Love Fantasy Fiction? Author Tom Early Talks About His Inspiration and New Release Aspect of Winter (interview, excerpt and contest)

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Scattered Thoughts and Rogue Words is happy to have Tom Early here to answer a few questions about himself, writing and his latest release, Aspect of Winter. Welcome, Tom. We have a few questions for you this morning.

Q. Why write for YA readers?

YA is where representation matters most. There aren’t enough YA books out there that feature protagonists that aren’t straight, and there are even fewer books that manage to be the proper adventure fantasy story and just also happen to have gay characters. I want to help change that.

Q. I have always loved the idea of a college for magical studies, what draws you to this element?

It’s kind of impossible to ignore the influence Harry Potter has on any author who attempts to write a magical school type of story, and I won’t deny that it definitely helped give me the idea. But Harry Potter is about early schooling, and not more of a college element. Janus University seems kind of like the next logical step for what to portray. You’ve got powers, and that’s great. But what do you do with them? What is the world like when magic is readily available and there’s no real control of powers after a certain point? Aspect of Winter, especially the later books in the series, aims to answer that.

Q. Friends to lovers is a favorite trope for so many readers, is it one of yours too?

It depends. I’ve never been a fan of childhood friends to lovers because it just seems unrealistic to have two people who have been as friends for years and years to suddenly want to be more. But newer friendships that eventually expand their boundaries is far more realistic for me. I find the idea of a friendship that progresses over a few months to a relationship to be a lot better, and a lot less abrupt than love at first sight, either. Love takes time to grow, but it isn’t something that is inherently likely to happen from years of friendship, either.

Q. Do you have a favorite story that you read as a younger reader?

I read The Name of the Wind many, many times when I was younger, and still do occasionally even now. I wouldn’t quite call it YA, but it’s definitely read just as much by teens as it is adults. The story just manages to set up a slow pace and make it work, which, especially for fantasy, is incredibly difficult to do well.

Q. What feeling do you want your readers to take away at the end of this and any of your stories?

Aspect of Winter is meant to be a story that you enjoy reading. I wrote it to entertain myself, and hopefully it entertains anyone who reads it as well. But making Fay gay, and Sam pansexual, and Tyler bisexual isn’t a coincidence. I want people to realize that it’s just as easy to enjoy a good YA book with non-straight main characters as any other.

Q. Did you bring any of your school history and make it part of the Janus College learning experience?

The high school Fay and Sam go to at the beginning of Aspect of Winter is loosely based off my own high school experience. Their efforts to get into Janus University is like a fictionalized, combat fantasy version of the college application process. And their time at Janus University in book two is meant to be similar to my own college experience in the feeling of freedom and courses and choices offered, but Janus University is a bit more ruthless than my own school is.

Q. What’s next for Tom Early?

Well, there’s definitely book two, which is tentatively titled The Doorway God at the moment. I’m about in the middle of it at the moment and working pretty much every day on it. But I have other novels I’m working towards publication with as well. One of them is high fantasy and features a bisexual assassin and an asexual princess and an epic plot against the safety of the entire world, and another tells the story of a possibly delusional young man trying to find a boy who was taken from his mother in 1930’s England. But finishing the Aspect series is first on my list.

Title: Aspect of Winter

Author: Tom Early

Publisher: Harmony Ink Press

Cover Artist: Sadie Thompson

Length: 260 pages

Release Date: October 15, 2015

Blurb: It’s hard enough being gay in high school, but Fay must also deal with hiding his magical ability—powers he barely understands and cannot possibly reveal. His best friend Sam is his only confidante, and even with her help, Fay’s life is barely tolerable.

Everything changes when Janus University, a college for individuals with magical capabilities, discovers the pair. When the university sends a student to test them, Fay and Sam, along with their classmate Tyler, are catapulted headfirst into a world of unimaginable danger and magic. Fay and Tyler begin to see each other as more than friends while they prepare for the Trials, the university’s deadly acceptance process. For the first time, the three friends experience firsthand how wonderful and terrible a world with magic can be, especially when the source of Fay’s power turns out to be far deadlier than anyone imagined.

Excerpt

AS IT turned out, being wedged into the small space below the math wing staircase was exactly as uncomfortable as I’d imagined. Now, I was in there of my own choice, sort of. I held still and listened, letting out a sigh of relief when I heard the boys’ voices fading. I decided it was safe and did my best to wriggle out.

Groaning, I brushed myself off and realized that I’d somehow managed to cover the majority of my backpack in a thick layer of dust. Rumor had it that years ago the staircase used to be green. Now it was gray. I looked at my backpack in disgust and let out a breath, concentrating. The dust glittered as a layer of frost covered it. When I hoisted my bag onto my back once more, the dust slid right off, the frost preventing it from clinging.

Clean backpack in hand, I trudged up the stairs, across the hall, and walked into the classroom. I took my customary seat in the back next to the poster detailing the derivative rules of calculus, feeling a flash of pity for Ms. King as I watched her try to get anyone to listen, and grabbed my book of the day as the front row began its usual antics. Today they asked Ms. King about her love life, which, while incredibly rude, was extremely successful in throwing her off-balance.

I would never understand high school, even after nearly four years of it. It seemed barely tolerable for everyone involved, including the people who fit in. I didn’t fit in, and so every day was a new chapter in the purgatory of hiding what I could do.

I sent a grateful prayer to the high school gods as class was interrupted by an announcement saying we needed to go to the nurse’s office for a new immunization or something. Ms. King pulled us out of the truly thrilling world of integrals and sent us down one at a time. I was one of the last to go.

Stepping back into the hallway, I prayed that I wasn’t going to run into any of Logan’s crowd again on my way down. The number of times I’d heard “fag” muttered under someone’s breath was already too high.

The school had two hallways running between the faculty area and the math wing, and most people took the lower one. I chose the glass hallway because it was usually empty (this surprised me as well, but apparently using stairs was just too much for many of my classmates), and it was pretty cool to be able to see the entire campus from what was effectively its highest point. I trailed a finger across the glass as I walked, leaving behind a fractal line of frost in the warm September air.

I smirked. For as long as I’d been at Owl’s Head High School, there had been, in the eloquent phrasing of high schoolers, “spooky shit” in the fall and spring where kids would come across ice or cold areas in warm weather. I knew I needed to keep my head down, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t have a little fun.

BuyLinks

Harmony Ink Press

Amazon US

Amazon UK

All Romance eBooks

AboutTheAuthor

Tom Early is currently a student at Tufts University who probably spends more time than is wise reading and writing instead of studying. More often than not, he can be found wrapped in a blanket on the couch forgetting most of the things he was supposed to do that day.

When not writing, Tom can be found either reading, gaming, drawing, scratching his dog, or bothering his friends. He also frequently forgets that it’s healthy to get more than six hours of sleep a night, and firmly believes that treating coffee as the most important food group makes up for this. If you show him a picture of your dog, he will probably make embarrassingly happy noises and then brag about his own dog. He’s always happy to talk about any of his previous or current writing projects, because people asking him about them reminds him that he should really be writing right now.

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Boys on the Brink

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Carly’s Book Reviews

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The Final Word, Famous Last LInes of Novels and This Week At Scattered Thoughts and Rogue Words

The last couple of weeks I have been talking about the first lines in novels. The ones that pull you in, set the tone, even lay out some of the plot. Its so hard to get that all important first line right. Look how few make it into the top 10, 20 or even top 50 lists. Not many. It was even harder to compile our own. So many first lines had the name of the main character or rambled on or just didn’t do their job.

Now let’s switch to the end of the story. The last line to be exact. The last lines of novels are the final word. The author may offer resolution (or just more questions). The last line may make us scream in frustration and clap in joy and stare silently in shock. In the end, we take what we can get. Here are a few famous last lines. Notice how many authors and novels also had the most famous first lines. Which of the famous last lines in literature is your favorite?

“Ah Bartleby! Ah humanity!”
– Herman Melville, Bartleby the Scrivener

“Before reaching the final line, however, he had already understood that he would never leave that room, for it was foreseen that the city of mirrors (or mirages) would be wiped out by the wind and exiled from the memory of men at the precise moment when Aureliano Babilonia would finish deciphering the parchments, and that everything written on them was unrepeatable since time immemorial and forever more, because races condemned to one hundred years of solitude did not have a second opportunity on earth.”
– Gabriel Garcia Marquez, One Hundred Years of Solitude

“It was the devious-cruising Rachel, that in her retracing search after her missing children, only found another orphan.”
– Herman Melville, Moby-Dick

“The knife came down, missing him by inches, and he took off.”
– Joseph Heller, Catch-22

“So in America when the sun goes down and I sit on the old broken-down river pier watching the long, long skies over New Jersey and sense all that raw land that rolls in one unbelievable huge bulge over to the West Coast, and all that road going, all the people dreaming in the immensity of it, and in Iowa I know by now the children must be crying in the land where they let the children cry, and tonight the stars’ll be out, and don’t you know that God is Pooh Bear? the evening star must be drooping and shedding her sparkler dims on the prairie, which is just before the coming of complete night that blesses the earth, darkens all rivers, cups the peaks and folds the final shore in, and nobody, nobody knows what’s going to happen to anybody besides the forlorn rags of growing old, I think of Dean Moriarty, I even think of Old Dean Moriarty the father we never found, I think of Dean Moriarty.”
– Jack Kerouac, On the Road

“But I reckon I got to light out for the Territory ahead of the rest, because Aunt Sally she’s going to adopt me and sivilize me and I can’t stand it. I been there before.”
– Mark Twain, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

“He loved Big Brother.”
– George Orwell, 1984

“His soul swooned slowly as he heard the snow falling faintly through the universe and faintly falling, like the descent of their last end, upon all the living and the dead.”
– James Joyce, Dubliners, “The Dead”

“I don’t hate it he thought, panting in the cold air, the iron New England dark; I don’t. I don’t! I don’t hate it! I don’t hate it!”
– William Faulkner, Absalom, Absalom!

“Yes, she thought, laying down her brush in extreme fatigue, I have had my vision.”
– Virginia Woolf, To the Lighthouse

“If I were a younger man, I would write a history of human stupidity; and I would climb to the top of Mount McCabe and lie down on my back with my history for a pillow; and I would take from the ground some of the blue-white poison that makes statues of men; and I would make a statue of myself, lying on my back, grinning horribly, and thumbing my nose at You Know Who.”
– Kurt Vonnegut, Cat’s Cradle

“It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known.”
– Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities

“So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.”
– F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby

Now what famous last lines, no not death lines, last lines of books can you remember? Yep, a list of those is coming too. But not this week. Next up, our up coming schedule.

This Week At Scattered Thoughts and Rogue Words

Sunday, October 18:

The Final Word, Famous Last Lines of Novels and This Week At Scattered Thoughts and Rogue Words

Monday, October 19:

Coffee Sip and Book Break with Sarah Madison’s ‘Truth and Consequences (excerpt and contest)
A Barb, A Zany Old Lady Review: Boyfriend For The Weekend (Boyfriend #1) by Diana DeRicci
A Jeri Review: The Making of Matt By Nicola Haken
A MelanieM Review: Dead Flush by Laura Harner (Pulp Friction 2015) ☠
Scary Redux Review: Necromancy and You (Guidebook #02) by Missouri Dalton ☠

Tuesday, October 20:

In the Spotlight: Minotaur by JA Rock (Riptide Tour and Contest)
Romance Hits a Triple Play by Sloan Johnson (Tour and Contest
A Free Dreamer Review: Hemovore by Jordan Castillo Price
A Mika Review: Redeeming Hope by Shell Taylor
A Jeri Review: Triple Play by Sloan Johnson

Wednesday, October 21:

Cover reveal for ‘Cardinal Sins’ by Lissa Kasey (excerpt and cover reveal)
Coffee Sip and Book Break: Coming Back Home by April Kelley (excerpt and giveaway)
Looking for Something New? Check Out Rain Shadow by LA Witt (contest)
A BJ Review: Just a Bit Wrong (Straight Guys #4) by Alessandra Hazard
A PaulB Review: Scarred Mate by A C Katt

Thursday, October 22:

In the Book Spotlight: Aspect of Winter by Tom Early (excerpt and contest)
Jess Buffett and ‘Packmaster’ book blast and giveaway
A Barb, A Zany Old Lady Review: Bowerbirds (Nested Hearts #2) by Ada Maria Soto
A Jeri Review: Deliver Me by Faith Gibson
A MelanieM Review: Children of Noah by Neil S.Plakcy

Friday, October 23:

Scary Spotlight: Haunted Hotties 2 Anthology from Torquere Press (excerpts and contest)
Paul’s Paranormal Portfolio: My favorite Non traditional Shifters
Scary Review Redux: Lily by Xavier Axelson ☠
A MelanieM Review: Dead Money by Lee Brazil (Pulp Friction 2015) ☠
A Jeri Review: Hollywood Secrets (Hollywood) by T.S. McKinney

YA Saturday, October 24:

A Stella YA Review: Go Your Own Way by Zane Riley

☠ – Look for on our October Scary Reads and Recommendations coming soon.

An Aurora YA Review: Mad About the Hatter by Dakota Chase

Rating: 4 stars out of 5

This isn’t his sister’s Wonderland….

Henry never believed his older sister, Alice’s, fantastic tales about the world down the rabbit hole. When he’s whisked away to the bizarre land, his best chance for escape is to ally himself with the person called the Mad Hatter. Hatter—an odd but strangely attractive fellow—just wants to avoid execution. If that means delivering “Boy Alice” to the Queen of Hearts at her Red Castle, Hatter will do what he has to do to stay alive. It doesn’t matter if Henry and Hatter find each other intolerable. They’re stuck with each other.

Along their journey, Henry and Hatter must confront what they’ve always accepted as truth. As dislike grows into tolerance and something like friendship, the young men see the chance for a closer relationship. But Wonderland is a dangerous place, and first they have to get away with their lives.

I enjoyed this book, and I was a little wary about it. It’s so hard to take pre-existing characters, or even characters that people will have pre-existing ideas about and writing them as new, fresh characters that can still surprise the readers. I think the author did a good job of this, both by not using all the same characters that a reader might be expecting to see, and also by giving the characters that were well known traits that we haven’t seen before, while still keeping them within the realm of reasonable characterization that made sense in the context of the story.

The plot was very interesting, although similar to the original story in some ways, there was a new spin to it besides it just being about Alice’s brother instead of her. I particularly liked the Hatter’s part of the plot and would even say that he was the most interesting part of the story, more so even than Henry was. Although their interactions were interesting and it was a good way to get Hatter out of prison and away with something to actually do, it definitely seemed like it was more Hatter’s story than it was Henry’s. Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing and, given the book’s beginning, isn’t exactly a surprise.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book and think it was a fresh take on characters we have seen a few times before and a world we are, for the most part, familiar with.

The cover artist for this book was Paul Richmond and I liked the cover. I’ll admit that to me it seemed a little busy and it didn’t necessarily draw my eyes to a certain place right away. However, the color scheme is really nice and it seems to represent the book well and give people an idea of what they’re going to be reading when they pick the book up.

Sales Links: Harmony Ink Press | All Romance (ARe) | Amazon |

Buy It Here

Book Details:

ebook, 190 pages
Published August 20th 2015 by Harmony Ink Press
ISBN 1634761502 (ISBN13: 9781634761505)

More First Lines of Novels, Our M/M Fiction First Line Quiz and This Week At Scattered Thoughts and Rogue Words

More First Lines of Novels, Plus Our First Line M/M Novels Quiz!

People tend to disagree over what are the most favorite/best loved lines in literature, especially when compiling lists. When scanning over a number of the Top Ten, the same lines and books appear over and over, but after that? It can get lively.

Sometimes the lists can surprise you, baffle you and delight you. Here are some of the first lines I found on lists that dismayed, baffled and delighted the heck out of me, and yes, that one huge thing is one sentence. Read it and weep for whatever emotion takes you and consider if they did their job…made you want to read the book.

What line dismayed me? This first line found on multiple lists, which I still find dismal. Up to me, this book would have remained unread, even by that year’s standards.

“I was born in the Year 1632, in the City of York, of a good Family, tho’ not of that Country, my Father being a Foreigner of Bremen, who settled first at Hull; He got a good Estate by Merchandise, and leaving off his Trade, lived afterward at York, from whence he had married my Mother, whose Relations were named Robinson, a very good Family in that Country, and from whom I was called Robinson Kreutznaer; but by the usual Corruption of Words in England, we are now called, nay we call our selves, and write our Name Crusoe, and so my Companions always call’d me.” Robinson Crusoe (1719), Daniel Defoe

What baffled me? This one sentence, yes, one line opener.

“Once upon a time two or three weeks ago, a rather stubborn and determined middle-aged man decided to record for posterity, exactly as it happened, word by word and step by step, the story of another man for indeed what is great in man is that he is a bridge and not a goal, a somewhat paranoiac fellow unmarried, unattached, and quite irresponsible, who had decided to lock himself in a room a furnished room with a private bath, cooking facilities, a bed, a table, and at least one chair, in New York City, for a year 365 days to be precise, to write the story of another person—a shy young man about of 19 years old—who, after the war the Second World War, had come to America the land of opportunities from France under the sponsorship of his uncle—a journalist, fluent in five languages—who himself had come to America from Europe Poland it seems, though this was not clearly established sometime during the war after a series of rather gruesome adventures, and who, at the end of the war, wrote to the father his cousin by marriage of the young man whom he considered as a nephew, curious to know if he the father and his family had survived the German occupation, and indeed was deeply saddened to learn, in a letter from the young man—a long and touching letter written in English, not by the young man, however, who did not know a damn word of English, but by a good friend of his who had studied English in school—that his parents both his father and mother and his two sisters one older and the other younger than he had been deported they were Jewish to a German concentration camp Auschwitz probably and never returned, no doubt having been exterminated deliberately X * X * X * X, and that, therefore, the young man who was now an orphan, a displaced person, who, during the war, had managed to escape deportation by working very hard on a farm in Southern France, would be happy and grateful to be given the opportunity to come to America that great country he had heard so much about and yet knew so little about to start a new life, possibly go to school, learn a trade, and become a good, loyal citizen.” — Raymond Federman, Double or Nothing, 1971

What delighted me? That I found these opening lines on a couple of lists.

“Where’s Papa going with that axe?” said Fern to her mother as they were setting the table for breakfast. (E.B. White,Charlotte’s Web)

“When the car stopped rolling, Parker kicked out the windshield and crawled through onto the wrinkled hood, Glock first.” –Donald E. Westlake writing as Richard Stark, Backflash

The drought had lasted now for ten million years, and the reign of the terrible lizards had long since ended. –Arthur C. Clarke, 2001: A Space Odyssey

“Nobody ever walked across the bridge, not on a night like this.” –Mickey Spillane, One Lonely Night.

This little hunt so entertained me that I decided to compile a list of my own, with help from the rest of the reviewers here at Scattered Thoughts and Rogue Words.

We started to look for the first lines from some very popular M/M Romance/Fiction stories and we came up with what is sure to be the first of at least 3 Scattered Thoughts and Rogue Words M/M Romance First Line Quizzes!

Look for the answers in next week’s Sunday’s post . How many, if any,do you think you will recognize?

Scattered Thoughts and Rogue Words M/M Romance First Line Quiz

In what m/m romance fiction books do these first lines appear?

“This is the way my world ends.”
“Once upon a time…that’s how the old stories always begin.”
“It was pouring when I walked outside to use the pay phone.”
“He was on his third beer of the evening when he thought he heard a noise in the backyard.”
“His elegantly decorated hospital room looked regal and stately, much like the man lying in the bed in the center of the room.”
“I don’t disagree with you Mother, Clarissa is a very beautiful woman. “
“I wish to buy a boy,” the stranger said.”
“I would say that I never let harm come to him, but in this world harm comes to us all. “
“At eight in the evening on a Friday, Roosevelt High School was dark and abandoned.”
“The whole thing started because of Lizzy’s Jeep.”
“Dad, I’m gay.”
“This is not a coming-out story.”
“He wore the navy suit because it was her favorite, the light blue shirt because when he looked down at his cuff, the slender line of color made him remember her eyes.”
“The smell of cheap motel rooms was comforting to him, like his oldest, rattiest T-shirt.”

This Week at Scattered Thoughts and Rogue Words

Sunday, October 4:

More First Lines of Novels, Our M/M Fiction First Line Quiz and This Week At Scattered Thoughts and Rogue Words

Monday, October 5:

Cover reveal for J. Johanis ‘Dream Gods’ (cover reveal and contest)
EE Montgomery ‘Just The Way You Are’ Keep Me In Mind Tour and Giveaway
Coffee Sip and Book Break: Small Wonders by Courtney Lux (excerpt and giveaway)
A Stella Review: Blueberry Boys by Vanessa North
A Mika Review: Signs of Life by Melanie Hansen

Tuesday, October 6:

Book Spotlight: Dragon’s Eye by Lexi Ander (excerpt and giveaway)
Author Spotlight Special: Sloan Johnson “Triple Play”-rescheduled for Oct 2oth
Coffee Sip and Book Break: Roping Him In by Jena Wade (excerpt and giveaway)
A Free Dreamer Review: Strength To Let Go by Alina Popescu
A Barb, A Zany Old Lady Audio Review: Pura Vida by Sara Alva ~ Audiobook narrated by Joseph Northton

Wednesday, October 7:

Kate Pearce’s Tribute Series Returns with the Retribution Tour and Contest
Valerie Brundage ‘Another Creature’ book blast and contest
Coffee Sip and Book Break with Missy Welsh – Take Your Pick (excerpt and giveaway)
A Stella Review: Base Instinct by Larissa Ione
A PaulB review: Shades of Power by Beany Sparks

Thursday, October 8:

Grein Murray ‘Keeping Joshua’ book blast and giveaway
In the Book Spotlight: Purpose by Andrew Q Gordon (excerpt and contest)
A Jeri Review: Let The Wrong Light In by Avon Gale
A Free Dreamer Review: First Contact by Alex Gabriel
A Mika Review: Redeeming Hope by Shell Taylor

Friday, October 9:

Riptide Publishing’s 4th Anniversary Celebration Tour and Contest
Coffee Sip and Book Break with P.D. Singer ‘Otter Chaos’ (excerpt and giveaway)
A BJ Review: Winter: Haunted Heart #1 by Josh Lanyon
A Free Dreamer Review: To Catch A Threeve by Alexis Duran
A MelanieM Review: Where the Grass is Greener (Seeds of Tyrone #2) by Debbie McGowan and Raine O’Tierney

YA Saturday, October 10:

An Aurora YA Review: Mad About the Hatter by Dakota Chase

?????????????

Scattered Thoughts and Rogue Words Has the Answers You Want Next Sunday!

In the Meantime, grab up those old favorites, check out those first lines! Can’t find the ones above? Ok, how about the ones you don’t need but find that are pretty cool? While you’re at it, write those down and submit them here to us at melaniem54@msn.com to use for our next quizzes. You’ll never know when a prize will pop up and you will have a least one line in the “know”.

First Lines in Novels and This Week At Scattered Thoughts and Rogue Words

As September winds down to the start up of October, so many things start to cram themselves into my head. Where is the dancing skeleton dressed like a Venice dandy? And the pumpkin headed schoolboys that talk? But somehow, as I watch the leaves turn colors and fall, often brown because of the lack of rainfall, a line jumped into my head….”To wound the autumnal summer…”. An opening first line of a science fiction story of the 90’s, that returns to me time and again even if the rest of the book doesn’t. [Note: Can I find the book on my many shelves at the moment? No, I cannot. It will be credited as soon as I can find the damn book or someone can send me the title or my memory kicks in…which ever comes first.]

First lines are like that, good ones, bad ones, really good bad ones. Standing there looking at the fall leaves swirl made that one pop back up and now, like a earworm, it will be stuck there all day. I know I’ve had that happen with first lines from other books as well, from the sublime to the ridiculous. “Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again.” Yep, that’s another one that has stayed with me along with the story’s imagery. Thank you, Daphne du Maurier and “Rebecca”. The first line has a huge job to do. It has to hook the reader in, intrigue you, be memorable enough in its content or language to make you continue to read on… And some do it unbelievably well.

How about these? Can you place these to the author and novel? One of them even has a famous bad writing contest named after it and is often featured in a comics with a beagle. Some might be easy, others a little obscure and pulled from my library (and favorite authors).

“It was a dark and stormy night…”

“Call me Ishmael.”.

“All children, except one, grew up.”

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…”

“There was a boy called Eustace Clarence Scrubb, and he almost deserved it.”

“All this happened, more or less.”

“It was a pleasure to burn.”

“It was love at first sight.”

“When I finally caught up with Abraham Trahearne, he was drinking beer with an alcoholic bulldog named Fireball Roberts in a ramshackle joint just outside of Sonoma, California, drinking the heart right out of a fine spring afternoon.”

“We were somewhere around Barstow at the edge of the desert when the drugs began to take hold.”

[Answers below this week’s schedule.]

It got me thinking which the novels you’ve all recently read have had first lines that have stuck with you? Any of them? Let me know if you can think of any novels you’ve read where the opening lines have made you sit up and take notice! In the meantime, here is our upcoming schedule this week at Scattered Thoughts and Rogue Words.

This Week At Scattered Thoughts and Rogue Words

Sunday, September 27:

First Lines in Novels and This Week At Scattered Thoughts and Rogue Words

Monday, September 28:

Cover Reveal for Jaye McKenna’s ‘Lethe Blade’
Return to Lake Lovelace with Rough Road by Vanessa North (contest)
Book Spotlight: Raine O’Tierney & Debbie McGowan’s ‘Where the Grass Is Greener’ (excerpt and giveaway)
A Stella Review: Rough Road by Vanessa North
A PaulB Review: Betrothed by Therese Woodson

Tuesday, September 29:

Best Books of September 2015
A BJ Review: Rattlesnake by Kim Fielding
A Stella Review: The Last Yeti by Tully Vincent
A F.D. Review: Late Summer, Early Spring by Patricia Correll
A MelanieM Review: High Stakes (Four of Clubs 4) by Parker Williams

Wednesday, September 30:

Best Book Covers of September 2015
A Stella Audiobook Review: Just Desserts by Mary Calmes
A BJ Review: Chasing Death Metal Dreams by Kaje Harper
Barb, A Zany Old Lady Review : Model Citizen by Lissa Kasey
A MelanieM Review: Brimstone Owned and Operated by Angel Martinez

Thursday, October 1:

Natalie-Nicole Bates ‘Everything Anise’ book blast and giveaway
Book Spotlight: Annabelle Jacobs is Back with ‘The Altered 3‘ (excerpt and contest)
A Mika Review: Where Wishes Go by S.A. McAuley
A MelanieM Review: Flax’s Pursuit by Bellora Quinn and Angel Martinez
A Wynter Review: Kaminishi by Jan Suzukawa

Friday, October 2:

S.A. McAuley ‘Where Wishes Go‘ book blast and giveaway
A Solitary Man by Shira Anthony and Aisling Mancy Cover Reveal
AF Henley’s ‘Wolf, WY’ Book Release Guest Blog and Giveaway
A Stella Review: The Last Nights Of The Frangipani Hotel by Bey Deckard
A Sammy Review: The Ultimate Team by Tricia Owens
A MelanieM Review: The Firebird and Other Stories by R Cooper

YA Saturday, October 3:

A Free Dreamer YA Review: This Book is Gay by James Dawson

Some Famous First Lines:

“Call me Ishmael.” —Herman Melville, Moby-Dick (1851)

“It was a dark and stormy night; the rain fell in torrents, except at occasional intervals, when it was checked by a violent gust of wind which swept up the streets (for it is in London that our scene lies), rattling along the house-tops, and fiercely agitating the scanty flame of the lamps that struggled against the darkness.” —Edward George Bulwer-Lytton, Paul Clifford (1830)

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.” —Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities (1859)

“There was a boy called Eustace Clarence Scrubb, and he almost deserved it.” – C. S. Lewis, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (1952)

“All children, except one, grow up”. -, J.M. Barrie. Peter Pan (1911)

“It was a pleasure to burn.” —Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451 (1953)

“All this happened, more or less”. —Kurt Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse-Five (1969)

“It was love at first sight.” —Joseph Heller, Catch-22 (1961)

“We were somewhere around Barstow at the edge of the desert when the drugs began to take hold.”- Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.

A Special YA Fiction Spotlight: Cheryl Headford’s Hostage (Character(s) Interview, Excerpt and Giveaway)

Character Interview

Characters Rowan and Astrin from ‘Hostage’ are here today and agreed to a joint interview. Greetings, Rowan and Astrin. Thanks for stopping by.

What or who is the greatest love of your life?

A: Rowan, of course. I have to say that, don’t I?

R: *Rowan swats his head affectionately* Please don’t feel constrained by me.

A: *Astrin laughs* Of course it’s you. It’s always been you. We’ve been through a lot, haven’t we? It was a great adventure, but I don’t think I’d have got through it without you.

R: *Rowan melts and hugs Astrin* You can get through anything, with or without me. You’re amazing.

*Astrin ducks his head and blushes*

Okay, on to the next question. What’s your favorite journey?

A: Oh, I don’t know. We’ve had a few. I can tell you which one wasn’t my favorite. Do you remember when we had to ride camels? *Astrin shudders* I don’t ever want to see a camel again, let alone ride it. I wasn’t too fond of the train either, but that was my fault.

As for my favorite…hmm. I think that was the one I took down the aisle of the cathedral. My whole world was waiting for me at the end.

What is your most marked characteristic?

A: Oh. I don’t know. What do you think?

R: *Rowan shrugs” You know what I think.

A: *Astrin chuckles and rolls his eyes* Rowan things I’m stubborn. *He gives Rowan a sideways glance* Okay, Maybe I am a little stubborn. Okay, a lot stubborn.

What is your greatest fear?

A: That I let down the people I love. I take my roles very seriously. One day, I will be king of House Raphael and when I am I will give myself to my country absolutely. Rowan knows well that my commitment to my people comes first, but I worry that one day my commitment to them will conflict with my commitment to him, and I fear terribly what would happen if it did.

R: *Rowan cuddles him* I know the score. If you weren’t such a good prince and a good person, I wouldn’t love you as much. I know I have to come second to your people, and I’m good with that.

A: Yeah, until the situation arises. So many people have found themselves unable to accept a reality they thought they had peace with.

R: Well, it won’t be me. I promise.

A: *Astrin gazes up at Rowan and gives him a sad smile* I pray you’re right, but I fear you’re wrong. We shall see.

What is your greatest regret?

A: I have no regrets. If I had to live my life over there is little I would change. Perhaps I would have accepted my feelings for Rowan a little sooner. Perhaps I would have trusted our families a little more. Perhaps I would have been a lot more careful in the castle of Strebo Michael and not got myself into a situation that could easily have been my last.

Which talent would you most like to have?

A: I’m happy with the talents I have. House Raphael has a long association with water and I have strong abilities with healing, manipulating water, and influencing emotions. They’ve always worked well for me. Although. *he glances at Rowan* I would love to have Rowan’s abilities to manipulate stone, so I could make him beautiful things like he makes me.

*Astrin reaches into his pocket and takes out a tiny stone head* Rowan made this the first night we spent together in the South. It was his first try and it doesn’t really look much like me but it’s kind of a memento. I’d love to have been able to make something like that for him.

R: *Rowan shrugs* I have plenty. Besides, without your healing talent I wouldn’t have been there to make the head in the first place. And I wouldn’t have survived the prison.

A: *Astrin shivers* We had an adventure, and looking back, a lot of it was fun, but we need to remember that it was deadly serious and we both almost didn’t come out of it alive.

*Rowan turns solemn and chews on his lip*

What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?

A: Being completely alone. That’s one of the things that made it so hard for me to cope when I was Rowan’s prisoner. I felt so alone. Usually, I’m never alone. Even if there is no one physically with me, they’re only a thought away. It’s not always a good thing, especially when my mother tries to start a conversation when I’m…er…busy, but I know there’s always someone there. When I was a prisoner I didn’t even have myself.

What is the quality you most like in a man?

R: *Astrin glances at Rowan* Impulsiveness, and proclivity for temper tantrums

*Rowan cuffs him lightly and they both grin*

A: No, seriously, I like spontaneity. Many of the men I grew up with hold important positions and have to abide by rigid rules of conduct. Rowan was like a breath of fresh air. He doesn’t care about protocol and tradition. He just does things because they feel right, and he makes sure that sometimes I do things just because they feel right, too.

What is the quality you most like in a woman?

A: Knowing when not to drop into someone’s head unannounced. Hear that, Mom? *Astrin grins* No, seriously, I’d say it was having a great sense of humour. Things are getting better but it’s still harder for a woman to get on, especially in House Gabriel. Melissa is doing a great job, as Queen and I know my mother is helping, and being helped, a great deal. Both of them are very level headed and sensible, but they have a wicked sense of humour, and that makes a huge difference, I think.

What is the trait you most deplore in yourself?

A: I’m weak. I would like to be stronger, like Rowan.

R: *Rowan’s eyes widen* Weak? Are you crazy? You’re the strongest person I know.

A: Yeah right. How many times did I almost die? How many times you have to save me?

R: About the same number of times as you saved me.

A: Yeah, but those were accidents.

R: And you…. *Rowan makes a huge effort and chews his lips* I not ‘going off on one’ as you keep saying. Let’s just say I totally disagree, and move on.

What is the trait you most deplore in others?

A: Cruelty. Everyone hurts people sometimes, mostly without intending to. Even when you don’t care it’s not deliberate. But when someone hurts another living being just because they can, because they enjoy it or get some twisted kick out of I just don’t understand that.

*Rowan keeps chewing on his lip, his eyes firmly on the ground. Astrin squeezes his arm* I know you didn’t really mean to be cruel to me. You’re not a cruel person. You were blinded by your anger, and I’ve forgiven you a hundred times.

R: I don’t want your forgiveness. I don’t deserve it.

A: Okay…moving on. This is an argument I can’t win.

What do you most value in your friends?

A: Honesty.

Which living person do you most admire?

.A: My father. He’s had to fight hard for me, and he’s done it without thought for himself. He is the strongest, wisest and most admirable person I know. He’s a true king.

What do you consider the most overrated virtue?

A: I don’t think any virtue can be overrated. I try to be the best person I can be, and I don’t consciously try to be virtuous, but I think that if you constantly strive to be the best version of yourself you can be, you’ll always be virtuous, without being sanctimonious.

*Astrin gives a wicked grin* Although Rowan’s working at loosening my virtue and I have a feeling he might try to steal it.

On what occasions do you lie?

A: Never if I can help it. Sometimes I have to give slightly different versions of the truth, but I try very hard to be truthful whenever I can.

If you were to die and come back as a person or thing, what do you think it would be?

A: Definitely not a camel. Um…something soft and cuddly I think. I like being cuddled.

R: I’m very glad about that, because I like cuddling you.

A: So what would you be?

R: A camel.

A: What? Why? Why would you be a camel?

R: *Rowan whistles and rolls his eyes” I thought I might be able to teach you to ride me properly.

A *Astrin coughs* Moving on.

What is your motto?

.A: Never give up.

Title: Hostage

Author: Cheryl Headford

Publisher: Harmony Ink Press

Cover Artist: Garrett Leigh

Length: 328 Pages

Release Date: September 17, 2015

Blurb:

Astrin Raphael wakes up in a strange place, frightened and confused. He is told to trust someone who seems to hate him, and he tries—he really tries. However, things change rapidly when he discovers his friend is actually his archenemy, Rowan Gabriel, whose abusive behavior stems from a deeply ingrained, if unwarranted, hatred over something that happened many years before, and simply wasn’t Astrin’s fault.

When Rowan’s uncle and Astrin’s father are kidnapped by Strebo Michael, the two crown princes are catapulted into an adventure that forces them to work together, and along the way their feelings for each other grow. Rowan is quick to let his hate go, but Astrin can’t release his inhibitions. It takes Astrin almost dying from a poisoned dagger before he finally accepts Rowan’s love.

When they return home, their problems continue as their Houses try to negotiate a way for the young men to be together. It soon becomes clear at least one of them will need to relinquish his throne.

ROWAN WASN’T smiling. He was simmering gently and muttering to himself under his breath. He’d understood and fully appreciated everything his uncle said to him, but it changed nothing. He hated Astrin Raphael, hated him with a vengeance—vengeance for his parents, to be exact. When Astrin’s father had given the order to attack the armored convoy carrying Rowan’s parents back to the capital, he had shattered Rowan’s world. At four years old, the young prince had hardly known his parents, but he could remember the soft touch of his mother’s lips on his hair, the strong arms of his father cradling him and making him feel safer than he ever had since.

That was all gone now, wiped out in one round of intensive fire and a couple of old-fashioned rocket grenades. Gritting his teeth, Rowan pressed his thumb against a panel that checked his DNA. As Crown Prince, there was no security level for which he was not cleared, and almost instantly the panel changed from red to green, letting out a soft hiss as the seal around the door released.

Quite apart from his feelings for Astrin, Rowan hated coming to the infirmary wing. It was thankfully small, as it catered only for those who lived and worked in the Palace Complex. The door opened into a central lobby from which other doors led in three different directions. One led to the administrative center, another to the main body of the hospital, which was more often accessed through the main entrance at the other side of the building, and the third to the private royal apartment. This was used and accessed only by members of the royal family, their personal physicians, and retainers.

As usual a senior administrator sat behind the desk, working before a bank of computers. Because of the unusual circumstances, soldiers stood on either side of the door into the royal suite. They were elite bodyguards, eternally alert and ready to act in a heartbeat should the need arise.

Nodding to the soldiers but ignoring the administrator, Rowan again pressed his thumb against a panel and was admitted to a dimly lit corridor.

At the end of the corridor was an administration chamber similar to the one he’d just left. This was manned predominantly by nurses, as it dealt with only a fraction of the information handled by the mainframe.

Today there were three nurses at the station. One was working hard on a keyboard in front of the monitor screens, apparently updating paperwork.

The other two nurses were lounging. They snapped to attention as Rowan entered. He ignored them.

Crossing the floor, he activated another thumb pad and pushed the door open when it hissed.

His first thoughts when he passed through the door were of utter contempt and disgust. If he hadn’t retained some sense of honor and decency, he would have spat on the sleeping prince. Fortunately, despite his complaints to his uncle, he realized it was necessary to treat the other prince with a degree of respect. It was vital the negotiations with his father were a success. Rowan therefore swallowed his feelings and went to work.

The boy was unconscious and completely helpless. As a Class One Prisoner, it was too dangerous to allow him any kind of freedom, even the freedom of consciousness.

For normal Class One Prisoners the overcrowded prisons had, over the years, developed containment chambers. Here, many men and women could be economically housed in pods, kept in a comatose state for however long their sentence might be, constantly played audio messages designed to precipitate rehabilitation. They were roused from their coma only during the last months of their sentence, when they had regular consultations with clinical therapists who assessed whether their minds had developed sufficient conscience to allow them to be released back into society.

Some prisoners had committed crimes so severe it was unlikely they would ever be roused. Their pods occupied a room all of their own, which was entered only to install a new pod or to remove that of a prisoner who had died.

However, no one was going to put Astrin, Crown Prince of House Raphael and The Western Kingdoms, in a stasis pod. Although he was a prisoner, he was still a member of the royal family of a major ruling House, and therefore deserving of special treatment.

Instead of a pod, he was reclining on a state-of-the-art bed, his head and shoulders propped up on white pillows. Although it was not possible to see from casual examination, his body was suspended from the shoulders down within an electrically generated field. No part of it was touching either the bed or the covering sheets, thereby preventing bed sores. In addition the field provided constant deep stimulation to his muscles, preventing atrophy and circulation issues.

Tubes inserted into the veins in his arms fed him a regular mixture of drugs, which maintained his perpetual coma, and another tube inserted into his stomach through his abdomen was used to feed him daily with a concentrated, thick liquid that contained all the nutrients needed to keep him alive.

It was Rowan’s duty to feed the sleeping prince, then disengage the force field and wash his body, making sure he stayed clean and there was no infection or irritation of the skin. Rowan hated it. He hated Astrin, and touching him repulsed him. Also the mixture of sedative drugs and the soupy liquid diet produced an absolutely foul waste that made him ponder at times whether it was deliberately engineered by his uncle as a rather basic lesson in humility.

It never occurred to Rowan that, if he found the whole thing demeaning and sickening, had Astrin been conscious enough to be aware of what was happening to his body, he would, no doubt, have found it even more so.

It never occurred to Rowan that, if he found the whole
thing demeaning and sickening, had Astrin been conscious enough to be aware of
what was happening to his body, he would, no doubt, have found it even more so.

Harmony
Ink Press (ebook)

Harmony
Ink Press (Paperback)

Amazon
US

Amazon
UK

All
Romance eBooks

Cheryl Headford was born into a poor mining family in the
South Wales Valleys. Until she was sixteen, the toilet was at the bottom of the
garden and the bath hung on the wall. Her refrigerator was a stone slab in the
pantry, and there was a black lead fireplace in the kitchen. They look lovely
in a museum but aren’t so much fun to clean.

Cheryl has always been a storyteller. As a child, she’d
make up stories for her nieces, nephews, and cousin, and they’d explore the
imaginary worlds she created, in play.

Later in life, Cheryl became the storyteller for a
reenactment group who traveled widely, giving a taste of life in the Iron Age.
As well as having an opportunity to run around hitting people with a sword, she
had an opportunity to tell stories of all kinds, sometimes of her own making,
to all kinds of people. The criticism was sometimes harsh, especially from the
children, but the reward enormous.

It was there she began to appreciate the power of stories
and the primal need to hear them. In ancient times, the wandering bard was the
only source of news and the storyteller the heart of the village, keeping the
lore and the magic alive. Although much of the magic has been lost, the stories
still provide a link to the part of us that wants to believe that it’s still
there, somewhere.

In present times, Cheryl lives in a terraced house in the
Valleys with her son, dog, hamster, and two cats. Her daughter has deserted her
for the big city, but they’re still close. She’s never been happier since she
was made redundant and is able to devote herself entirely to her twin loves of
writing and art.

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Winner’s Prize: Signed Paperback of Hostage.

Runners Up Prize: 2 E-copies of Hostage.

Must be 18 years of age or older to enter.

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September 21:

Gay.Guy.Reading And Friends

The
Land of Make Believe

September 22:

Scattered Thoughts & Rogue Words

The Purple Rose Tea House

September 23:

Queer
Sci-Fi

Diverse
Reader

September 24:

The
Novel Approach

Wicked
Faeries Tales And Reviews

September 25:

September 26:

September 27:

September 28:

September 29:

World of Diversity Fiction

Love
Bytes Reviews

September 30:

Eyes
on Books

A Mika Review: Lucky Linus by Gene Grant

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars ★★★★★

Is the possibility of fulfilling your heart’s desire worth the risk of breaking it?

Fourteen-year-old Linus Lightman is understandably reluctant to trust his newest foster family, the Nelsons, after he’s bounced through the system since being being taken from his neglectful mother. He’s certain they will reject him when they find out he’s gay, and getting to know them will only lead to hurt later. Trying to cope, he builds a friendship with Kevin Mapleton, and it quickly grows into romance, despite Linus’s fears. Then a video of Linus and Kevin having sex is posted online, and Linus knows from past experience exactly what’s going to happen. This sort of scandal will cost him his new home and Kevin’s love, snatching away his fragile hopes of belonging.

I did not know what to expect out of this book. It was hard for me to read this because I don’t deal with with abandoned children. I knew that going into the story, but I wanted to see if I could. I did, and I would again, because I really enjoyed the story from Linus perspective. Linus never gave up the fight, he was determined not to let his abandonment and neglect bring him down. We see often in real life and in this story how some kids give up after moving from place to place. They lose hope in people, and in themselves. I was angry, distraught reading this, and couldn’t stop crying. I think cried the entire story. I was pleading while reading this book that someone would love him. Linus doesn’t have it easy, but his outlook and attitude is so inspiring. You’d think that he would be surly, down, and depressed. Well he’s not; he’s taking one step at a time. I didn’t know how I was going to feel reading a story about a 14 yr old. This is the youngest age group that I’ve ventured into, and my emotions were put into the ringer. I’m happy with the outcome of the story. I really loved it.

Goodness when I was reading this, and found out that the setting was in Mississippi. I did not expect good things, let me tell you that. Egg on my face for thinking there’s no good folks in the state of Mississippi. The entire NELSON family was amazing. I really loved them. I related so much to Linus, not just aa child of an addict. I know what it’s like to have a parent addicted to something. I was fortunate enough that my dad raised us. I was also fortunate enough to have my mom in my life. I can tell you I fell in love with Lucky Linus from the very start and I’ll be on the lookout for more from Gene Gant.

Cover Art by Paul Richmond: I picked this book because of the cover. The cover model is really adorable, and for some reason he pulled at my heart strings. I thought it was a very fitting cover.

Sales Links: Harmony Ink Press | All Romance | Amazon | Buy It Here

Book Details:

ebook

Published July 23rd 2015 by Harmony Ink Press

ISBN139781634760706

edition languageEnglish

Dogs Days of August and This Week At Scattered Thoughts and Rogue Words

The dogs days of August are here and those words have so many meanings, past, and present. According to the Romans and other Mediterranean cultures, the dog days referred to the heat and the dog star Sirius “burning” so “hot” in the night and morning skies. The largest, brightest star in the Canis major constellation, Sirius the Dog Star, also the brightest star that we can see unaided in the night sky, came to be associated in ancient days with the heat of the season when this constellation rose and set along with the sun just as it does now.

When this constellation was high, the shepherds drove their flocks down from the mountain grazing lands into their safer pens close to their villages. Other measures were also taken to safeguard their water supply and gardens. Why? Because the heat was also driving the predators out of the mountains as well, looking for water and food. The villagers depended upon their dogs to guard their flocks just as some do today. What flock guard dogs can you name? Maremmas,Anatolian shepherds, Great Pyrenees, Komondors, Kuvasz are just a few breeds that come to mind. They are often raised with the flocks they are meant to protect. Dogs days indeed.

Which brings me to shelters and adopting a dog or cat or guinea pig or any animal up for adoption. My local NBC New channel WRC is starting a Help Clear the Shelters program, which I thought was a wonderful idea. Both Winston and Kirby are rescues and I can’t imagine my life without them, nor my hearthound rescues now gone to the rainbow bridge that came before them. If I had room and the money, I would go for more.

How about you? Does your budget (equally important), your house and heart have room for a four pawed, two winged or whatever shelter animal? Can you help clear your local shelter out? Or how about fostering? Our shelters are overflowing with unwanted and thrown away animals. Its heartbreaking. And overwhelming. Please help if you can.

Here are my two rescues…

Presently, my dogs are inside playing like mad with their plush toys and Dingo bones (trust me, its like doggy crack), We were outside earlier but the wind stilled, the air heated up, and Kirby, our Irish Wheaton that he is, had to come in, even clipped, he can’t take the heat. Winston can, but won’t leave his buddy and Willow just is ready for a nap behind me in the chair as I write up the schedule. Home is where my dogs and books are. Happy Reading!

This Week At Scattered Thoughts and Rogue Words

Sunday, August 9:

Dog Days of August and This Week At Scattered Thoughts and Rogue Words
Sunday Afternoon Book Blast: Thianna Durston’s A Good Family Man (Corbin’s Bend,Season Three #8) (excerpt and contest)

Monday, August 10:

Scattered Thoughts and Rogue Words Author Discoveries: Stella on Wulf Francu Godgluck
Cover reveal for ‘Discovery’ by Thianna Durston (excerpt and giveaway)
A Jeri Review: Semper Fidelis Anthology
A BJ Review: Unconventional In San Diego Anthology
A MelanieM Review: The Pinch of the Game by Charley Descoteaux

Tuesday, August 11:

Aria Grace ‘Looking For Home’ book blast and contest
In the Book Spotlight: Lissa Reed ‘Definitely, Maybe, Yours’ (excerpt and giveaway)
A Mika Review: Definitely Maybe Yours by Lissa Reed
A MelanieM Review: Overly Dramatic by Rebecca Cohen
A Stella Review: Resurrecting Elliot by Cate Ashwood

Wednesday, August 12:

Guest Post:Against The Grain by Charlie Cochet‏ (author interview and contest)
A First Look at The First Timers Anthology (excerpts and contest)
Barb, A Zany Old Lady Review :Not Safe for Work by Ingela Bohm
A Sammy Review: How to Train Your Dom in Five Easy Steps by Josephine Myles
A MelanieM Review: Diamonds Edge by Laura Harner (Pulp Friction 2015 story)

Thursday, August 13:

Morticia Knight Building Bonds Book Tour and giveaway
Book Spotlight: Juggernaut by Amelia C. Gormley (contest)
A Jeri Review: On Solid Ground by Melissa Collins
A Barb, A Zany Old Lady Review: The Harder They Fall by Lisa Henry and Heidi Belleau
A MelanieM Review: Redesigning Max by Pat Henshaw

Friday, August 14:

Brina Brady ‘Don’t Throw Me Away Book tour and giveaway
‘Justice for Me’ by TS McKinney and BJ Grinder Book Spotlight and contest
A BJ Review: The Pillar by Kim Fielding
A Stella Review: The Lightning-struck Heart by TJ Klune
A MelanieM Review: A Piece of Cake by Mary Calmes

YA Saturday, August 15:

A Mika YA Review: Lucky Linus by Gene Gant

An Aurora YA Review: Evolution by Lissa Kasey

Rating: 5 out of 5 ★★★★★

Gene Sage has only ever wanted to sing, but his band, Evolution, is pushing him toward the big time. He finds it hard to focus on making musical history when he’s dreaming of graveyards and seeing ghosts. And while all he can think of is hiding who he is from a world unforgiving of anyone different, he discovers he’s also the ultimate snack for vampires and demons. When Gene literally runs into—over—his idol, Kerstrande Petterson, rock god, vampire in hiding, and music cynic, his life falls over the edge into chaos.Jaded by the world and nearly a decade in the music business, Kerstrande thinks Gene wants to use him to make Evolution immortal in more than one way, but he can’t seem to brush aside the young singer’s enthusiasm.Getting involved with Kerstrande drags Gene into otherworldly power struggles. Between the ghosts stalking them, the media painting supernaturals as villains, and a vampire out of control in the city, the only way for Gene and Kerstrande to survive is for Gene to embrace his powers—and his destiny.I really, really enjoyed this book. One of my favorite things about the book was the descriptions. Straight away I had a very clear picture in my head of everything that was going on and that’s one of my favorite things about reading. It can, however, be hard to toe the line between using enough description that a reader can clearly picture the scene and using too much and having your story get bogged down in it which I don’t believe happened in this book at all.

Another thing I really enjoyed about the book was the two point of views for the two different main characters every chapter. It really made them both, especially Kerstrande, more likable and relatable to be able to see what was going on in both of their heads in their own unique voices rather than seeing the entire book through one’s eyes over the other’s.

If I had to nitpick, there was some exposition toward the beginning that slowed the first one or two chapters down, but it wasn’t something I really had a problem with since as soon as the plot got under way the book got right back to a good pace and I was certainly never bored by it, even in the first chapter or two when there was a lot of information.

Overall, it was a fun read, and one that I think was very well written. I would recommend it to people who like supernatural themes and modern fantasies.

The cover art was done by Paul Richmond and I really like it. It’s a pretty simplistic cover, but it has a lot of color and personality. It’s very eye-catching which is something that can always be helpful to a book. All in all, very well done.

Sales Links: DSP Publications | Amazon |

Buy It Here

Book Details:

DSP Publications (a non romance imprint of Dreamspinner)
2nd Edition, first edition Harmony Ink Press

Release Date: July 28, 2015
Words: 71336
Pages: 250
ISBN-13: 978-1-63476-061-4
File Formats: epub, mobi, pdf

Coming Soon: “Evolution: Genesis”

An Aurora YA Review: Noble Falling (The Halvarian Ruin Books #1) by Sara Gaines

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Duchess Aleana Melora of Eniva, future queen of Halvaria, is resigned to the gilded cage of her life, facing a loveless marriage to Tallak, the prospective king, and struggling under the pressure to carry on the family name despite her wish to find a woman to love.

When her convoy is attacked on the journey to Tallak’s palace, Aleana is saved by her guard, Ori, only to discover her people have turned against her and joined forces with the kingdom of Dakmor, Halvaria’s greatest enemy. Her only hope is to reach Tallak, but she and Ori don’t make it far before another attack and an unlikely rescue by Kahira, a Dakmoran woman banished from her kingdom for reasons she is hesitant to share.

Though Kahira is marked as a criminal, Aleana’s heart makes itself known. Aleana is facing danger and betrayal at every turn, and she fears giving in to her desires will mean she will enter her marriage knowing exactly the kind of passion she will never have as the Halvarian Queen—if she survives long enough to be crowned.

Noble Falling (The Halvarian Ruin Books #1) by Sara Gaines was very good, but I can’t help thinking that I would have enjoyed it more if I had read the books in order. Now, that’s no fault of the author, but, to anyone who’s thinking about reading Noble Falling or Noble Persuasion, I would really recommend to read the books in order so that you can appreciate the plot and not know the direction of the story when you read Noble Falling.

So, I read the books in the wrong order, but even with that being said, the whole of the series’ plot was very enjoyable and I had a good time reading both of the books. I would say that I enjoyed both the books about equally, and there were some moments that, simply because I’d already read the sequel, I found to be a little too much of an explanation. But it never drew me out of the story, and I enjoyed the characters in this book as much as I did when I read the sequel.

On its own, the book is an enjoyable read and I would definitely recommend that you at least give this book a chance of you like fantasy. I would bet that if you do you’ll look forward to reading the sequel. The series is definitely solid and it’s a fun read with interesting characters who grow throughout the books in a way that’s enjoyable for a reader to observe.

The cover artist for this book is Paul Richmond. Like the cover for the second book in the series, this cover is also very simple, but it’s still visually appealing. There’s a very clear tie between the first book and the second through the covers and it’s easy for a reader to connect the two when they’re looking at reading the series.

Sales Links: Harmony Ink Press | All Romance (ARe) | Amazon | Buy It Here

Book Details:

ebook, 182 pages, also available in paperback
Published October 15th 2012 by Harmony Ink Press
ISBN 1623800854 (ISBN13: 9781623800857)
edition languageEnglish
seriesThe Halvarian Ruin Books

The Halvarian Ruin Books in the order they were written and should be read:

Noble Falling (The Halvarian Ruin Books #1)
Noble Persuasion (The Halvarian Ruin Books #2)

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This Week At Scattered Thoughts and Rogue Words

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More First Lines of Novels, Plus Our First Line M/M Novels Quiz!

Scattered Thoughts and Rogue Words M/M Romance First Line Quiz

This Week at Scattered Thoughts and Rogue Words

Sunday, October 4:

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Thursday, October 8:

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YA Saturday, October 10:

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This Week At Scattered Thoughts and Rogue Words

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Some Famous First Lines:

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Character Interview

Title: Hostage

Author: Cheryl Headford

Publisher: Harmony Ink Press

Cover Artist: Garrett Leigh

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Sales Links: Harmony Ink Press | All Romance | Amazon | Buy It Here

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This Week At Scattered Thoughts and Rogue Words

Sunday, August 9:

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YA Saturday, August 15:

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