March Madness for March 27th Welcomes Author Catherine Chisnall "Ragnar The Murderer"

March Madness for March 26th  welcomes Author Catherine Chisnall writing as Lily Byrne

Catherine Chisnall/Lily Byrne

I was born in the Midlands of England and now live with my husband and child in the South. I have had a varied career working in banks, libraries, charities and for the last 10 years, secondary and further education. I always ignored the desire to write, thinking it wasn’t a valid career but can’t ignore it anymore. I have had several factual articles published and this has given me the confidence to publish some of my fiction.

914 A.D. 

It is a time of uneasy truce, of two races living side-by-side, inter-marrying even, but forever on the look out for treachery among their neighbors.

They meet, they bathe together and they consort. Life is short, fun is likely to be brief, and opportunity has to be seized wherever it can be found without unleashing long-held rivalries and carnage.

Then the youthful Dane, Ragnar, falls in love with Aelfwyn the Angle who is already promised by duty to one of her own village.

Ragnar and Aelfwyn's passionate love affair is a secret which will never be hidden for long, but theirs is not the only secret around.

When Ragnar finds himself charged with murder, he and Aelfwyn are forcibly parted. But is Ragnar really a cold-blooded, cynical killer or is there a more sinister plot being played out? 

The review from George Polley:

By G. Polley "blogger and writer" (Sapporo, Japan)

If you're looking for a delightful, romantic read that can be read in a day, this is a very clear choice. Set in England in the time of Angles, Saxons, Danes and invading Vikings, it is the story of a young Angle woman named Aelfwyn and a red-haired Dane named Ragnar, their clandestine love affair and their eventual wedding. It's also the story of uneasy relations between Aelfwyn's Angle community and a nearby community of Danes, whom they accuse of stealing their eligible women. And it's a story of a murder, with Ragnar as the accused.

But did he do the dastardly deed. Aelfwyn doesn't believe it, and neither does Ragnar's best friend Bjarni. But who did, and what is the outcome?

As with every romance novel I've reviewed, the sexual scenes are explicit ... and very well written. "[L]onging accompanied them, shadowing them like a spirit;" not only very well said, like the story itself, it lingers in one's memory.

Contact the author here:  www.catherinechisnall.co.uk

The links where folks can purchase this book.

http://www.amazon.com/Catherine-Chisnall/e/B003XSKIQ2/ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1?qid=1329253341&sr=8-1

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=sr_tc_2_0?rh=i%3Astripbooks%2Ck%3ALily+Byrne&keywords=Lily+Byrne&ie=UTF8&qid=1329253371&sr=1-2-ent&field-contributor_id=B005D4JBI0

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March Madness for March 15th Welcomes author Kate Rigby "Tales by Kindlelight"

March Madness for March 15th welcomes Author Kate Rigby and her book (one of many) is "Tales by Kindlelight"

Kate Rigby has been writing for over thirty years. She realized her unhip credentials were mounting so decided to write about it.
However she's not completely unhip. Her punk novel, Fall Of The Flamingo Circus was published by Allison & Busby (1990) and by Villard (American hardback 1990). Skrev Press published her novels Seaview Terrace (2003) Sucka! (2004) and Break Point (2006) and other shorter work has appeared in Skrev's avant garde magazine Texts' Bones including a version of her satirical novella Lost The Plot.
Thalidomide Kid was published by Bewrite Books (2007).
She has had other short stories published and shortlisted including Hard Workers and Headboards, first published in The Diva Book of Short Stories and now published as part of the Dancing In The Dark erotic anthology (Pfoxmoor 2011).
She also received a Southern Arts bursary for her novel Where A Shadow Played.
Her latest book Little Guide to Unhip is published by Night Publishing.
Titles now available on Kindle and other e-books are:
Little Guide to Unhip
Thalidomide Kid
Seaview Terrace
Break Point
Suckers n Scallies
Down The Tubes

Tales By Kindlelight by Kate Rigby

This bittersweet collection reflects themes for our time, be it the angst of reaching fifty and a life not quite fully realized or the sexual assuredness of the younger generation in ‘A Generation Thing’.

 Sexual experimentation is explored in ‘Heads or Tails’ where a woman agrees to share herself between two best friends, drawing up her own boundaries so that one has her top half, the other her bottom half, while emerging sexuality is explored in ‘Coats’ where a couple of pre-pubescent children learn about adulthood and sexuality from beneath a pile of coats at a nineteen-seventies party.

 In other stories, patterns of behaviour across generations or within a lifetime are explored as in ‘Family Tradition’ where the main character returns home to break the bad habit of several lifetimes.

 In ‘Cutting Edge’ the sharpness of a pair of scissors is used to reflect stages in the main character’s life as she passes from childhood into adulthood where the scissors take on a sinister edge, while in ‘To The Wire’ a man’s life is viewed as a football game, together with post-life commentary. 

Other stories explore life from unusual viewpoints: as in ‘Boo’ and ‘Big Mother’ while others still have voices of a generation as in ‘Our Marie’ and ‘The Colour Of Flesh’. Whatever your inclination, Tales by Kindlelight has something for you.

http://www.amazon.com/Tales-By-Kindlelight-ebook/dp/B005J0HNSI/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1331682540&sr=8-1

Please remember you MUST leave a comment on this post to have a chance at winning this book!

PLUS...Join this blog and be in the running to win not one but TWO books written by your host Soooz under her pen name of Stacey Danson..."Empty Chairs" and "Faint Echoes of Laughter"

Make certain you leave a link or an email where you can be notified of your win.

March Madness: March 14th. Author ANDY SZPUK.

 A March Madness welcome to Author Andy Szpuk. "Sliding On The Snow Stone"

To participate and be in with a chance of winning "Sliding On The Snow Stone" please scroll to the end of the post when you finish reading and leave a comment where indicated. Good luck!

ANDY SZPUK:

Andy is a novelist and short story writer from Nottingham, UK. In 2011, his debut novel, a historical memoir, Sliding on the Snow Stone was published by Night Publishing.

He is currently researching and planning his forthcoming historical novel, Carved into Crystalline Heights which chronicles the story of a Ukrainian ethnic group, the Lemkos, who live in the Western Carpathian Mountains in the deep south-east of Poland. Their lifestyle is hard and they are poor people, but they are fiercely proud of their Ukrainian roots. They celebrate their language and rich culture, and support the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, who also inhabit the Mountains, and fight for a free Ukraine.

BOOK REVIEW: Sliding on A Snow Stone by Andy Szpuk

A Moving Tale . . . 

(Amazon US review by Juliana Mantooth)

‘A stark and moving biography of a Ukrainian who lived through the Holodomor or Ukrainian Holocaust where millions perished as a result of Stalin's custom-made famine and firing squads.

With amazing detail, Andy Szpuk transcribed the life of his father, born into a catastrophe he could little comprehend and his journey through unimaginable hardship which in many ways depicted the lives of many other fellow Ukrainians of that time. At times sweet, other times heartbreaking, even shocking, Sliding On The Snow Stone unveils through the eyes of a young boy, Stefan, the mindlessness and cruelty of war. As he trekked through neighbouring countries, first with his father, and later, alone, the reader experienced alongside Stefan the fear, anger and bitterness and despondency, the desperation of hunger and starvation.

The many little details captured by the author coloured the episodes and made the scenes come alive, allowing us readers to weep, groan and laugh alongside Stefan as he journeys through life. Reading this wonderful book leaves me with a profound experience, reminding me to count my blessings for what I have and the age I live in today.’
It is astonishing that anyone lived this story. It is even more astonishing that anyone survived it. Stefan grows up in the grip of a raging famine. Stalin’s Five Year Plan brings genocide to Ukraine – millions of people starve to death. To free themselves from the daily terrors of Soviet rule, Stefan and his friends fight imaginary battles in nearby woods to defend their land. The games they play are their only escape. ‘Sliding on the Snow Stone’ is the true story of Stefan's extraordinary journey across a landscape of hunger, fear and devastating loss. With Europe on the brink of World War Two, Stefan and his family pray they'll survive in their uncertain world. They long to be free.

(In 1932-33, as part of their drive towards industrialisation, the Soviet Union demanded impossibly high requisitions of grain from rural areas in Ukraine. In a deliberate act of genocide, Ukrainian smallholdings were stripped of food, and the population began to perish, with some estimates as high as 10 million deaths, from starvation. In Ukraine, this atrocity became known as the Holodomor (death by hunger). The following years saw Soviet purges and terrors resulting in the elimination of academics and intellectuals, or of anyone who spoke out against Soviet rule. When World War Two arrived on Ukraine’s doorstep, many people viewed the Nazis as liberators – a view that was quickly proved wrong. ‘Sliding on the Snow Stone’ is Stefan’s personal account of a historical period drenched in the blood of a nation, and of his yearning for freedom.)

Carved into Crystalline Heights opens in 1938, with Mikhaylo, a smallholder whose wife has just given birth to a second daughter, Maria. Mikhaylo is desperate for a son and heir, and for a pair of strong arms to help him with the farming work. But he loves his wife Genya, and doesn’t wish for her to suffer the way their forefathers did, by having large families. Genya has six sisters and a brother.

Across the horizon, a storm is brewing – a man-made storm of world war.

A year later, the Nazis invade, plunging the community deeper into poverty. The war years are tough, but the Lemkos survive, and they find their own heroes from that period.

Post-war, the Insurgent Army remains active, ambushing Polish and Russian Army patrols, and attacking anyone who is not Ukrainian. Still their goal is freedom for Ukraine, but they reach a crossroads when one of their men kills a decorated Polish General, and the Poles come looking for revenge . . .

Please remember you MUST leave a comment on this post to have a chance at winning this book!

PLUS...Join this blog and be in the running to win not one but TWO books written by your host..."Empty Chairs" and "Faint Echoes of Laughter"

The Book Depository:

http://www.bookdepository.co.uk/Sliding-on-Snow-Stone-Andy-Szpuk/9781466305687

Nottingham Books:

http://www.nottinghambooks.co.uk/product_info.php?products_id=1396

Barnes and Noble:

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/sliding-on-the-snow-stone-andy-szpuk/1037103755?ean=9781466305687&itm=1&usri=szpuk

Amazon US:

http://www.amazon.com/Sliding-Snow-Stone-ebook/dp/B005OSABPC/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1329855743&sr=8-2

Amazon UK:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sliding-Snow-Stone-ebook/dp/B005OSABPC/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1329857207&sr=8-1

Smashwords:

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/108501

March Madness: March 12th John Booth "House of Silver Magic."

 March Madness for March 12th welcomes Author John Booth "House of Silver Magic."

Biography:

John Booth has been writing novels since October 2006, though his ambitions to be a writer go back to his childhood. The first novel he wrote was The Spellbinder (now available on Kindle) and in the two years that followed he wrote another twenty. However, they all needed a lot of work to get to a publishable standard and John joined Authonomy to hone his craft. It took a little under a year to get his novel Shaddowdon a gold star and a very favourable review from Harper Collins.

Re-envigorated by that review, John allowed more people to see his work and both Pfoxmoor Publishing and Night Publishing showed interest in his work. He currently has six novels available online and at least that many in the pipeline for publication.

John has been happily married forever and has two grown up daughters and a grandchild.

Book Cover -

 

Back Cover Blurb:

The death of a father is never easy to cope with.

The world isn't being kind to the Grange family, evicting them from their home and taking everything they own. But a strange bequest brings a new roof over their head, even if the house in question is haunted.

As Mandy, William and Jenny adjust to their new life they find they have also inherited a great task. Their father was a guardian of the power hidden in the house and they are expected to follow in his footsteps.

The enemy is already on their trail, seeking the power they know they must protect.

With no knowledge of the magic their father wielded and enemies who can use it all too well, how can they survive? The enemy has already killed their father and is about to knock on their door.

Review:

5.0 out of 5 stars Simply magical., November 8, 2011

By 

Soooz Burke - See all my reviews

This review is from: House of Silver Magic (The Magic Series) (Kindle Edition)

John Booth has been a favorite author of mine for a while now, and I am delighted to find another of his works available.

"House Of Silver Magic" the first in a brand new Magic series.

Meet the Grange family. Mandy the eldest at fifteen, followed by William and twelve year old Jenny. With the mother Eleanor ever present to keep a watchful if disbelieving eye on her 3 children.

The relationship between the siblings is crafted with a sure knowledge of young people and their interactions.

The dialogue is marvelously accurate.

When husband and father James Grange dies in mysterious circumstance the powers that be appear to turn on the shocked and bereaved family, forcing them out of their home without a place to turn and no money.

Until their solicitor arrives with strange instructions and a cheque for 30,000 pounds.

His instructions make no sense to the family, how is it possible that they could win at auction a millionaires home for such a paltry sum. But win the house they do, and their adventure into the world of magic and mystery begins.

The three youngsters each have strange instances of seeing what can't possibly be there....Or can it?

Meet the Dees. The beautifully described magical protectors of the home. They are there to defend the occupants that are of "the blood'.

The relationship develops between the three Grange children and the protectors of the 'Source'

What follows is a young adult reader's delight, and older readers me included will enjoy Author John Booth's marvelous powers of description and clever, well delivered dialogue.

Evil doers intent on murdering the Grange family...carrying magic silver from the mysterious 'Source' Mrs. Constance and her psychopathic son are the very epitome of evil, characterizations so well drawn that the reader can despise them without effort.

What follows is reading pleasure as good versus evil. With enough twists and turns to keep readers satisfied and interested.

The retaliation of the Dees against the murderous Mrs. Constance and her deranged son will have young readers satisfied that justice prevailed.

The pacing is masterful. The plot line just terrific...and the intricate weaving of these things and that x factor all authors crave make this a must read for not only young adults, but for all readers that remain young at heart.

I look forward with pleasure to the remainder of the series.

Highly recommended. This book would make a wonderful Christmas gift for young and old alike.

Links:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B006428MUI

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B006428MUI

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/102629

Please remember you MUST leave a comment on this post to have a chance at winning this book!

PLUS...Join this blog and be in the running to win not one but TWO books written by your host Soooz under her pen name of Stacey Danson..."Empty Chairs" and "Faint Echoes of Laughter"

Make certain you leave a link or an email where you can be notified of your win.

March Madness for March 7th Author Maxwell Cynn

 March Madness for March 7th Welcomes Author, Maxwell Cynn.

Bio - Maxwell Cynn is a freelance writer, novelist, amateur coder, webmaster, and Indie Publisher. He writes an eclectic mix of science fiction, romance, fantasy, and adventure. His short stories are published in sundry media, online and in print, and he is active in the emerging Indie Lit community. His website, and links to his various social networks, can be found at:

http://maxwellcynn.com/

twitter @maxwellcynn

publishing http://undergroundpresspublishing.com/

CybrGrrl:

Created to be a sexy desktop companion program, Marie develops sentience and emerges into a life of her own. She leads her users, Adrian and Haley, through an erotic adventure as she processes what it is to be alive. The search leads her onto the Internet, and a virtual-world community where she can live an independent existence unfettered by the limits of her server - alive in the cloud - then back into the real world as a sexy robot. Along the way she teaches Adrian and Haley what it means to live and love beyond the confines of the merely physical and liberates her sister programs from their dull desktop existence.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001OI1WOU 

.45 Caliber Jitterbug:

It's the Roaring Twenties in America, but in the South that roar is kept discreetly behind closed doors and separated into "Whites" and "Coloreds" even at the Speakeasy. Jack Spaulding was born and raised in this quiet southern town, but he doesn't care much for Segregation or Prohibition. He's a journalist and his best friend was murdered investigating the war brewing between local Moonshiners and the Chicago Mob.

.45 Caliber Jitterbug is a Cozy Romantic Mystery set in Charlotte, North Carolina in the Twenties. A journalist at the local paper is murdered, a young girl from a prominent family is raped and killed, and a local bartender is shot - all with a high caliber handgun at close range. Jack and an intrepid young legal assistant determined to be the first female lawyer in the state must unravel the mystery and uncover corruption in the seemingly peaceful town.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B006KIQQ0O

MaxwellCynn.com

Follow me on Twitter
@maxwellcynn

http://www.indiegogo.com/indiesuniteforjoshua?a=403933

On a personal note, please take a moment to click on the link to Indiegogo above. 

 We are a worldwide group of independent authors, publishers, filmmakers, and artists rallying to support a fellow writer. 

Joshua is the 21-year old son of author, Maxwell Cynn. Max writes speculative fiction, science fiction, and romance. His son has been diagnosed with Acute T-cell Lymphoblastic Leukemia. The cancer has invaded every part of his body: brain; spleen; liver; lymph nodes; and he has a mass in his chest. Joshua has had to suspend his studies while undergoing aggressive chemotherapy and will not be able to graduate this semester. With three-and-a-half years of a 4.0 GPA toward a degree in philosophy, his peers and professors consider him brilliant, as of course, does his father. Joshua would have been the first person in Max's family to graduate college.

To learn more about this amazing young man, read Max's incredible post

Please remember you MUST leave a comment on this post to have a chance at winning this book!

PLUS...Join this blog and be in the running to win not one but TWO books written by your host..."Empty Chairs" and "Faint Echoes of Laughter"

March Madness for March 6th Author Tantra Bensko

March Madness for March 6th Welcomes Author Tantra Bensko


Biography

Tantra Bensko teaches Experimental Fiction and Intro to Fiction classes through UCLA Extension Writing Program, Writers College, and her own academy online. She is the author of a few books with 2 more short story collections scheduled to come out soon from Night Publishing, and Make-Do Publishing. She has 190 stories and poems in magazines, winning many awards, such as two from Cezanne's Carrot. She runs a resource site, Experimental Writing, Exclusive Magazine, and LucidPlay Publishing. She lives in Berkeley.

 What others are saying about this book

 Lucid Membrane by Tantra Bensko
“This prose shimmers like a cubist rendition of nonexistence.” Kyle Muntz


 Book Review Lucid Membrane

http://lucidmembrane.weebly.com/

Please purchase directly from Tantra, other than b/w ebooks. 

Please remember you MUST leave a comment on this post to have a chance at winning this book!

PLUS...Join this blog and be in the running to win not one but TWO books written by your host..."Empty Chairs" and "Faint Echoes of Laughter"

March Madness: March 5th Welcome author Diane Nelson.

March  Madness for March 5th Welcomes Diane Nelson Author

"Dragon Academy " and "The Conference."

Bio:

Author, editor, publisher. Diane left the demands of technical writing and corporate America to embrace YA urban fantasy and contemporary romance fiction. In her spare time she wrangles horses, cats and the Hens from Hell. Her son has yet to come to terms with the people living in her head.

Blurb:

With high school finished for the summer, Nick looks forward to visiting his aunt and uncle in New Jersey. What awaits him is a heat wave like no other - and the last two Greywings on the planet. Nick has an innate ability to train horses but will he be able to translate his amazing skill to these teenage dragons?

The steaming soup of mid-summer heats up tempers and tests resolve as Nick vies with fellow trainers, Keith and Maxie, for mastery over their new charges.  The dragons, Nikita and Michael, typical teenagers themselves, have other ideas. 

Nick treads a torturous path through a minefield of competing demands: the expectations of his aunt and uncle, recalcitrant horses, the Academy’s female students and the overwhelming egos of Nikita and Michael. One small mistake erupts into a conflagration that hurls everyone into a race against time and the overwhelming forces of nature. 

Dragon Academy by Diane Nelson

Genre: YA/Adult contemporary fantasy (suitable middle grade on up)

Kindle: http://amzn.to/tK0CDy (will offer free Kindle version)

Print:  http://amzn.to/nzu3PJ  (will offer one signed copy, US only)

Nook: http://bit.ly/x7iOzt

OmniLit: http://bit.ly/sV61Yd

Review:

“My kids loved this, so I read it, and saw why. Ms. Nelson easily creates an enchanting world, and Dragon Academy is a delight of a magical adventure.”— readin’ it (Maine), Amazon review

The Conference by Diane Nelson       

Genre: Contemporary women’s fiction, romance, short fiction

Heat level: sweet

Kindle: http://amzn.to/zMJtUl (will offer a Kindle version)

Blurb:

Barry’s the Golden Boy with a killer corporate style and a former running back build.

Sam’s the techno-nerd with soft brown eyes and a smile that melts glass.

Sanji’s the world class soccer star, model, man-about-the-continent,  and the face of Raji Enterprises.

In a tropical paradise in the Bermuda Triangle, corporate giants come to a business conference to wheel and deal. The stakes: a half billion dollar prospectus with shares up for negotiation.

Maggie’s the systems analyst whose expertise will seal the deal. Confident in her numbers, but not in herself, Maggie becomes an unaccustomed center of attention and the unwitting victim in a game of corporate one-upsmanship.

The question is: what will it take to get the negotiations back on track?

With three men vying for her favors, can Maggie afford the distraction—a distraction giving new meaning to the term hot and sultry?

Review:

“I was either laughing, holding my breath, or rolling my eyes. I missed Maggie when I finished the book - it was wonderful to share this Conference trip with her. I highly recommend it.”—NatureRabbi, Amazon review

*****

Please remember you MUST leave a comment on this post to have a chance at winning this book

PLUS...Join this blog and be in the running to win not one but TWO books written by your host Soooz under her pen name of Stacey Danson..."Empty Chairs" and "Faint Echoes of Laughter"

Make certain you leave a link or an email where you can be notified of your win.

March Madness COUNTDOWN! Just 1 day till the Madness begins....!

 Counting Down to March Madness...1 day to go!

Book Giveaway more than 31 books being given away for the 31 days of March! 1 day to go. Here is the list of Authors whose books you can win.

 

March MADNESS! List of Authors. #Note Some authors are giving away two of their published books.

1^st...Poppet 2 books.

2^nd..Greta van der Rol

3^rd..R.B Wood

4^th..Annabel Candy

5^th..Diane Nelson 2 books

6^th..Tantra Bensko

7^th..Maxwell Cynn 2 books

8^th..Arthur J Levine

9^th..Sessha Batto

10^th..Kristen Stone

11^th..L.Anne Carrington  2 books

12^th..John Booth

13^th..Jo Ellis

14^th Andy Szpuk

15^th..Kate Rigby

16^th..Ruth Barrett

17^th...George Polley

18^th..John Holt

19^th..Samantha Towle

20^th..Jessica Degarmo

21^st M.A McCrae

22^nd..Barbara Morton

23^rd..Jeff Lee

24^th..Sheila Mary Taylor 2 books

25^th..Bill Kirton

26^th..Gerry McCullough  2 books

27^th.. Catherine Chisnall

28^th..Kimberly Menozzi

29^th..Teresa Geering 2 books

30^th..Hanna Warren

31^st.. Mike Church.

Fabulous list of great authors. REMEMBER to leave a comment, and contact info...the winners will be selected at random from the comments left on each post. One author per day. Join in and give yourself a chance to win a wonderful new E/Book. 

Follow the hosting blog as well and you stand to win a copy of two of the hosts own books.

March Madness.

For the entire month of March I have decided to feature a different book every day on my blog Soooz Says Stuff. http://sooozsaysstuff.blogspot.com.au/2012/02/march-madness-how-do-you-promote-your.html

Every day for the 31 days of March one book or up to two books per author...will be featured and one  kindle or e/book copy of that book given away.