Congratulations to our October Monthly Release Party winner!

Congratulations to our $10 Amazon GC winner from last weekend's Party.  We ran the comments through http://www.random.org/ and it chose:

flchen1!!!

flchen1 won with her comment on this post.

flchen1, please email us at goddessfish AT gmail DOT com to claim your prize.

And thanks to everyone who came by.  It was a lot of fun!

ASK THE AUTHOR -- Mason's Daughter 

Q: How did you decide to write family sagas?

            A: With a degree in psychology, but a career in marketing, I’ve always been interested in what motivates people. Events or relationships that involved our grandparents reach down through the generations to have an impact on us. In my own family, it was the Great Depression and World War II. My parents carried a burden of needing to succeed in a scary world, an onus placed on them by their families and the times in which they lived.

            Unfortunately, I never met either of my grandmothers. They died before I was born, both in early middle age due to illness. I spent a lot of my younger years wondering what they were like. I still do, because not many memories were passed on by my parents, and I have no idea what we might have shared and enjoyed together.

            The other thing is, too, that I missed hearing from them what my parents were like as children. I have some old photographs, but they are sepia moments, and not whole colorful stories. I hear no voices from the past.

                       

            Q: Why did you pick suicide for the family tragedy?

            Over the years, I’ve been surprised by the number of families, including mine, affected by suicide. People I’ve known from work, church, volunteer groups, and other venues have lost family members in this terrible, inexplicable way. It’s an awful basis to bond, and I hope that how I’ve written about it will be of some comfort.

            It’s never just one thing either. Scratch the surface a little, and you find depression, anxiety, narcissism, addictions, bi-polar disorder, and other family mental tics we prefer to keep hidden and not talk about. All of it reverberates down through the generations.

            Q: Why choose Mason’s Crossing for a setting?

            A fictional town is easier to write about. I don’t have to be accurate with the setting. Plus it’s important to have the small town feel, because everyone knows, or thinks they know, what’s really going on. They care because they’ve been acquainted with the Mason family for several generations.

            Placing it just outside Austin anchors it near my favorite city in Texas, my hometown.

            Q: We see how the lives of Sally’s parents had an impact on her. What caused Nate to become so detached and distant with his own daughter, especially after his wife died?

            A person growing up can only learn by what they see and what they’re taught. Nate turned out the way he did because … well, you’ll have to wait for the next book, Mason’s Warrior, to read his life story.

http://www.amazon.com/Masons-Daughter-Cynthia-J-Stone/dp/1938749022/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1349647209&sr=8-1&keywords=Mason%27s+Daughter

A brotherhood of powerful men, a self-proclaimed prophet, and an ancient goddess hover over a series of murders that start with a game of Texas Hold-em. Are they to blame, or is it the embittered Comanche outcast set on revenge against Jack Harden for the death of his niece? Elsie and Jack try to salvage what’s left of their relationship, as a canvas of death unfurls around them. 
Can they stop it?

Available now at amazon.com, barnesandnoble.com, kobo.com, and wildchildpublishing,com.

Fearless Love - Chickens. Why Did It Have To Be Chickens?

Don’t forget the Fearless Love contest! Leave a comment to be entered in a drawing for a $10 iTunes gift certificate.

All of my Konigsburg books include animals. I’m not sure how this happened, it just did. Starting with a diabolic cat and a sweet-natured Chihuahua in Venus In Blue Jeans, I had a greyhound in Wedding Bell Blues, a mostly coon hound puppy in Be My Baby, a largely Maine coon cat in Long Time Gone and Don’t Forget Me, and an iguana named Doris in Brand New Me.

When I got to Fearless Love, the choice was already clear, and so, as it turned out, was the animal. Chickens. My heroine, MG Carmody, inherits a chicken farm from her grandfather. MG doesn’t have much else she can depend on in the way of income—she’s a struggling singer trying to regain her confidence after some bad experiences in Nashville. So she decides to sell her eggs. And I had to find out how you raise chickens.

Fortunately for me, Denver (where I live now) had just passed an ordinance allowing urban farmers to raise a few chickens in their backyards. All of a sudden chickens were in the news, and it turned out I actually knew a few people who were raising them. Plus Denver wasn’t the only city in the country where people had decided that having backyard chickens was a good idea. I found Web sites galore with loads of chicken information.

So what did I learn? All sorts of stuff. Hens usually lay only one egg a day and they may not come through every time (so my heroine’s twenty-five chickens wouldn’t necessarily produce twenty-five eggs). They don’t lay while they’re molting, and they stop laying altogether when they age (two to three years). This creates all kinds of dilemmas for the soft-hearted urban chicken farmers who can’t bring themselves to do what traditional farmers do with aging hens—make chicken soup. I also found out raising chickens is a lot of work, which fit in with my story. Between her job in a restaurant kitchen, her reborn music career and her chickens, MG is frequently exhausted.

Although most of the chicken authorities cautioned against naming your birds (you don’t want to get too attached), I decided that I’d have at least one chicken with attitude, a rooster named Robespierre. He has a run-in with a coyote and the result is based on a similar story I picked up from a chicken blogger (yes, Virginia, there are chicken bloggers).

MG finally triumphs, with the help of my hero, Joe LeBlanc, a chef who turns out to know a lot about chickens himself. And I’ve now got enough information about chickens to know for sure that I’m not going to be raising them myself any time soon!

Here’s the blurb for Fearless Love:

Fearless Love, Konigsberg, Texas, Book 7

Sweet music doesn’t come without a few sour notes.

MG Carmody never figured her musical dreams would crash against the reality of Nashville. Now the only thing she has going for her is her late grandfather’s chicken farm, which comes with molting hens that won’t lay, one irascible rooster, and a huge mortgage held by a ruthless opponent—her Great Aunt Nedda.

With fewer eggs to sell, MG needs extra money, fast. Even if it means carving out time for a job as a prep cook at The Rose—and resisting her attraction to its sexy head chef.

Joe LeBlanc has problems of his own. He’s got a kitchen full of temperamental cooks—one of whom is a sneak thief—a demanding cooking competition to prepare for, and an attraction to MG that could easily boil over into something tasty. If he could figure out the cause of the shy beauty’s lack of self confidence.

In Joe’s arms, MG’s heart begins to find its voice. But between kitchen thieves, performance anxiety, saucy saboteurs, greedy relatives, and one very pissed-off rooster, the chances of them ever making sweet music are looking slimmer by the day.

Warning: Contains hot kitchen sex, cool Americana music, foodie hysteria, and a whole lot of fowl play. 

Buy link: http://store.samhainpublishing.com/fearless-love-p-7011.html

One More Waning Moon Giveaway

This has been such a great party! Thank you Goddess Fish for putting this together! As a thank you to the readers and party-goers, I'll give one more e-book copy of WANING MOON to a random commenter to this blog post.

The Story Behind the Story: The story of The Chronicles of Lily Carmichael came to me over time and came as a trilogy right from the start. Book One, WANING MOON, grew out of Lily's main conflict, which is that she has the ability to heal both herself and others due to her genetic alterations, but because of shared DNA, she is unable to heal her uncle's caner or change the fact that her brother has the ability to take a person's life with just a touch--a plight in direct opposition to her healing nature. Lily has to take a journey to find a cure for Sam's cancer and is accompanied on this journey by a young drifter, Will Callahan, who is on a mission to find his father. Lily has her hands full trying to escape capture by a rogue government agency out to exploit her and her brother's abilities, save her family, and avoid falling in love. The original idea came out of many discussions over pizza and wine, LOL. I live out in the Berkshire Hills in a small remote town with neighbors who love living in the woods as much as my husband and I do. We often get together and talk about current events and contemplate our survival strategies if the world as we know it comes to an end. We aren’t quite as bad as the Doomsday Preppers, but we do try to be prepared for whatever the future holds. Humans are the most adaptable creatures on the planet, and in keeping with my “hopefully ever after” philosophy, I wanted to show how we might survive if life as we know it took a turn for the worse. Lily's future world may seem a bit grim, but true to her nature as a healer, she will find hope and healing, even if it's in a galaxy far, far, away. I hope you'll join me on Lily's journey. http://www.pjsharon.com for all things COLC and buy links. Check out my calendar page for blog tour dates, and stop by my COLC page to see who I'd cast in the movie and hear some of the character's playlist.

Excerpt to the 5-star Romantic Suspense, Black Creek Burning

Click here to visit the R.T. Wolfe website

As she meandered up the path to their house, she felt queasy, like she’d done this before. Nervously, she glanced over her shoulder through her mass of wavy brown hair as she kept moving toward the front door. Two people were walking along the street. She stopped and wondered what reason anyone would have to take a walk at this time of night in such an early bird neighborhood.

It was then she heard the shrill of the smoke detectors. Chest tightening, she bolted for the door.

“Mom! Dad!” she screamed and tumbled inside, spotting them almost immediately as they ran down the long upstairs hallway.

Not again. Please not again, she begged, as she fought her frozen legs to make them move up the stairs. The smoke detectors shrieked in her ears. Or was that the shrieking coming from her lungs?

Her parents yelled her name as they reached for the bedroom door. She couldn’t stop gasping for air long enough to tell them to stop. She wasn’t in there. Didn’t they know? They needed to get out of the house. Couldn’t they smell the smoke?

Just like each time, her viewpoint from the middle of the stairs showed her the yellowish air sucking under the door to her bedroom. Although trying to use the railing to give her momentum, every part of her felt like it was in molasses. She cocked her head to the side, drawing her eyebrows together. Her gaze locked on the eerie breeze.

Almost simultaneously, her mother rotated the knob as her eyes turned and met hers. For that fraction of a second, her mother understood the fear on Brie’s face, but it was too late. It was always too late. As she opened the door, Brie had just enough time to witness her parents engulfed in flames before the explosion blew her back and everything went dark.

* * * *

“Brie, wake up. Wake up, Brie. You’re dreaming.”

Click here to view the R.T. Wolfe Facebook Author Page

Fearless Love: Excerpt #2

MG and Joe move beyond the chicken yard pretty quickly. In fact, when Joe comes calling one evening, MG offers to fix him dinner. But he has other things in mind.

She handed him a bottle, then headed for the back door. “We can watch the sunset if you don’t mind the chickens.”

“MG?”

She turned. He stood in the middle of her kitchen floor, watching her, the unopened bottle dangling from his fingers. “On second thought, I don’t really want a beer.”

She blinked. “Okay, well, there’s some iced tea.”

“I don’t want tea right now either. Or the chickens. Or the sunset, nice though it probably is.” He paused, watching her. “I mean, I came here to take you out to dinner, but on second thought, I don’t think I can wait that long after all.”

Her shoulders suddenly felt tight and there was an twinge in her belly. “Wait that long for what?”

“You.” The word seemed to drop into the silence of her kitchen. He put the beer bottle back on the kitchen table, dropping his hands to his sides.

Her shoulders ached. She took a step toward him, then stopped. What the crap do I do now? “Oh.”

He frowned slightly. “Of course, you can say no if you want to. If I misread whatever this is between us, I’ll head off home. No harm, no foul.” He watched her again, blue eyes dark in the late afternoon sunshine.

“No,” she said slowly. “You don’t need to do that.” She took a few more steps back across the suddenly broad expanse of her kitchen. She was almost next to him now. Would it look too eager if she took the last few steps at a trot?

He grinned again, his lips spreading slowly. “Glad to hear that. I didn’t want to.”

MG’s brain seemed to have gone on vacation. Have I ever made love with a man who had a beard before? Right off hand, she couldn’t think of anybody. And the list wasn’t all that long to begin with. She stood looking up at him, then placed a tentative hand on his chest. “You realize I’ve got a really crappy bed. It’s one Great Aunt Nedda left behind.”

His grin delved a dimple in one cheek. “Trust me, your Great Aunt Nedda is the last thing I’m going to be thinking about.” “Good,” she murmured, licking her lips. “Me too.” She clasped her hands behind his neck, pulling him down toward her.

Buy link: http://store.samhainpublishing.com/fearless-love-p-7011.html

Mason's Daughter (excerpt from Chapter Two):  On the morning of her discovery, Sally has taken her husband Jack’s appointment book to the local café where her father-in-law, Big Jack, is having breakfast. She needs his help.

Big Jack emits a ‘hmmmm’ while he shuffles his paper. He doesn’t cover his face, but he wants to get back to the article. It would be easier to navigate a field of landmines than capture his attention, but I have no choice but to move forward or else give up.

“Speaking of resolution, your help would be really valuable with something.” I finger the appointment book, tucked under my arm and out of his sight.

The newspaper crackles as he folds it and lays it to one side. “You bet, Sally-Girl.” He pulls his checkbook out of his back pocket. “Is Colton causing trouble again? Just tell me how much you need.”

I had made it a rule that my husband Jack and I would never accept financial assistance from our parents, not even for Colton. Jack’s older sisters soon regretted accepting their father’s generosity after they learned it always came with strings attached.

“Colton’s fine.”

“What is it, then?”

“I found something, um, of Jack’s that I want you to see.” I smile and try to come across like a student asking her teacher for an explanation. His return smile fades when I place Jack’s appointment book in front of him and open the cover. “Remember this?”

He nods.

“Please skip over to March. Start at the nineteenth. Would you mind taking a look at the lists of names and numbers and identifying them?”

He hesitates, and then flips the pages one by one until the book lies open to mid-January. Big Jack’s eyes graze my face while he grunts and squints, pushing his reading glasses up the bridge of his nose. He fans the pages past February and the first half of March and stops. “What about it?”

“See all those meetings and appointments on the day Jack died? Look at the following day, and several days after. Same thing, even into the next week.”

“I see them.”

“He made lots of plans after the nineteenth. Doesn’t that tell you anything?”

Shrugging, he closes the cover and nudges the book toward me.

I reopen it and tap my index finger on the page. “Despite what the coroner said, Jack never intended to kill himself. He had some project in the works. Look at all those names. Who are those people? If I get in touch with them, I bet they could at least tell me something.”

“Sally, you’ve got to stop poking through all this.” He removes his glasses, closes the book again, and shuffles it across the table. “You can squint your pretty blue eyes at me, but it won’t do anybody any good.”

“Yes, it will!” I ignore his scowl. “For Colton’s sake, I’ve got to prove Jack’s death was accidental. It’ll make you feel better, too, if … well, can’t you help me?”

“I don’t know any of those folks.” He wipes his hand over his mouth, as if trying to shove the words back inside.

 “Sure you do.”

With a quick jerk of his head, he stares at the parking lot. I follow his gaze. Outside a man in a black business suit wipes his sweaty forehead while he changes a front tire. Big Jack draws his lips together and blinks several times, as if counting the lug nuts. He exhales for so long, a smaller person would turn blue.

When he looks at me, his expression has grown frosty. “Never mention this again.”

I collapse against the back of the booth. “I didn’t mean to push you into a corner.”

“Forget it.”

Sally-Girl has blown it, and I wonder how to wriggle the truth out of him. “Okay.” I try my softest young-lady voice; it has worked in the past. “Maybe you can just tell me one tiny thing, then?”

Through narrow slits, he eyes me.

I clear my throat. “Why did Jack write my father’s name in his book?”

“Let me see that thing again.” He grabs the book and dogpaddles through the pages to find March. “Where?”

“The twenty-second.” I sit up straight. “Also his phone number.”

I’ve never seen anyone’s face turn crimson so fast. Fearing he will suddenly clutch his chest and keel over, I reach across to pat the back of his hand, a risky move since he shuns physical affection.

“Dammit to hell!” He bangs the book shut, hard enough that a few startled customers look at us. “Leave it alone, you hear me?”

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=Mason%27s+Daughter

2010 EPIC Award Winning Author Review of the Romantic Suspense, Black Creek Burning

Larsen review of RT Wolfe’s Black Creek Burning

I thoroughly enjoyed RT Wolfe’s masterful debut novel, Black Creek Burning.  Written with confident expertise on a variety of topics such as landscaping and home remodeling, I got wrapped up in the engaging storytelling of this wonderful tale of love, danger and suspense.  Along the way I completely fell in love with hero Nathan as he patiently transformed the heroine Brie from an icy self-proclaimed independent into a woman willing to accept the love of a strong man and a family in need of a mother.  The details were delicious, the settings were masterfully painted, the mystery was a stumper and the romance was beautifully satisfying. 

A top-rate romantic suspense from a talented promising new author.  I hear rumors that this is the first book of a series, and I gleefully await the sequel!

Laurie Larsen,
Author of Preacher Man, 2010 EPIC Award Winner

Click here to get to the Black Creek Burning buy links

CROSSING THE DEEP Release Week Giveaway

To celebrate the release of my debut novel, CROSSING THE DEEP (Astraea Press), I'm giving away a $10 Amazon Gift Card and a $10 Barnes and Noble gift card on my blog, Kelly's Stories. The book will be released October 9th, but today is the beginning of a two week book blog tour, release party :) 

One of the options is the 'follow' the blog. You can do that already and already be ahead of the game.

Head on over HERE and enter to win :)

CROSSING THE DEEP is a Young Adult/Christian novel. It will be released Tuesday, Oct. 9th by Astraea Press. You can find it at Amazon.com, Barnesandnoble.com, and astraeapress.com.

Author Bio:

Kelly Martin is a writer, teacher, blogger, mommy, wife, Christian, sleep-deprived, gray-headed-way-beyond-her-years lady who loves to read and write Young Adult novels. Her first book, CROSSING THE DEEP, will be available Oct. 9th. Her second book, SAINT SLOAN (Astraea Press) will be released in late winter 2013. When Kelly isn't writing, she's thinking about writing-- or watching youtube.

She can be bribed with chocolate and free ink pens.

Follow me on twitter: @martieKay 

or on facebook: Kelly Martin, Author

OR on my blog: www.kellymartinstories.com 

Black Creek Burning. 5-star Romantic Suspense

Click here to visit the R.T. Wolfe Facebook Author Page

Brianna Chapman has learned to handle just about anything. Witnessing the murder of her parents had that effect. Knowing the unsolved arson had been meant for her is the one thing she can’t handle. Instead of dwelling, she stuffs her guilt soundly into her subconscious through diving into the teaching job she loves by day and the dirt of the landscaping business she owns by night. Her habit of remaining aloof to personal relationships is, well, working.

Will her guilt be as easy to keep buried if the killer comes back to finish the job?

In the midst of juggling a scorched yard, dead animals on her doorstep and her vandalized car, the one thing she didn’t count on was the staggering Nathan Reed. A nationally renowned woodworking artist, Nathan and his two priceless nephews move into the run-down historical house behind her and over Black Creek. They have a canny way of maneuvering around her aloof demeanor and into her heart. Will they still want to be part of her life when they discover she is haunted by past memories and hunted by present dangers?

Click here to visit the R.T. Wolfe website and Black Creek Burning buy links

Blood on the Cards - A Jack Harden Mystery

A brotherhood of powerful men, a self-proclaimed prophet, and an ancient goddess hover over a series of murders that start with a game of Texas Hold-em. Are they to blame, or is it the embittered Comanche outcast set on revenge against Jack Harden for the death of his niece? Elsie and Jack try to salvage what’s left of their relationship, as a canvas of death unfurls around them. 
Can they stop it?

Available now at amazon.com, barnesandnoble.com, kobo.com, and wildchildpublishing.com

Q&A with Eva Márquez AND Giveaway!

What is the working title of your book?

Tainted Love

Where did the idea come from for the book?

Tainted Love is book two of the Sweetest Taboo Saga, so the idea came naturally. Tainted Love is the sequel to Sweetest Taboo and takes off where Tom and Isabel’s story left off.

What genre does your book fall under?

*Mature* Young Adult – contemporary romance

Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?

.

I can definitely envision Isabel being played by an attractive young Latina, someone like Justin Bieber’s GF, Selena Gomez. Isabel’s journey with Tom starts at 15 and spans several years (in Sweetest Taboo) so Selena would be perfect. She would clearly be more appropriate for Tainted Love because Isabel is in her late teens/early twenties in the sequel to Sweetest Taboo.

.

.

.

.

.

As for Tom Stevens, that’s difficult since the ideal actors I envision are not the right age (i.e. Harrison Ford, Michael Douglas, etc.). If Matthew McConaughey lost his Texan accent and had slightly darker hair, he might just do the trick!

.

.

.

What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?

Isabel thought her life was on track – she was doing well in school, moving quickly toward her future, and deciding who she wanted to be. Best of all, she’d reunited with Tom, the love of her life. But it doesn’t take long for her history – and his – to start catching up with them, presenting a range of uncomfortable questions. Does he really love her? Are they meant to be together? And what exactly has he been doing in their time apart?

Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?

Tainted Love will be published by Terra-Mía Press, a small and independent publishing house, but is not represented by an agency.

How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?

Since this is the second book of the series, the first draft of Tainted Love took me a bit less time to write…roughly 4 months (Sweetest Taboo took me nearly double, 8 months to compete the first draft).

What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?


Tainted Love is probably closest to Jamie McGuire’s Beautiful Disaster, but without the violence, explicit sex and severe language. Tainted Love is definitely for mature YA audiences since the story unfolds in a university setting.

Who or What inspired you to write this book?

The readers/reviewers of Sweetest Taboo inspired me to write a sequel because they were keen and interested in learning about Tom and Isabel’s future. If it weren’t for my readers, Tom and Isabel’s story would have ended with Sweetest Taboo.

What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?


If readers have read about Tom and Isabel, then the ending of Sweetest Taboo was enough to pique their interests and these readers are already anticipating what awaits Tom and Isabel in Tainted Love.

Find out more! 

www.SweetestTabooBook.com

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Three Sentence Summary: CROSSING THE DEEP

When religious Rachel Harker gets lost with Asher Jenkins, a skeptic, she expects help to come quickly. Still lost five days later, she wonders if God is listening at all. As she slowly loses her faith, Asher is forced to find his.

CROSSING THE DEEP is a Young Adult/Christian novel. This book is different because it’s not preachy. It does not slam scripture down your throat. It is written in the same style as Colleen Coble books; religious without being overpowering. 

AVAILABLE OCT. 9th from Astraea Press. Also, available at Amazon.com and Barnesandnoble.com.

Connect with me at:

Twitter: @martieKay

Facebook: Kelly Martin, Author

Blog: www.kellymartinstories.com

Goodreads: Kelly Martin

What Type of Hero Are You Attracted To?

Click here to visit the R.T. Wolfe Facebook Author Page

Do you go for the distant bad guy? The romantic funny man?

The movie Avengers seemed to hit them all. The heroes in the story were all completely different. Thor was the loyal muscle head. The Hulk was the tortured, broody soul. Of course, Captain America played the part of the clean cut guy-next-door. Hawkeye played the quiet hero who didn’t need to be the center of attention, and of course, there was bad guy Ironman.

Nathan Reed is the hero of Black Creek Burning.  He falls into the Hawkeye category. On the outside, he seems like a smooth, casual uncle working to rebuild the run down historic farmhouse he moved into with the two young nephews he’s raising as his own. He has just enough dark, lanky good looks to make his aloof new neighbor look twice.

Brie Chapman was the only witness to the murder of her parents. She spent six long years recovering from the fact that the arson that killed them was actually meant for her. She’s too busy working her teaching job by day and her landscaping business by night to bother with Nathan…or the dead animals that keep popping up on her deck and porch.

Nathan may seem like the careless meandering type, but he has a canny way of maneuvering around Brie’s thick exterior and into her heart. He’s smart, talented and determined to both find who’s been shooting out the windows in Brie’s classroom as well as win the girl.  He has the patience and perseverance to do just that.

Which type of hero do you go for?

-R.T. Wolfe, author of Black Creek Burning (Crimson Romance, September 2012

Click here to get to the Black Creek Burning buy links

WANING MOON by PJ Sharon

I'd love to give another copy of WANING MOON to one of your readers here at Goddess Fish! You guys are so awesome, I'll give two copies away to a couple of random commenters to this blog post. WANING MOON is Book One in The Chronicles of Lily Carmichael, a YA Dystopian trilogy. Here's what the book is about: In the year 2057, in a post-apocalyptic world where a polar shift threatens the survivors of a widespread pandemic with extinction, sixteen-year-old genetically enhanced Lily Carmichael has more immediate problems. Her uncle is dying of cancer and her healing abilities are ineffective against the blood ties that bind them. In order to find a cure, Lily must leave the protection of her quiet town and journey to the trading city of Albany, all while avoiding the Industry, an agency that would like nothing better than to study and exploit her abilities. Seventeen-year-old Will Callahan has been searching for his father since severe storms blasted through the Midwest, killing his mother and sister. When he learns that his father may be in the city, he catches a ride with Lily, a girl who has come to his rescue more than once. As the two embark on a dangerous journey, the tension between them grows. But the secrets Will’s keeping could put Lily in far more danger than traveling to the city with him, and if he was any kind of man, he would have told her to run the minute she found him.

And here's another little excerpt: Zeph crashed through the screen door at that moment. “Hey, Sam, look what I…” He froze and the grin fell from his face. “What’s wrong? What happened, Lily?” I burst into tears again. Sam explained the situation briefly and Zeph lowered himself into the chair across the table from me, his face a calm mask. “Are you sure he’s dead?” “Of course I am!” I sniffled and gained control, not wanting my weakness to show in front of my little brother. I’d spent my life being strong for him—protecting him. Now he reached out a hand. To anyone else, this could be deadly, but his touch had no effect on me, a fortunate side effect of our shared DNA, and I had spent countless hours teaching him to control the power that he could summon at will. I squeezed his fingers and gazed into those black eyes. A sudden rush of peace washed over me. Zeph’s peace—the peace he felt whenever he took a life with his touch. Soothing warmth covered me like melted wax. I felt as if he were drawing the dead man’s energy off of me, trying to relieve me of my burden somehow. I pulled my hand away. Zeph closed his fingers into a fist. “It’ll be okay. You had no choice. It was him or us.” His voice sounded calm, sure, eerily complacent. I shuddered. Buy Links for WANING MOON: Amazon B&N Smashwords Or go to http:www.pjsharon.com

EXCERPT from CROSSING THE DEEP

CROSSING THE DEEP~ Young Adult/Inspirational/Christian (OCT. 9th/Astraea Press)

This is from about page 70... spoiler... they are lost in the woods ;)


Asher remained calm all the way past noon. A triumph for him. By two, he was up and pacing. Ever since he was a little boy, he pictured a thin string holding his temper in check. The string was being pulled tightly, threatening to snap. Why hadn’t they heard anything? No yelling. No footsteps. No twigs breaking. Nothing. It seemed like they were the only people left on the entire planet.

“You don’t think the world ended, did you?” he asked, only half joking. “You know, like end-of-days-type stuff.”

He could tell by the expression she gave him that she hadn’t expected that.

“Didn’t think you were into end-of-the-world-type stuff?”

He shrugged. “Thought you were.”

“Don’t joke about things like that.”

“Gotta joke about something,” he said. A nagging thought wouldn’t leave him alone. “If… if… Jesus did come back, and you were still here with me, well, you’d be up a creek, wouldn’t you think?”

“If Jesus did come back, I don’t believe for a second I’d still be here with you.” she said, and it bothered him a little bit. Why, he didn’t know, but it did. What? So, she would, theoretically, be gone to some unimaginable paradise, and he’d be stuck there on the mountain all alone? He didn’t like the sound of that.

“Confident, aren’t you?”

“Very.” The way she sat with her back straight and her eyes unflinching let him know she meant it.

“Wish I was that confident in Sid. I don’t think he’s coming back,” he said, pushing his fists in his pockets to keep from hitting a tree or something equally as stupid.

“He’ll be here,” she answered, sitting where she had for most of the day with her foot propped on her backpack.

“Maybe Sid got lost…”

“He didn’t get lost. He told them where we are.”

“We don’t even know where we are!” he said louder than he meant. This day wasn’t going the way he’d planned it. A search party finding them around one — or sooner if they were lucky — had been his ideal day. Not this.

As the afternoon dragged on, his faith in his friend dwindled. He did not want to spend another night out in the woods, even if the company wasn’t half bad.

“We can’t be as lost as we think,” Rachel said. “There had to be a cutoff or something we just didn’t see.”

“What does it matter? Huh?” Without a doubt, his patience was hanging on by a thread. “Lost is lost, Rachel. “

“Yelling at me isn’t going to help.”

“I’m not yelling.” Okay, maybe he was a little. He’d always promised himself that no matter how mad he got or how frustrated he became, he’d never yell at a girl. That had been his one and only rule. Taking a deep breath, he sat in front of Rachel and tried to form coherent words that got his point across the way he wanted. “Look, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have yelled. I didn’t realize I was.” Another lie. When was he going to stop lying? “Okay, yeah, I realized I was. I’m just — it’s just…”

“Yeah, me too,” she said. Her comforting emerald eyes, the same shade as her coat, let him know that she accepted his attempt at an apology. “And I’m sorry too.”

“You? For what?”

“You know what. For getting us in this mess to start with.”

“You still holding on to that?” Asher shook his head, amazed. Girls and their guilt. “It’s not like you did this on purpose. No, I’m not happy about it, but it does no good to dwell on it. We have bigger problems.”

“We’ll see if you still feel that way when we're still stuck out here a week from now.”

“Let’s cross that bridge when we get to it,” he said, not wanting to imagine being out there that long with a few bags of chips and no shelter.

Rachel sighed, looking around the trail and stretching her tense muscles. “I don’t see anyone coming.”

“Don’t get pessimistic on me now, girl. Remember you are the positive one.”

“Well, I’m positive I don’t see anyone coming.”

“That’s the spirit.” He laughed despite himself. Rachel had something about her, some spark that made him want to be around her, which was good since he seemed to be stuck with her.

Like what you read? Read more by buying the book :) Available TUESDAY, OCTOBER 9th, 2012 in eBook form from Amazon.com, Barnesandnoble.com, and astraeapress.com. 




Author Bio:
Kelly Martin is a writer, teacher, blogger, mommy, wife, Christian, sleep-deprived, gray-headed-way-beyond-her-years lady who loves to read and write Young Adult novels. Her first book, CROSSING THE DEEP, will be available Oct. 9th. Her second book, SAINT SLOAN (Astraea Press) will be released in late winter 2013. When Kelly isn't writing, she's thinking about writing-- or watching youtube.

She loves writing sarcastic bad boys... 

Follow me on twitter: @martieKay 
or on facebook: Kelly Martin, Author
OR on my blog: www.kellymartinstories.com 

Fearless Love - Farewell to the Dew Drop

The first six of my Konigsburg, Texas, books began at the Dew Drop Inn in downtown Konigsburg. I started doing this in Venus In Blue Jeans because I’d come up with a scene where the hero and heroine really wanted to meet each other (they were powerfully attracted across a crowded room), but just couldn’t seem to manage it. The next three books were all about the other Toleffson brothers, and having them hang out at the Dew Drop made a lot of sense. Book 5, Brand New Me, was a little tougher since the hero, Tom Ames, owns his own bar, so I had him checking out the competition. Having Nando Avrogado, the hero of Book 6, Don’t Forget Me, start off at the Dew Drop also made some sense since he was drinking to forget his lost love.

Fearless Love, Book 7, starts in a chicken yard (you can get a taste of the scene in the first Fearless Love excerpt posted here). In fact, nobody in Fearless Love goes anywhere near the Dew Drop. I didn’t exactly do this deliberately, but I knew this book was going to be different the further along I got. I love Konigsburg, and I love the people I’ve created there. But sometimes it’s fun to branch out, and I did that a lot in Fearless Love.

Most of the book takes place at either the Rose restaurant (located at the Wild Rose Inn, the plush bed and breakfast that’s shown up in several of the books) or the, shall we say, humble chicken farm owned by the heroine, MG Carmody. MG and the book’s hero, Joe LeBlanc, go into Konigsburg occasionally, mainly to visit the Faro and the folks who work there, so those of you who have read the other books will get to see a few familiar faces. But a lot of Fearless Love takes place in new places around Konigsburg—a couple of honky tonks, for example, and the kitchen at the Rose.

So no Dew Drop. No Docia’s bookstore. No Sweet Thing. But a lot of new places and people to meet. It might take some getting used to, but I think you’ll like it. There’s more to Konigsburg than Toleffsons, after all.

And don’t forget the giveaway, folks. A $10 gift certificate from iTunes to hear some sweet Texas music (or sweet New York music—the sweet music part is up to you). Just leave a comment here or on the other Fearless Love posts.

Here’s the blurb for Fearless Love:

Fearless Love, Konigsberg, Texas, Book 7

Sweet music doesn’t come without a few sour notes.

MG Carmody never figured her musical dreams would crash against the reality of Nashville. Now the only thing she has going for her is her late grandfather’s chicken farm, which comes with molting hens that won’t lay, one irascible rooster, and a huge mortgage held by a ruthless opponent—her Great Aunt Nedda.

With fewer eggs to sell, MG needs extra money, fast. Even if it means carving out time for a job as a prep cook at The Rose—and resisting her attraction to its sexy head chef.

Joe LeBlanc has problems of his own. He’s got a kitchen full of temperamental cooks—one of whom is a sneak thief—a demanding cooking competition to prepare for, and an attraction to MG that could easily boil over into something tasty. If he could figure out the cause of the shy beauty’s lack of self confidence.

In Joe’s arms, MG’s heart begins to find its voice. But between kitchen thieves, performance anxiety, saucy saboteurs, greedy relatives, and one very pissed-off rooster, the chances of them ever making sweet music are looking slimmer by the day.

Warning: Contains hot kitchen sex, cool Americana music, foodie hysteria, and a whole lot of fowl play.

Buy link: http://store.samhainpublishing.com/fearless-love-p-7011.html

Book Trailer. Black Creek Burning. Romantic Suspense

Click HERE to view the book trailer

Black Creek Burning is book one in
the Black Creek romantic suspense
Triology.

It has received ten 5-star reviews on
Amazon since it's release on
September 24th.

Book two releases in February and
book three in July.

Click HERE to visit the R.T. Wolfe website

Synopsis of Mason's Daughter:  On the first anniversary of her husband’s death, Sally Edwards is desperate to avert another family disaster. She’s determined to find something to prove Jack died by accident, not suicide as ruled by the coroner. She has to act fast, as her teenage son Colton is headed for a meltdown.

            What she uncovers—secret notes in her husband’s appointment book—leads her to believe Jack made future plans, which couldn’t have included suicide. In her excitement to share her discovery with Colton, she fails to notice his growing panic over reopening wounds not quite healed yet. She also overlooks a key piece of the puzzle until Colton points out a reference to his grandfather.

            Sally hasn’t spoken to her father since her marriage to Jack fifteen years ago. But why did Jack write her father’s name and phone number in his book?

            Everybody in Mason’s Crossing, even Colton, seems to know something about Jack’s last days, but no one can help her put all the pieces together. Her best friend discourages her search for the truth, and not even Jack’s father will give her a straight answer.

            Her older friend and mentor, Angelique Pierce, steers Sally through the landmines of her Mason family history, while also guiding her toward a better relationship with her son. The path she shows Sally is painful, but necessary.

            County Sheriff Mike Avery, who investigated Jack’s death, agrees to reopen the case unofficially. He’s attentive and kind, and Sally never suspects her father asked Mike a year ago to keep an eye on her. She’s also blind to the fact Mike has been in love with her since high school.

            The deeper Sally digs and questions, the greater destruction Colton’s behavior wreaks. She’s more convinced than ever the best solution to help her son is to prove Jack’s death was accidental. After exhausting all her other options, she is left with one choice: ask her father what really happened.

            But no one—especially not Sally—can foresee the consequences of bringing family tragedies and the secrets they hold into the light.

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=Mason%27s+Daughter

Fearless Love Excerpt #1

My hero and heroine meet under unique circumstances in Fearless Love: she's being pursued by an irate rooster after collecting eggs from her henhouse. My hero rescues her, just as a good hero should.

The rooster gave a cackle of triumph and she dove for the gate, fiddling frantically with the latch. Already she could feel the air from his wings. Any second, it would be accompanied by pecks around the ankles and, if she was really unlucky, a few scratches from those talons on his feet. “Shit, shit, shit.”

“Allow me.” The voice at her side was close to basso profoundo.

MG started so violently she almost dropped the basket, which would have been a victory for Robespierre even if he hadn’t caused it.

The man standing on the other side of the fence was massive. Or maybe he only seemed massive because he was blocking her path to freedom. His bald head shone with perspiration, along with his face and his biceps. Now that she looked at him, she could see the damp sweat marks on his T-shirt stretching down his broad chest. Running shorts. New Balance shoes. Okay, that at least explained what the hell he was doing up and around this early in the morning, although how he came to be standing outside her chicken yard was still a bit of a mystery.

“Who are you?” she blurted.

He gave her a lazy grin. “Darlin’ you’re being attacked by a rooster. Does it really matter who’s getting you out of there?”

Something sharp hit the back of her leg. She glanced over her shoulder to see the enraged leghorn rooster dancing around behind her.

“Ready?” the man asked, his hand on the latch.

MG nodded, dodging around Robespierre’s forays. “Don’t let the rooster out, okay?”

“No ma’am,” he rumbled, then pulled up the latch and opened the gate slightly. MG darted through, then turned to see him pull the gate closed behind her before Robespierre could adjust, flipping the latch across.

“Got yourself a mean one there.” He gave her another slow grin that suddenly made her toes curl.

She nodded. “He’s got attitude.”

“Joe LeBlanc.” He extended his hand in her direction.

MG blinked. “Pardon me?” The grin became slightly dry. “My name. Which you requested.”

As Advertised by Jaime Samms: A little Taste

Hi, everyone. Good to be here today, since it's not only party day here, but my birthday, as well, and that's always fun :)

As Advertised isn't really a new release. It's been a round a while, but it's still one of my favorite books, and I'll tell you why. When I first started writing it, i was writing to a very simple prompt: "Get me a beer."

Yup. That's it. That was the prompt. "Gt me a Beer." So many places I thought i would take that demand, but i never anticipated a novel coming out of that simple phrase. Or the conversation the characters had over said beer. Tyler has just been taking care of his oldest friend and neighbor, Marty, who is schizophrenic and is having a bad day.

“Come on in. I’ll clean up. There’s beer in the fridge.”
“You can’t look after him forever, Ty.”
Gritting his teeth, Tyler led them both into the apartment, tossed his keys to the counter, and motioned to the fridge as he went past to the washroom and the soap. “Help yourself.”
The refrigerator door slammed. The muffled clatter of condiments speaking to Jake’s prickly mood. Tyler tried to ignore the flare of annoyance and quickly cleaned the paint off himself. Jake was just flopping onto the couch, wrenching the caps off two beer bottles when Tyler returned. He took a healthy swig from one and held the other out to Tyler.
“So. That party you were talking about at work today. Why do you want to go?” A dark edge glimmered behind Jake’s eyes. That edge crept in often enough when the subject of Marty came up and always took too long to dissipate.
“Thank you.” He accepted the bottle, took a breath and shifted his weight, facing Jake more. “Why not?” At least he wasn’t going to harp on Tyler’s involvement with Marty, today. It never made sense to Tyler how Jake could be jealous of a man Tyler had known long before he ever met Jake. In any case, changing the subject was a good thing. Tyler settled onto the couch beside Jake who immediately got up and paced across the room taking quick, deep gulps of his beer. He traced an agitated path over the worn floor boards.
Tyler blinked at him. “Is there some reason I shouldn’t want to go to a party?”
“Because it is a party.” Jake perched on the arm of Tyler’s couch and looked down on him. “You don’t do parties. You’re the one told me that.”
“I know, but Maynard mentioned it. It sounds decent.”
Jake studied the label on his beer, picking at the corner of it. “Now you go to parties because your boss tells you to.”
“He didn’t tell me to. He just mentioned it.”
“Is he going to be there? That why he mentioned it to you?”
“Oh my god. You’ve got to be kidding me,” Tyler chuckled and sipped his beer.
Jake just looked at him.
“Seriously? Are you jealous?” Tyler asked.
Still Jake said nothing.
Tyler grabbed Jake’s arm and yanked him down. “Come here.”Tyler grabbed Jake’s arm and yanked him down. “Come here.”

For an instant, Jake resisted, but Tyler licked his lips, lifted his eyebrows and pulled a little harder. Jake slid down, squeezed his cheeks into the crack between Tyler and the arm of the couch and took Tyler’s chin in a loose grip. “Doesn’t it bother you?” he asked after another swig, keeping his searching gaze on Tyler.
“What?” Tyler frowned.
“That he uses the fact you like dick to scope out new clients.”
“What?” Tyler hitched back a few inches, putting some space between them.
“Think about it. You do know who’s throwing this party?”
“Jessop. I don’t know his first name. I don’t even know what he does. Maybe Maynard just mentioned it because he thinks I’ve been working too hard lately. Unlike someone I know, who gets all the easy clients and the padded expense account.” Tyler set his beer down and wiggled closer, hooking his finger into Jake’s tie and prying it loose.
“If you think those clients are easy, my dear, you’ve got another think coming. I just have a knack for handling self-absorbed, insane people. You, though. Maynard’s working you to the bone and not giving you enough credit. Jessop is a dream account. If he doesn’t give it to you….” A hard edge visible just in the shadows of Jake’s expression told Tyler there was something he wasn’t saying, though what it could be, he had no idea.
“Anyway.” Tyler gravitated a little toward Jake, touched his face, ran his fingers over the angles. “Not talking about work right now. It’s a party. We never go anywhere. It’s time, don’t you think?”
Jake grinned, leaned close so everything blurred together. The sullenness turned to lust, and defensiveness to desire. “You never complained about that before.”
The bass rhythm of Marty’s music reverberated through the apartment. Tyler’s heart sank. He did so much better when he slept.
Jake nearly growled as he grabbed hold of Tyler’s chin and forced his attention away from the shared wall and Marty’s insomnia. His face darkened, and his fingers tightened around the neck of his beer bottle. “You need to move.”
“Jake—”

Not exactly the picture of a healthy, happy relationship...

Blurb: Tyler's life perked up when he met Jake. So what if long-time friend Marty can't stand him and his landlady has no use for his new beau. Tyler's determined not to see the dark side of his lover. It's his own fault for believing people don't go around keeping secrets and lying.

Tyler should know better. He's an ad executive. He knows the packaging is what sells, and Jake is quite a package. His lover is no slouch when it comes to false advertising, either, and when Tyler finds out the truth, It hurts. Weathering Jake's lies and secrets gets easier with the help of new friends, Libby and Steven. In fact, Tyler figures that maybe a lot of things would get easier with Steven.

Tyler should have known better. Not even someone as seemingly perfect as Steven Jessop is completely as advertised. This time, though, Tyler has to make a decision. After all, sometimes, even if what you see is not what you get, what Tyler's uncovered in Steven might just be what he's always wanted.

 Buy Link: http://www.freyasbower.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=10&products_id=267