Monday, October 19, 2015

BLOG TOUR [Excerpt + Giveaway] American Ghoul by Walt Morton

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Welcome to my tour stop for American Ghoul by Walt Morton! This is a mature young adult paranormal dark fantasy novel. The tour runs October 19-30th with reviews, interviews, guest posts and excerpts. Check out the tour page for the full schedule.

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About the Book:

Seventeen-year-old Howard Pickman has some unusual problems: He comes from a family of ghouls with a long history of digging up corpses, and he’s just moved to a new school filled with kids that are scarier than he is. American Ghoul is the story of an exceptionally odd teenager trying to survive the most terrible time anybody has to go through -- senior year at high school. 


"A gloriously macabre young-adult tale about the difficulties of being a teenage ghoul in the 1970s. Once readers dig up this clever supernatural story, they likely won't want to put it down." - KIRKUS REVIEWS

"Anyone wanting a refreshing story with a young voice full of humor and teenage angst, yet with all the Gothic trappings that have kept the genre popular for over two centuries, give American Ghoul a try! - SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER

  "I admire Morton's story-telling ability, his macabre descriptions and his dark treatment of the high school experience from a teenager with a terrible secret. There were moments that chilled me to the bone, but kept me turning the pages to follow Howard's journey from outsider to anti-hero." - JACKSONVILLE NAVIGATOR



The bus came right down Main Street into the heart of Pinebury and the driver let me off in front of the Pep Boys Auto Parts store. I got my bearings and found Hopkins Street. It was an unremarkable side street. The houses were two-story wood-frame homes, small and boxy. The founding of Pinebury was back in 1775 but all these houses were built during the 1930s in a colonial style common all over New Jersey.
One thing New Jersey had was plenty of pine trees. The result was wood home construction everywhere. The good thing about pine is it’s easy to build with. The bad thing about pine is it’s a soft wood, and over time, many of the homes sagged as the pine aged. The sagging wasn't enough to bring the houses down, but it created a sad feeling. Like the homes were wooly mammoths being sucked down into a bog.
The last house on the left was Granny’s. It was a run-down colonial with dove-grey paint and dark blue trim peeling in uneven whorls. The grass in the yard was ragged and brown.
I hesitated there for a moment, but I had no place else to go. I knocked.
When Granny answered the door I stifled a gasp.
She looked terrible.
Though in her mid-sixties, she looked ancient. Only five years earlier I remembered a stocky woman with powerful arms and a head of greying brown hair. She’d been a strong hospital nurse who could lift a patient from a bed without complaint.
Now her hair was bone-white and the flesh hung on her bones in that floppy-baggy way elderly women get. Her eyes hadn’t changed though. One eye was coal-black and the other a pale green. Far more dramatic than most ghouls.
She stared at me and chewed on her lower lip.
“Are your parents dead?” Granny said.
“Yes, Granny.”
“Both of ‘em?”
“Yeah.”
“You better come in and tell me about it.”




Free for Kindle Halloween weekend! 10/30-11/1 

Walt MortonAbout the Author:

Walt Morton is a writer, photographer, and artist. AMERICAN GHOUL, his debut novel, has been called “The Tom Sawyer of horror fiction.” With this book he is continuing a decade-long exploration into weird tales via photography, film, painting and writing. Walt has lectured at the British Film Institute and studied intensively in five martial arts.

A complete biography of his exploits and interests would be so shocking, improbable and incredible that modesty demands "the less said the better." He would like to thank Jane Austen, who coined that "less said the better" idea. AMERICAN GHOUL is his first of several books that reinvent the supernatural horror genre. Born and raised in rural Pennsylvania, he now lives in California.

 His upcoming novels in 2015 and 2016 will include works in horror, science-fiction, and detective genres.

 
GIVEAWAY:
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Collectible, art-skull hand painted, signed and numbered by Walt Morton, the author
Ends Nov. 4th
Prizing provided by the author, hosts are not responsible.


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This event was organized by CBB Book Promotions.



Friday, October 9, 2015

BOOK BLITZ [Guest Post + Giveaway] End of Day by Summer Lane (The Zero Trilogy #3)




End of Day by Summer Lane
(The Zero Trilogy #3)

Publication date: October 9th 2015
Genres: Dystopia, Young Adult

Synopsis:

The end has come.

Elle Costas and her dog, Bravo, have survived the dangers of Hollywood and escaped the clutches of Slaver Territory. The apocalypse has been cruel, and the wasteland of California has forced them to seek shelter in a civilian refugee camp at a place called Bear Mountain.

Here, they meet Cheng, a mysterious boy with the skills of a samurai, and Luli, a steampunk warrior with a thirst for vengeance. But friends cannot always be trusted. When a horrific tragedy befalls Bear Mountain, Elle and Bravo come face to face with their most dangerous enemy yet.

Betrayal and heartbreak threaten to destroy the bonds of friendship. Desperate times call for desperate measures.
Run, or be caught.
Kill, or be killed.
Fight, or be forced to surrender.

The end of the day will change everything.
Will Elle and Bravo survive?

The explosive, thrilling conclusion to the #1 Bestselling Zero Trilogy by Summer Lane.

What is it like to end The Zero Trilogy?

By Summer Lane


This is the first time I have ended a published series. Currently I’m writing the seventh installment of The Collapse Series – and I don’t even want to imagine how sad I’ll be when I reach the end of that story.

With the Zero Trilogy, I’ve been on this journey of completing Elle’s story for about two years.  It would be difficult to pinpoint the exact moment that Elle’s character jumped into my mind, because I’ve always wanted to write a story about a very young but very strong female character in the apocalypse. The Zero Trilogy seemed to almost write itself at times. Elle’s character development was an organic thing, something that I was able to cultivate like a rose. Poetic, I know. But true.

To finally end a story is a brand new sensation to me. I have ended stories before – but those stories are all unpublished, private works from the mind of a private girl in the wee hours of the night. To finish a story that I have shared with endless readers is almost frightening – I don’t want to say goodbye to Elle! Thankfully, her story intertwines nicely with The Collapse Series, so this isn’t my final farewell. Not yet.

It was supremely refreshing to be able to tie the loose ends of her story together, and to explain the unexplained. I love and adore the new characters of End of Day. Cheng is my favorite male lead of the moment. He’s devilishly handsome and mischievous, the perfect companion for a girl as quick and dangerous as Elle.

In the end, I am thankful for every new opportunity I’ve had because of this trilogy, and I am eternally grateful for the support from the reading and blogging community, who really gave me my start as a writer, and made Elle Costas and Bravo the bomb dog a phenomenal fictional force to be reckoned with.







AUTHOR BIO:

Summer Lane is the #1 Bestselling author of The Collapse Series and the compelling tie-in novella books of The Zero Trilogy, as well as the upcoming Bravo Saga (releasing March 2016). She is also the author of Collapse: The Illustrated Guide, a #1 Bestselling graphic companion to her phenomenal original series.

She is the owner of WB Publishing and Writing Belle, an online magazine. Summer is also an accomplished journalist and creative writing teacher.

Summer lives in the Central Valley of California, where she spends her days writing, teaching, and writing some more. When she is not writing, she enjoys leisurely visits with friends at coffee shops, movie dates, reading and spending the day at the beach or mountains. 


Author links:







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Thursday, October 8, 2015

BLOG TOUR [Guest Post + Giveaway] City of Roses by Donovan Pruitt



City of Roses 
by Donovan Pruitt 
Publication date: May 5th 2015
Genres: Fantasy, Paranormal Romance, Young Adult

Synopsis:
A young man ventures to his lost love’s childhood home in the abandoned city of Pripyat, Ukraine. When a sudden accident puts him off-course, he awakes to discover a lively and vibrant culture living in a nearby village and a woman who reignites his heart. But something sinister lurks in the shadows, and he must face the terror and help defend the village from evil before it is lost forever. Go beyond the tragedy of Chernobyl and discover the magic in the City of Roses.













Things I Love to Hear My Readers Say

The greatest feeling that I’ve experienced so far is inspiring people to educate themselves further on a topic I’ve addressed. One of the things I strive for, especially in some of my recent stories, is to write with an attachment to a real person/place/thing. In City of Roses, that thing is the culture that existed in Pripyat, Ukraine before the Chernobyl disaster. The book highlights several creatures taken from Ukrainian folklore/mythology that were a lot of fun to include. Even the title, City of Roses, is a reference to the Chernobyl director’s love for roses, so much that they were planted all over Pripyat. There’s a lot of real history and references to the nuclear fallout mentioned in the book. Even though the story is not contingent on the reader knowing the historical details that occurred, the knowledge of the event or even just an affinity for the culture, the people, and the location will enhance the overall appeal.

I recently reconnected with some old friends from high school, and I was blown away when they told me that my book motivated them to research Chernobyl and Pripyat. They wanted to learn more, to attach themselves to the real events that were described in the book. I really don’t think I could have been happier to hear that. I made learning happen!


I hope when people read about the Chernobyl disaster in my book and see these odd, whimsical folklore creatures, they Google them. Google everything. Go beyond the book. Find the real stories that inspired me to write this one. Learn about the awesome mythology of another culture. City of Roses is a gateway to real events and real cultural icons. In many ways, the history is tragic, but I try to focus on the more uplifting possibilities of life, love, folklore, and the afterlife to get us all through it without crying (too much). And when I have a reader come and tell me that I inspired them to learn more, to read more, I’ve accomplished everything I ever wanted as a writer.



AUTHOR BIO:

Donovan Pruitt has a passion for science fiction and fantasy, especially those titles that trend toward young and new adult storytelling. City of Roses was his first standalone book as an indie author, though he has also written for video games and was previously published as a co-author in the fantasy genre. You can visit him online at www.KalaEmpire.com or join the discussion on Twitter @KalaEmpire.

My Amazon book reviews are available here: https://www.amazon.com/gp/profile/A2BE15IF4S23I1


Author links:





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