Monday, August 29, 2016

Discover Sideshow and Win some great prizes


Discover the world of author Amy Stilgenbauer's Sideshow and don't forget to enter the giveaway for a chance to win some amazing prizes from the author at the end of the post. The contest closes on September 14th. The tour is sponsored by Pride Promotions.

Today I’m very lucky to be interviewing Amy Stilgenbauer author of Sideshow.

Hi Amy, thank you for agreeing to this interview. Tell us a little about yourself, your background, and your current book.

Glad to be here! I’m a writer from Michigan who also spends most of her time buried in historical documents. My lifelong fascination with the written word, storytelling, and history led me down the very obvious path of writing historical fiction. Sideshow is set in the late 1950s and follows the adventures of Abby Amaro, the daughter of Sicilian-American immigrants, as she joins up with a traveling carnival and finds love along the midway.



Talk to us about your characters in this book. What makes them unique?

It was important to me that the characters in Sideshow all have lives beyond the page. They each have lives and dreams and ambitions that extend further than Abby’s story. This may not be readily evident at all times, but I think keeping these things in mind is important in order to present a well rounded world. Some little tidbits include: Della ran away from home when she was 16 because she was having panic attacks, Vinnie has bad memories of Cleveland because he lived there during the torso murders, and Constance’s family has been involved in carnivals for three generations.

What was one of the most surprising things you learned in getting your book from start to publish?

When I self-published my first novel, I was very much on my own. I sent my manuscript to editors and got their input, but it was certainly not a collaborative process. That was different this time around and it took some getting used to. I had to be reminded a number of times that I wasn’t alone in this and that, yes, if I needed support or advice or what have you, there actually was someone to ask. I am debilitatingly shy, so it can be difficult for me to reach out and ask for help, but it was so nice to know that someone was there.

Have you ever gone to a convention? If so, how was it? If not, do you think it’s something you’d like to do in the future?

I really want to. Going to a convention or two is definitely on my career bucket list. Unfortunately, I’m a big introvert who has a hard time approaching people in unfamiliar settings and I do work a lot at my day jobs. Those two facts make it really easy to talk myself out of going to conventions. I don’t plan to let that go on much longer though. My goal is to get myself to a convention sometime within the next year and I plan to stick to it.


Would you like to be a full-time writer?

Part of me wants to say “More than anything.” I have so many ideas rolling around in my head and I simply don’t have the time execute them between working full time and all the other little life necessities. I mean, do I really have to go grocery shopping, again? Still, I think I’d miss archival work. Getting my hands dirty in history is part of what inspires my writing in the first place. Maybe if I could do both my jobs part time? A girl can dream, right?


Design the ultimate pizza.

This is going to be a little contentious. I apologize to all of you. For me though, the ideal pizza, is a thin crust, brushed around the edges with olive oil and sprinkled with chopped garlic and sesame seeds, followed by a thin layer of tomato sauce and diced onions. Then it would be topped with fresh mozzarella, anchovies, olives, artichokes, and pepperoncini. Finally there would be a light sprinkling of parmesan cheese and red pepper flakes. Now I’m really hungry.



Now let's check out Sideshow:


Publisher: Interlude Press
Cover Artist: C.B. Messer
Release Date: August 25, 2016

Blurb:

Abby Amaro wants to sing at La Scala Opera House, but she’s a good girl, and in 1957 good girls get married. Still, when she receives her first marriage proposal, she freezes, knowing the way her suitor makes her feel bodes trouble. When he won’t take no for an answer, she flees, joining up with a traveling carnival.
Thanks to a burlesque trapeze artist and the world’s saddest clown, Abby bides her time and fits in until she can rejoin the world she knows. She doesn’t expect a sideshow strongwoman named Suprema, who captures her imagination. As the carnival makes its way across the Midwest, Abby learns much more than she had ever imagined—about herself, about her identity, and, most importantly, about love.

Pages or Words: 61,000 words

Categories: Fiction, Historical, Lesbian Romance, Romance

Excerpt:
Abby couldn’t remember falling asleep. She only remembered the dark night and how, outside the window of Della’s trailer, the rolling slopes of Eastern Ohio slowly flattened into the farmland of the western side of the state and faded into darkness. She didn’t say much during the trip, but her mind was spinning, unable to process what she had done.
Once, when she had been a little girl, barely older than Annette was now, her mother had taken her and Natale to visit their aunt in Chicago for a week. It had been a nice visit. They had embarked on the train with a great deal of ceremony, and Za Teresa had spoiled the pair rotten, loading them up with peach-shaped marzipan and pizzelle until they were both sick. She hadn’t left Cleveland for any extended period of time since. Oh, sure, she’d talked and dreamt about it. Nonna often wistfully mentioned taking a trip back to her girlhood home one more time now that the war was over and taking Abby along to look after her, and then, if her opera career took off as she had once hoped, she would be visiting all the great cities. In her scrapbook, clippings of Palais Garnier, La Scala, and The Met were decorated with carefully drawn hearts and hopeful stars and the scrawled word: someday. Still, she had never imagined that when she departed the Coventry neighborhood again, it would be in a burlesque dancer’s trailer.

Buy the book: 
Interlude Press             http://store.interludepress.com/collections/sideshow

Amazon                        http://amzn.to/2b43njS


Apple iBookstore            

Smashwords                        https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/648885

Kobo


Book Depository                        not yet available

Indiebound                        http://www.indiebound.org/book/978-1-945053-01-6&aff=interludepress


Tour Dates & Stops:



Meet the author:
Amy Stilgenbauer is a writer and aspiring archivist currently based in southeast Michigan. She is the author of the novelette series, Season of the Witch, as well as the Young Adult novel, The Legend of League Park. Her short story, The Fire-Eater’s Daughter, was included in Summer Love, an LGBTQ Young Adult collection published by Duet, an imprint of Interlude Press. When she isn’t writing, Amy enjoys all things bergamot and tries to keep her cats away from her knitting.
Where to find the author:


GIVEAWAY: $25 Interlude Press gift card for one winner, an e-copy of ‘Sideshow’ for five winners



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Thursday, August 25, 2016

WRITERS WRITE... WRITING PARTNERS FEUD ~ All About Cassi 13



Come join us in our expose' on Cassi from BEYOND THE THRESHOLD.  She is a fun-loving, full-bodied hottie, who has her own unique look and style.  We thought it would be fun to expose, with emphasis on the word expose some of her outfits over the next several weeks.

ALL ABOUT CASSI




The next morning Cassi rose first and left to dress.

Beef, smelling the coffee brewing, slipped on a pair of boxers and sought out Cassi.

When he arrived in the kitchen she was cooking.  "Don't you look special."

"Thanks," Cassi reacted.

She was wearing a Raggedy Ann outfit.  Red yarn braided pigtails with blue bows, came from under a dust maid's cap. Her blue and white corset set off her abundance of tits.  The nipples were available for inspection.  White and red striped  knee-high socks rose from red mary janes.  That was all she wore.  Her foo-foo was undressed and ready to play.

Cassi bent over the stove stirring mushrooms in a pan. 

Beef crawled up behind her, grabbed her hips, and began kissing her derriere.   His oral interest found his mouth between her legs and on her vag's entrance.

"One second," asked Cassi as she turned off the heat under the pan.  She turned, dropped to the floor, spread her legs, and invited Beef to dine.

He braced muscular arms on either side of her, knelt between her bent, spread legs, but didn't enter her.  In his methodical way, he wanted to enjoy the sight and scent of his Cassi. 

The lace trim and red/white colored outfit framed breasts that should win awards for their perfection.  He dreamt of those breasts when he wasn't with her, and knew he'd never tire of fondling them, tasting them, looking at them.  And he did all three, adding a bit of a massage, coaxing a soft moan from her.  Only then did his engorged cock head nuzzle her clit, teasing it for a moment and then with a hardy, vexing laugh his head moved downward. 

His action was not totally unexpected, and a soft moan of anticipation mingled with a giggle that ended in a gasp as his tongue slipped over her clit, tickling it with a feathery bombardment.  Now and then, it would slide downward and plunge into her cunt, deeply, then just as quickly surge back up to give her swollen nub even more devilish attention. 

Cassi's hips began to move.  Her fingers clung to his head, encouraging more.  When he believed she was getting beyond arousal aiming toward climax, he tongue fucked her while using his thumb to continue to torment her clit. One arm slipped under her ass, heaving her closer, up and down, in and out, constant fucking until he experienced the tightening in her vaginal walls and the liquid fullness slipping over his tongue.  Finally after she released a long held breath and slumped in exhaustion, he lifted his head and grinned. 

"I munch for my breakfast.  Feed me!"


Blurb for BEYOND THE THRESHOLD
It didn-t shock Sheriff Adam McGreggor to discover the owner of the local seaside nightclub was once part of a sect. Hannah Holt-s entire appearance and attitude just didn-t fit her profession. Her reluctance to press charges against an assailant that left her battered and drugged, however, did shock Adam to his core. Even more jolting was his instantaneous attraction to this woman who fought his every advance.
But Hannah has a secret he cannot begin to fathom ... she is from a parallel world....
***
We'd love to hear from anyone interested in what we do. Anyone who writes us at writingteamcw@yahoo.com (Write - Blog Dawn - in subject line) and leaves an s-mail address, we will send you a free ebook (choose erotic or romantic thriller) and add you to any future mailings.



Angelica Hart and Zi ~ Vixen Bright and Zachary Zane
www.champagnebooks.com - www.carnalpassions.com - angelicahartandzi.com










Wednesday, August 24, 2016

Book Spotlight & Giveaway~ Civil War & Broken Hearts


Don't forget to enter the giveaway at the end of the post for a chance to Win a Dreamspinnere gift card courtesy of Julie Lynn Hayes! Contest closes on August 31st. The book spotlight tour is sponsored by Pride Promotions.


Series: Rose and Thorne
Book: Two 
Release Date: August 24, 2016
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Cover Artist: Paul Richmond

Blurb:

Hollywood comes to Roanoke when a major film studio announces they’re shooting part of their Civil War film at a local plantation. Vinnie is dismayed to discover that the lead actress is none other than the beautiful and popular Caroline St. Clair. Ethan and Vinnie made her acquaintance in LA the previous Halloween, while undercover, and Vinnie still hates her for hitting on his man.  Ethan reassures his partner that Roanoke is big enough for all of them to co-exist without running into one another.

But Fate has it in for Vinnie and Ethan, and they find themselves assigned to a new case involving the actress. Apparently she requested Ethan specifically, to Vinnie’s dismay. But he doesn’t have a choice, he has to play nice. It’s small consolation to Vinnie that his new undercover identity involves Hollywood heartthrob Troy McGarrett, who is very handsome and openly gay. Troy isn’t shy about letting Vinnie know he finds him attractive.
Jealousy abounds in the second book of the Rose and Thorne series, and time is not on Vinnie and Ethan’s side. If they don’t solve the case before the film shoot is done, there’s a good chance they’ll be separated for the first time since they were partnered.  Assuming Vinnie doesn’t kill Caroline St. Clair himself.

The author is donating 10% of the royalties from this book to No Kid Hungry. Visit nokidhungry.org for more information about this organization.


Pages or Words: 50,000 words

Categories: Contemporary, Crime Fiction, Gay Fiction, Humor

Excerpt:
“Hey, Vin, did you see who’s in town?”
I was slumped at the kitchen table, my head cradled on top of my arms. I was grumpy and sleepy—and maybe a few of the other Seven Dwarves—and I needed my first cup of morning coffee before I could even consider being slightly civil.
We’d spent most of last night sitting in our car, in the goddamn middle of nowhere, staring at nothing, assigned to a fruitless surveillance in a small town about an hour from Roanoke. As it turned out, all the real action was in a different small town in the complete opposite direction from where we waited, because our so-called informant couldn’t spell the name of the place correctly.  What a difference one letter makes. So we’d ended up completely wasting our time, got lost trying to find the rest of the task force at the end of the night, almost got hit by a deer that came out of nowhere and took a sudden shine to our car, and then suffered the indignity on our return of being asked where the hell we’d been all night—and we still needed to do the paperwork. And now Ethan wanted to play Twenty Questions?
“Don’t know and don’t care,” I mumbled.
I heard him slap something down on the table. I forced one eye open, just in time to see him sashay toward the coffeemaker. Okay, for that ass, I’d open the other one too. I watched as he poured the blessed elixir into two mugs, added the appropriate amount of creamer and sugar to each, then returned to where I still watched him and set one in front of me.
Right next to the morning paper. Real subtle, Ethan.




Tour Dates & Stops:

Meet the author:

Julie Lynn Hayes first began publishing short stories and poetry in the 1990’s, when it was a different ballgame altogether, and Ebooks hadn’t been dreamed of yet. That changed in 2010 with the acceptance of her first romance novel. She’s come a long way since that first book appeared, and is finding the journey a very educational one.
She lives in St. Louis with her daughter Sarah and her cat Ramesses. She often writes of two men finding true love and happiness in one another’s arms, and is a great believer in the happily ever after. She likes to write in different genres, to stretch herself in order to see what is possible. Her great challenge is to be told something can’t be done—she feels compelled to do it.
When she isn’t writing, she enjoys crafts, such as crocheting and cross stitch,  needlepoint and knitting, and she loves to cook, spending time watching the Food Network. Her favorite chef is Geoffrey Zakarian. Her family thinks she’s a bit off, but she doesn’t mind. Marching to the beat of one’s own drummer is a good thing, after all. Her published works can be found at Dreamspinner Press, eXtasy Books, and Wayward Ink Press.

Where to find the author:


Rafflecopter Prize: Win a Dreamspinnere gift card courtesy of Julie Lynn Hayes!





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Book Blast and Giveaway: Fox Hounds by Lia Connor

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