Showing posts with label Science Fiction & Fantasy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Science Fiction & Fantasy. Show all posts

Thursday, December 17, 2015

Excerpt Blitz: Thief of Lies



Title: Thief of Lies (Library Jumpers, #1)
Release date:  1/5/16
Author: Brenda Drake

About the book:

Gia Kearns would rather fight with boys than kiss them. That is, until Arik, a leather clad hottie in the Boston Athenaeum, suddenly disappears. While examining the book of world libraries he abandoned, Gia unwittingly speaks the key that sucks her and her friends into a photograph and transports them into a Paris library, where Arik and his Sentinels—magical knights charged with protecting humans from the creatures traveling across the gateway books—rescue them from a demonic hound.

Jumping into some of the world's most beautiful libraries would be a dream come true for Gia, if she weren’t busy resisting her heart or dodging an exiled wizard seeking revenge on both the Mystik and human worlds. Add a French flirt obsessed with Arik and a fling with a young wizard, and Gia must choose between her heart and her head, between Arik's world and her own, before both are destroyed.

Amazon.ca:

Author Bio

Brenda Drake, the youngest of three children, grew up an Air Force brat and the continual new kid at school. Her fondest memories growing up is of her eccentric, Irish grandmother’s animated tales, which gave her a strong love for storytelling. So it was only fitting that she would choose to write stories with a bend toward the fantastical. When Brenda’s not writing or doing the social media thing, she’s haunting libraries, bookstores, and coffee shops or reading someplace quiet and not at all exotic (much to her disappointment).


Excerpt:
I pressed the screen, and it went dark. “How do we know he’s not being forced to say this?”
                “The password, May Agnes guide you,” Lei replied. “She’s the patron saint of Asile.”
                Agnes? That was the silver woman’s name that formed from my globe. Did the saints have something to do with the Chiavi?
                I faced Ricardo. “How did you know I was here?”
                “The werehounds tracked your scent from a shirt Katy…excuse me, your nana…gave us.”
                “Can your pack help us save Couve?” Arik asked him.
                “They will, but Gia must go with me.” He noticed the protest forming on my lips. “Merlin said no exceptions. I’m to get you to the shelter.”
                From the corridor came yells, scuffles, and the continual wail of the warning siren.
                “I can’t go with you,” I said. “I have to fight with them.”
                “She can’t fight with us,” Lei said, glancing at the door. “She almost killed Kale.”
                I turned to Sinead. “You know what I can do.”
                Sinead gave me a pity smile. “Yes, but you have no control over it. Let Ricardo take you to your father and friends.”
                I thought of Kale lying motionless, near death, and I hated that she was right. As much as I wanted to stay, I might be more hindrance than help. I caved. “Okay,” I said, defeated. Lei flew out of the room with the Laniars on her heels.
                Sinead hugged me, then rushed after them. Arik moved over to me and cupped my face gently in his hands. His eyes held the intensity that always drew me to him.
                I swallowed my breath in anticipation. All the sounds around us went silent.
                He bent and lightly brushed my lips with a kiss. His lips were soft and oh, so tender. Butterflies swooped and curled inside me, and it felt like the ground disappeared from beneath my feet. He pulled back a little and said, “Regardless of the fact that you’re a royal pain in the arse, I fancy you. Listen to Ricardo and don’t do anything rash.”
                He gave me another kiss and rushed out the door. My heart twisted in my chest as he disappeared. I touched my mouth and exhaled. He liked me. It was against the laws, but he told me he fancied me. Maybe we had no future, but we had now.
                “What a sweet display,” Ricardo said, dragging me out of my haze. “I’m not one for rules or laws, but I’d be careful there. The punishment would be much worse for him than you.”
                “Why?” I stared at the door as if I’d see Arik there.
                “He’s a leader. He knows better.” Ricardo headed to the window. “Are you ready to fly?”

                “Did you say fly?”

Monday, November 30, 2015

Book Blast: Obsidian Worlds

Obsidian Worlds
by Jason Werbeloff

NOTE:  THE BOOK WILL LAUNCH AT ONLY $0.99 ON NOVEMBER 30!
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GENRE:  Sci-Fi

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BLURB:

Jason Werbeloff’s short stories have been downloaded over 20,000 times. Obsidian Worlds brings together his 11 best-selling sci-fi shorts into a mind-bending philosophical anthology.

In Your Averaged Joe, a man’s headache is large enough to hold the multiverse. Q46F is an obsessive-compulsive android who finds love in a zombie-embroiled apocalypse. The end of the world isn’t all that bad – The Experience Machine will fulfil your every desire (and some you hadn’t considered). A sex bot dares to dream of freedom in Dinner with Flexi. But mind what you eat, because The Photons in the Cheese Are Lost. Don’t fret though: The Cryo Killer guarantees that your death will be painless, or your money back when you’re thawed. Unless, that is, you’re The Man with Two Legs.

Plug into Obsidian Worlds for these and other immersive stories, including the hilarious Time-Traveling Chicken Sexer. Your brain will never be the same again.

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Excerpt Three:

(from Bleed Me Silicone):

My first memory is of the inside of a cardboard box. The material is gray and slightly rough to the touch. It smells of fluorescent light and ancient canyon floors.

I savor the feeling of being lifted from the shelf – rubbed and jostled against the almost-smooth interior of the box, as I’m carried through the aisles. My new owner places me on the till. The other products and I have talked about this day. Wondered when our time would come. The time to be purchased.

“Would you like a packet for that, ma’am?” the teller asks. I recognize his voice. He does stock-take on Sundays.

“Umm … yes,” says a nervous voice. Nervous, but forgiving. I like her already.

The crinkle-swoosh of plastic competes with the sound of a radio. Sunlight perforates the miniscule holes in the edges of the cardboard that encloses me. I feel warmth for the first time. She drives me home.

The roof of the box opens, and I’m out. In the world. Her face is just as I’d imagined. Elfin and freckled. No frown lines. Her eyes are intense as they follow my instructions.

I tingle at the touch of her fingers. Delicate, careful. Fleshy and warm. Her lips curl into a smile, before she places me at the back of a dark shelf. The other lubes at the store told me this would happen. Life’s not all action for us. But when our owners take us for a night out of the closet, the world comes alive. Or that’s what the other lubes say.

There aren’t many voices in her apartment. I wait patiently at the back of the closet, as the weeks and months pass. Just when I think she’s forgotten me, one warm evening the door of the apartment opens. A man sits on the creaky springs of the bed.

“Are you ready?” His voice is young. Excited.

“Yes,” she says. I know she’s trying not to sound nervous, like she did that day at the store when she purchased me.

And then it begins.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

AUTHOR Bio and Links:

Jason Werbeloff is a novelist and philosopher. He loves chocolate and his Labrador, Sunny.
He's interested in the nature of social groups, personal identity, freedom, and the nature of the mind. His passion is translating philosophical debate around these topics into works of science fiction, while gorging himself on chocolate.

Amazon Author Page – download all of Werbeloff's fiction from Amazon.



Newsletter – subscribe to get 'The Solace Pill' free, as well as VIP access to Werbeloff's latest fiction.

Goodreads – read reviews of Werbeloff’s fiction.


Facebook and Twitter – follow Werbeloff for release date information on upcoming shorts and novels.


Website - read about the author, and the philosophy behind his fiction.


Buy the book for only $0.99:  http://www.amazon.com/Obsidian-Worlds-Mind-Bending-Sci-Fi-Shorts-ebook/dp/B014Z8IECS/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1445992291&sr=8-2&keywords=obsidian+worlds



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Thursday, October 1, 2015

Villain Interview: Broken Hearts


hearts-640
Title: Broken Hearts
Author: Ioana Visan
Series: Broken People, Book Two
Genre: Science Fiction, Cyberpunk
Length: Novel

Broken Hearts by Ioana VisanSynopsis

When life breaks you, you pick up the pieces and move on.

As The Nightingale Circus begin a quest to deliver a power source that has the potential to change the outcome of the war in the Far East, their efforts are thwarted when Nicholas is apprehended by French authorities.

Meanwhile, Dale stays in Bratislava to protect Aurore and her power source. When the largest weapons manufacturer in Europe discovers her secret, the chase is on.

With a tracker hot on their heels, Dale and Aurore struggle to stay one step ahead. Their dangerous journey takes them across Europe and leads them to the only ones who can help them – The Nightingale Circus.


Buy Links

Amazon US: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B014G39TB2/
Amazon UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B014G39TB2/
Amazon AU: http://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B014G39TB2/
Amazon DE: http://www.amazon.de/dp/B014G39TB2/

Giveaway

Prizes: 3 ecopies of Broken People and 2 ecopies of The Nightingale Circus

Broken PeopleStart with Book One, Broken People

You don’t always get what you want, but if you’re lucky, you might get what you need.

For one week only, an impenetrable castle is open to the public, and Dale Armstrong has come to Bratislava to rob it. When he finds his partner’s arms mangled, he desperately searches for a way to fix him before time runs out.

Because the war in the Far East is sapping all the allied nation’s resources, only The Nightingale Circus has the spare parts, the power, and the expertise to fix prosthetics and help the injured, but nothing is free.
Unfortunately, Dale doesn’t know about The Nightingale Circus’s side job, but a forced encounter with the most dangerous woman in the city, the Golden Lady, sends him their way. On this roller coaster of crazy twists and flips, schemes and deceit, wishes and dreams, no one can foresee how the aerialist will land.

Anything is possible in a world of Broken People.

Buy Links

Get your copy now – only 99 cents!
Amazon US: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00PM4SYYI/
Amazon UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00PM4SYYI/
Amazon AU: http://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B00PM4SYYI/
Amazon DE: http://www.amazon.de/dp/B00PM4SYYI/
Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/518980

Villain Interview
Interview by Ioana Visan

Hello, everyone! We’re here with Schiller & Liesle CEO, who agreed to talk to us about the current world situation among other things. Please tell us first what your company does.

We are the biggest weapon manufacturer in Europe, sanctioned by the European United Nation Council. Basically, any weapon you can think of, we probably designed it and built it at some point.

And sold it, too.

Yes, of course. It’s a business. It needs to make a profit or we would all be out of a job.

So this war in the East is very profitable for you.

Our accountants disagree. We have an obscene budget invested in designing bots that can stand up to the Japanese bots.

Any progress with that?

Not as of yet but we keep trying. There isn’t much time left. They’re expected to reach Moscow this winter.

Which makes people quite desperate, I assume. There were rumors you assaulted Aurore and tried to steal her power source.

Not I and it didn’t happen like that. We knew about the source and we wanted to rent it from her. We hired a tracker to follow her for a while so we could figure out what offer we could make her that she couldn’t refuse. It didn’t look like she needed anything. The way the tracker reacted, however, was very unprofessional. We suspect he was broken. We’re still having litigations with his department.

Are you going to keep trying to get the source?

Miss Aurore has made it quite clear she isn’t interested so we abandoned that initiative. It’s a shame because a power source that doesn’t run out would have been a great help to cut down our expenses.

It has been recently revealed by the media that your contracts are more than generously remunerated. Will this affect your reputation on the market?

Those are standard governmental contracts. There’s nothing unusual about them. Just because the general public only now noticed the fine print, it doesn’t mean we did anything wrong. So no, we’re not worried.

With all those funds you have access to, one would think you’d invest in better security. What about that nerve disruptor prototype that has been leaked to the black market?

It was obviously a major security breach. We are still looking into it.

One more question… Has the plane sent to bomb the Japanese facilities returned yet?

That is a classified project. I can’t talk about it.

But you did supply the bombs. So can you give us any hope?

All I can say is that we did our best, and I’m sure the pilot does his best, too.

I see… Well, thank you for your time. And let’s hope we’ll still be here in the spring!

About the Author

Award-winning writer Ioana Visan has always dreamed about reaching the stars, but since she can’t, she writes about it.

After fighting the apocalypse aftermath in “Human Instincts”, she played with shapeshifters in “Blue Moon Café Series: Where Shifters Meet for Drinks”, and then she dealt with vampires in “The Impaler Legacy” series, before tackling longer works like a fantasy trilogy and a science fiction series.

Aside from publishing short stories in various Romanian magazines and anthologies, she published a short story collection “Efectul de nautil” and the Romanian edition of “Human Instincts”.

She was awarded the Encouragement Award by The European Science Fiction Society at Eurocon 2013.

Social Links
Website:    http://www.ioanavisan.tk
Blog:          http://weirdvision2001.blogspot.com
Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/AuthorIoanaVisan
Twitter:       https://twitter.com/weirdvision
Amazon:     http://amazon.com/author/ioanavisan
Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/ioanavisan

Monday, September 21, 2015

Release Day Blitz: Broken Hearts


Broken Hearts Release Day Blitz

Title: Broken Hearts
Author: Ioana Visan
Series: Broken People, Book Two
Genre: Science Fiction, Cyberpunk
Length: Novel

Broken Hearts by Ioana Visan

Synopsis

When life breaks you, you pick up the pieces and move on.
As The Nightingale Circus begin a quest to deliver a power source that has the potential to change the outcome of the war in the Far East, their efforts are thwarted when Nicholas is apprehended by French authorities.
Meanwhile, Dale stays in Bratislava to protect Aurore and her power source. When the largest weapons manufacturer in Europe discovers her secret, the chase is on.
With a tracker hot on their heels, Dale and Aurore struggle to stay one step ahead. Their dangerous journey takes them across Europe and leads them to the only ones who can help them – The Nightingale Circus.

Buy Links

Amazon US: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B014G39TB2/
Amazon UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B014G39TB2/
Amazon AU: http://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B014G39TB2/
Amazon DE: http://www.amazon.de/dp/B014G39TB2/

About the Author

Award-winning writer Ioana Visan has always dreamed about reaching the stars, but since she can’t, she writes about it.

After fighting the apocalypse aftermath in “Human Instincts”, she played with shapeshifters in “Blue Moon Café Series: Where Shifters Meet for Drinks”, and then she dealt with vampires in “The Impaler Legacy” series, before tackling longer works like a fantasy trilogy and a science fiction series.

Aside from publishing short stories in various Romanian magazines and anthologies, she published a short story collection “Efectul de nautil” and the Romanian edition of “Human Instincts”.
She was awarded the Encouragement Award by The European Science Fiction Society at Eurocon 2013.

Social Links
Website:    http://www.ioanavisan.tk
Blog:          http://weirdvision2001.blogspot.com
Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/AuthorIoanaVisan
Twitter:       https://twitter.com/weirdvision
Amazon:     http://amazon.com/author/ioanavisan
Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/ioanavisan

Wednesday, September 16, 2015

Spotlight: DAGGER




DAGGER
The D.U.S.T. Ops:  Mission 1
Steven Dos Santos

Paranormal, Urban Fantasy, Gay, Romance, Sci-Fi
Released Sept. 10th -  Editor’s Pick
62k words

When Ultimate Evil engulfs the entire world, only Dagger can pierce the Darkness—even if the Apocalypse falls on a school night!

Dagger Beaumont is a High School senior who’s been recruited by D.U.S.T.—a covert governmental organization dedicated to battling supernatural terrorism all over the globe.

However, Dagger’s unresolved conflict over his missing brother could be his undoing, as he races around the world battling the Dark Reich, a diabolical organization on a quest to possess an ancient artifact and unleash a mystical plague to enslave humanity. If that weren't treacherousenough, Dagger must juggle his life as a secret agent with his social life, where he faces romantic rivalry for the guy of his dreams, a mysterious and handsome new student at his haunted boarding school.

But in a high-stakes world where nothing is as it seems, and death lurks in every shadow, love rides shotgun with survival! 

Buy Links:    Evernight Teen     Amazon



Excerpt:

I pulled the sheet down Reinaldo’s naked right hip, trying hard not to peek at what lay beyond. Why did he have to be so damn hot? Hey, I was a typical seventeen year-old guy, raging hormones and all that jazz. With one big difference.

I had orders to terminate.

Reinaldo lay sprawled beside me on the king-sized bed in our Parisian hotel suite, looking like the statue of David in a centerfold spread: jet-black curly hair, Roman nose, angular jaw, the chiseled body of a college gymnast. His biceps bulged, as did his pecs, which were lightly coated with hair that tapered into a trail leading down ridges of sculpted abs, past his pelvis, before disappearing into the tent under the sheets. As far as what was hidden, let’s just say all that rigorous exercise hadn’t stunted his growth.

He was the first guy to tell me he loved me. And now he’d be the first guy I had to kill. The quintessential love-hate relationship. If there’s one thing I’d learned ever since my brother Phillipe’s supernatural disappearance, it was that love had no business in the world of occult espionage.

Opening your heart was akin to opening your wrists.

I shifted closer, my face inches from his pelvis. Moving in, I smelled the freshly laundered linen, mixed with Reinaldo’s own musky athletic scent. I blinked my eyes three times, activating the infrared contact lenses I’d slipped on earlier, while Reinaldo’d slipped out of his clothes, after drinking the potion I’d slipped in his wine. Talk about a slippery slope.

He didn’t look quite as sexy bathed in a green glow, more like Michelangelo’s boy with a serious case of gangrene. But the only part of Reinaldo’s body that truly mattered was the part no longer hidden by the sheet. The part that throbbed underneath the gaze of my infrared lenses.

It was there, on his inner right thigh. The birthmark. My intel had been correct.

It was so tiny I might not have ever seen it, even if we’d done the deed.

What was it? Right?—no, left to zoom in. I blinked my left eye a few times enlarging the image. It was a symbol. A dragon inside a pyramid, its base parallel to another pyramid base facing the opposite direction and encasing some type of demon. Both of these were housed within a larger triangle.

I squinted, flexing my brows. Snap! Snap! Snap! The photographic evidence of the mark uploaded via the lenses’ transmitter. These shades rocked. I’d have to give props to Felanie—if I made it out of this.

I glanced back up at Reinaldo’s face. He looked so peaceful lying there, completely unaware he’d been duped. For a split second I almost felt sorry for him. Keywords split and almost. He’d more than duped me by pretending to be my boyfriend, until I’d found out he was a member of a sorcerist cell. Even so, the concept of terminating him sounded clinical and abstract when discussed in a cold, sterile briefing room, especially when I’d prepared months in advance, both physically and mentally, convincing myself it was for the greater good. With the target warm and curled up against me like a helpless pup, termination seemed more like murder. Orders be damned. Better to drug him and see if I could find it first before going down that road.

I maneuvered my body across his sleeping form. When our skin touched, I broke out into goose flesh.

Reinaldo stirred slightly.

I held my breath, tensing every muscle.

Then he stretched a sculpted bicep over his head, not a care in the world.

My heart down-shifted.

I reached over the side of the bed, past the ornately carved nightstand, and carefully rummaged through the pile of clothes Prince Charming had deposited on the lush, wine-colored rug. One black V-neck T-shirt with no pockets, the better to show off his massive chest. Skin-tight jeans that hugged his thick thighs and narrow waist contained nothing but empty pockets. A pair of size twelve flip-flops. Not much else.

I’d already performed a sweep of the room. He had to have it on him.

Wait a minute. The big silver belt buckle. Trendy. A good place for hiding a top-secret micro-chip embedded with an encryption key … stylish. I snatched it up, the metal feeling cold, even in my icy hands.

I examined the buckle, a very butch affair, complete with some type of horned steer. At first I’d thought Reinaldo’d been going for a metrosexual country western look. But the horns reminded me of the ones on that birthmark nestled against his loins.

My fingers explored the buckle’s surface, my thumbs pressing against every ridge. Nada. I’d have to improvise. Following my instincts, I pricked my thumb on the prong. A small trickle of blood bubbled forth. Kind of unconventional for espionage, I know, but it’s not like I worked for the CIA. As a matter of fact, I doubted even the CIA knew about us, that’s how high we were on the secret ladder. The Department of Unexplained Supernatural Terrorism. DUST. Saving the unsuspecting world from the criminal forces of the supernatural and the occult, one phenomenon at a time.

I smeared the blood on the buckle’s surface, hoping the “offering” would activate the trigger point. Voila! The surface snapped open, revealing the microchip lying in the buckle’s womb. It amazed me the clout virgin blood carried in the occult world. Yes, technically, I was still a virgin, though hardly the poster boy for innocence at the moment.

I sat up, carefully removed the dime sized-chip, and slipped it into the hidden slot in the waistband of my tighty-whities. Then I replaced the buckle’s face and dropped the pants back into the pile, just as the light came on. Two powerful arms encircled me from behind.


About the Author:
Steven dos Santos is the author of THE TORCH KEEPER novels, THE CULLING & THE SOWING, a Young Adult Post-Apocalyptic series. The first book was named an American Library Association 2014 Rainbow List Top Ten Selection. His new novel, DAGGER, The D.U.S.T. Ops Mission 1, a Young Adult Paranormal Espionage Adventure, has just been released by Evernight Teen on September 10th, 2015! Steven is a Team Member of We Need Diverse Books and is represented by literary agent, Ginger Knowlton of Curtis Brown, Ltd. Steven studied Motion Picture production at University of Miami and graduated from Florida International University with a B.S. Degree from the School of Journalism and Mass Communications Television Broadcasting program. He is a passionate advocate of LGBT rights.



Giveaway:  $10 Evernight Teen GC and 1 Print of Dagger
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