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Join Us for the 2021 Haunted Halloween Spooktacular Facebook Party Wednesday October 20

10/15/2021

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Join Bewitching authors for the 2021 Haunted Halloween Spooktacular.

Chat with authors, play games, win prizes

Current Author Schedule in EST times

12-1pm Laura Bickle

1-2 pm Roxanne Rhoads

2-3pm Catherine Stine

3-4pm Celia Breslin

4-5pm (email me if interested in this spot)

5-6pm Tena Stetler

6-7pm Maria DeBlassie

7-8pm Lara Bernhardt


This event will be live on Facebook on 

Wednesday, October 20 from 12pm- 8pm

https://www.facebook.com/events/2722532004716111

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Heavenly Desire by J.L. Sheppard - Exclusive Excerpt  #PNR

10/12/2021

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Heavenly Desire
Elemental Sisters 
Book Three
J.L. Sheppard

Genre: Paranormal Romance
Publisher: Jeanette L. Sheppard
Date of Publication: October 1st, 2021 2nd Edition
ISBN: 978-1732218154
ASIN: B09D37X1MC
Number of pages: 330
Word Count: 84,607
Cover Artist: Victoria Miller

Tagline: He’s fallen for the woman he’s entrusted to protect, a woman who could never be his…

Book Description:

Jade Ashley has a past she desperately wants to forget and a destiny she isn’t yet aware of. That changes when she meets Clyde, who saves her and inadvertently exposes her extraordinary abilities. She soon learns he’s her guardian angel sent to reunite her with her long lost sisters, who, like her, are part of a new breed of immortals prophesied to determine the outcome of the upcoming war.

Clyde battles the one thing that will lead to his fall from heaven—his newfound emotions, forbidden among his kind. Nonetheless, the Angel Lords promise to promote him to warrior when he completes his last assignment—to find Jade. But finding her, seeing her in the flesh, sparks a new emotion, an emotion too powerful to put into words. For the first time in two thousand years, he curses his existence, knowing she’ll never be his.

Book Trailer https://bit.ly/3Ah5ufE

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 Exclusive Bewitching Excerpt

“Clyde!” Ashley yelled from across the room and dashed toward him.

He grinned, loving the way she said his name, loving she’d come close, loving more the smile brightening her face.

“Jake’s going to let me see him turn. Isn’t that awesome? I can’t—”

His heart dropped, smile faded. He didn’t think, just decided, “No.”

Ashley took a step back. Simultaneously, Jenna smacked him across his shoulder.

He couldn’t blame her. The way he’d said that, how he’d sounded, he’d been too angry, no, infuriated.

“Oh boy, Ash. Get ready.” Jocelyn said, her voice coming from beside them where she stood, her sidetucked against Landon.

Clyde hadn’t noticed when Jocelyn joined the conversation either. Seems he didn’t have it in him to pay too much attention to anything other than Ashley. His every thought, action, everything focused on Ashley, right then on making her understand why she had to listen to him.

“It’s dangerous. You can’t be near…” Jacob. Damn that demon.“I’ll kill him.” Hestalked toward Jacob.

“Clyde, don’t,” Ashley pleaded.

Jacob materialized a foot away and smirked. “Is there a problem, angel?”

He hardened his jaw. “You aren’t turning anywhere near her.”

“Clyde, please, don’t—” Ashley said, now standing beside him.

Jacob unleashed his anger, letting it circle them. “It’s up to her.”

He narrowed his eyes to slits. “Do you have a problem listening? I said no.”

“But I want—”

He faced her. “It’s dangerous. I’m not having you around turned demons, ever, especially him.”

Her face fell, and her eyes pleaded, “But Jenna and Joce—”

Without losing her gaze, he jerked his head side to side. “I don’t care.”

She widened her eyes a split second before she narrowed them and snapped, “You can’t tell me what to do.” Cheeks flushing, she squared her shoulders. “I’m an adult, and this is between Jake and me.” She then turned and stormed off.

He stayed there, dumbfounded, staring at where she’d been until Landon spoke.

“I thought you said she never got angry.”

“She’s related to me.” Jocelyn grinned. “Of course, she gets angry.”

“Come on, Clyde.” Jenna rolled her eyes. “You know better than to try to control an Elemental.”

He narrowed his eyes at her then sliced his glare to Jocelyn. “She’s been spending too much time with these two.”

Jenna shrugged. “Yeah, whatever. Believe what you want, but no woman likes it when a man tells her what she can and can’t do.”

Lucas wrapped an arm around Jenna’s waist and hauled her until he’d pressed her front to his side. “You better fix it, quick. The longer you let her stew, the worse it’ll be.”

Right.Not wasting a second, he materialized near the elevators, inches from her. “Angel, please—”

She crossed her arms over her chest. “I’m mad. You aren’t allowed to call me that when I’m mad.”

“Why?”

“Because…” She bit her bottom lip and dropped her arms to her sides. “I can take care of myself. Besides, Jake’s not going to hurt me.”

He shut his eyes, fighting to ignore the flare of jealousy that knotted his gut every time she said the demon’s name. “His name’s Jacob.”

“He doesn’t care that I call him Jake.”

She didn’t have to tell him something he knew. Clamping his jaw tightly, he admitted, “I don’t like it.”

“Why?”

Didn’t she see? Furious, he blurted, “Because it’s a step away from an endearment and you haven’t given me one.”

She stilled. Her eyes widened and a split second later softened. “Oh…”

He parted his mouth, intent on saying something, anything, but before he managed it she got on the tips of her toes, leaned into him, and pressed her lips to his. Instantly, he wrapped an arm around her waist, cupped the back of her head with the other, and dove into her mouth, deepening the kiss. 

Magnificent.

About the Author:

J.L. Sheppard was born and raised in South Florida where she still lives with her sons.

As a child, her greatest aspiration was to become a writer. She read often, kept a journal, and wrote countless poems. She attended Florida International University and graduated in 2008 with a Bachelors in Communications. During her senior year, she interned at NBC Miami, WTVJ. Following the internship, she was hired and worked in the News Department for three years.

It wasn’t until 2011 that she set her heart and mind into writing her first completed novel, Demon King’s Desire, which was first published in January 2013.

Website: https://www.jlsheppard.com

Blog:  https://www.jlsheppard.com/blog-1

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/J.L.SheppardAuthor

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jl_sheppard/

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/J.L.-Sheppard/e/B00CXDFEIK/

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6894176.J_L_Sheppard



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Release Day Blitz & Exclusive Excerpt - A Place of Magic by Merrie Destefano #ReleaseDayBlitz #UrbanFantasy

10/12/2021

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A Place of Magic
Merrie Destefano

Genre: Fantasy, Urban Fantasy, Paranormal Fantasy
Publisher: Ruby Slipper Press
Date of Publication: October 12, 2021
ASIN: B09FNSVKZJ
Number of pages:320
Word Count: 73,000
Cover Artist: Elona Bezooshko, 
Psycat Digital Ink & Motion

Book Description:

Halloween is the wrong time to visit Ticonderoga Falls.
Dangerous monsters hunt in the nearby woods.

The Prey...

Maddie MacFaddin.
For her, the nearby forest holds many memories, some joyous, some forgotten. But she has no recollection of Ash, the dark, magnificent creature who saved her life as a child, or that his kind preys upon humanity.

The Monster...

Ash, a Darkling fae.
Trapped in Ticonderoga Falls for a century, he’s required to host a Hunt once a year. Then, hungry, shapeshifting faeries will descend upon the villagers and harvest their dreams.

The Hunt...

There are rules about harvesting humans; the poor creatures are so delicate. If you take too much, they’ll die. Without dreams, they perish. And perish they do—now and then—despite Ash's efforts to keep them safe. Then he realizes Maddie is the prey his unwanted guests are after. But, try as he might, this time he’s not strong enough to protect her. The entire village is in danger.

Soon the Hunt will begin. And no one will be safe.

Book Trailer:  https://youtu.be/Ng2dymrVVvw

Amazon

EXCLUSIVE EXCERPT:

Ash walked haltingly toward Maddie. Beneath her fear, he could smell the sweetness of her dreams and her stories; laced with magic and dark twists and turns, they all had one thing in common—a happy ending.

Something he wasn’t sure he believed in anymore.

With one hand, he cupped her face. Did she tremble at his touch, did she recognize the gentle brush of his flesh against hers, or was that his imagination? The not-full moon hovered at his back, her silver light singing in time with his own poetry, reminding him how much he longed to harvest, how long it had been since he had eaten anything but the old dreams. Sage had been right, though Ash would never confess it to her or to any of his clan.

The old dreams of Lily, those he kept in a secret cache, had become like poison. With each one he grew weaker. If he kept this up, he would soon become a phantom, trapped between worlds. He would become the ghost he had pretended to be for so many years and he would forever haunt Ticonderoga Falls.

Unless his appetite could be once again be stirred.

Ash winced at the thought, his old wound causing him to curl over, bending at the waist. He almost lost control of his Veil and it began to melt around the edges, silver flashes of light growing nearer as the magic collapsed in upon itself.

“Be still,” he murmured, his strength failing as the pain waxed full. The Veil responded, staying just strong enough to continue holding all three of them motionless.

Woman. Boy. Dog.

Ash leaned closer to her, fighting the temptation, though it was near impossible when the phantom mists of someone else’s dreams still drifted through the forest. His lips rested beside Maddie’s ear and he whispered.

“Stay,” Ash said, speaking the words he had longed to say from the moment she had entered his territory. “Stay in Ticonderoga Falls for one more day. Then you’ll be free to go. I give you my promise. I only ask that you stay for the Hunt. Please.”

With a great reluctance, he pulled away. Maddie was caught in that still and silent world between breaths, and there are rules about how much you can tell your prey to do.

Rules bound their worlds together, held the moon and sun in place.

He knew that now. Wished he had known it long ago.

With a leap and a mighty surge of wings, Ash broke his spell and he soared away from her, into the heavens, high above the trees. Where he could resist her fragrance once more.

 


About the Author:

Multiple-award-winning author Merrie Destefano writes lyrical tales of magic, mystery, and hope. Her traditional books have been published by HarperCollins, Entangled Teen, and Walter Foster, while her indie imprint is Ruby Slippers Press. Her novels have won awards in both the science fiction and fantasy categories.

She worked for Focus on the Family, The Word For Today, Engaged Media, and PJS Publications, and her magazine experience includes editor of Victorian Homes magazine, Zombies magazine, Haunted: Mysteries And Legends magazine, American Farmhouse Style magazine, Vintage Gardens magazine and founding editor of Cottages and Bungalows magazine. Her co-authored art books include How To Draw Vampires, How To Draw Zombies, and How to Draw Grimm’s Dark Fairy Tales. Her edited books include The Man God Uses by Chuck Smith, Oil Pastel Step-By-Step by Nathan Rohlander, and The Art of Drawing Fantasy Characters by Jacob Glaser.

Born in the Midwest, Merrie now lives in Southern California, where she runs on caffeine, and shares her home with rescue dogs and cats. And although she dearly loves science fiction, in her heart of hearts, she still doesn’t believe airplanes should be able to fly.

WEBSITE: http://www.merriedestefano.com/

BLOG: http://merriedestefano.blog/

NEWSLETTER: http://www.merriedestefano.com/newsletter1.html

INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/merriedestefano/

TWITTER: https://twitter.com/MerrieDestefano

FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/Merrie-Destefano-127750623906184/

BOOKBUB: https://www.bookbub.com/profile/merrie-destefano

AUDIOBOOKS: https://www.audible.com/author/Merrie-Destefano/B0048L6NYO


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Exclusive Bewitching Excerpt- Release Day Blitz A Place of Magic by Merrie Destefano #ReleaseDayBlitz #UrbanFantasy

10/12/2021

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Smoke and Mirrors Exclusive Excerpt

10/7/2021

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Smoke and Mirrors: A Vampire Romance
Elise Nelson 

Genres: PNR, Gothic Romance, Vampire Romance
Publisher: Shattered Glass Press
Date of Publication: May 25, 2021 
ISBN: 1777632935 
ASIN: B08ZT1JTF9 
Number of pages: 409 pages
Word Count: 120,857 words
Cover Artist: Covers and Cupcakes 

Tagline: In the shadows, nothing is ever what it seems

Book Description:

Caroline Blake is a young reporter with a past almost as cryptic as her future. She never put much stock into her late aunt’s eerie tales of monsters and demons until she takes an assignment to cover the elusive Ashdown family’s Harvest Festival. As part of her assignment, she must live at the family’s mansion for six weeks and help prepare for the event.

No one has seen the family since the tragedy that occurred at the last festival almost thirty years prior. As the only female reporter on-site, Caroline must hold her own while uncovering why the family closed their doors all those years ago.

Perhaps the most challenging part of her assignment is dealing with her working partner, William Ashdown. The handsome lord of the house seems bent on testing her patience every time they meet. Still, there is something intriguing about him that she can’t ignore.

Caroline is soon swept into a world of generational secrets, unsettling mysteries, and unexpected romance. Amidst all the uncertainty, one thing is sure: in the shadows, nothing is ever what it seems. 


Book Trailer: https://fb.watch/7TwDBoHA0K/

Amazon     Author Website     Discover Books

 Bewitching Exclusive Excerpt:

A few days went by, but I couldn’t peel the image of that creature from my mind. I couldn’t shake the nightmare, or the hallucination, if that was truly what it was. I still couldn’t believe it. I hadn’t seen it in years. Maybe it was like it was when I was a child—maybe it was a manifestation of my inner distress.

It was probably because I was worried about this new assignment. Everyone was getting all worked up for nothing—out of some blind hysteria. A mass belief in a curse borne from one horrific incident no one wanted to talk about.

My whole life had been riddled with superstition and fear. I was absolutely sick of it. I would face the fears I’d lived with my entire life, as well as the fears of this city, and I’d prove to everyone that there were no such thing as monsters or curses.

I went home at the end of another busy day to find Mr. Clarke sitting at the front desk, drumming his fingers on something in front of him. He watched me walk in with a look of deep unease. That same queasy feeling snaked through me, a contagious sensation around here. I feigned a smile and nodded in greeting. “Good evening, Mr. Clarke.”

“Caroline, you have something here,” he said quietly.

“What is it?” I asked, my voice catching slightly on my throat. He sighed, picked up the envelope, and made his way over to me. My eyes immediately fell on the letter. It undoubtedly had my name on it. When he handed it to me, I flipped it over and saw the crest of Ashdown Manor, along with the name of the family. The color drained from my face.

I looked up at Mr. Clarke, trying to find the words to say. When they failed to come, he spoke up instead. “Are you really going to do this?”

The grandfather clock in the lobby thumped even louder than usual, filling the space between us. I swallowed, then nodded. “Yes,” I said quietly, “I am.” He nodded in return, a sort of resigned nod, and then walked into the dining area.

Unsure of whether or not he wanted me to follow him, my feet stayed planted in place. I wasn’t sure if I could move right now anyway. My body felt like ice, though it had never really felt the same since that day I passed out at work.

The man shuffled back into the room, holding what looked like a frayed, cream-colored cloth. It was rolled up tightly, and the way he handled it made me feel that there was something inside. He held it out for me to take, so I grabbed it carefully. Something was indeed inside. When I unraveled it, my hands froze. It was a knife.

I looked up at him, fear and confusion clear in my eyes. He puffed out a breath and said, “Take that with you to the castle. It might prove useful to you.” My hand stayed frozen in place, fingers out and palm upright, as if afraid to fully grab hold of the blade. What would it mean if I accepted it? What would it mean if my fingers curled around the handle and I tucked it into my purse?

Mr. Clarke continued, “You may need protection. You don’t need to say anything, but please take it with you.” Neither one of us moved for about two minutes after that, judging by the crescendoing thunks of the clock.

Then, finally, he shuffled away, and for some reason, tears burned against my skin. I closed my hand around the knife, tucked it back inside the cloth, and shoved it in my bag. I grabbed hold of the letter, which had been tucked under my arm, and walked up to my room.

After closing the door, I let myself fall against it, my back sliding down the wood until my bottom reached the floor. I looked at my name on the front of the envelope. So flawlessly written, with swirling curves and thick black lines. I flipped it over and examined the seal—the crest: two ravens and a lion, vines looping around the exterior, outlining the curious animal depictions.

The ravens were floating atop the lion, the feline’s paws reaching heavenward, its gaping mouth snarled open. The odd thing about it, though, was that the ravens didn’t look like they were afraid of the lion. They looked like they were commanding it, smiling over the lion’s vain attempt at attacking them. What a strange crest, I thought, mesmerized by its peculiar design.

I reluctantly took the knife Mr. Clarke had given me and broke the seal, cutting the envelope open and releasing the contents inside. A crisp, bone-colored piece of parchment fell into my lap.

I picked it up and read it:

Brakerton Heights September 16, 1885
Miss Caroline Blake,

We are pleased to inform you that your application has been received and accepted. Please report to the front gates of Ashdown Manor at 9 am sharp on Friday, September 18th. Your stay with us will be for a period of six weeks, in which you will accompany a member of the house as we make preparations for the newly re-introduced Ashdown Family Harvest Festival.

We look forward to making your acquaintance.

Sincerely,

William Ashdown
Ashdown Family Manor

September 18th. That was only two days away.

I could hardly believe it. I applied for the job, and I wanted it, but a part of me thought I’d get rejected. What was I to do now? I looked out the window as if the dreary weather would offer me my solution. What could I do other than wait until the morning for my fate to arrive? Whatever fate that might be.

About the Author:

Elise Nelson is a writer of fiction, non-fiction, poetry, comics, and articles. She has published under a few different pen names since she was nineteen and has been published in literary periodicals, including The Nassau Review and Essig Magazine. She has also worked as an editorial intern for Christopher Matthews Publishing as well as a writer and editor for many other companies, magazines, and websites. She has a Bachelor of Arts degree from Boise State University, where she studied English literature, creative writing, and multimedia storytelling. She is currently a writer and editor for Jotaku.net and enjoys writing Star Wars fan fiction in her spare time.

https://www.elisenelsonauthor.com/

https://www.facebook.com/EliseNelsonAuthor

https://www.instagram.com/elisenelsonauthor/

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/21519109.Elise_Nelson







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Exclusive Excerpt Smoke and Mirrors: A Vampire Romance by Elise Nelson #PNR #ExclusiveExcerpt

10/4/2021

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Urbantasm Book Three The Darkest Road by Connor Coyne #YA #MagicalRealism #TeenNoir

10/4/2021

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Exclusive Excerpt - Far Beyond Woman Suffrage by David McCracken #AltHis #AlternativeHistory

9/27/2021

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Far Beyond Woman Suffrage 
The Prices of the Vote
Book One
David McCracken

Genre: Alternative History
Date of Publication:  8/25/21
ISBN: 979-8464929616
ASIN: B09DPSTN35
Number of pages: 104
Word Count: 32,514
Cover Artist: PixelStudio

Tagline: “It isn’t just about women in long skirts finally voting!”

Book Description: 

It isn’t just about women in long skirts finally voting. The racists and the rich know that, and the politicians worry.

Mercy Martin has an inside view as the battle for woman suffrage nears a climax, but she encounters many puzzles.

So many women and Southern states oppose votes for women.  

So many people are afraid it would bring on free love, abandonment of family, economic catastrophe, or communism.

So many suffragists are willing to abandon black women voters.

From an innocent teen to a young adult, Mercy has a central role in the campaign. She advances from confinement in a suffragist jail cell to the national campaign for the suffrage amendment. She campaigns around Tennessee, ending at the capitol for the explosive climax in the last state that might ratify the amendment and grant the vote to women. 

Why should something so clearly right be so hard, and why were some bitter compromises made? Mercy is right in the middle, relied on by key players. Along the way, she acquires a husband, a baby, and better parents than she was born with.

This is an intimate view via alternative historical fiction, as accurate as it can be and as thoughtful and moving as it must be. In this first novella of a series, Mercy jumps into the campaign for woman suffrage and prepares for a vital role in the coming decades. She’ll continue on into the wider civil rights struggle growing out of woman suffrage. 

Amazon



Exclusive Excerpt  

Armistice, 11/11/18

Too late, it’s over, this monstrous, useless war that took my Joe and so many other Joes. If women had been able to vote, perhaps we’d never have gotten in it. Well, President Wilson didn’t keep us out of war and hasn’t done much to get us the vote, but by God, getting women the vote better finally happen. His proposed League of Nations better keep us out of any more nonsense like another damned war!

Last night I dreamed Joe’s death telegram was a mistake. He’s coming home to our daughter and me. I saw his face, smiling reassurance, as always. Our time together was so short, but it will live in me forever.
When waking reality returns, these dreams are painful, but I wouldn’t give them up for anything.

It soon came out the United States had more than 320,000 casualties, including over 53,000 killed in action, 204,000 wounded, and over 63,000 non-combat-related deaths, due mainly to the Spanish influenza pandemic of 1918. And this was just to take sides in this European war with no interest for us. Never again! Please ….

Watch Fires and More, 1/1/19

I celebrate my nineteenth birthday by helping start a long-term watch-fire campaign in front of the White House. We burn a copy of President Wilson‘s lying lofty words about democracy in an urn to protest his hypocrisy. NDP protestors had done this several times over recent years before the end of the war, but this is intended to continue until he vigorously backs the suffrage amendment.Maybe until it passes Congress. We continued burning Wilson’s hypocritical statements as the days of the war continued,drawing criticism for being unpatriotic. And now, we still continue. Being patriotic.

On the Sentinels line today, the women display banners with messages like “President Wilson is Deceiving the World When He Appears as the Prophet of Democracy.” Shockingly, a group of sailors and soldiers rush us and overturn the urn burning Wilson’s statements. Like the president, they were afraid of anything that might interfere with the war effort and now,with him.

Alice asked me to bring my baby and Grandma to the fire to symbolize the movement’s support for all women. She’s so sweet with my little Sue. I wonder if she aches with her chosen lonely life of dedication to our cause. Afterward, I sit in the car and nurse my dear baby, wishing Alice could have the joyful experience of feeding a baby from her body.

With diminishing cooing, Sue sleeps all the way home in her basket on the back seat, so good a traveler. After I put her in her crib, still sleeping, and have my supper, I am soon asleep, too.

Tightening the Screws, 1/9/19

I am chatting with Sue White on a hot chocolate break across the street from the White House when word comes through. President Wilson hasdeclared his support for the suffrage amendment. 

“So, are we done, Sue?”

“No, not until he gets us the two Senate votes we need for the amendment. He thinks all he has to do is make a statement for us to be happy and leave him alone. As we say in West Tennessee, not ‘til the ‘coon hits the ground do you put your rifle down.”

“You don’t think we can trust him?”

“Look at the number of us arrested since New Years Day. That’s not a coon laying dead on the ground. It’s one forced to dodge around. So, we keep shooting. You’ll see. Burning speeches is protected speech, but there will be more physical attacks on us and jailings. All Wilson has to do is deliver. Then we stop.”

We’re making plans to burn the president in effigy soon. Sometimes I wish we could burn him for real. I’m afraid I’m becoming bitter, so young. Oh, Joe, I need you and your calm!

The Work Continues,1/13/19

After burning speeches,our members are attacked by schoolboys leading a mob. As the women light new fires, the mob moves on to thenearby NWP headquarters, where they pull down the watchfire bell and destroy banners. Eighteen of our women are charged with building fires on bordering government property and making disorderly speeches. Police release 12, who then return to the park and are arrested again. They refuse to post bond and go on a hunger strike. Officials are reported considering forcible feeding. On February 9, a hundred women demonstrate, burning speeches and a straw effigy of President Wilson with two thousand onlookers. 

I ask Sue as we eat lunch, “Why are people so terribly upset by the idea of letting women vote? I could understand when it appeared that we were opposing the country’s war policy. At least there was a fear of the dissention causing our men to be killed in the war. But the war is over.”

“I’ve puzzled about that, Mercy. Any time unity is threatened, I think fear arises from a feelingthat in disunity, there is weakness. This hostility after the peace is an extension of that fear, maybe, like a bad dream that continues to scare us even when we wake. The feeling persists. And bigoted people just seize on any reason, having none of their own.”

Touché. I mull that over. “But their reaction is so out of proportion to what we’re doing, asking to be allowed to vote.”

After a sigh, she says quietly, “And there’s racism. The idea of negro women voting, and perhaps helping to stop the ongoing blocking of their men voting, is terrifying beyond all reason. Guilt. The South knows what they’ve done and turn the guilt to fear and rage. On the subject of slavery, Jefferson said, ‘I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just, that his justice cannot sleep forever.’ ”

 




About the Author:

David McCracken became a political activist when the Supreme Court ruled against school segregation. Fellow students joined him in urging the school board in Winchester, KY, to integrate immediately. He campaigned for a Democratic governor and joined the ACLU before he graduated from the University of Kentucky. After debating at U.K., he got a degree in economics and a job with the U.S.  Department of Commerce.

When his daughters approached school age, he became increasingly concerned with how he wanted them schooled. Researching that, he decided teaching was what he really wanted to do. He got a master's degree in elementary education at Murray State University. He taught for several years, until the fact that his girls qualified for reduced-price lunches based on his salary got to him. Ronald Reagan's anti-government policies prevented him from returning to government work, so he took programming courses and shifted careers again. Programming was like being paid to solve puzzles all day, but teaching eventually drew him back until retirement.

For many years of this time, he was working intermittently at a novel that became Fly Twice Backward: Fresh Starts in Times of Troubles. This concerned his waking on his twelfth birthday, trying to figure out what had happened, following his new opportunities, and ultimately outliving an evil president resembling Donald Trump. After thirty-six years, David finally published it as an interactive alt-history Kindle novel. He soon started Far Beyond Woman Suffrage: The Prices of the Vote, an alt-history novelette dealing with the campaign for woman suffrage. He finished this piece in just ten months. At 81, he is bold(?) enough to plan this as the first of a six-volume set dealing with the far-reaching results and implications of woman suffrage. His completed novels and another in the works are presented for discussion on a new website, DoFancifulFlights.com

David now lives with his third wife, stepdaughter, and step-grandson near Winchester, VA. He has a son from his second marriage, six grandchildren, and two stepchildren. And a funny black dog with four white feet.

https://dofancifulflights.com








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Author Sign Ups Now Open for the 2021 Deck the Halls Bewitching Book Tours Holiday Extravaganza

9/24/2021

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I know it seems crazy to be thinking about Christmas and Yule before we even get to Halloween but now is the time to plan your holiday book promotion.

Do you have a book that you’d like to put in front of readers this holiday season?

Put your book in the gift buying spotlight with Bewitching Book Tours Deck the Halls with Books Holiday Extravaganza.

From December 1-21 you will be featured with daily (Mon-Fri) Bewitching Tour Stops, Social Media Promotion, and with a multi-author Facebook party in mid-December

Each participating author will receive:

* 3 week Holiday Theme Virtual Book Tour (retail value $125)

* Custom tour banner

* Professional media kit

* Option to offer review copies

* Group Rafflecopter for cross promo

* Time slot in multi-author Holiday Facebook Party




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Exclusive Excerpt - This Morbid Life by Loren Rhoads - Giveaway

8/23/2021

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This Morbid Life
No Rest for the Morbid 
Book One
Loren Rhoads

Genre: Non-Fiction/Memoir/Horror
Publisher: Automatism Press
Date of Publication: August 22, 2021
ISBN:  978-1-7351876-2-4 (paperback)
ISBN: 978-1-7351876-3-1 (ebook) 
ASIN: B09C11J43W
Number of pages: 200
Word Count: 58 K
Cover Artist: Lynne Hansen

Tagline: What others have called an obsession with death is really a desperate romance with life.

Book Description:

What others have called an obsession with death is really a desperate romance with life. Guided by curiosity, compassion, and a truly strange sense of humor, this particular morbid life is detailed through a death-positive collection of 45 confessional essays. Along the way, author Loren Rhoads takes prom pictures in a cemetery, spends a couple of days in a cadaver lab, eats bugs, survives the AIDS epidemic, chases ghosts, and publishes a little magazine called Morbid Curiosity.

Originally written for zines from Cyber-Psychos AOD to Zine World and online magazines from Gothic.Net to Scoutie Girl, these emotionally charged essays showcase the morbid curiosity and dark humor that transformed Rhoads into a leading voice of the curious and creepy.

Amazon     Signed Copies

This excerpt from This Morbid Life was inspired by a tour I took with Near Escapes, a small local company that visited cemeteries, "backstage" at the grand hotels, the Stanford Linear Accelerator, San Quentin Prison, and much more. This was the first tour I took with them.

Burning Desire

At the back of the warehouse stood the cremator itself. The Neptune Society used British equipment, which was acclaimed as top of the line. A computer controlled the temperature and length of burning time. The cremator had four doors, two above and two below, so that bodies could be cremated simultaneously and their ashes commingled. Before anyone could ask, Steve assured us that California state law prohibited cremation of more than one body at a time, so that ashes couldn’t get mixed by accident.

The “ovens” themselves were built of fire-resistant brick. A metal rack slid out, onto which the body was placed. Before the operator inserted a body, the cremator would be preheated to 1800 degrees Fahrenheit. As we toured the building, the ambient temperature rapidly became torrid. The ovens were warming. Apparently, at 1800 degrees, the inside of the oven glows red-hot.

Natural gas was used for the heating process. A human body provides its own fuel and will burn on its own at a high-enough temperature, so the cremator was preheated, the body placed inside, and the gas switched off to prevent overheating. Toward the end of the cremation, the gas was turned on again until the bones became calcined and brittle.

Someone asked Steve how they knew when a body was done. He recommended sticking it with a fork. Sobering up, he added that, on average, it took between one and two hours for a cremation at the Neptune Society, with an additional half hour for the oven to cool down enough to remove the cremains. All bodies burned differently, due to their levels of fat or moisture. Both cancer and AIDS deplete the body’s fat reserves, so victims of those diseases had less fuel value. Those bodies required more gas and a higher heat and might take longer to reduce to ash.

The different compositions of people also produced a variety of colors as the body burned. Sometimes the flames turned green or blue, but generally they were orange or red.

When the cremation was complete, human remains were white and very brittle. Any other discoloration implied that the cremation was unfinished. The bones might have shrunk or twisted, but they were still quite recognizable. The cremains were scooped out of the retort with a tool like a hoe. They were placed in a machine with a drum like a clothes dryer that used heavy iron balls to pulverize the remaining bones. The process was complete when the remains fit through a sieve.

I asked if I could see real human ashes. With a shrug, Steve found a beige cardboard box that was maybe five inches on a side. Inside a plastic wrapper, the cremains looked like Quaker Oats and weighed as much as an old-fashioned solid-body telephone. No one else in the tour group was interested in holding the box. In fact, they all took a step back when I held the box out to them.

Continued in This Morbid Life


About the Author:

Loren Rhoads is the author of 199 Cemeteries to See Before You Die, Wish You Were Here: Adventures in Cemetery Travel, a space opera trilogy, and a duet about a succubus and her angel. She is also the editor of Morbid Curiosity Cures the Blues: Tales of the Unsavory, Unwise, Unorthodox, and Unusual and Tales for the Camp Fire: An Anthology Benefiting Wildfire Relief. This Morbid Life, her 15th book, is the first in the No Rest for the Morbid Series. Book 2, Jet Lag and Other Blessings, will be out in 2022.

Home: https://lorenrhoads.com/

Blog:  https://lorenrhoads.com/blog/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/morbidloren

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/morbidloren/

Newsletter: https://mailchi.mp/aa9545b2ccf4/lorenrhoads

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LorenRhoadsAuthor/

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Loren-Rhoads/e/B002P905PE/

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/976431.Loren_Rhoads




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