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The Tremblers

Weapons of Light & Power

"A soldier leaned out the window, taking aim at Charlotte. A frisson of energy pulsed from the weapon, barely missing her. She screamed, flailing.

Ashton flipped the rocket ignition on the power cycle and the force of the thrust slammed him against the seat as he shot skyward toward the roof. Pulling his tracer gun, he fired blindly at the building. The soldier dove for the floor." ~Ashton Wells, The Tremblers

Creating the weapons for my YA Steampunk novel, The Tremblers took me on a fascinating path. The invention of destructive devices was vexing and addicting all at once.

Weapons of light -- Tracer Guns are the weapon of choice for the soldiers of the Peaceful Union. Powerful blasters that syphon the glowing purple energy from the massive Tesla Domes caging the city-states are feared by the average citizen. Constantly recalibrating to the dome's pulse, they are outlawed to everyone but the soldiers of the government.

Charlotte is a tinkerer and inventor. The daughter of a renowned soldier and chemist, her weapons needed finesse. I designed the metal spheres of her Shrieking Violet grenade to cluster together like a flower. Its shrill screech disables her enemies while a curtain of magenta gas shields her escape.

The outlaws and Lawmen of Outer City favor guns and pistols of the old world. Sheriff Sebastian Riley's revolver helped him to rise to power among the pirates and pioneers of the sky settlement.

Another daunting tool as the Lightning Stick. Capable of lashing whips of energy. Used by the ruthless Lawmen of the floating ports, Charlotte learns of its devastating effects while trying to flee with Ashton.

However, it is the power and might of the Peaceful Union Aero Squad that strikes fear into the heart of every citizen. Their searing lamps and concussion bombs send rioters scrambling. Creating airship battles and designing the infamous rebel ship, The Stygian, was great fun! Myself the daughter of a military man, I grew up visiting airshows and sitting at the controls of massive machines of war.  I wanted to bring that fascination and awe to the Blackburn Chronicles.

If you love mechanica, mayhem, and monsters, then check out The Tremblers and Wind Reapers available now wherever books are sold.

Interview with Donald Bingle author of Wet Work

Welcome Donald! Can you tell us a little about yourself?

 I’m a gamer turned writer. I was the world’s top-ranked player of classic role-playing game tournaments for the last fifteen years of the last century. I also wrote such tournaments and, eventually, adventures and source materials for various role-playing game products like Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 2^nd Ed., Timemaster, Paranoia, and Chill. From there I moved on to doing tie-in fiction for Dragonlance, BattleTech, and Transformers, as well as short stories in my own worlds, principally for DAW themed anthologies. Novellas, screenplays, and novels came next.

Sounds like you keep very busy. What brought about the idea for this book? 

Wet Work is the second book in my Dick Thornby Thriller series, following on the heels of Net Impact. The series revolves around three core concepts. First, Dick is not a James Bond or Jason Bourne type of spy; he’s a regular guy (with an Army and law enforcement background) who supposedly works a regular job as a waste water treatment consultant, but is secretly a spy. He has a wife, a kid, and a mortgage, along with all the mundane problems of life. Second, law enforcement has to deal with all sorts of new problems in our increasingly digital world. Third, there are all sorts of bizarre conspiracy theories and sensationalist items on the internet that can be worked into spy thrillers, but are often ignored in favor of more traditional, cold war plots.

Donald, have you been given any helpful advice? Yes. If so What? 

Try to say yes to new projects and new genres. When I was first writing short stories, I sometimes got asked to write for a themed anthology as a replacement for some other writer who didn’t make deadline or because the anthology was short on word count. I had to write quickly to very specific topic and word count specifications. But, more importantly, I had to write in all sorts of genres and all sorts of topics I never would have thought to write in if just left to my own devices. Pushing your boundaries not only improves your set of skills, it improves your creativity.

Currently, what are you working on?

 Between novels I write short stories in a variety of genres, including science fiction, horror, fantasy, mystery, steampunk, and memoir. It’s just as much work finding homes for short fiction as it is writing short fiction, so that takes an inordinate amount of time. I also rerelease many of my short stories in small ebook collections by topic/theme as part of my Writer on Demand TM series. I’m also helping turn the first case from The Love-Haight Case Files, a novel I wrote with acclaimed author Jean Rabe, into a teleplay.

That sounds exciting! What has been the most difficult thing you have struggled with since you began a career in writing? 

Writing is like direct sales—there’s plenty of rejection along the way. But it’s even worse, because there’s lots of competition flooding the market with inferior product and way too many people giving away their product for free.

What has been the best compliment you have received? 

My first novel, Forced Conversion, is near future military science fiction. It starts off with an action sequence—a firefight in the woods. When my writers’ group read it, one of the guys just a few years older than me, who happened to be a Viet Nam Veteran, came up to me and simply said: “What unit?” I said I didn’t understand his question and he said: “I read the beginning of your book. What unit did you serve in?” That’s when I realized the scene felt authentic enough to him that he assumed I had served in the military on active duty in a war zone. That’s about the best compliment an author who was not in the military can get.

That is high praise. What kind of research do you do before you start a new story?

 Prolific writers always have more ideas than time to write them, but in order to generate those ideas, I think it is important to read, especially outside of the genre you are writing. That’s where you find odd tidbits of history and science most people don’t know about which you can then use in your books and stories. Once I’ve concentrated my focus on a topic, read reference materials on the factual topics and Google key phrases to find unusual and bizarre takes on the same material. If you are weak on knowledge in a critical area, always research it especially heavily or you will make mistakes, but also know that it only takes a few phrases to look like more than an expert than you really are. When researching surface-to-air missiles for one book, I looked at specifications for a lot of different types and noticed that the reference material indicated that one particular type had a battery maintenance problem, so I picked that type for my scene. It not only explained why the bad guys might have gotten their hands on these (subpar) weapons, it provided a line or two of dialogue for the bad guys when one warns the other about the issue. For those readers not knowledgeable about such missiles, it provides a interesting tidbit. For those that are, it makes them think I really know my stuff.

Do you have people read your drafts before you publish?  Yes. How do you select beta readers? 

My beta readers are generally people who are either fans of my work or people I know who have significant editing or critiquing experience over a broad array of genres and whose judgment I have come to trust. I don’t use fans because they will be easy on me; I use them because I know they already connect with my style of writing, the genre I’m writing in, or the voice of the main character, so I know their comments are likely to be relevant and useful. Also, they have a vested interest in making my stories work. If I have experience with editors or writers from a critique group who have helped my work improve before, why wouldn’t I go back to those sources?

How do you handle criticism when it comes to your writing? 

I consider it’s source and it’s nature. If someone is complaining that some of my characters use bad language and they don’t like that, I just shrug. It’s a fact of life for some characters and some situations and I like to write realistically. If they complain about the politics or perceived politics of a story or character by attributing those statements or political opinions to me, I usually just smile. Readers should never assume that what my characters think is what I think. I once had a reviewer of one of my short stories say that I obviously “hate gamers” not knowing that I’ve been a ranked gamer in several categories, from RPGs to train games, Diplomacy, and a couple of the more obscure collectible card games. That particular story was unkind to the protagonist gamer not because I hate gamers, but because that was what the story required. Other criticisms I agree with--if you think your writing is perfect, you're wrong. If you don't know what your weaknesses are as a writer, you can never even try to fix them. Having a critic give your self-awareness a nudge from time to time is good.

Is there something you learned from writing your first book? 

It’s always better to write something as good as you can in the first draft than to fix it later. Sure, rewrites are necessary and there will always be a lot to clean up on subsequent drafts. But many writers have taken the advice that it is better to have written garbage than to not have written at all (because at least you then have something to fix) too far. A bad first draft is not a goal—a good first draft is a goal. Flow, continuity, subtlety, and transitions are all more difficult to achieve when adding material to an existing draft than when writing the first draft.

Wet Work, Amazon: http://a.co/1qni4lH

Wet Work, Nook: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/wet-work-donald-j-bingle/1128291702?ean=2940159029973

Wet Work, Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/wet-work-5

Wet Work, PRINT: http://a.co/2il1eWS

Website: www.donaldjbingle.com

FB: https://www.facebook.com/donaldjbingle

Twitter: https://twitter.com/donaldjbingle

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/2779581.Donald_J_Bingle

Cover Design: Juan JJ Padron juanjjpadron@hotmail.com

The Battle is O'er

The Battle is O’er, Book Five of The Blue Bells Chronicles, by Laura Vosika

Shawn means self and Kleiner means centered, one of Shawn’s (many) ex-girlfriends proclaimed.  So begin The Blue Bells Chronicles, a tale of time travel, mysteries and miracles, romance and redemption, in an epic adventure ranging across modern and medieval Scotland against the backdrop of Scotland’s Wars of Independence in the 1300s.

Shawn has it all—wealth, fame, women—until the night Amy, his girlfriend, has enough and abandons him in an ancient tower.  He wakes up in the wrong century. 

Two years in medieval times, two years of fighting beside Robert the Bruce and James Douglas, two years of living with and as his medieval twin, the devout and upright Highlander Niall Campbell, working to protect those he has come to love, and perhaps mostly, his growing friendship with Niall, whom he initially despised, all work changes in Shawn.

Throughout their adventures, he and Niall seek a way to get Shawn back across time, to fulfill his desire to ask Amy’s forgiveness and finally be the man she always saw in him—succeeding at last in the middle of a fierce battle for Niall’s home, Glenmirril, against their old enemy, the MacDougalls.

Safely back in his own time, Shawn is steadily regaining all he lost—his career as a world-traveling musician, the son he feared he would never know, and finally, maybe—even Amy’s heart. 

He can’t let go of the past, however, or stop agonizing over what happened to Niall and all his beloved friends, left behind in a fight for their lives. In his search for answers, hoping to find that all ended well, he learns instead of the dangers still lurking in fourteenth century Scotland: to Niall who will pay a horrible price for Shawn’s last deed, committed in Glenmirril’s tower just moments before escaping to the safety of his own time; to his own infant son, the subject of prophecy and an ancient letter predicting a fateful battle; even danger to the whole world as Simon Beaumont, known to history as the Butcher of Berwick, seeks to use his knowledge of the future to destroy it.

In this gripping conclusion to The Blue Bells Chronicles, Shawn faces the ultimate test.  His selfishness once cost him everything.  His newfound selflessness may do the same.

·Find The Battle is O’er on Amazon: http://amzn.to/2tU67Or

Interview with Illustrator Aaron Humphres

Today let's welcome Aaron Humphres, please tell us a little about yourself. 

I am an illustrator living in Vancouver, WA. I really started getting into illustration after my father passed away when I was 12 years old. My first love is comic book art and I have illustrated a few comic books over my career that I have self-published. Nothing big, but they were fun. Right now I am finishing up a graphic novel called Godlings.

Two years ago I had an idea for a children’s book and created my first book entitled “Rosco: Alien Wildlife Photographer”. This book got published by Action Lab Comics in December 2017. In addition to Godlings I am also finishing up my second children’s book. 

Aaron, if there was one thing you wished author’s knew about illustrating what would it be?

I am not sure I could answer this question honestly. I write and illustrate every book that I make. I have never professionally worked with an author before. I would be interested if the write story came around though.

What do you typically charge per illustration?

My other job besides illustrating my children’s books is storyboard for Motion Graphic Videos. I have been doing this for about 8 years now. Most times I am working for a writer that pays me a flat fee for my work or in the case of my previous job a salary. So I’m still new to pricing for a client on a picture per picture basis.

What has been your favorite project to work on so far?

I feel my favorite project to work on so far has been my Rosco book, but my new book is a very close second. My Godlings project is my passion project and most clearly reflects me as a person. Godlings covers a lot of topics I am interested in like the philosophy of Fate versus Determinism and sci-fi and fantasy ideas. Truth be told, I love every project I work on because they are all mine and personal to me in that regard. 

What is your preferred method to illustrate in?  Digital? Pencils? Watercolor?

I prefer to work analog as much as possible. I start all my drawings in pencil on Bristol. Then I ink them with a Sable #2 Brush. The final part is scanning them into the computer and adding color. So I produce all the lines traditionally and the colors digitally. I have been working this way for the past 25 years. I do use Adobe Illustrator to develop vectored artwork for motion graphics projects.

Any last words?

I have been working my artwork for a most of my life and I could not think of my life without my artwork to carry me through. I hope my illustrations and stories convey the sincere passion I put into every line stroke I use to make them.

Be sure to check out Aaron at the sights below. Happy Reading!!

Website

Find me on Instagram under Aaron Humphres

Twitter Aaron Humphres@HumphresAaron

Facebook under Aaron Humphres

MG Fantasy Summer Reading List

As a mother of two younger boys, I am constantly looking for good books for them to read during the summer. Anything to pull them away from the electronics for a little while.  My boys love fantasy, so I decided to compile a list of fun summer reads. These are in no particular order. Check them out, and you may find a new favorite book or series in your house.

Fantasy Summer Reading List

12 Exciting Reads 

The Dragon Slayer’s Son (Book 1, Dragon Slayer series): They said his dad was a dragon slayer. They were wrong. Now he's following in his footsteps. 

Nathan is shocked to learn that his father is dead, and even more shocked to learn that he died in the line of duty as a dragon slayer. When he is whisked away to the Alexandra School of Heroic Arts to train as his father’s successor, he and his new friends soon learn:

Dragons are not what they thought.

Neither is the schoolmaster, Claus Drachenmorder.

And Nathan’s dad might not be dead … yet.

https://books2read.com/TheDragonSlayersSon

Book 1: In a hidden valley of Maine surrounded by mountains, a small group of orphans follow secret clues that may lead to pirate treasure. The orphans discover a secret room in the basement of their old orphanage where clues lead them on a journey of discovery about who built the orphanage they live in. 

In this book series ‘The Adventure of Rocky and the Bear Claw Club: The Legend of the Pirate Blackbear’s Lost Gold Pinecone’ you will learn that danger is coming to the Valley of Bearton. The main character Rocky and his friends have no idea that they are being prepared to face what is coming. In a valley surrounded by impassable snow covered mountains of Maine the hidden location of the Pirate Blackbear’s lost colony has kept the secret of pirate treasure and the truth of what happened to the original colonists for almost two hundred years.

Yes, you may have guessed it. A tale of lost pirate treasure with danger at every turn; far far away from the Caribbean. Complete with the never ending battle between the forces of good and evil. 

Join Rocky and the Bear Claw Club as they begin their adventure in "The Threat of the Wolfkang Clan". 

There is one twist, what you may not be expecting is that the orphans are not human. No, they are...

Amazon     https://www.amazon.com/Adventures-Rocky-Bear-Claw-Club-ebook/dp/B011ZDWNLY

A shadow of shame has fallen over the once proud Maxwell family, and only their faithful son Ajax,  can restore honor to their name. He is tasked with guarding a mysterious portal, the existence of which only a few people outside the King are aware.  A prophecy warns of a danger to come, as the new keeper, Ajax fears he will let everyone down.

When the Prince of Rastella comes to visit the portal for the first time, accompanied by Ajax’s childhood friend Nivara, disaster strikes! In an accident, the Prince falls into the portal and Ajax knows that it’s up to him to venture in and get him back.

With the knowledge that nobody who has entered it has ever returned, Ajax and Nivara leap through the portal to try to save the Prince. He discovers a world full of magic and fantastic creatures, in an adventure that will test him to his limits, and leave him wondering if he will ever get home.

Amazon  myBook.to/theportalkeeper 

Read for free with Kindle Unlimited!

Barnes & Noble  https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-portal-keeper-s-t-sanchez/1127615325?ean=9780999001639

When the clocks in town stop, thirteen-year-old CJ discovers an unusual "clock world" where most of the citizens are clock parts, tasked with keeping the big clocks running. But soon the seemingly peaceful world is divided between warring factions with CJ instructed to find the only person who can help: the elusive Tick Tock Man.

With the aid of Fuzee, a partly-human girl, he battles gear-headed extremists and razor-sharp pendulums in order to restore order before this world of chimes, springs, and clock people dissolves into a massive time warp, taking CJ's quiet New England town with it.

Amazon https://www.amazon.com/dp/1944816607

Book 1: What happens when your average suburban town becomes a nexus of the paranormal and occult; and no one told you about it?

Amy, Lindsay, Chris, Nick and their friends are growing up in an idyllic community that offers everything a middle grade kid would want. With a downtown shopping area, housing plans, parks, a public pool, and plenty of friends, there is always something to do. On the outskirts of their town lies farmland, woods, lakes, and of course, cemeteries.

Follow the horror and fun as these friends navigate the supernatural during the course of their 'normal' day. Are you ready to experience the Spooky, with a Twist? 

Amazon                                 https://www.amazon.com/Terri-Bertha/e/B071PCRDSP

Barnes and Noble                  https://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/terri+bertha?_requestid=10051862

MuseItUp Publishing              http://bit.ly/2pOKUCX 

Every town has an old lady all the children just know is a witch.

When Johanna and Casper must spend the afternoon at her house, there’s nothing to do, except listen to a story. While the siblings await their mother’s return from the hospital where she’s visiting their ailing father, Mrs. Kinder reads them a story of adventure, magic and music.

Mrs. Kinder’s mysterious golden book tells an intertwined tale of two young men—the sensitive Sculptor who carves a beautiful woman from ice and the thieving Sorcerer searching for a spell that will bring the statue to life.

The story twists and turns, from the Frozen Forest, to the land of the Lemon Trees, to the home of the Swamp Witch, as the Sculptor’s and Sorcerer’s adventures circle each other. Their inevitable confrontation reveals buried memories that force each of them to confront the true cost of love and redemption.

The Ice Maiden’s Tale the perfect story-within-a-story with magic, adventure and romance reminiscent of The Princess Bride and The Neverending Story for a new generation of readers.

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Ice-Maidens-Tale-Lisa-Preziosi/dp/1532402317

For eight years, Alice Littleton has tried to hide the denizens of Wonderland, her near constant companions, and her own powers, but the plight of a kidnapped boy goads her into action to rescue him with as much stealth as she can manage. But it’s all gone horribly wrong. Her old life is lost as she goes on the run from the only other empowered she has ever encountered, and the shadowy organization he fronts.

The Wonderland Effect, an aspect of her powers that draws her to unusual situations, eventually lands Alice on the doorstep of Prometheus Academy. The boarding school is home to other empowered teens, brought together by their desire to remain hidden from the same overpowering figure who confronted her.

Prometheus Academy provides a welcome respite, as well as new friends and challenges. But when the threat level suddenly spikes and the life of another young child hangs in the balance, she must find a way to harness the powers of a fairy tale to root out and eliminate her foe, despite all of his advantages.

Amazon.com: http://getBook.at/AmzTWE  

Read for free with Kindle Unlimited!

Floating into the air with an enormous gum bubble, Alvin lands in a strange world where everything is gray. The trees, the flowers, the dirt, the sky, the animals, and even the people are all missing their color.

Confronted with the mystery of the missing color, Alvin teams up with some unexpected friends to battle man-eating plants, outsmart the bumbling Crimson Guards, cross the Sugar Desert, overcome the two-headed dragon, and find the color-stealing goblins to restore color to the kingdom.

Amazon  https://www.amazon.com/Land-without-Color-Benjamin-Ellefson/dp/159298844X/

Book 1: Arctica a frozen world of magic and whimsy is in peril of being destroyed by the warmth. The frozen winter wonderland setting of "The Golden Compass" meets the magic and furry creatures of "The Chronicles of Narnia."

Follow Láilá into a vast new world full of fantasy and imagination a place called Aurora. She embarks on an epic adventure to find answers to all the hidden questions surrounding who she is and how she came to be. She is an innocent and selfless in her pursuit for answers and the truth behind her mysterious white hair.

Child of Winter is the first book of five in the Aurora Chronicles a coming of age fantasy following a twelve-year-old girl into a journey of self-discovery. Though what she learns about herself and where she came from might not have been for the best.

The fantasy world is in peril of being destroyed. The warmth is quickly approaching.

Can one small girl stop the warmth and restore Aurora to being the winter wonderland it once was?

All hope rests on her small shoulders.

https://www.books2read.com/u/mK9rlL

Everett Starner is a nobody. He doesn't play sports. He's not smart enough to stand out in school. He's barely worth bullying. He's not really good at anything except video games, which would be fine ... if they didn't randomly trigger his epilepsy.

That is, until The Interface: the newest gaming accessory that puts the game in your mind. When he plays Realms of Glory, he doesn't watch Everstarr level up and score loot, he is Everstarr. He becomes the somebody he can never be in real life.

It's fun at first -- his clan rises in the ranks and catches the attention of some powerful rivals. But during an epic battle, everything gets real. Too real. Players suddenly vanish. Kills do not respawn. Everett ends up trapped in the game with just a few friends -- and who knows how many enemies. He doesn't know how they got locked in, but he knows they all need to get out soon. 

Everett finally has a chance to be somebody in real life ... if only he can get back out there before it's too late.

Amazon https://www.amazon.com/Locked-Virtual-Realms-M-Lau/dp/1980286205/

NY Times & USA Today bestselling author E.G. Foley presents The Gryphon Chronicles, a new series of historical fantasy adventures that's as much fun for grownups as it is for kids!

Jake is a scrappy orphaned pickpocket living by his wits on the streets of Victorian London. Lately he's started seeing ghosts, and discovers he can move solid objects with his mind! He has no idea why. Next thing he knows, a Sinister Gentleman and his minions come hunting him. On the run for his life, Jake is plunged headlong into a mysterious world full of magic and deadly peril. A world that holds the secret to who he really is: the long-lost heir of an aristocratic family—with magical powers!

But with treacherous enemies closing in, it will take all of his wily street instincts and the help of his friends—both human and magical—to solve the mystery of what happened to his parents, and defeat the foes who never wanted the Lost Heir of Griffon to be found.

Amazon:  http://a.co/dezbMXr

AR Link: http://www.arbookfind.com/bookdetail.aspx?q=174176&l=EN&slid=145392681

*Multi Award-Winning Middle Grade Novel!* 

Forget having a lively after school social life, Ebony Charmed is fighting to keep the entire afterlife alive.

​

Ebony’s less-than-average spirit tracking abilities are ruining more than sixth grade at Motley Junior High: School for the Psychically and Celestially Gifted. Her parents argue so much her dad's moved out. And, even though he’s scared of his own shadow and insists on bringing his slimy, legless lizard everywhere they go, Ebony wouldn’t survive without her best friend, Fleishman.

​

When Ebony’s Deadly Creatures & Relics’ project goes missing she learns her missing project is one of the keys to saving the spirit world. Now Ebony and Fleishman must battle beasts from Norse mythology to retrieve her project before spirits are lost, the Well of Urd dries up, and Ebony loses all hope of reuniting her family. But someone lies in wait, and he has other plans…including creating a new world of spirits without them in it.

Amazon  http://amzn.to/2cyZJ4g