Dream Girl

DREAM GIRL

by S.J. Lomas

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

BLURB:

For Christine, dreams have never meant much. Until she meets Gabriel. Everyone thinks Christine should stay away from her new coworker at the library-thanks to his bad reputation-but when her dreams grow more vivid and she becomes entangled in a dangerous dream world with Gabriel every night, she can't stay away. Soon it's clear there is far more to dreams than Christine ever imagined, and now she's on the path to making the biggest, and strangest, decision of her life.

EXCERPT:

I should have tossed out a welcoming smile and a “Nice to meet you. Gotta run,” but the strong outline of his back did nothing to prepare me for the siren song of his front. Melancholy practically poured off him, nearly visible, yet transient as smoke. His tousled brown hair, square-ish face, Johnny Depp lips and intense brown eyes nearly knocked me backwards. In that brief instant of eye contact, I felt the disorienting fuzziness that comes between sleep and wakefulness. Tiny flecks of autumn amber sparkled in his eyes, beckoning me deeper. My lips parted, as if not under my control, and prepared to utter some sort of greeting but stopped. I noticed the slightest twinge in my brain.

Strange but not unpleasant, it felt like a warm breeze had just blown away a cobweb from my mind. Jarred by all these things happening in an instant, I turned away. Even so, I could feel his eyes on me as I fled. It made the entire length of my spine tingle.

AUTHOR Bio and Links:

S.J. Lomas is a cheerful Michigan native who writes strange and somewhat dark stories. She is a wife, mother, librarian, and definitely a dreamer.

Readers can visit S.J. at her website: www.sjlomas.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SJLomas

Twitter: @SJLomasAuthor

GoodReads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18133040-dream-girl

Personalized copies available from Blue Frogs Books : http://www.bluefrogbooksandmore.com/book/9780985956295

Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/Dream-Girl-S-J-Lomas/dp/0985956291/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1425602607&sr=8-1-fkmr0&keywords=dream+girl+s.j.+lomas

Barnes and Noble:

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/dream-girl-sj-lomas/1117170120?ean=9780985956295

Buy direct from the publisher:

http://scribe-publishing-company.myshopify.com/products/dream-girl

REVIEW QUOTES:

“Told in very short chapters with alternating points-of-view, Dream Girl tells an enticing story of friendship, adventure, and determining one’s path in life.”

- Randy-Lynne Wach

Review for San Francisco Book Review

“This part-adventure/part-romance will keep readers on the edge of their seats while trying to figure out where it all will end. This will appeal to fans of the Abandon series by Meg Cabot.”

-Deborah L. Dubois

Voice of Youth Advocates, (VOYA)

The author is giving away a $10 Amazon/B&N gift certificate to one lucky winner. Use the rafflecopter link below to enter. You can find the tour schedule at http://goddessfishpromotions.blogspot.com/2015/04/book-blast-dream-girl-by-sj-lomas.html

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City of Illusions

City of Illusions

by Judith Works

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

BLURB:

A yearning for change puts Laura on the road to Rome but her marital problems, muted in cool Seattle, become magnified in the glare of the Roman sun. Will she find happiness in the Eternal City or are her dreams only an illusion?

EXCERPT:

When Laura received the e-mail she knew it was time to confess.

Two months earlier when she was bored with editing a technical manual sent to her by one of her clients, she took a break to check out blogs by women who appeared to have more interesting lives than hers. She came across a site recounting the adventures of an American family who lived in Rome. The latest post told about their invitation by the owners of a small country inn near Siena for a dinner to celebrate the grape harvest. After rhapsodizing about the setting, the food, and the wine, the writer ended her story with: “We’re so in love with this part of Tuscany we actually bought an old farmhouse to fix up to use on weekends.”

Laura looked at her souvenir coffee mug with the London Tube map, a relic of the high school graduation present from her aunt. The long-ago trip had planted a seed of restlessness. Now, as her marriage became ever-more routine, the germ had begun to grow, to push, sprout and slowly turn into visions of a more interesting life somewhere away from Seattle. To find a life with possibilities. And to distract from the unpleasant incident a few months ago. Better to get as far away from the memory as possible.

A WORD FROM THE AUTHOR

1. What's the best and worst part of being an author?

I have lots of bests: the satisfaction of managing to get your thoughts in order and chose the right words to tell the story; the pleasure of having the manuscript accepted by a publisher; the thrill of holding the creature in your hands when the first copies arrive on the doorstep. The worst part is editing – deciding how much needs to be done; considering whether the critique is valid and reflects what I am trying to convey; the actual effort of hitting the delete key and beginning again.

2. Which book of yours is your favorite? Why?

My favorite is my last book. When my memoir, Coins in the Fountain, was published that was the favorite (mostly because it was the first). Now the novel, City of Illusions, which represents nearly four years of effort is the favorite because I was not bound by the need for reality as in the memoir. I took pleasure in using my imagination to conjure scenes involving events that I could not know for sure happened in real life.   

3. What are your favorite authors in the genre that you write?

I read a lot of women’s fiction, my genre. I enjoyed Maria Semples’ send up of contemporary problems in Seattle, Where’d you go, Bernadette, and Mary Gordon’s The Love of my Youth, set in Rome. Although the time frame is the past century, I enjoyed Jacqueline Winspear’s series about Masie Dobbs, as well as Paula McLain’s The Paris Wife, and Melanie Benjamin’s The Aviator’s Wife. The problems women encounter in these books are universal.  

4. Which of your characters is most like you?

Laura, the protagonist in City of Illusions, is most like me: she wants and needs a change, she takes the leap, and she overcomes obstacles in her quest. I did not have her trials when I lived in Rome – no affairs or deadbeat husband – but we shared similar difficulties and pleasures – learning a new job and working with people from other cultures, looking at dreadful apartments, and savoring the marvelous food, wine, fashion, weather, and history. No wonder Laura does not want to leave Italy – neither did I!

AUTHOR BIO AND LINKS

Life was routine until the author decided to get a law degree. Then a chance meeting led her to run away to the Circus (Maximus) – actually to the United Nations office next door – where she worked as an attorney in the HR department and entered the world of expat life in Rome. The ten years of happy and sometimes fraught experiences are the subject of her memoir, Coins in the Fountain. She continues to travel, having visited over 100 countries in between many journeys to Italy where she always tosses a coin in the Trevi Fountain to ensure a return to Rome. Judith and her husband now live near Seattle where she is working on her second novel.

www.facebook.com/judithworksauthor

www.aLittleLightExercise.blogspot.com

www.judithworks.net

Twitter:  @judithworks

BOOK TRAILER: bit.ly/COIYouTubeTrailer  OR  http://youtu.be/8EsGi2sdVII

Previous Book/Memoir:

Coins in the Fountain

Background:

Judith has a BS in Psychology, M Public Administration, JD from Lewis & Clark School of Law.  She has spent most of her career in Human Resources administration.  Judith is a member of Northwest Women Writers, past President of Edmonds Friends of the Library, board member for Edmonds Center of the Arts, vice-president EPIC Group Writers, and a member of PNWA and Willamette Writers.

Links to purchase City of Illusions:

bit.ly/COI-Amazon

bit.ly/COI-BarnesN

Judith will be awarding a $25 Amazon or B/N GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour. Use the rafflecopter link below to enter. You can find her schedule at http://goddessfishpromotions.blogspot.com/2015/01/vbt-city-of-illusions-by-judith-works.html

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What Casts the Shadow?

What Casts a Shadow?

by Seth Mullins

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

BLURB:

A troubled young rock musician, a mystic mentor, and a generation of lost souls longing for a new voice to emerge from thewilderness...

When an altercation outside of a performance venue nearly proves fatal, Brandon Chane begins to realize how far his life is spinning out of control. His efforts to channel his pain, frustration and thwarted loves into his music may not suffice to save him. Then he meets Saul, a crisis counselor with the soul of an ancient medicine man, and a far-reaching journey of healing - one that may teach him how to steer away from the very edge of the abyss - begins.

EXCERPT:

The Edge

I suppose you could compare it to driving on a high mountain road. You don’t realize how close you are to free-fall, or how sheer and far is the plunge, until you go around a bend where one side is exposed to open air and then there it is: The Abyss.

There’s this edge that you can come to – I imagine it’s a different place for each of us – and you just know that once you get swept over it you won’t be coming back. By the time you’re close enough to see it it may already be too late. You could find yourself teetering, suddenly hearing the warnings that life had been giving you all along, knowing that it’s become impossible to step back; because by that time, those other forces – the ones pounding like the rapids at your back, always trying to push you towards that edge and then over it – have grown too strong.

Tommy and I first talked about forming a band together before either of us had learned to play an instrument. We both perceived music – particularly, its heavy, extreme underside - as the ideal vehicle for our personal salvation. The first guitar that I purchased, a Fender Telecaster that I immediately spray painted black to my father’s horror, became my refuge. It was my best friend and confidante. It gave me a convenient excuse to avoid social situations that, more often than not, would only remind me of how far off the beaten path I really was.

AUTHOR Bio and Links:

Seth Mullins draws upon the great sweep of human soul-journeying to weave his tales. He's inspired by music, shamanism, dreams and the mysteries and miracles of our inner life. His greatest love as a writer is for fiction that depicts a journey towards self-awareness in the deepest sense.

"Probably the most valuable thing that I learned throughout my spiritual journey in this life is the importance of trusting in one's self. Many of our cultural lessons encourage us to ignore or even fear our inner reality. And yet it is this realm that really does hold the answers to all of our questions, and can point the way towards the most fulfilling life experiences possible for us."

Mr. Mullins has lived in Maine, Connecticut, New Mexico, Oregon and Vermont.

http://www.humanityswayforward.com (Humanity's Way Forward - my website)

http://frontiersofconsciousness.blogspot.com (The Edge of the Known by Seth Mullins - my blog)

"What Casts the Shadow?"  (The Edge of the Known) on Amazon: http://amzn.to/1rkhffS  

My Amazon author page: amazon.com/author/sethmullins

https://www.facebook.com/seth.thomas.37454

http://twitter.com/SethMullins1

https://www.facebook.com/WhatCaststheShadow

 One randomly chosen winner via rafflecopter will win a $50 Amazon/BN.com gift card. Use the rafflecopter link below to enter. You can find Seth's schedule at http://goddessfishpromotions.blogspot.com/2014/09/vbt-what-casts-shadow-by-seth-mullins.html

a Rafflecopter giveaway