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Now Available as an Audio Book!

GHOST OF THE SWAMP
Subwoofers, Book 2
Contemporary Fantasy/Paranormal Romance (deer shifter)
by Linda Mooney
Word Count: 32.8K
$2.99 e / $9.99 p / $6.98 a

Narrated by Jack Nolan
Length: 2 hrs, 58 min
Hear a Sample


Alligator, Bear, Cougar, Deer, Eagle
They found each other by accident. They became a team for life.

Shot by illegal poachers, Patrick "Pud" Davies finds himself alone and severely injured in the middle of the woods. He's discovered by Billie Crowne, an agent with the EPA, whoe takes him to her campsite where she tends to his wounds.
 
As the days pass, Pud finally allows himself to open up for the first time. With Billie, he finds he's able to talk about the horrors of his past, and begins to purge the blackness that has haunted him ever since his tour of duty, and his time as a POW, ended. Because of her, he becomes stronger emotionally and physically. And before he can comprehend his growing feelings for this woman, he realizes she's managed to break through the protective emotional shell he had erected around himself. 

Once he's finally able to contact the others of his team at Bag It and Tag It Excursions, together they try to find the people responsible for attacking him. What they discover will force Pud to make a heartbreaking decision. Because of what he is, he will have to walk away from the only woman who has ever touched his heart.  


Warning! Contains cream of wheat with honey, running naked in the swamp, a covert identity, a hankering for acorns, flying airboats, and the one chance for an emotionally-damaged man to find love...if they both survive.

Excerpt and buy links.

Heart Fire

Pumpkins on the front porch, witches on the wind, frost on the fields, colorful leaves... All things I love about fall. But I *especially* love bonfires. Or weenie roasts as my Beloved Sister calls them.

We drive up to my dad's farm about 1 1/2 hours away, out in the middle of nowhere (literally, he barely has cell or Internet services). He drags up a bunch of old stumps or fallen trees that he wants to get rid of. And we sit around the fire as long as we can.

Of course there's hotdogs on sticks and flaming marshmallows to go around. My kids love burning everything they can find. Their paper plates, cups, wrappers, anything lying around in Papa's garage that's not nailed down. It starts out too hot, and we're all complaining about hot cheeks and smoky eyes as we try to cook our hotdogs enough, but inevitably we start to get chilled. Those chairs draw closer and closer to the fire.

Someone asks for a ghost story. A real ghost story. Molly will tell us about the time she sneaked into the Old Plantation with her friends and felt something... dark... inside that definitely didn't want them there. We'll laugh about the daytime trip we took there a few years ago, and I'll say again that my blood has forever tied me to the house (I slipped on some junk in the upper floors and tore a hole in my favorite jeans and my thigh). We'll talk about the old cemetery outside.

And draw our chairs a little closer to the warmth of the fire.

I catch myself staring into the flames after awhile, listening to everyone talk around me. The flames are mesmerizing and I imagine them burning away all my problems and fears. The snap and crackle a mystical accompaniment. If we're very lucky, we'll hear some coyotes in the distance, or maybe a barn owl. The crickets and locusts sing in the background. We stare up at the night sky that's so clear and gorgeous -- full of the stars we can't see at home in the city.

I finally saw my first falling star this year at our first bonfire of the season. We stayed up until 3 AM talking around the fire. It was glorious. I didn't want the fire to ever go out.

I can already smell the smoke and feel the night air chilling on my skin.

I can't wait to get there again. The fire burns, still, but only in my heart.

Sitting around the bonfire, I remember that I have a spark inside me, and that it only takes a spark to start a wildfire. That I need to tend and feed that fire. I need to listen to it crackle (cackle) as it burns up my fears and indecision. I need to stare into those flames and read those secrets that only I can see.

I laugh at myself for thinking that I have an affinity for fire. That I can find answers in those flames.

I probably just have a weakness for s'mores, right?

But I feel that tiny flame inside, waiting for the chance to rekindle glowing embers into red-hot flame. It's bonfire season and there's plenty of old, dead wood to burn.

Is Reading a Way to Procrastinate?

By Maureen L. Bonatch

My mother is an avid reader. She taught me about the joy of books at a very young age. I have fond memories of her reading a chapter or two from novels like the Little House on the Prairie series to my sister and I before bed each night. Our cherished library cards were worn from repeated use.                  

A Photo I took of My Daughter's TBR Jar :) 

There was nothing better than spending an afternoon escaping to the world captured between the pages.

It was hard for me to imagine anyone not deriving the same pleasure from a good book. But I knew those people existed. Because our household validated that there are two types of people. Readers and the non-readers. And my father fell into the second group.

I Have Better Things to Do

As a non-reader oblivious to the benefits of a book, my father always felt there were better things to do than ‘waste your day’ reading a book. He viewed reading as a form of procrastination to avoid doing other necessary tasks. These things usually involved extra chores since obviously we’d turned to reading as a last resort to defeat overwhelming boredom.

It’s unfortunate I wasn’t outspoken enough to retort with many of the benefits of reading such as:

·      Increasing your knowledge base and vocabulary with a wealth of topics and worlds to explore

·      Improving your health by exercising your brain with mental stimulation and improving memory

·      Reducing stress by embracing the tranquility a book can provide

I Don’t Have Time to Read

I still encounter many non-readers and often hold my tongue as they insist that it isn’t that they don’t want to read, it’s just that they don’t have the time to read. We all have the same 24 hours in a day. Readers realize that there is always time to read because when you love to read you make the time. Whether it’s by:

•       Making productive, positive use of wasted time while waiting for an appointment
•       Choosing to read a book over watching television
•       Bringing a book with you to capture spare minutes while your kids are in an activity or during your lunch break 

Read a Book Day or Fight Procrastination Day

Today (September 6^th) is Read a Book Day. Why not promote reading to try to convert the non-readers and welcome them to the wonders of reading.

•       Social Media- Take a minute to share #ReadABook
•       Donate Books- Local libraries and schools often accept books.
• Make a book basket for a charity auction featuring either your books, your favorite authors or author friends.

•       Give a Book as a Gift- I always give a book as a gift at a baby shower and have found many people are thrilled to receive a special author autographed copy of a book.

                       *Check out an author’s website to see if they offer 

                 autographed copies.  

•      Introduce them to Different Forms of Books and Genres. The glorious thing about books is that there really is something for everyone.

o   Whatever you like to read- romance, paranormal, fantasy, crime, young adult etc.  

o   Whatever format you prefer- audiobook, paperback, ebook etc.

Raising a New Generation of Readers

I’ve instilled a love of reading in my girls. I’m thrilled that their gift lists are always predominantly books and the walls of their rooms are filled with their cherished treasures.

Today is also Fight Procrastination Day today. I don’t consider reading as procrastination. I consider it a necessity. But if I did, it would be my favorite form of procrastination.

What Are Your Suggestions to Welcome Non-Readers to the World of Books?

My Latest Release Evil Speaks Softly is Now Available for Pre-Order.

Everyone has a story to tell. Even the dead.

They were never supposed to meet. Fame came easy for Liv by following in the footsteps of the female writers in her family. The cycle repeated for decades…until Liv changed the story. Her villain doesn’t like the revision—and he isn’t a fictional character. In his story, the bad guy always wins.

They were never supposed to find love. Liv never questioned her demanding nocturnal muse, or the strange incidents in her old, family home until she met Gage. His job was to watch her from afar, not reveal the truth about the curse and the stories of the dead.

They’ve broken all the rules. Together they unravel secrets as they strive to stop the cycle. Liv’s ability to find love, and protect her loved ones, hangs on the fickle whims of the dead—and they’ve got nothing to lose.

Author Bio: Maureen Bonatch grew up in small town Pennsylvania and her love of the four seasons—hockey, biking, sweat pants and hibernation—keeps her there. While immersed in writing or reading paranormal romance and fantasy, she survives on caffeine, wine, music, and laughter. A feisty Shih Tzu keeps her in line. Find Maureen on her website, Facebook & Twitter

Fantastic naming cliches and how to avoid them

With apologies to J.K. Rowling. ;)

Here’s a proposed topic that came at me when I put out a call about what to post about for my turn on the blog today: how do you make names in fantasy novels not sound silly?

And, as a writer of epic fantasy and urban fantasy, this question is highly relevant to my interests. So let me talk a bit about what I try to do when I come up with names. (As always with writing advice, though, this is what’s worked for me so far, and it may or may not work for you.)

Apostrophes

Apostrophes in names are of course a huge fantasy cliche. I am not immune to them. If you’ve read Faerie Blood and/or Bone Walker, you’ll probably have observed that my Sidhe do have apostrophes in their surnames. The three examples I have so far on record are Elessir a’Natharion, Melisanda ana’Sharran, and my heroine Kendis’s mother, Elanna ana’Kirlath.

In my defense, I will note that my intention here was to have the “a” and “ana” prefixes function similarly to “O” and “Mac” in Irish and Scottish names—i.e., they’re designators for what family or House the Sidhe in question belongs to. “A” as a prefix is for males, “ana” is for females. The apostrophes are silent, and are indicators that the “ana” and “a” prefixes are meant to be considered as a single unit with the House names. This is similar to my understanding of how Irish names evolved in real life.

And because I do in fact have a point to those apostrophes, I embrace using them. ;D

I do not have apostrophes on the names of elves in my Rebels of Adalonia trilogy, but this is because my editor (justifiably) intercepted them before they made it into the final draft of Valor of the Healer. I was okay with that for two reasons: one, apostrophes are more cliched in epic fantasy than they are in urban, at least in my personal experience, and two, I’ve already got them in one series and it’s good to avoid repeating myself.

Eight million diacritics all over your names

Anybody who grew up reading Tolkien like I did, and who then turned to writing fantasy, will understand this one: the urge to slap diacritics all over your names to emphasize how they aren’t English.

Boy howdy am I not immune to this one. But again, I tried to dial it down to moderate levels when making up my language for my elves in the Rebels of Adalonia books. The only accent I’ve deployed in my Elvish language in that trilogy is a grave, and the intention for those is to serve as indicators that any vowel with one is in fact supposed to be sounded in speech. I generally only drop them on second vowels in a word—there are no such things as dipthongs in my Elvish—or on vowels at the end of words that follow consonants.

As with apostrophes, I do try to employ at least some form of basic linguistic consistency here. I am so very much not an actual linguist, but I’m enough of a language nerd to try to pay at least a little attention here and to balance out “it just looks cool” with “but let’s give it an actual purpose in the language, mmkay?”

Long multi-syllabic names

Yep, this is another one I’m not entirely immune to. Amelialoren, Queen of the Seelie Court, and Luciriel, Queen of the Unseelie Court, I am looking straight at you.

Yet again, though, this is one I try to keep down to a reasonable moderate level. Complex names like that are ones I usually drop only on major power figures—like, say, the Queens of the Courts. My Seelie warrior Melisanda is about the only other notable exception to this, since her name has four syllables. But she’s also directly named for a character I used to see played on Two Moons MUSH.

(Fun side trivia fact: I have named multiple characters after people I used to play with on various MUSHes!)

Mostly, though, I try to keep names down to two or three syllables at most. And in the Rebels of Adalonia books in particular, this rule is in play. Most of the elves in that story have two or three syllables in their names, and the human characters likewise.

Among the humans in particular, I have a mix of names that are in use in real life (e.g., Julian) and names that clearly aren’t (e.g., Kestar). But there’s a linguistic rule here, too. Names with obvious real life analogs are intended to be derived from one language, while names that are clearly made up are derived from another. (Specifically, for names derived from the Adalonian language, I used either names that appear in real life, or else grabbed names from Irish or Scots sources, sometimes anglicizing the spelling. E.g., turning Séamus into Shaymis. Names derived from the language of the people of Nirrivy were based on Norwegian sources.)

In general

I do try to keep my names short and punchy: Kendis, Faanshi, Kestar, Julian, Jude, etc. It fits my writing style, and I hope that it makes life a little easier for my readers. As you’ve probably seen, I do like to indulge myself with classic naming cliches, and I cheerfully blame a lot of that on Tolkien! But I do also try to rein it in and use just enough to add a little bit of flair to my naming schemes without going overboard.

(‘Cause I do love me some Tolkien, but wow, is it hard to slog through any of his works that use a lot of Quenya names. Like most of The Silmarillion!)

So talk to me, fellow writers and readers: what are your favorite fantasy naming cliches? Which ones have a way of showing up in your writing?

--

Angela writes as both Angela Highland and Angela Korra'ti, but either way, you can find out all about her books at angelahighland.com. Come geek out with her about languages on her site, on Facebook, or on Twitter!

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Bring It Back(list) Feature:

Love disaster movies? Try Veronica Scott's award winning STAR  CRUISE: OUTBREAK about an epidemic on an interstellar cruise liner. Here's the link for the story and excerpt. On Sale for $.99!

Buy Links:  Apple iBooks   Amazon     Kobo      Barnes & Noble

Love Disaster Movies? Bring It Back(list) STAR CRUISE OUTBREAK

I LOVE disaster movies - a group of people battling seemingly insurmountable odds -  and I like writing science fiction stories with the elements of such films. Star Cruise: Outbreak touches on my fascination (as an author) with epidemics - how they begin with Patient Zero, and spread, how people cope, the medical forensics to find a cause and a cure....and of course being me, there's romance!

This SFR Galaxy Award winning book is ON SALE for $.99 right now!

The story:

She saved countless soldiers in the wars … but does she have the weapons to fight an outbreak?

Dr. Emily Shane, veteran of the Sector Wars, is known as “The Angel of Fantalar” for her bravery under fire as a medic. However, the doctor has her own war wounds–severe PTSD and guilt over those she failed to save.

Persuaded to fill a seemingly frivolous berth as ship’s doctor on the huge and luxurious interstellar cruise liner Nebula Zephyr, she finds the job brings unexpected perks–a luxe beach deck with water imported from Tahumaroa II, and Security Officer Jake Dilon, a fellow veteran who heats her up like a tropical sun.

However, Emily soon learns she and Jake didn’t leave all peril behind in the war. A mysterious ailment aboard the Zephyr begins to claim victim after victim … and they must race against time and space to find the cause and a cure! Trapped on a ship no spaceport will allow to dock, their efforts are complicated by a temperamental princess and a terrorist–one who won’t hesitate to take down any being in the way of his target.  If anyone’s left when the disease is through with them…

The excerpt:

“We have a dead passenger,” the ship's AI said, speaking louder as the door chimed.

            So much for minor ailments. Keying the portal to open, Emily came face-to-face with Red, in uniform, a discreet security badge on his jacket.

            “Sorry to meet again so soon under these circumstances,” he said. “Jake sent me—”

            “Yes, the ship told me you were coming.” She let the portal close behind her and set off at a rapid pace toward the nearest gravlift. The corridor was deserted at this time of “night.”

“Someone died?”

            Glancing around to make sure there wasn’t anyone close, Red nodded. “Passenger Edvar Groskin, in his cabin.” He allowed her to precede him into the gravlift. “Groskin hadn’t been seen for a day or two, missed an appointment for dinner with some prospective clients who reported not being able to reach him. Had the do-not-disturb signal on, but the chief stewardess was concerned, so she asked Maeve to check.” Red leaned closer. “Passenger privacy is of utmost concern on the CLC Line, but there’s a point where we have to intrude.”

            “You must be positive he’s deceased, not to have called the ship’s emergency response team.”

            “Yeah, we’re sure.” He flicked a glance at her. “Not a pretty sight.”

            “No doubt I’ve seen worse.” Emily clenched one fist where he couldn’t see, nails biting into her palm in hopes the tiny spurt of pain would forestall a flashback to some of the horrific scenes she had endured. Now wasn’t the time for an incident, and echoes of the earlier nightmare lingered. “Suicide?”

            “Doubtful.” Red didn’t appear to notice her preoccupation. “Groskin was a hanger-on with the wealthy crowd. He used to be a minor celebrity, some kind of athlete. Always had a dozen schemes and scams going on. Upbeat guy, from what I’ve been told. He was going to the big surfing competition on Sector Hub.”

            “I treated a surfer today. Got washed off his board and cratered on the bottom of the beach deck sand,” she said. “Poor guy had a broken arm, scrapes and bruises.”

            “Yeah, we’re running our own competition on the starboard side of the beach, trying to tie into the big event.” Red shook his head. “I had beach duty yesterday. Made me nervous watching passengers try to act like extreme athletes. Of course, Maeve doesn’t generate the big waves.”

They’d reached the late passenger’s cabin, where the portal was half open.

            Jake was waiting in the foyer. “Sorry to wake you, Doc. Guy’s on the floor in the bedroom. We’re not sure what he had.”

            Emily stepped into the room. The bed was in disarray, and the passenger had obviously been quite ill in his last hours. Clothed in synthsilk pajamas, the body was already in the first stage of rigor mortis. Activating the sterile barrier on her hands, she ran her scanner over the man, noting the readings, especially in the heart and lungs. Sitting on her heels, she said, “Heart attack, probably brought on by pneumonia, is my initial diagnosis.” She looked at Jake. “Without an autopsy, we won’t know for sure, and I should warn you I’m not a pathologist.”

            “We’re not set up to do autopsies anyway,” Jake said. “The unpleasant job’ll be for the authorities at the next port of call. I need you to sign the provisional death certificate and state there was no crime involved as far as we know at this time. Different regulations kick in if there’s any evidence of foul play.”

            Emily raised her eyebrows and checked the body again. “Nothing to indicate any kind of crime.” She leaned closer. “Odd.” Pointing at the corpse’s upper chest, revealed by the gaping shirt, she said, “See those purple splotches?”

            “Like spider bites.” Jake shifted position to get a better view. “Something to worry about?”

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