New Release: “The Good Life” by Genevieve Dewey (plus excerpt)

 

The Good Life

Detective Kyle Anderson is a man of simple tastes and reasonably low expectations. Give him a juicy steak and no homicides, and he’d call it good. When his sister Katelyn got engaged to his best friend Dominic, he’d figured the worst of the unnecessary drama in his life was over. But that was before Dom’s free-spirited, twig-eating, exasperating sister Demetria came back to Nebraska and completely hijacked the planning of the wedding, starting with inviting Dom’s ex-wife Isabel. Now Kate’s so determined to prove Isabel is up to no good that she insists Kyle date her to keep her away from Dom. Soon Kyle is so knee deep in Anderson-Valentini dramatics, he’s thinking of changing his name and moving to Tibet. If he could just get Demi the impossibly sexy granola-flake off his mind long enough to do it…

My review:

“The Good Life” by Genevieve Dewey is a beautiful novel that sits somewhere between romance and character study. Two introductory short stories give us a quick insight into the relationship between Detective Kyle Anderson and his best friend Dominic and also between Dominic and Kyle’s sister Kate.

The latter two finally come together as lovers but things get complicated once again when the wedding is being planned, an ex-wife shows up and Eros throws some more arrows into the members of the two families. 

This is a very enjoyable read with some wonderful human observations about our goals and desires in life, about chances, about being true to yourself and about finding out what a good life is to you.

Dewey has chosen a great set of characters to highlight all of these issues and to drive the often amusing and sometimes more dramatic plot onwards. Charming and philosophical in places this is a very pleasant book that should find a wide audience.

 

Author’s Note: Also included in this book are two shorts:

The Bird Day Battalion

Meet Katelyn Anderson, a play by the rules, temporarily out of work archaeologist desperate to pull off the perfect Thanksgiving dinner for her family. Enter Dominic Valentini, her oldest friend and former neighbor, a take chances, take control, think outside the box kind of man. Kate needs his help. Dom just needs her.

The V-Day Aversion

It’s two days from Valentine’s Day, and Dominic is a man with a plan. Katelyn is a woman with her own plan: avoid whatever Dominic’s got planned. When Katelyn’s sister Kandace asks Kate to help catch her estranged husband cheating, Kate jumps at the opportunity because she hates Valentine’s Day. Poor Dom just wants Kate to stand still long enough to give her a Valentine’s Day to remember. Can he offer her something to change her mind?

About the Author:

Genevieve lives in Nebraska with her husband and three children. She has a Master’s Degree in Anthropology and a passion for reading, writing, and research. Her favorite subjects are organized crime, anthropology, and Chicago where her family is from (she still hasn’t quite forgiven them for leaving). Her books include:

The Downey Trilogy

First, I Love You

Second of All

Third Time’s The Charm

Dom & Kate

The Bird Day Battalion

The V-Day Aversion

The Good Life

Please feel free to connect with Gen online:

www.GenevieveDewey.com

(Get missing scenes and supplemental flash fiction!)

Twitter: @GenevieveDewey

Facebook * Goodreads * Pinterest * Google+ * YouTube

The Good Life Buy Links

Amazon: smarturl.it/GoodLifeDK

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-good-life-genevieve-dewey/1119711430?ean=2940045999021

https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/the-good-life/id887784403?mt=11

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/446614

 

The Good Life excerpt author reading:

www.youtube.com/embed/xdr1lLlaxDM

The Good Life excerpt :

“I can’t stay with you!”

“Why not? It’s not like we didn’t start the evening in bed together. All joking aside, I’m not in the habit of molesting my girlfriends while they sleep.”

“Kyle! That’s not—Err…” Demi growled, flailing her hands as she paced. “How—I mean why—I just…” she stopped and drew in a large breath. “How did you go from thinking I’m an idiot to deciding to hound me for a relationship?”

“Correction, I have never thought you’re an idiot. I think you are the farthest thing from an idiot. You are an intelligent, successful woman with an incomprehensible hatred of bacon who occasionally pretends to be a flake. Hence the nickname granola-flake. Which is way worse than actually being an idiot.”

She huffed.

“That’s my point though. Underneath all this,” she waved her hands again. “…is still that undercurrent of disapproval from you.”

“So change my mind. You’ve already proved me wrong on one major thing. I’m more open minded than you give me credit for. You seem determined to still see me as a narrow-minded bigot. This is a two-way street, woman,” Kyle growled.

“What was that one thing?” she asked, blinking in consternation.

“Let’s put it this way… I can tell when a woman hasn’t had a lot of sexual experience. Either that or you have shitty ass taste in men who are selfish in bed. But you deliberately cultivate this flower child, free love, come-and-get-it, sex goddess persona.”

Her mouth worked for several seconds. “I have too had a lot of sex!” She cringed and looked side to side, then spoke in a lower tone, “I mean, not a lot…but plenty.” Of course, most of it had been in the same calendar year, but he didn’t need to know that.

“So shitty taste, then,” he shrugged. “Alright, fine. Mystery solved.”

“Uh,” she huffed. “What’s that say about you?”

“Nothing, since I picked you.”

“No, you didn’t.”

“Yes, I did. I am currently the only person in this relationship who’s done any conscious picking.”

“We are not in a relationship!”

“Says who?”

“You are a maddening man…” she replied, utterly flabbergasted. “It takes two people to be in a relationship. You can’t just wake up one morning and decide you’re going to be with someone.”

“Sure you can. Technically speaking, it was you who made the first move.”

“No, I didn’t!”

“I guess that’s just how us Andersons roll. When we decide to do something, or change our minds about something and go in a different direction we just…” Kyle skipped his hands together, making a clapping sound, “…do it. Some, like Kate, take forever to get to that decision, but there’s no hesitancy on the course of action once the decision’s been made.”

Demi narrowed her eyes, mouth slightly parted. “You wouldn’t be saying that if you’d participated in any of the wedding planning with her.”

“That has never been about doubting her decision to marry Dominic and everything about Kate’s bad habit of trying to please everyone even knowing it is simply not possible to please everyone at the same time,” he said, then stood up and grabbed her again, scooping her off her feet.

She gasped and reflexively grabbed his shoulders. He sat back down on the chair and tucked her head with his again.

She sighed with a sudden realization, “You’re just trying to distract me, aren’t you?”

He smiled at her, “Maybe.  A little bit.”

She reached up and gently traced his swollen lip again then laid her head back against his shoulder.

“That’s what boyfriends do,” he continued.

She laughed and smacked his chest, “Are not.”

“She says while sitting on my lap… hours after having exchanged bodily fluids—”

“Stop!” she laughed and smacked him again.

He chuckled and squeezed her.

“Thank you,” she whispered after a moment.

He answered with another kiss to her head. She was willing to admit the ‘solid, dependable type’ did have its benefits.

She sighed and squeezed him back. “You’re a good man, Kyle Anderson.”

“Eh, I’m alright,” Kyle kissed her again. “I just wanted to let you know… I mean, I try to ease my girlfriends into this, but… my family’s sort of insane. Just so you know.”

She laughed so hard she started crying, and that seemed so silly that it made her laugh some more. He rocked her a bit and it wasn’t long before she dozed off again, held tight in his arms.

–The Good Life © 2014 by Genevieve Dewey,All Rights Reserved.

 

 

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THANK YOU!

My most recent giveaway has just ended and I have been asked to report back and tell you how it went and how I did it.

Well. 

I applied to BookBub and paid to have my book listed. Probably thanks to Daz Smith and his fantastic design for the Cover I got approved. I also need to thank for the many thoughtful and elaborate reviews that vouched for the book on Goodreads and Amazon and helped the presentation.
I agreed to a change of date to accommodate their publication schedule. I was featured on a Monday and it was perfectly fine.

Thanks to all people on twitter and Facebook and the bloggers, friends and followers who shared the information about the giveaway. I posted in Facebook Groups for Free Books, scheduled tweets and participated in retweeting during those five days.

I had 8000 downloads before BookBub published, so even without it this would have been a massive success. After the BookBub advert I was also in the Midlist, ReadCheaply and  SweetFreeBooks.

In Five days I managed

57,290 downloads worldwide

I was #1 in both US and UK Free Family Life downloads and

#3 overall in the US for free downloads.

#5 overall in the UK free download charts.

A fantastic feeling. Thanks again for everyone who helped.

Reviews are now coming in from total strangers, most of which are enjoying the book.

Time To Let Go:

Time to Let Go is a contemporary family drama set in Britain. Following a traumatic incident at work Stewardess Hanna Korhonen decides to take time off work and leaves her home in London to spend quality time with her elderly parents in rural England. There she finds that neither can she run away from her problems, nor does her family provide the easy getaway place that she has hoped for. Her mother suffers from Alzheimer’s disease and, while being confronted with the consequences of her issues at work, she and her entire family are forced to reassess their lives. The book takes a close look at family dynamics and at human nature in a time of a crisis. Their challenges, individual and shared, take the Korhonens on a journey of self-discovery and redemption.

On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Time-To-Let-Go/257989361049799?ref=hl

On Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/21947533-time-to-let-go

On Amazon: http://bookShow.me/B00K9G8M8W

Author Wednesday – Janna Yeshanova

P.C. ZICK

Welcome to Author Wednesday. Today I welcome Janna Yeshanova, the author of romance stories set in Russia. Love is Never Past Tense, the first in the series, on the Black Sea where a couple meets and falls in love. A speedy courtship led to a quick marriage, then the world showed up. A divorce inspired by outside forces sent them on separate destinies, always wondering “what if…” Sounds intriguing, doesn’t it?

Welcome, Janna. I’ve been impressed by your biography and your stories, so tell me when did you first discover your voice as a writer?

Approximately twenty years ago when traveling with my husband and my daughter through North Carolina, we decided to stop at a fruit market. Suddenly, a strong smell of peaches brought back a memory of my childhood:  my six year old friend and I are sitting on the grass and consuming a huge box of…

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FREE BOOK PROMOTION: TIME TO LET GO is FREE on AMAZON 22-26 June 2014

YES – FOR FIVE DAYS THE ALZHEIMER DRAMA TIME TO LET GO WILL BE FREE!DOWNLOAD HERE: http://ow.ly/yiWtr

Time to Let Go is a contemporary family drama set in Britain.
Following a traumatic incident at work Stewardess Hanna Korhonen decides to take time off work and leaves her home in London to spend quality time with her elderly parents in rural England. There she finds that neither can she run away from her problems, nor does her family provide the easy getaway place that she has hoped for. Her mother suffers from Alzheimer’s disease and, while being confronted with the consequences of her issues at work, she and her entire family are forced to reassess their lives.
The book takes a close look at family dynamics and at human nature in a time of a crisis. Their challenges, individual and shared, take the Korhonens on a journey of self-discovery and redemption.

Review excerpts:

“This story has me in tears because the author truly understands and makes the story relate to everyone.”

“This book may be Fischer’s best yet. I read it in one afternoon and literally could not put it down.”
“Having once worked in a hospital dedicated to the care of Alzheimer’s patients, I was both compelled and interested in reading Time To Let Go. What I found was a heart-felt and realistic story of a family that began before the disease took hold of its matriarch and would need to find a way to go on as she deteriorated. Family relationships are tested and dynamics examined and understood as the characters in this story adjust to the mother’s illness and each member is thrust into the roles she once filled. Outdated ideas and preconceptions are abandoned and what is left are the basics that make a family whole — love, loyalty, and the strength to allow each other to grow, change, and even die in an environment of acceptance. This book is a testament to those things and to the amazing ability that families, even ones with dysfunction, have to blossom into something that continues on even in the face of the loss of those who shaped them.”

Read more reviews on Goodreads:

Excerpt from the book:

For the next half hour he watched his wife as she was talking to and feeding the ducks in a pond in a nearby park. This was a very quiet time of day for the birds. School children were at class and mothers with young ones seemed to come out here a little later than this: the pond was all hers. It amazed him how much joy and entertainment his wife could gain from such a simple thing as feeding the ducks.

Her zest for life still showed frequently and sometimes even seemed completely unbroken by the disease. When she was first diagnosed with Alzheimer’s Disease she had desperately tried to fight it and in the process she had suffered a lot. She had read all the books there were, taken supplements and tried to train her brain with exercises.

“Come to bed,” Walter had said to her one evening when she had spent several hours in the study with her brain teasers.

“But I must solve this puzzle,” Biddy shot back at him. “I can’t finish unless I get this right.”

“Do it tomorrow, love.”

“No,” Biddy hissed. “I need to do it now.”

“You are probably too tired to solve it tonight. You need sleep more than this exercise,” Walter tried again.

“Mind your own business,” she yelled and slammed her fist on the table.

Walter was so surprised at this uncharacteristic outburst; he stood frozen and had no reply ready. While he struggled to come up with a response to this unprecedented shouting over nothing Biddy doubled over on the desk and started to sob.

“I can’t do it, Walter,” she cried. “I just can’t do it.”

“You don’t need to do everything today. Do it tomorrow.”

“That’s not just it, Walter. I’ve forgotten something else but I can’t remember what it is. I know it is something really important that I must do. I should have written it down.”

Walter walked up to her and tried to hug her.

“Get off me,” she screamed and yanked his hand away. “You don’t know what it is like. Don’t patronise me!”

Walter wanted to shout back at her, to make her snap out of her mood, but he was just too surprised to think of what he could possibly say. His wife had never pushed him away before.

He left her in the study and went to bed. Biddy stayed up for hours turning the house upside down for clues as to what she had forgotten. He did not sleep a wink that night and many more to follow when his wife was on a mission to locate a misplaced item.

Fortunately, they eventually passed that very awkward period of her life and these days she no longer seemed to care and no longer wasted her time in agony over the spilled beans of her mind. He wondered if that was part of her complex drug regime. He suspected that the doctors had slipped her an anti-depressant or a sedative of sorts into her cocktail of daily pills. He would rather not know and so he never asked about it and only ever read the dosage instructions on the prescription sheet.

Biddy’s manners these days were innocent and childlike, just the way she had always been. Her optimism and her famous positive attitude had been the core of her character and she had helped many of her friends and family to overcome crisis after crisis with her unbreakable spirit.

Watching her being happy and joyful while feeding the stupid ducks he felt that for a moment everything was just as it always had been. He could see the young woman he had married underneath the wrinkles, the white hair and behind the blank stare she often had these days when she got confused.

Right now the bright light of her essence was visible and it warmed Walter on the inside. Such moments gave him the necessary strength to accept the things he was missing from his married life of late.

Alzheimer’s Disease

My book is inspired by personal experiences with sufferers from the disease. Nowadays, almost everyone knows someone who has relatives with Alzheimer’s Disease and gradually stories and anecdotes about these patients have entered the social dinner party circuit and become common knowledge.

Alzheimer’s Disease is a dreadful disease that cannot be easily understood in its gravity and the complex, frustrating and far reaching consequences for the victims and their families. There are different stages of the disease as it progresses and patients can move through them at different paces and in varying intensity. My book does not attempt to be a complete representation or a manual of how to deal with the disease. The illness affects every patient differently and there are many stories to tell and many aspects to cover. I hope that I can bring some of those issues to the surface and help to make the gravity of the disease more prominent. I did, however, decide to stay firmly in fiction and family drama territory, and not to write a dramatized documentary on the subject.

I have witnessed several different approaches to handling the disease by both individuals and entire families, and I have learned that the people involved in every case needs to work out what is best for them.  In my book, a family work out their particular approach, which is right for them. They have different ideas about it and need to battle it out. These clashes fascinated me and I felt they were worth exploring.

Issues of caring at home, mobile care assistance or institutionalising patients are personal and, depending on where in the world you are, every family has very different options or limitations. The ending in my book must be seen in that context: as an individual ‘best’ solution that uniquely fits the Korhonen family.

As point of first reference and for a more comprehensive and scientific overview of information and help available I recommend: http://www.alzheimers.org.uk/ in the UK, and http://www.alz.org/ in the US.
There are support groups, helplines and many other sources available in most countries. These will be able to advise specifically for each  individual situation.

I can also recommend “Because We Care” by Fran Lewis. This fantastic book has a comprehensive appendix with more or less everything you need to know about the disease: Its stages, personal advice on caring, information, tools and help available in the US.

For consistency, I exclusively used material relating to a medium advanced stage of the disease. To protect the privacy and dignity of the patients that inspired the story I have altered all of the events and used both first and second hand experiences and anecdotes. Nothing in this book has actually happened in that way. Apart from some outer parallels between my characters and patients I witnessed, any similarities with real people, alive or dead, are coincidental and unintended.

 

Short Biography:

Christoph Fischer was born in Germany, near the Austrian border, as the son of a Sudeten-German father and a Bavarian mother. Not a full local in the eyes and ears of his peers he developed an ambiguous sense of belonging and home in Bavaria. He moved to Hamburg in pursuit of his studies and to lead a life of literary indulgence. After a few years he moved on to the UK where he now lives in a small hamlet, not far from Bath.  He and his partner have three Labradoodles to complete their family.

Christoph worked for the British Film Institute, in Libraries, Museums and for an airline.. ‘The Luck of The Weissensteiners’ was published in November 2012; ‘Sebastian’ in May 2013 and The Black Eagle Inn in October 2013. He has written several other novels which are in the later stages of editing and finalisation.

Website: http://www.christophfischerbooks.com/

Blog: https://writerchristophfischer.wordpress.com/

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6590171.Christoph_Fischer

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Christoph-Fischer/e/B00CLO9VMQ/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_pop_1
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Christoph-Fischer/e/B00CLO9VMQ/ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_2?qid=1400301014&sr=1-2

http://www.amazon.de/Christoph-Fischer/e/B00CLO9VMQ/ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_2?qid=1400301014&sr=1-2

 

Twitter: https://twitter.com/CFFBooks

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All Facebook links:

http://www.facebook.com/WriterChristophFischer?ref=hl

http://www.facebook.com/TheLuckOfTheWeissensteiners?ref=hl

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Sebastian/489427467776001?ref=hl

http://www.facebook.com/TheBlackEagleInn?ref=hl

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Time-To-Let-Go/257989361049799?ref=hl

 

 

NEW RELEASE: “Riding the Waves: The Price of Fame and Fortune” by Selena Haskins

“Riding the Waves” is one of the best sequels for a family saga in urban drama this year by far! This story offers a lifelike interpretation of the entertainment industry through the eyes of a new generation from the Morris Family. Selena Haskins has once again woven together a story that captivates the imagination and takes readers on a ride to remember!”– Urban Readers Online Magazine

 

Book Description

In this sequel, Riding the Waves revisits Connie and Dean, their family, and friends. Connie Morris has retired from the music industry. She’s been enjoying the fruits of her labor until her daughter, Tracey decides to write a tell-all book that could ruin Connie’s legacy, and destroy the family forever. Not only does the book reveal family secrets, but Tracey exposes her friends and former lovers. When Tracey’s ex-boyfriends decide to seek revenge, everything starts to spiral downhill. Tracey could lose it all, including her husband, son, and younger brother. With millions being offered to Tracey, she must decide if her dream of fame and fortune is really worth sacrificing the love of her family.

Excerpt

“If you weren’t there during the come-up you’ll never understand my struggle and what it really takes to be “a boss.” For the record, you only wanted the good parts of my life Tracey, so you will never appreciate the true value of success.” – Connie Morris

Playlist

1. The Power by Snap

2. Humpty Dance- Digital Underground

3. End of the Road- Boyz II Men

4. The Only One for Me- Brian McKnight

5. Get Busy – Sean Paul

6. Officially Missing You- Tamia

7. Love of My Life- Brian McKnight

8. Diamonds- Rihanna

9. Pour it Up- Rihanna

10. Blurred Lined- Robin Thicke

11. Tom Ford- Jay-Z

12. In Love with You- Jill Scott and Anthony Hamilton

13. You Don’t Have to Cry- Rene & Angela

 

About the Author:

Selena Haskins is a native Washingtonian who loves NBA basketball, movies, music, and spending quality time with her family. Riding the Waves is Selena’s third book, and her future projects include a short-story comedy, a love story based on two characters from Riding the Waves, children’s books, and a collection of poems. For more information about Selena, including her blogs, to purchase autographed books, and to follow her on social media, please visit her website: www.booksbyselena.com. Purchases of Selena’s titles are also available on Amazon and Barnes and Noble.

 

Amazon

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Calling for Beta Readers

My current work in progress is another war drama about two friends in Scandinavia during 1918 and 1950, caught up in a series of conflicts and wars

The Finnish Civil War of 1918 for one

Russia posing a lingering thread over Finland ever since, with the Winter War and Continuation War as results

My story is one of loyalties and friendship, idealism and growing up.

Beta readers are a test audience and an important source of insight and feedback before publishing a novel.

Please leave a comment of get in touch with me by other means if you would like to read the draft of this novel before publication.

 

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/WriterChristophFischer?ref=hl

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6590171.Christoph_Fischer

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LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=241333846

 

Review of “Song of the Manatee: Aria of Light” by S. Rose

“Song of the Manatee: Aria of Light” by S. Rose is a beautiful science fiction novel. It has the charm of a young adult novel, amazing fantasy segments and thought-through science fiction.
The setting for this novel is Florida of 2199, a world completely controlled by the central government through highly advanced technological control. Rose paints an original and detailed picture of this brave new world with some positive and some not so great advancements.

The Black family is a loving, intelligent and conscientious unit, useful to the government but also a little suspect, not least due to the unconventional ‘natural’ conception of their daughter Swan.
At the heart of the book is the disappearance of Michael Black, a palaeontologist, in the underwater caves, at the same time as his daughter Swan saw a space ship. Black’s research concerned the Florida Manatee, a benign but extinct species on Earth. After Black is gone, the government plays down the possibility of such a space ship but tries to manipulate the Black family to buy a particular property that might be the key to the disappearance and a sort of gateway.
Swan is a wonderful protagonist, sweet and innocent in some ways, but very clever and powerful in others. On her fascinating journey through time and dimensions she meets some interesting characters and the search for her father takes on a deeper meaning for the future of the Earth. The scenes between her and Neb are wonderfully written, as are many others.

To me the story shines through its winning combination of responsible ecological thinking, humanitarian values and beautiful magic within the context of a well written futuristic and science fiction story. Great characterisation and ornate scene setting contribute to the quality of the novel which uses a skilful blend of traditional sci-fi tools with magical fantasy writing.
There are heart felt moments, inspiring scenes and entertaining ones, such as the ones with the estate agent charged with selling a property to the Blacks.
The book leaves us with some questions that will need to be answered in the next part, which I eagerly await.

The Book on YOUR AMAZON site

My feature on Sienna’s first book BRIDGE ICES BEFORE ROAD

From the author: “For me, Science Fiction/Fantasy can be summed up in one word: Imagine!

I hope you will enjoy reading my first science fiction book as much as I enjoyed writing it!”

.99 cent promo for
Song of the Manatee: Aria of Light

The Kindle book will be on sale on Amazon for .99 cents from June 24th to June 30 only! Mark your calendars!

http://www.amazon.com/Song-Manatee-Li…

Song of the Manatee: Aria of Light is book one of a two part saga that will take you around the cosmic block, back in time to Earth’s early Eocene and far into its future, across galaxies and alternate dimensions of time.

In 2199, sixteen year-old Swan Black lives in an ideal society. Every need is supplied by the ostensibly benevolent Central Government, which strives to encircle and protect the Citizens–with a few notable exceptions. As far as most Citizens are concerned, Swan Black shouldn’t have been born.

Being an albino fated her to scorn and ostracism in a society where sensible couples conceive in vitro and select only perfect embryos.

She might have led a lonely existence if not for her devoted father, Michael Black, a brilliant paleontologist and exceptionally kindhearted man. He undertakes Swan’s education onboard his science vessel; by age sixteen she has become a capable research partner.

Under the control of their dictatorial Central Government, Dr. Black has been researching the evolution of the extinct Florida Manatee. Father and daughter are close to an astonishing discovery-when the unthinkable happens.

Only Swan saw the unidentified spacecraft materialize directly above the forbidden springs where her father was cave-diving, then vanish without a trace-along with Michael Black!

Unknown to Dr. Black, the covert objective of his research was to ensure man’s dominion over earth- by derailing the evolution of an infinitely peaceful, intelligent species. To the detriment of the planet, he unwittingly succeeded.

Swan must travel the rivers of time to find her father and reset the universe, so that the blessed meek shall truly inherit the Earth

Travis Luedke: The Nightlife San Antonio – Review and Excerpt

“The Nightlife San Antonio” by Travis Luedke is an excellent and gripping stand alone novel in his sensational and breath-taking Vampire series.
On this occasion we step outside the regular cast and setting and focus close up and personal on two characters only (more or less): An amnesiac sexy female Vampire and her ambulance rescuer Adrian. She has been shot and almost dies but pulls through and he takes her into his home and gives her shelter there.
Adrian is a fantastic character with a military past and a dark psychological profile of his own. His house guest has a past yet to be discovered. While we are waiting to find out more about the attack on her and the connection to the Mexican Mafia, the two of them have plenty of hot and steamy sex. I am not normally a big fan of erotica but Luedke writes with a raw and honest style that is a breath of fresh air and makes the scenes realistic and powerful. The sexual tension is made even more gripping and intense by the constant ‘playing with fire’ that accompanies the sex with a vampire: the continuous temptation in her mind to bite him and kill him for all of his blood while he fights with his awareness of the danger combined with his inability or unwillingness to play it safe.
After “The Nightlife London” this is a perfectly timed interlude to the series formula. The book focusses on the bond forming between the two, especially once the memory comes back and the action takes off on a big scale.
Spiked with great one liners, fast paced writing, filth, sex and violence this is paranormal writing at its best. In an almost saturated market of Vampire novels the series stands out easily for its perfect blend of sex and violence.
Luedke’s characters are solid and manage to walk the thin line between serious and tongue-in-cheek, throw in some un-pc views (on sexual politics and sex) and tempt you to join them in their adrenaline fuelled and exciting lives.
This is every bit as good as “True Blood”‘s first season was to me. I sadly got bored with True Blood after two seasons, but there is no sign yet of me getting bored of The Nightlife.
A must read for fans of the genre.

The Book on your Amazon site

The Book on Goodreads

All Romance Books

Kobo

Smashwords

Barnes and Noble

Itunes

Excerpt 1  The Fugitive  (Safe For Work)

Adrian headed for his Chevy pickup at the far corner of the parking lot, Jose’s fifty dollars tucked into his back pocket. Out of the corner of his eye, he caught sight of a pale blue fabric flitting past between two cars. In the strange pallor cast by the parking lot lights, he could’ve sworn he saw a flash of butt cheek from a woman wearing one of those open-backed hospital gowns. He changed course and headed straight for this wisp of fabric, intrigued.

He reached the shadows between two vehicles and paused, a sense of wrongness flashing in his mind. He made an about-face and headed back to his pickup truck. He had learned that it didn’t pay to stick his nose into things not his business. He had a date with a Serta Perfect Sleeper mattress in his air-conditioned apartment.

As he reached the truck, he glanced around once more and considered calling hospital security. A renegade patient was their job, not his.

Without a single sound, she was suddenly there, right next to him, her pale blood-splattered hand on his arm – the gunshot victim, the woman who damn near died in the back of his ambulance.

Her weak grip tugged at his arm. “I need your help. You have to help me.”

Her black hair hung limp, plastered to her forehead. Blood speckled her chin, neck and light blue gown. She must have coughed up blood, which would mean her lungs were not doing so good. Pneumonia, collapsed lung, punctured lung, all the possibilities slid across his mind as he stared at her, perplexed. What the hell was she doing out here? Walking around? The woman had flat-lined a couple of days ago.

“Let’s get you back to the Emergency Room. They’ll take care of everything.” At the risk of ruining his jacket with blood stains and who knew what other bodily fluids, he put his arm around her and pulled her close to hold her weight. She wasn’t wearing anything under the paper-thin gown. The contours of her naked hip fit his hand perfectly. He tried to ignore those thoughts and instead steered her back towards the hospital.

“No, wait, I can’t.” She stopped him from going any farther by turning in his grip to face him.

Shit. “Do you need me to carry you?” Please no. My back can’t take any more tonight.

“I can’t be here.”

Her face, which had held a look of pleading, turned dead serious. Dark eyes bored into his soul with a depth of intensity. “I need you. Take me with you. I must leave now.” There was something fascinating about her eyes. She never blinked even once, and he found he couldn’t look away from her. “You have to help me.”

Yes, of course. He had to help her.

He suddenly understood, and really, it was a simple request. She needed a ride. No big deal. Helping her was the right thing to do. The soldier part of his mind rapidly assessed the risks. The CCTV cameras only covered the entrance area of the hospital. Nobody would know where she went from the parking lot. He glanced around, looking for any sign of a witness to this strange moment. Then he recalled her little issue, she was a mafia target or something like that. He had no desire to become collateral damage on a botched hit job. A saner voice nagged him, get rid of her. No upside in helping her, no upside at all. She stank like old blood and medicine, that sick-hospital smell. She stood in his arms staring at him, unblinking, her dark eyes a well filled with raw, intense need.

Something stirred inside him. Even in her present condition, she was eerily compelling.

He had deliberately trained as a paramedic to help people. The bastard shrink had called him asociopath, unable to care about people. So, here he was, trying to care, trying to help, trying to be like everyone else, normal. It was his job to help people like her, more so than the police who were probably looking for her right now.

Do your job, Adrian. Prove the bastard shrink wrong.

“Okay, I’ll give you a ride. Come on.” She snuggled into his embrace with a grateful smile on her bloody lips as he pulled her back towards his truck. He reacted to her appreciation low in his groin. Obviously it had been way too long since he got laid. Messing around with patients was a major fail, quick way to get fired and prosecuted.

He helped her up into the truck – impossible not to end up with a handful of her ass in the process. She held his gaze with that creepy look, and a small grin split her lips. Adrian smiled back at her reassuringly, then shut the door and jetted around to the driver side for the packet of Clorox wet wipes on the seat. Without surgical gloves, no knowing what nasty germs he might get from touching her.

She just sat there, blood splattered, in nothing but her paper-thin gown, watching him. She looked so vulnerable, and she had put so much trust in him. He started the truck and navigated out of the parking lot with her furtively watching him all the while. She kept glancing back at the hospital entrance, as if looking for someone in pursuit.

“Shit!” She dropped flat on the truck bench seat as a police car sped past. The car screeched to a stop at the emergency entrance and two cops piled out, jogging into the hospital.

Her huge brown eyes looked up at him. She had laid her head in his lap. The girl might be afraid of the police and everyone else, but she trusted him.

He tried not to think about her face on his thigh, or the complete absurdity of the moment. He just kept on driving up to the intersection at the highway. Then it occurred to him he had no idea which direction to take.

“So, where are we headed? We’re on I-35 and I-37, on the south side.”

Still she just stared at him, head resting on his lap like he had become her personal pillow. Damn, he’d have to wash his jeans with Lysol disinfectant.

She shook her head, rubbing her lank black hair all over his jeans. “I … I don’t know.”

Fucking great.

“Look, I understand you’re afraid. I was one of the paramedics who brought you in. Somebody tried to kill you. It’s amazing you can even walk, and you don’t need me to tell you that you need medical attention. You should be in a hospital.”

She shook her head. “I can’t go back.”

He knew she was gonna say that. “If you won’t go to a hospital, then I’ll take you home. I can check your wounds, change your bandages, but I’m not a doctor. I’m not qualified for anything else. Tell me where you live. I’ll get you there, do what I can to help, and then we’re done. We never met. You don’t know who I am, and I don’t know who you are. I could lose my job for this.”

He felt a twinge of something as her emotions flickered across her face. She was afraid. He’d seen plenty of that in Iraq. He stared at her for a minute, until a honking car behind him drew his attention to the stale green light. He took off for the north onramp to I-35. Cruising the highway, he kept glancing down at her. She had her hands over her face, like an ostrich hoping the problem would go away if they simply didn’t see it anymore.

One more exit and they would be at his apartment complex. He tried not to think of the implications. This girl needed to go somewhere, definitely not to his home. “I need a direction, an address, something.”

She uncovered her face and there were dark wet tears in her eyes. Was that blood? Fuck. Why the hell would she be bleeding from her eyes? She choked as though crying. Damn women were always crying.

Adrian hadn’t cried in years. He hadn’t felt that kind of intensity about anything, apart from a few insane moments in Iraq. How could people function when they feel so much? The only thing that got him going, beyond sex, was full-on combat, kill or be killed. The EMT calls got a bit wild once in a while, but not very often.

He reached over to the glove box to find the Kleenex tissues and handed her one. “You’re bleeding.”

She dabbed at her eyes, looked at the tissue and then back up at him. Lost, bewildered, scared, her huge dark eyes raked at him with the urgency of her plight. She choked out the words, “I don’t know where to go. I don’t know anything.”

The problem hit, and he didn’t like the way it made his stomach turn. She wasn’t local. She didn’t live in San Antonio. Where the hell could he take her?

“You don’t have anywhere to go? No friends, no house, no hotel?”

She wouldn’t speak, held her lips tight, as if to stop herself from screaming, and shook her head again.

Damn. He knew he shouldn’t have put her in his truck. No upside to this deal at all. Now, he just wanted to be rid of her. But the woman was still in his lap, looking at him like he owed her something, like he was going to be the one who saved her from … whatever.

Isn’t that why you took this job, to save people? Do your job, Adrian.

“Look, I’ll get you cleaned up, some clothes, a bus ticket, and that’s it. I can’t do anything more. Seriously.”

Huge, wet, doe eyes held his gaze while she slowly nodded acceptance. She covered her face and curled up on his seat, shivering. He turned up the heat, even though it wasn’t cold in the truck. San Antonio spring nights were never really cold. Pulling into the covered parking in front of his apartment complex, he realized he had a new problem.

“Stay here a minute, I’m going to get you a blanket. Just stay low, make sure no one sees you.”

He scooted his thigh out from under her and closed the truck door to peek in through his driver side window, ensuring she stayed down. She stared at him all the while. This was one strange chick. He found it hard to reconcile the Latin goddess who had almost died in his ambulance with this half-naked, crazy chick hiding in his truck. She had looked so beautiful, and fragile, whereas now she was this needy, pushy, intense girl who wanted to dump her whole damn life in the palms of his hands.

A WEEKEND IN THE WHELPING BOX

When I am not writing….

Hornesollen Labradoodles

WILMA CONTINUES TO BE A GREAT MOTHER, SPENDING MOST OF HER TIME WITH THE LITTLE ONES. THEY ARE SIX DAYS OLD AND VERY CHILLED THANKS TO HER COMMITMENT. HOWEVER, WILMA IS GRADUALLY TAKING LONGER BREAKS FROM HER DUTIES AND HAS BEGUN TO JOIN US WHEN WE STAY IN OTHER ROOMS.

FOCUS ONCE MORE ON DARWIN, A REAL CHARACTER. ALWAYS INDEPENDENT AND FEISTY (AND WITH A HEALTHY APPETITE)

DARWIN STILL LOVES TO EXPLORE AND WHITTAKER IS HIS BEST FRIEND – MAYBE WE SHOULD HAVE CALLED WHITTAKER SOMETHING LIKE MAGELLAN (?)

SO LET’S TURN THE FOCUS ON WHITTAKER AND HIS SHINY COAT

AND HERE ARE SOME  PICTURES FROM PEAK TIMES AT THE CANTEEN

AND NOW THE HEADSHOTS: MATILDA, SAGA, DEXTER & DISELLE NEXT TO THE FEEDING MATILDA AND A SLEEPY JOSHUA. 

THANK YOU AND SEE YOU TOMORROW!

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Please Help My Shelter Win A Grant

Please Help My Shelter Win A Grant  

Santa Paula Animal Rescue Center is the first and only no-kill shelter in Ventura County.

 

Vote today!

Welcome to the “Ultimate Cute” Shelter Challenge, where you can vote every day to help your favorite shelter win.

Please give us your vote. The Shelter Challenge is a FREE way for you to help animal shelters earn grant rewards so they can help find new homes for animals in need.

The challenge starts again today. If anyone would like to vote please click on the link below and type in

Santa Paula Animal Rescue Center.

The VOTE line comes up with letters to fill in. Fill in the letters in upper case and once it comes back to VOTE click on vote. That should do it. Thank you in advance for anyone helping out here.

There’s more to explore – you can create an account, recruit others to help, and share your photo of the cutest rescue pets ever.  Don’t forget to click to help animals at The Animal Rescue Site!

To vote for SPARC: write in Santa Paula and the vote line will come up. Fill in the letters in the box, click on it, and the vote will go through. 

http://www.shelterchallenge.com/