It’s that time of year when we need to plan what our summer reads will be. Kristin, from Simon & Schuster is stopping by to introduce us to today’s gust who has written the perfect beach read.  Please help me in welcoming Ms. Patricia Beard!

PATRICIA BEARD

Patricia Beard is the author of nine nonfiction books and hundreds of nationally published magazine articles. She is a former features and contributing editor at Town & Country, ELLE, and Mirabella magazines. She lives upstate New York with her husband and three dogs.

Connect with Ms. Beard at Simon & Schuster:

ABOUT THE BOOK

“Nothing ever changes at Wauregan.” That mystique is the tradition of the idyllic island colony off the shore of Long Island, the comforting tradition that its summer dwellers have lived by for over half a century. But in the summer of 1948, after a world war has claimed countless men—even those who came home—the time has come to deal with history’s indelible scars.

Helen Wadsworth’s husband, Arthur, was declared missing in action during an OSS operation in France, but the official explanation was mysteriously nebulous. Now raising a teenage son who longs to know the truth about his father, Helen turns to Frank Hartman—her husband’s best friend and his partner on the mission when he disappeared. Frank, however, seems more intent on filling the void in Helen’s life that Arthur’s absence has left. As Helen’s affection for Frank grows, so does her guilt, especially when Peter Gavin, a handsome Marine who was brutally tortured by the Japanese and has returned with a faithful war dog, unexpectedly stirs new desires. With her heart pulled in multiple directions, Helen doesn’t know whom to trust—especially when a shocking discovery forever alters her perception of both love and war.

Part mystery, part love story, and part insider’s view of a very private world, A Certain Summer resonates in the heart long after the last page is turned.

BOOK DETAILS:

Contempary Women’s Fiction /Gallery
Paperback: 336 pages
Publisher: Gallery Books; Original edition (May 21, 2013)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1476710260
ISBN-13: 978-1476710266

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Don’t you enjoy finding out about “new to you” authors?  Well…..Stephanie, from Simon & Schuster, is back again today so that she can introduce us to another author.  Welcome Ms. Kelly Meding !!

NAME

A native of the Delaware seashore, Kelly Meding lives in Maryland, with a neurotic cat that occasionally meows at ghosts. After discovering Freddy Krueger at a very young age, Kelly began a lifelong obsession with horror, science fiction, and fantasy, on which she blames her interest in vampires, psychic powers, superheroes, and all things paranormal. When not writing, she can be found crafting jewelry, enjoying a good cup of coffee, or scouring the Internet for gossip on her favorite television shows.
Connect with Kelly at these sites:

GUEST POST

Thank you so much for having me here to chat about my new release, TEMPEST, and the evolving dynamics of villains.

TEMPEST is the third book in my MetaWars series with Pocket Star.  The books are set in a world where superheroes are real.  Meta-powered humans once brought the United States to the brink of disaster with their battles, and they killed each other to near-extinction.  During the final deciding battle, the remaining heroes and villains suddenly lose their super-powers.  The villains are locked up on ManhattanIsland, which is turned into a giant prison.  The surviving heroes, however, are all children between the ages of ten and fifteen.  These confused, orphaned kids are put in foster homes.

Fast-forward fifteen years, and the now-adult former heroes-in-training receive their powers back as suddenly as they lost them.  The imprisoned villains (called Banes) receive theirs back, as well, and one of the questions these former bad guys have to consider is: do we break out and go back to being bad, or do we stay put and allow the authorities to deal with us?

The first book in the series, TRANCE, chronicles how the survivors band back together to stop an old enemy intent on murdering them all.  Banes are viewed as threats, period.  This is all Teresa and her five fellow heroes know them as.  The Banes killed their parents and mentors.  They caused havoc around the country.  This view holds fast until the end of the novel, when one Bane lends a hand, and Teresa begins to wonder if some of the Banes have truly reformed.  This confusion leads to conflict within the group, especially from Renee and Ethan, who have very strong and personal reasons for hating the Banes.

In the second book, CHANGELING, the Banes are less present, because a different enemy is attacking Teresa and her team.  This enemy comes from an unexpected direction, and they aren’t Meta at all.  It gives Teresa more to consider about Meta unity, and the possibility of all Metas uniting against this new, equally super-powered threat.

This possibility of change was one of the big building blocks of TEMPEST.  I used this book to really explore the hero/villain dynamic of the MetaWars world.  The book’s narrator, Ethan “Tempest” Swift, can manipulate the air.  He uses it to fly, to create manageable cyclones, and can make a targeted wind drill to blast holes in solid rock.  And at the start of the book he’s keeping two big secrets from his teammates–one of which is the fact that his father is one of the Banes imprisoned in Manhattan.  And he’s the same Bane who murdered Ethan’s mother.

When Teresa asks for volunteers to go into Manhattan and search for some missing prisoners, Ethan jumps at the chance to get onto the island and confront the man he knows only as Jinx.  Having this conflict in place gave me a chance, as an author, to explore family dynamics, and the notion of what makes a man a “villain.”  Is it only his deeds, or is it what he also holds in his heart?  Jinx is more than his label as a bad guy, and Ethan is confronted with these layers head-on as he gets to know other Bane prisoners.

Villains are most dynamic when they are more than just their dastardly deeds.  The HBO series “Oz” is probably one of the best examples of hero/villain dynamics out there.  The good guys do bad things.  The bad guys might not be as bad as you think.  A character you sympathize with at the start becomes an irredeemable scumbag by episode ten.  I absolutely love this series, and I highly recommend it (if you don’t mind a lot of f-bombs being dropped on you).

ABOUT THE BOOK

The third novel in Meding’s MetaWars series focuses on an X-Men-like group of young people with superpowers who must find a way to work together when the public doesn’t trust them and the government wants to control them. When Ethan “Tempest” Swift accepts an assignment in Manhattan, the island suffers an unexpected assault. Forced to side with old enemies to uncover who’s responsible, Ethan begins to question his place in defending a world that sees him as its enemy. Charlaine Harris, author of the True Blood books, called the first book in the series “a fast-paced adventure that rocks along to a very tense climax.”

BOOK DETAILS:

Publisher: Pocket Star (April 22, 2013)
Sold by: Simon and Schuster Digital Sales Inc
Language: English
ASIN: B0092PY5WS

PURCHASE LINKS:

DISCLAIMER
I received a copy of this book, at no charge to me,
in exchange for my honest review.
No items that I receive
are ever sold…they are kept by me,
or given to family and/or friends.
ADDENDUM
I do not have any affiliation with Amazon.com or
Barnes & Noble. I am an IndieBound affiliate.
I am providing link(s) solely for visitors
that may be interested in purchasing this Book/EBook.

Stephanie, from Simon & Schuster, is stopping by, to introduce us all to one of their authors who is presently on tour.  So without further ado, Ms. Jesse Petersen!

JESSE PETERSEN

Jesse Petersen grew up a geek in love with Star Wars, video games (King’s Quest, anyone?), books of all kinds, and even the occasional RPG. Eventually she grew up, at least in body, but she still loves anything with whimsy, and her books reflect that. Whether it’s funny zombies or monsters in group therapy, you’ll find books that mix giggles with gore.
Connect with Jesse at these sites:

ABOUT THE BOOK

A quirky and funny urban fantasy e-novella about a support group for the legendary monsters we all know and love. Led by Natalie, one of Frankenstein’s creations, the monsters—including Dracula, Jekyll and Hyde, the wolfman and a mummy—meet regularly in NYC to discuss living unknown, and the pressures of staying anonymous in the modern world.  When the Invisible Man is killed in a manner eerily reminiscent of how H.G. Well’s Invisible Man meets his demise, the group bands together for both security and sleuthing. Lighthearted, accessible, and humorous, CLUB MONSTROSITY is a unique and modern twist on the legendary monsters of everyone’s childhood.

BOOK DETAILS:

Publisher: Pocket Star (April 29, 2013)
Sold by: Simon and Schuster Digital Sales Inc
Language: English
ASIN: B008X6R6OG

PURCHASE LINKS:

DISCLAIMER
No items that I receive
are ever sold…they are kept by me,
or given to family and/or friends.
ADDENDUM
I do not have any affiliation with Amazon.com or
Barnes & Noble. I am an IndieBound affiliate.
I am providing link(s) solely for visitors
that may be interested in purchasing this Book/EBook.

It’s been a busy week and it’s not over yet.  Stephanie, from Simon & Schuster, is stopping by today to introduce us to a very talented author.  Grab your coffee and give a warm welcome to Ms. Deliah Dawson!!

DELIAH DAWSON

Delilah S. Dawson is a native of Roswell, Georgia and the author of the paranormal romance Blud series for Pocket, including Wicked as They Come and an eNovella, The Mysterious Madam Morpho. The second book in the series, Wicked as She Wants and a second novella, The Peculiar Pets of Miss Pleasance, will be out in spring 2013, and her first YA, Servants of the Storm, will be available in spring 2014.
Connect with author:    

 GUEST POST

On Damaged Women

If you’ve read any of the books or e-novellas in my Blud series for Pocket, you might have noticed that all my heroines have one thing in

common: they are damaged women. Tish in Wicked as They Come is leaving an abusive relationship. Imogen from The Mysterious Madam Morpho was kicked out of the house by her father and assaulted by her employer.

And Frannie from The Peculiar Pets of Miss Pleasance was wrongly used by the first man she ever loved.

When I think back to the strong women I’ve known and the characters that have been memorable, very few of them have led easy, carefree lives. Game of Thrones is a tapestry of women forced into impossible situations who made mistakes, found their inner steel, and rose to greatness. Book favorites that come to mind are Ayla from Jean Auel’s Earth’s Children series, Sookie Stackhouse from Charlaine Harris’s Dead After Dark series, and Claire Frasier from Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander series. Women are made strong for a reason, and many of us don’t truly find our strength until we’re pushed to our very limits and come out the other side.

And I speak from experience when I say that our tragedies make us more interesting and often more loveable. When I was younger, I thought romance was filled with swooning, naïve, virginal heroines who fell into the arms of handsome, tender dukes. Now that I’m older and looking beyond covers, I’m finding amazing stories about bluestockings, orphans, widows, queens, and uppity women who won’t back down no matter what their world’s mores dictate. Romance as a genre is just as varied as women as a gender, and I’m proud to contribute a series that’s filled for rollicking adventure and steamy romance but with powerful women at its heart.

My next book, WICKED AS SHE WANTS, is out April 30 and features my strongest heroine yet: a twist on the famous Princess Anastasia. But my Ahna is a blood drinker in a steampunk world who boards an airship brothel and faces bloodthirsty unicorns to find her way back home.

Part of the challenge of writing strong women is also writing men that compliment them, heroes who are confident enough to love strong women and give them the freedom to be themselves. Ahna’s paramour is Casper Sterling, a musician from our world with his own inner demons. When Ahna and Casper join forces, they become all but unstoppable.

When I was young, books were my escape and my salvation, and I was hungry for heroines who knew pain. Now, I like to think the underlying message of romance– my books included– is that there’s hope. Whoever you are, whatever you’ve been through, no matter how broken you might be, you deserve love.

Thanks so much for hosting me, and I hope y’all enjoy it! Please feel free to reach out to me on Twitter (@DelilahSDawson) or at my website, www.delilahsdawson.com anytime! And if you like artisan perfumes, be sure to check out the character-based scents at Villainess Soaps (http://www.villainess.net/wicked/). Seven new scents will debut this April to cover both books and e-novellas in the series.

ABOUT THE BOOK

From the author of highly praised steampunk-ian Wicked as They Come comes an urban fantasy romance about Frannie Pleasance, a woman who takes in stray animals to save them from the dangerous world of bludbunnies, bludbadgers, and Bludmen who populate Sang, an alternate-universe London. When her pet shop is set on fire by someone who doesn’t like her menagerie, Frannie meets a fireman who wants to help her track down the animals who ran away during the blaze, and find the person who tried to put her life in danger.

DISCLAIMER
No items that I receive
are ever sold…they are kept by me,
or given to family and/or friends.

Stephanie from Simon & Schuster contacted me regarding today’s guest.  When I read the synopsis, I knew that I wanted to share this book with all of you.  So please help me welcome Mr. Mark Hosack!!

MARK HOSACK

Mark Hosack is a screenwriter whose credits include Pale Blue Moon and Give ‘em Hell, Malone.  He lives in Los Angeles where he also directs and edit movies. IDENITY is his debut novel.

GUEST POST

The E-Book Species

By Mark Hosack

Dinosaurs. Now there’s something we can definitely agree on—they’re all awesome and they’re all dead. The printed book isn’t a dinosaur, not yet (though indie bookstores, sadly, seem to be going extinct). But books have evolved as a new digital species, and the industry is following suit. E-books are becoming the new mass-market paperback. It’s the biggest evolution since the printing press–and we’re smack-dab in the middle of it.

The numbers say its good business: It’s been shown that people with e-books read and buy more books. E-book reader and tablet sales are skyrocketing. And now, following the rise of indie publishing, the big publishers are jumping into the game.

That’s where I come in.

My debut novel, IDENTITY, is something of an experiment. It’s one of the first books to be published by Pocket Star, Simon & Schuster’s brand new e-book imprint.

I’m friends with a lot of indie authors—writers who work very hard at publishing and marketing their own work. And in return, they get to keep a bigger piece of the back end. I’m going the other way, giving up more of my back end in return for a great editing and marketing team over at Simon & Schuster. I have no idea where I’ll end up financially, but I do know that this means there is room in the digital world for everyone, and that’s a great thing for writers.

Don’t want to wade through the tedious process of securing a traditional publisher? Great. Do it yourself. Want to get a big publisher in your corner? Good news—now that publishing is cheaper, they can take on more novels.

If there’s a truth to publishing, it’s that many deserving books never see the light of day. Hopefully, with more access, that will change. And therein lies the greatest benefit of the e-book evolution—diversity.

Of course, all of this also means more competition. As a writer, you’re going to have to elbow your way to front of the pack. As a reader, you’ll have to search hard for that undiscovered gem. It’s out there, but its drowning in a sea of 1s and 0s with little marketing to rescue it.

With such access, it’s a great time to be a writer—but it’s still hard. It will always be hard. That’s because writing a book is hard. And if it isn’t hard, you’re probably doing something wrong. Writing is a long process that comes with very little certainty and, often, very little reward. For a writer, you have to love the process. And that process is the same whether it is an e-book or a printed book. Traditional or Self Published. In the end, I feel as though a lot of this debate is just noise. The business is going to go where the readers go, and everyone will have to chase them there. It’s that simple. And maybe that’s the point. A book is a book, whether it’s digital, printed on paper, or scribbled on a tower of bar napkins. It doesn’t really matter.

The reader is what matters.

If you’re a writer, write for the reader—not the e-book.

The animal has evolved, but the guts are the same.

ABOUT THE BOOK

A novel of mistaken identity and corporate financial fraud, IDENTITY Is Wall Street with a Hitchcockian flavor.  IDENITY tells the story of Paul Majors, a respectable businessman who, in trying to unravel fraud within the Corporate offices of SunSoft’s parent company, gets not only pulled in deeper into the illegal doings there, but into those of another firm as well.  Soon he’s on the run across the United States, chased by dirty executives, international underworld figures, the FBI, and local  law enforcements, trying desperately to unravel the mysteries he’s caught in and save the 1,500 employees who depends on his leadership.  Relevant to our modern times, IDENTITY is an everyman tale about someone battling the frauds of “Corporate”, told as a suspenseful thriller.

IDENTITY, Mark’s first novel, will be released by Pocket Star, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, on August 7th. You can pre-order it now for a special sale price of $1.99 at: amazon.com, barnesandnoble.com and iTunes.com.

Also, you can win a free Kindle or Nook Touch by entering our IDENTITY giveaway. Please sign up and help spread the word!

Ayelet from Simon & Schuster contacted me regarding my guests today.  She has given me the opportunity and distinct honor to host and introduce you to two authors who are also heroes in my opinion.  They are extraordinary men, who have given of themselves, to protect our freedom and safety.  So, I ask to help me welcome, Stephen Templin and Howard E. Wasdin to the CMash blog.

                 
  Stephen Templin                     Howard E. Wadsin
(Photograph © Silvy Tompkins)    (Photograph © Howard E. Wasdin)

Stephen Templin completed Hell Week, qualified as a pistol and rifle expert, and blew up things during Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL (BUD/S) training. He is now an associate professor at Meio University in Japan.
You can connect with author at his website.

Howard E. Wadsin graduated with BUD/S Class 143. After the Battle of Mogadishu, where he was awarded the Silver Star, Wasdin medically retired from the Navy in November 1995, after twelve years of service. He lives in Georgia.
You can connect with author at his website.

ABOUT THE BOOK

They are the Outcasts. Because people don’t want to know what they do.

In the wake of Osama bin Laden’s death, the President wants to finish the job once and for all and orders the assassinations of the seven men vying for bin Laden’s place. The president doesn’t want any of them left to dominate . . . and that means he has only one choice. But doing what’s needed without political repercussions will take a small team flying under the radar. A team capable of finessing the U.N.’s distinctions on national sovereignty and acts of war.  A team like the Outcasts.

Alex Brandenburg: SEAL Chief Petty Officer and Outcasts Team Leader. Disobeyed direct orders by refusing to let a deadly terrorist live to kill another day. Francisco “Pancho” Rodriguez and John Landry: SEAL Petty Officers First Class. Took the pursuit of justice into their own hands with explosive results. Catherine “Cat” Fares:.  Navy Petty Officer. Holds an unbeatable record for pissing off the top brass with her strongly stated opinions on the combat readiness of women.

The team’s mission: Take out the seven terror merchants vying to take Bin Laden’s place. The team’s status: Expendable.

As the Outcasts track down first one target, then another, and are hot on the tail of the third, they start to realize that they are closing in on a larger plot at hand and will have to do what SEALs do best to ensure the security of the United States: Break the rules, and get the job done.

Read the first chapter here.

Gallery Books on-sale May 29^th, 20l2.  

Pre order book at Amazon and/or B&N.

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