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Wednesday, November 21, 2012

In the Moonlight with Author Fumi Hancock


The Author Guest Blog

Building African Kingdoms, One Community at a Time with The Adventures of Jewel Cardwell: Hydra’s Nest Author, Fumi Hancock, her American Friends and her colorful characters in Africa.

       


          
Come, let me take you to a Land;
                       A Land of Deep Rich Forest;
                                   A Land where Knowledge is our Clothing and
                                                Unconditional Love Our Way of Life;
                                   There is a river which flows in the Heart of this Land;
                       Come drink from the river of wisdom,

                       Our destination is Africa…..
 (Fumi Hancock, 1996)

As the holiday season kicks up in full gear all over the world and as I journey on with the virtual publicity tour for my newly released Young Adult Fantasy Book, The Adventures of Jewel Cardwell: Hydra’s Nest; I can’t help but reminisce over my experiences celebrating holidays in Africa.  This great adventure called The Adventures of Jewel Cardwell beautifully brought back to my memory the wonderful times I’d shared with friends and family members, growing up in Africa. Armed with the desire to share this piece of me with my readers, I garnered up the courage, the enthusiasm and the commitment needed to tell the world how Africa can also be a beautiful place, even in its throes of poverty and difficulties.

As I share my humble and sincere heart with my readers, I continue to envision a world free of challenges, drama as we would often call them and desire a peaceful place where everyone can live in peace and harmony. I yearn for a place where children can move freely, live freely, eat freely and of course, never go hungry. It is my hope and desire that as I share my experiences with you; you will be moved to be a difference maker… reach out and touch someone in the most unusual and / or unexpected way.

To this effect, let me quickly share with you where my passion for this Young Adult Fantasy & Romance fiction emanated from…

                                                                       ~~~~~~~

                                           

My name is Fumi “Stephanie” Hancock.  I was born in Africa but have lived in the United States of America for over 30 years. A little over six years ago, my father, Prince T.A Ogunleye called me up and told me it was time to return home. I’d literally grown up in the US and this was now home to me. My father felt it was time to give back to Africa.

                                        
                                                 
          (source: wordlatlas.com)

This was an important trip for me as I’d not been back to my community in over 23 years!  The trip was equally important because one of my cousins, His Royal Majesty, King Emmanuel Adebayo, reigning King of Emure Ekiti Kingdom, a place tugged away in the Western region of Africa was being crowned and my father felt it was a great opportunity to reconnect with my roots.

                   
       
               (Picture of His Royal Majesty King Emmanuel Adebayo & Queen)

The journey was exhilarating yet filled with anxiety as I did not know what I was going to encounter.  I trusted my father, packed my bags and went back to West Africa with my family. It was the most incredible journey of my life… to witness a King’s coronation… no words could describe the feelings.

What was more important was the surprise which awaited me when I arrived in the community with my Tennessean friends! The community people rallied around me and reminded me of who I was… their princess who had been gone for long and was now back! I took the time to revisit my childhood boarding school and low and behold, all of my experiences at the school came rushing back.

Description: Description: C:\Users\Acer\Desktop\Old Folder-Laptop\Steph Stuff\Stuff from Old Laptop-12-10-11\Adassa Foundation\2011 Africa Trip\Pictures from Trip\Joel Buckner\DSC01011.JPG    Description: Description: C:\Users\Acer\Desktop\Old Folder-Laptop\Steph Stuff\Stuff from Old Laptop-12-10-11\Adassa Foundation\2011 Africa Trip\Pictures from Trip\Joel Buckner\DSC01024.JPG

Description: Description: C:\Users\Acer\Desktop\Old Folder-Laptop\Steph Stuff\Stuff from Old Laptop-12-10-11\Adassa Foundation\For Web\mr paek.jpg    Description: Description: C:\Users\Acer\Desktop\Old Folder-Laptop\Steph Stuff\Stuff from Old Laptop-12-10-11\Adassa Foundation\For Web\yolanda-lindsay-lisa.jpg

Description: Description: C:\Users\Acer\Desktop\Old Folder-Laptop\Steph Stuff\Stuff from Old Laptop-12-10-11\Adassa Foundation\For Web\lindsay.jpg  Description: Description: C:\Users\Acer\Desktop\Old Folder-Laptop\Steph Stuff\Stuff from Old Laptop-12-10-11\Adassa Foundation\For Web\adassa15.jpg
                                            (source: adassafoundation.org)

With all of this jubilation came social responsibility… to come back to the United States, let the world know of this region in Africa and help to make a difference in whatever little way I could.

 Description: Description: C:\Users\Acer\Desktop\Old Folder-Laptop\Steph Stuff\Stuff from Old Laptop-12-10-11\Adassa Foundation\For Web\adassafoundation5.jpg  Description: Description: C:\Users\Acer\Desktop\Old Folder-Laptop\Steph Stuff\Stuff from Old Laptop-12-10-11\Adassa Foundation\dsc_0220.jpg
   (pictures of a classroom/ school with no electricity and broke down furniture)



           Description: Description: C:\Users\Acer\Desktop\Old Folder-Laptop\Steph Stuff\Stuff from Old Laptop-12-10-11\Adassa Foundation\AnAfricanClinic.jpg
(Premature babies born in rural clinics with no incubators and no medical equipment)

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                            (a child street hawking to raise money for food)

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                                      (an hungry child found on a street)

The King and his cabinet had a huge task on their hands and they knew it would require reaching out to all for assistance. It is amazing how when we reach out to give someone something that we may be lacking ourselves, how it turns around and blesses us back a thousand fold.  Because of my children in Africa, my life and that of my volunteers have forever changed.

We came back home, reached out to whoever would listen to our stories and began plugging away at the needs in Africa.  We hosted the King and some of his 63 cabinet members to a gala in Tennessee:

                    Description: Description: C:\Users\Acer\Desktop\Old Folder-Laptop\Steph Stuff\Stuff from Old Laptop-12-10-11\Adassa Foundation\Gala Night-2009\dsc_0680.jpg  Description: Description: C:\Users\Acer\Desktop\Old Folder-Laptop\Steph Stuff\Stuff from Old Laptop-12-10-11\Adassa Foundation\Gala Night-2009\dsc_0658.jpg
(Mayor Mike Dinwiddle, current Mayor of Spring Hill TN awarded an honorary chieftaincy title by his Royal Majesty, King Adebayo at a gala held in Franklin TN and Spring Hill declared sister city to Emure Kingdom)
To date, we currently sponsor 40 children who would ordinarily not have been able to attend school. We opened the very first state of the art library in that region ever…

Description: Description: C:\Users\Acer\Desktop\Old Folder-Laptop\Steph Stuff\Stuff from Old Laptop-12-10-11\Adassa Foundation\lindsay3.jpg  Description: Description: C:\Users\Acer\Desktop\Old Folder-Laptop\Steph Stuff\Stuff from Old Laptop-12-10-11\Adassa Foundation\2011 Africa Trip\Pictures from Trip\Library\Library after renovation.jpg

Description: Description: C:\Users\Acer\Desktop\Old Folder-Laptop\Steph Stuff\Stuff from Old Laptop-12-10-11\Adassa Foundation\2011 Africa Trip\Pictures from Trip\Library\Opening of Community Library June 2011 6.jpg

With the help of some Song writers & artists in Tennessee, Friend to an Angel a song honoring our African children was debuted and used in raising funds for our programs in Africa.  (Available at: http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/theadassafoundationproje)

Today, I celebrate all of my 
African angels with the characters my readers will encounter in the Adventures of Jewel Cardwell: Hydra’s Nest. These vibrant and most times feisty characters are a culmination of my childhood friends as well as “those conjured in my head.” These characters as well as my African babies have consistently plagued my dream and haunted my mind into bringing them alive.

Every year I would return to Africa (with my American Friends) serving the children in these communities through my non-profit organization the 
Adassa Foundation, I am reminded of the colorful ambiance and the need to share this part of the world with book lovers.

There is more work that to be done. I am constantly in need of assistance to help move our programs forward.  Our next vision for this region is to build a Youth Center for Excellence where children can converge and learn rather than be in the streets roaming aimlessly. As we celebrate our holidays here in the US and all over the world, I urge you to consider joining me in putting a smile on yet another African angel’s face at 
www.adassafoundation.org or support by picking up the song: Friend to an Angel.


“I enjoyed the story of Jewel, it was fresh and in a setting that was new to me. The descriptions made me feel as if I was there. I experienced the place right along with our Jewel.  Every page was beautifully written and I was engrossed from start to finish
.” Review by Sara Bree High, Goodreads.com.

Well, mission accomplished Sara. I wanted my readers to be transported to a place where they’d never been before. I wanted them to see how other people live in other parts of the world… I wanted them to also see how people like them, who have travelled to live in Africa… how they adjust to the culture and setting.  The characters though reside in Africa come from various parts of the world especially Europe. Enjoy the Behind-the-scenes pictures: (
http://www.worldoffumihancock.com/#!behindrhescenes/ckg3)
A little about The Adventures of Jewel Cardwell: Hydra’s Nest book?unique & thrilling African ambiance not familiar to many!

Lying gracefully between the Vaal River in the north and the Orange River in the south, the rolling grassland and fields of crops rising to a lovely sandstone mountain, is Milner Court, Bloemfontein, a suburb nestled in the middle of Free State, South Africa.
The Adventures of Jewel Cardwell: Hydra’s Nest magically transports its readers from the rolling hills of Bloemfontein to the beautiful farmlands of Bela-bela South Africa. It is a fantasy-based coming of age story of a rebellious 17 year old teenager who (through no fault of her own) is thrust into an environment ridden with unfamiliar and unsavory demonic activities when admitted into a prep school in South Africa.

As Jewel Cardwell is relentlessly being trailed by an unapologetic family curse, she races against time to find answers before the curse wipes out all of her loved ones. 

In the midst of this demonic war, she becomes entangled in a love triangle between a young rugged-looking Darwin Morton who she grew up with on Milner Court and the very wealthy and popular high school soccer team leader with the silver spoon in his mouth, Eric Broder. TRAILER:  
http://youtu.be/AZTSaChQ77E

Portions of the proceeds made this holiday season will be funding scholarships and the Proposed Youth Center.

Discovery Quizzes:
1) What is the Mission, the Vision and the Goal of Adassa Adumori Foundation?
Clue: (a statement written in purple color) http://www.adassafoundation.org/
2) Can you mention two ways you can help to create awareness and be a difference maker with the foundation?
Clues: “
Friend to an Angel”, The Adventures of Jewel Cardwell, and adassafoundation.org.

MY WISH LIST FOR READERS:

Description: Description: 16054376

Purchase  & Review at:
Click here to sample or buy (US) : Amazon.com
Click here to sample or buy: (UK): 
Amazon.com
Click here to sample or buy: 
Barnes & Nobles

Subscribe to:
my blog:
                        www.fumihancock.blogspot.com
Twitter:                           
www.twitter.com/fumihancock
Facebook Like Page: 
www.facebook.com/fumihancockgrimmlyn
Goodreads:                    
www.goodreads.com/fumihancock
Mailing List:                  http://www.worldoffumihancock.com/#!order/czpg





 


Tuesday, November 20, 2012

Book Spotlight: Twelve Months by Steven Manchester





Brief Synopsis: 

Don DiMarco has a very good life – a family he loves, a comfortable lifestyle, passions and interests that keep him amused. He also thought he had time, but that turned out not to be the case. Faced with news that might have immediately felled most, Don now wonders if he has time enough. Time enough to show his wife the romance he didn’t always lavish on her. Time enough to live out his most ambitious fantasies. Time enough to close the circle on some of his most aching unresolved relationships. Summoning an inner strength he barely realized he possessed, Don sets off to prove that twelve months is time enough to live a life in full. A glorious celebration of each and every moment that we’re given here on Earth, as well as the eternal bonds that we all share, Twelve Months is a stirring testament to the power of the human spirit. 



Twelve Months excerpt

Though there were empty tables up front, Vic escorted Bella and me to a darkened back room where no one else was seated. The table sat in the center of the room and was very nicely decorated. I could tell by Bella's face that it seemed peculiar to her. As we took our seats, Vic lit a candle. “I’ll be right back,” he said.

Bella started to question it, but I shrugged it off. “There must have been reservations for the other tables up front?” I suggested.

She nodded, and then noticed a man seated on a stool a few tables over. He was holding a guitar and squinting at some sheet music.

He looked over and smiled. “I hope you guys don’t mind, but I’m trying out tonight for a weekend gig at this place.”

“Oh, that’s great,” Bella said, with no idea Gary had already landed the job.

“Not a problem,” I added, acting as though I’d never spoken to the man. And through an acoustic set of love ballads, Gary was just as convincing.

Bella had no idea but the order had already been carefully spelled out – drinks first, Pinot Grigio for her; beer for me, and the itinerary would begin. Vic approached with both drinks on a small round tray. “Appetizers tonight?” he asked.

I smiled. “Why don’t we start with an order of little necks in garlic and oil?”

Vic nodded once and headed for the kitchen, while Gary swooned, “You say it best when you say nothing at all…”

Bella leaned into my ear and whispered, “How did he know I wanted white wine?”

I was into my second shrug when Vic returned to the table with a gorgeous arrangement of long stem red roses. Without a word, he placed them in front of Bella and rotated the vase until the card faced her. “Your appetizer should be out in a few minutes,” he said and strutted away again.

Gary was already on his second number when Bella plucked the card from the arrangement. It read: “Bella, I love you, forever – Don.” She looked up to find the entire restaurant staring at us.

“And always will,” I whispered when she leaned over and kissed me.

After the steaming appetizer and another round of drinks, Vic placed a silver platter before my glowing wife. It held a scrolled sheet of parchment secured by red ribbon. She looked up at him, but he never let on. She glanced over at me. “What…”

“Open it,” I said, while Gary strummed away in the background.

She did. It was the one thing she'd always wanted from me, but had never gotten – until now.


Moments of Destiny


From the moment I met you,

I knew there was a fire between us

that even hard, driving rain could never put out.


From the moment we spoke,

I knew I’d spent my entire life

in search of your deep and passionate love.


From the moment we kissed,

I knew my heart was no longer mine

and I’d finally found my future.


From the moment we laughed,

I knew there would never be enough time

to share all the things I needed to share with you.


From the moment we danced,

I knew, at last, what the phrase ‘better half’ meant

and surrendered to your gentle touch.


From the moment we walked hand-in-hand,

I knew I’d discovered my partner

and that my dreams were suddenly within reach.


From the moment we lay together,

I knew I’d made it to heaven

and thanked God for blessing me with you.


From the moment you agreed to be my wife,

I knew my journey was now worth taking,

through days of sunshine –

or nights of hard, driving rain.


As her watering eyes read the final verse, the musician stopped playing, the restaurant went silent and I went down to one knee. I opened the ring box. “Isabella,” I said, “I want to spend the rest of my life with you. Will you be my wife…again?”

She never hesitated and dove into my arms. For a while, we just hugged.

“I love you so much,” she cried into my shoulder.

“I know,” I said. “But…”

She pushed away from me and looked into my eyes. “But what?”

“But I need your answer?” I said, grinning.

“Yes…the answer is YES!” she gasped and jumped back into my arms.

The crowd shared a collective sigh, and everyone was clapping when Bella and I returned to reality. It took a few moments before each table returned to its own conversation and half-eaten meals.

Chuckling, I introduced my beautiful wife to Gary, the musician. As they shook hands, Gary admitted, “I was so nervous.”

I bought the man a beer when Vic delivered two previously ordered dinners to our table. Though Bella couldn’t touch hers, I ate and listened to Gary fill the room with a soothing melody. By the time the chocolate covered strawberries arrived for dessert, Bella was emotionally spent. She grabbed me once more for a kiss. “This has been the perfect night,” she whispered.

“And for all these years…you’ve been the perfect wife, my dear.”

As we left the restaurant, another round of applause carried us to the front door. I opened it for my new fiancé – only to discover a white stretch limousine idling at the curb. She quickly turned to me. “It’s not over?”

I shook my head. “It’ll never be over for us.” As we made our way to the limo, waves of nausea threatened to drown me. This is Bella’s perfect night, I told myself, our perfect night. Whatever you do…do not throw up now!


Author Bio:  

Steven Manchester is the published author of Pressed Pennies, The Unexpected Storm: The Gulf War Legacy and Jacob Evans, as well as several books under the pseudonym, Steven Herberts. His work has appeared on NBC's Today Show, CBS's The Early Show, CNN’s American Morning and BET’sNightly News. Recently, three of his short stories were selected "101 Best" for Chicken Soup for the Soulseries. 

Paperback & Kindlehttp://www.amazon.com/Twelve-Months-Steven-Manchester/dp/161188053X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1343826594&sr=1-1&keywords=twelve+months+manchester 
Nookhttp://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/twelve-months-steven-manchester/1111526739?ean=9781611880533   
eBookhttp://www.booku.com/Twelve-Months/Steven-Manchester/ebook_989303.htm   

Friday, November 16, 2012

In the Spotlight with Nya Jade, Author of Phoebe Pope ad the Year of Four






Hello! Thanks so much for hosting me here today! In honor of my book's title, Phoebe Pope and the Year of Four, I thought it would be fun to share four random facts about the story.


Fact 1:
The story takes place in a setting that's loosely based on my New England boarding school. I loved my high school campus! And I remember feeling that it had an element of mystery to it. That it held ancient secrets. I tapped into that feeling as I wrote about a supernatural school hidden beneath the grounds of a regular school. . . .


Fact 2:
I thought it would be entertaining to make my husband a character in the book - at least use his name. When I asked him what kind of character he wanted to be, he thought long and hard about it. He really took the "casting" opportunity seriously. After a day or so of thinking, he announced that he wanted to be the guy the other characters feared. The funny thing is that his name is Al. And the name Al does not make anyone tremble with fear. I added a few more letters to Al and came up with Alexori. I'm happy to say that Al/Alexori is quite pleased with his character.

 
Fact 3:
Phoebe Pope and the Year of Four comes with music! How? Well, I'm a singer-songwriter and I wanted to incorporate music with my book. When you get to the end of the story you'll find a link to where you can download a FREE copy of my soul/pop album, The Road to Adam. It's my small way of saying thank you to all readers!


Fact 4:
One of my main characters, Colten Chase, has his own website! He's a gorgeous movie star so it makes sense for him to have one! Check him out at www.coltenchase.com.   



Synopsis for Phoebe Pope and the Year of Four


The students of Green Lane Academy roam their halls unaware that below their manicured campus exists a prestigious school of an entirely different kind . . .
Sixteen-year-old Phoebe Pope has enrolled at the Campus Below: a spy academy for shape-shifters hidden deep beneath the grounds of a boarding school whose humans unknowingly protect it. There, thanks to a carefully planned schedule, she leads a double life: spy trainee Below and normal teenager Above.
As if two course loads, concealing a secret power she alone wields, and coping with her father’s recent death weren’t enough, Phoebe finds herself developing major feelings for actor and teen heartthrob Colten Chase, who attends the Campus Above and appears to be majoring in winning Phoebe’s heart. But when officials learn that Phoebe may be at the center of a startling prophecy, she becomes the target of shape-shifting assassins who will stop at nothing to suppress the truth.
Now Phoebe’s lessons about Shaper’s enemies and spycraft take on great importance as a menace stalks the campus, with Phoebe as its target. Meanwhile, what began as an unlikely relationship with Colten, quickly morphs into heartache when she suspects that something sinister lurks beneath this movie star’s glitter and fame. Suddenly, Phoebe’s caught in a mesh of lies, betrayals, and danger where she doesn’t know who to trust, and needs to rely on herself—and her secret power—to get to the truth and to stay alive.  


Nya Jade's Bio

Nya Jade is a singer-songwriter and author based in San Francisco. Her music videos have aired on the VH1, BET, and MTV networks. USA Today hailed Nya as a “young female troubadour worth keeping your eyes and ears on,” in an entertainment feature on up-and-coming singer-songwriters. “Her cool singing voice recalls Sade,” said the LA Times.
Between writing and performing new music, Nya took a musical sabbatical to focus on writing a novel—an endeavor she found quite daunting, until she began looking at each chapter as a verse in a very long song. Phoebe Pope and the Year of Four is her first novel.
In her free time, Nya enjoys hanging out with family and friends, searching for amazing gluten-free desserts, and bargain hunting for her next pair of funky shoes.
Nya holds a B.A. in Economics and an M.A. in Sociology, both from Stanford University.


To learn more about Nya Jade please visit:
Web - www.nyajade.com
Facebook - www.facebook.com/nyajadefriends
Twitter - @TheNyaJade

Thursday, November 15, 2012

In the Moonlight with Paty Jager, Plus a Giveaway!


Bloodletting, Sacrifice, and the Black Moment

Thank you for having me here during my blog tour. This post is part of a two week blog tour. I’ll be giving away a $5 egift card to a commenter today and at each blog stop as well as a bag full of goodies to the person who follows me to the most blogs and a gift to the host who gets the most commenters. You can find the blog tour hosts at my blog: http://www.patyjager.blogspot.com or my website: http://www.patyjager.net




The tagline for Secrets of a Mayan Moon is: What happens when a brilliant anthropologist is lured to the jungle to be used as a human sacrifice?

While the Maya didn’t use human sacrifice as often as their neighbors the Aztecs, they did dabble in bloodletting, which was their way of communicating with their ancestors. They held ceremonies with the kings, noblemen and women, and shaman or priests “communicating” with the Otherworld through bloodletting rituals.
Carvings and etchings have been found that show a Vision Serpent—that symbolizes the communication between the two worlds—rising out of clouds of incense and smoke over the temples during a bloodletting ceremony.

These ceremonies were not for the faint of heart. Stingray spines were used to pierce tongues, ears, and even the genitals. Then strips of bark paper were pulled through the holes and allowed the blood to cover the paper and drip into bowls. During these rituals the person who was bleeding would travel into the Otherworld and communicate with the gods. Bloodletting and sacrifice in the Maya world was part of their religion.

Reading about bloodletting and sacrifices in the book A Forest of Kings: The Untold Story of The Anciuent Maya by Linda Schele and Davie Freidel gave me the idea to use a sacrifice in the black moment of the book. Then I came across some drawings and carvings that fascinated me and put my “what if” writer’s brain into motion and I came up with the sacrifice ritual that had to do with a crying moon and virgin victim.

Blurb:

Child prodigy and now Doctor of Anthropology, Isabella Mumphrey, is about to lose her job at the university. In the world of publish or perish, her mentor’s request for her assistance on a dig is just the opportunity she’s been seeking. If she can decipher an ancient stone table—and she can—she’ll keep her department. She heads to Guatemala, but drug trafficking bad guys, artifact thieves, and her infatuation for her handsome guide wreak havoc on her scholarly intentions.

DEA agent Tino Kosta, is out to avenge the deaths of his family. He’s deep undercover as a jaguar tracker and sometimes jungle guide, but the appearance of a beautiful, brainy anthropologist heats his Latin blood taking him on a dangerous detour that could leave them both casualties of the jungle.
Excerpt:

There they were. The symbols she’d tried to figure out the other day. They represented the name of a woman. She stared across the compound, unseeing. The woman who was sacrificed. Isabella’s stomach churned. The sacrifice of the virgin made the moon god cry. What about this particular woman left sorrow rather than hope? For the sacrifices were gifts to the gods to bring good weather and crops.

Sadness for this woman wrapped around her heart. Clutching the book to her chest, Isabella returned to her tent and lay down. She needed to sleep. That had to be why this information caused her so much grief. She was tired.

But sleep eluded her. Her mind spun with the drawings, the sadness, and restlessness. Finally, unable to shake the images and unease, Isabella rose, crossed the compound, and entered the dig site. Something compelled her to read the glyphs and look at the carvings in the altar chamber once more.

The workers glanced up as she entered. Virgil eyed her and then the book clutched in her arms.
“What are you doing?” he asked, stepping forward.

“I need to see the carvings on the wall in the other chamber.” Without missing a step, she continued into the chamber. Virgil’s footsteps echoed behind her. Isabella placed the book, open to the pages she had read, on the sacrificial altar. She stepped to her left and studied the drawings on the wall with more interest than on the day before.

The story made more sense after connecting the urn, the glyphs she didn’t know, and then this artwork. It played out in her head as if she stood watching the event.

“What are you finding?” Virgil stood next to her.

Her skin grew cold and her heart raced with fear. He means you harm. He brings evil. A voice in her head warned. The voice and her reactions to Virgil were illogical, but her intelligence knew there were some things that couldn’t be explained. Like her drive to learn all she could about the native people of the Americas.

The urgent voice felt more a friend than Virgil at this moment. She shook her head. “Nothing. I thought I’d found something that connected, made sense of the stone and glyphs. I-I was wrong.”

Secrets of a Mayan Moon is available at Kindle, Nook, and Smashwords.

Bio:

Wife, mother, grandmother, and the one who cleans pens and delivers the hay; award winning author Paty Jager and her husband currently ranch 350 acres when not dashing around visiting their children and grandchildren. She not only writes the western lifestyle, she lives it.

Her contemporary Western, Perfectly Good Nanny won the 2008 Eppie for Best Contemporary Romance, Spirit of the Mountain, a historical paranormal set among the Nez Perce, garnered 1st place in the paranormal category of the Lories Best Published Book Contest, and Spirit of the Lake, the second book of the spirit trilogy, was a finalist in the Gayle Wilson Award of Excellence.

You can learn more about Paty at her blog; www.patyjager.blogspot.com  her website; http://www.patyjager.net or on Facebook; https://www.facebook.com/#!/paty.jager and twitter;  @patyjag.

Wednesday, November 14, 2012

The Sons of Jude by Brandt Dodson: Tour and Kindle Fire HD Giveaway




About the Author:

Brandt Dodson was born and raised in Indianapolis, Indiana, which he would later choose as the setting for his Colton Parker Mystery series. Although he discovered in grade school that he wanted to be a writer, it would be another twenty-one years before he would put pen to paper.“I knew in fifth grade that I wanted to be a writer. Our teacher had given each of us a photograph which we were to use as inspiration for a short story. The particular photo I was given was of several young men playing handball in New York City. I don’t remember all of the particulars of the story now, but I do remember the thrill that writing it gave me.”

Later, while in college, one of Brandt’s professors would echo that teacher’s comment.

“But life intervened and I found myself working at a variety of jobs. I worked in the toy department of a local department store and fried chicken for a local fast food outlet. Over the course of the next several years I finished my college degree and worked for the Indianapolis office of the FBI, and served for eight years as a Naval Officer in the United States Naval Reserve. I also obtained my doctorate in Podiatric Medicine, and after completion of my surgical residency, opened my own practice. But I never forgot my first love. I wanted to write.”
During his early years in practice, Brandt began reading the work of Dean Koontz.

“I discovered Dean’s book, The Bad Place, and was completely blown away by his craftsmanship. I read something like 13 or 14 of his back list over the following two weeks. It wasn’t long after that I began to write and submit in earnest.”

Still, it would be another twelve years before Brandt was able to secure the publishing contract he so desperately desired.

“I began by writing the type of fiction that I enjoyed; I wrote edgy crime thrillers that were laced with liberal amounts of suspense. Over the years, I’ve begun to write increasingly more complex work by using broader canvases and themes.

Since securing his first contract, Brandt has continued to pen the type of stories that inspired him to write when he was a boy, and that have entertained his legions of readers.

“I love to write, and as long as others love to read, I plan on being around for a long time to come.”



Brandt Dodson’s latest book is the crime thriller The Sons of Jude.

Visit Brandt Dodson’s website at www.brandtdodson.com.

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Pick up your copy of The Sons of Jude at Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/The-Sons-Jude-Series/dp/0857212052

Please copy and paste a book excerpt here.http://www.amazon.com/The-Sons-Jude-Series/dp/0857212052#reader_0857212052


About the Book:

When Chicago detectives Frank Campello and Andy Polanski are assigned to investigate the murder of Trina Martinez it seems like an ordinary homicide. An unfortunate young girl in the wrong place at the wrong time has been brutally murdered. But their investigation is halted by a wall of silence, a wall erected by powerful interests that will render their inquiry a lost cause.

Then they enlist the support of reporter Christy Lee – and come under immediate fire. Polanski is arrested. Campello threatened. Christy is attacked.

It’s the case that every cop gets. The one that changes his life. The one where justice is elusive and the hunter becomes the hunted.

Frank Campello and Andy Polanski are The Sons of Jude.




Book Trailer Link:



   


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The Sons of Jude Tour Page: 

 http://www.pumpupyourbook.com/2012/10/01/pump-up-your-book-presents-the-sons-of-jude-virtual-book-publicity-tour-kindle-fire-giveaway/