Spotlight & Giveaway: Spelled by Betsy Schow

Sourcebooks Fire

June 2, 2015

Advance Praise for Spelled

“A cute adventure with romance set in a world full of fairy-tale mash-ups. Readers will love Dorthea’s evolution from spoiled princess to strong, confident heroine… For Oz fans, this work is a great clean-read alternative to Danielle Paige’s Dorothy Must Die.” -School Library Journal

“This wickedly funny, fast-paced adventure has it all: brains, courage, and heart. (Plus a kickin’ pair of heels.) .” --Jen Calonita, author of The Secrets of My Hollywood Life and Fairy Tale Reform School series

“Fairy tale survival rule #1, do NOT read this book late at night. You will wake up your entire family with loud laughter. Fairy tale survival rule #2, if you love the Wizard of Oz, clever fairy tale mash-ups, and enough twists and turns to keep you guessing what will happen until the very end, you MUST read Spelled.” --J Scott Savage, award winning author of Farworld, Case File 13, and theMysteries of Cove series.

“A hilarious and snarky reimagining of the world of Oz, along with many other fairy tales injected throughout, "Spelled" is one fabulous read…Kick off those silver slippers and tuck in with this wonderful tale!” —Senator Sipes, Lil Book Bug (Palmdale, CA)

Book Info:

Talk about unhappily ever after. Dorthea is completely princed out. Sure being the crown princess of Emerald has its perks—like Glenda Original ball gowns and Hans Christian Louboutin heels. But a forced marriage to the not-so-charming prince Kato is so not what Dorthea had in mind for her enchanted future.

Trying to fix her prince problem by wishing on a (cursed) star royally backfires, leaving Dorthea with hair made up of emerald flames and the kingdom in chaos. Her parents and everyone she loves are stuck in some place called “Kansas.” Now it’s up to Dorthea and her pixed-off prince to find the mysterious Wizard of Oz and undo the curse…before it releases the wickedest witch of all and spells The End for the world of Story.

Amazon | B&N | BAM | !ndigo | IndieBound | Kindle |  Nook

Betsy Schow:

Betsy Schow is the author of the memoir Finished Being Fat, and has been featured on The Today Show and in The Wall Street Journal. She lives in Utah, but travels the country with Color Me Rad 5k, and partners with nonprofits to teach kids creative thinking and how to reach their goals.

Website| Twitter

Excerpt from Spelled:

Most of the crowd had dispersed. The final few stragglers looked at me with the all­too-common look of fear mixed with trepidation. Pix ’em. They were just servants. It wasn’t like their opinion mattered.

Only one remained, watching me with open curiosity. He looked to be in his late teens or was magically enhanced to appear so. He could have been a hundred for all I knew. I’d never seen him before in my life. He was handsome enough, for a commoner, even in his worn leather pants and cracked work boots. A foreigner, his hair was unruly and dark auburn, which complemented his tanned but dirt-smudged complexion, though the tall, dark stranger vibe was ruined by his piercing pale blue eyes.

Well, I’d had enough of being a sideshow for the day. “If you’re the new gardener, the hedges are overgrown and in need of a trim.” I pointed in the direction of my father. “While you’re there, you can help the king with the wisps.”

The young man’s expression clouded over, but he didn’t move.

I stamped my foot and pointed more forcefully. “Off with you. Courtyard’s that way. Be sure to clean those awful boots before coming back in.”

“Someone told me I’d find a princess of great worth here. One with the strength to be the hero this realm needs.” He stared at me with those unsettling blue eyes. They were cold, like ice water—made me shiver from head to toe. Then his gaze seemed to search even deeper. Finally, he looked through me, like I was nothing.

In brisk steps, he strode across the marble to the courtyard. But before crossing the threshold, he turned back to glare at me with his lip curled ever so slightly. “It seems she was mistaken.”

Just like that, I had been sifted, weighed, and found wanting.

I felt my own lip curl in response. How rude! Who the Grimm was this peasant to judge me? I was wearing a Glenda original. Original! Not some fairy-godmother knockoff worn by those servant girls turned royal. I was a crown princess, for the love of fairy, and no one dismissed me.

Before I could put the boy in his place—down in the dirt, where he belonged—a clatter came from behind, making me nearly jump out of my shoes. I checked and was relieved that Sterling had simply dropped his sword. By the time I looked back, the gardener was gone.

After stowing his blade, Sterling held up his shield, not in defense of the entrance but so he could look at his reflection. “Clearly he’s blind and doesn’t know what he’s talking about.”

I didn’t ask for Sterling’s opinion, but it made me feel better.

Until he opened his mouth again.

“Worth, pffft. I mean, look around at all the jewels. Your palace has everything you could ever want. Honestly, I don’t know what you’re fussing about. Why would anyone want to leave?”

Because a cage is still a cage, no matter how big or glittering the bars are.

And I would find a way free, no matter the cost.

GIVEAWAY

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Review & Giveaway: The Demon's Deadline by Tori Centanni

Nicki almost died in the car accident. Instead she was offered a deal.

Now she works for the demon Azmos, delivering his mysterious envelopes all over town. Only her boyfriend Cam knows the truth about her after-school job—Cam, who’s (thankfully) as understanding as he is gorgeous and smart. Nicki’s never had Cam’s bold ambitions; her only talent is guessing the killer in a horror movie. All she wants is to graduate high school, marry Cam someday, and live happily ever after… but lately her work for the demon’s pulling her into deeper danger. Danger that threatens her life and also the bonds that matter most to her. Her best friend Melissa, whom she’s forced to lie to. Her grieving father. And Cam.

But is it even possible to free herself from the contract that saved her life?

And what if she did manage to untangle herself from the arcane world forever — without it, what kind of life does Nicki have left? Once you've seen death and darkness, once you know that magic is real, how can you ever go back to being a normal teenager?

It’s finally time Nicki faced her own demons....

REVIEW

Nicki made a deal with the demon, Azmos.  In return of her life back, Azmos uses Nicki to deliver mysterious letters to complete strangers.  The only person who knows about this is Cam, Nicki's boyfriend.  When her job gets more dangerous and even the demon himself is not safe anymore, Nicki needs to choose between her beautiful life and the demon job.  Even though the choice seems obvious, Nicki doesn't seem to think so.

Nicki is easy to relate to.  An average girl with insecurities of her own and low confidence, Nicki loves to be a demon messenger more than her secure life.  Her actions, although not appreciable, has some reasons behind.  And being a teenager, I know this can happen.  And Cam, Nicki's boyfriend is a perfect boyfriend one could expect.  I was loving Cam more and more, every time Nicki made a mistake and Cam has to deal with it.  And then the demons themselves - not much back story there. But the author has made a room for it in the next book of the series.

The story was unique and easy at the same time and author's talent in writing only made it much better.  It was a short read and I was not ready to turn off my Kindle when it ended.  I needed more...especially after that taste of the second book in the end.

4.5 STARS!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

 Tori Centanni is a nerd girl and a recovering goth. She likes dark, quirky stories with elements of humor. When not reading or writing, she can be found baking, watching too much television, and wrangling cats. She lives in Seattle, WA.

AUTHOR ONLINE: Website | Twitter | Tumblr | Goodreads | Instagram

GIVEAWAY

Tori will be giving away $20 Amazon Gift Card (INT) to a winner of the below Rafflecopter.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Release Event: Descendants of the Rose

Welcome to the release celebration of Descendants of the Rose by Juliette Harper! This is the first book in the Selby Jensen Paranormal Mysteries series and it's now available for sale for only .99 cents on Amazon! 

The author wrote a letter to her readers to explain why she decided to "genre hop".

To My Readers,

So where the heck did this book come from? It came from a weekend of writer’s block on another manuscript. Descendants of the Rose had been sitting on my desk for more than a year while I’ve been working on The Lockwood Legacy series. Then I switched gears to the cozy Study Club Mysteries, but this other character -- Selby Jensen -- wouldn’t leave me alone.

As usual, she knew what she was doing since the book debuted on the Amazon supernatural mystery bestseller list this morning.

Selby wanted out there in the world, and that Saturday morning a couple of weeks ago, she told me plainly that she’d waited long enough. I spent the weekend with her, and Monday morning I had a complete draft ready for my beta readers and proofreader.

This might seem like a big genre hop, so I wanted to take a few minutes and talk to you about how and why I write. Creating strong women characters is my primary interest. I don’t want to be confined to or defined by any genre. My goal is to put my characters in interesting, challenging, and often painful situations and explore how they cope -- or don’t cope -- and wade through the fallout and triumphs with them.

From page one of this book, you’ll meet a woman in pain over a tragic loss in her life. She prefers to keep company with the dead, but her commitment to protecting and improving the world of the living is her real reason for existing. Yes, there is a murder that is solved in the pages of this book, but Selby’s journey is only starting.

As I’m writing to you today, I have a plot map on my desk for book two of this series, Lost in Room 636 that centers around a grisly murder that occurred in San Antonio, Texas on February 8, 1965. San Antonio is one of the most haunted cities in America and it’s also Selby Jensen’s stomping grounds, but you may be surprised where destiny leads this woman over the series arc I have planned.

So, while Selby jumped to the head of the line in my project planning, she’s been an integral part of my creative vision for some time. I’m delighted to introduce her to you, and while she’s different from the women of the Rocking L in one way, in another, she’s not. Selby is the kind of woman you want on your side in a fight. She’s never let me down, and I don’t think she’ll let you down either.

Juliette

About the Book:

Selby Jensen’s business card reads “Private Investigator,” but to say the least, that downplays her real occupation. Let’s hear it in her own words:

“You want to know what I do for a living? I rip souls out. Cut heads off. Put silver bullets where silver bullets need putting. You think there aren't any monsters? . . . I have some disturbing news for you. You might want to sit down. Monsters walk among us. I'm looking for one in particular. In the meantime? I'm keeping the rest of them from eating people like you.”

In this debut novel of her new paranormal mystery series, Juliette Harper, author of The Lockwood Legacy books and The Study Club Mysteries creates a cast of characters, most of whom have one thing in common; they don’t have a pulse. The dead are doing just fine by Selby, who is determined never to lose someone she loves again, but then a force of love more powerful than her grief changes that plan.

Join Selby Jensen as she and her team track down a shadowy figure tied to a murder at a girls’ school. What none of them realize, however, is that in solving this case, they will enter a longer battle against a larger evil.

Goodreads | Amazon
------------------------------------------------------

About the Author:

Juliette Harper is the pen name used by the writing team of Patricia Pauletti and Rana K. Williamson. Descendants of the Rose is the first installment of Harper’s debut Selby Jensen Paranormal Mystery series.

Pauletti, an Easterner of Italian descent, is an accomplished musician with an eye for art and design. Williamson, a Texan, worked as a journalist and university history instructor before becoming a full-time freelance writer in 2002.

Juliette Harper is also the author of The Lockwood Legacy, a nine-book chronicle of the lives of three sisters who inherit a ranch in Central Texas following their father’s suicide. Three of the novels are currently available: Langston’s Daughters, Baxter’s Draw, and Alice’s Portrait. The fourth book, Mandy’s Father, will appear in Fall 2015.

And don’t miss her hilariously funny “cozy” Study Club Mysteries, a light-hearted spinoff of The Lockwood Legacy. The books, set in the 1960s, take on the often absurd eccentricities of small town life with good-natured, droll humor. The first book, You Can’t Get Blood Out of Shag Carpet, will be available shortly, with the second, You Can’t Put a Corpse in a Parade, coming in Summer 2015.

Website | Twitter (@jharperbooks) | Facebook 

--------------------------------------

Giveaway:

$25 Amazon Gift Card (INT), Langston's Daughters, Baxter's Draw and Alice's Portrait in paperback (US) or ebook (INT)

Ends May 27

a Rafflecopter giveaway


This event was organized by CBB Book Promotions.

Kickstarter and Giveaway: When They Come Calling by Sarah Fleming Mountford

Do you like Kickstarters? Do you like Ghost Stories? How about Giveaways?

We're excited to share something a little different with you today. Atthis Arts is a small independent publisher that uses crowdfunding in its partnership-publishing model to market and pre-sell upcoming titles. Kickstarter rewards are a fun way to get unique book items that won't be available with the published book. Rewards offered include naming a character in the book, a one-of-a kind hardcover edition containing an illustration of you with the book's protagonist, and even a reward for self-published authors to get a finished manuscript professionally typeset for print and ebook!

So here it is: the book trailer and Kickstarter video for their upcoming title, WhenThey Come Calling by author Sarah Fleming Mountford.

What wouldn't you do to save someone you love?

When They Come Calling is a modern ghost story, a suspenseful weaving of urban battles, romance, and supernatural intrigue.

Anna is a physician from Kansas City. She’s spent her life giving and caring to others while trying to hide how different she is. Anna has lost everyone she’s ever loved: her relationships, her family, and her hope for something more.

Jed is a warrior from another era, haunted by the horrors of a brutal family feud three thousand years in the making, and inspired by his own secret quest. Relentless and driven, Jed’s determination radiates to everyone around him.

Author Sarah Fleming Mountford started with a short ghost story. Over years and through personal trials, she added to it and shaped it, until it was the story she always wanted to write. We are excited to present that story to you, and your pre-order pledges will help cover the costs to edit and publish her debut.

“I love the process through which a story reveals itself. It can be a simultaneously maddening and exhilarating enterprise, ending in the joy of creating something beautiful.” – Sarah Fleming Mountford

When They Come Calling doesn't rely on paranormal hooks: it’s not werewolves, vampires, zombies, or nymphomaniacs engaged in magic or erotic adventures, but instead a classic tale of love and suspense; a modernized ghost story of two lost souls, drawn together until fate tears them apart.

Pre-order a copy through our Kickstarter, and you’ll receive a first edition of this modern day ghost story. Put on your slippers, forget your life for a few hours, and join Anna and Jed on their breathtaking adventure.

Giveaway

We are giving away a $10 Amazon gift card, along with a signed Advanced Reader Copy of Atthis Arts founder E.D.E. Bell's upcoming release, The Banished Craft. A quirky and modern take on dragons and wizards, The Banished Craft follows the adventures of Cor, a woman caught in a dying world that does not accept her, and Atesh, a dragon scientist who’s been asked to violate his own ethics or put the lives of his family at risk. Follow their trials as they deal with a shattered world, mired in political upheaval, while they try to rediscover a lost magic. (signed paperback U.S. only, international winner will receive ebook in epub/mobi format) Please share this Kickstarter campaign! By sharing the sharing the kickstarter video and link, you will receive 4 additional entries into the giveaway.

Here is the link: http://atthisarts.com/kickstarter, or simply visit the Kickstarter page and click "Share This Project" under the main video and fill out the rafflecopter below!

(Ends May 26)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

This event was organized by CBB Book Promotions.