Matt’s life changes forever when a family of druids moves into the
dilapidated Victorian mansion next door. The story of an unlikely
friendship, the clash of two completely different cultures, secret
magic, and a search for the lost Hawthorne treasure.
Fifteen-year-old Matt Mitchell was having the
worst summer imaginable. Matt’s misery
started when a drunk driver killed his mother. Then his father moved
him and his twin sister to the small town of Hawthorne in rural
Indiana, as far as his grieving father could take from the ocean that
Matt’s mother had loved. At the new high school, three bullies are
determined to make Matt miserable. And to top it off, Matt learns
that the recluse who lives in the ‘haunted house” next door is
none other than Old Lady Hawthorne, the town’s infamous witch and
murderer. Matt’s terrible summer is turning into an awful autumn
when something quite unexpected happens. Old Lady Hawthorne’s niece
and her three children arrive, and Matt meets Gerallt.
A geek
by day, Donald Firesmith works as a system and software engineer
helping the US Government acquire large, complex software-intensive
systems. In this guise, he has authored seven technical books,
written numerous software- and system-related articles and papers,
and spoken at more conferences than he can possibly remember. He’s
also proud to have been named a Distinguished Engineer by the
Association of Computing Machinery, although his pride is tempered
somewhat by his fear that the term “distinguished” makes
him sound like a graybeard academic rather than an active engineer
whose beard is still slightly more red than gray.
By night and on weekends, his alter ego writes modern paranormal
fantasy, apocalyptic science fiction, action and adventure novels and
relaxes by handcrafting magic wands from various magical woods and
mystical gemstones. His first foray into fiction is the book Magical
Wands: A Cornucopia of Wand Lore written under the pen name Wolfrick
Ignatius Feuerschmied. He lives in Crafton, Pennsylvania with his
wife Becky, and his son Dane, and varying numbers of dogs, cats, and birds.
Halloween By the final week of October, the tall oaks lining Hawthorne Drive had reached the peak of their colors, and the first yellow leaves slowly tumbled down to lie on lawns and sidewalks. All along Hawthorne Drive, the modest one- and two-story houses had been turned into happy Halloween haunts. Throughout the neighborhood, bright orange lights framed windows and doors, and small fluttering ghosts hung from the branches of many of the smaller trees in peoples’ yards. Black plastic spiders sat on the cottony cobwebs that shrouded every bush, while jolly Jack-O-Lanterns stood silent guard at every porch. Front yards had become grave yards, and the occasional inept witch hung where she’d crashed headlong into a tree or the side of a house. Yet the morning of Halloween had arrived with no change to Hawthorne House, making it appear decidedly underdressed with no sign of Halloween decorations. “So Gerallt, doesn’t your family celebrate Halloween?” Matt asked as the Hawthorne children joined Tina and him at the bus stop. “You haven’t put up any decorations, and I haven’t heard you mention it all month.” “Of course we observe Halloween, only we call it Samhain,” Gerallt said, exchanging cautious glances with his sister. Unlike Wiccans, who pronounce the holiday as Sow-in, Gerallt pronounced the Gaelic word meaning the end of summer as Sahm-wan. “It’s just that for us, the holiday doesn’t start until dusk and we always wait until then tah decorate.” “Tonight is very special tah us,” Gwyneth added solemnly. “It’s our new year,” Gerallt continued. “We have a feast tah welcome the spirits of those who will be born in the comin’ year and tah celebrate the lives of those who have passed in the previous year. Tonight, we’ll celebrate the life of our fathah and welcome his spirit when he visits us from the Spirit World…” Before Matt could decide how to respond to Gerallt’s unexpected expectation that his father’s ghost was going to visit him, Gareth said, “Samhain ‘s my favorite holiday. I love trick-or- treatin’ and all the candy. Can I go with you and Gerallt tonight? Please? I promise not tah be a bothah or anything. Please, Matt?”
Follow the tour HERE
for exclusive content and a giveaway!
Trifles and Folly
A Deadly Curiosities Collection
by Gail Z. Martin
Genre: Urban Fantasy
A collection of nine adventures: Buttons, The Restless Dead,
Retribution, Coffin Box, Wicked Dreams, Collector, Bad Memories,
Shadow Garden, and Spook House.
Cassidy Kincaide runs Trifles & Folly in modern-day Charleston, an
antiques and curios shop with a dangerous secret. Cassidy can read
the history of objects by touching them and along with her business
partners Teag, who has Weaver magic and Sorren, a 600 year-old
vampire, they get rid of cursed objects and keep Charleston and the
world safe from supernatural threats. An extension of the Deadly
Curiosities book series.
Revised Edition 2, 2018. Includes an updated cover, minor edits
and the BONUS section with three stories chronicling Sorren’s early
days:
Vanities, The Wild Hunt, and Dark Legacy.
Goodreads * Amazon
Trifles and Folly 2
A Deadly Curiosities Collection
Cassidy Kincaide runs Trifles & Folly in modern-day Charleston, an
antiques and curios shop with a dangerous secret. Cassidy can read
the history of objects by touching them and together with Teag (a
hacker and weaver witch) and Sorren, a 600 year-old vampire, they get
rid of cursed objects and keep Charleston and the world safe from
supernatural threats.
An extension of the Deadly Curiosities urban fantasy novel series, this
collection contains three full novellas and four short stories: The
Final Death, Predator, Fair Game, Fatal Invitation, Redcap,
Bloodlines, plus three bonus stories: Among the Shoals Forever, The
Low Road, and Steer a Pale Course.
Goodreads * Amazon
Gail Z. Martin discovered her passion for
science fiction, fantasy and
ghost stories in elementary school. The first story she wroteat age
fivewas about a vampire. Her favorite TV show as a preschooler was
Dark Shadows. At age 14, she decided to become a writer. She enjoys
attending science fiction/fantasy conventions, Renaissance fairs and
living history sites. She is married and has three children, a
Himalayan cat, a Maltese and a golden retriever.
Website * Newsletter* Facebook * Pinterest * Twitter
* Goodreads * Amazon
Coffin Box
“I DON’T KNOW why, but I’ve really got a bad feeling about that house.” I sat in the car parked at
the curb near the big house on the Battery.
“Bad feeling like they won’t pay their bill, or bad feeling like there’s a hungry demon
inside?” Teag Logan asked.
I shook my head. “Not sure, but if I had to put money on it, I’d go with the demon.”
Most people would be kidding. Teag knew I wasn’t. I’m Cassidy Kincaide, owner of Trifles
and Folly, an antique and curio shop in historic, haunted Charleston, SC. Neither Teag nor I are
entirely what we seem, and that holds true for the shop as well.
I’m a psychometric, which means I can often read the history of objects by touching them.
Teag has Weaver magic, an ability to weave spells into cloth and to weave data streams—like
the Internet—making him an awesome hacker. He’s my best friend, sometime bodyguard and
assistant store manager. I’m the latest in a very long line of relatives to manage Trifles and Folly
in the 350 years the store has existed, but we’ve all had the same silent partner, a nearly six-
hundred-year-old vampire named Sorren, and the same mission: to get dangerous magical items
off the market and out of the wrong hands. Most of the time, we succeed. When we fail, people
die and really bad things happen.
“How do you want to handle this?” Teag asked.
I drew a deep breath. “We go in, and see what’s what. Then we figure it out from there.” My
magic is touch-psychic, not clairvoyance, so I can’t see the future, much as I would sometimes
like to.
The house was large, old, and expensive. Most of the homes on the Battery hailed from
before the Civil War. Many of the houses are painted in the muted pastels most people associate
with places like Bermuda and Nassau. Some of the families who owned these homes had been
here since the mansions were built. The houses are beautiful, and tourists flock to see them. But
as much as I admire their beauty, I try not to spend a lot of time down at the Battery for the
simple reason that it creeps me out.
This is a great bundle to have on hand over the summer for rainy day activities to keep the gears turning!
THE GIVEAWAY
This giveaway/sweepstakes is in no way endorsed, affiliated, or associated with Facebook, Twitter or any other Social Media Networking Site. This Giveaway is valid to United States residents only, Entrants must be 18+ years of age to enter. This giveaway event will end at 11:59 PM (EST) 4/21/19. The winners will have 48 hours to email their information back to mcushing7 at hotmail dot com or a new winner will be drawn, you may want to put this email address as safe as it could go to spam. The giveaway is not valid where prohibited! By entering you are authorizing us to collect the information on the form below, this information is used only to contact the winner! No purchase necessary, Void where prohibited by law, and the number of eligible entries received determines the odds of winning. Winners are chosen randomly by the Giveaway Tools program. The sponsors are each responsible for shipping of the above prizes. No blog associated with this contests are responsible for prize fulfillment. If you would like to be a sponsor in a giveaway like this please email Laura Smith at mcushing7 (at)hotmail (dot) com. If you take an entry you must stay following for the entire contest or you will be disqualified.
Also we all “love it if you like us” on Facebook! If you like our blogs on social media it helps us bring you only the best giveaways and more of them! Don’t forget to stop by for your daily bonus entries.
Disclaimer: Deliciously Savvy and any blog promoting this giveaway is not responsible for the awarding of the prize. Sponsor is responsible for prize fulfillment and shipping to winner. Any questions about this giveaway? Email Melissa At mcushing7 (at) hotmail (dot) com.
The BookTube Your Shelf Daily Reader turns one year old this March.
[Cue the party music!] The time has flown by so quickly. My to-be-read
list has expanded even faster. As a reader, you know that is both a
good and bad thing. LOL!
YouTube for the Bookish?
YouTube.com is the second most visited website in the world – where over 1.9
billion logged-in users visit each month. And each day, people watch
over a billion hours of video and generate billions of views. While
many people are aware of the music videos, make-up channels and
gaming channels on the platform, far fewer know about the great
bookish content available on YouTube. BookTube is a community of
content creators on YouTube that film videos about books. The
BookTube Your Shelf Daily Reader is a daily online newspaper
featuring social shares from booktubers (including authortubers) and
some bookish neighbors (like bloggers and readers). Are you familiar
with BookTube?
Between changes in YouTube’s algorithm and my book reading taste, it was a
struggle for me to keep up with my favorite booktubers and keep
a look-out for new booktubers. I knew many other fans of BookTube
were having similar problems.
When YouTube changed it’s monetization rules in early 2018, many people,
including myself, worried about it’s overall impact on small content
creators. As I looked at my personal BookTube channel list, I
thought, “What can I do to help support and encourage bookish
content creators?” Then poof! The idea for The BookTube Your
Shelf Daily Reader popped into my head. [Yes, with a poof]. What
started out as an idea in March of 2018 has morphed into a passion
project with an online newspaper and email newsletter.
Find Your Next Favorite…
One of
the goals of The BookTube Your Shelf Daily Reader project is to
help you find your next favorite booktuber. Check out the Videos
section of TBYSDR for suggestions on bookish YouTube videos to watch.
It features over 25 videos each
day. https://paper.li/Readeropolis/1517059010#/videos
Another goal of
the project is to help you find your next great read. In The BookTube
Your Shelf web newspaper, you’ll find a variety of posts like:
Book News
Book Giveaways
Book Reviews
Videos about Books
Videos about Reading
Videos about Writing
Book Trailers
Don’t Miss A Thing.
Don’t struggle with searching for book-related videos in the YouTube hay
stack. Subscribe to The BookTube Your Shelf Daily Reader Email
Newsletter to have the paper delivered to
your email inbox. https://paper.li/Readeropolis/1517059010#/
During March I will be hosting a month-long event called BookTube Z to A,
highlighting BookTube channels on YouTube, at the Readeropolis book
blog. Look for the hashtag #BookTubeZtoA on your favorite social sites.
Do you watch book-related videos on YouTube? What are some of your
favorite BookTube Channels?
Have you checked out the latest edition of The BookTube Your Shelf Daily Reader?
BookTube, keep doing what you’re doing. You’re hands down amazing!
Mayor Sonni: Reader extraordinaire. Mayor of the Readeropolis book blog.
Content curator. Lover of books, lists, sweet tea, and vacations.
Well, not necessarily in that order.
Are you connected?
You can find her all over
the Internet under the handle Readeropolis.
“A sea adventure like no other, a riveting romance!”
– SHIRLEE BUSBEE, NY Times Bestselling author
Paris 1782…AN INNOCENT IS TAKEN
All Claire Donet knew was the world inside the convent walls in
Saint-Denis. She had no idea her beloved papa was a pirate. But when
he seized Simon Powell’s schooner, the English privateer decided to
take the thing his enemy held most dear…her.
A BATTLE IS JOINED
The waters between France and England roil with the clashes of Claire’s
father and her captor as the last year of the American Revolution
rages on the sea, spies lurk in Paris and Claire’s passion for the
English captain rises.
“Regan Walker sweeps you away to a time and place you’ll NEVER want to
leave!” ~ Danelle Harmon, NY Times & USA Today Bestselling Author
England and France 1784
Cast out by his noble father for marrying the woman he loved, Jean
Donet
took to the sea, becoming a smuggler, delivering French brandy and
tea to the south coast of England. When his young wife died, he
nearly lost his sanity. In time, he became a pirate and then a
privateer, vowing to never again risk his heart.
As Donet’s wealth grew, so grew his fame as a daring ship’s captain,
the terror of the English Channel in the American War. When his
father and older brother die in a carriage accident in France, Jean
becomes the comte de Saintonge, a title he never wanted.
Lady Joanna West cares little for London Society, which considers her its
darling. Marriage in the ton is either dull or disastrous. She wants
no part of it. To help the poor in Sussex, she joins in their
smuggling. Now she is the master of the beach, risking her reputation
and her life. One night off the coast of Bognor, Joanna encounters
the menacing captain of a smuggling ship, never realizing he is the
mysterious comte de Saintonge.
Can Donet resist the English vixen who entices him as no other woman?
Will Lady Joanna risk all for an uncertain chance at love in the arms
of the dashing Jean Donet?
“Simply Magnificent!” – Stew Ross, author of Where Did They Put the Guillotine?
France 1794.
Zoé Ariane Donet was in love with love until she met the young
commander of the royalist army fighting the revolutionaries tearing
apart France. When the dashing young general is killed, she joins the
royalist cause, rescuing émigrés fleeing Robespierre’s Reign of Terror.
One man watches over her: Frederick West, the brother of an English
earl,
who has known Zoé since she was a precocious ten-year-old child. At
sixteen, she promised great beauty, the flower of French womanhood
about to bloom. Now, four years later, as the Terror seizes France by
the throat, Zoé has become a beautiful temptress Freddie vows to
protect with his life.
But English spies don’t live long in Revolutionary France.
Regan Walker is an award-winning, #1 Amazon bestselling author of
Regency,
Georgian and Medieval romances. She writes historically authentic
novels with real historical figures along with her fictional
characters. Among the awards she has won are the International Book
Award for Romance Fiction, the San Diego Book Award for Best
Historical Romance, the RONE Award for her medievals and the Gold
Medal Illumination Award.
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