#TuesdayTreasures AHA Featured Author, Margo Bond Collins

Good Morning Friends,

I've mentioned before I belong to a couple of promo groups, both called AHA (Authors Helping Authors). One of the groups does the EggCerpt Exchange, Romantic Fall Travels and other such blog hops. The other group, has recently (just this month), implemented a "Featured Author" event. In fact, on Dec. 10th I spotlighted Nicloe Fitton as my first AHA Featured Author guest. Well today I'm pleased to bring you my 2nd AHA Featured Author guest, Margo Bond Collins....

A princess locked away in an ice tower. 

A handsome kidnapper who insists her savior-queen is a liar. 

And a chance to break the curse that binds them all.

Jayla Storm woke up next to a dead body, with no memory of how it got there. Then Kip Stanton blew up her ice tower—the only home she’s ever known—and kidnapped her, insisting it was for her own good. 

 ow she's stuck with a group of rebels hell-bent on usurping the queen who saved Jayla's life. As her memories resurface, she's afraid to trust anyone, even while her feelings for Kip grow stronger. 

But wherever Jayla goes, the monstrous ravagers follow. If she's going to survive, and perhaps save Kip and the others, she'll have to learn to trust someone—maybe especially herself.

Immortal Winter, a stand-alone dystopian paranormal romance  

by New York Times bestselling authors N.R. Larry and Margo Bond Collins

Excerpt:

I woke in my ice tower, covered in a coating of sweat, lying next to a dead body.

With a gasp, I scrambled back against the headboard of my own bed. Other than the motionless figure beside me, nothing around me had changed, though it was tinted yellow from the flickering lanterns.

Arina’s dead body?

I’d never seen a corpse. Not a real one. I eyed the spike sticking out of her forehead and the odd snarl twisting her open mouth. My head swam and I swallowed convulsively.

I knew I needed to act, but all I could manage to do was let Arina continue to bleed out—onto the sheets and onto me. I should have been screaming. I should have been throwing myself off the bed and toward the window. But I didn’t, anchored in place by fire and sweat and blood.

I tried to connect the scene in front of me to some memory, something that swam barely out of reach. I stretched after it, catching a fragment: yesterday was Arina's day. The day I wouldn't be alone.

A pain day.

I looked forward to those. That much I knew.

Forcing myself to sit up, I scooted away from her still form, my jaw clenched with the memory of pain. I would have laughed at what lingered but there was a body to attend to. Stumbling out of bed, I stepped out of my clothes and limped toward my ivory dresser. On the way, my feet grazed against something rough. Some imperfection in the ice. Something that wasn’t there before.

I backed up and stared down at the message scratched into the ice, blood swiped across it to highlight the letters, like ink rubbed on a seal impression to darken the image.

She found me. She knows. Went to warn them. Don’t take the infusions. Watch out for Kip.

My body began to tremble, even before my mind caught up.

Yesterday.

***

Wow Margo....this book definitely sounds like something to treasure!

Hope you enjoyed today's post, friends and that you'll stop by each week for Tuesday Treasures, Thursday Thoughts and Saturday Spotlight.

Until next time, take care and God Bless.

PamT

PS: Don't forget to follow Keri's Christmas Wish blog tour and enter the Rafflecopter giveaway for your chance to win 1 of 10 copies of the book (only 3 days left) !!

#SaturdaySpotlight is on Nicole Fitton & Forbidden Colours!

Good Morning Friends,

Well it's been a full week since the blog tour for Keri's Christmas Wish started. I hope you've entered the Rafflecopter giveaway. If not, there's still time as the tour will last through Dec 22nd and today is featured on Marilyn Leach's blog.

Enough about my book though, because today I'm happy to share with you Forbidden Colours by fellow *AHA author, Nicole Fitton. But first, Nicole is going to tell us a little about how her book came into being....

Forbidden Colours was the evolution of a question that had been rattling around in my brain. You know, those annoying questions that wake you at 4am and won’t let you rest until you’ve written something. Well, that’s how it was for me. I had read a newspaper article about the complexity of the human brain and well, it all started from there.

Forbidden Colours is a gripping love story which contains elements of psychological suspense. It contains enough adrenaline fuelled drama to power the national grid! Once I had the protagonist Midori Yates firmly fixed in my mind's eye she took charge and dictated the direction of travel. I have a passion for science and being able to incorporate that into a book is very exciting. The story centres around a new drug being brought to market that does not quite do what it is supposed to…. I shall leave it at that.

As I said earlier I started Forbidden Colours with a question and everything flowed from there. So, I know you want to know, what was the question? It’s a question I often ask myself but seldom has it led me in such an unusual direction…... ‘ What if?’

Blurb: What if your memories were not your memories? What if the drug hailed as a cure became a curse and ultimately your destruction?

Midori Yates works for pharmaceutical giant KLD. The launch of new drug Centoria has revolutionised the treatment of amnesia, with outstanding results. Trials exploring its use in the treatment of Alzheimer’s are on the horizon. But is it really as good as the data suggests?

Neurologist Dr. Nick Campbell has seen amazing results with his patients and is ready to believe in Centoria’s transformational abilities…that is until his patients start displaying strange and worrying symptoms with drastic results. Determined to uncover the truth, Midori and Nick find a conspiracy that is to have devastating consequences for both of them. A dark world threatens to engulf them. Can they survive?

Snippet:
Katzuko Yates eyed her daughter thoughtfully. A sense of apprehension gripped her. Those years in Japan were long ago; she wondered if she could be clear with her explanation. Even though buried, her memories continued to breathe under the mountain of life she'd lived. Dare she even speak of them? Could she speak of them? Their place of residence had become an unmarked grave in her history. Her family had a right to know, after everything that had happened. His world was dark and full of shadows; where would she begin? For over 25 years she had told no one. Now she was being drawn back into his world. It was a time she wanted to forget. The tie that had been bound to her so tightly was about to be broken.

Wow...what a concept Nicole! Don't 'cha just LOVE that cover?

You can purchase Forbidden Colours HERE.

Now let's find out a little more about Nicole.....

Nicole Fitton is an author and freelance writer who has lived in such glamorous locations as London, New York and Croydon! She currently reside in Devon, UK with her family.

Forbidden Colours is her second novel. Her career has spanned over 3 decades working in PR and marketing within the music industry. She currently works within healthcare in the UK.

Alongside her novels Nicole has a passion for writing short stories.This year has seen her short ‘Soaring’ featured in an anthology by the Black Pear Press. Her stories always have a happy ending, but, the way in which they get there will keep you guessing right up until the last page!

She admits she gets bored easily and can often be found enjoying new adventures!

Connect with Nicole at the following places....

Website address: https://www.nicolefittonauthor.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nicolefittonauthor/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/MisoMiss
Pinterest: https://uk.pinterest.com/fitton3818/
Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Nicole-Fitton/e/B01A3NSIL6/

Well friends, hope you enjoyed today's Spotlight and that you return each week for another round of Tuesday Treasures, Thursday Thoughts and Saturday Spotlights!

Until next time, take care and God bless.
PamT

*AHA is a promo group I belong to*

#SaturdaySpotlight: Picmonkey

Good Morning Friends,

Our scheduled guest was unable to make it today so I thought I'd spotlight a program #MyAHA (my authors helping authors) group friends shared with me.

If you're a twitter or Facebook fan, you see all the pictures with text designed to entice you into checking out the book advertised.

Well, these memes have a way of drawing a readers attention so naturally I wanted to know how to create one.

Fellow authors from a promo group I belong to told me about PicMonkey a free online photo editor and let me tell you something I'm loving this site!

The more I learn the more I enjoy creating memes for my books. So today, I'm sharing a couple with you.....

I've had a lot of fun creating these!

So if you just want to add text to a photo, edit your favorite pictures or create memes for your books or other art work, check out PicMonkey!

Hope you enjoyed today's spotlight!

Stay tuned weekly for Tuesday Treasures, Thursday Thoughts and Saturday Spotlight.

Until next time, take care and God Bless!

PamT

#SaturdaySpotlight: Susan Coryell with Beneath the Stones!

Good Morning!

Today let's welcome Susan Coryell to our blog with her novel, Beneath the Stones.....

Q: What genre is BENEATH THE STONES?

A: Actually the novel is a stand-alone sequel to A RED, RED ROSE. Both are cross-genre cozy mystery/Southern Gothics.

Q: What are the outstanding themes in BENEATH THE STONES? 
A: The major theme is that what happened in the past can come back to haunt us in the present. Layers of history--events, people, even emotions can affect us now and in the future.

Q: Setting?

A: Set at contemporary Moore Mountain Lake in Southern Virginia, BENEATH THE STONES reflects Civil War happenings at Overhome Estate where Ashby Overton lives.

Q: Tell us a bit about your protagonist, Ashby.

A: Having inherited Overhome Estate, her decades-old ancestral home, twenty-five year old Ashby deals with spirits from the past as she tries to save her beloved home from financial ruin and prepare for her wedding at summer's end. She is plucky, resourceful, optimistic, and increasingly aware of her sixth sense.

Q: Why would we want to read BENEATH THE STONES?

A: There are mystery, history, romance and ghosts. What's not to love?

BIO:

A career educator, Susan has taught students from 7^th grade through college-level. She earned a BA degree in English from Carson-Newman College and a Masters from George Mason University. She is listed in several different volumes of Who’s Who in Education and Who’s Who in Teaching.  Susan belongs to Author’s Guild, Virginia Writers, and Lake Writers. She loves to talk with budding writers at schools, writers’ conferences and workshops. Her young adult anti-bully novel EAGLEBAIT is in its third edition for print and e-book, updated with cyber-bullying. EAGLEBAIT won the NY Public Library's "Books for the Teen Age," and the International Reading Association's "Young Adult Choice."

A RED, RED ROSE, first in a cozy mystery/Southern Gothic series, won a literary award with the Library of Virginia. BENEATH THE STONES, the sequel, was released in April of 2015.

The author has long been interested in concerns about culture and society in the South, where hard-felt, long-held feelings battle with modern ideas.  The ghosts slipped in, to her surprise.

When not writing, Susan enjoys boating, kayaking, golf and yoga. She and her husband, Ned, love to travel, especially when any of their seven grandchildren are involved.

Please visit Susan Coryell’s website: www.susancoryellauthor.com and blog: www.susancoryellauthor.blogspot.com or contact her on Facebook and Twitter.

Ashby Overton has everything to look forward to, including a promising writing career and her wedding at summer’s end. But, Overhome, her beloved historic family estate in Southern Virginia, is in financial peril and it is up to Ashby to find a solution.

Interfering with Ashby’s plans is a dark paranormal force that thwarts her every effort to save Overhome.  Supernatural attacks emanate from an old stone cottage on the property rumored to be a slave overseer’s abode, prior to the Civil War. As the violence escalates, Ashby begins to fear for her life. Who is this angry spirit and why is his fury focused on Ashby?

Mystery, suspense and romance flourish against a backdrop of Civil War turmoil and ancestral strife--where immortality infiltrates the ancient air breathed by all who inhabit Overhome Estate.

Excerpt: 

Luke climbed down cautiously, the old boards of the steps groaning and

creaking under his weight. When he reached the bottom, he turned, held out

his arms and said, “Come on down, Ashby. Just go slow.”

“Not to worry. I’ve done this before,” I told him, reaching for the first

step with my foot. Carefully, I moved toward the bottom, one step at a time, leaning against the wall for support. I was half-way there when it happened—so suddenly that I had no time to react. Frigid air swooshed down on me from

behind, freezing my face so that I screwed my eyes tight shut at the same

time something strong and determined pushed against my back violently—so

violently that I stumbled, then tumbled forward, to be caught in Luke’s

outstretched arms from several stairs below.

“Whoa!” Luke exhaled from the impact of my body on his. “My God, Ashby.

What happened?”

I slumped against him, unable to utter a single word, my breathing shallow

and rapid. At last I found my voice. “Something pushed me, Luke. I don’t

know what—or who—but it was powerful and deliberate.”

Luke glanced up to the top of the stairs. “Nothing there. I’m going back to

the loft to look.”

I stopped him. “I doubt you’ll find anything.” I sniffed the air, expecting

a new infusion of foul odor. “And what would you do if you did find

anything?”

Just then we both heard it. Hollow, chilling, trailing away from us with

every syllable: “Go away. He’s dead. He’s dead. He’s dead....”

Well Friends, hope you enjoyed the spotlight!

Visit next week for more Tuesday Treasures, Thursday Thoughts and Saturday Spotlight!

Don't forget the contests for Circles of Fate is going on until June 20th so enter today!

Until later.... take care & God Blesss!

PamT