Newly Released: Best Day Ever

I received an email from the wizards over at Wunderkind PR who asked me to fill you guys in on a new book hitting shelves today. I had a feeling that at least a few of you might be interested so I said yes. You're welcome. ;-)

"As I opened the door and stepped into the humid night, her scream followed me out. But I knew there was still love for me in her heart…

I'm unforgettable."

Paul Strom has the perfect life: a glittering career as an advertising executive, a beautiful wife, two healthy boys and a big house in a wealthy suburb. And he's the perfect husband: breadwinner, protector, provider. That's why he's planned a romantic weekend for his wife, Mia, at their lake house, just the two of them. And he's promised today will be the best day ever.

But as Paul and Mia drive out of the city and toward the countryside, a spike of tension begins to wedge itself between them and doubts start to arise. How perfect is their marriage, or any marriage, really? How much do they trust each other? Is Paul the person he seems to be? And what are his secret plans for their weekend at the cottage?

Forcing us to ask ourselves just how well we know those who are closest to us, Best Day Ever crackles with dark energy, spinning ever tighter toward its shocking conclusion. In the bestselling, page-turning vein of The Couple Next Door and The Dinner, Kaira Rouda weaves a gripping, tautly suspenseful tale of deception and betrayal dark enough to destroy a marriage…or a life.

Kaira Rouda is a USA TODAY bestselling, multiple award-winning author of contemporary fiction, including Here, Home, Hope, and The Goodbye Year. Kaira is also the author of Real You Incorporated: 8 Essentials for Women Entrepreneurs and the creator of Real Living, one of the nation’s most successful real estate brands and the first national women-focused brand in real estate. She now lives in Southern California with her family, where she’s lucky enough to write full time, and enjoys the beach whenever possible.  Kaira’s latest novel, Best Day Ever, is one of the major launch titles for Harlequin’s new imprint Graydon House, and will be available on September 19, 2017.

Her website: KairaRouda.com.
Facebook: Facebook.com/KairaRoudaBooks
Instagram, Pinterest, and Twitter - @KairaRouda.

Where to buy BEST DAY EVER: At your local bookstore or online at--
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Best-Day-Ever-Kaira-Rouda/dp/1525811401?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1
Barnes & Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/best-day-ever-kaira-rouda/1125489157?ean=9781525811401&st=PLA&sid=BNB_DRS_Core+Shopping+Books_00000000&2sid=Google_&sourceId=PLGoP62464
Indiebound: http://www.indiebound.org/book/9781525811401

Newly Released: That Crazy Perfect Someday

The lovely folks over at Wunderkind PR were kind enough to reach out to me and ask if I'd be willing to let you guys know about a new book coming out just in time for summer. I happily told them yes. :-)

Synopsis:

The year is 2024. Climate change has altered the world’s wave patterns. Drones crisscross the sky, cars drive themselves, and surfing is a new Olympic sport. Mafuri Long, UCSD marine biology grad, champion surfer, and only female to dominate a record eighty-foot wave, still has something to prove. Having achieved Internet fame, along with sponsorship from Google and Nike, she’s intent on winning Olympic gold. But when her father, a clinically depressed former Navy captain and widower, learns that his beloved supercarrier, the USS Hillary Rodham Clinton, is to be sunk, he draws Mafuri into a powerful undertow. Conflicts compound as Mafuri’s personal life comes undone via social media, and a vicious Aussie competitor levels bogus doping charges against her. Mafuri forms an unlikely friendship with an awkward teen, a Ferrari-driving professional gamer who will prove to be her support and ballast. Authentic, brutal, and at times funny, Mafuri lays it all out in a sprightly, hot-wired voice. From San Diego to Sydney, Key West, and Manila, That Crazy Perfect Someday goes beyond the sports/surf cliché to explore the depths of sorrow and hope, yearning and family bonds, and the bootstrap power of a bold young woman climbing back into the light. 

Excerpt:

Google “Mafuri Long.”

Click video.

And voila!

That’s me, surfing the monster of all waves—an eighty-foot beast. I’m like a tiny knife slicing through a gigantic wall of blue that’s rearing up behind me, a total H2O Everest. Scale? Picture me standing next to an eight-story building. In 2023, I became the first “chick” to win the Nike XX Big Wave Classic: one of the few women in history to surf a wave that big, the only one to do it officially. I followed Daddy’s advice before we left the dock for the open sea. “Don’t ride that horse with half your ass,” he said, sending me off with a fist bump. “Go after it, cowgirl.”

The freaky part is that the wave is a hundred miles off the San Diego coast in the middle of nowhere. The surf spot’s called the Cortes Bank, where the fish around you are the size of Volkswagens and very big things can swallow you whole. The only way out there is in a decent-size boat, and the only way to be saved after a serious wipeout is to be rescued by that decent-size boat or plucked up by a Coast Guard helicopter, which one big-wave legend experienced firsthand after a three-wave hold-down. The bank sits just under the water and can kick up epic hundred-footers. It’s one of the biggest, scariest waves in the world, and I mastered it: little five foot three sandy-haired me.

You’d usually have to wait until winter for a wave like that, but weather patterns are so crazy with the globe heating up the last few decades, it’s monumental—like, who can predict? I had no clue how ginormous the wave was. I mean, nobody anticipated it—not my surf coach, the safety team, the other surfers, or the pilots in the choppers circling above—but a tiny voice inside and the never-ending elevator ride up confirmed it was going to be borderline cataclysmic. When the wave hit its peak, I was staring down a seventy-five-foot vertical drop, fear shrieking inside me. Ride or die, that’s what I thought. Like, seriously, flinch on a wave like that and it’s bye-bye girly-girl. I went supersonic after that, faster than I had ever gone before, my legs feeling the board’s feedback full force, completely in the zone, focused, the entire ocean an angry fist beneath me . . . Then I pulled out of the wave.

When the video hit social, it ping-ponged around the world, out into space, and back again, sending up a collective girl-power supercheer, pretty much locking up a ton of cash in surf-sponsorships and placing me on every news feed from here to Alice Springs. Jax—that's what people call my dad—says I have a gift. He says he noticed it the first time I stood up on a wave in Sendai, Japan, back when I was five and we were surfing together, years before that tsunami leveled the place.

The sponsorship money let me set my marine biology degree aside for a while. I couldn't find a job in the field anyway. Let me restate that: I was offered one at SeaLand San Diego straight out of UCSD, basically to put on a carnival show with a thirteenth-generation orca after her act was reintroduced, but I passed because that isn't science, and a creature like that should be ambushing seals out in the ocean and not squeaking for mackerel treats in a man-made swimming pool for some spoiled kids' amusement. So the money lets me spend my days training, and my eyes are on the big prize when the Olympics begin on August 4.

© 2017 Michael Mazza, with permission from Turtle Point Press

Author Bio:

Michael Mazza is a fiction writer living in the San Francisco Bay Area. His stories have appeared in Other Voices, WORDS, Blue Mesa Review, TINGE, and ZYZZYVA. He is best known as an internationally acclaimed art and creative director working in the advertising industry. Along with being named National Creative All-Star by Adweek, his work appears in the Permanent Collection of the Library of Congress. He has lectured throughout the country and abroad, most notably at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. He has attended the Iowa Summer Writers’ Workshop, the Stanford Creative Writing workshop, and the Wharton School Executive Education MBA program. That Crazy Perfect Someday is his first novel. Connect with Michael at his website: www.mazzastory.com or on Twitter and Instagram: @mazzastory

**You can pick up a copy of That Crazy Perfect Someday June 20th at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or Indiebound.**

Newly Released: Be Witched

I'm going to periodically feature newly released books. These are self-published books which I've agreed to lend a helping hand. I'll include cover art, synopses, excerpts, author bios, and purchasing links. If you're interested, I encourage you to take the leap and give them a shot. So here we go! :-)

BOOK INFORMATION

TITLE – Be Witched AUTHOR – 21 NYT, USA Today, and International Bestselling authors GENRE – Paranormal Romance PUBLICATION DATE – 5/3/16 LENGTH - Over 1 million words PUBLISHER – Bestselling Boxed Sets

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BOOK SYNOPSIS

Prepare to BE WITCHED with 22 tales of magical and mysterious Paranormal Romance. All one million words of this witchy romance boxed set will leave you spellbound, but this collection won't last long. This limited edition omnibus is available for a limited time and packed with today's NY Times, USA Today, and International Bestselling authors, bringing you nothing but the best of the best in the witch romance genre. 

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BUY & TBR LINKS

AMAZON KINDLE UNIVERSAL – BARNES & NOBLES NOOK KOBO – ITUNES

AUTHOR BIO

• NY Times & USA Today Bestselling Author, Sarah Mäkelä MOONLIT FEATHERS - After faced with crippling loss, a heartbroken raven must find her wings again... 
• USA Today Bestselling Authors, Kressley & Hamilton MOON COVEN - Julia's coven has been at war with Roman's for generations. Now their love for each other may be the death of them both. 
• USA Today Bestselling Author, Rebecca Hamilton THE FOREVER GIRL - A witch gets more than she bargains for when she finally decides to trust a shifter. 
• USA Today Bestselling Author, Rainy Kaye THE DEEPEST BLACK - Ember has a little problem...fairies want her dead. 
• Harlequin Author & International Bestselling Author, Debbie Herbert CHARMED AND DANGEROUS - A witch returns years after a traumatic Ouija board incident. She falls for a classmate and struggles to keep her magic secret. 
• International Bestselling Author, Linsey Hall WITCH'S FATE - When warlock Malcolm Brent chose power over Sofia and cast her aside, she vowed to forget him. For four hundred years, it worked. Until he forced her to return to him... 
• USA Today Bestselling Author, April Aasheim THE WITCHES OF DARK ROOT - Seven years ago Maggie left her enchanted but stifling town and her mother's magick shop. Now she's returned to find both the town and her family in peril, and she might be the only one who can save them. 
• USA Today Bestselling Author, Apryl Baker THE BLACKBURN LEGACY - Fearing for her sanity, Alexandria must face her nightmares. Aided by new friends, who have dark secrets themselves, can she survive long enough to discover the secret behind the secret? 
• International Bestselling Author, Poppet SAND WITCH - A sexy, witchy, good time tale. Falling in love is magickal, despite the bullets and near death experiences.   
• USA Today Bestselling Author, Noree Cosper THE PANDORA PRINCIPLE - As a descendant of Pandora, Cassi must discover if her lover is one of the evil spirits she hunts before all of her friends die. 
• International Bestselling Author, Caethes Faron MAGIC BORN - A college student discovers she's the daughter of a powerful mage when a panther shifter delivers the news of her mother's murder...and now the killer is after her. 
• USA Today Bestselling Author, J.E. Taylor BLACK MAGICK - When a banishing spell goes awry, Paige Turner must defeat a vengeful spirit before he destroys everything she loves. 
• International Bestselling Author, Lindsey R. Loucks THE GRAVE WINNER - Leigh Baxton is terrified her mom will come back from the dead...just like the prom queen did. 
• International Bestselling, L.V. Lewis THE CASTER'S CANTICLE - When hopelessness and lust collides, how does one give life to a heart that sings to you like no other? 
• International Bestselling Author, Shannon Eckrich KISSING THE DEVIL - A witch, a devil, and a curse. A romantic twist on the legend of the New Jersey Devil. 
• International Bestselling Author, Rachel McClellan THE DEVIL'S FOOL - Eve spends most of her life avoiding people like her power-hungry witch parents, but when she meets a seductive vampire, she finds it increasingly difficult to spot the true devils of the world, especially when she becomes one herself. 
• International Bestselling & Award Winning Author, Charity Parkerson THE SEXY & THE UNDEAD - Single, unemployed, and in charge of her very own pet zombie, Ella Perry is cooking up trouble, and it's raining men. 
• USA Today Bestselling Author, Susan Stec WITCHY - Skylar is a white witch full of good intentions, bad habits, and poor relationship choices. 
• International Bestselling Author, N.R. Larry THE NIGHT - Kinsley will do anything to forget that she killed a guy. 
• International Best Selling Author, C.P. Mandara GOOD AS DEAD - Everyone wants her dead. One vampire has been ordered to keep her alive, and he's hungry... for much more than blood. International Bestselling Author, Diana Bocco WICKED - One night. One ritual. Passion will change everything.

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GIVEAWAY PRIZES

$25 Amazon gift card

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Newly Released: Things From Other Worlds

I'm going to periodically feature newly released books. These are self-published books which I've agreed to lend a helping hand. I'll include cover art, synopses, excerpts, author bios, and purchasing links. If you're interested, I encourage you to take the leap and give them a shot. So here we go! :-)

BOOK INFORMATION

TITLE – Things from Other Worlds
AUTHOR – Anne E. Johnson
GENRE – Children’s literature / science fiction
PUBLICATION DATE – October, 2015
LENGTH (Pages/# Words) - 84 pages
PUBLISHER – Anne E. Johnson
COVER ARTIST – James for GoOnWrite.com

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BOOK SYNOPSIS

Many strange things wait inside these pages. There's a fuzzy ball of kindness, camped out on a grumpy man's porch. A chewed piece of gum with a mind of its own. A smart Alec who actually stands in line twice when they're handing out brains. A girl who isn't afraid when all the plants in her neighborhood come to life.

This collection of 15 science fiction and fantasy stories for kids by award-winning author Anne E. Johnson is perfect for ages 8-12, or anyone with a child's heart.

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EXCERPT

THE CRUSTY-HEARTED MAN (Excerpt from Story No. 15 in Things from Other Worlds)

Outside our town, a few miles from where Jimbo’s gas station used to be, an old man lived all by himself. Everybody knew he was there, but nobody actually knew him. He’d show up a few times a year to buy canned goods at Ruth & Bobby’s, but that was it. Not a soul, not even the oldest soul in town, could remember a time when that man hadn’t been around. He must have been two hundred years old. Some said more like three hundred. 

Truth was, he’d been out of touch with people for so long that nobody could remember his name. 

He couldn’t even remember his own name. Folks said that a crust had grown over his heart. 

The heart’s a funny organ, though. It’s tougher than you’d think, and can survive through pretty much anything. It’s like a tulip bulb. No matter how icy and long the winter is, that little bulb stays alive under the frozen ground until it’s time to shoot up a new sprout, green and full of life.

But for some especially frosty people, there’s rarely enough sunshine to wake up their hearts. It takes something spectacular, maybe even something from another world. I’ll tell you what happened to this old, old man, and you’ll see what I mean. 

Nobody wanted to have anything to do with him. Flies and grubs and spiders occasionally tiptoed into the walls of his house, but most were never heard from again. The younger raccoons and rabbits only touched his front stoop on a dare because their parents warned them not to. 

“Get away!” the old man would scream hoarsely while shaking a frying pan above his head. 

Every living creature, from human on down to bedbug, knew enough to keep off the old man’s property. But that knowledge had not been broadcast across space. So, when an alien landed in a clearing in the woods one late winter afternoon, it didn’t realize what it was up against. It was scared and a little woozy after a rough landing, although it wasn’t afraid. It had been brought up to assume that all beings will do right by each other when given the chance. Poor little thing. 

I bet you think an alien is a spindly sort that looks like it’s made of green plastic. Well, not this one. It was furry. Oh, so furry. Picture fur as thick as a polar bear’s and as soft as a mink’s. Now double how thick and soft it is. Now color it blue-green. This deep, soft, dark fur was all over its body, which was short and wide. The alien, standing, came up just past your knees, but was too wide to get your arms around.

It had two giant tangerine-orange toenails on each of its four feet. Its eyes, too, were the color of tangerines, but twice as big. They were very close together in its head, and surrounded by fur, giving it a very intense look. Your average human would probably describe this alien as “the cutest thing I’ve ever seen,” and make a sound that went something like “Awwww.” 

Well, this little alien was in need of shelter and food. It didn’t know the plants and animals of our planet, so it shuffled right by some perfectly edible berries and nuts. But it recognized a building when it saw one. And so it approached the old man’s house in the middle of the woods, with hope in its heart but nothing in its belly. 

“MMMnnnyonggg,” it called out from the yard. Nothing stirred in the house, but several woodchucks and foxes gathered to watch from a safe distance. The alien trundled up the front steps. Once it caught its fur on the rotting wood, but freed itself like a real trooper. Inside the house, the old man heard a nasal howl. 

“MMMnnnyonggg!” 

He assumed it was a wolf or an injured bear. “Durn thing’s up on the porch,” said the crusty-hearted man as he pulled his frying pan down from its nail. “I’ll teach ʼem whose house this is.” 

The old man shoved the front door open so hard it smacked against the rotten siding. A few shingles crumbled and fell. The woodland creatures watching the show skittered deeper into the shadows, fearing what would come next. 

But the alien didn’t move. It didn’t know it was supposed to be afraid of the sound of wood smacking wood, or the sight of a two-legged earthling holding a round metal object. It assumed this was either a way to say “hello,” or else a communication device telling the whole planet about its arrival. Those were the only options that made sense to the alien. Widening its eyes and puffing up its fur, it tried to look as friendly as possible.

For his part, the old man was so puzzled that he forgot to swing the pan. “You’re not a bear,” he accused the blue-green furry thing. “You’re sure not a wolf. What are you? Gorilla?”

The alien didn’t know what the word “gorilla” meant, but it enjoyed the sound, so it waddled a little closer to the cool-talking human.

“GGgggrrrrill,” said the alien, trying to fit in.

The old man just snorted and slammed the door, leaving the alien alone on the porch.

AUTHOR BIO

As the author of dozens of published short stories, Anne E. Johnson has won writing prizes for both children's and adults' short fiction. Her short fiction for kids has appeared in FrostFire Worlds, Wee Tales, Jack & Jill, Young Explorer’s Adventure Guide, Rainbow Rumpus, and elsewhere. Her stories for adults can be found in Alternate Hilarities, The Future Fire, Liquid Imagination, and SpeckLit. For a complete list of her published stories, please visit AnneEJohnson.com. She also writes science fiction novels, including the humorous Webrid Chronicles series. To give back to the writing and children’s lit community, Anne is a volunteer story judge at RateYourStory and writes a weekly column called Kid Lit Insider for EatSleepWrite.net. Anne grew up in Wisconsin but moved to New York City over 20 years ago. She now lives in Brooklyn with her husband, playwright Ken Munch.

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AUTHOR FOLLOW LINKS

AMAZON AUTHOR PAGE WEBSITE BLOG FACEBOOK TWITTER GOOGLE+ PINTEREST GOODREADS INSTAGRAM

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BUY & TBR LINKS

AMAZON KINDLE US AMAZON KINDLE CA AMAZON KINDLE UK AMAZON PAPERBACK BARNES & NOBLES NOOK BARNES & NOBLES PAPERBACK ITUNES GOODREADS KOBO

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