Awakening Strength

A new excerpt from Among the Shadows:

The wild men were too frenzied to notice or care that it was a woman who approached them at a steady pace. One, though, wondered why she didn’t look the least bit afraid, and why her eyes radiated in the fading light. Unfortunately, his fear didn’t overcome his momentum.

Kyra easily deflected the first blade and thrust the other katana into the man’s neck. She pulled it out and turned to block another. He at least made another swing before she wrestled the sword from him and slashed him with her second blade.

This all before the first attacker hit the ground.

Another ran at her, only to be pummeled into the ground by Scout. Two others were almost on him with their swords when they screamed in pain and hit the ground face first. Arrows stuck in their backs. Knights had chased the wildmen, wondering who fought them in the moonlight. A woman appeared out of the light.

“Are you another from the portal? Another Watcher?” They asked her, nervously eyeing the cat as it approached Kyra.

“I suppose I am.” She wiped the blades on the ground. “I came here looking for my mother. Saken took her, and I mean to take her back and show him my mother’s blades.”

“Saken is dead. Your mother saw to that. They left for the portal. That way, where the beast went. It is not far.”

“Come, Scout, this isn’t over.” Alice hadn’t strayed. Kyra mounted her and paused to catch her breath for but a moment. A terrible strength had been awakened in her.

She liked it and she didn’t.

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The war has begun.

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Kat Bloodmayne is Tainted

Kat Bloodmayne has a secret. She has the power within her to use nature as a weapon. Problem is that she doesn’t know where the power came from or how to control it all that well. People around her are getting hurt, and worse now that she is being hunted for her power.

Hunted by someone she knows well, protected by a man who may not be on her side and running in a world where the darkness is far more sinister than she she could have imagined.

This is Morgan L. Busse‘s new book Tainted. Set in a dystopian steampunk world — think Victorian with airships where science and the old world clash and converge.

Also think fantasy with a bit of Frankenstein simmering in the background.

I was very impressed with Morgan’s new page turner. There have many repetitive attempts at dystopia in book and film, and many failures or not-quite-there steampunk attempts. Morgan doesn’t succumb to these pitfalls and creates an original story in a well-realized world. I could see this story playing out on the big screen and Morgan has certainly established herself as a storyteller to pay attention to.

And Kat Bloodmayne is not a heroine to be trifled with.

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7 Reasons Bookstores Rock

Haven’t had much time to post lately, but others have been making up for it: Nadine Brandes gives us 7 Reasons Bookstores Rock even in our internet age. Kat Heckenbach has fantastic 68 Book Marketing Ideas you cannot ignore. Finally, Aya and her readers share 51 Book Quotes for you to ponder.

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Goodreads – Get Reading

I’m in the process of updating my Goodreads page. Still more to do, but I know many of the writers and biblophiles out there are also on Goodreads. So click over to my Goodreads page and lets get linked up on the web’s top reading social media site. And if you aren’t on Goodreads, and are a book fanatic, what are you waiting for?

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First-look: Among the Shadows

And now, a first-look excerpt from Among the Shadows:

The Righteous One unsheathed a blackened dagger that Solana swore had a subtle red glow. This wasn’t time to sit by like a distressed princess. These men had almost killed her and still intended to do so. No time like the present to stir things up a bit. Their drug had all but left her body as she drew the ripples of energy through her body to her fingertips. Dust began to spin on the floor beneath each hand, rising to them in a swirling column. Soon torrents of air tore through the doorway, forming a cyclone around her. Her hair whirled; her eyes burned green. One man tried to shoot as Solana approached them, but she sent the bullets back into his chest by blasts of air she commanded. Her opponents had never imagined such a terror as they shouted and cursed in their native tongue. They turned to run, but the vortexes of air she threw reached them first, lifting each off the ground and crushing them against the wall. Falling into a crumpled heap, they didn’t move.


Ethan attached an octagonal beacon to the wall and pressed a button on the device. A red light began to flash. He looked at the man on the floor. His breathing was labored. “A little something to hurry you on your way to the Dark One.”

The final moments of the Righteous One’s life were about to slip away. No inkling of remorse could be found in the dying man’s eyes, no longer veiled. In a final moment of clarity, he spoke carefully and slowly.

“The worst evil you can imagine is but a shadow of what lies conspiring, hidden and unseen, waiting patiently to emerge and spread its suffocating malice. I am nothing compared to what is to come.” His eyes froze, vacant and still, and the last breath left him

Darkness fled from the room.

“That was a bit disconcerting,” Solana said, with a shiver. The weight of oppression had vanished. A crossing through the veil.


Now Ethan was quiet; his gaze didn’t flinch from the vaguely outlined road. What he had done – what they had done – no doubt ran through his mind. In hers, it made her feel alive, but would it always? She could see that Ethan had been through so much more.

“Here it comes,” he said in a whisper.

Solana looked through the broken rear window of the truck. A streak of fire fell from above. An explosion reached into the sky and a rumble moved across the desert. Poetic justice it was.

No one could hide from the Light.

Among the Shadows breaks through the veil August 2016.

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Cover Re-release

Yesterday I announced the release date of Among the Shadows. Now I’ll re-release the covers for today’s reveal:

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These were first released quite awhile ago when I thought I was a lot closer to finishing book one than I really was. Well time flies and now the time has come…Update (7/11/16): In prep for final publication, we made a couple tweaks to cover including shorter backcover text, revised spine and some adjustments to front.

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New Press and AtS Release Date!

Introducing:

Sword and Shadow Press™

This will be the imprint for my Watchers of the Light and Servants of the Flame series of fantasy novels and possibly future books by myself or other authors.

And now for one other important bit of info. Release date for Book 1 of Watchers of the Light, Among the Shadows is finally here:

July 2016

Exclusive excerpts begin Friday…

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Lost in Muirwood

I downloaded a book over two years ago and never got around to reading it until recently. This is very unusual for me given the rate I read books. I now wish I would have read it sooner, because Jeff Wheeler‘s The Wretched of Muirwood is an immersive, medieval fantasy world easy to disappear into.

In this first volume of the Legends of Muirwood trilogy, we find the orphan Lia – the “wretched” – who is a servant in the Muirwood Abby. Then, on one stormy night, an injured squire shows up on her doorstep.

Needless to say, everything was about to change.

A classic fantasy tale of a young person coming of age and learning who she really is. It’s an oft-told tale, but it’s the new details, characters and obstacles that an author unveils that take the reader in. Wheeler’s world is atmospheric, the characters compelling and the story pulls you forward into a land of warring factions, hidden magic and discovered destinies. You can always tell if I have enjoyed an e-book when I have ordered a paper copy for my collection.

And the next two books along with it.

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The Last Full Measure

Kenneth T. Jackson writes:

Decoration Day, later designated Memorial Day, began on May 5, 1866, when the small town of Waterloo in Seneca County, New York, organized an entire day of remembrance for its lost sons [of the Civil War]. The idea caught on, and exactly two years later, on May 5, 1868, Major General John A. Logan, commander in chief of the Grand Army of the Republic, the organization of Union Army veterans, issued General Order No. 11, designating May 30, 1868, “for the purpose of strewing with flowers or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country.” Logan added that he inaugurated the observance “with the hope that it will be kept up from year to year, while a survivor of the war remains to honor the memory of his departed comrades.”

By 1890, all of the Northern states recognized May 30 as a special day to remember their fallen heroes…After World War I, however, virtually the entire United States accepted Memorial Day (later designated as the last Monday in May) as the primary occasion to remember all those who had died in battle.

“…for which they gave the last full measure of devotion; that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain; that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth.” – Abraham Lincoln, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, 1863

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Writing and Launching Your Book

Need some book and writing related activities over the long weekend? Try these from author Jaimie Engle who has been busy this year:

She published the fantasy novel Dreadlands which I reviewed here. You can watch Jaimie discuss How to Launch Your Book where she explains the techniques she used to launch Dreadlands — what worked and what did not.

If that were not enough, she has also released Writing Your Novel: Using the Bible as Your Guide. This how-to takes cues from history’s most read book — and all the drama within — to show how your story can be dramatic, gripping and memorable.

And what writer doesn’t want that?

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