Linda Nightingale's Blog, page 15
August 14, 2020
Space Opera versus Soap Opera
When I wrote the series Star Smuggler, I didn’t think of it as a “space opera.” I considered it a “romantic adventure.” Studying it now, I realize that’s exactly what it is…just one gigantic soap opera set in the future on a planet far, far away. The publisher calls it Star Wars Meets Firefly, and fans of those two entertainments know what that means: Emphasis on fun and adventure rather than technology and rocket ships.
The introduction to this sudsy space saga might go something like this;
Welcome, dear reader, to Star Smuggler, Book 1: The Last Voyage. This may prompt someone to ask, “If this is the last voyage, how can it be the first book?”
A better question would be: Can a half-breed human-hating smuggler find happiness with an adopted Navajo in spite of threats from the United Terran Federation and many of his nefarious criminal cohorts?
T
his novel introduces Sinbad and Andi, the most mismatched pair in the universe, and is set partly in the remains of lower California after a gigantic quake sends much of the state into the Pacific, leaving only Angel City (a remnant of the late, great, Los Angeles) and Baja California, and partly on other planets of the galaxy.
Andrea Talltrees is a member of the Naturals, a group who don’t utilize anything that wasn’t around in the early to mid-twentieth century, and they definitely don’t go flying off into space in rocketships.
Sinbad is a half-Felidan smuggler resembling a man-sized feline. He’s big, he’s beautiful, he’s sexy, and he hates humans with a passion because they framed his father, a Terran soldier, and killed him.
Sin’s way of life naturally clashes with Andi’s beliefs, and when she isn’t preaching to him about the immorality of his ways, and he isn’t laughing at her attempts to reform him, they reach a rapport that gradually blossoms into something that might be love, though neither will admit it.
They spend most of the novel arguing while visited various dens of iniquity trying to find Andi’s husband, Tran, who is accused of being a spy and has lit out for parts unknown…and then a secret is discovered that threatens the Earth and the Federation and demands a sacrifice neither wants to make.
BLURB:
He’s a criminal. She’s far from it.
Together, they’re Earth’s last hope… they just don’t know it yet.
Sinbad sh’en Singh had everything. A thriving smuggling career, his hologram on wanted posters on eleven planets, and plenty of women. Then she walked into his life.
Andrea Talltrees, member of a backwards cult not believing in space travel or anything else invented after the Twentieth Century.
She wants him to find her husband, a fugitive accused of being an Albegensian spy, the planet currently at war with Earth.
He doesn’t want anything to do with an Earther, but a massive culture clash and a heavy dose of instant attraction get in the way, sending good sense flying out the viewport.
They’ll brave some very unsavory characters, maybe even prevent a second interplanetary war…if they can stop arguing.
EXCERPT:
Andi’s food arrived, a huge dish of something. She took one look at her plate and swallowed rapidly to keep from gagging, struggling to quell nausea as the heap of very large, very red worms continued squirming. One actually wiggled from the plate onto the table.
“I’m not as hungry as I thought.” Andi took one of the bright yellow apples from the centerpiece. “I’ll just eat this.”
Nodding, Jaafra removed her plate from the table and took it away.
“I’m sorry,” she told Sinbad. “I just don’t like to chase my food all over the table.”
She waited for him to make some caustic remark. Just then, Jaafra returned with Sinbad’s order. With an amused grunt, he picked up his fork and began to eat.
Andi took one look at what the plate held, gulped and looked away.
“Talltrees…” He chewed a moment, swallowed, then said, “There’s something we need to get settled. Now.”
Frowning, she looked at him. He sounded like her father when he was about to deliver a lecture.
“Look, you have to eat, I have to eat…it’s more convenient if we do it at the same time, but if you’re going to go sick every time you see me eat a piece of meat…” He stabbed another morsel and held up the fork, gesturing with it. A single drop of blood dripped from it, spattering the edge of his plate.
Andi swallowed loudly.
“That’s what I’m talking about. I don’t particularly like watching you eat food that’s been inundated with microwaves ’til it’s the consistency of a charcoal briquette, but I don’t turn green when you bite into it.”
Andi hadn’t realized her eating habits might as easily disgust him, and that made her ashamed of her behavior. Naturals taught the equality of all species, a fact once getting them on the Fed’s Suspect List, and here she was…
“You’re right, Mr. sh’en Singh, and I’m sorry.”
He didn’t answer, just ate with great relish as she bit into her apple and discovered it tasted like a banana. Sinbad dipped his knife into a bowl of red sauce and smeared it on what looked like a slice of raw potato.
“What’s that?”
“Don’t ask,” came a mouth-filled mumble. There was sauce on his fingers. He licked it off. “That apple isn’t going to go far. Would you like a couple of these beetles? I’ve enough to share.”
“Beetles?”
He gestured at what she thought were green peas. “Antillan fig beetles…high sugar content, full of Vitamin C. They’ve been dehydrated. Not alive, I promise.”
“No thanks.” She shuddered.
He scooped four off the plate and tossed them into his mouth, crunching loudly.
“Well, maybe one.” She selected a beetle and bit cautiously into it. It had a blackberry flavor.
~**~
STAR SMUGGLER: The Last Voyage is available in Kindle and paperback and will soon be available in audio book.
https://www.amazon.com/Last-Voyage-Star-Smuggler-Book-ebook/dp/B08BYT192S/
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Toni V. Sweeney was born in Georgia after the War between the States but before the Gulf War. She has lived 30 years in the South, a score in the Middle West, and a decade on the Pacific Coast and now she’s trying for her second 30 on the Great Plains.
Toni has several pseudonyms and writes in various genres, and now is adding “TS Snow” to the list with the publishing of the Star Smuggler series.
August 11, 2020
The Last Collection by Jeanne Mackin
Interview with Jeanne Mackin
What is something you’ve lied about?
Liking a friend’s taste in clothes. I would never tell her that the jacket printed with huge magenta flowers looks awful on her. Clothes are such a personal choice and when I was writing The Last Collection, which is based in the fashion industry, I realized that our taste reflects our past, present and hopes for the future. That should never be stepped on, never judged.
Who is the last person you hugged?
I’m answering this question during the lockdown period of the pandemic, and since I have asthma I’ve made my own lockdown a real marathon of solitude. I can’t remember who I last hugged. I just know who I can’t wait to hug again, soon. Wonderful friends. My hairdresser so I can get rid of the shag. I’m a very huggy person and doing that weird arm thing from a distance just isn’t the same, is it?
What are you reading now?
Thomas Merton’s The Wisdom of the Desert. Perfect reading for someone much given to solitude, with or without a pandemic. And since I tend to read several books at the same time, I’m also rereading Josephine Tey’s mystery novel, Brat Farrar because I always love a good English country house mystery, and Everybody Behaves Badly, by Lesely M.M. Blume, since I can’t get enough of fictions and histories set in early twentieth century Paris. That Hemingway crowd really knew how to party!
How do you come up with the titles to your books?
Painfully, after much soul searching and struggle, and I keep changing the title as I work. Titles are actually the hardest part of the writing, for me. Here you have this 120,000 word novel and you must find two or three or four words that describe it or introduce it. Aieee! I’ve found this trick, though. The first three or four seconds of consciousness, when I wake up in the morning, are full of buried treasure. If I fall asleep reminding myself of a task – think up a title – when my eyes open in the morning, before I’ve thought of anything else, the title may be there.
Share your dream cast for your book
Since I’m a fiction writer rarely based in a current timeline, this cast is going to come from all over! For Anya the beautiful and doomed Polish woman, I would cast the young Greta Garbo. Liza Minelli would be the flamboyant Elsa Schiaparelli and Marissa Berenson would be the cool and contained and Coco Chanel – strange in itself, since Marissa Berenson is actually Elsa Schiaparelli’s granddaughter, in real life. The young American woman, Lily Sutter, would be played by Scarlett Johansson, with her marvelous expressive face, and her brother, Charlie, would be played by the devastatingly charming young Jude Law. That has Jude Law playing a romantic lead with Greta Garbo. The screen would sizzle! Lily’s love interest would be played by the German actor, August Diehl, who like Scarlet is expressive and subtle.
Thank you for inviting me to your page. I hope your readers will enjoy my book!
GENRE: Historical Romance
BLURB:
An American woman becomes entangled in the intense rivalry between iconic fashion designers Coco Chanel and Elsa Schiaparelli in this captivating novel from the acclaimed author of The Beautiful American.
Paris, 1938. Coco Chanel and Elsa Schiaparelli are fighting for recognition as the most successful and influential fashion designer in France, and their rivalry is already legendary. They oppose each other at every turn, in both their politics and their designs: Chanel’s are classic, elegant, and practical; Schiaparelli’s bold, experimental, and surreal.
When Lily Sutter, a recently widowed young American teacher, visits her brother, Charlie, in Paris, he insists on buying her a couture dress—a Chanel. Lily, however, prefers a Schiaparelli. Charlie’s beautiful and socially prominent girlfriend soon begins wearing Schiaparelli’s designs as well, and much of Paris follows in her footsteps.
Schiaparelli offers budding artist Lily a job at her store, and Lily finds herself increasingly involved with Schiaparelli and Chanel’s personal war. Their fierce competition reaches new and dangerous heights as the Nazis and the looming threat of World War II bear down on Paris.
Excerpt:
At the ball that night there were people whose faces I recognized, a blur of memory from my first evening in Paris at the Ritz, and many more people whom I didn’t recognize at all, men with military posture, women covered with jewels, men in dresses, women in tuxedos, ingénues in pastel gowns. And Charlie and Ania, beautiful Charlie and Ania, so immersed in each other’s gaze they could have been alone rather than dancing through crowded rooms.
…Coco arrived around eleven, in a diaphanous green gown that looked like fern fronds moving in a breeze when she moved. It was Coco, blending into nature, but still Coco.
Schiap arrived soon after, dressed, as she had promised, as a tree, covered in a rough brown cloth that looked like tree bark, with branches extending from her arms and the crown of her head. Several cloth and feather birds perched on her shoulders. Whimsical, humorous, always-make-it-look easy Schiap. Schiap got the louder applause when she made her entrance, and I saw Coco’s smile fade.
Who knew what was going through Coco’s mid that evening? Perhaps she had dreamed the night before of the orphanage, the father who had abandoned her and the mother who had died.
Perhaps she wasn’t thinking at all but only reacting, the way dry wood reacts when a match is put to it.
~~<>~~
AUTHOR Bio and Links:
Jeanne Mackin ‘s latest novel, The Last Collection, A Novel of Elsa Schiaparelli and Coco Chanel takes the reader to Paris, just before world war II, and the intense, dangerous rivalry between the two queens of fashion. Her previous novels include A Lady of Good Family, the award winning The Beautiful American, The Sweet By and By, Dreams of Empire, The Queen’s War, and The Frenchwoman.
Her historical fictions explore the lives of strong women who change their worlds…because we know the world always needs a lot of change! She has worked all the traditional ‘writers’ jobs’ from waitressing to hotel maid, anything that would leave her a few hours each morning for writing. Most recently, she taught creative writing at the graduate level. She has traveled widely, in Europe and the Middle East and can think of no happier moment than sitting in a Paris café, drinking coffee or a Pernod, and simply watching, while scribbling in a notebook.
JeanneMackin.com
Facebook.com/JeanneMackinauthor
Penguin Random House – https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/531859/the-last-collection-by-jeanne-mackin/
Amazon – https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07H71Q5FQ/ref=dp-kindle-redirect
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People are talking. What they are saying about The Last Collection:
“Sophisticated couture wars and looming world wars take center stage in Mackin’s latest, with a plot that buzzes with love triangles and political intrigue. A gorgeous meditation on art, fashion, and heartbreak. Stunning.”
–Fiona Davis, national bestselling author of The Masterpiece
“Exquisitely melding world politics and high fashion, THE LAST COLLECTION is a smart, witty, heartfelt, and riveting look at the infamous rivalry between Coco Chanel and Elsa Schiaparelli set against a gripping period in history. Mackin’s powerful novel brings these characters to life and transports the reader, juxtaposing both the gaiety and tension of Paris on the brink of war. As elegant and captivating as the designs depicted in the novel, THE LAST COLLECTION is the perfect read for both historical fiction lovers and fashion aficionados. Simply stunning.”
–Chanel Cleeton, USA Today bestselling author of Next Year in Havana
“A wonderful story of two intensely creative women, their vibrant joie de vivre, and backbiting competition played out against the increasingly ominous threat of the Nazi invasion of Paris. Seamless research makes every character leap to life and kept me totally engaged from beginning to end.
–Shelley Noble, New York Times bestselling author of Lighthouse Beach
“A vibrant portrait of two designers cut from very different cloth, Jeanne Mackin’s THE LAST COLLECTION pits bold Coco Chanel and colorful Elsa Schiaparelli against each other in a fiery feud even as the ominous clouds of World War II darken the horizon. A captivating read!”
–Stephanie Marie Thornton, author of American Princess
“As Hitler and the Nazis gather strength and the world braces for war, Elsa Schiaparelli and Coco Chanel, whose politics differ as much as their couture, wage a war of their own. Lily Sutter, the woman who finds herself in the middle of their feud, has a battle of her own as she struggles to make a new start amidst extreme grief and loss. From New York to Paris, Jeanne Mackin takes the reader on an enthralling journey, complete with such vivid descriptions of the clothing, you can practically see them on the page. Beautifully rendered and meticulously researched, THE LAST COLLECTION is a must read.”
–Renée Rosen, author of Park Avenue Summer
~~<>~~
GIVEAWAY INFORMATION and RAFFLECOPTER CODE
One randomly chosen winner via rafflecopter will win a $50 Amazon/BN.com gift card.
a Rafflecopter giveaway
https://widget-prime.rafflecopter.com/launch.js
For more chances to win and more excerpts follow Jeanne on tour:
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August 8, 2020
One on Sale! Another Now Available on Pre-order
Love for Sale, fhe first book in the series, is on sale for only $.99, and the sequel, Life for Sale, is now on preorder!
Tomorrow’s Angels: Series Blurb
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Mayfair Electronics has created life.
In Love for Sale, the high-tech electronics company, in black and white, offers “love for sale”. Mayfair has engineered sentient androids indistinguishable from humans. March Morgan flies to England and meets the man she has been searching for her entire life. Christian requires no programming to love March at first sight, but her past and his future soon threaten their happiness—and their lives.
In the sequel, Life for Sale, four of the Special Editions have escaped. Rebel, Christian and March are on the run, but they have a bigger problem than his creator’s plan to destroy him. They’ve discovered that one of the renegades has suffered a dangerous malfunction, threatening them with more than just exposure. March and Christian must stop the insane robot before someone else dies. All the evidence points to March being the killer’s next victim.
BUY LINKS:
Life for Sale – https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08D2Z5XLC
Love For Sale – https://www.amazon.com/Love-Sale-Linda-Nightingale-ebook/dp/B00XCZ6EVY
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August 7, 2020
Cars and More Cars – Confessions of a Car Nut
Years ago, when I was 18 years old, I owned a 1964 candy-apple red Jaguar XKE. I was my dad’s princess, and he was a car nut, too.
This sleek cat ran like a scalded kitty–when it was running. It’s particular haunt was the service bay at a local garage. Looking back, that might have been that they didn’t know how to work on this English sports car…or it could have been blamed on poor engineering. The distributor cap was very near the ground, getting splashed when there were puddles. Sputter. Stop. And it had 3 deuce carburetors–not easy to keep in sync, I guess. Once, some mechanic routed them wrong, and a stream of gas was pouring out beneath the car!
I had 4 Miatas, 
then fell in love with the BMW Z3 (my favorite of all time). Z3PO was my best buddy. We went on rallies into the…
View original post 455 more words
August 3, 2020
TRANSYLVANIA ISN’T THE ONLY COUNTRY WITH VAMPIRES by Tony-Paul de Vissage
TRANSYLVANIA ISN’T THE ONLY COUNTRY WITH VAMPIRES
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Romania—specifically that section of it called Transylvania—isn’t the only place having vampires. It’s just the one people think of, thanks to Bram Stoker’s little epic. In fact, the first vampire novel to gain attention in the literary world was set in England. Oui—that’s right. The Vampyre by Dr. John Polidori, was an English creation, but how many, other than we vamp-aficionados, are aware of that? And if asked to named the world’s first vampire, how many would say the name of its villain, Lord Ruthven?
Dracula wins that title, fangs down!
Like a thousand other countries, Ireland has its own vampire. The dearg-due (also spelled dearg-due, and pronounced dah rag-du ah). Though the vampire in Forever, My Vampire is male but called a dearg-due, the true one is female, a cross between the succubus and the vampires…the red bloodsucker. Her story is typically romantic and tragic. A young woman forced by her father to marry a cruel man, she kills herself, then rises to exact revenge upon husband and parent. After that, she carries her vengeance far afield as she attacks any man she meets, draining him dry of his life…and his blood. The only way to prevent a dearg-due from rising and creating its own special havoc is to pile the grave high with stones. Their weight holds the evil spirit inside.
As to my vampire…
[image error]When I wrote Forever, My Vampire, I decided to be different, ignoring Transylvania in lieu of Ireland, which has its own special vampire. Oh, my hero/villain hails from Hungary but that’s only mentioned briefly. And the city he says he comes from actually does exist. It’s called Lugos, and is the town from which Bela Lugosi took his stage name. Appropriate, non? The Irish town is made up, however. Balleywalegh’s a place knowing what to do with vampires and it doesn’t involve giving them the key to the city, unless it’s presented on the end of a well-sharpened stake.
I also chose to set my story in a slightly inappropriate era…the Twenties. 1929 to be exact, when the movies were just becoming the rage, the automobiles were still fairly rare, and any woman showing more than an ankle was considered “fast”…or worse…a flapper. The perceived vampire is also different…he can dance the Charleston and drives a Stutz Bearcat…and that fact drives the lasses wild.
The time is just enough of a blend of the old century and the new to make it different.
Don’t think my tale of a vampire descending on a little Irish village is a tragic one, though. Nor is it bloody. It’s more whimsical, filled with Irish lilts and brash Gaelic characters…though it does have its shivery moments. It also pokes fun at all the clichés with which the movies have filled the vampire tale…the villagers descending on the manor house, the vampire being fended off with garlic and stakes, the cornered vampire cursing his attackers… It’s all there, as tongue…uh, fang…in cheek as you can get without being a cruel burlesque. If anything, it’s a gentle bit of fun at the genre’s expense.
BLURB:
In 1821, the good men of Balleywalegh drove a monster from their midst…or so they thought.
Now, it’s 1926 and a light again shines in the deserted manor house window. The 
vampire has returned…or so they think.
Karel Novotny has the same name as the fiend, but he can’t be a vampire…can he?
The girls of Balleywalegh adore Karel, especially Seamus Flannery’s daughter Brigid, but when the lasses come down with a mysterious ailment, and their fathers start sharpening their stakes, Seamus has to discover the truth fast, or Karel may not survive to become his son-in-law.
Will the real vampire please stand up?
EXCERPT:
Gentlemen,” Conor instructed, “ask th’ lady o’ your choice for th’ first dance.”
“Do you dance, Mr. Novotny Karel?” Brigid’s eyes held a teasing look.
“Dance? I…” He appeared uncertain what to answer. “Well… ”
“Oh, come on. This first dance is a waltz. Everyone knows how to waltz.” Before he could protest, she caught his hand, dragging him to the dance floor, a cleared space at the end of the room where tables and chairs had been pushed out of the way.
To one side, Conor and his two eldest drew their bows across their fiddles, while Paddy Shea blew into his clarinet, and his wife did an arpeggio on the keys of the old upright rolled into a space near the kitchen door. The first notes of the Blue Danube Waltz floated over the heads of those now crowding onto the dance floor.
Seamus, not being much of a dancer, didn’t participate, thankful Maeve, knowing how those two left feet of his could hurt when trampling on her little toes, didn’t insist. Instead, they stood on the sidelines, watching as the young people milled about, some keeping good time to the music, some woefully inept.
Novotny, definitely wasn’t one of the latter.
Th’ lad’s damned graceful, Seamus thought as he watched the young man guide Brigid about the floor.
She smiled up at him, obviously pleased by his performance. Seamus felt his heart sink. His mother had always told him young woman liked a man who could dance. He was certain Novotny was about to prove her correct.
He didn’t finish the dance with Brigid, however. Several of her friends, obviously not considering it bold, cut in, taking him away from her for a few moments, while a couple of the lads swept Brigid into an embrace one after the other. Too quickly in [image error]Seamus’ opinion, the two reclaimed each other through a second waltz, then a third. When the music slid into a two-step, Brigid didn’t let Novotny leave the floor, but held his hand and simply stood there with the others milling around them until he once more put his arm about her and continued to dance.
The next dance was the Charleston, and Seamus was subjected to the sight of his daughter and the young foreigner bouncing all over the dance floor. There were a few other couples knowledgeable enough to know the steps to that scandalous American dance but they were soon stepping aside, giving the two more room. When Seamus looked away from the waving arms, shimmying hips, and flying legs, he was startled to see Maeve, still standing next to him, bouncing slightly and snapping her fingers.
“Well, it does have a lively beat,” she defended herself in answer to his stare.
Shaking his head, Seamus glanced back at the dancers as the music once more changed, to a foxtrot, this time. Apparently Novotny was acquainted with that one as well.
He stayed on the floor until the musicians called it quits by playing a fanfare, and Conor announced loudly, “An’ now, let’s bring on th’ vittles.”
Panting slightly, Novotny offered Brigid his arm and led her from the floor.
Seamus hadn’t realized until that moment he’d been holding his breath. Just a little.
~*~
Forever, My Vampire is available from wordwooze Publishing through Amazon in Kindle and paperback and will soon be released in audio book, also: https://www.amazon.com/Forever-My-Vampire-Tony-Paul-Vissage-ebook/dp/B08D81LQSJ/
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August 2, 2020
Bloodbond by Sydney Winward
Let’s welcome, Sydney and her characters from Bloodbond. I’m sure you’ll be delighted by the introduction. Sydney, here’s the mic:-
The Unique Setting of Ichor Knell
Bloodbond takes place in the vampire city of Ichor Knell, which means bloody toll. Or in this case, the name stems from a bell tower that, before Dracula took the throne, rang five times with each vampire death.
Instead of regular trees, Ichor Knell has trees with leaves made completely of jewels. Sapphires, diamonds, rubies, emeralds, and more. If there was sunlight in the city, there would definitely be plenty of sparkling jewels. When the night falls, you can take a walk through the large palace gardens when glowing mushrooms will light up the path. It’s a mystical place that I wish I could see in person!
My husband often jokes that I’m a vampire because I hate the sunlight, bright lights frustrate me, and my introverted self hides away in the house. Can’t help that I’m a homebody! In Ichor Knell, vampires are safe from the harm that sunlight causes. Thick, dark clouds swirl over the city, effectively blocking out the sunlight. My kind of weather!
Blurb:
[image error]Zachariah Degore spent ten years locked under ground as a feral vampire. Now he has to redefine what it means to be healthy and whole. With his human life behind him, he starts anew in the vampire city of Ichor Knell with the vampire shah as his kin. He must prove he is worthy of his place in this new world.
Laurel Covaci is vampire elite, she would never court a feral vampire. After two hundred years she has yet to find a mate who meets with her satisfaction. She hides the pain of past hurt and abandonment behind a cold façade. Zach is confident that Laurel is the vampire for him, but can he break through her icy walls and convince her he’s the mate she’s been waiting for?
Excerpt:
She stared at him. And stared. Until it became uncomfortable.
So he stood and started to pack up his things, but she glared at him and pointed to his seat.
“Sit.” He did. Who could disobey a tone like that? “You can’t kill?” she asked incredulously. “You only recently came out of being feral, correct?” He nodded. “And you can’t kill? Human blood doesn’t send you into a rage. You refused to drink from the goblet at the service.”
“Have you been spying on me?”
She ignored his comment, and her mouth puckered slightly as if in deep concentration. He couldn’t help but stare. He’d never seen her do it before. Another endearing quality he added to the lengthy list of what made Laurel Covaci absolutely perfect.[image error]
“I have searched high and low, but I simply cannot find any answers to this particular conundrum,” she finally said. Heat rose to his ears. She’d been thinking about him?
He grinned. “Well, well, Lady Covaci. I didn’t realize I was filling up your thoughts.”
She blushed prettily, and he almost expected her to get up from the table and leave, regretting she even sat down in the first place. But she stayed put. In fact, she stared right back as if challenging him. He enjoyed the eye contact. Her eyes were so blue. So beautiful. They took him back to green fields of his childhood, of staring back at the blue sky as clouds lazily drifted past.
About the Author:
[image error]Sydney Winward was born with an artistic brain and a love of discovery for new talents. From drawing to sewing to music, she has loved to explore every opportunity that comes her way. At a young age, Sydney discovered her love of writing, and she hasn’t been able to stop writing since. Her active imagination and artistic mind take her away to different worlds and time periods, making every new story a fantastic adventure. When she is not writing (or fawning over animals in the neighborhood) she spends time with her husband and children at home in Utah.
Book Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MvqlfMc19Is
Buy Links: Amazon ~ Barnes and Noble ~ Applebooks
Social Media Links: Website ~ Twitter ~ Facebook ~ Goodreads ~ Amazon Author Page ~ Instagram
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July 31, 2020
Love for Sale – Only $.99!! Start off the Series at a Discount!
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Love for Sale, a sci-fi romance, is the first in the series Tomorrow’s Angels. It is now on sale on Amazon and other online vendors for only $.99 – yes, less than a dollar. Start the series for a deeply discounted price.
The second book Life for Sale, also a sci-fi romance, is on pre-order until it is released on August 24.
Series blurb:
Mayfair Electronics has created life.
In Love for Sale, the high-tech electronics company, in black and white, offers “love for sale”. Mayfair has engineered sentient androids indistinguishable from humans. March Morgan flies to England and meets the man she has been searching for her entire life. Christian requires no programming to love March at first sight, but her past and his [image error]future soon threaten their happiness—and their lives.
In the sequel, Life for Sale, four of the Special Editions have escaped. Rebel, Christian and March are on the run, but they have a bigger problem than his creator’s plan to destroy him. They’ve discovered that one of the renegades has suffered a dangerous malfunction, threatening them with more than just exposure. March and Christian must stop the insane robot before someone else dies. All the evidence points to March being the killer’s next victim.
~Buy Links:~
Life for Sale – https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08D2Z5XLC
Love For Sale – https://www.amazon.com/Love-Sale-Linda-Nightingale-ebook/dp/B00XCZ6EVY
July 30, 2020
Sinners’ Opera:- Finalist in Raven Awards – Please Vote!!
[image error]Sinners’ Opera is a finalist in the Raven Awards. Thanks to all who voted in the Semi-finals to help it make it to the finals. Voting has begun in the finals, and I’d really, really appreciate your vote. Here’s the link:
Thanks in advance, my wonderful peeps.
Linda
Oh, and Life for Sale is now on order on Amazon at:
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July 29, 2020
The Ultimate Betrayal by Kat Martin
This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. Kat Martin will be awarding a $25 Amazon or B/N GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.
To prove her father’s innocent of treason, she’ll have to face a killer–and risk everything …
When journalist Jessie Kegan’s father is accused of espionage and treason, Jessie has no doubt the man she looked up to her entire life is innocent. Worse yet, before Colonel Kegan can stand trial, he’s found dead of a heart attack…but Jessie knows it was murder. Forcing down her grief, she’s determined to use her investigative skills and resources to clear her father’s name. But going after the truth means Jessie soon finds herself in the crosshairs of a killer who wants that truth to stay buried with her father.
Protecting Jessie Kegan is a job bodyguard Brandon Garrett can’t refuse. Jessie isn’t just a client at Maximum Security—she’s the sister of his best friend, Danny, killed in Afghanistan. With dangerous forces gunning for Jessie from every angle, keeping her safe will mean keeping her close and Bran finds their mutual attraction growing, though being Danny’s sister puts Jessie out of bounds.
With their backs against the wall, Jessie and Bran will have to risk everything to expose her father’s killer—before his legacy dies with his daughter.
Read an Excerpt
Bran leaned back in his chair, his gaze fixed on her face. “So…no husband. No serious boyfriend, either?”
“No. Listen, if you’re finished with the third degree, I’m going to bed. It’s been a rough day.”
His gaze sharpened. “Sorry,” he said, not looking sorry at all and even more curious than before–unfortunately. “I’ll see you in the morning.”
“What time?” she managed to ask calmly.
“We leave at six.”
“I’ll be ready. Good night, Bran. And thanks again. I really appreciate your help.”
Bran casually nodded, but his beautiful blue eyes never strayed as she turned and walked away. She shouldn’t have let his questions get to her. It was a dead giveaway to a guy as smart as Brandon that there was more to the story than she was willing to tell.
Far more.
She thought of the man whose brutality had changed her life. Jordan Duran, Jordy, the man who was currently serving a ten-year prison sentence. She didn’t like to think about him. She refused to let him control any more of her life than he already had. As she had learned to do, she pushed his image from her mind and just thanked God she was still alive.
Yawning, she packed up the computer so she would be ready to travel in the morning and headed to bed. After the drama of the day–being followed from the airport, shot at, meeting Brandon Garrett and his friends, and escaping a possible tail, she should have been exhausted, and she was. Still, she couldn’t seem to fall asleep.
Every time she started to drift away, she saw Bran’s perceptive blue eyes and wondered what he thought of her. Wondered if he found her attractive. It had been months since she had been interested in a man. After Jordy, none of her attempts at a normal relationship had worked out and eventually she had just given up.
But Bran intrigued her. Both his physical beauty and his mind. She also knew that getting involved with Bran on a personal level was a terrible idea. He was exactly the heartbreaker Danny had warned her about. He was also ex-military, an adrenaline junkie who loved to be in the middle of the action. Guys like that never changed. Just as before, her judgment sucked.
About the Author:
New York Times bestselling author Kat Martin is a graduate of the University of California at Santa Barbara where she majored in Anthropology and also studied History. Currently residing in Missoula, Montana with her Western-author husband, L. J. Martin, Kat has written sixty-five Historical and Contemporary Romantic Suspense novels. More than sixteen million copies of her books are in print and she has been published in twenty foreign countries. Kat is currently at work on her next Romantic Suspense.
Buy Links
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Ultimate-Betrayal-Maximum-Security/dp/1335080600
B&N: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-ultimate-betrayal-dwayne-t-martin/1125832346?ean=9781488056048
Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/the-ultimate-betrayal-26
Google: https://play.google.com/store/books/details/Kat_Martin_The_Ultimate_Betrayal?id=GqmqDwAAQBAJ
Itunes: https://books.apple.com/us/book/the-ultimate-betrayal/id1477473206
Social Media
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Website: https://www.katmartin.com/
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July 28, 2020
The H-Gene, a M/M Erotic Romance by Lisabet Sarai
[image error]The H-Gene:
After the Plague Book 1
By Lisabet Sarai
MM SciFi Erotic Romance (X-Rated)
ISBN (Smashwords): 9781005159894
ASIN: B08CVNK6NL
~*~
When love is forbidden, the whole world’s a prison.
Blurb
Dylan Moore will do anything for freedom. Seven years ago, a gay plague spread to heterosexuals, killing millions and sparking brutal anti-gay riots. The Guardians rounded up men who tested positive for the homogene and imprisoned them in remote quarantine centers like desolate Camp Malheur. Since then, Dylan has hacked the camp’s security systems and hoarded spare bits of electronics, seeking some way to escape. He has concluded the human guards are the only weakness in the facility’s defenses.
Camp guard Rafe Cowell is H-negative. He figures the lust he feels watching prisoner 3218 masturbate on the surveillance cameras must be due to his loneliness and isolation. When he finally meets the young queer, he discovers that Dylan is brilliant, brave, sexy as hell — and claims to be in love with Rafe. Despite his qualms, Rafe finds he can’t resist the other man’s charm. By the time Dylan asks for his help in escaping, Rafe cares too much for Dylan to refuse.
Dylan’s plan goes awry and Rafe comes to his rescue. Soon they’re both fugitives, fleeing from militant survivalists, murderous androids, homophobic ideologues and a powerful man who wants Dylan as his sexual toy. Hiding in the Plague-ravaged city of Sanfran, Dylan and Rafe learn there’s far more than their own safety at stake. Can they help prevent the deaths of millions more people? And can Rafe trust the love of a man who deliberately seduced him in order to escape from quarantine?
Note: This novel was previously released by Pride Publishing under the title Quarantine. It has been revised and re-edited for this release.
~*~
Buy Links
Kinky Literature – https://www.kinkyliterature.com/book/7233-the-hgene-after-the-plague-book-1/
Amazon US – https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08CVNK6NL
Amazon UK – https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B08CVNK6NL
Smashwords – https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1032512
Barnes and Noble – https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-h-gene-lisabet-sarai/1137338272?ean=2940164186050
Kobo – https://www.kobo.com/th/en/ebook/the-h-gene
Add on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/54529211-the-h-gene
~*~
PG-Rated Excerpt
The fact was, no one really knew who the Guardians were. At the height of the Plague, thousands had been dying daily. The streets stank from the smoke of burning bodies and torched buildings. Crazed mobs had roamed the cities, looking for the “carriers” they blamed for the death of their loved ones. The fact that gays had been dying twice as fast as straights hadn’t stopped them.[image error]
Then the Robbies had marched in, a small army, with Tasers and tear gas. At first, some people had screamed about an alien invasion. Within hours, the messages began coming from “the Guardians of American Greatness”, urging people to be calm, promising to contain the scourge of the perverts. Gradually, the chaos had subsided.
Dylan vividly remembered being dragged to the testing center by a pair of robots. They’d smashed in the door of the Castro District apartment he’d shared with his lover. Miguel’s body had been sprawled on their bed, his coffee-colored skin riddled with the oozing sores that were the Plague’s mark. Dylan had been crouched on the floor, crying and rocking back and forth, while explosions shook the building and sirens wailed.
He hadn’t put up any fight. What would have been the use? Miguel was dead. The world was in flames. He’d been seventeen.
But he was ready to fight now. He’d do whatever was necessary to get out of this hell. Dylan reached into the basin of the chemical toilet, feeling around the inside rim. The slimy plastoceramic surface made his skin crawl. Ammonia fumes burned his nostrils. He grinned as his fingers found the item he sought. Detaching the object from the hook he’d installed, he brought out an oblong about the size of a cig pack.
He unwrapped the protective plastic and switched on the controller. The organic LCD screen glowed pale blue. He’d lifted it from a discarded microwave oven. His fingers danced over the keyboard, composing his message. The interface was crude but adequate for his needs.
Closing his eyes, he brought up an image of the brawny black guard who was his target. What would work best? He didn’t know much about Rafe—he hadn’t been able to hack the guy’s dossier. He could read boredom and frustration in the man’s strong, regular features. He knew from their first encounter that Rafe had a temper. Yet Dylan also sensed a streak of decency. Most of the human guards at Malheur were supposed to be convicts. Let the dregs take care of the pariahs seemed to be the Guardians’ philosophy. Rafe hadn’t struck him as the criminal type, though, despite his rough looks.
Clearly Rafe was attracted to men, or at least to Dylan. But he probably didn’t consider himself queer. Best not to be too explicit in the message, then. It would be better to allow Rafe to deceive himself about his motives.
Dylan completed his task, scheduled the message, and pressed “Send”. If all went well, the invitation would be delivered to Rafe on his private channel tomorrow afternoon.
~*~
About Lisabet
[image error]
Lisabet Sarai became addicted to words at an early age. She began reading when she was four. She wrote her first story at five years old and her first poem at seven. Since then, she has written plays, tutorials, scholarly articles, marketing brochures, software specifications, self-help books, press releases, a five-hundred page dissertation, and lots of erotica and erotic romance – over one hundred titles, and counting, in nearly every sub-genre—paranormal, scifi, ménage, BDSM, GLBT, and more. Regardless of the genre, every one of her stories illustrates her motto: Imagination is the ultimate aphrodisiac.
You’ll find information and excerpts from all Lisabet’s books on her website (http://www.lisabetsarai.com/books.html), along with more than fifty free stories and lots more. At her blog Beyond Romance (http://lisabetsarai.blogspot.com), she shares her philosophy and her news and hosts lots of other great authors. She’s also on Goodreads, Pinterest, and Twitter. Join her VIP email list here: https://btn.ymlp.com/xgjjhmhugmgh
