Blog Tour: Whispers From the East

Historical Fiction / Literary Fiction

Date Published: 7/1/2015

Ammi, a pregnant 24-year-old, flees New Delhi with millions of Muslim migrants in the early hours of the 1947 Partition of India, clawing her way through a controversial caste system and into the heart of Lahori society.

A family broken by betrayal.
Two of Ammi's beloved sons immigrate to the United States and secretly marry dazzling, contemporary American brides. One bride converts to Islam. The other commits apostasy, the sin of all sins.

Three women who stand to lose everything.
The collision of two belief systems—two worlds—come to a head as Ammi, Carolyn, and Ivy fight to keep their own marriages, families, and futures secure. 

 

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EXCERPT

Carolyn

1978 - San Francisco Bay Area, California

Carolyn was eight months pregnant when Nazar asked her on their first date. She had a history of dating tall, bulky white men and preferred when they came with a head of light hair and a pair of baby blues, just like her own. She was confident, and her friends frequently confirmed, that the father of the child she was carrying matched this description. She couldn't be certain. The night of conception was barely more than a tequila blur, and the guy was gone before she woke up the next morning without leaving so much as a name, a phone number, or even a thank you. What she was certain of now was that this slight man with the funny accent was definitely, definitely not her type. He was cute in his own way, just not in her way.

Nazar and Carolyn had shared a British Literature class at the community college before she had dropped out and he had moved on to graduate from Cal State Hayward. He hadn't given much notice to her leaving until she turned up at his gas station three years later with her bloated belly, asking if there was more Pepsi in the back. He recognized her instantly.

"Carolyn, yeah?" he asked tentatively, placing the cans on the counter.

She picked at a piece of her hair and twirled it loosely around her finger. "Yeah," she replied, knowing that she was eyeing him with a mixture of mild recognition and heightened suspicion.

"Nazar," he said, adding quickly, "We had a class together at Chabot. You probably don't remember…"

"Oh, yeahhhhh." A classroom. She felt herself smile with relief. That was much better than a dark, dodgy nightclub. "I remember you." Her hand moved to her belly, and his eyes followed.

"When did you get married?"

Poor fool had probably heard of American couples running off to Reno and Las Vegas to wed quickly. No doubt he pictured her in a convertible, white veil flapping in the wind as she approached a drive-through chapel.

"Oh, no." She paused and diverted her eyes from his. "I'm not married." She wasn't ashamed, so she didn't understand why the revelation of this detail to him made her feel strangely embarrassed. "Just me and my peanut." She patted her stomach.

He smiled back at her.

"Can I take you out for dinner sometime?" he blurted.

Carolyn couldn't help but laugh, which clearly made Nazar uncomfortable. Realizing he thought she was laughing at him and not the ridiculousness of being asked out by a man when her baby was due in the less than a month, she swiftly apologized. "I'm sorry. I'm not laughing at you. Really, I'm not. I just can't believe you'd want to take me out. I'm as big as a house!"

"Friday at seven?" he asked, unfazed. “It is a safe night to leave the station. Not a glamorous enterprise, I realize, but with help from my father, I was able to purchase it last year, and I care about it.”

Carolyn picked up a pen and a scrap of receipt paper from the counter and started to scribble. "Friday at seven it is, then." She slid the paper toward him, pressing it forward slowly with a cherry-colored finger nail, which she suddenly realized looked about as ridiculous and out of place as she did. As she turned and walked out, she paused to watch as Nazar picked up the slip of paper and tucked her address away in his shirt pocket.

About the Author

Amie Ali's stories focus on the lives of Western women who find love among the cultural breadth of Middle Eastern, North African, and South Asian countries. Weaving western expectations of love and family with extensive cultural and religious differences, she enjoys writing stories that bridge divides and offer a peek into these diverse, often controversial relationships.

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Cover Reveal: In Full Voice

Non Fiction - Memoir

Date Published: August 25, 2015

Fiona Havlish is an engaging inspirational speaker and success coach whose stories entertain and inspire those going through drastic life transitions. You would never guess that she stuttered as a child and spent the better part of her life trying to remain invisible while navigating her own journey in silence, hiding behind her roles as wife, mother, and nurse.

On September 11th 2001, after dropping her daughter off at childcare, she answered her cell phone oblivious to the fact that she was about to be shaken out of her hiding place and awakened to her own gifts of intuition, clairaudience, and healing.

In Full Voice is a story about one woman's triumphant journey through trauma, loss, grief, illness (and even a flood) that led her to find her own voice so that she can help others uncover and share their own gifts with the world.

About the Author

Fiona Havlish is an intuitive healer through the use of life’s transformational wake up calls.  She has a BSN degree, is a reiki master and success coach who works through the energetic spiritual realm. She currently lives in Boulder Colorado with her daughter, Michaela, where she enjoys sharing her newest energy practice, Raindrop Technique, and singing duets with her Boston Terrier, Molly, who is an amazing singer herself.

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Blog Tour: Race For Love

New Adult Contemporary Romance

Date Published: July 27, 2015

Up and coming racecar driver, Kisima Jennings, is all alone in the world and that’s just how she likes it. After all, she has her career, who needs family? But when a near-fatal crash jeopardizes her future, she’s forced to lean on someone for the first time in her life.

As an athletic trainer, Derek Donovan is driven and has always kept his eyes on the prize, never letting personal entanglements come between him and his dream of becoming a head trainer for the New Orleans Jaguars. That is, until one misstep costs him everything. Now he’s starting over, but with a client as tempting as Kisima, is he destined to repeat the mistakes of his past? Or will letting someone close bring him everything he’s ever wanted?

Will the Race for Love trump the race for her future or can Kisima really have the best of both worlds?

USA Today Best Seller, Nana Malone's love of all things romance and adventure started with a tattered romantic suspense she "borrowed" from her cousin.

It was a sultry summer afternoon in Ghana, and Nana was a precocious thirteen. She's been in love with kick butt heroines ever since. With her overactive imagination, and channeling her inner Buffy, it was only a matter a time before she started creating her own characters.

While she waits for her chance at a job as a ninja assassin, in the meantime Nana works out her drama, passion and sass with fictional characters every bit as sassy and kick butt as she thinks she is.

Want to know when the next book is coming? Hit up her Newsletter here. You'll only get updated when there is a new release or a special promotion for her Sexy, Sassy Readers.

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Blog Tour: Life's Too Short For Leftovers: 9 Lessons from a Third World Kitchen

Non Fiction

Date Published: July 23, 2015

Part inspirational rallying call, part first-person, autobiographical narrative, part eulogy for a treasured friend and mentor, “Life’s Too Short for Leftovers” takes the reader on a highly personal journey of self-discovery. Best-selling author Michael Ditchfield’s  “9 Lessons from a Third World Kitchen” – cleverly presented as courses on a menu – conveys a singular perspective on what it means to be human, and what is required of us as individuals to be active, engaged participants in humanity.

With delightfully dry wit and profound understanding, Ditchfield introduces us to Chef Noel Cunningham – his guide and teacher – along with a kitchen-full of congenial and extraordinarily noble real-life protagonists that have served as both lightning rods and light posts in the author’s relentless (albeit sometimes reluctant) pathway toward personal transformation. 

Ditchfield is a master storyteller, and his conversational style skillfully relates timeless philosophies to contemporary challenges and opportunities that face Third World countries today. Based on his extensive experience in Africa, Ditchfield brings a generous portion of lucid insights and aha moments to the table, leading the charge toward improved, positive outcomes – in our own lives, and in the lives of others. “Life’s Too Short for Leftovers” is a stimulating and memorable must-read for students of Life.

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Excerpt

Bon Appétit

“Example is not the main thing in influencing others. It is the only thing.”

~Albert Schweitzer 

I have surrounded myself with Chef ’s nurturing wisdom every day since his ghostlike face appeared before my sheepish eyes on that memorable evening in 1992. I am forever grateful to Noel for keeping me close, transforming the course of my life. He welcomed me into his kitchen as a friend and “closet chef” to learn the finer touches of his culinary expertise … and to understand his deeper mission. I learned how to scramble eggs without using any utensil except the pan, and I endeavored to give of myself to help him offer the children of Africa a better tomorrow. He was my mentor and friend on a much deeper level than anyone else in my life. As a mentor, he schooled me for hours on end; and as a friend, he scolded and embraced me with equal vigor.

For many years, I was a student in Noel’s kitchen of wisdom, where the apron of his profession had become the very fabric of his life. The kitchen that we both shared was not limited to this country, but boiled over into the Third World, where every child has a right to live, to have enough to eat, and to be respected as a human being. 

I will never graduate, because there is no graduation ceremony; I will never receive a diploma, because there is no diploma. But what I achieved in Noel’s kitchen is a degree of hope that I can make a meaningful difference in the lives of others—after changing my own life first. I took a sharp knife and burst the bubble that had become the gilded cage I’d lived in since my arrival from the shores of Jolly Olde England. Since then, I’ve made a point of surrounding myself with people wiser than me.

This book intends to illustrate how changing our lives enriches our lives. Think of the times when we sit for a long period of time and one leg starts to fall asleep; we adjust our bodies to feel more comfortable. In the big picture, life is no different. We usually only change when we are uncomfortable. But it doesn’t have to be that way.

Some cooks only replace a menu item when it’s run its course. But the great chefs are always changing their menus. Whether because they are tuned in to seasonal influences or because they know they so much more to offer, they are not afraid to add or remove something. They believe in themselves enough to make those kinds of decisions. 

Changing when we’re comfortable means taking responsibility early enough to avoid discomfort. We can change even when things are going well. We can’t change yesterday’s menu; we can only change today’s.

“Only a fool trips on what is behind him.”

~Proverb

Of course, there are some things that stand the test of time, like Chef Noel’s Penne Bagutta with Chicken, Mushrooms and Broccoli, or Life with Integrity, Accountability, Love, and Decency. Both are abidingly satisfying.

The nine lessons set forth herein pertain to the emotions and interactions that we all face in our daily lives. The lessons evolved as a result of me sitting down around the fire with people of the Third World, listening to their voices that collectively resound with wisdom and love. Like most of us, they want better lives for their families, and are prepared to do what it takes to get there. It’s just a little more difficult when they are dealing with the particular challenges that

life has put on their table.

These lessons slice across the cutting board of life—from the relationships we have to ourselves to the relationships we have with others. 

By taking a hard look at your motives and the motives of others in Read the Recipe to observing the temperature at which you’re functioning as you Preheat the Oven, you will begin to understand. In learning patience, forgiveness, and tolerance as you Simmer, Don’t

Stir, and in overcoming procrastination as you Clean Your Plate, you will begin to understand. In simplifying your life as you Just Add Water, you will continue to understand. You will begin to exceed your seeming limitations as you Bring to a Boil, and offer life’s riches to others as you Pass the Butter. You will discover that you can make a difference in your world by getting to

know your own kitchen … and then inviting others in, who are part of the world we share. 

These nine lessons are ones that matter. They will have a quiet way of sneaking into everyday life. We will never go hungry if we accept personal responsibility, and neither will the people around us. We may not see now that change is on the menu, but we will find ourselves ordering it. We’ll never know how far the ripples will travel or how many lives we might touch unless we drop the first potato into the water. Whether it’s the taste of our own enriched lives or that of others, it’s a dish that we’ll order time and time again. We should spice our own lives the way we intend them to taste—we have all the right ingredients, and we are about to learn how to use them. With these lessons, we can choose a life the way we would choose a meal: wisely

Humanitarian Michael Ditchfield—bestselling author, sought-after speaker, entrepreneur, and former professional athlete, is committed to addressing the humanitarian plight of developing countries. Ditchfield speaks widely on how to inspire change and promote empowerment among cultures and individuals. 

He has worked extensively with children in Africa using sports and culture in furthering the peace process. He remains dedicated to transforming lives by advocating for human dignity across the globe.

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Blog Tour: Purified

Thriller / Noir

Date Published: November 27, 2014

When a mutilated body of an African American girl is found in a park sandbox, the media shows no interest. Instead, their attention is riveted on the disappearance of Olivia Safra, a college student and only child of the powerful and dangerous Richard Safra. Suspended ADA, Beck Oldman, demoted to a rookie PI is assigned her first cases to find a missing teenager and Olivia Safra.

Leads connect the murders to the Safra case. The investigation into her client's private life reveals a dark side in the relationship between a father and daughter and exacts his wrath against Beck. More girls are found murdered, putting Beck in a race to stop a serial killer and stop her own client from destroying her.

PURIFIED is a thrilling story that explores many dark subjects, including what it does to those who have to live in the world of killers in order to stop them.

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EXCERPT

The fact it was drizzling did not dim the useful moonlight. The body had been meticulously scrubbed with antibacterial soap; hair shampooed; new white underwear guarded against the old jeans. The plastic gloves and the rain slowed down the digging. The skies opened just a bit more, but enough to wash away progress. Voices from a distance slightly accelerated the final touches. The exact placement of the artifacts was crucial. Finally, success. It was a shallow grave, but it was never meant to be anything more than a beginning.

The Chicago Park teemed with summer life. Amber light washed over the lazy sun worshippers, glazing them in a healthy hue they did not earn. Dogs chased invisible balls and actual Frisbees in the wet grass, almost tripping women pushing baby strollers worth the price of a small car. The low thrum of conversations, an intermittent rebuke handed down to an out-of-line participant was suddenly obliterated by a shrill, inhuman wail. A collective sucking in of breath heralded the series of joy crushing waves everyone knew were coming.

Wave One: a young boy collapsed near a group of teenage girls. Normally squealers, the girls silently tried to ease the boy out of his fetal position.  Reluctantly, onlookers approached, knowing their light reverie was scrolling into some kind of weird nightmare.

Wave Two: a chorus of other worldly screaming came out of children as they abandonede the swings.

Wave Three: a man screeching, “Get the kids away from the goddamned sandbox, get them OUT OF THERE. Call the cops, there’s a bloody hand sticking out of the sand.” Human sobs were accompanied by police sirens, almost if they were keeping tempo to the chaos. People fled from the blood and the sand.

Wave Four: a murdered adolescent girl’s mutilated hand reached out of the sand, tripping the boy whose summer dreams would become nightmares, as would the entire city’s.

Elizabeth S. Sullivan was born in Chicago and grew up in the LA area. Impassioned by social justice issues, inspired by her parents, she pursued teaching and earned a law degree. She has written five screenplays, one short. Her screenplays have placed or won such as: Nicholl, Austin, Page, and American Zoetrope. These recognitions garnered her a manager, Alexia Melocchi, Little Studio Films. Her first novel, PURIFIED, portrays a strong female protagonist in the genre of a noir thriller.  Sullivan explores issues of race, gender, privacy in the cyber age. She has written several blogs on of women in fiction featured on Venture Galleries.  She is busy working on the sequel to PURIFIED and a new screenplay.

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Blog Tour: Of Gods and Madness: The Faithful

Fantasy Noir

Date Published: 7/21/2015

A mobster learns he's becoming a god, only to discover they die too. 

The right hand of the dominant mob family, Raine Morgan is tasked with hunting down two miscreants messing with the bottom line. He finds them on the docks, but, in the confusion of the fight, accidentally kills their victim and lets them escape. Horrified at what he's done, Raine seeks redemption as well as revenge. 

Things spiral out of control when a greedy middleman overthrows Raine's mob organization. It's only with the help of a friend inside the crumbling mob as well as a streetwise artist that Raine remains undetected as he searches for the men who started this all. Raine doesn’t realize, however, he has caught the attention of a disparate conclave of gods in the process. 

As the pantheon returns to the city they'd abandoned, old conflicts re-emerge, causing divine civil war. Both sides try to pull Raine to their side, expecting to find a naive god for them to manipulate. Instead, they find a man stripped of everything, intent on playing both sides as they learn an awful reality - even gods can die.

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EXCERPT

Turrell planted his hand on the table as he leaned in, allowing Raine to fully inspect every flaw in his wretched face. His features had been rearranged multiple times and looked all the better for it. His ragged beard helped hide this from a distance. He smiled, a grin of shattered teeth, and let out a deep breath, wafting over Raine like broth bubbling from a cauldron. “Take a big whiff.”

Raine made a big production of inhaling deeply. Not bad actually, a familiar mixture of hard liquor and tobacco. His breath probably smelled similar at this point in the night. “You should really go see a doctor, Turrell.”

“Why’s that?”

Raine drove the glass into Turrell’s hand, twisted.

The room fell silent as his scream hit the air.

Raine pivoted back, planting his foot on Turrell’s chest and shoving with all his might. Turrell’s hand shredded as the glass ripped through the flesh. He hit the floor.

Jaiden swung with his left; Raine raised his arm, deflected the blow. He pressed forward as Jaiden attacked again. Raine ducked under, throwing his whole weight into Jaiden’s body. Jaiden slipped past as Raine toppled over Turrell. A whimper accompanied the contact as Turrell cradled his hand.

Raine hit the ground, scrambled to his feet, rebounded off a table. He spun on his heel, avoided Jaiden’s fist, returned with one of his own. It connected with his jaw. Jaiden crumpled.

Vents flushed and opened with a rush of steam. Hot enough to melt skin, the air sang to Marise, a beacon leading her home. She turned her head above to the tram line to the pipes and searched for her hole. As she approached her outpost, she slowed and scoped the scene. It was just about time for the dregs of society to pour out into the street. If she was found, well . . . she shuddered. The best outcome would be her being ousted by a city worker. Every other thought left her gripping the blade in her pocket, until her hand ached from the constant pressure.

She peered over her shoulder, found no one in sight. She shifted the bag’s strap across her chest and began to climb. Moonlight caressed her as she climbed, hand after hand wrapped around the beams. Faint conversation hit her ears. She paused, wedged between two pipes. Flashing neon from local bars flashed in her periphery. She shot quick glances to each side but saw no one.

She shifted her grip, yelped. Withdrawing her hand, she saw the jagged remains of a twisted bolt. She cursed herself for not paying attention, thankful it was her non-dominant hand. She tried to inspect the wound in the exuberant neons. She fought through the pain, clenching her hand. Blood flowed through fist. She wiped it on her bag.

Justin D. Herd is a Fantasy Noir author who has been writing novels for ten years. He absolutely loves dark, twisted stories that take readers into unexpected places. Horror movies are his passion and he often takes stories to task for not logically thinking out their concepts. His home has been invaded by two eccentric children as well as a cat which is obsessed with all things digital.

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Release: Cutting Loose

Romance

Date Published: 8/4/2015

Once Upon a Time never felt like this…

Amy is committed to her career, but when her old college roommate gets in touch, Amy realizes her success has come with a price: she gave up more than her dreams of being an artist when she graduated from college.

Sean hasn’t written his own music since he saw the power his lyrics could have, but that doesn’t stop him from playing covers and trying to have a little fun with every woman he meets. When Amy gets under his skin, however, Sean starts to wonder if a random hook up could become something more.

CUTTING LOOSE is a contemporary romance inspired by Rapunzel, and it's the second book in the Once Upon a Desire series.

Once Upon a Desire: contemporary fairy tales with a pinch of spice.

Excerpt

Amy wandered away from the crowd and stared at the placid waters of the lake. Stooping down, she found a small, oval pinecone on the ground at her feet, and giving into instinct, she pulled her arm back and flicked the cone into the water, trying to make it skip.

“Need a stone for that,” Sean said from behind her. Amy repressed a delicious shiver at the sound of his voice.

“I figured. It just seemed like the thing to do.” She gestured out at the water. “It’s beautiful up here.”

He raised an eyebrow at her. “Even though it’s the back end of beyond?”

“Your words, not mine.” She paused. “And I’m not judging anyone,” she finally added, glancing up at him. “Well, except maybe you.”

He grinned at her. “I guess I deserved that.”

She nodded. “Just because I’m from the city—“ she took a deep breath. “I don’t want to spoil this.” She gestured out to the lake, hoping he’d understand that she was done bantering. “Any of it,” she added, risking a glance at his face, but his expression was unreadable.

After a beat, Sean started to walk along the lakeshore, further away from the party guests, and after a moment, Amy fell into step beside him. “It is pretty, I guess,” he admitted. “You forget how beautiful things are when you see them every day.” He glanced at her with a wide smile. “Although I doubt any guy would be able to forget you.”

Amy laughed, but her heart sped up. “Smooth.”

Sean tipped his head. “I try.”

They lapsed into easy silence as they moved along the lakeshore, and after a few minutes, Sean reached for her hand. Waiting for the flirty banter that Amy had started to expect from him, she hesitated, but Sean didn’t say anything, and Amy couldn’t shake the feeling as she laced her fingers through his that something had shifted somehow, without her being aware of it.

Walking hand in hand with him, Amy searched for something to say. “I can’t figure you out,” she finally offered.

Sean lifted his shoulders in a gentle shrug. “What’s to figure?”

“Are you really as full of yourself as you seem?” The words sounded harsh, and Amy tried to soften them. “I mean, one minute, you’re coming onto me, and the next, you’re—well, you’re confusing.”

A smile tugged at his lips. “So you’ve been thinking about me?” He tightened his fingers around hers.

Amy flushed. “Maybe a little,” she admitted, “but that’s just because I don’t know what’s going to come out of your mouth next.”

“I’ll take that as a compliment. Ladies love a mystery man, right?” He grazed his thumb against her palm, and she shivered.

“I guess what I’m saying is, I’m trying to figure out who the real Sean is.”

He looked down at her, his eyes sharp. “Maybe that doesn’t matter. Can’t we just be two strangers who can’t keep their hands off each other?”

Amy’s pulse started to pound. “That isn’t what I had in mind,” she said.

About the Author

Charity Hillis has always had a thing for fairy tales…there’s just something magical about all those happily ever afters! She writes contemporary romance, and is the author of the ONCE UPON A DESIRE series, including MIDNIGHT RUN, CUTTING LOOSE , and PRINCESS SUITE (coming winter 2015).

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3 sets of ONCE UPON A DESIRE ebooks 

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