Leta P. Hawk's Blog, page 9
October 5, 2016
October Trees
One of my favorite parts of autumn is watching the trees turn from summer’s lush green to the fiery hues of full-blown fall. From the first blush of color to the fading glory of near-November, I love the trees of October.
Shots from a Wellsville field trip.
Fire on the mountains.
Fading glory.
October 3, 2016
A Blog-Hopping Halloween
Hey, everyone! It’s October, my favorite month of the year! I’m looking forward to fall harvest treats, fiery orange and yellow leaves all over the mountains, cooler temperatures, and of course, Halloween!
Another event to look forward to is the 2016 October Frights Blog Hop, hosted by Clarissa Johal. More than twenty authors of paranormal and dark fantasy will be participating in this hop, and there will be free reads, flash fiction, books, and prizes galore from October 10th-15th.
Catch up with your favorite author, or maybe check out a new one or two.
Until then, happy haunting!
October 2, 2016
Beyond Dark Waters Blog Tour
Book Synopsis:
From being cast out from the group, to losing his way in the dark lake at night-time, Ben will never betray his friends. Even when he feels a vicious fang slowly piercing his flesh, he knows what he is doing is right. He will never submit to the bullies, racists or indeed anyone who tries to steer him from the path he is taking. Ben is growing up very quickly and soon he gains many followers. This leads to a multitude of challenges and to one of his friends giving his life for Ben. As an eleven year old he manages to avert a war and bring pride to different communities.
For Ben, falling into the lake and entering into different species presented many challenges, but the rewards will stay with him forever.
Beyond Dark Waters plots a young man’s rite of passage into adulthood, seen from the viewpoint of different species in and around a lake.
Author Bio
Des Birch lives in Norfolk UK with his wife, Julie. He is a self-professed writing nut, shark nut, wild about the natural world and is motivated to empower young people. Des admits to being frightened of heights, bears, and hagfish; an odd combination he will admit, but reality is often stranger than fiction.
He has raised his two children on his own, been in shark cages, stroked big cats, jumped off a mountain, SCUBA dived the Red Sea and lived in other European countries. If asked why, Des will smile and say, “I enjoy living life to the fullest.”
Des does not write about super heroes or people with special powers. He would much rather take ordinary people and place them in extraordinary situations, and record how they react.
Des has always written in one form or another but in 2006 while living in Spain, he wrote his first novel, The Diary of an Innocent. A couple of years later he moved back to England and married Julie, with whose help and support, he continues writing.
If he could have one wish come true, it would be that his young adult books (Dark Water series) will serve to empower young minds.
Social Media:
Des Birch on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/list/4976644.Des_Birch
Foundations, LLC on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/foundationsbooks/
Publisher Website: http://foundationsbooks.com/
Links
September 30, 2016
Triple Cursed Cover Reveal
The end is near…
Death is coming for them all…it’s only a matter of time. Who will die and who will live? The monsters are no longer hiding and they have murder in their hearts.
A challenge has been issued and it’s time to soak the fields in blood. A power thought long ago banished has resurfaced and she only has one thing in mind: total destruction.
Can the powers-that-be ban together in time to stop her and unleash their weapons upon her or will the world, as they know it, cease to exist forever?
About the Book
Triple Cursed
by Shakuita Johnson
Series
Dark Indiscretions #4
Genre
Adult
Urban Fantasy
Paranormal Romance
Publisher
Independent
Publication Date
November 29, 2016
Connected Books in the Dark Indiscretions Series
About Shakuita Johnson
Shakuita Johnson is a 31-year-old Psychology major. When she isn’t going to school or working, she is doing what she loves most. Writing. She started writing in middle school. She would write poetry in her room or the middle of the night. Then she was introduced to short stories in a creative writing course her senior year. Her love for paranormal and supernatural started with R.L. Stine Goosebumps books and TV shows, Anne Rice Vampire Chronicles, and Christopher Pike books. She is an avid reader with over 100 books on her bookshelf and 1000 plus on her iPad. She also loved to watch Charmed and Buffy the Vampire Slayer with her mom.
Dark Indiscretions is her first novel and is a Paranormal Thriller. She has followed it up with Dark Indiscretions: Monster Unleashed, Dark Indiscretions: A Prequel, Dark Indiscretions: Seer Destined and Rumspringa (Dark Indiscretions #3.5).
She also released her Dark Romance which has a bit of suspense entitled And So She Waited.
She is currently working on her first erotica serial Kiss and Tell: Encounters of a Prostitute and the final two Dark Indiscretions books.
Shakuita’s Links
This promotion is brought to you by Pure Textuality PR.
September 25, 2016
Witch of Willow Lake Playlist & Excerpts
Anyone who has ever written, well, anything knows that a big part of getting to that final product is the editing, revising, and proofreading. And let me tell you, that can be a very tedious job. Well, as I was on maybe my third of fourth read-through of WWL, my edit-weary mind began singing me songs during certain story scenes.
Now that I’m (finally) finished revising, and the book has been released, I though it would be fun to make a list of some of those songs and pair them with excerpts from the story. So in this post, you’ll find five of the songs that have been playing incessantly through my head for the past few weeks (months?).
It would be an understatement to say Kyr’s brother Luther doesn’t approve of her ghost-hunting hobby. In fact, he tells her she’s on the way to eternal damnation.
“It’s bad enough that you’re dragging Kyr into that occult nonsense. Don’t think for a minute that I’m going to stand by and let you influence my kids that way.”
Enough was enough. I shot up out of my chair and jabbed a finger into Luther’s chest. “Luther, you need to back off now. You have no right—“
He smacked my hand away and glared down at me. “I have every right to protect my children from negative influences. I may have lost you, but I will not lose Eli.”
“Lost me? Lost me to what?”
“All this ooky-spooky garbage you’re running after lately. Dad was always afraid you’d get mixed up in something you couldn’t handle and lose your soul to the devil, but I thought you had more sense.” His expression was a combination of sorrow and disgust. “I guess Dad knew what he was talking about all along.”
I sputtered with indignation, unable to believe what I was hearing. “Luther, what is wrong with you? I am not mixed up in something I can’t handle.” We just won’t mention what happened in the bell tower. Or in Borland, for that matter. “And I have not sold my soul to the devil.”
“I didn’t say you sold your soul to the devil; that would require a conscious decision. I said you lost it, meaning you let yourself slide little by little, not even realizing you’re slipping away until it’s too late.” His eyes blazed like the coals in the fire pit, and he gesticulated wildly as he spoke, looking every bit like the fire-and-brimstone preachers he liked to watch on TV.
The back of my scalp prickled at his words, and a part of me wondered if he might be right. My mouth opened to respond, but all that came out was a confused huff. Spook shouldered his way around me to come to my defense, but before he could speak, Luther turned accusing eyes on him. “I just never thought you’d have help. And here I thought Trevor was bad news.”
For months, Kyr, Spook, and the gang have assumed they were investigating a simple haunting involving the spirit of a young coed who perished in a fire. One night, Kyr finds evidence that there may be more involved:
I let the book fall open once more, this time to the Table of Contents, and trailed my finger down the list of chapter titles, waiting for something to jump out at me. “Humble Beginnings, Hidden Treasure, Strange Creatures of Clinton County, In-laws and Outlaws, Indian Lore, The Witch of Willow Lake, School Spirits…wait, what?” I blinked my eyes hard, disbelieving what I saw. I must be more tired than I thought. The title of Chapter Six, “The Witch of Willow Lake,” seemed to hover above the page, begging to be noticed. A witch?
I swallowed hard as a lump of dread welled up in my throat, threatening to choke me. Something stirred in my subconscious, and I vaguely recalled suspecting witchcraft or some occult ritual when I first heard about the charred book and the candles found in the bell tower. Surely this witch wasn’t part of the Appleton bell tower saga. Was it?
My fingers were clumsy as I flipped the pages of the book to Chapter Six. The spine cracked in protest, scattering dust and frayed pieces of the cover into my lap. Finding the page I was looking for, I began reading. “Do you believe in witchcraft? In curses? You don’t? If you had lived at the northern edge of what is now the community of Willow Lake in the mid-eighteenth century, you might not be so quick to dismiss the idea.” The account went on to tell of a lone elderly woman who arrived in the pre-Willow-Lake settlement just north of town one autumn day. The men of the settlement helped her build a small, primitive shanty, just enough to get her through the winter months. My scalp prickled as the cabin from my visions suddenly loomed in my mind.
Somebody’s Watching Me – Rockwell
As if the spirit of a witch wasn’t enough to deal with, almost as soon as Kyr arrives back in Willow Lake, she realizes she is being stalked by a mysterious dark figure that no one else can see.
Without warning, the back of my neck began prickling, and I had the uncomfortable sensation that someone was watching me. I froze in the pew where I sat, afraid to turn around lest I find that an unfriendly person stood at the back of the sanctuary. I held my breath and strained to hear through the sound of my pulse pounding in my ears. I was certain no one had come in; heaven knew no one could have entered the church without those doors announcing their presence. The creak and pop of someone stepping on a loose floorboard finally made me whirl around and call out, “Hello?”
No one was there. My eyes scanned the entire sanctuary, looking for any sign that I wasn’t alone, but I found nothing. Still, the feeling of being watched remained. A sudden movement above made me raise my eyes to the balcony at the rear of the sanctuary. My breath caught as I spotted a figure silhouetted against the side of the stained glass window in the center of the balcony. I stood and started slowly up the aisle, calling out again, “Hello? Who’s there?”
There was no answer, but the figure moved as though trying to edge out of sight. Suddenly and inexplicably terrified, I dashed up the aisle and out of the church, not caring that I slammed the doors behind me. I raced down the front stairs, across the street, and up onto the levee, frantic to put as much distance as I could between me and whoever had been watching me inside the church. I kept running until I passed the amphitheater and reached the area where the Street Faire vendors were preparing their booths. When I got to the stairs that led down to the street, I rushed blindly down them, hoping to lose myself in the knots of people beginning to mill about.
Don’t Pay the Ferryman – Chris deBurgh
I love this seldom-played song. It’s got a combination of a catchy tune, a mythological reference, and a sense of creepiness that lends itself well to the mood I was trying to capture in this story. It ties in well with the message Kyr and Spook hear repeatedly, that pursuing the mystery of Mary Bollinger and the Witch of Willow Lake will bring them no end to trouble.
“Not Mary Bollinger…” The woman’s face had gone white, and I sensed that she had just reached the same realization about the decades-old haunting. Her expression suggested she was weighing her desire to examine this revelation against her fear of what would happen if the truth came out. Fear won out, and she shook her head wildly, pleading, “No. No good can come of pursuing this. Please, just let the story die with those who were in the bell tower that night.”
“You know as well as I do it doesn’t work that way,” Spook blazed. “This thing didn’t start in 1958; it started two hundred years ago, and it’ll go on for another two hundred if something isn’t done.”
I found my tongue and joined the discussion. “The story won’t die with those who were there that night. There will always be someone who knows some part of the story. And that’s the problem, that no one knows the whole story. If we had the whole story, maybe we could find a way to end this once and for all.”
The book seller’s eyes turned to smoldering blue coals as she regarded the two of us. We had so many more questions to ask, but we knew that pressuring her now would only make her more determined to withhold information. After a long moment, she stood, letting us know the conversation was over.
Spooky – Atlanta Rhythm Section
This is just a short little fluff scene that I decided to keep. This song has been running through my head since Kyr and Spook got together in Book 2, but there’s a line in the song that really piqued my interest towards the end of the story, and it may come into play in the next book. I leave you to guess about that one…
Shaking my head, I switched off the light and walked out of the bathroom. The steady buzz of a beard trimmer drifted through the connecting door, and I stopped short when I heard Spook’s voice. Was he talking to someone? I went to the doorway and stuck my head through. He wasn’t talking; he was singing. I stifled a giggle as I recognized the Atlantic Rhythm Section song from my mom’s music collection. A Spook and a spooky girl. You can’t get a spookier combination than that.
I tried to ignore the shudder that went through me as I thought of the scene from my vision earlier this afternoon. No, that’s not spooky, I thought. That’s downright horrifying.
September 22, 2016
October Frights Blog Hop
It’s the most wonderful time of the year….
Well, at for me it is. I love Autumn, October, and Halloween, so I’m excitedly preparing for the October Frights Blog Hop, happening from October 10th – 15th. Get ready for a virtual trick-or-treat of horror and paranormal authors.
September 12, 2016
Witch of Willow Lake–Cover and Blurb Reveal
We’re finally in the home stretch! I’m still working on the novel itself (a few plot twists jumped in, which means I’ve had to rewrite scenes and change the ending), but I’ve got a stunning new cover done by Ravenborn, as well as the blurb.
Isn’t it exciting to have the first visual of the ruggedly-handsome Spook Steele? I love what Raven did with his expression in this shot–he’s looking at Kyr as though he knows she’s hiding something. Could it be something she found in the book she holds?
Blurb:
A book of local folklore may hold the key to solving a mystery…
Left with unanswered questions after the paranormal investigation at Willow Lake College, Kyrie Carter vows to discover the events leading up to the fire in Appleton Hall’s bell tower that took Mary Bollinger’s life in 1958. Her research leads to a book of legends written by a local historian. Kyr’s sense of obligation borders on obsession as she redoubles her efforts to locate the out-of-print book. She is cautiously optimistic when the book arrives anonymously to her workplace.
…but is it also a portal for an evil from the past?
Almost immediately, Kyr is plagued by terrifying visions—a cabin in the woods, a mysterious woman who calls to her, ominous words chanted in an unfamiliar language. Discovering evidence of a witch in Willow Lake’s past leads Kyr to believe her visions are more than bad dreams, and that there is more to Mary Bollinger’s story than anyone realized.
When Mary’s fiancé, Warren McKnight, agrees to break his decades-long silence about the fire, Kyr and Spook return to Willow Lake. Something in Warren’s account of that tragic night tells Kyr that she was not the witch’s first target, and she will not be the last, unless she can find a way to defeat the evil spirit.
September 5, 2016
Cakes I Have Baked
I used to love baking. I’d come up with some clever idea for the kids’ birthday cakes and try to bake up this masterpiece. Usually it was more epic fail than epic, but then I guess that’s part of the family fun. For today’s Daily Post, I’d like to share a few of my favorites.
This is the Scooby Doo cake I made for my older son’s 4th birthday. I searched high and low for a Wilton cake pan for the base and then did the best I could with the frosting part. It came out okay, I guess.
This was the cake I made for my younger son’s 3rd birthday. As you might have guessed, he was really into trains at the time, so I came up with this idea on my own. Again, not epic, but he enjoyed it.
This was one that I kind of count as an epic fail because it may look cute, but really didn’t taste good at all. I decided to be clever and bake a cake for the 100th anniversary of the bra. Hey, don’t judge me; it was all over Facebook, and I wanted to be creative. I baked it in a Pyrex bowl, which didn’t work AT ALL. I just couldn’t figure out the length of time to bake it, and it came out dry around the edges and barely done in the middle. Yeah, this one left me feeling like a boob.
I haven’t baked much in recent years, well at least not creatively. I keep it simple now by just baking out of a box and being done with it. Maybe I’ll pick it up again someday.
September 3, 2016
CL Gaber’s Ascenders Saga
(¸.•´ (¸.•´ .•´ Book and Review Blog Tour¸.•´ (¸.•´ .•´ ¸¸
August 26, 2016
I’m a Human, Not an Octopus
What does “Back-to-School Time” mean to you?
Apparently to me, it’s the time of year where I begin feeling overwhelmed and ineffective in almost all aspects of my life.
You see, I’m one of “those” people. What kind of people, you may ask? Well, I’m one of those moms who is involved in her kids’ lives and activities. I hope I’m not a helicopter parent, because it seems everyone looks askance at them. But I am involved.
I’m a Den Leader. I help out in several capacities in the children’s ministries at church. I shuttle my son to violin lessons and cross country practices. I help out at school for parties and field trips when I can.
And I volunteer for Bible Released Time. I actually wear a number of hats in that ministry. School Coordinator. Song Leader. Van Driver.
And these are just the things I do involving my kids. I’m a homemaker, a wife, a mom (yes, there is a difference between being “Mom” and being a ringleader for my kids’ activities, lol), and a recently-published author.
So, needless to say, I’m tired. I have so much on my plate that some days I don’t know which thing to stick my fork in first. It’s kind of like Thanksgiving dinner at Grandma’s when I was a kid–someone would hand me a big plate of delicious food, and it all looked so good, but I sat staring for a long time because I didn’t know what to eat first.
Okay, sorry. I obviously should have eaten breakfast before starting this post.
But therein is another problem–my lack of focus. I could be the poster child for Adult ADD. I am not focused. I am not organized. And when you’re in charge of or helping out with as many things as I am, you’ve got to be focused and organized, or else you throw yourself and everyone around you into chaos.
And that’s what is happening now. I’m beginning to see cracks in some of the things I’m involved with. I’m sure it’s not all me and my lack of leadership skills, but I can’t deny that I’m part of the problem. I feel like the little boy with his finger in the hole in the dyke, trying to stop the flood and the destruction. (For Pete’s sake, I’m just all over the place with illustrations).
To get back to the title of this post, it all comes down to realizing that I am one person. I only have so many hours in the day, and I only have two hands, not eight like an octopus. I have limitations that I need to acknowledge, and I need to seriously take stock of where I am and what’s important. I hate saying that, because I think all the things I’m involved with are important, obviously, or else I wouldn’t be involved with them.
But I also realize that there are other things that I’d like to do–things that may lead to employment in the near future when both kids are in middle and high school, things involving ministries that I’d like to start or move into–that I really have no room for right now. I need to decide what activities to keep my hands in and what activities to pull back from.
And that’s not easy.
