Lincoln Cole's Blog, page 16
March 7, 2017
Author Feature: Bill Hiatt
Today I will be featuring Bill Hiatt!
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Many teenagers struggle to find their identity, but for Taliesin Weaver, that struggle has become life or death--and not just for him. Tal, as he prefers to be called, believes in reincarnation, and with good reason. When he turned twelve, his mind was nearly shattered by a flood of memories, memories of his past lives, hundreds of them. Somehow, Tal managed to pull himself together and even to make good use of the lessons learned and skills developed in those previous lives. He even had the ability to work magic--literally--and there was no denying that was cool. No, his life wasn't perfect, but he was managing.
Now, four years later, his best friend, Stan, has begun to suspect his secret, and Stan isn't the only one. Suddenly, Tal is under attack from a mysterious enemy and under the protection of an equally mysterious friend whose agenda Tal can't quite figure out. An apparition predicts his death. A shapeshifter disguised as Stan attacks him. An old adversary starts acting like a friend. He and some other students get hurled into Annwn (the Otherworld), face Morgan Le Fay, and only just barely get back alive--and that’s just during the first month of school!
By now Tal knows he is not the only one who can work magic and certainly not the only one who can remember the past. He realizes there is something that he is not remembering, something that could save his life or end it, some reason for the attacks on him that, as they escalate, threaten not only him but everyone he loves as well. In an effort to save them, he will have to risk not only his life, but even his soul.
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Taliesin Weaver thought that he had saved himself and his friends when he defeated the witch Ceridwen. He was wrong. He always thought of evil as embodied in external threats that he could overcome in combat. Soon he will discover that the worst evil has been inside of him all along.
Tal’s girlfriend is in a coma for which he holds himself responsible. A close friend, suffering from a past-life memory trauma similar to Tal's, is getting worse, not better. Morgan Le Fay is still lurking around and has an agenda Tal can’t figure out. Supernatural interruptions in his life are becoming more frequent, not less so, despite his expectations. In fact, Tal learns that something about his unique nature amplifies otherworldly forces in ways he never imagined were possible, ways that place at risk everyone close to him.
Tal and his allies must face everything from dead armies to dragons. As soon as they overcome one menace, another one is waiting for them. More people are depending on Tal than ever; he carries burdens few adults could face, let alone a sixteen-year-old like himself. Yet somehow Tal at first manages to handle everything the universe throws at him.
What Tal can’t handle is the discovery that a best friend, almost a brother, betrayed him, damaging Tal’s life beyond repair. For the first time, Tal feels a darkness within him, a darkness which he can only barely control--assuming he wants to. He’s no longer sure. Maybe there is something to be said for revenge, and even more to be said for taking what he wants. After all, he has the power.
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March 6, 2017
Author Feature: Lincoln Cole
Today it is my turn to feature some of my books!
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Argus Wade was born into the Ministry, an archaic and barbaric religion that's taken ahold of the Republic. He knew from an early age that he was different from the other students who learned there: the threat of death - or worse - loomed over him because of his special gifts.
When he tries to protect his daughter from this fate by hiding her from the Ministry, he finds out that all he's managed to do is make things worse. He's running out of options and growing more desperate by the day.
Meanwhile, the galaxy is facing a new conflict in the outer reaches: a rebellion is forming to tear down the Republic, led by a charismatic upstart named Darius Gray. Battle lines are being drawn and everyone is choosing sides. But, they are all going to find out that the cost of war is higher than anyone could have anticipated...
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A quiet little mountain town is hiding a big problem. When the townsfolk of Raven's Peak start acting crazy, Abigail Dressler is called upon to discover the root of the evil affecting people. She uncovers a demonic threat unlike any she's ever faced and finds herself in a fight just to stay alive.
Abigail rescues Haatim Arison from a terrifying fate and discovers that he has a family legacy in the supernatural that he knows nothing about. Now she's forced to protect him, which is easy, but also to trust him if she wants to save the townsfolk of Raven's Peak. Trust, however, is something hard to have for someone who grew up living on the knife's edge of danger.
Can they discover the cause of the town's insanity and put a stop to it before it is too late?
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After mercenaries kidnap two drone operators and steal software that can pilot military drones from anywhere in the world, Kate Allison is called to action to try and stop them before they can use American drones against civilians. A woman with a sordid history, Kate is trying to make up for past mistakes.
She teams up with the unlikeliest of partners in her mission: Lyle Goldman, the application developer who designed the drone software. He's her only hope of finding a way to shut down the mercenaries and figure out who is behind this attack. Unfortunately, Lyle is being hunted by the FBI in connection with the stolen software and is being framed for the crime.
Can they stop this attack and clear Lyle's name before it is too late?
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March 5, 2017
Author Feature: MN Arzu
Today I will be featuring MN Arzu!
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An injured merman is found washed up on a beach in Maine. After being brought to a special facility, doctors are at a loss for how to help him. Worse, how are they to keep him away from the eager hands of the military?
One reporter is hot on the trail of what she believes is an elaborate hoax—or the story of a lifetime. A story that has her tracking elusive clues into an ever-growing house of secrets surrounding one of the richest families in New York City.
For merfolk have been hiding in plain sight for centuries, and are now torn between sacrificing one of their own—or telling humanity the truth.
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First Contact has never been easy.
Despite the rumors, the US Government has been able to deny First Contact with an alien race for decades, but with good reason: it hasn't happened yet.
When a strange signal comes from an isolated area in the forests outside of Seattle, they find that First Contact is not going to happen with big ships and grand world-wide messages. Aliens, it turns out, like to keep their existence quiet.
Breaking a great number of rules, Seattle's resident alien has come back from a quick trip to his home planet to tell his human wife the truth about himself. Even if he has to do it behind a glass cell and the military in between.
The sequel to Underneath is coming out soon, title Undercurrent! She has a giveaway for it to win a $15 Amazon Gift card here.
She has a story featured in our anthology, and she also designed the cover for it!
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March 4, 2017
Author Feature: Emily Martha Sorensen
Today I will be featuring Emily Martha Sorensen!
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The Keeper and the Rulership: In a world where both magic and mathematics are forbidden, Raneh is growing magic and she can't seem to stop. She'll face the death penalty if anybody catches her, so she hides it in the weeds of her family's land, pretending to be a typical eighteen-year-old heir. And it works.
Until the Ruler comes to visit.
Fires of Rulership: Life hasn't suddenly become easy because Raneh's now the Keeper. Her life has been interrupted, and she struggles to pick up the pieces.
The world has been interrupted, too. Magic no longer functions, and the food, travel, and health it provided have also vanished. There's nothing to help except the new system Raneh created, and nobody knows how to use it.
Teaching it will be the work of a lifetime. Work that Raneh's willing to do.
But the Ruler has a very different idea of what a Keeper should be doing
Emily has two short stories featured in our anthology, which is 100% free!
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Book Review: Melhara by Jocelyn Tollefson
Today I will be reviewing Melhara by Jocelyn Tollefson
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Witches. Demons. Angels. Ancient prophecies and eternal wars.
Kyra Parker seems to have it all: a successful career woman, wife, and mother; she's living the life she always wanted. But appearances are deceiving. In reality, she's a witch who has forbidden herself from using magic—at least the powers she has control over. Only two of her closest friends know her secret—one they share.
Kyra can no longer ignore her destiny when she is exposed as the key to the end of the world. She transforms into a dark witch after reluctantly surrendering her soul to the demon, Alastor, to save her loved ones.
With her friends, Alexis and Axel, chasing her across the country in an attempt to free her from the demon's influence, Kyra ventures ever closer to the point of no return. Her family and friends need to work together before it’s too late to save her—and the rest of the world—from the demon apocalypse.
There's just one problem—she doesn’t want to be saved.
I love anything with witches and demons in it, so when I first picked up this story I was super excited to see what it would entail! There were a lot of characters in this book on both sides, and I appreciated how the author showed both sides and gave them some clever tricks and tools with which to battle each other. The introduction of the supernatural elements was interesting and really helped bring the story to life,
I liked the witches Alexis and Axel and thought some of their clever machinations were really well designed. The only problem was there were so many characters sprinkled throughout the story to create this epic ending showdown that sometimes it felt like they were blending in with one another.
They all could have used a few more personality traits to distinguish them and make them feel a little more compelling. That isn't to say this seriously hurt the book or anything, it is just the sort of thing that would have made the book quite a bit better. Nothing really felt like the author cheated: for example, everyone is fairly powerful, but it wasn't just a series of unfair cheats (like 'the enemy has a spell so it insta-wins!') or anything like that. If the characters had been a little better developed I would have given this a five star rating, but unfortunately some of the side characters were weak. As such I will give this book 4 out of 5 stars.
Worth checking out for audiences of fast-paced fantasy!
About the Author
Jocelyn is a Canadian Author.
She has always had a passion for reading and writing, drafting her own episodes of her favorite T.V. shows as a child and various other short stories about ghosts, witches, and other supernatural creatures.
Jocelyn grew up reading fantasy and horror novels from R.L. Stine, Christopher Pike, Dean Koontz, John Saul, Anne Rice, and Stephen King; these authors shaped her love for darker fantasy. Currently, she’s into Kelley Armstrong, Pittacus Lore, Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl. Her all-time favorite stories involve witches and magic.
Melhara is her first published novel with two more installments to come for this series.
She enjoys staying up late reading or watching B-budget fantasy and horror movies for inspiration then goes to sleep dreaming of dark creatures and magical worlds.
This was an OnlineBookClub.org Book of the Day for March 2nd!
