Release Day Blitz: Winnemucca by Laura A.H. Elliott

This Release Day Blitz is presented by The Bookish Snob Promotions

You can get to the entire tour schedule by clicking HERE!

My travel and personal essays have been published in The Los Angeles Times and other Southern California newspapers and magazines. I honed my storytelling skills as a multimedia designer in the financial, entertainment and news industries but also learned a lot at dinner tables.

A gypsy myself, I'm currently on the road with my husband. Our first stop outside of LA was Big Sur, CA, where we lived for a few years. I have two grown daughters. My husband and I live in our third stop along the way, on the Monterey Peninsula, with our aussie shepherd, Oso.

This biography was provided by the author or their representative.

Amazon Product Description:
Winnemucca is a young-adult small-town fairy tale about a teenage girl's enchanted road trip to her true self no matter who or what tries to stop her. This is a digitally signed edition by the author with a 70 cent donation to The Wounded Warrior Project.

One mistake will change Ginny’s life forever.
One answer will set her free.

Once upon a time Ginny’s road blood ripened, the day she got wise to love. Engaged to the high school quarterback, his quarter-carat ring and enchanting smile should have been enough for her. But, she stands him up and takes a walk where every step questions her happily ever after gone-bad and the fate of the mother she never knew. The mother her father refuses to talk about. Ginny fights to untangle her big, fat, lie-of-a-life on an enchanted road trip to Winnemucca, where she believes all her answers lie. She must solve the riddle of her past and outrun everyone who wants a piece of her future, including a man determined to see she never has one. When fear’s as blind as love, how far would you go to find the flesh-and-blood reality of your own happily ever after?

You can buy a copy HERE!

Please be sure to check out the other stops on the Blitz!
Here is a note to you readers from the author:
The giveaway: I have five books and the $15 Amazon gift cert. to giveaway. I'll monitor comments on the blogs and pick a random winner. 

Here are the rules: I'm going to giveaway five copies of Winnemucca [the digitally signed, Wounded Warriors Edition] during the blitz and one Amazon $15 gift certificate. To win, I'd like readers to leave their road trip story in thecomments of the blogger [with their email address in case of a win!]. I'd also like them to also "like" me at http://www.facebook.com/Laura.A.H.Elliott    Giveaway goes until 10PM July 28th, PST. 

Thanks for stopping by The Wormhole!

Happy reading!!!

Review: Skipping Stones at the Center of the Earth by Andy Hueller

Skipping Stones at the Center of the Earth by Andy Hueller

* NetGalley book

Amazon Product Description:
Calvin Comet Cobble lives at Hidden Shores Orphanage. Location: the very center of the earth. Cal's life is full of the school bully and mean teachers, but when he meets Mr. E, who can skip a stone clear across Lake Arctic, everything about Cal's life changes. Told with wit and charm, Skipping Stones at the Center of the Earth is guaranteed to excite and inspire readers of all ages.


My thoughts:
This is an interesting story set in a most unusual place!  The center of the Earth!  What a creative mind to have built such a setting.  The author leaves the reader the opportunity to easily see and feel the similarities and differences between people (good and evil sides of them) and the world he has created for the orphans and prisoners in the center of the Earth.
The characters are brought to life by careful descriptions.  Mr. E - of course - is my favorite character, besides Bernie and Cal.  The orphanage and it's teachers and staff are given terrible personalities and totally dishonorable human traits.  Such unfortunate situations for children, so much hardness and sorrow.  The bright spot being Mr. E and his skipping stones.  
The characters are courageous and I found myself cheering, holding my breath, being outraged at their treatment, and hoping.  Cal and Bernie find a friend in each other and a true friend in Mr. E.  It is here in the story where you will see the true measure of determination.  The story leans towards deep meaning and gives the reader the opportunity to find their own story within the tale.

Blog Tour: Dark Magick by Stacey Thompson-Geer & Stevie Trinity (with Giveaway!)

This Virtual Book Tour is presented by Bewitching Book Tours.

You can get to the entire tour schedule by clicking HERE.

Welcome to The Wormhole and my day on the tour!

Author Bios:

Stevie Trinity

Stevie lives in Wyoming with her family. She loves the wide open space There is nothing better than sitting out on the prairie looking out at the stars, or driving less than an hour to the Mountains and climbing trees, and yes she still climbs trees! :)

Stevie started to write short stories when she was 12. She loves poetry and started to write poems when she was 13. She then stopped writing in her early 20s, due to raising a family and focusing her attention elsewhere. When she was 30 she started to write again.

A couple of years later the Gatekeeper series emerged. She and her co author spent many hours talking about and discussing the world they created. Stacey really encouraged Stevie to write again.

Currently Stevie is working on a historical romance about the old west in a time of amazing change! She is also working on the second book to the Gatekeeper Series.

Stacey Thompson-Geer

Stacey is a wife and mother of three. She started writing in High School with horror short stories. One of her first is now published through the kindle - Silver Bullet. When she's not dreaming up her next story or novel, she can be found hanging out with her kids or reading one of her favorite authors. She is also an avid Facebooker and Twitter user. Stop by her website to see what she's working on and any of her backlist work. 

Please enjoy the featured guest post:

 The World Of The Gatekeepers

When we started writing this book, we knew what our world was going to look like. We planned out the different places where the gateways are as well as how it works. It's a rich and complex world of Fae, Witches, Demons, and much more all stuck together to make something new and different from other books we read.

The Gateways

In Dark Magick, there are seven gateways that open up to let in beings of all kinds. Some are able to help us in some way or another, while others are made of your worst nightmare. There is one on each continent, creating seven. It's impossible to know what ones are for good beings and what ones are for the scarier kinds, but they must all be closed to maintain some kind of balance.

Each gate has a witch assigned to them to open or close the gateway. They are hunted and captured in order for the evil to control the gateways and what ones close or stay open. They are also hunting witches who are working to stop them in their plans.

The Bad Guys

The bad guys are made up of a few different levels within this world. We have the ones we are confronted with regularly, being Acacia and Kalerian. We also have government officials who's only goal is to gain power. They helped to move the world into the chaos it is now and benefit from it.

These government officials create prisoner camps to collect humans and break their spirits. They also use these camps to find Witches in hiding.

We also have the Kings of Hell, which is loosely taken from the Japanese cultures. In our world, The Kings of Hell are trying to break the final barrier to the lowest realms of hell to take over the earth realm. They also materialize as black smoke to those they are using for their goals.

The Good Guys

The good guys consist of many levels of Witch to human. They are fighting to stay alive in a world that is totally against them. In Dark Magick, you get to see some of these pocket groups as they try to find each other and mount a war of sorts against those that want to kill them.

Along with the human and Witch survivors, we have a light touch of Fae. They want to stay out of the fight for the most part, but are inclined to help when one of their own is aligned with the bad guys of the world.

Dark Magick is full of action, romance, and fun. We think readers will love the mix and the characters as much as the world we created to put them in.

Character Profile: Raiden

Raiden is one of the characters you will find in Dark Magick. He is a smart ass guy with a past all his own, but he also carries secrets even he is unsure about telling Lynn or the others.

Raiden is the typical surfer dude, with blond hair and blue eyes. He is happy to be who he is, even if he's still unsure about exactly what that is. Raiden can control the thunder and lightening as his gift and electricity in general. When the world went into chaos, he received a ramp up in powers from the Goddess to help try and save the world from distruction.

Lynn and Raiden have a past, but it's not as clear to either of them as Lynn's and Kalerian's Past lives seem to be. They are good friends and Raiden would give his life to help Lynn or the others in the retreat they worked so hard to build.

Character Profile: Acacia

She is a mean jealous kind of person. She wants everything to be as she see's it and control those around her. When she met Kalerian, he helped her to find power and to use it against those that would bring her down.

Acacia is very beautiful with long blond curls and bright green eyes, but under all that is a dark witch with abilities that even Rhea and Lynn are not able to fully understand. She has a past with Rhea as they were once coven sisters. Rhea chose a path of good, while Acacia chose one of darkness. 

And now...the giveaway!
To win an ecopy of Dark Magick:
1. be a follower of The Wormhole
2. be at least 18 years old
3. leave a comment with your name and a valid email address
Giveaway ends July 30, 2011 and the Winner selected by random.org.

Review: Dark Magick by Stacey Thompson-Geer and Stevie Trinity

The Gatekeepers Series: Dark Magick by Stacey Thompson-Geer and Stevie Trinity

*I received this ecopy ARC from Roxanne at Bewitching Book Tours in exchange for an honest review and participation in the virtual book tour.

Book Description:

The world has changed, we have changed. The world we once knew has fallen away and left us in a wasteland of Magick. Powerful witches and underworld gods control our lives. The past comes back in ways we are not prepared for. The Gatekeepers are our only hope. The question is if we can get to them first.

http://thegatekeeperseries.info

http://wickednightspublishing.info/?p=158

Trailer for the book: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XR3FpEoDFHM

My Thoughts:
I enjoyed the story.  It is told from the viewpoint of the main characters alternately.
This book is filled with interesting, dedicating, self-sacrificing characters.  It is also filled with nasty, evil, cruel, betraying characters.  All these characters are mixed together in complex relationships, leaving the reader to wonder which are which at times.
The main characters, Rhea and Lynn, are both witches and have an incredible friendship that includes an emotional psychic type of bond.
I found the fact that some of the characters are able to recall past lives and interact with people in this life in response to those past lives, the freedom fighting witches and the bad government hunting good witches to all be aspects both original and intriguing.
The ending is a cliffhanger that leaves the reader with their jaw hanging open and waiting for the next book.

Blog Tour: Fezariu's Epiphany by David M. Brown (Review)

The Virtual Book Tour is being presented by Bewitching Book Tours.

You can get to the entire tour schedule by clicking HERE.

You can buy your own copy of this book HERE.

Welcome to my stop on the tour!

Today I am pleased to feature David M. Brown's

Fezariu's Epiphany!

Book Blurb: 

"The White Oak, Clarendon’s oldest brothel, lured and destroyed men by the thousands. Fezariu was different. He had never been drawn by the White Oak’s vices but the brothel had still ruined him when he was just a boy. 

Salvation came in the form of the Merelax Mercenaries – Elenchera’s most prestigious hired hands. They gave Fezariu the chance to escape from his past. Immersed in the world of dangerous assignments in the colonies Fezariu longed to forget everything about his childhood but only in facing the past would he 

ever be free of it."

Author bio: 

"David Brown was born in Barnsley, South Yorkshire, and first conceived the idea of the Elencheran Chronicles at college in 1999. He spent ten years compiling the history of Elenchera, resulting in 47,000+ years of events, 500+ maps, 2000+ pages, several short stories and many much-needed acquaintances with Jack Daniels.

David also has a blog, The World According to Dave (http://www.elenchera.com/blog), which features reviews, stories and dramatic tales of the horrors of owning cats.

David now lives in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, with his wife, Donna, and their six cats.

Fezariu's Epiphany is his first novel."

David's Twitter profile: http://www.twitter.com/elenchera

Goodreads:  http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4878327.David_M_Brown

My Thoughts:
     This story is remarkably well written.  The language is descriptive.  The story flows smoothly at just the right pace to keep the reader interested and awaiting what will be on the next page.  
     The characters have been carefully crafted and possess their own individual querks.
     My heart goes out to Jessamine for the choices life gives her and bleeds for Fezariu as life continues to throw him curves.  
Be sure to check this one out and journey with Fezariu as he attempts to discover his past, his present, and his future.
     

Blog Tour: Dark Corners by Liz Schulte

This blog tour is being presented by The Bookish Snob Promotions.

Please click HERE to go to the ENTIRE tour schedule.

You can read my review by clicking HERE.

Welcome to The Wormhole! and my day on the tour!

I am pleased to bring you......Liz Schulte!

Many authors claim to have known their calling from a young age. Liz Schulte, however, didn't always want to be an author. In fact, she had no clue. Liz wanted to be a veterinarian, then she wanted to be a lawyer, then she wanted to be a criminal profiler. In a valiant effort to keep from becoming Walter Mitty, Liz put pen to paper and began writing her first novel. It was at that moment she realized this is what she was meant to do. As a scribe she could be all of those things and so much more.

When Liz isn’t writing or on social networks she is inflicting movie quotes and trivia on people, reading, traveling, and hanging out with friends and family. Liz is a Midwest girl through and through, though she would be perfectly happy never having to shovel her driveway again. She has a love for all things spooky, supernatural, and snarky. Her favorite authors range from Edgar Allen Poe to Joseph Heller to Jane Austen to Jim Butcher and everything in between.

 Liz would love to hear from you and what you thought of Dark Corners.

Please stop by and visit at any of the below mentioned networks:

http://enteringbatcountry.blogspot.com/

https://www.facebook.com/liz.schulte

http://twitter.com/lizschulte

http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4755336.Liz_Schulte

And now...the interview you have all been waiting for:

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

            I can't really pinpoint an exact moment I knew. I have always loved reading and making up stories, but I never even considered being a writer until one day I had this idea--rooted somewhat in reality--and I thought now that would be a book I would read.  So in complete secrecy I sat down and began writing. Now I am completely addicted.

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

            I have had several jobs in my lifetime, but sense college I have had three.

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

            It depends on the book and how much the muses are talking to me and the amount of time I have. It can be anywhere from four weeks to four months for me to write a first draft. Then, probably, another two months in editing time and a month in beta reading phase for the book to be publishing ready. I would say beginning to ending a book takes me around six months.

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

            I am not sure if this is a quirk or not, but my characters and stories surprise me all the time. I will have one thing in mind for them then they go off and do something completely different that I never saw coming.  I often feel as they only give me the illusion of control as the author, and they're really the ones running the show.

 ? Do you have a routine that you use to get into the right frame of mind to write?

            Not really. Normally, I will have the story constantly running through my head until it is on paper. Sometimes, if I hit a snag, exercise helps me clear my mind or just talking it out with someone who will ask me questions that force me to start explaining things to them will put me back into the story.

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

            I would say it's a mix of life and imagination. There are definitely parts of Dark Corners that are identifiable as me, but there is also a lot that has just been made up. Obviously, the things you see day to day and the interactions you have will always be an influence on your perception of life which will in turn color your writing.

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

            My books are based almost solely on scenes or first lines that pop into my head. I have never sat down and thought I would like to write a book about being haunted then came up with an idea. It is more like this idea pops into my head while I am doing a mundane activity, and I let it sit for a while to see if it takes root. Once it does then I know I have found my next project.

? What books have most influenced your life?

            I think the early reading I did as a kid influenced my taste in and style of books a lot.  I read all of the R.L. Stine Fear Street books, Christopher Pike, and L.J. Smith. Since then I see a very similar tastes in what I like to read. I still gravitate towards scary, paranormal, and/or mysteries. My tastes have also expanded though. Now I like to throw in some Jane Austen, Charlotte Bronte,  and Henry James.

? What is the first book you remember reading by yourself?

            I am sure it was one of the books I used to make my mom read to me, but I don't really recall. As for chapter books I think it was either Babysitter's Club or Sweet Valley Twins. I don't remember which came first. I remember when I talked my mom into buying me my first Sweet Valley Twins books. I read the back and the main characters names were Elizabeth (my name) and Jessica (my best friend's name). I thought it was fate. With Babysitter's Club I was given a set of the first four books and before I knew it I was spending all of my allowance money on the books.

? What are you reading right now?

            I haven't had a huge amount of time for leisurely reading lately. I have a book that was lent to me call Weird Sisters that I intend to read. I also have A Tale of Two Goblins by HP Mallory in line, and the new Dresden Files books Ghost Story (squee!).

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

            I try to spend as much time with my family and friends as I can.  I love to travel and play trivia. I also am a huge movie and tv addict.

? What is your favorite comfort food?

            Iced vanilla chai lattes. Mmmmmm

? What do you think makes a good story?

            Strong, identifiable characters who are flawed. I like to read about people I feel like I could know in my life. I don't want to read about perfect people. The character is in the flaws and how they are dealt with.

? Who would you consider your favorite author and why?

            Jane Austen. I have read every Jane Austen book more times than I can count. They are my go to books when I have nothing to read or don't know what I want to read. I find her style and voice comforting. It is so easy to fall into the world she created and lose myself to characters she brought to life.

? What book, if any, do you read over and over again?

            If I like a book, I read it multiple times. I have read so many books repeatedly. They become like friends that I have to stop and visit every now and again.

Fun random questions: 

• dogs or cats? Both
• Coffee or tea? Tea
• Dark or milk chocolate? Dark
• Rocks or flowers? Rocks
• Night or day? Night
• Favorite color? Black
• Crayons or markers? Crayons
• Pens or pencils? Pens

Thanks so much for stopping by!

The next stop on the tour is: Jul 25 – All Things Books

You can buy a copy of this incredible book HERE and HERE!

***don't forget to check out the giveaway on July 29 at the author's site!

Click HERE or on the words author's site above to go to her site!