Thursday, February 26, 2015

AP Author Spotlight: Clay Cormany



Clay Cormany
Twitter ID: @Speechwriter2
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23509776-fast-pitch-love
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Fast-Pitch-Love/249475425209772
Describe yourself in three words:

Writer, Parent, Husband
Tell us a little about your latest release:

There is no longer anything special about the corner of Fifth Avenue and Olentangy River Road in Columbus, Ohio. In my younger days, however, it was the home of a trucking company that my dad owned and operated with my uncle. Most days for some 30 years, he would go there to his office to dispatch semis and make sure they reached their destinations without mishap. Sometimes there were mishaps. That could mean an early morning call and a lonely trip to a broken down truck on a remote highway.


Today the trucking company is gone. Several years ago, I traveled to where it once stood and found a fast-food hamburger stand in its place. There was no sign, marker, or other visible evidence that my father's trucking company ever existed. Sadness flooded my soul. A hamburger stand hardly seemed a fitting tribute to his hard work and sacrifice at this location. Then I began to ask myself some discomforting questions: What tangible evidence would I leave behind for my time on this planet? What would future generations, inside and outside of my family, ever know about me? That's when I remembered that YA novel – then only half finished – that I had laid aside a month before. Perhaps Fast-Pitch Love could be my legacy, a window that would allow great-great-grandchildren and perhaps others to understand who I was and what I valued.


Saturday, February 21, 2015

AP Booktrailer: Iris Blobel "Innocent Tears"


Becoming a parent can be daunting at the best of times, but for Flynn, a business lawyer in Melbourne, it almost pulls the feet from right underneath him. He’s become a father to six-year-old Nadine literally overnight! He had no idea about her existence, and the news throws him into chaos, even more so when he is asked to take over custody.

Saturday, February 14, 2015

AP Booktrailer: Leah Sanders "Sacred Ring"


Nothing in Kynan Murphy's life is going right. His grades are horrible, he's always in trouble, and the girl he likes doesn't know he exists. But things go from bad to worse when his parents tell him they have decided to split up. Angry and confused, he wants nothing more than to lash out against the world. The closest thing he can find, however, is the Saint Valentine shrine during a school field trip. Armed with some fireworks and encouraged by his best friend, Michael Connell, he's all set to vent his frustration with life.

His best laid plans fail when a mysterious priest confronts him, sharing an ancient secret about a hidden ring with special powers. Kynan believes the answer to all his problems and the only way to fix his parents' broken marriage is to find the ring — a task he won't be able to accomplish on his own.

Thursday, February 12, 2015

AP Author Spotlight: Brenda Maxfield



Brenda Maxfield
Website: www.brendamaxfield.com
Blog: www.brendamaxfield.wordpress.com
Twitter ID: @BrendaMaxfield
Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6570620.Brenda_Maxfield
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/AuthorBrendaMaxfield
Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/brendamaxfield/
Describe yourself in three words:

Enthusiastic, Energetic, Persistent
Tell us a little about your latest release:
Lizbet's Lie.  Assaulted and pregnant, sixteen-year-old Lizbet Morgan is shipped off to give birth in secrecy and hand her baby over to strangers. When she returns home to her family’s strict religious community, she is expected to pick up where she left off.
But the nightmare isn’t over. Her friend Johnny isn’t the only one asking questions, and Lizbet fears that the reason for her absence will soon be discovered. She must decide whether to tell the truth or continue to obey a religious system that forces her to tell intolerable lies.

Saturday, February 7, 2015

AP Booktrailer: Elaine Cantrell "Rest Thy Head"


 
 
Running away from a fiancé who betrayed her, Peyton O’Malley finds employment at a beautiful mountain inn called Rest Thy Head. She didn’t expect to live in the haunted room or to fall for the inn’s owner, a fire-scarred, war veteran who uses the inn to hide away from the world. She didn’t expect her sister to show up at Rest Thy Head either, much less her formidable mother.

Now, thanks to the aid of a friendly ghost, Peyton has a shot at true love, and so does her sister Ashley, provided the guys cooperate of course!  
 
 
 

Thursday, February 5, 2015

AP Author Spotlight: Ariella Moon




Ariella Moon
 

Website: http://www.AriellaMoon.com
Blog: http://www.ariellamoon.blogspot.com
Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/AuthorAriellaMoon
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/ariellamoon.author
Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/ariellamoon

 
Describe yourself in three words:

Magical shamanic author

 

Tell us a little about your latest release:

Spell For Sophia

Kidnapped by her lawless parents, Sophia resorts to thievery and arson to escape. Her survival depends on her mastering magic and the supernatural, and guarding her heart against Breaux, a voodoo queen’s grandson. When magic hurls the teens through time, Sophia’s friend Ainslie will risk her sanity to find them. Fate and ghosts await, and conjuring always exacts a price.

The idea for Spell For Sophia grew out of the third book in the Teen Wytche Saga, Spell Fire. Sophia appeared as Ainslie's missing friend, and I knew I had to tell her story.

 

What is your earliest memory?

My earliest memory dates to when I was two years old. My parents had followed the aerospace industry from Mississippi to California. I don't remember the seemingly endless road trip, just my mother saying, "We're here!" I looked out the window from the back seat of our Rambler station wagon, and thought, finally!

Don't get me started on my past life memories, because those go back centuries!

 

What would you consider the greatest moment in your life?

I have had so many great moments in my life! Falling in love. Graduating summa cum laude from college. Seeing my daughter graduate from college. Signing the contract on my first book. My shamanic work has enabled me to experience moments of amazing magic.

 

What’s the hardest thing in in life you’ve done?

Giving birth to my daughter. There is a reason she is an only child!

 

What have you learned in life so far?

I have learned that there are no coincidences, that magic is real, and that everyone in your life has joined you on the journey to offer you a lesson or aid, or give you an opportunity to clear your karma. I've also learned that you will get invited to a lot parties if you know how to make chocolate chip cookie dough brownies.

 

Everyone’s favourite question: if you could invite five people for dinner, who would it be?

Inviting five people to dinner would completely freak me out unless they were my best friends and/or family.  Even then, I would obsess, worry, and drive everyone crazy.

 

Chance for our readers - what else would you like to know about Ariella Moon?

Tuesday, February 3, 2015

RELEASE DAY: Nancy S. Brandt "Pigsty Princess"


Blurb:

In a country where Elemental Sensitivities determine a person's place in society, Mariana, fourth child of King Jonathan and Queen Alexandria, was born an Insensitive. She is given the made up title of Progenna, because she can't be in line for the throne and therefore, can't be a Princess. All her life, she is reminded that she isn't quite good enough. When her father decides she is to marry Pir Leo Valentine, an eighty-four year old man with a scar across his face that took his eye and only one hand, she runs away from the palace.

Orlando of Talla is a pig farmer and former soldier who served the King until he watched his Sovereign burn an entire harbor town rather than lose a battle. Now he tries to live a quiet life while leading a band a rebels who steal from the nobility to bring prisoners home from that war.

Orlando is also the bastard son of a nobleman, and therefore, he has a Sensitivity, one of Blood that allows him to feel the Sensitivities of others.

He finds the injured Progenna in the forest and immediately realizes that the stories about Mariana aren't true. Rather than being an Insensitive, Mariana may be the most powerful Sensitive in Valborough.

 

Author:

Nancy S. Brandt is a stay-at-home mother of two children, a daughter, 25, who is an ap-pointment's clerk at an orthopedic clinic and an editor and book reviewer; and a son, 12, who studies karate, and wants to be either an historian or an artist.  Nancy's husband, Ste-ven, is also an author and an adjunct professor of computer science at Louisiana State Uni-versity.

In about sixth grade, an English teacher gave an assignment to write a descriptive essay. Nancy's was all about a wonderful cave filled with diamonds, emeralds and other precious gems. From that experience, she walked into every English class hoping to get to write some-thing, and she learned three things:

            1. The difference between stalactite and stalagmite,

            2. That fantasy was probably the genre she should concentrate on, and

            3. Never end a story with "It was all a dream."

Nancy is a kidney transplant recipient (her husband was her living donor), a thyroid cancer survivor, and an Army veteran. She is currently working on the sequel to Pigsty Princess.

 

 

Now available on
Amazon Barnes & Noble Smashwords

 

Excerpt:

Chapter One

Progenna Mariana, fourth child of Queen Alexandria and King Jonathan of Valborough, watched the couples twirling around the dance floor. Beneath their feet, colored mosaics representing the eight magical elements danced as well, the patterns changing in time with the music.

The annual ball in celebration of the Queen’s birthday was in full swing.

Mariana watched in delight as her brother, Cognate Prince Ramone, Heir Presumptive, danced with his wife, who would be delivering their first child within the next month. The white sash draped from Grand Sahdess Victoria’s right shoulder to her left hip indicated Air Sensitivity and explained how she could be so light on her feet even with such an advanced pregnancy.

Mariana idly ran her fingertips along the fold of her own black satin sash, narrower than any the rest of the royal family wore. Traditionally, black was for children whose Sensitivities haven’t manifested yet, or the rare Insensitive Commoner invited to royal celebrations.

The color of her sash shouldn’t have bothered her anymore. Everyone in the kingdom knew Mariana had no Sensitivities. In fact, even her title, “Progenna,” had been created especially for her. The title identified her as a daughter of the King and Queen, but also made it clear she had no magical abilities and, therefore, no place in the line of succession. She was, officially, a royal nobody.

The music from the quartet of stringed instruments stopped, and the couples paired up in two lines in the center of the floor for the next dance, a lively reel.

 Mariana moved along the tapestry-covered walls toward the three sets of double doors that led to the balcony.

She had to find Darius, son and Heir Presumptive of Clarence, the Margrave of Sasoin. As Mariana surveyed the dance floor, she couldn’t see Darius, who was known as the Rieravo of Sasoin, a title he inherited when his father’s landholdings increased and the older man was given the higher title.

As one of the few still-unmarried Heir Presumptives of a high-ranking noble in the court, Darius had a partner for every dance of the evening. Mariana assumed he had to be out on the balcony getting some fresh air after all the dancing he’d done.

 She and Darius had been an unofficial couple for some time now, and one more dance would make it official. Then, her father couldn’t keep them from announcing their intent to wed. After all, a third dance at such an event was practically an engagement announcement all by itself.

As she passed by, guests bowed their heads and muttered greetings. However, she ignored them all, as she was only interested in finding Darius.

Suddenly, she was halted by a black wooden cane thrust horizontally in front of her. Its bearer was a short bald man with one eye, who smiled so wide at her his yellow chipped teeth were visible.

“Pir Leo,” Mariana said, making a small curtsy of respect to the Sahdeer of Valentine, advisor to the King. “How nice to see you this evening.”

“My dear Progenna Mariana, I have been hoping to dance with you.” He grabbed her gloved hand and kissed it. As always, he lingered longer than was appropriate before releasing her. Marianna suppressed a shudder.

Pir Leo had been a figure in her life since she was a child. Because he was an expert in diplomacy and foreign relations, he was a frequent visitor to the palace and even at family gatherings. He had always frightened her.

RELEASE DAY: Stephy Smith "Magical Love"


Blurb:
Captured within the mind of Cleo Little by the disgraceful dark mist of Madonna, Greta Smith was taken on a wild, wicked journey she fought to escape. Greta presented the problem to the Shuvihani and Thad to vanquish the evilness of her childhood friend.
Against Thaddeus Porter’s better judgment and by the order of the clan’s witch, Thad entered the minds of the dark coven out to destroy the clan. The only way to save his people was to join forces with Greta to defeat the evilness prevailing around them. Their energy was strong, the clan’s Shuvihani was missing, and dark evil was out to steal the souls of the caravan.
Could Greta and Thad’s Magical Love be sufficient to conquer the jealousy, betrayal and dark magic to save their people?
Author:
Stephy Smith was born and raised in the Northwest Texas Panhandle. She owns and operates her own ranch. Most of her inspiration comes from the weather, wildlife, and imagination from country living. When she not spending time with her three sons, she loves to read, ride horses, watch rodeo’s and paint. Stephy is a member of Panhandle Professional Writers, American Quarter Horse Association, and Foundation Quarter Horse Association. Stephy is an award-winning author of Shining Moon Rises. You can find her books at www.barnesandnoble.com www.amazon.com www.audible.com www.smashwords.com and www.kobo.com

Astraea Press' Four Year Anniversary

 
Yesterday marked Astraea's four year anniversary!!! So to celebrate, we are giving books, and amazon cash away!

Would you like to win a $10.00 Amazon gift card?

Head over to Facebook to find out how ....

We will be giving away ebooks. and paperbacks, as well this week, so keep checking in!

Good luck!