Harmony Kent's Blog, page 52
October 4, 2020
Astral Conspiracy Series by @StaciTroilo (a.k.a D. L. Cross) #Series #NewBook #mustread #wannaread
Hi everyone! Today, it gives me tremendous pleasure to host fantastic author and friend, Staci Troilo. She has the most readable and wonderful new sci-fi series out now, and it has me hooked. Staci writes the Astral Conspiracy series as D. L. Cross, and it’s not to be missed. Okay, I’ll stop raving now and will let Staci tell you all about the fab books >>>
Ciao, Harmony. Thanks so much for inviting me to visit again today. It’s nice to be back. And bidding all your readers a good day, as well.
{It’s so great to have you over to visit today, Staci 
September 28, 2020
How to Publish with KDP: Part Sixteen | Story Empire
Hi everyone. Happy Monday! Today, you’ll find me over at Story Empire with another installment of my how to publish to KDP set of posts >>>
Hello SErs. Harmony here. As promised, here is part sixteen in the post series dedicated to taking a step-by-step look at how to get your finished manuscript from your computer and on sale on Ama…
Source: How to Publish with KDP: Part Sixteen | Story Empire
The post How to Publish with KDP: Part Sixteen | Story Empire first appeared on Welcome to Harmony Kent Online.
September 25, 2020
Child’s Play: ‘Fiction In A Flash Challenge’ Week #19 NEW Image Prompt. Join in the fun! #IARTG #ASMSG @pursoot #WritingCommunity
Hi everyone! It’s that time of the week again … Friday fun flash fiction! This week’s picture had my muse sprinting away. And because I’m immersed in Staci Troilo’s Astral Conspiracy Series right now, and loving it, then of course my mojo went the way it did. Without further ado, here’s my take on this prompt …
Image by David Mark from Pixabay
Child’s Play
The transmission tower was the first target but a long way from the only casualty.
The next thing to go, understandably, was the iconic HOLLYWOOD signage. The rough hillside and bush around it turned to smoking, black ash. Then the sky shadow moved over the city. In only a matter of seconds, Los Angeles was no more. How much of the US—the world—had these things taken out?
Brad coughed and crawled heedlessly through the debris and burnt foliage, desperate to reach the valley floor. He’d changed his mind about getting that selfie in front of the tall, famous nine letters. Something told him that a lot more things than just his mind would have changed by the time he made it back to civilisation—if any such thing existed anymore.
He fumbled his mobile from his pocket and powered it up. No signal. Not even an emergency call function. Again, he stared up at where the tower, bristling with satellite dishes, had been only minutes earlier. Who wanted to blow up America?
[] [] []
Meanwhile, in a galaxy not that far away … the numbers shot up on the side of the holoscreen. Warg screeched in pleasure. He’d added at least a thousand to the tally. Wait until Gorg heard what he’d achieved. All of a sudden, a strong jaw gripped the back of the child’s neck and lifted him from his seat. His mother dropped him some feet away in the middle of the floor. She frowned at the ship’s computer screen and then at Warg. ‘I’ve told you before that’s not a game.’
Warg pouted. ‘But we’re going to kill them all anyway.’
His mother shook her head. ‘Yes, but now they know we’re coming.’
[] [] []
© Harmony Kent 2020
I’d love to know what you think of this short story … so please don’t be shy and leave me a reply.
Have a great weekend, everyone!
Image by David Mark from Pixabay
The rules:
Please put your entry (or a link to it) in a comment HERE or email it to Sooz at her email address. by DEADLINE: 4pm EDT on Thursday, October 1st. Subject: Fiction in a Flash Challenge. If you post it on your own blog or site, a link to THIS page would be much appreciated.
UPDATE: The response to the prompts has been just wonderful. As a result, Soooz be sharing all entries received, and her own contribution on her blog AS SHE RECEIVES THEM. Rather than posting all of them only over a few days.
Find Sooz at …
The post Child's Play: ‘Fiction In A Flash Challenge’ Week #19 NEW Image Prompt. Join in the fun! #IARTG #ASMSG @pursoot #WritingCommunity first appeared on Welcome to Harmony Kent Online.
Women In Science Fiction: Fallout
Hi everyone, I’m over a Y Correa’s blog today as part of September’s Science Fiction month
September 22, 2020
#NewBook Launch: Eternal Road -The final stop by John W. Howell @HowellWave
Hi everyone! It gives me great pleasure to help my fellow author and friend, John Howell, showcase his latest book today: Eternal Road–The Final Stop.
Thank you so much for having me on your blog, Harmony, and for helping me launch Eternal Road – The final stop. I know you are busy with your own manuscript, so I appreciate you taking the time to help with this launch.
{You’re so welcome, Johh! I’m super excited to have you visit today.}
Let me describe my book. Eternal Road is the story of two people finding their way through the selection process leading to the place where one will spend eternity. Yes, it is true. They both have passed away. James Wainwright just died in an auto accident. Samantha Tourneau died seventeen years before. Sam is James’s guide to help him decide where to spend eternity. This is not your usual thriller or paranormal romance. It is a piece of fiction that is a combination of inspiration, adventure, time travel, sci-fi, a touch of erotica, and a dash of spiritual. In short, it is a lot of things, but hopefully, a story that will make you happy to have read it.
It is now available on Amazon in paper and Kindle. The Kindle edition is at an introductory price of 99¢ until October 15th
Here are the universal links:
Kindle Universal link mybook.to/EternalRoad
Paper universal link mybook.to/Eternalroadpaper
The blurb.
James Wainwright picks up a hitchhiker and discovers two things 1. The woman he picks up is his childhood sweetheart, only Seventeen years older. 2. He is no longer of this world.
James began a road trip alone in his 1956 Oldsmobile. He stops for a hitchhiker only to discover she is his childhood sweetheart, Sam, who disappeared seventeen years before. James learns from Sam falling asleep miles back caused him to perish in a one-car accident. He also comes to understand that Sam was taken and murdered all those years ago, and now she has come back to help him find his eternal home.
The pair visit a number of times and places and are witness to a number of historical events. The rules dictate that they do no harm to the time continuum. Trying to be careful, they inadvertently come to the attention of Lucifer, who would love to have their souls as his subjects. They also find a threat to human survival and desperately need to put in place the fix necessary to save humankind.
The question becomes, will James find his eternal home in grace or lose the battle with Satan for his immortal soul and the future of human life with it? If you like time-travel, adventure, mystery, justice, and the supernatural, this story is for you.
An Excerpt:
James puts his hand over his eyes to cut the sun’s glare. “I think he must be Davy Crockett.”
James and Sam approach the wall and shout up to the figure above. Davy looks down and frowns. “What do you want?”
Sam cups her hands around her mouth and yells, “Mr. Travis sent us to you. He said you could use a couple more hands.”
Davy wipes beads of sweat from his forehead, points to the end of the structure, and yells back, “See that ladder over there? Climb up here where we can have a decent talk.”
James and Sam wave to let him know they see the ladder. They go to it, and James turns to Sam. “He doesn’t look remotely like Fess Parker.”
Sam laughs despite herself. “Hush. Someone may hear you.”
James laughs and puts his hand on the ladder. “Okay. You want to go first?”
Sam grabs James’s shoulder. “Isn’t it customary for ladies to go first?”
James bows to mock Sam’s words and holds the ladder as she ascends. Though the rungs look like grass, they hold her weight. She takes her time. At the top, she throws a leg over the last rung and stands on the platform. “Come on up.”
Quickly, James joins her on the top. They go over to Davy Crockett, who stands deep in discussion with a couple of the men. He waves the pair of them over. “You might as well hear this. We built this platform so we can fire our muskets over the wall. That covers the good news. The bad news is half your body gets exposed when you stand to fire. We should have built the platform a little lower to keep us fully protected, but it’s too late to change it now. My suggestion is that you do all your firing from a kneeling position. Travis assigned you two to me?—Did I hear you right?”
James straightens to attention. “Yes, sir.”
Davy takes note of his enthusiasm. “Okay, then. Do you have a weapon?”
“No, sir, but I’m a good shot, and Sam, here, can do the loading.”
“Okay, we can use you both. Go to the magazine in the chapel and tell the man there that you need two muskets, powder, and balls. What you will do is … I’m sorry, I didn’t get your name.”
“James, sir.”
“Okay, James, while you fire, Sam will reload. You will pass each other the muskets. That clear?”
James nods. “Yes, sir, very.”
“Okay, then go get your weapons. After that, stop by the kitchen and grab some food. You both look like you haven’t had a meal for a while.”
John’s bio:
John is an award-winning author who, after an extensive business career, began writing full time in 2012. His specialty is thriller fiction novels, but John also writes poetry and short stories. He has written five other books that are on Amazon in paperback and Kindle editions. The paperback versions are also available in the Indie Lector store
John lives in Lakeway, Texas, with his wife and their spoiled rescue pets.
Contact John:
Blog Fiction Favorites, http://johnwhowell.com/
Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/john.howell.98229241
Twitter –https://www.twitter.com/HowellWave
Goodreads –https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7751796.John_W_Howell
Amazon Author’s page –https://www.amazon.com/author/johnwhowell
John’s other books
The Contract: between heaven and earth
The post #NewBook Launch: Eternal Road -The final stop by John W. Howell @HowellWave first appeared on Welcome to Harmony Kent Online.
September 21, 2020
Murder They Wrote: 7 Authors – 7 Genres @MaeClair1 #anthology
Hi everyone. Today, it gives me great pleasure to host fellow author and friend, Mae Clair, so that she can tell us all about a fab new anthology she’s in, along with 6 other awesome authors. Help yourself to drinks and snacks and make yourself comfortable >>>
Thanks for hosting me today, Harmony. I’m excited to be here sharing news of an anthology in which I have a short story. Murder They Wrote brings together seven authors writing in various sub genres of whodunits.
You can see the variety by the blurb:
[image error]Murder comes in 7 different genres. By 7 different authors.
Are you a fan of courtroom drama? In the anthology’s first story, Abraham Lincoln defends a friend’s son against a charge of murder.
For lovers of speculative fiction, Jason Fogg dissolves into mist to sneak through open windows and snoop for clues.
How about a cozy? Jazzi, Jerod, and Ansel discover a dead body while renovating a kitchen, dining room, and half bath.
Have a craving for a Regency? Lord Peregrine and his wife, Elizabeth, use their sharp minds and quick wit to solve a murder at a garden party.
Need a bit of literary fiction? A young, lonely widow must deal with the theft of a valuable butterfly collection.
And what about a little psychological horror? Twin sisters discover that their attic is haunted by not one, but two ghosts.
Last, but never least, the anthology concludes with a historical mystery. A young, newly married knight is accused of murdering his obnoxious host at a holiday gathering in his castle.
______________________________________________________________________________
My contribution, A Winter Reckoning, is the last one in this anthology, and as the title suggests, is set during the cold, snowy season. I don’t often set stories during winter, much preferring autumn, spring, and summer, but there is something claustrophobic about being snowbound which works well with murder mysteries.
I used “somewhere in Medieval England” as the intro to the story which takes place at a holiday gathering, hosted by Lord Norwin Hargreen. There’s nothing like murder to upset a festive gala—especially when said gala is rife with tension and undercurrents.[image error]
When Hargreen turns up dead, the list of suspects with motives is a long one. Unfortunately for my protagonist, Richard Essex, he’s caught holding the knife, standing over Hargreen’s body. His only chance of clearing his name is to unmask the real killer, a task that has him seeking help from an unlikely source—the father-in-law who despises him.
A Winter Reckoning is just one of seven tales in which there are clues to be found, red herrings to avoid, and villains to unmask. And because each short story is a complete mystery, you can engage your detective skills a little at a time, or all at once as your mood dictates.
I hope you’ll join in the sleuthing!
Connect with Mae Clair at BOOKBUB and the following haunts:
Amazon| BookBub| Newsletter Sign-Up
Website | Blog| Twitter| Goodreads| All Social Media
The post Murder They Wrote: 7 Authors - 7 Genres @MaeClair1 #anthology first appeared on Welcome to Harmony Kent Online.
Encore: ‘Fiction In A Flash Challenge’ Week #18 NEW Image Prompt. Join in the fun! #IARTG #ASMSG @pursoot #WritingCommunity
Hi everyone! It’s that time of the week again … Friday fun flash fiction! This week’s picture had my muse flumouxed for a while. Eventually, on Sunday evening, it came up with a sad piece. Without further ado, here’s my take on this prompt …
Image by Ri Butov from Pixabay
Encore
The melodious and skilful playing on the grand piano rouses me from a deep sleep. Groggy, I reach my hand out for the mobile, thinking the sound comes from the wake-up alarm. But the device displays 00:00 and lies quiescent and silent in my palm. The hairs on my neck prickle a warning. My heart races along with the soaring tempo while the surge of adrenaline forces me into complete and alert wakefulness.
Always this French piece. Always at midnight precisely. And, always, I tumble down the stairs only to find the great hall empty. And still, I have to check. I need to make sure. After a month of this, you could be forgiven for assuming I know better. But the only way I can go on is to remember and hope. Otherwise, what’s left?
I stand framed in the doorway, and the hall light casts my shadow before me … impossibly long and slender and nothing like my old and bent body. A chill draft from who-knows-where sets my body a tremble. The grandfather clock tick-tick-ticks the seconds away. At the far side of the great hall, the piano sits at attention, its lid propped up, the stool pulled back, and the sheet music ready. Waiting.
A solitary tear trickles down my left cheek. So, just a dream. Always, the melody exists only in my mind. But why now? My love will never again sit at this magnificent grand or fill this empty mansion with her beauty. Even though I feel the futility in my blood and bones, and the wrung-out chambers of my broken heart, I ease across the parquet floor and stand behind the pianist’s stool. I lift my arms as I always used to do. Tonight, as with every night, my hands find empty air, for her shoulders are not there.
The blue-tinged moonlight pokes a finger through the slightest gap in the heavy drapes and shines on the decades-old sheet music. Yellowed, now, with age and neglect. My grief prevents me from changing one single thing. All is as Rose left it. Ready for the final performance. Though my reflection stands alone in the gilt mirror in front of me, the moon glow casts a shadow. Her shadow. Dainty fingers grasp a rose. A single note sounds and reverberates throughout the hall … high C … the perfect octave for my Rose’s perfect voice.
A sharp pain pierces my chest and sends cold shards lancing into my heart. My breath catches, and I slump onto the stool. A liver-spotted fist fumbles and grips at my breast. The shadows gather around me while the music plays … builds … reaches a crescendo. A single crimson petal drifts downward on unseen currents and comes to rest on the time-worn ivory keys. My eyelids grow heavy and tug my eyes closed.
My love has come for me. After all these years, my Rose and I shall make music again, together beneath the stars. Into this vast night, I go willingly. Behind the veil … eternal melody.
© Harmony Kent 2020
I’d love to know what you think of this short story … so please don’t be shy and leave me a reply.
Have a great week, everyone!
Image prompt from Antonios Ntoumas from Pixabay
The rules:
Please put your entry (or a link to it) in a comment HERE or email it to Sooz at her email address. by DEADLINE: 4pm EDT on Thursday, September 24th. Subject: Fiction in a Flash Challenge. If you post it on your own blog or site, a link to THIS page would be much appreciated.
UPDATE: The response to the prompts has been just wonderful. As a result, Soooz be sharing all entries received, and her own contribution on her blog AS SHE RECEIVES THEM. Rather than posting all of them only over a few days.
Find Sooz at …
The post Encore: ‘Fiction In A Flash Challenge’ Week #18 NEW Image Prompt. Join in the fun! #IARTG #ASMSG @pursoot #WritingCommunity first appeared on Welcome to Harmony Kent Online.
September 11, 2020
The Devil’s in the Detail: ‘Fiction In A Flash Challenge’ Week #17 NEW Image Prompt. Join in the fun! #IARTG #ASMSG @pursoot #WritingCommunity
Hi everyone! It’s that time of the week again … Friday fun flash fiction! This week’s picture had my muse doing its happy dance
In Memorium | Story Empire
A poignant day for sure.
The World Trade Center Aftermath of September 11, 2001 World Trade Center Memorial The Pentagon Aftermath of September 11, 2001 Pentagon Memorial Photo by Joan Hall Photo By Joan Hall Shanksville, …
Source: In Memorium | Story Empire
The post In Memorium | Story Empire first appeared on Welcome to Harmony Kent Online.
#WomenInSciFi @YCorreaFB #WritingCommunity
Hi everyone. As September is Women in Scifi Month, twice a week, author Y Correa showcases a female sci-fi writer. Today, you’ll find out more about Nichola McDonagh and her books over at Jazz’s blog >>>
The post #WomenInSciFi @YCorreaFB #WritingCommunity first appeared on Welcome to Harmony Kent Online.
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