Touching Eternity Scavenger Hunt Rules

LET THE GAMES BEGIN!!!

Welcome to The Hunt! This event will run for the entire length of October. The rules are simple. Airicka will post 3 blog links on her Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/airicka.phoenix) every morning. Your job is to go through each one of the blogs and find the blog with the button (sample button provided below).

Only one blog will have a button each day and it will be hidden in one of their 2012 posts. Each button has a letter that will, in the end, spell out a message. (You might want to save each letter to win a separate prize if you guess the message before the game is over). When you find the button, copy the link above and go to Airicka’s website (http://airickaphoenix.com/Author/?p=1967) and put the link into the raffle-copter. Easy right?

Don’t want to go searching through posts and blogs? Well, there is an app for that… no I’m kidding, but there is a free pass.

Follow each blog, leave your name and email address on their rule post in the comment box and the person who has the button will email you back with the link. Then, all you have to do is go to Airicka’s website (http://airickaphoenix.com/Author/?p=1967) and drop the link into the raffle-copter.

Now for the really important rules.

 

RULES

~ Everyone & anyone can participate.
~ The link MUST be put PRIVATELY into the raffle-copter on this page. Do Not publicly display anywhere else! if I find that people are sharing the buttons/letters/links, they will be disqualified from the games.
~ Do NOT share the link with anyone. Same as above.
~ Do NOT tell anyone which blog you found that day’s button on. I’m repeating myself? I know. This is the biggest deal breakers for me.
~ If you guess what the letters spell before the game is over, please do NOT share the answer. Privately message me and collect your prize!
~ Please DO tell others about The Hunt.
~ Please DO ask questions if you have any.
~ Most importantly, HAVE FUN!

Exclusive Short Story From Charles E. Butler

The blog’s Halloween celebration is starting early with an exclusive short story from an amazing horror author

Charles E. Butler!!

Vampire Onslaught

Banging. Dull thuds and screams. Moaning. Souls in pain and torment. Can’t sleep now. More shouting. Hell! Better get up. Every other century or so, it always comes down to this. It sounds like we’ll have to move on again. Damn!
Peeking through the lid. Chaos. Hunters with crosses and mallets. Wielding stakes and logs of fire. Family members perishing under the onslaught. Unadulterated carnage!

Ouch! There goes the Baroness!

The lid suddenly wrenched from his grasp as an old man stared down at him, gritting yellowed teeth through a gray beard.

“You’re next vampire scum!”

The stake raised high. He had to do something and quick. Reaching out he grasped the old man’s throat and felt the blood beneath the skin rush to a sudden halt. Now to think of a worthy one-liner. Got to take control here and quick.
The Count DeVille moaned way back in the catacombs of the cellar and flame illuminated his resting place. One hunter stepped back as the flames from the coffin had licked out savagely at him. The bastards! They’ve used kerosene!

The old man, eyes bulging under the powerful grip, licked out his tongue involuntarily knocking his top set of dentures out. They landed just shy of Reed’s left shoulder. Reed stared at them in disgust for a second as the phlegm spilled through the old man’s lips soaking his hand as it trickled down the chin.

Gross!

It left sparkling droplets on the gray beard. Disgusted, Reed bent the neck between his fingers and felt the hunters bones pop. He flung the corpse to one side and stood up tall in his coffin surveying the carnage around him. Smelling the burning bodies of his family. Long dead by human standards already. Now they were decimated.

Three hunters ventured into the darkness of the cellar. Their flaming torches illuminating their path as Reed stepped out of his resting place and set off in pursuit. He didn’t feel the heat of the flames, his body becoming immune to such trifles centuries ago. But he knew that they could destroy his earthbound shell if they took hold.

He glanced briefly into the burning sarcophagi as he passed. Twelve family members cruelly dispatched because of a human belief in old wives tales. VAMPIRE! That was the word that had everyone reaching for the garlic and carrying out these maddening attacks. One coffin held the corpse of Victoria. As he stared through the flames with his one good eye, she reached out a charred arm to him. The wooden stake had missed its mark and her flesh was melting from her body. That beautiful vivacious creature stared at him. God in heaven, she was aware! One eye, rimmed in its hollowed out skull by a salty tear, exploded. Then the other making a kind of squishy pop as the liquid dampened flames around it. Her bony arm collapsed and reduced to ash before it came to rest back in her coffin. The dissolution had barely taken a few seconds, but Cranwell Reed would carry the memory with him forever. He gritted his teeth and ventured into the tunnels of the cellar in search of the hunters.

He could hear them as they stealthily made their way further into the darkness. But they could never hear his own footfalls. He could make them out in the blackness, their shapes illuminated by their dying torchlight. There were no more vampires in this area. His family had been savagely pummelled by four whiskey-breathed old men who carried mistrust and hatred for his kind in their hearts. No. There were no vampires. Only rats. A few mice too. And a few mutations.

Cranwell called on the vermin allies with his mind and concentration sent a small wind to extinguish their torches. His eye twinkled and the lid closed over it as he latched onto the mind of his furry army. As the last torchlight dyed, chittering and scrabbling noises could be heard.

Something woke in the darkness.

He opened his eyes and could see clearly in the inky blackness as his three foes stumbled around frantically for each other. Grasping at the air. When they let out panic warnings, he realized that they were all English. As the rats circled their feet, Cranwell turned and made his way out of the cellar, passing the burning coffins again, but this time not glancing inside them. He heard shrieks as the old men felt small teeth bite at their legs and furred bodies attaching to their arms. Rope tails lashing around their faces. The men screamed like girls in a playground as the might of the rats pulled them down into the faeces and then began to eat.

Outside, the night was just beginning as the sky had turned a deep navy blue. Stars dotted here and there, but the moon wouldn’t be visible on this side of the world for another three or four hours. But astronomy was the last thing on Reed’s mind. He scoured the bleak landscape with an eye that an eagle would envy. Searching. Peering through gloom and breaks in the bountiful hedging. There. He spotted the car just a few metres up the road. Parked incongruously at the side of the road, masked by a large tree. Cranwell could only glimpse the front fender, but he knew that it held a getaway driver. The humans were so predictable.

The chauffer was a heavy set man with a large beard, but his throat tore easily enough. Reed placed the body in the boot and drove the car to the very edge of the cliff that over-looked the beginnings of the Danube. Water lashed at the rocks below. Inky and fathomless in the early light, but that would bleach out in three hours to become the brightest blue waters on earth. As he pushed the car over the cliff his transformation had already begun. The car crashed sixty feet below the cliff as a blood-coloured bat took to the skies and headed North.

THE ROMANCE OF DRACULA

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Review of White Trash Beautiful

"I’m not naive. I know I don’t get the happily ever after. My knight in shining armor took the highway detour around this god forsaken shit hole. I’ve made peace with that. That doesn’t mean I’m going to lay down like a doormat and let every cocky prick in the trailer park have his way with me."

Cass lives a depressing life in a small trailer park in Eddington, Ga with her mother and abusive boyfriend Jackson. She works hard to barely make ends meet. One day Tucker White, the lead singer in the band Damaged, walks into her diner. He tries to show her that there is more to life than the hand she has been dealt but being with Tucker will come at a high price.

MY REVIEW

Teresa's writing always pulls me in because I want to see where her story is going to go, but this story had me glued to the pages. I am going to say that it was the best I have read from her, and I have read them all. I know, a favorite amoung Teresaisms, is unheard of, but this story grips you emotionally. I could feel Cass' pain. I could see the two sides of her crossroads and knew the predicament she was in. 

This is a story that might not appeal to everyone. The trials the heroine deals with are terrible, but if you have been in a similar place then you will identify with what she is feeling. The longing for a better life, and the feeling of despair at the reality. 


The story is fast paced, but not so fast it is unrealistic. I am not embarrassed to say I read it all today. It has crippling heart break with the hope of a silver lining. Read it, and take it all in. I dare you to!

Interview with Laura Hawks and Review of the Demon's Kiss

Laura Hawks Author of Demon's Kiss

How did you choose your genre? Paranormal gave me the opportunity to write what I wanted to... about the plights, mythos and culture of Native Americans but not have it sound like its text book reading that should be done in school. Plus I am a hopeful romantic at heart.

Who inspires you? My friends and family. No matter what, they seem to stand by my side and encourage me, even when I might have so little to believe in at the time. 

Which came first the chicken or the egg? Definitely the egg. Reading got my imagination to blossom.

Do you want to venture into other genres? Not sure I am comfortable with other genres just yet. Maybe in the future.

What's your favorite thing about the writing process? the idea. Something has to inspire me enough to say to myself... what if....

Three facts about you? I adore animals, especially fluffy ones. I am terrified to death of snakes. I love to cook and some of my family and friends wonder why I never became a chef.

Do you believe in UFOs? Yes. I have always contended I saw one when I was 12.

Would you rather have fame or fortune? Hmmm, both? lol

Pick one book that is your all time favorite? Dance with the Devil by Sherrilyn Kenyon. Its a book that made me laugh, cry, hurt, wince and everything in between.

Embarrassing guilty pleasure? Watching my cats sleep and playing with their paws to make them twitch.

Are you an introvert or an extrovert? I am pretty extroverted, but there are times when I can be a wall flower.

Favorites:

Muppet - Miss Piggy

Cartoon growing up- Scooby Doo

Color- I can't do just one... and I like when they are together... royal purple, fuschia and royal blue or teal.

Type of Monster- Mummy

Do you speed when you drive? yes (ssh)

Guilty Pleasure?  I am a foodie. I love to try lots of different things. 

Your thoughts on Self Publishing. More power to you.

Your thoughts on Zombies. I like my brain where it is and that is not in their stomachs

Do you believe in the Loch Ness Monster? I believe something is out there.

Are you a tweeter, a re-tweeter, or you couldn't care less about Twitter? could care less

Would you rather sit on a porch with sweet tea {insert other beverage if tea isn't your thing} or go hiking with a bottle of water and a smile?

I like both, but I love to sit on porches and watch the world go by.

Your favorite type of music... pretty eclectic, but dance, top 40 and  Symphonic Metal
Your favorite color of Skittle... orange
Your favorite memory... Being in the shark cage watching as great whites swam around us or the baby lion that wanted to fall asleep in my lap.
Your favorite quote.... “Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage.”- Lao Tzu

Your favorite way to spend an evening... dinner with friends talking

Tell us what you are working on now! I am working on book two of my first book. Book One is Demon's Kiss, out Oct. 13, 2012. It is Clarissa's story of protecting a very powerful stone from one demon while falling in love with another. Book two... Demon's Dream will be Azamel's story. I am also introducing a pantheon in the second book, that I will be using for future novels. I am also completing another tome based on Ojibwa mythos as its base with some elaboration and a lot of exaggeration but also with some historical facts about events in the Great Lakes Region involving the Ojibwa tribe. 

I also have a few other ideas in my head.

Anything you would like to say to the aspiring authors reading this blog? Don't give up and keep trying.

Demon's Kiss

When her family was murdered, Clarissa found her life altered. As the new guardian for a very powerful gem that could change the very fate of the Earth and its inhabitants should it be lost, she willingly accepted the responsibilities to keep it safe. 

 A demon named Xon was after the abilities the gem would afford him should he get his hands on it.

Azamel protected the world from demon kind. A demon himself, he was appointed judge and if need be, executioner to protect the various races that roamed the Earth. Now he had to hunt Xon and prevent him from obtaining a stone that could give him the edge he would need to rule, but to do this Azamel would have to work with a young wolf who had a chip on her shoulder. Could he succeed in time to save both of them... before it was too late? Or would Clarissa's mistrust doom them all?

My Review

I had the pleasure of reading Laura Hawks "The Demon's Kiss" early. I enjoyed the style of her writing very much. I was pulling for the main characters to get together, and I thought her version of the inner demon was fantastic. I recommend this book for those who enjoy paranormal romance with a hint of danger. Demon's Kiss was great for her debut novel, I look forward to reading what Hawks comes up with next. 


LINKS!!

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Laura-Hawks/249262585192270

http://laurahawks.webs.com/

https://www.facebook.com/FairlyFreakyFairytales?ref=ts 

Rogues, Rake,and Jewels - Claudy Conn

The Marquis of Lyndhurst is tired of women who are more attracted to his title and money than to his charms. So when his mother requests that he go to the Isle of Wight to court another eligible woman, Ryker decides on a little game … his cousin Robby will pose as him, and he will pose as his cousin—a rake and a gambler. If the woman falls in love with him, it will be for himself. Only then will he reveal who he is.

What the marquis doesn’t expect, however, is someone like Jewelene. Lovely and provocative, intelligent and headstrong, Jewels cares not for status and wealth. Ryker finds her irresistible, and she finds herself falling for the handsome man she believes to be the marquis’ cousin.

But Jewelene is playing a game of her own. In a daring bid to repay her family’s debts, each night she poses as Babette, the French card dealer. When Ryker begins flirting with the sultry Babette, Jewelene realizes she has become her own rival. If she reveals the truth, will her house of cards come tumbling down?

My Review

I was gifted Claudy Conn’s Rogues, Rakes, and Jewels to review. Being a huge fan of Jane Austen, with Emma and Pride and Prejudice being two of my favorite romance novels I was thrilled when Claudy sent me her regency romance to review. This novel had everything; danger, a villain, twists, and more secrets between characters then I could count. I really enjoyed the story and the strong female lead. One thing that I will say about Conn’s Regency romance is this is no Jane Austen. There was serious heat in the book between the main characters. That just made this an even better regency piece. I recommend it for a fun and delightful read. I will look to read her other Regency romances now. 

Get it here!

AMAZON

SMASHWORDS

Review of The Earth Painter

When a self-conscious young woman discovers the boy in drama class is actually the immortal who painted the world into being, she becomes the target of another painter who hates humanity.The Earth Painter is a Young Adult Supernatural Romance set in the small mill town of Chesnee, SC. It revolves around Holly Scruggs, whose family has just moved back to Chesnee after her dad lost his job along with pretty much everything they owned. Her image conscious parents correct her to the point of brokenness until she meets Theo. He is the artist responsible for all the beauty of the land and he thinks Holly is beautiful too. Together they will fight against Fritz, the water painter who hates humans and is hiding a secret under the high school.

MY REVIEW

Whenever a book can evoke any kind of emotion I consider it a good read. I loved The Earth Painter with its beautifully painted images and its haunting sadness. I love the world that Lee created. I wanted to know what was special about Holly and I despised her mother. I connected with all the characters in the book and that is an important part of good story telling.

The end left me wanting more, and that is another important part of good story telling. I think everyone should read this book! It is beautifully written and really makes you think.

Review of In My Dreams

It was happening again. The dreams. The nightmares. It was something seventeen year-old Elizabeth "Lizzy" Hayes thought she'd outgrown; dreams that would come true; detailed premonitions of how people would die. This time she dreams about her boyfriend, Michael Young, and soon discovers that he's been found... dead. 

Michael hasn't crossed over because he was murdered, and now his murderer is coming for Lizzy. His spirit won't rest until she is safe, and as a newbie spirit, the easiest way for him to make contact is through Lizzy's dreams. When she dreams, it's as if he hasn't died. 

Lizzy must learn to pull on her inner strength to survive horrifying events. Meanwhile, in the spirit world, Michael learns everything he can about his supernatural gifts to help. But will it be enough to save her?

MY REVIEW

In My Dreams was an emotional ride from the beginning. I could feel Lizzy's loss and Michael's love. You can tell Cameo really cares for her characters, and she developed them well.   My attention was kept, which says a lot because I get distracted easily. Just when I thought I knew what was going to happen there was another element or layer added to the story.

Young love that is so pure is a rarity, but I feel like Cameo made it believable. I gave the book five stars because it was well thought out, and tugged at the heart strings. I especially like the way everyone made peace at the end, kind of, but you will have to read to see.