invades, Tamra’s personal problems look very small. Tamra and Jessup find themselves leading a last-ditch defense. Their army is defeated. Jessup disappears in the retreat. As Tamra continues the struggle to defend her homeland, she discovers that another duty lies ahead — to face a demon horde alone.

Available at Amazon

Author Bio:

J. R. Tomlin is a native of South Texas and spent considerable time in Scotland growing up. She now resides in the rainier climes of the US Pacific Northwest. She shares her home with two cats, and her hobbies include horseback riding and hiking. She has written non-fiction as a staff writer, but her love has always been reading and writing fantasy and historical fiction. Her short fiction has been published in Sorcerous Signals as well as in the anthology, Arcane Whispers. Her novels with co-author C. R. Daems include Talon of the Unnamed Goddess and Pendant of Power. She also writes historical novels set in Scotland which include Freedom’s Sword and A Kingdom’s Cost.

My blog is: http://jeannetomlin.blogspot.com

The website with my co-author is http://clemd.home.comcast.net/~clemd/JC/Index.html

Other  books by J.R. Tomlin. Click images to view:

Book Feature and Giveaway: “Dark Promise” by Julia Crane and Talia Jager

Please welcome to Lizzyland young adult authors Julia Crane and Talia Jager who’ve co-written “Dark Promise”.  Julia is also having a giveaway for the Summer Blog Hop for a $10 Amazon Gift Card and an ebook of Dark Promise. To enter obey the rafflecopter at Julia’s site. Enter HERE

Rylie has it all – great friends, dream boy, loving family. But on the eve of her sixteenth birthday, her perfect little world shatters. A stranger claiming to be her real mother appears with a secret: Rylie is a faery whose powers will be unleashed on her birthday. Captured and forced into a new life, Rylie struggles to keep everything she loves and discovers a terrifying truth: some promises cannot be broken.

Available at:

Amazon

Barnes & Noble

Author Bio:

 Julia Crane is the author of the YA paranormal fiction novels: Keegan’s Chronicles, Mesmerized and Eternal Youth. Julia was greatly encouraged by her mother to read and use her imagination, and she’s believed in magical creatures since the day her grandmother first told her an Irish tale. Julia has traveled far and wide to all the places her grandmother told her about, gaining inspiration from her journeys to places like Nepal, Cyprus, Sri Lanka, Italy, France and many more. And who knows? Maybe the magical creatures she writes about are people she met along the way.

Julia Crane has a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice. Although she’s spent most of her life on the US east coast, she currently lives in Dubai with her husband and three children.

website:  https://www.juliacraneauthor.com

Facebook  https://www.facebook.com/KeegansChronicles

Facebook author page  https://www.facebook.com/juliacraneauthor

Twitter  https://twitter.com/JuliaCrane2

Goodreads  http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4800436.Julia_Crane

Amazon author page http://www.amazon.com/Julia-Crane/e/B0055HYSHY/ref=sr_tc_2_0?qid=1343149045&sr=8-2-ent

Book Feature: “Afterlife II: More Stories from the ER” by Mark Randle

Please welcome to Lizzyland author Mark Randle who’s sharing the supernatural series entitled “Afterlife II: More Stories From The ER”.

Here are more stories from the ER, recountings from people who truly believe that they have had encounters with the world they believe is waiting for us beyond the grave. We hope that you find them as entertaining and awe-inspiring as before. Read them with an open mind and let your conclusions be your own.

Available at Amazon and Paperback

Watch the trailer here:

 

One of the biggest questions we have is “What happens when we die?” No one really knows except those who have already passed on. This book contains stories from nurses, doctors, and hospital staff who have witnessed death first hand. Some of the stories are beautiful, while others are terrifying.

Available at Amazon and Paperback

Author Bio:

Mark Randle was born in 1967 in Chicago. Mark specializes in the Paranormal. Mark likes writing books that are collections of true stories he gets from people who have experienced them.

Author website:

http://wlmpr.us/Mark-Randle

Facebook page:

http://wlmpr.us/MRandleFB

Book Feature: “Dayclean” by E.R. Dinsmoor

Please welcome to Lizzyland author E.R. Dinsmoor. She’s sharing her contemporary fiction/romance/mystery novel, “Dayclean”. In August she’s planning a Goodreads giveaway for 10 autographed copies of the book along with an accompanying bookmark. Be sure to follow her Facebook page for details on this future giveaway. Links at end of post.

A simmering feud between two powerful Southern families bursts into violence in Beaufort, South Carolina, when a Gullah teen runs away from a sadistic foster home and into the lives of a hard-fisted shrimper whose drinking can’t drown out his tragic past; a beautiful social worker with her own demons; a homeless schizophrenic Shakespearean searching for his family; and a child psychologist about to be swept into her own crushing drama. These characters, and more, come together to protect the teen when they discover a murderous conspiracy to destroy his life. Events speed toward a volcanic conclusion as the war between the families comes to an explosive head that will leave a devastating end for some, but a merciful new beginning for others.

Available at Amazon

Photo of Beau and Miss South Carolina (Important characters from book)

Author Bio:

“Dayclean” is the debut novel of e. r. dinsmoor. Raised in El Paso, Texas, the author attended the University of Texas at El Paso, majoring in Piano Performance, with a minor in creative writing. She studied short stories for one semester with the late, great Raymond Carver. At one point, the author was called into Mr. Carver’s office. He asked what she wanted to be when she grew up! The author replied, “I don’t know. Got any suggestions?”  Mr. Carver responded, “Yes. Get married!”

Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/dayclean/449685005065963

Excerpt from the ForeWord Clarion Reviews: Titled for the local concept of “dayclean”—the promising moment just before sunrise—this warm-hearted mystery featuring a fusion of cultures and dialects avows the redemptive power of love, life, and starting over. The characters are likeable, their language ripples and shimmers . . . Moving forward, dayclean might be the best option after all.”

Summer Review Challenge Winners – 30 July

The winners from the 30 July Summer Review Challenge drawing are below.  This time, both winners came off the US Amazon site!  As a reminder, every two weeks, I’m pulling two random names of reviewers on Amazon and Amazon UK, one name from “Katie’s Hellion” reviews and one from “The Grey God”‘s reviews!  Winners receive a $25 Amazon gift card.

The review challenge will last until 30 September, so there are plenty more chances to win!

“The Grey God”

K. Davis

“Katie’s Hellion”

Catherine Trieu

Congrats, and THANK YOU for your reviews!

Winners – please send me an email! LizzyFord2010(at)gmail(dot)com

 

Cover reveal: “Dark Summer” (Book I, Witchling Trilogy)

Isn’t this gorgeous?  Another awesome cover by Dafeenah of Indie Designz.  ”Dark Summer” is paranormal teen fiction and will be out in mid-August!  I’m still working on the blurb, so the one below is a rough draft.

A girl with a broken past and a dark secret. A boy with a twisted future and no second chances.  When they meet, it just might cost them their souls.

Sixteen-year-old Summer doesn’t expect the new boarding school to be any different than the rest: a temporary stay where everyone will turn against her after a few weeks. Until she meets the rest of the students at this special school and realizes she’s not the only one with magic in her blood.  Accustomed to the concrete jungle of LA, she gets lost one night in the forests of the Rocky Mountains and meets Decker, the boy who will become the Master of Night and Fire on his eighteenth birthday. Their connection is instant and dangerous, for both will be forced to choose between Light and Dark, life and death, love – and their souls.

 One choice. One soul. One price.

Available mid-August. Add it to your Goodreads TBR list today!  Click here! [http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15...] 

 

Review: The Demonkeeper series by Royce Buckingham – Delightful chaos

I had the pleasure of reading all three books in the middle grade fantasy Demonkeeper series by Royce Buckingham this past weekend.  The first thing that came to mind when I was reading these books: Scooby Doo meets Ghostbusters.  The series as a whole is a light, entertaining adventure about a few teens who are charged with Demonkeeping, that is, corralling possessed objects and protecting both the humans from the demons and the demons themselves.  The demons are embodiments of chaos, and so they really like messing with humans and creating some sort of disorder, even if it’s as simple as a rug tripping someone.  This would be a great series for pre-teen and newly teenaged kids.

The first book, Demonkeeper, is about Nat, an apprenticed, seventeen-year-old Demonkeeper whose master disappears.  Nat is left with a house full of demons and must battle someone – the Thin Man – who is trying to free the most dangerous of the demons.  First I’ll say this: these aren’t fire and brimstone demons.  These demons come in all forms, from elementals (wind, fire, earth, water) to everyday furniture to sounds to little pet creatures that serve the Demonkeepers.  They’re a riot throughout the books.  A little spark shocks people, curtains fly, chewing gum sticks in people’s hair, and so on.  In the first installment, we meet Nat and Richie.  Nat is forced to care for the demons, thwart the bad guy and also adopts thirteen-year-old street urchin Richie [Shaggy, maybe?] as his apprentice.  We also meet Sandy, a nerdish teenager [think Thelma from Scooby Doo] who works in a library and ends up as Nat’s girlfriend. Poor Richie seems to get picked on by the demons, which is pretty funny throughout the series.

Available from: Amazon, Amazon UK, BN, and iTunes.

The second book, Demoneater, introduces my favorite character in all the books: the pretty hippy girl, Lilli [who reminded me of Daphne from Scooby Doo.] I loved how Buckingham described her and what she does.  She collects possessed art and keeps it in a trailer.  The art and colors are always changing, and the idea of colors being alive was really cool.  But, to the plot of this book: Nat is battling something called a Demoneater, which is exactly what it sounds like.  The Demoneater is running around killing and eating demons, rendering the world a much deader place without the possessed things out there.  As a last resort to save the demons and deprive the Demoneater from food, he unleashes all the demons in the house in order to save them from the Demoneater.  The kids defeat the Demoneater and are left with an entire city full of possessed things that they must now clean up.

Available from: Amazon and Amazon UK. 

Book three, Demonocity, is about their clean-up effort.  Nat is also trying to come to grips with what he learns about his parents death, because the elemental that killed them tries to track him down, too.  He feels like he’s failed at Demonkeeping, has a teen-life crisis and runs away for awhile, leaving Richie and the two girls (Sandy and Lilli) in charge of hunting down the demons.  At first, they don’t want to, because well, it’s a big job and their fearless leader, Nat, ran off.  But they end up stepping forward and helping the city by trapping the demons they can.  I liked watching Richie and Lilli grow in this book, as well as Nat.  The little demons have tons of surprises and help them save the day.  I felt like Nat could’ve been a little more developed in this installment, and he honestly falls for any girl that looks his way, which I found irritating, because I thought Lilli was perfect for him.  (Disclaimer: obviously, I look for the romance in every book I read LOL)  He ends up staying with Sandy, who was probably my least favorite character.

Available from: Amazon and Amazon UK.

About Royce Buckingham [Source: Amazon author's page]

Royce Buckingham was born in Richland, Washington and grew up in the 70′s downriver from the Hanford nuclear plant. This might explain his mutated view of the world and provides the perfect setting for his book, The Dead Boys.

As a kid, Royce dreamed of making up fantasy stories. He loved 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, The Phantom Tollbooth and The Hobbit. He collected comic books, watched Jaws at nine years old, then Star Wars at eleven and Alien at thirteen. He was even a Dungeons & Dragons nerd and created his own imaginary worlds.

As an adult, Royce obtained an English degree from Whitman College in Walla Walla, WA and received his law degree from the University of Oregon, paving the way for a job as a prosecuting attorney. It was his work as a prosecutor and his love of fantasy that led him to write his first book, Demonkeeper.

Demonkeeper began as a short story inspired by a street kid Buckingham used to prosecute regularly in juvenile court. He was thirteen, had a green Mohawk, and Buckingham would see him downtown begging change. One day he disappeared, and nobody seemed to notice. Even his parents didn’t seem to know where he’d gone, or care. Buckingham imagined the chaos of street life as a monster that rose and ate him up while people weren’t paying attention, as it does with so many lost children. He wrote a screenplay from that story. The script evolved into a much more lighthearted and fun tale than the original short story, but the message remained–kids need stability, family and a home.

His longtime goal of being published became a reality after 13 years of writing in his spare time. In 2005, he hit a home run, selling his first book Demonkeeper to both Putnam and 20th Century Fox within a month of each other. Demonkeeper then hit the bestseller list in Germany. He now has five books to his credit and continues to write in his dwindling spare time.

Buckingham lives in Bellingham, WA with his beautiful wife, whom he met in the courtroom when she came to cover one of his criminal cases as a reporter. They now have two fabulous boys who help with his books and a huge black hound from the dog pound. Thankfully none have been eaten by demons…or goblins…or mutated trees.

Contact Royce via his website, Twitter or Facebook!

Book Feature: “Red Tide” by Peg Brantley

Please welcome to Lizzyland thriller author Peg Brantley. If you like to read the serial killer genre, then you’ll want to check out her debut novel, Red Tide.

When both old and new secrets are uncovered at a burial site, the timetable of a madman moves up…

Jamie Taylor and her human remains detection dog set out to find some bodies buried for more than a decade. They found them—and some new surprises as well. Some families would find closure while others would have their lives ripped apart.

Agent Nicholas Grant becomes embroiled in the case while battling his own demons.

A madman watches from the distance while officials expose his clandestine playground, forcing him to speed up his plans for devastation.

Can a dog handler and a troubled FBI agent stop him before he kills thousands of innocent people?

Available at:

Amazon

Paperback

Watch the trailer:

Author Bio:

A Colorado native, Peg Brantley is a member of Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers and Sisters In Crime. She and her husband make their home southeast of Denver, sharing it with the occasional pair of mallard ducks and their babies, snapping turtles, peacocks, assorted other birds, foxes and deer named Cedric. Red Tide is Peg’s first novel. Her second will be released in late 2012.

Blog: http://www.suspensenovelist.blogspot.com

FB: http://www.facebook.com/pegbrantleyauthorpage

Twitter:    http://www.twitter.com/pegbrantley

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Peg-Brantley/e/B007P35GWW/