#NewRelease: Inhuman Interest by @Eric_Turowski

Newspaper founder, bookstore owner, artist, musician, and man-about-town Eric Turowski writes lots of mixed-genre books when he’s not too busy playing laser tag with Tiger the Cat and his fiancée Mimi deep in the Central Valley of California.

You can learn more about Eric at www.ericturowski.com.

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Blurb:

Thirteen words in a want-ad turn Tess Cooper’s world upside down after she signs on as a paranormal research assistant to the mysterious Davin Egypt. He reveals a world of grave robbing, clockworks artifacts in blue amber, antique revolvers that fire strange ammo, and powerful forces beyond human comprehension.

As ancient occult energies threaten to destroy her city, Tess must use her journalistic instincts to stay one step ahead of the public works director, Drew Dawson, whose agenda seems bent on destruction rather than maintenance. And possibly murder, but will anyone believe her?

Yeah, right. When garbage trucks fly.

If Tess teams up with the hunky police lieutenant, Kirk Gunther, and the pale, oddball Mr. Egypt, they might be able to save the city in time. That is, if Egypt even wants to. And if Tess overcomes her phobias long enough to do battle in Granddad’s 1983 Subaru Brat.

Things are about to get icky.

Excerpt:

Egypt sat behind the desk, leaving me to stand. He switched on the light. “Nearly all of my work is done at night. I trust that won’t be a problem.”

I generally had no plans at night. But that wasn’t my primary concern. “What exactly is the job?”

 

His brows squeezed together in mild confusion. “I thought I made that clear. I am an occult researcher, you will be my research assistant.”

“So, what, we look things up in books, cite them for papers?”

Egypt leaned back in his chair. “Hardly. Do you know what the word occult means, Miss Cooper?”

I couldn’t recall actually introducing myself to him. But I must have, right? “It means ‘hidden,’ or ‘covered.’ From the Latin. Same root word as occlude. Synonyms would be, oh, arcane or esoteric.”

“And do you believe we could research the hidden, the arcane, by browsing published media?”

Well, put it that way. “I suppose not.”

“Not, indeed.”

“So, what, you go out hunting for ghosts and that?”

His mouth made a little moue. Not, indeed. “We will seek out events caused by apparently hidden means, examine them, study them, and place them into context with other apparent occult phenomenon.”

I suddenly recalled Lieutenant Gunther’s reaction.

“You’re looking into the grave robberies for the police.” I carefully worded it so it wasn’t a question, the way Egypt did.

 

The moue spread out into almost a smile. “It seems that even if we are not on the same page, we’re in the same chapter. At midnight, we need to examine the graves at the City Cemetery.”

Frankly, I had developed an aversion to City Cemetery. All I needed was to fall in another loose grave, which seemed far more likely in the dark. “At midnight? Why not right now? It’s forty-six degrees and sunny. We’re supposed to get six inches of snow tonight.”

Egypt leaned forward, clasping his hands on the antique desk. “That forecast is incorrect. And as for midnight, it is a most important hour in occult research, as you will learn.”

Eric will award one randomly drawn commenter a signed copy of the book, plus a $25 Amazon gift card (US/Canada only) and a second randomly drawn commenter a signed copy of the book (US/Canada only) during the tour.

 

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#NewRelease: Key to Lawrence by Gary and Linda Cargill

The Cargills docked at Southampton and explored the South of England in preparation for this thriller, Key to Lawrence. They also sailed the North Atlantic just like Dora Benley. But their transatlantic voyages were on the Queen Mary 2 instead of the Lusitania. They made use of the American Southwest where they live to depict the Syrian Desert that was home to Lawrence of Arabia. Visit their website. Read their blog. Linda also has a Facebook Fan Page.

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Blurb:

Water rushed into the four, great smoke stacks of the ship as they, too, hit the waves. Tremendous, churning whirlpools sucked victims inside. A few were ejected, blackened with soot. Propellers rose above the maelstrom. The rudder lifted higher than the smoke stacks. The ship's prow pointed down toward the deep. It looked as if the ship's nose would hit the sea bed hundreds of feet below. The Lusitania sank in only 18 minutes after being torpedoed on May 7, 1915. Dora Benley vowed revenge on the enemy. Key to Lawrence tracks the beginning of her quest for justice in this special edition of the first volume of the Edward Ware Thriller Series. It commemorates the 100th anniversary of the Great War.

 
Where to Buy: Amazon

Excerpt:

Manhattan — Saturday, May 1, 1915

The stranger stared at Dora’s package. A wide-brimmed hat shaded his face, revealing only a dark beard and mustache. Smoking a small, cheap, stubby cigar, dressed in a nondescript, ill-fitting dark suit, the man strutted towards her in a menacing fashion. Blueish-white cigar smoke curled upward in a lazy corkscrew. It vanished into the air several yards above his head.

Twenty-year-old Dora Benley quickly stuffed the surprise birthday gift for her father into her satchel. Holding a green parasol edged with black fringe over her head she skirted crowds of well-dressed, gossiping passengers waiting to board the Lusitania. Dressed in a full-length, aquamarine dress with white lace around the sleeves, Dora moved as far away from the intruder as she could without falling off the edge of the pier.

She searched impatiently for her parents. They were supposed to rendezvous with her at 11:00 AM. By now it was almost noon!

A man and woman reporting team burst upon the crowd at Cunard’s Pier 54. They were trailed by a photographer and his assistants carrying a large folding camera and a tripod. The reporters hurled themselves at the passengers.

“What do you think of the German announcement?” The male reporter thrust a copy of The New York Times at Dora. He pointed to the advertisement prominently displayed on the front page:

The author will be giving away a historical, 100-year-old postcard of the Lusitania during the tour!

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#NewRelease: Exposed by Rage by Sherrel Lee @SherrelLeeBooks

This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. One randomly drawn winner via Rafflecopter will be awarded a $15 Amazon or Barnes and Noble gift card. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.

He has a dead body. She has the seedy connections. To solve the crime they are forced to work together.

To keep her mother’s reputation from destroying her, Ashley Dix Gibson had to learn at an early age to persevere and tune out the lies, gossip, and the bullies. Detective Michael DeMarco has no desire to team up with a woman with ties to the underbelly of the porn industry but if he wants to solve his case, he has no other options. When Ashley and DeMarco combine their resources to find a brutal killer, sparks of distrust turn into the fires of passion.

Enjoy an excerpt:
Braden broke the silence first. “So the door to the bedroom was open just enough to allow you to take a peek? Nothing looked out of order?”

The silence got to him again.

“So you just walked in last night, went straight to bed,” he sneered. “Didn’t notice anything was wrong.”

“I didn’t pass her door. I didn’t have to. I told your partner the exact same thing thirty minutes ago.”

Braden gave a desperate, evil laugh. I wanted to punch the smirk off his face.

“I was tired. I had the key Jillie sent me. I know where my room is.” Cops are not my favorite people and this one was beginning to get on my nerves. I know the routine. I know they have to ask questions. I would be just as snide and disbelieving if I was the one doing the questioning.

“Braden,” DeMarco, his partner called from the hallway upstairs. “Leave her be. I need you to come up here and make sure Mathews doesn’t miss anything.” I glanced at Braden’s partner, approving his wide shoulders, narrow hips and the ripple of muscles that couldn’t be contained by the suit jacket. Too bad he was with the police, we could have danced dirty and had a few laughs.

Mathews must be the crime tech I’d seen coming in through the kitchen.

• Between Monday, March 2 and April 1, 2015 go to my campaign at:  https://kindlescout.amazon.com/p/1VT4C9BS6157E
• Browse by Category or Search for Exposed by Rage.
• Read the excerpt.
• If you like it, please nominate it for the next round.
• Let all your friends know.

About the Author:

Wrangler of a fearsome Yorkiepoo named Rogue (Half Yorkie half Poodle weighing in at a hefty eight pounds). Obsession controlled writer with a passion for making up names and twisting myths.

Sherrel, as the daughter of an Emmy winning cameraman, learned early in life the dark secrets of creating all those incredible fantasy characters for the large and small screen.

Refusing to be crushed at the discovery the monsters, aliens, and Robby the Robot weren't real, Sherrel's imagination soared. She became a SELF-proclaimed voyeur of special-effects and expert at fictional character creation.

Website: http://sherrellee.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Sherrellee.valens
Amazon Author Page: http://amzn.to/1E4qlDv
Twitter: @SherrelLeeBooks (Romantic Suspense) @gryphoenix (Urban Fantasy)

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#NewRelease Passing the Torch by @LeslieLSanders

The L.L. stands for Leslie Lee. I write erotic romance and post-apocalyptic/dystopian fiction under Leslie Lee Sanders. 

But horror and thriller fiction is what I grew up on, what inspires me, and what began my pursuit to authorship. I’ve written many short scary stories since the 6th grade. Now they’re much more mature in general, thanks to the wide range of emotion and experience I’ve encountered over the years.

I’m a huge fan of horror and psychological thrillers in every fashion, including movies, books, art, campfire tales, etc. Some of my favorite stories are those that twist at the end or are ambiguous with deep societal or morality themes. This includes dystopias like Hugh Howey’s Wool, psychological thrillers like Shutter Island, and popular and classic horror/romances like V.C. Andrews’s Flowers in the Attic, my favorite.

All my ideas start with a twist, which is exactly how most of my stories end.

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Blurb:

Deep in the Arizona desert live a girl and her dad, burying secrets--and bodies.

Mesa Kingston's first memory of burying a corpse was at eight years old. Back then it had been the carcass of a large lizard her dad found that they buried in the backyard of their isolated cottage. At age fourteen, the body of a young lady accompanied the reptile's remains, and ever since, an accumulation of female bodies began to grow. Now, the only way Mesa can stop the haunting screams of the dead is by drowning them out with flames. Or is there more to the blaze than even she can perceive?

Where to Buy: Amazon

Excerpt:

The wailing sirens grow louder as they approach, making the singed hairs on my arms stand up as anticipation prickles beneath my skin. Strands of my hair blow against my face, tickling my nose and briefly reminding me of the life I was willingly leaving behind. No more fussing over which shampoos and leave-in conditioners were best suited for my hair, no more being embarrassed when the manicurist added the dull-pink nail polish to my nails that unintentionally blends with my natural skin tone, no more ordinary life for an ordinary girl.

But have I ever been an ordinary girl with an ordinary life, or was my urge to be normal greater than my reality? That question was too obvious to answer, and I would've chuckled at the ridiculousness of it at any other time.

Now as I walk farther from the cottage along the narrow trail—worn and barren from the years of traffic—I'm hit with a devastating realization … I can still hear the agonizing screams.

No matter how much or how long I try to shut out the noise, I fail. Nothing helps, not a thought, a memory, not even the smell of burnt wood in the air can distract me from the noise. Each tactic eventually leads me right back to the screams.

 
I grab the wire of the makeshift fence with one hand, the fence my dad had built to separate our property from the rest of the desert. It didn't matter much. Our cottage was the only structure for many miles, built by Grandpa decades ago near a remote lake. Even so, erecting a fence and creating a yard may have been Dad's attempt at being normal too.

 

The author will be awarding a $10 Amazon/BN gift card to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour and digital copies of the book to three additional prizes.  

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Interview with Arby Corry for Heart-Shaped Stone

Arby Corry has spent the last twenty-five years in the radio business. Performing every job from radio announcer, to program director, to commercial producer to copy writer, Arby gives voice to characters found just on the other end of the request line.  Her debut novel, Heart-Shaped Stone, has received critical acclaim as well as delighting readers with its fresh approach. Arby believes in real characters, with real voices. And while a happy ending is always satisfying, she believes life has other plans. When not on the air or writing her follow-up to Heart-Shaped Stone, Arby enjoys spending time with her husband, children and the great outdoors of the Pacific Northwest.

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1. At any given time do you work on only one story at a time and maybe plot out the next one or are there many ideas racing around your head? I wish it weren’t true, but there are many ideas floating in my head, racing, more accurately. However, currently it’s all about the follow-up to Heart-Shaped Stone. This book wants, needs, no, requires, a follow-up and I’ve had many ask me when it’s on its way. Soon.

2. Is there a genre you haven't written in but would like to? Or wish you could write in? Comedy. I think I could likely do this as it’s sort of my background, having worked in the radio business for years and performed morning shows, but it takes great finesse and I really admire those who can do it right. The thing about writing comedy is it’s sort of like comics who perform on stage – either you’re really good at it, or you really shouldn’t have sold everything you own, moved to Hollywood and given up that pretty decent day job.

3. Do you add an element of romantic suspense in your stories? Well, the genre for Heart-Shaped Stone is all about Romantic Suspense. However, it didn’t start off that way. All I knew going in was that it was going to be a love story. I weren’t sure where we were going, or how we were going to get there, but I love a good love story and a complicated one all the more. My story just took the direction it was meant to have, I suppose. Do I think all stories should incorporate Romantic Suspense? No, just the ones I want to read!

4. Say you have unlimited funds: What kind of writing office/cottage would you create for yourself? Half of Heart-Shaped Stone was written (and this truly true) in a beach parking lot, adjacent to a lighthouse where I could watch the comings and goings of a Washington State Ferry. When it would rain, and that would be often, and I’d been in my car a while, I’d have to walk to the park’s restroom. It’d be nice to have one of those houses perched on the hillside right behind me in said beach parking lot - the ones with the plenteous windows overlooking the Sound. Yeah, that would work.

5. If you could turn your novel into a TV show, which novel or series would you do? Where would it be set? Network TV (ABC, NBC, CBS), Cable (AMC, BBC, Lifetime) or Premium Cable (HBO, Showtime, Starz)? As much as it pains me to say, this is truly a Lifetime made for TV movie! I love that network, so why am I knocking it? I think that comes with “falling in love” with your story. I want the best for it and would hate to see it relegated to the Saturday night lineup just before that infomercial for pantyhose. I kid, but it really does fit the network – romance, suspense, intrigue, deception, it has Lifetime written all over it. The only exception, there is quite a steamy love scene in Heart-Shaped Stone and they’d either have to water that down or heavily edit. If not then we’re headed for HBO for sure!

6. Finally, tell us about your latest release! Caila, like most dreamers, just wants to be wanted. Unlike most dreamers, she's wanted by the CIA.

When the last decade of thirty-two year old Caila Domenici’s life disappears, destroyed in a car accident, she is forced to begin again. Defying doctor’s orders to slow-go-it, she sets out to navigate the world on her own. It's not going well. Coddled from birth, everything from a bus schedule to how to boil water confounds her. Worse yet, she's about to accept her meddling mother's offer to pay for food and rent. With just a hunch her talents extend beyond that of daughter of privilege, Caila searches for her past. Before she can find it, it finds her. And the handsome azure-eyed stranger who’s saying he knows her is somehow part of it.

Caila always believed there had to be more, but now, on the verge of discovering the truth, she must decide which is worse – never knowing who she really is, or knowing too much.

Where to Buy:

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Excerpt:

Reese was being too nice. Something was up - their deep conversation the night before, the bubble bath, the tea, turning down her bed and now breakfast? Caila wasn’t suspicious by nature, and in most cases trusted more than she should, but where Reese was concerned she dropped all pretenses and questioned his every move. He was much too calculating to not see opportunity in everything he did. Caila recognized that in him right away. Her mind was now churning with theories. Why, if he was up to something, would he be so blatant with this sudden kindness? Did he think she would not notice?

Then she imagined the most unexpected thing.

Maybe he wasn’t up to anything at all. Maybe this was another side to the man she detested right from the start. The invader, the man who came to make her life a living hell and push aside her father may not, after all, be the man she believed him to be. But even that theory was short lived. No, she thought, he has a motive.

Arby Corry will be awarding $50 Amazon/BN GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour!

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