It's almost time for a giveaway!!

BIG NEWS to all my avid readers out there!!  I will be starting a giveaway for a pretty awesome prize pack very soon!!  Keep on the lookout for it!!    Coming Soon!!

A Touch To Die For by Brian D. Meeks

   Let me introduce you to our main cast of characters here.
Mitch:  The writer.  That encompasses all about him right there.  He writes, he blogs, etc.  It is his life.  He is also head-over-heels in love with a woman and it is making his brain kind of foggy if you ask me.
S.: She has been Mitch's unicorn among women for so very long now.  We never find out her name, which I will admit is strange.  But we know she works in the art world.  So she and Mitch are connected by that thin strand of creative talent.
Paul: He is a super smart idiot.  That doesn't make sense?  Read the book and all will become clear.  The guy is a genius, in some areas.  He is also a little on the crazy end.

   Mitch has finally found himself "with" the woman of his dreams, and just does not know what to do with
himself.  So he takes a little trip over to Italy to try and clear his head some, and to check some things off of his life to-do list that he has.  While he is in another country mooning about S. and trying to over analyze everything (a possible problem I fear most writers probably have), she is going out on dates with some other guy and getting constantly harassed by her assistant.  Unbeknownst to him, Paul has finally decided to act on his grudge he has been holding in all of these years.  He hatches a plot to frame Mitch for murder.  He starts watching every move that Mitch makes and starts killing the people he comes into contact with.  At first, his work is sloppy at best.  And it's a little ridiculous for someone trying to be a serial killer.  He changes tactics too much.  And you can't just take credit for what was pretty much an accident.  Nevertheless, he follows Mitch around Italy and carves some initials on two of his victims.  Then both men are back in the United States.  Things start heating up and Paul starts getting more elaborate on his killing spree.  And a spree it is.  The bodies just start piling up.  Not only that, but he is now posing as a separate serial killer who videos people confessing to bad things they have done right before he kills them and sends it out to social networks like YouTube.  All the while, he is still trying to frame Mitch.  About halfway through the book, Paul's rage starts consuming him.  He starts going crazy.  Where before he was sane enough for it to sicken him to kill people, now it was nothing.  And he had starts talking to Pepsi cans.  Either the guy is super isolated and lonely or he has just gone off of the deep end.  The closer Paul gets to Mitch, the more you wonder if S. is going to be his next victim.  And then Mitch gets picked up by the FBI.  It just so happens that all of his online time might be what clears him.  Now he just has to stop Paul before he kills someone he cares about.
 


   I find it highly ironic that Brian Meeks wrote a book about a writer.  And that the writer had just created his own best real life type novel through something he had done to Paul years ago.  The best part is that Paul the crazy man was created rather unknowingly.  Mitch created his own monster.
   I will admit, the first of the book is kind of slow, but it definitely picks up.  At times I wanted to thump Paul because of his idiocy.  And then there were times that I sat there wondering how in the world Mitch could go about like he was without knowing at all what was going on?  Everyone knew about the murders it seemed like, except those within his little circle.  And although these things may seem like little annoyances, it is also what makes it so good.  Books that don't evoke feelings are boring.  And this is a great thriller!  It's not overly violent while still a great read!  Refreshing!!!

Sneak Peak at Phoenix Rising (Book 5 of The Kindred Series) by Erica Stevens

"As it was meant to be, so has she risen."

Yes, Cassie died and has come back from the dead as a vampire, a whole new type of creature.  She has powers like no one could even fathom.  And she is out for revenge.  The Elders who have been such a thorn in her side for so long, making life hell for her, are in her cross hairs.  With the truly amazing power that she wields,  Cassie must be careful to not lose herself within it.  It would be too easy to get swallowed up in all of that power and just burn down the world, destroying everything including her self and  her friends, and Devon.  It will be up to them to try to keep her in check and try to help teach her how to control her powers.  Keeping everyone safe will prove to be a real challenge.  Keeping them safe from Cassie will be even harder.  Should they just accept her as she is now?  Can Devon accept that she could become a monster?  Would they be able to stop her if she went too far?

I've read the last book and have to say it is pretty awesome!  The ending is very satisfying.  So much action!  And don't forget the love story.  Cassie and Devon's relationship takes a new turn with this new revelation. Phoenix rising is due to come out on Amazon on August 27th!!

*image via Erica Stevens
*quote via Erica Steven

Kindred (Book 1 of The Kindred Series) by Erica Stevens

  Seeing as to how I recently had an interview with Erica Stevens, I felt it would be good to do one more review of her books.  It's another vampire love story...but just as good as her other books!

   Cassie grew up not knowing much about her parents.  They had died when she was a baby, along with her best friend's dad.  Chris and she had known each other since they were born.  He lived with his mom and Cassie lived with her grandmother.  They knew almost nothing about their dead parents because no one liked to talk about.  That is, until Luther and Melissa came into their lives.  Melissa was their age, and Luther took care of her.  Her parents had died as well.  When he found them, Cassie and Chris were shown what the world was really like: crawling with dangerous vampires.  And they had been born to hunt these savage beasts.  In that moment, when their hands joined, her life was irrevocably changed.  The course of her destiny forever altered.  Over the years that followed, Cassie often wondered if she would have run screaming from him, and the changes that he would bring to her life if she had known.  So they began to train with Luther, to become what they were destined to be.  It took a lot out of them, hunting and killing things that were once human before they had died, turning into vampires.  Their innocence was lost and it wore heavily upon their hearts, souls, and bodies.  It required intense training to learn how to fight and kill a vampire.  They were superior in their strength, speed, and other abilities.  But the hunters were not without their skills.  Most hunters were born with some special gift.  Chris was able to read people.  He could tell immediately whether they were good or evil.  Melissa got predictions about the future.  However, she could not control it.  It just happened.  But Cassie had no special gift.
   At school, all three were popular with other teenagers always hanging around them.  And while rumors floated around that Chris and Cassie would probably get together sometime soon, there was only a platonic sibling love there.  And Cassie never really noticed any of the guys at school anyway.  That is until Devon came along.  Who couldn't resist such a hot guy?  Although all the girls at school were drawn to him, Cassie and Devon have a strange connection between them.  Intense feelings begin to form between them.  They never want to be away from each other, but it's necessary.  Unfortunately, Devon is a vampire.  A very old vampire.  And if he wants to be with Cassie, he is going to have to play by humans rules: dating and being patient, and going to high school.  For some reason they both stay completely ignorant of who the other is until the very end of the book.
   School gets more challenging for Cassie as she starts to acknowledge her feelings for Devon, and he is willingly returning them.  But all of the girls are jealous of her, and it is clear to Devon that the guys want her.  Things get even more strained when a fight breaks out between Mark (a guy who's been trying to get with Cassie forever) and Devon.  Although it was not much of a fight.  When Cassie sees the type of raw strength that Devon has, she begins to question just how much she knows about him and what exactly he is.

He could only hope that she didn't hate him for what he was.  He couldn't stop to think about that, if he did he would lose it.
 
   This brings a whole new meaning to love your enemy.  Cassie and Devon have a very intense connection with each other, even though he is a very old vampire who can walk in the day light and she is just a 17-year-old girl.  Because of what she does outside of school, Cassie feels much older than she is though.  Having to kill like that can make one age overnight.  Her friends, Chris and Melissa, seem to have a much easier time reconciling themselves to what they are and the fact that their lives will be much shorter than the average human.  It's just a fact that in this world people didn't live long once they started becoming a vampire hunter.
   Then there is Julian, another old vampire, who comes to town and starts wreaking havoc on the innocents.  The hunters know that they are dealing with something that will probably destroy them.  They have no idea just how much power he has.  The only one who can possibly keep them all safe is Devon.  And towards the end of the book, Cassie starts getting an idea of what he is and it's awful.  She questions whether his ulterior motives to hanging around her is to kill her.  The end leaves you in a cliff hanger as Devon speeds off through the forest with a very injured Cassie, and Julian is still alive and well.  My question: what exactly is Cassie?  By the end of the book, you get the feeling she is no ordinary hunter.

...she eventually came to realize that there was no outrunning destiny.  It was very much like the Reaper in that way, and like the Reaper, destiny could be cruel and indiscriminate. 



*images via Erica Stevens
*quotes viz Erica Stevens

Surprise Interview....and the author is.....

And the surprise email interview is with.....Erica Stevens!  Here is what she had to say!

How long have you been writing?

  

  -I wrote my first book when I was nine but I was always writing stories before then. I even wrote plays for my friends and I to act out. I loved it, they probably hated me for it, but they were good sports.

 Do you feel like your personal experiences in the past (childhood and adulthood) have had an impact on your writing?

 -Absolutely. I loved my childhood, you couldn't keep me inside. My friends and I were always coming up with new ways to keep ourselves entertained whether it was imaginary worlds, sports, games or building forts and exploring the woods. It gave me an opportunity to let imagination run free. I've moved around since my teens and have had some really interesting and not so common jobs. I've been fortunate enough to make some really good friends and meet some really interesting people. Some of them share traits with more than a few of my characters!

 What was your main reason behind becoming an Indie author?

  -I tried the traditional publishing route for years. I kept querying agents and getting rejected. My husband urged me to try self-publishing and one day I finally listened. I took books from three series I had been working on and put them on Amazon before I could chicken out. Looking back, I wish I hadn't done all three at once, but I was just hoping someone would read it and like something. I didn't have an editor at the time, but thankfully Leslie has found me since! She's edited everything new I've released and is working on editing the stories I had first put out. I'm hoping to have them all edited and re-released eventually.  

 Do you feel like you have achieved your childhood dream of being a writer?

  

  -Yes. Writing was the only thing I ever I wanted to do. It's a part of me and I love it so much. I bounced through college majors because everything interested me, but I always knew I just wanted to find something that would give me the opportunity to write.

What/who is your biggest inspiration?

  -That is a good question. For writers it would have to be Dean Koontz, J.K. Rowling, James Rollins and Stephen King. I love the way they can keep me on the edge of my seat throughout most of the story. In my life, it would have to be my parents. They're both unbelievably strong people and have worked incredibly hard their entire lives. They never let anyone, or anything, hold them back.

The books that I have read so far (the captive series and the ravening series) both have a continuing theme in them that two people/beings who should hate each other end up falling in love.  Is there a particular message that you are trying to relay to your readers?

  -I really just like to put people into already difficult situations and then give them something even more

difficult to have to deal with. However, I do believe that love isn't a choice and that it is worth fighting for.

 As a writer, what do you do to keep from “burning out”?

  

  -I work on a different book. If I get stuck somewhere I don't stress about it, I start a new book or go to a different book I was already having trouble with. I find it gives me a new perspective and I'm able to figure out what was bothering me. It also helps to keep me from getting frustrated, and gives me an opportunity to start one of the many stories I have running through my head or written in my notebook. I also allow my husband to drag me away once in awhile, though sometimes I'm still clutching my laptop!

What advice would you give to aspiring authors out there?

  

  -Don't ever give up and don't be afraid to try something new even if it might scare you.

                                               Don't forget to check out Erica's blog:

                                                http://ericasteven.blogspot.com/

Surprise Interview

Be looking for a "surprise" mini email interview on my blog!  


                                            Coming Soon......

Here's a tiny hint...it's an Indie Author...

The Interview!!!-Tara Elizabeth

I recently got the privilege of having an email interview with Tara Elizabeth, author of Exalted and Zoo.  It was brief but we get to see a glimpse into the mind of this Indie Author!  See the interview below:



How long have you been writing?                                                            
- I dabbled a little when I was in school, but I began to write more seriously in 2010.

 When did you publish your first book?  

- I published my first book, EXALTED, in July 2012.

What was the deciding factor in becoming an Indie Author?

- LOL! Truthfully, rejection letters were the reason I became an Indie Author. After about three, I decided to do it all on my own. I’d seen that people like Amanda Hocking and Keary Taylor self-publish and become successful. I thought, why not me?  I’m enjoying where I’m at right now, and I’m so grateful to the people that support me.

 It is my understanding that you grew up in the south.  What (if any) impact has that had on your writing?

- Yes, growing up in Louisiana does have an impact on my writing. EXALTED is set across Texas and Louisiana, and Emma (from ZOO) is from Louisiana. The south is truly unique and I love it.

What was your inspiration for Exalted?

- The main character, Mena, inspired me. I imagined her before the story ever came about. She is so strong, both physically and mentally. I want to be more like her.

Is there any single thing (or person) that has been your biggest inspiration?

- My grandmother inspires me. She had a talent for writing and never pursued it. I hope I am making her proud.

What advice would you give to those wanting to become a published author?

- Just write. Get your story out. Then you can worry about all the other stuff.

                                       For more information check out Tara's website: 

                                                http://authortaraelizabeth.com/

             Be looking for Tara's new novel Denounced (Book 2 in the Exalted series)!  Coming soon!