Just one more chapter: August 2019

Thursday, August 29, 2019

Secrets Never Die

Tallie Brown’s life has never made sense. Raised in isolation by her mother, Julia, Tallie was dragged suddenly and without explanation from one third-world outpost to another until life normalized seven years ago when Julia took a position on a mountaintop in the Pacific northwest. But when Julia unexpectedly dies, Tallie uncovers clues suggesting that Julia had a secret life. Journalistic phenom Jackson James is still recovering from the devastating mistake that flatlined his promising career. Now he’s paying the price, working as the editor of a syrupy community rag in a posh D.C. suburb. But when the very man who destroyed him drops a tantalizing lead about a potential D.C. scandal, the reporter sees his chance for redemption and sets off to chase the story. Jackson’s investigation leads him to Cutler’s Ridge, a dying Virginia coal town, and directly into the path of the mysterious and beautiful Tallie. As these two mistrustful loners follow their leads, their stories begin to intertwine until they reach an alarming conclusion – something terrible happened in Cutler’s Ridge. As they doggedly pursue the story, the town’s cold reception spirals into threats and danger, proving that there are those who will stop at nothing to keep the past hidden forever –because secrets never die.

~ Universal Amazon Link ~
~ Seagull Book ~
~ Deseret Books ~ B&N ~

Laurie (L.C.) Lewis will always be a Marylander at heart—a weather-whining lover of crabs, American history, and the sea. She admits to being craft-challenged, particularly lethal with a glue gun, and a devotee of sappy movies. Secrets Never Die is Laurie’s twelfth published novel.

Her women’s fiction/romance novels include Love on the Line, (2019), Awakening Avery, (2018), Love on a Limb, (2017), Sweet Water, (2017), The Dragons of Alsace Farm (2016), and
Unspoken (2004), written as Laurie Lewis. Using the pen name L.C. Lewis, she wrote the five volumes of her award-winning FREE MEN and DREAMERS historical romance series, set against the backdrop of the War of 1812: Dark Sky at Dawn (2007), Twilight’s Last Gleaming
(2008), Dawn’s Early Light (2009), Oh, Say Can You See? (2010), and In God is Our Trust, (2011).
Laurie Lewis is a RONE Award Winner (The Dragons of Alsace Farm) and was twice
named a New Apple Literary Award winner in 2017 (The Dragons of Alsace Farm), and in 2018, winning Best New Fiction (Love on a Limb.) She is also a BRAGG Medallion honoree, and she was twice named a Whitney Awards and USA Best Books Awards finalist.
Laurie loves to hear from readers, and she invites you to join her VIP Readers’ Club, or contact her at any of these locations.

~ VIP Readers' Club ~ Website ~

~ Twitter ~ Goodreads ~
~ Facebook ~ Instagram~

RANDOM FACTS

1. I met my husband on a CB radio when I was fifteen.

2. I have a weird love for twinkle lights and nesting boxes.

3. I'm a kidney donor.

4. I threw the shot put and discus in high school.

5. I love big, dangling earrings.

6. Our house was hit by a tornado last November.

7. I have a dozen amazing grandchildren.

8. My mom has dementia and was the inspiration behind "The Dragons of Alsace Farm."

9. I could eat fried chicken all day.

10. I speak in accents when I write my characters' dialogue.

To view our blog schedule and follow along with this tour visit our Official Event page

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Wednesday, August 28, 2019

Once You Know

Non Fiction / Body, Mind, Spirit / Inspiration & Personal Growth

Date Published: November 5th 2019

Publisher : Acorn Publishing

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Our children are our hope, our future, our everything. Yet, we are often very unaware of the consequences of our actions, and the impact they have on our children’s future. The dangers of our lack of awareness are real. For the first time in history, our children’s life expectancy is shorter than ours. It is our duty as parents to educate ourselves and help our children thrive. This book is:

· An invitation to take a deeper look at the cultural influence on our children’s health.

· A helpful resource for parents who wish to take an active role in preserving their children’s health in today’s toxic environment.

· An empowering guide with life-changing information that most of us don’t have.

Once you know, you can make changes. NOW is the time to act.

About the Author

Agnes Deglon is a biochemist, oriental medicine practitioner, and the mother of two young boys. She is a passionate children’s health advocate. In the few years she spent in the acupuncture clinic, she came to the conclusion that it is easier to preserve health than to cure disease.

Aside from ONCE YOU KNOW A Guide to Preserving Your Child’s Health, Agnes is the author of the children’s book series, Kids’ Questions About Life, an educational book series written in simple language for parents, teachers, and kids who are pondering the deeper, more complex yet so essential issues of life. Book two in the series, Wait for me! Would you Mind?, won first place in the 2016 Royal Palm Literary Award. Book three, The Little Souls, was a finalist.

You can visit her online at WWW.AGNESDEGLONBLOG.COM

Contact Links

Friday, August 23, 2019

FATE’S DESTINY

I am so excited that FATE’S DESTINY by Debbie Cassidy is available now and that I get to share the news!

If you haven’t yet heard about this wonderful book by Author Debbie Cassidy, be sure to check out all the details below.

This blitz also includes a giveaway for a $15 Amazon Gift Card, International, courtesy of Debbie and Rockstar Book Tours. So if you’d like a chance to win, enter in the Rafflecopter at the bottom of this post.

About the Book:

Title: FATE’S DESTINY (Heart of Darkness #3)

Author: Debbie Cassidy

Pub. Date: August 20, 2019

Publisher: Debbie Cassidy

Formats: Paperback, eBook

Pages: 192

Find it: Goodreads, Amazon

READ FOR FREE ON KU!

A winter king with no memory of who he used to be, a rag tag group of rogues, and a journey that will test us at every turn.

With Veles and The Raven at my side and with Morrigan’s power surging through my veins, anything feels possible. But our quest comes with harsh challenges, and we will be tested, mind, body and soul. A frozen wasteland lies between us and our goal, and hunger closes in.

The Autumn kingdom is our salvation…If we make it. But only the strongest will survive.

I hope I’m among them…

Buy the first 2 books!

Excerpt:

About Debbie:

Debbie Cassidy lives in England, Bedfordshire, with her three kids and very supportive husband. Coffee and chocolate biscuits are her writing fuels of choice, and she is still working on getting that perfect tower of solitude built in her back garden. Obsessed with building new worlds and reading about them, she spends her spare time daydreaming and conversing with the characters in her head – in a totally non psychotic way of course. She writes Urban Fantasy, Fantasy and Reverse Harem Fantasy. All her books contain plenty of action, romance and twisty plots.

Connect with Debbie via her website or Email her at debbiecassidyauthor@gmail.com

Check her out on twitter

http://www.subscribepage.com/f6u2k8

Giveaway Details:

1 winner will win a $15 Amazon Gift Card, INTERNATIONAL.

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Thursday, August 15, 2019

Nothing Else But You

New Adult Romance, Contemporary Romance

Published: July 30, 2019

Publisher: Boroughs Publishing Group

TRUE HEARTS

What appealed most about The Letter Club was the anonymity and complete absence of social media BS. Giovanni Di Caro lives with enough scrutiny and family drama, he didn't need anymore, but he wanted someone he could talk to. Sure, his quad-mates in college are great, but there's a part of him he wanted to share without worrying about being judged. What he didn't expect was to fall for a woman whose letters became his anchor. Smart, funny, intuitive and sweet, somehow she understood him better than anyone else in his life. The problem? He doesn't know her name or where she lives. But he will, because over the past few months she had become his girl, and now he's ready to claim what's his.

EXCERPT FROM NOTHING ELSE BUT YOU

Mirabelle figured that dwelling on the school shooting and G’s aimlessness as a result thereof was a downer. She wanted to make him laugh and see the lighter side of life. God knew she spent countless hours working on that herself.

So, after typing out the letter and printing it in the computer lab – she did not have a computer at home and she would never use the one at work for personal stuff – she returned to the computer and went through the Sagawick Valley High School’s yearbooks for G’s sophomore year.

Unusual, and a bit daunting, there were eleven boys with G as their first name. And who knew if G was really a G. She wasn’t really Mirabelle, but she had become Mirabelle nine months ago when she’d fled home. It took a good chunk of her savings to buy a new driver’s license and social security card. Denny, the guy who sent her to the forger, was as stand-up as a mid-level street dealer could be, but in this case, he did her a solid. No, she didn’t do drugs, but she had lived in the same rat-hole boarding house in Portland as he did, and she cooked on her little camp stove, even though she wasn’t supposed to cook in her room. One night when she was making a stew, Denny had smelled the food, came a knocking, and begged a meal. Their sit-down dinners were a two to three time a week occurrence. Denny was a real quid pro quo kind of guy, so he did her a solid and sent her to a good forger who knew how to get her a valid social security number.

Which was how she was able to move to and settle in Fiddler’s Rest, population 2,036, the county seat of a sparsely populated area, a little east of the middle of the great state of Oregon. After having spent hours hunched over a computer in one of Portland’s public libraries, she’d found Fiddler’s Rest, saw they had a community college, and that there were enough stores in the area that she knew she’d find work. It was cheap to live there, far from almost everything and everybody, yet only miles from a main highway that cut across the state. Perfect camouflage and an easy escape route.

Taking it on faith that G was a G, she went through the yearbook assiduously. Eleven G guys, five of which were on sports teams. Mirabelle bet that G had become proficient enough to play a sport for an Ivy League school because he’d done it for years. Of the five sport Gs, George, football, Geoffery, tennis – natch with that spelling – Grant, basketball, Glen, baseball and Giovanni, lacrosse, Mirabelle had guessed that Glen was her G.

But she wasn’t certain.

Glenn Ryback was good-looking in a jock sort of way, but he didn’t exude Ivy League. He seemed more state school and chill. He didn’t have the intensity a student needed to crack the Ivy League safe. Geoffery Whitcomb was so white bread and Ivy League his photo screamed Skull and Bones, but he didn’t look like he had a sensitive bone in his body. Her G – yeah, she knew he wasn’t hers, but still – was a guy with a deep well of a soul or a supreme liar. Who was she to judge? She’d reinvented herself and fabricated a new identity. But… She hadn’t lied to him about anything except the initial of her first name. She was golden.

Grant Ascomb had the looks and the Ivy League aura, but while basketball could get physical, it wasn’t brutal, which is how her G described his sport. Which left George Brody, the linebacker, and Giovanni Di Caro, the lacrosse player. George wasn’t much to look at, but he fit the bill in the sports department. She couldn’t tell if he was Ivy League material. Maybe, but around the eyes he didn’t seem to have the smarts. There was nothing scientific about her deductions. Christ, these were yearbook photos that were nearly five years old. But, it was all she had.

Giovanni Di Caro was too gorgeous to be serious enough to even apply for college, never mind gain entrance to an Ivy League school. The lower classes’ photos were in black and white. Only the seniors’ photos were in color, and yet, Mirabelle knew Giovanni had bright blue eyes and jet-black hair. A dangerous combination in the you’re-too-handsome-to-be-real column, which was why she was sure he wasn’t her G. Anyone who looked that good and could drop panties for a living didn’t knuckle down and study like a demon. Sure, she was making broad generalizations, but she’d found, for the most part, they held water.

She looked at the time in the top corner of the computer screen, cursed, then erased her search history and powered off the computer. She was going to be late for her writing class. They were diagramming sentences, which sounded horrid, but she loved that shit.

About the Author

Elle Wright has been writing stories since she was a child, which led her to a career in journalism. She enjoys reporting life as much as making up a world she can control. She lives on the east coast of the United States where most of her large, noisy family resides. When she isn't in front of her computer, she loves to travel, garden, hang out with her dogs, and take in the brisk sea air that she's told is supposed to help calm her. She's been testing that theory for a while now.

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Wednesday, August 14, 2019

The Missing Fairy Princess

The Missing Fairy Princess by Walter Salvadore Pareira

~ Book Tour~

11th to 17th August

About the Book:

“The Missing Fairy Princess” is the story of a 16-year-old fairy princess pitted against a powerful witch. The witch has stolen a potent new mantra developed by a colleague, ruthlessly snuffing out a brilliantly innovative mind. She then hatches an elaborate plot to frame an adversary for her misdeed. Her intention is to exact sweet revenge from her foe and at the same time, get away with the theft. The victim, caught in her vicious web, is doomed to disgrace and a life sentence on a harsh penal colony. Meanwhile, the witch learns from her crystal ball, about an imminent threat from a fairy princess wearing a pink tiara. To ward off that threat she kidnaps the fairy princess, wipes her memory clean and then turns her into a two-year-old girl.

Unfortunately for the culprit, she has goofed up by kidnapping the wrong fairy princess, Merlyn, instead of Ashlyn, her twin. The mistake turns out to be the undoing of the witch because Ashlyn proves to be her nemesis. The brilliant fairy princess exposes the cobweb of misleading evidence fabricated by the witch, ultimately unmasking her.

If you love mystery, whodunit, with a dash of magical realism and sci-fi, this book is for you.

Book Links:

Goodreads * Amazon India * Amazon USA

Cleanliness

“Cleanliness” ~ a topic which has featured so prominently in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s speeches whenever he addressed gatherings across the country, Swachh Bharat!

Despite the rigorous drive by the central government, it is disheartening that except in small pockets, the larger picture that emerges is that there has been no appreciable improvement.

Why is it so difficult to inculcate the habit of cleanliness in us Indians? This question gives rise to a plethora of others. Is it inborn and so deep-rooted that it has become uncorrectable? Have we been always like this and have fallen into a rut!

Certainly, not! History attests that for bygone centuries India had an unblemished record as a much admired country. Our hospitality matched our wealth and surroundings. Our famed structures like Taj Mahal and Qutub Minar attracted visitors from all over the world, praising our land. Given such a glorious background, how does one explain the degeneration to present abysmal depths?

Also, one mustn’t forget that the issues of overall cleanliness and environment damage although distinctly separate, are definitely correlated. One has to take a look at the pathetic condition of our famed river of Ganga which at places reeks of raw sewage, despite 22,000 crores claimed to have been spent during the last four years. In Mumbai, the Mithi river has been reduced to an open sewer and is an eye sore, again after humongous amounts of public money supposedly spent on cleaning it.

Those born in 30’s and 40’s would agree with me that the conditions in those days weren’t as pathetic like those one sees today. There is a plausible theory that the industrialization was the cause of the fast deterioration. If that indeed is the case, then it inevitably gives rise to a serious question; one of dereliction of duty. Unquestionably, the finger of blame points squarely at the watchdog authorities, including the governments at the centre and the states. Were they so consumed in their eternal fights for power that ‘minor’ issues such as the blatant environment damage taking place so openly all over the country, were ignored overriding the persistent grave warnings from the environmentalists. In the process, some of those politicians succeeded in turning the national calamity to their advantage, abetting the defaulters by fraudulent means by lining their own pockets.

I am sure we could discuss this issue for hours, but at the end, it would emerge as a classic example of the ‘fence feeding on the crop’! The present policy of the ‘carrot and stick’ hardly has shown a worthwhile improvement. It seems imperative that sterner and punitive measures are called for.

I cannot resist the temptation of quoting an interesting anecdote. There is the proven case of a tiny state in the Far East which was struggling to come to terms with filth and squalour and a true visionary leader transformed it into a country which is now proud of its environmental achievements. Many years ago, a visitor stepped out of the International Airport and even as he was looking for a cab, succumbed to the habit of spitting. In the blink of an eye, a marshal materialized and gave the man a receipt for 500 dollars in local currency, pointing to a prominent notice prohibiting spitting. Apparently, there was further misery in store for the despondent visitor. Another marshal handed him a pail and a groom and ordered him to clean a stretch of around 100 feet as a token punishment.

There is a colloquial saying that you cannot expect one’s hand to produce the results what a stick alone can do. May be it is time for our authorities to shift gears and adopt tougher legislation to discipline the legions of errant citizens blatantly spitting and littering. Many years ago, it was a common sight to see people urinating at dark corners, with the result one had to block one’s nostrils while passing such stinking spots. Subsequently, someone came up with a brilliant idea of putting up ceramic tiles with the picture of prominent deities at such places, the results were noteworthy. Unfortunately, the idea didn’t have the desired results in curbing spitting.

Mere sloganeering will not help! The change has to take place at the grassroots level. The parents and teachers have a greater role to play in moulding the young minds. A recent advertisement on TV comes to mind where a child sees her mother throw a wrapper in a park and replicates it later at a public place. The rebuke from mother has the kid saying the former did exactly the same thing in the park, causing acute embarrassing as well as realization of her folly in the mother. It pains one to see even educated youngsters indulging in wanton littering from the trains, buses or cars involving plastic bottles, wrappers and plastic sachets with little regard to the environmental damage they are causing. That also applies to the disgusting habit of spitting which we have formed maybe due to of our pan-chewing habit.

I can recall yet another significant effect of the role of the teacher. My granddaughter was in the first grade then. One day we saw her coming home inconsolable, tears rolling down her cheeks even though she had left her class a good 10-15 minutes earlier. The reason as it transpired was that the teacher has explained to the class how unscrupulous builder were irresponsibly cutting down trees to make way for new buildings, thereby destroying what the nature has taken centuries to build. Such was the impact on the young mind of a five-year-old that she was prepared to take part into a demonstration against the errant builders.

Precious moments are ticking and with every passing minute, the mankind is racing towards an inevitable tryst with doom. The nature sounded a number of loud warnings, but if we stupidly continue to ignore them, we would be dropping the proverbial axe on our own feet.

About the Author:

After spending over 25 years in the Middle East, the author, aged 75, now leads a retired life. He lives with his wife and son in Thane, near Mumbai. He has been passionate about writing from his early days. His first book was a fast-paced sci-fi novel titled “This Nightmare is for Real”, was self-published. That was followed by a historical fiction titled “Bheem – The Sage of Madhavpur”, again a self-publication. A third book, a fairy tale titled “The Missing Fairy Princess” which was published on Kindle Select during the first week of June 2019, while a fourth on the oft-discussed topic of cross-border terrorism titled “The Carnivore has a Heart” is slated for publication shortly thereafter again on Kindle Select.

Contact the Author:

Facebook * Twitter * Website

Friday, August 9, 2019

Wilfred’s Dream

Suspense

Date Published: September 7, 2019

Publisher: Black Opal Books

Decades after migrating north to Cleveland, Ohio, from rural Louisiana, Tobias Winslow has made an uneasy peace with the past, including his own mistakes that led to a prison stint. News of a murdered son, and the daughter that son left behind, forces Tobias to reassess his past and restructure his plans for the future. Christian Taylor and Joey Breaux, meanwhile, are college students who have vastly different worldviews, but are drawn together by an appreciation of family. All three—Tobias, Christian, and Joey—are unknowingly tied together by a disappearance in Louisiana decades earlier.

Excerpt

What Willie suffered happened decades ago, his disappearance never solved, so why was Tobias dreaming about it now?

Vernita looked past her plate of eggs, grits, and ham. To one side of her, a woman shoveled food into her mouth, not looking away from her plate. At the other end of the table, an aide fed another woman.

“Open up,” the aide instructed before placing a spoon with a small amount of applesauce into the woman’s mouth. “Good. That’s good.”

Vernita clenched her fists, gritted her teeth, and began breathing heavily. She abruptly stood and glanced across the cafeteria. Then she knocked the items off her tray unto the floor. “He ain’t coming back!” she screamed. “They kilt my son! They kilt Wilfred!”

Several aides rushed over and wrestled her to the ground. One of the aides signaled for a strait jacket.

About the Author

Mark R. Lowery has worked for newspapers and magazines across country.

The son of a preacher who seemingly never unpacked his bags, Mark lived in five states before reaching high school. It was during those many upheavals that he sought solace in reading and writing.

The public library became and remains one of his favorite places. After graduating with a communications degree from Rowan University in New Jersey, he took a series of jobs writing and editing for magazines and newspapers, including the Detroit Free Press, New York Newsday and the Cleveland Plain Dealer.

Currently, Mark resides in Shaker Heights, Ohio.

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Thursday, August 8, 2019

The Face of the Seal

Historical Suspense

Publisher: Windchime Press

Date Published: 8/8/2019

*FREE With Kindle Unlimited*

When Gerel Garnier, Paris’ up-and-coming jewelry designer, is commissioned by Britain’s famous art patron William Blackwell IV to create a replica of the 19th Century Qing Dynasty Empress Seal, she believes that her artist’s dream is finally coming true. Blackwell’s name and fortune could catapult her to the status of crème de la crème in the world of couture art design. Little does she know that the dream job will lure her into a web of treachery, deceit and murder.

While attending the unveiling of the original Empress Seal at the Forbidden City, Gerel stumbles on a startling secret about her family roots, and she is a woman on a mission ever since. From the Forbidden City back to Paris, she careens from dark secrets to illuminating revelation as the truth of her lineage emerges. An enlightening epiphany hits her: She Gerel Garnier, is the heir of the face of the Empress Seal–a rare gemstone that has witnessed centuries of love, hatred, faith and bloodshed.

Now the face of the seal has fallen unexpectedly into her hands. What is she going to do with the gemstone that seems to be a curse to whoever possesses it yet still hunted by the dark forces of the world?

Prologue

Southern China, 1858

. . . The ancient gong at the market square began to toll, crashing wave after wave of metallic reverberation into villages and rice patties miles away. In the center of the town square, Father Bernard, in a dingy burlap robe, knelt on the dirt ground. The Pearl River—the river that had sustained the lives of the villagers and their rice patties for thousands of years—stretched ahead of him like a shining tapestry. Behind him, a headsman stood vigilantly, a three-foot-long sword hanging on his hip.

As villagers and peasants streamed into the town square, they were ordered to stand in a semi-circle facing the kneeling priest. When the last echo of the gong died, the local viceroy, in a long white robe and a blue satin sleeveless surcoat, addressed the crowd. He unfurled a silk scroll containing the Emperor’s imperial order:

The Emperor is willing to forgive Father Bernard’s crime of preaching Christianity in unauthorized territories and regions of the Imperial Qing Dynasty. Father Bernard is also accused of seducing and violating women in our village. If he is willing to confess these crimes and speak the names of the women he has seduced, the Emperor is prepared to absolve him completely and make him a free man. Otherwise, Father Bernard will be sentenced to death by beheading.

Having delivered the royal order, the viceroy rolled up the scroll and turned to face Father Bernard. “This is your final chance. Confess and save yourself,” he said, inching closer to the kneeling priest. “Look at the crowd behind me, just tell me which women you’ve seduced and you’re a free man.”

“I didn’t seduce anybody. I only spread the Word of God and His Love and that’s not a crime,” Father Bernard declared, his voice thin but firm.

“All right, take a good look around then, because you’re a dead man.” The viceroy shook his head, made a gesture to the headsman, and stepped away.

Father Bernard’s sunken eyes scanned the crowd—men and women, old and young, most of them sobbing quietly. Many of them he knew well. A few men shouted, “You western devil, you must die!” They stepped forward and spat on him.

The priest remained motionless, only his eyes searched the crowd, urgently. The shadow of the headsman creeped up behind him.

The crowd grew agitated. The men who spat on him sneered and cackled with anticipation, they couldn’t wait to see his head roll and blood splash. Subdued sobbing gave way to praying. Women shielded their children’s eyes.

Then he saw her, pushing through the crowd toward him. Don’t come closer, don’t come closer. Yet time seemed to have slowed down. She continued to press her way toward him. Stop, please stop! He almost cried out.

Suddenly, she seemed to have heard him. She stopped, standing frozen at the forefront of the crowd a few yards away from him. He could see tears brimming in her eyes, her pale face glistening with tears. Her lips, devoid of their natural pink rose color, quavered.

He gazed at her ravenously, taking her in before darkness could devour him forever. His eyes came to rest on a stone nestled in the deep hollow of her throat—it looked like a speck of blood.

“Sarnai,” he whispered.

The last sound he heard in this world was the hissing of a sword. A flash of white light crossed him. He was eternally embraced by darkness.

About the Author

Jennifer Cumiskey was born and grew up in Shanghai, China. She immigrated to the United States in 1986. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in English literature and an MBA in finance. After a career in corporate finance and management consulting, she now writes full-time as an indie author. Her writings often explores the theme of clash of civilizations and illuminates the tenderness of the human heart by shining a light on its darkest corners. She resides with her husband Paul in Vienna, Virginia. She can be reached at www.windchimepress.com

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