Alllusive Aftershock

What happens when a major earthquake changes life as you know it and the boy you thought you hated ends up saving you? Three times!
Courtland Reese is the guy everyone hates and makes fun of because … well, he is weird. He communicates with animals. Strange or interesting, seventeen-year-old Adela Castielle can’t quite figure out, but when he saves her from being trampled by her own horse, she begins to understand him a little better and wants to learn more about him.
But, Max--her best friend/dream guy/someday-to-be-her-husband-only-he-doesn’t-know-it-yet--hates Courtland with a passion. Adela wants to know why, except neither boy is talking. 
When Max leaves her stranded in his parents' wine cave with his worst enemy, Courtland, after what the experts are calling a “megathrust” earthquake, Adela starts to question her loyalty to Max as steamy kisses in a dark damp cellar only fuel her emotions with more conflict. 
But does she really have time to worry about that when fire, destruction and mayhem surround her?

A note from Susan:

My friends and family know me as Susan Griscom, but I write the Whisper Cape series under the name of Regan Walsh. Visit my blog: http://swblog.susangriscom.com

I daydream often and sometimes my daydreams interrupt my daydreams. So I write to remember them. If I didn't write, I think my mind would explode from an overload of fantasy and weirdness. To the annoyance of my friends and family, my characters sometimes become a part of my world. During my childhood, I would frequently get in trouble in school for daydreaming. Eventually, my vivid imagination paid off and I had the privilege of writing and co-directing my sixth-grade class play—a dreadful disaster, though not from my writing, of course, I must blame it on the acting.

I enjoy writing about characters living in small quaint towns and tend to lean toward the unusual and spooky.

My paranormal playing field delves into a different milieu, abandoning vampires and werewolves, but not discounting them. Someday I might like to write a novel about vamps and those furry creatures. But for now I like the bizarre mixed with romance. A strong hero or heroine confronted with extraordinary forces of nature, powers and capabilities gets my blood running hot.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Buy Links: Kindle http://www.amazon.com/ALLUSIVE-AFTERSHOCK-ebook/dp/B00AQ9LF72/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1356055532&sr=1-1&keywords=allusive+aftershock

Paperback: http://www.amazon.com/Allusive-Aftershock-Susan-Griscom/dp/0615737897/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1356055655&sr=1-3&keywords=susan+griscom

Website: http://susangriscom.com

Blog: http://swblog.susangriscom.com

Twitter: https://twitter.com/SusanGriscom

Facebook Author Page: http://www.facebook.com/SMGriscom

Facebook personal:  https://www.facebook.com/SusanGriscom1

Goodread: http://www.goodreads.com/SusanGriscom

The Tide Breaker Blog Tour

The Tide Breaker

From concept to novel

I would be reading a book or watching television and an idea would hit me. I would have nothing but the idea. My idea for The Tide Breaker came from an open discussion at a writer’s conference about my second novel Moon Rise. As you can probably guess from the title it was a terrible novel. I was heartbroken but I proposed an idea to my follow writers. The idea I came up with was monsters who look like humans mate with humans to produce children that were the monsters we remember from fairy tales. I knew I was on to something. I wrote an outline but I wrote freely most times so that the story could take me where it wanted to go. I was able to flush out a storyline but a very convoluted one and I released the novel prematurely. Of course I was hammered with criticism but such is life. I am better because of it. I took five more months on top of the six months I had taken to write the previous version to rewrite and edit the latest version. Now that version is available online. How I came up with the title is another story… Actually my friend came up with it over a glass of wine.

Bio:  I was born in Mandeville, Manchester, Jamaica. I moved to Canada eleven years ago. I discovered writing when I was eleven. However, I was unable to pursue it since I resided in a country where writing was impractical. I rediscovered the art my third year at York University. Kinesiology, the program I was enrolled in, was no longer simulating and I found myself questioning my purpose in life. This led me to poetry and poetry led me to writing novels.

LINKS:

GOODREADS:  http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4700421.Sonya_Watson

FACEBOOK:  https://www.facebook.com/Sonneka

SMASHWORDS:  https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/154881

AMAZON:  http://www.amazon.com/The-Tide-Breaker-Series-ebook/dp/B009QABQSK/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1354230855&sr=8-1&keywords=TIDE+BREAKER+SONYA+WATSON

When it is discovered that Abrianna, an Amalgam, survived the mass cleansing orchestrated by Destiny her life becomes less then desirable since her only options are to be controlled or die.

Interview with Kiri Newton

Interview with Kiri Newton
Undertow Blog Tour

Have you a fascination with mermaids, or just enjoy Fantasy in general?

I think its just mermaids. I really don’t go for the black magic, warlocks and goblins theme. I passionately hate Vampires and werewolves. So yes, it is just mermaids.

Did you see the special on the Discovery Channel; Mermaid the Body Found?

I don’t have Foxtel and plus I live in Australia which means we get shows approximately twenty years after they have aired in the USA, so no haha.

Tell us a little about Undertow.

Not much to tell really. Its about a girl who becomes a mermaid and all the chaos that ensues.

 
Do you have a character you enjoyed writing the most?

Nox. He has such a intoxicating dark personality that was so intense to write about. Every scene he is in, he seems to flood the pages with inky darkness whereas Josiah floods the pages with light.

Is there a genre you would like to try?

ALL THE GENRES!

Could you live without coffee?

NO. NO. NO. NO. Did I mention no?

What's your favorite thing about the writing process?

Research. I researched some very interesting things in relation to this book.
Three facts about you?

       I’m Dyslexic and colour blind

      I’m still horse mad, I was the crazy kid in class who had horse       pictures all over her books and it hasn’t changed

   I have a phobia of deep water

Do you believe in UFOs?

I think it’s a little naive to assume that we have the wonderful, infinite galaxy to ourselves. But as to what is out there and what form it takes is open for discussion.  As for sightings, 99% can be explained but I will be honest some stories are hard to rationalize.
What was your favorite snack growing up?

I was very close to my Dad so we would go shopping together and he would always treat me to something. We were quite poor growing up but he would always take me to a burger joint or we would sit in the car park of the shopping center having a bottle of chocolate milk each or something. There’s one brand of chocolate that we would get all the time that I swear doesn’t taste as good as it did then.

Would you rather have fame or fortune?

Neither. I’m actually a simple person at heart and I would rather have enough money to live comfortably, but not ostentatiously on, surrounded by people I love and be able to do what I love and live in peaceful surroundings. Fame and Fortune offers neither to me, just complications.

Pick one book that is your all time favorite?

Phantom by Susan Kay. Its so perfectly written.

Embarrassing guilty pleasure?

I’m a fangirl. The thing I fangirl the most over is an Australian band called Short Stack that split up this year. They got under a lot of people’s skin and I still get ribbed about the fact that I chased them all over the country side, still wear their band shirts, have every album they have release, stalk their social media accounts, know all their songs backwards and USED TO have pictures of them all over my bedroom walls. I’m writing this from rehab…

Are you an introvert or an extrovert?

I am an extroverted introvert. I love my own company, but I love attention. I love observing people and finding out what makes them tick but the human race in large quantities drives me nuts. I could happily live in the middle of nowhere and yet I love the anonymity of walking along a crowded city street. Don’t worry, I don’t even make sense to myself any more.

Favorites:

Muppet – Animal, or the Swedish Chef or Beaker…ok that’s three, they’re all good

Cartoon growing up- The Rugrats and the side show The wild Thornberries

Color- Black

Type of Monster- In Matthew Reilly’s Contest theres this monster called the Reece. The Reece has to be one of my favorite monsters ever with the fact it hypnotizes its prey with swaying antenna on its head, its scorpion like tail and the fact it just never gives up.

Do you speed when you drive?

I just got my learners and yeah…I do have a lead-foot. Blame my parents

Spaghetti or Lasagna and why?

Lasagna. Blame Garfield

Your thoughts on Self Publishing.

Initially I was skeptical, I had been told by some people that it was a trap and a waste of money but when I did my research I saw how it could be a useful stepping stone to securing a traditional publishing deal which is what I am using it for.
Your thoughts on Zombies.

Hate them. I don’t think a zombie apocalypse will ever happen (they require brains, not many of those around last time I checked) and yeah the whole Zombie fetish at the moment just grosses me out immensely.
Do you believe in the Loch Ness Monster?

Yeah. I like the notion that its one of those water-going dinosaurs that survived the event that wiped out all the other dinosaurs.

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

Tweeter. I unfollow people who do nothing but retweet, it annoys me. I was very addicted to twitter there for a while, I woke up in the middle of the night to a glow in my face only to realize that in my sleep I had picked my phone up, got into twitter and began typing out a somewhat inappropriate message to a dude in a band I had a crush on. After that incident I toned it back.

Your favorite type of music- Pop Punk/ Alternative

Your favorite color of Skittle- not really any colour, but I love the sour ones

Your favorite memory- Late nights building model airplanes with my dad.

Your favorite quote- Give ‘em hell kid (It’s a song quote but my Dad used to say something similar)

Your favorite way to spend an evening -depends. I don’t like doing the same thing every week. Sometimes I like quiet evenings, sometimes I like to be out with friends, sometime I like going to concerts, or out to dinner or just saying home, editing. Just depends what mood I’m in

Tell us what you are working on now!

Nothing much. I’m editing a crime fiction I wrote last year that I am looking to sell as I don’t want to publish it under my name for personal reasons. I’m kicking around a few ideas but at the moment my creativity is a bit dead.

Anything you would like to say to the aspiring authors reading this blog?

Just do, seriously, stop hanging around waiting for what you want to be handed to you on a silver platter. Hunt it down with a club.

Undertow

Kiri R. Newton

Bookpal Australia

For far too long these sailor-drowning, ship-sinking sea sirens have been portrayed as happy, peaceful creatures who want nothing more than to fall in love with a prince and live happily ever after. Undertow is an unconventional twist on one of the oldest mythological creatures known to man.

Buy Links:

Amazon

Barnes and Noble

Smashwords

Bookpal

Media Links:

Website

About Kiri R. Newton

Its weird right but as an author I could tell you about my characters inside out and yet when people ask me to talk about myself I go all quiet. Anyways, here I go.

I am a child of ‘91 born in Jandowae, a tiny little town out past Dalby. When I was five my parents decided to pack everything up and move to Tonga in the South Pacific after Dad visited there and mum fell in love with the place after reading a book about it. So I grew up in a third world country, fluent in a second language by the time I was eight and lived amongst the locals who I was friends with.

When I was thirteen my father passed away and due to the fact that the government refused to pay my mum a pension over there like they did my father, we were forced to move back to Australia.

As for my writing career, I started writing progressively longer short stories in Grade 5 where one teacher noted on my report card that ‘I had unique ideas and an unusual talent’. By Grade 7 I had completed my first novel a post-apocalyptic fiction where cats are the highest life form and live basically as we do and follows the lives of a litter of cats, the characters based on a litter of cats belonging to my neighbour. I continued writing different things from horsey stories to Phantom of the Opera fan-fiction right through my teenage years, nothing serious, mostly just a lot of scribbling.

In Grade 12 I realized that if I was going to be serious about being a writer I needed to finish stories, not just have a lot of random scribbles to my name. So forgoing all my assignments I finished my second book called Dynamite which is an Australiana tale about a racehorse. Two years later I went on holidays to Fiji, came home and three months later Undertow was completed. In the middle there I wrote a Tolkien-esque fantasy epic called The Dark Assassin with my now ex-boyfriend. The year after that I completed Hazardous, which will be my next published title.

 

His Black Wings Teaser!

Author Astrid Yrigollen has stopped by today with a teaser of her new book His Black Wings.

Prologue I didn’t know what to say, so I sat there stupidly. He grinned at me from behind white teeth. His ice blue eyes held a coldness and judgment I had not seen before. My heart fluttered and felt like a huge fish was rolling over in my breast. “Well?” He said as he traced the outline of my knee through my heavy skirt with his slender, white finger. “What is your wish, Claren?” My heart, upon hearing him use my real name beat harder. I felt the adrenaline push itself through my veins. He seemed to be aware of it, and licked his lips quickly. “I don t know what is it you ask Sir.” I stammered, my own voice sounding as a child’s would when confronted with some wrong doing. He had used my real name. Was it safe to assume he knew who I really was? He stopped smiling and cocked his head to one side, contemplating me. “But you do Claren, you know very well what I want, what you want.” How did it ever come to this? I thought franticly. What was I going to do, now that he knew who I was? He seemed to read my thoughts in my eyes because he answered my question without it ever being posed. "What will I do indeed? What can I do is the question, Claren. Here we are on a train, bound for the quaint countryside. No alarm has been raised, no Porter is valiantly trying to fight for your honor or to even help and cover your embarrassment, your lies. Thus, it shall remain so. At least, until we arrive at our destination." “Then what?” I questioned quietly. I am resolved to die, but not without a fight. He knows this. That is why he will not attempt to take me here, on a train full of people. My question hangs in the air between us, like a solid thing. He still has not answered as the whistle of our train shrieks into the wind, we race into the tunnel, blackness engulfing our private car.

Title: His Black Wings

Author: Astrid Yrigollen Blub: Claren Maidstone has been forced to flee her childhood home after the death of her parents and a vicious assault from a sadistic young man who intends to marry her. Claren changes her identity and finds employment as an assistant to the handsome Fredrick Lowood, a generous yet mysterious benefactor. However, she soon finds out his generosity comes at a price. Fredrick wishes for Claren to befriend his disfigured son who resides in seclusion at their estate, Westwind. Fredrick Lowood knows what the history books do not teach, that the Grand Council built this new world of peace and beauty on hidden blood and greed. He has plotted for years to bring down the family that enslaved his own people. Suddenly, he has the last living heir in his grasp. Etrigan Lowood rejects the world that forces him to hide. He is powerful, plagued with a terrible dark beauty: WINGS. It is these wings that carry him out only at night to watch the unwanted intruder in his home. A creature of refined instinct yet little social grace, he is strangely captivated by Claren but knows nothing of how her family’s dark past is intertwined with his own . Through their blossoming friendship, Etrigan realizes he still retains his human heart and yearns for Claren’s love. Kurten Wandsworth is the only son of the Mayor of St.Marhen. Kurten lives his life fueled by cruelty and lust. Whatever he wants he takes and he wants Claren to be his wife even it if kills her. Scarred by Claren he hunts her down mercilessly until he can set a trap which she will never be able to escape from. Buy Links: Amazon Media Links: Website Twitter Facebook

About Astrid Yrigollen

Astrid started her writing career when she begun work for the international video game giant, Sega of America. Working her way up the ranks, she began writing companion guides for games. With a love for writing fiction since childhood, she took her short stories out of storage and had her first story ever written published. It was only after that she found out that first stories are never published! She has resumed writing full time and has succeeded in putting out the titles, TheDoughnut Tree, Mysterious Pootkins , and The Mosswoods to name a few. Her short stories have appeared in the literary Threshold Press␣ and Shock and Awe Magazine. She finds writing for young adults both refreshing and challenging. She always wishes to provide examples of positive role models, conflict resolving methods and communication for young adults with their parents or guardians.