Katie Hamstead's Blog, page 79

Guest Post: Historical Romance; Lauren Linwood

Most historical romance authors write their stories in the Regency period, but I’m drawn to two eras that I taught about as a high school history teacher—medieval times and the American Old West.
My latest novel is the western historical romance Written in the Cards. I brainstormed ideas for my hero’s occupation, not wanting him to be the usual cowboy. I’d just read about a new Showtime series called Penny Dreadful, which would debut in 2014. Penny dreadfuls were 19th century serialized publications that were quite sensational and lurid. That got me to thinking about their American counterpart—dime novels—and so the beginnings of a plot started stirring in my mind.
Dime novels became very popular after the Civil War. With the US literacy rate rising dramatically, people clamored to read for pleasure. At the cost of a dime, these novels were affordable and full of adventure, oftentimes set on the Western frontier.
I decided to make my hero Ben Morgan be a dime novelist. As he traveled the West, he would get all kinds of ideas for his stories. That didn’t set well with my heroine Maggie Rutherford. I already saw Maggie in my mind—a feisty redhead who grew up as a bit of a tomboy because she shadowed her older brother wherever he went. Besides the typical female lessons of dancing and embroidery, Maggie had been by her brother’s side and learned skills such as fencing, shooting, and boxing. She complained to me (Yes, characters really do talk back to the writers that create them!) that she could write a dime novel as well as any man—and she claimed to be artistic enough to illustrate them as well.
I have to thank Maggie for standing up and speaking her mind to me. It made for a wonderful plot twist to have a woman authoring dime novels (under a male pen name, as did many 19th century women writers). She wound up leaving the safe confines of her family’s New York City mansion and set out to the Wild West so she could experience firsthand all the things she was writing about.
That freed Ben up to become a gambler who’d killed a man cheating at cards. When Ben called the fraud out, the man tried to shoot him, so Ben fired back in self-defense. But when you’ve killed the baby brother of the most famous gunslinging outlaw in Texas, you better get out of town fast! Ben eventually meets Maggie in Abilene, Kansas, and she is quite taken by his rugged looks. She interviews him for her upcoming novel, and sparks fly—especially when Maggie decides that she needs to do some research into kissing. After all, she might want to write about love one day in one of her tales, and what better man to investigate kissing with than Ben Morgan?
I had fun researching about card sharks, cattle drives, dime novels, and even tornadoes while writing Written in the Cards. And Maggie’s shooting and boxing skills? They came in awfully handy down the road!
Blurb:
Maggie Rutherford jilts her too-perfect society groom at the altar and flees to the American West, where she turns her travels into dime novels that she writes under the pen name Lud Madison.
Civil War veteran Ben Morgan marries his childhood sweetheart and takes her to homestead on the Great Plains. Losing her in an Indian attack, Ben becomes a gambler. When he kills a cheating opponent in self-defense, the man’s gunslinger brother swears revenge.
Ben hides on a cattle drive and brings in a herd to Abilene, where a waiting Maggie interviews him for her next story. Sparks fly as they wind up living in the same household, running a general store east of Abilene. But with Black Tex Lonnegan on his trail, will Ben run from his growing attraction to Maggie and the gunfighter’s promise of death–or will he make a stand for his life–and love? 
Buy Link:  Written in the Cards
Author Bio:Lauren Linwood became a teacher who wrote on the side to maintain her sanity in a sea of teenage hormones. Her romances use history as a backdrop to place her characters in extraordinary circumstances, where their intense desire and yearning for one another grow into the deep, tender, treasured gift of love.Lauren, a native Texan, lives in a Dallas suburb with her family. An avid reader, moviegoer, and sports fan, she manages stress by alternating yoga with five mile walks. She is thinking about starting a support group for Pinterest and House Hunters addicts.
Website   Facebook   Twitter   Blog   Amazon Author Page   Goodreads Author Page  About Me

Amazon Buy Links:  (for other available books)Music For My Soul          Outlaw Muse          A Game of Chance

Release: Redeeming You by Lisa Cardiff

After walking away from a controlling relationship, Taylor Reed is broke, homeless and unemployed…
When her brother, Alec, the drummer for Chasing Ruin offers her a job working for Chasing Ruin for the final thirty days of the tour, Taylor jumps at the chance.
Unfortunately, that job entails keeping Cam Donovan, Chasing Ruin’s lead guitarist, out of trouble for the remainder of the tour…
But Taylor isn’t worried. She’s smart enough to keep her distance and there’s no way she’ll let herself be another notch on his bedpost.
Cam Donovan’s life hasn’t been the same since he ruined his chances with Bre, his childhood sweetheart.
With regrets eating at his soul, he fills his life with meaningless one-night stands blurred by alcohol and drugs until Chasing Ruin threatens to kick him out of the band.
When Taylor joins Chasing Ruin on tour, he’ll do anything to avoid the mutual attraction burning between them. He can’t afford another the distraction.  But as the lines blur, and the days turn into weeks, Cam and Taylor realize their feelings might be worth fighting for.


PlaylistPassenger- Let Her GoSarah Bareilles – I Choose YouO.A.R. – I Want PeaceElvis Costello – AlisonSarah Bareilles – Gonna Get Over YouAllah-las- Every GirlKongos- Come with Me NowOne Republic - Counting StartsA Great Big World & Christina Aguilera - Say SomethingJohn Legend & Lindsey Stirling – All of MeCher Lloyd- Sorry I’m Late 
 After spending years practicing law and a million other things, Lisa decided to pursue her dream of becoming a writer and she must confess that inventing characters is so much more fun than writing contracts and legal briefs.  A native of Colorado, she lives with her husband and three children in Denver. When she isn’t managing the chaos of raising three children and owning her own business, she can be found reading or writing a book. Connect with Lisa    ·       Twitter  *  Facebook  *  Goodreads  *  Website  *  Amazon  *    Excerpt 1            Holding her breath so she wouldn’t wake him, she lifted her head so she could see his face. He looked beautiful when he slept with his dark eyelashes resting on his high, defined cheekbones. And his lips—the way they curled up at the corners was sinful. They should have a warning stamped across them. Smiling faintly, her fingers drifted over the swirling design of his tattoo starting at his forearm and ending several twists and turns later where his collarbone met his shoulder. As much as she liked that tattoo, she loved the guitar nestled between his hipbone the deep groove of muscle of his lower abdominals even more. Excerpt 2            When she reached Cam’s table, she stood next to the vacant side of the booth waiting for Cam to acknowledge her presence. He knew she was there, staring at him, but he patiently flipped the pages of the menu refusing to look at her. Typical. After a few prolonged seconds of her temper steadily rising, she cleared her throat.Cam still didn’t look at her. “Are you going to sit or do you want to stand there admiring me for a couple more minutes?” he drawled lazily.“Are you going to take off your cheesy sunglasses or are you too hung over to act like a normal human being?” she shot back, anger pumping heatedly through her veins as she sat in the booth across from him.Cam peeled of his dark sunglasses and carelessly tossed them on the table. “Better?” Cam asked gazing at her with his heavily hooded eyes, a sardonic smile floating on his lips.She already wanted to kill him; well, maybe not kill him. That was too extreme. Tossing a glass of ice water at him might be more appropriate, but thirty days of this back and forth shit and one of them would probably be dead. “Slightly, but now I have to look at your eyes and they’re a bit distracting.”Cam leaned forward, bracing his elbows on the edge of the table. “Are you trying to tell me something...like you’re attracted to me? I get that a lot, you know.” His lips curled up at the corners sinfully.Smiling contemptuously, Taylor purposely let her eyes trail over his face down to his chest and back up again. Blessed with the face of an angel and a body made for sin, he was good-looking; there was no doubt. His messy light blonde hair, his back t-shirt stretched across his obviously muscular chest in all the right ways, his normally piercing blue eyes and perfectly sculpted bone structure made him one smoking hot rocker, but she’d never tell him that. He already knew. She didn’t need to contribute to his already inflated ego.“No, not even close. I was trying to tell you that you look like shit. Your eyes are bloodshot and swollen. I think your face is a little waxy and bloated looking too.” Taylor leaned forward, pretending to study him as she tapped her fingers on the table. “Other than that, I guess you’re okay if you’re into the yuppie loser pretending to be the big bad wolf type...and I’m definitely not.”

Cover Reveal: Lifer by Beck Nicholas and Giveaway #M9BFridayReveals

Welcome to the Cover Reveal forLifer by Beck Nicholaspresented by Month9Books!Be sure to enter the giveaway found at the end of the post!

Asher is a Lifer, a slave aboard the spaceship Pelican. A member of the lowest rung of society, she must serve the ship’s Officials and Astronauts as punishment for her grandparents' crimes back on Earth. The one thing that made life bearable was her illicit relationship with Samuai, a Fishie boy, but he died alongside her brother in a freak training accident.Still grieving for the loss of her loved ones, Asher is summoned to the upper levels to wait on Lady, the head Official’s wife and Samuai’s mother. It is the perfect opportunity to gather intel for the Lifer’s brewing rebellion. There’s just one problem—the last girl who went to the upper levels never came back.On the other side of the universe, an alien attack has left Earth in shambles and a group called The Company has taken control. Blank wakes up in a pond completely naked and with no memory, not even his real name. So when a hot girl named Megs invites him to a black-market gaming warehouse where winning means information, he doesn’t think twice about playing. But sometimes the past is better left buried.As Asher and Blank’s worlds collide, the truth comes out—everyone has been lied to. Bourne Identity meets Under the Never Sky in this intergalactic tale of love and deception from debut novelist Beck Nicholas.

Title: LIFER
Publication date: December 16, 2014
Publisher: Month9Books, LLC.
Author: Beck NicholsComplete the Rafflecopter below for a chance to win!(Winners will receive their book on release day)a Rafflecopter giveaway

Author Support Blog Hop

Thanks to Sharon Bayliss for organizing this blog hop! I love this opportunity to be frank about how crazy life as a writer can be.WHAT do you do? Give us a summary of your crazy life and all your responsibilitiesWell... let's see. I work part time as a Clerk with a Lien company. I think the hardest thing about that is getting someone to watch my daughter, or it could be my chronic mommy lateness. I swear, I used to be so punctual, even a little early!My most time consuming commitments are as a mother and wife. My daughter is still young, and needs me to watch her and help entertain her as well as help her grow intellectually, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually. I think the job of mother is something you can never anticipate how much effort you need to invest into it. This little life is going to be molded on my example and teachings, and that's a huge responsibility. But, I'm getting off topic.Being a wife also fills a lot of my time. Being married isn't the end of the story, it's ongoing, and my hubs needs a ton of attention.I also work part time as an Acquisitions editor with Curiosity Quills. It's so much fun, and honestly, I wish I had more time to do it. As a side note, I've noticed the quality of submissions has improved of late. Good job, people!Last of all, I need to edit and write, plus everything else that entails. Promotion isn't where I'd like it, simply because I don't have the time or energy to push my books and do things as much as I'd like. I also don't get as much time to write as I used to. I miss it.HOW do you do it? How do you manage to find time to write? What tips can you share?I have NO IDEA! I'm losing my freaking mind! lol. I guess it's just a labor of love and struggling to keep things balanced and scheduled. My smart phone helps too.WHY do you do it? Other than just sheer insanity, what keeps you going? Why have you chosen the life of an over-stressed author? What keeps you motivated during dark days?I just love telling stories. It's in my heart, and no matter what, I want to get it out and share the joy it brings me. Although the criticism and rejection often makes me want to quit, I can't stop telling stories.QUESTIONS and PLEAS for help. Other authors will be reading your post, so if you have questions or want advice, you can ask. Also, if there is anything you need, or anything you can do to help others, mention that here as well.Do you ever feel incredibly lonely? I feel like I'm the only one who cares about what I do and my books. I try to help people as much as I can with cover reveals, blog tours, guests posts, CP/Beta reading, retweets and reviews (btw, I'm happy to help with any of these if you want, although I'm limited with reading time due to my acquisitions work. Feel free to ask about any!) But I still feel isolated. What about you?Please leave a comment below, and visit the other hoppers in the linky below!

Featuring... Blog Tour Banners

I have joined in many blog tours to help other authors along the way. So, here are some of them! And I may have thrown in my own too. lol.

Featuring... Memes!

Memes are soooo fun! I love getting little snippets with cool pictures to give me a taste for the book. So here are the memes that have appeared on my blog.

Trailer Reveal

Today I'm excited to share the trailer of Rosie Somer's debut Novel. Pride is a young adult urban fantasy that will release this summer from Anaiah Press. About Pride:Seventeen-year-old Gabriella Pierce is used to taking care of herself, but she’s about to become responsible for a whole lot more. When she gets a visit from three men claiming to be defenders of fantastical rings imbued with the powers of THE CARDINAL SINS, her life is changed irrevocably.   Gabby is the steward of PRIDE   To make matters worse, she’s falling hard for fellow steward, Grant Barnett, and he hates her guts. Now Gabby has to learn to protect Pride without letting her feelings for Grant get in the way.
Release Date:9 September 2014 Anaiah Press: http://www.anaiahpress.com 
About the AuthorRosie Somers is a YA author who lives in Florida, soaking up the year round sunshine. She can often be found in her favourite spot on her favourite beach, nose-deep in a good book.
Website || Twitter|| Facebook 

Release: EXACTING ESSENCE by James Wymore

Book Blurb:Remember waking up late in the night after a nightmare? Your mother holding you tight and whispering it's all just a dream and everything would be all right?

She lied.

Evil clowns haunted Megan's dreams for years. Even though nobody ever said she was crazy, she knew they were all thinking it. With her life falling apart, she turns suicidal until a new therapist suggests the impossible: dreams are real. Nightmares are living, breathing predators, feeding on dreamers' fears by Exacting Essence.

Most, of course, forget theirs as soon as they wake up. Megan is not so lucky. She's also not so powerless.

But is even a power nurtured within her dreams enough to fight off the horrors lurking just beyond the veil of sleep?
Amazon Barnes&Noble
Goodreads Giveaway

 Author Bio:On a lifelong search for fantastic worlds hiding just out of sight, James Wymore writes to explore.  With three books and six short stories in print after just one year, he continues to push the boundaries of imagination.  Journey with him at http://jameswymore.wordpress.com/

There is a Facebook Release Party for Exacting Essence today!https://www.facebook.com/events/561039640679339/?ref_dashboard_filter=upcoming

Cover Reveal – The Perilous Journey of the Not-So-Innocuous Girl by Leigh Statham and Giveaway

I'm soooo excited to participate in the reveal of this book. Leigh is one of my CP's and an amazing and wonderfully supportive friend. I read this book as a CP and loved it, so I hope everyone picks it up and gives it a try!

Welcome to the Cover Reveal forThe Perilous Journey of the Not-So-Innocuous
Girl by Leigh Stathampresented by Month9Books!Be sure to enter the giveaway found at the end of the post!

Lady Marguerite lives a life most 17th century French girls can only dream of: Money, designer dresses, suitors and a secure future. Except, she suspects her heart may be falling for her best friend Claude, a common smithie in the family's steam forge. When Claude leaves for New France in search of a better life, Marguerite decides to follow him and test her suspicions of love. Only the trip proves to be more harrowing than she anticipated. Love, adventure and restitution await her, if she can survive the voyage.

Title: THE PERILOUS JOURNEY OF
THE NOT-SO-INNOCUOUS GIRL
Publication date: 2015
Publisher: Month9Books, LLC.
Author: Leigh Statham

Leigh Statham was raised in the wilds of rural Idaho, but found her heart in New York City. She worked as a waitress, maid, artist, math teacher, nurse, web designer, art director, thirty-foot inflatable pig and mule wrangler before she settled down in the semi-quiet role of wife, mother and writer. She resides in North Carolina with her husband, four children, five chickens and two suspected serial killer cats. If the air is cool and the sun is just coming up over the horizon, you can find her running the streets of her small town, plotting her next novel with the sort of intensity that will one day get her hit by a car.

Connect with the Author: Website |Twitter | Facebook | GoodreadsComplete the Rafflecopter below for a chance to win!(Winners will receive their book on release day)a Rafflecopter giveaway

Featuring... Blog Tour Organizers

These are the banners of Blog Tour groups I host for. I'm involved with others, but they usually send me HTML codes for their banners.