THE GODS ARE BACK. DID YOU MYTH THEM?

You probably saw the press conference. Nine months ago, Zeus’s murder catapulted the Greek gods back into our world. Now they revel in their new temples, casinos, and media empires—well, all except Apollo. A compulsive overachiever with a bursting portfolio of godly duties, the amount of email alone that he receives from rapacious mortals turns each of his days into a living hell.

Yet there may be hope, if only he can return Zeus to life! With the aid of Thalia, the muse of comedy and science fiction, Apollo will risk his very godhood to help sarcastic TV producer Tracy Wallace and a gamer-geek named Leif—two mortals who hold the key to Zeus’s resurrection. (Well, probably. Prophecies are tricky buggers.)

Soon an overflowing inbox will be the least of Apollo’s troubles. Whoever murdered Zeus will certainly kill again to prevent his return, and avoiding them would be far easier if Apollo could possibly figure out who they are.

Even worse, the muse is starting to getcranky.

Discover a world where reality TV heroes slay actual monsters and the gods have their own Twitter feeds: Zeus Is Dead: A Monstrously Inconvenient Adventure!


“Zeus Is Dead is full of laugh-out-loud moments, lashings of sly wit, moan-worthy puns, and a complex, fast-paced storyline. There aren’t very many humorous fantasy murder mysteries out there, especially not as intricately constructed as this one. Michael G. Munz takes a ’What if,’ and runs with it like a toddler with Mom’s smart phone. He evokes a pantheon of characters including, well, the actual Pantheon, plus modern characters who will ring the bell of familiarity without being trite or clichéd. Munz knows his craft as well as his Greek mythology, pop culture, and dysfunctional family dynamics. The guffaw-worthy throwaway bits (stay tuned for the battle sundae) will remind you of Douglas Adams. A very enjoyable read.”  

—Jody Lynn Nye, author of View from the Imperium and co-author of the Myth Adventures of Aahz and Skeeve

Be sure to check out Michael G Munz Author of Zeus Is Dead: A Monstrously Inconvenient Adventure and The New Aeneid Cycle

Visit the website: michaelgmunz.com

Follow Twitter:@TheWriteMunz

Facebook author page: MichaelGMunz

Celebrate with David Estes & Fire Country

Today, Fire Country by David Estes turns one year old. In the first year since Fire Country was born, so much has happened. David signed with an agent, sold more than 10,000 books, wrote five more books and published a further three). He knew he just had to celebrate and he'd love for you to be a part of it! David owes so much of his support to the blogger community, and he wants everyone to have the chance to be a part of the Fire Country Birthday Bash.

Everyone goes home a winner, simply follow the prompts below and swipe your eCopy of Fire Country from Smashwords. Read and leave a review on Amazon if you enjoyed it. Feel free to share the code with your friends, family, neighbours and literary inclined pets.

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/ 280371

Coupon Code: WH62C

Expiration: March 1, 2014

What's a party without prizes? Yes, David is not only giving everyone a chance to download their own copy of Fire Country, book one in the Country Saga for free, but he's also giving you stuff too. You could win an Amazon giftcard open internationally, U.S residents can win a signed copy of the David Estes book of your choice, or a handful of David Estes eBooks of your choice. Awesome.

Visit David via his Blog • Facebook • Twitterand via Goodreads

Pay Perry the Prickler a visit on Twitter and Goodreads

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Strange In Skin by Sara V. Zook Review 

Title – Strange In Skin
 Series – Strange In Skin – Book #1
 Author – Sara V. Zook
 Genre – Paranormal, Fantasy
 Publication Date – July 24, 2012
 Publisher – Imagine Press 
 Cover Artist – Brenda Grate

 BLURB:
From the moment Anna James meets the strange prisoner Emry Logan, she becomes instantly obsessed and will stop at nothing to try to get another interaction with him. But going against her family and church aren’t without consequence. She is deemed a traitor as she quickly realizes that there’s more to Emry’s past than just murder. He has a special ability that is far from human that he only shares with her. Feeling this magical connection, Anna has to free her beautiful inmate so that they can be together finally, but someone else knows about Emry’s secret and wants Anna to stop digging for answers as she finds herself in the midst of a modern day witch hunt. The life of an innocent pastor’s kid suddenly is turned upside down in a war between good and evil as Anna begins to wonder which people in her life are on the side of good, and is she one of them. 


 Review: 
 When we first meet Anna she seems… well, dull. She is a good Christian girl ( which there is nothing wrong with), She works at her mothers antique shop and lives at home with her parents in a small , quiet town. The thing I didn't really relate to was her still living at home in her twenties. She didn't go to college? Didn't want to explore what the world has to offer? She just stayed home and started working in her moms shop. It seemed kind of odd to me, but that could simple be a personal opinion. 

 The story picks up quickly around chapter three when Anna starts receiving letters from Emry, but some of the romantic elements seem a bit over the top. This connection between the Anna and Emry happened a bit too quickly I think. The supernatural element flowed well with the story line and seemed natural. I liked that this story was a bit different from most, and how the girl is trying to save the boy instead of the other way around and how it was not your everyday Paranormal. I found it very refreshing. 

 Anna changes in many ways over the course of this story but I think most of these changes are for the better and I now realize why the author decided to show her the way she did in the beginning of the book. Toward the end Anna finally grows a pair and handles Buck, which I really enjoyed because, well obviously… 

The ending of this book left a lot of unanswered questions, I am still not sure I really understand where it is Emry goes, All in all I enjoyed Strange in Skin and I am looking forward to reading the rest of the series.


http://www.amazon.com/Strange-In-Skin-Sara-Zook/dp/1478277556/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1387462303&sr=8-1&keywords=strange+in+skin


http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15772328-strange-in-skin

 ** Also a special thanks to Sarah for allowing me to participate in her blog tour and My Family’s Heart Book Reviews for handling all the hard work setting everything up.** 


 More About Sara:

 AUTHOR BIO
Sara wrote her first book at age six. Of course, it was only a few pages, handwritten by a 6-year-old and was about kitty cats. As a child, some days she would be out venturing in the woods with her older brother and cousins, but sometimes would stay inside and create stories, write them down in a notebook and then pretend to publish them by typing them up on her mother's old typewriter. "I know, what a weird child I was." From then on out, Sara didn't want to be anything but a writer. When others would ask her classmates what they wanted to be when they grew up, some would say the usual things, singers, veterinarians, astronauts, but not Sara. Sara would say writer, and then she'd get a strange stare. Writer? What child says they want to be a writer? Sara graduated from United High School in 2000, a small school out in the country where everyone knew each other from kindergarten up and could tell you every little detail about each other and still can. "It was a nice area to grow up, and I love going back." In 2004, Sara graduated from the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown with a bachelor's in, you guessed it, creative writing. She had such a blast in college, met some of the greatest people that Sara still remains in close contact with along with her husband, Brad. They were married and had two children back to back, so while Sara was in "mommy land," her writing was put on the back-burner. Sara started writing again in the summer of 2010, and after three months, 'Strange in Skin' became the product of her imagination. Sara had so much fun writing it, she couldn't stop. She would work all day and then stay up late at night typing up a few more chapters. She didn't want it to end, so Sara decided she would have to write more books to follow it. The main characters, Anna James and Emry Logan, were people Sara could relate to, that she loved to relate to. There's nothing quite like a sappy love story that's so good it sucks you in. You want them to be together. They have to be together and you can't stop reading until they are together. That with a little paranormal twist, and voila, a book is born. Then Sara and Brad became proud parents once again. Sara is still in "mommy land" but also Strange in Skin fantasy land. The mix of both raising children and writing makes for some pretty entertaining days. Sara could write a million stories on her kids alone, especially the things that come out of their mouths that you're either so shocked they said or are so funny that you can't stop laughing.

Title – Strange In Skin
Series – Strange In Skin – Book #1
Author – Sara V. Zook
Genre – Paranormal, Fantasy
Publication Date – July 24, 2012
Publisher – Imagine Press
Cover Artist – Brenda Grate

BOOK BLURBFrom the moment Anna James meets the strange prisoner Emry Logan, she becomes instantly obsessed and will stop at nothing to try to get another interaction with him. But going against her family and church aren’t without consequence. She is deemed a traitor as she quickly realizes that there’s more to Emry’s past than just murder. He has a special ability that is far from human that he only shares with her. Feeling this magical connection, Anna has to free her beautiful inmate so that they can be together finally, but someone else knows about Emry’s secret and wants Anna to stop digging for answers as she finds herself in the midst of a modern day witch hunt. The life of an innocent pastor’s kid suddenly is turned upside down in a war between good and evil as Anna begins to wonder which people in her life are on the side of good, and is she one of them.

BUY LINKS

AMAZON KINDLE | AMAZON PAPERBACK | GOODREADS

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~



Title – Evadere
Series – Strange In Skin – Book #2
Author – Sara V. Zook
Genre – Paranormal, Fantasy
Publication Date – December 18, 2012
Publisher – Imagine Press
Cover Artist – Brenda Grate

BLURBWhen Anna becomes separated from Emry, she has no other choice but to explore the foreign world of Evadere on her own. She soon discovers that it is tainted from a stirring turmoil among the people. Evadere has been a place of respite and escape from the difficulties of Earth for Anna and Emry, but alone on Evadere, Anna is pulled into the stirrings of an uprising between the Scaves and the ones who force them to live as scavengers. Anna is determined not to let the fear and attempts on her life stop her from finding her way back to Emry. But Anna is shocked when she discovers who Emry really is, the forces of evil supporting him and how the temptations in paradise have been misleading them both. It will take all the strength and determination Anna and Emry possess to survive Evadere, even as the killing starts ...

BUY LINKS

AMAZON KINDLE | AMAZON PAPERBACK | GOODREADS

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Title – Solace
Series – Strange In Skin – Book #3
Author – Sara V. Zook
Genre – Paranormal, Fantasy
Publication Date – September 29, 2013
Publisher – Planettopia Publishing
Cover Artist – Stephanie Fontecha

BLURB
Emry and Anna's love has always been forbidden. They've been hunted, seen those around them murdered and still don't know who to blame or who to trust. In a world where Anna is considered just a human, can peace be achieved between those inhabiting Evadere and those cast out and left for dead? They have to find out who is after them before it's too late, before one of the lives lost is their own, but are Emry's powers strong enough to save the one he loves? As their wedding day approaches, so does a war, and no one sees it coming.


BUY LINKS

AMAZON KINDLE | GOODREADS

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

GIVEAWAY

2  $25 Amazon Gift Cards

1 Gift set of all 3 Books signed w/swag – US Only

CLICK HERE TO ENTER INTO THE AUTHORS TOUR WIDE GIVEAWAY

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

MEET SARA
Sara wrote her first book at age six. Of course, it was only a few pages, handwritten by a 6-year-old and was about kitty cats. As a child, some days she would be out venturing in the woods with her older brother and cousins, but sometimes would stay inside and create stories, write them down in a notebook and then pretend to publish them by typing them up on her mother's old typewriter. "I know, what a weird child I was." From then on out, Sara didn't want to be anything but a writer. When others would ask her classmates what they wanted to be when they grew up, some would say the usual things, singers, veterinarians, astronauts, but not Sara. Sara would say writer, and then she'd get a strange stare. Writer? What child says they want to be a writer?

Sara graduated from United High School in 2000, a small school out in the country where everyone knew each other from kindergarten up and could tell you every little detail about each other and still can. "It was a nice area to grow up, and I love going back."

In 2004, Sara graduated from the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown with a bachelor's in, you guessed it, creative writing. She had such a blast in college, met some of the greatest people that Sara still remains in close contact with along with her husband, Brad. They were married and had two children back to back, so while Sara was in "mommy land," her writing was put on the back-burner.

Sara started writing again in the summer of 2010, and after three months, 'Strange in Skin' became the product of her imagination. Sara had so much fun writing it, she couldn't stop. She would work all day and then stay up late at night typing up a few more chapters. She didn't want it to end, so Sara decided she would have to write more books to follow it. The main characters, Anna James and Emry Logan, were people Sara could relate to, that she loved to relate to. There's nothing quite like a sappy love story that's so good it sucks you in. You want them to be together. They have to be together and you can't stop reading until they are together. That with a little paranormal twist, and voila, a book is born.

Then Sara and Brad became proud parents once again. Sara is still in "mommy land" but also Strange in Skin fantasy land. The mix of both raising children and writing makes for some pretty entertaining days. Sara could write a million stories on her kids alone, especially the things that come out of their mouths that you're either so shocked they said or are so funny that you can't stop laughing.

STALKER LINKS

AMAZON AUTHOR PAGE | WEBSITE | FACEBOOK | TWITTER | GOOGLE + | GOODREADS

WORD APOCALYPSE : Where The Wordy Things Will Eat Your Brains....

Let’s talk about NaNoWriMo.

For those of you who are not familiar with NaNoWriMo (or NaNo as I shall call it from this point on.) let me enlighten you.

NaNo takes place in November and it is a time when authors from all over the world join together in their fight for success.

The Goal : To write 50,000 words in 30 days.

Now being the aspiring author that I am, I thought to myself, “Self what better way to force your lesser half to make time for your writing and get those 50k words out.”

So I got my little notebook ready and made my little outline. I plotted and planned that last week in October and when November 1st rolled around,  I hit the ground running. I started moving my little fingers at midnight and by the time I went to bed that evening I was feeling absurdly satisfied with my word count of just a couple thousand. I spent the next few days writing and offering positive reinforcement to my friends and writer pals  who are partaking in this epic event as well.

I joined the NaNo chat forums and made all sorts of Nano buddies. I have tweeted my success and frustrations through the last fourteen days. I even went to the NaNo write - in’s at the local bookstore.

I put my life on hold and ceased all other projects, devoting my full attention to my NaNo project. I was dedicated and sure that if I put in the time I would reach my 50k and earn that self presented gold star. Time was but a small sacrifice for my work in progress, it was the least I could do for my sweet,sweet WIP.

GO TO HELL!

On this day, the 14th day of NaNo I say to thee WIP GO TO HELL!

I have reached the 22,077 word mark and at no small price. I have had to forego sleep many a time that I should have spent in slumber. I have forgotten meals and how to spell things like if and & the.  My characters are incessantly banging away on the inside of my skull screaming to be let out. I have developed a split personality and sociopathic tendencies…oh, wait, maybe that’s not a new thing. Go ahead and disregard that last bit.

I have become worse than an addict. Feining for just one more word, because every word brings me closer to that 50,000. I check my NaNo stats obsessively, so obsessively in fact that when I close my eyes, this is what I see on the insides of my lids.

Avg per day-1,576

Words written today - 0

Target word count-50,000

Target Avg per day- 1,667

Total written-22,077

Words remaining-27,923

Days remaining-17

I have turned into a zombie “Just one more word….just one more” I plead.

I need help, I need a NaNo intervention. There must be some sort of NaNo group therapy out there that begins meeting in December. NaNoWriMo has taken my soul hostage and is inflicting word torture as we speak! I have begun to toss random words at the page and write things that should never see the paper at all.

As I write this for all of you I can’t help but wonder, How many words this would have added to my WIP? Answer: 627 words

This is day 14 off the NaNo apocalypse I will report back to you in one week. If you have not heard from me by then please, I beg you, go on without me. For if I am not here it means they have come for me. The words have taken me to a place far far away from here. From which I shall never return, Go now and Save yourselves!

** Also please note: I take no responsibility for the grammatical atrocities that may or may not take place in this post, as it is morning and NaNo has turned my brain into mashed turnip. that is all.**

The New Beginning : A Short Story By Me

He sat there in the dark room drawing another vertical line adjacent to yesterday’s. Yesterday’s line was next to the one from the day before, and so on for the past four hundred and ten days. He tossed the piece of lead across the room; it made a ping against the steel walls. It had been four hundred and eleven days since the regime announced the imminent destruction of planet Earth.

It was the year 2043 when they made a worldwide proclamation about the meteor and how there was no feasible way it would miss the planet, our planet. That had been a crazy day; there had been few crazy days for Jake and Alyssa since then. Everyone on Earth was distributed a pill, a tiny, harmless looking, yellow pill. Swallowing  it was the easy way to end life.

“You just fall asleep and don’t wake up,” the pharmacists would say as they passed them out. It was supposed to be a better way to go than suffering all of the things that were set to transpire post meteor. The news predicted everything from  radiation poisoning and  tidal waves to catastrophic weather and worse.Sitting down at the table Alyssa placed one bowl of cold beans in front of herself and another one in front of Jake. It was scarcely enough for two. They were starving.

She had adjusted well enough to living underground with limited resources in the old bomb shelter. Her twelfth birthday had been weeks ago if Jake had been counting correctly. He let her have the last Twinkie. They had no real cake. She thought about how wonderful it was that there was a sweet that never expired. It wasn't the best of times in that stagnant shelter, but they got by, until now that is. They were out of food now and they were dangerously low on their water supply. Jake still kept the two yellow pills on a shelf near the ceiling of their makeshift home, just in case. They’d be lucky to have enough water to swallow them down with as it was.

He had to make a choice, the hardest decision he had made since dragging his baby

sister below ground. If he said to take the pill, she would listen. They would go to sleep and their struggle would finally come to a halt. If he chose to go up… well there was no way to know what would happen.

“We’re about out of supplies. I have to go up.” The Earth has to be there ; we’re still living and breathing underground.

“Maybe the destruction wasn't that bad.” He told Alyssa as he watched her eyes begin to slowly fill  with tears. Of course she was scared. What little girl wouldn't be? Jake wrapped an arm around her shoulders .They walked up the steps together and Jake unlatched and shoved the metal door. With a groan and a crack it gave way, swinging open . Jake looked around. Everything looked well… the same mostly. They were deep in the woods, after all. Who knew what the cities looked like now? But here it was as if nothing had happened.

“There was no meteor, no earthquakes, no tsunami. The atmosphere is

still perfectly intact as far as I can tell." he told his sister, disbelief heavy in his words, but he forced a smile in her direction.

“Nothing happened?" she whispered, covering her mouth, “Where are the people?"

“There are no people Lis, they took the pill." Jake replied “Everyone died for nothing."  Both were silent a moment.

  Alyssa came out letting the screen door slam behind her. She set a bowl of water down on the porch as four scruffy kittens ran around her feet eager to drink. Her blond hair was pulled back in a neat braid and her face was clean, She hardly resembled the girl she was just a short time ago living underground. Eight weeks had gone by since they had stepped out of their storm shelter and back into the sunlight. Jake still boiled all their water before they drank, but so far neither had not gotten sick from it or any of the fish or vegetables they ate. Jake always tried new foods first. Sometimes he would make Alyssa wait days before she was allowed to have it, but they were no longer starving. They were finally getting a sort of routine life together.

They were the last two people on Earth, and so far it wasn't that bad.They had acquired what little items they had by scouring abandoned

homes they had passed by as they searched the area surrounding their little underground shelter. Jake decided early on that they would not drift too far from it. one could never know when they may need to hide out again. This time if the world were going to end there would be no forewarning. There was no one to report these sorts of things anymore.They  moved everything that they did not store in the shelter  into this home, their new home:  a small white house they stumbled upon while they were out collecting berries one day. Jake had checked it out. There were no bodies inside like the other homes.

The two walked east toward the bay. It was Monday, that meant fishing day. The bay was

quite a distance from their home, so fishing day had become somewhat of an adventure. Alyssa liked to make picnic  lunches for her and Jake to share . They had been walking for hours when the sky began to rumble overhead.

Startled, Alyssa shouted “Look!!" pointing upward, in time for Jake to catch a glimpse of  the large airplane soaring across the sky.

Book Review : Adorned

By Amanda Perry
Title: Adorned
Author: Georgeann Swiger
Series: The Trinity Of Souls Series
Genre: YA
Publisher: Entranced Publishing 
Publication Date: November 4, 2013


Blurb: 

When seventeen-year-old Anya finds out she’s actually an angel being trained to protect humanity, she discovers that becoming an angel has nothing to do with wings and haloes. For Anya, becoming an angel has to do with death—her death.

Micah, the angelic soldier ordered to protect her until she transitions from human to angel, promises her death will be a glorious experience as long as she follows his rules.  But getting Anya through this life and to the next isn’t as simple as Micah expects. His job becomes even more difficult after he unwittingly performs a miracle that exposes Anya’s hidden angelic light. 

With her secret out, Hell’s legions begin targeting her. Unfortunately, Hell’s minions are the least of Micah’s worries. He’s more concerned about the forbidden human emotions he’s developed toward Anya. Even more troubling, is she seems to love him too. And giving in to those feelings, could mean dire consequences for them both.

Review:

I dove into this book only half heartedly. I am not a huge fan of angels personally so I was not 100% sure this book would be “my thing”.

At first I was really put off by the writing style. It was written in first person/present tense, and the  first chapter felt very much like a narrative. I did not like it at all… but before I even knew it I was sucked right into the story, and the tense in which it was written was no longer a thought in my head. Maybe it was simply something I was not used to seeing and I needed to take a minute to adjust to it. Whatever it was that I found off putting about the style was quickly washed away as I became engrossed in the lives of Anya, Sam, Celeste and Micah.

“By the time i get to school,my head hurts so bad I think my eyeballs are going to explode.”  

I picked this particular sentence out of the story because it is simply so real. This is what allowed me to relate to Anya in the story, the fact that she says, does, and thinks things the same way so many of us do on a regular basis.

Back to the angels - this book definitely appears to be geared toward those who are Christian in faith. I personally have dabbled in many different faiths over the years and currently hold with the buddhists and/or the non religious sorts. That, however, did not affect my opinion of the story like I worried it might. In fact I rather liked Georgann’s take on the angels. I liked the little church that her characters attended. I even liked the way they chose to live their lives (most of them anyway).

Micah behaves less than angelic, which of course I loved. I need to know more about him and his true feelings. I feel like we were only given a small glimpse into Micah and I yearn for more. I think it would have been better if I was able to feel more tension and emotion between him and another one of our main characters.

Sam was probably  one of the most interesting characters, you never quite know what to expect from him or what side he’s on.

Simon is just that typical angel jerk we have all come to know and loathe. There's a Simon it seems in every angel-like story and he always sucks.

Eli was, in my opinion, the best character. He was flawlessly written, hilarious, original, and still mysterious. I am really anxious to see where the author decides to take this character , and how much power does he really wield?

There were a couple of events that occurred throughout the book that I am not sure I really comprehended. First what/who did Micah heal? The way I saw it two people were mysteriously healed. There was that whole part after he helped Anya too that said someone will be hurt because she was helped. It seemed like an eye for an eye thing, only I didn’t notice that there were any repercussions at all. That whole part of the story line just left me a bit bewildered.

The ending of this book killed me. It was over before I even knew what was happening. I turned the page and that was it. There just was no more. It was abrupt, harsh and refreshingly different. It left me wondering so many things. Georgann how could you leave me hanging like this? It’s too much. I need more information. What happened next for goodness sakes?

Overall I think this was a very enjoyable read. I will be reading the sequel as soon as I can get my hands on it, and I think Georgeann Swiger is an author worth keeping an eye on. I have a feeling this will not be the last we see of her.

Disclaimer: I received an ARC of Adorned from the author in exchange for an honest review.