Monday, June 24, 2013

Cover Reveal: Greenshift - Heidi Rub Miller

To celebrate the cover reveal for Greenshift, the e-book will be temporarily 99 cents at Amazon!





A tale set within the world of Ambasadora.


Mari's rare eye color makes her a pariah within Upper Caste society, which is why she prefers plants to people...except David, the former Armadan captain who shuttles scientists around on a refurbished pleasure cruiser.


But someone else is interested in Mari and her distinctive look--an obsessed psychopath who tortures and murders women for pleasure.


When the killer chooses Mari as his next victim, the soldier inside David comes alive, but it is Mari who must fight for her own life and prove she isn't as fragile as the flowers she nurtures.


Greenshift by Heidi Ruby Miller


Cover Art by Bradley Sharp


Foreword by Dana Marton


Space Opera/Science Fiction Romance paperback coming from Dog Star Books in August 2013



Monday, June 17, 2013

STORM CLOUDS Blog Tour with Bewitching Book Tours

by Mary Sutton / @mary_sutton73



It's here! For the next month, I'm doing a blog tour through Bewitching BookTours for Storm Clouds: Hero's Sword Vol. 2. At various stops along the tour, you can win an e-copy of Storm Clouds (your choice of format - Kindle, Nook, Kobo, iBooks). At at the end of the tour, one winner will receive a Kindle Paperwhite or Nook Simple Touch (Rafflecopter widget below).

I'm looking forward to "seeing" folks along the tour, so please take a moment and stop by any of the sites below!

June 17 Interview
Mom With A Kindle

June 18 Guest blog
Escape Into A Book
Eatsleepread88.blogspot.com

June 19 Intevriew
Books in the Hall

June 20 Guest blog
So Much To Write So Little Time

June 21 Interview

June 25 spotlight and interview
Happy Tails & Tales

June 26 Spotlight
Lisa’s World of Books

June 27 Spotlight and review
Mom Loves 2 Read

June 28 Guest blog

June 28 Review (Power Play and Storm Clouds)

July 3 Guest blog
The Creatively Green Write at Home Mom

July 4 Interview
Books & Tales

July 5 Spotlight
Reading In Twilight

July 8 Guest blog
Buffy Kennedy

July 9 review (Power Play & Storm Clouds)
Brooke Blogs

July 10 Interview and review
A Chick Reading

July 11 Spotlight
Fang-tastic Books

July 12 review
Gimme The Scoop Reviews

July 15 Spotlight and review
Teen Blurb


a Rafflecopter giveaway

Monday, June 10, 2013

Being a Stereotype Doesn't Make it Untrue

by Mary Sutton / @mary_sutton73

One of the reviews for Power Play: Hero's Sword Vol. 1 mentioned that the conflict between the main character, Jaycee, and the "popular" cheerleaders was a bit stereotypical. When I read that, I kind of stepped back. Was I stereotyping? Maybe. Perhaps I was relying on my own memories of middle school a little too much. Maybe it's become sort of an overused trope of writing.

For the non-writers, a trope is technically using words in anything other than their literal sense, such as metaphors. But Wikipedia says, "Since the 1970s, the word has also come to mean a commonly recurring literary device, motif, or cliche." (emphasis mine)

So, using tropes is not necessarily bad, but using cliches isn't the best writing. I mean, who wants to have worn out, uninspiring prose based on overused, trite ideas?

So I began thinking: Maybe I need to backtrack here a little. Maybe things have changed since I was mocked for not wearing Jordache jeans (you children of the 80s will understand that).

Remember that saying? The more things change...


My daughter is almost Jaycee's age. Normally a strong, independent child, this week was, well, not pretty. See, the girls at school are taunting, dare I say bullying her. And whereas boys are bad enough, at least they are physical. You can hit the bully back. Girls are sneaky. It's all verbal. "Those jeans look dorky," or "you're so ugly," or "you're so lame because you don't have an iPhone" (I am not making that last one up - seriously).

And I'm right back to Jaycee and her cheerleader adversaries.

What I realized is that it may be a trope, and maybe it's a little stereotypical and cliched. But it's still true. This garbage still goes on. Kids, boys and girls, still find themselves outside the sphere of "cool" for the stupidest of reasons.

Which tells me that Hero's Sword is real and it sends a message that is still relevant. Even if you aren't "cool," you're all right. It's okay not to be like the "cool" kids. Find your identity. Claim your space. And don't be ashamed of it.

That's Jaycee's journey. That's the journey that my daughter, and the thousands of kids like her, are taking right now (okay, across the US it's summer vacation, but you get my point).

They say that for your writing to be good, you have to feel passionately about it. After this week, I'm feeling rather passionate about Jaycee. I've got the final scene of the series written already. I know where I want Jaycee to go. I hope I can get her there in (relatively) one piece, especially emotionally.

To quote Donald Maass, I'm not sure Hero's Sword is going to change the world. but if it makes one kid feel better about standing his or her ground and saying, "Hey, you can't make me feel bad about myself, bully," well, I'll consider it a job well done.

Photo courtesy of nist6ss; used under Creative Commons.

Tuesday, June 4, 2013

COVER REVEAL: The Revelations of Preston Black

by Mary Sutton / @mary_sutton73


THE REVELATIONS OF PRESTON BLACK BY JASON JACK MILLER

Coming June 2013 from Raw Dog Screaming Press


Cover Art by Brad Vetter

Preston and Katy face a new darkness....

Sometimes a battle between good and evil doesn't look much like the ones they show in movies. The good guys don't always wear white, and they don’t always walk away with the win.

And sometimes you're better off with the devil you know.

The last time Preston went down to the crossroads, his best friend died and he nearly lost his brother. But Old Scratch doesn't take kindly to fools, especially not those who come knocking at his front door. And before all is said and done, he's going to teach Preston a thing or two about what it really means to sacrifice.

LINKS:
Read the first 100 pages of The Revelations of Preston Black - http://jasonjackmiller.blogspot.com/p/the-revelations-of-preston-black.html

Pre-order The Revelations of Preston Black at Raw Dog Screaming Press - http://www.rawdogscreaming.com/books/the-revelations-of-preston-black.html