Cover Reveal: Relativity (Book #2 The Sage Hannigan Time Warper Series) by Peggy Martinez

RELATIVITY, new release by Peggy Martinez

RELATIVITY, new release by Peggy Martinez out 2/23/13!

Three months after Sage Hannigan time warps a hundred years into the past and saves President Theodore Roosevelt and the future as we know it, she is still trying to come to grips with all the has gained…and all that she has lost. All of her searching hasn’t turned up Cerberus Society or any creatures of the night and she’s beginning to wonder if she’s gone crazy after all. The only things keeping her grounded are her sparring sessions with Matt and her weekly ritual of scouring the city for low lives to kick the crap out of, and even that can’t keep her dreams free of the heartache and bitter sweet memories she has come to loath and…to cherish. When blasts from the past;  good, bad, and evil, come knocking on her door, will she be able to do what she has to, even if it means having her barely-healing heart ripped to shreds? 


Here is a brief excerpt:
You’ve been through much in your few years, lass. I’m sorry for that.” She spoke softly and her voice cracked. “I wish I could wipe away all the tears you must have shed alone at night and make you forget all the things you have had to endure by yourself, the good Lord knows I do.” She sniffled and then continued. “But, I can see your strength, your beauty, and your powers shining through all of your sorrows. They have made you who you are and believe me, lass, you are meant to do something great, don’t ever doubt that.” –Relativity 2-23-13

Peggy S. Martinez <http://psmartinez.blogspot.com/>
YA Author & Homeschooling Mom of 5  

Shadow Slayer Tour: SupaGurl Books Review & Giveaways! You’ll never see a shadow the same way again!

Makslake Estate Mansion where Oakdale High School has its homecoming dance, the night Roxie's life changes forever.

Makslake Estate Mansion where Oakdale High School has its homecoming dance, the night Roxie’s life changes forever.

“You’ll be checking everyone you know to see if they have their shadows!! EEEEP” – SupaGurl Books Continue reading

Interview with Eleanor Hayden-Jones, The Ghost of Josiah Grimshaw Launch of The Ghost of Josiah Grimshaw & Giveaway!

Woot! Spend your Thanksgiving with Suzy Turner’s latest THE GHOST OF JOSIAH GRIMSHAW, the first book in the Morgan Sisters Trilogy! Check out the super-cool character interview with Eleanor Hayden-Jones…and then click on the rafflecopter link enter to win a Praxos bracelet & keyring as well as a paperback copy of The Ghost of Josiah Grimshaw; one of 8 ebooks of Josiah Grimshaw; or a $10 Amazon gift certificate! Isn’t this a fabulous cover???

Adopted sisters Lana Beth and Emma Jane are polar opposites, but when the same strange ‘tattoo’ suddenly appears and winds its way up their bodies within days of each other, they soon realize there’s more to their relationship than they could ever have imagined.

Sent off to London for two weeks of ‘work experience’, the Morgan Sisters soon find themselves being initiated into the ancient Praxos Foundation, one that protects the innocent while fighting evil, both human and supernatural.

At the same time, Lana Beth and Emma Jane must also investigate why the sweet but sometimes pesky ghost of Josiah Grimshaw just won’t leave them alone.

Interview with Eleanor Hayden-Jones, The Ghost of Josiah Grimshaw:

Name: Eleanor Hayden-Jones (but some people call me Ellie)

Age: Erm, that’s a difficult question. Let’s just say, old… really, very quite old. And also young, sometimes I’m pretty young too :)

Nationality: Very British

Occupation: Guardian of the Fourth House of Praxos

Marital Status: Widow, my husband Tarquin, passed away many many years ago

Address: Fourth House of Praxos, London, England

Hobbies: Reading (I particularly love YA books, in fact I just finished The Hunger Games… a rather fabulous read), long drives in the country, surfing (but I don’t get the chance to do it much these days, sadly), horse riding, singing.

Favourite books: Pride & Prejudice, Anna Karenina, Harry Potter, The Clan of the Cave Bear, The Raven Saga. Oh there are so many… I could go on and on!

Favourite TV show: Game of Thrones, Downton Abbey and Criminal Minds.

Favourite movie: Miracle on 34th Street (it always makes me teary), Edward Scissorhands (I love the music) and Bridesmaids, that was rather funny.

Favourite music: I always loved Mozart and Beethoven but these days I’m quite taken with Adele, Leona Lewis, Coldplay, Lady Gaga and Lana del Rey. But then it’s no surprise really. After all, they’re all Watchers… did you not know that? Yes, all the great singers of our time are Watchers. It’s true.

The Ghost of Josiah Grimshaw is available at Amazon.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

If you’d like to know more about my fellow YA Indie Carnival author, click here to check out Suzy’s beautiful blog. And click here to join the other amazing carnis every Friday at the YA Indie Carnival.

Suzy’s website: http://suzyturner.com
Facebook: http://facebook.com/suzyturnerbooks
Twitter: http://twitter.com/suzy_turner
Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/suzyturnerbooks

Shadow Slayer audiobook coming soon & a giveaway!

I’m so excited to share the news that Shadow Slayer will be available as an audiobook by Thanksgiving. I can’t even begin to mention all people I’m thankful for this holiday season. There are so many, including you. One person I’m truly thankful for is my amazing sister and her constant source of inspiration, support and encouragement.

The wonderful Penny Lockwood Ehrenkranz interviews me on her blog today and there’s a giveaway too, click here to check out the interview & enter the giveaway of 1 copy of 13 ON HALLOWEEN’s audiobook [open internationally]! I’m super-stoked that Jeanne O. Whitehouse is also the voice for Shadow Slayer. She makes such a great Roxie. At 14, all Roxie wants to do in Shadow Slayer is fit in at her high school, but she’ll have to save the world instead. And, no worries if you don’t win the giveaway, for a limited time, 13 on Halloween is available for $1.99!

YA Indie Carnival––Happy Halloween: Spooky, Scary, Eerie Excerpts

This week at the carnival all the carnis are sharing their spooky, scary, eerie excerpts! Soooo…join in on the fun and share some of your spine-tingling stories too. Did you break into a cemetery as a kid and SWEAR you heard moans and groans when no one else was around? Comment with your scariest memories, and I promise I’ll make your heart race even faster if you listen to 13 ON HALLOWEEN, available now at Audible.com ($1.99 for a limited time). In 13 ON HALLOWEEN (Shadow Series #1), Roxie is afraid of her attic. With good reason. In SHADOW SLAYER (Shadow Series #2) Roxie has a lot more to be afraid of. Here’s a blood-curdling Zombie excerpt:

I turn another corner in the labyrinth. Every leaf, every twig, and even the grass changes colors. Unnatural colors. I startle at a huge rustle beside me and bite my nails.

Two disembodied arms stick out of the bush next to me. My heart beats hard against my chest. I try to wriggle out of his grip but whoeveritis clamps down on my arms making it hard for me to get any leverage.

“AAAAAHhhhhh!” I scream, writhing back and forth. I fight to free my arms but he’s already wrestled them to my sides. I can’t move. He lifts me a few inches off the ground. I kick and stare at my useless hands and spot the long nails with black nail polish that begin to dig into my skin. There’s a tattoo on each finger. All the same. Stars, I think.

“I want to suck your blood!” he says laughing, lowering me to the ground. As soon as my feet get a little traction I kick and try to run away.

“Ouch! Drew, control your woman!” One of the guys says, a familiar voice. A football player steps out of the bushes. He loosens his grip and places an arm, the size of my thigh, over my shoulders. He marches us out of the labyrinth. I twist around, searching the maze. There’s no sign of the sword, my sword.

Drew doubles over, laughing and the prankster takes my hand and places it in Drew’s. My gaze falls on the spot of fabric where Drew’s boutonniere isn’t. We’re surrounded by a bunch of homecoming zombies. Sixteen-year-old zombies. Their tuxedo coats all ripped and fake-aged with chalk or something. The black make-up around their eyes smudge into their white make up, their faces so pale they kind of glow in the moonlight.

“Zombies don’t suck blood!” Drew says between laughs.

“I know it just sounds so much better than I’d like to eat your brains,” the guy says. “Who’s this tasty morsel?”

“Roxie, this is everyone,” Drew says. In the middle of a circle of homecoming zombies, I immediately breathe easier. “Everyone, this is Roxie,” Drew gives my hand a little squeeze. I sink into his hug, floating my fingers over the spot where his boutonniere should be.

“Finally. Hey, I’m Franklin.” A large guy, the guy who had me in his grip and the size of a line backer, exactly the size of a line backer, pulls me away from Drew and buries me in a bear hug.

“That’s enough,” Drew says, taking a hand to Franklin’s shoulder, separating us.

“This is the one, huh?” another guy, smaller than the rest, says. “I’m CeCe.” He kind of scowls as he puts his hands in his pockets and rubs his chin with his shoulder. A little of his undead makeup rubs off on his brown suit coat.

“Hey,” I say. “What’s with the whole Halloween homecoming get up?” It’s all I can manage. I get super shy when I’m around people I don’t know, let alone football players who are years older than me who I barely know. Guys who just tricked me.

“She totally fell for it guys!” Another of the guys says.

“This is Randy,” Drew says, using his whole arm to point him out.

Randy makes like he’s going to run into me and dodges me at the last minute. “May I have this dance?” he says in a made-up English accent. He doesn’t wait for an answer and twirls me around then dips me and says, “I am you know… randy….” with a mischievous smile.

I turn to face Drew. “So what? All that was a joke?”

Drew gazes at the ground before he walks over and wraps me in his arms. His lips meet mine in a forceful kiss. “All of that,” he says. It’s like the best date ever, aside from the fact he made me believe I’m a Shadow Slayer and have to save the world. 

For another excerpt and for the Shadow Series playlist, dream cast and more click here.

Shadow Slayer (Shadow Series #2) is available at Amazon. 13 on Halloween (Shadow Series #1) is free at Amazon.

I dare you to check out the other spooky scary & erie excerpts from my fellow carnis! Click here for more!

 

13 on Halloween Audiobook winner & look what came in the mail!

I’m doing a giveaway this week–1 signed copy of Shadow Slayer [open to US readers]. At the beginning of Shadow Slayer, Roxie is trying to fit in as a freshman in high school but she feels like all her middle school friends are abandoning her. All you need to do to enter to win is comment here with one of your freshman high school stories about fitting in. Maybe it’s about the first time you felt like you fit in, maybe it’s about the first new high school friend you made, or maybe it’s about that place at school where you’d go to get away from it all.

Good luck!

And the winner of a the 13 on Halloween audiobook is…..Wonder Woman Terri! Congrats Terri, I hope you enjoy listening to the beginnings of the Shadow Series! Thanks for your tweets and photos, you’ve inspired me when I needed it most! <3

Even death can’t break a father & son’s bond….Dead Heat the latest by Lisa Nowak

I’m really excited for Lisa’s latest. I saw her cover and SQUEEEEED! Lisa and I are a part of The Pacific Northwest YA Authors group and met last year at Wordstock in Portland, OR. I’ve already got my copy of Dead Heat. Hurry up and get yours!

A man who longs for a son and a boy who can’t escape his father’s violence. Even death can’t break their bond.

Alex is a machine whisperer. He can tell what’s wrong with a broken-down car with a touch. But his gift can’t save him from the brutality of his meth-addict father. For two years, Alex experienced kindness through Cole, his mentor. Now Cole’s dead, and the violence in Alex’s life is escalating.

When Cole reappears as a ghost, Alex clings to the tenuous link. Then he learns Cole might’ve sacrificed his chance to cross over. Jade, the first girl to look beyond Alex’s past, assures him Cole can reach the Other Side-if Alex escapes from his dad. But a previous terrifying attempt has convinced Alex it’s impossible. Unless he can find the courage to try, his friend may be earthbound forever.

~~~~~~~~

Dead Heat blew me away. It’s a gritty ghost story interwoven with all-too-real subject matter that will make you cry for Alex, ache for Cole, and thank God for Jade. I was invested in these characters’ lives and you will be too.”

~ Stacey Wallace Benefiel, author of the Zellie Wells trilogy

In addition to being a YA author, Lisa is a retired amateur stock car racer, an accomplished cat whisperer, and a professional smartass. She writes coming-of-age books about kids in hard luck situations who learn to appreciate their own value after finding mentors who love them for who they are.

Shadow Slayer (Shadow Series #2) Available! Squeee!

Shadow Slayer (Shadow Series #2)

This is my first series so I’m super excited to let you know that Shadow Slayer, book 2 in The Shadow Series, is available :) I love The Shadow Series because Roxie’s birthday is on Halloween and she’s one year older in each of the books. In 13 ON HALLOWEEN, Roxie’s quest for popularity leads her to receive a birthday gift that’s literally out of this world and astral projects her to Planet Popular where all isn’t what it seems. In SHADOW SLAYER, Roxie is one year older and discovers Planet Popular was just the beginning––part of a bigger world, the shadow world. She’ll find the agony of fitting in at high school nothing compared to saving the world from the shadow onslaught.

Here’s a little bit about Shadow Slayer:

Shadows will do anything to become human. You see their influence everyday. You say things you don’t mean or do things that aren’t like you. You look, different. Friends you’ve known forever suddenly never call.

As a freshman, Roxie just wants to fit in which is impossible because she barely runs into her friends at her huge high school. Adrianne’s disappearance and Hayden’s attention rock Roxie’s world. But nothing rocks it like the most gorgeous guy at school, Drew. And nothing is more important to Roxie than astral projecting back to Planet Popular to solve the mystery of the map. But that changes when Drew invites Roxie to homecoming. Hayden warns her that something’s wrong. Why would a guy like Drew like Roxie anyway? Drew must want something. Hayden’s right. Drew is…different. Planet Popular was just the beginning. Part of a bigger world, the Shadow World. There’s a war brewing between the world of humans and the world of shadows. When the shadow invasion begins at Roxie’s high school, she’ll not only fight for her life but the lives of her family and friends, when she discovers she’s the Shadow Slayer, the one human who can save Earth from the shadow onslaught. But, Roxie can’t even kill a spider. Oh yeah, there’s an evil English teacher, an enchanted play, a sword of Sandonian steel, a homecoming of horrors, and seven magic words too.

Shadow Slayer’s Drew 

For a Shadow Slayer excerpt click here!

For Shadow Series trailers, playlists & and extras click here!

Oh yeah, 13 on Halloween is now available as and audiobook too at Audible, iTunes & Amazon too!

Shadow Slayer is available for the Kindle on Amazon here. Book 1, 13 on Halloween is free here and here!

The great escape, measuring time & The San Francisco Book Review

I’m back home after unplugging for a five day vacation with the family up to a lake in the Sierras. We had a blast. It’s so good to travel up to the mountains again. That lake is like a second home to us and a place my hubby’s family has been going to for generations.

My daughter and I were able to sneak away from the pack for a while and we started to write a little fairy tale about the lake. It’s the first time I’ve ever written up there. We were sitting on the docks, looking out at the water and she wrote a paragraph and then I wrote a paragraph and before you knew it, we had a wonderful little story brewing. It incorporated a lot of the mythology of the lake, or what we imagined the mythology to be :) , and includes some of our favorite spots too. I can’t believe I haven’t written there before. I guess maybe it’s not what my brain wants to do at 7000 ft? It’s been years since we’ve vacationed there. We keep asking ourselves why it’s taken so long to travel back to the cabin. A place we’d once gone to two or three times every summer. And then it became so obvious. It hit me at unexpected times. In my search for the table extensions, I opened the wrong closet and found his coats still hanging there. Groggy, on an early morning I opened a drawer in the bathroom and found his razor and overnight bag. Ray’s been gone for about six years now. I can still hear his voice up there. I still expect him to come around the fire at night. As a matter of fact, I’m pretty sure his spirit does. Ray’s been a big inspiration in my writing. He finds his way into many of my books. So, when I returned home to find the 4.5/5 star San Francisco Book Review of Transfer Student. I smiled. What author isn’t pleased that her writing is well received, right? But my happiness doubled because it came from a different place. It brought more memories of Ray and made my smile grow. See, years ago when I was writing the first drafts of the story, I was trying to come up with the language of the Rethan people. I was having a terrible time trying to come up with how Rethan’s measure time. Specifically, I was hung up on inventing their word for year. I ended up calling it a ray. Here’s a link to an interview where I talk more about the behind-the-scenes inspiration for the story. 

I hope you all are getting a chance to escape to a favorite spot this summer. Whether it’s sneaking away to your favorite spot in your garden to read or write or plant something beautiful or just walk around your neighborhood or hang out with friends. Escaping sure is fun.

HAPPY BOOK BIRTHDAY EVERY LAST KISS!

I’m thrilled to help celebrate Every Last Kiss’s book birthday! Courtney Cole is an amazing author and if you love mythology and romance you need to buy her books TODAY! Courtney’s stopping by the blog today to share a little bit about her journey AND is dishing some AWESOME GIVEAWAYS! Welcome Courtney:)

Hi everyone, Courtney Cole here.

One year ago, my book, Every Last Kiss (Book One in the Bloodstone Saga) was released into the wild.

I was so terrified that day, so afraid that everyone out there in the Reader-verse was going to hate it, that people would laugh and point at me on the street- saying “What’s the deal with that girl?  She really thinks she’s a writer?”  I might be exaggerating a little.  But I was a little terrified.

But you know what?  It turns out, people kind of liked it.  And so the rest of the Bloodstone Saga was born (Fated, With My Last Breath and My Tattered Bonds).  It’s been an exciting and crazy year, but I’m so, so happy that it has happened.  And I’m so, so thankful to all of the wonderful readers who have read my work.  I’m so grateful for every single one of you.

Which brings me to the next part.  This week, I am celebrating the book birthday of Every Last Kiss.  Today and tomorrow,, Every Last Kiss will be free on Amazon Kindle. You can find it here

Also, as a special thank you to the wonderful readers who have followed every step of Cadmus and Harmonia’s adventures, I have written a bonus novella, House of Thebes.  For the first time, you can read how Harmonia and Cadmus met…the first time.   As a thank you to YOU, my awesome and wonderful fans, it will be available for FREE on Amazon Kindle today.   You can find it here

I really hope you enjoy it.

And lastly, it would not be a birthday bash without prizes, right?   So, over the course of today and tomorrow, you will be entered to win prizes every time you tweet this on Twitter:

To celebrate the book birthday of Every Last Kiss by @courtwritesYA, it will be free on Amazon Kindle today http://ow.ly/asd4b

I’ll be giving away signed copies of Every Last Kiss and House of Thebes, signed bookmarks, Greek Drachmas and a Bloodstone Saga t-shirts.

I hope everyone has a fantastic weekend and THANK YOU again, so, so much, for reading my work.  I’m eternally grateful.

find Courtney!

www.courtneycolewrites.com

@courtwritesYA

Friend her on Facebook!
Find her on Goodreads 
See her books on Amazon