Momma and Her Stories

Blog Tour: War and Money

Science fiction

Date Published: January 26, 2019

Dax, low status and a non-conformist, is stuck in the middle of the unending aliens wars. It's 2187, and Earth has the Katarga trapped on the moon, refusing to allow them to escape. Then there are ongoing threats from the Piltrak and Jurale, which forces Global Command to recruit 15-year-olds like Dax, as soldiers. She never imagined she'd be advanced as a soldier, yet she was hand-picked by gruff Commander Viteri and taken from her parents, never to see them again. She doesn't want to kill aliens, and suspects there's more to the wars than keeping the aliens at bay. The problem is, she has to find a way to stay alive long enough to reveal the truth.

Excerpt

How did this happen? I can’t believe I’m strapped into this seat like a prisoner. I’m being sent away to die and if I don’t find a way to escape, that’s exactly what’s going to happen. All I want is to be back home, wrapped up in my blanket like this never happened. But it did, and the stale air in this shuttle is making me sick. The transportation shuttles back home never felt this suffocating. This is the worst day of my life.

Everyone needs to stop staring at me like I’m a pariah. Especially Commander Viteri. Those close-set eyes of his are boring into mine, and I know I should look away, but I won’t. I won’t give him the satisfaction of seeing how scared I am. He told Ma and Da that I’m a non-conformist, well then, how’s this for non-conforming. Go ahead and glare at me, I refuse to flinch.

His hatred is burning into me. He looks at me like I’m nothing, a stupid Single, the only child in my family. But why should that make me less than the Multiples, and who decided that being a Single was a stigma anyway. Ha! He looked away first. Sure it’s because he brought up a projection in front of him, but it still feels like a little victory.

Lenora Averlowes is on my left. I remember her from school, but we were never friends. She’s popular, taller and prettier than me. Even her shiny auburn hair is better than my dull brown. And she’s not a Single. She has a lot of siblings. She hasn’t said a word to me and I know why. I’m nothing to her. I completely forgot that we have the same birthday, but I do remember that she volunteered to be advanced. Hard to forget, because she let everyone at school know, bragging like it made her special and better than those of us who didn’t volunteer.

“Hi, Lenora, I’m not sure if you remember me, but I’m Dax.” I’ll shake her hand and be friends, if she wants to.

Look at her pulling away, repulsed by my offer of friendship. I should have known.

“I know who you are. You’re a Single and your parents are poor. And you talk too much about things you shouldn’t talk about. I don’t want you talking to me.” She turns away.

There are a few chuckles from the other kids, some I know and some I don’t, and a few of them strain against their seat restraints like they want to get further away from me. So much for making friends.

“Orwan!” booms Viteri, staring right at me. He’s out of his seat, holding onto a strap attached to the ceiling. “There’s no talking on the shuttle! You’ve just brought on the first behavior modification.” He touches a small metallic box attached to his belt.

Immediately, there’s a stinging jolt that goes through my feet all the way to my head. Apparently everyone got the same shock because they all jump and cry out as well. My fingers and toes are tingling. Viteri sits again and goes back to scanning through the projection.

Lenora glares at me, her bottom lip trembling. Her voice is barely above a whisper, “I knew you were trouble. Behavior modification before we even get to camp. Who’s ever heard of that? I’m going to be made a Lead at training camp and I’ll make you pay for this.”

The other recruits nod and scowl at me.

How does she know she’ll be a Lead? I thought ranks were given out at the camp, not ahead of time. It doesn’t matter to me though, because I’ll be slated to spend the rest of my life, however long that might be, fighting the Katarga aliens on the moon, unless I can find a way out of this. All Singles go straight to the moon and are never heard from again. Everyone knows that. I wish I never had to turn fifteen and go through my Date of Fate. I wanted to stay home and get a job, not get advanced into the Global Forces.

Soldiering is a world I know nothing about. All I have left are my memories of home. It seems like forever ago, but it was just this morning that I woke up and smelled the wonderful buttery aroma of birthday cake baking. Ma must have saved for weeks to buy eggs. Before it came out of the oven though, Viteri showed up at our door.

That was the moment my life changed. He ordered me out of my bedroom and made me stand against the wall in our tiny living room. He’s so big, he took up most of the room and made Ma and Da look incredibly small with their heads drooped down. That’s something I’ll never forget because they looked defeated. I’ve never seen them like that. Even with us being poor and low status, they always had hope and made the best of things. That hope vanished this morning though and that’s what scared me most.

I’m a multi-genre fiction writer who was born in Sydney, Australia, but now lives in Central California. With degrees in environmental science and archaeology, I enjoy being out in nature when I’m not glued to my desk writing or researching a new story idea. Writing is a true passion of mine, born from a love of the written word that can transport the reader to different places or worlds and deliver them back to reality, safe and sound.

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Tuesday, June 11, 2019

Release Blitz: Change of Heart

Romance, Women's Fiction

A Seashell Cottage Book

Publisher: Wild Quail Publishing

Release Date: June 11, 2019

Emerson “Em” Jordan always wanted a Valentine’s Day wedding. But after being dumped by her boyfriend, she spends the holiday at Seashell Cottage on the Gulf Coast of Florida with Devin Gerard, a family friend who has no interest in her or any other woman and is instead concentrating on his pediatric medical practice and continuing medical missions in Costa Rica.

Em, who’s always wanted a large family, doesn’t mind his disinterest. At thirty-two, she’s decided she doesn’t need a husband to have a child or to adopt one. First, she’s going to fulfill her dream of setting up her own landscape design business in upstate New York and has promised to continue to help run her grandmother’s flower shop.

It isn’t until Em and Devin become friends that Em realizes she might want more than friendship from him. But with his work in Miami and Costa Rica and her busy life in New York, it’s out of the question until something happens that changes everything, even a couple of hearts.

Excerpt

Emerson “Em” Jordan closed her eyes as the sound of the music enveloped her in a cloud of happiness. She was taking part in her sister’s wedding at a resort along the Gulf Coast of Florida, but in her mind, it might as well be her own celebration. The dreamy man holding her hadn’t proposed yet, but she was pretty sure he soon would. She’d dropped all kinds of hints about a Valentine engagement and a wedding a year later on Valentine’s Day. It had been a dream of hers from the time she was a girl.

In a burst of noise, the image of dancing disappeared. Em sat bolt upright in bed and stared out her bedroom window. Through the glass she saw a colorful display of fireworks, and then she heard another loud bang.

Em lowered her head into her hands and sobbed as she recalled what had happened earlier that evening. The Fourth of July picnic turned into a disaster when her boyfriend, Jared King, had announced he needed to talk to her about something important. When she saw his serious expression and how he was shuffling his feet, a nervous habit of his, her stomach did a somersault. She’d watched her family and friends head out to walk the four blocks to the town park to watch the fireworks and wished she could run after them.

As he studied her, Jared took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “ Like I said, we need to talk. I can’t do this any longer. I love you, Em, I do, but I’m not in love with you. It’s time to call it quits.”

She lifted a hand to her cheek as if he’d slapped her and reeled away from him. “You’re breaking up with me? Like this?”

He sighed. “It’s not working. And it’s not going to.”

Shocked, she stared at him wide eyed, certain she was about to throw up. She staggered over to one of the picnic tables set up in her parents’ backyard and plopped down on the bench beside it. Bending over, Em put her head between her legs hoping to stop the world around her from spinning.

“Are you all right?” Jared asked, standing a safe distance from her.

Anger straightened her. “I’m not all right, Jared King! You just broke my heart! I’m not sure I’ll ever be all right again!”

“I’m sorry, Em. I really am.” He’d simply turned and walked away, leaving her to clutch her body, too weak to run after him, her dreams scattered around her like crushed blossoms.

###

For the next few weeks, Em managed to continue working at the family’s flower shop, but, in truth, she barely functioned. Jagged edges of her broken heart kept poking her insides, taking away her breath, stealing the cheerfulness she usually wore like a comfortable old sweater to protect her. Not even the sweet smell of freesia in the flower shop could chase away the pain of Jared’s words. It was a good thing that Jared lived in New York City, an hour away. She couldn’t bear to see him.

She returned to her task of putting together a basket of summer wild flowers. She loved making things look as natural as possible, and woven baskets were good containers for the colorful blooms.

“How are you coming with the Williams order?” her grandmother, Julia Jordan, asked as she entered the work area.

“Almost done,” Em said, standing back to appraise the placement of flowers.

“Looks wonderful, sweetheart.” After the death of her husband many years ago, her grandmother had opened the flower shop she’d named Rainbow’s End in their small, upstate town of Ellenton, New York. In her late sixties, Julia was still an attractive woman with gray hair cut in a bob, sparkling eyes, and a face that reflected beauty enhanced by her inner peace. Em smiled. Of all the people in the family, her grandmother understood her best. Two optimists who came together. Didn’t the name of her flower shop say it all?

Later, as Em was putting together a bouquet for a husband to send as a surprise to his wife, she couldn’t hold back the question that had been gnawing at her insides. “Gran, Jared told me he loved me, but he wasn’t in love with me.” It still hurt to say the words.

Her grandmother’s blue-eyed gaze, so like her own, rested on her thoughtfully. “He wasn’t the right man. Don’t worry. You have time.”

“But, Gran, I’ll be thirty-two next spring! And every man I meet ends up being wrong for me. First, there was Garrett. He turned out to be gay, for heaven’s sake.”

Gran clucked her tongue. “The opera singer in New York was the hardest for me to imagine your marrying. Imagine him already married to a concert pianist on tour!”

“Yeah, that was another bad time. He’d told me he was lonely. I thought it was because he was living so far away from family. I didn’t imagine him having a wife. Neither he nor news releases ever mentioned it.”

Gran placed a hand on Em’s shoulder. “I’m so glad you agreed to come back to Ellenton to live. The trouble with you, Emerson, is you want to believe only the best in everybody in every aspect of your life. That makes you a special person, but one who is bound to get hurt.”

“I know everyone teases me about being a Pollyanna, but I’d prefer to live happily rather than face doom and gloom all the time.”

Gran drew her into a hug. “Maybe it’s time for you to have a change of heart, become a little more careful, more realistic. Nothing too drastic, mind you.”

Em laid the red rose in her hand on the workbench. “Are you saying it’s time for me to grow up?”

“In a way,” she said kindly, brushing Em’s long, blond hair away from her face. “You and I, we’re two of a kind. We dream of what could be without seeing things as they really are. Who knew my husband would die at a young age, leaving me with a young son to raise and no money?”

“I’m glad you decided to open a flower shop. I love it.” Em drew a shaky breath. “But, Gran, I hope you understand I can’t go through Valentine’s Day working here. That’s when Jared was supposed to propose to me.”

“No worries. I already figured that out. Besides, my neighbor, Marilyn, needs to find a job. I promised I’d hire her on a part-time basis, thinking if she worked out, I’d bring her on board full-time before the holidays. That will give you a chance to start thinking about opening the landscape design business you’ve been talking about.”

Relief sprinted through Em. She’d never want to hurt her grandmother, but no way, no how could she endure making beautiful bouquets, lovely nosegays, or single-rose love letters of her own design for others during the romantic time of Valentine’s Day.

About the Author

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Judith Keim enjoyed her childhood and young-adult years in Elmira, New York, and now makes her home in Boise, Idaho, with her husband and their two dachshunds, Winston and Wally, and other members of her family.

While growing up, she was drawn to the idea of writing stories from a young age. Books were always present, being read, ready to go back to the library, or about to be discovered. All in her family shared information from the books in general conversation, giving them a wealth of knowledge and vivid imaginations.

A hybrid author who both has a publisher and self-publishes, Ms. Keim writes heart-warming novels about women who face unexpected challenges, meet them with strength, and find love and happiness along the way. Her best-selling books are based, in part, on many of the places she's lived or visited and on the interesting people she's met, creating believable characters and realistic settings her many loyal readers love. Ms. Keim loves to hear from her readers and appreciates their enthusiasm for her stories.

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Release Blitz: The Thirteenth Guardian

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Sci-Fi

Date Published: June 11, 2019

Da Vinci’s secret pales. Michelangelo concealed an explosive truth in his famous Creation of Adam fresco in the Sistine Chapel at the Vatican. Eve did not cause the fall of man. She carried a far more devastating secret for millennia—one that will change the world forever.

As the modern-day world suffers the cataclysmic effects of the “Plagues of Egypt,” Avery Fitzgerald, a statuesque Astrophysics major at Stanford, discovers that she is mysteriously bound to five strangers by an extremely rare condition that foremost medical experts cannot explain. Thrust into extraordinary circumstances, they race against time to stay alive as they are pursued by an age-old adversary and the world around them collapses into annihilation.

Under sacred oath, The Guardians—a far more archaic and enigmatic secret society than the Freemasons, Templars, and the Priory—protect Avery as she embarks on a daring quest that only legends of old have been on before. Avery must come to terms with the shocking realization that the blood of an ancient queen flows through her veins and that the fate of the world now rests on her shoulders.

EXCERPT 1

Remi had always dreamed that he would do meaningful work in his life. His parents repeatedly told him that he had a great destiny ahead of him and that one day he would do amazing things. Remi believed that perhaps one day he would become a senator or congressman and would change the lives of millions of people. The fact that at twenty-one, he was now in a room with the President of the United States, his chief of staff, and possibly the only congressman left alive, working on a plan to keep the United States government functional, left him with mixed feelings. It was awe inspiring on the one hand, but on the other, the circumstances around which it was happening were terrifying.

As the four men conferred around an old coffee table, which had now become the platform on which the future of the United States was being shaped, the door to the war room burst open and a Marine rushed in with terror in his eyes. He doubled over, choking, like something was stuck in his throat. Remi rushed to his aid.

“What now?” the president barked. He was frustrated and at a loss after everything that had happened over the last few hours. He had run out of patience, and his capacity for sympathy was completely eroded.

“Mr. President, you need to come up to the surface entrance. You need to do it now,” the Marine said, gasping for air.

The president knew enough about the Marines’ degree of professionalism that he did not object.

Everyone followed the Marine down the hall and hopped into the Humvee for the three-minute ride up the steeply inclined roadway to the entrance of the bunker.

“Maybe you should slow down for a minute and catch your breath.”

“I am going to be fine, Mr. President. I am able to breathe a lot better now, sir.”

“Sorry I was curt earlier. It’s been a rough few days, and my nerves are a little frayed. I should have been more compassionate.”

They stopped at the head of the roadway, which was protected by a steel gate large enough for a semi-truck. Instead of opening the gate, the Marine walked to the side and opened a smaller door that led down a short hallway and to a steep set of stairs. The group of men climbed up the stairs in silence and emerged at the top of the guard tower.

The president was the first to step out of the stairwell and into the guard tower opening. He let out a loud gasp. His chief of staff followed and let out an equally loud expletive. As Remi stepped out of the stairwell, he had instinctively braced himself for anything; yet still, what he saw shocked him to his core.

About the Author

K.M. Lewis has lived in multiple countries around the world and speaks several languages. Lewis holds a graduate degree from one of the Universities featured in his book. When he is not writing, Lewis doubles as a management consultant, with clients in just about every continent. He does much of his writing while on long flights and at far-flung airports around the globe. He currently resides on the East Coast of the United States with his family.

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Teaser: Lacewood

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Women’s Fiction/Contemporary Romance

Date Published: 6/18/2019

Sometimes love is just too powerful for one lifetime…

MOVING TO A SMALL TOWN in Virginia is a big change for New York socialite Katie McCain. But when she stumbles across an abandoned 200-year-old mansion, she’s enthralled by the enduring beauty of the neglected estate—and captivated by the haunting portrait of a woman in mourning.

Purchasing the property on a whim, Katie attempts to fit in with the colorful characters in the town of New Hope, while trying to unravel the mystery of the “widow of Lacewood.” As she pieces together the previous owner’s heartrending story, Katie uncovers secrets the house has held for centuries, and discovers the key to coming to terms with her own sense of loss.

The past and present converge when hometown hero Will Durham returns and begins his own healing process by helping the “city girl” restore the place that holds so many memories. As the mystic web of destiny is woven, a love story that might have been lost forever is exposed, and a destiny that has been waiting in the shadows for centuries is fulfilled.

Part love story, part ghost story, Lacewood is a timeless novel about trusting in fate, letting go of the past, and believing in things that can’t be seen.

A powerful and poignant tale that vividly conveys the heartache of war, the tragedy of loss, and the fulfillment of destiny…even when souls are separated by centuries. Lacewood takes readers on a journey that connects the past with the present—and the present with eternity.

Excerpt

Turning in a circle, Katie studied the room again. Faded wallpaper curled and peeled above the dusty wainscoting, but the walls themselves appeared sturdy. On the far side of the entryway, and dominating the wall, stood a mammoth fireplace with an ornately carved hearth. And above the mantle hung a captivating painting of a woman in nineteenth-century dress.

“Who is she?”

The sheriff turned to the dusty, sun-bleached portrait in the heavy carved guilt frame. “One of the previous owners, they say.” He shrugged. “The family history kind of got lost with the house. Everyone around here calls her the Widow of Lacewood.”

Katie stood spellbound. The woman was dressed completely in black, but the magnificence of the gown gave the impression of sophistication and class. Her chin was slightly elevated as if to project strength, yet there was more than a hint of sorrow and pain in her eyes.

“She looks so sad.” Katie spoke without removing her gaze. “And so young. How could she be a widow?”

The sheriff had already started to walk away, but he turned back and glanced at the painting. “Not sure, but they say she never remarried. She’s the one out in the cemetery, too, I reckon.”

Katie’s heart suddenly struggled to beat. The anguish in the woman’s eyes kept her riveted. She could see the pain. Feel a heart ripped apart. Something was missing that could never be replaced. Katie had felt such loss before. In a way, that’s why she was here.

“You coming?”

Katie heard the sheriff calling from the next room, and turned to follow. With one quick glance back, she noticed particles of dust now swirled and danced in a shaft of light, almost like a living thing. Her breath caught in her throat as the dust seemed to materialize into the form of a woman, her eyes dull with the same tortured despair and disbelief as the one in the portrait.

Katie jerked her head around for a closer look and blinked. The woman was gone.

About the author:

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Jessica James believes in honor, duty, and true love—and that’s what she writes about in her award-winning novels that span the ages from the Revolutionary War to modern day.

She is a three-time winner of the John Esten Cooke Award for Southern Fiction, and has won more than a dozen other literary awards, including a Readers' Favorite International Book Award and a Gold Medal from the Military Writers Society of America. Her novels have been used in schools and are available in hundreds of libraries including Harvard and the U.S. Naval Academy.

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https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/mike-murphey/section-roads/

Saturday, June 8, 2019

Release Blitz: Section Roads by Mike Murphey

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Coming of Age / Mystery / Humor

Date Published: June 8, 2019

Publisher: Acorn Publishing

When attorney Cullen Molloy attends his fortieth high school reunion, he doesn’t expect to be defending childhood friends against charges of murder…

In a small town on the high plains of Eastern New Mexico, life and culture are shaped by the farm roads defining the 640-acre sections of land homesteaders claimed at the turn of the Twentieth Century. Cullen and Shelby Blaine explore first love along these section roads during the 1960’s, forging a life-long emotional bond.

As junior high school band nerds, Cullen and Shelby fall under the protection of football player and loner, Buddy Boyd. During their sophomore year of high school, Buddy is charged with killing a classmate and is confined to a youth correctional facility. When he returns to town facing the prospect of imprisonment as an adult, Cullen becomes Buddy’s protector.

The case haunts the three friends into adulthood, and it isn’t until their fortieth reunion, that they’re forced to revisit that horrible night. When a new killing takes place, Cullen, Shelby and Buddy find themselves reliving the nightmare.

Murder is an easy thing to hide along old country section roads.

Advance Praise

“An ambitious, evocative small-town tale located somewhere between Peyton Place and The Last Picture Show.” –Kirkus Review

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About the Author

Mike Murphey is a native of eastern New Mexico and spent almost thirty years as an award-winning newspaper journalist in the Southwest and Pacific Northwest. Following his retirement from the newspaper business, he and his wife Nancy entered in a seventeen-year partnership with the late Dave Henderson, all-star centerfielder for the Oakland Athletics, Boston Red Sox and Seattle Mariners. Their company produces the A’s and Mariners adult baseball Fantasy Camps. They also have a partnership with the Roy Hobbs adult baseball organization in Fort Myers, Florida. They love baseball, fiction, cats and sailing. They split their time between Spokane, Washington, and Phoenix, Arizona. Mike enjoys life as a writer and old-man baseball player.

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Release Blitz: Always & Forever by Hope Daniels

MM BDSM/Romance

Date Published: June 8, 2019

Publisher: Encompass Ink

As boys, Troy and Marshall vowed to be best friends for always and forever.

They pledged the same vow again, after a football game on a Friday night, when they made love for the first time.

Now, as ex-soldiers, can they find their way and help each other out of the darkness and into the light?

Can broken promises be forgiven and friendships strengthened over a common bond?

Can two broken men find their way back to when Always and Forever meant love until their final breath?

About the Author

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Amazon Bestselling Author Hope Daniels grew up in a small resort area in Michigan where she and her husband still live today. As the third child of four, she had an exhaustive imagination. From straddling the back-porch railing as a wild cowgirl, to saving the world as Wonder Woman complete with homemade bullet stopping bracelets. She was always taking what she read and making it as real as she could, now if she could just find the wolf shifter of her dreams…

Love of reading began at an early age, due to a first-grade teacher living next door, and her own father reading bible stories to her before bed each night. It was cemented in elementary when she discovered scholastic books, specifically Marguerite Henry’s Misty of Chincoteague. Her love of horses and reading has never diminished, even after her husband took her to Chincoteague Island for their honeymoon.

Daniels loves to write in multiple genre which includes her short in the Amazon Bestselling Anthology Black Magic (A Women of Urban Fantasy Production), a Contemporary and YA short in the LDLInk Anthologies and a soon to be released short story in the Encompass Ink’s All You Need Is Love Anthology releasing June 23, titled Always and Forever. She is also the co-author to the Magical Forces series books Hell In Heels, Hell On The Heart, Hell Of A Family Yule and Hell of A Night with Author Alicia Dawn.

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