Ramblings In Ireland #atozchallenge

The A to Z April Blogging Challenge 2013   has been a fun ride so far– so many blogs to visit and so little time! I’m co-hosting it on Amlokiblogs, so drop me a comment there if you have something to say about the challenge itself. On this blog, I’ve been featuring mostly indie-published book excerpts for all of April. I love reading, and supporting author-friends, and this is a good way to do both.

Today, for R, I give you a travel story  Ramblings in Ireland by Kerry Dwyer.

Ramblings in Ireland

Elevator Pitch:The story of a walking holiday in Ireland is used as a loose thread on which to hang  memories and musings from other times and places.

Excerpt:

The trip to Ireland was a chance for Bertrand to discover for himself the

joys of another culture, another way of life. He loved the

Irish people, the food, the countryside – and most

importantly, the Guinness.

 

There is a lovely French expression “il ne perd pas le

nord.” Literally this means “he doesn’t lose the north.” It

means someone who knows exactly what they want and

where they are going. They are focused on their target and

don’t lose track of it.

 

That doesn’t describe me at all.

 

I can’t read maps. They always seem to be printed the

wrong way up. I can turn them the right way but then the

names of places are sideways or upside down. I never know

which way is north. Bertrand does, and he knows how to

read a compass. Makes you wonder why he trusts me to

navigate.

Buy the book on Amazon

“As British ex-patriate Kerry Dwyer leads Bertrand, her trusting French husband, astray once more, they reminisce and reflect upon accents and accidents, family and friends, love and what it means to be alive. Bertrand doesn’t mind getting lost – he loves Kerry all the more for going off the beaten track. This is a book about ramblings in Ireland. Walk with Kerry and Bertrand and follow where your thoughts lead you.”

Would you like to take the walk with Kerry and Bertrand?

Quarantine by Sherri Fulmer Moorer #atozchallenge

A to Z April Blogging Challenge 2013   has blessed me with many new followers. My thanks go to each of them. I’m co-hosting the challenge on Amlokiblogs, so drop me a comment there if you have something to say about the challenge itself. On this blog, I’ve been featuring mostly indie-published book excerpts for all of April. I love reading, and supporting author-friends, and this is a good way to do both.

Quarantine

Today, for Q, I give you a mystery novella: Quarantine by Sherri Fulmer Moorer.

Elevator Pitch: Caitlyn thinks it would be just another day at the office, until a quarantine closes their doors and traps her in the office with three colleagues, who then discover that their small town is hiding some shocking secrets.

Excerpt: “We’re sticking to the plan. This illness has already caused unexpected problems. People have been hospitalized, and the Health Department is snooping around.” She stared in the distance, toward the small administrative building across the parking lot. “We don’t need to risk it by disappearing too early. Be patient. It’s Friday. We’ll have the weekend to get away.”

“Do we have any time to spare if the Health Department is involved?”

“We’ll be fine.” The woman smiled. “Relax. Everything is on schedule. I have the money and tonight we’ll be on a plane to anywhere we want. Don’t do anything to stir up suspicion. In fact, it might be best if you were seen as little as possible.”

The figure nodded. “We should meet again to finalize our plans.”

An alarm sounded from the Nurses Station inside the door. The woman stiffened. “I better get in there.”

“Then we’re set?”

The woman nodded, exasperated.“We’re set. I’ll meet you this afternoon. Don’t be late. And try to get some sleep.”

The figure chuckled. “Who can sleep? We’re about to have an exciting day.”

Neither of them saw the man pressed against the side of the building as they parted ways.

 Buy the book on

Amazon 
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Smashwords

Princelings of the East #atozchallenge

I’ve been doing the rounds of  A to Z April Blogging Challenge 2013   and I’m a tired but happy blogger. I’m co-hosting it on Amlokiblogs, so drop me a comment there if you have something to say about the challenge itself. On this blog, I’ve been featuring mostly indie-published book excerpts for all of April. I love reading, and supporting author-friends, and this is a good way to do both.

Today, for P, I give you a fantasy: The Princelings of the East by Jemima Pett. I know this a bit of cheating, because the book title begins with T, not P, but I didn’t spot the ‘The’ until much later, and by then I had liked the book, and  written most of the post!

The Princelings of the East

Elevator Pitch: In an adventure set in a world of labyrinthine castles, bustling inns, and the curious Isle of Hattan, Fred and George leave the security of their isolated castle to solve the problem of the Great Energy Drain..

Excerpt: “Well,” George said, “Are we going to see whether this tunnel connects with other castles, or shall we just sit and look at it?”

Fred sat staring at the tunnel, lost in thought.  George waited.  This might take a while.  He could hear the quiet crackling of flames in the fire on the other side of the wall, and in the distance the occasional pitter-patter of footsteps echoing down the corridors.  He wondered what would happen if they ventured out of this castle into the tunnels.  When he had been out in the marshes, he’d never gone a long way from home; the castle was always visible in the distance, light glinting on its spires.  He’d never been out overnight, either.  He felt a momentary pang.  They might be on the edge of a Great Adventure, and he wasn’t sure he wouldn’t rather be safely tucked up in bed.

 Buy the book on

Amazon 
Barnes & Noble
Kobo
 iBooks

Once Upon the Tracks of Mumbai #atozchallenge

The A to Z April Blogging Challenge 2013   has been a blast so far, and I’ve made a host of new friends! I’m co-hosting it on Amlokiblogs, so drop me a comment there if you have something to say about the challenge itself. On this blog, I’ve been featuring mostly indie-published book excerpts for all of April. I love reading, and supporting author-friends, and this is a good way to do both.

Today, for O, I give you a romantic novel: Once Upon the Tracks of Mumbai by Rishi Vohra.

Once Upon a Time in Mumbai

Elevator Pitch: The novel shows us the world through 24-year-old ‘autistic’, ‘psychotic’ Babloo’s eyes. Vandana is the only one who sees him differently, and inspires his journey through a series of twists and turns that change his life forever.

Excerpt: I awoke again to a metallic sound.  It was broad daylight.  The bed next to me was empty.  I got out of bed and looked out the window, searching for the familiarity of the railway tracks.  But it had been replaced by a manicured green lawn.  I looked around the room and saw that the old, peeling walls of my room had been replaced by neatly painted, light green walls.  The dusty, brown tiles has been replaced by smooth, clean, white ones.

The metallic sound was the morning bell.  And it rang every morning to wake us up and start us on our daily routine.

 

In an instant, it all came back to me.  In court, Barrister Lalwani had whispered to me that the only way out was to plead insanity.  He said that I would be able to get away with a few years’ sentence in a mental asylum, which was much better than a harsh prison term.  I had agreed only because I wanted to go back home faster.  That was almost a year ago.

 

When I first came here, I was scared.  I had seen many films which showed mental asylums.  The thought of living among crazy people scared me and I felt that I had made a mistake by coming here and should have gone to jail instead.

 

However, over the months I realized that these people were not crazy but victims of circumstances just like me.  They were not boring like the people outside.  They all had a history, something that made them interesting.

 

 Buy the book on Amazon, Flipkart, Homeshop

Reviewers have called this book an engaging read, and this is Vohra’s debut novel. Would like to explore the sights and sounds of Mumbai through Babloo’s eyes?

Never Mind Yaar #atozchallenge

The A to Z April Blogging Challenge 2013   is  sailing ahead, and I’m trying to keep track of the lovely new bloggers I meet each new day! I’m co-hosting it on Amlokiblogs, so drop me a comment there if you have something to say about the challenge itself. On this blog, I’ve been featuring mostly indie-published book excerpts for all of April. I love reading, and supporting author-friends, and this is a good way to do both.

Never Mind Yaar

Today, for N, I give you a literary novel : Never Mind Yaar by K. Mathur.  According to Graeme Lay, reviewer, Write Right, NZ, “The author’s perspective and insider information draw in both, the Indian and Western reader. Conflict, both ideological and physical, is constantly present, lending tension and drama to the narrative.”

Elevator Pitch: Never Mind Yaar follows the lives of friends Binaifer, Louella and Shalini, women of diverse backgrounds—Hindu, Christian and Parsi—who meet while attending college. The novel’s main plotline surrounds Shalini who, against her family’s wishes has fallen for an impetuous student activist, Bhagu.

Will Shalini listen to her heart or mind? Will tradition triumph over love? 

Excerpt: Dr. Naakwaa of Gyan Shakti College couldn’t help smiling to himself as he looked at the sea of eager, animated young faces. They all seemed to speak at once, or so it seemed to an old man like himself, their ceaseless chatter outdone only by sudden bursts of loud laughter.

Even as they talked and laughed in their own groups, he saw their eyes covertly watching the others. An air of breathless expectancy hung about them, as if something momentous would sweep them up on a wing and fly them away to an unknown destination. Without exception, they all clamoured to go, even the ones standing at the periphery, hesitant and slightly lost though they appeared to be.

Buy the book the author’s website, Amazon and Best Little Book Store.

 

Maud’s House by Sherry Roberts #atozchallenge

The A to Z April Blogging Challenge 2013   is chugging along on both my blogs, and I’m visiting as many bloggers from the sign-up list as I possibly can! I’m co-hosting it on Amlokiblogs, so drop me a comment there if you have something to say about the challenge itself. On this blog, I’ve been featuring mostly indie-published book excerpts for all of April. I love reading, and supporting author-friends, and this is a good way to do both.

Today, for M, I give you a charming contemporary novel: Maud’s House by Sherry Roberts. This novel about lost and found creativity was originally published by Papier-Mache Press in 1994, then went out of print when the company closed. Sherry brought it back out as an eBook.

Elevator Pitch:

A brilliant artist struggles to paint again.

The town is depending on her. Because its art is disappearing.

Creativity lost. It’s as ugly as mud season in Vermont.

Maud’s House

Excerpt:

Once this house was covered with tattoos.

Pictures of trees and monsters and animals trickled from my fingers like blood. They spread over the walls and the furniture and the dishes. Scenes slithered across the undulated siding. Portraits yawned on downspouts, like the mirror faces in a carnival fun house.

On my fourth birthday, my father gave me the house, home to the Calhouns for generations, the place where my father and grandfather were born. “Gave her every nail, board, and shingle,” my father used to tell our tourists. Papa became rather possessive about the people who used to stop and admire my house; he felt a responsibility to “our tourists” and their sightseeing pleasures. He never minded when they interrupted him milking a cow or repairing an ax handle. He had public relations in his blood. “Twelve rooms,” he told them. “And Maud’s painted every square inch.”

 

 Buy the book on Amazon and Osmyrrah Publishing.

Leave of Absence #atozchallenge

The A to Z April Blogging Challenge 2013   has been tiring yet exhilarating so far! I’m co-hosting it on Amlokiblogs, so drop me a comment there if you have something to say about the challenge itself. On this blog, I’ve been featuring mostly indie-published book excerpts for all of April. I love reading, and supporting author-friends, and this is a good way to do both.

Today, for L, I give you a romantic novel: Leave of Absence by Tanya J. Petersen

Leave of Absence

Elevator Pitch: Oliver Graham is utterly bereft and laden with guilt in the aftermath of the deaths of his wife and son, and Penelope Baker wrestles with schizophrenia and the devastating impact it’s had on her once happy and successful life. Join them on their tumultuous journey.

Excerpt:

“I’m already in pieces, Dr. Willis.  My heart, my life, everything.  It’s like Humpty Dumpty in the nursery rhymes that Maggie and I used to read to our little boy.” 

His eyes began to swim.  “The moment I saw them sprawled on the sidewalk, bleeding and dying, I fell off the wall and shattered, and nothing can put me back together again.” 

He choked on a sob but steadied himself and continued.  “Not sitting here talking about it, not sitting around a table listening to music, not playing with clay or making puppets or gluing pictures on paper.  None of that stuff is going to help me because none of that stuff will bring back my wife and son.  Tell me how in the hell any of this will do any good at all.” 

Buy the book on Amazon.com, Barnes&Noble.com, Kobo.com, iTunes.com, and Inkwaterpress.com.

Keir by Pippa Jay #atozchallenge

The A to Z April Blogging Challenge 2013   is almost reaching the halfway mark. Can’t believe how fast April is speeding by. I’m co-hosting AZ on Amlokiblogs, so drop me a comment there if you have something to say about the challenge itself. On this blog, I’m featuring mostly indie-published book excerpts for all of April. I love reading, and supporting author-friends, and this is a good way to do both.

Today, for K, I give you a scifi romance: Keir by Pippa Jay, a book that promises sweet romance, some violence, and plenty of adventure.

Keir by Pippa Jay

Elevator Pitch: Outcast from his own world, Keir must accept and master his alien heritage to save the woman he loves, or face the rest of eternity alone.

Excerpt: As she raised her hands in defense, he grabbed her right arm and twisted it behind her back, pulling her against him and sending them both crashing to the ground. Pinned beneath his weight and with one arm trapped, Quin went limp. The fight was over. They lay face to face, hearts pounding in unison and panting from their efforts.

“Nice move,” she said, a smile curving her lips. “Now you’re learning.”

“Thank you.”

Keir stared down at her for a moment. With his own arm trapped beneath her, they lay locked together in a tight embrace, Quin acquiescent in his grasp. The sparring had added a warm flush to her skin. The heat and softness of her body beneath his crowded into his awareness. Even through the coarse fabric of their combat gear, he felt the rapid flutter of her heartbeat.

Buy the book on Lyrical Press – Amazon UK – Barnes & Noble – Kobo – The Book Depository

Readers of romance can now indulge their cravings in outer space– this sounds unusual, at least to me. Are you a scifi, or romance fan, or neither (like me) ? I’ve read the occasional scifi and also romance, but not enough of either to be considered a fan. Have you read scifi romances before? Would you consider getting this one?

Jump Boys: SOS by Alex Banks #atozchallenge

The A to Z April Blogging Challenge 2013   is tiring me out, but I’m lovin’ it– so many new people to say howdy to! I’m co-hosting it on Amlokiblogs, so drop me a comment there if you have something to say about the challenge itself. On this blog, I’ll be featuring mostly indie-published book excerpts for all of April. I love reading, and supporting author-friends, and this is a good way to do both.

Today, for J, I give you an MG sci-fi novel: Jump Boys: SOS
by Alex Banks.

Jump Boys SOS

Elevator Pitch: Thirteen-year-old twin brothers Jayce and Val are about to jump the multi-verses on a dangerous dare, but true danger is closer to home than they realize.

Excerpt:

I heard the Director engage the weapon, felt the hum against my skin as it charged.

Mom had stepped back onto the flight deck, one arm around Meg, the other covering her mouth. Her eyes screamed, No!

Dad stood as frozen as if his feet had been glued to the flight deck. He seemed to be saying something to Kramer in a very, very calm voice, but I couldn’t understand him. All I could hear was the whine of the weapon against my head.

I knew the moment it was charged, the moment the Director pressed his thumb against the discharge button.

When I fell forward, a sharp pain slicing into my knees, I remembered being surprised that I would feel more pain from my legs than from my head. But then, the brain is a mysterious thing.

Buy the book on Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Kobo

 

 

In His Eyes #atozchallenge

The A to Z April Blogging Challenge 2013   has entered its second week, and enthusiasms are running high. I’m co-hosting it on Amlokiblogs, so drop me a comment there if you have something to say about the challenge itself. On this blog, I’ll be featuring mostly indie-published book excerpts for all of April. I love reading, and supporting author-friends, and this is a good way to do both.

Today, for I, I give you an anthology of YA short stories: In His Eyes, an anthology by various bestselling authors.

In His Eyes

Elevator Pitch: Sixteen original short stories, all from the point of view of these bestselling authors’ favorite male characters – some are old flames from their novels and some were dreamed up especially for this anthology.

Excerpt: This is from ‘Shattered’, the story by Ali Cross:

“Looks like neither of us wants to be stuck with them, eh?” I tipped her chin up, knowing she couldn’t resist me if she made eye contact.

I didn’t count on being struck stupid when I looked into her eyes.

I’d seen a million different kinds of cute-beautiful-sexy and this girl fell more into the cute category—five-foot-nothing, spiky blonde hair framing her perfect oval face, full lips and eyes that sparkled like blue diamonds. And yet when she looked right at me, I couldn’t think of a single thing to say.

“What?” she asked. “Oh, God. Do I smell?” She cupped her hand over her mouth and breathed.

“What? No. I just . . .” Got lost in your eyes? Lame, James.  Until that moment, I had never been at a loss for words with a girl.

Buy the book on Amazon | Barnes & Noble