Beyond the Book

Welcome to Beyond the Book. Rest Thy Head is on a virtual book tour, and I hope you can join us. You'll get to read some nice excerpts and find some new blogs to visit, and you might just win a prize. Use the links below to find my schedule.

 

Click here for the review tour.

Click here for the blurb blitz tour.

The Prayer

The Prayer, a Love Story

by Jacqueline von Zwehl

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

 

BLURB:

 

Do you Believe in Miracles?

 

Do you Believe in Eternal Love?

 

Do you Believe in Answered Prayers?

 

YOU WILL

 

The Prayer, A Love Story is the inspirational true story of one woman who discovers the secret to living a life filled with miracles, unconditional love and answered prayers.

 

The journey begins with a divine promise, continues with unforeseen life challenges, and eventually leads to Jerusalem. Inside the Old City, a prayer will unlock the key to a life of miracles. This journey is proof heaven is real and its gifts are available to you now. Whether you have stopped believing in God or not, God believes in you.

 

The journey holds a promise for everyone. No matter how much darkness exists in your life, it cannot diminish the flicker of even the tiniest light. That light will lead you to your destiny and it will change your life forever.

 

 

Excerpt:

Wedding Day

 

I often wonder about the idea of a miracle. Is it something you feel? Can you see it? Or is it some- thing you just know? Miracle is a very big word, perhaps best saved for big events like the birth of a baby or the first man walking on the moon.

 

As I ponder this thought, I’m surrounded by lovely, fresh-cut flowers. Isn’t the blossoming of these flowers a miracle? A tiny little seed in the ground, nurtured with rich soil, water, and light, grows to reveal its unique beauty. When we look at the seed, we can’t see the miracle. It’s only later, after its potential has been manifested, we realize what that seed carried all along. Isn’t that how we all are? On the journey of our destiny in this life, all of us start as seeds. Some of us are still in  the  ground, waiting  to  grow. Some  of us have sprouted a few leaves, and some of us have fully blossomed. Is the miracle the blossoming of the flower, or is the miracle knowing with certainty that everything is already in the seed? Yes, for me it always comes down to certainty. When all I can see is a seed in the ground, the miracle is certainty in my knowl- edge of what the seed is destined to become.

 

These were the thoughts I recorded in my journal on the morning of our wedding. I have heard that most brides wake up jittery and full of excitement, perhaps thinking about their hair and make-up, the excitement of the day ahead, and how the weather will hold up. I woke up and started writing.

 

‘What is a miracle? Today I will get married. I will marry the man who makes my heart sing and who was sent as the answer to my prayer. A man who calls me his miracle. Today is our seed, the first day of our journey as husband and wife.We don’t know how our seed will grow. We don’t know how many leaves will bloom or what its flower will look like. We don’t know what storms we’ll face. We do know with certainty that this seed is our destiny. It is our miracle.’

 

We were all ready. The driver took my hand and escorted me to my seat in the limo.

 

 

 

AUTHOR Bio and Links:

 

Jacqueline von Zwehl, is a faith based relationship expert. She holds a BFA from New York University and a MBA from Pennsylvania State University. Jacqueline travels the country as a motivational speaker encouraging singles on the path to finding their soul mates. She has appeared on Nite Line, The Harvest Show, EWTN, TCT TV, Victory TV, CatholicTV, Telecare, Changing Lives, CatholicLife, That's the Spirit, The Church, The Cardinal and You, NPR, and more. Jacqueline lives in Fort Lauderdale, FL with her husband Christopher, their two daughters and dog. The Prayer, A Love Story is her debut book. Jacqueline von Zwehl, is a faith based relationship expert. She holds a BFA from New York University and a MBA from Pennsylvania State University. Jacqueline travels the country as a motivational speaker encouraging singles on the path to finding their soul mates. She has appeared on Nite Line, The Harvest Show, EWTN, TCT TV, Victory TV, CatholicTV, Telecare, Changing Lives, CatholicLife, That's the Spirit, The Church, The Cardinal and You, NPR, and more. Jacqueline lives in Fort Lauderdale, FL with her husband Christopher, their two daughters and dog. The Prayer, A Love Story is her debut book.

 

Read Jacqueline's Blog at www.jackievonzwehl.com

 

Become a Fan: www.facebook.com/JackieVonZwehl

 

Follow: www.twitter.com/JackieVonZwehl

 

Author Profile:www.goodreads.com/jackievonzwehl

 

 Amazon Paperback

 

http://www.amazon.com/Prayer-Love-Story-Jacqueline-Zwehl/dp/1939819008/ref=la_B00DY9W62Y_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1383163807&sr=1-1

 

Amazon Kindle

 

http://www.amazon.com/Prayer-Love-Story-Unconditional-ebook/dp/B00G8QTDKI/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1383164024&sr=1-3&keywords=the+prayer+a+love+story

 

 

Readers Jacqueline is giving away one $50 gift certificate from either Amazon/B&N to one lucky person. Two other luck people will win a $25 gift certificate. Here's the rafflecopter link for you to use.

 

http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/28e43471

You can find her schedule at http://goddessfishpromotions.blogspot.com/2013/12/virtual-book-tour-prayer-by-jacqueline.html

Wrage by Joseph spencer

Please welcome guest blogger Joseph Spencer to the blog. Joseph is going to talk about the Dead Sea Scrolls and his book. He's also giving away a $25 Starbucks gift certificate so follow his tour and comment often. You can find his schedule here: http://goddessfishpromotions.blogspot.com/2013/07/virtual-book-tour-wrage-by-joseph.html

Dead Sea Scrolls Foretell Apocalypse

In my Sons of Darkness Series of occult thrillers, the novels detail action happening in both the mortal and supernatural realms with themes loosely based on prophecies from the Dead Sea Scrolls. Grim introduces Abaddon, a supernatural entity which convinces Heath Grim to hunt down murderers to avenge the limbo-bound souls of their victims. Wrage exposes Abaddon as a demon trying to ignite a war by recruiting souls for his Sons of Darkness army, and Archangel Michael attempts to convince Abaddon’s recruit to turn back from the darkness and join the Sons of Light.

The War of the Sons of Light against the Sons of Darkness is a manual for military organization and strategy discovered among the Dead Sea Scrolls in the “War Scroll.” This scroll contains an apocalyptic prophecy which foretells of a final war between the Sons of Light and the Sons of Darkness for the fate of all creation. The war is first described as an attack by the Sons of Light, a group consisting of the sons of Judah, the sons of Benjamin, the Sons of Levi, and the desert exiles, against the Sons of Darkness, Edom, Moab, the sons of Ammon, the Amalekites, Philistia and the army of Belial, who are accused of violating the covenant.

The war is described as a battle between the congregation of God and the congregation of men.  At its end, the scroll states Light will live in peace for all of eternity after it destroys all of Darkness. Scholars still debate the timeline when the scroll was composed. Due to the weaponry and tactics described in the scroll, scholars believe it was written either in the Seleucid period, between 165-104 BC during the Maccabean Revolt, the height of Jonathan’s military power and the reign of John Hyrcanus, or the Roman period, between 65-4 BC during the capture of Jerusalem by Pompey and the death of Herod. The Israel Museum in Jerusalem immortalized the story in the scroll at The Shrine of the Book where a white dome symbolizes the Sons of Light and a black basalt wall symbolizes the Sons of Darkness.

In my planned Sons of Darkness Series, I intend to write seven installments detailing different desperate individuals who Abaddon is targeting to become soldiers in the Sons of Darkness army. After Abaddon successfully corrupts a recruit, he uses the recruit’s body as a vessel for powerful demons to inhabit to become a soldier in the Sons of Darkness army. Each recruit will represent a deadly sin. Grim dealt with the theme of wrath. Wrage dealt with the theme of envy. The next planned book in the series is Malice which will feature a notorious rocker named Malice Madsen, inspired by Marilyn Manson, who will embody pride.

After the Sons of Darkness series is complete, I intend to write the other side of story with a Sons of Light series. This will chronicle the Archangel Michael’s attempts to amass Heaven’s army to respond to the threat being mounted by the Sons of Darkness. Each recruit to the Sons of Light will represent a cardinal virtue. The tension between both armies will mount with each successive novel .

Wrage also introduces the Black and White Army. This concept is a symbolization of Death. Without giving away any spoilers, a character in Wrage embodies Death, but reveals that the mortal realm’s understanding of Death, with examples such as the Grim Reaper ,  isn’t quite right. He reveals that there is a race of beings named Deathlings which act as a sort of police force for all of creation. They don’t pick sides in any fight. They simply harvest other forms of creation when they are compelled to do so. This race will also play an important part of the story.

Both Grim and Wrage are available at 28 percent off retail price of an ebook at www.damnationbooks.com with promo code 289snake. They are also available at Amazon.com and Barnesandnoble.com. Look for Malice in the summer or fall of 2014.

 

 

 

WRAGE

By

Joseph Spencer

BLURB:  

Sometimes the toughest fight lies within yourself.

 

As more dark secrets come to light, the battle for souls pushes Prairieville to the brink of war in the living and supernatural realms.

 

Jeff Wrage swears a blood oath to Abaddon, the supernatural avenger of murder victims, to hunt the crooked cop who butchered his wife. Jeff wonders whether he can be the executioner Abaddon requires. Their pact throws the supernatural realm in chaos and threatens to trigger an apocalyptic fight for control of the afterlife between the Sons of Darkness and Sons of Light foretold in the Dead Sea Scrolls.

 

Orlando Marino sees the death of Cyrus Black as his opportunity to restore the Marino family's stronghold in Prairieville’s organized crime scene and become a mob kingpin. He unleashes a plague, turning its victims into mindless followers. Cyrus' heir is busy rooting out a traitor and is unable to stop the coming turf war in the realm of man.

 

The fate of all rests with Homicide Detective Anna Duke, who steps into the shoes of her mentor while coming to terms with unrequited love. As she tries to clear the fallen hero's name, she takes on a case where corpses go missing. Her new partner is reported dead. She learns the truth about her true identity and uncovers a trail of secrets questioning her tragic past. She journeys to avert the destruction of all creation.

 

EXERCPT:

Thunderclaps from high above jolted Jeff out of his slumber.

Something hard and cold with jagged edges pressed into his back.

When he tried to move, iron shackles strained against the skin of his arms and legs. Chained to a rock in a dry stream bed, he knew he’d become a helpless prisoner who could do nothing more than wait for his captor. Stormy skies threatened from directly above him with bright flares of lightning snaking among sooty clouds and disappearing. Out of the corner of his eye, he could detect that the sun was shining brightly on the other side of the rock.

Scant rays of brilliant sunshine peeked over the rock, reflecting bright light off a magnificent golden shrine on a bank not far from where he was chained.

This can’t be real. He’d never seen a place like this in his life.

Large wet drops crashed against his skin. The coolness of the rain streaking down his body caused steam to rise from his skin, which he noticed had turned a dark shade of crimson. The only being this red was….

“Lucifer,” a calm voice echoed from above Jeff on the shoreline.

A giant, dressed in white armor sparkling like diamonds in the spare sunlight, stepped into view. He wielded a golden-hilted silver sword in one hand and a silver shield with the Latin inscription “Quis ut Deus” (I am like God) on the front in the other hand. He loomed above Jeff. A large gold cross ran down the center of the giant’s breastplate. A second inlaid golden cross glinted at the center of his white helmet. The helmet obscured his face, save for flawless ivory skin which radiated a blinding light. There was something across his back casting a large shadow, but Jeff couldn’t see what it was.

 “You were thinking of Lucifer, whose skin is often portrayed as red,” the giant said. The ivory giant stepped into full view. From his back a pair of massive wings spanned over ten feet wide and five feet long majestically fluttering in the breeze, yet didn’t cast a shadow. The rain pelting Jeff in the eyes didn’t touch this giant. He certainly was no man. The only thing Jeff could compare it to would be—

 “An angel,” the giant completed Jeff’s sentence again. “You are correct.”

 

 

AUTHOR INFORMATION:

As a boy, Joseph Spencer immersed himself in the deductive logic of Sherlock Holmes, the heroic crime fighting of Batman and Spider-Man, and a taste for the tragic with dramas from poets like Shakespeare and Homer.

Before Joseph took to spinning his own tales, he pursued a career in print sports journalism, graduating summa cum laude from Southern Illinois University-Carbondale. He covered such events as NASCAR’s Subway 500 race in Martinsville, the NBA Draft Camp in Chicago, the Junior College World Series, and Minor League Baseball’s Midwest League All-Star Game during a ten-year career throughout the Midwest. Now, he works as an emergency telecommunications specialist with an Illinois police department. The combination of years of writing experience with a background working with law enforcement professionals gave rise to his writing aspirations.

Joseph was married to Dr. Amy (Waggoner) Spencer, an accomplished veterinary doctor, on March 14, 2012. He received word his debut novel was accepted by his publisher, Damnation Books, the next day. Joseph is hard at work on the rest of the series. Book 2 – Wrage – was released June 1, 2013.  The Spencer family enjoys reading Charlaine Harris, George R.R. Martin, Mary Janice Davidson, and most paranormal stories. The Spencers also enjoy quoting movie lines from “The Princess Bride”, “Rain Man”, “Bridesmaids”, and “Office Space.”

 Website Link:  www.josephbspencer.com ; http://www.damnationbooks.com/book.php?isbn=9781615729777

 Blog Link: www.josephbspencer.com/blog

 Twitter Link: https://twitter.com/josephspencer00

Facebook Link: https://www.facebook.com/joe.spencer3

Google+ Link: https://plus.google.com/u/0/

Goodreads Link: http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/7881659-joe-spencer

 LinkedIn Link: http://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=193078929&snapshotID=&authType=name&authToken=MmuR&ref=NUS&goback=%2Enmp_*1_*1_*1_*1_*1_*1_*1_*1_*1_*1&trk=NUS-body-member-name

Book Video Links:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJMdOhL-Qrg  (Grim trailer)

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j3Z-ECZw3AE  (Wrage trailer)

 

 

Beyond the Book: Cryptogram

Welcome to Beyond the Book. I am Princess Morgane, Madame Cantrell's heroine in her marvelous novel The Enchanted. Both Prince Alan and I are fond of cryptograms. In a cryptogram, one letter or number stands for another. The reader must figure out what the symbols mean in order to decode the message. Would you like to try it?  See if you can decode this message.

The Enchanted

 

Six Sentence Sunday and a Virtual Book Tour

Today's excerpt comes from my WIP which is tentatively titled Fortuna.  In this excerpt my heroine is spending the night alone in the old house she and her fiance are remodeling.

The footsteps paused right outside her door. Frozen with fear, Aimee couldn’t move. She lay there and watched as the door slowly swung open. OMG! OMG! In her wildest dreams she wouldn’t have expected the dreadful apparition that confronted her.

I'm starting my Goddess Fish virtual book tour for Never Trust a Pretty Wolf tomorrow.  I've posted the tour info below.  I'd apppreciate it if you'd follow the tour whenever you can.

8/6/2012 Christine Young Romance Author
8/7/2012 Indie Books at Shardpubs
8/8/2012 Vintage Vonnie
8/9/2012 Live to Read
8/10/2012 MeganJohnsInvites
8/13/2012 Indie Designz
8/14/2012 Books and Other Spells
8/14/2012 2nd STOP K. Victoria Chase
8/15/2012 Writers and Authors
8/16/2012 Sexy Adventures, Passionate Tales
8/17/2012,Lisa Haselton's Reviews and Interviews
8/20/2012 EXCERPT Reviews by Molly
8/21/2012 Rachel Brimble Romance
8/22/2012 Books Reviewed by Bunny
8/23/2012 Queen of All She Reads
8/24/2012Melissa Keir's Blog