Day two of The Harbinger blog tour

Feeling more static electricity lately?
That's because Zeus is excited about this book.
I'm suppose to tell you how handsome and clever he is.

Which brings us to our first tour stop of the day!
I'll be talking about the Greek Gods as the villains (the immortal mafia!) in The Harbinger at Nick Wilford's blog.
Make sure you pick up a copy of the Overcoming Adversity anthology too. It's for a great cause and it's full of incredibly inspiring stories.

My second stop is with Heather Holden where I'll be talking about how I can up with Meira's character. How can you write a harpy that a modern woman can relate to?
Check out Heather's brilliant webcomic Echo Effect.
It's Greek myth inspired too!

Today's tidbit: I originally planned for Dionysus to play more of a role in the story, but Ares pushed his way into the spotlight. He's the aggressive type. Who knew?!

Overcoming Adversity anthology and Frailties of the Bond cover reveal

Blurb:

A collection of seventy moving and uplifting original pieces - real life, flash fiction, and poetry - about battling against the odds and the ultimate triumph of the human spirit. The contributors include Amazon bestselling authors Alex J. Cavanaugh and Kyra Lennon, and the cream of upcoming talent.

The anthology is part of a fundraising effort to send the editor's stepson, Andrew McNaughton, to a specialist college in England. Andrew has cerebral palsy, and is a remarkable young man with a promising future. However, the free further education options offered in his own country of Scotland will not challenge him and allow him to progress. In order to access the education he deserves, Andrew will have to pay exorbitant fees, thus creating a situation of discrimination.
 

Help us get Andrew to college by buying a book that runs the full gamut of human emotions, ultimately leaving you inspired and glad to be alive. Whatever struggles you are going through, our sincere hope is that this book will help.

Purchase Links: Amazon UK * Amazon US * Smashwords * Goodreads

Editor Bio: Nick Wilford is a writer and stay-at-home dad. Once a journalist, he now makes use of those rare times when the house is quiet to explore the realms of fiction. When not writing he can usually be found spending time with his family or cleaning something. He has four short stories published in Writer’s Muse magazine. Nick is also co-running a campaign to get a dedicated specialist college built in Scotland. Visit him at http://nickwilford.blogspot.co.uk/.

The cover was designed by D.R. Cartwright (DRC) from a concept by Ella Wilson. I'm proud to be a part of this fantastic anthology. Please buy yourself a copy and become inspired.

 

 Cover design by Heather McCorkle of CP Design

Description:
NEO – Network of Extraordinaires and Otherworldlies:

Those who answer the call from NEO play their part in maintaining balance in our ever-changing times. With power-hungry malcontents, jealous gods, and even those with misguided good intentions, the fate of our world has oft been held in the hands of unsung heroes such as those that are members of NEO.

But before NEO, these heroes and heroines had lives, loves, issues, and interests that didn’t involve saving mankind.

In Frailties of the Bond, it only takes one bite to change a life…

After a hiking trip gone wrong, sixteen-year-old Luca should have been dead. Since then, he’s drifted from one school day to the next, annoyed by the looks of suspicion. When a vampire attack claimed his mother and forced his first shift into animal form, Luca set out for Texas, vengeance bound, only to discover so much more when Aimee crossed his path.

Flesh-born of vampire parents sixteen years ago, Aimee shouldn’t exist. Magic, though, made dreams come true for an undead couple desperate for a child all their own. But this magic came with a price, a cost Aimee discovered after one forbidden bite.

Add Frailties of the Bond "to read" on Goodreads.

Xpresso Book Tours is handling the release blitz set for March 20h through March 31st. If you are interested in participating (YAY! and THANK YOU! if you are), click here to sign up.

Now, as tempting as it is to ask for a sound off of total love for this book cover, I'm curious about a few other things? How much does the book cover matter in choosing a book? Do you prefer symbolic covers, i.e., everything on the cover means something or directly relates to something in the book? Or just something that grabs your attention, no matter how it relates to the content within?

Author Bio: Born and raised in Little Rock, AR, Angela now calls Central Texas home. Reading and writing have been lifelong passions. It was around the time she gave birth to her forever-love, nicknamed Chipmunk, that she really took writing seriously. After all, how could she teach her child to follow her dreams if she hadn't tried herself?

As a YA fantasy/sci-fi reader and author, she favors the magical, mysterious, the darker side of life...even harbors a secret fright for things that go bump in the night.

FRAILTIES OF THE BOND is the first in a series of novellas and short stories introducing heroes and heroines of the secret organization, NEO – Network of Extraordinaires and Otherwordlies.

Angela's Website / Goodreads / Twitter 

The Overcoming Adversity Bloghop

The wonderful Nick Wilford is hosting this fantastic bloghop. Nick's stepson Andrew has cerebral palsy and is coming to the end of his time at his current school. Unfortunately post-18, things don't look quite so good in Scotland. Andrew was basically told he would be attending Motherwell College (no element of choice), where he would be doing the "Access-8" course which more or less amounts to daycare (fingerpainting and the like), nothing that was going to push him to develop, or end up with a career. Nick's family would like to send Andrew to Beaumont College in Lancaster. Andrew has visited the school and it offers amazing facilities like Eye Gaze technology which would enable Andrew to use his eyes to select from different phrases and communicate much more effectively. He is interested in following a film editing course. The main issue is fundraising, and for that, Nick has created The "Overcoming Adversity" bloghop. With flash pieces and poetry written by the participants, Nick will create an anthology to put up for sale on Amazon. The sales will go to Andrew's college fund.

The rules are simple:
1) Sign up on the linky list.
2) Please write about overcoming adversity and keep your entry to 500 words.
3) Please post on February 4th or 5th. 
4) Keep it family-friendly.

Here's my contribution:

NEVER TOO OLD
By Christine Rains

I was expecting it when they called my name, but my hands still shook with hearing it. The crowd broke out into applause as I stood. Perhaps I should've felt big amongst the hundreds of people, but I still felt small. Not like a grain of sand on a beach, but more like a shell gleaming with a rainbow of colors.

Glancing at my walker, I didn't want to use it as I walked to the stage. I wanted to make it on my own two feet. Yet the first step reminded me this old body didn't have the strength.

My grandson hopped up and came to loop my arm through his. He winked and grinned. Not his usual mischievous one, but one of pride. It was worth everything for that alone. I squeezed his forearm, and we walked to the stage together.

The presenter was a young woman. No more than thirty. She was a best-selling author with several books under her belt. I had one.

We shook hands as she said her congratulations and passed on the award. I put the bulky trophy on the podium. A speech was expected. I'd gone over the words a thousand times in my head. None seemed right. I was a mother of five and a grandmother of eleven. I never worked and I never went to school. I feared my few words of wisdom would be lost on this crowd.

“Thank you.” I cleared my throat and spoke louder into the microphone. “Thank you, everyone. It's an honor to be here today and receive this wonderful award.”

Everyone was silent. I wet my lips. “I'll keep this short and sweet. I'm a bit flushed, but goodness knows I could use another glass of wine right now.” There were a few chuckles, but they helped relax me. “Five years ago, the only stories I knew were ones other people read to me. And while I did appreciate them taking time to read to an old woman, they couldn't read fast enough for my liking. So I thought, why wait for them? I need to do something about it myself.

“Two years later, I could finally read stories to my grandkids. A joy I cannot begin to describe. And then I thought, why stop there? You've got bunches of stories in your head. Share them with your grandkids, with all the kids.” I swallowed, still feeling that desire.

“I heard a lot of laughter. Not at what I wrote, but at me. People told me I was too old. Their protests were fueled when they discovered I just learned to read and write. They claimed I couldn't possibly write anything worthy to be published.” I patted the trophy. “Well, maybe this old woman didn't hear them right. I went on and did it anyway.”

The crowd stood as they applauded with a near deafening roar. My heart fluttered as I smiled. Maybe they could appreciate an old woman's story of perseverance.