Monday, October 26, 2015

Here it is! The Crossroad Blog Tour




Crossroads Blog Tour 




From small to big-gun presses, debut novels to bestsellers, we’re offering unprecedented (and free!) access to amazing YA authors. Thirteen paranormal writers will embark on an exciting blog tour that will hook readers up with great reads and cool SWAG. 


Participating bloggers will feature two Crossroads authors each day from October 26 thru October 31. You can use the link above for more info.  Lots of treats ahead! Don't forget to sign on the Rafflecopter for a $50 gift certificate!

May the tour begin!  I bring you . . . 



Sarah Bromley

1.)  You and a friend are walking down a dark alley. You hear strange noises. Do you walk ahead and check things out, or send your friend instead? 

I’m gonna send someone else, but I’ll make sure they’re armed well with salt, a wooden stake, and some silver bullets.

2.)  What's your Halloween costume back up, the one that's always waiting in your drawer or closet? 



I dress up as a witch every year when I go trick-or-treating with my kids.


Bio:

Sarah Bromley drinks too much coffee, likes her music loud and off-key, and has loved spooky things since she first saw “An American Werewolf in London” when she was five years old. She currently lives in the St. Louis area with her high-school-sweetheart-turned-heroic-husband, three children, and her dogs.

Book blurb

Winter in Black Orchard, Wisconsin, is long and dark, and sixteen-year-old Vayda Silver prays the snow will keep the truth and secrecy of the last two years buried. Hiding from the past with her father and twin brother, Vayda knows the rules: never return to the town of her mother’s murder, and never work a Mind Game where someone might see.

No one can know the toll emotions take on Vayda, how emotion becomes energy in her hands, or how she can’t control the destruction she causes. But it's not long before her powers can no longer be contained. The truth is dangerously close to being exposed, placing Vayda and her family at risk.

Until someone quiets the chaos inside her.

Unwanted. That's all Ward Ravenscroft has ever been. To cope, he numbs the pain of rejection by denying himself emotions of any kind. Yet Vayda stirs something in him. He can't explain the hold she has on him--inspiring him with both hope and fear. He claims not to scare easily, except he doesn't know what her powers can do. Yet.

Just as Vayda and Ward draw closer, she finds the past isn't so easily buried. And when it follows the Silvers to Black Orchard, it has murder in mind.





"Richly written, A MURDER OF MAGPIES isn't a book to be read, but one to be devoured by the light of a dying fire. Sarah Bromley will pull readers in and have them glancing constantly over their shoulder, where the ghosts of the past await them."
- New York Times bestselling author Heather Brewer


"A MURDER O MAGPIES is one of those books I couldn't put down... a little bit mystery, a little bit horror, a little bit love story--there's something for everyone on these pages. Rich, well-written, and different in a genre desperate for something a little bit different..." -- Hillary Monahan, author of MARY: THE SUMMONING 


Amazon      Barnes & Noble     Indigo       Powell's              IndieBound




Judith Graves   






1.)  You and a friend are walking down a dark alley. You hear strange noises. Do you walk ahead and check things out, or send your friend instead? 

If my friend is wearing a red shirt, and I think she is...I send her off to see what’s what. Don’t judge. Someone needs to be the one who lives to write about our great adventures.

2.)  What's your Halloween costume back up, the one that's always waiting in your drawer or closet? 


It’s so easy to throw together an evil librarian costume, and it’s fitting too, since I am one. Bwhaaaaaa.... All you need are glasses, some baby powered-hair wrapped up in a bun, a blood-stained copy of your favorite book, and blood spatters all over your sweater set.

Bio:

Award-winning writer and screenwriter Judith Graves loves tragic romance, werewolves, vampires, magic and all things a bit creepy. A firm believer that teen fiction can be action-packed, snarky and yet hit all the right emotional notes, Judith writes stories with attitude. She lives in northern Alberta and when she’s not writing, or playing bass in a cover band, she works in a school library.

 Judith on Twitter  & Facebook  Blog


Fright Before Christmas: 13 Tales of Holiday Horrors

It’s the most wonderful time of year…or is it?
 
Christmas Eve is a night of mystery and magic, but not always in ways we expect. Things lurk in the shadows and they’re not the least bit jolly or merry. Let’s just say some presents are better left unopened.
‘Tis the season to be screaming along with our thirteen tales of holiday horrors. Ghosts. Monsters. Demons. And more!
This Christmas, be careful what you wish for…

Edited by Shannon Delany and Kelly Hashway with stories by: Richard Ankers, Jessica Bayliss, Ty Drago, Judith Graves, Jackie Horsfall, Patrick Hueller, Ally Mathews, Laura Pauling, Boyd Reynolds, Medeia Sharif, Andrea Stanet, Lea Storry, and Dax Varley

 Amazon      B&N        iTunes     Booktrailer




GIVEAWAY  Treats!!                    Follow the Tour on Twitter @TheCrossroadsBT
a Rafflecopter giveaway

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Monday, October 19, 2015

A Weekend of Firsts.

A dear old friend of mine invited me to join her at Liberty State Park last Sunday for the Ashrams for Autism First Annual 5K run.  What fun! And what incredible early morning views of downtown Manhattan. 

I run as much as I can though I have never entered a race. Not until yesterday. I brought my hubby, who also has never run a race, much less run 5 K. Sometimes we run together, only to have him splinter off with our lab mix, who no longer wants to go the distance with me. 


An inspiring charity, Ashrams for Autism


Started in 2010, Ashrams fo Autism grew out of founder, Sharon's love for her daughter, Kerri, who is on the spectrum, and her passion for Yoga. The programs were developed to bring those on the spectrum peace and dignity. Sharon's vision for Ashrams for Autism is to build and grow and ashram community.  

Please check out her website and become involved. My dear friend Nidhi Hubba, introduced me to this incredible charity and to Sharon. 



Nidhi was there sharing her love and knowledge of therapeutic essence and healing stones. The kids flocked to her table. Her company is Aum Home. You can have a consultation and she'll tell you how best to decorate any space in all the tones and colors that'll help you express who you are. I can't wait to become more involved in the future with Ashrams for Autism, and as far as the 5K race . . . 

I won FIRST PLACE  for my age group! And hubby placed 2nd...for his age group. We crossed the finish line together. Not bad for our first 5K. Not bad at all.  Until next year!  Hope to see you there. 

Monday, October 5, 2015

Case of the Washed-up Warlock (Poison Ivy Charm School #2)




When thirteen-year-old Tulip Bonnaire’s super-cute crush, Dexter, is threatened with expulsion from Poison Ivy Charm School, she can’t help but take the case. Someone has put a spell on Garrett’s Levitation skills and all the evidence, which includes the testimony of a sea hag stone, is pointing to Dex. Tulip can’t imagine Poison Ivy without Dex, so she’s intent on proving his innocence. But that means delving into an old secret to find out who turned Garrett into a washed-up warlock.


Excerpt:

“Any news yet?” He sat down on his bed and wedged himself against a mountain of pillows.
            I was about to answer when a glint of gray caught my eye. A stone the size of a cookie, with an uneven hole in the middle of it, sat on his bedside table. “Is that your enchanted sea hag stone?” The one that had started all the trouble?
            “Yeah. Glad she finally woke up and told me ’bout Dexter busting into my closet.”
            I ignored him and approached the troublemaking pebble. Its smooth exterior was cool against my skin when I rolled it between my fingers. Not a sign of life existed until I dropped it – kinda accidentally – onto his table. Thud.
            Dark, creepy eyes appeared, lined with spiky, green eyelashes. A tiny mouth with slimy black lips emerged around the hole. And a long, carrot-shaped nose covered in warts jutted out. “Hey, you. Don’t drop me like a bag of dirt.” Her voice screeched like a spider monkey on a rampage.
            I laughed. “You talking about Garrett’s Lev performance?”
            Garrett cleared his throat. “That’s not my fault. It’s a spell.”
            “Don’t you drop me again, you idiotic hooligan.” The sea hag had a ’tude stronger than Alexandria’s.
            I wanted to fling the stupid stone out the window, but that wasn’t the best way to get information. If the dumb hag had seen Dexter, maybe she’d seen something else that could help me solve the case.
            “Sorry,” I said. “I didn’t mean to.”
            “Yeah, right. I know a rock dropper when I see one.”
            I stifled a smirk and a smart comment about a rolling stone. “You see anything else suspicious in Garrett’s room?”
            She batted her needle-like eyelashes. “Nothing but that nerd ’lock who slipped in here like some moron ghost who hasn’t mastered being dead yet. He fumbled with the door forever before crashing in like a nitwit.”
            Anger shot through my veins like an ink pen explosion. First Garrett had insulted Dex. And now some stone with a hideous, old hag face? Who do they think they are? I grabbed the dumb rock with both hands and pinched the sea hag’s ugly warty nose, intent on breaking it off.
            But she bit me!
            Her moldy teeth chomped down on my fingers, drawing blood.
            “Ouch! You stupid sea hag!” I tried to hurl her against the wall, but her grip was like a pit bull’s.
            If pit bulls had carrot-shaped noses, spider monkey voices, and moldy teeth.
            “Get this thing off me,” I yelled at Garrett. “Or I’ll drop your case.”

Goodreads                                                                                    Amazon 



Author Bio:

Patrice Lyle has never met a ghost story she didn’t like. She’s been fascinated with the paranormal since childhood. She attributes this fascination to having heard old family stories of ghostly wreaths, ESP, and money hidden in the lining of antique purses. She grew up on the Oregon Coast and has a Master’s Degree in Writing Popular Fiction. Now she lives with her husband and two cats on Florida’s Space Coast, where she’s working on her next novel under an umbrella on the beach. For more information, please visit her website at www.patricebooks.com