GUEST BLOG BY SAMANTHA BRYANT ON GOING THROUGH THE CHANGE

My Paper Baby Learns to Crawl by Samantha Bryant

Whew, motherhood! They grow up so fast! My baby is already three months old as I write this. Not my literal baby—those are 8 and 15 (!)—but my paper baby. My debut novel: Going Through the Change: A Menopausal Superhero Novel.

Paper babies grow up faster than the flesh and blood sort. She’s only a few months old and she’s out there in the world, making her way with or without me.  It’s an exciting and terrifying time. What if she falls down? What if she becomes huge?

Like any mother, I want the best for my brain-child. I want her to be successful and well-treated. After all, I worked hard to bring her into this world and make her the best book I could.

Like any first time mother, I’ve been a little overwhelmed and unsure what the best things to do might be to help make that happen. I’ve done and continue to do what I can to clear the path for her, to help her have a good shelf life. I seek reviews and promotional opportunities so people will know about her and read her. I reach out (and that’s no easy thing for a dorky introvert like me).

But, the truth is, she’ll stand or fall on her own now. I’ve done my part, and now it’s up to her.  I just hope I raised her right, and that she’ll be a good book.

It’s been quite a start. I’m proud of her. She’s stood up to criticism (we’re up to twenty-three reviews now), and found new friends. In a reversal of the usual pattern of child rearing, it’s she who is opening doors for me now.

Because of her, I was able to participate in the Read Local Book Fair in Durham, NC and will be a guest at Atomacon this fall. She’s the reason I was interviewed for a local radio show (Carolina Book Beat). She got me an invitation to write a novella for a superhero anthology, too. I guess we’re already to that “mother of an adult child” stage, where we are friends and can help each other.

Oh, and did I tell you the exciting news? I’m pregnant again. I’ve just finished the sequel and sent her to the publisher. With a little luck, she’ll join her sister in a bookstore near you in early 2016!

___________________________________________________

Going Through the Change is going through a change in price for a couple of days in early August. On August 5^th and 6^th you can get the Kindle edition for free on Amazon. Check it out at: http://bitly.com/face-the-change

Best computer decoration ever!

About the author:

Samantha Bryant is a middle school Spanish teacher by day and a mom and novelist by night. That makes her a superhero all the time. Her debut novel, Going Through the Change: A Menopausal Superhero Novel is now for sale by Curiosity Quills. You can find her online on her blog,  Twitter, on Facebook, on Amazon, on Goodreads, on the Curiosity Quills page, or on Google+.

COVER REVEAL and CONTEST For BORN OF TREASURE

BORN OF TREASURE

Back of the Book Blurb:

Clark used to be a miner, until he drank from a vial he swore was absinthe but was actually an invention to give him the ability to raise the dead. Now Clark seeks to fulfill his father's wishes to keep inventions away from Senator Horan and his beloved Amethyst is along for the ride.  Deceit, drama, romance, the insidious underbellies of gangs...How can she not be involved?

Clark can't hide behind the Treasure name forever and the army still wants him for his secret abilities. If Captain Greenwood can't snare Clark, then he'll use the Treasures as collateral. Saving his
father's inventions will just have to wait, especially now that the Treasures have been kicked off their ranch and driven into exile. Clark knows how to survive on the run, but that’s not the fate the Treasures deserve. He can surrender to the army or fight for his freedom, but Amethyst has other plans for fixing their troubles.

She’s come across another one of the vials that gave Clark his abilities, and it looks mighty tasty.

BORN OF TREASURE, book 2 of the Treasure Chronicles

This young adult fantasy turns the Wild West into a steampunk adventure.  It's release date is September 12, 2015, but in the meantime, enjoy the stunning cover, a contest, and an excerpt!

Enjoy the following excerpt…

Clark eased the door open enough to peer into the closet. Scratch that, make it a ballroom. Faded curtains with moth-chewed holes were fastened to the walls to display a stage. Forgotten props leaned against the back, a mixture of painted shrubbery and constructed balconies, as though the musty room couldn’t decide what it wanted to be.

This would be fun. He’d never come across a rundown, exotic hideout in the desert. Clark tucked his lock-picking kit into his jacket pocket and nudged the door shut behind him. His breath sounded too loud in the still room, but no ghosts appeared to haunt the memories. Dust motes floated in the sunbeams coming through the windows near the ceiling. One window, of stained glass, sent a distorted image of the late king onto the hardwood floor. He pictured the theater where he’d grown up back in Tangled Wire, a space in the corner of the saloon where alcohol hadn’t puckered the floorboards too much. Sometimes, the saloon owner had made his mother dance with the younger Tarnished Silvers.

“Mum would’ve shone on this stage,” Clark whispered. She could’ve worn her favorite green dress, to go along with the emerald shade of the curtains.

Tables covered what remained of the room, littered with piles of gears and cogs. Broken clocks glared at him through their cracked faces.

“Check near the stage.” The spirit of Clark’s father appeared beside him. Perfect, the ballroom needed a ghost. Black holes peered out instead of eyes, matching the space in his chest where a bullet had stolen his life. At last, a ghost to match the dismal space.

“Your inventions show up in the weirdest places.” Clark stepped over a heap of clock keys, but one crunched beneath the heel of his riding boot.

“Senator Horan never got this one, and he’s looked. Trust me, he’s looked. See, it was stolen right from my jacket! Never trust a girl wearing too much lip paint. She’ll slip her hand in your pocket and you’ll never see your watch or billfold again.”

This had to be the point where a son grew tired of his father’s rambling and zoned out. He’d seen it enough on ranches, especially when the father wanted the son to follow in reluctant footsteps.  “Senator Horan wanted to buy the pocket watch right after I finished it.” Eric waved his hands. “Nope, I told him. You’re too late. A pretty Tarnished Silver made off with it. He didn’t believe me, swore I was lying. He tried to pay me another small fortune in land.”

Clark grinned. He could listen to his father, Eric, all day and never grow weary of his words. His mother must’ve felt like that, getting lost in Eric’s passion.

Clark lifted the corner of a striped sheet thrown over a table, revealing glass plates for clock faces. “Don’t worry, your time travel device is safe.”

Eric floated closer. “I told you, son. It’s not time travel.”

“Right,” Clark teased, drawing out the word. At least if the pocket watch had to have been stolen, it hadn’t been tossed down a privy with other garbage. A clock collector—obsessed fellow, more likely—turned out to be a great alternative. “If I was going to collect something, I would definitely keep it in an old railroad station.” Not that he’d ever had the luxury of collecting anything. If he managed to own a second pair of shoes, he felt like a king.

“It’s a magnificent workspace,” his father said. “Pity I didn’t think of using an old ballroom. Perfect light from every angle, lots of room to spread-out.”

Clark studied the table closest to the stage. Pocket watches of various sizes ranged from thumbnail small to fist-size large, most dented. A polishing cloth had been thrown over a triangular-shaped one.

“This was the first train station in Hedlund,” Eric rambled. “All they had here was a mission and a few shacks. The mountains were just starting to be mined and the king was encouraging farmers to come out here to the land. They wanted this station to be the hubbub of life. A great encouragement to the weaklings back east.”

“Like you?” Clark lifted an oval pocket watch with diamonds on the front. The spaces of missing stones reminded him of a face scarred by the pox.

“As the rest of Hedlund built up and the main cities extended to the ocean, this little town became quite little. It’s still a stop on the main railroad, but people don’t want to stay for dancing or a show. Did I tell you I wanted to be a professor?”

The other gang members might not laugh if they knew Clark’s father was loaded—lots of the wealthy slept around with Tarnished Silvers—but they’d have a good roar over Brass Glass Clark having a professor for an old man. Univeristy brats hid behind books in shadowed libraries. They didn’t run around the desert with steamcycles and pistols.

They didn’t get shot by mercenaries hired by a senator, either.

Clark spotted a pocket watch with the Grisham family crest on the front: a swan with a key hanging from its beak. “Got it.” A tiny diamond winked from the swan’s eye.

Author Bio:

Jordan Elizabeth, formally Jordan Elizabeth Mierek, is the author of ESCAPE FROM WITCHWOOD HOLLOW and a contributor to GEARS OF BRASS, both available from Curiosity Quills Press.  GEARS OF BRASS includes a short story featuring Amethyst Treasure, one of the main characters in the Treasure Chronicles. 

Check out Jordan’s website for contests and book signings.  Jordan is represented by Belcastro Agency and President of the Utica Writers Club.

Don’t miss any of the Treasure Chronicles.  Book 1, TREASURE DARKLY, is on sale for 99 cents this week only!

Mark BORN OF TREASURE to read on GoodReads and check out the Facebook Release Party. 

Don’t miss your chance to win a heart-and-key necklace with matching earrings worthy of Amethyst Treasure.  

Enter here: a Rafflecopter giveaway

COVER REVEAL and CONTEST for FIND ME IF YOU DARE

Back of the Cover Book Blurb:

They may have won the first battle, but the Apocalypse has just begun.

Five weeks have passed since the battle that left Rome and Columbus in ruins. Sheltered in the hidden city of Caelum, Daniel and Kayla train alongside over one hundred Magus and Protectors, hoping that their unified ranks will be enough to take down their greatest threat yet: Richard, his followers, and his horde of Nightmares. Then a fallen comrade is returned to Caelum with a message carved into his chest and a note referencing the four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, and Daniel knows their time for training is over.

Finally understanding Richard’s plans for Kayla and the three other Magus born on Halloween, Daniel and the rest of Caelum’s volunteers scout the U.S. in a desperate attempt to stop their enemy before he can unleash his first Horseman. But when massive attacks claim thousands of lives, people all over the world begin to fall ill—including those Daniel and Kayla care about the most.

With the Horseman of Pestilence released, Daniel knows it’s time to step aside and let Kayla take the lead. Only she has the power to rival her father’s. But when Richard’s plot turns out to be darker than they imagined, their fight is met with more death and destruction—and an enemy who might be unbeatable, after all.

Did I say contest? Yes, I did.
Here's the list of items people can win: 

• 20 copies of CATCH ME WHEN I FALL (Book One of the Dreamcatcher Series)
• a signed copy of CITY LOVE by Susane Colasanti
• a The Vampire Diaries wall poster of Damon Salvatore
• a copy of SHADOW STUDY by Maria V. Snyder
• 5 handmade dream catchers
• a poster of the SORCERER HEIR series, signed by Cinda Chima
• 2 posters of the cover of DOON, signed by Carey Corp and Lorie Langdon. 
• a poster of the cover of DAMSEL DISTRESSED, signed by Kelsey Macke
• a poster of Melissa Lander's ALIENATED cover
• 
  

Even More Details on the 22 Book Giveaway can be found on Vicki Leigh's Tumblr page HERE.

Bio:

Vicki Leigh grew up in a small suburb of Akron, Ohio where she learned to read by the age of four and considered being sent to her room for punishment as an opportunity to dive into another book. By the sixth grade, Vicki penned her first, full-length screenplay. If she couldn’t be a writer, Vicki would be a Hunter (think Dean and Sam Winchester) or a Jedi. Her favorite place on earth is Hogwarts (she refuses to believe it doesn’t exist), and her favorite dreams include solving cases alongside Sherlock Holmes. Her YA debut, Catch Me When I Fall, released October 23, 2014.

***Ann here: I might add that Vicki is one kick-butt editor. She gave me such great ideas and insight for my YA/NA crossover Dystopian Dead Girl Running due to be released October 2015 that I just about cried when I heard she was giving up editing work to go back to school. (Just kidding. I'm all for people going back to school and "bettering" themselves. But still! I neeeeeeeeed her insight. What will I do without her? hahaha)***

INTERVIEW WITH UPCOMING AUTHOR JESSICA GUNN

Do you own a cat? The Black Cat Blog wants proof (a picture).

No, but I do have a rabbit! She’s a pretty cute diva

WORST life advice you ever received.

I once went to the eye doctor for an ocular migraine. The issue went away, but he told me to just, “Come back if it happens again, and Google the symptoms to try preventing it.” He said it was just because lots of things can cause ocular migraines, but what he didn’t know is I’m a bit crazy when it comes to medical stuff…

(***Ann here: Let me tell you a story about my poor eyesight induced headaches that Mayo wouldn't help me with so I had to get a second opinion... ***)

BEST life advice you ever received.

Trust your gut, and do what you love—the rest will come.

Please share a picture of your favorite shoes.

They may not look like much, but I LOVE these. They match almost everything I own that’s not meant for work, and are super comfortable.

While checking out your blog, I discovered you’re part of the “Waiting-On-2016-Authors” group. So, tell me more about this group. Is it all first time authors? How does one join in the fun?

The Waiting-On-2016 authors group is for anyone publishing a book in 2016, not just debut authors. The WO2016 group is a place for authors to support each other throughout the editing, proofing, arcs, release, and promo processes, and beyond! We’re accepting new authors every day. If you’re interested in joining, you can message me on Twitter or Facebook, or send a message to us on our website, and I can get you set up.

(***Ann here: I am definitely signing up! Hooray!***)

On your blog, I also learned you’re attending the New York Comic Con. Will this be your first time at one of these events? I’m curious about them, but I’ve never attended. (I keep asking Andrew Buckley from Curiosity Quills to take a picture of James Spader for me, but I’m still waiting…)

Oh Comic Con. This will be my second New York Comic Con, but I only went for one day last year. I think they’re equally fun and overwhelming. I’m used to “smaller” conventions, like Anime Boston and ConnectiCon, so NYCC was a lot. But it’s a fun space to meet people with similar interests, check out amazing cosplays, swag, and even books! If I manage to find James Spader there, I’ll snap a picture for you :) 

(***Ann here, screaming with joy. haha***)

What event would you call your breakthrough as an author?

Definitely the RT Booklover’s Convention last year in New Orleans. Until then I’d been in the same write-query-get rejections-want to give up-don’t write for a month cycle. At RT 2014 I hung out with my critique partners and other new adult authors, and was just so inspired to start writing again. It was like a lightning strike in its swiftness and intensity. So I went back to the drawing board on GYRE (I blog more about this journey here), and less than a year later, I landed my deal with Curiosity Quills Press :)

What do you know now that you wish you knew much earlier as an author?

I wish I’d known early-on to never give up and to not compare your publishing path with anyone else’s. Everyone moves at different speeds and in different paths in this industry. Looking back, I wasted a lot of time I could have spent writing by worrying about these things that are just not worth worrying about. Your time will come when it’s meant to, you just have to keep writing and keep your head in the game. Make friends, find critique partners, and go through it together. 

What was the inspiration for your upcoming (February, 2016) book, GYRE?

GYRE has a few inspiration points—it wasn’t really ever just one thing. I’ve always been fascinated with the Atlantis myth and other ancient mysteries. It’s why I studied archaeology in college. And I think I’ve always had a massive love for the ocean and all things under the sea. The inspiration for my main characters Chelsea and Trevor, and their series-long relationship arc, sparked in Big Bang style from Calvin’s Harris’s Feel So Close. All of these things kind of hit at once my senior year of college and it all sort of just came together in a mish-mash of ideas :)

Pinterest Inspiration
Find Jessica's Pinterest Board for GYRE here.

How did you come up with the title for your book? And how painful was that process?

It actually wasn’t painful, looking back. It’s probably been more painful trying to change it before I decided not to. “Gyre” happened because I was in environmental sustainability class in college, and we were talking about ocean gyres— any big system of rotating ocean currents, especially if they’re involved with massive wind movements. My first thought was, “Huh, that’s metaphorical.” Then I noticed on the map of gyres on earth that the North Atlantic Gyre sits where Plato’s version of Atlantis might sit, and suddenly it all just clicked. I searched for fiction books—especially YA and NA books—with the same title, found none, and called it done in 2012.

Over the years people have told me to change it because they were concerned about the pronunciation and meaning of the word being an issue, but nothing else has ever fit quite as well as GYRE, so it’s stayed :)

Name 5 books you wish you’d written (and not just for the money and fame).

This is a hard question!

1.      Ender’s Game inspired me, gutted me, thrilled me, and left me begging for more. It was my first real introduction to the sci-fi genre in book form, and has molded me in many ways. I wish I’d written it so I can have that impact on readers, because I don’t think I’ll ever write a book that impacts my readers the same way Ender’s Game impacted me.

2.      Mockingjay, so I can fix certain characters’ fates… yeah.

I really can’t think of any others! I’d never trade the joy of reading my favorite books for the first time for having written them. Don’t get me wrong—I love GYRE just as much as I love Ender’s Game, but it’s a different kind of love. And that difference is so, so important!

(***Ann here: Mockingjay does break your heart. Sigh.***)

List 5 books you loved as a child.

I actually didn’t really like reading as a child, as strange as it sounds. But I’m pretty sure my favorite kid’s book was Rainbow Fish. I also know I read and loved Flight of the Dragon Kyn by Susan Fletcher, and I still have it on my bookshelf. But it wasn’t until I got addicted to the Buffy the Vampire Slayer tie-in novels in middle school (much to the dismay of both my parents and my English teachers) that I really started to enjoy reading. In high school I found Amelia Atwater-Rhode’s Demon in my View and fell in love with that world of vampires and shapeshifters (before it was a thing), and the rest is history!

I see you’re reading RED RISING and just read RED QUEEN—two books on my overwhelming, towering and about to collapse on me TBR pile. List some other recent favorites.

RED QUEEN was AMAZING. You need to pick it up next! And I’m enjoying RED RISING very much JHmm… recent favorites. OPEN ROAD SUMMER by Emery Lord was awesome. THE MARTIAN by Andy Weir was quite a ride, too. And all of Mindee Arnett’s AVALON books are some of the best YA Sci-Fi I’ve ever read, so I’d recommend those as well.

Just curious, are you in love with Joss Whedon?

Oh absolutely, 100%. The man’s a genius. I mean, come on. Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Dr. Horrible. Cabin in the Woods. FIREFLY. What more do you want (other than more Firefly)?

(***Ann here: Although I liked Firefly, and it was much more short-lived than Buffy, as you can see below what I want is MORE BUFFY--more, more, more!!!) 

Thank you, Jessica Gunn, for you fabulous answers! I really enjoyed reading them (and finding pictures was easy since you supplied half of them--and the rest are Buffy, so that was fun too).

Author Bio:

Jessica Gunn is a New Adult author and avid science-fiction and fantasy fan. Her favorite stories are those that transport the reader to other, more exciting worlds. When not working or writing, she can be found binge-watching Firefly and Stargate, or feeding her fascination of the ancient world’s many mysteries. Jessica also holds a degree in Anthropology.

To catch up with Jessica, follow her on Twitter (@JessGunnAuthor).

Blog site: http://www.jessicagunn.com/

GYRE back of the book blurb (cover is coming soon):
Chelsea didn’t try to teleport. All she wanted was to play the Battle of the Bands show. But after accidentally teleporting onto classified Navy vessel SeaSatellite5, all she’s rocking is the boat. Once it’s sorted out that Chelsea’s not a threat, SeaSat5’s top scientist offers Chelsea a position on the crew as an archaeology intern. Dr. Saint studies people with powers, believing them to be descendants of Atlantean refugees, except Chelsea’s powers are beyond anything on previous record.

While great for everyone else onboard, the miracle of Chelsea is Trevor’s worst nightmare. The same girl who’d given him a brief lifeline to sanity three months ago literally fell from the sky, under a mile of ocean, and onto the very station where he’s employed. Making matters worse, Trevor’s family are Lemurians, Atlantis’s enemy, and Chelsea’s presence is unpredicted—a wrench in an already unstable situation. But Trevor wants no part of his family’s war. The only thing he wants is Chelsea, Atlantean or not.

Days into Chelsea’s sudden appearance, SeaSatellite5 uncovers Atlantean ruins and a massive artifact cache, placing its entire, hundred-man crew in the crosshairs of an ancient war. There are those who want the Atlantean relics inside the ruins destroyed, and only Trevor knows the treasures for what they really are: Link Pieces, tools used by the ancient civilizations for their time-travel war.

With lies and shifting alliances abound, Chelsea and Trevor will have to think fast in order to save the station. If they don’t, the Lemurians will seize the artifacts and Atlantis will be destroyed forever. 

COVER REVEAL for THE HEARTLESS CITY

Blurb for The Heartless City, YA Historical Fantasy:

Henry Jekyll was a brilliant doctor, a passionate idealist who aimed to free mankind of selfishness and vice. He’s also the man who carelessly created a race of monsters. 
Once shared secretly among the good doctor’s inner circle, the Hyde drug was smuggled into mass-production - but in pill form, it corrupted its users at the genetic level, leaving them liable to transform without warning. A quarter of the population are now clandestine killers - ticking bombs that could detonate at any given moment.

It’s 1903, and London has been quarantined for thirteen years.

Son of the city’s most prominent physician and cure-seeker, seventeen-year-old Elliot Morrissey has had his own devastating brush with science, downing a potion meant to remove his human weaknesses and strengthen him against the Hydes - and finding instead he’s become an empath, leveled by the emotions of a dying city.

He finds an unlikely ally in Iris Faye, a waitress at one of the city’s rowdier music halls, whose emotions nearly blind him; her fearlessness is a beacon in a city rife with terror. Iris, however, is more than what she seems, and reveals a mission to bring down the establishment that has crippled the people of London.

Together, they aim to discover who’s really pulling the strings in Jekyll’s wake, and why citizens are waking up in the street infected, with no memory of ever having taken the Hyde drug…

Heart-eating monsters, it turns out, are not the greatest evil they must face.

Cover artist: Amalia Chitulescu

Release date: August 17

Links: amazon preorder: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B012UUTFVM

goodreads:https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23586751-the-heartless-city

my blog:http://andreaberthot.blogspot.com/

Author bio:

Andrea Berthot’s last name has a silent “t,” like the word “merlot” - which fits, since that is her favorite drink to have at the end of the day. Back when she was born in Salina, Kansas, her last name was Price, and she grew up loving singing, acting, reading, and of course writing. By day she teaches high school English, creative writing, forensics, and directs the yearly musical, and by night (or rather, by early morning, as her brain is more alive at 5am than 5pm) she writes Young Adult stories involving history, romance, magic, literature, and some good, old-fashioned butt-kicking. She lives in Winfield, Kansas with her amazing, hard working, choir-teacher husband and her beautiful, creative, bundle-of-energy son, Max.