Author Spotlight: A.M. Rycroft

Please welcome A.M. Rycroft to Fantasy Fun Reads. She has a new book out in just a few days that is available now for pre-order. I love reading Teen Fantasy and when there is sword and sorcery involved I just can't resist so as I was prepping this post I went on over to the following link and picked up the first book in the series for only 99cents.

Buy on Amazon!

The Joy Thief releases in just two days and is available for pre-order.

Blurb:

Can dreams kill?

The battle against The Harbinger took a deep toll on sell-sword Aeryn Ravane and the young thief Theo Weldon. The peace they've found ends when they travel north to the city of Eben and discover a malevolent force is feeding on the dreams of Eben's children. It comes for Theo next.

She fights a losing battle as her nightmares spill into reality. Aeryn's search for some way to help Theo leads her to a dark legend and a creature no one believes is real. But is it really just a myth?

Aeryn races to find out the truth before Theo's nightmares become the death of her.

Buy The Joy Thief on Amazon

Biography

A.M. Rycroft read her first book of horror short stories when she was just eight years old. Her first fantasy book followed shortly after. She loved them both and went on to devour many more books in both genres.

Scary stories and fantasy books quickly took over her life. She wrote her first horror short when she was nine, much to the horror of her English teacher and her parents. It wasn't until well after high school, however, that she tackled her first fantasy novel, not long after reading "A Game of Thrones" by George R.R. Martin. This time, it was to the horror of her college writing professors, who shunned all things having to do with "genre fiction".

Rycroft's dark fantasy Cathell series is a clear melding of her two reading loves: sword and sorcery fantasy and spine-tingling horror. The strong female characters' experiences parallel the classic hero's journey, but with a dark and bloody spin. She takes great delight in drawing a rich world with flawed characters and villains that seem to get more terrifying as the series progresses. Her teachers would be so proud.

HWA member
www.writinginadarkroom.com 
www.facebook.com/amrycroftwriter 
twitter.com/amrycroftwriter 
https://www.bookbub.com/authors/a-m-rycroft

Author Spotlight: Beverley Lee

Please welcome Beverley Lee, dark fantasy author of The Gabriel Davenport Series.

Blurb to Gabriel -

In a house built on truth something lays hidden.

Beth and Stu Davenport moved to Meadowford Bridge to give their young son, Gabriel, an idyllic childhood. But one night, their dream is shattered by a hidden, ancient darkness-- and their lives are forever changed.

Years later, Gabriel goes looking for answers about his mysterious past. Soon, his life begins to unravel as he discovers that the people he loves and trusts most are harboring sinister secrets of their own. As the line blurs between darkness and light, Gabriel must confront the terrible events that destroyed his family all those years ago.

His choice: continue living a lie in blissful oblivion, or give himself over to a terrifying new reality. The darkness awaits.

The first few lines to Gabriel, to set the scene -

'She dreamed in grey, the colour of misery.

The pall bearers lowered her coffin into the ground. She banged on the lid, bloody fingers clawing at the wood. But she wasn't trying to get out. She was trying to get in.'

http://mybook.to/TheMakingofGabrielDavenport

Check out the Readers Favorite Review

Blurb to Shadows -

Gabriel Davenport has been remade from darkness. Now, he must adapt to survive .

In a small seaside town, Gabriel's maker unwittingly takes his wards into the throes of a deadly new game. There are rumblings on The Bloodvyne, the mental web of linked vampire consciousness. Whispers about a cleansing, about the ruling council hunting vampires with impure blood.

Gabriel finds himself thrust into a new nightmare, where the hunter becomes the hunted. When his maker is taken, he must battle to untangle the mystifying clues laid out in an uncovered labyrinth to find the only creature strong enough to fight against those that hunt his new-found family.

Gaze long into the darkness, and you'll find old vampire foes out for revenge, new ones with their own agenda, and a witch who holds the key. But just who is the monster in the middle?

http://mybook.to/AShiningintheShadows

Author bio -

'Beverley Lee is a freelance writer currently residing in the south east of England. In thrall to the written word from an early age, especially the darker side of fiction, she believes that the very best story is the one you have to tell. Supporting fellow authors is also her passion and she is actively involved in social media and writers’ groups. The Making of Gabriel Davenport and A Shining in the Shadows are the first two books in The Gabriel Davenport series.'

Links -

Website

Twitter

Instagram

Facebook

Goodreads

Author Spotlight: C.H. Clepitt

Please welcome C.H. Clepitt to Fantasy Fun Reads ♥
I recently read I Wore Heels To The Apocalypse and loved it!
Just a lot of fun....

Is anyone truly prepared for the apocalypse? Well, Kerry certainly isn’t, and she fairly quickly discovers that looking sharp in a business suit and heels is not going to help anyone when there’s an apocalypse, with possible zombies!



This is a laugh out loud comedy with romance, heart and talking badgers, and is not to be missed.

What would you wear to the apocalypse? #IWoreHeels

I Wore Heels To The Apocalypse is out now. Buy it on Kindle, Smashwords or in paper at Lulu.com. Follow C H Clepitt on Facebook, Twitter.

C H Clepitt has a Master’s Degree in English Literature from the University of the West of England. As her Bachelor’s Degree was in Drama, and her Master’s Dissertation focused on little known 18th Century playwright Susannah Centlivre, Clepitt’s novels are extremely dialogue driven, and it has often been observed that they would translate well to the screen.

Since graduating in 2007, she gained experience in community and music journalism, before establishing satirical news website, Newsnibbles in 2010. In 2011 she published her book, A Reason to Stay, which follows the adventures of disillusioned retail manager, Stephen, as he is thrust into village life and the world of AmDram. Clepitt’s feminist fantasy, The Book of Abisan not only crosses worlds, but confuses genres, and has been described as a crime drama with magic. She has often said that she doesn’t like the way that choosing a genre forces you to put your book into a specific little box, and instead she prefers to distort the readers’ expectations and keep them guessing. Her 2016 work, I Wore Heels to the Apocalypse does just that, as just like the characters, the readers won’t know what’s going on in this laugh out loud satirical scifi.

Author Spotlight: Sonnet O'Dell

It's my pleasure to welcome Sonnet O'Dell to Fantasy Fun Reads with a spotlight on her latest book,
Blessed by Blood. I have read many of Sonnet's books. She is an excellent writer and I have never been disappointed.

Blurb

Delilah Stanton, a disillusioned romance novelist, knows her life needs to change. She needs to drink less, write more and stop fooling around with men who are no good for her. When a lawyer arrives offering an inheritance - a house in a small far away town - she doesn't look back.

Mistral Cove at first glance is a quaint township set against an ocean backdrop. Scratch the surface however and you get - a ransacked house, a great aunt whose death was no accident and a town full of supernatural suspects.

Mistral Cove has a lot to offer Delilah. Peace, purpose and the prospect of a new love. But is this new life worth its price?

Buy Links

Kindle https://tinyurl.com/lh68puk

Kindle US  http://a.co/dKSexrt

Bio:

Sonnet was born at the John Radcliffe in Oxford and spent many years living in different spots all over the UK.

Sonnet now live in Worcester, Worcestershire, home of Lea & Perrins and the site of the last battler of the Civil War. Sonnet enjoys nothing more than reading or writing a good book. She is fascinated with worlds created by words and has a passion for mythology that can be seen in some of her works.

She has a BA Hons Degree in Creative Writing & Writing for Performance and a writing companion in the form of a large black tom cat called Salem.

Social Media

Website: www.sonnetodell.co.uk

Blog: www.sonnetodelldustypages.blogspot.co.uk

Twitter:  @sonnetodell

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Sonnet-ODell-Author-127559694006921/

Paranormal Authors Unite!

Paranormal Authors Unite! A pair-of-normal paranormal authors have gotten together to introduce you two new reads you will enjoy. Rose Montague's Jade http://amzn.to/2q7QXC1 and Raven Maid: Out of the Darkness by Erik Schubach, http://amzn.to/2r0ebL1 .

I'm so happy to pair with Erik Schubach on this cross promotion. One thing I have noticed since I first published is how his books show up on my book pages under the customers who bought this also bought section. We share readers in common and this should encourage more of our readers to try each other's books....

Jade:  
4 LOLs, 5 WTFs, & 6 OMGs

Surprises, plot twists, & shockers keep coming

Blurb:

Meet Jade Smith, a magical mutt with a mission. A detective partnered with a shifter named Rolfe, she’s on the case to solve a slew of murders: Vamps are killing humans, and nobody knows why. When London Jane, the most powerful vamp in town, is implicated in the murders, Jade knows something isn’t right. Together with Jill, the Winter Queen of Faerie, Jade and Jane take their investigation underground. On the run, with nowhere to hide, they uncover a secret that could destroy Faerie, as well as the human realm. Will Jade stop the killer in time? Or will she be the next victim? 

Magic, mayhem, and mystery abound, and the odds are stacked against them; it’s three against three hundred.

Raven Maid: Out of the Darkness:

Blurb:

Adelaide Oliver, raised in the bayou in New Orleans, flees the Big Easy to Seattle when she believes she is seeing things and losing her mind.

What she doesn't realize is that she is a Raven Maid, a secret of the Voodoo, Vodoun faith.

She walks the path between this world and the next, guiding lost souls to their final destination, whether that be the wayward spirit's idea of heaven or hell.

But what happens when a soul doesn't wish to leave the mortal realm?

Guest Post: Jesse Frankel

Those of us in the Indie Author and Small Press community know how hard it is to sell a few books. When we find out that someone out there is stealing our work and using it to further their nefarious ends, it's not a good feeling. Today I have Jesse Frankel, a prolific author talking about book pirates.

Aaaaar, matey, you've been pirated...
Not a good feeling, is it? You've worked hard on your manuscript, you've sweated and slaved and bled and cried and exulted in a labor of love...and a few days after it's been officially published, it turns up on a pirate torrent for anyone to download it--free.

This can be disenheartening for anyone. It was for me. Privately, as well as publicly, I raged, not only at the individual who set up the site--one of many, perhaps--but also against the people who gleefully boasted "I've been searching for a FREE copy of this book for a long time!" (For anyone's information, it was The Menagerie. In the past, it was Star Maps, the first edition).

People out there must understand that, in general, writers are not wealthy. If I were Stephen King or J.K. Rowling or any other well-known writer whose earnings run into six digits or more a year, I probably wouldn't care.

However, the vast majority of writers, regardless of whether they're traditionally published or self-published, do NOT make millions. Were that to be true, I wouldn't be writing this article. Every sale IS important. Word of mouth is important. Reviews are important, and pirate sites giving away our stuff for free undercuts our potential by, IMO, a significant margin.

For those who are niche writers, it's even worse. We already struggle; we don't need some unscrupulous person to make things worse. Of course, they don't care. They figure "Oh, so-and-so is already getting money. I wanna make mine!" And the readers--at least some of them--figure the same thing. So either they're wilfully ignorant or downright stupid. Place your bets!

So, the question arises of what to do in this situation. Options include sending a complaint letter--which I have done--but chances are the site owner will ignore it and step up their efforts to sell.

Two, threaten legal action. Good idea, but reality shows that it costs the suer more than the suee. (Soo-ee? Arnold, anyone? That's a Green Acres reference,, for those out there old enough to remember the show).

Three, publicly name those who not only sell, but also buy. This is risky, as it verges on libel, and short of magically traveling through the Internet to find out where their computer is and popping up in their living room, there isn't much one can do.

Another author mentioned that he considered it an honor to have his work pirated in the sense that someone was reading it and others might buy it in the future. Well, he is entitled to his opinion, and I respect that. Me, I felt bitter at first and then royally angered--to put it mildly--but I came to realize that some people--the aforementioned site owners as well as some readers--are unscrupulous to the max and will not change.

However, I can. I can only do what I think is best for me, and that's to keep writing, something Suzie Carr, a terrific writer and friend, mentioned recently. I can only do my best and hope that readers will be honest and buy my books and not cheat me or other writers or the system. I can only hope.

And that four-letter word is what sustains me, that, and the good wishes of fellow authors and readers who have bought my work in the past and I hope will continue to buy it in the future.

_____________

Links

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/J.S.-Frankel/e/B004XUUTB8/ref=dp_byline_cont_ebooks_1

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JS-Frankel-AUTHOR-1458667077729037/?ref=aymt_homepage_panel

Devine Destinies: http://www.devinedestinies.com/js-frankel/

Hi, I'm Jess Frankel, pen name J.S. Frankel, an expat Canadian now living in Japan. I write primarily YA Fantasy, and some of my better known novels are the Catnip series (five books), The Titans of Ardana trilogy, Star Maps, and Picture (Im)perfect, my only romance novel.

My latest novel, a YA suspense/thriller, The Undernet, will be released in late June. Here's the link, and I hope everyone will give my books a try.

http://www.devinedestinies.com/js-frankel/the-undernet/