Hunted - Cover Reveal and *G*I*V*E*A*W*A*Y

Cover Reveal

A  gorgeous cover and a fantastic prize - be sure to read to the end and enter the contest.

Publishing 17th August

Inkspell Publishing

YA Paranormal Romance

"Since elementary school, I remember being in love with words. Spelling them, writing them, reading them...I even hang them up around my house. I think I owe my love of language to my fourth grade teacher, Mrs. Templeton. I can recall sitting around in a circle in that old, red-brick school, listening to her read aloud Greek mythology. The oxymoron there was that she was the most prim and proper teacher I ever knew, right down to the white buttoned up blouse held together at the collar with a cameo pin. The way she read made words come alive.

I had written a few things here and there throughout my life. I used to think I'd be good at children's books, and it wasn't a far stretch since I worked with children every day and knew what they liked. But then I read the series by Stephenie Meyer, maybe you've heard of it...Twilight. This was the type of story I knew I had to write. Teenagers were my audience. It helped I had one at home to learn from.

My idea didn't come in a dream. No, I wasn't that fortunate. It happened through research. And lots of it. The only criteria I had was that I wanted my story to be different from everything else out there. I wanted my story to stand out. No vampires or werewolves. No witches or wizards. Unicorns were my choice. And I think the story that unfolded is definitely unique." 

Website

Twitter: @jillkaelin

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jill.kaelin

https://www.facebook.com/Cycle13Hunted?ref=hl

                                                              ~~~~~

8

That’s how old I was when I found out I was special. I was given my rose quartz gem and taught about my past.

13

That’s how many times I’ve lived in this world. This is my thirteenth life cycle as a human.

1

That’s how many seconds it took me to fall in love with Mike. It’s also the amount of time I had to say goodbye to him just before he was killed by Reggie, the hunter that’s been after me for months.

Will Reggie succeed in killing me too, and possibly eradicating the planet of the unicorn race forever?

~~~~~

To win one of these gorgeous book marks, enter the rafflecopter contest below

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Cover reveal 'The Grandfather Tree' Guest post and *G*I*V*E*A*W*A*Y

Benjamin McTish and the Door Through the Grandfather Tree  by June M. Pace

Genre: Fantasy/Adventure – YA and Older


This looks like such a fun adventure - be sure to read to the end and enter the Rafflecopter contest

As an artist I have always skirted around the perimeter of creating on many levels.  It seems to me if one can paint, then singing and writing aren’t too far a stretch to contemplate or even excel at...it’s all connected to that same thread of imagination and action.

So when I sat down to attempt to paint something of whimsy...something that wasn’t so linear or black and white, as most of my artwork is, I found that when I simply put the pencil on the paper and let whatever came out, come out...it came.

Without conscious intention I had drawn a little boy with a tree growing out of his head, and then there was a pixie woman balancing in the middle of the air on a ball, and it continued from there.  A week later I had four drawings and four very unique characters....and suddenly there it was, my book!

I decided right then that the book I had always hoped to write was born from the name Benjamin McTish.

Now don’t get too far ahead of me...I had no clue what the book was about, other than the fact that it had to have tons of magic... and hope.  It had to stand for something more than entertainment, there had to be a moral to the story...a purpose.

I always had a way with writing, with captur ing the essence of what it was I needed to say in a way that caught peoples attention...I am a wordsmith...a storyteller. 

Even my everyday speech is up and animated...some call is loquacious, or embellished, I call it passionate...honest.

So here I was, sitting at my computer, poised to put pen to paper, as it were, and write the novel that would change everything.  The only problem was I had no clue what I wanted to say, or how to begin.  The only part I absolutely knew was it needed to be about a world of delight and imagination that lived beneath a behemoth rooted tree...the Grandfather Tree.  And that somehow I had to inspire on a deeper level about the connectedness of us sentient beings, floating around this blue and green orb...and of course wrap it all up in a big exciting world of magic and thrills, adventure and question.

When I read, as I have done for a majority of my life, I need the first page, the first sentence, to grab me.  I need to be taken away instantly with the promise of something continuing to take me to places I reserve only for books, for reading and escaping...for losing myself in a new world for the next few hours, days and weeks.

So that’s how it all began.

I literally pulled a random sentence out of the air, something that held a mystery, something that if the narrator of the story was surprised about, then the reader would be just as engaged, and the magic would happen.

“Well, that’s very odd, thought Benjamin.  He had never noticed the peculiar looking key hanging from a very worn and tattered green ribbon, on the rusted nail in the garden shed before....”

June lives with her soon to be husband and best friend Ray, his youngest son and their two dogs, seven chickens and two ducks, in Santa Cruz Ca. Ray’s two older kids live respectively in LA and San Francisco.
June spends her days writing and sometimes painting her well known series of Rock n Roll icons.This series of work, the McTish characters, are a part of June in every sense of the word. “This work brings a deep sense of joy and passion for me in a very profound way, like nothing else that I do.”

June’s Website | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads


Excerpt

He looked back at the Queen and calmly said, “You know you never answered my question about the prophecy. You HAVE heard the portend…am I correct?”

Tar Vigorn tilted her head in interest and her smile never wavered.

“Ahh, the prophecy of Pajah Set. Please tell me they don’t actually have you believing you are… THAT boy? You couldn’t possibly believe that. You are aware they’ve found others before you, are you not? Other boys they swore were going to save the world and put an end to all my beautiful darkness. Can you guess where those young lads are now, Benjamin?”

Suddenly Tar Vigorn disappeared from site, Benjamin looked up totally stupefied. However, before he could take another breath, she instantly reappeared on the other side of the Travel Chamber behind him and whispered, “Boo!”

Benjamin let the surprise grab him, “Ahh!”

“A little jumpy are we?” hissed the Queen.

Benjamin turned to look at her, his face filled with anger and question. She continued with her masterful web of unnerving him.

“Let me give you a bit of advice, dear boy. You’d be a fool to trust these imbeciles with your life. They’ll recruit anyone they can use to gain information. The last boy who followed the directive of Cottie Set….well let’s just say, he’s no longer following anyone. After all, how gullible does one have to be to believe in fairy tales…a prophecy, ridiculous! I thought you were much wiser than that young, sweet Benjamin. I mean honestly, do you really see yourself winning anything against the likes of me? You’re just a normal boy after all.”

Benjamin contained his anger, but the questions started to arise in his heart.

She’s right, how could I be the One? Why am I any different from the other boys who were told they were the ones? But before he had a chance to delve further into his impending doubt, the voice of Tannis appeared in his mind.

“Master Benjamin, the two boys that perished were always a question, she is not divulging all the information. There is much more than you have heard. You must not falter in the belief that the three of you are the children of truth, or she will gain advantage…..You are the prophecy, I put my life into your hands in trust and certainty. Search your heart young Benjamin and you will know the truth. You can not hide from your Path.”

Benjamin thought a moment, and once again a slow smile began to fill his face, disarming the Queen. Benjamin looked over at his friends, locking eyes with Annabel until she began to smile with him. Then Mathilda wiped her wet face with the back of her hand and followed suit. The girls walked over toBenjamin, standing on either side of him, and held his hands. They all looked up at the now boggled Queen.

“What you don’t know,” began the boy ever so cooly, “is that the prophecy was never about just one…it is about three friends. It also says that these three friends have a very powerful magic, the likes of which has never been wielded in the Gilley Forest before…a magic that stems from Love. But you wouldn’t know anything about that would you..Love? It also talks about a boy who has the ability to make things happen…just by THINK-ing them.”

The Queen flinched, her smile gone. Benjamin continued with his own Cheshire Cat grin.

“Can you guess what I am thinking right now Tar Vigorn?”

Then in an attempt to get even with the Queen and take back her power, Mathilda stepped closer to the Chamber wall, leaning forward as close as she could get, she locked eyes with the Queen.
“Better watch out, someone might drop a house on you,” she giggled.

The Queen went pale as the thought occurred to her in that instant, thatBenjamin McTish may very well be the boy of the ancient prediction. But before she had a chance to change her mind, a chestnut mare with a rider on his back was leaping high over the Travel Chamber and right over her head! The Queen swung around and looked as Tannis and Bits landed on the Forest floor a few feet away from her. A sly smile came back to her face.

“Well, if it isn’t my old friend Tannis. I should have know you would be involved in this. And how are things in the Darmon these days?”

Tannis smiled back at Tar Vigorn.

“You know perfectly well that I have not seen my home in many long years. But all this is about to change.”

And with this the battle commenced.

The children huddled together kneeling down on their heals, as Tar Vigorn unleashed a bounty of rapid fire lightening bolts straight for the Elf.

Tannis deflected the spikes of energy while jumping over the Chamber on the back of the stallion. The Queen instantly joined Tannis on the other side, and the exchange of red tinged electrifying currents flowed out of the two Forest dwellers. Bursts of exploding trees and stumps resounded like canon fire. The trio in the Travel Chamber were shell shocked at the intensity and force of the magic flying between the Elf and the Queen.

Errant lighting was ricochetting off the sides of the Travel Chamber causing the children to cover their ears from the booming sound it made inside. The entire Chamber shook with upheaval. Small trees that were unfortunate enough to be caught in the line of rage pouring out of Tar Vigorn, burned to char in seconds. The Travel Chamber was creaking and moaning, sounding like a wounded animal. It swayed and pulsed with every outcry of explosive energy thrown it’s way.
The Elf of the Darmon and the Queen of Darkness fought relentlessly. The Fairy clan dove in between the bursts of lightening to blind the Queen with their bright wall of color light. But the Queen would not be swayed.

Then, unexpectedly, Tar Vigorn halted her tirade and spoke the magic she needed to surrounded herself in a misty haze of smoke, thick, dark and ominous.

Everyone watched in astonishment as she appeared to be completely enveloped in the self propelled murk. Then she magically emerged from the cloud of spinning grey fog, in what appeared to be a large halo of light surrounding her body. It looked to the children as if she were in a small version of her own chamber, like an elliptical force field. Her own personal vibrating shield surrounding her entire body. And suddenly Tannis’s magic was senseless. Instead the powerful force of battle energy being heaved at her from all directions was bouncing back off of the protective barrier she now resided.

The Travel Chamber began to sound off an alarming vibration. It shimmied and shook with dramatic force. It felt as if the whole tunnel of light would collapse any moment. The sound engulfed the children and threatened to take their sanity with it. Mathilda was screaming at the top of her lungs. Annabel was holding onto her little sister as she grabbed Benjamin’s forearm and yelled with all of her might.

“Benjamin, I think the Travel Chamber is falling apart or something! We can’t just sit here!”
Benjamin’s mind was a whirling dervish of confusion. He could not keep up with the tremendous acceleration of events. He felt an immensely deep disappointment in himself for bringing this amazing journey to this final outcome. He looked up at the girls and just when he was willing to admit defeat, they all turned to look up as something flashed above them.

They had entered the eye of the storm.

The tightly nestled trio watched the activity around them in the syrupy silence of slow motion. First they witnessed, amidst the clouds of smoke and singed sky, as the belly of the chestnut stallion carrying the Elf of the Darmon, leapt over the slowly disintegrating Travel Chamber. They moved their gaze over to the backside of the Chamber where the steed landed with precision. The children looked up at Tannis.

Tannis looked calm and resolute, he smiled at Benjamin. In that quick momentBenjamin realized the intention of the Elf, and raised to his knees shouting, “NO TANNIS! DON’T DO IT!” But it was too late. The Elf was leaping on the back of his faithful stallion right into the center of the Travel Chamber.

Tannis turned Bits around to face the bewildered children. They all looked over at the Queen who was now standing solo amid her enraged destruction. The look on her face was worth every bit of fear the children had lived in the past evening. Her eyes were wide with incredulous disbelief. She was steaming with a rage strong enough to fell the tallest of fir trees. Then she let out a scream the likes of which had never been heard in the existence of the Gilley Forest.

She flew like a lightening bolt of deep dark magic at the Travel Chamber and it shook with a husky primal resonance that alarmed the inhabitants. When the Queen realized that her torture was beginning to wax heavily on the object of her anger, she reloaded and pulled the trigger again. She reigned a full force attack on the side of the Travel Chamber.

The walls were showing signs of dismantling. The glowing light of the Chamber began to flicker and the children could see that it would only be a matter of a short time before she would penetrate the protection shield. She would have them in her hands and at her unwavering mercy.
They all knew no one would survive.

Tannis jumped off of his steed and closed his eyes. He stretched his arms out beside him and touched the sides of the Travel Chamber with his hands. Within moments the watery energy of the Travel Chamber started to become more solidified. And without warning or thought…the lights went out.

After a moment the children, still in the darkness, realized there were no more sounds around them.
“Benjamin, where are we?” asked Annabel.

“I can’t see a bloody thing. But it doesn’t feel like we’re with the Queen anymore. Maybe…” and before he could say another word the small orb of light, generated by the Elf, was in the middle of everyone.

“Wow!” said Mathilda. “Where are we Tannis?”

“We are in between.”

Benjamin McTish and the Door Through the Grandfather Tree on Amazon

Publication Date: July 10, 2013

Published by Pressed Leaf Publishing

a Rafflecopter giveaway

How to get Good reviews on Amazon - by Theo Rogers

 

HOW TO GET GOOD REVIEWS ON AMAZON

By

Theo Rogers

A very interesting book today - which I'm sure will be both interesting and invaluable to anyone who has ever had a book published on Amazon!

BLURB:
How To Get Good Reviews On Amazon is a simple, no-nonsense guide that teaches exactly what it says it does. Based on both psychological science and thousands of hours of conversation with some of Amazon’s top reviewers, it takes you behind the scenes into the reviewing subculture that has grown up on Amazon’s website. It gives you a deep, insider’s knowledge of how the top reviewers think and operate. It not only shows you what to do: it takes you inside the reviewers’ heads so that you can see for yourself both how these techniques work and why they’re so effective.

Lessons include:
 • A simple, four-part formula for writing emails that get your work reviewed.
• Three things never to say when communicating with reviewers!
• How to pick reviewers who are more likely to give you a good review.
• How to reduce the chance that a reviewer you contact will post a bad review – even if it turns out they don’t like your work!
• How people get caught out when receiving reviews from friends and family.

This book teaches an honest, straightforward approach that works. It works because it’s not based gimmicks or tricks but on a real understanding of how Amazon reviewers operate: most of all on what they expect from authors and other sellers. If you want to know how to talk to Amazon reviewers in a way that will make them respect you as a professional and see you as the kind of seller they actually want to help, this is the book for you.

EXCERPT: 

One of the most fundamental ideas in this booklet is that there’s a definite reviewing subculture that has grown up on Amazon’s website. Like any culture, it has its own particular values and mores: its own ideas about what’s right and what’s wrong. When we come to the issue of shill reviews, we collide headlong with the values of the reviewing culture. As you might expect, most reviewers see shills – and the sellers who use them – as very, very wrong.

 Because this section is all about values, I think it’s important to stress that I’m writing here as your guide to Amazon’s reviewing subculture. I’m not writing as a missionary on its behalf.

 Simply put, I believe that your journey through the Amazon Jungle will be smoother, easier, and more successful if along the way you’re respectful of the values of the natives who dwell there. For that reason, I’m going to lay out for you some of the more commonly held tenants: the basic beliefs that most of the natives would hold to. It’s not for me to tell you whether you should embrace these values to the core of your being and make them your own. I’m just telling you that as a matter of pure pragmatism, you are going to make trouble for yourself if you ignore them.


 Purchase Links:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00ED1QGXC

and

http://www.amazon.ca/dp/B00ED1QGXC/

AUTHOR INFORMATION:

Theo Rogers combines years of coalface experience on Amazon's website with formal training and qualifications in a range of business and social science disciplines. He's spent literally thousands of hours talking with Amazon reviewers, getting inside their heads, and learning what makes them tick. He's spent almost as many hours observing the carnage that so often takes place on Amazon's forums. In the process he's developed a deep insider's knowledge of the reviewing subculture that's grown up on Amazon's website.

He's also seen a lot of authors and other would-be sellers make the same mistakes in their dealings with that subculture - over and over again.

As a result of his experiences, Theo has come to believe that yes, there is a simple formula that works: a way of dealing with reviewers that's honest, powerful, and extremely effective at winning reviewers over, getting them on your side, and making them actually want to help you.
 http://www.facebook.com/TheTheoRogers

The Author will be giving away a $100 Amazon gift card - a Rafflecopter giveaway


 The other stops can be found here - remember, the more you visit and enter, the better your chances of winning!

'STARQUEST'    'CHILDREN OF THE MIST'  (The sequel to Starquest)  Dancing With Fate      'Freeread':'A BARGAIN WITH DEATH

                  Also available on Kindle

The Three Kitties That Saved My Life By Michael Meyer

I am so pleased to be able to feature this book today, as it actually pulls on my heartstrings on several levels - not least that I can relate to it myself having been through a similar experience when I lost my first husband, John, when he was just 35 years old, it was my horses and dog that saved me, and I can fully understand the comfort Michael's  'kitties' brought him.! 

This looks like a truly worthwhile and touching book and I can't wait to read it!

The Three Kitties That Saved My Life

by Michael Meyer

Inspirational Romance

Categories: Memoir, Love and Loss

Publisher: Pacific Books

Release Date: April 23, 2013

Heat Level: Sweet

Length: 134 pages

Available at:

Amazon- http://www.amazon.com/Three-Kitties-That-Saved-ebook/dp/B00CGND93E/

B&N - http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-three-kitties-that-saved-my-life-michael-meyer/1115440516

Description:

AN UPLIFTING TRUE STORY OF LOVE

Losing loved ones is an awful fact of life; losing one's loving spouse, one's day-to-day partner through life, especially in the prime of life, is one of the most unbearable tolls that we humans are forced to endure. This is the true story of my journey from grieving widower, not caring if I lived or died, to the once-again happily married man I am today, a man who both loves and cherishes life. My three kitties have given me a new zest for living.

Both inspiring and entertaining, my story might just make you laugh at times, or bring a tear to your eye, as you journey along with me.

EXCERPT

My life with my cat, Coco, was good. We had a lot of fun together. Every day was joyful. I never knew from one day to the next what type of trouble the little guy would get himself into. There was always something new to explore, a new pose to assume. 

But I still ached for close human contact. I wanted to be hugged. I wanted to be held in someone’s arms. I wanted to be loved, and to love, but I was scared and I also felt guilty feeling these thoughts, although I realized that they were all rational. I just could not force myself to take the first step in this direction. I would see couples holding hands, and I would be jealous. I would see couples embrace, and I would yearn for the same. I wanted to be with someone who cared for me, and I for her. However, the guilt at thinking such a thing, that I was somehow betraying the commitment that I had made to my deceased wife, still ate at me.

I was scared—of both the future and of what the past had already done to me. No matter how hard I tried, I just could not shake the feeling that somehow I would be betraying Ciba if I sought love again.  I knew I was not thinking logically, but logic really had nothing to do with any of it. I was a lost man, and I so desperately wanted to be found. But that first step was huge, and it was so painful to contemplate. 

“Tiny steps now, Mike,” I remember telling myself, but saying and doing are not the same. 

It was clear that my legal commitment to her, “to love and to cherish until death do us part,” had been fully met, but the powerful emotional attachment still clung to me.  I wanted to get on with my own life, but I could not. Time had frozen for me, and I was its prisoner.

I fought to move on, but I just could not. It was too painful. I spent huge chunks of my waking hours inside my head, trying to think things through. I listened to my sisters, and to my friends. My library of books and pamphlets on how to deal with losing one’s spouse kept growing.

I read everything I could get my hands on, but nothing could help me to break away from my thoughts of guilt. I read and reread, several times over, my complete library on coping with grief. I practically memorized each work. I could have been a professional grief counselor since I knew so much by now. The things I read were wonderfully written, right to the heart. I cherished every word, but still nothing seemed to really provide the jolt that I required. 

That is until one day on the Internet, I stumbled upon a two-page response that a rabbi had written to a young woman who had posed the question, “How will I ever date again?” a year after the loss of her husband. For the first time since I had begun to scratch the urge to meet someone, the rabbi’s words had a profound impact on me, so profound, that after reading and rereading his words, after savoring every word, after thinking deeply about what he was saying, I was convinced that wanting to start dating was not only the right thing to do, but that it was exactly what my deceased wife would want me to do. 

The whole two-page response made total sense to me, but the part that really convinced me was the following passage: “Your husband loved you and you loved your husband—you will never forget that. But his memory should not be a dark cloud that haunts your existence. Your memory of his life should be an inspiration, not a painful albatross.”

Pow! I had been hit smack dab over the head with precisely what my own problem was. I had defined myself as a widower. I was a widower. Everyone I met, learned this. The word defined my very existence. 

And I was a widower, but that was not the whole me. I was also much more than that. I had forced my life into a box, and now it was time to climb out from that confinement. I would do so with love and dignity, never forgetting how my deceased wife had loved me and how I still loved her. I knew in my heart that she would want me to be happy. The rabbi’s words convinced me of that. 

I had no idea how to date. What would I say? How would I act? Where would I meet someone?

About the Author:

Mike Meyer recently retired from 40-year career as an English professor. He literally taught at universities throughout the world: Thailand, Saudi Arabia, the Virgin Islands, and he spent the last 24 years of his teaching career at a California community college. He lives in Southern California wine country with his wife, Kitty, and their two adorable rescue cats. 

Contact Mike on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/MichaelMeyersWritingLife.

Follow Mike's other Tour posts here:

http://www.cblspromotions.com/2013/08/promoblast-three-kitties-that-saved-my.html

Midshipman Henry Gallant In Space - Goddess Fish Virtual Book Tour, Interview and *G*i*v*a*w*a*y*

It's a great pleasure to welcome Science Fiction author H Peter Alesso to the Flight Deck today. Welcome, make yourself at home, help yourself to something sparkling served up by my pet android and tell me - what do you do for fun when not writing?

HPA:  I love to read, do word (or math) puzzles. I also develop computer program apps for Android. I like to work out both my left and right hemispheres of the brain using a wide variety of skill sets and abilities.

 HL: When did you start writing?

HPA: I began writing fiction after reading Jack Campbell’s The Lost Fleet series. It inspired a story that I wanted to share. Midshipman Henry Gallant was the result.

 HL:  Oh I think that will resonate with a lot of writers.  It's more or less how I started myself.  So what comes first: the plot or the characters?

HPA: Characters! If you don’t have a character that you enjoy spending a great deal of time with you will find it difficult to write a long involved novel about them.

HL: I agree.  I thnk one really has to love one's characters to be able to write convincingly about them. Tell us about your latest release and what you think readers will enjoy about it

HPA: Midshipman Henry Gallant in Space is a military space opera with romance, adventure, and threatening aliens. It should provide a fun journey. Enjoy.

I feel that science fiction should be based upon actual scientific principles. I researched the technology included in the story and tried to project their development path into the next century. Genetic engineering is current an important topic in our society and humanity faced difficult choices as it develops over the course of the next century. In Midshipman Henry Gallant, genetic engineering plays an influential role in the background but it is cast against another important innovation that also may prove a future threat: Artificial Intelligence.

 HL: It sounds a wonderful read. Is there any advice, as a new writer, that you were either given, or wish you had been given?

HPA: Find an author you admire and would like to emulate. Then examine just what it is that you find so compelling. It may be that you can develop similar skills with practice. Always remember that whatever criticism you get that any feedback, complimentary or critical, can be useful in learning more about a writer’s ability to improve and develop better skills.

 HL: Great advice.  And finally, where can readers connect with you?

HPA: http://www.hpeteralesso.com/Default.aspx

https://www.facebook.com/MidshipmanHenryGallantInSpace

Thank you so much for taking time to visit my blog, it’s been a thrill having you here and learning more about you and your writing. I wish you much success now and in the future.
Read more about H Peter Alesso below, with an excerpt from his book, and don't forget to enter the contest the prize is Winner's choice of $100 Amazon or BN.com gift card

BIO:

As a scientist and author specializing in technology innovation, H. Peter Alesso has over twenty years research experience at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL). As Engineering Group Leader at LLNL he led a team of computer scientists and engineers in innovative applications across a wide range of supercomputers, workstations and networks. He graduated from the United States Naval Academy with a B.S. and served in the U.S. Navy on nuclear submarines before completing an M.S. and an advanced Engineering Degree at M.I.T. He has published several software titles and numerous scientific journal and conference articles, and he is the author/co-author of six books.

(Website www.hpeteralesso.com)

Blurb:

As the last star fighter in squadron 111, Midshipman Henry Gallant is on his way from Jupiter to Mars. With the United Planets' fleet on the verge of annihilation, he can expect no help as he passes through the asteroid belt and threatening aliens. With so much uncertainty about the aliens' capabilities and intentions, analyzing the captured computer equipment in Gallant's possession could prove crucial. Unfortunately, it is his abilities that have been much in doubt during his tour of duty. In an era of genetic engineering, he is the only Natural (non-genetically enhanced) officer left in the fleet. Only bright and attractive junior officer Kelsey Mitchel has shown any sympathy for him. Now as his navigator on the last fighter in squadron 111, her life as well as a good many others, depends of Henry Gallant.

Excerpt:

Gallant prepared to press the firing button to launch an antimissile into the center of the damaged saucer, but then he paused. He suddenly realized that he had the opportunity to discover important information about the aliens, if he could get inside the saucer and relay what he found to Captain Caine and GridScape.

“Kelsey, we’ve got to dock with that saucer and board it. Once we’re inside who knows what we'll discover?”

Kelsey grew alarmed, “No, no, no. Henry; is that even possible - in the middle of this chaos?”

“It’s an opportunity we can’t afford to pass up.” He abandoned caution and committed himself to the risky venture. Kelsey stayed silent and motionless for several long seconds. Then any reservations she had faded. She calculated the course to dock, matching the saucer's speed, course, and orientation so that they would be relatively stationary.

"Kelsey, you’ll have to remain with the fighter and use the lasers to cover my spacewalk, but if things go badly, I want you to break off," said Gallant, strapping on his gun. "I don’t know if the ship’s crew will offer any resistance."

"I’ll inform Repulse what you’re attempting. Maybe they can provide covering fire if needed," she said.

“Great idea. I’ll send a video feed from my suit comm pin to our Eagle. You can let Repulse follow my progress and record everything that happens for intelligence analysis.”

With the aftermath of the violent space battle around him, Gallant prepared to spacewalk to the saucer. He sealed his mirrored armored suit and exited the fighter through his overhead hatch. The suit included an oxygen generator pack that maintained an appropriate atmosphere for him to breathe as he traveled in space. He traveled along the surface of the fighter using short bursts of gas to propel him and then released his umbilical line. Using his propulsion jets he propelled himself forward into the darkness. He looked for a way to enter the alien ship.

Gallant maneuvered the jetpack deftly. His suit shielded him from incredible extremes of temperature—up to 250 degrees Fahrenheit on sunlit surfaces and down to 150 degrees below zero on the shady side of the fighter.

Propelling himself forward, he tumbled and then straightened up. By using the communicator to connect to the fighter, he relayed information directly to the ship’s AI. He could also access the ship’s monitoring capability to see how the battle was progressing. Suddenly, the communicator notified him that an alien saucer was approaching. He could see laser shots flash near him. For a moment he couldn't breathe, and then he let his training take over and found the strength to go forward.

Websites:

http://www.hpeteralesso.com/Default.aspx

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2eciKOBFBSM

http://www.patternsofdiscovery.blogspot.com/

https://www.facebook.com/MidshipmanHenryGallantInSpace

http://www.amazon.com/Midshipman-Henry-Gallant-Space-Volume/dp/1482640325/ref=tmm_pap_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1368200816&sr=1-1


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'STARQUEST'    'CHILDREN OF THE MIST'  (The sequel to Starquest)  Dancing With Fate      'Freeread':'A BARGAIN WITH DEATH

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Adela Arthur And The Creator's Clock - VBT Cafe Book Tour and Giveaway

ADELA ARTHUR and the CREATOR’s CLOCK

by Judyann McCole

About The Author:

Judyann McCole Is…Roman Catholic

A lover of Books, Florence + Machine, The color Teal, Asian Food, Chocolate, Pandas, and The Rain.

Also A fan of writing in odd places like in bathtubs, under staircases, in a tree, or maybe zoo.

I was born in Montreal, Canada and a few years later my parents moved home to the States where I’m currently attending College.

I don’t know why I never thought about writing. As I was searching for a niche in everything else I was also writing stories about a girl searching for where she belongs and people my age going on wild adventures. One day a teacher of mine, Ms. E. McAllen, asked me what I loved to do and it finally hit me. I love being a storyteller. But I was afraid no one would want, or care to read what I had to say. Until another teacher, Ms. K. Cole gave me the pep talk that changed my life.

Website | Blog | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads

Book Genre: Young adult fantasy

AGE: 13 up

Publisher: Self-Published

Release Date: July 26^th, 2013

Book Synopsis:

To Who Ever This May Concern;

I wish I could tell you the contents of this book were purely fictional. That I, Adela Arthur, was just a normal sixteen year old from Portland and that dragons, giants, elves and mermaids were just myths. I wish these were legends shared from crazy old grandparents to crazy old grandparents around campfires. After all, that is what I used to believe.

I never would have thought they lived on the other side of our mirrors in a world called Cielieu. But they do…

I never would have thought there were humans, better known as Volsin that lived among them with the ability to create light from a single thought. But there are…

I never would have thought I was one of them… But I am…

I am the last Arthur and I was brought to the human world after a Volsin, filled with greed, began to strip the light from our kind.

The human world was supposed to be a safe haven… but he’s found us and the only way to stop him is to go back to Cielieu and begin training as a student in the Elpida Castle of Light.

Like I said I wish the contents of this book were purely fictional and not my life…

ADELA ARTHUR

Preface

She ran because she had no other choice. She feared what would happen if she dared to stop. There was no time to think. There was barely any time for her to breathe. On her broken ankle, she ran. With her bruised arms, she ran. With her bleeding sides, she ran because she knew today was the day she was meant to die.

Her bare feet, covered with everything from wet dirt to dried, dead leaves to cold ice, took her farther into the forest. She jumped over the dark fallen log, not caring that the bottom of her pants snagged on the tip of it. She went on, running deeper, running faster, trying not to think. Thinking would stop her. Thinking would make her want to survive. Thinking would cause her to fight, and today she could not fight. She heard the screeches; she had seen their dark eyes. They were confirming what she already knew in her heart to be true. Today was the day she was meant to die.

Snow fell gently on her like small glimpses of hope. She loved the snow. But even today it, too, was against her. It knew. It blanketed the ground and froze her to her core. She slowed, but she didn’t stop running. Slowing was a mistake, though. Now she could feel the fatigue as it crept up inside her. She could feel the pain as it came into her ankle like burning knives slicing away at her. As the screeches rang through the forest, they too chilled her. Whether she slowed or not, she was meant to die today.

However, she had one choice, one option. What was to be her final ground? She had the choice of where she could die and it wasn’t going to be here. It wasn’t going to be in the depths of the dark forest. It would not be fatigue, or hunger, or even the evil creatures that dwelled inside that forest. She couldn’t die here. It wasn’t good enough.

She ran, but again her pace slowed. What a fatal flaw that was, for now she tripped over the root of a skillful hidden tree. Her body hit the iced-over, snow-covered ground, adding even more injuries to her collection. She touched her lip; seeing her blood on her hands shocked her, stilling her. She was bleeding everywhere, but for some reason that blood was what stilled her. That was her final fatal flaw because now she stopped running. Running had calmed her and now that was gone. A dry sob broke through her lips before the tears came. They broke so quickly they burned, blinding her.

She could think now. She knew to what her actions would lead. She knew she could hurt them all. But it had to be done; it was the only thing left to do. They would hate her. They wouldn’t understand. They would have told her there was another way, but there wasn’t. There just wasn’t. They wished for it to be innocent, clean, easy—but it couldn’t be. She knew there wasn’t another way. They knew there wasn’t another way. But they hoped, they prayed, but most of all, they feared. That they too were like her, that they too were only prolonging their agony. It wasn’t always like this. I promise you it wasn’t always like this. There use to be laughter and harmony, absolute and unfathomable harmony. They wanted that back. They needed that back. So she had to die today.

She heard it. She heard his foot upon the snow. Lifting herself from the ground with great ease, for she no longer hurt, she turned to him, all the anger in the world directed at him. He—with handsome red eyes and blond hair—he was the reason she would die today.

“I am not sure if you are the most reckless girl I have ever met or the wisest.” His soft, gentle voice rang out—his voice never much higher than a whisper. It was a deceiving voice. It was the voice of a friend, a brother, a father; it was a voice of someone who cared.

“This you won’t win. Haven’t you heard? Light always wins. You scare and you terrify, but in the end light always wins. So you are the most reckless man I have ever met, for trying to do the same thing so many others have tried and failed to do,” she told him through her own tears.

He simply circled her before speaking again. “Now who lied to you, my dear? There is no such thing as failure. I have simply discovered ways that did not work.”

She looked forward, not speaking to the man behind her. There was no point wasting the few precious breaths she had left. Her tears flowed from her eyes, rolling down her cheeks like miniature waterfalls. He was the reason she would die today.

“How tragic it is that you will not be alive for me to impart such a lesson upon you.” That was the last thing she heard before the darkness came. She hoped; she truly hoped she did not die today for nothing.

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