Happy Fourth of July - Let Freedom Ring!

Happy 4th of July!

In appreciation and memory of all those in the armed forces.

Past ~ Present ~ Future

Thank you for your willingness to fight for the freedom of this amazing country.

In loving memory of Val Woolums.

Review: Archer's Lady by Moira Rogers

Archer's Lady by Moira Rogers

She's looking for redemption. He doesn't believe in it.

Bloodhounds, Book 3

Accused of betraying the Bloodhound Guild, Archer’s only chance to regain the trust of his fellow hounds is to earn it—one dangerous job at a time. Crystal Springs may be the worst yet. The town has been deserted by all but the poor and the desperate, yet the vampires stalking the edges of the settlement haven’t closed in for the kill. Question is, why?

Grace Linwood, professional liar, has been hiding under the guise of a border schoolteacher for so long, she’s almost fallen for her own con. The frontier was supposed to be her chance at a respectable life, but now the cowardly part of her wants to flee. When Archer catches her considering a run for safety, she knows it’s only a matter of time before he sees through her charade.

They become reluctant allies in the quest to uncover the mysteries of Crystal Springs, but every unraveled knot ties them closer together. They both know their pasts are too shattered to hope for a future—until their investigation uncovers a secret. One that could make betraying the Guild their only path to redemption.

Warning: Contains a partly reformed con-artist heroine with a bruised heart and a mostly retired bank-robbing hero with a weary soul.

My thoughts:

     This might be my favorite Bloodhounds story yet.  I have fallen for all the Bloodhounds and was thrilled that Archer got his own story - and of course that he finds the perfect girl for him was inevitable.  
     My favorite thing about this story is that so many of the characters are re-building themselves in their small border town.  It was fun to see people being valued for what they were offering instead of being judged by the baggage they brought with them.  Perhaps that feeling comes from living in a small town as well as being a firm believer in second chances.
     Archer is a great character.  He is strong and brave, rough and tough but also has that almost hidden desire to be more than what he is. He has a sordid past that he doesn't want to share. 
     Grace is running: from the past, from herself.  But Grace can't run from Crystal Springs where she has found acceptance and a chance to be someone she feels good about being. 
     They find each other - and together hope to save the town and maybe themselves at the same time.  
     It's a fabulous story filled with characters that you instantly love, living in a town being consumed by fear, vampires and their ghouls, fighting to not just survive but thrive.  Don't miss this one! 

****it's on sale today! Click here to buy your own!

Review: The Girl in the Clockwork Collar by Kady Cross

The Girl in the Clockwork Collar by Kady Cross:


Sixteen-year-old Finley Jayne and her "straynge band of mysfits" have journeyed from London to America to rescue their friend Jasper, hauled off by bounty hunters. But Jasper is in the clutches of a devious former friend demanding a trade—the dangerous device Jasper stole from him…for the life of the girl Jasper loves.

One false move from Jasper and the strange clockwork collar around Mei's neck tightens. And tightens.

From the rough streets of lower Manhattan to elegant Fifth Avenue, the motley crew of teens with supernatural abilities is on Jasper's elusive trail. And they're about to discover how far they'll go for friendship.

More than ever, Finley Jayne will rely on powerful English duke Griffin King to balance her dark magic with her good side. Yet Griffin is at war with himself over his secret attraction to Finley…and will risk his life and reputation to save her. Sam, more machine than man, finds his moody heart tested by Irish lass Emily—whose own special abilities are no match for the darkness she discovers on the streets.

Now, to help those she's come to care for so deeply, Finley Jayne must infiltrate a criminal gang. Only problem is, she might like the dark side a little too much….



My Thoughts:
I truly enjoy Steampunk.  I am fairly new to the genre, but then I believe that the genre itself too is fairly new.  I started reading Steampunk when a friend recommended Soulless, I have been hooked since.
 I read The Girl in the Steel Corset and fell in love with the characters, so I was thrilled to see another book.  I am hoping this is one of many more to come in this series.
Kady Cross has an imaginative mind and the creativity and talent to bring that imagination to life.  She has created wonderful characters and set them in a world that is both strange and thrilling.  Her characters vary in personality and combine to bring the reader a fascinating story.  The story reads fast - adventure on every page.  
Griffin is the glue that holds his hap-hazard family together, they may not all always like each other, but they all always love him.  Because of that, they find themselves on an adventure to save Jasper.  
The underlying question? What would you do for love?
Can Jasper save Mei?  Can Finley help save Jasper without losing herself? Can they all work together to save them all?  
Entertaining, clever, fast-paced, wonderfully written.   

Blog Tour: Author Interview: Connie Corcoran Wilson

Welcome to The Wormhole and my day on the tour for

The Color of Evil by Connie Corcoran Wilson.

It is my pleasure to feature an interview ~ enjoy.

? When did you first realize you wanted to be a writer?

I have written, for pay, for 56 years. Winning a poetry competition in 6^th grade ($50 Catholic diocese prize) got me started. In 1985, I quit my tenured teaching job (Silvis Jr. High, IL) to become an educational writer for Performance Learning Systems, Inc. (Emerson, NJ).

? How many jobs did you have before you became a writer?

I’ve had part-time jobs at 5 newspapers and numerous blogs, and taught junior high school for 17 and ½ years. I think I have had about 5 full-time jobs and 20 part-time jobs, [not counting my high school jobs as a car hop or swimming instructor or my college job selling clothes.]  I’ve been writing for pay since age 10. I did feature stories for my hometown newspaper (the Bulletin Journal & Conservative) when I was 10 years old and was Editor of my high school paper. I graduated from the University of Iowa with a degree in English and Journalism and went on to earn a Master’s degree from Western Illinois University with additional study (30 hrs.) at Berkeley, Northern Illinois University and the University of Chicago. My student teaching at the high school level was in an NCTE-approved teacher program, teaching writing and literature at the University of Iowa Laboratory School. After marriage, I taught for close to 20 years at the junior high school level (7^th and 8^th graders) as Department Chairperson at Silvis Junior High School (Silvis, IL). [During that time, I had a part-time job as film and book critic for the Quad City Times newspaper (Davenport, IA), which was the basis for my 2010 book It Came from the 70s: From The Godfather to Apocalypse Now.]  I quit my tenured teaching job to write for PLS. After writing their book Training the Teacher As A Champion, I founded a Sylvan Learning Center (in Bettendorf, IA) in 1986. In 1995, I founded a Prometric Testing Center, a computerized testing center responsible at that time for licensing all nurses in North America, as well as giving NASD Series 7 exams, and 248 other licensing exams. I functioned as CEO of those 2 businesses from 1986 until 2003. In 2003, I sold both businesses to concentrate, full-time, on the writing I taught as adjunct faculty at 6 IA/IL colleges between 1985 and 2003. I established Quad Cities’ Learning, Inc., a publishing concern.

? How long does it take you to write a book?

It depends on the book(s). When I was hired to write 3 volumes of Ghostly Tales of Route 66 by Quixote Press, my husband and I drove Route 66 in 10 days taking pictures, doing research, attending the Fort El Reno Ghost Tour, and collecting (supposedly) true ghost stories. Each book was 18,000 words with pictures. I wrote each book in a week after traveling the Mother Road from Chicago to Santa Monica. With my first novel (Out of Time, Lachesis Press), I wrote for 3 years. For my second novel (The Color of Evil), the first in a trilogy, the book took a year. I had 2 new books out in 2011 and I will have 2 new books out in 2012 (The Color of Evil and the sequel to Hellfire & Damnation, a collection of short stories entitled Hellfire & Damnation II for a small, independent Rhode Island publisher, The Merry Blacksmith.(www.HellfireandDamnationTheBook.com).

? What would you say is your most interesting writing quirk?

It may not be that interesting, but I set out, originally, to write “one of everything.” I wanted to find out what I enjoyed writing the most. I’m leaning towards genre fiction,  but I do have 2 books of humorous essays (Both Sides Now, Laughing through Life) out, and at Christmas this past year I published a full-color illustrated children’s book for my 3-year-old twin granddaughters. (The Christmas Cats in Silly Hats). I even tried a screenplay based on my first novel; it was one of the winners of a “Writer’s Digest” competition.

? Where do you get your ideas or inspiration for your characters?

In my next short story collection (Hellfire & Damnation II), due out by Labor Day, I explain where I got the inspiration for each story in the collection. For The Color of Evil, I am describing students I taught for close to 20 years.  I sometimes write what I know. At other times,  something I read will inspire a short story, as, for example,  reading about the sale of organs in foreign countries inspired The Bureau, [a short story which is on Amazon for 99 cents as a “teaser” from the new short story collection. (H&D II)]

? How do you decide what you want to write about?

I wanted to attempt to write a YA novel with cross-over appeal. The Color of Evil is it. I taught this level for almost 33 years. The setting is Cedar Falls, Iowa, which is very close to where I grew up in Independence, Iowa.

? What books have most influenced your life?

As an English major at Iowa, I had to read so many great authors: William Faulkner, Ernest Hemingway, Graham Greene, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Charles Dickens, writers from all decades and nationalities. I actually attended school when John Irving was also a student at Iowa. The teachers in Iowa City’s Writers’ Workshop at that time were Nelson Algren and Kurt Vonnegut. I interviewed Vonnegut at age 19 for one hour of Special Project in the class “American Humor & Satire.” I can’t name just ONE book that has influenced my life the most, but I have always admired John Irving’s The World According to Garp and Kurt Vonnegut’s God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater, or Pearls Before Swine. Among genre writers, I enjoy Stephen King, Peter Straub, Jonathan Maberry, William F. Nolan and many, many more.

? What are you reading right now?

I just finished reading Stephen King’s 2008 short story collection Just After Sunset and his Stoker-winning novel from this year, 11/22/1963. I am now reading the Hunger Games trilogy. I have The Room on my list, enjoyed The Help, and am going to be reviewing some genre fiction soon for a couple of publishing houses, ThrillerWriters, and potentially “Publisher’s Weekly.” The last book I reviewed was The Devil’s Coattails, a short story anthology from Jason V. Brock and William F. Nolan (Logan’s Run). [William F. Nolan has been tremendously supportive of my writing.] I review on my own blog (www.WeeklyWilson.com) and on www.Wikinut.com, and interview authors sometimes for Yahoo.

? What do you like to do when you are not writing?

I’m writing this from Cancun, Mexico on the 11^th day of a 14-day vacation with 16 family members. We’ve been coming here at Easter for 18 years.  I like to read, travel (especially to warm weather beach locales), play “Hanging with Friends” and “Words with Friends” when not writing. I routinely write for several blogs for Yahoo, among others. I also have a second home in Chicago, (my Writer’s Lair.) I will be attending a fund-raiser for the Buffalo Bill Museum in LeClaire, Iowa (reading a short story I contributed to an anthology), will be in Chicago for Printer’s Row in June, will be launching The Color of Evil upon my return from Cancun at a local bookstore, attending ThrillerFest in New York City in July and traveling to the Spellbinders’ Conference in Hawaii over Labor Day. I’m also on the poetry Stoker Jury. We hope to visit our daughter in Australia right after New Year’s.

? What is your favorite comfort food?

Diet Dr. Pepper, preferably in a can, not a bottle.

? What do you think makes a good story?

Again, it depends on whether you mean a novel or a short story. I like short stories to have interesting endings, not just fade away. I like to read or write characters that the reader will be able to identify with, so that they will care what happens to them. Then I let the characters lead me through the story.

? Who would you consider your favorite author and why?

I don’t think I can single out just one “favorite” author. I genuinely enjoy reading Stephen King. I also have interviewed some wonderful writers, like William F. Nolan, David Morrell, Frederik Pohl and Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. I’m going to have to reserve judgment.

Fun random questions:  (Answers in bold-face)

• dogs or cats?
• Coffee or tea?
• Dark or milk chocolate?
• Rocks or flowers? (if you mean jewelry, by “rocks,” I love colored stones.)
• Night or day? (Nothing before 10 a.m. if I can help it, which I cannot always do.)
• Favorite color? Pink
• Crayons or markers?
• Pens or pencils?

The Color of Evil by Connie Corcoran Wilson

Amazon Product Description:

Tad McGreevy has a power that he has never revealed, not even to his life-long best friend, Stevie Scranton. When Tad looks at others, he sees colors. These auras tell Tad whether a person is good or evil. At night, Tad dreams about the evil-doers, reliving their crimes in horrifyingly vivid detail. 

    But Tad doesn't know if the evil acts he witnesses in his nightmares are happening now, are already over, or are going to occur in the future. He has no control over the horrifying visions. He has been told (by his parents) never to speak of his power. All Tad knows is that he wants to protect those he loves. And he wants the bad dreams to stop. 

   At Tad's eighth birthday party (April 1, 1995) in Cedar Falls, Iowa, the clown his parents hire to entertain Tad's third-grade classmates is one of the bad people. Pogo, the Killer Clown (aka Michael Clay) is a serial killer. So begins 53 nights of terror as Tad relives Pogo's crime, awakens screaming, and recites the terrifying details to his disbelieving family. The situation becomes so dire that Tad is hospitalized in a private institution under the care of a psychiatrist--who also does not believe the small boy's stories.

Happy Reading - Thanks for stopping by The Wormhole.

This virtual book tour is presented by Teddy Rose at Virtual Author Book Tours.
The next stop on the tour is: Laurie Reader Girls

And then it's on to: Donna's Home Blog for the last day.

Review: The Color of Evil by Connie Corcoran Wilson

The Color of Evil by Connie Corcoran Wilson

***I received this book in exchange for an honest review.

Amazon Product Description:

 Tad McGreevy has a power that he has never revealed, not even to his life-long best friend, Stevie Scranton. When Tad looks at others, he sees colors. These auras tell Tad whether a person is good or evil. At night, Tad dreams about the evil-doers, reliving their crimes in horrifyingly vivid detail. 

    But Tad doesn't know if the evil acts he witnesses in his nightmares are happening now, are already over, or are going to occur in the future. He has no control over the horrifying visions. He has been told (by his parents) never to speak of his power. All Tad knows is that he wants to protect those he loves. And he wants the bad dreams to stop. 

   At Tad's eighth birthday party (April 1, 1995) in Cedar Falls, Iowa, the clown his parents hire to entertain Tad's third-grade classmates is one of the bad people. Pogo, the Killer Clown (aka Michael Clay) is a serial killer. So begins 53 nights of terror as Tad relives Pogo's crime, awakens screaming, and recites the terrifying details to his disbelieving family. The situation becomes so dire that Tad is hospitalized in a private institution under the care of a psychiatrist--who also does not believe the small boy's stories.

   And then the police arrest Pogo, the Killer Clown.

My thoughts:

This is a chilling, gruesome tale.  Not a read for the faint of heart.  There is no end to the sick and twisted nature of some of the characters in this story.  

I need to begin my review with a side note:  I read for the happy ending.  Always.  Regardless of the type of story - romance, paranormal, thriller, horror, fantasy... 

I am always waiting for that moment at the end where it all comes together.  That moment where the bad guy gets caught, love is finally found, you know - THAT moment.  Closure.

Some books hang at the end and you know that there will be another to come.  This is that kind of ending.  You get a little bit of loose end tying, but for the most part we will all be awaiting the next book to find THAT moment.

The characters in this book stand out because they garnered such a dramatic reaction.  

They are mostly all evil or at least bad.  (With the exception of a few).  The author has created characters that got an immediate response from me; some of those responses being, "Shame on them!" or "Wow, what a yucky person."   

I was repulsed by Pogo the Clown.  I have an aversion to clowns in stories - well, because they are always the worst of the worst as bad guys and the author has created the ultimate bad guy in Pogo the Clown. 

As a person and a parent, I found myself automatically emotionally attached to Stevie and Tad.  I am that person who always picks the runt, the left out, and the unwanted.

As a teacher, my heart cried out for them being bullied and abused by students and I was outraged and sickened by the bullying and abuse at the hands of the school staff.  

The setting is local for me, which I think is great.  But the town is filled with unhappiness, resentment, jealousy and despair.  The author does a nice job of describing the people in the story and their lives.  The overall mood of the book is dark, overshadowed by the darkness of unsavory people.  

One repeating theme to the story was how small the world is and how things happen and the number of people affected by those things.  Another theme, to me, was choices.  How a person could choose to walk away from their life, but that sometimes because of the choices that are made sometimes their life walks away from them.  

The plot twists around itself and you wonder who will be caught, who is going to get away with what, and who gets to "win" in the end.  

A rollercoaster ride of terror.  I am sure that I will be looking for the next book so that I can find out what happens at the end of this road.

Author Interview: Melissa McPhail

Welcome to The Wormhole!

It is with great pleasure that I host author Melissa McPhail.

When did you first realize you wanted to be a writer? I started writing as a child with poetry, but my love of writing blossomed at the boarding school where I attended high school. Regularly escaping to the quiet (and mostly deserted) sanctum of the computer lab, I discovered the joy of creating my own world, and I spent many nights and weekends exploring my imagination.

How many jobs did you have before you became a writer? I still have more jobs than I can count! Writing has always been a parallel to my other lives. It's an inseparable part of me.

How long does it take you to write a book? This is a loaded question. I can complete a manuscript in a year or so, but that doesn't necessarily mean it's ready to go to print. I rewrote my first novel completely at least seven times, and there were other major re-writes in addition to those times, when all but a single chapter was tossed.

I believe epic fantasy fans are some of the most intelligent people around. They expect a certain level of complexity and scope, and if you as the author can't keep them tied up in mysteries throughout a story arc that spans multiple books, you'd do well to choose an easier genre. It took me a decade of rewrites to develop a storyline with the complexity and breadth of scope to meet the demands of this very discriminating audience.

What would you say is your most interesting writing quirk? Being such a closet nerd. My husband and I have a to-scale Nazgul in our movie room, and he's one of the more benign items.

Where do you get your ideas or inspiration for your characters? I am ever inspired by the world around me. For all that I feel that I'm only in it about forty percent of the time (the other sixty percent spent in my own world), I get a lot of mileage out of that forty percent.

Sometimes I create a character with a specific purpose in mind, but often my characters grow more organically; the story or scene will take on a life of its own, and I seem to merely be channeling their experience from elsewhere. There have been people who inspired certain characters, but most of my characters originate from a need to express a new idea or viewpoint into the story. I don't sit down and design characters to fit the story around. The story unfolds, and sometimes I'm as surprised as the reader by the new characters I meet along the way.

How do you decide what you want to write about? My series A Pattern of Shadow & Light has a four-book story arc, so I have a clear idea of where we're heading overall. Since each book is a continuation of the same thread, I am merely continuing forward in the logical path of events. Often, it feels as though the story is already written, and it's more remembering than creating.

What books have most influenced your life? My earliest influence was the Chronicles of Narnia, which my grandmother read to me as a child. This series engendered a love of all things magical and wakened me to the idea that there is a little bit of magic in every part of life.

In high school, I was profoundly influenced by Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged. I left Galt's Gulch behind in the story feeling a grave loss and wondering if I might ever find such people as inhabited his utopia in my own life. This feeling inspired me to write, actually, for what better way to find incomparable people than to create them in the world of your imagination? I think most writers must surely run around with a host of imaginary friends in their heads at any given time.

What are you reading right now? I'm reading Fifty Shades of Grey by EL James. It's not my usual genre, but I'm intrigued by the way the author introduces a taboo subject into mainstream fiction.

What do you like to do when you are not writing? I'm obviously an avid reader. I'm also a yoga instructor, and keeping a regular personal practice is important to me. When not doing one of these three things, I love seeking new adventures with my twin daughters.

What is your favorite comfort food? I am remarkably fond of custards of any kind, and being from the South, I have a particular weakness for cornbread.

What do you think makes a good story? Unforgettable characters. I can enjoy a story with even a middling plot if the characters are engaging. As in life, it's not the activity but the company that makes an outing remarkable.

Who would you consider your favorite author and why? This is so hard! My favorite book, favorite character, favorite author and favorite story are all different.

I am ever amazed at the brilliance of Victor Hugo's imagery. Les Miserables ranks as one of my favorite books of all time. If we were to determine a favorite author by the number of their books that I've read, then we'd have to look to Robert Ludlum or Clive Cussler - both of whom were/are prolific, and I've read all of their work. Probably my favorite character in fantasy fiction (outside of my own characters) is Karen Marie Moning's Jericho Barrons, yet the author who has most moved me in recent years with her glorious writing, the scope of the story, and a brilliant heroine is Jacqueline Carey with the Kushiel Series.

Fun random questions:

• dogs or cats? Cats - definitely.

• Coffee or tea? - The world does not turn without tea.

• Dark or milk chocolate? Dark chocolate - the darkest. I love Theo's 91%.

Her book Cephrael's Hand :

Amazon Product Description:

"All things are composed of patterns..." And within the pattern of the realm of Alorin, three strands must cross:

In Alorin... three hundred years after the genocidal Adept Wars, the realm is dying, and the blessed Adept race dies with it. One man holds the secret to reverting this decline: Bjorn van Gelderan, a dangerous and enigmatic man whose shocking betrayal three centuries past earned him a traitor's brand. It is the Adept Vestal Raine D'Lacourte's mission to learn what Bjorn knows in the hope of salvaging his race. But first he'll have to find him.

In the kingdom of Dannym... the young Prince Ean val Lorian faces a tenuous future as the last living heir to the coveted Eagle Throne. When his blood-brother is slain during a failed assassination, Ean embarks on a desperate hunt for the man responsible. Yet his advisors have their own agendas, and his quest for vengeance leads him ever deeper into a sinuous plot masterminded by a mysterious and powerful man, the one they call First Lord.

In the Nadori desert...tormented by the missing pieces of his life, a soldier named Trell heads off to uncover the truth of his shadowed past. But when disaster places him in the debt of Wildlings sworn to the First Lord, Trell begins to suspect a deadlier, darker secret motivating them. Honor-bound to serve the First Lord in return for his life, Trell continues on his appointed path, yet each day unveils new and stranger secrets that eventually call into question everything he knows.

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You can buy a copy by clicking HERE.