Blog Tour...The Warlock's Curse

The Warlock's Curse by M.K. Hobson

I'm super excited to be a part or The Warlock's Curse blog tour. Make sure to enter the giveaway for a chance to win a free book and some cool swag.

book description~
THE YEAR IS 1910. Eighteen-year-old Will Edwards has landed a prestigious apprenticeship at Detroit’s Tesla Industries, the most advanced scientific research center in the United States. It’s a plum prize for a young man who dreams of a career in the new science of Otherwhere Engineering.But his father doesn’t want him to go. And he won’t tell him why.
Determined to get there by any means necessary, Will finds unexpected support along the way. His old friend Jenny Hansen—daughter of a San Francisco timber baron—is eager to help him for reasons of her own. And so is his estranged brother Ben, who he hasn’t seen in over ten years.
But running away turns out to be the easy part. On the first full moon after his eighteenth birthday, Will is stricken by a powerful magic—a devastating curse laid upon his ancestors by the malevolent sangrimancer Aebedel Cowdray. Will must find a way to control the magic that possesses him—or the vengeful warlock’s spirit will destroy everything and everyone he loves.

My thoughts~ The Warlock's Curse is the third book in the Veneficas Americana series. This story is strong enough to stand on its own so do not be afraid to jump right into this book if you want.

M.K. Hobson, in my opinion, is a wonderful writer. The imagery pops right off the page. I have never read a book taking place during the early 1900's and through the description I pictured it perfectly. I think this book is what would be considered magical realism. In The Warlock's Curse is set in an alternate history where magic is common among everyday life.

I do have to say this book took a while to gain momentum and starts off with a nineteen page prologue. It was a little to long for my tastes, but the information is given to us for a reason so it is worth hanging in there. When we jump into Wills story it still takes a bit to get started, but during this time we are introduced to Wills world and we learn a lot about his character, his family and what motivates him. After the story starts rolling it moves along a good pace with plenty of excitement.

Jenny is Wills partner on his journey and I instantly liked her. She can be a little feisty and is a determined young lady that knows how to get exactly what she needs. Though they are brought together to fulfill their own separate needs, a relationship unfolded before our eyes and I was really rooting for them.

 I really enjoyed this story and am looking forward to the continuation of Will and Jenny's adventure.

Bio:

M.K. Hobson’s debut novel, The Native Star—the first book in her Veneficas Americana series—was nominated for a Nebula award in 2010. She lives in the first city in the United States incorporated west of the Rockies. Her favorite writers are Theodore Dreiser, Sinclair Lewis, Booth Tarkington, Gore Vidal, and William S. Burroughs. The Warlock’s Curse is her third novel. You can find out more at her website,www.demimonde.com.

Website: http://www.thewarlockscurse.com/

Twitter: mkhobson

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/mkhobson

Book trailer: http://youtu.be/oyrYAfu8IMg

Giveaway:
Prize package of *signed* copies of The Native Star, The Hidden Goddess and The Warlock's Curse as well as a swag pack of a Tesla Industries pin, magnets and a sticker *not shown*.
*Open to US only*

13 ebooks of The Warlock's Curse 
*Open worldwide*
Ends 12/30/12

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What Twilight Did For Me

I have to admit, Twilight changed my life.

Lets flashback to early 2008. Breaking Dawn had yet to be released and Twilight was nothing more than an irritating suggested read from Amazon.

I would read the summery and think they were right. I would like this, I do love vampires. Then I read the category... Young Adult. Okay, next. I am a grown adult, what was I going to do with a kids book? I know I devoured Harry Potter, but that was the exception. Ya right. Little did I know.

Then one magical day a friend was carrying on about how much she loved her latest read, and there it was, Twilight. I rolled my eyes. She mentioned the vampire sparkled like diamonds. Sparkled? No self respecting vampire is going to sparkle. Needless to say, I eventually gave it a try, and there was no going back.

Twilight opened up a whole new world. I always liked to read, but it was hard to find books I loved. For some reason YA filled that void. I know I am old enough to be most YA characters mother, but I relate to YA books. I rarely read anything else. I remember at the time the YA section in my beloved Borders consisted of one wall. By the time they bit the dust the Ya section expanded to at least 5 times the size. At first I hid the fact that I read YA. Not now. Along with my love for reading the exciting new (to me) genera, I realized I also like to write it. My life has never been the same.

Now we are at the end of an era. Breaking Dawn - Part Two is upon us. Will Twilights popularity pass along to the next generation? I doubt it. Only time will tell. I remember how sad I was when I completed the final book. I wondered how I would ever make it through the withdrawals. I scoured the shelves looking for anything to help me with the process. Then there it was. A shirtless boy with a golden sheen standing behind the New York City skyline. "The City of Bones by Cassandra Clare. Never heard of her. I guess I'll give it a try." Well, we all know that worked out. *winks and flashes evil smile*

Drain You blog tour

Today is my stop on the Drain You, by M. Beth Bloom, blog hop and giveaway. Published by Harper Teen. I'm super excited to be a part of this tour. We get the 90's, vamp's (I heart vampires) and L.A. What a combo! The Drain You tour was launched on Oct 5th at  Mundie Moms and Hobitsies. Make sure stop by to see the entire list of hosts and blog stops. And don't forget to enter the giveaway below.

Book Description: "Summer. The 90s. The rich, sun-bleached neighborhoods of the Los Angeles canyons. Enter Quinlan Lacey, a cool, bored, sarcastic, sexy 17-year old with a dull part-time video store job and a mild case of teen ennui. That is, until she meets the alluring, River Phoenix-esque James, and realizes the hills are alive with the undead. Inspired more by the early, dry L.A. short stories of Bret Easton Ellis than the current crop of serialized vampire fiction, the supernatural grunge romance, Drain You, narrates the headaches and heartbreaks Quinn undergoes in her quest to stay sane and cool and in love and alive."

 Publisher's Weekly review  "Bloom debuts with a languid, stylish novel that reads like a love letter to cult vampire flicks like The Lost Boys, the work of Francesca Lia Block, and Southern California in the 1990s." 

Available at  Amazon and Barnes & Noble

About the author "Bloom's first short story “Love And Other Catastrophes: A Mix Tape” was featured in Story Quarterly and selected by Dave Eggers for inclusion in The Best American Nonrequired Reading: 2003 (Houghton-Mifflin), which he curates annually. Bloom is the founder of underground dance label 100% Silk (profiled here in LA Weekly) AND the producer/lead singer of the band LA Vampires (written up in The Guardian as well as Pitchfork and Fader). Her next book will be published through HarperTeen.
M. Beth lives on the east side of L.A. where she indulges in raw fooding, magazine subscribing, thrift shopping, Sunday matinee'ing, and ladies book clubbing." 

 A list of Giveaway Prizes: -5 Copies of 'Drain You' signed by the Author, -$50 Credit at Wasteland (Quinn's favorite store), -Pages from Quinn's Notebook (pics attached), -10 'Drain You' Bookmarks handmade by Quinn, -10 90's mixtapes curated and created by Quinn





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Teaser Tuesday...The Carnival of Souls

Teaser Tuesday is bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following~

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

The Carnival of Souls by Melissa Marr

"Mallory?" Kaleb stared at her in that too-intense-for comfort way he had done since they'd met a little over a month ago."

"That meant she was caught living among the witches, preparing to fight daimons with only a human's defenses."

I heart Melissa Marr's books. She is one of my favorite story tellers.

Just Finished Reading...Ten

Ten by Gretchen McNeil

from Amazon

Shhhh!
Don't spread the word! Three-day weekend. House party.
White Rock House on Henry Island.
You do not want to miss it.
It was supposed to be the weekend of their lives—three days on Henry Island at an exclusive house party. Best friends Meg and Minnie each have their own reasons for wanting to be there, which involve their school's most eligible bachelor, T. J. Fletcher, and look forward to three glorious days of boys, bonding, and fun-filled luxury.
But what they expect is definitely not what they get, and what starts out as fun turns dark and twisted after the discovery of a DVD with a sinister message: Vengeance is mine.  Suddenly, people are dying, and with a storm raging outside, the teens are cut off from the rest of the world. No electricity, no phones, no internet, and a ferry that isn't scheduled to return for three days. As the deaths become more violent and the teens turn on each other, can Meg find the killer before more people die? Or is the killer closer to her than she could ever imagine?

I really liked this book. But to tell the truth, I did try to break up with it several times. I will start of with what did not work for me.

I did not connect with most of the characters. They were quickly introduced and none of them really stood apart from one another. But the main reason I kept breaking up with Ten was Minnie. The annoying best friend. Let me rephrase that. The worlds most annoying character. I was actually hoping she was going to get knocked off so I didn't have to hear from her anymore. Even though Minnie was the reason I kept setting this book down, she was also the reason I kept picking it back up.

The author made me feel something. Even though it was irritation, it was a really strong feeling. Not all writers can make me feel for their characters like that. Who says all books need to make you feel warm and fuzzy? You know who else made me feel like that? Cassandra Clare. With the big reveal at the end of City of Bones. (You know what I'm talking about) After that I always said, if a writer can bring that much emotion out of me, she must be doing something right.


Now for what did work for me. It was a super fun story. It really sucked me in. Every time I set it down I was wondering what was going to happen next. I really liked T.J. and Meg. They seemed like real people and I liked their chemistry together.

Now this is not a "deep" read. It went pretty quick. I loved the dark and dreary setting and it was easy to picture. Ten reminded me of one of my all time favorite scary movies, April Fools Day. The whole time I read this book I pictured it in my head as a movie.  It just has that big screen feel to it.

Plus I love this cover, its all creepy and cool at the same time.

So if you were thinking of reading Ten, this is what I would do. Save it for a rainy weekend. Grab your Snuggie and keep in mind that it is a light read, a little scary and lots of fun.

Fangs, Fur and Fey Giveaway Hop

Fangs, Fur & Fey. My three favorite subjects. How could I not be a part of this giveaway?

What is the prize? The book of your choice, from the Book Depository, up to $15.00! But here is the catch. It has to be about something with fangs, fur of fey. You know, like vamps, weres or faeries.

Give away is International. (as long as the Book Depository ships to your country for free)
You must be 13 years or older to enter.
Winner will have 72 hours to respond after notification.

Please see below for a complete list of links to other blogs in the hop. Thanks for stopping by. Good luck! Hosted by I'm a Reader, Not a Writer & Reading Lark

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Uncontrollable Blog Tour

Today we have a very special guest with us. S.R. Johannes, award winning author of Untraceable and her latest release Uncontrollable. She took the time to give us a peek behind the scenes and talk about the essentials of plotting a novel.

Also...Shelli is giving away a free chapter or query critique to one lucky reader. (or maybe I should say writer)

~Thank you Shelli for joining me here on Words Escape Me. I'm a huge fan of your work and am thrilled to have you here today. 

~So I have to ask, are you a plotter or a panster?

I used to be a total pantser. But after it took me 3 years to do Untraceable, I changed my approach. So now I develop a query pitch first and then bullet out the story. This is my shell of an outline and that ends up expanding into my overall story.

So I guess I am both. I plot at a high level –I know the story and how it generally plays out - but as far as specifics – like clues and twists – it comes as I write.

~I love to read about how authors bring their creations to light. I know there are about a million different ways to flesh out a plot. Can you tell us what works for you and share a little bit about your technique?

After I write my pitch letter – I know the overall story. Then I start with a bulleted list of what happens in my head from A to Z (again at a high level – so for example

·      Grace loses father.

·      Grace finds evidence.

·      Grace takes it to police

·      They don’t believe her.

·      Etc etc.

I go as far as I can with what I have in mind.

Then, those bullets end up bunched into chapters.

I talk through the story with a couple of beta readers to see if I can explain it out loud. Out of those conversations – I end up figuring out some more details as I externally process. It gives my beta readers a chance to thro win ideas too. I add more bullets in and flush it out based on the conversation.

After that, I start writing the chapters and the details come into play as I write that chapter.  So for example I didn’t know that the evidence was a Cheetos bag. But it had to be something that could be mistaken for trash to someone but was a clue to Grace. Yet still crazy enough to make you question her sanity.

~Do you have any advice or resources that you can recommend to a writer to help them discover their own plotting technique? 

If you spend too much time reworking your plot and/or your book/idea over and over – that might be a sign that your process is not working. I’m not saying your first draft doesn’t change. But the general story/idea should be there and unfold at a high level. I’m not saying you don’t need to edit or revise, but if you are totally reworking your whole plot and characters every draft – then it might be a sign that you might need to plan out the story in some more detail before you write.

Try to research plotting books and try out different techniques. You will know when you find the right one for you.

Thanks again Shelli for taking the time to chat with us. 

To celebrate the release of Uncontrollable S.R. Johannes has agreed to offer something unique for our giveaway. A free chapter or query letter critique.

Helpful links~

S.R. Johannes blog   Untraceable on Amazon  Uncontrollable on Amazon
You can also click on the Uncontrollable banner on the right to link the rest of the blog tour and other chances to win prizes.

Enter here for a chance to win  a chapter or query critique from S.R. Johannes. This is a great opportunity for all you writer folks. We know  the more eyes to see our work the better.

Cover Love....Release

Release by M.R. Merrick

Now just take a minute to look at it. Go ahead I'll wait.

I love the detail that went into this cover. We have a funnel cloud, cascading water, a whirlpool, lightning and ancient ruins. This cover packs a punch and I don't know about you, but I am very excited to see what it all means. Here is the synopsis...

After uniting the shifters and calling in reinforcements, Chase has to face his toughest challenge yet: learning to control his emotions. But as tensions rise and his powers grow, controlling his emotions becomes the least of his problems.

Terrorized by a multi-shifter who is hell-bent on turning him, Chase questions just how far he’s willing to go to stop his father.  Meanwhile, Tiki’s virtuous nature has placed him in the middle of Vincent’s past, leaving Chase to oppose a senate of vampires and defend a demon he hates.

Trying to balance his friends, his enemies, and his inner demons, Chase is left searching for answers about the Mark, his destiny, and where he can find the next soul piece. Stopping Riley is his top priority, but as more obstacles arise, he finds himself doubting all the decisions he’s made - especially regarding Rayna.

One thing is for certain: Chase has finally realized that he doesn’t know anything. The light doesn’t always quell the darkness, the monsters don’t always stay in the shadows, and the past doesn’t always stay in the past - sometimes, the demons inside are the hardest to fight.

Release is part three in the Protecter series and we can get our hands on it December 10th, 2012.

For more on M.R. Merrick and the Protecter series you can visit his website and Goodreads

Book one is Exiled and book two is Shift.