Help me name my characters and you could win a $10 Amazon Gift Card. #amwriting #alien #giveaway

Hello Abites. I have an announcement to make. Remember when I said that Lifeboat was a one off and there would be no sequel? I meant that. I really did. For me, Lifeboat was Cassie's story and the ending was pretty final. I didn't want to write a sequel when I finished it and I wouldn't let myself see any way that I could. 

Now that some time has passed I have had an idea for a sequel. This is where you come in. I'm looking for your input in naming two of the characters in this sequel.

Character one is a half human, half grey alien hybrid that has been raised by the grey aliens. 

 
 








  
Character two is a grey alien - best friend of character one.

Gender is irrelevant. All I ask is that your suggestions are original. By submitting the names you grant me the unlimited right to use them or not, with no compensation required.  Enter them in the rafflecopter and you are eligible to win a $10 Amazon Gift Card.

So put on your best thinking caps and conjure up some great names for these characters. I know you will give me some fantastic suggestions. How do I know? 

Because Abites rock!

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Pie and Other Brilliant Ideas Book Blast & Amazon GC Giveaway #giveaway #amreading

A little something different today Abites. This is a children's book written by my friend, Karen Pokras Toz.

From the Award Winning Author of Millicent Marie is Not My Name

Ballet and baking pies – these are two of twelve year old Georgie Harris’ favorite things. When her parents decide to move closer to her grandmother’s nursing home, Georgie quickly learns the bad news: dance lessons are too expensive in this new town. 

Georgie spends most of her time baking pies to bring to her grandmother at the Willow Lakes Nursing Home. There she meets Eve, who inspires Georgie with stories of having danced with a world famous Russian ballerina many years ago.

As Georgie and Eve’s friendship evolves, their tales intertwine in this feel good story showing dreams really can come true.

Pulse by HJ Daly #bookreview #bookblog #amreading

Abites, I'm really conflicted by this book. I actually nearly gave up on it at about a third of the way through, but I persevered and got all the way through. It is getting some really high praise and in some ways I can see why. My feelings about it aren't quite as favorable, however.

I loved the premise of the story. There are parallel worlds and a giant Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) has shattered the walls between the worlds - you can now travel through Marks (gateways) into the Second Realm - a magical parallel world next to ours.

But the EMP also caused an apocalypse, and our world is no longer the world it used to be. Governments have fallen, poverty is rampant, and there is no law. It's every man for himself - a prepper's dream.

Have you heard of The Valentich Disappearance? #ufo #alienabduction #amwriting

While doing research about UFOs and alien abduction reports for Lifeboat, I came across an interesting real life story I had not before heard - The Valentich Disappearance.

On October 21, 1978, 20 year old pilot Frederick Valentich disappeared off the southern coast of Australia while flying over the Bass Straight. While it is not completely unheard of for a plane to disappear in flight - most are assumed crashed and usually some sort of wreckage is found. Sometimes no wreckage is found, especially if the disappearance occurred over water.

What makes the Valentich disappearance so unusual is what happened before the plane and pilot vanished.

K.B. Hoyle is cruel! #amreading #bookreview @kbhoyle_author #theenchanted #thescroll

 

















Ya'll know that I just finished The White Thread by K.B. Hoyle. I immediately jumped into The Enchanted which I devoured in a day and then I dove into The Scroll, which I THOUGHT was the final book in  the series. It is not. The final book will be book six which is not scheduled for release until 2014!!! 

I can't wait that long! 

K.B. Hoyle you are a cruel woman to torture me so!

I loved this series so hard. I am seriously suffering withdrawals and I am morose now. Nothing I'm looking to read next can compare. K.B. has drawn me so far into the world of Darcy and friends that I must know how this story ends and I just feel tortured with pure impatience. K.B. if you read this, please - send me anything you've written to date on book six. I don't care if it's rough and unedited. I'm in pain! Please?

Celebrating womanhood - my Mom is my hero! #celebratingwomanhood #amwriting #mondayblogs

My mom is my hero. Not that she was a saint. She was no June Cleaver. But I always knew she loved me and I knew that no matter what she did, she did the best she could with the resources and knowledge she had at that time.

So why is she my hero? So many reasons.

The White Thread by K.B. Hoyle #bookreview #amreading

Abites, some time ago I read the first two books (The Six and The Oracle) in this fabulous YA fantasy series - The Gateway Chronicles by K.B. Hoyle. I've recently gotten my hands on the last three books in the series. The White Thread is book three, and you will soon see reviews for books four and five, because they are just so darn good I can't put them down.

Nine Steps to Sara by Lisa Olsen #bookreview #amreading

Abites, this one has been on my Kindle for a little while. I'm guessing I picked it up as a Kindle freebie. It's a paranormal romance. The paranormal being ghosts in this case.

This is pretty much a modern take on the classic gothic novel. So the premise of the story is that Sara and her eight year old son Jack inherit a huge estate and Royal title from some long lost relative in England. She ups stakes and moves there to collect dragging her BFF Joanie along for the ride.

She arrives to find that the estate is quite delapidated, but there is plenty of dough to fix it up and to live high on the hog while doing it. Only proviso is that she has to make the estate her primary residence in order to get any of the inheritance. Which would be all well and good, except of course that is where things start to get creepy.

Inteview with Aaron Speca and Patricia Laffoon, authors of The Realmwalker Prophecy #interview #amwriting #amreading

Abites, today on the blog we have two up and coming authors - Aaron Speca and Patricia Laffoon. 

They are contributors to the Evernight anthologies and are about to launch their own new series - The Realmwalker Prophecy. 

The first book is "Heart of the Mermaid". It is an adventure/romance set in what we know as the 18th century Caribbean. The two main characters are an ex-pirate (now conscripted into the Royal Navy) and a mermaid. There are also elements of fantasy and even a dash of sci fi as Atlantis plays a role in the second half of the book.

The series takes the idea of each book being about a different couple in the same world and flips it around. In this case, each book is about the same pair of souls that find each other in a different parallel realm with each volume. The overarching thread in the series is about a prophecy involving these two souls, a prophecy held by a race of "Realmwalkers" that live in a Realm above all the others and have the ability to move back and forth among them - some who want the prophecy to be fulfilled and some who don't. (In actuality, the Realmwalkers themselves do not even make an appearance in the first book, although they are alluded to.)

 
So without further ado - Hi Aaron and Patricia. Glad to have you both here today. Let's jump in.

What is The Realmwalker Prophecy? 


Aaron: Well that is the million dollar question, and you jumped right to it! The Realmwalker Prophecy is the title of our book series in progress. We just completed the first book, Heart of the Mermaid, and it is in submission now. So what is the prophecy and who are the Realmwalkers? Those are spoilers, but the series involves parallel realms, and the souls and beings that move between them. The intent is that each book is a story within itself, but the nature of the Multiverse and the story of the prophecy binds the whole series together.

Not for Profit by Glenn Shepard MD #bookreview #amreading

I was given a copy of this ebook in exchange for a fair and honest review.

My dear Abites I have a confession to make. I am guilty of a grievous sin. When Glenn Shepard approached me and asked me to read this fiction novel, I did not investigate it fully. 

He told me it was "a new medical thriller about a surgeon who gets framed for murder, and who has to vindicate himself in order to halt a deadly terrorist plot. If you like compelling, action-filled thrillers, then I think you will love this book" and I accepted it solely based on that description. I really should have gone a step further and read the blurb.

Not for Profit is everything that Glenn said it would be, but it is also more.