Category Archives: Uncategorized
The Only One in Charge of Your Beliefs is You.
Originally posted on Medium.com
A thousand years ago, people seriously debated whether the Earth was round or flat.
A hundred and fifty years ago, people seriously debated whether slaves were human beings or not.
A hundred years ago, people seriously debated whether women should have the right to vote.
These debates sound silly to most of us now, but at the time, they were vital discussions with two clearly opposed points of view that were held in equal esteem by the parties involved.
What debates are we having today that will seem frivolous to future generations?
I’m old enough to remember when you could find a box of crayons containing a color labeled “flesh.” As a Caucasian child, living in a predominantly Caucasian community, I thought nothing of it. Now, I wonder what a child of a different ethnic background might have felt about that innocent wax stick. Wikipedia tells us the color was renamed “peach” in 1962, yet I used one with the outdated label over ten years later. My parents would have considered it perfectly normal to have a “flesh” color within their box to choose from. What once was normal now seems insensitive and even racist to many of us.
How did that change occur? It didn’t happen suddenly, in spite of a decision by Crayola to alter the name one day in 1962. It came about over time because, one by one, people chose to adjust their beliefs about the color of one’s skin and what it meant to them. Not everyone made an adjustment — as we clearly see in the world today — but enough did to slowly create a new normal that children grew up with. That new normal, however, would never have blossomed without the internal examinations of thousands of individuals and their belief systems.
We each have a responsibility to constantly question our beliefs — whatever they may be. Many choose to ignore that responsibility and surround themselves with voices that only confirm what they already think. Social media too often serves as an insulator to the world, rather than the open forum it was intended to be. We block or ignore people and sites that say things contrary to our held opinions, then favorite and like ones that agree with our comfortable world view. This practice shunts our ability to think critically and quiets the voice inside us that questions our reality — to the point where we will do and say things we would have once considered ridiculous.
Pay attention to your actions and behavior while online. Ask yourself why you liked that post, or blocked that site from your feed. Was the source questionable, even though it confirmed something you believe? Did the content make you uncomfortable because it conflicted with something you hold true?
Willingly blinding yourself to the world only serves to hinder your growth as an individual and our society as a whole.
In the end, you are the only one in charge of what you believe.
SFF Book Bonanza
I’m guest posting over on the SFF Book Bonanza blog! Come have a look and tell me about your favorite genre-mashing stories!
http://sffbookbonanza.com/2017/04/24/genre-blending-mashing-bending/
Guesting at the Emblazoners
I’ve got a short post over at the Emblazoner’s blog today about the question authors dread the most: What’s your book about?
Check it out here: http://emblazoners.com/whats-your-book-about/
And take a moment to peruse the site as well. TONS of awesome Middle Grade and lower Young Adult books there for the tween readers in your life!
All right, back to the grindstone. Books don’t write themselves you know! Though sometimes I wish they did 😉
A SciFi/Fantasy Extravaganza!
Hello, Readers! Welcome to the Fantasy and Science Fiction Super Sale! All books below are priced at $0.99 or FREE. Enjoy!
Disclaimer: I haven’t read most of the books on this list. Authors assigned their own movie ratings.
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From $3.99 to $0.99 Movie Rating: PG Genre: Fantasy In a land of magic users, one boy is born without magic. In a realm of angry dragons, one dragon befriends a human boy. Together, they follow their hearts in order to save their land. |
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From $2.99 to $0.99 Movie Rating: PG Genre: YA Fantasy Shanice has never felt like she belongs. Then she learns why: she is the last known princess from another world, their last chance to stop the one who is bent on destroying it. |
From $2.99 to $0.99 Movie Rating: PG Genre: Paranormal Romance Christina is a demon, but she doesn’t want to be. Only one person stands in the way of her transformation, and he will stop at nothing to keep her the way she is. |
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From $3.99 to $0.99 Movie Rating: PG Genre: Time Travel Romance Cassie is going to heavenóif she can get amnesty from hell in the next twenty days. Her assignment is to change the eternal destination of a girl in Albuquerque to earn admittance into heaven. |
From $3.99 to $0.99 Movie Rating: PG13 Genre: DystopianArcene, Awoken and trapped in her own body as a perpetual fifteen-year-old, gets a lot more than she bargained for when she finally finds herself behind the walls of the blue castle. |
From $2.99 to $0.99 Movie Rating: PG13 Genre: Science Fiction When the Hubble Telescope disappears, the FBI calls Jake Corby. Corby has promised his wife to cut down on the hero stuff, but when the ISS is targeted, his promise gets hard to keep. |
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From $2.99 to $0.99 Movie Rating: PG13 Genre: Urban Fantasy What if the greatest weapon in the age-old war between good and evil was inside of you? Crystal Scott must use her newfound gifts against the tide of evil threatening all of themóor die trying. |
From $4.99 to $0.99 Movie Rating: PG13 Genre: Contemporary Fantasy Winner of the state libraries’ Soon to be Famous Illinois Author Project! Three unlikely heroes board a doomed bus. Destination: the afterlife. Their mission: to save forever. But first they have to save themselves. |
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From $2.99 to $0.99 Movie Rating: PG13 Genre: Supernatural Suspense St. Margaret’s was an almshouse until its previous occupants burned to death years before. When a bag of bones falls on twelve-year old Julia, she gets thrown into the spirit realm with house’s past residents. |
From $3.99 to $0.99 Movie Rating: PG13 Genre: Fantasy Merge with a demon. Fight a traitor trying to destroy both their worlds. And above all donít kill the people trying to help. |
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From $2.99 to $0.99 Movie Rating: PG13 Genre: Paranormal When a jagged cut shows up on Kylee’s arm, she enlists her neighbor to help her uncover the truth. But Price shows her much moreóhe shows her what it is to be alive. |
From $3.99 to FREE Movie Rating: PG13 Genre: Dystopian Get this bestselling dystopian fantasy series from YA author Elana Johnson in one convenient digital boxed set! Includes 3 volumes: Elemental Rush, Elemental Hunger, and Elemental Release. |
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From $2.99 to $0.99 Movie Rating: PG13 Genre: Paranormal Can YOU survive the fish-zombie apocalypse? The fate of your friends and family is in your hands, and when the stakes are high, YOU need to decide what youíll beóa survivor, or fish food. |
From $2.99 to $0.99 Movie Rating: PG Genre: Ghosts What would you do if you had a camera that could photograph ghosts? When Jenine discovers an abandoned Polaroid, she realises the dead arenít as peaceful as sheíd imagined… |
From $2.99 to $0.99 Movie Rating: PG13 Genre: Spooky Fantasy Sam dreams he has a friend, but when he wakes, he always forgets him. One day he does not forget, one day he remembers, and on that day, the boy comes to stay… |
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From $2.99 to FREE Movie Rating: PG13 Genre: Science Fiction High school dropout Darius Arthur Heisenberg is recruited to be an agent for the Keepers, whose mission is to maintain and protect the myriad threads of time. What could possibly go wrong? |
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From $2.99 to $0.99 Movie Rating: PG Genre: Dystopian In futuristic America, ratings are everything. When Treena gets the wrong number, she takes a dangerous mission to prove her true worth. But why is someone trying to kill her? |
From $2.99 to $0.99 Movie Rating: PG13 Genre: Paranormal Romance Aspenóa skydiving, rock-climbing, bear-cuddling, adrenaline junkie, finds herself in real danger when she unwittingly ensnares the heart of Obsidian, the dragon king. |
From $3.99 to FREE Movie Rating: PG13 Genre: Paranormal Romance The bracelet around my wrist is a permanent reminder of my mission. The silver charm attached to the leather cord is stamped with my birth sign. Mission: Unite with my twin flame soulmate. |
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From $2.99 to $0.99 Movie Rating: PG13 Genre: Fantasy Duty versus love is the one battle warrior Kae does not know how to fight. |
From $0.99 to FREE Movie Rating: PG13 Genre: Coming of Age Fantasy As the second son, Micah Brachon is happy to focus on his inventions and experiments. When one of those experiments is sabotaged, he learns about the deadly faction that seeks to rip apart their government. |
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From $2.99 to FREE Movie Rating: PG13 Genre: Paranormal Romance When do dreams erupt into reality? After Hannah, vacationing in Arizona, meets handsome Josh from the Navajo reservation, she experiences vivid nightmares about the Navajo nationís past ó a riveting tale blending romance and paranormal mystery. |
From $4.99 to $0.99 Movie Rating: PG13 Genre: Science Fiction/Super Hero Power of a villain, heart of a hero. |
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From $0.99 to FREE Movie Rating: PG Genre: Paranormal Romance On her sixteenth birthday Emily discovers she is a witch and accidentally causes complete mayhem as her first spells don’t exactly go to plan. A young adult paranormal romantic comedy. |
From $2.99 to $0.99 Movie Rating: PG Genre: Fantasy When nerdy Rich Witz unwittingly becomes a paladin in training, he is thrust into a world where flunking a test can change history, and a mysterious bully is playing for keeps with his life. |
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From $2.99 to $0.99 Movie Rating: PG13 Genre: Science Fiction/Fantasy/Horror Tamara thought she was a normal girl in a normal world. Wrong. Her new reality is full of ghosts and demons and she’s a member of the Choir Invisible, a demon hunter. Join her. |
From $4.99 to $0.99 Movie Rating: PG13 Genre: Apocalyptic/Dystopian No one knows why they have to evacuate at first. What they soon find out is it will take a lot of inventiveness with limited resources for the evacuees to survive the Weather Wars. |
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From $2.99 to $0.99 Movie Rating: PG Genre: Science Fiction If your heart rate goes over 140 beats per minute, you die. In a quest for the truth about the Bug and its origin, Nik and his friends work to keep their heart rates low. |
From $2.99 to $0.99 Movie Rating: PG Genre: Science Fiction/Cyberpunk The world is broken. The powerful machines that once ruled over land and sky fought and died, leaving humanity in a primitive age of swords and monsters and only the Etherwalker can save them. |
From $2.99 to $0.99 Movie Rating: PG Genre: Science Fiction/Fantasy Above ground an epidemic sweeps the planet. In order to survive, most of the population must slave away in the dark, unforgiving caverns of the Yyinum mines. These self-appointed guardians strive for survival on Minea. |
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From $2.99 to $0.99 Movie Rating: PG13 Genre: Science Fiction After the world was torn apart by the nightmares of myth and legend, a revenge-filled Caleb and a bewitched Eric find themselves on journeys to hunt down the Dragonlords. |
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From $7.99 to $0.99 Movie Rating: PG13 Genre: Urban Fantasy Nicole has been chosen to lead an anti-magic organization in a revolution which will destroy all Aretes, including herself. But if she doesn’t do it, a curse placed long ago will lead to everyone’s destruction. |
From $2.99 to $0.99 Movie Rating: R Genre: Urban Fantasy The Goddess blesses Her people with 25 Telepathic Gifts. In addition to Telepathy, the Gifts include command over Air and Fire, Telekinesis and Teleportation. She never bestows more than 15 Gifts on a single person. |
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From $4.99 to $0.99 Movie Rating: R Genre: Paranormal Romance When an ancient mystery leads archaeologist Alexandra Larson to a millennia-old war between god-like beings, she must choose between the father she’s never met and the man she’s fated to love. |
From $2.99 to $0.99 Movie Rating: R Genre: Science Fiction Romance Yanked from her life by the mysterious Revik, Allie discovers sheís the Bridge, meant to herald the evolution of humanityññor possibly its extinction. A psychic romance set in a gritty, alternate version of Earth. |
From $0.99 to FREE Movie Rating: PG13 Genre: Paranormal Homebuyers Kim and Julian get more than they bargained for in the secluded Beacon Estate. Its previous owners have been declared dead, missing. Something, however, still lingers in the house. Something unnatural. |
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From $0.99 to FREE Movie Rating: R Genre: Paranormal Romance Meet the couple that started it all, Edward and Connie. Two bear shifters that found each other in 1955 and started the Rochon family legacy. Sweet, spicy, sexy, and shifty. |
From $4.99 to FREE Movie Rating: G Genre: Space Opera Everyone has a place where they always find serenity, a place that acts as their bond to peace. Aliea Academy was Space Cadet Q’s bond to peace. And now it was going to be destroyed. |
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From $2.99 to $0.99 Movie Rating: G Genre: Science Fiction The galaxy is in crisis, and Carrie Hatchett is the last person on Earth who should be fixing it. |
From $2.99 to $0.99 Movie Rating: PG13 Genre: Paranormal Romance/Suspense Mystery, medical school, marriage – and murder! And if all that wasn’t enough, Sara’s also visiting other people’s dreams. Can Sara catch a killer, survive medical school and keep her marriage in one piece? |
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From $2.99 to $0.99 Movie Rating: PG13 Genre: Paranormal/Gothic Romance He’s haunted by his troubled past; she’s desperate for a fresh start. When their worlds collide, everything will change. |
From $3.99 to $0.99 Movie Rating: PG13 Genre: Fantasy Jaxius and his companion, Tolian, must save a northern barbarian, Bergar, from death when Bergarís soul is forced into Tolianís body. Jaxius must call on a power from his past life to save his friends. |
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From $4.99 to $0.99 Movie Rating: R Genre: Sci-fi and Fantasy A young shapeshifter must prove himself by passing a test in the wastelands. But before he can return home, he’ll uncover the secrets behind what really happened 300 years ago to bring about the apocalypse. |
From $3.99 to $0.99 Kindle * Nook * Kobo * iTunes Movie Rating: PG13 Genre: Paranormal Evil is stalking a beautiful woman in Hawaii. He is powerful, charming, and deadly. She fled him once after a brutal attack. Can she escape his powerful spells once more? |
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From $5.99 to $0.99 Kindle * Nook * Kobo * iTunes Genre: Fantasy Romance When Lillian finds herself facing off against vampires and other mythological impossibilities, help comes from an unlikely sourceóthe stone gargoyle who has been sleeping in her garden for the last twelve years. |
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From $2.99 to $0.99 Movie Rating: PG13 Genre: Fantasy There is a story for every wave that washes upon the shoreline. Here are seven of them – stories of mermaids and ghosts and sea monsters and the sweetest apocalyptic love story I ever wrote. |
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From $2.99 to $0.99 Kindle * Nook * Kobo * iTunes Movie Rating: PG13 Genre: Paranormal Romance Sheís neurotic, insecure and doesnít believe in spirits. At least not until moving into a Hollywood bungalow thatís ëinhabitedí by one. Can she survive his dangerous charms long enough to give up the ghost? |
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From $2.99 to FREE Movie Rating: R Genre: Comic FantasyCurious about the day Saint Christopher found out he’d been declared non-existent by the pope? What exactly is a cat in Hell’s chance? Answers to these and other questions are in this short story collection. |
From $4.99 to $0.99 Movie Rating: PG13 Genre: FantasyDex wants to be a knight… Dominic wants to prove himself… Reynard wants to win the fair maiden’s heart… But nothing is ever as simple as it seems. |
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From $5.97 to $0.99 Movie Rating: R Genre: Science Fiction/Zombies Conspiracy theory meets zombie fiction. Journalist Hunter Morgan uncovers a sinister web that connects biological experiments at an Ebola treatment center with a pharmaceutical company, U.S. government officials, the CDC and the World Health Organization. |
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From $2.99 to FREE Movie Rating: PG13 Genre: Science Fiction Romance She’s fierce, intelligent, subtle as a brick and he’s only human. Can they find love and save the universe? Fun science fiction romance contains: aliens, blasters, culture clash, comedy, inter-species romance and a eunuch! |
From $2.99 to $0.99 Movie Rating: PG13 Genre: Post-Apocalyptic Mythology The world is thrown into turmoil as the ancient gods of myth and legend return to wreck havoc on humanity. Only a select few stand in the way of utter chaos and devastation. |
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From $3.99 to FREE Movie Rating: PG13 Genre: Epic Fantasy Sucked into a portal to another world, Allison awakens with powers she canít control and learns sheís fated to fulfill an ancient prophecy where one decision will determine which of two warring kingdoms will fall. |
From $2.99 to $0.99 Kindle * Nook * Kobo * iTunes Genre: FantasyHe’s a powerful Genie, trapped in a magic lamp. She’s an ugly old witch. They’ll fight the dark forces… together. |
From $2.99 to $0.99 Movie Rating: R Genre: Science Fiction/Time Travel and Space Opera What happens when Evaran, a space and time traveling being visting Earth, decides to interfere in the alien abduction of four humans? |
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From $4.99 to $0.99 Movie Rating: R Genre: Science Fiction Time traveling was not on todayís agenda. Racing to intercept her thieving soon-to-be-ex, Evy Rivera is thrown back to ancient Spain with no rules, no guidance, and brand new, badass lightning bullwhips. |
From $3.99 to $0.99 Movie Rating: PG13 Genre: Fantasy Sam Sharp is trapped in another world. He must learn to harness the worldís unique vibratory energy to defeat the villain called the Gray Man or he can never go home. |
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From $5.99 to $0.99 Movie Rating: R Genre: Science Fiction Romance When New York City is destroyed by a nuclear bomb, step-brothers Franklin and Everon are determined to find and save their sister Cynthia, her husband and infant child. An exciting tale of love and sibling-hood. |
From $2.99 to $0.99 Movie Rating: R Genre: Weird Western Fantasy Ranger of Mayat is the first episode of PISTOLS AND PYRAMIDS, an ongoing weird western series best described as an ancient Egyptian spaghetti western with magic. And mummies. Lots of mummies. |
Tony Phony and the Northern Woods
Today I’m part of a special blog event hosted by T. Man, a 10-year-old author and homeschooler. When T. Man was only 8, he partnered with his older brother, M. Man, on a special homeschool writing project that resulted in their first published book, Tony the Phony and Cursed Mansion. 
This year, T. Man went solo and just finished the second book in the series, Tony the Phony and the Northern Woods. Written in the engaging style of a Choose Your Own Adventure™, each book is available for .99 on Amazon.
But today T. Man has chosen to share his new book with his readers in its entirety in a special interactive virtual event. Seven different bloggers are hosting sections of the story. The fun begins on T. Man’s blog. At the end of each page YOU have to decide how the story will go. Each choice will lead you to a new blog. You have the possibility of landing on any of four endings. Of course, when you finish you can always go back to the beginning and start again. Choose wisely!
Permalink to the start of the story on T. Man’s blog: http://wp.me/p2bspO-7d
Link to Tony the Phony and Cursed Mansion: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00JQLMK6G/
Link to Tony the Phony and the Northern Woods: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B01AL2AFYM
“Let’s go see if we can find help,” said Tony.
So Ed grabbed his backpack while Tony left the plane. Five seconds later, Ed heard Tony scream, “Help! Help!” He ran from the plane to see what was happening and came face to face with a bear who had pinned Tony pinned to the ground. “What are you doing?” asked Ed.
“Trying to breathe,” said Tony. “Chuck something at it.”
Ed picked up a stick and threw it. “I missed! Wait! The bear is chasing the stick.”
“Run!” yelled Tony.
“I’m right behind you.”
Bam! They ran into the airplane door.
“Open it!” said Tony.
“It won’t budge,” screamed Ed. “We’re locked out!”
Suddenly a loud roaring sound came from the top of the plane. The bear dropped the stick behind them, skidded to a stop with all four feet, and ran for its life.
“What was that?” Ed squeaked.
Tony pointed with a shaky finger. Ed looked up and there on the roof of the plane was a fat zombie. He looked wrinkly and warty and cranky.
Click here to run away. Click here to stand and fight.
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