Friday Finds: Back In Time, Ghosts and Time Travel

Do you believe in ghosts? I bet we can make you say “boo!”

Grab these six highly-rated ghost stories for free October 24-25 only on Amazon.

TROUBLE IN MUDBUG by NY Times bestselling author Jana DeLeon
Genre: Humorous Mystery

Scientist Maryse Robicheaux thought a lot of her problems had drifted away with her mother-in-law’s death. The woman was rude, pushy, and manipulative, and used her considerable wealth to run herd over the entire bayou town of Mudbug, Louisiana. Unfortunately, death doesn’t slow Helena one bit.

KEEP ME GHOSTED by Karen Cantwell
Genre: Paranormal Romantic Comedy

Sophie Rhodes has an interesting friend – a proper British ghost by the name of Marmaduke Dodsworth. Marmaduke keeps Sophie company, but she has eyes for her new boss, Dr. Callahan, who unfortunately has a spectral companion of his own – one with a nasty jealous streak. Love is in the air, but will it win out over the interference of two meddlesome ghosts?

HAUNTED ON BOURBON STREET by Deanna Chase
Genre: Paranormal Romance

Jade loves her new apartment – until a ghost joins her in the shower. When empath Jade Calhoun moves into an apartment about a strip bar on Bourbon Street, she expects life to get interesting. What she doesn’t count on is making friends with an exotic dancer, attracting a powerful spirit, and developing feelings for Kane, her sexy landlord.

1816 CANDLES by Amanda Brice
Genre: Young Adult Time Travel

A chance encounter during a costume ball at a historic tavern sends high school senior Lauren Harper back in time to early Americana. Now she’s experiencing the actual events of the “Legend of the Female Stranger” she’s heard her entire life growing up. Can she solve the mystery of this ghost, find her way back home…and deal with her own emotions when she falls in love with a guy who lived 200 years before her?


THE MEDIUM by C.J. Archer
Genre: Young Adult Historical Paranormal

She can see dead people. He’s a ghost assigned by the Otherworld to return a demon. It should be a simple assignment, but they soon learn there’s nothing simple when a live girl and a dead boy fall in love.

THE DEEPEST CUT by J.A. Templeton
Genre: Young Adult Paranormal

Guilt-ridden over the belief that she’s somehow responsible for her mom’s death, sixteen-year-old Riley is desperate to see her mother’s elusive spirit to gain her forgiveness. When her father moves the family to Scotland so they can all start over, Riley believes her life couldn’t get worse – until the ghost of Ian MacKinnon catches her purposefully cutting herself. Riley believes her gift could help Ian end the curse that has kept him tied to the land for centuries, but the malevolent spirit of the woman who filled Ian returns and she’ll stop at nothing to keep Riley from helping Ian find eternal peace.

Friday Finds: Vampire Edition

Even though I've yet to write a vampire romance, I love 'um just like ya'll do. On this Friday Find, I'm sharing hawt romance, vampire style. So check out the sensual bloodsuckers below and fall in love with these fanged and fabulous heroes and heroines.

On The Far Side Of Darkness
R.C. Graham

Erotic romance | Vampire paranormal | Novel

Georges Belleveau is a vampire. Diane Patterson is mortal.

Their love is forbidden. If they follow their hearts the danger to both of them will be immense. Will their love survive…

…on the Far Side of Darkness?

This ebook will be available for pre-order at $0.99 at Barnes & Noble and Kobo until the day after Halloween 2013.

Lock in the sale price now!

Smashwords: https://www.smashwor...oks/view/357879

Kobo: http://store.koboboo...ide-of-darkness

Barnes and Noble: http://www.barnesand...n=2940045269315

Apple: https://itunes.apple...708802436?mt=11
 

A Vampire's Salvation 

Virna DePaul

Paranormal Romantic Suspense | Vampire paranormal | Novella

Jacob La Costa Rios is the head of the California governor’s security team; he’s also a vampire who wants the governor, a presidential hopeful, to support the peaceful integration of vampires into human society. Unfortunately, there are others who oppose Jake’s plan. Plus, Jake’s a little distracted by discovering his one true mate, the human female who can give him everything he’s always wanted: love, children, and continuing immortality. Francesca Marie Stewart is the governor’s “go-green” political consultant.

Although she’s been attracted to Jake from day one, her priority is her career and protecting her heart. But then Jake blatantly propositions her and Frankie, who hasn’t experienced sexual intimacy since she was seventeen-years-old, decides it’s time to take what she wants—within reason. No matter—once Jake makes love to Frankie, he knows reason will be the farthest thing from her mind. Then he just has to eliminate the person threatening her, reveal the fact he’s a vampire, and convince her that trusting him will bring both of them eternal happiness.
 

Only .99¢, Grab your copy now!

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/A-Vampires-Salvation-Novella-ebook/dp/B00BABTBWQ

Barnes & Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/a-vampires-salvation-virna-depaul/1029487888?ean=9780345547873

iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/a-vampires-salvation/id599398720?mt=11

 

October Friday Finds Trick or Treat!

October starts one of my favorite holiday seasons...Halloween. What, you thought I'd say Columbus Day? ;)

I love all the costumes, masks, candy treats, the monsters and the mayhem. Paranormal is my favorite thing to read, so of course I've got some spooktacular books even a ghost on a budget can afford. So grab a scaredy cat and let's begin.

This first Friday Find of October starts off with author Paige Tyler's wonderful zombie romance, Dead Sexy.

ON SALE - Oct 1 - 31

EPIC AWARD Finalist and Winner of the GOLD STAR AWARD at JERR

DEAD SEXY
Paige Tyler

Can her love save him from a curse worse than death?

Romance author Simone Kent thinks she might just have found the most perfect guy in all of New York City - in bed and out.

But Drake Parrish is about as far from perfect as any man can get. Eight years ago, he was cursed by an evil Voodoo priestess to live part of his life as a zombie. Since then, he has lived like a recluse on New York’s Upper East Side, afraid to go out for fear he’ll suddenly turn into one of the walking dead.

The sex is the hottest either of them has ever experienced and Simone discovers just how naughty she can be with Drake, while he finds himself feeling things for Simone he hasn’t felt in a very long time. When the Voodoo priestess learns of their relationship, however, she comes after him again. She's determined he won't have a future with Simone, even if that means killing both him and the woman he loves.

Author's Note: NO PEOPLE WERE EATEN IN THE MAKING OF THIS BOOK

"Move over vamp heroes. The zombies are coming to town and they're DEAD SEXY." ~ Cynthia Eden, USA Today Bestselling Author

"Loved this book. Paige Tyler has a real flair for combining hot romance with the paranormal." ~ Desiree Holt, Bestselling Author  

SALE PRICE - .99    (REG PRICE - 2.99)
ON SALE - Oct 1 - 31

AMAZON: http://www.amazon.com/Dead-Sexy-ebook/dp/B00E1S8EPU/ref=sr_1_15?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1374339234&sr=1-15


http://www.paigetylertheauthor.com
http://paigetylertheauthor.blogspot.com


Next up is a hauntingly wonderful story FREE from author T. Sue VerSteeg, entitled Twisted Fate!

Available for free download in most ebook formats from Smashwords

All may seem lost…until you really do lose everything.

Jessica Ellison thought she’d lost everything in the Joplin tornado, until her boyfriend, Nick, dies in a freak accident. It all started as a retreat to Eureka Springs to escape the rubble of what was left of their lives, a chance to have a normal weekend before returning to sift through the debris one last time. Things come into focus for Jessica when the only man she’s ever loved is killed. Can fate twist things around and set it right, or has it just spiraled out of control?

Coming soon to Amazon and B&N!

http://www.tsvbooks.com/

Tuesday Special: Dalakis Passion Vampires

I wanted to let my readers know about a really cool ebook that's FREE right now from my friend N.J. Walters, but since it may not be free come this Friday (you'll have to check and see if it's still on sale) plus it's not SFR/Fantasy (which is my featured flavor of the month this August), and is instead paranormal, it's appearing as a Tuesday Special.

Here is the link to learn more about the story (read an excerpt) and about N.J.: http://njwalters.com/dalakispassion.html#harkersjourney

And here is the buy link for the book (buy it for free! for a limited time only):http://www.ellorascave.com/harker-s-journey.html

Contest Fun!

“Close your eyes tightly—tightly—and keep them closed . . .”

From a Victorian Ireland of magic, poetry and rebellion, Ida Jameson, an amateur occultist, reaches out for power, but captures Laura Armstrong, a modern-day graphic artist instead. Now, for the man or demon she loves, each woman must span a bridge through Hell and across history . . . or destroy it.

“Every passionate man is linked with another age,
historical or imaginary,
where alone he finds images
that rouse his energy.” W. B. Yeats

Anchored in fact on both sides of history, Laura and Ida, modern rationalist and fin de siècle occultist, are linked from the moment Ida channels Laura into the body of celebrated beauty and Irish freedom-fighter Maud Gonne. When Laura falls—from an ocean and a hundred years away—passionately, Victorianly in love with the young poet W. B. Yeats, their love affair entwines with Irish history and weaves through Yeats’s poetry until Ida discovers something she wants more than magic in the subterranean spaces in between.

With her Irish past threatening her orderly present and the man she loves in it, Laura and Yeats—the practical materialist and the poet magus—must find a way to make love last over time, in changing bodies, through modern damnation, and into the mythic past to link their pilgrim souls . . . or lose them forever.

::Contest Time::

How would you like to win a copy of In Dreams Begin by Skylar White? All you have to do is leave a comment here on my blog. Easy peasy. :-) Contest ends midnight, Sunday, August 7, 2011. Winner will be announced next week. Good luck!

Writing 'Till It Hurts

Ever have those mornings when you wake up fine but the happy highlight of your day is your first cup of coffee and it goes downhill from there? Yesterday was one of those days. I already have a knot on the tendon at the base of my left thumb and I managed to really aggravate the poor, abused hand. It started with lunch.

I somehow managed to get pickle relish on my fingers and not having a paper towel handy, I chose to fling my hand toward the faucet and sink. I just remember turning slightly and thinking I'll run my hand under the water and get the pickle relish off. Simple enough. Except I was half day dreaming and didn't realize my late m-i-l's heavy duty glass pitcher from the 1940's sat on the counter top in the direct path of my hand. Smack! Thankfully I didn't hurt the pitcher, but my hand didn't fare as well.

So instead of working on my love scenes, (I understand writing 'til it hurts, and pushing through the pain to pour out your soul, but come on, I didn't know they meant literally!) I sat in the living room with an ice pack on my hand, watching what passes for daytime TV these days. I knew things were bad, but when the best show on is a rerun of a 2010 episode of Kitchen Nightmares, you know daytime TV has gone to hell.

So I did what many people with a modicum of intellect do. I turned off the telly and grabbed a book. I chose to start Robert McCammon's Speaks The Nightbird, Volume 2: Evil Unveiled. Somewhere in a steam trunk, tucked away in a closet, is volume 1 I think. But I was in no condition yesterday to dig through trunks of books to find it.*

Here's the blurb:
Robert McCammon, author of the best-sellers Boy's Life and Gone South, returns to the forefront of American fiction with Speaks the Nightbird.
Is there a witch in Carolina in 1699? The people of the town of Fount Royal think so. Her name is Rachel; she's foreign, beautiful, and brave--no wonder so many people hate her.
Comes a traveling magistrate to hold a witch trial, and his clerk, Matthew. The evidence spells doom for Rachel: witch's tools are found in her home, she will not speak the Lord's Prayer, and witnesses swear they've seen her commit unspeakable acts with the Devil himself.
But Matthew hears the call of the nightbird. He wonders--is there any such thing as witchcraft? If Rachel can fly through the night on wings of evil, why hasn't she escaped from the town gaol?
And the town itself--who murdered Rachel's husband? How did the ratcatcher learn to hypnotize his prey? Who stands to gain if the witch is burned?
God and Satan are indeed at war in Fount Royal, and even the innocent are not safe. In the end, Matthew follows his head and his heart, and Rachel keeps an unlikely appointment with destiny.

I've made it to page 41 so far and can't wait to get back to it. But until then, I need to return to writing my own story. Wish me luck. I'm typing one handed with deadlines looming.

Until next time...
~Cass


*(Nope. Found the book I was thinking of this a.m. and it's not a volume anything. But it is an excellent McCammon book, They Thirst). So which book is considered Volume 1? If you know, please leave a comment. Thanks!)

My 34/60 Challenge continues: On The Hunt with Gena Showalter & Co.

On the Hunt is an anthology consisting of four novellas, one each from authors Gena Showalter, Shannon K. Butcher, Jessica Andersen, and Deidre Knight.

In Ever Night by Gena Showalter, Rose Pascal is a swept into a dark, haunting world every year on her birthday – a world ruled by a warrior king who hunts her kind. Neither of them can deny the passion that soon consumes them both.

In The Collector by Shannon K. Butcher, demon hunter Neal Etan sets out to acquire a powerful artifact, but finds much more in beautiful Viviana Rowan. The antique dealer’s touch strengthens his magic—and her life may be in Neal’s hands if they don’t recover the artifact in time. 

In Crystal Skull by Jessica Andersen, archaeologist Natalie Albright’s dig gets shut down amid rumors she has awakened the local demons. But when the terrifying underworld creatures attack, Natalie must team up with her ex to survive. As they fight the ancient menace, they discover a destiny that binds them together—and threatens to tear them apart.

And in Red Angel, by Deidre Knight, Jamie Angel, leader of the deadly Nightshades, has tracked every kind of monster and demon that roams the darkness, but none of his experiences can prepare him for falling in love with one of the creatures he’s trained to destroy. 

• ISBN-13: 9781101477113
• ISBN: 1101477113

√  Finished.

I'm Just A Girl...

Take a look at what's selling on bookshelves these days and you'll see a plethora of heroines that are gutsy, determined, fierce, and a lot of other adjectives. Basically, heroines today are strong—stronger than their male counterparts. To quote one author friend, "It's time heroines stood their ground, kicked some ass, and aren't TSTL." (aka Too Stupid To Live).

While I applaud the disappearance of the insipid and TSTL heroines, I think many of the tough kick-ass heroines of today lack an emotional depth and maturity, as if they skipped some developmental process along the way. They are larger than life, perhaps too large, because they all read as the same. Just the names changed to protect the not-so-innocent.

Don't get me wrong, I love the hybrid creation of fantasy and paranormal that spawned the urban fantasy genre, but I miss the clever ingenue—the ingenuity of a common woman with her foibles and klutzy physicality.

Must every heroine now be a kung fu and a weapons expert? Deadly with swords or teeth and claws? Does her lover have to be a world-weary, centuries old, lonely vampire?

Is there anything new under the sun—or the moon and stars, which adds depth and personality to the heroine, the story, and the genre?

Let me know with a shout out, and I'll try to get the author to guest blog here.

Until Next time...

~ Cass

What If Your Urban Fantasy Isn't Urban?

I love the hybrid of modern fantasy and paranormal, but what if the story you're reading doesn't fit within the 'urban' aspect of the genre? Why do so many books from this new breed of fantasy have to take place in a big city setting?

I'm sure paranormal events with paranormal beings happen everywhere. Look at Bigfoot. He's not a New York City or L.A. fixture (at least I don't think so although you may have dated his cousin recently, lol). He's out in his natural environment, doing whatever makes a sasquatch happy out in the woods. :P

So why don't we see more country or suburban fantasy novels?  Do readers relate more to the gritty grime and dark alleyways of the urban myth and legend? Oh, btw, if you see Sash, tell him I'm still waiting for that one on one interview a la Barbara Walters.

Until next time ~
Cass

Cassandra on Cherry Pickin's

Join Cassandra and Jeff Dwyer, Barbara Karmazin, Marjorie M Liu, Deborah MacGillivray, Jacquie Rogers, and Dawn Thompson as they chat live with host, Rowena Cherry on Rowena’s internet radio show, Cherry Pickings, Sunday, Sept 23rd from 9pm to 11pm!

In honor of SEA OTTER AWARENESS week, the authors and reviewers will discuss selkies and other salty shapeshifting heroes from the sea.

HOW TO LISTEN:
The radio station is:
http://www.internetvoicesradio.com
Instructions for how to listen are on that site.