Showing posts with label indie writers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label indie writers. Show all posts

Friday, January 3, 2014

Giveaway! SPARKS by RS McCoy (A Bearded Scribe Blog Tour)






Blurb:
"Everyone in the world has a spark, a light inside that guides them, keeps them alive.”

Myxini School for Children specializes in training young men and women who have powerful sparks. Strikers are taught to manipulate fire. Trackers learn to find animals in the most formidable terrains. Handlers are instructed in communication with large predators. But forty years have passed since the last time they had a Readera student with the ability to read minds.

When Lark Davies enrolls at Myxini, he knows there aren’t many like him, but he doesn’t realize just how rare his abilities really are. He thinks nothing of being asked to keep his spark a secret; after all, he can barely control it. Thoughts and emotions flood unbidden into his mind until he can scarcely walk or hold a conversation. But just when he needs it most, his ability fails him.

Lark meets Khea, a small frightened girl who mysteriously insights his protective nature. He has no explanation for the curious strength of their relationship, and it doesn’t help that she is one of the few people in the world whose thoughts can’t be read. As he struggles to get to the root of their unique bond, Lark begins to unravel more power than even his mentor expected, but in the process makes himself a target to political leaders eager to take control.


Teaser:
Wearing only my loose brown pants, I crawled into the most comfortable bed I had ever known and sank into the soft down pillows. I had just started to drift off when I heard a knock at the door. I’m going to kill Avis.

“What do you—” I started until I realized it wasn’t Avis. It was a stunning blonde with blue eyes. Khea.

“I’m sorry to wake you. I justI had to see you.” Her arms moved to wrap around my waist and hold me tight as I questioned if I was really sleeping or not.

“Uh, do you want to come in?” We both knew the rules about being in someone else’s
room after hours, so I pulled her in and sat down on the edge of the bed, still a little surprised she was there.

In the dim light her hair looked a little darker, but her face was still sweet and there was no denying that the last two years had done her well. Who would have thought such a beautiful young woman would come from that skinny little girl in Lagodon?

“How’d you know I was back?” I asked her, trying to appear less tired or shocked than I was.

“A friend told me.”

“I didn’t think you—” Cared? It wasn’t the right word, but I was beyond amazed that she was interested in my whereabouts. I hadn’t seen her since that night at the Moonwater and it had changed everything for me since then. But for her, I wasn’t aware that she had been affected in any way.

“Ride with me tomorrow?”

“Uh, yea, of course.” It was a struggle to cover how little I wanted to wait. I would have given anything to have her stay.

A wide smile erupted across her sweet lips as she said, “meet me at the lake at noon.” With a lingering kiss on my cheek, she walked back through the door and disappeared into the dark stone corridor.

What just happened?

I hadn’t seen her in person in years, and we were hardly close before that. And now she arrived in my room in the middle of the night and kissed me on the cheek. Was it a kiss like a friend would give another? Or more? I couldn’t make any sense of it, but there was only thing I was sure of. I would be at the lake at noon if it was the last thing I did.

Praise for Sparks:

"...spellbinding..."
                "...fantastic characters..."
                                       "...imaginative and creative..."
                                                                    "...simply could not put it down..."



About the Author:

RS McCoy didn’t ever plan on being a writer. With a career teaching high school science, writing is the last thing she expected. But life never goes the way you think it will. 

While battling cancer, she picked up her laptop and let the words flow out. One year later, her first published fantasy novel has been released on Amazon and her second novel is in the works. 

She is a wife, mother of one with another on the way, a scientist, baker, gardener, and life-long science fiction and fantasy addict.


Connect with RS McCoy




Blog Tour Giveaway

Five (5) Digital Copies of RS McCoy's debut novel, Sparks.

Ends 01/14/14

Open only to those who can legally enter. Winning Entry will be verified prior to prize being awarded. No purchase necessary. You must be 18 or older to enter or have your parent enter for you. The winner will be chosen by rafflecopter and announced here as well as emailed and will have 48 hours to respond or a new winner will be chosen. This giveaway is in no way associated with Facebook, Twitter, Rafflecopter or any other entity unless otherwise specified. The number of eligible entries received determines the odds of winning. Giveaway was organized by "A Bearded Scribe Blog Tours," a division of The Bearded Scribe and sponsored by the author. VOID WHERE PROHIBITED BY LAW.


Monday, December 16, 2013

SPARKS by RS McCoy: A Book Release Blast





Blurb:
"Everyone in the world has a spark, a light inside that guides them, keeps them alive.”

Myxini School for Children specializes in training young men and women who have powerful sparks. Strikers are taught to manipulate fire. Trackers learn to find animals in the most formidable terrains. Handlers are instructed in communication with large predators. But forty years have passed since the last time they had a Readera student with the ability to read minds.

When Lark Davies enrolls at Myxini, he knows there aren’t many like him, but he doesn’t realize just how rare his abilities really are. He thinks nothing of being asked to keep his spark a secret; after all, he can barely control it. Thoughts and emotions flood unbidden into his mind until he can scarcely walk or hold a conversation. But just when he needs it most, his ability fails him.

Lark meets Khea, a small frightened girl who mysteriously insights his protective nature. He has no explanation for the curious strength of their relationship, and it doesn’t help that she is one of the few people in the world whose thoughts can’t be read. As he struggles to get to the root of their unique bond, Lark begins to unravel more power than even his mentor expected, but in the process makes himself a target to political leaders eager to take control.


Teaser:
Wearing only my loose brown pants, I crawled into the most comfortable bed I had ever known and sank into the soft down pillows. I had just started to drift off when I heard a knock at the door. I’m going to kill Avis.

“What do you—” I started until I realized it wasn’t Avis. It was a stunning blonde with blue eyes. Khea.

“I’m sorry to wake you. I justI had to see you.” Her arms moved to wrap around my waist and hold me tight as I questioned if I was really sleeping or not.

“Uh, do you want to come in?” We both knew the rules about being in someone else’s
room after hours, so I pulled her in and sat down on the edge of the bed, still a little surprised she was there.

In the dim light her hair looked a little darker, but her face was still sweet and there was no denying that the last two years had done her well. Who would have thought such a beautiful young woman would come from that skinny little girl in Lagodon?

“How’d you know I was back?” I asked her, trying to appear less tired or shocked than I was.

“A friend told me.”

“I didn’t think you—” Cared? It wasn’t the right word, but I was beyond amazed that she was interested in my whereabouts. I hadn’t seen her since that night at the Moonwater and it had changed everything for me since then. But for her, I wasn’t aware that she had been affected in any way.

“Ride with me tomorrow?”

“Uh, yea, of course.” It was a struggle to cover how little I wanted to wait. I would have given anything to have her stay.

A wide smile erupted across her sweet lips as she said, “meet me at the lake at noon.” With a lingering kiss on my cheek, she walked back through the door and disappeared into the dark stone corridor.

What just happened?

I hadn’t seen her in person in years, and we were hardly close before that. And now she arrived in my room in the middle of the night and kissed me on the cheek. Was it a kiss like a friend would give another? Or more? I couldn’t make any sense of it, but there was only thing I was sure of. I would be at the lake at noon if it was the last thing I did.

Praise for Sparks:

"...spellbinding..."
                "...fantastic characters..."
                                       "...imaginative and creative..."
                                                                    "...simply could not put it down..."



About the Author:

RS McCoy didn’t ever plan on being a writer. With a career teaching high school science, writing is the last thing she expected. But life never goes the way you think it will. 

While battling cancer, she picked up her laptop and let the words flow out. One year later, her first published fantasy novel has been released on Amazon and her second novel is in the works. 

She is a wife, mother of one with another on the way, a scientist, baker, gardener, and life-long science fiction and fantasy addict.


Connect with RS McCoy

Thursday, November 7, 2013

Interview: Devon Winterson, author of The Perfect Player

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Recap of The Perfect Player:

“A forbidden tryst exposes a threat and sets a secret plan in motion, and twenty-year-old Marisa of Mynae discovers her life is all a lie. But even as a cryptic journal reveals her true purpose and a trail of hoofprints leads her to a demon renegade, Marisa balks at fate's course until evil devours her people and imperils her father's life. Only then does she learn what it takes to play—and win—a deadly game of predator versus prey.” – Imagination Ether Press

Meet the Author:

Two weeks ago, I posted a review of The Perfect Player, the upcoming dark fantasy novel of Connecticut author Devon Winterson. Currently Devon has several novels in the works, most of which take place in the world of Caendoria. Other projects include co-writing a middle-grade novel with her son, editing for a small publishing company, and moderating at Writer’s Beat, a growing online community for writers, for which she contributes to the quarterly e-zine. She also happens to have a passion for golden retrievers.

This week Devon graces us with a brief interview. While reading The Perfect Player, two questions kept springing to mind. Where did this come from, and where is it going? I suppose I’m fascinated with the mysterious, vibrant labyrinths of other writers’ minds. Read on for Devon’s crackerjack replies:

The Interview:

Court: The whole time I was reading The Perfect Player, I kept wondering what initially inspired this world and the story. So can you tell us a little about how this world came to be and how these characters sprang out of it?

Devon: Initially, this all started with a short about a young woman who severely injures someone after driving home drunk. She consequently dies in the crash, and is sent straight to the underworld to “pay her dues,” where she meets a sympathetic demon who hears her plight, reasons things out, and sends her back so she can set things right.

The Perfect Player and its subsequent stories kind of just morphed from there, I suppose, into what it is now: Nothing like the original short story—at all. Except for the demon and the young woman, who eventually turned into Locrian (the demon) and Marisa of Mynae.

See, my muse led me down a totally different direction with those two, and from there, everyone else took shape. I planned nothing at the outset—neither the world, nor the people. I just sat down and wrote, and story events simply started to materialize. So I wrote them all down as I saw them pop into my imagination. Of course they were all jumbled and stupid at first, with half the events completely illogical and my writing skills at basically zero. But over the span of a decade I learned, listened, and practiced, then honed the first story into what it currently is.

In fact, starting on November 9th, I’m hoping to post up a successive trio of blog posts leading to the November 11th release of The Perfect Player, wherein I tell the (not-so-true) story of how everything came about, muse included. It’s a humorous take on it all, and it kind of shows my crazy side.

Court: *laughs* I’m looking forward to reading those posts. Now, The Perfect Player ends with full resolution, yet it's open-ended too. Without giving away any spoilers, can you tell us where you see the world and these characters headed in the future?

Devon: Honestly, I see them all going backwards. Throughout my entire series, I work with a retrograde timeline where The Perfect Player (first book) is actually the finale to an overarching set of events; the middle trio of tales take place numerous years before the various happenings in The Perfect Player and all occur at the same time, told through different points of view (the reader meets these characters in The Perfect Player); and book five, the last tale, is what starts it all, sets everything into motion, told through the viewpoint of the world’s creator, wherein various scenes from the previous books are revisited with a fresh understanding and interwoven through the creator’s own story. The last one I project will be one huge, huge book, probably a handful of volumes, I suspect, if not more, and very hard to construct as that particular main character is horribly cryptic and difficult to figure out.

Conclusion:

So it seems we readers have a lot more to look forward to. The vibrant world of Caendoria is about to flood the Indie market with magic, darkness, and adventure. Look for The Perfect Player on November 11 at Amazon, both for e-readers and in print. In the meantime, keep an eye on Devon’s blog at The Ether of My Imagination for those upcoming posts about her novel, and find collections of her short fiction at Imagination Ether Press, Goodreads, and Smashwords.
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Wednesday, October 23, 2013

Review: The Perfect Player by Devon Winterson

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Blurb:

"A forbidden tryst exposes a threat and sets a secret plan in motion, and twenty-year-old Marisa of Mynae discovers her life is all a lie. But even as a cryptic journal reveals her true purpose and a trail of hoofprints leads her to a demon renegade, Marisa balks at fate’s course until evil devours her people and imperils her father’s life. Only then does she learn what it takes to play – and win – a deadly game of predator versus prey." 

Review:

I had the privilege of reading a pre-release copy of Devon Winterson’s debut novel, The Perfect Player, which is due out on November 11, 2013—or, as I’m sure Devon would say, “On the eleventh day of the eleventh month at the eleventh hour.” Devon is a moderator at Writer’s Beat, an online community for writers, and her often hilarious and witty anecdotes and gracious interviews of indie authors can be found at her blog, The Ether of My Imagination.

As with all indie books I read, I started The Perfect Player as a skeptic, but soon became a believer. Granted, the hook in this dark fantasy comes a bit late. I didn’t feel fully engaged in the story until Marisa’s “crazy” mother makes an appearance toward the end of Chapter 2. After that point, there were times when the story was so intense that I could not put my Kindle down. While I read, I’m sure my eyes were bulging out.  

What I loved most about The Perfect Player were the layers of history and backstory woven into the plot. I kept saying to myself, “Wow, this is really complex.” The life Marisa thinks she is being prepared for is only a façade masking what really happened in the lives of her parents, and even events as far back as the creation of the world. These secret events provide a delectable puzzle to be worked out, both by the reader and Marisa herself.

Now, I did find some of my pet peeves in the writing style, and on occasion, the villains and the heroine speak lines that are just short of original in flavor. But most of the time, Devon’s writing is poetic, powerful, and rife with treats to the senses. She has painted a vivid world in which Marisa walks through lavender grasses with bare feet and drinks scented, opalescent elixir instead of water. Her characters soon spring off the page, full of flaws, complexity, hidden motives, and deep unfulfilled desires.

One of the most rewarding elements is that none of these characters are safe, not even the heroes we come to love. Unexpected twists and sudden loss make The Perfect Player a page-turner. Who will survive until The End? You’ll want to add this debut novel to your to-read list and find out on the eleventh day of the eleventh month at the eleventh hour.

I give The Perfect Player 4 out of 5 magic wands:


Purchasing information: The Perfect Player will be available on Amazon, in print and for the Kindle, on November 11, 2013.
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