Darlene's Book Nook: Book Tours

Showing posts with label Book Tours. Show all posts

Friday, October 18, 2013

Dark Migration Blog Tour: Guest Post and Giveaway with Sandra R. Campbell

Hi, everyone!

I am pleased to participate in the Blog Tour hosted by Xpresso Book Tours for Sandra R. Campbell's Dark Migration.

About Sandra:

Sandra R. Campbell lives along the tranquil waters of the Chesapeake Bay with her new husband and weight challenged cat. She can trace her passion for the macabre back to reading Edgar Allen Poe as a child, with her pet crow, Big Fellow, by her side. She has since submerged herself in a wide range of dark literature. An avid thrill seeker, Sandra is always looking for her next big adrenaline rush, and when spelunking, climbing, diving and monster hunting fails to deliver, she turns to the creation of through-the-rabbit-hole worlds and sends her characters on their own adventures. Her first NA paranormal thriller, Butterfly Harvest, was published in September 2010. Sandra also writes children’s stories, is an active member of the Maryland Writers’ Association and the head of a MWA critique group.

CONNECT ONLINE WITH SANDRA:

Website | Facebook | Twitter

Welcome to Darlene's Book Nook, Sandra!

Sandra has written a guest post, so I will now turn the floor over to her.

10 Things You Didn't Know About Sandra R. Campbell
By Sandra R. Campbell

I drive fast, like I’m racing on the Autobahn.

When I’m happy I sing, badly.

Spiders freak me out. If I was writing ‘10 Things That Freak Me Out’, spiders would be number 1, 2 and 3. And yet I wear a lot of Spyder apparel.

In the third grade, I was bitten by a bat and had to go through a series of painful rabies shots. However, I have no problem going spelunking with bats hanging right over my head. Yeah, but there better not a spider in that cave.

I dream in color and can remember most of my dreams in full detail. I also suffer from night terrors and have been known to sleepwalk.

I can’t drink anything hot. No coffee, tea, coco.

One day I want to live on a houseboat. I love the water!

Halloween is my favorite holiday.

I can talk to frogs. While volunteering at the Patuxent Wildlife Research Refuge, I learned the mating calls for native Maryland frogs in order to perform surveys for the USGS.

Friends nicknamed me Britannica, because I have a knack for remembering obscure, useless information.

Thanks so much for joining us today, Sandra!

One lucky winner will win a signed paperback copy of Dark Migration.

TITLE: Dark Migration

AUTHOR: Sandra R. Campbell

PUBLICATION DATE: August 26, 2013
FORMAT: E-book, 253 pages

GENRE: Dark Fantasy, Horror, New Adult
ASIN: B00ET6929G

Seanna Raines is on a journey of self-discovery. Only her search does not include college applications or finding a cool summer job. After killing Samuel Bolvayne, the ‘man’ she fears and loves, Seanna is not looking for who she is, but rather what she will become.

Samuel spent countless lifetimes trying to forge a companion like himself, but his previous attempts were considered failures. Until Seanna. She is his first true success… and his ultimate undoing. Now, without Samuel to guide her, Seanna is lost. To survive, she needs to find out what her transformation means: super strength, the ability to smell human emotions, and an ever-increasing need to devour human souls. Seanna travels to Samuel’s earthly homeland, along the coast of South Africa, in search of answers. Here, she encounters several of his failed experiments, who claim to know the truth. These abominations lead her into a sinister world of chaos and destruction, where the birthplace of evil is revealed.

Seanna clings to the last piece of her humanity while struggling to accept her feelings for Samuel and what she has done to him. Just as Seanna embraces her fate, she is forced to choose between life as an immortal with the one she loves or sacrifice it all to save a world that does not deserve saving.

Buy Links:

Amazon / Barnes & Noble

To enter the giveaway, please fill out the Rafflecopter entry form below.

This giveaway is open to worldwide until October 25, 2013.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Tour Participants:

October 14th
-fuonlyknew >> Excerpt
-Sweet Southern Home >> Review
-Fae Books >> Excerpt

October 15th
-Contagious Reads >> Review
-Laurie’s Thoughts and Reviews >> Interview

October 16th
-Literary Meanderings >> Guest Post

October 17th
-A Diary Of A Book Addict >> Review + Excerpt (Teasers)
-We Love KInk >> Review

October 18th
-Lizzy’s Dark Fiction >> Review
-Not Everyone’s Mama >> Review
-Darlene’s Book Nook >> Top 10 List

–

October 21st
-Mythical Books >> Review + Playlist
-The Secret Life of a Bookworm >> Review

October 22nd
-Mom With A Kindle >> Excerpt
-My Seryniti >> Review
-Bookmarks, Spoilers and Happily Ever After >> Review

October 23rd
-Jessica Loves Books >> Review + Excerpt (Teasers)
-A Dream Within A Dream >> Review

October 24th
-A_TiffyFit’s Reading Corner >> Review
-Coffee and Characters >> Interview

October 25th
-Lost in Ever After >> Review + Top 5 List
-Who’s Reviews >> Excerpt

Friday, September 27, 2013

The Guilty Blog Tour: Guest Post and Giveaway with Vincent Zandri

Hi, everyone!

I am pleased to participate in Vincent Zandri's The Guilty Blog Tour hosted by Pump Up Your Book.

About Vincent:

Vincent Zandri is the No. 1 International Bestselling Amazon author of THE INNOCENT, GODCHILD, THE REMAINS, MOONLIGHT FALLS, THE CONCRETE PEARL, MOONLIGHT RISES, SCREAM CATCHER, BLUE MOONLIGHT, MURDER BY MOONLIGHT, MOONLIGHT SONATA, CHASE, and more. He is also the author of the Amazon bestselling digital shorts, PATHOLOGICAL, TRUE STORIES and MOONLIGHT MAFIA. Harlan Coben has described THE INNOCENT (formerly As Catch Can) as "...gritty, fast-paced, lyrical and haunting," while the New York Post called it "Sensational...Masterful...Brilliant!" Zandri's list of publishers include Delacorte, Dell, StoneHouse Ink, StoneGate Ink, and Thomas & Mercer. An MFA in Writing graduate of Vermont College, Zandri's work is translated into many languages including the Dutch, Russian, and Japanese. An adventurer, foreign correspondent, and freelance photo-journalist for Living Ready, RT, Globalspec, as well as several other news agencies and publications, Zandri lives in New York.

His latest book is the thriller, The Guilty.

CONNECT WITH VINCENT ONLINE:

Website

Welcome to Darlene's Book Nook, Vincent!

Vincent has written a guest post, so I will now turn the floor over to him.

15 Books and Counting
By Vincent Zandri

I've finally gone and done it.

Come October I will have fifteen books in print with the publication of The Guilty, The Shroud Key and Moonlight Sonata. So why is this number so significant? What's the big deal?

Fourteen years ago, almost to the day, I published my first "big" novel with a Random House imprint. They gave me tons of money, wined and dined me. I even played drums in my editor's band and ummm, dated my publicist...If you want to call it that. I was fresh out of writing school. Young. Pretty good looking (Not Barry Eisler good looking, but passable). Newly divorced and living the life of the rock star.

I remember tossing twenties around to the hotel clerks asking them to bring bottles of booze up to the room so that there would be plenty on hand when the guests came. The guests usually consisted of literary agents, writers, artists, musicians. The room was so full of cigarette and pot smoke you could hardly see. The booze flowed like a river and it just happened to snow during the warm weather, if you catch my drift. I found myself living the dream, and living it hard. It was everything I always wanted. Bright lights, big city, big ego, big books, big future...

All I had to do to maintain the life of the rock star was write one book per year. My hot shot agent would take care of the rest. My lifestyle wouldn't be supported by sales...Sales?...What the hell are sales? It would be supported by big advances. Sales weren't sexy in the eyes of my then agent. It was measured in the amount of advance money he could demand. Six and seven figure advances were what made him happy. Not sales figures typed out on spread sheets. Advances caused headlines in Publishers Weekly. Sales trickled in and never made up for the big advance. Well, almost never, anyway.

Somehow I wrote the second book. But something happened along the way. My imprint got sucked into another. The new imprint editor looked at the advance money owed me and compared it to real sales and nearly puked. The firm honored their contractual commitment and paid me, but as soon as the second book was published, I was shown the door. Goodbye publisher. Goodbye parties. Goodbye rock-star status. Goodbye New York City. Goodbye ego. Goodbye hot shot agent.

I went broke.

I lost my house, my car, my self esteem. I nearly lost my mind, and at one desperate point, I pulled out the twelve gauge double barrel and sat on the end of the bed staring at two black barrels that kept whispering the word "Eternity" into my ear. But then I remembered my little boy needed to be picked up from soccer practice and I packed the shotgun back up and decided death could wait for a while longer.

I went back to work writing a new novel. I found a small press publisher for it, but not after two years or so of trying. I wrote another novel, and again a small press took that one. But again, a couple more years had passed. Now I wasn't so young anymore. And I still wasn't making money from my books. Instead I was living as a freelance journalist who published crime novels on the side.

Enter E-Books.

My new agent convinced me to publish with an indie publisher who did something incredible. They published E-Book editions prior to the trade paper. I didn't believe it could work. But I gave them my newest novel. A book called The Remains. It went on to sell one-hundred thousand copies in Kindle alone. At the same time, my new agent somehow managed to get the rights released from my first two novels and those went on to sell like snow cones in hell (Bet Random House could kick themselves now...). I kept writing more and more words until my pace allowed me to produce a couple of novels per year. By the time Thomas & Mercer took me on for seven of these books, including my newest, Blue Moonlight, I had twelve books in print.

So far this year I've written three books. I'll probably write one more before the New Year tolls.

I'm older now, in my late-forties. My hair is thinning a bit. I don't party like I used to. I don't smoke or pop it or snort it anymore either. Like the great drummer once sang, "I'm tired of waking up on the floor."

But I have caught up with myself.

It's been fourteen years since I first entered into this crazy business and I now will have fifteen books to show for it. Come spring 2014, I will see sixteen with the publication of Moonlight Weeps. Come the Summer, Seventeen with Moonlight Runs. I could blow the bank and call for a celebratory party. But I'm just happy to be alive to see it all happen

Thanks so much for joining us today, Vincent!

One lucky winner will win a digital copy of Vincent's latest thriller, The Guilty.

Title: The Guilty
Author: Vincent Zandri
Publisher: StoneGate Ink
Genre: Thriller
Pages: 465
Format: Ebook
Language: English

Jack Marconi is back. In The Guilty, Jack finds himself investigating a local restaurateur who’s not only obsessed with the sexy, dark romance novel, Fifty Shades of Grey, he’s accused of attempting to murder his school teacher girlfriend. As the now brain-damaged young woman begins recalling events of that fateful winter night when she was allegedly pushed down the front exterior stairs of a West Albany mansion, she becomes the target of the angry foodie/sex-obsessed boyfriend once again. Only this time, he’s cooking up a plot to keep her silenced forever.

Buy Link:
AMAZON

To enter the giveaway, please complete the Rafflecopter entry form below.

This giveaway is open worldwide and will close at 12:00 AM
on October 4, 2013.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Tour Participants

Monday, September 2 – First Chapter Reveal at Pump Up Your Book

Monday, September 2 – Book Feature at Examiner

Tuesday, September 3 – Book Feature at Moonlight Lace & Mayhem

Tuesday, September 3 – Interview at Between the Covers

Wednesday, September 4 – Character Interview at Laurie’s Thoughts and Reviews

Thursday, September 5 – Guest Post at Lori’s Reading Corner

Friday, September 6 – First Chapter Reveal at B &M Review Gazette

Friday, September 6 – Book Featured at Must Read Faster

——————-

Monday, September 9 – Book Featured at Confessions of a Reader

Monday, September 9 – First Chapter Reveal at Review From Here

Tuesday, September 10 – Book Review at Hezzi-D’s Books and Cooks

Wednesday, September 11 – Character Guest Post at My Book Addiction and More

Wednesday, September 11 – Book Review at My Book Addiction Reviews

Thursday, September 12 – Book Featured at Deal Sharing Aunt

Friday, September 13 – First Chapter Reveal at As the Pages Turn

——————-

Monday, September 16 – Interview at Straight From the Author’s Mouth

Monday, September 16 – First Chapter Reveal at Literarily Speaking

Tuesday, September 17 – First Chapter Reveal at Read My First Chapter

Wednesday, September 18 – Interview at Blogcritics

Thursday, September 19 – Character Guest Post at Cheryl’s Book Nook

Friday, September 20 – Book Review at Kaisy Daisy’s Book Corner

——————-

Monday, September 23 – Book Review & Guest Blogging at Jersey Girl Book Reviews

Tuesday, September 24 – Book Review & Interview at Authors & Readers Book Corner

Wednesday, September 25 – Book Review at The Self-Taught Cook

Wednesday, September 25 – Guest Blogging at Butterfly-O-Meter Books

Thursday, September 26 – 20 Questions with Vincent Zandri at The Writer’s Life

Thursday, September 26 – Book Review at My Book Addiction Reviews

Friday, September 27 – Guest Blogging & Book Giveaway at Darlene’s Book Nook

Friday, September 27 – Book Review at B&M Review Gazette

Friday, September 27 – Interview at I‘m Shelf-ish

Friday, September 20, 2013

Immortals Blog Tour: Guest Post and Giveaway with Ednah Walters

Hi, everyone!

I am pleased to participate in the Blog Tour hosted by Xpresso Book Tours for Ednah Walters' Immortals.

About Ednah:

EDNAH WALTERS grew up reading Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys and dreaming of one day writing her own stories. She is a stay-at-home mother of five humans and two American short-hair cats (one of which has ADHD) and a husband. When she is not writing, she’s at the gym doing Zumba or doing things with her family, reading, traveling or online chatting with fans.

Ednah is the author of The Guardian Legacy series, a YA fantasy series about children of the fallen angels, who fight demons and protect mankind. AWAKENED, the prequel was released by Pill Hill Press in September 2010 with rave reviews. BETRAYED, book one in the series was released by her new publisher Spencer Hill Press in June 2012 and HUNTED, the third installment, will be released April 2013. She’s working on the next book in the series, FORGOTTEN.

Ednah also writes New Adult paranormal romance. RUNES is the first book in her new series. She is presently working on book 2, IMMORTALS.

Under the pseudonym E. B. Walters, Ednah writes contemporary romance. SLOW BURN, the first contemporary romance with suspense, was released in April 2011. It is the first book in the Fitzgerald family series. Since then she has published four more books in this series. She's presently working on book six.

CONNECT ONLINE WITH EDNAH:

Website (Ednah Walters) | Website (E.B. Walters) | Goodreads | Facebook | Twitter

Welcome to Darlene's Book Nook, Ednah!

Ednah has written a guest post, so I will now turn the floor over to her.

Norse Mythology and My Research
By Ednah Walters

Norse mythology is so interesting and so part of us we don’t even realize it. It gave us:

1. Days of the week named after the Norse gods:

Friday - Goddess Freya’s day

Thursday - Thor’s day

Wednesday - Woden’s day (Old Norse, Odin is sometimes called Woden)

2. Mistletoe:

Baldur was the most beloved son of Odin and his wife Frigga. When she had a dream about his death, she had all the elements in the all the realms promise not to hurt him. From the living and the non-living. But she forgot to ask mistletoe and Loki fashioned a spear out of mistletoe and tricked one of the gods into killing him. Devastated, Frigga decreed that mistletoe would never again be used as a weapon and that she would kiss anyone who passed under it. So now people kiss under the mistletoe.

I fell in love with Norse mythology way before the movie Thor was released. It started with Charmed, when my three favorite witches, Phoebe, Paige and Pippa, became Valkyries. I started reading on Valkyries and Goddess Freya, the head of the Valkyries. This powerful goddess who could have any being she wanted was the goddess of love, sexuality, beauty, fertility, gold, war, and death. She is the goddess of sorcery, which she taught Odin and the Aesir gods of Asgard. Even though Odin was the leader of the gods, he shared fallen soldiers with Freya. The more I read, the more I wanted to write a story about a girl as powerful as Freya, but where to begin.

Like Greek mythology, the Norse pantheon had their wars. The main one was between Vanir gods/goddesses from Vanaheimr and Aesir gods/goddess of Asgard. To make peace, the Vanirs sent several of their gods/goddesses to Asgard and Asgardians sent some of theirs to Vanaheimr. Freya is one of the goddesses sent to Asgard and she brought magic in the form of sorcery to the Asgardians. Odin, on the other hand, was always thirsty for knowledge and had brought runic magic to the gods. I had to decide between which magic to use in my story: runic or sorcery.

Since I was writing about a mythology most often ignored, I chose runes. Sorcery has been done to death in the stories about witches, warlocks, and wizards. Runes wasn’t common except in the Mortal Instrument series

So you see, magic has always been part of the Asgardian pantheon. When I decided on this series, I chose a girl as my protagonist and created a story that will make Norse mythology come alive to readers as she grows. In Runes, Raine learns about runic magic and that she’s different. She meets the Norns, deities in charge of destiny, and a valkyries. In Immortals, we find out what makes her so special. In Grimnirs, we learn even more about Norse mythology. By the time I finish the series, readers will come to love Norse mythology as much as I do.

Thanks so much for joining us today, Ednah!

About the Series:

TITLE: Runes

SERIES: Runes, Book #1
AUTHOR: Ednah Walters

PUBLISHER: FireTrail Publishing
PUBLICATION DATE: May 20, 2013
FORMAT: E-book, 245 pages

GENRE: YA Paranormal Romance
ASIN: B00CP4YKTG

Seventeen-year-old Raine Cooper has enough on her plate dealing with her father’s disappearance, her mother’s erratic behavior and the possibility of her boyfriend relocating. The last thing she needs is Torin St. James—a mysterious new neighbor with a wicked smile and uncanny way of reading her.

Raine is drawn to Torin’s dark sexiness against her better judgment, until he saves her life with weird marks and she realizes he is different. But by healing her, Torin changes something inside Raine. Now she can’t stop thinking about him. Half the time, she’s not sure whether to fall into his arms or run.

Scared, she sets out to find out what Torin is. But the closer she gets to the truth the more she uncovers something sinister about Torin. What Torin is goes back to an ancient mythology and Raine is somehow part of it. Not only is she and her friends in danger, she must choose a side, but the wrong choice will cost Raine her life.

Buy Links:

Amazon / Barnes & Noble

TITLE: Immortals

SERIES: Runes, Book #2
AUTHOR: Ednah Walters

PUBLISHER: FireTrail Publishing

FORMAT: E-book, 342 pages
GENRE: YA Paranormal Romance

ASIN: B00EBTGGCW

Nothing can stop Raine Cooper when she wants something…
Raine finally knows that her gorgeous neighbor, Torin St. James, is a legend straight out of Norse mythology, and that her feelings for him are strong. Torin is crazy about Raine too, breaking the one rule he lives by: Never fall for a mortal. The problem is he no longer remembers her, his memories erased by Norns—Norse destiny deities—to punish her for defying them.

So Raine comes up with a plan…
She will make Torin forget his one rule a second time and fall in love with her all over again.
But she quickly learns that well-laid plans do not work when dealing with deities and supernatural beings. Desperate, Raine makes choices that could not only tear her and Torin further apart, but lead to the destruction of everything and everyone she loves.

Buy Links:

Amazon / Barnes & Noble

One lucky winner will win a $25 Amazon Gift Card and a digital copy of Immortals.

To enter the giveaway, please fill out the Rafflecopter entry form below.

This giveaway is open to worldwide until September 22, 2013.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Tour Participants:

September 9th

-Jessabella Reads >> Guest Post

-DanaSquare >> Review

September 10th

-Novels On The Run >> Review

-The Book Hookup >> Review

September 11th

-Tangled Up In Books >> Review

-Bookluvrs Haven >> Review

-Mom With A Kindle >> Interview

September 12th

-A Diary Of A Book Addict >> Review + Top 5 List

-Michelle’s Paranormal Vault of Books >> Review

September 13th

-Feed Your Fiction Addiction >> Review

-Books Live Forever >> Review

-Sassy Book Lovers >> Review

–

September 16th

-Readers Live A Thousand Lives >> Review + Top 5 List

September 17th
-Forbidden Passions Reviews >> Review
-ReadingToTheStarsAndBack >> Review

-Book Liaison >> Excerpt

-Why I Can’t Stop Reading >> Excerpt

September 18th

-The Cover Contessa >> Review

-Laurie’s Thoughts and Reviews >> Interview

September 19th

-Book Broads >> Review

-Page Flipperz Ya >> Review

September 20th

-The Next Chapter >> Review

-Darlene’s Book Nook >> Guest Post

Friday, August 9, 2013

Angel Killer Blog Tour: Guest Post and Giveaway with PJ Nunn

Hi, everyone!

I am pleased to participate in PJ Nunn's Angel Killer Blog Tour hosted by Pump Up Your Book.

About PJ:

As with most things, PJ Nunn's career started out as something else entirely. She started out in retail then moved to property management. That led to teaching high school, then serving as a counselor and liaison to the local police youth services division. She also spent five years as chairperson of the Coryell County Child Welfare Board and spent years counseling abuse victims and serving law enforcement as a trauma counselor and consultant (something she still does today). When she moved to Dallas, a family illness caused her to leave a job teaching psychology at Dallas County Community College District to become a freelance writer, but found that a few favors she was doing for friends—writing press releases and setting up book signings—was better suited to her talents and her drives.

In 1998, she founded BreakThrough Promotions, now a national public relations firm helping authors, mostly of mystery novels, publicize themselves and their work. The business is thriving and PJ is excited about the release of her first novel, Angel Killer. PJ lives with her husband some of their five children near Dallas, TX.

CONNECT WITH PJ ONLINE:

Website | Twitter | Facebook

Welcome to Darlene's Book Nook, PJ!

PJ has written a guest post, so I will now turn the floor over to her.

People Don't Buy Your Book Because It's Good
By PJ Nunn

Have you ever really thought about that? They might buy it because they’ve heard it’s good. But what does that really mean?

I’ve been a book publicist for more than fifteen years and have literally represented thousands of titles over the years. Some are out of print, some won the biggest awards and most fall somewhere in between. Still, I learned a long time ago that I don’t have to read a book to be able to sell it, contrary to popular belief. Why not? Because people don’t buy books based on what they find inside the book. We think if the author has talent and the book is good, it will sell. But seriously – why do we buy books?

We might buy a book because –

· It’s by an author we know

· We like the cover

· We like the title

· Somebody told us we’d like it

· We liked its prequel

· It’s on sale

· We read a review that was positive

· We like the topic

· We like police drama, or serial killers, or beach romance or whatever

· Another author we like gave it a blurb

The point is – the only way we’d know the book was good would be if we’d already read the book. Few people buy books they’ve already read. So it’s really important for us as authors to understand this and make sure that we are providing our potential readers with as many reasons to buy our book as we can.

How do we do that? Make sure the book description on the cover, on Amazon, Goodreads, our promo material and wherever else is text that really communicates not just facts but atmosphere of the story. Does it tell too much? Does it make you want to read more?

Don’t tell people how good it is, show them. Sometimes an excerpt or short scene is a better salesperson than a description. Use your text wisely.

If you’re making good use of Facebook pages and blog space, keep your voice true. For instance, I have two books out right now and they are from two different series. One is humorous and kind of campy. It’s written in first person and the protagonist has a sharp, sarcastic wit. The other is more serious, a little more hardboiled and the protagonist is a psychologist so there’s more thought taking place. If I’m promoting Private Spies, I’ll probably write in first person and keep the voice light and hopefully funny. If readers respond to that voice, they’ll like the book. But if they like that voice and pick up Angel Killer instead, it’s so different it may not appeal to them at all.

Personally I like both, but different moods are for different times. Do you have some ideas to share about what provokes you to buy a book?

Thanks so much for joining us today, PJ!

One lucky winner will win a digital copy of PJ's mystery, Angel Killer.

Title: Angel Killer
Author: PJ Nunn
Paperback: 286 pp.
Publisher: Dark Oak Mysteries
ISBN: 978-1610090797

The death of a child is every mother’s nightmare. But what if the child has no mother? What if their little bodies are discarded like garbage and no one even seems to care that they’re gone?

Shari Markham, psychologist for the Dallas Police Department, knows what it feels like to be unclaimed and unwanted. She can’t turn away, even if it means demons dancing in her dreams at night. But when her relentless pursuit of information to help apprehend this madman gets a little too close, he turns the tables, warning her that his next scheduled victim will be her own three-year-old granddaughter, Angel!

Buy Link:
AMAZON

Book Excerpt:

Fog swirled around her, transforming everything into vague shapes and blurs. A small sigh escaped her as Shari parked her mocha Taurus next to the Grand Prairie squad car and got out. The sudden loss of heat prompted her to pull the front of her jacket closed against the damp air. Texas was never this cold in November. Sleep had been elusive. She’d just settled in when the jangling of the phone chased away warm, fuzzy dreams and replaced them with harsh, cold reality. Now the distant sound of thunder matched her mood and didn’t bode well for the crime scene. The sky, a creepy morning shadow with no delineation, met the ground while a fine mist settled on her without a single, discernible drop. Shari slammed the door and walked across the grass toward the officer securing the scene.

After more than a year as criminal profiler for the Dallas Police Department, she wondered if the time would ever come when she’d accept these early morning wakeup calls as typical rather than feeling as if she’d been thrown into a tornado. Emotional autopilot would kick in any minute though, separating her from the horrors to come and allowing her to function within the safe realm of clinical objectivity. At least that’s how it worked in theory.

“Morning,” she greeted the uniformed officer as he walked toward her, headed back to his squad car. He didn’t look any more cheerful than she felt. Nobody liked to work crimes against children.

To enter the giveaway, please complete the Rafflecopter entry form below.

This giveaway is open worldwide and will close at 12:00 AM
on August 16, 2013.

a Rafflecopter giveaway