Sunday, March 17, 2013

Blog Tour: The Watcher by Lisa Voisin (Giveaway)

Welcome to The Wormhole and my stop on the tour.
It is my pleasure to feature Lisa Voisin and The Watcher.

Blurb:

Millennia ago, he fell from heaven for her.  Can he face her without falling again?

Fascinated with ancient civilizations, seventeen-year-old Mia Crawford dreams of becoming an archaeologist. She also
dreams of wings--soft and silent like snow--and somebody trying to steal them.

When a horrible creature appears out of thin air and attacks her,
she knows Michael Fontaine is involved, though he claims to know nothing about it. Secretive and aloof, Michael evokes feelings in Mia that she doesn’t understand. Images of another time and place haunt her. She recognizes them—but not from any textbook.

In search of the truth, Mia discovers a past life of forbidden love, jealousy and revenge that tore an angel from Heaven and sent her to an early grave. Now that her soul has returned, does she
have a chance at loving that angel again? Or will an age-old nemesis destroy them both?

Ancient history is only the beginning.

About Lisa Voisin:

I am a novelist who writes young adult fiction mainly in the paranormal and urban fantasy genres.  After studying English literature at the University of Toronto and creative writing at Simon Fraser University, I had the great fortune of being mentored by Nancy Richler and A.M. Dellamonica through Betsy Warland’s Vancouver Manuscript Intensive solo program. I am a member of the SCBWI (Society for Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators). I am also a certified teacher of meditation classes with the Training in Power Academy.
A resident of rainy Vancouver, Canada, I live with a loving fiance and two highly incompatible cats: Leopold and Chairman Mao (an angel and a demon fighting a war of their own!).
A self-proclaimed coffee lover, I live on a strict diet of coffee and fiction. And when I’m not writing, you may find me meditating, out in the mountains, to counteract the side effects of consuming too much caffeine!
Click HERE to go to the author's site.

Giveaway:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

This virtual book tour is presented by Inkspell Publishing.
Click HERE for more tour information.

Saturday, March 16, 2013

Cover Reveal: Her Loving Husband's Return by Meredeth Allard (The Loving Husband Trilogy: book 3)

Welcome to The Wormhole and my stop on the cover reveal.
It is my pleasure to bring you:

Her Loving Husband’s Return
Book Three
The Loving Husband Trilogy
Meredith Allard 


“I need to get home,” James said aloud.
He heard shuffling behind the wooden plank that separated his quarters from the rest of the barrack. “We all need to bloody well go home,” he heard.

What would you do to return to the only one you have ever loved?

James Wentworth’s secret is no longer a secret, and now he and his beloved wife, Sarah, have been separated. While suffering his own internment, James is reminded of his time with Japanese-Americans in the Manzanar Relocation Camp during World War II, and he cannot allow the past to repeat itself. With the help of his friends—Chandresh, Jocelyn, Timothy, even the irreverent Geoffrey—James learns what it means to return, and he is determined to return to his Sarah no matter the challenges—or the consequences. Will James and Sarah be reunited once and for all despite the madness surrounding them? Will James’s most fervent wish be granted? The changes in store for the Wentworths may be irreversible. 


About the Author:

Meredith Allard is the author of The Loving Husband TrilogyVictory GardenWoman of Stones, and My Brother’s Battle. She is the executive editor of The Copperfield Review, an award-winning literary journal for readers and writers of historical fiction. She lives in Las Vegas, Nevada.




Her Loving Husband’s Curse
Book Two
The Loving Husband Trilogy
Meredith Allard

How far will you go to protect the one you love?

Finally, after many long and lonely years, James Wentworth’s life is falling into place. Together with his wife, Sarah, the only woman he has ever loved, he has found the meaning behind her nightmares about the Salem Witch Trials, and now they are rebuilding the life they began together so long ago.

But the past is never far behind for the Wentworths. While Sarah is haunted by new visions, now about the baby she carried over three hundred years before, James is confronted with painful memories from his time with the Cherokee on the Trail of Tears. Through it all, the persistent reporter Kenneth Hempel reappears, still determined to prove that the undead walk the earth. If Hempel succeeds in his quest, James and Sarah will suffer. Will the curse of the vampire prevent James and Sarah from living their happily ever after?

Her Dear and Loving Husband
The Loving Husband Trilogy
By Meredith Allard

James Wentworth has a secret. He lives quietly in Salem, Massachusetts, making few ties with anyone. One night his private world is turned upside down when he meets Sarah Alexander, a dead ringer for his wife, Elizabeth. Though it has been years since Elizabeth's death, James cannot move on. 

Sarah also has a secret. She is haunted by nightmares about the Salem Witch Trials, and every night she is awakened by visions of hangings, being arrested, and dying in jail. Despite the obstacles of their secrets, James and Sarah fall in love. As James comes to terms with his feelings for Sarah, he must dodge accusations from a reporter desperate to prove that James is not who, or what, he seems to be. Soon James and Sarah piece their stories together and discover a mystery that may bind them in ways they never imagined. Will James make the ultimate sacrifice to protect Sarah and prevent a new hunt from bringing hysteria to Salem again? 

Part historical fiction, part romance, part paranormal fantasy, Her Dear & Loving Husband is a story for anyone who believes that true love never dies.

This cover reveal is presented by Bewitching Book Tours.

Friday, March 15, 2013

Cover Reveal: Need by Stephanie Lawton

Welcome to The Wormhole and my stop for the cover reveal.
It is my pleasure to bring you:


Published by Inkspell Publishing
Release date: May 17, 2013

Synopsis:
Isaac Laroche is cursed. All he wants to do is hide out and feel sorry for himself. Never mind that he got caught sleeping with his seventeen-year-old piano student, or that he abandoned her when the truth was exposed.
Isaac’s feisty high school sweetheart has different plans. Heather Swann has returned to their hometown of Mobile, Alabama, to regroup after breaking up with her troll of a fiancĂ©. She’s restless and looking for a diversion, but she bites off more than she can chew when she sets her sights on rehabilitating Isaac with her unorthodox sexual, mental, and physical plans.
The two quickly reconnect, but their happiness is threatened by family secrets, old vendettas and the death of a beloved father-figure.
Can Heather handle Isaac’s baggage, or will her own come back to haunt them both?

Author bio:  After collecting a couple English degrees in the Midwest, Stephanie Lawton suddenly awoke in the deepest reaches of the Deep South. Culture shock inspired her to write about Mobile, Alabama, her adopted city, and all the ways Southern culture, history and attitudes seduce the unsuspecting.
A lover of all things gothic, she can often be spotted photographing old cemeteries, historic buildings and, ironically, the beautiful beaches of the Gulf Coast. She also has a tendency to psychoanalyze people, which comes in handy when creating character profiles.

Links:

Wednesday, March 13, 2013

Blog Tour: The Knowing by Laurel Dewey (Giveaway too)

Welcome to The Wormhole and my day on the tour.
It is my pleasure to feature Laurel Dewey and Knowing.
Synopsis:
After the life-altering ending in the third Jane Perry thriller, REVELATIONS, Jane Perry takes time off from the job to find the missing part of herself she never knew existed. But her journey is quickly hijacked when a wanted criminal, Harlan Kipple, steals her car. Kipple—accused of the heinous murder of a prostitute in a seedy motel—is on the run and desperate to stay that way. Jane’s personal plans take a back seat as she tracks down her stolen ride and discovers through an unusual source that Kipple may be innocent and is being framed by a nefarious group. When she trails Kipple and confronts him, every belief she ever had about this world and the next is put to the test.

Kipple, who by his own admission is not the “brightest bulb in the box,” received a heart transplant seventeen months ago. His life changed from the moment he woke up in the recovery room. In fact, he’s not so sure where he ends and his heart takes over. As strange as that sounds to her, Jane cannot deny what she witnesses after spending just two days with Kipple. It becomes clear that nothing is what it appears as Jane is drawn into a deep rabbit hole with dark webs and darker crevices that force her to operate on the other side of the law. With the police hot on Kipple’s tail and a devious faction intent on finding him first, Jane is caught in the middle and realizes that solving this crime could have fatal consequences.

With themes as diverse as immortality, regeneration, resurrection, transformation and death, author Laurel Dewey tackles this latest Jane Perry novel with originality and plenty of suspense. “Finding yourself” takes on a whole new meaning in KNOWING.

Interview:

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

I was about six. A friend of my mother’s asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up and I apparently “proudly announced” that I was going to be a writer. By that time, I was already spending way too much time in my bedroom writing “stories” and illustrating them.

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

I sold my first script (a radio show) when I was twenty years old. But then it was pretty dry for a few years after that. Before the next writing gig, I worked at a department store, a community center selling hot dogs, and did a brief stint during the Christmas holidays as an engraver. One summer, I was an extra in a string of Hollywood films. I then took a job for a couple years as a secretary (they weren’t “personal assistants” back then) for one of the biggest West Coast public relations firms.

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

From start to finish? I’m including the creative prep time, the massive research and the actual writing. Add all that up and it’s about one to two years per book.

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

When I’m developing the story, I often get flashes of ideas or interesting dialogue that I want to remember. I’ll rush into the next room to write it down and invariably, find an old envelope and start jotting my thoughts down. The problem is that when I’m ready to start the book, I have to gather together a LOT of envelopes and piece them all together. I’d say that was fairly “quirky.”

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

All my books are very much character driven and some of the weirder characters I’ve created, I honestly do not know where they come from.

But with my main character, Jane Perry, she was born over the course of many years when I used to drive back and forth on long business trips. To entertain myself one day, I just started talking out loud as a character and “telling my story.” It was just a way to pass the time but as the years went on, I kept coming back to this character with no name but who had one helluva great story to tell. After about ten years of delving into her psyche, I finally figured out a story she could roam around in and my first Jane Perry novel, Protector, was the result.

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

The subject matter has to really appeal to me because I’m going to be living with the themes for at least two years. If it doesn’t grab me and excite me to my core from the very beginning, I can’t translate that excitement to the pages later on.
? What are you reading right now?

Lifting the Veil of Duality by Andreas Moritz

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

I love to garden and grow vegetables and medicinal herbs. Of course, I love to read. Cross country skiing in the winter and biking in the summer.

? What is your favorite comfort food?

Nothing…and I mean nothing….beats a huge baked potato, smothered in butter and cheese.

? What do you think makes a good story?

For me, the story has to be original and the dialogue has to be sparkling.

Fun random questions: 
dogs or cats? Cats
Coffee or tea? Tea
Dark or milk chocolate? Dark chocolate!
Rocks or flowers? Depends what kind of rock we’re talking about! I’ll say flowers
Night or day? Day
Favorite color? Burgundy
Crayons or markers? Markers
Pens or pencils? Pens

My quick thoughts:
This was my first Laurel Dewey book - it will not be my last!  Wonderful story.  Fantastic characters, incredible storyline, clever, creative, original and exciting.  The story grabs you from the first page and doesn't let go.  An absolute must read.  

Giveaway:
a Rafflecopter giveaway

This virtual book tour is presented by Partners In Crime Tours.

Click HERE for more tour information.

Tuesday, March 12, 2013

Author Spotlight: Irving Podolsky

Irving H. Podolsky
Who's Irving H. Podolsky? He’s a young man who hates his name, and he thinks his parents unfairly gave it to him. They didn’t. This author did. You see, outside the trilogy of Irv's Odyssey and also Irving’s blog, there is no Irving H. Podolsky. Irv doesn’t know that though, and it’s best for all that we keep the secret to ourselves.

If you searched this author’s true identity, you'd find him laced through 23 consecutive pages of Google. That’s because he has earned nineteen film nominations and awards, including two Emmys. He is also a member of the Executive Board within his category branch of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, and he has worked on every studio lot in Los Angeles in television and feature films.

The author’s personal life? He resides in an old house in a quaint neighborhood in Southern California. He loves vintage drums and antiques. Consequently, he has many. His wife collects and sells them. (Not drums, furniture.) He also enjoys fast sports cars so he owns two. The second is on its way to becoming vintage, which you might apply to this writer. But like Peter Pan, this writer refuses to grow old, and accordingly, Irv won’t either. Irving is perpetually twenty-five. So when the lad needs advice, he asks his alter ego, the creator of his thoughts.

Other than birthing Irv’s soul, this author leaves his character pretty much alone. Irving now has his own friends and Google links. You can contact Irv at IrvsOdyssey.com. Or check out his blog: IrvsOdysseyBlog.com. He will be happy to hear from you and respond as best as he can.

BOOK ONE – A NOVEL


A Comic Trilogy of Extremes

Irving Podolsky is a nice Jewish boy looking for a nice Jewish girl and a job out of college which would, you know, make the world a better place. But when our hero’s food supply dwindles down to a slab of Velveeta and a jar of pickles, our lad takes his only job offer: directing porn movies. This leads to the night shift in a mental hospital, only to be replaced by the lowest rung in food service, which drives Irv so bonkers his mind ejects out of his body to the Other Side. Irv’s Odyssey is a humorous quest for truth, love and meaning while lost in alternate life styles, a psychedelic drug culture and the free-love of the seventies. Lost in a Looking Glass starts the journey.


BOOK TWO – A NOVEL

A Comic Trilogy of Extremes

Irv’s still employed at the mental hospital, a place where all the people who don’t “fit in” get jobs behind locked doors. It’s a crazy circus and Irv’s life is far from settling down. A free-loading porn stud and con man moves into our lad’s apartment, and the jerk won’t leave! It gets worse. Irv discovers the place where humanity hides it’s most shameful secret. And it’s not in the Buckhead Steak ‘n Brew where Irv becomes a salad boy/dishwasher. And it’s not at the Cloisters Restaurant where Irv get pushed into bussing tables while tripping on acid. And it’s not in Europe where he meets three people who change his life in ways he only read about in Sci-Fi novels and mystical books. Actually that “shameful secret” is no secret at all, yet only Irv wants to know it. Will our friend ever find his way back to Normal? Not yet.


BOOK THREE – A NOVEL

A Comic Trilogy of Extremes

Food service and Irving Podolsky are NOT friends. Still, Irv rises to the level of waiter in the Fairmont Hotel. What about his film career, making the world a better place and finding a nice Jewish chick? Well, instead, Irv meets an exotic older girl from Germany. Could she be the one, Irv’s forever, but not-Jewish-at-all soul mate? Ben suggests she is. Ben is a drawling spirit voice channeled through a Puerto Rican pothead. And Ben knows all about Irv’s recent nocturnal fly-outs: those uncontrollable out-of-body trips that bring him to the Other Side where he encounters creepy crawlers in attack mode and goes back and forth in time and into his own future. These bizarre events are not dreams or fantasies. They are real. For as Irv finds out, magic and miracles do exist. And so does true love, if he can just convince his parents, it’s okay to marry a shiksa.

Guest post: 
You’re perusing novels. Some grab you. Some don’t. Some characters you like. Other’s you don’t. And some you hate so much you keep reading just to reach their demise.


I write novels. And I’m telling you shaping characters is the hardest part of writing fiction. I’d like a formula for that, like a recipe for rack of lamb. I want my characters popping off the page, and I want you to love them. But darn it, there’s no hard and fast rules, no black and white list or directions for building engaging characters.

And why? Because in real life, there’s no standard reason why anybody does anything.

The reasons why people are the way they are, and why we like them that way, or not, are freakin’ COMPLEX! Like hours-of-thought and five rewrites complex.

So, step one to writing likable characters, is making the time to study likeable people. And we authors better LIKE the process! ‘Cause if we don’t…if we’d rather surf porn or munch granola, our characters won’t get out of bed. They’ll lie on the page, boring as blobs, revealing our I-don’t-feel-like-writing mood.

This explains why some novels are better than others. Writing is work and doing it right takes serious commitment to living life ALL the way.
• How can he write a deep character when he’s not deep himself?
• How can she write a romantic character when she’s not romantic herself?
• How can he write about a kind character when he’s not kind himself?
• How can she write an optimistic character when she’s not optimistic herself?
• How can he write a humorous character when he’s humorless himself?
• How can she write a loquacious character when she’s not loquacious herself?
• How can he write about an informed character when he’s not informed himself?

Vivid characters are written by writers who live vivid lives, or at least imagine vivid lives. But imagination can bring an author only so far. A story has to ring emotionally true. Always! And it rings true only when it IS true. And the only way a writer can write truth, is to touch it, feel it, and watch it very carefully. And I don’t mean porn.
*****
Features and reviws links:
http://www.bibliophilicbookblog.com/2012/08/interview-with-irving-h-podolsky-author.html

http://www.moonlightgleam.com/2012/10/author-guest-post-with-irving-podolsky.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+MoonlightGleamsBookshelf+%28Moonlight+Gleam%27s+Bookshelf%29&utm_content=Google+Reader
http://www.junipergrove.net/featured-author-irving-podolsky-giveaway/
http://bookswithoutanypictures.wordpress.com/2012/10/24/irvs-odyssey-lost-in-a-looking-glass-by-irving-podolsky/
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/399680053
http://www.masoncanyon.blogspot.com/2012/11/author-irving-h-podolsky-writing-trilogy.html
http://abitofdash.blogspot.com/2012/12/guest-post-by-irving-podolsky-and.html
http://tweedling.com/2013/01/guest-post-chop-wood-and-carry-water-irving-h-podolsky/
http://closeencounterswiththenightkind.blogspot.com/2013/01/interview-and-review-of-irvs-odyssey.html
From I AM Indeed:
Book one Feb 8 http://wp.me/p2wTNo-tG

Book two Feb 13 http://wp.me/p2wTNo-tP

Book Three Feb 20 http://wp.me/p2wTNo-tS

http://cynthiashepp.wordpress.com/2013/02/13/guest-post-and-giveaway-from-irving-podolsky/
http://megancashmanbooks.wordpress.com/2013/02/27/wednesday-interview-irving-podolsky/
http://bookhimdanno.blogspot.com/2013/03/book-feature-friday-irvs-odyssey-lost.html
http://bexnbooks.blogspot.com/2013/03/guest-post-18-seduction-mans.html
DISTRIBUTION & REVIEW SITE LINKS
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11799088-irv-s-odyssey
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/Irv-s-Odyssey?store=book&keyword=Irv%27s+Odyssey
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=Irv%27s+Odyssey

Tuesday, March 5, 2013

Blog Tour: Bewitched by Mark J Harris (Giveaway)

 Welcome to The Wormhole and my stop on the tour.
It is my pleasure to feature Mark Harris and Bewitched.

About the Author:

Mark Harris lives in Smithfield Utah, a small town located in a beautiful valley in Northern Utah. His wife, Shaundale, and he have four terrific children, two girls and two boys and a fifth one due to arrive in November of 2012. Mark has taught English and Special Education and currently works from home teaching English to people from all over the world. Writing has always been his true passion since he was a grade schooler writing about mushrooms. "Bewitched" will be his debut novel. He has two others underway and will soon start on the sequel to "Bewitched," called "The Return of the Familiar." He hopes you enjoy his work because he is working on several series geared toward younger audiences.

You can find Mark on: www.markjayharrisauthor.com

Bewitched
Is it love or is it witchcraft? He’ll never find out if he kills her first.


The first time Darren saw Samantha, she was floating above his high school gymnasium during a basketball game, invisible to everyone but him. Next time he sees her, she's sitting in front of him in class, wowing his friends and causing unexplainable things to happen that only he seems to notice. But things really get strange (and complicated) when his dying grandfather tells him that he is part of an ancient order, the “Pessum Ire,” whose duty is to destroy witches. What does he do now, since he’s almost positive Samantha is a witch…and he’s crushing on her pretty hard?

Giveaway:

For the giveaway, paperbacks are open for US, UK and Canada while ebooks are open worldwide. 
a Rafflecopter giveaway