Tuesday, April 10, 2012

Guest Post with C. Bailey Sims





by C. Bailey Sims

                        




Title: Candlewax

About The Book: 384 pages

Expected publication: April 3rd 2012 

Published by: Terabyte Press

A medieval masterpiece of adventure, romance and horror, younger readers of Paolini and Cashore will gobble up this award-winning debut.

About The Book:
An Ancient Prophecy. A Powerful Relic. An Insatiable Evil. When all three converge, the fate of every living thing will be in peril.

All her life Catherine had hoped to see a fairrier cat. No book, no scroll provided to her by her tutors had ever mentioned this legend, much to her frustration, and now-at the worse possible time-she was getting her wish. Only, in her wish the cat wasn't about to kill her.

A 732-year-old fairrier cat the size of a horse has killed his fair share of hunters. Driven to the brink of extinction for the supernatural powers of his coat, is he indeed the last of his kind?

Sheltered, 16-year-old Catherine is about to find out. Unwitting heir to the Ancient Onyxes, she flees an arranged marriage only to stumble upon the cat's secrets, the force of the ancient relic she wears, and the dangerous mission they must undertake.

Hidden under a desert that was once a fertile land, millions of predators are waiting to feast again. Catherine must discover the secret of the Ancient Onyxes and stop the creatures known as trodliks before they consume everything in their path. A whispered prophecy becomes her only guide and a rejected suitor just might be the one warrior she desperately needs. 







Join The Hollow Tours for a MONTH LONG TOUR!
On April 3th The Hollow Tours will be doing a REVEAL of the art on the BACK COVER of Candlewax which no one has seen unless they have a trade paperback of the ARC.


Guest Post
By C. Bailey Sims
Author of Candlewax


Just for the heck of it, I thought I would share a recipe from Bessie Brine, a character from the story Candlewax. Bessie is a great cook, even though she’s only sixteen. The Brines (Bessie, her mother and father, younger sister and brother) live in the village of Swiggins at the heart of Lackanay and represent all that is good and right with the land.

Bessie uses her common sense and ingenuity to come up with delicious new recipes for her family’s day-to-day fare and feast days. Her ingredients are fresh and organic.

The village peasants and merchants are able to obtain rare and costly spices like cinnamon and nutmeg, for Swiggins is a prosperous rural community. Not only do the villagers have sufficient resources to supply their own needs, but they also trade the famed “Swiggins” apples throughout Lackanay.

Swiggins are bright red with yellow streaks and have juicy but firm flesh that is both sweet and mildly tart, rendering them excellent for both eating and cooking. For our purposes, we can substitute MacIntosh apples for Swiggins. For “dried rolled oats” any good, non-instant oatmeal will do. The recipe below is one I wish I could order at some little country diner. If you take the trouble to make it, I hope it comes out as good as Bessie’s.

Bessie Brine's Apple-Pie Oatmeal
(Serves Six Fairly Hungry People)

Needed:
Six medium Swiggins
1 T Ground cinnamon
¼ t Grated nutmeg
Pinch of salt
¼ cup apple cider vinegar
¾ cup honey or brown sugar (more if your apples are real tart)
4 cups of dried rolled oats
8 cups of water

Directions: Peel the apples and cut the flesh away from the core. (Save the peels and the core bits for your pig’s slop bucket). Cut the apples into real thin slices. Don’t fret if they turn brown, ‘cause they’re goin’ to taste just fine. Put the apple slices into a bowl and sprinkle them with the apple cider, cinnamon and nutmeg. (See, they’re already browner anyway). Stir the apple mixture up with the sugar or honey and let it sit overnight in a real cool place. The next mornin’, put the pot of water on the fire with a dash of salt and scrape in the apples. If you like your oatmeal smoother, put the oats in before the water boils. If you like your oatmeal grainier, don’t add it until after the apple-water mixture has been boilin’ for two or three minutes. Stir every now and then. Don’t forget to tend to it, ‘cause it will burn if you don’t and there’s nothing worse than cleanin’ out a burned-oatmeal pot. After about five minutes, when the oatmeal/apple mixture is nice and gloppy, ladle it into six bowls and put more brown sugar or honey on top. Add a little cold milk or cream to each bowl and serve.



About The Author
Photo Credit to Shannon Hicks





C. Bailey Sims was born in CA. and as a teenager moved to the Colorado Rockies where she attended a very small high school, learned how to ski race, ride a horse, mountain climb, and target shoot at tin cans.  She now lives with her family in the much tamer but equally beautiful hills of Connecticut in a very creative household of artists and musicians.  This book is a book that I had to write because Spelopokos wouldn't leave me alone. 






You can see the author via these links





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March 

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Giveaway is for those who are NOT apart of the tour!  All winners will be notified via email and their name will be posted here on this page.  


8 Lucky winners will win Secret Prizes of Crystals from the book.  
PICTURES COMING SOON SO INTICE YOU!

Friday, April 06, 2012

Interview with Gwen Perkins Author of The Universal Mirror










Product Details

  • File Size: 811 KB
  • Print Length: 179 pages
  • Publisher: Hydra Publications (January 9, 2012)
  • Sold by: Amazon Digital Services


Product Description

On the island of Cercia, the gods are dead, killed by their followers and replaced with the study of magic. Magicians are forbidden to leave their homeland. Laws bind these men that prevent them from casting spells on the living—whether to harm or to heal.


Quentin, a young nobleman, challenges these laws out of love for his wife. His best friend, Asahel, defies authority at his side, unaware that the search for this lost magic will bring them both to the edge of reason, threatening their very souls. The Universal Mirror shows how far two men are willing to go for the sake of knowledge and what they will destroy to obtain it.




Why write a book about magic?
Gwen Perkins, author of The Universal Mirror

"Not blood nor bone shall magic touch."

Those words are spoken in The Universal Mirror as part of one of the oaths that magicians in Cercia take when they finish their education.  All who practice magic on the island are educated in a series of laws known as the Heresies, prohibitions that keep magicians from using their abilities in certain ways.  Among these Heresies is that of healing or harming others through channeling magic—this forms the root of the conflict in this novel.  Quentin, a noble, develops an obsession with breaking the law in order to heal his wife and he pulls his best friend, Asahel, into this mad quest.

One of the reasons that I chose to use magic in the story was as a replacement for religion in terms of dictating the society's moral code.  Cercia is somewhat unusual among fantasy settings in that the people believe that God is dead and that they've killed him.  It's an interesting idea but I wanted to have a secondary overarching context within which to place what the people considered moral or appropriate behavior.  This is where the Heresies came in.

Another facet of magic is that it can be used to provide limitation as well as power.  In order for this plot to work, it was important to keep the characters close to home.  Magicians on Cercia are never allowed to leave the island.  Setting up this prohibition put Quentin and Asahel into a situation where the stakes were greatly increased.  The option of running away is simply not present for either of them and yet, they find that once they begin the work of learning to heal and thus breaking the law, they have to see it through.

Lastly, magic can be a tool for defining culture in more literal ways.  The Cercians draw their magic from the earth, channeling it through their own bodies.  Much of their society has been unwittingly defined by this—including simple things like the slang that they use (you'll hear a mutter of "Quiet Earth" here and there where others might say "Oh, my God").  Other societies in the Artifacts of Empire series utilize magic differently.  For instance, the magic in the Anjduri Empire is distorted simply because that society has seen so much war that they've literally burnt the magic from the earth.  I'm exploring those environmental and cultural themes further as the series goes on so readers can expect to discover more about how magic works while the characters themselves do.

Each book has its own definition of what magic is and because of this, there are as many reasons to use magic as there are books.  Next time you pick up a fantasy novel, think about the magic that's in it and how it's used.  Perhaps you'll be inspired to write a little magic of your own!



See the other stops on this tour!  

Tour Schedule:-


2nd April, 2012 - Sara @So Simply Sara
4th April, 2012 - Melanie @Not So Innocent
5th April, 2012 - Delia @Wolf Majick Reviews
8th April, 2012 - Ruty @Reading.... Dreaming




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Tuesday, April 03, 2012

Angel Evolution Tour - Blurb








Title: Angel Evolution

Author: David Estes
 Subjects in Angel Evolution:
Angels and demons and gargoyles, oh my!

Short Author Biography:
David Estes was born in El Paso, Texas but moved to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania when he was very young. He grew up in Pittsburgh and then went to Penn State for college. Eventually he moved to Sydney, Australia where he met his wife. A reader all his life, he began writing novels for the children's and YA markets in 2010. David is a writer with OCD, a love of dancing and singing (but only when no one is looking or listening), and prefers writing at the swimming pool to writing at a table.

Brief Summary:
Angel Evolution- the first book in the young adult fantasy trilogy: The Evolution Trilogy...

When Taylor meets Gabriel at college, she is in awe of the subtle glow that surrounds him. No one else, not even her best friend, seems to notice.

Something about him scares her.

Is all as it appears? While Taylor struggles for answers, she finds herself in the middle of a century old war centered on one miraculous revelation: evolution. 

Excerpt:

Gabriel watched Taylor from across the room while pretending to be interested in the conversation of the normal freshman boys he was sitting with. She would not be able to see him from this distance, although he kept her in his sight at all times. He was able to see her as if he was looking through binoculars—perfectly clear, like he was sitting next to her. The bright lights in the dining hall were devoured by his nearly fully-black eyes, and then streamed across the room with the focused power of a magnifying glass. Of all my abilities, this one is underrated, Gabriel thought.
He gazed thoughtfully at her as she sat with her friends. Earlier, he had been impressed with her ability to resist his charms, but wasn’t worried. He was versatile, which was one of the many reasons he had been selected by the Council for this job.
Not interested in food tonight, he excused himself from the table and strode purposefully out of the hall. Rounding a corner into a dark alleyway, he checked in front and behind himself, and seeing no one, leapt forcefully into the night sky. Reaching an altitude of a thousand feet in just over two seconds, he arched his back, extended his arms, and with a sharp pop! magnificent, white-feathered wings protracted from his neck, just below the hairline. The impossible, five-foot wings extended two feet past his fingertips, giving him mobility without limiting the use of his arms...
...Gabriel remembered back to when he was just a child being taught by the adults. He must have come so far that they would trust him with such an important mission. Growing up, he was never convinced that the legends were true, but now that he had seen the girl for himself, he was fast becoming a believer. Her aura was more brilliant than he thought possible. Licking his lips eagerly, Gabriel looked forward to testing it in battle. He was starting to hope she would survive.
The Great War had raged for decades, with neither side ever really gaining an advantage. Now the War was on the verge of being won, with the pitiful existence of humans resting in the hands of Taylor Kingston, and she didn’t have a clue. If only he could get her alone.




Link to the Schedule:

Here are the links where you can find Angel Evolution:




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Friday, March 30, 2012

Guest Post with Vivienne Malynn and Sean Kade Authors of Dawn of Angels!

Tour with 








Title: The Dawn of Angles
Author: Vivieene Malynn & Sean Kade
Publisher: Sutherland Press (January 3, 2012)
Summary:











Left by her mother at a young age, Kyra has grown-up in the foster system, leaving her angry and hateful towards the world. The only person she can trust is Hammond, her case worker who has watched over her since the time her mother left. When Hammond places Kyra in a foster home located in a small town, strange things begin happening and Kyra starts unraveling the mystery of her past. When Kyra’s life is threatened, she is saved by an angel, her guardian angel, Ashur, who falls from heaven to save her. Together, Ashur and Kyra must figure out why her life is in danger and stop a strange cult from bringing about the end of days. 


Excerpt:

"I didn’t just fall from heaven to save your life…” Ashur pulls me in closer until my chest touches his. “…I came here because after all those years, I could not spend another moment of eternity knowing that you would not be there.”
He begins to sweep his head down toward mine. I know what’s coming and I can’t allow it. Turning away, I say, “I can’t.” My objection is not that I don’t love him, but that I can’t love him. He is an angel, I am a mortal. Two worlds that never have, and never will exist together. “You know as well as I do that this can never be. No matter how desperately we may want it. What will become of us?”
“I don’t know,” he says. “I don’t care.”
“Well, I do,” I say. “All this will end and you will have to go back. And I will be left here alone.”
“But…”
“No,” I say, sternly. “It’s better this way.”
Our eyes meet and I look away, but his eyes do not retreat as if they are holding me in place, preventing me from leaving.



About the Authors:  Vivienne Malynn and Sean Kade are the parents of five lively children and live in a rural suburb surrounded by eagles and coyotes. They spend their free time reading, writing, and playing make-believe with their children. In their not so free time, they teach.



Author Links: 
Website
Facebook

 Guest Post with 
Check out the other stops on the tour 
Vivienne Malynn and Sean Kade


The Role of Guardian Angels in our Lives:
In our book, Dawn of Angels, the protagonist Kyra falls for her guardian angel and we guess you could say that her guardian angel literally falls for her. Though the book does not reflect any religious belief of our own, the question inevitably arises: do you believe in guardian angels? This is often expressed in a less forward way as, What are your thoughts on guardian angels?
The idea of a guardian angel is very interesting. It exists in almost every culture and religion in one form or another. The Buddhists call them deva; the Greeks, daemon. Whatever their name, they all represent the same thing. In the metaphorical sense and perhaps in a very real sense, no one can deny the fact that there are in our lives those who act as guardian angels to us—mothers, fathers, friends, associates, etc. There is at least one person we would hope in each of our lives that takes a personal interest in our affairs without any real drive toward self-interest.
But we suppose this is just one way that we escape the question, much like a parent who when confronted with the question of is there a Santa Claus says that they believe the spirit of Christmas exists in the sharing of love at the holidays. That’s well and good, but it does not answer the question. We imagine they mean it as so. They’re afraid to answer the question because they are afraid of taking responsibility for the implications of their answer. As hard as it may be to answer the question, we hope to give you the respect to answer the question at least in the sense that we have answered it for ourselves.
In the book Kyra struggles with issues of abandonment from a father she never knew and a mother who gave her up to the foster system. As each of us looks out across the vastness of the universe, we come to that unsettling realization that we are nothing but a spec in the interstellar void—no centers of anything. It’s hard not to feel a degree of abandonment in the universe, especially when we are subjected to the harsh realities of nature.
 In all the tragedies of life it is hard not to ask the question, Where is God in all of this? We think the idea of a guardian angel is man’s attempt to answer that question. When one asks Do I believe in guardian angels?, the real question is Do I believe that God has a personal role in my life? Does he take notice of me at all? That is a much deeper question, whether you’re religious or not.  To this question we have answered yes, though we have no means to prove that to anyone directly. However, life seems to have proved it sufficiently to us. We don’t know that there is any particular angel assigned to anyone. It doesn’t really matter to us. We only need to know that when we face life’s stern realities that in there somewhere is a loving being who has our interest at heart.


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Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Review: Goddess Test Series

Mass Review of The Goddess Test Series 
by: Aimee Carter 









Well I was approved to read the second book in this series by netgalley. So I broke down and purchased both the novella and the first book in the series. 

I am so glad that I did as I was not disappointed in any way and I can't wait for the next one. 

Saturday, March 17, 2012

Embrace










There are spirits in this world.................... 

What if you found out that angels were real?  

What if on your 17th birthday you were given a letter from your mom that had died the day you were born?

My girl,
Happy 17th birthday. I wish I could be there with you, but I think if you are reading this...I am not. For that, I am sorry. The day your dad and I found out we were going to have a baby was the happiest day of my long life. I know the only day that will exceed that joy will be the day you are born – no matter how that day ends.
A big decision lies ahead. The burden of the covenant is a heavy one to bear. Choose with your heart, for I already know that you, my girl, must let your heart guide the way.
I love you. Please forgive me.
Mom



My Review:
The only real issue I had with this book was that Angels ave always had to follow the will of God.  What would happen if they didn't have to do this.  What would happen if they had FREE WILL?  


Well Embrace answers this question......and its NOT pretty! 


This book has something in common with the House of Night books by P.C and Kristen Cast.  


That just because something is light doesn't always mean that it is good.  As the goddess Nyx says:


Darkness does not alway equate to evil, Just as Light does not always bring good. 


So my one BIG question in this book is where is god in all of this.  It seems that he/she has taken a vacation and is not around right now.  The angels have the reins and are using them to their advantage. 




In the end this book was wonderful.  It was a little slow at times so take your time with it.  But it is worth reading!  


Ill leave you with some words from the book and also from the bible.  (yes the bible can have some really good end lines lol!  Even me being a witch I can't deny that)


"This is your fate, the destiny I have planned for you......" 


Jeremiah 13:25 




And with that Farwell and May You Embrace YOUR Destiny!





Ok So I have an ARC of Embrace 

And its up for grabs!  

One lucky follower will win it.  Now please understand that it has some pencil writing in the margins from where I made notes but thats about it.


So all you have to do is Follow via GFC, Twitter, and Google + and then comment with what you did and who you did it as and well don't forget your email address.  

Then ill email you if you win.  

I pay for shipping so its free!!

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