Men of Foxwick is a must read!

Men of Foxwick by Cherie Reich is now available! This fantasy short story collection features five men from the Kingdom of Foxwick.

A blind teen seeks a place in the kingdom. A dragon seer journeys to Wintermill to spy on the queen. A sword master’s worst fear comes true when he fails to protect the royal family. A king falls in love with an herb witch, but will she feel the same way? A hunter will rise to the challenge to hunt down a man-eating monster. 

Short stories in this collection: Blind Scribe, Dragon Spy, Sword Master, Courting Magic, and Monster Hunter

To purchase: Amazon / Amazon UK / Smashwords / Kobo / Nook

Click here to add on Goodreads.

About the Author: A self-proclaimed bookworm, Cherie Reich is a speculative fiction writer, freelance editor, book blogger, and library assistant living in Virginia. Her short stories have appeared in magazines and anthologies, and her books include the horror series Nightmare, a space fantasy trilogy titled Gravity, and the fantasy series The Foxwick Chronicles. She is Vice President of Valley Writers and a member of the Virginia Writers Club and Untethered Realms.

Her debut YA Epic Fantasy novel Reborn, book one in The Fate Challenges, will be released on May 23, 2014.

For more information, please visit Cherie’s website and blog.

Also, Cherie has a special announcement for her email newsletter subscribers. Click here to sign up for her updates and receive a coupon for a free copy of Women of Foxwick.

Wicked Wednesday - encouraging reviews

This Wicked Wednesday post isn't just for paranormal romance writers. It's for every writer. I would love to hear your opinions and ideas on this topic. Let's brainstorm together.

Reviews are vital to getting your books noticed. I read a lot of frustrations and cries for help in terms of reviews. How do I get reviews? How do I get more than just my friends and family to review my work? How do I do it without having to pay people?

The advice I've been reading hasn't helped me very much. Here are a few things I do to try to encourage readers to write reviews:

- Give your book away for free. People love free stuff. THE MARQUIS and FEARLESS are available for free. Less than one percent of readers who downloaded the books have reviewed them.
- Send your books to review sites. I've sent mine to several review sites. They get a lot of submissions. Maybe they'll get to yours, but most likely they won't.
- Ask your blog followers and have giveaways. Done and done.
- Review other writers' books. Yes! I try to write a paragraph or two, but if I don't have time, I at least rate it and say a couple of things.

I've read many articles that say reviews are the one thing out of an author's control. For the most part, I agree with it, but there has to be a way to encourage more of them.

What do you do to encourage readers to review your books? Do you think there's anything we can do to get more reviews?

Teaser Tuesday with Dead Things

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

I picked this one up randomly from the library. I was craving some dark urban fantasy with a noir edge. So far, so good. It's a bit like the Dresden Files, but Eric isn't quite as funny and he's a necromancer. DEAD THINGS by Stephen Blackmoore is gritty and unique. Voodoo and Aztec Death gods wandering around. Very cool.

Here's your teaser:
"You want to hire me."
"No," she says. "I want to own you." (page 68)

W4WS Event for June 2013 and Taking Time cover reveal

Welcome to the June 2013 W4WS event! I'm honored to co-host this event with three talented writers, Mary Pax, C.M. Brown, and Stephen Tremp.  The mission of this group is simple: we have a spotlighted author(s) that we strive to help bring awareness of their book(s) to tens of thousands of new people, increase the sales of their book(s), drive new traffic to their blogs and increase followers, and create verbal and viral buzz.

We've made this simple and fast. It's as easy as a tweet or a RT, and sharing a status on Facebook. Go to the writer's blog and copy a tweet or RT from the posts with the tag #W4WS. The W4WS Facebook page will have all the updates and links for you.

To join the W4WS event, click here for the linky list. It will only take a minute of your time, and you'll have talented writers take a step closer to their dreams. 

This month we're spotlighting the fabulous paranormal author Marta Szemik. Check her out on her blog, Twitter, and Facebook. She has an awesome series called the Two Halves series. You can get the first book, MARKED for FREE on Amazon.

And now onto Ellie Garratt's fantastic new cover!

Book Blurb

Science fiction stories of time and space...

The future of humanity must be decided in Next Phase. Winning the Planetary Lottery is not as lucky as it first seems in Schrodinger's Gamble. An apocalypse and its aftermath threaten to tear one couple apart in Daiker's Children. In Life As I Know It a reclusive man finds both his heart and home invaded during an alien harvest. In Taking Time a demon seeking shelter on a distant planet finds himself facing a very different kind of demon, after answering a frontier settlement's plea for help. Stories range from flash fiction to novelette in length.

Publication date: 15th July 2013

About The Author

A life-long addiction to reading science fiction and horror, meant writing was the logical outlet for Ellie Garratt’s passions. She is a reader, writer, blogger, Trekkie, and would happily die to be an extra in The Walking Dead. Her short stories have been published in anthologies and online. Passing Time: Nine Short Tales of the Strange and Macabre was published in March 2013 and contains nine previously published stories. Her first nine-part science fiction serial will start in September 2013.

Author Links: Website | Amazon | Facebook | Goodreads | Twitter

Friday Five for June 14, 2013

1. My WIP is coming along. Not quite as fast as I need it to, but it's been a busy week. Maybe I can convince my husband to take our boy out for a few hours so I can write. If I get five good days in a row, I can finish it. I'm a fast writer if I have the time and inspiration.

2. I've been catching up on some reading on my Kindle this week too. It's nice the boy is loving his new bigger pool and is happy to splash around while I sit in the shade reading. I've a lot of indie books on the Kindle. Only a few of them have more than a couple of reviews. I make sure to review books after I read them now, but I wonder how to get people motivated to write more reviews. (Oh! I shall write a post about that!)

3. I had a wonderful visit with my family last week in Canada. It was a little rough not sleeping in my own bed and sharing a room with a toddler that talks very loudly in his sleep. We stopped at a hotel with a water park on our way back home thinking the boy would love it, but nope. My husband enjoyed it far more than any of us! My son loves the water. The spouts, slides, and splashing. These hotel water parks are geared more to older kids, though. He doesn't like to get water in his face nor did he like all the noise. If anyone wants to start a business, here's an idea for you: build a hotel for families with toddlers with toddler-friendly attractions. There are only a few places made for the little kids. Sometimes it's difficult to find things to do for a special trip.

4. I took my son to a local event called Touch A Truck on Wednesday. It gives kids a chance to explore all different sorts of trucks like fire engines, ambulances, tow trucks, etc. I like the idea, but there were long lines in near record-breaking heat. We didn't stay too long. My boy's favorite thing was the helicopter. My favorite thing he said was when he walked into the local library's Bookmobile: "This looks like our house!" Yes, we do have a lot of books!

5. Don't forget that Monday is the June W4WS event! Help your fellow writers with just a tweet. It's fast and easy.

Have a great weekend!

ATONE released!

Caine Fordham knows the danger all too well.

As the Kill Circuit’s top lady-killer, business is good. Yet Caine knows the life of an assassin isn’t meant to last forever, just as love is impossible for him. Who could love a man with poison lacing his veins and a kiss that kills?

When Caine decides to take one last job, deal out one last kiss, he discovers there’s more to life than death, and more to love than pain.

You can purchase ATONE on Amazon! 

 

Author bio: Born and raised in Little Rock, AR, Angela now calls Central Texas home.

Reading and writing have been lifelong passions. It was around the time she gave birth to her forever-love, nicknamed Chipmunk, that she really took writing seriously. After all, how could she teach her child to follow her dreams if she hadn't tried herself?

As a YA fantasy/sci-fi reader and author, she favors the magical, mysterious, the darker side of life...even harbors a secret fright for things that go bump in the night.

FRAILTIES OF THE BOND is the first in a series of novellas and short stories introducing heroes and heroines of the secret organization, NEO – Network of Extraordinaires and Otherwordlies. ATONE is the second in this series.

Here's where to find Angela: 

Blog * Goodreads * Twitter * Amazon * Partners in ParanormYA * PIP Facebook

Reconnaisance Book Tour - Review and giveaway

Inkspell Publishing

Author: Aubrie Dionne

Genre: YA Sci-fi Romance
Length: Super Novel

ISBN: (Print) 978-1-939590-06-0

                                   ISBN: (ebook) 978-1-939590-05-3

Blurb: 
Nova Williams has lost her one shot at Lieutenant hood and at love. Lieutenant Crophaven has promoted her rival, Andromeda, all because her lifemate, Sirius, sacrificed their mission to win back Andromeda’s love.

While sneaking out to prove Andromeda is a fake, Nova finds an alien ship hovering over their colony. Lieutenant Crophaven assigns her to a reconnaissance mission, giving her a second chance to redeem herself. Sirius must fly her and a research team to the vessel to decide if they are a threat. Thrown together with the lifemate that betrayed her, she battles with her own jealousy while her team battles for their lives.

Can she forgive Sirius in order to save her team and warn her colony?

My review:
Striving to be better than her genes, Nova Williams pushes herself past her limits. She missed out on a grand promotion because her rival stole her glory and Sirius, the man she loves. Yet when an alien ship comes to their new planet, Nova heads a team to find out if the visitors are peaceful or not. This is her one chance to make everything right, and she isn't going to mess it up. Sirius is assigned to be her pilot, and she must learn to work with him no matter her feelings. Trapped on the strange ship, Nova is forced to work closely with Sirius as they attempt to save the rest of their team and battle beings that have walked out of nightmares. Not only is their survival at stake, but her heart and redemption.

This is another superbly written sci-fi romance by Aubrie Dionne. We start off just after the previous book in the series left us. This new world recently colonized by the people on the ship is rich and gorgeous. It's called Paradise 21 for a reason, and Aubrie gives us enough colorful details to enchant us. After a tantalizing taste of the planet, the reader is thrown into a more frightening and strange place within the alien ship. It's dark and terrifying, and also fascinating. I won't give away the surprise of what the aliens are exactly like, but from the cover you can guess, and you'll never look at a spider the same way again.

The characters are what drives this story. Nova is a strong and driven young woman. I admired her ambition and sympathized with her heartache. Sirius is smart, daring, and hot. He's in love with another woman. I loved the conflict between Nova and Sirius, and I wondered if it could be resolved. Aubrie is a master of surprises! This is a romance like none other.

The first book in this series, COLONIZATION, was my favorite one written by Aubrie. By giving me the creepy crawlies and taking hold of my heart, RECONNAISSANCE has taken that spot.

Purchase links: Amazon and B&N

Author bio: Aubrie Dionne is an author and flutist in New England. Her writings have appeared in Mindflights, Niteblade, Silver Blade, Emerald Tales, Hazard Cat, Moon Drenched Fables, A Fly in Amber, and Aurora Wolf. Her books are published by Entangled Publishing, Inkspell Publishing, Lyrical Press, and Gypsy Shadow Publishing. Her very first contemporary romance, Playing the Maestro, recently came out with Entangled Publishing in Feb. She recently signed with Spencer Hill Press for her YA sci fi novel titled: Frozen: Part One of The Timesurfers, which will release summer 2014. When she's not writing, Aubrie teaches flute and plays in orchestras.

Follow Aubrie at: Website * Blog * Twitter

Now on to the fabulous giveaway!

a Rafflecopter giveaway