UR Post and Teaser Tuesday with Dark Storm

Join me for a sneak peek of THE GHOST at Untethered Realms blog.

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

DARK STORM is the latest novel in Christine Feehan's Dark series. So far, there aren't any surprises. There's a basic formula to these books, but they're still enjoyable if you like a good solid paranormal romance.

Here's your teaser:
How was he going to fight Mitro when he could barely take a step without falling? The dragon hadn't had a body in centuries and Dax's body was far too small for him to comprehend how to move it around. (page 47)

Solomon's Compass review

Blurb:
A missing belt—her uncle’s prized possession. The lure of buried treasure. And a sexy former SEAL who makes U.S. Coast Guard Commander Taylor Campbell crazy. What more could any woman want. Right?

Taylor is on a quest to unearth her uncle’s buried treasure—a journey so far out of the realm of her real life she can barely fathom it. There’s one other minor glitch. Taylor's certain the buried treasure was all in Uncle Randy's dementia-riddled mind. Now he’s dead.

All the same, Taylor is in Rock Harbor, Texas, to settle her uncle's estate, including following his directions to the treasure. When someone tries to kill her, Taylor's quest becomes personal. She tosses Randy's official cause of death—Drowning Due to Accident—out the window and starts looking at his Rock Harbor acquaintances. Could Randy's treasure be real?

Jake Solomon is in Rock Harbor under false pretenses. He loathes the charade dictated by his father’s plan to protect Taylor Campbell. But Jake will do what it takes to protect Taylor from the fate that befell her uncle and the other members of a tight circle of Coast Guardsmen called the Compass Points who served together on Point boats in Vietnam.

Due to the danger involved, Jake’s dad has ordered him not to become involved with Taylor. Disobeying his father was Jake’s first mistake.

Taylor is attracted to Jake as well, but she refuses to wait for Jake to locate the killer when she knows her plan will force her uncle’s murderer into action.

But the killer's actions are just what Jake is afraid of.

My review:
Taylor Campbell's favorite uncle Randy passed away and left her everything. Including a mysterious letter and a hidden treasure. As a U.S. Coast Guard Commander, she missed the funeral, but she's in Rock Harbor, Texas now to clean up his estate and find out what was going on in his head before he died. She meets Jake Solomon who is in town trying to find out what happened to her uncle and the other members of his circle of friends called the Compass Points. Each has been killed off, and Jake is the only one still alive. Romance was the last thing on Taylor and Jake's minds, but even as a killer stalks them, they can't stay away from one another.

A magnificently crafted suspense thriller with a bit of romance. I was hooked right from the beginning and left wondering who the killer might be until the very end. Carol Kilgore does an excellent job of winding everyone and everything up in a tight knot, and you can't tell which thread goes where until it all elegantly unfolds at the end.

The cast of characters is amazing. Taylor is a strong and clever protagonist. She has a lot of experience to help her along with a big heart. Jake is smart and sexy. He has a bit of a bad boy edge, but his sense of justice is powerful. I loved Dan and A.J. Each secondary character stood out as brightly as Taylor and Jake.

I highly recommend SOLOMON'S COMPASS. It's a fantastic tale with something for every reader. I can't wait to read more from Carol Kilgore. 

Author bio:

Carol Kilgore is an award-winning author of several published short stories and many essays and articles. Solomon’s Compass is her second novel, a blend of mystery, suspense, and romance she calls Crime Fiction with a Kiss – always at least one crime; always a love story. Carol and her Coast Guard husband live in San Antonio, Texas, with two herding dogs that like nothing better than pack time on the patio.

You can find Carol here:

Website * Blog * Facebook * Twitter * Goodreads * Amazon

Friday Five for July 5, 2013

1. We had a fun Fourth of July yesterday. The parade was in the morning, and then we visited with friends. A nice dinner and fireworks in the evening. My husband has today off too, so we might go to the zoo if the weather holds. And then maybe the lake on the weekend.

2. All my revisions for THE GHOST are done. Yay! It's with my CP/editor now, and she'll proof it. Then hopefully on Monday or Tuesday, I can get it up on the purchase sites. My blog tour guest posts are done and sent. I'm on top of thing this week.

3. Next week, I'll take a moment to breathe and ready myself for THE GHOST blog tour. I'm also starting Parent & Tot swim lessons with the boy. Those will be every weekday morning for two weeks. Then my local critique group meets on the 20th. So I'll have to do the critiques the week before. June went by so quickly, and I suspect July is going to fly by too.

4. I read the final book in Charlaine Harris' Sookie Stackhouse series. It's a wonderful series, but I was disappointed by this last book. Not just because I didn't get the ending I wanted either. I posted a big review with a spoiler warning on Goodreads if you're curious as to what I thought of one of the most famous paranormal romance series in the world.

5. Eight days until the official release of THE GHOST. Thank you to everyone that commented on my IWSG post on Wednesday. I'm still nervous, but not as much as I was before. You guys are awesome!

Have a great weekend!

Happy Independence Day and book giveaways

HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY!

Sarah at Sarah's Reviews is hosting 3 fabulous giveaways. You can win a copy of one of C. Lee McKenzie's books! Go enter now!

Insecure Writer's Support Group for July 2013

The Insecure Writer's Support Group (IWSG) is the brilliant idea of Alex J. Cavanaugh. The purpose of the group is to share doubts and insecurities and to encourage one another. Please visit the other participants and share your support. A kind word goes a long way.

This month I'm releasing the final book in my 13th Floor series, THE GHOST. I loved writing this series. It was so much fun. I've gotten a great reaction from readers. You guys make it all worthwhile.

I want this last book to be a magnificent ending to the series, and I'm afraid that it won't be. The protagonist of this book Chiharo Black is sweet. She's not fearless like my dragonslayer or fierce like my werewolf. Chiharo is cute, bright, and says "oh my god" way too much. Her story is good, but is it big enough to end the series? Will it leave an impact like the previous books?

I know we're our own worst critics. I also know that I'll never know until I release the book. The official release day is in ten days. I'm trying not to hyperventilate. My series will be complete. I'm elated and terrified at the same time.

Teaser Tuesday with Birdie's Book

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

This was another random book I picked up from the library. I wanted something light and refreshing, something not like my usual reads. This is the first book in Jan Bozarth's the Fairy Godmother Academy series. It's fun and whimsical. A wonderful fantasy book for young girls. Not quite as magical as Harry Potter, but it's still a sweet book.

Here's your teaser:
The woman - or rather, the mermaid - nearest to me blinked her chocolate brown eyes. They changed to violet, matching her mass of hair. She held out her hand, as if I was suppose to touch it or kiss it. I reached out to shake hands. (page 58)

Guest post on Perspective by Josh Hoyt and Happy Canada Day

Think of your favorite character, the one that changed your life and made you look at people and the world differently. What did the author do in order to bring that character to life?

Buy it now on Amazon

Some of you may remember Josh Hoyt and his amazing blog about using psychology to create characters. He went on an extended blogging break, but he came back with his book! Congratulations to Josh. Today he's talking about perspective and how that affects your characters. Thank you, Josh. Take it away!

PERSPECTIVE

By Josh Hoyt

Recently I had a discussion with my wife about support and how we both have a different perspective of how support looks. The support I'm talking about is how we help each other accomplish our goals. Her perspective of the perfect support is a more hands off approach while I enjoy a more hands on and direct approach. When we give support to each othe,r we do give that support in the way that we perceive to be the best way and as a result we really don't give the best support to the other person that we could give. In fact, when we feel that we are giving a lot of support often, the other one doesn't feel very supported at all. She feels like I'm pushy and expecting perfection, while I feel like she doesn't care when she supports me. This of course leads to confusion, and uhm, let's call it a discussion. :) After 13 years of marriage, you would think that we would understand each other perfectly, but alas we are still trying to learn each others perspective.

Perspective is the way we see things because of the experiences that we have had and the personality that we are born with, and because we all have had different experiences and we all have unique personalities, we each have a different perspective. As a result of this uniqueness, we have difficulty, at times, understanding those around us and regrettably this can lead to fights and even wars.

When we think about perspective, we also need to understand the different filters that we have in place as we receive input from the out-side world. When a person makes a decision on how to act they will take what they perceive from the out-side world and mix it up with what they have inside of them (feelings, thoughts, and past experiences). After they have mixed all this stuff up they make a decision on how to act. These “inside” things are the filters they have in place to deal with the world around them and affect how they perceive the world around them. For example if a person has an ex-wife who cheated on them they will be more suspicious of their new wife when that wife comes home later than expected or if a child is used to being hit when they make a mistake when they are moved out of that situation they will still flinch at an adult who raises their hand unexpectedly even if the adult had no intention of hitting the child.

Now back to the story of my wife and me. After discussing and learning about each others perspective on support, we are now able to support each other in the way that each other needs to be supported. More importantly, we can now understand each other a little bit more and this helps us grow closer and makes our relationship that much stronger. As we learn more and more about each others perspective, we grow closer together and are more invested in each other. Our willingness to support and understand each other increases and we want to learn more about each other. This can also be applied to the husband and wife and the child and adult mentioned above. As the two sides of the situations learn to understand each others perspectives, they will learn to be more sensitive to each other. The wife will call when she knows she is going to be late and the adult will be more sensitive to their hand gestures around the child.

When we create our characters, we need to understand their experiences, feelings, and thoughts so that when they receive input from the out-side world they respond appropriately to that information and according to their own personal perspective of “life, the universe, and everything.” In addition to our characters responding appropriately and according to their perspective, we will help our readers understand our character's perspective through the responses those characters make. This in turn helps our readers connect more intimately with our characters and want to learn more about our characters (which will increase book sells!!! :)

SO in truth to truly understand another's perspective, we must first walk in their shoes. 

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HAPPY CANADA DAY TO ALL MY CANADIAN FRIENDS AND FAMILY!