VBT: Against The Wind

Where the Title “Against the Wind” Came From

 The title comes from the historical event that is woven through the story. On June 9, 1817, a group of village men from Derbyshire rose up in rebellion against the Crown, intending to march on London with “thousands” of others to take control of the government. It was dubbed “the Last Revolution in England,” though it might have more accurately been called a government-inspired provocation to action, designed to justify repression.

After the war with France ended in 1814, England suffered from great social, economic and political problems. Many of the major issues were the direct result of the war, but others were the necessary product of the changes occurring throughout society, some of which had begun earlier. Machines were replacing workers. Added to that, the Corn Laws kept food prices high and some very bad weather destroyed crops. The discontent these occurrences brought, and the distress in the lives of the working people, culminated in a series of events, including the uprising in the Midlands in June of 1817.

The rebellion was just what the leaders of the British government needed to justify sending a strong signal to the masses that no revolution, such as had occurred in France, would be tolerated in England. The hundreds of villagers who rose up with the pikes and crude weapons (though a few had pistols) to march to Nottingham and thence to London were ignorant of the true facts—that the government itself had stirred their rebellion. In truth, they fought “against the wind,” hence the title for my Regency romance that features this little known event in England’s history. The trailer for my book brings this out—and the love story between Sir Martin and Katherine. You can see it here: http://youtu.be/F39tLElacYM.

BLURB:  

A night in London’s most exclusive bordello. Agent of the Crown Sir Martin Powell would not normally indulge, but the end of his time spying against Napoleon deserves a victory celebration. Yet, such pleasure will not come cheap. The auburn-haired courtesan he calls “Kitten” is in truth Katherine, Lady Egerton, a dowager baroness and the daughter of an earl as elusive as she is alluring. She flees a fate worse than death. But Martin has known darkness, too, and he alone can touch her heart—as she has touched his. To the English Midlands they will steal, into the rising winds of revolution.

EXCERPT:  

“Is making love something you do not wish to do?” he said. “As I recall, you seemed to enjoy it as much as I did.” Then, more tenderly: “Besides, I have missed you, Kitten.”

“No…I cannot. I am not your…your…” She could not bring herself to say the word. Their one night together had been a wonderful, amazing, and yes, passionate experience, but it could never happen again. She had escaped for one dreadful night into a dream. Into his arms. As much as she wanted those around her again, wanted to lie with him, she could not allow it. This was not who she was. Not who she was raised to be.

Placing his hands on her waist, he pulled her against him. The heat from his broad chest overwhelmed her as she stared into indigo eyes now stormy with desire. “You opened a door, Kitten, I’m unwilling to close.”

AUTHOR INFORMATION:

As a child Regan Walker loved to write stories, particularly about adventure-loving girls, but by the time she got to college more serious pursuits took priority. One of her professors thought her suited to the profession of law, and Regan realized it would be better to be a hammer than a nail. Years of serving clients in private practice and several stints in high levels of government gave her a love of international travel and a feel for the demands of the “Crown” on its subjects. Hence her romance novels often involve a demanding Prince Regent who thinks of his subjects as his private talent pool.

Regan lives in San Diego with her golden retriever, Link, whom she says inspires her every day to relax and smell the roses.

LINKS:

website: www.reganwalkerauthor.com/

blog: reganromancereview.blogspot.com/

twitter: @RegansReview

Regan will be awarding either Racing with the Wind OR Lunchbox Romances that tie into the triology,The Holly and the Thistle and The Shamrock and the Rose (winner's choice) to a randomly drawn commenter during the tour.

The tour dates can be found:  http://goddessfishpromotions.blogspot.com/2013/04/virtual-book-tour-against-wind-by-regan.html

VBT: Hidden

5 Musts Every Story in Your Genre Should Have

I love reading YA fiction. My kindle is bursting with them. While there is no formula (that I have found) that makes a great YA book, a few things stick out in my head when comparing books I love.

Compelling Characters

All of my favorite YA books (mostly Paranormal and Fantasy) have compelling characters. We have to meet someone interesting on the first page, and they have to suck us in enough to continue to care about their lives until the last. I fall in love easily, so I rarely meet a YA main (or supporting) that makes me want to stop reading a book, but it’s possible. The character must be gripping, original, flawed, and loveable. That is much harder to write than it is to notice in something you’re reading, but as a writer, creating characters is one of my favorite things to do.

A good opening.

The opening sets the tone of the novel. As a reader, I want to be yanked into this world, thrown on a roller coaster, and not allowed to get off until it’s over. As I writer, I beg the gods to show me how to do this. It’s difficult but important. It’s not just the first page. It could be someone’s last. Think about or go back and read the openings from your favorite YA books. Did you fall in love with the character? Feel sorry for them? Want more of them? Of course, you did. That’s why it’s your favorite.

High stakes.

I’ve read a few books that had a cool premise, started well, and had a loveable character … but the stakes weren’t high enough. Those lose me. I want life or death, not I may be hated at school to the end of eternity. But that’s just me. I want to worry about the character, fear for their life. Others may be different, but I would guess that they at least want interesting stakes, even if it’s not a nail biter.

Believable relationships

Just because YA readers are teens (and those of us who refuse to grow up), doesn’t mean they can’t spot weak relationships. As a believer of love at first sight, it’s easy for me to believe in the relationships in the YA books I’ve read. I love the idea of meeting someone on Monday and not being able to imagine your life without them on Tuesday. For some readers, that annoys the crap out of them. To me, it can be quick, it just has to be genuine and interesting.

A big finish.

No one likes a let down. I think YA books have to deliver whatever thing they’ve been building up to. I don’t want to read 80,000 words and never get to the big fight, or the break up, or have things summed up so fast I think I may have missed something. I love YA books that finish big, with a shock, yet the answer was there in my face all along. I love to go back to chapter one and say “Ohhhh. I see it now.” It makes the time I’ve invested worthwhile.

These five things, in my opinion, are vital to YA books. It certainly isn’t a recipe, and keep in mind that each of these aspects are subjective. A character that is compelling to me may be boring to someone else. Stakes that are high to me may make another reader yawn. But when you find a YA book with the right balance of these five elements for you, you’ll probably find that you can’t put it down.

BLURB:  

Sixteen-year-old Leah Grant has given up on being normal. She’d settle for stopping the voices in her head, intrusive visions of the future, and better odds of making it to her seventeenth birthday.

That’s the thing about pretending to be human in a world where magic used to exist – at any moment, her cover could be blown and she’ll be burned to death like the rest of the witches.

Everything changes when she loses control of her powers and flees the orphanage she grew up in. She desperately wants to be invisible but finds her face plastered on every news channel as humans panic over the possible resurgence of her kind. And now the hunters won’t give up until they find her.

Making friends for the first time in her life and falling in love with one of them drives her to discover why she is unlike any being she’s ever met – human or otherwise. The dangerous powers inside of her that would repel Nathan, her new, handsome reason for living, are priceless to some. The locked up forever kind of priceless. And to others, they are too dangerous to allow her to live.

Let’s hope she can stay hidden.

EXCERPT:  

Sienna snatched last week’s Chemistry test from my desk. I hadn’t turned it over. I knew it was a D minus.

She cackled and passed it around.

“Leah, you would think someone who spends most of her time alone would have better grades,” she said. Her birds laughed on cue. “What do you do all day? Obviously not study.” She gasped slowly like she’d gotten a revelation in that blonde head of hers. “You fantasize about us, don’t you? You probably sleep in Whit’s old bed to feel close to her.”

Laughter spread around the room like an airborne disease. Disease. I shivered. That was an intriguing thought; I could almost hear the sound their bodies would make against the floor when it hit.

“Leah, come on. Say something. Scream at me, it’s been a while. At least cry,” Sienna said, laughing and leaning into my desk, closer to danger.

I didn’t cry. I never cry. And if I were going to, it wouldn’t be because of Sienna. I had bigger problems. I’d just broken a promise I’d made to God to not think about hurting His people, His children. And today was not the day to piss Him off.

My old roommate, Whitney Nguyen, graciously returned my test as she cackled with the rest of the birds. She liked the idea of me pining over her, but she knew I didn’t spend my free time thinking about her or sleeping in her old bed. After fourteen years of hard labor as my roommate, she’d given up on being friends or me being remotely normal. The current theory to explain my oddness was that I was in love with all of the girls and consumed by lust.

As long as they didn’t know it was magic.

AUTHOR INFORMATION:

M. Lathan lives in San Antonio with her husband and mini-schnauzer. She enjoys writing and has a B.S. in Psych and a Masters in Counseling. Her passion is a blend of her two interests – creating new worlds and stocking them with crazy people. She enjoys reading anything with interesting characters and writing in front of a window while asking rhetorical questions … like her idol Carrie Bradshaw.  

Links

Website: mlathan.com

Twitter: @hiddenseries

Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/hiddenseries/

Buy links: Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=B00A6301BO

 

One randomly chosen commenter will win a $50 Amazon/BN.com gift card.

 Encourage your readers to follow the tour and comment; the more they comment, the better their chances of winning. The tour dates can be found here:  http://goddessfishpromotions.blogspot.com/2013/04/virtual-book-tour-hidden-by-m-lathan.html

http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/28e4343/

BBT: Island Shifters

BLURB:

When your family, your home, and the very land you stand on are destroyed, what do you do?  If you are a shifter of Massa, you turn around and fight.  You fight, because the blood oath will have it no other way. 

The idyllic lives of four elemental shifters living in the exiled land of Pyraan are shattered when a tour of legion duty gives witness to a brutal enemy invasion.  Despite the heroic efforts of the shifters, the land falls to the invaders.  As the only survivors, the four friends are forced to flee south into the lands from which they were banished to warn of the invasion.  Heartbroken and weary, the shifters soon learn that the safe haven they hoped to find is cloaked in danger.  Throughout a journey fraught with prophesy, betrayal and peril, an enduring friendship prevails, love blossoms, and a riveting saga unravels.

EXCERPT:

Kiernan heard them coming with her heart in her throat and leaned in closer to Beck as they lay side by side in a furrow of soil atop one of the fortifications created by the earthshifters the evening before.  The ominous sound of thousands of feet rushing toward her in the pre-dawn darkness was as frightening as it was meant to be.  Jaimes Atlan warned them that Adrian Ravener would try to intimidate them.  He would want them to make mistakes out of sheer terror.

I am with you, Princess, said Bajan, who was crouched behind her.  Do not be afraid.  Any creature that gets close will have me to deal with.

Bajan, just in case….  she began, but he cut her off.

Do not make it sound like the end, because it is not.  I promise.  You will have time to torment me for many years to come.

I do not mean to torment you.

I would not have it any other way.

Despite her fright, she smiled at the Draca’s words.

The long, sinister sound of the enemy battle horn wrenched Kiernan back to the present in a rush.  Every fiber of her being urged her to run, to get away from there.

Death was coming, and she was right in its path.

Closing her eyes, she took a deep breath and drew on the power of her magic to calm her mind.  She was a warrior, she chided herself.  A protector.  If death was coming for her, it would have a fight on its hands.

AUTHOR Bio and Links:

Fantasy author, Valerie Zambito, lives in York, New York with her husband and three sons.  After having been involved in a busy sales career for twenty years, a passionate love for great storytelling, world building, character creation, and all things magic have led to the release of her epic fantasy series, Island Shifters, and young adult, paranormal romance series, Angels of the Knights.

Books:

Book One:  Island Shifters - An Oath of the Blood

Book Two:  Island Shifters - An Oath of the Mage

Book Three:  Island Shifters - An Oath of the Children

Book Four:  Island Shifters - An Oath of the Kings

Angels of the Knights - Fallon

Angels of the Knights - Blane

Classroom Heroes

Website:  http://www.valeriezambito.com/

Buy Links:

Amazon:  http://www.amazon.com/Island-Shifters-Fantasy-Series-ebook/dp/B0063EONHS

Barnes & Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/island-shifters-an-oath-of-the-blood-valerie-zambito/1107956340

iTunes:  https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/island-shifters-oath-blood/id489783195?mt=11

Smashwords: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/107230

Valerie will be awarding several print copies of her book to randomly drawn commenters during the tour (US only) and a grand prize of a $25 Amazon GC to one randomly drawn commenter during the tour.

 The tour dates can be found here:

 http://goddessfishpromotions.blogspot.com/2013/04/virtual-blurb-blitz-tour-island.html

Monday

Yes it is.
Last week I went on my Summer Schedule, bless my boss's heart. And I mean that sincerely, not in Southern Parlance:) Which means, I go in early Monday through Thursday, work late and take off Friday's. Ahh. It feels weird being home on a Friday but it's a good weird. Since the hubby is still hobbling around, I was going to mow this weekend, but it continued to rain, so I went out on the porch and read a couple of books instead. grin. One of them Randy Wayne White's North of Havana. I always find notable quotes in his stories. Here's a couple:
'Guilt is the curse of those who care.' 
and
'Friendship is defined, not measured, by one's willingness to go to the aid of another. It is an obligation that blends conscience and accountability. Very, very few are worthy of the word.' 
Granted these are spoken from his Doc Ford's point of view. But insightful, don't you think? One of the reason's I enjoy his work, besides the  obvious--he writes a damn fine mystery--is his character's study of human nature.

Completely off topic, Belle Kitty woke me from a nightmare. I dreamed I was witnessing a murder. She got right in my face, nudged and cried till I woke up then flopped down beside me. I was very appreciative because I was next on the man's hit list. And speaking of murder, I'm thinking about trying one, just on paper mind you. After I finish the other ideas rolling around in my head. But that's for another day. And as far as Monday goes, hope your day is productive and your evening relaxing and enjoyable.

Weekend

Enjoy your weekend.