Blog Tour: Gobbledy

 

Holiday/Middle Grade

Date Published: 10-24-2020

Publisher: Spark Press

 

Ever since eleven-year-old Dexter Duckworth and his brother, Dougal, lost their mom, everything has been different. But “different” takes on a whole new meaning when, one day just before Christmas (or Kissmas, as they call it), Dexter finds a golden rock in the forest that hatches into an adorable alien. Gobbledy is smarter than he seems and is lost on planet Earth. Before long, Gobbledy takes Dexter, Dougal, and their best friend Fi on an adventure of friendship, family, and loss―one that requires them all to stay out of trouble, protect Gobbledy from a shadowy group called the Planetary Society, and prepare for their school’s Winter Extravaganza Play, where Dexter has to be a dreaded Gingerbread Man.

 

Gobbledy is a fun-filled holiday story that adds up to two brothers, three friends, unlimited jars of peanut butter, a ketchup factory, and one little alien far, far from home.

 

 

2021 Independent Press Awards Winner in Holiday

2021 IBPA Benjamin Franklin Awards Silver Medal Winner

2021 Book Excellence Awards Finalist in Holiday

2020 New York City Big Book Awards Winner in Holiday

2020 Wishing Shelf Book Awards Gold Medal Winner

2021 15th Annual National Indie Excellence® Awards Finalist

 

“Hugely entertaining as well as emotionally moving.”

―Kirkus Reviews

 

“This charming alien-in-the-attic story boasts engaging characters, witty storytelling, and a furry little beast that will eat anything, all wrapped up in a warm holiday package.”

―Booklife

 

“A delightfully entertaining novel by an author with a genuine flair for originality and the kind of narrative storytelling style that will fully engage the imaginative attention of appreciative young readers ages 8-11, Gobbledy by Lis Anna-Langston . . . will prove to be an immediate and enduringly popular addition to elementary school, middle school, and community library collections.”

―Midwest Book Review

 

“In Gobbledy, Lis Anna-Langston offers her readers a sparkling novel of discovery, adventure, and the abiding consolation of friendship . . . Eleven-year-old protagonist Dexter’s progress from bumbling troublemaker to triumphant (but still bumbling) hero is sweet, utterly convincing, and thoroughly engaging. This novel’s generous heart won me over from the get-go.”

―John Gregory Brown, acclaimed author of A Thousand Miles from Nowhere

About the Author

Lis Anna-Langston was raised alongside the winding current of the Mississippi River on a steady diet of dog-eared books. She attended a creative and performing arts school from middle school until graduation and went on to study literature at Webster University. She is a Parents’ Choice Gold and a Moonbeam Children’s Book Award Winner. She draws badly and sings loudly, and loves ketchup, starry skies, and stories with happy endings aliens.

You can find her in the wilds of South Carolina plucking stories out of thin air. Find more fab facts  at www.lisannalangston.com.

 

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PROMO: Pretty Deadly

 

 

Dark Fantasy

Date Published: October 26, 2021

Publisher: Darkstroke Books

Cinna would quite literally kill for the throne.

She’s spent years forced to serve her wealthy cousins rather than attend society events alongside them, waiting for the chance to prove herself and exact revenge. When a ball is announced at the castle, promising to bring many powerful people to town, she seizes the opportunity to strike.

She bets her best friend, a small-time thief and con-man, that she can land a greater score the night of the ball than he can. They embark on parallel heists. But as their plots unfold, things begin to unravel: by the end of the night, the castle’s on lock down, a duchess is dead, a mansion has burnt to the ground, and Cinna hasn’t stolen anything. Or has she stolen something more valuable than gold and jewels?

Excerpt

How interesting, Cinna thought. She had spent so many hours bent over a stove in the kitchen or crouched before the hearth, stoking flames carefully that refused to light. But she had prepared: this house was waiting tinder, ready to be consumed.

She couldn’t hear the screams over the roar of the flames, but surely they were there. Strangely, she didn’t feel cheated to have not heard their voices. It was fine that they died in silence.

It did not take long for the neighbors to begin streaming out of their own houses, and she did hear their screams. They swarmed around the flames, politely mute once they realized they could not do anything, full of awe before the enormity of the fire. Cinna blended into the crowd, nearly invisible in her costume.

At last, just as she had always pledged she would, she watched the house fall in on itself.

About the Author

I am a software engineer and author living and working in Silicon Valley, California. I studied computer science at Stanford University, but I’ve always loved stories in all their forms. I approach writing fiction the same way I approach writing code: I like to know where it’s going, but I want to figure out the details as I go along. Good software is a lot like a good story, full of neat and clever solutions to tricky problems, beautiful at a granular level but also from a distance.

Originally from Seattle, I love getting outdoors and living in places that allow me to escape to the mountains on the weekends, and I care deeply about the ecosystems that humans impact and that impact us. My writing explores these issues while also following classic coming-of-age arcs in science fiction and fantasy. I’m also very interested in stories and characters that complicate the traditional and familiar, leading me to fairytale retellings from unexpected angles.

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PROMO: Babe in the Woods

 

 

Biography and Memoir, Adventure

Date Published: October 26, 2021

Publisher: Pepin Enterprises

At age eighteen, Yvonne set out to build a home from trees on 80 acres she bought on an Oregon mountainside. In 1975, log by log she creates a cabin and heals from an orphaned past, finding a new family in the forest, and with people in a valley named John Day.

Babe in the Woods: Self Portrait is the second in a three-book series. It chronicles a span in Yvonne's four decades long relationship with her log cabin and the people she meets in the valley. The book continues Yvonne's story of learning to live in the wilderness within and outside of herself. It is also a story of rogue bears, building a bear-proof log studio, a young artist's development, and the trials and triumph of finding oneself, alone in the backwoods.

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PROMO: The Third Gambit

 

 

Order's Last Play, #2

YA Science Fiction

Date Published: 11-02-2021

Publisher: 48Fourteen

Lines about 'prophecy' and 'destiny' are best used in epic fantasies about heroes who like to wear capes. Too bad the living gods rolling the dice in this game forgot to include those characters.

After saving their older brother, Evan, and being forced to leave the lives they knew on Earth, Devon, Lyle, and Lawrence train to become the leaders of Rema—a planet they've never even heard of. And if that isn’t enough, they also have to rebuild a relationship with the brother they haven't seen in over a decade as they struggle to control powers they didn't hone on Earth. All so they can become the prophesied Four of Rema—whose choices will decide the outcome of an intergalactic war.

Separated and sent on quests to find power-magnifying gifts from a goddess, the Lauduethe brothers uncover devastating truths behind the war that lock the existence of everything they love in a deadly game of divine jeopardy. As they watch entire planets and their populations get eradicated, Devon, Lyle, Lawrence, and Evan must choose to either play the roles assigned to them by Order or be erased from existence with everything else.

About the Author

E. Ardell spent her childhood in Houston, Texas, obsessed with anything science fiction, fantastic, paranormal or just plain weird. She loves to write stories that feature young people with extraordinary talents thrown into strange and dangerous situations. She took her obsession to the next level, earning a Master of Fine Arts from the University of Southern Maine where she specialized in young adult genre fiction. She’s a big kid at heart and loves her job as a librarian. When she’s not working, she’s reading, writing, running writers critique groups, producing a web-show, and even writing fan fiction as her guilty pleasure. Her first YA science fiction novel, THE FOURTH PIECE, was released by 48fourteen Publishing in July of 2016. THE FOURTH PIECE went on to win the bronze medal for YA Science Fiction in The Readers' Favorite Book Awards 2017, Most Promising Series in the Red City Review Book Awards 2017, and to be a finalist for the 2017 RONE Awards for YA Science Fiction/Paranormal. The sequel to THE FOURTH PIECE, THE THIRD GAMBIT, will be released by 48fourteen Publishing November 2, 2021.

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PROMO: Winter Storm

 

 

Romantic Suspense

Date Published: 11-17-2021

Publisher: The Wild Rose Press

Willow Daniels has a heart of gold and is willing to help anyone who needs it. When she helps Ethan McCormick one snowy night, she may have made the biggest mistake of her life. Trapped by a winter storm in a tiny North Yorkshire village, Willow is forced to re-evaluate everything she believes in and wonders if anyone is truly who they seem.

Fate may have brought her to Ethan, but as danger closes in, she must draw on strengths she never knew she possessed in order to protect the man she has grown to love.

Protection—not only against Ethan's worst enemy but also against himself

Excerpt

When the traffic light turned red, Willow Daniels pulled the car to a halt on the lonely side street and gripped the steering wheel hard. Briefly closing her eyes in frustration, she silently cursed herself at being utterly lost. A simple wrong turn after leaving the train station led to mounting confusion as she endeavoured to navigate her way through the streets of York city center in the dark. Getting into the wrong lane, then reading street signs too late led to further, and now obvious, wrong turns. She found herself well outside the center, and in the middle of what appeared to be an industrial estate. Deserted at this late hour of the evening, the streets were empty, with no one around to ask for directions. And now the occasional, drifting wisps of snow had evolved into a steady fall of large flakes, swirling, and glistening in the soft glow of the streetlights.

Willow blew out a long breath; everything was fine, she just needed to pull over somewhere, get out her phone and use the satnav function to find her way home. As the light turned green, she eased the car forward, aware of the thickening layer of snow covering the tarmac, and not wanting the car to skid on the slippery surface.

“Could have turned in there…and there,” she muttered, as she saw the potential pull in opportunities too late. “Oh, for heaven’s sake, Willow, just turn in somewhere!”

Shaking her head at her indecision, she saw what looked like a carpark at the front of a large warehouse, and flicked the indicator switch on before pulling in through the gap in the low wall surrounding the building. She left the engine idling and sat back in her seat, flexing her shoulders to ease her tension as she stared through the windscreen. The festive tunes on the radio, and the snowflakes drifting down unhurriedly from the sky soothed her frustration.

It was an industrial scene, with low, squat functional buildings lining the road, and taller but equally non-descript warehouses stretching out behind them. But the harsh, straight lines of the buildings were softened by the dim light, and Willow imagined an artist might capture this scene with a moody, slightly out of focus composition of grays and yellows, brush strokes recreating the shadows on the walls and lending an element of interest to the otherwise dull concrete.

A frown creased her forehead. If this snow continued or got any heavier, there was a risk she might not make it back. Reaching into the back seat, Willow took the phone from her bag and tapped in her password.

The next moment, the car rocked as something slammed into the passenger side of the car with a loud thud. She jumped, dropping the phone in surprise when the door was flung open and someone threw himself onto the passenger seat.

Momentarily startled, she stared at the man before finally finding her voice. “Hey, what do you think you’re doing?”

The stranger ignored her and turned to look over his shoulder. He pulled the car door shut as he shoved a duffel bag into the back seat. “Drive.”

“What? No, get out of my car.” The cheek of the man; this clearly wasn’t simply someone who had got into the car thinking she was someone else.

He turned on her with an explicit curse. “I said drive!”

Surprise and disbelief turned to fear, and Willow fumbled to unclip her seatbelt. Strong fingers curled around her upper arm, preventing from moving as she reached for the door lever. In the dim light, she saw the gun pointing at her stomach and drew in a strangled breath, barely able to believe what she was seeing.

The wing mirror on the passenger door suddenly shattered in an explosion of glass shards. The stranger ducked, releasing his grip on her arm. He swore, shifting once again to look over his shoulder, his eyes gleaming in the lamplight as he turned his head. “For God’s sake, drive!”

About the Author

I love to write heartwarming, contemporary romance, and romantic suspense novels, with characters I really want my readers to engage with. I live in the beautiful East Riding of Yorkshire in the UK and, although I work full-time in the public sector, my favourite pastime, when not writing, is wandering around old stately homes and castles, or sitting at a pavement café in the sun and watching the world go by – always on the lookout for something that might spark the idea for my next novel.

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PROMO: The Immortal Blood

 

 

A Reign of Blood and Magic, Book 3

Dark Fantasy, Epic Fantasy

Date Published: October 26, 2021

Publisher: SPK Publishing

A slain god and a crippled queen with stolen powers join forces to battle a mutual enemy in this dark fantasy.

When Queen Cynara summons magic into the king’s forest, she cannot know how a stolen power will cripple her, or that an orb used during her spell has let loose a single droplet of blood. Now, immortal blood is multiplying, and breeding with living creatures, which includes the statue of an undead king.

Resurrected from the dead, Anastacio once lived in the Otherworld. With his godly life reborn, he resolves to find the goddess from his past and avenge the injustice done to both of them, but to thrive, in life and in health, he requires assistance from someone without trust. Queen Cynara has a secret that may provide the answers, but she’s trapped inside her frozen body, similar to the husband she encased in mortar. Why would anyone help her?

How will a god oversee the kingdom; the royal family, a former queen and a true born prince whose secret has been kept from everyone? With help from a witch and Norse goddesses from the Otherworld, might blood and magic seed the ultimate revenge? Or will an enemy hated by everyone claim victory—again.

Other books in the A Reign of Blood and Magic series:

The Scarlett Mark

A Reign of Blood and Magic. Book 1

In The Scarlett Mark the first novel in A Reign of Blood and Magic, Princess Scarlett tests her stepbrother, unaware that her behavior will endanger her father the king, threaten her royal sisters, and help her power-hungry step-mother—the queen. The sorceress plans to steal the throne and rid the castle of her stepchildren, but a risk taken forces the queen to banish Scarlett, delivering her to certain death.

The Ebony Queen

A Reign of Blood and Magic, Book 2

In The Ebony Queen, the second novel in A Reign of Blood and Magic, the devil Daemonis schemes with Queen Cynara, enabling her to conjure the highest level of Solomonic magic. Using this mega-spell, she deploys tempests against three princesses, casting a blanket of evil on her enemies. The ensuing storm ushers Ruby into the night, stifles Rose at sea, and threatens Scarlett in a home where she thought she’d be safe. A lord and two guardians cannot protect their wards and not even a god is safe from the queen’s sorcery. But power comes with a price, and unknown to Cynara, the devil has a secret strategy. When a blood moon eclipses the night sky, Cynara invokes her magic in the king’s forest.

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About the Author

Abby Lane is the author of several novels in genre fiction, including her latest release, The Immortal Blood. She appreciates the many ways myths, fairy tales, and epic fantasy tell a story, and credits Disney’s Sleeping Beauty and George R. R. Martin’s Song of Ice and Fire, with inspiring her love of storytelling. A history enthusiast, she’s traveled to the United Kingdom and France to explore secret gardens and medieval castles, having an avid interest in the Tudor period. Abby shares her life with her husband and adores her adult children, including three special grand pups named Bella, Arya, and Charlie. When she isn’t at her home in Calgary, she’s admiring the ocean from her cottage in Maple Bay.

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PROMO: Become an Inspirational Journal

 

 

Self-Help Journal

Date Published: August 24, 2021

Publisher: Hunter Street Press

Goal setting is not the answer to all life’s complications and hardships. It is a process to define what you want your life to look like, to be. Goal setting allows you to reflect, to be conscious about your choices, and helps prioritize your time and attention. The beauty is you do not have to wait for New Year’s Eve to begin! You can start any day, anywhere, any time. Become is a 24-week inspirational, goal setting, journal, which reminds you of your awesomeness and helps you focus on the good things in your life.

About the Author

Hope Mueller leads a consulting firm, Hunter Street Press, and is studying for her mBA. Hope is passionate about making a difference and founded Hunter Street Charity (www.hunterstreetcharity.com) and the Mueller Family Scholarship. She is an author, motivational speaker, and coach. Hope splits her time between Northern Illinois and Nevada with her f=husband, four daughters, and delightful grandson.

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