Guest Author ELLA DURHAM showcase & giveaway ENDED

CMash September 4, 2013 Leave a Comment

WELCOME ELLA DURHAM

ELLA DURHAM

Ella Durham was born and raised in Sunderland, England and following a long career in the UK’s Department of Works and Pensions, she moved to Spain and worked for three years in an abused animal sanctuary in the Costa del Sol, caring for over 125 cats and kittens. Now retired, she resides in a small Spanish village in the Malaga province of Andalucia with her husband. Durham’s passion for creative writing started when she was just eight years old and since retiring, she has won a fiction writing competition, something which spurred her on to finally concentrate on her writing; she’s already working on her next murder-mystery novel, this time setting the action in Spain. Durham is the resident short story writer for two Spanish magazines.
Connect with Ella at these sites:

Q&A with Ella Durham

Writing and Reading:
-Do you draw from personal experiences and/or current events?
Most of my writing comes from personal experiences, memories from my past or just pure imagination but sometimes they are my own interpretation of other people’s experiences where I question, what could have brought that about or what if that happened to me?-Do you start with the conclusion and plot in reverse or start from the beginning and see where the story line brings you?
I begin by deciding on what the message or theme of the story shall be. For example a good moral tale, a funny twist in the tale, a heart-warming feeling, something strange to get the reader thinking or a shock! I like to sketch out the bare bones of the story and then build it up, so that it works towards a natural ending or conclusion. I find creating the characters first helps me to define what the interaction between them shall be and how they will end up as ‘goodies’ or baddies’! Sounds complicated but it isn’t really.-Your routine when writing? Any idiosyncrasies?
My ideas and story’s development usually come to me at night, while I’m in bed. That’s when my mind whirrs and I often feel like jumping up to the computer to scribble it all down but instead I rely on a shorthand notebook in my bedside cabinet. I like to write every day if possible, usually in the early afternoons. Sometimes I can hit the keys for four or five hours without realising the time ticking away, then other days I can only manage half an hour. It all depends on my mood and energy levels. I like to have a coffee at my elbow mid afternoon, and if I’m being really naughty, a cold Fino sherry to sip at once the sun has gone down beyond the yard-arm.-Is writing your full time job? If not, may I ask what you do by day?
Writing is my passionate hobby and an outlet for my vivid imagination (my husband says.) Otherwise, I love cooking. I spend huge amounts of time poring over cookery books and trying out different recipes from all over the world. I make my own bread, naans, pittas breads, crumpets, tarts and pastries as well as jam, marmalades, chutneys and fruit curds. Each year I also marinate and produce batches of green and black olives which my Spanish neighbours kindly give me freshly harvested from their groves. Delicious! I also enjoy walking with my husband and our two rescued dogs. Swimming in our pool during the hot weather keeps me cool and of course I love reading and watching TV. I also thoroughly enjoy our village’s colourful fiestas which bring out the spirit of the Spanish way of life here.-Who are some of your favorite authors?
My favourite authors are
Harlen Coben, Mary Higgins Clark, Alex Barclay, Linwood Barclay and Jane Austin.-What are you reading now?
I am reading, ‘Caught’ by Harlen Coben

-Are you working on your next novel? Can you tell us a little about it?
Yes, I am working on my next novel. Another murder mystery, this time set in Spain under the working title of “No Sleep Till Dawn”. With the same lead character as Ebony Blood, this time Greg Williams now reconciled with his family, takes his family to Spain for a fresh start and bumps into an old flame. Her wild step daughter, Donna, hangs around with a bad crowd and the step mother is unable to tame her. Donna disappears during the town’s annual Feria and because he is fluent in Spanish and the Spanish police have little to go on, Greg is asked to help in the search for her. When a girl’s body is discovered , it is up to Greg to break the devastating news to her parents and reveal the even more shocking news that he knows who the murderer is.

Fun questions:
-Your novel will be a movie. Who would you cast?
If Ebony Blood was a movie, I would cast
Brad Pitt as Greg Williams
Jennifer Anniston as his wife, Trish.
John Altman as Tony
Kevin Whately as DI. Willard
Larry Lamb as Ramsay

-Would you rather read or watch TV/movie?
Both

-Favorite food?
The Spanish dish, Baked Sea Bream and Poor Man’s potatoes

-Favorite beverage?
I love a cold, dry Fino sherry

Thank you for stopping by CMash Reads and spending time with us.

ABOUT THE BOOK

Murder in the Scottish Borders throws a brothers’ ill-fated fishing trip off course and their own dark secrets risk being exposed.

“Fishing for the truth can be murder.”

With their personal lives in tatters, and in a last-ditch attempt to salvage the brotherly bond they once shared, Greg and Tony Williams embark upon a fishing trip to the Scottish Borders. No sooner than they arrive, the brothers learn that the police are investigating a gruesome murder and are on the hunt for a fugitive. The news further fuels Tony’s agitated behaviour, intensifying the brothers’ volatile relationship. The pair begin to argue uncontrollably and, ignoring a local’s advice to avoid the notorious stretch of river known as Ebony Blood, they set off into the unknown. Then Tony reels in a headless corpse from the murky waters; shortly afterwards he disappears.

As the body count in this quiet Scottish town starts to rise, the police target Tony as a potential suspect and an official search is launched in order to track him down. Desperate to find his brother before the police do and to prove his innocence, Greg takes up an offer of help from Marie Frazer, a local barmaid, but quickly becomes suspicious of her actions. Following a confrontation, Marie confesses to having known Tony previously and reveals the secrets that threaten to shatter their relationship forever. With Tony still nowhere to be seen, it will fall to Greg to solve the mysterious chain of events himself, whilst struggling to come to terms with the truth of Tony’s double-life, a horror all of its own which is unraveling before him. Greg must enter a dark world of murder, drug crimes and revenge, and face his own personal demons in order to save his brother, that is, if he still wants to.

Ebony Blood is the debut novel from Ella Durham and explores the poisonous effect of hidden jealousies, deep resentments and envy within family relationships. The book looks at how, through adversity and trial, the brothers are able to learn about themselves and move forward. Set in the town of Selkirk, in the Scottish Borders, where she spent a week’s vacation in 1989, Ella Durham draws on her personal memories to craft a bleak and unsettling thriller about the power of secrets.

BOOK DETAILS:

Genre: murder mystery
Ebook published by Ant Press
Paperback published by CreateSpace Independent Publishing
Publication Date: August 4, 2013
Number of Pages: Ebook 225 pages, paperback 250
ISBN: 1491263695
ASIN (for ebook): B00EB1LVK2

PURCHASE LINKS:

THANKS TO KATY AT AUTHORIGHT,
I HAVE TWO (2) EBOOKS TO GIVE AWAY.
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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.

Guest Author, Partners In Crime Tours, Showcase

Partners In Crime Tours Presents: CHARLES SALZBERG

CMash September 3, 2013 Leave a Comment

WELCOME CHARLES SALZBERG

WELCOME IMAGE

CHARLES SALZBERG

Charles Salzberg is a freelance writer whose work has appeared in Esquire, New York magazine, Elle, Good Housekeeping, The New York Times Book Review, The New York Times, GQ and other periodicals. He is the author of over 20 non-fiction books and several novels, including Swann’s Last Song, which was nominated for a Shamus Award for Best First PI Novel, and the sequel, Swann Dives In. He also has taught been a Visiting Professor of Magazine at the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, and taught writing at Sarah Lawrence College, the Writer’s Voice, and the New York Writers Workshop, where he is a Founding Member.
Connect with Charles at these sites:

Q&A with Charles Salzberg

Writing and Reading:
-Do you draw from personal experiences and/or current events?
Both. In the case of Devil in the Hole, I drew from a front page newspaper story that occurred over 40 years ago. I was fascinated by the crime: a man murdered his entire family, wife, three kids, mother and the family dog—and then disappeared. What made the crime particularly interesting to me was that he had planned it meticulously, carefully enough that he gave himself a three-week head start for his getaway. I simply took the facts of the crime and then imagined the rest.

For other novels, like my Swann books, I draw not only from current events but also from my own life. In the first Swann book, Swann’s Last Song, I made the protagonist a skip tracer because when I worked as a magazine journalist I once interviewed one and was fascinated by his life. He was kind of a low-level detective who chased people who’d run out on their bills or their spouses.

As I reached the second and third Swann novels—Swann Dives In and the upcoming Swann’s Lake of Despair—I began to use people I knew in the books, even using their real names.

-Do you start with the conclusion and plot in reverse or start from the beginning and see where the story line brings you?
I never know where my novels will take me. The truth is, when I sit down at the computer I often don’t know what the next sentence will be, much less paragraph or page. I don’t write from an outline. It’s all very organic. I’m afraid that if I know the ending to a novel it will become predictable and stale. I like to be surprised and as a result I hope the reader is surprised as well.

-Your routine when writing? Any idiosyncrasies?
No routine and no idiosyncracies, other than doing everything I possibly can to avoid actually sitting down and writing. I write either when a deadline or guilt rear their ugly heads. And I rarely can sit down and write for more than 20 minutes to half an hour. What saves me is that I’m an incredibly fast typist—I think I can clock in at nearly 90 words a minute, though not all of them accurately spelled.

-Is writing your full time job? If not, may I ask what you do by day?
Writing is pretty much my full time job, if you could call it a job. But I also teach writing three nights a week, for two hours a class. Oddly enough, it’s non-fiction that I teach. I think it would inhibit me from writing fiction if I taught it as well, though I do have fiction writers sneak into my classes every once in a while. That’s because years ago one of my students was a young woman who wrote an essay for class about her first day at work. She called it, “The Devil Wears Prada.” After Lauren Weisberger sold that book, I got a flurry of requests to get into my class, all from people who wanted to be the next Lauren and write the next, The Devil Wears Prada.

-Who are some of your favorite authors?
There are so many, but my favorites include Vladimir Nabokov, Philip Roth, Saul Bellow, Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler, Ron Hansen.

-What are you reading now?
I just finished Gone Girl, by Gillian Flynn, and Shot all to Hell (about Jesse James and Cole Younger,) by Mark Lee Gardner, A Brief History of Nearly Everything, by Bill Bryson, and I’m in the middle of Hallucinations, by Oliver Sachs.

-Are you working on your next novel? Can you tell us a little about it?
I’m working on the fourth Henry Swann novel, called Swann’s Way Out. I’m only about a quarter into it, so I’m not completely sure where it’s going, but it’s going to be set in the world of movies and Hollywood, I think, because that’s a world that fascinates me and I have a little experience with it.

Fun questions:
-Your novel will be a movie. Who would you cast?
Devil in the Hole would be difficult to cast because there are so many parts and no real “hero.” But I think an intense actor, someone like Joaquin Phoenix, would be best for John Hartman, the murderer.

-Would you rather read or watch TV/movie?
Both. At the same time, preferably.

-Favorite food?
Tough one, because there are so many. Pizza, because there are so many varieties. Chocolate cake. Ice cream. Hamburgers. Pasta. I could go on, but I won’t.

-Favorite beverage?
Chocolate ice cream soda, lemonade, and if I’m forced to drink alcohol, either a beer on a hot day or one of those fruity drinks with an umbrella in it.

ABOUT THE BOOK

Devil in the Hole is based on a true crime that occurred over 40 years ago in New Jersey, wherein a man murdered his entire family, wife, three children, mother and the family dog, and disappeared. My novel uses that event and takes off from there, following the murderer on his escape route. Using the voices of people he meets along the way, and people who are affected by his crime, the reader starts to build a portrait of the man and why he did what he did, in addition to following those who are searching for him.

READ AN EXCERPT

Chapter One
James Kirkland

I knew something was out of whack, only I couldn’t quite put my finger on it. Just something, you know. And it wasn’t only that I hadn’t seen any of them for some time. I mean, they’d been living there for what, three, three and a half years, and I don’t think I ever had more than a two- or three-minute conversation with any of them. And God knows, it wasn’t as if I didn’t try.

All things considered, they were pretty good neighbors. Mostly, I guess, because they kept to themselves. Which is certainly better than having neighbors who are always minding your business, or who don’t mow their lawn, or who drop in uninvited, or who throw wild parties and play loud music all night long. They weren’t like that. Just the opposite, in fact. Why, with that great big front lawn and two teenage boys you’d think they’d be out there tossing a football or a Frisbee around, or something. But no. It was so quiet sometimes it was as if no one lived there at all. Though I did hear rumors that the boys had a reputation of being hell-raisers. Maybe that’s why they kept such a tight lid on them when they were home. Because I can honestly say there wasn’t any hell-raising going on in that house that I could see. As a matter of fact, the only way you’d know the house was occupied was when you’d see the kids going to school, or him going off to work, or her and the mother going out to shop. Or at night, when the lights were on.

Which brings me back to the house itself. And those lights. It was the middle of November, a week or so before Thanksgiving, when I first noticed it. I was coming home from work and when I glanced over there I noticed the place was lit up like a Christmas tree. It’s a Georgian-style mansion, one of the nicest in the neighborhood, by the way, with something like twenty rooms, and I think the lights were on in every single one of them. But the downstairs shades were drawn tight, so all you could see was the faint outline of light around the edges of the windows, which gave it this really eerie look. Maybe they’ve got people over, was my first thought. But that would have been so out of character because in all the time they’d lived there I’d never seen anyone go in or out other than them. And anyway, it was absolutely quiet and there were no cars in the driveway or parked out on the street.

Just before I turned in, I looked out the window and noticed the house was still lit up, which was odd, since it was nearly midnight and, as a rule, they seemed to turn in kind of early over there.

The next night when I came home from work and I looked across the street the lights were still on. And that night, before I went to bed, after midnight, I looked out and the lights were still blazing.

After that, I made a kind of game of it. Under the pretense of getting some fresh air, I walked close to the house, as close as I could get without looking conspicuous, and listened to see if there were any sounds coming from inside. A couple of times, when I thought I heard something, I stopped to listen more carefully. But I never picked up anything that might indicate that someone was inside. And each night, when I came home from work, I made it a point to check out the house and make a note of how many lights were still burning and in which windows. I even began to search for silhouettes, shadows, anything I might interpret as a sign of life. And it wasn’t long before I whipped out the old binoculars to take a look, thinking maybe I could see something, anything, that would give me a hint as to what was going on. But when my wife accused me of being a peeping Tom, I put them away, at least while she was around.

There weren’t always the same number of rooms lit, but I noticed there were always fewer, never more. It was as if someone was going around that house each day turning off one light in one room, but in no discernible pattern. I began to think of that damn house during the day, while I was at work, or on the train coming home. It became a real thing with me. I even kept a notebook with a sketch of the house and notations next to each window that had a light on.

At night, I played a game. I began to think of that house as my own personal shooting gallery and, sitting on the window sill in my pajamas, while my wife was either in the bathroom or asleep, I’d choose one of the rooms and aim my imaginary rifle and pop! pop!, I’d shoot out one of the light bulbs. And, if the next night that particular room was dark, I’d get a tremendous rush of self-satisfaction that carried me through the whole next day. It was kind of like one of those video games my kids play. Pretty sick, huh?

I mentioned it to my wife—not my silly game, but the fact that those lights were going out one by one. She thought I was nuts. “Can’t you find anything better to do with your time?” she asked.

“No,” I said. “I’m entertaining myself. Leave me alone.” Then I asked whether she’d seen the Hartmans lately, because I was beginning to have this weird feeling in the pit of my stomach, as if something was seriously wrong. That it wasn’t a game anymore.
“No,” she said. “I haven’t. But that’s not unusual. Besides, it’s not as if I’m looking for them. If you ask me, they’re creepy. The whole bunch of them.”

“I know. But maybe . . . maybe there’s something wrong.”
“Go to bed,” she said. So I did, lulling myself to sleep with my imaginary rifle cradled in my arms, as if it would actually afford me some protection just in case something was wrong.

A few nights later, I set the alarm for three-thirty and slipped the clock under my pillow. When the vibration woke me, I got up quietly, so as not to wake my wife, looked out the window and sure enough the same number of lights was burning in the house as the night before. I was puzzled and frustrated because I was dying to know what was going on. I even thought of making up some kind of lame excuse to ring the Hartmans’ bell. But I didn’t have the nerve.

Two weeks later, only three rooms in the house were still lit. Down from eight the week before, fourteen the week before that, the week I began to keep count. I asked my son, David, whether he’d seen the Hartman kid in school, the one in his class.

“We’re not exactly best buds, Dad,” he said. “He keeps to himself. He’s weird. Maybe he’s queer or something.”
“I just asked if you’d seen any of them lately.”
“Not that I can remember. But I don’t go out of my way looking for any of them. They’re a bunch of weirdoes.”

I went back up to my room and stared out the window for maybe fifteen minutes, trying to figure out what the hell was going on. I wondered if I should do something.

“Come to bed,” my wife said.

“I’m worried,” I said without taking my eyes off the Hartman house.

“There’s definitely something wrong over there.”

“You’re being ridiculous,” she said. “Besides, it’s none of our business.”

“No, I can feel it. Something’s . . .”

She sighed, got out of bed and handed me the phone. “Well, rather than having to spend the rest of my life with a man who insists on staring out the window at the neighbors’ house all night like an idiot, I’d just as soon you called the police and let them put your mind at ease. At least maybe they can get them to turn out all the lights. Maybe then we can get some sleep over here.”

So, that’s how I called the cops.

Early reviews are in

Publishers Weekly Reviews, 5-17-2013
This title publishes JULY 2013
“In this smartly constructed crime novel, Salzberg uses multiple viewpoints to portray an unlikely killer who methodically slaughters his family . . . an intriguing collage of impressions and personal perspectives for the reader to ponder.”

New Mystery Reader Magazine
James Kirkland notices that all of the lights are on in his neighbor’s house. Not trying to be the nosy neighbor, but still curious, he checks every night and notices that lights are going out over time. As he watches the house he never sees any activity within even though the Hartman’s have three children and John’s mother lives with them. Kirkland finally decides to call the police and what they find is beyond horrifying. The wife and the three teenaged children have all been killed in the same way, a single bullet in the forehead. Then the killer neatly positioned them in the ballroom. Upstairs, Hartman’s mother is lying in her bed killed in the same manner as the rest of the family. All the shell casings were picked up, the weapons were cleaned and oiled and the house was made presentable before the killer fled. John Hartman, the husband, is missing and based on the coroner’s estimate, he has a three-week lead on the police. The hunt for Hartman becomes an unwieldy obsession for Charles Floyd, the senior police investigator assigned to the case. John Hartman is a complex individual who commits a heinous crime to shed is oppressive old life as he seeks to find a new life while eluding the police.Devil in the Hole is a mesmerizing, elegantly constructed crime novel that is based on a true story. Charles Salzberg tells the tale using numerous characters that knew Hartman or encountered him as he moves around to avoid being caught. The voices of Charles Floyd and Hartman himself are raw and compelling as each of them deal with their own inner demons. Each of the other characters provide a teasing snippet of information about Hartman that keeps the reader enthralled as the story unfolds. Even though Salzberg uses over a dozen voices to tell the story, the reader never gets lost despite the complexity of the book. I am typically not a fan of books written in this manner but Salzberg masterfully uses this technique to create a novel that is different in an extremely good way. The author effortlessly blends the different perspectives, viewpoints, and impressions of each character into a brilliant tapestry that envelops the reader, while peaking interest and the desire for more information about the crime. Devil in the Hole is one of the best books that I have read this year and I most highly recommend it.

BOOK DETAILS:

Genre: Literary psychological crime fiction
Published by: Five Star/Cengage
Publication Date: July 19, 2013
Number of Pages: 253
ISBN: 978-1-4328-2696-3

PURCHASE LINKS:

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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.

Giveaway, Winners

And the winner is………

CMash September 2, 2013 Leave a Comment

**……of How Not To Murder Your Grumpy by Carol E. Wyer**

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2 Charlotte Be a Public Follower of ‘CMash Reads’
An email has been sent and the winner has 48 hours to respond or another winner will be chosen. Thank you to all that entered.

GCP/Forever, Giveaway, Guest Author, Showcase, The Hachette Book Group

Guest Author KARINA HALLE showcase & giveaway ENDED

CMash August 31, 2013 Leave a Comment

WELCOME BACK KARINA HALLE

KARINA HALLE

The daughter of a Norwegian Viking and a Finnish Moomin, Karina Halle grew up in Vancouver, Canada with trolls and eternal darkness on the brain. This soon turned into a love of all things that go bump in the night and a rather sadistic appreciation for freaking people out. Like many of the flawed characters she writes, Karina never knew where to find herself and has dabbled in acting, make-up artistry, film production, screenwriting, photography, travel writing and music journalism. She eventually found herself in the pages of the very novels she wrote (if only she had looked there to begin with).
Karina holds a screenwriting degree from Vancouver Film School and a Bachelor of Journalism from TRU. Her travel writing, music reviews/interviews and photography have appeared in publications such as Consequence of Sound, Mxdwn and GoNomad Travel Guides. She currently splits her time between her apartment in downtown Vancouver and her sailboat, where a book and a bottle of wine are always at hand. Karna is hard at work on her next novel.
Connect with Karina at these sites:

ABOUT THE BOOK

Sometimes the right choice can be the deadliest. When Ellie Watt made the ultimate sacrifice for Camden McQueen, she never thought it would be easy. But walking away with her ex-lover, Javier Bernal, in order to ensure Camden’s safety has brought a whole new set of dangers. With Javier’s plans for Ellie growing more secretive by the moment, Ellie must find a way to stay ahead of the game before her past swallows her whole.

Meanwhile, Camden’s new life is short-lived. Fueled by revenge and pursued by authorities, he teams up with an unlikely partner in order to save Ellie. But as Camden toes the line between love and retribution, he realizes that in order to get back the woman he loves, he may have to lose himself in the process. He might just turn into the very man he’s hunting.

Read an excerpt

Javier shut the door behind me and flicked on the tall standing lamp in the corner, kitschy Mexican décor. “What side of the bed do you want?” he asked.

Then he proceeded to take off his suit. He flung the jacket onto an armchair across the room and began unbuttoning his shirt. I didn’t know where to look, my cheeks growing hot like I was a naïve teenager. I’d seen him shirtless before. Hell, I’d seen and felt every single part of that man. Still, it didn’t make the feeling go away.

“Feeling bashful?” Now his tone was smug.

I looked up and his shirt was off. His body was pretty much the same as I remembered, but wider, in a more athletic and lean kind of way. He’d grown into it and taken great care of his body over the years. His abs and arms looked like he’d do chin-ups in his spare time, yet it was still very elegant and subtle. His skin was a dark bronze, shadowed by the lamp.

“No,” I answered.

“Good.” And then his pants dropped.

And I’d totally forgotten he liked to go commando.

“Oh my god,” I cried out, shielding my eyes and facing the wall. “Please, put some pants on. Or underwear.”

“Say ‘Oh my god’ again, I liked the sound of it,” he said and I could hear him coming closer. “It reminds me of old times.”

“Javier, I’m serious.”

“When are you not serious, Ellie?”

I kept my eyes clamped shut until he started shuffling through the drawers. “Okay, okay, calm down. There, I have pants on now.”

I bent down and snapped up my pajama bottoms and a t-shirt then walked past him to the door, not wanting to risk a look in his direction. When I came out of the bathroom, after a long, hot and much-needed shower, he was already in bed with the lights off. This was exactly what I was counting on. I wanted to go to sleep on my side of the bed and be done with it. No thinking about the situation, no chit chat.

I carefully closed the door and eased my way across the room, my bare feet padding on the woven rugs, the moonlight outside the open window illuminating my passage. With the sea breeze coming in and the sound of the fishing boats rising and falling in their berths, the whole thing was soothing. Even romantic.

I crawled in, pulling only the sheet over my body and faced the wall. The moon was bright on my face.

After a few moments, when my heart rate had started to calm and I was beginning to forget where I was, Javier called out softly. “Angel?”

I wanted to pretend to be asleep. I wanted to ignore him. But he’d used a name I hated and I was sick of hearing it.

“Please don’t call me that,” I whispered back, pulling sheet closer around my shoulders.

He turned over in the bed and suddenly he was right behind me, causing the hairs on my neck to rise. “Why not?”

I tried to steady my breath. “I’m not your angel.”

“You’re someone’s angel. God’s.”

“God’s? How can you call me an angel when you think I’m no good?”

He was silent for a moment. Waves crashed outside.

“There are fallen angels, too. Angels with dirty wings.”

“Lucifer was a fallen angel,” I pointed out.

“You’re right. But Lucifer had no moral code. You and I, angel, I think we fell somewhere in between all of that. We made our place. Our own home.”

I closed my eyes at his words, my soul and heart and everything getting sucked back into a vortex of memories, all bright, shiny, and good. Memories of him and I together, memories I thought I’d done away with.

His lips were at my ear, his warm hand on my shoulder, holding me in place rather than giving comfort. Instead of stiffening, my whole body relaxed into it.

“We evolved, Ellie,” he whispered, sending shivers down my back. “And we’ll keep evolving.” Then he moved away, back to his side of the bed, cozying up under the covers.

I didn’t fall asleep for hours.

BOOK DETAILS:

Genre: New Adult, Contemp. Romance, Suspense
Print Length: 265 pages
Publisher: Forever
Publication Date: August 20, 2013
ASIN: B00DG8ZY7W

PURCHASE LINKS:

THANKS TO JULIE AT FOREVER/GCP,
I HAVE ONE (1) EBOOK TO GIVE AWAY.
EBOOK-OPEN TO ALL via NetGalley

FILL OUT RAFFLECOPTER ENTRY FORM BELOW

GIVEAWAY ENDS SEPTEMBER 14 AT 6PM EST

WINNER WILL BE CHOSEN BY RAFFLECOPTER AND NOTIFIED
VIA EMAIL AND WILL HAVE 48 HOURS TO RESPOND
OR ANOTHER NAME WILL BE CHOSEN

a Rafflecopter giveaway

YOUR JAVA SCRIPT MAY NEED TO BE UPDATED
IF YOU AR EXPERIENCING DIFFICULTY
USING THE RAFFLECOPTER ENTRY FORM

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.

Giveaway, Winners

And the winner is……..

CMash August 30, 2013 1 Comment

**…….of You Got To Be Kidding by Dr. Joseph Wenke**

CONGRATULATIONS!!

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Guest Author ALAN SHELTON showcase & giveaway ENDED

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WELCOME ALAN SHELTON

ALAN SHELTON

Alan Shelton is a leader who colors outside the lines, a corporate executive
mentor with an entrepreneurial spirit and a gripping speaker who engages his audiences.With a reputation like that, it is no wonder that his book, “Awakened Leadership: Beyond Self-Mastery,” has become so successful. Shelton graduated from Brigham Young University (BYU) in Utah after completing missionary work in Peru. By 1977, Shelton had landed his first big gig in the corporate world at PricewaterhouseCoopers, now PwC, where his clients included IBM, Sunkist, Beckman Instruments and Toyota Motor Sales. His journey continued through 1990 when he sold his CPA firm, Shelton, Smith and Townsend, and turned to leadership training. Since then, his client list has grown to include the University of San Diego, Wrangler, VF Corp., The North Face, Celgene and many others.“Awakened Leadership,” published by Red Hatchet Press in May 2012, has taken the
leadership world by storm. The book is the winner of a 2013 National Indie Excellence
Book Award as well as a 2012 USA Best Book Award.Shelton advises and facilitates workshops for international businesses in Oceanside,
Calif., where he lives in a refurbished fire station with his loving wife, Justine. He has
two children, Kristin and Michael, who earned business degrees from the University of
Southern California and the University of Arizona, respectively.
Connect with Alan at these sites:

ABOUT THE BOOK

Transformational leadership books and processes have delivered us to the era of self-mastery. But how do we move from being effective leaders to being awakened leaders? By situating leadership in the nest of the seeker’s journey toward truth, you can now stand on the shoulders of the visionaries who have come before, and become conscious of your own position within Source.

Leaving behind charts, maps, and graphs, “Awakened Leadership” is a portal to direct experience via pointers and personal stories that will help you recognize the gift of being who you really are. Then your leadership essence will effortlessly manifest not only in the boardroom, but in all facets of your life.

BOOK DETAILS:

Genre: Motivational
Published by: Red Hatchet Press
Publication Date: May 2012
Number of Pages: 220
ISBN: 978-0984712502

PURCHASE LINKS:

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Giveaway, Winners

And the winner is……

CMash August 29, 2013 2 Comments

…..of Give Yourself A Raise by Gordon Bennet Bleil

CONGRATULATIONS!!

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Giveaway, Guest Author, Showcase

Guest Author SANJAY SANGHOEE showcase & giveaway ENDED

CMash August 29, 2013 Leave a Comment

WELCOME ARIC SANJAY SANGHOEE

SANJAY SANGHOEE

Sanjay Sanghoee, a banker-turned-author, is a contributor to Huffington Post, FORTUNE and other publications on politics and business, and is the author of Killing Wall Street, a fast-paced new thriller about corporate greed and the frightening power of an ordinary citizen’s rage. Sanjay was also a news anchor with WKCR 89.9 FM in the ’90s.

Sanjay Sanghoee is a contributor to Huffington Post, FORTUNE, and other publications on politics and business. He has a wide following for his articles on Facebook, Twitter, and Google+. Topics that he routinely writes about include corporate crime, Wall Street reform, political gridlock, workers’ rights, and gun control.

He is the author of Killing Wall Street, a fast-paced new thriller about corporate greed and the frightening power of an ordinary citizen’s rage, as well as Merger, a corporate thriller published by Forge Books (St. Martin’s Press) and which Chicago Tribune called “Timely, Gripping, and Original,” and BARRONs called a “high-octane thriller.”

Sanjay is a former investment banker from Lazard Freres and Dresdner Bank, and worked for several years at a leading multi-billion dollar hedge fund. He currently helps new hedge funds and private equity firms with their launch and operations. He also sits on the Board of a mid-sized Hispanic radio station group.

In addition to his work and writing, Sanjay was a news anchor with WKCR 89.9 FM in the ’90s in New York City, and interviewed notable media personalities including Larry King, Christiane Amanpour, Art Buchwald, and others. He has an MBA from Columbia Business School and received an Award for Ethics in Business in 1999.
Connect with Sanjay at these sites:

ABOUT THE BOOK

KILLING WALL STREET is a timely thriller about the terrible consequences of corporate greed and the unimaginable power of working class rage.

Catherine is a working class single mother whose life is spiraling out of control. Her husband has left her, her daughter thinks she is a failure, her job is in jeopardy, and her savings have evaporated after the financial crisis. When an arrogant banker whom she is dating betrays her trust and threatens to ruin her completely, she decides that she has had enough, and plots a shocking revenge against the system that has victimized her.

Special Agent Michael Sands, a rising star in the FBI, is fresh off a terrorism case when he is put in charge of an unusual investigation. Someone is killing high-profile CEOs, bankers and lawyers connected with a multi-billion dollar merger, and the killer is a step ahead of law enforcement every time. When Wall Street begins to panic at the murders, the race is on to catch the phantom killer. But as Michael investigates, he discovers that the victims were all hiding a deadly secret – one that involves a conspiracy of the highest order and which threatens to corrupt and destroy our democracy forever.

The stakes keep escalating for both Catherine and Michael as they encounter the frightening reality of financial power, and are confronted with impossible moral choices at every step.

BOOK DETAILS:

Genre: Thriller
Published by: Argo-Navis
Publication date: May 7, 2013
Number of Pages: 296
ISBN: 978-0786755028

PURCHASE LINKS:

THANKS TO TRAVIS AT SHELTON INTERACTIVE,
I HAVE TWO (2) COPIES TO GIVE AWAY.
OPEN TO ALL

FILL OUT RAFFLECOPTER ENTRY FORM BELOW

GIVEAWAY ENDS SEPTEMBER 12th AT 6PM EST

WINNER WILL BE CHOSEN BY RAFFLECOPTER AND NOTIFIED
VIA EMAIL AND WILL HAVE 48 HOURS TO RESPOND
OR ANOTHER NAME WILL BE CHOSEN

a Rafflecopter giveaway

YOUR JAVA SCRIPT MAY NEED TO BE UPDATED
IF YOU AR EXPERIENCING DIFFICULTY
USING THE RAFFLECOPTER ENTRY FORM

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.