Monday, April 15, 2013

Maree Ward-Russell - The Soul Keeper is featured in HBS Mystery Reader's Circle

Maree Ward-Russell is in the HBS Mystery Book Reader's Circle.


Author Genre: Young Adult, Mystery & Thrillers, Teen Fiction & Fantasy

Website: M.W. Russell Author
Author's Blog: M.W. Russell Author
Twitter: @mibbymw
E-Mail: maree@belleza.co.nz
Goodreads: Check Out Goodreads
LinkedIn: Check Out LinkedIn
Facebook: Check Out Facebook
Pinterest: Check Out Pinterest
Post with Profile + Q/A: HBS Author's Spotlight

Author Description:
Maree Ward-Russell was born in New Plymouth, New Zealand in 1965. She currently resides in Auckland, in a home with a sea view across Auckland Harbour. She has two crazy cats, four fussy budgies and an army of teenagers to feed. By day she has been known to pick daffodils in the rain and by night she can be found stalking graveyards for creepy photos.

When not writing and looking after family she dreams of Dragons and Demons in the dark. She has been a Registered Nurse for twenty-six years and has an Advanced Diploma in Novel Writing from the New Zealand Business Institute.

The Soul Keeper

The Castle Trilogy


Author: Maree Ward-Russell

AVAILABLE

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Smashwords


Would their love go on as promised—forever and a day? The Governance has had the final say. Joseph has been banished. With a broken heart Melodie must go back to her mortal world at Heartworth Castle without the arms of her ghost around her, without the warmth of his smile.

But some hope still remains. The surprising gift that her housekeeper Kate has shown her may just be the key. Can Melodie and her friends find the silver book and bring Joseph back? And who is this Irish stranger who clumsily lends a hand?

This next installment in The Castle Series, The Soul Keeper will keep you glued to every page.


Excerpt:

"Wounded and bleeding I stared in pain toward the spot that the five of them had stood. Four figures that were regal, powerful uttering decisions' that would affect the rest of my life and one – dejected and defeated that had stared back at me one last time. Nothing could have prepared me for the ache. Losing him after such a short time was crippling beyond belief. But even in that moment of horror one glimmering hope pushed through the despair. Was he really gone? When one is already dead just how much more defeated can they really be?

I had lived in Heartworth Castle for less than a year. In that time the world that I had always known had been swallowed by another world that I never believed existed...until now. It was a place of fantasy and dreams and horror stories and nightmares. But most of all of a love and friendships beyond anything I had ever dreamed. My Castle, my ghost had become my reason for living – that was, until the day it had all been ripped away. But pain teaches you. It gives you strength to fight and fight I would to bring back my ghost to the home where he truly belongs."

The Transient - The Castle Trilogy (Book 1)

Author: Maree Ward-Russell

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She never believed. Not in ghosts, not in friendship, and especially not in love.

When Melodie Gibson moves half way around the world to upstate New York, her entire world turns upside down. Living in a quirky castle turned bed and breakfast, she finds herself confronted with someone watching her every move. That someone is Joseph, who captivates Melodie's heart, fulfilling her dreams and drawing her into his world—a world that is beautiful, magical… and treacherous. It will take all the courage Melodie has to face those who will stop at nothing to rip them apart. love.

From the pages of a Victorian Gothic novel transplanted into modern times, The Transient is the first in The Castle Trilogy, a powerful fantasy romance series for teens.


Excerpt:

Some say the world will end in fire. That this year will be the last the earth will see. I say ‘bring it on’ as I am ready. I’m not afraid of what lies ahead. I’ve seen first hand what the universe can bring, whether in this world or the afterlife beyond. I’m prepared with him and our unified power – I have my Transient Ghost at my side. After three years we are fused as one. The day I moved to the Castle all my beliefs’ were turned upside down. Within a year the afterlife had grabbed me and consumed me, leaving me gasping but wanting more.

By the second I could no longer deny the supernatural and was entrenched in every part of its world. Together we fought against its horrors and lost – feeling the ultimate in wrenching pain. But I picked up powers of my own along the way and as a Soul Keeper I would see him return. With my friends we would fight our way through mysteries, outwitting the foes that would see us destroyed if we gave them half a chance. The Castle had become an integral gateway to Purgatory and us the protectors for the innocent souls. The Governance would help us and Vanquishers try to wound us – but together we stood strong.

I was until then the ultimate non believer who never considered the possibility of ghosts. Losing mom so young had made me cynical about such things – the afterlife just couldn’t exist. It was just a desperate hope for those hanging onto loved ones that they were too afraid to let go. I shunned anything that would eventually cause pain. Love, friendship it all just faded away. Along with our belief’s it would all turn dust on the day we would be laid to rest. But that was then and this is now and my world had completely changed. As the Aurelia we shall fight that Darkest of Angels and protect the Transients and mortals souls. Fire may try to consume and Ice may block our path but our destiny hangs on how united we stand – our love unbreakable forever and one day.
To see a complete Author Profile on the HBS Author's Spotlight, CLICK HERE.

Author Recommended by: HBSystems Publications
Publisher of ebooks, writing industry blogger and the sponsor of the HBS Author's Spotlight
plus the industry blog: eBook Author's Corner.
Check out the index of other Spotlight authors. Spotlight Index.

Thursday, April 4, 2013

Ellen M. Collier - BATHING BEAUTIES, BOOZE AND BULLETS is featured in HBS Mystery Reader's Circle

Ellen M Collier is in the HBS Mystery Book Reader's Circle.


Author Genre: Mystery, Historical Fiction, New Adult

Website: Decodame
E-Mail: decodame@flash.net
Goodreads: Check Out Goodreads
Facebook: Check Out Facebook
Post with Profile + Q/A: HBS Author's Spotlight

Author Description:
Ellen Mansoor Collier is a Houston-based freelance writer/editor whose articles, essays and short stories have been published in several national magazines.

She graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with a degree in Magazine Journalism, and was active in Women in Communications (W.I.C.I.), serving as president her senior year. FLAPPERS is her debut novel, and she’s currently working on the sequel, BATHING BEAUTIES, BOOZE AND BULLETS, due out this Spring.

BATHING BEAUTIES, BOOZE AND BULLETS

Author: Ellen Mansoor Collier

COMING SOON




It’s 1927 in Galveston, Texas—the “Sin City of the Southwest.” Jasmine (“Jazz”) Cross is an ambitious 21-year-old society reporter for the Galveston Gazette who tries to be taken seriously by the good-old-boy staff, but the editors only assign her fluffy puff pieces, like writing profiles of bathing beauties. The last thing Jazz wants to do is compare make-up tips with ditzy dames competing in the Miss Universe contest, known as the “International Pageant of Pulchritude and Bathing Girl Revue.”

She’d rather help solve the murders of young prostitutes who turn up all over town, but city officials insist on burying the stories during Splash Day festivities. After Jazz gets to know the bathing beauties, she realizes there’s a lot more to them than just pretty faces and figures. Jazz becomes suspicious when she finds out the contest is also sponsored by the Maceos, aspiring Beach Gang leaders and co-owners of the Hollywood Dinner Club, where the girls will perform before the parade and pageant.

Worse, her half-brother Sammy Cook, owner of the Oasis, a speakeasy on a rival gang’s turf, asks her to call in a favor from handsome Prohibition Agent James Burton—an impossible request that could compromise both of their jobs and budding romance. While Agent Burton gives her the cold shoulder, she fends off advances from Colin Ferris, an attractive but dangerous gangster who threatens Sammy as well as Burton. In the end, she must risk it all to save her friends from a violent killer hell-bent on revenge. Inspired by actual events.

Goodread's Feature



Flappers, Flasks and Foul Play

Author: Ellen Mansoor Collier

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"Boardwalk Empire" meets "Midnight in Paris" in this soft-boiled historical mystery, inspired by actual events. Rival gangs fight over booze and bars during Prohibition in 1920s Galveston: the "Sin City of the Southwest."

Jasmine Cross, a 21-year-old society reporter, feels caught between two clashing cultures: the seedy speakeasy underworld and the snooty social circles she covers in the Galveston Gazette. During a night out with her best friend, Jazz witnesses a bar fight at the Oasis--a speakeasy secretly owned by her black-sheep half-brother, Sammy Cook. But when a big-shot banker with a hidden past collapses there and later dies, she suspects foul play. Was it an accident or a mob hit?

Soon handsome young Prohibition Agent James Burton raids the Oasis, threatening to shut it down if Sammy doesn't talk. Suspicious, he pursues Jazz, but despite her mixed feelings she refuses to rat on Sammy. As turf wars escalate between two real-life rival gangs, Sammy is accused of murder. To find the killer, Jazz must risk her life and career, exposing the dark side of Galveston's glittering society.
To see a complete Author Profile on the HBS Author's Spotlight, CLICK HERE.