Black Jack COVER REVEAL!

Black Jack – The Ace of Hearts Book Two

Melanie S’velare is a survivor, the strongest witch in her coven, and a princess. With the key to her magic, the Ace of Hearts, presumably destroyed, her powers continue to grow. As her power increases, her control on them becomes weaker until it is clear she may be the most powerful witch on the planet and the most dangerous. The Alaman, another coven, concerned by her strength, send an ambassador to gauge her control, stability, and how dangerous she truly is. The Alaman are well known for killing witches who pose a threat to their own powerful hold over the globe and if they see fit to end her life, she will have no choice but to fight.

With her soulmate by her side and the remains of her Vanguard, Melanie strives to maneuver a maze of political scandals designed to make her falter. If she fails, she will not only lose her throne to the traitorous Lord Rossi, but also her life to the fiery Alaman.

Melanie can only pray her secret that the Ace of Hearts is alive and manipulating them all in a final deadly game is never revealed.

Black Jack book two in the Ace of Hearts series will be released July 2015.

Sounds awesome, right? If you haven’t read Ace of Hearts (book 1) check it out here. Are you ready for the big reveal? Drumroll….

Black Jack Cover

 

About the author:

headshot Mikki KellsMikki Kells is both a writer and a rider. She spends her nights crafting fantastical stories and her afternoons bowing to the demands of her beloved horse. Her interests in fantasy, science fiction, and paranormal stories developed from a childhood of imaginary exploits and continue to influence her professional career. She resides in central Utah.

Follow Mikki for more news, contests, and extras.

www.mikkikells.com

Twitter/Instagram: @mikkikells

Blog: www.mikkikells.tumblr.com

Spotlight: Assets

assets-coverAssets is the second in The Plague Legacy young adult dystopian series. Assets is available for pre-order now and releases April 9.

If you sign up for Haggerty’s newsletter, you’ll receive a free ebook of her next Grimm Chronicles novella, One, Two, Blood on My Shoe, in May! Click here to sign up.

Haven’t read the first book yet? Good news: Acquisitions will also be on sale for 99c from April 3-12.

Enjoy this exclusive excerpt from Assets:

Ben leaned back again and shifted his eyes to Cam. “Name?”

“Cam.”

“No, no,” Ben shook his head and clicked his tongue. “Here we do it right. Just ‘cause we’re slaves don’t mean we don’t have manners.” He sniffed and held out his hand.

Cam took it. The old man’s skin was as dry and thin as paper.

Smiling, Ben pumped Cam’s arm. “Mister Benjamin Tanner. And you are?”

“Cameron Landry.”

“Well met, Mis-ter Cam-er-on Lan-dry,” he drew out each syllable. “Welcome to my fine establishment. The smell of manure is exceptional here, ripened to perfection. We live with horses and detest housecleaning. You understand, I’m sure?”

Not sure what else to do, Cam nodded. “Nice to meet you, Benjamin Tanner.”

“Please,” Ben released Cam’s hand, still speaking as if he were someone else, “do sit.” He pulled an overturned bucket away from the wall.

Cam sat on it, shifting his butt around until he was as comfortable as he figured he’d get. “What about the dog?”

“Kitty?” Ben took on a new accent. “Nine lives, this one.” He stooped and scratched the dog’s tall ears. “She had ‘er throat smashed by a Regulator, she did. A mighty ‘eart without a bark,” Ben grinned.

Offering the old man a tight smile, Cam reached out his hand and bit his lip while Kitty sniffed his fingers. After a moment, she nudged her nose under his hand. “My friend was attacked by dogs on the trip here. The bite wounds got infected,” Cam’s throat tightened.

Ben’s bushy white eyebrow shot up. “He died, eh?”

Cam nodded, the memory stealing his voice.

“You said you were hungry?” the old man’s voice returned to his normal pitch and he took another drink from the bottle.

“Starving,” Cam’s stomach rumbled, the fish from Styx’s warehouse long gone.

“Well, I ain’t got any food,” he held out the bottle, “but I got my own special brew.”

“No, thanks,” Cam looked at the door, his thoughts on Myla and Jax.

“Waiting for someone?” Ben walked past Cam to the door and opened it. He looked outside, then banged it shut, the liquid in his bottle sloshing from the vibration. “Nobody there, rookie.”

“My friend is a mutant. She came here with me.” Cam watched as Ben busied himself at the iron stove. Kitty jumped onto the cot and watched, her ears pricked high.

Heat blasted into the room when Ben popped the doors, raising the temperature from hot to sweltering. Sweat ran down Cam’s back and soaked into the waistband of his shorts. Flinching in sympathy when a couple of sparks landed on Ben’s bare thigh, Cam’s throat tightened as Ben rammed a branding iron into the flames.

The man stumbled as he stood, and Cam caught him before Old Ben fell against the stove. The old man was as light as a child, as weightless as his paper-thin skin. Settling Ben on his feet, Cam sat back on the bucket. “What did Charyn mean when she told you that Valiant will expect to see me here in the morning?”

“If you’re gone, I get whipped.”

“Whip you?” Cam was surprised. “Why?”

Ben shrugged. “Basic crowd control. Most people are willing to risk their own punishment for something they want, but they won’t risk hurting someone else. Slavery 101.” He pointed at Cam. “Consider that the beginning of your education in Salvation. Next course is all about pain.” Ben played with the end of the branding iron.

Cam felt the blood drain from his sweating face. “What if I don’t care if they hurt you?”

“Oh, you’ll care,” Ben smiled, showing off a row of crooked yellow teeth. “I’m pretty fabulous.”

 

Christine_Haggerty_web_mediumAbout the author: Christine Nielson Haggerty grew up in rural Utah with three brothers, a sister, several chickens, a goat, and an outhouse. She always loved the escape of fantasy and the art of writing, and her passion for life is to craft stories of strength and survival.

As a former high school language arts teacher and a black belt in karate, Christine has found a niche in combining those skills to help authors write effective fight scenes.

An award-winning young adult author, she writes the dystopian The Plague Legacy series and the dark fantasy fairytale novella series The Grimm Chronicles.

Other Links for Christine Haggerty

www.wattpad.com/ChristineHaggerty

Facebook: Christine Haggerty, Author

Twitter: @chaggerty99 Amazon: www.amazon.com/Christine-Haggerty Goodreads: www.goodreads.com/author/show/7468114.Christine_Haggerty

Author’s Combat Academy: www.authorscombatacademy.com

Pretty Things (Grimm Chronicles Book 1) Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Pretty-Things-Grimm-Chronicles-Book-ebook/dp/B00TC0UPMM/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8

Spotlight: Pretty Things

Pretty Things Kindle

Pretty Things Blurb

When Maddie’s father catches her with a boy, he hauls her into town in a pig wagon and finders her a husband. But Peter’s cabin in the woods promises something very different than Maddie’s happily ever after.

Pretty Things, a retelling of “The Robber Bridegroom,” is the first novella in the Grimm Chronicles series. Warning: not your granny’s fairytales!

Christine_Haggerty_web_medium
Christine Nielson Haggerty grew up in rural Utah with three brothers, a sister, several chickens, a goat, and an outhouse. She always loved the escape of fantasy and the art of writing, and her passion for life is to craft stories of strength and survival.

As a former high school language arts teacher and a black belt in karate, Christine has found a niche in combining those skills to help authors write effective fight scenes.

An award-winning young adult author, she is now launching her dark fantasy fairytale novella series The Grimm Chronicles.

Find out more here!

Guest Post: Favorite Halloween Movies

It’s great to be back, Adrienne! I’ve got a fun list for you today. Are we ready??

You know things are going to suck when you’re the new kid. But when you’re the new kid and a vampire… well, it bites!

 

Unlike most kids, Scarlet Small’s problems go far beyond just trying to fit in. She would settle for a normal life, but being twelve years old for an entire century is a real pain in the neck. Plus, her appetite for security guards, house pets and bloody toms (tomato juice) is out of control. So in order to keep their vampire-secret, her parents, Mort and Drac, resort to moving for the hundredth time, despite Scarlet being dead-set against it. Things couldn’t be worse at her new school, either. Not only does she have a strange skeleton-girl as a classmate, but a smelly werewolf is intent on revealing her secret. When she meets Granny—who fills her with cookies, goodies, and treats, and seems to understand her more than anyone—she’s sure things will be different. But with a fork-stabbing incident, a cherry pie massacre, and a town full of crazy people, Scarlet’s O-positive she’ll never live to see another undead day.

 

Not even her Vampire Rule Book can save her from the mess she’s in. Why can’t she ever just follow the rules?

Add Little Dead Riding Hood to your Goodreads to-read list here Purchase LDRH at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, or your favorite Indie bookstore!

 

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When I was a teenager, I was big into slasher films. Nightmare on Elm Street, Friday the Thirteenth, Fright Night, to name a few. But I’ve tamed my viewing preferences in my adulthood. Now I’m not so much into the super gory, gross horror movies or shows (unless we’re talking The Walking Dead), which means I tend to go for movies that could appease a younger audience. Some of them are classics, others just a little creepy, some are cheeeeeesy, but every one of them are a hit in my book!

Amie’s Top Five Halloween Movies:

  1. The Others

  2. The Corpse Bride

  3. Hocus Pocus

  4. Sleepy Hollow

  5. Bram Stroker’s Dracula

There you have it! What are your favorite Halloween movies?

 

 

 

About us:

Amie Borst is a PAL member of SCBWI. She believes in Unicorns, uses glitter whenever the opportunity arises, accessories in pink and eats too much chocolate. 

Bethanie Borst is a spunky 14 year old who loves archery, long bike rides and studying edible plant-life. She was only 9 when she came up with the idea for Cinderskella!

Little Dead Riding Hood is their second book in the Scarily Ever Laughter series. Their first book, Cinderskella, released in October 2013.

You can find them on facebook. Amie can be found on twitter, pinterest, and her blog

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We’re having two great giveaways as part of our blog tour! The first is for a copy of LITTLE DEAD RIDING HOOD! So be sure to enter the giveaway by following the steps on the rafflecopter form below.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

 

THEN – as soon as you finish that, be sure to stop by my blog for a second contest! I’m having a SCAVENGER HUNT that you won’t want to miss with lots of extra great prizes! All you have to do is make sure you enter the contest below first then hopping over to my blog and filling out the rafflecopter form

there! Super easy! Here’s the rafflecopter form for my blog just in case you missed it!  a Rafflecopter giveaway

 

See you soon!

 

 

Giveaway for Little Dead Riding Hood

Hi Adrienne and audience! Thanks for having us here today. I’m so excited about the upcoming release of my second book, co-authored by my daughter, Bethanie. LITTLE DEAD RIDING HOOD is available Tuesday, October 14th, 2014!

You know things are going to suck when you’re the new kid. But when you’re the new kid and a vampire… well, it bites!

Unlike most kids, Scarlet Small’s problems go far beyond just trying to fit in. She would settle for a normal life, but being twelve years old for an entire century is a real pain in the neck. Plus, her appetite for security guards, house pets and bloody toms (tomato juice) is out of control. So in order to keep their vampire-secret, her parents, Mort and Drac, resort to moving for the hundredth time, despite Scarlet being dead-set against it. Things couldn’t be worse at her new school, either. Not only does she have a strange skeleton-girl as a classmate, but a smelly werewolf is intent on revealing her secret. When she meets Granny—who fills her with cookies, goodies, and treats, and seems to understand her more than anyone—she’s sure things will be different. But with a fork-stabbing incident, a cherry pie massacre, and a town full of crazy people, Scarlet’s O-positive she’ll never live to see another undead day.

Not even her Vampire Rule Book can save her from the mess she’s in. Why can’t she ever just follow the rules?

Add Little Dead Riding Hood to your Goodreads to-read list here Purchase LDRH at amazon, B&N, or your favorite Indie bookstore!

Adrienne has asked us for our top five list of books that influence our writing. I swear, this is a trick question! I’m always afraid I’m going to look stupid with my choices. Plus, I’m not sure it’s any one book, or even combination of five books, that influence me. So many things influence my writing, spark inspiration, and help me become a better writer.  Anything from a movie, to the outdoors, to the fragrance of a candle can inspire me. Sometimes it’s even a dream. Or a special shared moment in front of the campfire, or an inside joke with my kids. It’s crazy how many small, everyday things can inspire me.

But, since we must give a list, here goes!

Bethanie:

1) Coraline by Neil Gaiman

2) The Cavendish Home for Boys and Girls by Claire LeGrand

3) The Year of Shadows by Claire LeGrand

4) Ranger’s Apprentice (series) by John A. Flanagan

5) The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien

6) The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate by Jacqueline Kelly

Amie:

1) I’m actually going to have to agree with Bethanie about Coraline

2) Technically Coraline is tied with The Cavendish Home

3) Do I really have to name a book? Cause I really want to say EVERY SINGLE TIM BURTON MOVIE ever produced!

4) Sariah McDuff: Primary Program Diva  So once, a very long time ago, when my kids were small, I read them this book. It made me laugh so hard I filled buckets with tears!  When I think of humor, my memory draws upon this story.

5) Here’s where I go a little crazy: Dr. Seuss, S.E. Hinton, Edgar Allen Poe, Peggy Parish, Madeleine L’Engle, James Hilton, E.B.White….the list goes on…(I told you it was crazy)

Thanks for having us here today, Adrienne! I hope you’re readers enjoyed it as much as we did.

Borst Family (7)

About us:

Amie Borst is a PAL member of SCBWI. She believes in Unicorns, uses glitter whenever the opportunity arises, accessories in pink and eats too much chocolate. 

Bethanie Borst is a spunky 14 year old who loves archery, long bike rides and studying edible plant-life. She was only 9 when she came up with the idea for Cinderskella!

Little Dead Riding Hood is their second book in the Scarily Ever Laughter series. Their first book, Cinderskella, released in October 2013.

You can find them on facebook. Amie can be found on twitter, pinterest, and her blog

Now go and enter that giveaway! What are you waiting for?

a Rafflecopter giveaway