Monday, October 31, 2016

Welcome to the Snarkology Halloween Hop!

Greetings Readers! It's that most wonderful time of the year--Halloween! This year, over 60 authors have joined together to create a week long Halloween Tour for you. To get to the landing page for the hop to visit other authors' blogs, just click on this link http://www.thesnarkology.com/snarkology-halloween-hop-oct-26-31st/ 

In the meantime, I'd like to tell you about my forthcoming release, The Haunting of Hotel LaBelle, which will be out on November 16, 2016. As part of my treat to you (no tricks!) I will be giving away three (3) Kindle ebook copies of this new release to the first three commenters on this blog post as soon as it is available!
When hotel inspector, Tallulah Thompson, is called in along with her pug, Franny, to investigate renovation delays, she meets an extremely annoyed and dapper turn-of-the-century innkeeper. The only problem is he’s in limbo, neither dead nor alive, and Tallulah and the pug are the first to see him in a hundred years. Cursed by a medicine woman, “Love ‘em and Leave ‘em Lucius” Stewart is stuck between worlds until he finds his true love and gives her his heart. When he first sees Tallulah, he doesn’t know what he’s feeling. Yet, her stunning beauty, and feisty attitude pull him in. With the fate of Hotel LaBelle on the line, Tallulah with the help of a powerful medicine woman turns Lucius back into a flesh and blood man. She and Lucius team up to save the hotel, but Tallulah can't help but wonder if he will ever let go of his past love and learn to love again.

Excerpt
A book flew at his head—and sailed through him, bouncing off the wall and landing on the floor.

Mouth agape, the woman stared from him to the book and back to him again. “You’re a ghost.”

“Not exactly. Shall we start over?” He leaned against the wall and folded his arms across his chest. “After a hundred years of being invisible to everyone except you, I’d like to know who you are and what you’re doing here.”

“Of course. Why not? Could today get any weirder?” She sank into the desk chair, shook her head, and sighed.
“My name is Tallulah Thompson. I’m a hotel inspector, hired by the current owner as a consultant to find out why the renovations are delayed and what he needs to do to fix it. He’s teetering on the brink of bankruptcy.”

“What tribe are you?”

She jerked her head up and those doggone lapis lazuli eyes of hers sparked as if she’d strike him with lightning and kill him with one look. “No one asks that. It’s not politically correct.”

“Well, I guess you haven’t been talking to the right people. And I don’t know what you mean by that last part. I’ve never been involved in politics.”

“Nowadays, it’s considered rude to ask about another person’s national origins.” She threw her hands up. “Why am I giving a ghost an etiquette lesson? What am I thinking?”

Remember to keep hopping! Here's the link http://www.thesnarkology.com/snarkology-halloween-hop-oct-26-31st/ 

Interview with eden Hudson, Author of Jubal Van Zandt and the Revenge of the Bloodslinger A Jubal Van Zandt Novel Episode 1

What made you decide to be an author? When I was little, I spent tons of time in my grandpa’s shop listening to farmers, cowboys, and hunters tell each other stories while they worked on tractors or waited for the fur buyer. There’s an art to storytelling, a science to carrying on a conversation with your listeners, and those guys and gals were masters. I fell in love with the way they talked—their voices, speech patterns, and dialects—as much as I did with the adventures they were relating. Maybe more. When I learned to read, it opened up a whole new world of storytelling for me. I realized that people could write books as a job. Once I realized that, I never wanted to do anything else.

What do you like best about being a writer? What do you like the least? What I like best is getting to play make-believe for a living. I never grew out of pretending, I just got better at hiding it, and now all of my readers get to play along with me. What I like least is how no free time actually feels free if you’re not writing. Even if you just wrote a few thousand words and think you’re going to take the rest of the day to relax and recharge, the writer in you is always thinking, “We should really be writing. Don’t you think you should get a little writing done right now? If you have time to relax, you have time to be writing.”

How do you think your life experiences have prepared you for writing? My family is nomadic, which is a fancy way of saying that we travel the country fulltime, going wherever the spirit moves us. Living the gypsy life turns even the simple things like getting groceries or doing laundry into an adventure, and waking up in a different zip code every day is great for experiencing new settings and hearing new voices. Not to mention that spending eight hours a day trapped in a vehicle together en route from one place to the next really forces you to get to know your travel buddies. Under all of the action, thievery, and sexy-times, Revenge of the Bloodslinger is a love letter to roadtrips. Jubal and Carina are constantly facing new locations, cultural mindsets, and environments as they track down the brujahs responsible for her father’s death. And over time, being in such close quarters and forced to rely on each other to stay alive draws out a friendship that otherwise never would have existed.

You’ve written five novels and are working on a sixth. What’s your favorite time management tip?
Honestly, I’m the last person I would ask for time management tips. My process involves a lot of messing around and procrastination, interspersed with seemingly random sessions of intense cramming. I guess the best time management tip anyone’s ever given me is to know how you work and use that knowledge to your advantage. When I get into one of those intense cram sessions, I stick with it until it runs its course. Rabid bears with chainsaws could storm our campsite, requiring my family to flee for their lives, and I would be like, “Yeah, just a minute! I’m almost done!”

Are you a plotter or a pantser, i.e., do you outline your books ahead of time or are you an “organic” writer? Organic. I usually start out knowing where my characters are at the beginning of the book and where I’d like them to be by the end, then go for it and see what happens along the way.

If you had one take away piece of advice for authors, what would it be? You’re not the only person who can write a book, but you’re the only person who can write your book. Really own it, make it yours, pour yourself out onto every page—especially when it hurts—and your story will leave a mark on the soul of everyone who reads it.

Did music help you find your muse with this book? If yes, which song did you find yourself going back to over and over again as you wrote? While I was working on Revenge of the Bloodslinger, I kept coming back to “We are Going to be Friends” by the White Stripes. It’s such a simple, childlike song, and Jubal is the exact opposite of that innocence, but I always imagine him humming it whenever he thinks about Carina. It’s like she draws that loud, ecstatic, unashamed love little kids have for their playmates out of Jubal, which kind of freaks him out and makes him happy at the same time.
Narcissist, sociopath, and shameless backstabber Jubal Van Zandt is the best damn thief in the history of the Revived Earth...and he won't shut up about it.

But not everybody in the swampy, soggy, feudal future approves of Jubal's vocation. The Guild—the religious fanatics who helped rebuild civilization after the collapse—in particular are waiting for their opportunity to slip the noose around his neck.

Which is why when the renowned Guild knight Carina Xiao—a.k.a. the Bloodslinger—contacts Jubal about an off-the-books job that violates Guild Law, he's too intrigued to say no. He is the best damn thief in the history of the Revived Earth, after all.

Part bizarro ecopunk, part outworld thriller, part odd-couple roadtrip, Jubal Van Zandt and the Revenge of the Bloodslinger is a 150% futurepunk quest for blood and betrayal across the Revived Earth.

How about an excerpt from Revenge of the Bloodslinger?


I clapped my hands together. “Let’s get started. How did you hear about me?”

“Guild files,” Carina said. “Their records on you are full of suspicions, first-person accounts, and rumors. No arrests, no charges, and no incriminating evidence that you didn’t purposely leave behind for someone to find. I investigated Laars Gonzalez’s allegations that—”

She broke off, pulling a well-worn knuckgun from inside her leather jacket and pointing it at the two big guys approaching our booth.

“Don’t take another step,” she said. “Drop your weapons.”

They stopped, but didn’t drop the rust-caked knife or the stunclub.

“Uh-oh,” I said. “Looks like somebody recognized me. I’ll sign one autograph apiece, guys, but then I’ve really got to get back to work.”

The bigger of the two, who looked like he dogfought for funsies on the weekends, growled, “The Guild has no jurisdiction here, knight. The man you’re associating with is a wanted fugitive in Argameri.”

“That’s true,” I told Carina. “Dead or alive. The bounty’s huge.”

She didn’t take her eyes off the bruisers as she asked me, “Why didn’t you say something when I suggested meeting here?”

“Aw, come on, look at these guys! They couldn’t take a cucumber from a slime whore. Besides, I wanted to see what you’d do. Shoot ’em and let’s get back to business.”

“What are you wanted for?” she asked.

“For being better than them. They’re jealous that I sold them out before they could think of a way to do it to me.”

The second guy, whose face was covered in fishhook tattoos, pointed his snapping and sparking stunclub at me. “Your betrayal cost hundreds of Argamerian lives!”

“Really?” I said. “Because I heard it was thousands.”

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About the Author
I am invincible. I am a mutant. I have 3 hearts and was born with no eyes. I had eyes implanted later. I didn't have hands, either, just stumps. When my eyes were implanted they asked if I would like hands as well and I said, "Yes, I'll take those," and pointed with my stump. But sometimes I'm a hellbender peeking out from under a rock. When it rains, I live in a music box. But I'm also a tattoo-addict, coffee-junkie, drummer, and aspiring skateboarder. Jesus actually is my homeboy.

http://whitetrashcappuccino.blogspot.com/
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/8023393.eden_Hudson


 


Tour giveaway 10 ebook copies
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Monday, October 17, 2016

Interview with Jillian Stone, Author of EAT, SLAY, LUZT

What made you decide to be an author?  I’ve always been a storyteller, so author came pretty naturally. I consider myself a work in progress in every area of life as well as writing.

What do you like best about being a writer?
Coming up with an idea for a story. Mulling it around a bit. Putting some thoughts on paper. Taking those thoughts and giving it some structure and an arc. Developing the characters. What do you like the least? Writing the book. Ha!  It’s hard work. It takes discipline, as well as a good foundation in craft.  

How do you think your life experiences have prepared you for writing? 
As it turns out, everything in my life experience gets channeled into my writing—past and present. People I meet and either like or dislike get their names changed and find their way into the story. I had a crazy landlady once, who I wrote into one of my novels as a minor antagonist—author revenge is sweet!

Have you ever felt as if you were being dictated to while you wrote a book--as if the words came of their own accord? If yes, which book did that happen with?
Characters often take over and write their own dialogue. When that happens it’s magical, but there are also times when I have to send them to the corner of my brain and give them a time out. Phaeton Black, the Victorian London detective likes to write his own dialogue. Believe me, that series was wonderfully entertaining to write.

You’ve written 10 novels and are working on the 11th novel. What’s your favorite time management tip? 
The very idea of time management makes me cringe. I just make time to write. If I need time away from the keyboard to process a story I’m working on, I give myself that time. Storytelling is an art. Marketing books is a business. I believe way too much emphasis is put on cranking out manuscripts and not enough on the quality of the storytelling. If I write two novels a year and I’m happy with the storytelling and the characters—mission accomplished. 

Are you a plotter or a pantser, i.e., do you outline your books ahead of time or are you an “organic” writer?
I plot enough to know the critical arcs of the plot, but not so much that the entire story is completely known to me. I need a little elbow room when I’m writing. Sometimes a character appears that you hadn’t planned on or a plot twist happens that is surprising and suspenseful.

If you had one take away piece of advice for authors, what would it be?
Memorable characters are more important than a perfectly plotted story. Years after you read a wonderful novel, you remember, what? Every nuance of the plot? No, you remember Emma Woodhouse, or Tom Sawyer or Jamie Fraser or Atticus Finch.

Did music help you find your muse with this book? If yes, which song did you find yourself going back to over and over again as you wrote? 
I put together a new playlist for every book I write. Here’s a few of the tunes that got stuck on an endless play loop: Yelawolf -Til It’s Gone,  Hans Zimmer – Synchrotone, Tribal War - Black Hawk Down Soundtrack,  Alexandre Desplat - Something Really Cool – Syriana Soundtrack,  Billy Joel - Leave a Tender Moment Alone. 
 
Survival tip #1: When you’re caught in the middle of the zombie apocalypse, get a badass partner.

The zombie apocalypse is on, and Lizzy Davis is determined to survive any way she can. As a surgeon, she’s used to saving lives; not cutting into the basal ganglia to make sure the patient stays dead. When the refugee camp is overrun by zombie hordes, Lizzy manages to escape only to run into Black Hawk pilot Chris Oakley in the middle of the Syrian Desert.

Lizzy and Chris fight off zombie attacks as they make their way toward a joint military air base northeast of Kirkuk. Just one problem, they’ll have to pass through the drone-patrolled DMZ— Dead Meat Zone. To get there, they form uneasy alliances with French-Arab commandos and a black ops interrogator who’s slowly rotting before their eyes.

Along the way, Lizzy and Chris manage to find time for each other—the sizzling red-hot lovemaking kind of time. And who knows? They might have a chance at love if they live long enough.

Warning: Features red hot to erotic love scenes
Excerpt
Syrian Desert, Jordan
190 kilometers SE of Zaatari Refugee Camp

He rested the gun on his knee and pulled the bandana off his face. Jeezus, of course, he'd be dusty, grimy and great looking.

“Water?” he croaked. 

Z growls gurgled up from the rotten pool of stench surrounding us. Incapacitated biters crawled at the rate of about one meter per hour. But at this exact moment, the newly arrived armed stranger concerned me more than the undead.

I studied the man hunkered down in the sand. A male survivor in good health could be worse than a horde of zombies. Men raped women like me—more than once––then they ate all your food. Worst of all, they wouldn’t hesitate to pimp you out for a meal, ammo, or gasoline.

Like I said, worse than a shitload of zombies.

I scanned the raised bank that bordered the road. The silhouette of something lean, mean, and fast rested on a kickstand. The zombie slayer’s dust cloud-maker. And my ticket out of here. I unsnapped the plastic travel bottle from my utility belt and handed over the water.

He didn’t drink. He guzzled. 

“Hey, leave some for me.”

He released the water bottle with a gasp. “Got more?”

I narrowed my gaze. “Got food?”

He hesitated long enough to be manufacturing a lie. “In the saddle bag on my bike.”

“There’s a couple of gallons in the truck.” I nodded toward the transport vehicle behind me. “I’ll trade you a share of my water for a share of your food.”

The ends of his mouth curled upward, and he ogled my thighs as high as the boy shorts allowed. Pretty sure he was thinking about a different kind of trade.

I met his gaze and held it. “Deal?”

His attention shifted to my truck. He could grab both gallons and make a run for it.

I squinted. “Don’t even try it.”

His cute lip curl turned cynical. “Awww. She doesn’t trust me.” He rose and took long strides toward the transport. Midway, he stopped to shoot a crawler in the back of the neck. One of the most annoying things about killing zombies is the having to kill them over and over.

Cursing under my breath, I raced ahead and beat him to the truck. I guarded the door and watched his simple, unhurried style. One by one he made sure the crawlers were dead.

He removed his helmet and scratched his head. He was tall, a bit over six feet with nice hair––short and scruffy. Hard to tell exactly what shade of brown in the moonlight. He slung the M4 under his shoulder and approached the truck slowly. That gaze of his caused tingles in places I didn’t want to think about right now.

I did a quick evaluation of my situation. Out of gas in the middle of the Syrian desert––bad luck. Woke up to a pod of biters surrounding the truck––welcome to my bad town. Running into this zombie slayer? For now, it was safe to assume that every badass inch of his badass dick was trouble.

For a FREE two chapter read visit  http://www.jillianstone.com/free-chapter-


Multi-published, national award-winning author, Jillian Stone is on a three year quest to write all the books (in different genres) she’s always wanted to write before she gets forever labeled as a historical romance writer. Jillian lives in Highland, California and is currently writing a shapeshifter tale WOLF, INTERRUPTED, which recently won the FF&P On The Far Side award in the paranormal category.

Website: http://jillianstone.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JillianStoneBooks
Twitter:  https://twitter.com/gJillianStone
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4946569.Jillian_Stone
Tour giveaway - Welcome to my hot pink zombie apocalypse!
10 EAT, SLAY, LUZT ebooks and 1 Hot Pink Kindle Fire HD 8

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Wednesday, October 12, 2016

Interview with Amanda Meuwissen, Author of Life as a Teenage Vampire

What made you decide to be an author? Once upon a time when I was writing a piece of fanfiction for one of my favorite video games in middle school, Final Fantasy VIII, I had a reviewer contact me about how much my story had inspired them. I’ve known I had to be a writer ever since.

What do you like best about being a writer? What do you like the least? Involvement with fans. I adore those moments when you hit your stride and the story just flows so beautifully, but reading what people thinking about your work and seeing how your joy for a story can be shared with others, makes it even more worthwhile. What I like least are the moments when we inevitably falter. Not really writers block, just the opposite of momentum, when you struggle to get a certain scene to come out the right way.

How do you think your life experiences have prepared you for writing?
I grew up watching movies and TV, and reading like mad, and then proceeded to always love essays over multiple choice tests. Now my day job is filled with non-fiction writing, so my skills never have the chance to sit on the shelf and collect dust; I am always improving. That is the most important thing. Then combine all of that with a life of traveling and having some very interesting family and friends, and I just never want for good content and ideas.

Have you ever felt as if you were being dictated to while you wrote a book--as if the words came of their own accord? If yes, which book did that happen with? Every time. If anyone ever asked me why I made a certain character a certain way, I’d have to say…because that’s who they are. I don’t feel like I make these stories up, but have the characters tell their story to me. It always amazes me as I’m writing something when certain foreshadowing and ideas sneak in well in advance of even me knowing how it’ll all tie together, and then that aha! moment hits. I get the same feeling from my own writing that I do when reading someone else’s work that I enjoy.

You’ve written 5 novels and are working on a 6th. What’s your favorite time management tip?
Never stop writing at a moment of catharsis. Too often writers get to the end of a page, a chapter, a scene, and because they feel accomplished, they stop there for the day. DON’T. Push yourself to write at least one more sentence starting that next page, chapter, scene, and I guarantee, not only will you likely write more than a sentence, it’ll make it easier the next time you sit down to continue with that momentum you built up.

Are you a plotter or a pantser, i.e., do you outline your books ahead of time or are you an “organic” writer? I’m an even mix. I tend to have a plot and pages upon pages of notes, but I keep that loose and let the nitty gritty come to me as a write.

If you had one take away piece of advice for authors, what would it be? Write every day, and with my little tip from earlier about never ending a writing session on the end of something. Even if you only manage to write some notes, a couple lines of dialogue, the name of a new character, get something down every day.

Did music help you find your muse with this book? If yes, which song did you find yourself going back to over and over again as you wrote? Not at all, haha. I can’t listen to music while I write, and for this book, it really didn’t play any role. Music was very inspirational in my last book series, The Incubus Saga, but not as much here.

Tell me more about Life as a Teenage Vampire.

The last thing Emery expected at the end of his senior year of high school was to become a vampire and fall in love with his best friend…

Emery Mavus just wants to survive his senior year of high school. Becoming a vampire complicates things. So does a bizarre mentor, a group of vampire hunters, and an unexpected, new attraction for his openly gay best friend, Connor. An occasional uncontrollable hunger for blood might be the least of his worries.

How about an excerpt from Life as a Teenage Vampire?


“What about Lucky Number Sleven,” he said. “Lucy Liu is totally the romantic lead in that one.”

“Correct,” Aurora nodded, “but that’s first and foremost an action move, not rom-com.”

“Why does it have to be romantic comedy?”

“Because that is the tried and true genre for romance, Con-Man. Admit it, without looking it up or doing an impressive online search, you can’t think of any mainstream American romance movies with Asian leads. It doesn’t happen! I am forever shunned to the stereotyped role or cute Asian best friend.”

“Well, you are cute,” Connor said thoughtfully. “And one of my best friends.”

She mimed shoving a ketchup and cheese covered fry in his face, but he took advantage of the gesture to snap his jaws and swipe it from her fingers. She snorted and shook her head. “If this is your romantic comedy, Connor, you are doing something terribly wrong. Your leading man is completely unaware of the plotline.”

The memory of Emery’s warm hug that morning sent a shiver through him. “You think you have it bad never being cast in leading roles? Where’s the gay romance box office hit I’ve been waiting for all my life? And if you say Brokeback Mountain to me, I will punch you in the boob.” 

Aurora responded by punching him in the boob, which—ouch—really hurt. She was freakishly strong for someone so tiny. “Anyway, that isn’t even what we were talking about. I said I hate how half the time female roles are only written in to be romantic interests. No substance. No purpose. Just a tight ass and a pretty face to dress up the movie poster and give the guy some arm candy. Where’s the action film with the girl as the kickass sidekick or partner—or hey, as the hero herself—without needing to make it about sex? Why does there have to be romance in everything? Girls are just shoved into the supporting role, Asian girls even more so.”

Connor stole one of the fries from her plate while he tapped his feet on the seat he should have been sitting in. They were seniors; if they wanted to sit on the tables, they were allowed. Unless a teacher walked by. “It’s kind of funny, right?”

“What’s funny?”

“I’d give anything to be typecast as the love interest. Frankly, I’d trade spots with any girl in this school to have some of those stereotypes instead of my own.”

Aurora cocked her head at him, another fry suspended between them, having come dangerously close to getting ketchup in the long braid over her shoulder as she gestured. “You want to be an object?”

“I want to be an option.”

Where can readers find more about your stories, books and you on the Internet?
Amanda Meuwissen has a Bachelor of Arts in a personally designed major from St. Olaf College in Creative Writing, and has been posting content online for many years, including maintaining the blog for the digital marketing company Outsell. She spent a summer writing screenplay script coverages for a company in L.A., and is an avid consumer of fiction through film, prose, and video games. Amanda lives in Minneapolis, MN, with her husband, John, and their cats, Helga and Sasha (no connection to the incubus of the same name).

Website: http://www.amandameuwissen.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AuthorAmandaMeuwissen/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/MissSuperCube
Buy Link: https://www.amazon.com/Life-Teenage-Vampire-Amanda-Meuwissen-ebook/dp/B01LX3DR4R/
Amanda, thank you so much for being with us here today. I know my readers will enjoy your work and your interview.


Tour giveaway
3 eBook copies, format of the winners’ choice, of the book.
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