Welcome to my stop on the Blurb Blitz Tour for Steve Shilstone’s, The Wicked Wand. 

Giveaway:  *Steven will be awarding the first 5 stories of the series in eBook format to a randomly drawn commenter during the tour.* So be sure to leave a comment, and stop by his other stops along the tour for more chance to win.  Get the tour schedule here.

The Wicked Wand

by Steve Shilstone

Genre: Middle Grade Fantasy

Publication Date: ASpril 17, 2013

Pages: 84

Purchase: Amazon

BLURB:

Bekka, in your 6th chronicle, The Wicked Wand, please heed the warning of your best friend Kar. Be satisfied with your new collection of 22 magic rings. Don’t try to find the hiding place of the Wand just because it, too, now belongs to you. It’s dangerous. You know it. Kar knows it. You say you can control it. Kar doubts that deeply, but she will help if you insist on going. She won’t allow you to travel alone on your quest even though she thinks it foolish. You’re lucky to have a friend like Kar, and soon, oh soon, you’ll know why.

Excerpt:

 Up and up the mountain we went. Its snowy white peak yet loomed above us. The winds grew colder and rougher. I had to hold onto my hat. My hair flew into my face, surprising me with its black stringiness. So such, I’d been accustomed to my life-long bendo dreen coppery hair. My cloak flapped and snapped. Up and up. I squinted and grimaced. The top. The rim. Where was it? I tucked in close behind Kar, so such providing myself with fat yellow Dragon protection from the wind. I followed her undulating tail. Below, a blanket of white snow covered the mountainside. I shifted my gaze to Kar’s flapping wings. Up and up she climbed. At last there was sky and a rush of peace. No wind. No cold. We had arrived above the ever-blooming springtime of Orrun Mountain Hollow.

“Sarajandos,” I gasped.

“Sarajandos,” echoed Kar.

The plateau in the bowl of Orrun Mountain Hollow offered a wonderful view of sarajando trees, white with blossoms, and fields of lush green grasses sprinkled with yellow and purple dots of flowers. The cherry vanilla scent of the sarajando blossoms perfumed the air all around us. And the road. There was the road! Round green cobbles made a stripe along the floor of the Hollow. The road led to Cloud Castle City. Oh, the Gwer drollek stories! Cloud Castle City! The troll brought the wand here! I dropped low to the road and raced along it. Whiz! I cackled. Ahead. Ahead. Ahead I saw the famous Crag of Orrun Mountain rising above the rim on the far side of the Hollow. Cloud Castle City nestles under the Crag. Cloud Castle City. Cloud …

“It’s … It’s … It’s …,” I said.

“Not here,” completed Kar beside me.

About the Author:

Born in Louisville, Kentucky, Steve moved as a toddler with his family to Denver, Colorado, where his passion for books was sparked early by such titles as McElligot’s Pool, The Little House, Little Toot, and more. His father’s employment with the Pennsylvania Railroad had the family moving to Seattle, Washington when Steve was 10. There he dragged home an armload of books every week from the library. He plowed through the Oz books, the horse books, and the dog books while maintaining vast stacks of comic books, mainly Little Lulu and Scrooge McDuck. It was at this time that he wrote his first piece, something called ‘Art Ant Off To War’.

Lo, the teenage years raged in and found Steve’s family – an older brother, a younger brother, a father and a mother – plunked down for good in Redwood City, California on the San Francisco peninsula. Now Steve’s reading frenzy really kicked into high gear. He buzzsawed through all of Dickens and all of Tolstoy in addition to his regular mound of scifi and fantasy and Moby Dick on the side. Trapped in the tentacles of teenageritis, he wrote stories with titles like ‘The Coffin’ and ‘The Guillotine’. Anguished poetry was a given.

Steve eventually attended and graduated from UCLA with a degree in Anthropology, and following that, gave thanks for the asthma which exempted him from a trip to Vietnam. From then until on, he painted and wrote, observed hippiedom with interest from the sidelines, distributed mail for the United States Postal Service, unloaded trucks and worked in the stockrooms of various Mervyn’s department stores, coached youth baseball for a quarter of a century, and became parental. He also finally got around to reading Ulysses by James Joyce, thereby freeing his writing self from the shackles of convention.

His baseball novel, Chance, debuted in 1996. His middle grade fantasy e-book series, The Bekka Chronicles, began appearing in 2010. He lives sometimes in Redwood City, sometimes at South Lake Tahoe. He continues to play with words. His child of hippies novel, CHILDREN OF VINEYARD, is due out in 2014 from Livingston Press.

Links

Email: steve@steveshilstone.com

Website: http://steveshilstone.com/

eBook Blog: http://bekkaofthorns.com/

dada Humor Blog: http://dochortonsloondiary.com/

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Steve-Shilstone/

Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/878076.Steve_Shilstone

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SteveShilstone

Twitter: https://twitter.com/steveshilstone

G+: https://plus.google.com/106099026541084889139/

Purchase Steve’s Books from Wild Child: http://www.wildchildpublishing.com

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The Amazon best seller children’s book,  Darling Cher Doesn’t Care It’s Time To Go To Bed  will be free June 15 – 16, 2013, and only 99 cents from 6/17/13 – 7/16/13.  Get you copy today!

Author:Tal la Vie
Illustrated by: Tamara Antonijevic
Publication Date: May 11, 2013
Genre: Childrens Ages 3-8
My Copy: complimentary ebook for review from author

About the Book:

“Once upon a bat and a pirate teddy bear,
there was a cheeky little witch, her name was Darling Cher.
Darling Cher was pretty, Darling Cher was bright,
but when she had to go to bed she gave mom quite a fight!
So if this introduction makes you wonder yet,
skip this page and dive into a tale you won’t forget…”

FREE PROMOTION DAYS: 6/15-6/16 
ebook link: http://www.amazon.com

ebook regular price:$2.99
ebook Summer deal: $0.99 (6/17/13-7/16/13)

 About the Author:

Tal La Vie is a mother and writer who enjoys exploring parenting challenges and sharing her insights with parents and kids alike. Rhyming is her passion, and she loves the stubborn yet adorable ways in which kids often express themselves to share their feelings and their innocent, fresh, and unique perspective. Tal believes that we all have a genuine, innate ability to foster creative dynamics with the people in our lives, and create funny, surprising, and fun solutions to the challenges we face with our loved ones, even if we often forget about this precious ability, and tend to stay within our comfort zones. Tal remembers herself as a particularly stubborn little child, and recalls her parents doing their best. Although she could sense this as a child, she only fully realized and appreciated their efforts years later, as an adult and parent. Tal writes her children’s books in memory of her beloved parents, Moshe and Daphna, who raised her with love, humor, and patience. She also dedicates her books to children and parents everywhere who love, appreciate, and accept each other for who they are.

Visit her website:  http://www.darlingcher.com

Facebook Page:  www.facebook.com/Darling.Cher.TM

My Thoughts:

Darling Cher is a little witch who gives her mom a hard time when it’s time bed.  She doesn’t care about going to bed, there’s just too much fun stuff to do.  When mom has had enough, she decides that she doesn’t care – or does she?

I had a blast reading this to my 4-year-old.  The silly story had us laughing, and we both loved the colorful, comical illustrations.  It’s a fun, interesting rhyming story with a surprise ending, that shows us a unique way in dealing with bedtime challenges.

At the end of the book,  the author provides a link to the Darling Cher website, where you can download coloring pages for your child to color.  Here’s my little guy showing off his creative artwork

Darling Cher Doesn’t Care It’s Time For Bed is a fun story that both parents and kids will enjoy.  I would recommend this  book for kids ages 3-8.

♥♥♥♥♥

If you want a unique and fun bedtime story, check out all stories in the Darling Cher- The Children’s Rhyming Picture Books Collection.

Comments Welcomed!

I’d love to hear from you!

Did you download the Darling Cher ebook?  Who are you going to read it with?

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Hilda the Wicked Witch

by Paul Kater

Publication Date: April 28, 2011
Pages: 66
My Copy: free for Amazon Kindle

Purchase:  Hilda the Wicked Witch

Book Description:

A fairy-land witch gets transported to our world and struggles to go home.

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Revived by Grace
Emma Clay
Publication Date: January 9, 2013
Metokos Press
Christian Memoir

Purchase:  Amazon  Barnes & Noble

Emma Clay lived a life of rebellion, led astray by her own desires and her attraction to an indulgent life and a difficult man. This book is her memoir, telling the powerful story of her downward decline and the way God brought her back to himself through his love.

Moving between personal storytelling, Biblical reflection, and political application, Revived by Grace is a book that speaks to the wounded place in all of us that can be healed only by the grace of God.

ABOUT EMMA CLAY

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The Survivor

by DiAnn Mills

Publication Date: March 5, 2013
Genre: Suspense/Christian/Thriller
Pages: 384
My Copy: complimentary for review from NetGalley

Purchase:   Amazon  Barnes & Noble

Book Description:

Is it her next bestseller . . . Or her last words?
In The Chase, award-winning author DiAnn Mills introduced you to the world of Kariss Walker, the bestselling suspense author with a nose for trouble. In The Survivor, Kariss gets the chance to tell her most powerful story yet. But will it revitalize her writing career? Or bring it to a violent end?
Kariss meets Dr. Amy Garrett, who survived a brutal childhood attack in which the assailant was never found. Now Dr. Garrett wants her story written in a novel. Kariss wishes she could seek the advice of Special Agent Tigo Harris, but she broke off the relationship a few months prior and seeing him again would be too painful. She interviews Amy and conducts her own research, stepping unaware into danger.
Tigo misses Kariss and wants her back, but he understands why she broke off their relationship. Instead, he concentrates on solving a car bombing and bringing the killer to justice. As Kariss’s new story attracts an onslaught of danger that she never expected, can Tigo save the woman he loves and find out who wants her dead for writing about an unsolved cold case?

My Thoughts:

This is book 2 in DiAnn Mills Crime Scene: Houston series.

My review for The Survivor is based on reading this as a stand-alone,  as I did not read the first book, The Chase.  I may have enjoyed it more if I had the background of the main characters, Kariss and Tigo.  While the first half seemed to drag for me, it was mainly because of the relationship, of lack of, between Kariss & Tigo. Without knowing their history together, or what happened between them, I just didn’t care if they could work through their issues.  I just had no connection to either character, and this was a major drawback for me.

On the plus side, the mystery and suspense of the story was quite thrilling.  This is what kept me going.  I was anxious to see how it would all work out, and I wasn’t disappointed.

Overall, if you’re a fan of author DiAnn Mills, and are familiar with her writing, I’m sure you’ll enjoy this book.  If you haven’t read the previous book first, though, I would definitely start with that one before reading The Survivor.

♥♥♥♥♥

About the Author:

Award-winning author DiAnn Mills is a fiction writer who combines an adventuresome spirit with unforgettable characters to create action-packed, suspense-filled novels. DiAnn’s first book was published in 1998. She currently has more than fifty books published.

Her titles have appeared on the CBA and ECPA bestseller lists and have won placements through the American Christian Fiction Writer’s Carol Awards and Inspirational Reader’s Choice awards. DiAnn won the Christy Award in 2010 and 2011.

DiAnn is a founding board member for American Christian Fiction Writers and a member of Inspirational Writers Alive, Romance Writers of America, and Advanced Writers and Speakers Association. She speaks to various groups and teaches writing workshops around the country. DiAnn is also the Craftsman mentor for the Jerry B. Jenkins Christian Writers Guild.

She and her husband live in sunny Houston, Texas.

Books in this series:

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