BBT Virtual Book Tour: Guest Post by Christine Locke - Open Door

I'm pleased to introduce  you to Christine Locke, on tour at Bewitching Book Tours with her book, Open Door. Christine is sharing a guest post with us today, Welcome Christine. The floor is all yours :)

Who Wants to Live Forever? By Christine Locke

Well, no one, if you believe many popular stories.  Like the contest at the center of Highlander with the prize, life as a mortal, going to its winner, many stories about immortal characters reveal them to be conflicted about their “gift,” eternal life. 

“Being sixteen forever sounded good until you really thought about it. Then it didn't seem like such a great prospect.”
― Cassandra Clare, City of Fallen Angels

YA paranormal novels are no exception.  In Time, the sequel to my first published novel Open Door, gives me the opportunity to focus on the question Stephenie Meyer asks:

“If you could live forever, what would you live for?”
― Stephenie Meyer

I get to show—or at least hint at—the afterlife of a main character with In Time, and that is lots of fun.  I try to convey that although her earthly life is over, she still meets challenges and is drawn to opportunities, even if my heroine can no longer understand her mentor as she once did.  I’d like to think that the kind of immortality I’m conveying—a sort of heaven—is free from the biggest problem I’ve observed other immortal fictional characters combating: boredom.  The trials of this life are interesting for a time, but once you’ve learned what you can from them and you know your time has no limits, ennui invariably sets in, or so Lestat told me J

I agree with Baudelaire:

“The insatiable thirst for everything which lies beyond, and which life reveals, is the most living proof of our immortality.” --Charles Baudelaire

Live with an insatiable thirst NOW, revel in all that your life reveals, apply it to the best of your ability, because we do thirst for what lies beyond.  Whatever that is, we do wonder and wait and, perhaps with dread or foreboding (for what could be more natural?), we hope it will be something more, something new, something wonderful.

Just remember this:

“... millions long for immortality who don't know what to do with themselves on a rainy Sunday afternoon.”
― Susan Ertz

Here’s to savoring your Sundays while reading fabulous fiction for as long as we may!  I hope you give Open Door a try, I hope you love it, and I thank you for visiting Immortality and Beyond.

Christine Locke was born in California and grew up in various locations around the United States as a Navy brat. She was the oldest of six children and today is mother and step-mother to seven. She attended Texas A&M University, receiving her Master of Arts degree in Comparative Literature in 1995.

Christine has worked as a writing instructor, a salesperson, and an award-winning retail manager and management trainer, among other things. Today, she co-ordinates makeovers for a local magazine. She and her husband, Mike, live with their children, two dogs, and two cats in Arkansas.

For years, Christine has been writing novels around her work and family life. Open Door is her first published novel. Several other manuscripts are almost ready to follow Open Door onto Amazon KDP, including the Open Door sequel, In Time.


Twitter: @wrtrdoll and @CarinsGriffin

christinelockebooks.blogspot.com

carinatmallacemansion.blogspot.com

http://www.goodreads.com/wrtrdoll

Open Door

By Christine Locke

Book Description:

ENTRANCING OPPORTUNITIES BECKON A YOUNG GIRL...

It's 1987, and 16-year-old Carin White desperately needs her first job.  An elegant woman she's never met appears at her door offering employment.  "Aunt" Helen asks Carin to work for her on the family's rambling, enigmatic estate in the tiny resort town of Eureka Springs.

IN A WORLD WHERE NOTHING IS AS IT SEEMS...

Carin takes little notice of Rafe Allen, Helen's other hired help.  But a brutal assault forces Carin to confront her own capacity for violence.  Carin learns her mother concealed her identity from her, and the mansion hides horrific secrets of its own.

 AND ONLY LOVE CAN SAVE HER.

Carin exposes the truth about her presence on the estate.  Will she be strong enough to recognize love and redeem her family legacy?  Or will the temptations of power and control lure her to the same dark places where others lost themselves?

Amazon

Notes to Readers:

This novel is NOT about werewolves, vampires, or fallen angels.  It is a story about magic.  The gothic Mallace Mansion lives and breathes as a character, and only one woman controls its Legacy.  Is Carin the one? Read OPEN DOOR to find out.

This novel does NOT have a cliffhanger ending.  The author does not believe in them.  The story is complete in itself, and the ending points the way to a new storyline for IN TIME, the second novel in the Legacy Trilogy due out this Halloween.

OPEN DOOR is a full length novel at over 46,000 words.

Thank you so much for stopping in Christine and the best of luck in the future :)

Award Winning Author p.m. terrell is at the table today! #Giveaway & Interview

Welcome to Immortality and Beyond.  I'm so happy you could join me today. p.m. is currently on tour with Goddess Fish Promotions and will be offering you a chance to win a $25 Amazon gift card during her tour, so be sure to leave a comment and please include your email address. Follow the tour for more chances to win.

BK: Please tell us a little about yourself...

I write under the pen name p.m. terrell, which stands for Patricia McClelland Terrell. I’ve been very fortunate to have received international acclaim for the fourteen books that have been released to date. River Passage, an historical adventure based on the true story of a riverboat journey, won a 2010 Best Drama Award. And Vicki’s Key, the second book in the Black Swamp Mysteries series, was a finalist in the 2012 International Book Awards and a nominee in the 2012 USA Best Book Awards. I am a full-time writer. In my personal life, I am a sucker for dogs down on their luck (I’ve rescued 7 dogs to date and would rescue more if I had the space) and my hobby is keeping and raising freshwater angelfish—which made it into my series as a front for CIA operatives Vicki Boyd and Dylan Maguire.

BK: Please tell us a little about your book....

Secrets of a Dangerous Woman is the third book in the Black Swamp Mysteries series. Dylan Maguire returns in his first assignment with the CIA: to interrogate recently captured Brenda Carnegie. But when she escapes again, it’s obvious she’s had help from within the CIA’s own ranks. Now he must discover why some in the highest government offices want her killed—and others will risk everything to help her. And when he discovers her true identity, his mission has just become very personal.

BK: What inspired you to pen this particular novel?

After Exit 22 was released a few years ago, I was inundated with requests from readers to bring back Brenda Carnegie. There was something about the way she was equally comfortable as a computer hacker on the wrong side of the law as she was escaping through an alligator-infested swamp... So I knew I would have to bring her back as a major character throughout the entire series.

Readers were the same way with Irishman Dylan Maguire; opportunistic, perpetually good-humored but capable of killing when he had to, I knew he would be the perfect nemesis for Brenda. They are so much alike that they are drawn to each other—but each too dangerous to know it would ever work out between out.

BK: When did you first consider yourself a writer?

Definitely by the time I was fourteen years old. I won my first poetry contest (which I’ll always think was rigged) when I was in the fourth grade and that started me on the path to writing—first poetry then short stories, and by the time I was thirteen or fourteen I was writing full-length novels. But I didn’t consider myself a decent writer until nearly forty years later!

BK: How do you keep your story flowing?

Most writers work toward the climactic scene near the end of the book. But when I decide what the plot will be, I determine three points: the beginning and the groundwork to be laid there; the middle, which could be a climactic scene by itself and turns everything in the book a hundred and eighty degrees; and the ending. I work the first half of the book toward that mid-point. Once that point is reached, the story is propelled forward like a roller coaster toward the climactic ending, which has to be bigger and more breathtaking than the mid-point.

BK: Do you ever run into writer's block, and if so, what do you do to get past it?

I never run into writer’s block. My problem is I don’t have enough hours in the day to write all that goes through my mind. I get ideas from everywhere—scouring declassified government documents, watching documentaries, reading everything I can get my hands on. My plots are always believable because they are pulled from headlines that I weave together—like the rise of China and how easily our touch-screen voting technology could be rigged by a foreign government. The plot of Secrets of a Dangerous Woman was actually devised when I couldn’t turn on the television or open a newspaper without seeing or reading about another politician’s scandals.

BK: What is your writing process like? Do you have any quirks, or must-haves to write?

I have been typing my manuscripts since the late 1970’s; writer’s cramp prevents me from writing too much by long-hand. So electricity is a must-have! I also prefer silence because I can really get into a scene. I find that music or noise in the background can make its way into my writing by phrases or mood so I sequester myself in another building on my property and write six days a week, sometimes more than ten hours a day.

BK: Where do you hope your books/writing will be in the future?

I have one series, Black Swamp Mysteries, underway that will always involve an element of the CIA (since several main characters are CIA operatives) and international locations. I have started a second series involving an Irishman who moves to America and becomes a homicide detective that involves local mysteries—it’s a cross between Robert B. Parker’s Jesse Stone series and Nicholas Sparks’ romances. I hope to write three or four books per year between the two series. I’ve written three books this year and love the schedule. My agent is also shopping the movie rights for all my suspense/thrillers.

BK: What do you hope readers will take away from your books?

I hope to entertain; to take the reader out of their own life and propel them into the worlds I create; and because my method of writing includes a lot of factual detail, they can learn a lot in the process—whether it’s the inner workings of the CIA or terrorism or foreign lands and cultures.

BK: What is one piece of advice you received that you carry with you in your writing?

Show, don’t tell.

BK: What is one piece of advice you would give to new and aspiring writers?

Take your ego out of your work. When a writer thinks his or her book is the best thing since sliced bread, they’re unable to accept constructive criticism and they’re unable to improve. By removing their ego, they can listen to criticism, take it under advisement and improve their writing book by book.

BK: Are you currently working on any new projects? What can we expect from you in the future?

I am currently working on the sequel to Secrets of a Dangerous Woman, entitled Dylan’s Song. It takes Vicki and Dylan to Ireland on a CIA mission—to find and extract a missing CIA operative. While there, Vicki learns the real reason Dylan left his native country—while harboring a secret of her own.

Dylan’s Song is scheduled for release in 2013, along with the next book in the Black Swamp Mysteries series (as yet untitled.) I will also be writing the second book in my new Ryan O’Clery mystery series, tentatively entitled After the Tempest.

BK: Where can readers find you?

My website is www.pmterrell.com. From there, you’ll find links to my Facebook page, Twitter and blogspot. I often post things on Facebook, Twitter and my blog first—so it’s a great way to know what I’m up to in real time.

Thank you so much for taking time to chat with me today. It's been a pleasure having you and I wish you much success in the future.

AUTHOR INFORMATION:

p.m.terrell is the award-winning, internationally acclaimed author of more than 16 books, including Vicki's Key, a 2012 International Book Awards finalist, and River Passage, 2010 Best Fiction & Drama winner. She is the co-founder of The Book 'Em Foundation whose slogan is "Buy a Book and Stop a Crook" and the co-chair of Book 'Em North Carolina Writers Conference & Book Fair. For more information, visit www.pmterrell.com.

LINKS:

www.pmterrell.com

www.pmterrell.blogspot.com

Twitter: @pmterrell

Facebook: Patricia M. Terrell

In Secrets of a Dangerous Woman, Dylan Maguire is back in his first assignment with the CIA: to interrogate recently captured Brenda Carnegie. But when she escapes again, it's obvious she's had help from within the CIA's own ranks. With Vicki Boyd's assistance, Brenda is back in Dylan's custody. And now he must find out why some in the highest levels of our government want her dead while others are willing to risk everything to help her. And when he discovers Brenda's real identity, his mission has just become very personal. 

Excerpt:

“Who are you running from?” Vicki asked.

Brenda took a deep breath. “I am in trouble. Big trouble.”

“What did you do?”

“Depends on who you ask.” She took a deep breath. “I’m tired, Vicki. Really tired. I need to get off the street. Stay inside for a day or two. Regroup.”

“I’m living in Lumberton now. The woman who owned the house where I’m staying passed away. Her nephew inherited it.”

Her eyes narrowed. “Yeah? Where’s he?”

“I live with him. Come home with me. It’s a big house, three stories.”

Brenda frowned as if she was deep in thought. “It’s just you and him there?”

“His name’s Dylan. I’ll tell you all about him on the way.”

She half nodded. “He won’t be taken aback by you bringing me home? I’m a bit more to handle than a stray cat.”

“He’d love to meet you. I promise. He’ll take care of you.”

“He will, will he?”

Vicki blushed. “He’s got a strong sense of family. Besides,” she said as she started to rise, “it’s suppertime and you need to eat. We’ll get something in your belly and you’ll get a good night’s sleep.”

Brenda hesitated only briefly before she rose from the table. “You sure you can handle the intrusion?”

“Positive.”

As they made their way toward the door, Brenda whispered, “I wouldn’t be too sure about that.”

New Release Monday

Hello fellow bloggers :).   A new feature I am implementing,  I will be letting you know about new releases on Mondays.  If you have a new release,  or if your favorite author has one,  please let me know so I can add them to the post.  It can be any genre,  just include author, title, synopsis, publisher, and release date in an email with "New Release" in the subject line to bkwalkerbooks@comcast.net.

So this Mondays New Release Picks are:

Abigail Cottage by Margaret West  
Paperback 
Publisher: Hedge Witchery Books (1 Dec 2010) 
ISBN-10: 1907963049 
ISBN-13: 978-1907963049

After receiving an inheritance of a cottage in Ireland and discovering she is adopted, Abbey Newlands goes in search of her real family. But before she arrives at the cottage, a chain of events and a whirlwind romance leaves her deeply in love with Shaun O'Donnell. When Shaun's mother, Aveline, reveals a dark twist of fate that mean they can never be together, Abbey flees to the cottage alone, pregnant and unaware that it is cursed by two demons who reside there. One who will love her, and one who wants her dead. Only Shaun has the power to save them both and lock the demons away behind Hell's door.

The Lost Saint by Bree Despain

Hardcover, 416 pages

Published December 28th 2010 by EgmontUSA

more details...

ISBN 1606840584 (ISBN13: 9781606840580)

The Lost Saint Series

The Dark Divine #2

A family destroyed. A love threatened. An enemy returns.

Grace Divine made the ultimate sacrifice to cure Daniel Kalbi. She was infected with he werewolf curse while trying to save him, and lost her beloved brother in the process.

Desperate to find Jude, Grace befriends Talbot, a newcomer to town. But as the two grow closer, Grace's relationship with Daniel is put in danger -- in more ways than one.

Unaware of the dark path she is walking, Grace begins to give into the wolf inside of her -- not realizing that an enemy has returned and a deadly trap is about to be sprung.

Bree Despain delivers sizzling romance and thrilling action in the heart-pounding sequel to the The Dark Divine.

Entice by Carrie Jones

Paperback, 264 pages

Published January 3rd 2011 by Bloomsbury Publishing PLC (first published December 14th 2010)

more details...

ISBN 1408810441 (ISBN13: 9781408810446)

url http://www.carriejonesbooks.com/my-books...

series

Need #3

Zara and Nick are soul mates, meant to be together forever.
But that's not quite how things have worked out.

For starters, well, Nick is dead.
Supposedly, he's been taken to a mythic place for warriors known as Valhalla, so Zara and her friends might be able to get him back. But it's taking time, and meanwhile a group of evil pixies is devastating Bedford, with more teens going missing every day. An all-out war seems imminent, and the good guys need all the warriors they can find. But how to get to Valhalla?

And even if Zara and her friends discover the way, there's that other small problem: Zara's been pixie kissed. When she finds Nick, will he even want to go with her? Especially since she hasn't just turned...she's Astley's queen.

My Soul To Steal by Rachael Vincent

Paperback, 352 pages

Published January 4th 2011 by Harlequin (first published January 1st 2011)

more details...

ISBN 0373210272 (ISBN13: 9780373210275)

My Soul to Steal Series

Soul Screamers #4

Trying to work things out with Nash—her maybe boyfriend—is hard enough for Kaylee Cavanaugh. She can't just pretend nothing happened. But "complicated" doesn't even begin to describe their relationship when his ex-girlfriend transfers to their school, determined to take Nash back.
See, Sabine isn't just an ordinary girl. She's a mara, the living personification of a nightmare. She can read people's fears—and craft them into nightmares while her victims sleep. Feeding from human fear is how she survives.
And Sabine isn't above scaring Kaylee and the entire school to death to get whatever—and whoever—she wants.

Awakened by PC Cast & Kristin Cast

Hardcover, 290 pages

Published January 4th 2011 by Atom

more details...

ISBN 1905654847 (ISBN13: 9781905654840)

Awakened Series

House of Night #8

At the start of Awakened, the pulse-pounding eighth installment of the bestselling House of Night series, Zoey has returned, mostly whole, from the Otherworld to her rightful place as High Priestess at the House of Night. Her friends are just glad to have her back, but after losing her human consort, Heath, will Zoey—or her relationship with her super- hot Warrior, Stark—ever be the same? Stevie Rae is drawn even closer to Rephaim, the Raven Mocker with whom she shares a mysterious and powerful Imprint, but he is a dangerous secret that isolates her from her school, her red fledglings, and even her best friends. When the dark threat of Neferet—who is coming closer and closer to achieving her twisted goal of immortality—and Kalona returns, what will it take to keep the House of Night from being lost forever, and what will one desperate girl do to keep her heart from being irreparably broken?

Unearthly by Cynthia Hand

Hardcover, 435 pages

Published January 4th 2011 by HarperTeen

more details...

ISBN 0061996165 (ISBN13: 9780061996160)

Unearthly Series

Unearthly #1

In the beginning, there's a boy standing in the trees . . . .

Clara Gardner has recently learned that she's part angel. Having angel blood run through her veins not only makes her smarter, stronger, and faster than humans (a word, she realizes, that no longer applies to her), but it means she has a purpose, something she was put on this earth to do. Figuring out what that is, though, isn't easy.
Her visions of a raging forest fire and an alluring stranger lead her to a new school in a new town. When she meets Christian, who turns out to be the boy of her dreams (literally), everything seems to fall into place—and out of place at the same time. Because there's another guy, Tucker, who appeals to Clara's less angelic side.
As Clara tries to find her way in a world she no longer understands, she encounters unseen dangers and choices she never thought she'd have to make—between honesty and deceit, love and duty, good and evil. When the fire from her vision finally ignites, will Clara be ready to face her destiny?
Unearthly is a moving tale of love and fate, and the struggle between following the rules and following your heart.

Entangled by Cat Clarke

Paperback, 374 pages

Published January 6th 2011 by Quercus Publishing Plc

more details...

ISBN 1849163944 (ISBN13: 9781849163941)

The same questions whirl round and round in my head:
What does he want from me?
How could I have let this happen?
AM I GOING TO DIE?

17-year-old Grace wakes up in a white room, with a table, pens and paper - and no clue how she got here.

As Grace pours her tangled life onto the page, she is forced to remember everything she's tried to forget. There's falling hopelessly in love with the gorgeous Nat, and the unravelling of her relationship with her best friend Sal. But there's something missing. As hard as she's trying to remember, is there something she just can't see?

Grace must face the most important question of all. Why is she here?

A story of dark secrets, intense friendship and electrifying attraction.

Spirit Intervention by Margaret West
Kindle Format
File Size 224 KB
Publisher Eternal Press January 6, 2011
ASIN B004I8WQ9S

When the spirit world collides with the living, anything that can happen, does. Patricia is a mother who refuses to stay out of her daughter’s life, even when she dies. Sally can hear her mother, but she can't see her spirit. At first she welcomes her return, but as the month’s progress she starts to feel increasingly peeved by her mother’s constant interference in her life. When she tells a few white lies on a dating application form, Patricia sets out to prove lies are not a foundation for a healthy relationship. She sabotages Sally’s relationship with Emilio to prove her point, not realizing her interference has caused a catastrophic chain reaction in the spirit world. It is now down to the spirit of Emilio’s grandmother to put things right. But has Patricia caused too much damage for her to mend?

Across The Universe by Beth Revis

Hardcover, 398 pages

Published January 11th 2011 by Razorbill

more details...

ISBN 1595143971 (ISBN13: 9781595143976)

A love out of time. A spaceship built of secrets and murder. Seventeen-year-old Amy joins her parents as frozen cargo aboard the vast spaceship Godspeed and expects to awaken on a new planet, three hundred years in the future. Never could she have known that her frozen slumber would come to an end fifty years too soon and that she would be thrust into the brave new world of a spaceship that lives by its own rules.
Amy quickly realizes that her awakening was no mere computer malfunction. Someone-one of the few thousand inhabitants of the spaceship-tried to kill her. And if Amy doesn't do something soon, her parents will be next.
Now Amy must race to unlock Godspeed's hidden secrets. But out of her list of murder suspects, there's only one who matters: Elder, the future leader of the ship and the love she could never have seen coming.

Tiger's Curse by Colleen Houck

Hardcover, 448 pages

Published January 11th 2011 by Splinter (first published September 22nd 2009)

more details...

ISBN13 978140278403

Tiger's Curse Series

Tiger #1

Passion. Fate. Loyalty.
Would you risk it all to change your destiny?
The last thing Kelsey Hayes thought she'd be doing this summer was trying to break a 300-year old Indian curse. With a mysterious white tiger named Ren. Halfway around the world.
But that's exactly what happened.
Face-to-face with dark forces, spell-binding magic, and mystical worlds where nothing is what it seems, Kelsey risks everything to piece together an ancient prophecy that could break the curse forever. 

Tiger's Curse is the exciting first volume in an epic fantasy-romance that will leave you breathless and yearning for more

Shadow Fever by Karen Marie Moning

Hardcover, 624 pages

Expected publication: January 18th 2011 by Delacorte Press (first published January 2011)

more details...

ISBN 0385341679 (ISBN13: 9780385341677)

series

Fever #5

MacKayla Lane was just a child when she and her sister, Alina, were given up for adoption and banished from Ireland forever. Twenty years later, Alina is dead and Mac has returned to the country that expelled them to hunt her sister’s murderer. But after discovering that she descends from a bloodline both gifted and cursed, Mac is plunged into a secret history: an ancient conflict between humans and immortals who have lived concealed among us for thousands of years. What follows is a shocking chain of events with devastating consequences, and now Mac struggles to cope with grief while continuing her mission to acquire and control the Sinsar Dubh — a book of dark, forbidden magic scribed by the mythical Unseelie King, containing the power to create and destroy worlds. In an epic battle between humans and Fae, the hunter becomes the hunted when the Sinsar Dubh turns on Mac and begins mowing a deadly path through those she loves. Who can she turn to? Who can she trust? Who is the woman haunting her dreams? More important, who is Mac and what is the destiny she glimpses in the black and crimson designs of an ancient tarot card? From the luxury of the Lord Master’s penthouse to the sordid depths of an Unseelie nightclub, from the erotic bed of her lover to the terrifying bed of the Unseelie King, Mac’s journey will force her to face the truth of her exile, and to make a choice that will either save the world... or destroy it.

There is this week's new releases.  They can be found on Goodreads,  Amazon or from the publisher's website.  I hope you will add them to your TBR.

Have a blessed Monday :).

Signing off,