Category: blogging

About the book:

I’m a journalist—Adam Kincaid, BBC reporter, to be exact, so I’m not going to bury the lead. I’m about to see the woman I never got over.

I know that because I’ve been back in America for years now, and I still don’t date American girls. My dad would say I’ve come to my senses, sticking to my own British patrician kind, but that’s crap. Mum, the psychologist, would more wisely say it’s my unresolved issues around Nicki. My teenage years are long behind me, yet my guilt over her remains. So I’ve avoided all things Nicki, though the irony is she’s the one avoiding me.

Maybe if we see each other, we can both move on. Could she ever forgive me? Can you forgive yourself when you hurt someone you love?

But please, don’t answer yet. I’ve jumped ahead of the story, and as a reporter, I should give you more background to get to the root of it all.

So let me tell you my story. Then you can be the judge.

NOTE: While this is the third in the series, it can be read as a standalone book.

Muff gave Lisa a not very discreet once-over. I could tell she judged her to be a stereotypical, poorly dressed American backpacker and thus no competition for her. Of course, that didn’t mean Muff didn’t view Lisa as a threat. When she greeted her, her voice held the effortless insincerity of the British upper-class. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Lisa.”

Lisa didn’t respond well to being appraised by a snooty Brit. I wondered what she would say. It wasn’t in her nature to be insincere. I watched as she nodded with a slight snarl. “Yeah. Hi. Adam mentioned you.” Lisa then raised her eyebrows at me. She wasn’t impressed with my choice of women, but when she spoke, her voice was friendly. “Adam, I’m glad I ran into you. Can I talk to you for a sec?”

“Certainly,” I said, though terrified at the thought. I turned to Muff to confirm it was okay. She dutifully smiled and walked a respectable distance away.

After a last glance at Muff, Lisa wasted no time in putting me on the spot. “Do you have anything to say to Nicki? You left before I could ask you.”

I stared blankly at Lisa as her question reverberated in my mind. I had so much to say to Nicki, but would she listen? I could hear Muff’s voice in the far background and turned to see her. With her mobile to her ear, she chatted away. I considered her for a moment. She was a good girlfriend, my father adored her, and we had a great many friends in common. As the daughter of the Earl of Selbourne, Lady Mary Selbourne was considered a special girl.

But she didn’t make me laugh. She never caught me off-guard. She never tripped me up. There was never a time when she was the absolute first person I wanted to tell a story to. Muff was special, but she wasn’t special to me. As David had said, she wasn’t Nicki.

I focused on Lisa, someone who had always been skeptical of my intentions with her friend. Yet here she was, asking to deliver a message to her. After what I’d done to Nicki, I couldn’t request anything of her. She needed to come to me, and I’d learned to live with the fact that it wasn’t going to happen.

My voiced tightened as I said, “Please…just tell her that I miss her.” I gulped hard and added, “I really do.”

Author Bio:

Mary Whitney blames Laura Ingalls Wilder and Margaret Mitchell for her obsession with romance novels. At an early age, Mary fell in love with the Little House series and its dreamy hero, Almanzo Wilder, who only wanted Laura to be Laura. Like many women, Mary later graduated to the ultimate, tall and dark bad boy, Rhett Butler, who loved Scarlett despite her flaws.

Mary has lived around the U.S., and after a first career in the non-profit world and politics, she’s settled in Northern California with her husband and daughters. She spends her days writing characters she hopes somehow capture the romance of Rhett and Scarlett and Almanzo and Laura. She’s a firm believer in what Rhett says to Scarlett: “You should be kissed, and often, and by someone who knows how.

Website: http://www.wordymary.com/
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5165049.Mary_Whitney
Twitter: https://twitter.com/wordymary
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Mary-Whitney-Author/196470473800100

1) If your book were to have a theme song, what would it be?

–I listen to music when I read. I make soundtracks. I always have Big Wreck on it. They always have epic love songs. Very emotional.

2) If Hollywood optioned your book, who would you want to play the lead characters?

–My stories always play out like movies. I experience the stories like they are telling themselves. Though it wasn’t what I envisioned,  I liked Harrison Ford’s Colonel Graff from Ender’s Game. He would be a great Captain Talk. Rigid and yet emotional. 

3) Who is your favourite author, and why?

–Melanie Rawn is my favourite author. She wrote the Dragon Prince Saga and some others.The Dragon Prince is the only book I have read multiple times and even then I had to replace the book once. I always found her characters riveting and her lead, Rohan, is quite possible the most awesome name in the world. The characters go through some harrowing events and they  grow and change.  I love that they aren’t two dimensional.

4) Which 5 authors (dead or alive) would you invite to dinner?

–I think I’ve said before that you should never meet your idols. It stands for authors too. We aren’t exactly what we put to paper so I wouldn’t want to sit down at length with someone that I feel shares my values and find out that they aren’t who we expect. Look at Orson Scott Card. If you haven’t read any of the Ender’s series, then you are missing out, but it’s too bad the man had to turn out to be such a close-minded ignorant individual. I would have been happy just to know that he wrote the books, but when he started to spout off about his true beliefs, I lost all respect for him. I think that if I were to invite any fiction writers to my table I would ask those people who I read their books and asked, what the hell did you do that for? Take Robert Jordan, now deceased. His books have a dreadfully slow pace for the first 400 pages and then in the last 150 or so, they go so fast that you don’t hardly know what’s happening. I would also ask if he thought there was more story to tell or whether he was trying to milk it for all the money he could. I would ask the same things of Terry Brooks, another author I love to read, but question why he kept going back to the same world. Was it because the world was already created and he didn’t have to do the leg work or because he had a built in audience?

5) What came first – the title or the story?

–Story came first. Title made sense.

Title: Orphan Station
Author: John Kent
Published: March 9, 2014
Currently available via iBooks and Lulu.com
Coming soon for other ebook formats.

About the Book:
Those on Orphan Station were hardened officers, working to ensure the safe and efficient transition of passengers traveling from Earth to the new colony in the Eta Cassiopeia star system.

They certainly weren’t prepared for the arrival of Selene Sotana.

When her father died, the military men of Orphan Station became Selene’s family, the corridors of the station her playground. There, Selene could be princess or cosmonaut, destined for greatness as she found new ways to save the universe from space pirates and aliens.

Selene’s life was perfect until the day the captain called on her to save a real ship. Could she be the hero of her dreams? More importantly, could she keep her secrets from the passengers she saved?

About the Author
John Kent was born in Kingston, Ontario. He started reading at a very young age and started writing ten minutes after. He grew up on a farm where he envisioned aliens and dragons around every corner. He also has a habit of giving every animal in his growing flock an inner monologue complete with their own accents.

You can find John on Twitter and on his website.

Print Copy (CAN/US ONLY)
a Rafflecopter giveaway

2x ebook copies (INT)
a Rafflecopter giveaway

Lotus Blossom Lane
(Saving Angels Series #3)
Annie Rose Welch
Genre: Romance with a
strong element of paranormal

Synopsis

Life after Yuma was blissful for Layla and Michael. After the turmoil of the old Red Dirt Road, their journey seemed to be moving them in the right direction, leading them to Ireland, Michael’s birthplace, where history runs deep and secrets run even deeper. As the road to happily-ever-after leads them down Lotus Blossom Lane, years of emtombed history starts to emerge, changing the course of their lives forever. And the person waiting for them at the end of Lotus Blossom Lane, one of the biggest starts in the world, will bring them to the Crossroads of the Saving Angels Series.

Excerpt

“Can you believe this?” I closed my eyes, and the tiny specks felt like confetti falling delicately on my face.

He turned my face toward his. “Look into my eyes, Mrs. Roberts,” he whispered. “There’s nothing on this earth more gorgeous than you, in this moment. I refuse to take my eyes away from you.” He continued to search my eyes, just as if he was seeing me for the first time. “From this moment on, you’ll never be alone. Never, for as long as we fly together, will I ever let you fall.” He rested his forehead against mine.

“I love you,” I breathed onto his lips as the snow continued to fall around us, turning the earth bright white in the pitch-black darkness.

GOODREADS LINK

Author Bio
Born and raised in New Orleans, Annie has a habit of shortening her words and telling long stories. She speaks with a southern flair and cooks with it too. At the tender age of twenty- one, she hitched up her wagons (took her first plane ride) and moved out west to the big shake (California). Her writing career began one sleepless night when she imagined a gorgeous woman and a man with maniacal hair floating above her like lightening bugs falling from the sky. Curious about them, their story, and why they were floating around in her head, she sat down and penned (typed) her first novel, Marigny Street. A dream come true for her, she hasn’t stopped writing since. She loves a damn good love story, always has, no matter what the genre. She is particularly moved by imperfect love that in its own unique way is perfect, the notion of love at first sight, soul mates, and things that are generally out of the norm.

When she’s not writing she enjoys dabbling in photography and finding new, inspirational music to add to her collection. She currently (still) resides in the big shake (although her southern roots are calling her home) with her husband, daughter, and their two peculiar dogs, Boudreaux and Tabasco (who, call her crazy, bark with an accent).

For lagniappe (a little extra), a virtual cup of café au lait and beignets, please visit Annie’s website: www.annierosewelch.com

She can also be found on Facebook & Twitter.

Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/AuthorAnnieRoseWelch
Twitter: https://twitter.com/angelwriter11

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7159582.Annie_Rose_Welch

Amazon Author Page: http://www.amazon.com/Annie-Rose-Welch/e/B00DQSYDTM/ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1?qid=1394161906&sr=1-1

Today is the day that Cindy’s Love of Books turns 2.

I have to start off by sending out a huge huge THANK YOU to all the reps/publishing houses that I was fortunate to get books from. I have enjoyed reading the books and working with you and I am looking forward to another exciting year of great books.

This past year was a really fun and exciting year. I got to meet another local book blogger IRL Linda, the Montreal group went to NYC/BEA in May, while in NYC/BEA I also got to meet quite a few of the bloggers I have spoken with online or commented on their blog (you know who you are), I also got to meet a few of the reps that I work with as well, I got to meet some great authors and another higlight was getting a tour of Sourcebooks when I was in Chicago. Thanks again Paul.

Thank you to you my readers who read my blog. I love hearing from you all either by comments or emails. It makes my day when I see that I have new comments or emails.

Thanks again everyone.

Its hard to believe that next week will be Cindy’s Love of Books second bloggiversary.

So all next week I plan on having a week long party to celebrate my bloggiversary. There will be daily giveaways and a bigger giveaway at the end of the event.

If any authors, reps or publishers would love to help out that would be great. Also if any of my readers would like to do a guest post please feel free to contact me through this post or by email at cindysloveofbooksarc AT gmail DOT com.

So check back on Sunday August 22nd when the festivites begin.

Title: Flight of the singing Pilot #13
Author: Erica David (Adapted)
Date:September 30, 2008
Genre: Kids

This is by Nick Jr. The Backyardigans series. My son loves The Backyardigans. He was so happy to discover this as his bed time read last night.

The book is about Pilot Uniqua as she takes to the skies to deliver singing telegrams! She only wants to make people smile. She delivers the telegrams to a grumpy pirate, Captain Moody, a grouchy Maharani Queen, Tasha, and the Abominable Snowman.

She runs away after each telegram. She thinks no one likes them until she finds out that they really go like them and have a singing telegram for her.