Fridays 5 with Prex J.D. V Ybasco

The President of The Ybasco University. (A makeshift school of her own making)
An accomplished Educator.
A Seminar Speaker.
A Bookworm.
A Musician.
A Writer.

Her first work is "To Be Continued," a Young Adult novel that features Azalea Anthony, a struggling writer, her influences, her love for writing and basketball, and her relationships with people around her.

1.) When did you first get serious about writing?

A.)  I already joined writing contests when I was in College and since then, I have kept different blogs. However, only after going through the 2014 NaNoWriMo challenge and succeeding did I get ever so serious in it. I refused to eat on time, I didn't talk to my friends about my work for fear that I might give away important ideas I could use for my plot. I woke up every morning thinking of what else to write. So yeah, I think at that point, I became serious.

2.) What is the hardest part for you about writing?

A.) Probably facing the fact that there are great writers out there and they have covered almost everything that needs to be covered. It feels like you have nothing new to say nor offer to the world. I have always seen myself as a writer who has a fresh take on things but when I read novels or even blogs that have solid plots and amazing lines, I start doubting myself if I am indeed cut out for this.

 

Click on cover to order or for more info!

 

Synopsis: Not all stories end happily nor tragically. Most of them just need to be continued.Azalea Anthony is a writer, or what she claims to be.Vim Harvey is her friend, or at least what she wants to believe.Jasmine Morrish is Azalea's archenemy, or so what Jash believes Azalea makes people believe...er--There are other characters, too: like Warren, the basketball player, Beatrix, the model, Tom, the perfect excuse of a brother, Eclaire, the eccentric bff, etc.They all hangout in one place where they can enjoy a steaming cup of debates, an aroma of gossips, a side dish of basketball, a topping of drama, and a menu of articles : The Big Coffee Shop.

 

3.) How did you feel upon publication of your first completed project?

A.)  It was superb! For the first few days, the idea that I have a novel out there waiting to be read (and criticized at that!) didn't sink in but when it did, I was in seventh heaven.

4.) What is more important to you, story, or character? Why?

A.)  Characters make stories more realistic and in this generation when you will find the same story line and plot, I guess the game changers will have to be the characters.

5.) What is a typical day like in your world?

A.)  Nothing much. Just sitting in a comfy chair, reading a book and a cup of coffee within my reach.

Throwback Thursday: Panzer Kaserne

In 1979 I returned to the United States from a re forger exercise in West Germany only to be handed orders to go back on permanent duty. Once I arrived in country I was assigned to Panzer Kaserne,  Headquarters company 4th of the 73rd Armored, 1st Infantry Division (The Big Red One). This was at the height of the cold war so our stated mission was to conduct a delaying action against a Soviet advance to give reinforcements time to arrive in country and equip.

Over the intervening years I've lost all of the photos of my time in the military so imagine my surprise to run across this on Youtube. I was there when these photos were taken and there's a good chance I was photographed without my knowledge. Of course my back is to the camera, I never was one for having my picture taken.

A trip down memory lane, recalling the ones that got away.

My oldest grandson has recently turned sixteen and just the other day got his learners permit. While it makes me feel old to realize one of my children's children has reached that age where I got my first car, it also sent me down memory lane to revisit some lost loves. What many people don't know about me is I like cars. I may bitch and moan and complain about working on them, but I've got grease under my fingernails, and I like it.

The very first car I ever owned was a 1955 Dodge Coronet. Of course it looked nothing like the one in the picture and truth be told the car was given to me by my dad. I tinkered with it trying unsuccessfully to get it started. I didn't have a clue what I was doing and at the time my Dad was fighting against the diabetes that would kill him a couple of years later, so he was in no position to help. I eventually graduated from high school and joined the military. The last I heard about the Dodge it had been sold to my Uncle who parked it in his back yard where it sat until it turned into a pile of rust.

The next vehicle I owned was a 1965 Ford Fairlane 500 that I purchased from a so-called friend at my first permanent duty station in the military. I paid 500 bucks for it, and when the transmission went out on it (at least they said it was the transmission) I sold it for a loss.

My next vehicle purchase was a 1971 AMC Javelin that I bought from one of the dealers along the main strip in Killeen Texas. It was lime green and looked like someone had painted it with a paint roller. The interior was trashed but it started when I turned the key and sometimes I could bark the tires. Of course duty called and a trip overseas courtesy of Uncle Sam ended that love affair.

Over the intervening years I've owned a number of different vehicles and in that time I've taught myself how to work on them. I rebuilt a transmission once and it worked. I've also rebuilt engines so I know a thing or two about the inner workings of a motor. It's the electrical systems that confuse me.

I've been handing down this knowledge to my oldest grandson. He has helped me a number of times work on the assorted vehicles I've owned One of my fondest memories comes from when he was only six and we were lying together under an old Daytona. I caught hell because he got grease on his clothes, but I know he learned something from the experience, I know I did.

What was your fist vehicle?

How to upload a free book to your kindle

Not everyone is as tech savvy as many of us authors would like to believe. We offer free books without much thought to how someone is going to get said book onto their device. Here's a little something I threw together to help out. Feel free to copy the instructions below to hand out with your free books, and please don't hesitate to share a link to this post.

There are two ways of getting a free book onto your device.  Directly through your computer using the USB cable that came with your device, or if you own a kindle, you can email the book as an attachment directly to your kindle.

Directly via your personal computer.

1. Always remember where you save any file you donwload.
2. Plug your device into your computer using the USB cable that came with it.
3. Locate your device  on your computer. In most cases a dialog box will open once you've connected asking you what you want to do with the device.
4. Once you’ve located your device open the folder. For files on a kindle it will be named Documents or books, on other readers it may have a name such as Content or Documents, or even books.
5. Drag and drop the book file into the open folder for your device.
6. Unmount the device from your computer: choose "Safely Remove Mass Storage Device" (Windows) or "Eject" (Mac)
7. Disconnect your device and enjoy the story. 

To email the file to your kindle.

1.  Log into your Amazon account.
2.  To the right on the top bar of the main page you will see your name, and beneath that Your     Account.
3. Click on the link to open your account.
4. Scroll down to the Digital Content box
5. Click on manage your content and devices
6. Along the top of the page you will see Your Content, Your Devices, Settings
7. Click on the Settings tab.
8. Scroll down the page to Personal Document Settings There you will see the email address for your kindle, make a note of this.
9. Scroll down to Approved Personal Document Email list.
10. If your personal email is not listed there, click on Add a New Approved Email Address
11. Follow the prompts to add your personal email.
12. Once you click save it will take about 24 hours before you can email anything to your kindle. Once it’s set up, anytime you have a mobi or pdf you want to load on your kindle, simply attach it to an email from your approved email account and you can send the file to your kindle.

For more information about transferring files to your kindle go to Send To Kindle 

Hope this helps. If you have any other questions don't hesitate to ask, but remember I'm not as tech savvy as this post makes me appear. 

Fridays 5 with Morris Graham

I have always loved to read. I am an avid reader and Amazon reviewer, present ranking 107,262. I've been married for 34 years, father of four, from Central Arkansas, USA. I was born in Coldwater, MI. My father moved us back to Central Louisiana when I was a boy, and I finished High School at Boyce High School in Boyce, LA. I have worked as a welder and later as a telecommunications worker. My faith is important to me and I attend Trinity Church of Hot Springs, AR. I am nearing retirement age for my day job, and when that day comes, I hope to spend my days writing, reviewing, and editing. I plan to return to writing in 2016 and finish book two of my Warzone series, entitled "Warzone: Operation Wolf Hunt."

http://www.morrisegraham.com/

1.) When did you first get serious about writing?
A.)  I co-authored a 30 page booklet in 1974, but didn’t get serious until 2004 when I started my debut novel, “Warzone: Nemesis.”

2.) What is the hardest part for you about writing?
A.)  Since I work full time for a major telecom, and in transit to work two hours a day, I would say making time to write. I started my writing career by writing before work started and during lunches and breaks, and occasionally in the evenings and weekends, but not typically.

Click on cover for more info or to order!

Synopsis: The space race was a lie, and the cold war wasn’t as cold as you thought. While we were playing spy versus spy, conducting an arms race and a space race on Earth, things were heating up in the solar system.

In 1959, an alien vessel crashed on the Navajo reservation, ushering forth a colonial space race in the solar system between the two superpowers. The prize is the mysterious metal known only as alloy-x and the alien technology that promises to make one nation or the other the dominant superpower in the arms race. The American commander finds himself fighting with the toughest antagonist of his career. He had finally met his nemesis. The stakes are high. Losing the struggle could tip the balance of power on the Earth, giving the Soviets the advantage in Earth’s cold war.

3.) How did you feel upon publication of your first completed project?
A.)  Ecstatic! I started the project in 2004, and published in 2013. It was a very long road.

4.) What is more important to you, story, or character? Why?
A.)  That’s a tough one. I would have to say the story, because a good story sets the framework for the character development. It draws out the good and bad in the characters, and their humanness.

5.) What is a typical day like in your world?
A.)  Get up at 5:15 am, get ready for my day job. I usually pop an audiobook in the CD player for my long commute. (I currently have an Amazon reviewers ranking of 107,262) Then I get to work, check my email and respond to anything pertinent to do with my writing career, and then I either edit another author’s book or write on my own projects until work start. Then I do it all again at lunch. I am going to turn 60 this Friday, and getting closer to my retirement and my dream job—full time editor and author.

They're awake, and very, very, hungry

They have lived among us for centuries, blending in as we go about our daily lives, feeding only when necessary so as not to draw undue attention to themselves. Existing along the blurred edges of society, relegated to the shadowy corners of our well lit world. We know them as the creatures that inhabit our nightmares. Vampires, ghosts, and ghouls that feed upon the unsuspecting, with names as varied as the regions they inhabit.

As long as man continued to survive they would remain in their shadowy place. But when a virus decimates the living, turning them into shambling flesh eating monsters, the creatures of the night saw their food source vanish as the society that had kept them under control crumbled. Released from the restraints that once bound them they flourished. Some take over entire cities while others become gods to small groups of survivors.

Welcome to the Dreadlands.
 
I'm pleased to announce that the second book in the Dreadland Chronicles series, The Reaping, is now available for pre-order, due for release on June 24, 2016.

Reserve your copy HERE!

Synopsis: The horrors of the past meet the brutality of the present.

Fourteen years ago the dead walked and society crumbled. Pushed to the brink of extinction mankind struggles to survive in an increasingly dangerous world. The threat comes not only from the few remaining walking dead, but other survivors as they scramble to locate an ever dwindling source of supplies.

In this new reality the creatures that once roamed the night, once relegated to the shadowy corners of a well lit world, have awakened, and they are very, very, hungry

During a routine scavenging trip Window is bitten by a vampire.

To save their friend the boys must travel to Washington DC to track down the master in order to kill him and release Window from his curse. In the Nations capitol they discover a nest of vampires that threatens to finish mankind once and for all.

They are the only ones who stand between mankind and the reaping.

To celebrate the pre-order release of The Reaping, I'm running a kindle countdown deal for book one, All Roads Lead to Terror. For a limited time you can grab a copy for only $0.99.

Grab a copy HERE!

Synopsis:  Stand By Me meets The Road.

On the day of his birth the dead walked and society crumbled. His mother took one look at him and pronounced him Meat. He survived, she didn't.

Fourteen years have passed and obscurity means survival in an increasingly dangerous world. For the survivors compound at Bremo Bluff that obscurity is threatened when a savage band abducts a group of children from the compound.

Accompanied by his three friends Window, Einstein, and Billie-Bob, Meat embarks on a quest to rescue the children. A journey that will lead them into adulthood, with a brief detour through the Dreadlands, as they confront the harsh reality of a brutal world beyond the barriers that had served to protect them.

In the dead city of Richmond they will confront that savage cult of children who worship a creature of the night. These creatures, once considered the nightmare imaginings of a fevered mind, are now awake in a world where the population that once served as their food source has been reduced.

Awake and very, very, hungry. 

About the author:

Richard believes the act of reading is the most intimate form of communication possible. It's like the writer and reader are sitting at a small table, sharing a bottle of their favorite beverage, while the writer spins a tall tale.

Born in Frostburg, Maryland, in the winter of '58' he currently lives eight miles away. A five-year stint with the military allowed him to see what he wanted of the world. Married with four grown children and eight grandchildren, he and his wife provide a home to two pets that are spoiled beyond rotten.

In addition to writing daily he works a full time job in retail, and piddles around in his wood-shop where he makes one mess after another.

Richard can be found online at:

Facebook: http://www.facebook/RichardSchiver

Follow Richard on Twitter: @RichardSchiver  

He can be contacted directly at rschiver@gmail.com and would be delighted to hear from you.

Sign up to be notified of new releases when they become available. He promises to never share your contact info, nor will he swamp your inbox with unnecessary crap. http://www.eepurl.com/2bYSf  

Where did they all come from?

Do you remember the scene from The Walking Dead where Rick was trapped in a tank in Atlanta, the streets around him filled with Zombies? It seemed like they were everywhere.

I've read a number of Zombie books in the past, and a few of the scenes that really stood out for me were about overwhelming masses of Zombies creating veritable walls of rotting flesh through which the hero's were forced to venture. In one scene in particular a well equipped military force runs out of ammunition while killing an approaching horde of the undead, and still they came on.

At the risk of pissing off a legion of Zombie lovers I just have to say one thing.

Where did these hordes of Zombie come from?

I understand the need to fulfill the expectations of the readers of a particular genre, but the other day while watching The Dawn of the Dead a thought popped into my mind. I'm always getting these strange ideas, they just pop up on their own. And this is not intended to poke fun at anyone in particular.

Let's say for instance that we follow the original concept for the zombie apocalypse first proposed in George Romero's Night of the Living Dead. If I remember correctly during the course of the movie we are privy to a radio broadcast about the Earth passing through the tail of a comet. Which I believe served as the explanation for the dead waking up.

With this in mind, the recently deceased will be the first to wake up. Of course that means hospitals, morgues, and funeral homes would be the first attacked. Not sure if an embalmed body would reanimate, but let's add them as well.

We start out with a small population of the walking dead restricted to the aforementioned places, which in most cases are located in basements, funeral homes being one exception. Those who work in these places will be the first to succumb to the zombie horde, becoming Zombies themselves.

Now we come to the tricky part. How did the Zombies get out of the basement? I know, some may hitch a ride on an elevator and pop out on the first floor of the hospital, but in a situation like that I believe they would be quickly contained.

Of course I could be wrong.

If an event occurred that instantly turned ninety percent of the population into Zombies, a large percentage of them would be confined to buildings, houses, and vehicles, based on the time of day the event happened.

If a Zombie does not know how to operate a door.

How did they get out?

What are your thought on this?

How do you think they got out?

Fridays 5 with Shannon Peel

Shannon Peel grew up in Enderby, BC where her family's root run deep. Growing up where television was either non existent or very limited she relied on books & imagination to travel into the world beyond.

She went to UBC to study and earn a general studies BA with a concentration in Political Science and Economics. Macro analysis of world events, social justice and human motivations became a passion of hers. This passion is a driving force in all her stories, which have political, economic, and social justice undercurrents.

After a career in the financial field she decided to stay home and raise her two children until school age. In 2007 she return to the workforce as a sales / marketing / advertising professional.

THIRTEEN is her debut full size paperback novel.

1.) When did you first get serious about writing?

A.) In 2007 I met a lost boy from South Sudan whose story of being an 8 year old child trying to survive a war torn landscape on his own ripped at my heart. My own son at the time was 8 and it pained me to think of him in the same situation. What I found more upsetting was when this young man was trying to survive, the world was fixated on Ethiopia with band-aid and 24 hour famines. How come we didn't know about the struggles just next door in the South Sudan region?

I'd always wanted to write and be a writer, now I had a story. The only problem was, it wasn't my story to tell. No matter how much I tried to make the story empathetic to North American kids, the minute I wrote about the African setting it jumped the reader out of the connection with the main character.

One day when my son was 13 a thought came to me - Bring the war here. If I wanted North American kids to care about children caught in war I needed to make it about them. Take away their freedoms, their technology, their safe neighbourhoods. At the time my son was pulling away from me and the daily struggle was a difficult one. Put both conflicts together and viola - I had a novel.

2.) What is the hardest part for you about writing?

A.) Finding the time. As a mother and a woman in the middle of a divorce it was hard to focus on it. The story itself was written in 3 months, it was the revisions, edits, and confidence in my ability that was difficult. I allowed others comments to dictate my story and their fears soon diluted the storyline.

I took a year off from THIRTEEN to focus on other more therapeutic writing, which helped sharpen my skills. When I came back to the novel I was stronger, more confident, and determined to make it. I had some extra money and hired a professional editor. That was the best decision I ever made.

Click on cover for more info or to order!

Synopsis: A boy, his mom, a cop, a city under attack. Can Jack find his dad before the soldiers do?

At Thirteen Jack just wants to have fun with friends but his mother's rules keep getting in the way until one morning he wakes up to machine gunfire. Foreign soldiers have invaded his town shutting off the power, cutting off communication, and restricting travel. To make matters worse he doesn't know if his dad is alive, wounded, captured or dead. He just wants to go find him but his mother doesn't care, the soldiers are in his way, and the cop who busted him is no help at all.

3.) How did you feel upon publication of your first completed project?

A.) Elated. I have even sold copies of both my paperback and my ebook versions. I have had some good feedback in the form of reviews and I continue to build on my confidence as a writer.

4.) What is more important to you, story, or character? Why?

A.) Character. If you have strong characters you can put them into the story and they write it for you. If readers care about the character than they'll follow him / her into any scenario, twist and turn of the story.

5.) What is a typical day like in your world?

A.)  Get up, have my coffee, and work on THIRTEEN's online promotion & offline marketing plan until 9am when I start my paying gig as a customer success coach of an online review site. I drive my kids around, run errands, figure out how to pay for their needs and wants. I work on promo during lunch and in the evenings / weekends. When I'm not working on the promo of THIRTEEN, I'm writing the sequel and next instalment in the series.

Shannon maintains a website at: http://shannonlpeel.wix.com/shannonpeel

Facebook Live: Now you can never leave.

From Joshua Topolsky at The New Yorker

It’s often difficult inside a closed system to see the boundaries that surround you. Sometimes you think you can see the whole of the universe. This is how closed systems like it: their inhabitants looking out through a distorted curvature that gives shape to space that is not there. This is how Facebook, Apple, and other technology platforms hope to trap and keep you. Sated, oblivious, and well fed. But human beings are not good with closed systems, and so, eventually, we see the fences, and then we run our hands along them to feel for shape and structure. We study how the fence weaves into and out of the trees. And one day, when the sun has gone down and the guards are asleep, we catapult over to the other side, and see all the things we couldn’t see before.

I wrote several years ago that Facebook’s dream is not to be your favorite destination on the Internet; its desire is to be the Internet. It would prefer that when you connect in the digital realm—an increasingly all-encompassing expanse—you do it within Facebook, which now includes Instagram, Whatsapp, and Oculus VR (in addition to its robust news feed, its Messenger chat app, its Moments photo-sharing platform, its video-player platform . . . well, you get the idea). This isn’t exactly a new phenomenon; for years technology companies have waged platform battles, hoping to lock in users with hardware, software, or services that only function inside a proprietary venue. Closed systems make your patronage simpler and more consistent, and it is through a closed system that a company can most readily own and control your data, which is then converted to revenue.

Facebook has been particularly focused on three areas lately: publishers’ content (that is, all the stuff that makes Facebook worth reading), video (the thing every creator on the Internet must do right now), and the youth market (all the people Facebook will need tomorrow). In all three places, the company has been playing a haphazard game of catch-up, trying to concoct a mixture of services, partnerships, acquisitions, and outright steamrolling that will insure ownership and control of these three crucial axes.

Reminds one of the Eagles song Hotel California: You can check out anytime you like, but you can never leave.

Read the rest at The New Yorker

Fridays 5 with Matt Converse

At his core San Francisco native Matt Converse is a horror writer whose inspiration ranges from Stephen King to Alfred Hitchcock, to Lady Gaga. It was his desire to bring diversity to the publishing world that led him to become the first author at Comet Press to release an erotic gay thriller, BEHIND THE VELVET CURTAIN.



1.) When did you first get serious about writing?

A.)   About two years ago.  I had a horror novel in the making of about 40,000 words and brought it up to 65,000 words and queried for agents.  In the meantime, I wrote a few short stories, also horror, and then a novella that slightly veered out of my horror genre.  It was an erotic gay thriller.  It didn't take nearly as long to write as the novel, but I told my friends, I bet this sells first.  Why?  Sex sells.  A few months later I got my first yes, and sure enough it was for the erotic novella.  My first short story I wrote in 4th grade, about a kid who slept walk to a graveyard, only to find his name on the headstone.  A bit dark for a nine year old, and my teacher accused me of copying it from a TV series or movie.  I took that as quite the compliment!

2.) What is the hardest part for you about writing?

A.)   Getting "unstuck".  Those times when you just can't seem to write, even though there's no concrete reason you can't.  The cure is simple: butt in chair, now write.  Write anything, even if it's terrible.  The inspiration eventually comes.  Some have said promoting of their book.  I have found that part fun and in fact has turned this lazy daydreamer into a workaholic.  Who knew?   

Click on cover for more info or to order!

Synopsis: Matt Jaxx is a sexy stripper who develops a fast following, but one of them turns scary stalker. Along the way he way he meets Justin and it's lust at first sight, both doing things they'd only fantasized about. Right when he seems to have it all, his stalker reappears, revealing his twisted agenda. It's a fast, fun, sexy, scary tale.

3.) How did you feel upon publication of your first completed project?

A.)  First completed project was a great deal of satisfaction.  First published project was another story.  What is the right word? Hysterical.  I couldn't believe I got a reply that didn't start with "Thank you for submitting..." and instead started with "We absolutely loved Behind the Velvet Curtain."  A contract was attached.  I was over the moon.  After countless attempts, I finally got that yes.  The stories are true.  Keep writing and keep submitting, each no is one step closer to that yes.

4.) What is more important to you, story, or character? Why?

A.)   It's impossible to separate, but character driven books sell better.  A good book has to have both, interesting characters the readers care about, and an interesting story.  I love getting into what makes a character tick.

5.) What is a typical day like in your world?

A.)    I usually start the day going to my computer and promoting my novella on Facebook, twitter and wherever else I can.  Then I have breakfast and after that espresso.  I might exercise for an hour or go for a walk.  I live in San Francisco, so there isn't much bad weather to worry about when it comes to that.  My writing I always do at night.  I'm a night owl and I think that goes well with being a horror writer.  I sip espresso and listen to music when I write.  It was Lady Gaga for the novella I have out now as it is about a stripper who dances to her music.  When I work on the horror novel, it's Depeche Mode for a darker mood.  Sometimes I do fun interviews, which I really enjoy.  Being an author is a pretty cool gig, I've never been happier and the other authors, reviewers, and readers have been fantastic and so supportive.  It's a great community we have.


Author Links

Amazon buy link: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00TBPESD0
Author page at Sex Files (imprint of Comet Press):  http://sexfiles.cometpress.us/books/behind.html
My twitter: https://twitter.com/MattConverse1
My Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/matt.converse.39

Real Writers Don't Self Publish, by Kristen Lamb

One of the things I love about doing what I do is that I have the ability to connect so closely with you guys and speak on the topics that matter to you. Yesterday, a fellow writer shared an article from The Guardian, For me traditional publishing means poverty. But self-publish? No way. She wanted my take on what the author had to say.

All right.

For those who’ve been following this blog for any amount of time, I hope I’ve been really clear that I support all paths of publishing (vanity press doesn’t count).

All forms of publishing hold advantages and disadvantages and, as a business, we are wise to consider what form of publishing is best for our writing, our work, our goals, our personality, etc. But my goal has always been to educate writers so they are making wise decisions based off data, not just personal preferences.

We don’t self-publish because all our friends are doing it and we think we can make a million dollars fast cash. But, at the same time, we shouldn’t hold out for traditional out of some misguided idea that self-publishing/indie isn’t for “real” authors and that traditional publishers are somehow going to handhold us.

The author of this article has the right to publish as she sees fit. I am all for empowering authors and trust me, I know that self-publishing gets a bad rap for good reasons. I am not blind to all the book spam and authors who write ONE book and camp on top of it for the next five years selling to anyone who looks at them.

But there were some egregious errors in many of the article’s assertions that I’d like to address so that your decision is based of reality not an opinion piece. I won’t address them all today for the sake of brevity, but here were the major ones that jumped out at me.

Myth #1—Serious Novelists Don’t Self-Publish

Tell that to Hugh Howey, Bob Mayer, Barry Eisler, Joel Eisenberg, Vicki Hinze, Theresa Ragan and y’all get the point.

Read the rest at WarriorWriters

New Release: Out of Darkness (Eternals Trilogy Book I)

Click on cover for more info or to order!

 Taylor is giving away one free copy of Out of Darkness to one lucky winner, to enter all you have to do is comment on this post. On Friday April 8, 2016, a winner will be randomly chosen from all of those who commented. Good luck!

Synopsis:  Enter the clearing and your life will change forever…

Seventeen-year-old Lizette Weatherly’s life is about to change forever. 

Lizette is a girl who really can’t catch a break. Her parents are overprotective of her and her peers are afraid of her. Two centuries ago Lizette's ancestor Jacob and his family disappeared without a trace. All that were found were bloody clothes and mysterious symbols etched into the ground in a clearing near their old house.

Lizette’s family have been ostracized by the people in the nearby city of Marquette, Michigan ever since. Lizette spends most of her time alone with her old set of tarot cards in her house back in the woods where the sun never shines; until one night when she wanders off into the woods and stumbles upon a group of hooded figures standing around a bonfire.

Lizette soon learns that everything she knew is a lie. She and her family are really descended from a long line of creatures called Eternals, possessing paranormal powers, and she may be the most powerful Eternal alive. For the first time in her life, Lizette has friends and potentially a boyfriend in shifter Thierry. But Bryan, the leader of her generation of the Eternals, is power hungry and he will do anything to absorb Lizette’s power.

A battle is brewing and Lizette will have to join together with the other Eternals to overpower Bryan. But when a mysterious prophecy is revealed and her fate becomes entwined with shy, brooding, secretive Luke, Lizette begins to question: who can she really trust and who really has her heart? What will happen when it’s time to step out of the darkness?

Buy Links:

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B01BGDETG0

Amazon UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01BGDETG0

Barnes and Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/out-of-darkness-taylor-fenner/1123382993?ean=2940152610543

iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/out-of-darkness/id1082039074?mt=11
 

Kobo: https://store.kobobooks.com/en-us/ebook/out-of-darkness-30

Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/612853

Taylor Fenner grew up in a small town in Wisconsin. She's been an avid reader with a vivid imagination since she was very young. Most of her childhood can be described as having her nose stuck in one book or another. She's a strong believer in ghosts and the paranormal, which led to her interest in writing paranormal romance.

When she's not busy writing you can find her reading and adding to her extensive book collection, working on photomanipulations on her computer as a hobby, taking photographs, cooking as often as possible, and fighting with her cross-eyed cat, Tiger.

Taylor currently lives in Wisconsin, not far from where her debut novel The Haunting Love is set. Out of Darkness is the first book in Taylor Fenner’s Eternals Trilogy.

Taylor is the author of The Haunting Love, Finding Elizabeth, and the upcoming second book in the Eternals Trilogy, Into the Light.

Connect with Taylor online:

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Taylor-Fenner/e/B00T3CKOA2

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/TaylorFennerWrites

Follow Taylor on Twitter: @TaylorFenner (http://www.twitter.com/TaylorFenner)

Taylor Fenner’s Author and Book Blog: http://taylorfenner.blogspot.com

Author Website: http://www.taylorfenner.com

Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/TaylorFenner
 

Instagram: http://instagram.com/taylorfennerwrites

The Indie Author Behind the Official 'Dracula' Prequel

After an aborted trip to Stephen King’s vacation house, a successful indie thriller, and a subsequent Bram Stoker Award nomination, author J.D. Barker’s career is only getting more unusual: the writer has been tapped to coauthor a prequel to Dracula with Dacre Stoker, Bram Stoker’s great-grandnephew. “I’ve received over 500 emails and messages on social media telling me not to flub this up,” Barker says. “It’s extremely daunting.” While he can’t reveal any spoilers, Barker says they’ve created a book—with the blessing of the family estate—that Bram Stoker would be proud of. But how did a relatively unknown indie author end up cowriting a prequel to one of the world’s most popular novels?

It began when the pair met at the Bram Stoker Awards in May 2015. Barker’s Forsaken was a finalist for the award for best first novel, and Stoker was a presenter. “I gave him a copy of Forsaken, and we parted ways an hour or so later,” Barker says. Stoker read the book and liked it, and got in touch to ask whether Barker would be interested in coauthoring a Dracula prequel. (Stoker had previously written the authorized Dracula sequel, Dracula the Un-dead.) “At that point,” Barker says, “I checked the room for cameras and waited for Ashton Kutcher to jump out to tell me I had been Punk’d.” When he realized the offer was genuine, he accepted, and the pair got down to work.

Read the rest at Publishers Weekly

Fridays 5 with Justin Bienvenue

Justin Bienvenue is an author and poet from Massachusetts. He has 3 published works soon to be 4. He enjoys picking his brain and rummaging through the nonsense to find those creative and innovative gems that will become poems and stories. When he’s not writing he enjoys spending time outdoors, sports especially Football and learning about History and the unexplained.

1.) When did you first get serious about writing?

A.) I would say I first got serious about my writing back when I started writing poetry in high school. After I took a liking to it I always found myself writing poems here and there about all sorts of topics and what I was feeling. I became even more serious about it after the release of my first book, The Macabre Masterpiece: Poems of Horror and Gore. After I wrote my first book I still wrote poetry but I expanded into short stories and began thinking about concepts for another story, it was then that I realized that this is something I am very much into.

2.) What is the hardest part for you about writing?

A.) Getting into a rhythm. It might not seem like much but I find that unless I have an idea of what I want to write or I’m in the mood I can’t just sit down and begin writing a bunch. Some days I can write a lot and other days I can’t seem to get into a good rhythm. So consistency is hard at times, I would also say finding the write words can be difficult. I don’t like being cliche but I also don’t want to turn the reader off with an odd word so I try to find the right words in certain situations.

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Synopsis: In 1920's Shanghai the city is slowly being taken by the opium trade. What was once small and hardly seen has now become more evident and direct. For one young man named Ryu Tsang, he wishes to find out more and put a stop to it, for another man named Shin Shaojin it’s embracing the opium and making sure it infiltrates the city to the best of it’s ability. When the city becomes smitten with the drug to what direction will it go?

3.) How did you feel upon publication of your first completed project?

A.) Just like anyone else I felt excited and beyond ecstatic. I remember thinking that it’s hard to believe I would be becoming a published author. While I wasn’t so happy after a while because I had serious issues with the company I went with it’s still a nice memory with that opening thought and feeling that I had a published work, nothing will ever replace that.

4.) What is more important to you, story, or character? Why?

A.) Story. Story need substance, plot, reason, authenticity. Characters are a part of the story and give the story more realism so to speak. It’s not that I don’t focus on my characters as much because I do it’s just I find the overall story more important and has to be really thought out and well planned and then the characters follow. Some would say without characters the story would be nothing which I suppose can be true in it’s own right but I just believe myself that the story is the focus and that is very important. The characters are within the story and without the story the character has no reason or direction.

5.) What is a typical day like in your world?
I’d love to say it’s exciting and that I do so many eventful things like go mountain climbing or skydiving daily but I’d be lying lol. A typical say for me consists of waking up around 11, watching television, taking a shower and getting ready for the day, eat lunch, watching more television, sitting down and begin writing or something involving the writing and book world and then whatever else happens. I also try to go for walks when I can as it helps me clear my mind and even think of ideas.

Links:
Website- http://jbienvenue.webs.com/

Facebook- http://www.facebook.com/ThePlasmaticWriter

Twitter- http://www.twitter.com/JustinBienvenue