Jan 24 2017

New Release – Continue Online – Together – book 5

I had the great pleasure of meeting Stephan Morse through RRL, an online community of writers who post chapters daily/weekly. And I picked up the first in this series before Xmas, – Review to follow although I have to say I’m enjoying it –

So today he’s released book 5! I can’t wait to get to the latter books in chatting to him I really admire his determination and commitment to his craft.

From Stephan’s website – https://frustratedego.com/ – On the whole series

The primary story with Continue Online’s universe follows Grant Legate.

The future is filled with self-driving cars, virtual realities, chore completing machines, and super fast internet connections. Yet all these technological innovations cannot prevent tragedy. Three years ago Grant Legate lost that which he loved most. His carefully built life fell apart in the wake of depression.

Now Grant spends most days working endless hours as a companion to an AI. Their mission is simple, to repair broken machines that humanity uses to visit virtual realities. Unintended hard work pays off as his boss forces Grant to take a vacation and try the latest game craze Continue Online, a fantasy world with the freedom to play any role one might choose.

Upon entry into the game, he meets the AIs who rule over this digital world and they make an offer. They’re nothing like what he expected from a video game world. Grant starts his journey into the virtual world from a very different perspective, and he is only one part of an AI agenda that will end up impacting all of humanity.

Continue online - book.jpg

Blurb –

Since stepping through the gateway to Continue, Grant has been many things: a dying hero, a malevolent imp, a robotic space explorer, and felon seeking redemption. Now he’s added a new role to the list—married man to a virtual woman. In his mind, nothing could be more perfect, but his newlywedded bliss is in jeopardy.

Trillium pulled the trigger on a digital Armageddon and the games have changed. Virtual people are being hunted down then deleted forever. Players’ characters are removed if they die three times. The AIs have a plan to fight back and protect their citizens by storing as much data as possible into a haven, including Xin’s.

To help secure the survival of his friends and wife, Grant will seek the secrets to salvation left behind from the game’s first heroes and programming team. Along the way, Grant reunites with old companions, sets aside past grudges, and pulls out every trick he’s ever been taught to help him in the race against digital death.

Failure means Grant will lose Xin a second time, but success may cost him even more.

I’d highly recommend checking this series out 🙂

You can pick book 1 up here –

And follow Stephan’s facebook and twitter –

https://www.facebook.com/FrustratedEgo

Tweets by FrustratedEgo

Jan 22 2017

Character Interview – Lucus Smith

Meet Big Brother Lucas Smith of The Hunters.

Young Chris Hemsworth.jpg

Who is Lucas Smith? He is the leader of the vampire hunter group trying to rescue their town that has been infested with vampires in The Hunted. Lucas is the one everyone looks to, but he looks to his kid brother Chris.

See, before their world went sideways, Lucas was a jock, football star, and was focusing on the day to day of being a 23 year old taking care of his 17 year old brother after their parents died in a car accident. He was worried about college applications, and life moving forward.

Than a strange illness plagued their town, and his girlfriend died. A few days later she was back. Lucas had lost enough in his short life, and he was happy to have her back. Her promises of never losing one another were quite the temptation. If she had just stuck to Lucas, she might have pulled off her scheme.

But she made the mistake of going after his kid brother. Lucas was willing to risk his own soul for her, but he wasn’t willing to risk Chris’.

As I wrote Lucas, I imagined a good looking guy who could fit into the football hero world, but who was also down to earth and very centered. It wasn’t until I was almost finished with the book that I was able to figure out who would be the perfect muse for Lucas, a young Chris Hemsworth, of course. He has the charisma and good looks, while also being very grounded and practical.

Lucas, and his brother Chris are the two main narrators of The Hunters, first book in The Hunters Saga. This series is a great urban fantasy/ horror series for those who believe vampires should be killed, not kissed.

The Hunters was re-released the beginning of January as part of the release of the highly anticipated sequel, The Hunted, which will launch February 18th. Come join the exciting book tour with awesome stops (like this one!) interviews, readings, radio spots, and more! See the tour Master List here

Jan 20 2017

Joanna’s Journey – Review

After reading ‘The Secret Will Out’ by Karen J Mossman in print. I looked up and found she had several other books out, and this was the latest release.

Here’s my review of this lovely heartfelt book –

Amazon review –
There are a couple of things I really enjoyed with Karen’s writing, from the detail of the worlds she’s created, (and the facts that around that, the story was built into a local city that I visited quite often) to the depth of the characters. Each novel, has had it’s own unique and outstandingly natural storyline. They’re almost so believable that you’d mistake her for your flawed best friend, who can be both amazing and yet stupid and frustrating all at the same time. I found her just so relatable, that of course I wanted the best for her in her love life, falling for two guys has to be the hardest thing to go through, not knowing if you’ll ever make the right decision or not.

A heartfelt journey that will make you laugh, cringe and cry with all it’s intricate character traits and plot turns. Karen is an excellent writer to follow. I’m so glad she’s almost a local lass 🙂

Blurb –

Escaping a broken romance, Joanna runs headlong into another, and then another.

Managing two long distance relationships at the same time is complicated and made even more so when her best friend is a good looking guy who knows her better than most.

Set in the 1980s, Joanna and her sister, Sandie are two very beautiful women. After a cruel upbringing, both girls have their scars, but deal with things differently and as with most sisters, they clash.

When the unthinkable happens and Joanna’s world implodes, she finds herself alone to face what she can’t and won’t accept.

It is times like these you find out who your friends are and who you can trust, or more importantly, who you can’t.

Karen’s Bio

Karen J Mossman married the boy next door in 1980 and they had two children, both born on the same day, two years apart. She and her husband live on the Isle of Anglesey, a small island off the North Wales coast. Joanna’s Journey was her first published novel.

You can also find Karen on her Social Media Links here….

Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/karenjmossmanauthor

Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/Kazzmoss

Twitter – @KarenJMoss

Google+ https://plus.google.com/101513298666906301324/posts

Goodreads.com – https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/9814921.Karen_J_Mossman

Website – Magic of stories – https://magicofstories.net

Bookstore – https://magicofstories.selz.com

Jan 17 2017

AudioBook Review – Star Divide

“Excellent second book!”

I was lucky to stop by and see Jeff Hays new releases because I didn’t know these were out! haha, it was nice to be back so soon with the crew of the Athena, and to see how and what was going to happen to them in their dire situation. From Michael trapped on Pluto to the crew now in an unknown galaxy.

The character development is really good, I enjoyed the little menage a la 4 that’s been going on, even though we know that Kayleigh and Zack are meant to be with each other, it seems that they’re just not going to get that right just yet. Katy is a wonderful gal and does Zack a load of good by being nice to him, I do wonder though if it’s going to go south it will just end up with Katy and Hicks being hurt. 😦 and that sucks these two are really nice characters.

As for all the alien stuff, it takes off after the first book and the speed and action doesn’t really get chance to let up. There’s one thing after the other for the crew, and my heart was literally in my throat for most of the read through. What I really love about this is it’s not quite your typical alien invasion ‘we must destroy Earth’ of course no doubt they’re on the way to doing so, but this is more exploration gone wrong with fallible characters you grow to love.

Jeff of course is an excellent narrator, his tone and voices really make this pop out. And it was a great listen while driving. I can’t wait to get the next book on. Thank you to you both. This is an excellent series. 🙂

Jan 2 2017

Featuring in SciFan Mag

I’ve been snowed under as you know, but as a quick one. I was very happy to take part in SciFan mags huge launch over the weekend.

We featured one of our illustrated shorts Octav’s Rise to Ainoren and this is my fav illustration from Andrew Dodd 🙂

oraftermath_001

What the King has to say to Commander Octav Broki not only rocks his very beliefs but will alter the world he knows and loves forever. Despite his most primal need to defend and protect, he must go on this mission and leave his friend to fate.

So, it was a great event, and after reading some of the other stores in there I’m very proud to be first in line amongst the other amazing people.

If you’ve KU check it out, really, it’s worth it. If not, I’d love it if you guys picked up a copy and let us know how it reads.

~ Dawn

Kanundra's Blog

Writing and life. Life and writing.

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