Thursday, April 30, 2015

Doug Hocking - An Author Interview in the HBS Author's Spotlight

Today our blog puts the Spotlight on Author Doug Hocking. He is the author of Western Mysteries and Historical Fiction.



Author Genre: Westerns, Mystery, Historical fiction

Website: Doug Hocking
Author's Blog: Way Out West
Twitter: @HockingDoug
E-Mail: doug@doughocking.com
Goodreads: Check Out Goodreads
Facebook: Check Out Facebook

Amazon Author Profile


Author Description:
Doug writes historical fiction bringing the Old West back to life while making another generation proud of the accomplishments and struggle of their ancestors. Each book is a history lesson wrapped in an riveting story.

Doug has led an exciting life. Born near New York City, a fact he very seldom admits, he learned to speak from his Cornish grandmother.

As an adult, he learned he understood Cornish slang and thought it normal speech. He also knew the whole story of Jack the Ripper and the Titanic. Grandmother was 10 and in Plymouth when the Ripper prowled. A uncle was swept away with the Unsinkable Ship. Still very young, Doug was taken West where he grew up on the Jicarilla Apache Reservation in the Rio Arriba of New Mexico among piasonos and indios. At 18 he hitchhiked to Albuquerque and enlisted in Army Intelligence.

The next decade was spent in Thailand, Taiwan and at the Pentagon and at bases so secret the Army often wouldn't say where they were. This made it difficult to comply with orders to report, but Doug is a great intel analyst and interpreted the "indicators" to track them down. One soldier almost passed out when Doug asked directions: "That's classified!" "Hey, I'm assigned there, but they won't tell me how to get there." He became an interrogator. Doug stopped in Taiwan for several years and acquired an undergraduate degree in Business Administration from the University of Maryland. Returning to the US he studied Ethnography in graduate school and then returned to the Army in Armored Cavalry finding the cavalry more fun than musty tomes of forgotten lore. In Germany, he was eyeball to eyeball with the Soviet beast before it fell. His final tour of duty was the most difficult of all, trying to turn Military Intelligence lieutenants into officers. He also played a role in intelligence gathering and interpretation during the first Gulf War.

Since then Doug has earned honors with a graduate degree in US history and garnered his certificate as a field archaeologist in historical archaeology braving a summer at a wilderness camp with college students in southern Colorado excavating Fort Massachusetts. "Bears only poked their heads into the mess tent a couple of times." Doug has sold real estate, built homes, taught college and worked in the hospitality industry. He spends time exploring lost towns, ruins, old forts and trails, interpreting foundations and trash, ranging far. A trip to Guadalupe Canyon hard by the borders of Arizona-New Mexico-Sonora and Chihuahua found him stopped by Border Patrol who wanted to know his business. "I did the obvious and sold the man a copy of my novel."

At the urging of his mother, Doug began writing. His work appears regularly in Wild West Magazine and Roundup as well as True West. There are more books on the way: The Battle of Cienaguilla, Redwall Canyon, The Mystery of Chaco Canyon and Devil on the Loose.


SPOTLIGHT Questions and Answers with the Author

First things first. What do you have on the drawing board next? Can you tell us the timeline for its release and give us a little tease?

I'm working on a biography of Tom Jeffords. I've gotten so many blank stares that I have to say: remember Jimmy Stewart in Broken Arrow, the guy who rode alone into Cochise's Stronghold? That's Tom Jeffords. I'll finish it this year. I don't know if I want to take it to an academic press. If I do, it will take a while to get into print. I also have some Dan y Roque novels complete but needing rewrites, a few more planned, and an anthology of short stories almost ready. Devil on the Loose is done but down low on the list for publication. My wife thinks it's my best writing.

You do some of book signings, interviews, speaking and personal appearances. When and where is the next place where your readers can see you? Where can they keep up with your personal contacts online?

I'm on line at www.doughocking.com where I blog and at Pinterest and Facebook on Doug Hocking Author Page. I'm on Twitter and YouTube. I'm speaking Friday, April 24, at 0830 at the Arizona Historical Convention on the Black Legend of Lieutenant Bascom. This will be part of a chapter on Cochise in the Tom Jeffords biography. I'm giving it again on May 4 at the Tucson Corral of the Westerners and again on Thursday the 7th of May at the Bisbee Corral. I'll be at Boothill in Tombstone for Wyatt Earp Days May 23 and at Indian Market in Santa Fe the 3rd week in August at the El Dorado Hotel. On June 17, I'll be at the Copper Queen Library in Bisbee talking about Mysteries of the Southwest.

I like the idea of Author bundles. You are a part of several short story collections published by La Frontera Publishing. What was the impact on your other sales? What was the main objective of bundling your works with other Western authors? How did you put something like that together?

Mike Harris, the publisher, put it together. Mike's got wide distribution so it gets my name and product out there. Dusty Richards, a Spur Award winner, has asked me for stories for Saddlebag Dispatches and I've sent one in and plan to send others.

Between your book writing, blogging, marketing, family and all the other things that can get in your way, how do you manage your time? Do you have a set schedule or do you sort of play it by ear?

I have a dog, Patrick O'Frodo, who barks and snarls at my wife when she interrupts my writing. First thing in the morning I'm on the Internet, then devotions, walk, and return and write. I take an hour and a half break for breakfast at noon and then get back to writing until 6. Of course, everyone imaginable tries to disrupt this schedule. Tuesdays and Saturdays are for old west exploration with my friends. Sunday for church.

Has the advent of ebooks changed anything in your writing, getting the book to your readers and the relationship with your readers and fans?

When I started writing, there were already ebooks. I feel great about people who want to hold a real book, but I think the future is electronic and that there is so much more we can do with it. I can include maps, diagrams, pictures and photos, even in my novels. I pride myself that the background of all my novels are absolutely real. If I say a town was there, it was. My people use the right weapons and tools. The roads are where I represent them as being. I've got the cultures down that First Nations people or Hispanics can read my books and recognize themselves.

How do you manage your plots, characters and timelines to keep your stories going? Do you use any software to keep track of your books?

My favorite software is Scribe 3.5. It keeps cards and notes on everything. I can use it to track the events of a real or imaginary person's life and keep them in order. I'm fond of the historical novel so this is important. I hate outlines. I write down the things that have to happen and the order they have to happen in. I include topics I have to introduce so the reader can understand. Then I start writing, crossing things out as they happen, pushing them back if they still need to happen. My characters are often based on real people I've known well, even when I write about real people.

Usually, they tell me what they want to say or do. It's fun when a character who has been on the sidelines suddenly jumps in with something he or she wants to say. I have to go back and reread each character in isolation in order to get his dialog down correctly. Roque is fun. His English is pretty good except when he's angry and then his Spanish dialect shines through. Moses Carson, a real person, mountain man, older brother of Kit Carson, was fun. I often made him unintelligible with mountain man dialect as he would have been in real life. I've got books on dialect and on phrases used by various cultures. I'll pick out 20 or 50 to belong to a particular individual and use them whenever they fit.

Do you maintain a reader list? What are the methods you use to find your readers and create the list and the relationship? Do you use social media, forums, newsletters and/or support groups to build your list?

I'm working on it. I should try to get an email address from everyone who buys a book.

You have a great blog. You do a great job keeping readers informed, marketing your books and providing useful information to other writers. What is your primary goal? And where in the world do you find the time to create great novels, take care of the social media and maintain your blog?

The blog is a way to write down things I want to remember and want to put in a readable form. Other items are an exercise in keeping my thoughts straight about how I do history and history's relationship to historical archaeology.

What is your method of getting reviews for your novels? Do you seek professional reviews, use social media or do you rely on your reading audience to supply them?

I like the ones that come from my reading audience. I belong to a number of history related and writing organizations and if I send them a book, they get me a published review. I spoke at the Southern Trail Chapter of the Oregon-California Trail Association last week in Silver City and folks were buying my books because they read about them in Desert Tracks. I've also had reviews on local newspapers and on radio. I offer to speak at libraries and museums and I'm available for their special shows. One of my favorite spots is Boothill in Tombstone. I get to meet people from all over the country and the world.

We met at the Tucson Festival of Books. You were in the Western Writers of America booth which featured four authors dressed in unique western outfits fitting their genre. The booth banner announced the Three Amigos and a Lady.

A Book festival is a unique selling situation. How did you prepare for the festival? Did it meet your goals? If you had to do something different next year, what would that be?



The booth was Three Amigos and the Lady, Western Writers was next door. But we all are members of Western Writers of America. WWA doesn't want to sell books for a lot of good and valid reasons. I had done the festival before and I have the Arizona licensing required, so I put out word that I was interested in sharing a booth through WWA channels. I got an immediate response. I've been working arts and crafts fairs which, for me, are a great place to sell books, so I had the equipment and the experience. I worked with Chris Enss, Bill Markley and Miles Swarthout, all of whom are great people. I'll do the same again next year but they will be my first choice as boothmates. It's just too expensive to do alone. We were on Voices of the West on KVOI radio from the booth. I'll try to get more news outlets interested early on.



Author's Book List
The Mystery of Chaco Canyon - Dan y Roque Book 2
The Mystery of Chaco Canyon is an historical fiction, a mystery and a love story set against the background of the American Civil War in the Southwest. Ten years after the events described in Massacre at Point of Rocks, Dan and Roque joined by Doña Loca and Jicarilla Apache, Peregrino Rojo, are set on a quest by a dying Masonic brother. Along the way they must solve the real mysteries of the Los Lunas Decalogue Stone, Chaco Canyon, Chimney Rocks, Rough Hurech’s Grave and the Silverbell Artifacts. The mysteries are real, the solutions novel. The enemies who pursue them are real, the battles are real. The DaVinci Code meets the Wild West.

They didn't ask me why I write historical fiction (westerns), so I don't have to lie. My answer would have reflected all the elements shared by other Western Writers. I was born, though I seldom admit it, near New York City, and dropped off on an Indian Reservation in New Mexico to grow up in a land stuck in the 19th century. I loved it and still do.


Order the Book From: Amazon - Barnes and Noble - KOBO
Massacre at Point of Rocks - Dan y Roque Book 1
Massacre at Point of Rocks is an historical fiction, a gripping tale of historic events along the Santa Fe Trail. In 1849, Santa Fe trader James White took his family ahead of the slow moving caravan to rush his wife and child to safety and comfort in the city of the Holy Faith of St. Francis. He was met near Point of Rocks by Jicarilla Apaches. This is the first time their side of the story is told explaining how and why Ann White and her daughter were abducted.

The event could not be ignored. Soon all New Mexico was roused and numerous rescue operations were under way. Buffalo hunters, Comancheros, Indian agents, and multiple military patrols sought her. A reluctant Kit Carson was recruited to go to her rescue. Only he could find the trail and follow it for 200 miles. Kit Carson found himself and his friends embroiled in a war not of his choosing.

Massacre at Point of Rocks is also the tale of a young man who goes West to meet his hero, Kit Carson, then at the height of his fame and popularity. He is disappointed with the short, soft-spoken Carson, but learns through numerous adventures to appreciate the famous scout as a real and special man. The story takes the reader into Jicarilla villages and ceremonials and through the paisano towns of the Rio Arriba. The background to the story is the real New Mexico of 1849 recreated so that the reader may understand the men, their times and their challenges. The Santa Fe Trail comes to life.


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Marshal of Arizona
Arizona in the 1850s was without law and order, a refuge for outlaws and men on the run. The judge was 600 miles away in Santa Fe and taking evil-doers to court a matter of impracticality. Tubac needs a lawman but he'd have no official status, no jail and no court to support him. He'd have to intimidate banditos into leaving his town alone. What could go wrong with that?


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

Tuesday, April 28, 2015

Dale Mayer - Vampire in Chaos is featured in the HBS Author's Spotlight Showcase

The Showcase is a special feature of the Author's Spotlight. It is designed to highlight Spotlight author's NEW releases and their soon to be released novels.

The HBS Author's Spotlight SHOWCASES Dale Mayer's New Book: Vampire in Chaos.

Suspense Author Dale Mayer is a writer of Romantic Suspense, Thrillers and Paranormal Romance. Dale has written several series including the Design series, By Death Series, Family Blood Ties, and Psychic Visions series.








Vampire in Chaos

Family Blood Ties Book 7


Author: Dale Mayer


AVAILABLE
Amazon
Barnes and Noble
KOBO


Tessa's life has plummeted into chaos. Her father is missing, Goran is unconscious and showing no signs of healing, her mother has taken several steps off the deep end and David, well, she'll deal with him when she sees him - if she can find him.

Cody isn't sure what happened to the supposedly successful conclusion to the blood farm madness but he's back in hell and damn it Tessa is once again leading the charge.

Jared is on the run, again. With no one else he can trust, but Tessa's friends and family, he searches them out determined to help them solve this war - whether he is welcome or not.

With everyone in distress or missing, Tessa struggles to find answers, and create some kind of order amongst the chaos - before their attackers strike again.

Excerpt from Vampire in Chaos

Tessa stared at the retreating figure.

In her mind, Cody murmured. We don't have much choice. We need to follow him.

I know, but I don't like it.

She stepped in behind Cody as he cautiously followed in the stranger's tracks.

Who do you think he is? Tessa whispered.

No idea. I've never seen him before.

He looks…old.

Ha, don't they all?

Yes, but he looks old old, like he has existed for a long time in this desolate space. No fresh air or maybe not even enough sustenance. A meager life. One of lack.

He shot her a sideways look. You can see that from his energy?

She shook her head and answered him in a low voice, "No. Physically, he's gaunt, crippled almost."

"He's moving damn fast for a cripple."

"Hmm. That's not quite what I mean. If he were human I'd say anemic, as if he hadn't been out in the sun for centuries. But as he's a vamp, that should be a good thing."

Cody stopped suddenly.

Tessa bumped into him gently. She reached out to grab his arm, her gaze locked on the energy swirling ahead of her. He's being attacked.

What? Really? Cody launched himself forward.

Tessa followed. She had no idea who was fighting who. Careful. The attacker could be David or Dad.

Cody never slowed down. Closer, Tessa could see the energy firing in all directions. She didn't recognize the new energy. But it was stronger, more powerful than that of the frail old vamp. He was going down…

Or not.

She grinned. Cody had entered the fray, and damn if the attacker wasn't beating back a hasty retreat. Only Cody wasn't having any of it. He went after the retreating male as Tessa ran up to the injured vamp, who had collapsed on the floor.

"Easy," she murmured, trying to stop him from jumping to his feet so fast. "No time," he choked. "I'll heal, just slowly. Come. You must come now." He struggled to his feet, pushing away her hands. "We have no time."

"No time for what," she cried out softly. "Who are you?"

"One of her protectors."

Her? Tessa cast a quick searching glance around. Who were they running from? Who were they running to? Off to the left, she watched a spark of light glow then blow up. She called out, "Cody? Is that you?"

"Yeah, the asshole pulled out some kind of weapon. I had to take him out." He walked toward her, holding some kind of small handheld weapon. Bigger than the spikes they'd been using, but smaller than a flashlight. It didn't look lethal. "This is the weapon he was holding."

It looked odd.

"What is that thing?"

"I don't know. It's weird." Almost in front of her, he held it out so she could see the button. "It's like a UV light and silver combined. Maybe it shoots silver droplets with the initial force of light?" He studied the weapon grimly. "Let's keep moving. We don't know how many others are down here."

She picked up the pace to keep up with the frail vamp, who she'd thought would be too injured to move as fast as he was, but he was scuttling along at a pace she was having trouble matching. Like what the heck?

Her astonishment transmitted to Cody. I know. He's really moving. I wonder what the hell is going on down here.

And where is here? She cried. It seems like we've been moving underground forever. We've lost track of Dad's energy too. And David's.

Do you think this guy is leading us to a trap? Cody asked, reaching out and grabbing her arm. She slowed down slightly.

I don't know. She hated to lose her father's energy trail. I don't know if my father and brother are prisoners down here or if this guy may have contacted them too, she said as frustration rolled over her.

A weird birdcall whistled through the blackness. She cocked her head and whispered out loud. "Was that him?"

"I think so. We've fallen behind."

"Crap. How is he moving so fast?"

"No idea. The ceiling is too low for me to fly, so running is my only option." Cody picked up speed and took off in the direction where they'd last seen the vamp. Tessa shook her head. Like what the heck. She took one leap then another and then a third, catching Cody on the third. She passed him on the fourth.

"Hey, that's cheating," he cried out.

"Sucks to be you," she said, laughing as she lost him in the distance on the fifth. A wall came out of nowhere. "Oh crap!"

In the back of her mind, she could hear Cody sniggering. Tessa, watch out for that w—

—all

Just before she hit it sideways.

"Ooomph." She slid to the floor, Cody's barely restrained laughter in her ear.

"No time. No time." The frail vamp shuffled along the wall beside her. "We must go."

And damn if he didn't turn and skittle off into the darkness again.

Cody reached down and helped her to her feet. "Are you okay?"

Tessa gave herself a good shake. "I'm fine. Or I will be if we find out what's going on."

Still holding hands, Cody tugged her forward. "Let's go. We can't lose him." And the chase was on.


Author Genre: Romantic suspense,thrillers,Paranormal Romance

Website: Dale Mayer
Author's Blog: Dale Mayer blog
Twitter: @DaleMayer
E-Mail: bdmayer2002@gmail.com
Goodreads: Check Out Goodreads
Google+: Check Out Google+
Facebook: Check Out Facebook
Pinterest: Check Out Pinterest


Author Description: Dale Mayer is a USA Today bestselling author best known for her Psychic Visions and Family Blood Ties series. Her contemporary romances are raw and full of passion and emotion (Second Chances, SKIN), her thrillers will keep you guessing (By Death series), and her romantic comedies will keep you giggling (It's a Dog's Life and Charmin Marvin Romantic Comedy series).

She honors the stories that come to her - and some of them are crazy and break all the rules and cross multiple genres!

To go with her fiction, she also writes nonfiction in many different fields with books available on resume writing, companion gardening and the US mortgage system. She has recently published her Career Essentials Series. All her books are available in print and ebook format.


Author's Book List
Time Thieves
Time has a way of solving many problems – but it also has a way of creating many more…
Sari grew up with a secret that involved her missing father… The only other person who knows the truth refuses to acknowledge it. Sari can't forget what happened. Ever. She lost someone she loved.

Fifteen years later, the possibility of reversing the series of events drives her to keep searching for answers. Especially now that she's finally returned to where it all happened and with the people – one in particular – that she'd been forced to leave behind.

Fifteen years ago, Ward was devastated when Sari's mother fled to France with Sari. Even at ten, they'd been sweethearts. But the mystery of what happened back then had lain fallow.... waiting for someone to stir up the soil. And damn if Sari wasn't the best at doing just that…

Sari and Ward are out of time. Can they solve the mystery of what happened? Or do they become the next victims…


Order the Book From: Amazon - Barnes and Noble - KOBO
Scars - Broken but… Mending Book 2
Some scars are visible…

Some scars are hidden…

The worst scars are buried deep inside…

Robin and Sean are existing in their private worlds. Hiding in plain sight, not really living, definitely not thriving. They both need to move forward… if they can.

Yet the price of success is pain as they confront issues that have plagued them for years. They’re so different, with such opposite problems. Yet they complement each other - or at least they will, if they can work through their issues and find each other.

This is a story of pain and sorrow, joy and success… and… love.


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Eyes to the Soul - Psychic Visions Book 7
Just because a person can see – doesn't mean they should look.

Celina Wilton was technically blind, a state she wasn't very happy about. In her case the alternative was worse. So she'd learn to adapt, one way or another.

Stefan Kronos has wanted to get close to Celina for a long time, but she has walls that he's been forced to go around in some unusual ways. When a case he's been called to consult on puts her square in his radar he has to watch his step…and hers.

Unraveling the threads twisting between them and a killer like none Stefan had seen before means Celina has to trust him enough to let him inside her barriers.

That's when Stefan realizes he's not the only with eyes into her soul.


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Rare Find - Psychic Visions Book 6
When people need help or are injured, they call out for their friends and family. When an animal needs help or is injured, it calls out for…anyone…that can help them…

One person hears them…

Tabitha is determined to bury her aching heart in the service of her animals at Exotic Landscape. Until she’s yanked out of her cozy retreat to help someone in need…and she gets more than she bargained for.

Detective Ronin Chandler understands secrets. He’s got a few of his own. But when the woman he loves gets into trouble – the kind that stretches even his belief system – he struggles to understand…and to help…before he loses her. Maybe forever.

As the danger escalates, Tabitha and Ronin need to find out who they can trust…and who they can’t…and who wants them dead…before it’s too late.


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Knock, knock… - Psychic Visions Book 5
There's no best-by date for revenge. Wealthy and beautiful Shay Lassiter runs a prestigious foundation, but her connections and resources were worthless when her fiancé tried to murder her. Now, she's guarding her heart and using her knack for reading people's intentions - both good and evil - to guide her. But when the foundation's clients start dying, she must turn to the new man in her life...one who's giving her mixed signals. Computer specialist and ex-cop Roman Chandler has a secret. It involves Shay and could ruin the fragile relationship he's building with her. Though he can't tell her the truth, he needs to convince her to trust him. He fears that whoever is behind this is about to turn his vengeance on Shay... And vengeance can be deadly.


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Garden of Sorrow - Psychic Visions Book 4
Her world is in chaos. His world is in order. She wants to help the innocent. He wants to catch the guilty. But someone is trying to make sure that neither gets what they want. Alexis Gordon has spent the last year trying to get over the loss of her sister. Then she goes to work on a normal day...and reality as she knows it...disappears. Detective Kevin Sutherland, armed with his own psychic abilities, recognizes her gift and calls in his friend Stefan Kronos, a psychic artist and law enforcement consultant, to help her develop her skills. But Kevin has never seen anything like this case - a killer with a personal vendetta to stop Alexis from finding out more about him...and his long dead victims. The killer can be stopped. He must be stopped. But he's planning on surviving...even after death.


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Maddy's Floor - Psychic Visions Book 3
Medical intuitive and licensed MD Madeleine Wagner thought she'd seen every way possible to heal a diseased body...until patients start dying from mysterious causes in her long-term facility. Causes Maddy believes are linked to an evil force.

Maddy's patients are dying. The terminally ill fight to get into the ward of Madeline Wagner, a medical intuitive and licensed MD. Once there, many miraculously...live. So when her patients start dropping and she senses an evil force causing their deaths, she calls on her friend and mentor, Stefan, for help. Together, they delve beyond the physical plane into the metaphysical... Only to find terror.

She wants to save everyone, but are some souls not meant to be saved?

Detective Drew McNeil has two family members in need of Maddy's healing care, but his visits to her facility leave him wondering - who cares for Maddy? Bizarre events on her floor raise his professional curiosity. And the more time he spends with Maddy, the more personal everything becomes. When the deaths on Maddy's Floor intersect with one of his cold cases, he realizes an old killer has returned - and Maddy's standing in his path.

How can these people stop something that no one else can see, feel or even believe?


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Hide'n Go Seek - Psychic Visions Book 2
A twisted game of Hide'n Go Seek forces an unlikely alliance between a no-nonsense FBI agent and a search-and-rescue worker. Celebrated search-and-rescue worker Kali Jordon has hidden her psychic abilities by crediting her canine partner Shiloh with the recoveries. But Kali knows the grim truth. The Sight that she inherited from her grandmother allows her to trace violent energy unerringly to victims of murder. No one knows her secret until a twisted killer challenges her to a deadly game of Hide'n Go Seek that threatens those closest to her. Now she must rely on FBI Special Agent Grant Summers, a man who has sworn to protect her, even as he suspects there's more to Kali and Shiloh than meets the eye. As the killer draws a tighter and tighter circle around Kali, she and Grant find there's no place to hide from themselves. Are her visions the key to finding the latest victim alive or will this twisted game of Hide'n Go Seek cost her...everything?


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Tuesday's Child - Psychic Visions Book 1
What she doesn’t want...is exactly what he needs.

Shunned and ridiculed all her life for something she can’t control, Samantha Blair hides her psychic abilities and lives on the fringes of society. Against her will, however, she’s tapped into a killer—or rather, his victims. Each woman’s murder, blow-by-blow, ravages her mind until their death releases her back to her body. Sam knows she must go to the authorities, but will the rugged, no-nonsense detective in charge of tracking down the killer believe her?

Detective Brandt Sutherland only trusts hard evidence, yet Sam’s visions offer clues he needs to catch a killer. The more he learns about her incredible abilities, however, the clearer it becomes that Sam’s visions have put her in the killer’s line of fire. Now Brandt must save her from something he cannot see or understand…and risk losing his heart in the process.

As danger and desire collide, passion raises the stakes in a game Sam and Brandt don’t dare lose.


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Vampire in Conflict - Family Blood Ties Book 6
The blood farm is gone. Those behind it have either died, been caught, or are on the run. Time to return to the real world.

Only normal life isn't quite what Tessa expected. Good thing, because there is no 'normal' anymore. She's different. Her family is different. Her friends are different. The world around her is different. Trying to find her place is not easy. She wants nothing more than to be a normal teenager and join Cody and his friends on a Friday night out.

Cody wants the trouble to be over so he can get back to living the life he used to with one major addition – Tessa.

Only Ian and Jewel aren't healing well, Rhia is acting out of character, and Jared keeps tripping over dead bodies. Then there's David, who'll do anything to help Jewel… even something he knows he shouldn't do.

Something is wrong, and once again it's up to Tessa to figure out what is happening under the surface of this 'normal' life.


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Vampire In Defiance - Family Blood Ties Book 5
This was it. For Tessa. For Cody. For Jared. Her family. Her Friends.

Moltere's Mountain is collapsing. With Tessa, her friends and family still inside. Tessa won't go down without a fight...and she won't leave the others behind. But as she races to save everyone, time runs out.

Grounded with an injured wing, Cody wants Tessa to leave while they still can. But most of their friends and family are missing. And he fears the worst...

Jared had led the army into the mountain. Only to find they were looking to annihilate all vamps, not just the bad ones. He can't leave his friends vulnerable to yet another attack. But the mine is a death trap, and he could be the one that ends up dead.

The pressure is on – to save friends, family, each other – only the enemy is just as determined that no one survives.


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Vampire in Deceit - Family Blood Ties Book 4
Note: This book ends on a cliffhanger as did the other books in the series. Book 5 is likely to be the conclusion of this series and will be out soon. Hurt and hurting, Tessa wages war against her own as she tries to protect those she loves and save those that can't save themselves. Ravaged by the constant attacks, afraid for her friends and family, Tessa is driven to the ends of her reserves as she strives to beat back the never ending wave of war. Thankfully she's never alone...inside or out. Kidnapped and injured, Cody struggles to escape and find the girl whose connection to his heart, mind and soul is growing by the moment. The chances of them all surviving this chaos are slim...but he just knows he can't live without her. Jared is determined to help his father and friends. He can't leave them alone to their fate, even when his own life becomes endangered...again. Only this time, he has allies on his side...or does he? The war unites humans and vamps as the war ratchets higher to a survival of the fittest...but the people most deeply involved can't take any more. And then they find out the worst…


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Vampire in Design - Family Blood Ties Book 3
This is book 3 of Family Blood Ties Series - like the others - it has a cliffhanger ending! Book 4 is due out in the late summer/fall of 2013. Left behind. Scared. And getting really pissed off. Tessa and her friends were supposed to be on their way home. On their way to safety. Instead she wakes up alone, with her friends kidnapped. Targeted and hunted, Tessa goes on the attack, desperate to find her friends and family. But her attackers want her throwback genes and will do anything to have her locked down in their lab. Caught in a dangerous maze, Cody is torn between helping his fellow captives and finding Tessa. He's young to have the connection that's growing between him and his best friend's sister. But any future they might have is in jeopardy if they can't stop the blood farm from taking over the humans…and his people. Jared is free at last, but he can't stop thinking about what he went through at the blood farm and those who helped him. Then he finds out something personal that is so horrifying, he has to act…even if it means walking back into the place he swore to never return. These three need to be strong…the war is far from over…and they are right in the middle of it.


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Vampire in Distress - Family Blood Ties Book 2
WARNING - there is some mild swearing and the book has a cliffhanger ending! Who you are on the inside is more important that what you are on the outside... But not when your're fated to be a lab rat for the rest of your life. Sixteen-year-old Tessa, a vampire with weird throwback human genes, is an outsider in both worlds. Always the odd one. Now, imprisoned in a blood farm, she fights to free herself and rejoin her family and friends. Especially one young male vamp. Cody, eighteen and the youngest of the long line of ancient flyer vampires, wants Tessa back at his side where she belongs - even as he struggles with conflicting emotions about his best friend's kid sister-turned-hottie. Jared, the cute human who'd befriended Tessa, is relieved to be rescued and wants to see the trussed-up, drugged humans in the warehouse taken care of. Only he's freaked that the people who rescued him are vampires...and then he finds out the truth about Tessa...


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Vampire in Denial - Family Blood Ties Book 1
Blood doesn't just make her who she is...it also makes her what she is. Like being a sixteen-year-old vampire isn't hard enough, Tessa's throwback human genes make her an outcast among her relatives. But try as she might, she can't get a handle on the vampire lifestyle and all the...blood. Turning her back on the vamp world, she embraces the human teenage lifestyle--high school, peer pressure and finding a boyfriend. Jared manages to stir something in her blood. He's smart and fun and oh, so cute. But Tessa's dream of a having the perfect boyfriend turns into a nightmare when vampires attack the movie theatre and kidnap her date. Once again, Tessa finds herself torn between the human world and the vampire one. Will blood own out? Can she make peace with who she is as well as what?


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Skin - Broken but... Mending Book 1
A journey of exploration...
A journey of healing…
A journey of love…
Two people are forced by circumstances into a therapy class to help them deal with their problems. They are strangers. Forced to be partners. Naturally opposites.

Kane is dealing with anger of betrayal at the deepest level, needing to find his way back to forgiveness. Tania is a previous rape victim hoping to deal with her fear of intimacy so she can have a loving relationship.

Tania's medium of expression - her camera.

Her subject – the human body – Kane's physical body.

Looking through the lens of a camera, she learns to find beauty and compassion…and the strength to find wholeness…with him.


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Haunted by Death - By Death Series Book 2
This is book 2 in the By Death series Death haunts anthropologist Meg Pearce… In her last summer before college, an innocent camping trip ended in a friend's disappearance…and destroyed her life. She lost everything. Her innocence. Her plans for her future. Her best friend and lover. Seventeen years later, she returns reluctantly to the same area, hoping to move on. But a gruesome discovery sends her reeling back to that dark time. Detective Chad Ingram has spent the last seventeen years trying to solve the mystery of that camping trip so he too can regain his life…and the lost love of his life. Only death isn't done shaking up their lives…and this time they are in the crossfire.


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Dangerous Designs - Design series
Drawing is her world...but when her new pencil comes alive, it's his world too. Her... Storey Dalton is seventeen and now boyfriendless after being dumped via Facebook. Drawing is her escape. It's like as soon as she gets down one image, a dozen more are pressing in on her. Then she realizes her pictures are almost drawing themselves...or is it that her new pencil is alive? Him... Eric Jordan is a new Ranger and the only son of the Councilman to his world. He's crossed the veil between dimensions to retrieve a lost stylus. But Storey is already experimenting with her new pencil and what her drawings can do - like open portals. It ... The stylus is a soul-bound intelligence from Eric's dimension on Earth and uses Storey's unsuspecting mind to seek its way home, giving her an unbelievable power. She unwittingly opens a third dimension, one that held a dangerous predatory species banished from Eric's world centuries ago, releasing these animals into both dimensions. Them... Once in Eric's homeland, Storey is blamed for the calamity sentenced to death. When she escapes, Eric is ordered to bring her back or face that same death penalty. With nothing to lose, can they work together across dimensions to save both their worlds? This is book 1 in the series and ends on a hook that is picked up in book 2.


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Sian's Solution - Family Blood Ties Short Story
This 9k word short story was originally published in 2011 as part of the Entangled anthology - sold to raise money for Breast Cancer awareness

Sometimes the depth of love is only understood when it is lost forever…

When a vampire discovers the human man she loves has been captured and hung in a blood farm, she goes against her own kind and risks everything to save him.

Sian Tallant is a scientist and a vampire. Her lover is a doctor and a human. Their relationship is taboo. Taz doesn't know that she is a vampire. But when she tried to break up with him, he followed her into vampire territory and was captured.


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Author Recommended by: HBSystems Publications
Publisher of ebooks, writing industry blogger and the sponsor of the following blogs:
eBook Author’s Corner
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