Tag: fantasy

Urban Fantasy – Scepter of Fire

Urban Fantasy – Scepter of Fire

 

 

The Vigilant Book 2
Urban Fantasy/YA
Date Published: May 1st, 2020
Publisher: Phenomenal One Press
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Dexter didn’t like being a pawn. It seems life was taking him there though. His father and he never saw eye to eye, but being captured and tortured for his father’s mistakes gave Dexter too much to think about. First, the girl he lost, he’d never forget what they did to her. It changed him, and made him see the small city his father moved him to for what is was, a prison for magicals, the damned, and now him. Too bad, the creator of the void didn’t realize they would be better off if they’d set him free, because now, he was fighting for his life, and someone he’d have to hide his feelings from to protect, not just from those that want to drag them back, but from him -a vigilant.

 

 

Excerpt
“Do you want to escape here? I can help you.” Dex wanted out of this place.
 Nash smiled, “Yes, but now is not the time. We have to wait for her to hatch. I need her for a successful escape. It’s why I implanted a song in the guard’s mind to put her with me.”
 “You manipulated my friend Trey?” Dex wiped a hand down his face. This guy Nash was dangerous. Dex could feel it, only now, Dex felt it was time to stop trying to be the nice guy. He would survive. Finding a way to say his family would start with getting out of here, even if making a deal with this little devil would do it.
 Nash lifted an eyebrow, “I hummed him a tune.”
 “Whatever. You want my help getting out of here? I’m offering as long as we go our separate ways.”
 “I will take your willing help.” Nash cocked his head to the side, “Although, if I wanted it, I could make you give it, you know.”
 Dex crossed his arms over his chest, “Isn’t a free give better?”
 “Oh it is. What will you give me for helping you get free?”
 Dex frowned, “Give you? I got nothing.”
 “Everyone has…something.”
 “What are you? I like to know what kind of creature I’m bargaining with.” Dex didn’t want to give this imp anything.
 “I am many things, yet in part, not a human like you.”
Dex caught a hint of regret in his tone. Dex could swear Nash had a hungry gleam in his eye. Trey had warned him that Nash was pied piper and Rumpelstiltskin. Dex knew the pied piper had something to do with music. He had no idea what a Rumpelstiltskin was, and he had a feeling he shouldn’t mention it to Nash.
 “You need to tell me specifically what you want before I can agree to anything.”
 One side of Nash’s lip kicked up. “Her. The pixie-human. Give me her.”
 Dex frowned, then scratched his head. Why would Nash ask him to give up the pixie-human? The girl wasn’t his to give, he didn’t even know what it looked like.
 “Not mine to give.”
 Nash shrugged, “Then I won’t help either of you.”
About the Author
L.M. Preston, a native of Washington, DC. An avid reader, she loved to create poetry and short-stories as a young girl. She is an author, an engineer, a professor, a mother and a wife. Her passion for writing and helping others to see their potential through her stories and encouragement has been her life’s greatest adventures. She loves to write while on the porch watching her kids play or when she is traveling, which is another passion that encouraged her writing.
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Fantasy Fiction – The Thief’s Betrayal

Fantasy Fiction – The Thief’s Betrayal

 

Fantasy Fiction
Date Published: February 4th 2019
Publisher: Rebel Press
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Someone is murdering the citizens of Kira’s village, and her fellow thieves are being blamed. Desperate to clear their names and restore the reputation of the guild, Kira embarks on a dangerous mission to infiltrate the palace and enlist the help of the king and queen.
One man stands in her way, Chaol, the head guard, who threatens to steal the thief’s heart.
And he’s not the only one. Her childhood crush on Badrick might finally be developing into something more than friendship. But only if they can figure out who is threatening to kill them before it is too late.
Kira wants to trust Kingsman, the man who took her in and raised her as his own, but she is starting to wonder if he has been lying to her all along.
Can the three men closest to her keep Kira safe long enough for her to carry out her plan to save the village? Or will the secrets they have kept from her destroy her happiness—and her life—before she has a chance to clear her name and prove the innocence of those she cares about the most?
About the Author
When Cassondra was growing up, if she wasn’t competing in sports, she was usually writing, reading, or drawing. It wasn’t long before she formed an addiction to the thrills of fantasy, which led her to write her debut novel, The Thief’s Betrayal. Cassondra is currently attending college. She was born and raised in Southern California where she lives in a home overflowing with books.
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Fantasy – Guardian of the Sunshine Bride

Fantasy – Guardian of the Sunshine Bride

Sīhalt Series, Book One
Fantasy, Epic Fantasy
Publisher: Lock10 Press
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A man with a dark past meets a girl with a bright future. Their choices will change the world.
Princess Kathleen is betrothed to the powerful Prince of Tyath. The arrangement was made when she was just a child. She is duty bound to save her people from starvation and sees the marriage as her only option. That is until she meets the Sīhalt Guardian sent to protect her during her dangerous journey to the altar. The vigorous guardian steals her first kiss, but will he be able to keep her safe and steal her heart?
Jared spent his childhood in the cold north training to be a Sīhalt Guardian – the fiercest of protectors. While seeking revenge for his sister’s death, he sets off a chain of events that endangers the next person he decides to protect. Will one act of vengeance cost him the forbidden love of the Princess he longs for?
Heathron has managed to become the heir to an empire, but he needs to be married to assume the throne. Despite all the manipulative efforts of the beautiful, back-stabbing young ladies of the Golden City, he dreams of the illustrious young girl the met as a child. Will he still love the Princess as secrets unravel and he discovers the truth about her journey to him with the warrior?
Cedric will stop at nothing to reclaim the ancestral lands of his people and drink from the skull of the man who killed his father. As he unites his army of ruthless barbarians, Cedric knows that capturing the Princess is his best chance at securing all his evil desires. Will the Princess survive being a pawn in his dangerous scheme filled with deceit and destruction?
Enjoy this epic fantasy adventure.
Other Books in the Sīhalt Series:
Guardian of the Golden City
Sīhalt Series, Book Two
Publisher: Lock10 Press
Princess Kathleen Dal Sundi survived her wedding procession. Now she must face the dangers of the Golden City — a place of grandeur and prestige. Her betrothed, the powerful Prince of Tyath, has demanded a chance to win her love before offering their wedding vows.
Kathleen is torn between duty and desire, but agrees to the compromise. The Sīhalt Guardian, who captured her heart, leaves to find his brother, while forces beyond her control rise up to threaten the foundations of the Empire.
Joined by a group of colorful friends, Kathleen soon learns that strength can be found in many forms, and resisting evil requires her to cling to life and love.
 
About the Author

Austin Rehl lives in beautiful Marietta Ohio. He enjoys sculpting, dancing, reading and working on the farm. He is currently going through his “Mid-Life Renaissance” complete with a sports car, new endeavors, and a better work-out routine. He admits that becoming an author was part of that new birth. He shares his life with his wife Wendy, and their six children. Austin Rehl is a practicing member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
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Fantasy – Stuart Duffelmeyer and the Master of Plagues

Fantasy – Stuart Duffelmeyer and the Master of Plagues

 

 
Fantasy
Date Published: October 2019
Publisher: Author Reputation Press
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Ever been bullied?
How about badly mistreated?
Meet Stuart Duffelmeyer. He knows what it feels like to be treated like trash. Brilliant, quiet, nerdy, and kind-spirited best describe him. He is an NYU student whose classmates target him for total humiliation. Fooling with him was their ultimate mistake. Stuart suffered severely as a result of their malicious behavior. He harnesses the power of nature to serve a dish of revenge that is best served cold to them.
Excerpt
Many residents living in the Washington, D.C., area have always said that where you lived in the city said a lot about who you were. John O’Connor and his wife Susan were some of the first ones to make a
statement by moving into the Dumont condominiums over on Fourth and Massachusetts Avenue. Incomparable elegance and first-class amenities were the sophistications they enjoyed from their hard-earned success. John met Susan while both were doing internships at Children’s National Medical Center there in Washington. Since graduating from NYU’s School of Medicine for Pediatric Cardiology, he sought opportunities in the nation’s capital. Susan graduated from Boston University’s School of Medicine and also decided to head to Washington to pursue her career as a pediatrician.
During their tenure as hospital residents, they dated and would soon fall in love. Their love for one another fueled the passion to become engaged. The engagement soon led to marriage. Two sons, four-year-old John O’Connor, Jr., and three-year-old James O’Connor, became additions to their family. John got exactly what he wanted. Two sons were always his dream, ever since he was a little boy himself growing up on the upper east side of Manhattan. John and Susan felt their lives were complete with their family and careers.
Their boys were happy to have the rooftop pool with sweeping views of the DC monuments. Playing with other kids who resided at the Dumont brought joy to their parents. If their kids were happy, they were happy. John and Susan enjoyed retreats with their boys around the beautifully landscaped courtyard.
The sanctuary of nature brought them moments of peace to read a novel or enjoy the greenery of the flowers. When John Jr. and James were attended to by the nanny, the O’Connors snuck away to work out with the premium cardio equipment of the twenty-four-hour fitness center. John loved living only blocks away from the Capitol. Susan was delighted to live in the indulgence of the most powerful address on the triangle. John and Susan took on the daunting task of being a part of an internationally recognized team of pediatric healthcare professionals. Their team cared for more than 360,000 patients each year. Fifty million dollars in uncompensated care was provided by Children’s National Medical Center. John proved his worth by becoming one of the top cardiac physicians in the Children’s Cardiac Intensive Care Unit. Dually board certified in pediatric cardiology and pediatric critical care medicine. The life of an infant was in the hands of him and his surgical staff. Inside the operating room, the doctors and nurses were desperate to save the life of a two-month-old infant suffering from ventricular septal defect. A Desflurance anesthetic agent was administered.
The mounted surgical lights beamed strongly down on the surgical equipment being passed to John and other pediatric physicians. The integrated breathing system management of the electronic ventilator kept the infant stable. John used the powerful fiber optic illumination of the opthalmology microscopes to see deep within the left and right ventricles of the baby girl’s ventricular septum. Acutely, blood rushed through the stout walls which separated the lower chambers of her heart.
“Our patient is losing a normal heart rate!” John barked to his surgical team.
“Too much blood is leaking from the left ventricle into the right ventricle,” observed one of the top pediatric nurses.
“If the blood reaches the patient’s lungs, then she probably won’t make it.”
“We might have to perform a Median sternotomy.”
“Nurse, there’s barely a heartbeat!”
“Dr. O’Connor, the right ventricle has clogged with more blood.”
Seconds inside the operating room were precious. John and his team had many options to saving the baby’s life. Which life-saving method to use was their biggest concern. Incidentally, the monitor displayed no
heartbeat. Had the two-month-old baby died while under their care? Not if the divine intervention of the Universe had its say. The bright surgical lights were drowned out by an even brighter light which cut
through the ceiling. The doctors and nurses were lifted off the ground and suspended in mid-air by gravitational forces from the cosmos.
The deceased two-month-old was lifted off the operating table and also suspended in the air. A stream of cool ocean water and air came from under the door. The excess blood clogging the right ventricle of her precious heart was sucked out by the air and intermingled with the fresh ocean water. The blood caused the water to form a pinkish color.
Some of the water washed out all the infection. The wondrous forces of the Universe lowered the baby back down on the operating table. Loud cries from the infant filled the entire room. She cried as though she’d just been born into the world. John and the rest of his surgical team descended back to the floor. They just couldn’t believe what had happened. A stream of Gulf Coast water measuring about six gallons had done their jobs for them.
“Did you all see what happened in here?” John asked his medical colleagues, all of them stunned from disbelief.
The surgical team shook their heads at the same time.
“Where did that water come from?” John questioned, looking around and not seeing one wet spot in the emergency room. The surgical team silently replied with more movement of their heads.
“Long hours here at the hospital may be a bit too much for me.”
Standing right outside the surgery room without being noticed was Stuart. John came towards the door to make his exit. Stuart camouflaged himself behind a group of nurses going down the hallway. The infant
survived and it really brightened up his day.
Susan O’Connor had no idea her husband spent extra hours at the hospital only to spend time with a dangerously beautiful clinical dietitian specialist named Marissa Halifax. Talk about a true beauty! Marissa had doctors from one corridor of the pediatric hospital to the next trying to date her. Some doctors offered her money and gifts. She refused all of them. They offered her promotions within the hospital, and still, she refused them.
How did John get so lucky? His mouthpiece, bank account, and masculine magnetism were the goods to win her over. With the blinds shut, the door locked, the phone turned off, and lights turned down low,
John and Marissa decided to have a late night rendezvous inside his office. Their bodies pressed together while their lips smacked. They took a break from sucking face in order to catch their breath. Steam had generated from them exchanging saliva.
“Whew!” John huffed, fanning himself to cool off. “When I look at you, I’m looking at a masterpiece.”
“Consider yourself lucky, Johnny Boy,” Marissa nipped with arrogance, patting her curly brown hair back in place.
“Sure, I’m real lucky.”
“With all these doctors around here wanting me, you took home the prize, baby.”
“Can’t argue with you on that. Julius Caesar would’ve given up the Roman Empire for you.”
“I saw your wife today.”
“Where?”
“Down by endocrinology.”
“She finds out that we’re messing around, that’ll be my one way ticket to a divorce.”
“Your wife doesn’t have to find out. I won’t tell if you won’t tell.”
“You’ve got a deal.”
John and Marissa joined together to revive their body pressing and lip smacking. Small drops of water fell from the ceiling. More drops seeped through the cracks of the door and the windows. John went over to the windows and peeked between the blinds.
“Where’s that water coming from? It isn’t raining outside.”
“Are there holes in the roof?” Marissa asked, skipping from one side of the office to the next.
“No way does this hospital have holes in the roof.”
“John, I’ll see you later.”
Marissa sprinted over to the door. She found the lock wouldn’t turn.
“Who locked the door?”
“You can’t get out?”
“No, I’ve jerked on the knob several times.”
“The door can be locked from the inside and the outside.”
“Who’s playing tricks, John?”
“I don’t know.”
Winds in excess of over a hundred miles an hour blew in between the door and window cracks. The drops of water joined together and formed a tiny hurricane inside John’s office. The forceful winds picked John off the ground and slammed him against the wall. Marissa got sucked up to the ceiling. Her body remained pressed to the crumbling tiles. The frames of pictures and certificates were blown off the walls and smashed into pieces.
Colonel Boaz made his presence known to John O’Connor. “John, have you not learned your lesson yet?”
“What lesson is that?” John answered, the mighty winds having deprived him of normal oxygen.
“You have violated the codes of morality. You made my master suffer, now you have to suffer.”
“Who are you?”
“I have been sent by my master to be a plague upon you.”
“Who’s your master?”
“The secrets of the Universe will not permit me to reveal who my master is.”
“I don’t understand. There are no hurricanes in Washington, D.C.”
“You weren’t meant to understand the true laws of nature.”
“This has gotta be one bad dream.”
“Your evil ways and disobedience have come back to bite you in the backside.”
“But hurricanes don’t talk.”
“No, this hurricane does talk.”
Colonel Boaz used the power of its winds and water to throw John all around his office. The colonel threw him around like a boomerang. His face, hands, chest, and legs, they crashed hard against the wall. Slinging nearly ten gallons of water at him, John felt the stinging impact crash into his backside. “Errrrrrrrrrrh!” John screamed, clutching his tender rear with both hands.
About the Author

Dewey B. Reynolds is an author, screenwriter, short filmmaker, and computer expert. He has also written books in the mystery, suspense, young adult, and true crime genres. Dewey currently lives in his hometown of Kansas City, Missouri.

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Q&A with Author M. K. Theodoratus

Q&A with Author M. K. Theodoratus

What inspired you to become a writer?

Actually, it’s a wonder I ever became a writer…even the pipsqueak writer I am. I’m dyslexic and was convinced I couldn’t read until I was in fourth grade. I “looked” at pictures and comics.

My sixth grade teacher started my writing career when she assigned the class to write a short story. Other kids wrote 3 to 6 pages. I wrote an unfinished 28 pages of a Nancy Drew pastiche and got a C because I didn’t finish it. [I did finish it the next summer and typed it on my mother’s typewriter.]

While I wrote bits and pieces of stuff, I didn’t write seriously until I started writing short non-fiction when an adult. I didn’t start writing fiction until I retired. At this point, writing is like an itch. Not writing bugs me.

What are you passionate about?

Politics, but the less said about that the better, in many cases.

But, my views do bleed into my fantasies. My whole Far Isle Half-Elven world was developed on the question: What happens politically to a land when genetic drift influences an elf/human hybrid population.

What is your username on the different social media platforms? (do you want this information to be published

I don’t seem to have enough time for social media. The one place I go to regularly where people can contact me is on Facebook as M. K. Theodoratus, Fantasy Writer. That is if I can ever figure out how to get rid of the Portuguese. I only speak English.

What’s your favorite genre to write/read in and why?

Fantasy has been my thing since I was three years old when an imaginary friend played with me on our gated front porch. My brother still blames me for our mother naming him Jerome after my friend. [Don’t ask where I got the name Jerome.]

I discovered science fiction and fantasy paperbacks at a used hardware/junk store, and I deserted comic books for the likes of Andre Norton, A. E. Merritt, and C. L. Moore. Of course, I’m a little strange in that I consider Regencies [Georgette Heyer] and mysteries [Lee Child] fantasy.

Why fantasy? Well, the mundane world is so pedestrian. I need a little magic in my life.

Some writers have something playing in the background, do you and what?

I always have music of many different kinds in the background, though I tend to prefer folk music, including Tana Tuvan throat music. I currently am listening to Welsh harp music as I write. Maybe you should add light classical music to my playlist. If I don’t battle stuff, I tend to drift to heavy metal. I really like complicated guitar riffs.

What’s the inspiration behind your books?

I write in two worlds: Andor where demons prey and the Marches of the Far Isles Half-Elven. I have free short stories available in both worlds as well as two books about The Demon Wars of Andor.

The Far Isles Half-Elven got me started writing fantasy again after I retired. — I was recovering from surgery and napping. I woke to a Technicolor vision of a tall, sad woman standing on a cliff overlooking a turbulent sea with the wind blowing her unbound hair away from her head. My first thought was Mariah, and I wrote a short story [actually a prequel for my WIP, Dark Solstice] called Vengeance. Well, since then, I’ve drafted over 500,000 words about Mariah, her family, and the Marches of the Far Isles Half-Elven. A few of the short stories are available published and available for free.

I am currently working on a YA novel, called The Pig Wars for which I discovered the complete copy edits when I moved. The novel focuses on Renna, a friend of Mariah’s, during the formation of the Marches after the Rebellion. Renna’s greedy neighbor plots to take over her lands

The Demon Wars of Andor developed entirely differently. I wrote a short story about an overwhelmed gargoyle when I attended a writing workshop. It was later published in a British ezine, but I couldn’t let the idea rest. Britt Kelly, the hero of There Be Demons, is mentioned in passing in the story, but I kept wondering if Britt was one of the reinforcements Gillen was promised. I ended up with two novels as I wondered about how alien beings might be viewed and how the demons might react to being left behind in an alien world.

What advice would you give any newbie author or anyone that wants to pick up writing?

The first thing is to keep writing…even when things seem hopeless. Chose an subject/area that interests you and learn your craft as well as jotting down every idea you get in a notebook. You never know when this info will come in handy.

Then, listen to critiques about what you wrote. No draft is ever perfect. Sometimes, the tenth revision still needs more copy editing. Once you’ve built a supportive team, listen to their advice. I usually do about three major revisions plus I’m constantly editing as I write.

The most important thing is to get endings on what you write. You can’t really edit until you know where the article or the story went.

About the Author:
Fantasy has always been part of M. K. Theodoratus’s life from having an imaginary friend to reading. Now she also writes fantasy.

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The Vine Witch by Luanne G. Smith

The Vine Witch by Luanne G. Smith

A young witch emerges from a curse to find her world upended in this gripping fantasy of betrayal, vengeance, and self-discovery set in turn-of-the-century France.

For centuries, the vineyards at Château Renard have depended on the talent of their vine witches, whose spells help create the world-renowned wine of the Chanceaux Valley. Then the skill of divining harvests fell into ruin when sorcière Elena Boureanu was blindsided by a curse. Now, after breaking the spell that confined her to the shallows of a marshland and weakened her magic, Elena is struggling to return to her former life. And the vineyard she was destined to inherit is now in the possession of a handsome stranger.

Vigneron Jean-Paul Martel naively favors science over superstition, and he certainly doesn’t endorse the locals’ belief in witches. But Elena knows a hex when she sees one, and the vineyard is covered in them. To stay on and help the vines recover, she’ll have to hide her true identity, along with her plans for revenge against whoever stole seven winters of her life. And she won’t rest until she can defy the evil powers that are still a threat to herself, Jean-Paul, and the ancient vine-witch legacy in the rolling hills of the Chanceaux Valley.

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About the Author:

Luanne G. Smith is the author of THE VINE WITCH, a historical fantasy novel about witches, wine, and revenge set in early 20th century France, and the forthcoming second book in The Vine Witch series, THE GLAMOURIST. She’s lucky enough to live in Colorado at the base of the beautiful Rocky Mountains, where she enjoys reading, gardening, hiking, a glass of wine at the end of the day, and finding the magic in everyday life.

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Urban Fantasy – Wishful Thinking by Helen Harper

Urban Fantasy – Wishful Thinking by Helen Harper

Muddled magic. Missing faeries. She’s having one spell of a day at work…

Saffron Sawyer aspires to rise from the magical world’s bottom rung. But when her wish to join the renowned Office of Faery Godmothers is granted, bullies make her first day on the job unbearable. And to add to her misery, she discovers that someone is abducting her coworkers one-by-one.

Desperate to prevent another kidnapping, she scrambles to piece together the clues. After teaming up with the handsome and powerful Devil’s Advocate, she uncovers a strange connection between the disappearances and her lowly former gig. But when Saffron learns her promotion was only a ploy, she vows to ruin the devious plan.

Can Saffron muster enough magic to trap the villain before she’s sacked or stolen?

Wishful Thinking is the first book in the refreshingly original How To Be The Best Damn Faery Godmother in the World (or Die Trying) urban fantasy series. If you like determined heroines, enchanting spins on old tales, and clever twists and turns, then you’ll love Helen Harper’s captivating story.

Buy Wishful Thinking to watch a spunky sprite strut her stuff!

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About the Author:

After teaching English literature in the UK, Japan and Malaysia, Helen Harper left behind the world of education following the worldwide success of her Blood Destiny series of books. She is a professional member of the Alliance of Independent Authors and writes full time, thanking her lucky stars every day that’s she lucky enough to do so!

Helen has always been a book lover, devouring science fiction and fantasy tales when she was a child growing up in Scotland.

She currently lives in Devon in the UK with far too many cats – not to mention the dragons, fairies, demons, wizards and vampires that seem to keep appearing from nowhere.

 

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