Character Interview with Alex from Jennifer Loring's What's Left of Me

WHAT'S LEFT OF ME by Jennifer Loring

The Firebird Trilogy, Book #2

Publisher: Limitless Publishing

Release Date: July 26, 2016

Recovering from years of living the superstar hockey life wasn’t easy, but now Aleksandr Volynsky finally has everything… 

He’s married to the love of his life, expecting a daughter, and has a new job as an assistant coach with his old team, the Buffalo Gladiators. His happiness is short lived, however, when a sexual assault allegation surfaces, and Alex is forced to cooperate with an investigation for a crime he didn’t commit. 

Stephanie Hartwell is juggling her dream job with marriage and motherhood, but she’s not convinced she’s doing any of it well… 

Stephanie’s stress level goes from bad to worse when she’s diagnosed with a serious illness. Battling declining health and the critics who question her commitment to Alex in light of the allegation, she makes a decision that could change their relationship forever. 

Alex is afraid he’s about to lose everything—especially when he sees Stephanie’s friend kiss her… 

Devastated that his life is spiraling out of control again, Alex turns to his friend, Natasha, a Russian pop star. Convinced that Stephanie and her friend Brandon are having an affair, Alex resumes his self-destructive behavior. 

What Alex doesn’t know is Stephanie has been conducting a secret investigation of her own. She learns the truth behind the sexual assault—a truth no one, especially Alex, expects. 

With everything now out in the open, can Stephanie and Alex commit to a fresh start for the sake of their daughter, or will the ghosts of their pasts finally tear apart everything they have left? 

THE FIREBIRD TRILOGY — 

BOOK 1: FIREBIRD

BOOK 2: WHAT’S LEFT OF ME

Author Jennifer Loring interviewing Aleksandr 

Interview with Aleksandr Volynsky –Model, Singer, Former Hockey Star

1. What’s your favorite color?

Really? That’s what you’re asking me? Khristos. For the record, it’s blue. Also for the record, I hate interviews.

2. Sorry. Can I ask you what your family is like?

My family is amazing. My wife, Stephanie, is the most incredible woman in the world for putting up with me. And my baby girl, Anya…she leaves me speechless every time I look at her. I still can’t believe I get to be her father. My parents live in Russia, so I don’t get to see them very often, but it’s because of everything they did for me that I was able to become the hockey player I was. So da, I have the greatest family in the world.

3. What do you most want in the world?

I already have it. My two girls. And I want Anya to have the best life I can possibly give her. The things her mother should’ve had growing up.

4. If you could change something about your past, what would it be?

It’s tempting to say I’d change what happened the night of my injury, which ended my career. But if that hadn’t happened, maybe I wouldn’t be where I am now. So the only things I’d really change are the times I’ve hurt Stephanie, although I guess those sort of led us to where we are now, too. In that case, maybe I wouldn’t change anything, no matter how hard it’s been.

5. What do you most admire about your wife?

She doesn’t realize how strong she is. She’s overcome so much, but she doesn’t always see it. I’m just so in love with her, every day is like I’m sixteen and seeing this beautiful American girl for the first time all over again.  

6. What drives you crazy about your wife?

I hope she doesn’t read this. She thinks she’s weak if she has to ask for help. She thinks she can and should be able to do everything herself. No one can, but she’s been doing it for so long, it’s a hard habit to break.

7. What do you most like about yourself?

I didn’t like myself for a long time, and neither did a lot of people. Now, I think the best thing about me is that I’m completely devoted to those I love, and I’ll do whatever it takes to protect them and provide for them.

8. What do you least like about yourself?

I don’t like having bipolar disorder. I’ve learned to accept it, although certain aspects have been hard for both Stephanie and me to deal with at times. I just have to keep telling myself it’s a part of me, but it doesn’t define me.   

 ABOUT THE AUTHOR — Jennifer Loring has been, among other things, a DJ, an insurance claims assistant, and an editor. Her short fiction has appeared in numerous magazines, webzines, and anthologies, including Crystal Lake Publishing’s Tales from the Lake vol. 1 and Black Mirror Press’s Snowpocalypse. Longer work includes the novella Conduits (DarkFuse, 2014) and the novels Those of My Kind (Omnium Gatherum, 2015), Firebird, and What’s Left of Me (Limitless Publishing, 2015 and 2016). Jennifer’s novella No One on Earth (After Glows Publishing) will be released in late 2016. She lives in Philadelphia, PA with her husband, their turtle, and two basset hounds. 

LIMITLESS PUBLISHING: http://www.limitlesspublishing.net/authors/jennifer-loring/

GOODREADS: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/1493991.Jennifer_Loring

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

TWITTER: https://twitter.com/JenniferTLoring

WEBSITE: http://jennifertloring.com/

NEWSLETTER SIGNUP: http://eepurl.com/b7SuBH

Awash in Talent Tour Continues

Today Awash in Talent is making a brand new stop on its media tour, this time with gracious host James Jackson.

Previous stops have been hugely fun and informative, with some of the kindest and best authors I've ever met. Find them here:

“Kindle Scout Success” with Kristin Gleeson

“What If The Abolitionist Had Telekinesis?” with Kim Rendfeld

“Author Spotlight” with Teresa Roman

“Jessica Knauss: She’s Awash in Talent” with Linda Sands

Author Interview with Rachelle Paige

“Jessica Knauss—Awash in Talent” with Katherine Hayton

“A Conversation with Jessica Knauss, author of Awash in Talent“ with Seymour Hamilton

“Jessica Knauss Interview” with Craig A. Hart

“Interview with Author Jessica Knauss” at Today’s Author

“Writers Reach: Jessica Knauss with Awash in Talent" at Musings of Orientation with Jennifer Skutelsky

Indie Spotlight with author Ricki Wilson

About the Kindle Scout campaign with The Crazy Mind

If history is more your thing, tomorrow I'm at Unusual Historicals telling what little I know about thirteenth-century Spanish astronomy. If it has to do with Alfonso X, you know I'm there!

Character Interview with Toria from J.L. Gribble’s Steel Magic

From author J.L.Gribble:

In honor of the release of my second novel, I’d thrilled to have the chance to introduce readers to one of my favorite characters. Torialanthas “Toria” Connor was one of two major point-of-view characters in book 1 of the Steel Empires series, Steel Victory. In Steel Magic, she takes center stage for a tale of her own. While not strictly a YA urban fantasy novel, this story features Toria and her friends setting off on their first adventure after graduating college.

Steel Magic is available for pre-order and will be released July 6. To get caught up, make sure to take advantage of the 99 cent sale for Steel Victory through July 5!

From the back of the book:

Funerals are usually the end of the story, not the beginning.

Newly graduated warrior-mages Toria Connor and Kane Nalamas find themselves the last remaining mages in the city when a mage school teacher mysteriously falls ill and dies. But taking over the school themselves isn’t in the cards. They’re set to become professional mercenaries—if they make it through the next 18 months as journeymen first.

The debate over whether to hunt mutated monsters in the Wasteland or take posh bodyguard jobs is put on hold when a city elder hires them to solve the mystery of the disappearing mages. Toria and Kane’s quest brings them to the British colonial city of New Angouleme, where their initial investigation reveals that the problem is even greater than they feared.

But when a friend is kidnapped, they’ll have to travel to the other side of the globe to save her, save themselves, and save magic itself.

If that didn’t hook you, hopefully this interview with Toria by her author will!

Tell us about a few of your favorite things.

Oh, I see how it is. Lowball me with the easy questions before you hit me with the hard stuff? Fine. “Favorite things” is pretty nebulous, but I’ll give it a shot. First of all, can I tell you how annoying it is that everyone assumes my favorite color is purple just because I’m a storm mage? I like it and all, and my magical shields do trend toward violet, but give me a nice teal any day. What else? Let’s see, my favorite food and favorite dessert are the same thing. Delicious, delicious crème brulee, especially if it’s made by my dad. I think half the reason I finally learned that silly fire cantrip was because I wanted to caramelize the top myself.

Okay, then here’s something more interesting. Since you’ve chosen mercenary as your career field, first you have to make it through 18 months as a journeyman. Was it difficult to leave your hometown?

I may not have been born in Limani, but I got there as an infant and it’s the only place I’ve ever called home. Before I graduated college, I’d already risked my life to defend it twice. So yeah, I’m kind of attached to the place. I think it’s more difficult to leave my family behind, but a girl’s gotta spread her wings sometime. The fact that my adopted mom is a vampire helps, though. You don’t have to worry so much about someone who is functionally immortal. She’ll even look exactly the same whenever I come home!

Your mom is a vampire? What is the rest of your family like?

Just as epic. Grandpa is also a vampire. He found me as a baby after my parents died, but didn’t really want the responsibility of a kid, so he took me to his progeny. Mama also had no interest in a kid, but that’s where Dad stepped in. He’s a daywalker—a human bonded to my mom, which grants him long life, too. Kane, the guy I consider my brother, is my partner in all things magic and mercenary, since we’re a bonded warrior-mage pair. And Syri, my best friend, is an elf. We’re definitely not a normal bunch around the dinner table. Especially since it’s breakfast for half of them.

Do you ever wish you could have been raised by a normal family? Is there anything else about your past you would change?

I wouldn’t trade my crazy family for the world! If I wanted normal as a kid, I could always go over to Kane’s house. But normal was relative there, too, since his parents were also mages. One thing I would change is my college major. I love chemistry and I love metallurgy, but I should have stuck with those as a hobby. Switching to a political science double-major so late in the game would have saved me a lot of all-nighters my senior year. But that was the field of study that would benefit me most as a mercenary, so I made the sacrifice.

So overall, you’re pretty happy with your life? What do you like most about yourself?

I am amazing, and don’t you forget it! In all honesty, I think my biggest strength lies in the power of my friends. I’m pretty convinced that I can take on the world, but that’s because I know they will always have my back. Kane, Syri, and I might be connected magically, but all that power would be useless if we weren’t also extraordinary friends.

What do you like least about yourself?

I can be a little arrogant, if that wasn’t obvious! I guess that happens when you’re told that you’re a child prodigy for half your life, in the whole doing magic area. I’ve gotten knocked down a few pegs since then, but I still have a hard time knowing what my limits are. That’s probably going to backfire on me someday.

And finally, tell us a bit about why we should read the books you're in.

Because you’ll have an amazing time following along on my crazy adventures!

***

About the Author:

By day, J. L. Gribble is a professional medical editor. By night, she does freelance fiction editing in all genres, along with reading, playing video games, and occasionally even writing. She is currently working on the Steel Empires series for Dog Star Books, the science-fiction/adventure imprint of Raw Dog Screaming Press. Previously, she was an editor for the Far Worlds anthology.

Gribble studied English at St. Mary’s College of Maryland. She received her Master’s degree in Writing Popular Fiction from Seton Hill University in Greensburg, Pennsylvania, where her debut novel Steel Victory was her thesis for the program.

She lives in Ellicott City, Maryland, with her husband and three vocal Siamese cats. Find her online (www.jlgribble.com), on Facebook (www.facebook.com/jlgribblewriter), and on Twitter and Instagram (@hannaedits).

In Jessica Knauss's Awash in Talent news, winners have been selected for the Goodreads giveaway of two signed copies of the softcover. Congratulations! You beat out more than 600 people requesting the book! I hope you enjoy it. It may take a little longer to get your copies to you because of the holiday. Happy Fourth of July!

Release Day and Excerpt: The Trouble with Antlers by A.J. Culey

Happy release day to this first installment of A. J. Culey's Shifter High series! Enjoy an excerpt of this zany teen adventure.

A.J. Culey was not born a shifter, much to her dismay.  Despite her limitations as a human, she enjoys spending time with cats, bunnies and other animals. She hasn’t met a shifter yet, nor has she had any antlers spontaneously appear in any classroom she’s taught in, but she hasn’t given up hope that it might one day happen. In the meantime, she has fun writing about the possibilities.

Now Available on Amazon

In a high school full of shifters, it's the one inquisitive human who poses the biggest threat.

When a human is the only applicant for town veterinarian and moves to Shifterville with his teenaged daughter, Amelia, the town residents conspire to keep the humans in their midst from discovering their secret. If only they can keep Melvin away from Amelia.

Melvin Moose has a problem. Anytime a girl gets too close, his antlers go on walkabout, popping out of his human head at the most inopportune moments. As if that weren’t bad enough, a human girl just enrolled at his school, and if she catches sight of his unruly rack, it’s all over for Shifterville.

Warning: This book contains typical teen language, which does include the occasional swear word. It is also full of rampant, teen hormones and the subsequent fallout.

Excerpt from The Trouble with Antlers (a.k.a. Melvin’s Rampant Rack)

Melvin was late for gym class. Again. Life kind of sucked lately.  Ever since he hit puberty and his antlers grew in, they were a huge load to bear.  Literally.  They’d already popped out twice this morning, once when Laney Queen-of-the-Universe Siamese gave him that haughty look and tossed her hair over her shoulders. 

It wasn’t his fault! Her silky hair brushed his nose and he got a headful of heady girl-cat scent and out they sprang. 

Boing! 

All the kids in the hallway laughed (except the two he knocked down with his headful of dorkiness… and the other two kids he flattened when his antlers pulled him to the ground in an amazing feat of gravity working against him).

The second time was when sweet, little Kelly Mole blinked up at him from her book as he walked by her in English class.  She was a naked mole rat for heaven’s sake, but did his antlers care?  Of course not!  They were moose antlers and they sensed girl and that was all it took.

Mrs. Saber snarled at him to get his rack under control and that sent the entire room into gales of laughter. 

It had taken him ten minutes in the bathroom to will those antlers into submission and now he was late for gym, where he’d be forced to dress out in fur, thus giving those antlers free reign again. 

Barreling down the hall, internally ranting at the horrors of his antlerhood, Melvin never even scented the new girl, the human, coming around the corner.

Every single adult in school had taken the time to lecture him about avoiding the new girl. One glimpse of his antlers and the secret of their shifter town, a secret their town had guarded for centuries, was toast.  But he wasn’t thinking about that.  He was worried about being late and cursing his antlers as he barreled around the corner. 

He caught a glimpse of bright blue eyes and then their bodies slammed together in a tangle of arms and legs.  He reflexively caught her in his arms, her scent barreled over him and BAM!  Out sprang the antlers from hell. 

The only good news? 

They knocked New Girl out with one blow, sending her unconscious to the floor, possibly ensuring she never knew what hit her, possibly ensuring the town’s secret was safe. 

Check out A.J. Culey's writing at her website. Find her on Facebook, Twitter, and Goodreads.

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Awash in Talent

by Jessica Knauss

Giveaway ends June 30, 2016.
See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter Giveaway

An Interview with Cara McKinnon, author of Essential Magic

JK: What is Essential Magic about?

CM: Essential Magic is the story of Etta Mae Cook, a backwoods witch from Appalachia. But underneath the fantasy trappings, she’s a woman who has been stifled most of her life, and who is finally breaking free and trying to live the life she’s always wanted. The book takes place in an alternate late-Victorian era, so in practical terms, that means she has uprooted herself from the mountains of North Carolina and sailed to London, where she hopes to learn magic from her distant relatives, the Fay clan.

Immediately upon arrival in England, though, some powerful people take an interest in her, including Queen Victoria. And her family is not as welcoming as she’d hoped. Clan Fay has been waging a silent battle for years with the future of magic in the balance, and Etta could be the piece that upsets the scales.

And right in the middle of everything is Malcolm Seward, a mage who has given up magic after an accident involving his sister. He and Etta feel a powerful attraction, but for many reasons decide they must resist its pull…until it grows so strong they give in, and discover that together they are able to do things they’d never imagined apart.

JK: How did you get the idea for the story?

CM: I am an obsessive planner. I outline everything in advance, do lots of research, create pinboards on Pinterest, and generally organize the story to within an inch of its life. So this book is a bit of an anomaly for me. I sat down in November of 2015 to write the sequel to another of my projects, a book about a kitchen witch, which I had already outlined and planned. But when I started writing, it wasn’t about the kitchen witch. Etta Mae Cook stepped from the passenger car onto the platform at Waterloo Station and stumbled. That’s still the first line of the book.

I didn’t know who this woman was or why she was in London, but by the time I got to the end of the first chapter, I was hooked on her tale. So the answer is – I honestly do not know! She came to me. Of course it required lots of research and revision to get the book ready for readers, but that’s another story!

JK: Your undergraduate degree is in mythology and folklore. Can you tell us about some of the myths and folklore that inspired your book?

CM: Of course! I love stories, and I think that folklore is the lifeblood of our civilizations. Every culture has stories, even in the modern era. Now we call them urban legends, and we pass them around as clickbait and memes. And we believe in them as fervently as any ancient civilization believed in the fairies or gods. Admit it – you’ve reposted/blogged/tweeted something that turned out to be debunked later. We’ve all done it. We’re drawn in by the narrative, and we accept it as true.

It helps to put folklore in that context first, because we have a tendency to believe that people in the past were somehow different from us. That we’re much more advanced and wouldn’t make the same choices they did. Yet we do every day!

That’s one of the reasons why I can’t stop writing fantasy. Fantasy has a bad reputation in some places because it’s “escapist,” or “soft,” or “nostalgia for something that never existed,” but I think fantasy taps into those deep stories that underpin human existence. It’s important that we remember the sense of wonder and possibility that magic creates. It reminds us that we’re a tiny speck in a limitless universe – and yet even that tiny speck is an important piece of the whole.

Essential Magic is set in a specific era of history when in the real world society was obsessed with the occult, spiritualism, and fairies. The Grimm brothers gathered their tales during this period (earlier in the 19^th century), Hans Christian Anderson wrote his stories, and folklorists across the world collected the oral traditions of hundreds of native peoples.

So I’ve taken all of those things and made them real in the world of my series. Fairies and ghosts really exist. As do gods and goddesses, although they might wear different shapes and be called by different names depending on what culture they’re visiting at the time. Magic is real, and some people are able to use it.

I wasn’t inspired by any one particular tradition of magic, myth, or folklore, but you could say I was inspired by all of them!

Essential Magic releases tomorrow and is available for pre-order at the following retailers:

Amazon | iBooks | Kobo | Nook

There will also be print versions available at Amazon and Barnes & Noble online.

Cara McKinnon writes fantasy romances because her heart pumps equal parts magic and passion. Her love of history caused her to set her books in an alternate Victorian era, with surprisingly few changes from the real world. She lives on the East Coast of the United States with her husband, two kids, and an oversized lapdog named Jake.

Visit Cara online at her website, at Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest.

Subscribe to Cara’s newsletter to receive special subscriber-only extras, like snippets from upcoming stories, “deleted scenes” from published work, behind-the-scenes information, and chances to receive swag and even free copies of her books.

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Awash in Talent

by Jessica Knauss

Giveaway ends June 30, 2016.
See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter Giveaway

Unpredictable Worlds—The Stories Are Almost Here!

Friday is the day! Unpredictable Worlds releases for your reading pleasure! I've been taking something of a tour of some wonderful blogs in honor of this exciting time.

Jody A. Kessler has already featured Unpredictable Worlds on her blog, saying it "sounds incredibly entertaining." There you'll find an excerpt of the prize-winning story "Stairs to the Beach."

Monday, I'm at author Tina Traverse's blog.

Author Maer Wilson is hosting me on Tuesday.

I'm stopping by author Jae Blakney's blog with a great interview with my friend and fellow author Seymour Hamilton on Wednesday.

Thursday, with the pre-release excitement mounting, I'll be traveling Steven Ramírez's Glass Highway with an excerpt from my favorite thus-far unpublished story. Unpredictable Worlds will be featured on the site all month!

Friday, May 15 is release day! Please check out the fantastic interview author Kristin Gleeson did with me at her blog on that day.

Sincere thanks to all these authors for hosting me.

You still have time to get Unpredictable Worlds at the never-again bargain price of 99 cents here. Pre-order and receive the book for the lowest price, before anyone else, on release day.

The softcover edition is already available. Affordable, nicely designed, and chock-full of astonishing stories. Order it here or from Amazon, or request it at your favorite bookstore or library.

Thanks for sharing the excitement!

Meet My Main Character Blog Hop

One of my favorite authors, Kim Rendfeld, tagged me in the Meet My Main Character Blog Hop. I’m taking the opportunity to introduce Mudarra on the Seven Noble Knights site. Right here, meet the narrator from my current work-in-progress, the final book in the Providence Trilogy.

1) What is the name of your character? Is she fictional or a historic person?

Patricia (don’t call her Trish!) Blundt, PsyD, is a fictional character with many traits of people I’ve met in real life, including myself.

2) When and where is the story set?

The story takes place in present-day Providence, Rhode Island, but it’s not as simple as it sounds. In this version of one of my favorite cities in the world, there are three types of people with special talents aside from the rest of us: telekinetics (who can move objects with their minds), pyrokinetics (firestarters), and psychics. These Talents were discovered in the mid-1800’s and suffer varying degrees of training and oppression from government agencies now.

3) What should we know about Patricia?

Patricia is the court-assigned therapist of Emily, the narrator of the first story in the trilogy. Patricia is especially good at her job because she’s a psychic and can more or less read her patients’ minds. However, Patricia has never registered with the government, and has kept the secret from everyone in her life.

4) What is the main conflict? What messes up her life?

Patricia is conflicted about whether to tell her husband she’s an unregistered psychic. If she did, it would correct a lot of misconceptions he has about her, but she’s afraid he’ll report her and she could be punished. Secondly, Patricia is mystified because, unlike all her other patients, she can’t read Emily’s mind. It goes deeper than Emily’s intractable personality disorder.

5) What is her personal goal?

Patricia wants to maintain her professional record, and genuinely to help Emily, so cracking her case is a top priority. She also wants to reach out to her husband, but goes about it in a passive manner. It all leads to an explosive finale befitting the zany-serious tenor of the entire trilogy.

6) Is there a working title for this novel, and can we read more about it?

The working title is “Friendship is a One-Way Street.” That’s a “thing” in Providence (search "Mad Peck Providence Poster"), because there is a Friendship Street in the DownCity area, and parts of it are indeed one-way. I thought it was appropriate for the isolation Patricia feels because of her sensitivity. She can be a great friend because of her Talent, but who could ever really know her?

You can read more about the other stories in the Providence Trilogy here, here and here.

7) When can we expect the book to be published?

I’m almost certain I’ll self publish the Providence Trilogy. I need to revise the first two and complete and revise this third story before going into “production” mode on them, so I’m projecting 2015. Sooner if I can manage it! These strange stories are eager to be read and to find just the right readers.

If you like historical fiction, be sure to check out these authors who’ve already introduced their main characters, all in their own way:

Kim Rendfeld

Tinney Heath

Lisa J. Yarde

Alana White

Jess Wells

Summer's Growth - @AuthorTinaGayle Featured in the #EggcerptExchange

"Summer's Growth." - part of the Eggcerpt Exchange fun.


Blurb 
 

In the spirit-haunted Winston estate in Ohio, rooted in time and occupied by the lingering ghosts of a great family, the torch is about to pass...

 

Mattie Winston, sober, sensible, and steady, has served as Keeper to the family for decades. Amber Harrison, hovering on the edge of flunking out of college, unsure what she wants out of life, has barely even heard of the Winston estate. The family, however, has decided that it's time for the changing of the guard. These two exceptional women soon find themselves dealing with violence, murder attempts, and old family mysteries while each finding the love of her life. Two romances and a growing friendship, all twined around a brooding family tragedy, make for an outstanding paranormal mystery offering depth and charm beyond the commonplace. The growing love of Amber and Carter and of Mattie and Quincy offer readers a tender and engaging first novel in a winning new paranormal series.

 

Now the eggcerpt:

“Trust us child to find a soul who will honor your position. Nothing will remove your fears until you can reclaim your life’s mission and enjoy the rest of your days on earth.”

 “But what if Amber doesn’t like it here? She’s a young college student from sunny California. Why would she move to Ohio where it’s cold? Even in the summer, we don’t have beautiful weather. The rain can last for days.”

 “There is no dispute,” Jonathan growled. “Amber is a Winston. She longs to live here.”

  “But you don’t get it. There’s no guarantee. Josh has lived here all his life. He’ll do a good job.” Mattie wished Jonathan could see her point. Things might not turn out like he’d planned.

“Besides Cynthia will be deeply hurt when she finds out everything is under the control of a stranger instead of her son. She won’t understand.”

 “The Council’s point exactly. Cynthia cares only for gold, not for others. It’s best for the family to have someone else as the keeper.”

  The havoc this decision would cause in Mattie’s life washed bitter bile through her mouth. She swallowed, hard. 

Purchase at:

http://www.amazon.com
 

Or read more at http://www.tinagayle.net/SGchapter.html

Find Tina at

http://www.tinagayle.net
www.tinagayle.blogspot.com
@authortinagayle


Thanks for letting me share,


Tina Gayle

#NewRelease - 2nd Book in Family Tree Series - Fallen Leaves @AuthorTinaGayle #EggcerptExchange

Fallen Leaves Blurb -

 

As autumn comes to the Winston estate in Ohio, Amber Harrison learns further lessons in her new position as keeper for the spirits and ghosts who haunt the estate--and further lessons in love, too. She and her love, Carter Miller, grapple with the fears and passions of new love, while caught up in the storm of ancient family drama.

 

This is the second book in the unfolding saga of the psychics and talents associated with the Winston estate, a sheltered place where past, present, and future are woven into a single dramatic tapestry of love and desire. The tale spans multiple generations, multiple eras, and offers something special for all ages of reader. A sexy, erotic winner, with an assortment of couples to appeal to most tastes.


Excerpt:

“How long before you install the new cabinets?”

He turned on the ladder. His dark brown eyes captured her, engulfing her in an encompassing warmth. She melted under his heated gaze, which ran from the top of her head to the white socks on her feet. He lifted a brow at her attire, but he didn’t comment on her pink sweat suit.

“With the old cabinets out of the way, I need to knock down this wall and tear up the flooring. The electrical work is next on the agenda.” He climbed off the ladder, yanked off his gloves, and slid a hand through his thick, wavy hair.

“It might be awhile before we install the new cabinets. Right now, we’re simply working to remove the old stuff so we can start fresh.” He smiled, which didn’t hide the dark circles under his eyes or the fatigue in the slump of his shoulders.

“There’s no hurry. If you’re busy with something else, this can wait until your Dad and Mattie come home next week.”

“No, Dad doesn’t want her dealing with this mess.” Carter unbuckled his tool belt and placed it on a workbench. “I promised him I’d have it done.”

“Is Grant helping?” Amber stepped around several pieces of sheetrock and stray bits of wood, to the bottom of the stairs.

He walked to the backdoor. “Friday, his classes are over at noon.”

 

With his hand resting on the doorknob, he appeared anxious to leave. “I’m headed to lunch, and then I need to drop by the office for a while. Are you sure you’re okay here by yourself?”

 

Amber toyed with the idea of saying no. She missed the taste of his lips and the strength of his arms, but she nodded instead. “Yes, I’m fine.”

 

After opening the door, he paused. “I guess I’ll see you later.”

 

She waved and turned to head to her room, satisfied she’d at least gotten him to talk. Her leaden feet trudged up the steps. Unexcited, she contemplated her latest assignment from the family council. How could she achieve such an impossible task?

 Purchase links:


 Amazon | Smashwords | allromanceebooks


Haven't read the 1st book Summer's Growth - get it now at smashword for 99cents with the promotion code NK36Z.
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/280906




Hope you enjoy,


Tina

#EggcerptExchange and Cover Reveal: Waterfire

On April 14, I'll be featured at amazing author Tina Gayle's Eggcerpt Exchange. I'll be featuring Tina here soon, so look out for that!

In honor of this auspicious occasion, I thought now would be a good time to reveal the cover for my YA novella, Waterfire. Waterfire is the second novella in the Providence Trilogy. The cover is done by Amygdala Design and actually inspired the fire drill scene on the docks.

Changes in my life have delayed the publication of the Providence Trilogy, but it should still debut, one novella at a time, in 2015.

About Waterfire

Told as a series of diary entries, Waterfire chronicles the way Kelly learns that she has the power to set things on fire with her mind. All such pyrokinetic teenagers must attend a school where their power is repressed at all times. With the help of her friends, Kelly must escape the prison-like regime in order to save her mother's life.

Eggcerpt

September 7

Maybe if I write about the first day here, it will stop rattling around in my head like big clumps of lead.

Actually, I wish I had a big clump of lead to carry around with me instead of this stuff. They give us small patches, like nicotine patches for people who want to quit smoking, but with our kryptonite to wear against our skin and help control the urges. It does seem to cut down on the incidents – I haven’t made a fire since I got here a week ago. But, God, it itches like crazy! I’m always scratching at mine, I can’t help it, and I have to be careful with where I put the new patch of the day because I could look like an idiot scratching my armpits or some other sensitive area all day. They let us take them off at night so we can sleep, because everyone has an adverse reaction to their patch, but not everyone itches. Melinda, the high and mighty, claims it makes her tired so she can’t do PE. Like she’s having her period, all the time. I swear, she’s like a Victorian with the vapors every day at two o’clock. And the teachers fall for it! They let her go take a nap in her room. I wonder what she really does in there while we have to jog laps around the gym and bounce ridiculous balls off stupid things, like each other. I mean, what does that have to do with not setting anything on fire?

Anyway, my first day here, I barely had time to drop my bags before we had a get-to-know-you kind of meeting, which they called “orientation.” They made us all sit in a circle on the floor – yes, the concrete floor, with no rugs or pillow, what were they thinking? About flammability. I swear that’s all we are to these people — big walking fireballs. Todd, the lanky upperclassman who led the group with a senior girl and one of the teachers, had us go around the circle saying our names and what our kryptonite was. It was probably more to orient them to us, to prepare the patches, than for any other reason.

So there are precisely twenty of us newbies here. They started the circle with Brian, who was sitting right next to me, but it went in the opposite direction! So after Brian said he couldn’t produce flames in the presence of tungsten, eighteen other people went ahead of me. I was getting more nervous by the minute and barely heard what the other people said, with their run-of-the-mill kryptonites like lithium, beryllium and even krypton, which seems reasonable enough but is pretty expensive for the school to have on hand. My ears pricked up when a girl named Jill admitted phosphorus took away her powers. I snickered quietly to test whether anyone else would, but there were no takers. Come on, it’s embarrassing to be a pyrokinetic and have that ability erased by phosphorus, right? The stuff they put in the heads of matches? Doesn’t that seem a little ironic, at least?

“There’s no shame in any kryptonite. We all have one,” said Todd. He looked at me out of the corner of his eye like I was some kind of troublemaker.

So I rolled my eyes to show my disregard for authority to the other new students and held my breath again. Maybe if they didn’t laugh at phosphorus, they wouldn’t laugh at me, either. Maybe. Possibly.

No one was looking at my reddening face because it was Melinda’s turn, whoop de doo. She demurely announced her name and said, “My kryptonite is platinum.” She flashed a smile that I swear cut the air with a knife-sharpening sound. She drew a shiny necklace from under her blouse. “I already wear this all the time, ever since my parents gave it to me. I won’t need a patch.”

A hushed “ooh” went around the circle. Todd was nodding, as if Melinda had already arranged it all with the administration. Brian, right next to me, sucked in air. I couldn’t say exactly what he was thinking, but I knew right then that I liked him. A lot. Unbidden, the image of placing a darkly shiny tungsten wedding band around his finger entered my mind. It helped that he smelled pretty good. Since then, of course, it’s hard to smell anything other than my stupid patch.

Melinda’s act was hard to follow and I didn’t notice what anyone else said, so when it came to me, it still seemed like I had to compare myself to platinum. I covered my mouth to muffle the name of my fire-dampening element, but of course Todd said, “What was that? Say it again.”

“My name is Kelly,” I repeated, putting my diaphragm into it. “And my kryptonite is sulfur.” I wondered if I’d started a blaze on my face. I couldn’t feel my cheeks as I smiled, bracing myself. It was the same sinking, sick feeling I had with Uncle Jack a month ago. The laughter bubbled under the surface. I could feel it coming.

“Fire, but not brimstone,” Melinda said in a way that questioned the possibility.

Then it started. Todd snorted and the teacher, Ms. Matheson, barked a laugh over the snickering that was growing so sinisterly in volume. She clapped her hands over her mouth and composed herself to say, “There is no shame in any kryptonite! Hush! Quiet! My weakness is lead!”

She reached into her purse beside her — I’d thought she was just kind of weird to keep her purse with her in this situation — and pulled out a key ring with no keys attached to it, but several irregularly shaped rocks that must have been made of lead. She certainly hefted it as if it weighed a ton. “I can’t wear lead against my skin because it would poison me like a regular person, beyond taking my pyrokinesis away.”

The laughter died down with the interest in the new distraction. I thought of getting up and walking out, but Ms. Matheson continued and I had to hear. “I have to carry these pieces of lead with me at all times so I can get to them in an emergency, like a diabetic or something. I can’t even put this charm as far away from me as the conveyor belt when I go through airport security. Believe me, that can add to the difficulties of a trip.” Then she smiled so sweet and silly at all the newbies, they had to chuckle the way you might at a cute baby.

I loved Ms. Matheson then. She looked into my eyes and I could tell that was exactly what she wanted — a new friend from among the outcasts. She must be a weirdo in her life, too, with no friends her own age. I looked away and stayed quiet, hoping no one would remember me for the rest of the orientation. When Todd and Ms. Matheson finished explaining about curfews and hall passes and field trips, I stood up as slowly as I could, my every movement calling attention, in my mind, anyway. They were commencing a ritual of significance I didn’t learn until later and didn’t notice me slip out. Without a hall pass. [...]

What adventures will Kelly get herself into? Waterfire is a humorous, dramatic, and engaging novella and also a love poem to Providence, Rhode Island.

Though Waterfire isn't available yet, I do have other books with a similar flair available now. 

And I'm at jessicaknauss.blogspot.com, Facebook and Twitter.

Thanks for letting me share!