We don't know what the future brings

Hey all my wonderful readers

I'm so sorry I have been away for a long time.

I have a serious health problem and it has taken all my time dealing with that. It means a lot to me that so many of you still are followers and I will come back to the blog. I just don't know when yet.

Thank you for understanding.

Teaser Tuesday (20)

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along!
Read more about Teaser Tuesdays HERE.

Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

This weeks teaser:
I took a quick shower to wash off most of the blood and dirt and climbed into the tub.
P. 82 Magic Slays by Ilona Andrews

Fast Forward (20)

Hello all my fellow bloggers and readers, another week has begun and it's time to look forward and see what this week will bring.
I hope you will play along in this meme.


Book related
At the moment I'm thinking about starting one of these books:

Magic Slays by Ilona Andrews
Vinter's passage by Julie Kagawa
Wildefire by Karsten Knight

Let me know if you have read any of them and which one you prefer:-)

If I have the time, I will participate in the following memes this week:
Teaser Tuesday
Waiting on Wednesday
Follow Friday/Blog Hop
On My Wishlist
In My Mailbox


Other things this week
I'm going to Tivoli on Sunday, it's a big amusement park here in Denmark. It's going to be fun and I can't wait to get out of the house for a couple of hours and do something else than cleaning up after all the water damage.


Now it's your turn, tell me your FFW:
I would love to hear what you are reading this week and also tell me, what are your plans for the week?

Your welcome to make your own Fast Forward post on your blog and then come back and post a link, that would be awesome.

Thank you to everyone who participated last week.

News from authors and cover art (18)

News 1:

Richelle Mead has revealed the cover of book two in her Bloodlines series, The Golden Lily,
it comes out in May 2012:

News 2:

Cat Clarke has has revealed the cover of Torn, it will be released in January 2012.

News 3:

Caitlin Kittredge has revealed the cover of the Nightmare Garden, the second book in the Iron Codex series.
Expected publication: February 14, 2011.

News  4:

Rachel Hawkins has revealed the cover of the Spell Bound, the third book in the Hex Hall series.
Expected publication: March 13th 2012.

News  5:

Jackie Morse Kessler has revealed the back cover for Loss book three in The Horseman of the Apocalypse: The Rider's Quartet series:

Fight Back
Fifteen-year-old Billy Ballard is the kid that everyone picks on, from the school bullies to the teachers. Things change drastically when Billy learns that years ago, he’d been tricked by Pestilence, the White Rider of the Apocalypse. Now it’s Billy’s turn to wield Pestilence’s Bow and spread sickness through the world. He uses his new power to lash out at his tormentors…and accidentally causes an outbreak of disease. Horrified by his actions, he wants nothing more than to be rid of the Bow. For that to happen, Billy must track down the previous White Rider, who is hiding in a place where even Death cannot go.

Billy’s search takes him across the centuries: from ancient Phrygia, where a man called King Mita agrees to wear the White Rider’s Crown, to a mighty forest, where Pestilence plans to cheat Death; from the docks of Alexandria, where plague is packed into cartons of grain, to the Children’s Crusade in France, where the White Rider learns a truth that will break him. By the time Billy finds the man who had tricked him so long ago, the White Rider is completely insane—and is poised to unleash a plague that would make the Black Death look like a summer cold. And only Billy can stop him.

Does one bullied teenager have the strength to stand his ground—and the courage to save the world?


News  6:

Elle Jasper has revealed the cover of Eventide, book three in the Dark Ink Chronicles.
Expected publication: March 6th 2012.

News  7:

Jennifer Estep has revealed the cover for Kiss of Frost, book two in the Mythos Academy series.
Expected publication: November 29th 2011.

News  8:

Kim Harrington has revealed the cover and synopsis for Perseption, book two in the Clarity series.
Expected publication: March 2012.

This hotly anticipated sequel to CLARITY delivers another dark, paranormal mystery.

When you can see things others can't, what do you do when someone's watching you?

Everybody knows about Clarity "Clare" Fern. She's the psychic girl in school, the one who can place her hands on something and see hidden visions from the past.

Only Clare would rather not be a celebrity. She prefers hanging back, observing. Her gift is not a game to her.

But then someone starts playing with her head . . . and heart. Messages and gifts from a secret admirer crop up everywhere Clare turns. Could they be from Gabriel, the gorgeous boy who gets Clare's pulse racing? Or from Justin, Clare's hopeful ex-boyfriend who'd do anything to win her back?

One thing is certain. Clare needs to solve this mystery, and soon. Because the messages are becoming sinister, and a girl in town has suddenly disappeared.

Wow I like a lot of these covers and I can't wait to read Spell Bound by Rachel Hawkins, I love that series.

So what do you think? Are there something special you are looking forward to?

Lots of winners!

  
Thank you to all of you who entered all the different giveaways I had going on, it's been great to read your comments and I feel humble that so many of you decided to become a follower of Mysteriousbooks. It means so much, Thank you!

As many of you know we had water in our basement so I use most of my time trying to recue things and that has taking my time and focus away from the blog. It's far from over yet and I still have a lot of things to do but I apologize to everyone for the delay of posting all the winners. I can't wait to get everything fixed so I can get back to posting more often again.

Lets get to it.

The winner of an E-copy of Replay by Keira Lea is:

KIMYUNALESCA!!!


The winner of an E-copy of Shadow Path by P. L. Blair is:

SHADOW_KOHLER!!!


The Winners of a signed copy of Burn The Night by Jocelynn Drake are:

1# THE NOVEL NYMPH!!!

and

2# WILDABOUTBONES!!!


The winner of an E-copy of Dark Magick by Stacey Thompson-Geer and Stevie Trinity is:

DENISE Z!!!


And finally the winner of the Freedom giveaway Hop, a book of your choice, up to $10 from the Book Depository is:

YI TING!!!


Congratulations to all of you, I wish I could give everyone who participated a prize but that's sadly not possible.

I will contact the winners soon via. email.

The winners of Burn The Night and Book of your choice will have 72 hours to answer back with there mailing address before I will have to draw a new winner.

I hope all of you will enjoy your books:-)

Guest post with author M. M. Shelley, Mishap & Mayhem tour

I'm so happy to welcome M. M. Shelly to the blog today. She's stopping on her Mishap & Mayhem tour and she's going to tell us about herself and the Adventures on the Mediterranean.
Mishap & Mayhem was published April 3rd 2011.

Feel free to post any comments and/or questions you have for M. M. Shelly in the comments.

Author bio

M.M. Shelley is a storyteller, wordsmith and dreamer. MISHAP AND MAYHEM, a captivating story of faerie's and magic, is her debut novel. She has traveled the world extensively in search of the magic which is often overlooked in every day life. M.M. Shelley is a native of southern California, and a student of mythology from which she gets much inspiration.

Links: www.mmshelley.com/http://mmshelley.blogspot.com/



Adventures on the Mediterranean
Having never visited Nice, France before I didn’t know what to expect, I had seen pictures and read books, but I decided to go with an open mind. There was one thing I was sure going to do. That was to buy a bottle of Olive Oil. I had read that there was a shop in Nice that had really good Olive Oil and I wanted to try it out.

With my travel book in hand I traveled the streets asking some locals for directions when I stumbled into road blocks or just couldn’t seem to find the street. Along the way, the path was filled with venders who had set up shop on long white tables. I don’t know if that was something they do all the time or if it was just my luck. I do like to support artist and I did buy some silver jewelry from a silversmith, he was kind enough to give me directions.

After spending a good deal of time looking for the shop, I found it to be quite anti-climatic. The store was cute and was filled wall to wall with different oils; I suppose my problem with it was that you couldn’t try any of the oils. I asked the salesclerk which one was the best and she told me that it really depends on my taste. So, I took a gamble and grabbed the first one I saw. It did turn out to be quite good and worth the hassle in finding the store. I wonder if they take online orders?

As I made my way out of the store, two little old ladies were eyeing it. The one closes to me was about to take a step onto the curb. She must have miss-judged the height of the curb because she stumbled and was about to fall, thanks to my fast reflexes I stepped forward and caught her; preventing her from falling onto the concrete ground. She was very grateful and thanked me over and over again.

Thinking about it afterwards, I thought if this had been a book she would have invited me home for supper where it just so happened that they were having a party and I would have met her incredibly handsome grandson or something like that. But, nope, we parted ways and all I have is wishful thinking of what could have been.

Nice is a great place to travel to and people watch. All are there for different reasons. Some are there to hit the beach and its clear waters, others are there as a stopping point before they move further down the Mediterranean, and some are there for the Olive Oil. Whichever serves you best you are sure to have your own adventure.


Thanks to, Mysterious Rose, for letting me share with you all today. You can find me over at my blog mmshelley.blogspot.com and on twitter @MM_Shelley and be sure to take a look at my book, Mishap & Mayhem.

Much love,

M.M. Shelley

Thank you so much M. M. Shelly for being here today, It's been a pleasure and I'd really enjoyed your guest post.
Good luck with future books:-)

Blurb:

For centuries magical beings have hidden in the darkness, waiting. Some good, some evil. A battle is brewing, and only twins, Grasiella and Tatiana, have the power to stop it.

Buy links:　

Amazon, B&N, Smashwords

Interview with author Laura Bickle

I'm so happy to welcome Laura Bickle to the blog today.  she's going to tell us about herself and her books.

Feel free to post any comments and/or questions you have for Laura Bickle in the comments.

 

 

 

Author bio

Laura Bickle (a.k.a. Alayna Williams) has worked in the unholy trinity of politics, criminology, and technology for several years. She lives in the Midwestern U.S. with her chief muse, owned by four mostly-reformed feral cats. Writing as Laura Bickle, she's the author of EMBERS and SPARKS for Pocket - Juno Books. Writing as Alayna Williams, she's the author of DARK ORACLE and ROGUE ORACLE. More info on her urban fantasy and general nerdiness is here: www.salamanderstales.com

 

 

Thanks so much for hosting me! I'm very excited to meet you and your readers!

If you could visit anywhere (real or fictional), were would you go?　
I would love to visit ancient Egypt. I have a persistent dream about napping in the sunshine on the roof of a building, surrounded by cats. Plus, the library at Alexandria...irresistible.　

Where do you see yourself in 5 years from now?　
I hope that I am doing much the same thing: sitting in the sunshine with a cat at my feet, enjoying far too much of my husband's excellent pasta, and telling stories.
I'm also very fortunate in that my day job is in a library. So I'm able to spend time with books wherever I am.

What does the word “home” mean to you?　
Home is where the people who love you are. I don't know that it's necessarily a geographic space. But as long as I feel loved, I always feel at home. Sort of like a turtle, who takes her home on her back, wherever she goes.

For people who have yet to read your series can you describe the Anya Kalinczyk series in three sentences?　
By day, Anya Kalinczyk is an investigator with the Detroit Fire Department. By night, she pursues malicious spirits with an eccentric team of ghost hunters and her fire salamander familiar. Anya must stop an attractive arsonist intent on summoning an ancient entity that will leave Detroit in cinders

Will you mention 5 words about Anya Kalinczyk?　
Five words that come immediately to mind are: outsider, exorcist, seething, intense, and solitary.

You also write books under the name Alayna Williams will you tell us a little about your Oracle series?　
Tara Sheridan swore off criminal profiling after narrowly escaping a serial killer who left her scarred for life. By combining Tarot card divination with her own intuition, she must help an intense federal agent find a missing scientist who has unlocked the destructive secrets of dark energy. The agent, Harry Li, draws her out of her self-imposed exile and back into the world.

If you had the chance to meet any character from one of your books in real life, who would it be and why?　
Definitely Sparky the fire salamander from EMBERS and SPARKS. My favorite character is, hands down, Sparky the fire salamander. There's a scene in which Anya has crawled into bed and is fretting about her investigation. Sparky ignores the dog bed she's purchased for him, crawls into bed, and snuggles up with Anya and his Glow-Worm toy. He reminds me a lot of unconditional love...as people, we can fail and make wrong choices. But I wanted Anya to have a sense of that unconditional love, even when she screws up.



This may be a hard question but can you quote something from one of your books that defines you as a writer?　
The first two lines of EMBERS are lines that really resonated with me:
"Truth burned.
"It always burned, even in the cold, dark hours of the morning when nearly everyone slept."
For me, writing is a lot about exploring ideas and truths, even if they aren't always pleasant. Every once in awhile, I think it's good to go rooting around in the dirt of my fears for story fodder. We all have things that scare us and tend to linger. Maybe it's a childhood terror, a phobia, a bit of something inexplicable that boils up once in blue moon in a recurring dream. Every so often, I take my shovel to the forgotten stuff in the back of my brain and see what I can unearth. Things like what happens when one gets to close to evil - does it act like a contagion? Like feeling isolated. Like Chernobyl. About knowing the future and being powerless to change it.
Because things scare me, I have to write about them.

What are you working on now?　
I'm working on a couple of fantasy projects. Like my other books, they involve female protagonists. Somehow, my heroines always wind up with pets...be they cats, salamanders, or other familiars.

Which books are sitting at the top of your TBR pile?　
My TBR pile is completely out of control! At the top are: Yvonne Navarro's CONCRETE SAVIOR, Phillipa Ballantine's SPECTYR, Jenna Black's DARK DESCENDENT, Julie Kagawa's THE IRON KING, Jeri Smith-Ready's SHIFT, and Ann Aguirre's KILLBOX.

Thanks very much for chatting with me! I had a lot of fun.

Thank you so much Laura for stopping by, it's been an absolute pleasure and I really enjoyed reading yout answers to the questions.
I wish you good luck with all your future books and I hope to see you here on Mysteriouesbooks again some other time.

Find Laura on the web:
Website
Blogs here and here
Facebook
Twitter
Livejournal