Leap Into Books Giveaway Hop

Congratulations to our winner!
Emily R. King
erittelking [at] gmail [dot] com

Enter to win the latest young adult ebook release from Tribute Books.

1) Become a Google Follower of this blog.
2) Leave a comment with your email address.

***

Night Sky
by Jolene Perry

After losing Sarah, the friend he’s loved, to some other guy, Jameson meets Sky. Her Native American roots, fluid movements, and need for brutal honesty become addictive fast. This is good. Jameson needs distraction – his dad leaves for another woman, his mom’s walking around like a zombie, and Sarah’s new boyfriend can’t keep his hands off of her.

As he spends time with Sky and learns about her village, her totems, and her friends with drums - she's way more than distraction. Jameson's falling for her fast.

But Sky’s need for honesty somehow doesn’t extend to her life story – and Jameson just may need more than his new girl to keep him distracted from the disaster of his senior year.

http://night-sky-book.com/

Young Adult Paranormal Giveaway Hop

Congratulations to our winner!
okeyzz
okeyzz [at] gmail [dot] com

Enter to win the latest young adult ebook release from Tribute Books.

1) Become a Google Follower of this blog.
2) Leave a comment with your email address.

***

Until Next Time:
The Angel Chronicles, Book 1
by Amy Lignor

How does a girl choose between the one who steals her heart and the one who owns her soul?

Matt and Emily were created for a specific job. Raised and trained as the ultimate angel/warrior team, they are sent down to save, defend, judge and forgive, depending on the 'life' they've been assigned. What they don't realize is that the power of human emotions, such as love, anger, passion and fear can take over even the best of souls, causing them to make mistakes and follow paths that lead to confusion and heartache.

When the reason for their training is finally revealed, the angel/warrior team find themselves thrust into a world they know nothing about. Matt takes over the life of Daniel, a young man with a great deal of baggage. Emily becomes Liz, a girl living in a remote village who relies on nothing more than her own strength to survive. A violent storm erupts one night, and framed in the window of Liz's establishment is a frightening face. Let in by the soul of a Good Samaritan, the two visitors bring with them a past full of secrets that could literally change an angel's path and a warrior's plans.

From murder to redemption, this angel/warrior team must find a way to keep the faith they have in each other in a world that's ripping them apart.

http://www.the-angel-chronicles.com

Dorothy James - A Place to Die - Guest Post

My thanks to Dorothy James for stopping by City Girl Who Loves to Read for a guest post during the blog tour for her book, A Place to Die.

Guest Post

Setting My Mystery Novel

It is not by chance that my mystery novel is called A Place to Die. Place is very important to me. Plot, characters, setting—all ingredients of a novel, and if you equate “setting” with “background,” you might regard it as being of secondary importance: You tell a story, you create characters and you set them against a certain background. But in my novel and in my thinking, the place is important. It is not just background, it is a fundamental part of the novel’s theme.

Here we have a very specific setting: A retirement home in Vienna. This does not of course dictate the story, the plot, but it determines quite a lot about the characters. I started with the idea of putting a murder mystery in a retirement home because, influenced by the traditional country-house murder mystery, I thought, what better place for such a mystery than a retirement home where you can readily establish a group of characters, close the door on them, as it were, and have a detective gradually track down which of them “did it.” And then, because I was living in Vienna at the time, and knew the city and its history very well. It was the natural place for me to draw a set of characters and use their own past histories in the plot.

The setting is foreign to the American reader, and one might think it difficult to create the impression that all the characters are speaking German when one is writing in English. Of course, I did not want to write some sort of phony German-English, as in a comic show. I did not find it difficult however to observe the standard politenesses of the German language, and a certain formality of language in characters of a certain age. I think there is a difference in the book between the language in which the American visitors to the residence think and talk among themselves, and the language in which the older members of the residence address each other. I did not struggle mightily with this. I felt firmly rooted in the atmosphere of the House in the Vienna Woods, and the language flowed naturally out of that.

Certain aspects of the setting of the retirement home itself are to some extent culture-specific, for example, the café where residents and visitors take coffee and cake and even schnapps in the afternoon, but the basic situation of older people coming to terms with institutional living and with aging itself—this certainly crosses national boundaries. I did not try to make this setting and this situation palatable to the reader—I set out to convey it as it is, with its comic sides as well its heartaches.

Place in this novel is paramount. The plot, the characters, the ideas—they belong in this place.

About the Book
A Place to Die

Book Details:
Price: $34.99 hardcover, $23.99 paperback, $3.03-$9.99 ebook
Format: hardcover, paperback, ebook
Published: April 2010
Pages: 436
ISBN: 9781450082709, 9781450082693
Genre: Murder Mystery
Buy Links: Amazon, Barnes & Noble,
Kindle, Nook, iBookstore

Blurb:
Eleanor and Franz Fabian arrive from New York to spend Christmas with Franzs mother in her sedate retirement home in the Vienna Woods. Their expectations are low: at best, boredom, at worst, run-of-the-mill family friction. But when the wealthy, charming Herr Graf is found dead in his apartment with an ugly head wound, the Fabians are thrust into a homicide investigation.

Some residents and staff have surprising connections to the dead man, but who would have wanted to kill him? Inspector Buchner tracks down the murderer against a backdrop of Viennese history from the Nazi years to the present day. Witty, suspenseful, lyrical, this is a literary whodunit that will keep you guessing till the last page.

About the Author
Dorothy James

Dorothy James was born in Wales and grew up in the South Wales Valleys. Writer, editor, and translator, she has published short stories as well as books and articles on German and Austrian literature. She has taught at universities in the U.S., England, and Germany, makes her home now in Brooklyn and often spends time in Vienna and Berlin.

She wrote A Place to Die in her attic apartment on the edge of the Vienna Woods. She has traveled far from Wales, but has not lost the Welsh love of playing with language; she writes poems for pleasure as does Chief Inspector Büchner, the whimsical Viennese detective who unravels the first mystery in this new series of novels.

Connect with Dorothy:
Web Site
Facebook
Twitter
Blog

About the Tour

Tribute Books Blog Tours

A Place to Die Blog Tour Site

Tour Participants:

February 6 (guest post)
Proud Book Nerd

February 6 (guest post)
Bibliophilic Book Blog

February 6 (author interview)
You Gotta Read

February 7 (guest post)
vvb32 reads

February 8 (guest post or author interview)
The Character Connection

February 8 (author interview)
I Am a Reader, Not a Writer

February 9 (review)
Kritters Ramblings

February 10 (review)
A Lovely Shore Breeze

February 10 (guest post or author interview)
The Plot Thickens

February 13 (guest post)
Book Dilettante

February 13 (review)
Books and Needlepoint

February 13 (review)
Tic Toc

February 14 (review)
Reviews by Molly

February 15 (guest post or author interview)
City Girl Who Loves to Read

February 15 (review)
The Book Connection

February 16 (review)
Book Dragon's Lair

February 16 (guest post)
Books-n-Kisses

February 17 (review)
Simple Wyrdings

February 18 (review)
Lesa's Book Critiques

February 21 (review)
Words by Webb

February 22 (guest post)
Mama Knows Books

February 23 (guest post)
Fighter Writer

February 24 (review)
Minding Spot

Valentine's Day Books with Love Hop

Congratulations to our winner:
Cayce
cayce006 [at] yahoo [dot] com

Enter to win the latest young adult ebook release from Tribute Books.

1) Become a Google Follower of this blog.
2) Leave a comment with your email address.

***

Until Next Time:
The Angel Chronicles, Book 1
by Amy Lignor

How does a girl choose between the one who steals her heart and the one who owns her soul?

Matt and Emily were created for a specific job. Raised and trained as the ultimate angel/warrior team, they are sent down to save, defend, judge and forgive, depending on the 'life' they've been assigned. What they don't realize is that the power of human emotions, such as love, anger, passion and fear can take over even the best of souls, causing them to make mistakes and follow paths that lead to confusion and heartache.

When the reason for their training is finally revealed, the angel/warrior team find themselves thrust into a world they know nothing about. Matt takes over the life of Daniel, a young man with a great deal of baggage. Emily becomes Liz, a girl living in a remote village who relies on nothing more than her own strength to survive. A violent storm erupts one night, and framed in the window of Liz's establishment is a frightening face. Let in by the soul of a Good Samaritan, the two visitors bring with them a past full of secrets that could literally change an angel's path and a warrior's plans.

From murder to redemption, this angel/warrior team must find a way to keep the faith they have in each other in a world that's ripping them apart.

http://www.the-angel-chronicles.com

Follower Love Giveaway Hop

Congratulations to our winner!
Stormy Bailey
jjandstormy [at] yahoo [dot] com

Enter to win the latest young adult ebook release from Tribute Books.

1) Become a Google Follower of this blog.
2) Leave a comment with your email address.

***

Until Next Time:
The Angel Chronicles, Book 1
by Amy Lignor

How does a girl choose between the one who steals her heart and the one who owns her soul?

Matt and Emily were created for a specific job. Raised and trained as the ultimate angel/warrior team, they are sent down to save, defend, judge and forgive, depending on the 'life' they've been assigned. What they don't realize is that the power of human emotions, such as love, anger, passion and fear can take over even the best of souls, causing them to make mistakes and follow paths that lead to confusion and heartache.

When the reason for their training is finally revealed, the angel/warrior team find themselves thrust into a world they know nothing about. Matt takes over the life of Daniel, a young man with a great deal of baggage. Emily becomes Liz, a girl living in a remote village who relies on nothing more than her own strength to survive. A violent storm erupts one night, and framed in the window of Liz's establishment is a frightening face. Let in by the soul of a Good Samaritan, the two visitors bring with them a past full of secrets that could literally change an angel's path and a warrior's plans.

From murder to redemption, this angel/warrior team must find a way to keep the faith they have in each other in a world that's ripping them apart.

http://www.the-angel-chronicles.com

Kerry Downing - Time Slice - Author Interview

My thanks to Kerry Downing for stopping by City Girl Who Loves to Read for an author interview during the blog tour for his book, Time Slice.

Author Interview

1. Why did you choose this setting?
For me, the choice of setting for Time Slice was simple. I chose the San Francisco Bay area because, quite frankly, I’m in love with it. It’s such a dynamic and beautiful area. I knew it would be fun to write about, although a challenge to capture the beauty and majesty of the Pacific and surrounding coastline. I hope I did it justice.

2. How is it a fundamental part of your overall theme?
It was always the dream of Time Slice’s two main characters to live in the San Francisco area. This is especially true for Roy Washburn. Roy is kind of a negative-Nelly, never able to see how much he has in life whereas his wife, Emily, has a more positive outlook on things.

The setting is just another thing that Roy has in his life and should be happy about, but is unable to see and appreciate. Will he be able to change and realize how lucky he is? I’m afraid you’ll have to read the book to find out!

3. How challenging was it to write about?
Writing about San Francisco in our time slice (the San Francisco that exists in our version of the world) was fun. It was a challenge for me to try and convey how I feel about the area to my readers, but the challenge was enjoyable.

Writing about the San Franciscos that exist in other time slices was both easier and more difficult, if that makes any sense. It was easier because I was making it up as I went along, knowing that nobody could say I misrepresented a particular town or region. But, making it up as I went along was also difficult because I had to follow certain rules and restrictions imposed by traveling through the time stream into different time slices.

4. How did you develop your setting as you wrote your book?
The initial setting is what it is. I’ve been to the area many times so I just wrote about my impressions and memories of good-old San Fran.

The San Francisco areas that exist in the other time slices, however, were purely a concoction of my imagination. Because of the rules involved in traveling the time stream, however, these “other” San Franciscos did have to follow some rules.

If I was in a time slice to the left of ours, the gravitational pull would be higher or stronger, so the setting had to transform accordingly. Likewise, the gravitational pull in time slices to the right of ours would be less so, again, the setting had to match the time slice.

5. How do you transport them there through your writing?
As a writer, I show the setting to my readers instead of telling them about it. I show it to them by seeing it through the eyes of the characters and by having the characters interact with it and in it. The setting is the all pervasive character, in every scene, but almost never taking center stage. The setting is content to be in the background, but without it nothing else makes sense.

6. How do you introduce them to an area they may not be familiar with?
I introduce unfamiliar territory to my readers via the characters in the story. Many times, the setting is unfamiliar to the character as well, so my readers learn about and explore the setting right along with the characters.

These unfamiliar settings are usually new to me, too, so I’m discovering them for the first time as I write. This is particularly true about the settings I’m making up as I go along. They just kind of unfold before me and I try to capture it as best I can.

7. How do you go about making the setting come alive for the reader?
As mentioned earlier, I try to show the setting to the reader instead of just telling them about it. Maybe an example would be in order here:

Telling:
Roy and Emily walked through the forest. The trees were very tall. The sun was shining and it was a beautiful day.

Showing:
As Roy and Emily trekked though the woods, Emily stopped short, craning her neck back as far as she could in an attempt to see the tops of the trees. Shafts of soft sunlight filtered down through the pines, falling on her face. Emily closed her eyes, drew in a deep breath, and smiled.

About the Book
Time Slice

Book Details:
Price: $14.95 paperback, $4.95 ebook
Format: paperback, ebook
Published: June 2011
Pages: 256
ISBN: 9781603818520
Genre: Science Fiction, Fantasy
Buy Links: Amazon, Barnes & Noble,
Kindle, Nook, Smashwords

Blurb:
Ordinary People. Extraordinary Adventures. Science Fiction with Heart.

Newly retired workaholic Roy Washburn is not ready for a life of leisure. On a trip to the mall with his wife, he finds a small metal cylinder with odd markings. One nudge of the cylinder's triangle-shaped pointer and Roy finds himself embarking on an exciting new adventure in the Time Stream.

There he meets The Traveler, a tall, gangly being who shows Roy how to use the cylinder to visit other civilizations that co-exist on "his" Earth, each occupying a different, thin Time Slice. The Traveler solicits Roy's help in recovering an object invented by his murdered father and beyond his own reach. Roy is his last hope.

At first it seems that the Traveler's wish might be easily granted. But after Roy's wife Emily becomes ill and his daughter's long-held resentments rise to the surface, he can no longer "travel" at a moment's notice. He also discovers the very real physical and mental risks involved in roaming the Time Stream.

Despite the dangers, Roy is determined to help the Traveler. But he can't do it alone. Fortunately he has a loving wife and a core group of loyal friends. But first he must convince them--and his daughter--that he isn't crazy ...

About the Author
Kerry Downing

Kerry Downing set out to become a meteorologist, but was hooked by the world of computers instead, becoming a systems analyst and programmer. Astronomy and science fiction are his passions. He’s been gazing at the stars at all hours of the night since the age of 10, when he received his first telescope. As for science fiction, Arthur C. Clarke and his brand of “it really seems as if it could happen” has always been his favorite. In the 90s, Kerry found the third love of his life: his wife, Lucy. They live in St. Louis, Missouri, with their five children. Time Slice is Kerry’s second science-fiction novel. His self-published, debut work is The Collective.

Connect with Kerry:
Web Site
Twitter
Blog

About the Tour

Tribute Books Blog Tours

Time Slice Blog Tour Site

Tour Participants:

February 1
Crazed Mind

February 1
The Book Connection (author interview)

February 2
Heidi Ruby Miller - Just a Girl (author interview)

February 2
I Am A Reader, Not A Writer (author interview)

February 3
Live to Read

February 4
Feeding My Book Addiction

February 5
Book Lover's Hideaway

February 5
Red Adept Reviews

February 6
Peace Love Books

February 7
My Tower of Books

February 7
Sapphyria's Book Reviews

February 8
Carabosse's Library

February 9
Book Dragon's Lair

February 9
Broken Teepee

February 9
Wakela's World

February 10
Flutey Words

February 13
Bibliophilic Book Blog

February 14
City Girl Who Loves to Read (author interview/guest post)

February 15
Book Junkie

February 15
The Plot Thickens (author interview/guest post)

February 16
Adventures of Frugal Mom

February 17
The Prissy Book Snob

February 17
The Wormhole

February 18
Minding Spot

February 20
Books-n-Kisses

February 21
Livre De Amour (Books of Love)

February 21
vvb32 reads (guest post)

February 23
Mom in Love with Fiction

February 24
Mom Reads My Books

February 25
The Bookshelf Review

February 27
Celtic Lady's Reviews

February 28
Mission to Read

February 28
The Character Connection

Young Adult Giveaway Hop

Congratulations to our winner:
Sara Kovach
skovach717 [at] gmail [dot] com

Enter to win the two latest young adult ebook releases from Tribute Books.

1) Become a Google Follower of this blog.
2) Leave a comment with your email address.

***

Until Next Time:
The Angel Chronicles, Book 1
by Amy Lignor

How does a girl choose between the one who steals her heart and the one who owns her soul?

Matt and Emily were created for a specific job. Raised and trained as the ultimate angel/warrior team, they are sent down to save, defend, judge and forgive, depending on the 'life' they've been assigned. What they don't realize is that the power of human emotions, such as love, anger, passion and fear can take over even the best of souls, causing them to make mistakes and follow paths that lead to confusion and heartache.

When the reason for their training is finally revealed, the angel/warrior team find themselves thrust into a world they know nothing about. Matt takes over the life of Daniel, a young man with a great deal of baggage. Emily becomes Liz, a girl living in a remote village who relies on nothing more than her own strength to survive. A violent storm erupts one night, and framed in the window of Liz's establishment is a frightening face. Let in by the soul of a Good Samaritan, the two visitors bring with them a past full of secrets that could literally change an angel's path and a warrior's plans.

From murder to redemption, this angel/warrior team must find a way to keep the faith they have in each other in a world that's ripping them apart.

http://www.the-angel-chronicles.com



***

The Priest and the Peaches
by Larry Peterson

Historical fiction novel set in the Bronx in the mid-1960s

Take a seven day journey with the five, newly orphaned Peach kids, as they begin their struggle to remain a family while planning their dad's funeral.

They find an ally in the local parish priest, Father Tim Sullivan, who tries his best to guide them through the strange, unchartered and turbulent waters of "grown-up world." A story that is sad, funny, and inspiring as it shows how the power of family love and faith can overcome seemingly insurmountable obstacles.

http://www.ThePriestAndThePeaches.com