testing

Flames On The Sky is Out in Print/Contest

Flames On The Sky, a time travel romance, in print format is an Early Bird Special at The Wild Rose Press. The evil spirt in the story makes it a perfect story for Halloween. The ebook will be out October 23, 2009. I hope you'll take a look.

The Anasazi whispered of this evil and of thewoman who could defeat it.

Fire, sky, and stone must unite to fulfill an ancient prophecy.

Blurb:

Madison Evans inherits a turquoise locket, travels to New Mexico, and discovers the stone dates back to the Chacoan Anasazi. When she's attacked, parks ranger Lonan Stone, of Chacoan ancestry, fears Madison's turquoise is a missing twin of the revered Fallen Skystone, an egg size piece of turquoise on display in Albuquerque. The mystical stone is missing two slivers – one’s in Madison’s necklace, the others whereabouts unknown, but if united by evil they can destroy.

Madison and Lonan are part of a 1000 year old prophecy to save Chaco Canyon. Thrust back in time, they meet a witch, solve a murder, fall in love, and imprison a 1000 year old evil spirit. Their mission complete, can these two people from different cultures blend their lives as the prophecy predicted?

Excerpt:

Madison felt as if she’d traveled to the Twilight Zone. Lilly’s claims were preposterous, but, she couldn’t deny what she’d seen on the cliff face or the dreams.

“Yes, you need to tell me about the dreams. They started at the time you received the necklace, right?”

Madison nodded. “How did you know?”

“I assumed the ancient Elders would haunt you, but when Lonan called yesterday, I knew so for a fact.” Her smile was sympathetic. “Tell me about them.”

Lilly’s eyes lit with excitement as Madison talked. When she finished, the older woman leaned back and closed her eyes.

Lonan’s brow was furrowed, his mouth pinched. “What did you mean when you said, ‘You are the one.’?”

She pierced him with an intent look. “Did not Madison say you were the very image of the warrior in her dream? The prophecy requires that someone from the past, which is you, son, be chosen to be Madison’s protector.” Lilly turned to Madison.

Oh, no. I don’t think I want to hear this. She held up her hands and shook her head. “No—”

“Yes, Madison, with hair of fire, whether you like it or not, the Gods chose you, someone from the future, to find the third stone and reunite the twins with the mother stone. Together, you two will find a way to consign the evil one to the pit below mother earth where he belongs.”

You can buy your print copy at The Wild Rose Press.

In celebration of the release of Flames On The Sky I'm giving away a pair of amber and sterling earrings. For details go to my blog Linda LaRoque's Musings.

Thanks for Reading!

Linda

Linda LaRoque ~Western Romance with a Twist in Time~ Forever Faithful, Investment of the Heart, When the Ocotillo Bloom, A Law of Her Own, Desires of the Heart, My Heart Will Find Yours, Flames on the Sky10-9 www.lindalaroque.com/ http://wwww.lindalaroqueauthor.blogspot.com/

Released Today - Healer's Fate

What a way to start off the month of October. My wolf shifter paranormal novella - Healer's Fate - released today from Whispers Publishing. Here's a first look at my hero Liam:

Healer's Fate Excerpt:

Liam couldn’t watch the ceremony that would mate Corliss to someone else. He could’ve challenged for her, but that meant fighting his father—the ruling wolf, who was neither a tyrant nor senile. Both of them in their prime, a fight would have ended in one of their deaths, and he couldn’t justify the loss of life.

Not even for her. Unable to keep control of his wolf, Liam let the animal free to seek solace in the forest. Except every tree, every scent roused memories of her, and the wolf circled back towards the clearing, towards the woman who should be his.

Stark quiet alerted him to trouble as the wolf crept along the edge of the grass. People were missing and those who remained stood as if waiting for the ceremony to start. He circled around to the front to get a better view, hiding in the shadows so as not to alert anyone. Raymond was unaccounted for. Corliss stood stiff-backed, facing away from the audience.

Her caramel-colored hair was piled atop her head, darkened to walnut in the moonlight. Shadows hid her sea-green eyes and emphasized her high cheekbones. She appeared cold, harsh, and removed from events going on around her. Yet he knew her to be warm and caring, often too caring.

Giving to others more of her personal energy through her healing powers than she should. As her friend, he could offer support, but he couldn’t push too hard for her to rest, or she’d rip out his throat.

He chuffed. The dark blue specks in her eyes glowed when she was angry. That spark had been missing from her eyes for days. He repressed a growl as Corliss bit the inside of her cheek. Before the wind shifted, he backed away. She wouldn’t appreciate someone seeing her close to tears.

The wolf wanted to rip a hole in Raymond’s belly, but even the animals had rules for a challenge. He trotted to a cache of clothes. Only the man could help her now.

Four Questions Friday on Sapphire Phelan's Blog

Today I ask four questions about love. Come leave your answers in the comments. http://sapphirephelanspassioncorner.blogspot.com/2009/09/four-questions-friday.html

Sapphire Phelan
http://FantasticDreams.50megs.com
www.myspace.com/SapphirePhelan
http://SapphirePhelansPassionCorner.blogspot.com
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SapphirePhelansParanormalNewsletter

Go beyond the usual, instead take the unusual that stretches the boundaries and find romance with Sapphire Phelan's aliens, werewolves, vampires, fairies, and other supernatural/otherworldly heroes and heroines.

Available now: from Phaze Books: the erotic urban fantasy, Being Familiar With a Witch:
Tina doesn't know she's a witch. It will take Charun, her demon Familiar, to convince her to make love with him and let loose her witch powers.
For if she doesn't, then with the demon army about to bring Armageddon to the Mortal Realm on Halloween, she won't stand a chance in Hell.

Saoirse Redgrave: A Tale of Werewolves

Teenage love, loss and--oh, yeah--Werewolves. Monsters are everywhere and what if the most frightening isn't a werewolf at all? Jessica's life seemed tragic enough since the loss of her mother, but meeting Pietr turns her world upside down again. The newest member of Junction High, Pietr has secrets to hide--secrets including dramatic changes he is undergoing that will surely end his life early.

Saoirse Redgrave’s cell phone novel 13 to Life: A Werewolf’s Tale was picked up by St. Martin’s Press in a 3 book deal after taking first place in the 2008 Textnovel contest. 13 to Life: A Werewolf’s Tale was written as a cell phone novel in 5 short weeks. As her road to publication is fascinating, Saoirse was kind enough to tell us how it all came about.

In a press release I read that you had chosen Textnovel as your exclusive literary agent. Can you share how they acted as your agent and was it through them that St. Martin's became interested or was it through your own effort?

Ah. This was around the time I started blinking rapidly in life due to shock and surprise. ;-) Along with the original cash prize of $1,000 I also was given the option of having Textnovel's founder, Stan Soper, as my agent. Stan's a Yale man with a degree in contract law and he was just starting towards becoming an agent. We had a very frank phone call (just my style) and he assured me the cash prize was still mine whether I wanted representation or not. For the previous year I'd been hearing a very dear friend of mine complaining about the difficulty of attracting an agent. I didn't want to go through the headache she was having and (having read the contract Stan offered) figured: Huh. What the heck? A grand and another voice to support my attempts at getting published. The contract was adjusted at my request (Stan being tremendously reasonable) and we started getting together all those nightmarish things you're told you need (query, outline, summary...). Then Stan called me and said (before our queries were out) that St. Martin's was curious (having seen a press release Stan had done for the contest and little else). After a little dance of joy, we approached SMP. They wanted to see a full manuscript. HA!

You know that cell phone novels are amazingly brief--closer to screen plays in some ways, I think. I had been doggedly (hey, it's a werewolf story ;-) working on fleshing out 13 to Life. It was little more than a story skeleton that won, in retrospect. But I did NOT have a full ready. I asked Stan to buy me some time--I didn't want SMP's interest to wane, but I wanted to be ready. Stan got me 3 weeks, I think, and I worked my butt off (though writing for long periods of time seems to put a butt right back in its place ;-). Stan asked me if I had any questions for SMP and I said to my husband "Is now the time to ask if they're for real and do they know I'm a nobody or should we wait?" "Wait," he assured me (he probably sneaked in some line about me not being a nobody to him, but, whatever. ;-)

Meanwhile we were contacted by the first of several Hollywood producers and another BIG publisher expressed curiosity, too. When I wasn't writing (or dosing up on coffee and trying to catch a few winks) I researched the two publishers and the producer. And Stan juggled for me, keeping in touch with people, keeping my name out there (well, Saoirse's name). Finally, I shoved the manuscript past a few betas (including an awesome bookstore owner named Annette Fitzgerald who printed the whole manuscript--then about 350 pages, double-spaced--and had it bound so she could chew through it). In one day. A few minor things were tweaked and we sent it to SMP and the other publisher. [The other publisher's contact was on vacation and her second said that although they really liked the project, they thought it might be too young for their YA target audience (in retrospect, I doubt they really read it through). But. At the same moment (like, all this was literally happening right on top of the other--talk about a wild ride) SMP had asked about getting me under contract. Stan and I were on the phone again and Stan said (essentially) that he knew this story could go to more books and did I feel the same way? Why, yes, I did. My hubby and I had been chatting about how far I thought this could run as a series. I had notes and outlines (some tighter than the others). Stan asked, "How many books?" I told him I thought maybe four or five with potential spin-offs but could easily guarantee three. And shazam! A three book deal in the works and a Hollywood producer asking us if he could shop us to Disney (which we had to say not now since we were working on the contract).

Contracting was the scariest part for me. I read through it. The hubby read through it. Pal Deborah Blake (an author through Lllewellyn) read through it and Stan combed through it and brought in an additional publishing lawyer. We made suggestions, we got some changes, and feeling pretty darn good about stuff, signatures were placed on appropriate lines.

So, long story short, SMP contacted us partly due to a press release, but Stan was instrumental in sealing the deal. ;-)

More with Saoirse Redgrave...

Healer's Fate Cover

I just received the cover for my novella Healer's Fate. It is coming soon from Whispers Publishing.

Made in Czechoslavakia

The story I am going to tell you comes out of "The Ligourian" I read it long ago.

During WW2 Nazi's used lots of forced labor, Czechoslavakia was no different. People worked long hours in factories to build bombs for the Nazi war machine.
Resistance took many forms, workers began to sabotage the bombs, at risk of thier own lives.

One man recalled a battle where his squad was sure they were all dead. A bomb landed, with no where to run, they all stood frozen staring at the harbringer of death. The bomb was only inches from the men.

nothing happened.

A brave soul got closer and noted the bomb was made in Czechoslavakia. It was a dud. The saboteurs were successful. "Made in Czechoslavakia" became the squadron's battle cry.
As battles raged, bullets flew, the battle cry gave them courage to keep fighting.

Years later, the old soldier was in the hospital. The prognosis wasn't good and his family stayed by his side to hold his hand for what might be the last time.
His brother went to the gift store to buy a rosary so they could pray together.

He was taken down to surgery.
Hours later, they awaited the news.
How long would he have left?

Tears filled the doctor's eyes when he met with the family. He wasn't sure why or how, but the soldier recovered.

When the soldier was brought back to the room. He embraced his family and took the rosary from the box, a small piece of paper fell onto the bed.

It read: Made in Czechoslavakia.