Devika Fernando's Blog, page 49

Teaser Tuesday - Find out more about the FIRE TRILOGY

I released Books 2 and 3 of the FIRE Trilogy on December 4th, bringing the series to an end. You can find the buy links to "Dancing with Fire" and "Living with Fire" here. And you can download Book 1, "Playing with Fire", for free almost everywhere. If you want to grab all 3 books in one, download "The Complete FIRE Trilogy".

To give you more of an idea what the paranormal romance novels are about, I'm sharing my Pinterest boards.

Pinterest Board for "Playing with Fire"
Pinterest Board for the sequels
​
You can read exclusive excerpts from all 3 books here.

​And you can get an idea about the characters - fire witch Felicia and ice wizard Joshua - here.

Review of "Hot Christmas Nights" (Set with 7 Stories by Australian Authors)

My review ​I may be a Buddhist, but I’ve never been able to resist a good Christmas romance. There’s just something about the mix of Christmas magic, year’s end and people meeting (again) that is perfect for a romance story. And I got 7 times of exactly that irresistible mix with “Hot Christmas Nights”. I loved each and every story set in Australia, and I find it impossible to pick a favourite. So let me just mention what I liked most about each steamy read.
 
ALL SHE WANTS FOR CHRISTMAS by RACHEL BAILEY
 
A hunky, brooding author as the hero? Yes, please! I loved the first story in the set, dealing with Maddy and Samuel on their island. It was just the right mix of bitter, sweet, sensual, emotion-laden and fast-paced to make me grip my mouse tighter and tighter. The memories contrasting with the present and the haunting secret that Samuel has been hiding gave the story real power.
 
CHRISTMAS WISHES, NEW YEAR KISSES by MICHELLE DOUGLAS
 
I love animals (I have 4 dogs and 2 cats), so reading about a team of vets was a treat. I also enjoyed the whole shift from friends to lovers, it was absolutely credible. Sometimes I wanted to just pick Josh and Erin up and throw them closer together. Erin’s mother as the ‘sort of’ villain was a great idea, as was having them experiment with a holiday.
 
BABY, IT’S HOT OUTSIDE by LOUISA GEORGE
 
This story was another perfect example of how it’s sometimes better for two people to be apart and grow up and find their place in life before being thrown together again. Emma and Danny had to face each other and their tumultuous past at their friends’ wedding, and the whole set-up seemed perfect. I loved how the hero had changed, and how spunky the heroine was.
 
HER CHRISTMAS COWBOY by HELEN LACEY
 
A cowboy and Christmas? Yes, please! At first Brett and Elyse seemed an unlikely couple, but I quickly warmed to them, and their chemistry was incredibly hot. The ending was also perfect after all the yes-no, up-down emotional ride that had me on tenterhooks.
 
SLEIGH BELLS IN THE SAND by STEFANIE LONDON
 
I really liked the start of this story, it caught me completely by surprise. And the emotional background and dark past of both characters was so believable and heavy, it pulled me right in. I was rooting so hard for Neve and Damien to get their happy ending. The sparks between them were sizzling, and I loved Tilly the dog with all my heart too.
 
MILLIONAIRE UNDER THE MISTLETOE by KANDY SHEPHERD
 
Kitty-sitting on Christmas? I’d happily say yes to that – especially if that’d give me a chance to run into a hunky hero like Dylan. This story also started off with a bang and surprised me many times. I loved the dynamics between Dylan and Carly and never wanted the story to end (it did end perfectly, though).
 
HER SMALL-TOWN CHRISTMAS WISH by JENNIFER ST GEORGE
 
This story was incredibly emotional and heart-wrenching. I was constantly swinging between all kinds of emotions, and the power of the story hardly let me breathe. Giselle with her glamorous present and painful past and Jake as the simply perfect hero I’d have fallen head over heels in love with were a wonderful pairing. The story was the perfect ending to the set, lighting the dark with the rays of hope that Christmas magic can sometimes bring.
 
I’m giving this set 5 stars out of 5 because it was indeed scorching hot, wonderfully filled with second chances and new beginnings, past hurt overcome and small miracles happening. Out of the contributing authors, I had previously only known Kandy Shepherd’s books, but I fell in love with all the other authors too, and will definitely check out their novels in the future.

Rating: 5/5

Best Seller Story Interview Series, 3: Kirtida Gautam Interviews Scott Hawkins

​BESTSELLING AUTHOR INTERVIEW SERIES
KIRTIDA GAUTAM HOSTS THE INTERVIEW OF SCOTT HOWKINS
Other Authors who host interviews for the series
Rasana Atreya, Neil D'Silva, Devika Fernando, Aindrila Roy, Debashish Irengbam
​
Scott Hawkins is born in Idaho in 1969, grew up in South Carolina. He graduated from the University of South Carolina with a B.S.C.S. in computer science in 1991 and an M.S. in 1993 and works as a computer programmer.  He’s been a member of Absolute Write since 2006. Scott has also been deeply involved in keeping Absolute Write’s server running for close to ten years now. He lives in the Atlanta suburbs with his wife and seven dogs. The Library at Mount Char is his first novel. He has also written several technical books.  ​1) At first we would like to know, what inspired you to write your first fantasy Novel “The Library at Mount Char”? Were there any books or movies that inspired you to write this brilliant Novel or do you remember any moment when the idea first struck your mind? 

It wasn’t really any one thing.  When I’m working on a new project, I tend to just jot things down—scenes, character sketches, whatever—until I have half a dozen snippets that feel like they’re working. I don’t worry too much about narrative flow or even making sense until much later.  In the initial stages I just want stuff that’s interesting in itself.
 
I’ll be a little vague here to avoid spoilers.  In the case of Library at Mount Char, the core scenes were one where a guy goes out for a jog, a neighborhood picnic that went bad, and a guy meeting a strange woman at a bar.  I truly didn’t have much of an idea of how to string them together, or even what order they’d be in, but each scene felt lively in itself, and I figured I could come up with some way to string them together.  What ultimately became the story sprang from trying to figure out a way to string those three scenes together.
 
So, like—what is this guy doing in the neighborhood?  Why him and no one else?  What happened after they left the bar?  Stuff like that.  I try to keep the reader interested first, then go back later and make up plausible reasons why stuff happened.  Well, semi-plausible. 

2) Do you follow the same process of writing a Novel and technical books? If not, what is different about writing a Novel? Please tell our reader more about your writing process. 

They don’t have much in common, at least for me.  A computer book is very similar to an academic research project.  First I read everything I can on the subject, then I set up a lab and start experimenting for myself.  It’s a lot like writing twenty or thirty term papers in a row.  That can be rewarding in its own way, but it’s not the sort of thing I would do for fun.
 
Novels, when they’re going well, are much more fun to write.  I talked a little bit above about how I get started.  Those initial stages can be a lot of work, and sometimes frustrating.  It’s also very time-consuming.  I usually throw out more than half of what I write.  But once I’ve gotten past that and have the story and characters sorted out in my mind, I get very immersed in actually putting it on paper.  That’s really fun.  At that point there’s really nothing I enjoy more.   ​3) As we all know, your wife has been instrumental in shaping up your writing work and giving you objective feedbacks. Can you please tell us more about her contribution in your Novel writing? 

It’s simple but hugely valuable.  She’s not a writer herself, but she’s an avid reader.  She doesn’t give detailed feedback, she just looks at my stuff and gives me a “thumbs-up” or “thumbs-down.” She’s ruthless, and she doesn’t mince words.  She’s literally thwapped me on the head with manuscript pages a couple of times.  “This sucks!  Fix it!”
 
If I can get a scene past her, I’m pretty confident that it’s working.  It’s not necessarily going to be for everybody, but I’m confident that at least I won’t embarrass myself too badly by sending it out into the world.

4) I have heard that you have a playlist for The Library at Mount Char. Can you tell our readers, how music helps you in writing?

​I be happy to tell you, but I bet it’s not in the ways you expect.  I’m really not a very musical guy.  I’ve got almost no aptitude for it, and I don’t even listen to it much.  When I’m in the car driving by myself I keep the radio off.  Most of the stuff on my iPod is audio books.  All my musical friends say that what I do listen to is garbage. 
The thing is, though, I’ve got a lot of dogs in the house.  They bark every time the neighbors slam a car door.  They bark at squirrels, deer, and the cat that hangs out on the front porch.  They can be very persistent.  So a lot of times when I’m working I put headphones on to drown out the noise. 
I’ve also found that having one song play over and over when I’m working on a particular scene helps get me in the mood—kind of a conditioned response. I will never be able to hear Dead Man’s Party without thinking of the big showdown about 2/3 of the way through the book.  I’ve probably heard that song more times than Danny Elfman at this point.   I’ve got at least one for each chapter.  If I ever want to get into that frame of mind again, all I have to do is put on the headphones. ​5) What kind of research or ground work you did before you started writing The Library at Mount Char?  

There wasn’t a whole lot.  That’s the beauty of writing fantasy—if you need a fact, you can just make it up.
 
I did spend a bit of time reading up on uncontacted tribes, or at least trying to.  The problem is with isolated tribes is that there’s really not much to say about them.  There are some guys called the Sentinelese that have an island in the south Pacific.  Whenever anybody tries to land there, they attack, so people tend to leave them alone.  If anybody discovers oil on the island I’m sure we’ll learn more about them, but as it stands we don’t know much.  They’re not really hurting anybody.

Years ago I read an article about some Brazilian tribes from the amazon that got displaced by deforestation.  These guys have basically been living in the Stone Age their entire lives, but then all of a sudden they’re in downtown Sao Paolo.  Everybody was talking on cell phones, ordering pizza, that kind of stuff.  That had to do a number on your head.  That article wasn’t research, exactly, but that may have been one of the things that sparked the idea for the book.
 
There was a religious aspect to the book, obviously.  I didn’t do a whole lot of reading specifically on that topic when I was writing, but I’ve read quite a bit about religion over the years—I got Greek and Roman in school, Christian stuff from my mom, I picked up a bit of Hindu lore somewhere, and Polynesian stuff from somewhere else.  I tried to think about the things that they all had in common.  They all do seem to be scratching the same itch. 
 
For instance, a few years ago I was reading about angelology while researching a previous book.  There are only a half-dozen or so angels named in the Bible, but in Catholic tradition there are probably a couple of thousand.  Somebody must have felt a need for them to invent that many.
 
I noticed that the angels had a lot of similarities to modern superheroes—there’s Uriel the fire angel, and Barnabas the ice angel.  Maybe there’s another one that has adamantium claws, like Wolverine.  I remember a set of liner notes in some medieval manuscript speculating about whether the Metatron could beat up the Archangel Michael that would sound familiar to any comic book fan.  If memory serves, there was even something analogous to trading cards the young monks would pass around the monastery. 
 
So with Mount Char I was trying to come up with a new mythology that scratched the same itch as the others without borrowing explicitly from any one of them. 

6) What kind of books you like to read in general and what kind of movies you like? 

I grew up reading a lot of science fiction and fantasy.  I still do, but I’ve also branched out in my old age.  I’ll buy anything by Joe Haldeman, Ursula Le Guin or Stephen King.  I don’t write a lot of short fiction—it’s a different skill set, and I want to stay focused on novels—but I love to read it. I’ve got most of the Gardner Dozois annual Year’s Best anthologies, and I love Ellen Datlow’s fantasy anthologies. 
 
That said, these days about half of what I read is non-fiction.  I like non-fiction books about complex systems falling apart—disasters, basically.  At one point I read a lot about airplane crashes, but it turned me into a white-knuckle flier, so I stopped. Financial disasters are interesting, so I got a lot of reading pleasure from the 2008 debacle.
 
There’s a book about the collapse of Enron called Conspiracy of Fools that I absolutely love.  I’ve been through it at least half a dozen times.  I read all of the Richard Rhodes histories of the Cold War.  Dark Sun is a favorite.  I’ll buy anything by Michael Lewis.  I was kind of hoping for a bumper crop of nuclear doom books after the Fukushima thing, but evidently the Japanese don’t revel in postmortems the way we do.  Or maybe the books just haven’t been translated yet.
 
As far as movies—I love them.  I go to the movies almost every weekend.  If you can’t get me and the wife to buy a ticket to your flick, you aren’t really trying.  I’ll go see pretty much anything with an effects budget, all the fanboy stuff.  You probably could have guessed that from reading Mount Char.
 
Less stereotypically, Remains of the Day is one of my all-time favorite movies.  I was amazed at how much I liked the Reese Witherspoon movie Wild—no disrespect to anyone involved in making it, mind you, but the ads for it didn’t make me feel like part of the target demographic.  One day I checked it out on pay-per-view and I loved it. 

7) Please tell us also about your future work.  
​
Right now I’m working on one that’s got elements of noir mystery and fairy tale wrapped up in a science-fiction premise.  Imagine Humprey Bogart in the Maltese Falcon was instead a slightly crazy middle-aged woman who is prone to killing sprees.  The premise is that she gets hired by Dr. No to investigate a school shooting that may have been perpetrated by Peter Pan.  Then it gets weird.   ​8) Do you have any message or piece of advice for our readers and new authors, which you wish you would have got before you got into writing your Novel? 

I do!  This is something I don’t remember hearing said much, and I really wish I’d had more people clobber me over the head with it.
 
If you’re one of those people for whom language comes easily, you may actually be at a disadvantage in trying to make it as a novelist.  All those years of easy A’s in English class and good standardized test scores may have given you a false sense of security.  It certainly did me.
 
I had kind of gotten in the habit of thinking in terms of “good enough.”  As in, “this scene isn’t really working, but the next scene kicks so much ass it’s probably good enough.” 
 
There is no “good enough” when you’re trying to get a novel published.  Maybe if you’re Shakespeare or somebody like that, but for mere mortals such as myself, it is never going to be okay to let anything slide.  I’m bad at evaluating my own work—it all seems good to me, you know?   I finally got it through my head that if I spot a problem, even a small one, it probably means that whatever I’m looking at is actually a trainwreck.  
 
These days I’m trying to train myself to be completely unforgiving.  The flesh is weak and all that, but that’s the goal.

Teaser Tuesday: Release of the Complete "FIRE Trilogy"

December 4th - FIRE Friday - is the release day of Books 2 and 3 of the FIRE Trilogy, my first paranormal romance series. I'll also be releasing The Complete FIRE Trilogy with all 3 novels in one eBook. So this Teaser Tuesday, whet your appetite with one excerpt from each book! Excerpt from Book 1, PlAYING WITH FIRE ​Joshua took a last step closer until there wasn’t more than an inch or two of space between them and she could feel her heat and his coldness warring with each other, testing the boundaries for a chance to leap and attack – or to leap and dance.
When he leaned his face down, Felicia’s breath hitched and her pulse started racing. Inside her belly, the flames shot higher and higher, wanting the kiss that was surely about to happen.
“Don’t,” she whispered despite the almost aching desire to feel that connection again.
Stopping a hair’s breadth before her face, he whispered back, “Why?”
His cool breath that smelled as minty and wintry as the whole man brushed over her trembling lips.
Struggling to put her conflicting feelings into words, she blurted out, “You’ll get burned.”
That purely masculine, dangerous grin tugged at his lips which were so enticingly close that she could almost taste them.
“What if I enjoy playing with fire?” he asked, voice deep and low and full of promise.
Excerpt from Book 2, DANCING WITH FIRE ​Felicia narrowed her fire-spitting eyes at him, snorted and turned on her heel.
“I’m going. I’m done with whatever child’s play or craziness this is,” she announced, scanning the afternoon sky for her zooming dragon way up high and sending out a silent call to it.
In an instant, Kyle was by her side, his heat more intense than ever. He grabbed her arm and wouldn’t let it go when she tried to yank it away. She glowered at him, unsettled by the dangerous flash in his amber eyes and by the way her body reacted to his touch.
“You’re absolutely gorgeous when you’re all fired up…pardon the pun,” Kyle said, his gravelly voice a predatory growl. The heat from his fingers would have singed her arm right through the blouse and blazer if she hadn’t been so fuelled by her own heat and magic running rampant. Somehow, part of her anger diffused, which was strange because she wanted to be angry, she rather liked it in defense to how confused Kyle made her and how exhausted the training session had left her.
“Flattering me won’t get you anywhere,” she said drily, but her voice didn’t come out half as harshly as she wanted it.
He raised his eyebrows at her, a little of his serious and furious mask slipping away to slink off until it was needed again.
“What will get me somewhere with you?” he asked, and there was no humor in his tone although his choice of words made it sound like a joke.
“How about honesty?”
Excerpt from Book 3, LIVING WITH FIRE ​Joshua was gaping at her, his mouth opening and closing silently like a fish out of water. There was a sudden increase in icy coldness, and he froze into a statue, his face now expressionless and his eyes drawn and unfathomable as always when he was deeply distressed or too emotional for his own good.
“Can you hear yourself? You sound like some fatalistic, maniacal sect member or the leader of a dangerously foolish occult movement,” he said with that unnerving, neutral calm of his.
To cover up the disappointment and hurt and anger at his reaction, Felicia threw her head back and laughed coldly, mirthlessly. She tossed her hair over one shoulder, stood up straight and stared into his eyes.
“Thanks for the suggestion. I think I’d rather like that. An occult movement revolving around the power of fire. I’ll be the terrifying fire goddess ruling mercilessly, with everyone falling at their feet and offering me their heart on a platter. I’ll make the world burn until it puts the sun to shame. Want to stick around and watch, snowman?”
As soon as the words had left her mouth, she wanted to take them back. What had she just said? This wasn’t her, this wasn’t normal, this wasn’t right! This was her Joshua she was wounding and repelling…and yet, she would not take the words back. Didn’t she have every right to behave like this?
The choice is yours. Rise and shine. Go out and rule!
The voice inside her mind was so powerful she half thought she had spoken the words out loud.
Beside her, Kyle was cackling and clapping his hands, and her fire dragon was turning cartwheels a little ahead. There was so much heat around her, inside her. It needed out.

Review - "Scorched by his Fire" by Reet Singh

My Review “Scorched by His Fire” is the second book I’ve read by Reet Singh. “The Cure Was Love” was a delight, so I couldn’t wait to finally dig into this one too. And now I’m having a hard time deciding which book I like more…
 
This novel, in many ways, represents a journey. There’s the physical journey that takes Mita, the heroine, and Tanay, the hero, from beautiful Mauritius to equally exotic and fascinating India. Then there’s Mita’s journey from a spirited but internally lonely, passionate yet a little doubtful girl to a hot-blooded, hot-headed, intelligent, understanding and determined woman. I loved her character, she was so spunky yet vulnerable. And let’s not forget Tanay’s journey from suave, angry and detached to smitten and caring – and confident and strong-willed – rethinking all the rules he’d been living by and learning lessons along the way without losing sight of what he wants and needs and deserves. He sure made me fall for him, as hard as Mita fell for him. Just the right mix of brain, brawn and a little something edgy yet intrinsically good that I love in romance novel heroes.
 
With this book – and its VERY apt title – the author proved to me again that she knows a lot about emotions and warring desires. Her sensual scenes were absolutely “scorching”, and every single scene between the leading pair was so real I felt like watching a movie or looking out of the window. The opening scenes had me gripping my mouse, as had the last few pages. I liked the supporting characters too, and the thread from the past that was woven into the present.
 
If you like it hot but with depth, temperamental and fast-paced, enchanting and thought-provoking at once, you’ll love this book as much as I do. Now I can’t wait for the author’s next offering.
 
Rating: 5/5
​
'Scorched by His Fire' is available from:
Mills and Boon, UK
Amazon.com
Amazon.in
​ About the Author Author Bio - Reet Singh
​
I am a doctor and have published before - in medical journals - so even before I wrote my first work of fiction, I had some experience of writing for an unseen audience.  My first book was written for children. ‘The Zaken Takeover’,  for middle-graders, has been co-authored by my son, and is available on Amazon, for Kindle. My son, an avid reader, wrote the more action-packed parts of this book when he was about eleven years old and was trying to 'show' me how to write stuff that would pique the interest of a discerning reader!
 
'Scorched by His Fire' is my first published piece of romantic fiction. It made sense for me to write romance – I am a merry romantic and this genre is my first choice for reading when I want to relax after a hard day at work. When Mills and Boon® India announced the Passions Contests because they were looking for romance writers from India, I decided to participate. When I won, there was no looking back. Visit me, do! I have author pages on Facebook and Goodreads or you could drop by and browse my website.

Featured - Black Friday & Cyber Monday Blitz- BAD BLOOD Trilogy

​To celebrate Black Friday and Cyber Monday, both books in the Bad Blood trilogy will be available for 99 cents on Amazon. Get your copy of The Edge of Hope and Bad Blood for this special price from November 27 till end of day on November 30. The Edge of Hope – Bad Blood Trilogy, Book 1
Everyone she loved betrayed her. She felt lost and broken. Getting away from the pain and embracing a new path, Alexa decided to leave her old life behind and chase a long forgotten dream in Malta. There she met a gorgeous man, bearing the scent of fresh love. He led her to a new city to explore, Amsterdam. Is the tall, dark, and delicious man a dream come true or just a risky gamble? 

Alexa chose hope and new beginnings over fear and warning signs only to be brutally dragged into a world she never really thought existed. Vampires, their feuds, and her future held tightly in their hands. 

Trapped in a mysterious world, Alexa gives love chance after chance. Following her quest of self-discovery in a blood bound world, will she survive the journey?

Buy Links
​
Amazon US: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00JEBJXDQ
Amazon UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00JEBJXDQ
Amazon AU: http://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B00JEBJXDQ
​
Book TrailerThe Breaking of Bonds – Bad Blood Trilogy, Book Two
A human sacrifice throws vampires of two worlds, trueborn and baseborn, into an escalating conflict. One side pushes for revenge, the other for freedom. The trueborns stubbornly hunt for Anthony and Louis, pushed by Hesrah’s desire to avenge her human best friend, Alexa. The baseborns are divided between rallying with those challenging the rule of Ankhsis and obeying the trueborns.
What emerges from the portal between Earth and Ankhsis in the middle of the turmoil rocking both worlds is more dead than alive. Neither human, nor baseborn, and certainly not trueborn. This new being will either damn them all or be their race’s most powerful weapon. Will they trust it not to destroy them, or will Ankhsis decide putting it down is the only solution?
In the end, who is guilty? Who will pay? Will anyone survive its wrath?

Buy Links
​
Amazon US: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00Y4P5C5U
Amazon UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00Y4P5C5U
Amazon AU: http://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B00Y4P5C5U
Amazon DE: http://www.amazon.de/dp/B00Y4P5C5U
 
Book Trailer
The Fall of Darkness – Bad Blood, Book Three.  Coming February 14, 2016. Get ready for the conclusion of this vampire trilogy!

Find out more: http://alina-popescu.com/badblood

About the author
​
Writer, traveler, and coffee addict, Alina Popescu has been in love with books all her life. She started writing when she was ten and even won awards in local competitions. She has always been drawn to sci-fi, fantasy, and the supernatural realm, which explains her deep love for vampires and is also to blame for this trilogy.


Social Links
​
Site & Blog: http://alina-popescu.com
Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/authoralinapopescu
Twitter: http://twitter.com/alina_popescu
Instagram: http://instagram.com/alinapopescuwriter
Goodreads:  https://www.goodreads.com/alina-popescu
Google+:  https://www.google.com/+AlinaPopescu
Amazon:  http://amazon.com/author/alinapopescu
​

Book Club Cover Reveal - "Encounters" by Sumana Khan

[image error] Encounters by Sumana Khan  [image error] Blurb Someone Is Always Waiting  [image error]
Watch It 

EXCERPT FROM THE NOVELETTE “THE STORYTELLER” IN ENCOUNTERS COLLECTION
I stare at the cement bench covered in pigeon shit and spot the dim outline of the granite slab embedded in the backrest. Years ago, when the bench was new, the granite slab was a shiny black mirror inscribed with the words ‘Dedicated to the courageous people of Thirukadal’. Four cyclones and many pigeons later, the words have disappeared. The place is so choked with weeds that the bench appears to rest on the thorny plants. Behind me, beyond a muddy track, the Bay of Bengal hisses and sighs in a treacherous language.
I look up at the sky, as if to decode the time. My watch says it is half past seven in the morning, but the sky, clotted with grey clouds, remains secretive. It could be evening as far as the heavens are concerned. A depressing form of rain is assured; the kind that only occurs in this eastern coast of South India—skies that sob continuously for forty-eight hours, increasing humidity, mosquitoes and the stench of choked drains, damp walls and wet clothes. I wonder if the sky had been just as morose on the morning of 26 December, 2004.
I tie a handkerchief around my face, covering my nose and mouth, and hack away at the weeds. Swarms of mosquitoes and flies rise in a static buzz and hover over my head like a satanic dark halo. It takes me an hour to clear a small area around the bench. The sky starts its weeping just as I scrub the bench with a coconut husk and Vim detergent powder.    
After half an hour, the granite slab gleams into existence once again. I’ve got my memorial ritual paraphernalia in a Food World plastic bag. I bring out a strand of jasmine that I loop around the granite slab, its fragrance weak in the rain. I crouch under my umbrella that won’t open fully and light a couple of incense sticks. I’ve forgotten to bring the incense holder, so I stick the smouldering incense into a banana that was to be my breakfast. I place it on the bench in front of the granite slab and hold the umbrella over it. I close my eyes in an attempt to pray. All I can think of is the angry allergic rash that’s spreading on my legs and hands thanks to the weeds and that the incense smells like a cheap aftershave.
I give up and sit on the bench, still holding the umbrella over the incense. The rain stings my skin like the rash. The hard, wet seat numbs my thighs instantly and a dull arthritic pain blooms in my knees and lower back. I squirm, shifting my weight from one butt cheek to the other. I wait, just as I’ve waited in vain for the last seven years, for the storyteller to show up. The incense is all ash now. I may as well eat the banana and tell you the story of how I met this mysterious man.    
About The Author  [image error]
Sumana Khan was born and raised in Bangalore and currently lives in the UK. She is a blogger and a student. Her debut novel was The Revenge of Kaivalya. 
Author website: http://www.sumanakhan.com
Join the Giveaway  +Goodreads 

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Goodreads Book Giveaway Encounters - Someone's Always Waitingby Sumana KhanGiveaway ends December 11, 2015.
See the giveaway details at Goodreads.Enter Giveaway ');

Featured - "The Lost Girl" by Liz Harris

About the BookWhat if you were trapped between two cultures?
 
Life is tough in 1870s Wyoming. But it’s tougher still when you’re a girl who looks Chinese but speaks like an American.
 
Orphaned as a baby and taken in by an American family, Charity Walker knows this only too well.  The mounting tensions between the new Chinese immigrants and the locals in the mining town of Carter see her shunned by both communities.
 
When Charity’s one friend, Joe, leaves town, she finds herself isolated. However, in his absence, a new friendship with the only other Chinese girl in Carter makes her feel like she finally belongs somewhere.
 
But, for a lost girl like Charity, finding a place to call home was never going to be that easy …
 
Genre: Historical Romantic Fiction
Release Date: 16th October, 2015
Publisher: Choc Lit
 
 
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AMAZON UK
AMAZON US About the AuthorLiz Harris lives south of Oxford. Her debut novel was THE ROAD BACK (US Coffee Time & Romance Book of 2012), followed by A BARGAIN STRUCK (shortlisted for the RoNA Historical 2013), EVIE UNDERCOVER, THE ART OF DECEPTION and A WESTERN HEART. All of her novels, which are published by Choc Lit, have been shortlisted in their categories in the Festival of Romantic Fiction. In addition, Liz has had several short stories published in anthologies. Her interests are theatre, travelling, reading, cinema and cryptic crosswords.

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Featured - "Search for the Truth" by Kathryn Freeman

About the BookGenre: Contemporary romance
Release Date: 13th August 2015
Publisher: Choc Lit
 
Sometimes the truth hurts …

When journalist Tess Johnson takes a job at Helix pharmaceuticals, she has a very specific motive. Tess has reason to believe the company are knowingly producing a potentially harmful drug and, if her suspicions are confirmed, she will stop at nothing to make sure the truth comes out.
Jim Knight is the president of research and development at Helix and is a force to be reckoned with. After a disastrous office affair he’s determined that nothing else will distract him from his vision for the company. Failure is simply not an option.
As Tess and Jim start working together, both have their reasons for wanting to ignore the sexual chemistry that fires between them. But chemistry, like most things in the world of science, isn’t always easy to control.
 
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Buy Links
Amazon UK
Amazon US About the AuthorA former pharmacist, I’m now a medical writer who also writes romance. Some days a racing heart is a medical condition, others it’s the reaction to a hunky hero.
With two teenage boys and a husband who asks every Valentine’s Day whether he has to buy a card (yes, he does), any romance is all in my head. Then again, his unstinting support of my career change proves love isn't always about hearts and flowers - and heroes come in many disguises.


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Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kathrynfreeman
Twitter: https://twitter.com/KathrynFreeman1
Goodreads:  https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7373990.Kathryn_Freeman
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/profile/edit?locale=en_US&trk=profile-preview
Website: http://kathrynfreeman.co.uk
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Book Club Book Blitz - "A Thousand Unspoken Words" by Paulami Duttagupta

A Thousand Unspoken Words By Paulami Duttagupta Publisher: Readomania 
Blurb 
A hero, a person who displays great courage for the greater good, can also fall. But what happens to a fallen hero? A Thousand Unspoken Words is the unique journey of a hero who falls. 
The champion of the underdogs, the writer who uses the nom de plume Musafir is famous in Kolkata. His incisive criticism of the injustices around him earn him many enemies but he holds his ideals above all else. Scathing attacks at his books and a night of hide and seek from political goons leads Musafir unto a path he never liked, faraway from his ideals. He runs away and chooses the comforts of money over the travails of following one’s ideals. The hero falls. But Tilottama, passionate fan’s hopes don’t. When he comes back after many years, emotions, love and lust take charge and an affair brews. Will she bring back her hero? Will he rise again? Or will the thousand untold words, the many stories of the ideal writer be lost forever?
Buy @Amazon.in | Amazon.com
Excerpt
Wahan kaun hai tera, Musafir jaayega kaha’, the retro radio show played the SD Burman classic. Tilottama looked at her radio once and tears blurred her vision.
‘O Sachin karta this song reminds me of him.’
Tilotamma quickly wiped her eyes and turned the radio off. The day had been taxing enough. She needed to unwind, get Musafir out of her mind. How crazy could some people get? He had just written a fictional piece. How could fiction humiliate a government in power with an absolute majority? Wasn’t this a democracy? How could the supporters of a faith or political party get all insecure and burn his books?
The object of Tilottama’s despair, Musafir, was a writer supposedly based out of Kolkata. He wrote books at irregular intervals, and hid behind the veil of anonymity. His pieces were mostly social commentaries and satires on the state of Bengal. They were all fictional but had come under severe criticism in the past few months. Little paperbacks in funny covers, his books were available in old, rambling, bookstores across the city. Some were also available with the book vendors on the footpaths of the city.
When the news of the pulping of Musafir’s books had reached her a couple of days ago, Tilottama hadn’t thought things would go beyond a protest or two. The people of the city wouldn’t let go of things without a sign of protest. They got agitated at trivial things like who was included in a cricket team, and burned effigies and tyres in protest. They took out processions for Vietnam and Gaza. They could protest against him; but there would also be scores who would come out for her Musafir. They did when Firaz was hounded for his paintings of Goddesses.
‘And when they come out in large numbers, these goons will realize what it feels like standing before a civil society. They just can’t stifle Musafir’, she had confidently told her friends. What she did not realize was Musafir wasn’t exactly popular with the masses. His works were mostly literary and catered to niche readers. Her admiration for him had made her assume he was more popular than he really was.Things had happened much faster than expected and spiralled out of control. Musafir’s printing press was vandalized and set on fire. Even as she and other Musafir fans watched, his books were dumped into that raging fire; words and hopes lost. The hundred odd fans tried to put up a bravefight, sang songs of freedom and stood with placards. But nothing worked. A couple of local channels had tried to stand by them in solidarity. The protest ended as a camera was smashed by the hoodlums on the road. People started fleeing fearing more violence.
‘They would kill us if they could’, Tilottama angrily spat out. ‘We were just so outnumbered. These were organized cadres. Yes, they were. Their bosses just can’t pretend to be innocent.’
A handful of policemen stood by pretending as if nothing was happening. The printing press was in one of the dingier parts of North Kolkata. It mainly did odd jobs like printing leaflets and bills, a few little magazines etc. and would print Musafir’s books on the sly. That is where he gave shape to his voice. The place was reportedly registered in the name of a man long dead, and people were left guessing who Musafir was. Some said the owner was a refugee who was avenging years of discontent. Some said his son was murdered by members of the ruling party. Some said he was just a frustrated man using the medium to lend himself a voice. To some other the entire idea was amusing and fascinating.
Tilottama grimaced and wiped her face clean. She was cutting a very sorry picture indeed, covered in grime andtears. All she could think of was her Musafir. She fought back her tears wondering what could have happened to her hero. For the past couple of years a strong wind of incumbency was blowing and Musafir’s voice had become stronger. Everything came under Musafir’s attack; from Dhaniajhapi to the burning of monks, the ban on English in government run schools, the apathy in the use of computers and much more. However, recently he had become vocal against all forms of religious appeasement and challenged the special religious laws. He had also set the stage against land acquisition bills, mismanaged industrialization plans and pre-election harangues. Musafir wrote as many books as possible bringing the discrepancies to light. And that is what brought about his downfall.
Tilottama sat on her bed and hugged her knees to her chest and went over the events of the day. She bit back the memory of the man who had asked her to let go of her placard, but that face would just not fade. 
‘What had he called himself,’ she wondered, ‘Ayushmaan . . .no Riddhimaan.’
He was a photographer! How dispassionate could he be?He had watched the carnage, merrily taken snaps and asked her to throw away her placard. If even the press did not come out in support of Musafir, then who would? Weren’t both of them fighting to make the pen immortal? Why was the media silent now; because Musafir didn’t have international backing, or corporate sponsors? She was upset that Poltu had shamelessly praised the man. Riddhimaan and the likes of him would give importance to writers only if they had a South Block or Writers’ Building backing.
‘I wish this government goes down. They will go down. I promise you Musafir they will,’ she told herself.The loud banging of her window pane broke her reverie. The rains had lashed Kolkata with all their fury that evening. 
‘Even Mother Nature is angry. Drown the city, drown all of us. Since we have nowhere to go and hide our shame,’ Tilottama said aloud.
She continued to rant as she shut the window. She had hurt her finger in the process. Then she walked into her bedroom looking for the first aid box. As she cleaned the cut, the antiseptic made her skin burn and her thoughts drifted to Musafir. There was no way to divert her mind. Maybe reading Musafir would help, or maybe writing. Musafir always said he wrote to look for answers. Maybe she could do that too. But nothing gave her peace; maybe she was obsessed with the writer. The gag on Musafir was beginning to become a personal loss to her.
About Paulami Duttagupta  [image error] Paulami DuttaGupta is a novelist and screen writer. She shuttles between Kolkata and Shillong. She has worked as a radio artist, copy writer, journalist and a television analyst at various stages of her life, having been associated with AIR Shillong, The Times of India—Guwahati Shillong Plus, ETV Bangla, The Shillong Times, Akash Bangla and Sony Aath.As an author, her short stories have appeared in various anthologies and literary magazines. A Thousand Unspoken Words is her fourth book. Paulami also writes on politics, social issues and cinema. Her articles have appeared in Swarajya, The Forthright and NElive. Paulami is associated with cinema and her first film, Ri-Homeland of Uncertainty received the National Award for the Best Khasi Film. Her second film Onaatah—Of the Earth is at post production stage and will release in 2016. She is currently working on her third screenplay. A short film tentatively titled ‘Patjhar’ is also in the pipeline.Paulami is a complete foodie and is almost obsessed with watching one film every day. She also loves reading—political and social commentaries are her favourite genre. Literature classics and books on cricket are also a part of her library, apart from a huge collection of romances. Jane Austen’s fictional character Mr. Darcy is her lifelong companion. She is an ardent fan of Rahul Dravid and has been following all news about him for almost twenty years now.
Stalk her @ Website | Twitter | Facebook 

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