Friday 27 February 2015

Trailer Reveal - I Heart Robot by Suzanne van Rooyen


I Heart Robot by Suzanne van Rooyen
Published by: Month9Books
Publication date: March 31st 2015
Genres: Romance, Science Fiction, Young Adult

Synopsis
Sixteen-year-old Tyri wants to be a musician and wants to be with someone who won’t belittle her musical aspirations.

Q-I-99 aka ‘Quinn’ lives in a scrap metal sanctuary with other rogue droids. While some use violence to make their voices heard, demanding equal rights for AI enhanced robots, Quinn just wants a moment on stage with his violin to show the humans that androids like him have more to offer than their processing power.

Tyri and Quinn’s worlds collide when they’re accepted by the Baldur Junior Philharmonic Orchestra. As the rift between robots and humans deepens, Tyri and Quinn’s love of music brings them closer together, making Tyri question where her loyalties lie and Quinn question his place in the world. With the city on the brink of civil war, Tyri and Quinn make a shocking discovery that turns their world inside out. Will their passion for music be enough to hold them together while everything else crumbles down around them, or will the truth of who they are tear them apart?
 

 

Pre-order
 
 
Author Bio
I'm a YA author with a penchant for the dark and strange. I primarily write speculative fiction but enjoy literary writing as well. I occasionally delve into adult genres too.

I'm a musician and have a Master's degree in music, but I prefer writing strange stories, baking peanut butter cupcakes and playing with my shiba inu.

I'm repped by Jordy Albert of the Booker Albert Agency.

Publicity manager for Anaiah Press.

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Tuesday 24 February 2015

Book Blitz + Giveaway - The Ghost of You by Amanda Burckhard



The Ghost of You
Release Date: 02/24/15
Swoon Romance

Summary from Goodreads
Emmy has everything she’s ever wanted: a hot boyfriend she adores, great friends, a promising future, and even a well-connected family. But one night rips it all away.

A car accident shatters her world, claiming the lives of her twin brother and her best friend. In the wake of the accident, her friends drift away, her family falls apart, and her boyfriend cheats.

The grief is more than she can handle, so she finds escape at the bottom of a bottle of painkillers. Taking the pills makes her brother alive again, if only in her head. Seeing and talking to her brother as if he were still alive is the only thing that keeps her going. Until Logan King moves to town.

Logan sees past the mask of pristine popularity she wears in public and he’s the only one who can tell she hasn’t moved on. His uncanny ability to read her forces her to open up and she starts to fall for him, no matter how unwilling she is to admit it. But Emmy isn’t the only one keeping secrets and when a close brush with death sparks events that bring everything to light, Emmy will have to decide what’s more important: learning how to forgive and move on, or holding onto the pills and the ghost of her past.
 
 
Excerpt
I darted my way around a few chattering and dancing people. If there was one rule I lived by with my best friend, it was friends don’t let friends get hammered and make out with their exes.
When I reached them, I slid my arm under hers and pulled them apart. “Come on, Skye. Time to go home.” She didn’t put up a fight as I dragged her away. She only giggled in a way I knew meant she had one too many shots of that vodka I saw her carrying around earlier. 
We stepped outside into the summer night air and waited for Zane to pull his car around.  We sat on the bottom step of the porch, and Skye started to fall asleep on my shoulder. Sleep  sounded nice. “My stomach hurts,” she whined into my hair.
That last shot had settled, and mine wasn’t feeling the greatest either. “We’ll get you some ginger ale at Zane’s. You can nap in the car until then.” I pulled out my phone to text Derek. It was hard to focus on the screen.
 Me: Stayinf at Zane’s. You grood to get ho
Mid text, Skye knelt over and heaved. I set my phone down and pulled back her hair just in time. Zane pulled up and came around to us. “Get it all out now because if you puke in my car you’re walking home.”
After a minute or two, she assured us she was fine so we helped her into the back seat and sped off toward town. The open window sent warm air swirling around us like a blanket fresh out of the dryer. The forest smelled of fresh dew and sunshine, even though the sun had set a few hours ago. Soon it would start to smell of decay and changing leaves.
Zane grabbed my hand with the hand that wasn’t on the steering wheel and interlaced our fingers. “We still all crashing at my place?”
I squeezed his hand, smiling. “Skye’s mom thinks she’s at my place. My mom thinks I’m at hers. You know the drill.” Zane’s dad traveled a lot with work so his house was almost always empty on weekends. Something we often took advantage of.
Fifteen minutes later, Skye was passed out in the guest bed and Zane was half carrying, half dragging, me into his room. His lips found my ear lobe, softly caressing the edge with his tongue. My entire body tingled. “We shouldn’t. Skye’s right down the hall,” I breathed.
He moved his lips down to the skin above my collar bone, the place he knew always sent me over the edge. “She’s out cold. I seriously doubt she’ll hear anything during that vodka-induced coma.”
We backed into the bed and collapsed into it. Zane’s hand crept to the edge of my shirt, but my phone started to ring from where I set it on his dresser. The song roared in the quiet house.
Carry on, my wayward son
For there’ll be peace when you are done
Lay your weary head to rest
Don’t you cry no more.
I pulled away at the sound of Derek’s ringtone. It was his favorite song, and he blasted it in his Mustang every chance he got. Zane pulled me back to him, recognizing the ringtone as well.
“Call him back.” His voice was pleading, on the verge of a whine.
My lips hovered over his. “It’ll just take a second.”
By the time I pried myself out of Zane’s arms and crossed the room, my phone stopped ringing. I called him back, but it went straight to voicemail. I went to send him a text instead and noticed the one I had typed earlier when we were leaving. I must have forgotten to send it. Deleting it, I sent him a different one asking what he wanted. There was still no reply by the time I fell asleep.
 


Buy Links:
Amazon
 

About the Author
Amanda Burckhard grew up exploring bat caves and hunting for dinosaur bones in the Black Hills of South Dakota. When she wasn’t crossing paths with mountain lions, she was making up stories and devouring books at the library. Although, she still does that.

Amanda loves to travel and cross out things on her adrenaline packed bucket list. Some of the things she's been able to cross out include see an active volcano erupt, ride a gondola in Venice, and pet a tiger.

She currently lives in North Sioux City, South Dakota and works as a microbiologist by day. Some of her obsessions include comic book movies, hot chocolate, sushi, sunshine, and Doctor Who.

Author Links
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Tuesday 17 February 2015

Book Blitz + Giveaway - Sword by Amy Bai

 
 
Sword by Amy Bai
Publication date: February 10th 2015
Genres: Fantasy, Young Adult

Synopsis:
Sword shall guide the hands of men . . .
For over a thousand years the kingdom of Lardan has been at peace: isolated from the world, safe from the wars of its neighbors, slowly forgetting the wild and deadly magic of its origins. Now the deepest truths of the past and the darkest predictions for the future survive only in the verses of nursery rhymes.
For over a thousand years, some of Lardan’s fractious provinces have been biding their time.
Kyali Corwynall is the daughter of the Lord General, a child of one of the royal Houses, and the court’s only sword-wielding girl. She has known for all of her sixteen years what the future holds for her–politics and duty, the management of a House, and protecting her best friend, the princess and presumed heir to the throne. But one day an old nursery rhyme begins to come true, an ancient magic wakes, and the future changes for everyone. In the space of a single night her entire life unravels into violence and chaos. Now Kyali must find a way to master the magic her people have left behind, or watch her world–and her closest friends–fall to a war older than the kingdom itself.

Excerpt

An arm reached out of the dark and wrapped around her neck.
She saw it coming from the corner of her eye, but only had time to twitch uselessly sideways. Another arm immediately followed the first one, muffling her startled cry and stealing her breath.
Too shocked to be afraid, she bit down. The hand over her face jerked away. Her elbow drove backwards and her heel went up into a knee. The awful crack of bone that followed drew a pained groan from behind her, and brought her panic in a thundering flood. Her attacker staggered, pulling her with him. The dropped candle sputtered on the floor beside them, throwing huge shadows everywhere. Spurred on by the thought that she might have to finish this struggle in the dark, she shouted. It was a much softer sound than she'd intended, but the floorboards above them creaked ominously, the arms around her fell away, and he screamed, as though she had burned him.
Leaving this mystery for later consideration, Kyali flung herself at the steps and scrambled up, leaving the back panel of her skirts in his fist. Her sword clattered on the floor as she snatched at it. He came hard on her heels and, as she turned, drove himself obligingly onto it for her. Stunned, she froze again.
Her blood sang in her ears. By the look on his face—a fair face, some much colder part of her noted, with the Western short-beard—he was at least as surprised as she was. He drew a bubbling breath. A dagger dropped from his hand and hit the floor between them.
They stared at one another.
He made an odd face then, and coughed a gout of blood all over her. She blinked through the drops. She knew she had to move—not dead till they stop bleeding, Father would say—but she couldn't. For all her years of study, all the secrecy and swordplay, she had never killed a man. She supposed, watching his face in a perversely distant way, that she still hadn't quite managed it. But he fell forward onto her then, going limp, and after the instinctive terror of having him land on her subsided the sight of his glassy gaze, of her old practice sword sticking out of his ribs, made it clear that she had done it now.
She watched his face closely while his blood dripped down her cheek. He didn't move. He seemed not to be bleeding anymore, though with all the blood on him already how could one tell? She didn’t intend to get closer to check. She couldn't hear anyone else in the house. Through the haze of shock, she was grateful the soldiers weren't here to witness this bizarrely personal moment.
"Well," Kyali said, beginning to be pleased at how well she was taking this—and then threw up on him.
Damn.

Interview with the author

1) What is your novel about?
Sword is a coming of age high fantasy about a girl pretty much at odds with everything, including and especially herself. It's set in a fictional kingdom called Lardan, one with a long history of magic and war, and a population so complacent they've forgotten that either one ever applied to them. They learn differently when history begins to repeat itself: there's an uprising, the kingdom is thrown into civil war, and the royal family, of which my main character Kyali is a satellite member, is murdered. Kyali, her brother, and the princess are forced into exile with a small army of refugees. Kyali was badly hurt during the uprising, and comes out of that a changed person; unfortunately for her she's now the only person with the training to command what is left of the army, and her friends need her. 


Sword i
s her story, how she learns to deal with what happened to her without shutting out the people she loves, and with the responsibilities she has to shoulder now that the older generation is dead and the kingdom is overrun. It's about loyalty and love, fate and family and politics. It's also violent, occasionally sarcastic, and unabashedly sappy. 


2) What inspired you to write the story?
I had a very sullen young woman with a battered old sword and no patience kicking my frontal lobe. As motivators go, it was a pretty good one.

--Ok, so that's a little dramatic, but really not too far from the truth (except the part about the frontal lobe, of course). Kyali Corwynall started out as a patchwork of some of my favorite characters from books like Robin McKinley's The Blue Sword and The Hero and the Crown, and Patricia McKillip's Cygnet, going all the way back to Barbara Helen Berger's Gwinna, which I read when I was seven. My brain is like cosmic flypaper: the stuff I like (or hate) sticks, accumulates, eventually acquires a gravitational field, and before I know it light's bending around it and I'm up at 3 am mainlining coffee and my keyboard's broken. Sword was like that. One day I had scattered pieces, and the next I had a character with layers, flaws, goals, scars, and a complicated history. Stories always start that way for me, no matter how cool my premise may be (or how cool I may think it is, anyway) --my characters inspire and drive it, start to finish. 

3) Since your novel is medieval-influenced, can you tell us a bit about your researching journey?
Wow. How I'd love to give you a list of planned, organized steps I took. It would make me feel so much smarter!

But no. I stumbled into the research for Sword much like I did the story itself. I think my research began the moment I realized I had no idea how heavy a sword really was, or how hard it might be to wear armor and, you know, walk at the same time. I remember thinking writing fantasy would be easy (yes, feel free to laugh at me). It didn't take long before I realized it was very, very obvious when I didn't know what I was talking about. So I went from looking up Irish baby names online to running to the library after work to find the Focloir Scoile or The Book of the Sword. I eventually learned to restrain myself, because research can be a wonderful excuse for not writing when you're stuck-- but overall, it was great fun.

4) What's your best revision tip?
Remember basic dramatic structure when you're reading your draft(s). It definitely doesn't always apply, and definitely shouldn't always apply, but I've found it can be a great lens: I can look at the whole story, each subplot and character arc, each chapter, and each scene with that structure in mind, and I'll always find something to tweak. Or mangle. Or outright kill.

...Revision is a slightly violent process for me. 





11 Random Things About Me (Amy Bai)
Because 10 is just too even a number for my rebellious soul.


1) I occasionally take 3-hour baths. Yes, really. I have started and finished books in there, and I am not ashamed, except possibly of my heating bill.
2) I lose every social grace I can (tentatively) lay claim to when I get behind the wheel of a car. I think it is perfectly fine to tailgate people driving too slow for my taste, and just as acceptable to bait fellow drivers tailgating me. I unconsciously speed up when somebody passes me. I gently encourage people driving in front of me to pull over with flashing headlights, honking horn, and occasional hand gestures. And yet, though my grill may be locked to your bumper the whole way in, I’m nonetheless likely to hold the door for you when we’re walking into the building together, even if you’re in the process of telling me what a dangerous bitch I am on the road. Don’t ask me to explain this. It’s a pathology.

3) I think meat is totally gross. And I have since I was about 7 years old. When we had our family visits to McDonald’s (hey, backwoods town in Maine; it really was the big hangout) I used to eat only cheeseburgers because I believed the cheese negated the beef. This logic only worked for me until I was about 8, and then I moved on to about a pint of A-1 sauce, which certainly had the effect of negating the taste, if not the existence, of meat. And when I was 9 I gave up the red stuff altogether, and I think I was 13 or 14 when poultry went. I’d love to claim some great moral objection, but while I think the methods of raising and slaughtering are more than reason to give meat up, I stopped because it was dead flesh, and well, ew.

4) I once dressed in poplar leaves stitched together with twigs and tree sap. I wasn’t alone, either.
5) My first real story was an action-romance about two of my classmates in second grade. Poor Brian and Charity were drowned, mugged, shot from a cannon, chased by lions across the Sahara, and Charity herself died at least once before they shared their first sloppy, painfully-depicted kiss. Their real-life counterparts were horrified when I was picked to read the installments out loud in front of the class. The teacher, who probably wasn’t the best choice for the classroom, was extremely amused. And I, of course, was hooked.

6) I own The Secret of Nimh. And I do on occasion watch it. So should you. Because it’s awesome.

7) I loved writing essays in college. Even dreadfully hungover, scratchy-eyed and exhausted, I still loved writing essays. I know this makes me a freak, and I don’t care.

8) I am a conflicted cynic: I don’t believe in happy endings, but I still want one.

9) I count sounds. I don’t mean to; it just happens. I turn on the blinker, sit there in traffic waiting for someone who appears to be moving slowly enough that I can cut across their path, and by the time I get into the parking lot the little ticky noise has happened 128 times, 64 if you’re counting the high and low tics as one unit.

10) I cringe when I write big angsty melodrama, and yet somehow both the emotional and the plot arcs of all my books head inevitably toward climactic scenes of great angst and melodrama.

11) When I am stressed for too hard and too long, or in constant physical pain or ill health, I tend to write backward. And I don’t mean switching letters: I mean whole sentences, spelled (mostly) correctly, and completely backward except for the capitalization and punctuation.
Links

Purchase:

Giveaway
One winner will receive an ebook copy of Sword. To enter follow this blog and leave a blog post comment. Giveaway ends 28th February 2015. INTERNATIONAL

A print copy of Sword (which comes with an extra short story and character sketches) and a poster of the cover. INTERNATIONAL

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Author bio
Amy Bai has been, by order of neither chronology nor preference, a barista, a numbers-cruncher, a paper-pusher, and a farmhand. She likes thunderstorms, the enthusiasm of dogs, tall boots and long jackets, cinnamon basil, margaritas, and being surprised by the weirdness of her fellow humans. She lives in New England with her guitar-playing Russian husband and two very goofy sheepdogs.

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Monday 16 February 2015

Sing For Me by Gracie Madison

Summary from Goodreads

Madeline Noel fled war-torn Heaven to hide within the mortal world, but the blessing that could protect her from evil is the holy realm's forbidden power.

As a talented soprano for the Eden Theatre Company, Madeline hides among prima donnas and tone-deaf flutists. Her perfect voice may entertain audiences, but a careless laugh may shatter glass, and her greatest scream can kill. To control her unrestrained voice, the angels forbid Madeline from embracing the emotions that strengthen her song. Anger. Fear.

Love.

The demon-hunter Damascus vows to defend Madeline from Hell’s relentless evil, but he cannot protect her from her own feelings. Though they deny their dangerous attraction, her guardian becomes her greatest temptation.

Surrendering to desire may awaken the gift suppressed within Madeline’s soul, and neither Heaven nor Hell will allow such absolute power to exist.


My review

*I received this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.*

Sing For Me is a story about Madeline Noel, who is an angel living in the mortal world. She is a choir and has a voice with whom she performs in a theatre. Her voice is not only perfect, but also dangerous and her scream can kill. Therefore Madeline is forbidden to feel emotions that strengthen her voice. These emotions are anger, fear and love. Damascus is a demon-hunter who has to protect Madeline from the evil. And of course they fall in love. Will Madeline surrender to this desire?

I give this book 4 stars.

This book started too slow for me. So slow that something happened that never has happened before. I fell asleep during reading it. Twice. But then, Shiloh came into the story and it became funny. I begin to really like it. The storyline became interesting and different from other books.

This book was unique, unlike anything I’ve read before. There is fantasy, there is action, there is romance and there is the theatre, which is awesome. The characters are lovely. I actually didn’t like Damascus so much, but Shiloh with his funny comments makes up to it. The action is pretty cool too.

The only reason I didn’t give this book 5 stars is because of me falling asleep and Damascus.

But I highly recommend this book.

Thursday 12 February 2015

Book Blitz + Giveaway - Eyes Unveiled by Crystal Walton


Eyes Unveiled (Unveiled Series, Book 1)
Release Date: 02/01/15
259 pages

Summary from Goodreads
Twenty-one-year-old Emma Matthews lost the song in her heart the same night she lost her dad. With an unfulfilled promise and an ultimatum shadowing her junior year of college, maybe it’s better that way. You can’t hurt if you can’t feel.

But when the reflection she sees in musician Riley Preston’s eyes borders dangerously close to the one she’s spent the last five years searching for, Emma discovers her walls can’t guard her heart from its fiercest desire. Terrified of what she’s experiencing, and even more afraid of what she might lose, Emma grapples for the courage to hold on to one dream without abandoning the promise of another.

Contemporary New Adult Romance novel Eyes Unveiled lets you relive those heartfelt moments when you don’t know how you’d survive a day without your best friend, when you’re trying to figure out who you are and what you’re supposed to do with your life, and when falling in love changes everything.

Music. Friendship. Self-discovery. Hope. Purpose. Identity. Within this inspirational love story, you'll find you have a song of your own to share.



Author Interview Q&A:

What inspired you to write Eyes Unveiled?

When I first contemplated writing fiction, three musts came to mind. (1) It had to include romance because that’s my favorite part of any story. (2) I wanted whatever I wrote to be relatable. (3) I didn’t want to write simply for the sake of entertainment.

As soon as I opened myself up to daydream, a scene fluttered into focus. A guy and girl, college age, sitting in the middle of a secluded field. The guy was playing an acoustic guitar, as much in love with music as he obviously was with the girl across from him. Every chord stoked her love for him the same way it fanned the craving in her heart to find where she belonged. Both fighting what they felt. Both wanting to make the other see what they saw. Physical and emotional tension flared in a palpable tug-of-war between hope and doubt, caution and desire, passion and responsibilities. And right then, I knew these characters had a story to tell—one I wanted to read as much as write. From there, I couldn’t stop the scenes from coming.
 

What made you choose New Adult?

I didn’t intentionally set out to write NA fiction. But the truth is, college was the best season of my life. I’d relive it in a second. There's something special about it. Sharing an extended sleepover with your best friends, stepping out on your own for the first time, discovering things like who you are & what friendship really looks like. It's when we fell in love like never before, and when we fell apart like never before. It shaped our lives. One of my favorite parts about Eyes Unveiled is that you get to relive those moments all over again. The laugh-until-you-snort moments. The heart-flutters-taking-flight moments. The on-the-floor-crying-your-heart-out moments. All of it. Doubt. Faith. Friendship. Love. NA is a dynamic genre to read and write. 

What made you decide to go indie?

I started off on the traditional route, but the more I studied publishing, the more passionate I became about going indie. Along with the benefit of keeping the rights to my book, it’s a joy to partner with some amazingly talented contractors. I love getting to offer my books at a low price and still receive a fair royalty, so readers and I both win. And since traditional and self-published authors have to do the same amount of marketing on their own anyway, you might as well be compensated fairly for the investment. Overall, it simply made the most sense.

 
Why do you write what you do?

In a word? Passion. As an artist, I leave my heart on the page. Exposed. Vulnerable. Nothing withheld. It’s risky to bear your soul to the world, but that’s the cost of art. There might always be a part of me tempted to guard my heart. But there’s a much more compelling part that’ll never allow me to. Regardless of the outcome, I write what I do because my heart is spoken for.
 
What do you want readers to take away from your books?

My goal as an author has always been to craft novels that are relevant and encouraging. I love compelling fiction that draws you into characters’ lives to the point of feeling what they feel. The kind that you walk away from knowing the story just impacted your life. Beyond mere entertainment, they awaken dormant dreams, stir creative visions, and remind you that you have a story of your own to live. If you walk away with an emotional connection that touches and inspires you, then I know I’ve written the kind of story I’ve always wanted to.


Excerpt from Eyes Unveiled

I sat down before my knees buckled. Sunrays sifted through the clouds. “I haven’t done this in ages.”

“What, no cloud chasing in between aerobics classes?” Riley asked.

“Ha. It might be a better workout. You know how many times I ran in and out of my house to get my dad?” A burst of sunlight warmed my face but didn’t reach the ache inside that never really left. “The shapes were always gone by the time I rushed him out to the deck to show him. He said it was because the clouds had made that shape just for me. Like I was something special.” I knotted my fingers through the top of the grass on either side of me. “Sad part is, I believed him.”

“Some things are easier to see from the outside looking in.” Riley slipped his hand behind his head and studied me instead of the clouds.

Two dragonflies zipped past us, my pulse chasing after their erratic flight. I balled the hem of my shorts in my fists. If I could harness my nervous energy to my hands, maybe I could short circuit the electricity surging through me.

Not even close.

“Do you ever wish you could go back to that time in life when everything was so much less complicated?” he asked.

His arm brushed mine as he rolled onto his side. His torso cast a wide enough shadow to shield the sun’s glare from my eyes, but I bolted face forward.

“It’s ironic,” he said. “As kids, we couldn’t grow up fast enough. So sure some great thing was waiting for us.” Another note of sadness—or regret, maybe.

Summoning any molecule of courage I had left, I angled toward him.

He twisted a small twig between his fingers and tossed it onto the field. “But somewhere along the way, we stopped chasing the future and started wishing we could postpone it.”

I thought I was the only one who felt that way. It didn’t make sense. He was the last person I’d expect to understand. He’d already discovered what made him somebody.

The cool earth soaked into my skin through my T-shirt. I grabbed the backs of my legs, towed myself up, and settled my chin on top of my knees. “Guess we always want what we can’t have, wishing we were either in the past or future. It’s kind of sad, actually. Sometimes I wonder if we realize what we’re forfeiting by not living in the present.”

Riley sat up, his attention never leaving me. “Maybe we’ve just been waiting to find the right reason to live in the present.”
A damp breeze—and something far more penetrating—shivered down my arms.


Spotify Playlist:




Buy Links:
Amazon
 

The author is also doing a promotion on her site. If you order in February, email the receipt to promo@crystal-walton.com and you’ll be entered in a drawing for Amazon gift cards, Starbucks gift cards, signed books, and art pieces. 

About the Author
Amidst multiple moves up and down the east coast, Crystal received her bachelor of arts from Messiah College in PA, married her exact opposite in upstate NY, and earned her master of arts from Regent University in VA, where she currently resides with her husband. Crystal writes contemporary new adult fiction fueled by venti green teas from Starbucks. 
When not working her accounting day job, she's delving into the wonder of words, supporting her Starbucks habit, or laughing over movie quotes & singing eighties songs with her husband.

Author Links
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Monday 9 February 2015

Book Blitz + Giveaway - Rynlee's Song by Eliza Marie Jones



Rynlee's Song (Daughter of Time, #1)
Release Date: 02/2015

Summary from Goodreads
Rynlee Nalis is a demon hunter. She is a Purator, belonging to an organization who slay demons to serve their King. Even though she’s a candidate to succeed the High Purator, eighteen-year-old Rynlee doesn’t want the responsibility.

Her entire world is turned upside down when Jeynen shows up at the temple that is her school and home. She thought he died five years ago.

And he has no idea who she is.

When an assassin comes for Jeynen and he manages to flee for his life, Rynlee rushes after him. As she tries to discover the truth about him, she stumbles onto an ancient prophecy and challenges those who want to destroy the balance of magic.


Excerpt
After trying so hard to hold it in, Sariel sneezed, the sound echoing all along the hall and the entire world seeming to hold its breath with him. He stood up immediately, banging his head on a shelf, and ran down the hall, not worrying about each heavy footstep falling onto the stone floor. They must have heard that, as there were no other noises to mask his clumsy getaway. His heart pounded as he turned into the library. He pulled down a book and pretended he was in there all along. His panic lessened as the minutes went by, but he still felt self-conscious; a child caught with his hand in the candy jar.

A few more minutes passed. Sariel was almost going to go back to look when he heard Noctair come in. The mage leaned against a bookshelf and looked right at him. Noctair’s expression was unreadable; Sariel couldn’t tell if he was about to yell or cry.

“How much…did you hear?”

The softness of the man’s voice surprised Sariel. Could this be someone else? The man before him did have Noctair’s smooth black hair and green eyes.

“Uh, I was just in here finding that book you wanted.” He mumbled.

Noctair’s expression turned to a glare. “Don’t lie to me.”


Author Interview
 
What inspired Rynlee’s Song? How did you come up with the idea for the book?
I can’t pinpoint it to one idea because I wrote this book over so many years and the details have changed a lot. I was a teen wanting an adventure, so I wrote a book about a girl who goes on an adventure with a boy.
 
Where did you write Rynlee’s Song?
The first draft I wrote on my dad’s computer during my senior year of high school. I didn’t have any time to write during college, and then after I was married I pulled out this book one day and started editing it on my husband’s ancient laptop.
 
If you could choose the type of your magic, what would it be?
I’d want wind magic that lets me hover and fly everywhere instead of having to walk!
 
What were your favorite books and authors as a teen?
All of Tamora Pierce’s books, Eragon, Inkheart, Harry Potter, The Golden Compass, Wish Upon a Unicorn (all of these read multiple times) and many, many library books that I can’t remember right now.
 
If you couldn’t be a writer, what would you be?
I never want to imagine a world where I could not be a writer (it’s too horrible!) but for the sake of this question, I would be a graphic designer or website programmer. I did actually take those in college and it’s quite fun to do all my own website & design work for my author career.
 
 
Teaser Quote
The great demon fixed its glittering red eyes on her green ones, hatred like no other reflected there. She stared back with the same intensity, as if willing it to feel the anger that she felt. This monster had taken one of her own.
 
Book Playlist

While writing Rynlee’s Song, I mainly listened to songs with lyrics, but after discovering the inspiration of trailer and instrumental music, I only write to songs without lyrics. Here are a few of my favorites (with and without lyrics) that I’ve been listening to for editing Rynlee’s Song and writing the sequel, Rynlee’s Father:
 
  • Let Me Go – Avril Lavigne ft. Chad Kroeger
  • Heroes and Thieves – Vanessa Carlton
  • Clarity – Zedd (especially the Sam Tsui and Kurt Schneider cover)
  • Beating Heart – Ellie Goulding
  • Hold Me Now – Red
  • Dark Side – Kelly Clarkson
  • Kaine (Salvation) – NieR Soundtrack
  • Autumn Love – Thomas Bergersen
  • Requiem – Jeffrey Hayat
  • He Who Brings the Night – 2 Steps From Hell
  • I Love You Forever – 2 Steps From Hell
  • Blu-Bird – NieR Soundtrack
  • Akatsuki Tsukiyo (Day Breakers) (Orchestra version, instrumental) – Gackt

 


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About the Author
This is the website of author Eliza Marie Jones. I’m a writer, gardener, nail polish junkie, and artist. I live with my husband in Alberta, Canada. I took website programming and graphic design in college, which comes in very handy doing all the non-writing parts of being an author.

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