Tuesday, March 25, 2014

Waking the Dead by Heather Graham

 

Waking the Dead by Heather Graham

Releases March 25th 2014

Blurb:  They say a painting can have a life of its own…

In the case of Ghosts in the Mind by Henry Sebastian Hubert, that's more than just an expression. This painting is reputed to come to life—and to bring death. The artist was a friend of Lord Byron and Mary Shelley, joining them in Switzerland during 1816, "the year without a summer." That was when they all explored themes of horror and depravity in their art…. 

Now, almost two hundred years later, the painting appears in New Orleans. Wherever it goes, death seems to follow.  

Danielle Cafferty and Michael Quinn, occasional partners in solving crime, are quickly drawn into the case. They begin to make connections between that summer in Switzerland and this spring in Louisiana. Danni, the owner of an eccentric antiques shop, and Quinn, a private detective, have discovered that they have separate but complementary talents when it comes to investigating unusual situations. 

Trying to blend their personal relationship with the professional lives they've stumbled into, they learn how much they need each other. Especially as they confront this work of art—and evil. The people in the portrait might be dead, but something seems to wake them and free them to commit bloody crimes. Cafferty and Quinn must discover what that is. And they have to destroy it—before it destroys them.

Link to page in Magazine: http://issuu.com/btsemag/docs/mar-apr_2014/73

BAD MONSTERS BLOG TOUR

 

Bad Monsters -- Blog Tour Banner


Bad Monsters Cover

 

STOPPING TO HEAL – 80'S INFLUENCE ON "BAD MONSTERS"

In Clinton D. Harding's debut novel "Our Monsters", Jon Graves and his friends escaped their parents and the military, leaving behind the only home they'd ever known, the small town of Carpenter. But their freedom is short lived as they find themselves in more danger than before they left Carpenter.

"Bad Monsters"—the second book The Our Monsters Chronicles, released March 2014—picked up where its prequel ended. Jon and his friends are on the run and hunted and by General Mauser and his military dogs. Jon can practically feel them breathing down his neck, as the jaws of the military dogs snapping at his heels.

Blood is spilled, friendly and not, and now Jon must answer his friends' questions sooner than later, or risk one of those friends dying. He's just not sure he's the person to be deciding their fates or if he, Alice, and George are fully prepared to walk away from their normal lives.

A farm in northern California may serve as salvation to this scared, but brave, group of teenagers. However, can they trust the inhabitants they find there, who themselves have a history with Carpenter? If Jon can talk his way past the shotgun in his face, he might just discover what he and his friends need; answers about the history of Carpenter, the hybrids, the powers the teens borrow from their hybrids and who are the true monsters. In all this confusion and danger, Jon may also find a young woman who can help heal the wounds left by Mikaila when she left him and the group.

Pick up "Bad Monsters", the second installment in The Our Monsters Chronicles, is now available and can be found in e-book and paperback form at major online retailers: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Smashwords.

***

I grew up in the 80's. When I was young, my mother worked a second job on the weekends to pay the bills. While most kids were teaming up for a baseball games on Saturdays, my mother took my sister and me with her to that second job. My sister and I brought books, comics, toys, rented videos from Blockbuster, and a portable 16-inch combination TV/VCR.

Imagine a deserted office building in Marina Del Ray California. The lights off. Trash cans emptied with new plastic liners. Empty cubicles. Boardrooms with vacant chairs. Powered down computers and copiers.

While my mother worked all weekend, my sister set out our books and pushed play on the TV/VCR. Those tapes wore out quickly. Blockbuster made a lot of money. I'm still perplexed why Blockbuster went out of business! I should have singlehandedly funded its future operations!

In those days movies like "The Karate Kid", "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles", "War Games", "The Goonies", and "The Lost Boys" occupied my time. I wore out those VHS rental. Maybe that's why Blockbuster went out of business? They had little usable inventory left after I broke in my membership card.

When it came time to write "Bad Monsters", the second novel in The Our Monster Chronicles series, I went to an old staple for inspiration.

The entire novel series is based around a group of teenagers combating the short-sightedness and corruptness of the US military. Jon Graves and his friends rescue a group of test-tube monsters—called hybrids—from murderous mental conditioning and lives as weapons meant as disposable instruments on the battlefield. Adults, their parents are the enemy. Friendship is the teenagers' greatest weapon. If Jon, his human friends, and their hybrid companions stick together they're a team the military has no chance in oppressing.

Sounds like an 80's movie, right?

In "Bad Monsters", the teenage heroes and their hybrids are now on the run. They've escaped the military's base but a group of highly trained soldiers and their own leashed hybrids are on the trail. Disaster strikes, leaving one of Jon's number near death.

That's how the film—or rather the novel—begins. The teenagers and hybrids go in search of sanctuary but find even more trouble. They also cannot avoid the military forever.

One of my favorite movies (and comics, for that matter) is the first—and best—"Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles". While many similarities can be found between "Bad Monsters" and the film and comic, there is one in particular similarity that inspired me. In the film, the turtles and their human companions are attacked by the evil Foot Clan. Raphael, the grumpy brother of four in need of anger management, is injured in a rooftop battle and the turtles are outnumbered. So the turtles flee. The group heads to a farm to recuperate and meditate on their relationships with each other and their goals in the current conflict.

This was part of the inspiration for "Bad Monsters", or at least the germ that I never knew I had infecting my imagination.

I need my heroes to find a direction. At the end of "Our Monsters" the teenagers and their hybrids escape military bondage but... now what? I knew the answer, of course. I plotted the series. However, I needed the characters to come together and find the answers for themselves. Jon, George, and Alice are also a dysfunctional unit. While I don't think their little family will ever stop fighting, nor will Trick stop playing pranks on Bo, after the events in "Our Monsters" the characters needed to come together. They needed re-forge. They needed to stitch their individual patches into the beginning of a cozy quilt.

So I dropped the characters on to a quiet place in Northern California, out in the middle of nowhere, to reflect and heal together. There they'll discover new allies, reassess their advisories, and unearth clues as to the origins of the hybrids and the hybrids' bond with their individual human companions.

Nothing goes right. Everyone is at each other's throats. Trouble is not far down the road.

Read "Bad Monsters" to see just what kind of trouble. Also, look for more articles on the some of the new characters appearing in "Bad Monsters" and more on the novel's and the series' additional inspirations.

***

Clinton D Harding (author pic)

When Clinton D. Harding is not busy wrestling and taming wild Scottish Terriers in wilderness of Oxnard California, he's using a magic pen he pulled from a stone to craft new worlds filled with fantastic beasts and evils that need fighting. He is also the author-publisher of The Our Monsters Chronicles, a YA series of novels that combines fantasy/sci-fi elements with horror chills. For more information about Harding and his creations visit his website, like him on Facebook, follow him on Twitter, or become a fan at Goodreads.

Tuesday, March 4, 2014

MARCH 2013 EDITION OF BTSEmag

HEAD OVER AND CHECK OUT THIS AWESOME

E-BOOK MAGAZINESmile

Stray Ally Blog Tour

Stray Ally by Troy Lambert - sm banner


It's launch day for the newest book by Troy Lambert, and you're invited to participate!  This incredible book is being released by Tirgearr Publishing, just after it's recent Anniversary event, on the 4th of March.  As ever, Troy's kept everyone abreast of the writing of this book on Facebook, and even had a mini-competition to name it.  Troy is a stalwart supporter of other writers and is well worth following. blurbblack

Stray Ally by Troy Lambert - 500 A strange accident on the freeway, accusations of murder, and an encounter in the Idaho wilderness all propel Todd Clarke into a new friendship with a dog named Sparky. But Sparky is no ordinary dog, and there is more going on than Clarke could have imagined. A military commander he investigated for Aryan activity and links to domestic terrorism is after him, and he’s not sure why until another chance encounter provides the answer. With Sparky and the help of his canine friends, will he be able to figure out the Colonel’s plan and stop him in time? All Clarke knows for sure is none of it would be possible without the help of his Stray Ally. Buy the book here, from the Tirgearr Publishing. 

excerptblack
The skateboard collided with my windshield, and I braked with both feet, screeching forward. The body hit the glass next, spider-webbing it as the skater’s helmet-clad head struck the glass in the center of my vision. The rear view mirror separated from the window and hit the center of the seat with a thud as the car skidded to a stop.
Marsha is gonna be pissed, came the unbidden thought. We just replaced this windshield.
Where did he come from? Creedence still blared from the stereo speakers and I turned the ignition key to the rear. Silence descended, broken a moment later by distant sirens.
I lifted my hand and felt wetness on my forehead, cut by—something. Glass? Must have been.
I opened the door, dazed. Under the helmet, a young face offered a blank stare. Nothing but blackness in the eyes: no color. Not good.
“You okay, kid?” I felt stupid asking. Stupider for expecting a response. “What were you doing on the freeway?”
I heard distant voices. Looked up. Kids, on the overpass above. Did he fall?
They pointed. One slugged the other one. A scuffle brokeout and they ran. All of them.
The sirens came closer. Another car pulled up, tires squealing as it stopped, rocking on its springs.
“What happened? Is everyone okay?” the driver asked.
Struck dumb, I just pointed. The skateboard rested half on the roof, half on the shattered windshield. The skater lay below it, unmoving, his left foot against the hood ornament, the Mercedes star cocked sideways.
“Is he..?”
He didn’t finish, but rushed over, feeling for a pulse, checking for breath. All things I should have done, but couldn’t.
He shook his head, glanced over at me. “What was he doing here?”
I shrugged.
“Did you see him?”
Head wag, substituted for speech.
“Are you okay?”
Another head wag. I couldn’t articulate what was wrong.
“You’re bleeding.”
I managed a nod, and then my legs gave out. I dropped to the pavement and grimaced as my tailbone impacted the hard surface. I heard a whimper. It must have been me, because the other driver rushed over.
I stared ahead, seeing and not seeing the scene.
The sirens got closer, red and blue light illuminated Marsha’s car, the body, the skateboard, the chrome of her wheels, even making the brake lights appear to flash.

Help arrived, even though the boy was clearly beyond help. So was I, but no one knew it yet.


abablack
Troy works as a freelance writer, researcher, and editor. He writes historical site characterization reports for those performing remediation on former resource extraction sites, software instruction and help guides, and edits the research of others as well. His true passion is writing dark, psychological thrillers. His work includes Broken Bones, a collection of his short stories, Redemption the first in the Samuel Elijah Johnson Series, Temptation the sequel to Redemption, along with the horror Satanarium, co-authored with Poppet, a brilliant author from South Africa and published by Wild Wolf Publishing. His next novel, Stray Ally, will be published March 4th by Tirgearr Publishing. The final in the Samuel Elijah Johnson Series, Confession will be published May 1st. Troy lives with his wife of twelve years, two of his five children and two very talented dogs. He is a skier, cyclist, hiker, fisherman, hunter, and a terrible beginning golfer.
smblack

Author Website |Twitter |Facebook | Amazon Author page | Goodreads | Smashwords | Linkedin | Pinterest

giveawaysblack

Best story of a dog (Stray Ally) that you rescued or that helped you through a hard time sent to author@troylambertwrites.com by March 29th wins a $25 Amazon gift card. Winner and story shared on my blog Monday, March 31st. Share your story today!
You can also enter our Rafflecopter below...
Troy is appearing on multiple blogs in the next few days - head on over to The Finishing Fairies for tour central, information and more!
Promotion of Stray Ally Launch Tour is brought to you by:
Finishing-Fairies-small-banner
Join us for other book blasts at The Finishing Fairies mailing list!


Stray Ally Blog Tour

Stray Ally by Troy Lambert - sm banner

It's launch day for the newest book by Troy Lambert, and you're invited to participate!  This incredible book is being released by Tirgearr Publishing, just after it's recent Anniversary event, on the 4th of March.  As ever, Troy's kept everyone abreast of the writing of this book on Facebook, and even had a mini-competition to name it.  Troy is a stalwart supporter of other writers and is well worth following. blurbblack
Stray Ally by Troy Lambert - 500 A strange accident on the freeway, accusations of murder, and an encounter in the Idaho wilderness all propel Todd Clarke into a new friendship with a dog named Sparky. But Sparky is no ordinary dog, and there is more going on than Clarke could have imagined. A military commander he investigated for Aryan activity and links to domestic terrorism is after him, and he’s not sure why until another chance encounter provides the answer. With Sparky and the help of his canine friends, will he be able to figure out the Colonel’s plan and stop him in time? All Clarke knows for sure is none of it would be possible without the help of his Stray Ally. Buy the book here, from the Tirgearr Publishing.  

excerptblack
The skateboard collided with my windshield, and I braked with both feet, screeching forward. The body hit the glass next, spider-webbing it as the skater’s helmet-clad head struck the glass in the center of my vision. The rear view mirror separated from the window and hit the center of the seat with a thud as the car skidded to a stop.
Marsha is gonna be pissed, came the unbidden thought. We just replaced this windshield.
Where did he come from? Creedence still blared from the stereo speakers and I turned the ignition key to the rear. Silence descended, broken a moment later by distant sirens.
I lifted my hand and felt wetness on my forehead, cut by—something. Glass? Must have been.
I opened the door, dazed. Under the helmet, a young face offered a blank stare. Nothing but blackness in the eyes: no color. Not good.
“You okay, kid?” I felt stupid asking. Stupider for expecting a response. “What were you doing on the freeway?”
I heard distant voices. Looked up. Kids, on the overpass above. Did he fall?
They pointed. One slugged the other one. A scuffle brokeout and they ran. All of them.
The sirens came closer. Another car pulled up, tires squealing as it stopped, rocking on its springs.
“What happened? Is everyone okay?” the driver asked.
Struck dumb, I just pointed. The skateboard rested half on the roof, half on the shattered windshield. The skater lay below it, unmoving, his left foot against the hood ornament, the Mercedes star cocked sideways.
“Is he..?”
He didn’t finish, but rushed over, feeling for a pulse, checking for breath. All things I should have done, but couldn’t.
He shook his head, glanced over at me. “What was he doing here?”
I shrugged.
“Did you see him?”
Head wag, substituted for speech.
“Are you okay?”
Another head wag. I couldn’t articulate what was wrong.
“You’re bleeding.”
I managed a nod, and then my legs gave out. I dropped to the pavement and grimaced as my tailbone impacted the hard surface. I heard a whimper. It must have been me, because the other driver rushed over.
I stared ahead, seeing and not seeing the scene.
The sirens got closer, red and blue light illuminated Marsha’s car, the body, the skateboard, the chrome of her wheels, even making the brake lights appear to flash.

Help arrived, even though the boy was clearly beyond help. So was I, but no one knew it yet.


abablack
Troy works as a freelance writer, researcher, and editor. He writes historical site characterization reports for those performing remediation on former resource extraction sites, software instruction and help guides, and edits the research of others as well. His true passion is writing dark, psychological thrillers. His work includes Broken Bones, a collection of his short stories, Redemption the first in the Samuel Elijah Johnson Series, Temptation the sequel to Redemption, along with the horror Satanarium, co-authored with Poppet, a brilliant author from South Africa and published by Wild Wolf Publishing. His next novel, Stray Ally, will be published March 4th by Tirgearr Publishing. The final in the Samuel Elijah Johnson Series, Confession will be published May 1st. Troy lives with his wife of twelve years, two of his five children and two very talented dogs. He is a skier, cyclist, hiker, fisherman, hunter, and a terrible beginning golfer.
smblack

Author Website |Twitter |FacebookAmazon Author pageGoodreadsSmashwords Linkedin Pinterest

giveawaysblack

Best story of a dog (Stray Ally) that you rescued or that helped you through a hard time sent to author@troylambertwrites.com by March 29th wins a $25 Amazon gift card. Winner and story shared on my blog Monday, March 31st. Share your story today!
You can also enter our Rafflecopter below...
Troy is appearing on multiple blogs in the next few days - head on over to The Finishing Fairies for tour central, information and more!
Promotion of Stray Ally Launch Tour is brought to you by:
Finishing-Fairies-small-banner
Join us for other book blasts at The Finishing Fairies mailing list!