Blog Tour: Chattin' It Up: Chasing the Trickster by April Grey

Chattin' It Up

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Chasing the Trickster
(Book #1 in the Cernunnos series)
Amazon | Eternal Press | BN
Author: April Grey
Publisher: Eternal Press (November 7, 2011)
Genre: Dark, Fantasy, Paranormal, 236 pages
ISBN-10: 1615725334
ISBN-13: 978-1615725335

SUMMARY:

One Man, Two Women, Two Gods...who will survive the Trickster's snare?

Ghostly images materialize in Nina Weaver's photos. Goons try to kidnap her. When her photographs are stolen and her best friend is shot, she realizes that she has no one to turn to but her ex-lover, Pascal ""Goofy"" Guzman. Together they go on a desperate road trip in search of answers. The truth is darker and more terrifying than Nina could ever have imagined. After their love re-ignites, they fall into the Trickster God's trap.

EXCERPT:

She stared at the photo on the gallery wall and silently swore. All semester ghostly images had marred her work. And now not only a strange inclusion ruined her photo, but the pin light needed to be repositioned as well. She found a ladder in the hallway supply closet. Balancing precariously on the top step, she noticed that the imperfection had changed into the image of a vehicle, and it was on fire. She could see the superheated air wavering up off of the flames. The crackling and sudden heat of a blaze forced her to lift a hand to guard her face. It was going to explode. She was quite sure of it. And then she was falling backwards, falling down…

Ana: Welcome to Beach Bum Reads! I am super excited that you could join me today! 

April Grey: I'm delighted to be here!

Ana: Can you tell us a little about yourself?

April Grey: I'm the author of Chasing the Trickster, published by Eternal Press. Also, my short stories appear in numerous e-zines, along with e- published and print anthologies. I live in NYC with my hubby and teen son. My life prior to marriage was involved in working in the theatre and in law firms (gotta pay the rent). After marriage and motherhood I've spent my time writing as well as teaching  art and ESL.

Ana: What was the first book that got you into reading?

April Grey: The Lion, the witch and the Wardrobe. It was read to us in first grade and I was hooked.

Ana: What/who inspired you to become a writer?

April Grey: I think it was primarily the work of Charles DeLint that made me want to write, but there's a whole stable of favorite authors before and after him that gave inspiration.

Ana: Is there anything you want to say to inspiring writers? (to inspire writers or to aspiring writers?)

April Grey: Keep honing your skills and keep reading. Observe what your favorite writers do that brings you pleasure.  Find what appeals to you as a reader. Don't try to copy, but learn what works for you.

Ana: Can you tell us a little bit about Chasing the Trickster?

April Grey: It's a crazy road trip to self discovery for Nina Weaver, our main character. Uncanny things have been happening to her such as mysterious images and messages showing up in her artwork.  But when she barely escapes being kidnapped and her best friend is shot, she decides to get to the bottom of the mess her life has become. She winds up accepting help from her ex-lover and on their trip they fall back in love. Eventually they discover that they are pawns in a rivalry between two pagan gods, Cernunnos and the Trickster God of the American Southwest.

Ana: Who was the hardest character for you to write?

April Grey: Linda, because she is a tragic figure. There were times that I cried as I wrote her story.

Ana: Where did you come up with the idea for Chasing the Trickster?

April Grey: I've long been a fan of the work of Carl Jung. In particular, I was intrigued by his writing on the Trickster Archetype. The Trickster comes and shakes us up whenever we get big headed and think we know everything there is to know.

Ana: All book descriptions set aside, they say a picture is a worth a thousand words. What do you think the cover for Chasing the Trickster says?  

April Grey: The cover depicts the Celtic god, Cernunnos. Even though the title of the book is Chasing the Trickster, it is the first book in the Cernunnos series. A pagan fertility god, Cernunnos gets mixed up in people's problems as he goes on his own journey of self-discovery.

Ana: Are you currently working on anything? Care to dish?

April Grey: The sequel to Chasing the Trickster, St. Nick's Favor will hopefully be released this holiday season. We are working on the cover right now. Also, I'll be teaching a course at Savvy Authors early next year on Getting Published in E-zines. I have just published "Troll Bridge: Three Unlikely Stories" for Halloween. 

Ana: Okay, last question… and I’ve gotta ask… are you a beach bum? 

April Grey: Yes, I am. Or I would be if my husband wasn't deathly allergic to beach grasses. I'm hoping to head to Nantucket next year for our 20th anniversary, but he'll need to bring an Epi pen.

Ana: Thanks for stopping by! It was a pleasure having you here today :)

April Grey: Thanks! It was a pleasure.

Think Fast:

Ana: Water or Soda?

April Grey:  Water

Ana: Coffee or Tea?

April Grey: Coffee

Ana: Zombies or Vampires?

April Grey: Zombies

Ana: Rap or Rock?

April Grey: Rock

Ana: Day or Night?

April Grey: Day

Ana: Salad or Burger? 

April Grey: Salad (I switch off between Vegan and Lacto-Ovo-Pesco Vegetarian). I'm also gluten free.

April Grey's urban fantasy novel, Chasing The Trickster, is published by Eternal Press. Her short stories have been published in such print anthologies as Demonmind's Halloween 2010, The Best of Everyday Fiction 2, Northern Haunts, Ephemera and Terrible Beauty, Fearful Symmetry. Many of these stories can be found in her collection, The Fairy Cake Bake Shoppe available through Amazon and Smashwords.

She and her family live in Hell's Kitchen, NYC in a building next to a bedeviled garden. Gremlins, sprites or pixies, something mischievous, lurks therein. Someday she'll find out.

Blog | Facebook | Twitter | Smashwords | Website

 Writing Class - Jan 28 - Feb 10

Writing for e-zines 13 SPOTS LEFT
April Grey. The best piece of advice I ever had as a budding novelist was to also write short pieces. The benefits of publishing short stories and/or non-fiction articles with e-zines (and other publications) are huge. You can make a name for yourself as a writer, create a platform, improve your craft and get paid by selling to e-zines. This course will teach the beginning writer how to research markets, evaluate their own work, write a cover letter/follow up query and track their stories. Students will sub... {more info}
Duration: 13 days. $20/$30 (Craft, Plotting, Characterization, Industry, Genre, Intermediate) 
http://www.savvyauthors.com/vb/workshoplist.php

Blog Tour: Promo Post + Giveaway: Bone Wires by Michael Shean

Promo + Giveaway

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• 10 Ebook copies of Bone Wires by Michael Shean

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Bone Wires
Amazon (Kindle) | Amazon (Print) | BN | Books-A-Million
Author: Michael Shean
Publisher: Curiosity Quills/Whampa, LLC (July 19, 2012)
Genre: Dark, Mystery, Science Fiction, 380 pages
ISBN-10: 1620070693
ISBN-13: 978-1620070697

SUMMARY:

In the wasteland of commercial culture that is future America, police are operated not by government but by private companies.

In Seattle, that role is filled by Civil Protection, and Daniel Gray is a detective in Homicide Solutions. What used to be considered an important - even glamorous - department for public police is very different for the corporate species, and Gray finds himself stuck in a dead end job. That is, until the Spine Thief arrives.

When a serial killer begins harvesting the spinal tissue of corporate employees all over the city, Detective Gray finds himself plunged into the first truly major case of his career. Caught in a dangerous mix of murder, betrayal and conflicting corporate interest, Gray will find himself not only matching wits with a diabolical murderer but grapple with his growing doubt toward his employers in the dawning months of the American tricentennial.

A thrilling mystery set in the same world as the Wonderland Cycle, Bone Wires is a grim trip into the streets of the empty future.

EXCERPT:

The scene of the crime was an alleyway behind an abandoned Roziara Deli. Crowding the street outside the deli were a pair of patrol cars, white wedges of steel with ribbon lights that stained the nearby buildings red and blue. Street officers clustered around the mouth, black body armor over blue uniform fatigues; unlike the sidearms that Gray and Carter carried, the streeties carried the blunt, brutal shapes of submachine guns close to their plated chests. A cordon had been set up; the narrow yellow band of holographic tape that stretched across the alley mouth glowed as it cycled through baleful warning messages.

“They used to have good subs here,” said Carter as they pulled up in front of the moldering delicatessen. “Slabs of capicola as thick as Annie Cruz’s ass. Just incredible.”

“Don’t know that name,” said Gray.

“Porn star,” said Carter, who produced his badge and flashed it at a streeter who was approaching them. “Way before your time. Put on your war face, here comes the Pacifier.”

Carter’s Amber Shield glowed like the very words of God Almighty in the low light. “Carter and Gray,” said Carter, keeping his identification held up so that the streeter could see it. “Homicide Solutions.”

“Lem Martin,” replied the streeter. “Pacification Officer, patrol region 927.”

“This is your beat then,” said Gray, who produced from the inside pocket of his suit coat a slim Sony microcomp and engaged its holographic display. Data from the Nexus sprang to life above the palm-sized slab. “What do you have for us, Martin?”

Martin winced a bit at the lack of ‘Officer’ before his surname – you got a lot of that with Pacification Services, of which street patrol was the biggest group. They didn’t like being talked down to. Gray outranked him, however, and didn’t give a shit besides. “Nasty stuff,” Martin said, jerking his head toward the alley mouth. “Victim’s name is Anderson, Ronald P.. Administration. His panic implant was set off about an hour ago and flatlined soon after; me and my partner were in the area, and when we found him…well. Real horror show back there, is all I can say. I called for backup. Dunno what they used, but…well. You’ll see.”

Carter and Gray looked at each other – streeters saw all sorts of things. If they said it was a nasty scene, they’d probably do well to get smocks and rain boots. “All right, Officer,” Carter said, at which Martin seemed to relax a bit. “Were there any witnesses, security footage, anything like that?”

“Nothing we could find,” said Martin. “This area’s been abandoned for years. Anyone who lives here cleared out as soon as they heard us coming. You know how it is.”

“Yeah,” said Gray. Don’t want to get arrested for just being around. “All right, thanks, Officer. If you and…”

“Conklin and Peavey,” Martin replied. “In the other car. Patel’s with me.”

“…Right,” Carter replied with a nod. “If you fellas can keep up the cordon on either side of the alley, we’ll have a look. Call the coroner while you’re at it.”

“On it,” barked Martin, who stepped away from the alley mouth while touching the side of his throat where a subvocal mic, standard issue for street patrol, had been implanted. Carter waited until Martin had backed up a few steps and was well into conversation before he gestured for Gray to follow him. The two men passed through the holographic cordon, the barrier no more solid than the air around it, and took a few steps into the feebly-lit alleyway. The space behind the deli was dark and thick with shadows, lit only by the dying bulb of a lamp set over the shop’s sealed back door. A figure slumped or lay in the cone of dim light that spilled across the building’s crumbling facade. The air was faintly tinged with the smell of ozone and cooked meat. The two men approached; Gray held his computer in one hand while Carter fished the flat, card-sized shape of a palm lamp from a coat pocket. Cupping the lamp in his hand, Carter threw a beam of bright blue- white light across the alleyway and clearly illuminated the corpse.

Lean and muscular in life, that which had been Ronald Anderson half-crouched, half-sprawled across the alleyway, his handsome face pointing down toward the filthy concrete. The corpse’s posture reminded Gray of an old girlfriend; she was a yoga fanatic and used to do something similar called the Child’s Pose. Anderson’s formerly clean white dress shirt had been cut open, straight down the back from collar to waist, and his belted slacks had also been cut down to the base of the pelvis. His back had been tattooed with a medieval Japanese wave scene.

Anderson’s flesh had been laid open. Arching upward and away in a v-shaped furrow, a deep channel now butterflied the man’s back half from the base of his skull to the top of his pelvis. Where his spine should have been there was only a bloodless, grayish-red channel. The red and ivory of cleanly clipped bone and cooked organs were clearly visible in its absence, his heart a gray and veined lump. It was as if the tattooed sea had somehow come alive, restless and roaring, and attempted to rise away from its host who could never have survived its rebellion.

Without the slightest drop of blood, Ronald Anderson had been boned like a fish.

“Damn,” muttered Carter, stepping forward so he could track with his light the awful wound. “Never seen that before. What do you make of it, Dan?” For Gray, who had only experienced the more pedestrian horrors of stranglings, stabbings and gunshot wounds in his brief career, there was no clean reply. “That’s the strangest thing I’ve ever seen,” he breathed instead, staring down at the carved gutter. Gray had said ‘strangest’ – however, what he had truly wanted to say was ‘most horrible’. Looking down at the murdered man, Gray knew that his ‘sexy’ case had arrived, just as he had wished for it, but the only thing he could wish for now was to be anywhere else.

As if sensing the truth behind Gray’s words, Carter snorted softly. “Lucky you, kid,” he replied in a wry and vaguely weary tone. “Lucky you.”

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Michael Shean was born amongst the sleepy hills and coal mines of southern West Virginia in 1978. Taught to read by his parents at a very early age, he has had a great love of the written word since the very beginning of his life. Growing up, he was often plagued with feelings of isolation and loneliness; he began writing off and on to help deflect this, though these themes are often explored in his work as a consequence. At the age of 16, Michael began to experience a chain of vivid nightmares that has continued to this day; it is from these aberrant dreams that he draws inspiration.

In 2001 Michael left West Virginia to pursue a career in the tech industry, and he settled in the Washington, DC area as a web designer and graphic artist. As a result his writing was put aside and not revisited until five years later. In 2006 he met his current fiancee, who urged him to pick up his writing once more. Several years of work and experimentation yielded the core of what would become his first novel, Shadow of a Dead Star (2011). Michael is currently signed with Curiosity Quills Press, who has overtaken publication of Shadow of a Dead Star and the other books of his Wonderland Cycle.

Website | Author Facebook | Bone Wires Facebook | Wattpad

Blog Tour: Giveaway: Above the Universe Below by Elias Barton

 Review

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     » 5 eBook copies of Above the Universe Below by Elias Barton 

About the Universe BelowAmazon US (Kindle) | Amazon (Print) | Amazon UK (Kindle)

Author: Elias Barton

Publisher: Iron Glass Press (July 26, 2012)

Genre: Fantasy, Dark, 332 pages

ISBN-10:0615660746
ISBN-13:978-0615660745

SUMMARY:

For two years running (2011 & 2012) Above the Universe Below was was a semi-finalist in Amazon.com's Breakthrough Novel Award and Publishers Weekly:

"Brilliant writing carries this pleasantly odd tale of an agoraphobic artist, Carder Quevedo... Carder's road is not an easy one, but readers will be rooting for him in this unusual and beautifully written book."

An agoraphobic artist in our world but a grim reaper in another, Carder Quevedo hides at home, immersing himself in the paintings which commemorate the strange deaths he's witnessed. He ventures into public only when necessary, scrambling to his hospital job to extract corneas from deceased donors or darting to the diner to share a meal with Darren, his only friend. That's Carder's existence - and he's content.

Until...

Haika changes that. As the bored, beautiful owner of an art gallery - who also happens to be married - she stumbles into Carder in a chance encounter and soon becomes obsessed with his art. As they forge a quirky, electric relationship, Carder is reluctantly pulled into Haika's social world of wealth, status and the peculiar characters that come with it. Carder is pushed further to the edge when his teenage niece visits, rebelling against her ultra-conservative upbringing. All the while, Carder's hidden history threatens to ruin his developing chance at normalcy, and on the opening night of his art gallery show, his past finally catches up to his present and wreaks havoc upon them all.

EXCERPT:

Haika’s mouth is obscured behind an empty Styrofoam cup riddled with repeating arches of gentle teeth-marks she’s bitten into it like colorless rainbows perforating white sky. She meets Carder’s gaze with a mischievous smile, enjoying the role of spectator and anthropologist. She’s relaxed, as if sitting in a bubble bath with a goblet of wine in hand, reading this all in a novel someone lent her.

Love.

That’s what Haika is: love. Not just love for Mike or art or New York. Haika is love in every moment. She’s loving to Carder, to his relatives, to the Carlisle boys. But she’s more. She’s love in the cloudless sky above, in the honey she brought for tea, in the music she tries to soundtrack Carder’s life with, in the thrift-store clothes she’s wearing, in the ascot knotted at her chin, in her bare feet sliding through what would once have been war-torn grass, in the sadness sometimes hiding in the corners of her lips. She brings love to every moment… something Carder has never seen in another person. Ever. He obsesses over every detail, and gulps down the harrowing thought that he’ll one day lose her. He tries to be love like Haika is, to laze on the hammock of friendship hanging from her eyes right now. He fills with gratitude. This has actually happened. She had actually been in his life, and no one can take that away. Carder could live off it for decades and fully plans to.

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Elias Barton has lived on the edge of an active volcano, worked in a Bible factory and is the author of the novel "Above the Universe Below." He was a semifinalist in both 2011 and 2012 for the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award. He currently resides in Washington DC where he befriends gargoyles, feeds unicorns and combats two cats who try to smother him in his sleep.  

Website