Armchair BEA Introduction and Giveaway #1

Since my health and my finances prevent me from attending BEA (though one day I hope to go), I am staying home and enjoying Armchair BEA this week with lots of other great bloggers.  Today's post is simple:

Who are you, and how do you Armchair?

 

My name is Crystal and I am a bookaholic, I know I am and I am not undergoing any 12-steps to get rid of it. You see I could have worse habits, like 300 cats instead of books. Books don't need feeding or have to use the bathroom, they just sit there and look pretty on my shelves and only cause me some pain when trying to decide what to read next.

Okay that was me two years ago, now that number has probably tripled no matter how many books I give away on my blog. I'm pretty sure my husband is eying me and considering whether the insane asylum is a good idea or if I was gone there would he end up there after having to care for the kids by himself for that period of time. I'm pretty sure the books will win out in the end. Plus he has the benefit of me saying "hey honey, I think you would enjoy this book" and I haven't been wrong yet with book or author recommendations for him.

So who am I? I am an obsessed book blogger, who is going through a rough patch in my health at the current moment and that may have me in Duke Hospital within the next month, but it won't be in the mental health ward. With all of that I also get to say this is the last week of little league for my boys and while I have enjoyed watching them play and the camraderie of the other parents, I will be glad to see it end, because I do work as well and this 8-4 work, then 5:30 - 8:30 running the kids around and finally eating at 8:30 gets old pretty darn quick (and it was close to landing me in the insane asylum). I will be happy to catch back up on my reading and to actually see my boys more nights of the week. I hope also to get back to my blog more and visiting other blogs I have missed out on that while socializing at the ball field lately.

So that leads to the personal me. I am a wife of 13 years and my husband and I have actually been together for 19 years (since the end of our senior year of high school) and no you cannot do the math! I have a 10-year-old who is becoming a know-it-all, but he is a sweet boy and a 6-year-old who keeps me on my toes (he was singing California Gurls by Katy Perry while waiting in line at Walmart yesterday - Bikinis, zuchinnis, martinis). We also are owned by a sweet black cat who keeps getting into disagreements with snakes and his name is Buckwheat. And the final member of the family is our pound puppy Chewey (short for Chewbacca - my boys' are Star Wars addicts). Chewey is part lab and has the prettiest coat. He's also the perfect size, about 3/4 the size of a full-blooded lab. Everyone but Chewey and Buckwheat love to read, and Buckwheat loves to pester us when we read, so maybe he loves to read as well.

That's pretty much it - I have to say that blogging for the last two years has really led me to branch out in my reading and I love that. No longer am I waiting on 3-4 of my favorite authors to release new books, now I have a whole world open to me. Oh and I have a Kindle so I have even more books than my husband knows about, but hey a lot of them were free, okay some of them were free, he doesn't have to know about the ones I do the one-click thing with - you know it doesn't even seem like spending money ;)

So what about you? Tell me something about yourself and be entered in to win your choice of two books my read pile. I'll be putting up a page to look at the choices later today (it's here now), but there is something for everyone. I do have to limit this one to the US/Canada because of postage costs. It takes a lot of money for my book habit, ooops I mean to raise two hungry boys. LOL. Giveaway ends the end of this week, 5/27/11.

I'll also be running other giveaways this week because I like to share the wealth (and my husband likes me to remove some books from the house from time-to-time).

Adele Griffin's Teenage Yard Sale & Giveaway (author of Tighter)

My Teenage Garage Sale from 1988, Fall of Senior Year of High School.

Everything Must Go!

1. My Unrelenting Sarcasm (no value): When I was 17, this was my most overused personality trait and I wish I’d sold it off then. Sarcasm is a way of making people feel bad while safeguarding your own emotions. No fun.

2. My Little Brothers, ages 8-16: (Four for $1.00): Even though I love them all dearly, I probably would have sold them back then. The house always smelled like feet, the backyard was a jungle of skateboard ramps, and the TV was only on the Sports Channel. Ugh.

3. My AP Physics Notebook ($5.00): How’d I place into honors physics?  No idea. I did not belong there and I had no idea what I was doing there. Good doodles in the notebook, though.

4. My Paula Abdul mix tape: (no value, but I could be blackmailed with it).

5. My “signature” Benetton body fragrance (no value): for when you want to smell like inside an old lady’s pocketbook.

6. The real scent of my VW Rabbit (priceless). I think if I caught a whiff of that plastic/tanning oil/French fries scent, it would catapult me into a matrix of high school memories from which I might never return.

7. My impulse-purchase M.C. Hammer pants. ($20.00 for the real silk).  I truly thought I rocked this look. Sad. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=otCpCn0l4Wo

8. My freshman-in-college boyfriend’s love letters to me ($200.00): I actually don’t know where these are, but I’d pay a grown-up amount of money to see them again. They were a touch scandalous, as I recall.

Thanks Adele for that fun look into your past!


About the Book
When 17-year-old Jamie arrives on the idyllic New England island of Little Bly to work as a summer au pair, she is stunned to learn of the horror that precedes her. Seeking the truth surrounding a young couple's tragic deaths, Jamie discovers that she herself looks shockingly like the dead girl—and that she has a disturbing ability to sense the two ghosts. Why is Jamie's connection to the couple so intense? What really happened last summer at Little Bly? As the secrets of the house wrap tighter and tighter around her, Jamie must navigate the increasingly blurred divide between the worlds of the living and the dead.

Brilliantly plotted, with startling twists, here is a thrilling page-turner from the award-winning Adele Griffin
 
Giveaway
I have one copy of Tighter by Adele Griffin to giveaway.  Open to US/Canada only, simply fill out the form below.  Ends 5/30/2011.

If you can't see the form below, you can find it here.

Book Tour: The Shepherd by Ethan Cross

 
The Shepherd by Ethan Cross

Publisher: Fiction Std.

Publish Date: March 16, 2011

Paperback, 400 pages 
Fiction, Suspense

 ISBN: 978-1936558063

***My review will come later this week - and this book starts off with a bang and has me entranced so far.***

About Ethan Cross

When a fireman or a policeman would come visit his school, most of his classmates’ heads would swim with aspirations of growing up and catching bad guys or saving someone from a blazing inferno. When these moments came for Ethan Cross, however, his dreams weren’t to someday be a cop or put out fires; he just wanted to write about it.
And his dream of telling stories on a grand scale has come to fruition with the release of his new book, The Shepherd.
Ethan Cross is the pen name of a thriller author living and writing in Illinois with his wife, two daughters, and two Shih Tzus.
For more information about Ethan, you can visit her website at www.ethancross.com

About The Shepherd

Marcus Williams and Francis Ackerman Jr. both have a talent for hurting people. Marcus, a former New York City homicide detective, uses his abilities to protect others, while Ackerman uses his gifts to inflict pain and suffering. When both men become unwilling pawns in a conspiracy that reaches to the highest levels of our government, Marcus finds himself in a deadly game of cat and mouse trapped between a twisted psychopath and a vigilante with seemingly unlimited resources. Aided by a rogue FBI agent and the vigilante’s beautiful daughter -a woman with whom he’s quickly falling in love- Marcus must expose the deadly political conspiracy and confront his past while hunting down one of the most cunning and ruthless killers in the world.

 

 

 

Book Excerpt

The dream always started the same. With the darkness, came memories and pain. Every night, Marcus Williams found himself trapped in a prison without walls. His recollections painted a dark portrait that didn’t simply reside somewhere deep within his subconscious. He had seen it with his own eyes. The world of his memories and the setting of his nightmares had left a stain on his soul and blood on his hands—neither of which could ever truly be washed away.
Like countless others before him, he had begun his career as a young police officer with a head filled by ideals like justice will prevail and good always triumphs over evil. It didn’t take him long to discover that the old cliché of justice being blind was fairly accurate, and more often than not, evil was better funded than good. He had sat on the outside, looking in on a world fueled more by money and power than by the long-forgotten concepts of honor and virtue.
During his time as a protector of the peace, he witnessed many atrocities. He beheld injustices that consisted not only of the acts that men committed, but also of the punishment, or lack thereof, that they received. He had seen good people, who had committed crimes out of desperation and necessity, sentenced to the harshest degree of the law. By the same token, he witnessed justice turn a blind eye to certain individuals because of the size of their bank account or the amount of power that they wielded.
His time as a caretaker of chaos had left him not only haunted by painful memories, but also plagued by soul-shaking visions that tormented him upon entering the deepest recesses of sleep.
His heart raced as the events of a fateful night from his past played out deep inside his mind. He knew that he was dreaming and that nothing could erase the events recorded forever upon the pages of his memory. The fact that it wasn’t real didn’t make the experience seem any less authentic. He could feel the same chill in the air. He could smell the same scent of the river nearby. And he could hear the same scream that called to him on that night; a scream that his dreams would never allow him to forget.
Through the endurance of countless nights of restless sleep, he had learned that if he focused hard enough and screamed with enough ferocity inside his mind, the echoes from his subconscious triggered a reaction in the conscious side of his brain. Through the act of silently screaming, he could break the chains of sleep and save himself from reliving the painful events of his past.
He awoke alone, drenched in sweat from forehead to rib cage. The clock read 5:15.
He stumbled down the hallway to a room containing the device that would transport him from semi-consciousness to alert coherence. Entering the kitchen, he headed to his trusty coffee pot. Caffeine…every aspiring insomniac’s best friend.
Moving to the living room, he flipped on the television and cycled through the channels. He sat on a folding chair. Unpacked boxes surrounded him. The television and the coffee pot had been the first items to be unboxed.
Only five channels came in clearly, and he found himself forced to choose between a multitude of infomercials or a local news program. Since he had yet to come to the place in his life where he felt the need for knives that could cut through a tin can as easily as a tomato, a boxed set of the greatest country songs from the 60s, or a can of spray-on hair replacement, he switched to Channel Four News.
As he sipped his coffee and watched, an image flashed onto the screen that drew his attention. He was certain that he had never seen the face that stared back at him, but he sensed a vague familiarity in the man’s features that he couldn’t pinpoint. He also recognized something in the man’s eyes that he knew all too well. The man’s gray eyes reflected a hunger that dwelled in the darkest regions of a tainted soul. He saw a raging fire inside the man and knew that neither food nor drink could quench his thirst or appease his never-ceasing appetite. He had seen a similar hunger on a night from his past that he could never remember to forget. He turned up the volume.
“Most recently, Ackerman is believed to be responsible for the brutal murders of three men, including two Colorado State Troopers. But there was an unexpected twist to the story. Ackerman allegedly took one of the men’s family hostage and forced them to play a sadistic game. This is what a representative from the Colorado State Patrol, Major Christian Steinhoff, had to say at a recent press conference.”
The image cut to a man at a podium who expounded upon the details of the incident with the family, describing the miraculous survival of one of the victims, a woman named Emily Morgan. A picture of the woman flashed onto the screen. Her pale features seemed luminescent.
“Francis Ackerman Jr. is considered armed and highly dangerous. He is believed to be responsible for the brutal slayings of an undetermined number of men and women since his recent escape from a mental institution in Michigan and is wanted for questioning in several other ongoing criminal investigations. In an interview yesterday afternoon, a representative from the Dimmit County Sheriff’s Department told one of our reporters, Julian Harms, that this man will likely be remembered as one of the most prolific serial killers in U.S. history… In other news, presidential candidate and front runner, Paul Phillips, will be speaking in San Antonio…”
In the last moment before politics replaced the killer’s image, Marcus felt frightened and yet curious in regard to the killer from the TV. What could drive a man to commit such terrible acts? He realized that the world was a vast sea of infinite possibilities. Any number of circumstances could account for an ordinary man’s departure from the world of the mentally stable and socially acceptable into the realm of the criminally insane.
He considered that—sometime in the not too distant future—a scientist might discover that the root of all serial killers and violent offenders did not stem from a connection with an abused childhood or dark suggestion from the realm below. Perhaps, the root of insanity was actually yellow dye number five or red dye number forty, either of which could be found in the common Twinkie.
The concept of Insanity by Reason of Twinkie brought a smile to his face and allowed him to stop thinking about the killer from the TV and, if only for a few precious seconds, the dark deeds of his own past.

FTC Information: I received this book from the publisher through Pump Up Your Book Promotion for an honest review.  I have Amazon links on my review pages but I do not make any money from these because of NC laws.  I put them solely for people to check out the books on a retail site.

Book Review: Declaring Spinsterhood by Jamie Lynn Braziel

Declaring Spinsterhood by Jamie Lynn Braziel

Publisher: AmazonEncore

Publish Date: May 3, 2011

Paperback, 284 pages 
Fiction
 ISBN: 978-1935597544

My Review:
Why I read this:


My thoughts:  

My Rating: 4.5/5.0


About the Book:


Emma Bailey is thirty years old and single. No problem for her, but a point of round-the-clock contention for her mother, her family, and too many of her friends. In Jamie Lynn Braziel's Declaring Spinsterhood, the terminal illness known as "old maid" is explored from every angle, and the result is a compassionate, compelling, and wickedly funny novel. Emma may stand up before all and declare her intention to never marry, but what about that little place in her heart reserved for Brian Davis? Sure, Brian's seeing someone, and Emma is not a vixen who breaks up relationships, but would it be so terrible if Brian returned the interest? Rather than bide her time, Emma dates…and dates. Some of the men are charming, others less so. With her vow of spinsterhood more a noose than a friend, Emma musters her courage and moves on. That is, until the unforeseen throws up the biggest obstacle of her life: love.

About the Author: 

Born in Fort Worth, Texas, Jamie Lynn Braziel attended Southeastern Oklahoma State University, where she majored in English and minored in French. A financial analyst, the author is working towards a master's degree in accounting.

Website
Twitter
Facebook

FTC Information: I received this book from through the Amazon Vine Program for an honest review.  I have Amazon links on my review pages but I do not make any money from these because of NC laws.  I put them solely for people to check out the books on a retail site.

Guest Blog: Graham Parke (No Hope For Gomez) + Link to great summer giveaway

Is It Like Listening To You Talk? 

by Graham Parke

As you probably know, to become an internationally best-selling author, you need to sell three books. This is not an easy task, but once you’ve managed to rack up these three sales, the rest is more or less a done deal.

Now, these sales themselves will not put you on the best-seller lists. They won’t even put you within a million spots of the bottom of the lists, but what they will do, and what they do every time, is spark a slowly growing buying frenzy that will get you there.

These three people will love your book, they will tell another five people, who in turn tell another seven. Within roughly four-and-a-half weeks, you finally make your first million. That’s how it happens. Every single time.

But, how does an author tackle this monumental task? Where does he find these three readers?

I myself was quite lucky. When my novel appeared on Amazon I already knew over five people! What’s more, some of these people even liked me... somewhat. So I set out to become an internationally best-selling author by convincing at least three of these five people to buy my novel.

I started with my mother. Of all the five people I knew, I probably knew her the longest. I showed her my Amazon page and she nodded approvingly. She did not, however, make any attempts to buy a copy. So I logged on for her, navigated back to my novel’s page, and left the mouse pointer conveniently positioned over the BUY button.

She read the novel description again, searched-inside-this-book, and nodded some more. When I asked her if she’d like to buy a copy, she scrunched up her nose and said; ‘But what if I don’t like it?’

I told her not to worry. ‘It’s a really good book,’ I said. ‘I should know. I’ve re-written it like 50 times. It’s really funny and interesting.’

My mother wasn’t convinced. ‘I’m not really into comedy writing, though,’ she said.

‘It’s not just a comedy,’ I pointed out. ‘It has a real story; it’s a mystery. And it has twists and turns and believable characters.’

My mother hesitated. ‘Maybe I should just play it safe and buy another Stephen King novel…’

I ended up having to offer a personal money-back guarantee, and purchase a copy using my own credit card for the time being, but she finally cracked. I’d made my first sale!

Next, I prodded my wife. Although she did like words in general, she wasn’t sure she was up for reading and entire book full of them.

‘Is this like your usual stuff?’ she wanted to know.
‘What usual stuff?’
She shrugged. ‘I don’t know. Is it like listening to you talk?’
‘What’s wrong with they way I talk?’
‘Nothing. It’s just, well, sometimes you talk a lot of nonsense.’
I waved it away. ‘Don’t worry,’ I said. ‘I am much more interesting and ‘telligible’ on paper.’

Long story short; my second sale is almost in the bag. Now I just need to find one more person to buy my novel, and I’ll be set for life!  

Check out the Summer of Gomez!

Get free books and win a Kindle or iPod. As reviewers have been calling “No Hope for Gomez!” the perfect summer read - light, fast, fun - I decided to give this summer's Gomez readers some exclusive content and the chance to win prizes.

Book Tour: Contingency by Paula Wiseman

 
Contingency by Paula Wiseman

Publisher: Mindstir Media

Publish Date: December 3, 2010

Paperback, 340 pages 
Fiction, Christian
Covenant of Trust Series #1
 ISBN: 9780981964829

***My review will come later this weekend - but from what I am hearing this is an amazing book!***

About Paula Wiseman

After working several years as research chemist, Paula Wiseman was blessed with the opportunity to stay home with her children and follow the writer’s path. She has been published in several Cup of Comfort devotional books and in Life Savors for Women. Contingency: Book One: Covenant of Trust Series, her debut novel, spent time on the Amazon.com Christian Fiction bestsellers list, and was also the #1 Hot New Release in Christian Fiction. Indemnity is her second novel. Paula blogs on matters of life and faith at www.paulawiseman.com.

 

About Contingency

Bobbi Molinsky’s comfortable life is shattered when a forwarded email from her husband’s account lands in her inbox. The email teases, “My whole evening is free again.” After an angry confrontation with Chuck, she is left with the broken remains of an eighteen year marriage. Bobbi agrees forgiving Chuck is the right thing, the God-honoring thing to do, but it leaves her empty and isolated. Teaching her second-graders is a burden. Taking care of her boys saps all her energy. It seems God Himself has walked away, leaving her to struggle alone. Bobbi can’t deny the transformation in Chuck, but genuine forgiveness requires trust, and trust is a risk she’s not willing to take. Can she let go of her deepest, most primal fears and save her marriage?

Read the Excerpt!

She sat at the breakfast table with her back to him. “Bobbi, where are the boys?” He didn’t want his sons to hear any of this.“Don’t you even say my name.” She spoke without turning around, her voice low with the same intense anger. “I hate you. I hate what you’ve done, and I hate you.” Chuck didn’t dare join her at the table. Instead, he moved over, and leaned against the sink so he could face her. She folded her hands in front of her and looked past him. “Are the boys here?” he asked again.
“They’re at Rita’s. And no, she doesn’t know.”
“Look, I—”
“Just give me the whole speech, Chuck. I’m sure you practiced it all the way home.”
She locked her eyes on his. That seething emotion wasn’t anger at all. It was humiliation and betrayal. He wanted her to be angry. He could face anger. He could fight that. But he couldn’t fight hurt. He never wanted to hurt her. For the first time in his life, his swaggering self-confidence evaporated, and he bolted.
“I can’t do this right now,” he muttered, stepping around the table. “I’m going to go. We’ll talk about this later.”
“This?” She slammed her hand on the table, and he froze. “Can’t you even say it?” She pushed back from the table and jerked herself to her feet. “Here, let me do it for you. You slept with another woman, Chuck! You had an affair! You committed adultery! You cheated on me.” She closed the gap between them until she stood mere inches away.
“For God’s sake, Bobbi—”
“God? Don’t drag Him into this! He didn’t have anything to do with it.” Bobbi pointed her finger right at Chuck’s heart. “It was all you!”
“I know!” His instincts told him to unload on her, to match her yelling and slamming, but he couldn’t. “I’m going.”
“Can’t you face me? You didn’t have any trouble facing me while you were having an affair behind my back! Why should now be any different?”
“Because you’re upset. I can’t talk to you when you’re upset.” He couldn’t think of anything better than that lame excuse. His points, his concessions, his action plan vanished.
“Upset? I just found out my husband is having an affair! How did you expect me to act when you got home?”
“Maybe coming home was a mistake!” he shouted as he walked back to the front hallway to get his bag and briefcase.

Contingency Virtual Book Tour Schedule

Monday, May 2

Book reviewed at A Room Without Books is Empty

“This is the first in a series and I am looking forward to reading the next book.   I would encourage you to pick up this book if you are looking for a well written, no holds barred book.  If you aren’t sure, I would encourage you to read the excerpt at the link above and make up your mind then.  The first chapter will have you wanting more.”

Tuesday, May 3

Interviewed at Beyond the Books

“When you get rejected, take a break from your project and write something new. Write for the pure joy of creation. Be brilliant again.”

Wednesday, May 4

Interviewed and book giveaway at A Cozy Reader’s Corner Reviews

“I love it when scenes fall into place in ways I didn’t anticipate.”

Thursday, May 5

Interviewed at Virginia Beach Publishing Examiner

“Dedicate a little time every day to promoting your book. That keeps you engaged and active without overwhelming you.”

Friday, May 6

Book reviewed at Rainy Day Reviews

“I would continue gushing about the book but I don’t want to give anything else away. I recommend this read to all:)”

Monday, May 9

Book reviewed at Life in Review

“I VERY highly recommend this book! It is beautifully written and the story is powerful and so realistic! I was hooked from the very start and I felt totally emotionally involved in their story!  I felt their heartache and pain and emotions. I truly cared about the characters and was rooting so hard for them! I loved this book and Paula Wiseman’s writing and I am so happy this is the start of a new series and I cannot wait for the next book!”

Tuesday, May 10

Interviewed at Blogcritics

“My faith is such a huge part of who I am. I wanted to write stories about people dealing with faith issues in the midst of some of life’s most challenging circumstances.”

Wednesday, May 11

Guesting at Literarily Speaking’s May 2011 Book Panel

Thursday, May 12

Book reviewed at Lynn’s Corner

Friday, May 13

Book reviewed at Reviews From the Heart

Monday, May 16

Book reviewed at The Phantom Paragrapher

Tuesday, May 17

Book reviewed at Ashley’s Bookshelf

Wednesday, May 18

Guest blogging at The Book Faery Reviews

Thursday, May 19

Book reviewed at The Book Faery Reviews

Friday, May 20

Book reviewed at My Reading Room

Monday, May 23

Book reviewed at One Day at a Time

Tuesday, May 24

Book reviewed at By the Book

Wednesday, May 25

Book reviewed at Bookworm Lisa

Thursday, May 26

Interviewed at Literarily Speaking

Friday, May 27

Chat & Book Giveaway at Pump Up Your Book’s Authors on Tour May 2011 Facebook Party

FTC Information: I received this book from the publisher through Pump Up Your Book Promotion for an honest review.  I have Amazon links on my review pages but I do not make any money from these because of NC laws.  I put them solely for people to check out the books on a retail site.