Hydra Publications Summer Bash -- Welcome Erin Danzer

Hello! My name is Erin Danzer and I have something awesome to share with you today!

 

 

It's summertime! And what better way to spend time cooped up in an air conditioned house, time at the beach, or out on the water than with a great book?

 

Hydra Publications is offering 30 e-book titles for FREE July 16 and 17! This promotion includes awesome fantasy, sci-fi, thriller, horror and mystery reads such as Deception Peak by Dianne Lynn Gardner, Chronicle of Destiny (newly released!) by Etta Jean, Love Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me by Lyndi Alexander and my very own, Into the Spiral! Check out the full list of titles below. Click on the names to check them out more and to pick up your copy today!

 

Amy the Astronaut and the Flight for Freedom by Steve Donahue

Andraste by Marissa Mills

Anon by Peter Giglio

Blood of the Highland Moon by Morinda Montgomery

Bounty Hunter by Kate Lynd

Bridgeworld by Travis McBee

Chronicle of Destiny by Etta Jean

Dearly Departed by Rachel Rawlings

Deception Peak by Dianne Lynn Gardner

Empyreal Fate by Rachel Hunter

Eternal Patrol by Michael Wallace

Gnosis by Tom Wallace

Into the Spiral by Erin Danzer (that’s me!)

Love Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me by Lyndi Alexander

Lure of the Vampire by Bertena Varney

Morning Star by Desiree Finkbeiner

Primal by Raven and Lain Bower

Raising Riley by Brick Marlin

Reality Check by Eric Garrison

Tale Spinner by David Donaghe

The Exile’s Violin by R.S. Hunter

The Fall of Onagros by Marian Allen

The Hand of God by Tony Acree

The Heart Denied by Linda Anne Wulf

The Know-It-All Girl by Joanna Foreman

The Universal Mirror by Gwen Perkins

The Wall Outside by James Percy

Ukishima by Nigel Sellars

Virginia Creeper by Blaine Pardoe

 

A little bit about my book:

 

Fifteen-year-old Veronica “Ronnie” Lambert wants to get out from under her older brother’s shadow. When Ronnie gets a tattoo and then is struck by lightning, she suddenly finds herself able to see and hear things in shadows that don’t appear to others. Then Ronnie meets Gavin Clearwater, the hot new guy in all of her classes and finds out he can see and hear the same things she can.

Gavin tells her about the Spiral Defenders, a group of warriors that travels through space and time to defend the planets of the Spiral. After meeting the Commander of the Spiral Defenders and realizing his intentions might not be pure, Ronnie struggles between following her destiny to become a Spiral Defender and trying to regain the life she had before being struck by lightning.

 

I hope you'll check out all of the books available. I truly believe there is something on this list for everyone!

 

*****

 

Thanks, Erin, for sharing this with us! I'm looking forward to checking all of these out!

Ghostly Summons by John A Karr (4 stars)

About Ghostly Summons

Lars Kelsen doesn’t believe in psychic phenomenon. To him, visions of murder victims are a form of mental illness. Once they begin, options are limited; he can try to ignore them or deal with them by exposing a killer. Only the latter provides any semblance of peace. Temporarily, anyway. Five years into his new life as a programmer, Kelsen—ex-crime beat reporter with a penance he can never fully satisfy—sees a victim.

In person. Upright. Staring.

Typical of such past "Visits" as he calls them, he doesn’t welcome this one. The nude form of a beautiful millionairess in his cubicle means murder has come to the vacation haven known as North Carolina’s Outer Banks. It means he’ll have to go places he'd rather avoid. See things he'll wish he hadn’t. Do things that don't come naturally, like in-your-face confrontation and bending the law. Actually, breaking the law ... but with good intent. It also means dealing with one very attractive county coroner, who pushes his buttons in a not entirely unwelcome way.

So begins Kelsen's return to investigative reporting—complete with attempts on his life, fights, deception, and all the technological tricks, such as GPS and computer hacking, at his disposal. And maybe even finding a new love interest.

eBook Price: $3.99
Pages: 326
Publisher: Dark Continents
Release: March 14, 2013

Review

Can you imagine life with dead people following you around?

For Lars Kelsen, it's a way of life. As much as he tries to convince himself he's mentally falling apart or as hard as he tries to run from his own life, he feels compelled to help the dead victims who appear before him--visitors as he calls them.

Trying to reinvent himself in North Carolina's Outer Banks, Lars is drawn into the murder of a millionaire's wife. His search for answers puts his own life in jeopardy, as the murderer (or murderers) is determined to shut him up. Can Lars survive, or will he become a visitor himself?

Intrigue and suspense pull the reader from page to page, but Ghostly Summons offers more than that. Lars is a character readers can care about--he's equal parts strength and vulnerability. He has suffered many losses thanks to his ability to see dead murder victims.

But most readers will be hooked by the twists and turns of the who-done-it. I was left guessing until the last few pages and on the edge of my seat until all was finally revealed. My only complaint... there was a bit of lull right around the middle. Once I got past that, it was a captivating thrill ride.

Rating: 4 stars

About John A Karr

John A. Karr believes fiction writing each day helps keep the demons at bay. Ghostly Summons is his first full-length novel for Dark Continents Publishing. DCP has also published his Weird West novella, Ujahwek. He is the author of a handful of other novels: Death Clause, Hippocrates Shattered (scheduled for reprint by World Castle Publications as Shattered), Rhone, and Van Gogh, Encore. His short stories have appeared on webzines Allegory, The Absent Willow Review, and Danse Macabre. More works are in progress and in the marketing queue.

Karr is an ardent believer in the quote by Carl Van Doren (1885-1950), U.S. man of letters: Yes, it's hard to write, but it's harder not to.

For more information, please visit his website, his blog, on Facebook, on Twitter, and on GoodReads.

Buy Ghostly Summons

Kindle
Nook

Kobo

Note: I received a complimentary copy from Tribute Books for review purposes. No other compensation was received. A positive review was not guaranteed or requested; the views expressed are my own.

For more information on Tribute Books, please visit their website, on Facebook, and on Twitter.

The New Life of Covers: Musing Mondays

A Musing Mondays prompt from Should be Reading:

Do you think the book cover is “dead”? Do you care whether the “covers” on digital books exist or not?

I've been pondering this subject for awhile. Craig Mod's article, Hack the Cover: Covers, Covers--Everywhere, offered some amazing insight on how the popularity of eBooks has affected the marketing importance of book covers.

Let's be honest, covers were an important marketing tool in bookstores. When readers browsed, the cover was their first impression of a book. A striking cover could compel me to pick up any book, taking away any preconceived notions I had about what I liked and didn't like in story or genre. A great cover backed up by a wonderful back cover summary was all I needed.

Fast forward to the Amazon world of eBooks and online shopping. Now I browse by genres and authors I like. Then I go to the book's page and notice the cover. Sure, I'm still influenced by the cover's allure, but it's not my first impression anymore unless I'm standing in Barnes & Noble or my favorite independent bookstore, Novel Places, close to my house.

Once I purchase an eBook, the cover is gone. I choose the title on my home page and go right to the first page of the book. The cover is gone from my memory and has little influence on my imagination. Every time I pick up an actual book to read, I see the cover and its images affect my mental picture of the characters and/or scenery.

But like all things, does the cover just need to catch up to technology? Jump over to Craig's article for some amazing pictures on old-style, possibly future-style, book covers. We just need the hardware to catch up so that digital covers are still what we see and part of the reading experience.

I say... long live covers. I hope they stay around but evolve with the books they so lovingly adorn. Otherwise, we might as well go back to Kinko's-printed manuscripts or Microsoft Word documents and read words without the beauty and visual.

And who wants that?

How do you see the future of book covers?

The Spirit Keeper (5 stars) FREE until April 30th!

A quick post to let you all know that Melissa Luznicky Garrett's The Spirit Keeper is FREE until April 30!

My daughter loved this book, giving it 5 stars. See her review here.

Pick up a free copy here (again until 4/30/12).