A Vision in Crimson by Kathryn Troy

A Vision in Crimson
Frostbite

Book One
Kathryn Troy

Genre: dark romantic fantasy

Date of Publication: June 1, 2017

ISBN: 9781539800897

Number of pages: 323
Word Count: 80k

Cover Artist: TS95 Studios

Book Description:

Katelyn knows her magic is risky, but Icaryan light is fading fast and she is desperate. Returning to Earth, she crosses paths with Luca, a vampire hybrid living on the outskirts of humanity.

Passion sparks their weary hearts. The rogue hunter follows Katelyn into a world teeming with wonder and danger, forsaking his own quest to root out his father.

But his father has not forgotten him.

A Vision in Crimson is the first installment of a new epic fantasy blistering with romance and Gothicism.

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Excerpt 1 :



His dream was broken by the feel of something soft against his mouth. He opened his eyes and blinked, thinking for a moment that he was still asleep. Flooding his vision was the red-haired siren of his dream, crouched above him.

Her dark brown eyes were staring straight into his. He held her glance for a long while, then took a minute to glimpse at the rest of her. Her features were well defined and graceful. Her long luxurious hair, braided in a few places, spilled over her firm, ample curves onto the ground in front of her. Looking at it now in reality, he saw a unique, vibrant shade of red, darker and almost auburn in the shade of the trees, with strands of pure copper and gold highlighted by the sun through the forest canopy. Her large eyes sparkled. They were alight with intrigue and kind concern, but Luca saw a touch of the tired sadness that he was accustomed to seeing in his own dim reflection. Too much for someone her age.

Luca puzzled over her age for more than a few seconds. Her beauty and slender frame suggested a girl nearing her thirties, yet her countenance told him she had been through more than her share of life’s troubles, even for a woman of the rough and unprotected countryside.

She stared at his clear crystal blue eyes, framed by thick dark brows. A straight nose, tightly pursed lips and strong chin completed his face. Despite his pale complexion, he was dark and beautiful. She didn’t let it show on her face, but the woman had become immediately enamored of him.

Her fingers rested lightly on his mouth. After a silence that lasted a bit too long, she was the first to speak.

“I’ll have you out of there in just a minute,” she whispered. “I won’t hurt you, but we have to be quiet.”

She turned her head to the side to get a glimpse of the valley below.

“I’m looking out for a friend, and just spotted you here a minute ago. Once I’m sure he’s okay, I’ll start digging.”

Luca said nothing. When she was sure that he wouldn’t make a sound, she removed her hand from his lips and moved closer to the hill’s edge, looking for her companion. Luca got a better look at what she was wearing.

A plaid scarf in sapphire blue with hints of gold thread was wrapped around her neck and waist, covering a tunic dress of the same shade. Her legs were covered by high, soft leather brown boots and blue leggings, but Luca spied shapely thighs at the edge of her skirt. She wore a utility belt across her chest which hinted at her generous cleavage, despite her modest neckline. Above, his eyes traced the silhouette of her long, pale, comely neck with excitement, but he quickly quashed the flutter in his heart before it developed, and redirected his gaze.

At her hips, she wore two short swords, and the hilt of a dagger peeked out from the top of her boot. She seemed sure of herself, and didn’t appear the least bit threatened by Luca. She didn’t react to seeing him for the first time in the manner customary to women, and even scores of young men; they usually succumbed quickly to his outward charms—his dark aura and hypnotic stare, two of his many vampiric qualities. But she didn’t gasp in fear or swoon in ecstasy. That puzzled him.

A small part of him wondered why she hadn’t immediately responded to his visage, with a little disappointment.  He chalked it up to her finding him covered in dirt from the neck down. But he knew that shouldn’t have stopped her from surrendering to his trance-inducing stare, even for a moment. He was intrigued by this girl, who had just happened to appear as his dream self was making love to her.

Her garb made her even more of a mystery. He only noticed these things, which were inconsequential to him, because the fabrics, colors, and design of her wardrobe were infinitely superior, and foreign, to anything he had ever seen, including some of the priciest fashions available in the biggest cities. He much preferred the naked version of her, which had dissipated with her actual presence. But even in all her gear, chosen for its rugged functionality, she looked regal. He saw her gesture to her friend, then she turned to face him once more.

“Okay, it looks like whoever did this to you is gone. I’ll have you walking around again soon. Who did do this to you, anyway?” she asked, as she began to claw at the earth with her hands.

“I did.”

His voice was as toneless and nonchalant as ever. Her hands paused for a moment, still holding clumps of dirt, and she looked at him quizzically.

“You buried yourself? Why on earth would you do a thing like that?”

Here came the part he always dreaded, but was compelled to divulge nevertheless.

“I’m a dhampir.”

“A what?”

Here, Luca thought, was the reaction he had been expecting, but had been unusually delayed. He waited for what he had said to sink in, but it didn’t. She was still honestly waiting for an answer. He repeated himself.

“I’m a dhampir.”

“What’s a dhampir?”

He just stared at her, his eyes going slightly wide.

“I’m not from around here,” she explained, “so you’re going to have to fill me in.”

Now it was Luca’s turn to pause. Never, in his entire life, had he been asked to explain this term. In a world whose entire existence revolved around the struggle between vampires and humans, to find someone who was not familiar with this word was truly unheard of. He experienced an emotion he had almost never had occasion to experience. He was, in a word, stunned.

“I’m part human, part vampire.”

“Oh. Ohhhh.”

She finally got it. He waited now for the standard response. Instead, a look of embarrassment swept over her face as she began hurriedly replacing the soil she had disturbed.

“I am so sorry, I didn’t realize. I didn’t mean to intrude on your resting. You looked like you were having a hell of a dream.”

If you only knew. But, was she actually apologizing for bothering his slumber? Luca’s revelation hadn’t fazed her in the slightest. His amazement at her response only piqued his interest in her more.

“It’s alright, I was just getting up.”

Though she had interrupted him, he felt rested.

“In that case, would you like me to help you?”

“Do what you like.”

She resumed her exhumation of Luca. “My name is Kate, by the way.”

Luca stretched his muscles slightly to a sitting position, the remaining earth above him falling away. He took her outstretched palm with his freed right hand, and they both stood up.

“Call me Luca.”

About the Author:

Kathryn Troy is an historian turned novelist and baker. Her nonfiction book, The Specter of the Indian: Race, Gender and Ghosts in American Séances, 1848-1890, is forthcoming from SUNY Press. Her historical expertise in the supernatural and the Gothic informs her fiction at every turn. Her genres of choice include dark fantasy, romance, horror, and historical fiction. She lives in New York with her husband and two darling children.

Bathory’s Closet: http://ladybathoryscloset.blogspot.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kathryn.troy

Instagram: http://www.imgrum.org/user/bathoryscloset/3942479568

Goodreads Profile: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/16571460.Kathryn_Troy

Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/author/bathoryscloset

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Lauren Carr's Audiobook-a-palooza Blog Tour Dead On Ice

Welcome to Lauren Carr's Audiobook-a-palooza Blog Tour! To celebrate the release of Lauren Carr's mysteries in audiobook format, we have 14 books from her three series on tour!

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To follow the tour and to read reviews, please visit Lauren Carr's page on iRead Book Tours.

The Lovers in Crime Mystery Series:

Buy the Audiobook ~ Book

Book Description:

Spunky Cameron Gates is tasked with solving the murder of Cherry Pickens, a legendary star of pornographic films, whose body turns up in an abandoned freezer. The case has a personal connection to her lover, Joshua Thornton, because the freezer was located in his cousin's basement. It doesn't take long for their investigation to reveal that the risqué star's roots were buried in their rural Ohio Valley community, something that Cherry had kept off her show business bio. She should have kept her hometown off her road map, too - because when this starlet came running home from the mob, it proved to be a fatal homecoming.

My review:
I first met Joshua Thornton and Cameron Gates in Lauren's book Shades of Murder. I really liked the character int at book so decided I had to check out Book and series to see how much I liked them as the main characters. I am so glad I did. I like them just as much as Mac Faraday and Archie if nt more. I really love Cameron's attitude. She is great. I am sure I am going t love the rest of the series as much I have this book. I will also have to get a hold to the Joshua Thornton series so I get a better look at his past.

Yep I am a huge fan of Lauren Carr's I have read or listened to several of her books. I cannot get enough. I love her writing style and the twists and turns she tosses in all through the book. I feel like I am investigating cases along with Detectives. Every time I think I have it figured out a new clue is dropped and makes me rethink my assumptions.

Dead On Ice is the 1st book in the Lover's in Crime Series. Joshua's Uncle passes away in a freak accident. While checking on his Uncle after no one has seen him for a few day not only do they find his body but they also find out he is a hoarder. While family and friends are helping to clean out the house a bomb is spotted in the basement. Everyone barely gets clear when the house blows up.

Cameron and Joshua set out to find out who and why the house was bombed they run across an old freezer in the basement. They are surprised to find the mummified remains of a woman. Once the body is ID'd they find out the woman in the freezer was a Porn Star in the 80's, but more then that she was the main suspect in a murder of a teenage girl she wen to school with. They are all left with more question then answers.

They have to figure out who killed Angie, the teenager. Who killed Cheryl aka Cherry Pickens the porn star. Who put Cherry's Body in the freezer. And the big question is WHY?

Put your seat belt on for this one and maybe take a Dramamine. This book is in high speed with tons of twists and turns.

I did listen to the Audiobook. Mike Alger is the narrator. I have listened to a few of the books he has narrated and love the expressiveness of his voice. He does a great job of letting you hear all the emotions in the story. I really enjoy listening to him.

Content Rating:

All of Lauren Carr's books are rated PG-13 because they are murder mysteries and will contains murder scenes. Some of the books contain violence associated with military assignments. There are some books that contain sex scenes which are not explicit. There is little profanity, no f-words.

Meet the Author:

Lauren Carr is the international best-selling author of the Mac Faraday, Lovers in Crime, and Thorny Rose Mysteries—over twenty titles across three fast-paced mystery series filled with twists and turns!



Book reviewers and readers alike rave about how Lauren Carr’s seamlessly crosses genres to include mystery, suspense, romance, and humor.



Lauren is a popular speaker who has made appearances at schools, youth groups, and on author panels at conventions. She lives with her husband and three dogs (including the real Gnarly’s klutzy nephew Sterling) on a mountain in Harpers Ferry, WV.

Connect with Lauren: Website ~ Twitter ~ Facebook

Meet the Narrators:

​Over the past several years Dan Lawson has appeared in numerous spots for radio, television and the internet. He has worked with All-State, Sprint PCS, Mountain Dew and many more. His unique ability to mimic existing characters and celebrities has landed him diverse voice match work ranging from Charlie Sheen to Morgan Freeman.



In 2008 Dan was cast as the first American voice actor for the Korean video game company, Nexon. Over the next several years Dan was the flagship voice of the company, appearing in such titles as Mabinogi, Maple Story, Vindictus, Dragon Nest, Dungeon Fighter Online and Atlantica. In total he has voiced nearly 100 characters for Nexon.

In late 2012 Dan’s voice over career took an unexpected turn into book narration. His first audition landed him the job of narrating The Psychology of Twilight, a psychological look at the wide-spread obsession of the Twilight saga created by Stephanie Meyer. Eighteen more audiobook narrations have followed and show no signs of slowing down.

C.J. McAllister is an Audible Approved Producer -- "Audible Approved producers are the best audiobook producers in the business." Only a small number are awarded this honor.



C.J. has produced best-selling audiobooks in multiple genres/styles, TV commercials/promo teasers, animation projects, interviews (TV and radio), corporate presentations.

Another Audible Approved narrator, voice actor James Lewis has established a solid reputation in fiction as well as non-ficton audiobooks. At latest count, he's narrated nearly 50.



Although his specialty is noir fiction, James has done several non-fiction books as well on a range of people and subjects: Butch and Sundance, General Custer, Revolutionary War, psychic development, taxes.



James Lewis has been awarded the AudioFile Earphone Award for narration, "The Last Outlaws". It's about Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.

A broadcast veteran of over 30 years, Mike Alger is best known as the award-winning Chief Meteorologist for KTVN-TV in Reno, NV. He is also a successful author, having penned the Mystery-Thriller novel "Snow Storm," and is the narrator of the audiobook of the same name.

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Aiding the Dragon by Jessie Donovan blitz

Aiding the Dragon
Jessie Donovan
(Stonefire Dragons #9)
Publication date: May 25th 2017
Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Paranormal

Teagan O’Shea is a rare female dragon-shifter leader. While her Irish clan has a tradition of female leaders, they have always had to hide behind a male face publicly to prevent the other clans from viewing them as weaker and then attacking. When the truth leaks, Teagan is faced with a choice—hand over the leadership to a male or invite the challengers to a leadership trial and earn her place. Out to prove having a penis isn’t required to be a leader, she picks the latter.

Aaron Caruso is sent to Ireland under the guise of repairing relations between two clans on the isle of Ireland. However, upon arrival he learns the truth. Determined to secure Teagan’s place so he can escape her alluring eyes and addicting personality, he busies himself with helping her any way he can. A female used him once and he’s not about to go through that again, no matter how much the Irish female tempts him.

As the pair work together on preparations for the leadership trial, both Aaron and Teagan start to see each other in a new light. Both have their own self-imposed loneliness and yearn for something they can’t have. Can Aaron and Teagan not only change tradition but also open their hearts? Or will they each be doomed to live alone to fight their inner battles?

Goodreads / Amazon / Barnes & Noble / Kobo / iBooks / GooglePlay

—

EXCERPT:

Twisting the knob, Teagan entered the small room. Aaron’s back was to her. While she appreciated his broad shoulders and his thick, dark hair, she smiled at how he was tapping his fingers. He always did that when it came to meeting with her, either in person or via a video conference. “Just make sure not to wear down my table with your nails.”

Aaron’s movements stopped. He turned and Teagan hid her surprise. The male had grown a close-cut beard since the last time she’d seen him. The dark whiskers made him look wiser.

And maybe a wee bit sexier. Not that she’d ever tell him that.

Then he frowned and she banished that thought. Grumpy wasn’t what she needed, among many other things.

Aaron growled, “I wouldn’t have to tap my fingers in the first place if you were on time.”

Killian took a step toward Aaron, but Teagan put up a hand. “I’ll deal with him. Eliza is waiting for you. Go with her and search Sadie’s things. Update me on any developments.”

Her brother nodded and exited the room. Like most males in her clan, he obeyed her orders without question.

Aaron, on the other hand, leaned back in his chair and propped his feet on the table. “Should I get comfortable whilst you use a power play to assert your dominance? Or are you actually going to tell me why I’m here?”

She walked up to his feet and pushed them off the table. “Keep your dirty bloody boots on the floor. Do that again, and I’ll make sure you always have a bucket and rag to clean up after yourself.”

His pupils flashed to slits and back, signaling he was talking to his dragon. “I’m not here to clean.”

She shrugged. “The way I understand it, you’re here to help me for the next few weeks. Bram didn’t say cleaning was off-limits.”

Aaron stood. His dark brown eyes met her green. They were exactly the same height, which was a nice change. Teagan was tall, even by female dragon-shifter standards.

She barely had time to note the flecks in his eyes when he spat out, “Cleaning is off-limits. As is babysitting or being assigned entry-level guard duty. I’m a trained Protector. If it’s not related to my job, then I’ll refuse to do it.”

She raised an eyebrow. “And what? Disappoint your clan leader and destroy his hard work at trying to strengthen our alliance?”

“Bram would see it my way. Besides, you need this alliance more than we do. We already have Lochguard at our back. Who do you have?”

His words stung and her dragon stood at attention.

He was correct that she needed the alliance, but she wasn’t about to put up with bullshit to achieve it. That was the wrong message to send to Stonefire.

She had dealt with many a male acting like Aaron Caruso. She knew what to do.

Fisting his shirt, she pulled him close. For a split second, her dragon reveled in his scent and the heat of his body so close to theirs, but Teagan quickly pushed her beast to the back of her mind. As Aaron’s eyes flashed, she swept his legs with her own. Aaron lost his balance and Teagan guided him to the floor, face down. With his hands behind him and her knee in his lower back, she leaned down to his ear and whispered, “Just because I’m female doesn’t mean you will treat me as any less of a clan leader, understood?”

He turned his head to meet her eyes. “I’m not doing it because you’re female. I’m doing it because you’re irritating.”

Resisting the urge to press a talon against his throat, she replied, “That just earned you guard duty. Maybe twenty-four hours without sleep will teach you a lesson in etiquette.”

She withdrew a key from her pocket and released Aaron. Before he could do more than rise to his hands and knees, she dashed out the sole door and locked it.

His voice was muffled through the door. “Let me out, bloody woman. This isn’t how you treat a guest.”

“Aye, you’re right. It’s how I treat a pest.”

Author Bio:

Sign up for Jessie's newsletter and never miss a release or special: http://jessiedonovan.com/newsletter

Jessie Donovan wrote her first story at age five, and after discovering the Dragonriders of Pern series by Anne McCaffrey in junior high, realized that people actually wanted to read stories like those floating around inside her head. From there on out, she was determined to tap into her over-active imagination and write a book someday.

After living abroad for five years and earning degrees in Japanese, Anthropology, and Secondary Education, she buckled down and finally wrote her first full-length book. While that story will never see the light of day, it laid the world-building groundwork of what would become her debut paranormal romance, Blaze of Secrets. In late 2014, she became a New York Times and USA Today Bestselling author.

Jessie loves to interact with readers. When not reading a book or traipsing around some foreign country on a shoestring, can often be found on Facebook.

Website / Goodreads / Facebook / Twitter

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Writing the Wolf by Steffanie Holmes

Writing the Wolf

Wolves of Crookshollow

Book Two

Steffanie Holmes

Genre: paranormal romance, shifters

Publisher: Bacchanalia House

Date of Publication: May 18, 2017

ASIN: B06W58YNT6

Word Count: 70k

Cover Artist: Aria at Resplendant Covers

Tagline: Rosa just wants to be left alone to write her book, but when werewolves attempt to kidnap her, she realizes her neighbor Caleb is the only one who can protect her. But Caleb is hiding a secret of his own … fur and sparks fly in this hot paranormal romance from USA Today bestselling author Steffanie Holmes.

Book Description:

Sink your teeth into the hot new werewolf paranormal romance from USA Today bestselling author, Steffanie Holmes!

Rosa

I need to escape.

After those racist bastards destroyed my home, I can’t face the world again.

I’ve rented a cabin in the heart of the Crookshollow forest. I’m going to lock myself away and work on my book. I’m going to write my story.

And I absolutely, positively WILL NOT think about Caleb, the hunky labourer who’s fixing up my cabin.

No way.

I won’t think about the way his eyes melt my heart, and his smile melts my panties.

I’m too emotionally raw right now. I can’t handle a fling, especially not with a white guy.

Especially not a guy like him. A guy who shags and leaves. I can’t handle any more heartache.

Caleb

Rosa Parker – clever writer, black woman, total hottie.

The connection between us sizzles – there’s no denying it: this woman is my mate.

When I’m near her, all I want to do is claim her.

If only I wasn’t the biggest threat to her life right now.

With a rogue wolf pack after my hide, I can’t afford a distraction. Even a distraction as alluring as her.

I need to keep my wolfish instincts in check.

But I can’t help myself.

Rosa Parker has got under my skin.

And I won’t stop until I’ve made her mine.

Writing the Wolf is a standalone novel with an HEA. It’s the second book in the hot new paranormal romance series by USA Today bestselling author Steffanie Holmes. Read on if you love spunky heroines, pack politics, and a hero so hot he’ll have you howling for more.

Amazon      BN      iBooks      Kobo      Google Play

Excerpt 2

Rosa stalked through the
forest ahead of me, deliberately averting her gaze from my naked body. I wanted
to make a joke about it, but judging by the set expression on her face, I knew
it wasn’t the best time.

When Rosa reached the cabin,
she stomped across the porch, unlocked the door, walked inside and slammed the
door shut behind her. I stopped myself before I slammed my face against the
glass panel.

“Hey,” I rapped against the
window beside the door. “I’m still out here.”

“I know that. Say what you
need to say to me through the door,” Rosa moved toward the kitchen, and started
slamming her groceries down on the bench. Her hands were still shaking. “I’m
not having you inside, not when you could turn into one of them.”

“Could you at least throw me
a towel or something? It’s a little nippy out here and I’m afraid I’m not
showing you my best angle.”

The corners of Rosa’s mouth
tugged upward a little, but she didn’t crack that gorgeous smile for me. She
balled up the red duvet she’d spread over the bed, and shoved it through the
door to me, slamming it shut behind her before I could get an arm through the
gap.

I wrapped the duvet around
my lower half, knotting the ends together. “Not quite the kilt I’m used to, but
it’s something.”

“Don’t try to be funny, Caleb.
This is serious. You’re a werewolf. I was just attacked by two other
werewolves. The werewolves that attacked me today – they’re your stepbrothers,
and they are after me to get to you for some reason that I’m sure to regret
learning.”

“That’s an astute summary of
the situation.”

“I’m going to need more,
Caleb. I’m going to need the full story.” She slammed the kettle down on the
stove, and turned on the gas.

“It’s a pretty long story.”

Rosa held up her cup and
waved it at me. She folded her arms and leaned against the bench, one hip
jutting out suggestively. “I’m listening.”

About the Author:

Steffanie Holmes is a USA Today bestselling author of dark and steamy paranormal romance. Her books feature clever, witty heroines, wild shifters, cunning witches and alpha males who get what they want.

Before becoming a writer, Steffanie worked as an archaeologist and museum curator. She loves to explore historical settings and ancient conceptions of love and possession. From Dark Age Europe to crumbling gothic estates, Steffanie is fascinated with how love can blossom between the most unlikely characters.

Steffanie lives in New Zealand with her husband and a horde of cantankerous cats. Learn more about Steffanie at her website: www.steffanieholmes.com. She also writes dark science fiction under the name S C Green.

Want to be informed when the next Steffanie Holmes paranormal romance story goes live?

Sign up for the mailing list! http://steffmetal.com/subscribe

Website: http://steffanieholmes.com

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Slow Burn by Roxie Noir blitz

Slow Burn
Roxie Noir
Publication date: May 24th 2017
Genres: Contemporary, New Adult, Romance

I was hired to protect her, not make her scream my name.

Me and danger are old friends. From dodging bullets in Afghanistan to working for the Secret Service when I got out of the Marines, I know danger pretty well.

Or I thought I did. That was before my latest assignment came with a whole new kind of danger.

Her name? Ruby.

She’s the gorgeous-as-hell, opinionated, spitfire rebel daughter of Senator Burgess. Her family’s beyond strict, but for girl who’s so innocent, she’s anything but sweet.

Wicked green eyes, curves that beg me to touch them, and a smile that makes me think dirty, dirty thoughts.

Her father’s a nightmare – a totalitarian husband and father who rules his family with an iron fist. He decides what his clothes his daughters wear, what books they read, where they can go – hell, who they marry.

Ruby can pretend with them, but she can’t pretend with me. I can tell there’s more to her than the demure southern belle she’s supposed to be in public.

But I’m a professional, hired to be her bodyguard. I know better than to fall for someone I’ve been hired to protect, but with every glance, every accidental touch, every word she says to me, I just want her more.

I want to tear away the innocent good girl veneer, and make the real Ruby scream my name as she rakes her nails down my back.

It’s f*cking dangerous. If we get caught, there will be hell to pay — and it’ll be even worse for her.

But I don’t think I can stay away.

Goodreads / Amazon

Author Bio:

I love writing sexy, alpha men and the headstrong women they fall for.

My weaknesses include: beards, whiskey, nice abs with treasure trails, sarcasm, cats, prowess in the kitchen, prowess in the bedroom, forearm tattoos, and gummi bears.

I live in California with my very own sexy, bearded, whiskey-loving husband and two hell-raising cats.

Get my romance novella Dirty Sweet FREE when you join my mailing list!

http://www.roxienoir.com/dirtysweetml

Website / Goodreads / Facebook / Twitter

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Virtual Book Tour: Running Wild Anthology of Stories: Volume 1 by Various Authors"

Running Wild Anthology of Stories: Volume 1

By Various Authors: Sarah Smith Ducksworth, Elaine Crauder, Luanne Smith, Keith R. Fentonmiller, Lisa Montagne, Ann Stolinsky, A.J. O’Connell, Aimee LaBrie, Kristan Campbell, Jack Hillman, Bill Scruggs, Joshua Hedges and Gary Zenker

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GENRE: Fiction, Non-Fiction, Poetry (narrative)

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BLURB:

This gripping collection of stories - fiction, nonfiction, and narrative poem - will make your imagination run wild! Featuring stories by Sarah Smith Ducksworth, Elaine Crauder, Luanne Smith, Keith R. Fentonmiller, Lisa Montagne, Ann Stolinsky, A.J. O’Connell, Aimee LaBrie, Kristan Campbell, Jack Hillman, Bill Scruggs, Joshua Hedges, Gary Zenker. You will travel alternative planets, run away away like teens in search of adventure, solve a murderous mystery, come to grips with your fears, and much more.

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Excerpt Two:

“She was right there when I turned from the garlic bin. I gagged on my half-chewed Tums and choked down the chalky shards. A leather headband restrained her mane of jet-black hair, while her spaghetti strap dress exposed so much neck and shoulder I thought I was back home on Brighton Beach. What really razzed my berries was her scent. Roses. Not just one rose or a bouquet, but thousands, millions! Every rose that had ever grown or would be grown. The entire essence of roses condensed into a single whiff. It transported me back to Ebbets Field, 1941. I was ten at the time and couldn’t tear my eyes from this girl selling peanuts, as though she had a magnet behind her face and my eyeballs had turned to iron. First, I smelled roses. Then, her denim overalls brushed my naked knee. “Nuts?” she’d asked. I was struck dumb. I gazed into her leather headband and sniffed like a hypnotized moron with a runny nose. “Did you hear me?” asked the woman, yanking me back to 1957.” From Keith Fentonmiller’s “Exodus”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

AUTHOR Bio and Links:

https://www.facebook.com/runningwildpress/

Elaine Crauder’s fiction is also in Cooweescoowee, The Boston Literary Magazine, The Eastern Iowa Review , and Penumbra. Another story received the Westmoreland Short Story Award. Eleven of her short stories have been finalists or semi-finalists in contests, including finalists in the Tobias Wolff and Mark Twain House contests. ”The Price Of A Pony,” under the title”Christmas the Hard Way,” was a semi-finalist for both Ruminate Magazine’s short story prize and for the Salem College Center for Women Writers Reynolds Price short fiction award.

Richard D. “Ky” Owen is a lawyer with Goodwin & Goodwin, LLP, in Charleston, West Virginia. He earned a B.A. in journalism from Michigan State University in 1981 and a J.D. from Hamline University in 1984. Coming from a family of writers, he considers himself a “writer by birth.” He is the author of

None Call Me Dad and he blogs about parenting and Michigan State sports on his website, www.nonecallmedad.com.

Keith R. Fentonmiller is a consumer protection attorney for the Federal Trade Commission in Washington, D.C. Before graduating from the University of Michigan Law School, he toured with a professional comedy troupe, writing and performing sketch comedy at colleges in the Mid-Atlantic States. His Pushcart-nominated short story was recently published in the Stonecoast Review. His debut novel, Kasper Mützenmacher’s Cursed Hat, will be published March 20, 2017 by Curiosity Quills Press.

Based in Southern California, Dr. Lisa Montagne currently divides her time between writing poetry and prose, teaching writing to (mostly) willing college students, and overseeing educational technology projects and support at Fullerton College. She is also a Swing, Blues, and Argentine Tango dancer, host, DJ, and instructor. She likes to drink Champagne in as many places as she can, including Europe; to read poetry aloud to anybody who will listen; to cook for anybody who is willing to sit down long enough to enjoy her food; to dabble in drawing, painting, and photography; and to read anything plopped in front of her, ranging from D.H. Lawrence to Vogue magazine. She also likes to watch television and movies, and to imagine how much better she would have produced them herself. She lived in Las Vegas at one time, so she likes to tell people that she was a stripper there. She was really just a graduate student and high school teacher, but it’s more fun to let people wonder. Although rumored to be a direct descendent of Oompa Loompas, Lisa is actually the offspring of a college professor and a circus dwarf. You can find some more of her writing at archive405.com and lisamontagne.com, and see evidence of her adventures @lisamlore on Instagram.

Ann Stolinsky is a Pennsylvania-based word and game expert. She is the founder and owner of Gontza Games, an independent board and card game company, and three of her games are currently in the marketplace:

“MINDFIELD, The Game of United States Military Trivia”; “Pass the Grogger!”; and “Christmas Cards.”

Check out her website at www.gontzagames.com. She is also a partner in Gemini Wordsmiths, a full-service copyediting and content creating company. Visit www.geminiwordsmiths.com for more information and testimonials. Ann reviews books for Amazing Stories Magazine, an online sci-fi magazine which can be found at www.amazingstoriesmag.com, and is an Assistant Editor for Red Sun Magazine, www.redsunmagazine.com. Her most recent publishing credit is a poem in the Fall 2015 issue of Space and Time Magazine. She is a graduate of the Bram Stoker award-winning author Jonathan Maberry’s short story writing class.

Lisa Diane Kastner is a former correspondent for the Philadelphia Theatre Review and Features Editor for the Picolata Review, her short stories have appeared in magazines and journals such as StraightJackets Magazine and HESA Inprint. In 2007 Kastner was featured in the Fresh Lines @ Fresh Nine, a public reading hosted by Gross McCleaf Art Gallery. She founded Running Wild Writers and is the former president of Pennwriters, Inc. (www.pennwriters.com). She received her MFA in Creative Writing from Fairfield University, her MBA from Pennsylvania State and her BS from Drexel University (She’s definitely full of it). Her novel THE KEEPER OF LOST THINGS was shortlisted in the fiction category of the William Faulkner Words and Wisdom Award and her memoir BREATHE was a semi-finalist in the nonfiction category of the same award. Born and raised in Camden, New Jersey she migrated to Philadelphia in her twenties and eventually transported to Los Angeles, California with her partner-in-crime and ever-talented husband. They nurture two felonious felines who anxiously engage in little sparks of anarchy.

Aimee LaBrie works as a communications director at Rutgers University. She earned her MFA in fiction from Penn State, and her MLA from University of Pennsylvania. Her short story collection, Wonderful Girl, was awarded the Katherine Anne Porter Prize in Fiction and published by the University of North Texas Press in 2007. Her second collection of stories, A Good Thing, placed as a finalist in the BOA Short Fiction Contest. Her short stories have been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and published in Pleiades, Minnesota Review, Iron Horse Literary Review, Permafrost, and other literary journals. In 2012, she won first place in Zoetrope’s All-Story Fiction contest. You can read her blog at www.butcallmebetsy.blogspot.com.

Kristan Campbell is a short story writer born in Washington, D.C. but has only visited her grandmother there during some of the summers of her childhood. She’s more familiar with Philadelphia, New York City, and Paris than her native city and aims to weave her experiences in those places into tales based on places and people that are out of the ordinary. She studied Journalism at Temple University (what seemed like a practical approach to writing at the time) and Comparative Literature at Hunter College (which seemed like a fun idea at the time) before accepting that she should have been an English major all along. Kristan completed her B.A. in English at Temple University in 2010 and an MFA in Fiction at Fairfield

University in 2016. She’s currently attempting to eke out a living doing freelance editing with the help of her cat, Fishy, who manages her desktop printer with enthusiasm.

Bill Ed Scruggs spent his younger years meeting the Southern mountain countryside and exploring the people, taking time out as needed for work in various occupations. He lives (temporarily) in Connecticut and has one child, a psychiatrist. Presently he is reconstructing his memories and imaginings in a series of novels and short stories (Facebook page Foothills Fiction - Bill Ed Scruggs) Warrensburg is a fictional photo of a country village in the illumination of fireflies.

Joshua Hedges is a debut Science Fiction writer from Pittsburgh, PA. He graduated from The University of Pittsburgh with a degree in Computer Science. When he’s not writing stories or code, he ventures outdoors with his wife and three-year-old son to hunt dragons in the forest.

Gary Zenker is a marketing professional whose days are filled with creating business and marketing plans, and writing ad copy and media content. By night, he applies his imagination to flash fiction tales that cross genre and focus on revealing various facets of human nature. He is the author of Meetup Leader, a book on running successful groups; is editor and publisher of 19 books in the rock & roll Archives series; and co-author of Says Seth, a humorous collection written with his then six-year-old son. His work has earned a dozen marketing awards and placed in four writers’ contests, including a first place recognition from Oxford University Press. He founded and continues to lead two writers groups in southeastern PA, assisting others to develop their skills and achieve their writing goals. www.zenkermarketing.com

ONLY THE E-BOOK IS $0.99 DURING THE TOUR

Amazon eBook: https://www.amazon.com/Running-Wild-Anthology-Stories-1-ebook/dp/B06VTMDRNN

Amazon-print - https://www.amazon.com/Running-Wild-Anthology-Stories-1/dp/0997778822/ref=sr_1_1

Interview with Bill Scruggs

1.  Where do you get inspiration for your stories?

I get inspiration from the things that I like, or, more usually, liked. I'm recreating the people and sights and sounds and smells that I'd like to experience again. Sometimes I call it "remembering and reimagining." I can't get back to mountains and hill country and the rivers and lakes and forests right now, but I can bring them to me. Then I add something threatening or puzzling or challenging to the time and place, and some good people (with a few faults) that I know must have been there somewhere even if I didn't run into them, close my eyes and start imagining how it would all work out. Then I open my eyes and try to keep up on the keyboard. It's kind of like a daydream with a written record.

2. How did you do research for your book?

I don't write about things I don't know about, so there's not a big research base; it's more like fact-checking. I can get most of it on online now, but I still have some Tennessee history books, some farmer's calendars that give length of day, moon phases, sun and moon rise and set times (moon phase is a function of rise and set times, so you don't want a full moon rising at midnight, or being up for 12 hours in the summertime). I tend to take the fictional landscape from a real landscape, and if it's not one I remember I'll take it off a topographical map, which I used to collect but now can get online. As with the moon phases and many other trip-me-ups, this "fact-checking" keeps me from describing something mother nature can't create. I'll go online for technical details I don't remember or never knew about, e.g., horse or cattle breeds, ranges of wildflower or tree species, effects of snakebite or ballistics of bullet flight. I won't say, like Louis L'Amour, that "if I write about a spring that spring is there," but you can be sure it could be there.

3. Do you have another profession besides writing?

I've worked for the state as a social worker, doing welfare, child abuse, etc, but I was always getting in trouble with my alleged superiors for trying to help people.

4. If you could go back in time, where would you go?
If I didn't have a safe-passage guarantee, no further than mid-fifties Appalachia. The past was dangerous. With the guarantee . . .

Palestine in Biblical times. Lepers and cruel kings and invaders with chariot armies. Most people had to walk everywhere and provide their own protection against bandits (though they probably couldn't do much about fleas and lice). Medical care was a guess and a gamble. Did they adapt and have a positive attitude, or were they terrified and praying for rescue as I imagine I would be?

And I'd like to ride a horse up a narrow mountain trail in the Old West, headed for the other side which I'd never seen.

5. What is your next project?

Completing TENNESSEE STORY, my current novel. A good friend, a well-educated and sophisticated reader, called the first draft one of the ten best novels she has read. It's prejudice and love, money and poverty, landowners and sharecroppers in the mid-twentieth century South, an old man and old woman who find themselves behaving like children again, a rich valley kid who cannot understand why he's willing to risk his life to see an ignorant backwoods mountain girl, and a boy and girl who fall in love when they're not even allowed to notice each other. It's one of my most profound experiences, although I was just sitting at a desk the whole time, and sometimes I'm not sure if an event was partially remembered or wholly imagined.

1. What is your favorite part of this book and why?

My favorite part of the free-verse piece published in "Running Wild" is the storm and the rising river, "the gentle whisper of water in a hurry saturates the air like the fog that augurs the werewolf" or "the once gently-flowing ripples and waves are beginning to march to the music of the wind." A storm and a rising river represent close contact with raw power and, as in the poem, we'd better figure out how to adapt.

2. If you could spend time with a character from your book whom would it be? And what would you do during that day?
From the same piece (and later from TENNESSEE STORY), Laveen'ya Dibble, the black sharecropper girl with the huge plans and irresistible will. I would want to walk through the places she knew from the book, and ask questions about how she felt now about that world, was her family still strong, did she still love Uncle Tyson, did she ever miss White Boy Joe Roy, just a little? She was created real enough (through the technique described below) that I do not know what her answers would be.

3. If you could have been the author of any book ever written, which book would you choose?

I'm going to sound a little prideful here, but that's not the explanation. Nobody can satisfy my needs in a book as I can, because nobody knows them as I do. I think TENNESSEE STORY is as good as any novel ever written, because it includes every element of human behavior that belongs in a great novel, and the characters are so real you can feel the heat from their skin. I apologize for this display of prejudice and hubris, and admit that I would be proud to claim any novel William Faulkner wrote.

4. Are your characters based on real people or did they all come entirely from your imagination? 

For important characters I start with innate personality characteristics embedded enough to survive through education and conditioning, in a human being who doesn't yet have gender or history or skin color. E.g. mentally strong, tenacious, smart, timid, volatile. Then I add gender, skin color if it's pertinent, where they have lived, what's happened to them, all important life experiences and teaching and acquired beliefs. Then mix nature and nurture, and wait while a personality emerges. I think characters turn out pretty realistic and 3D, and the developed personality puts restraints on me using them for any action that facilitates the plot, even if it's out of character. They have a character and I have to abide by it, even I have to work with the plot.

5. What made you want to become a writer?
I don't know, I never thought about it. The first story was in the third grade, trying to get a thirsty cowboy on a tired horse across the desert. The teacher caught me, and I don't believe I ever finished it. But I still remember a hard ride, hardship, dangers, and exhilaration, so I guess I was hooked.

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