Book Feature & Giveaway: The Accidental Wife by Simi K. Rao

About the Book:

From the author of Inconvenient Relations Simi K Rao!
If you enjoyed Inconvenient Relations, you'll love The Accidental Wife, a new contemporary romance from Simi K. Rao.
Some accidents are meant to happen…
Dr. Rihaan Mehta is a brilliant young neurosurgeon who has no inclination for love or marriage. According to him wives and girlfriends are annoying accessories that one can do without. But when his mother dangles the sword over his head in classic Bollywood style, he succumbs, and sets out in search of a bride who would fit his 'requirements'. But can Rihaan deal with what he gets instead?

Book Links:

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The Accidental Wife is now available on kindle for 99 cents Only! Go get it now as the offer is for a short period only !!

Excerpt:

PROLOGUE

“Another beer to calm the nerves?” A distant cousin who Rihaan had never the pleasure of meeting before, suggested with a knowing smirk.
This was followed by a loud burst of laughter. It was close to midnight, but the party had just begun at the usually serene Mehta abode in South Delhi. “Rihaan doesn’t need anything to cool him down. He’s going to be a full-on man tonight! Can’t afford to disappoint bhabhi, right?” This was promptly followed by another outburst of mirth.
Rihaan submitted to several friendly thumps on his back, returning them with the obligatory wry smile that could be interpreted any which way they desired. He didn’t care about their opinions.
It was true, he hadn’t let a single drop of alcohol pass through his lips. Not because he was anxious to perform well on his wedding night and impress his new wife. On the contrary, he wanted to keep all his faculties intact so he could confirm the suspicion that had been gnawing at his brain ever since the wedding ceremony. And with each moment that passed, his unease had grown steadily.
Unable to bide his time any longer, he stood up and went toward his room paying no heed to the numerous whistles and catcalls that followed in his wake.
Thrusting the door wide open he strode toward the marital bed. It was bare except for his bride’s wedding finery that lay in a neat pile in one corner. His heart now thudding at a frantic pace inside his chest, he scanned the vicinity, fervently hoping his concerns were for nothing.
He approached the wide open balcony door, and his pulse slowed down slightly. Perhaps he’d just been imagining it all?
A girl stood there leaning against the railing, her face upturned toward the full moon. On hearing him approach, she turned around. “Finally! I’ve been waiting like forever!”
He frowned, straining to decipher her features obscured by deep shadow. “Deepika?”
“Naa…, not Deepika.” She stepped forward into the light, a bright smile illuminating her strikingly graceful features.
His heart sank. Not Deepika.
“I am Naina—the girl you married. Goodbye, Rihaan.”

About the Author:

Simi K. Rao was born and grew up in both northern and southern India before relocating to the U.S., where she has lived for several years. She is the author of multicultural contemporary romantic fiction.
The inspiration for her books and other creative projects comes from her own experience with cross-cultural traditions, lifestyles and familial relationships, as well as stories and anecdotes collected from friends, family and acquaintances.
Rao enjoys exploring the dynamics of contemporary American culture blended with Indian customs and heritage to reflect the challenges and opportunities many Indian-American women face in real life.
Much of Rao's down time is devoted to creative pursuits, including writing fiction, poetry and photography. She is an avid traveler and has visited many locations around the world.
A practicing physician, Rao lives in Denver with her family. Her published works include Inconvenient Relations and The Accidental Wife. She is currently at work on her next release.

Contact the Author:

Website I Blog I Facebook I Twitter I Goodreads

Giveaway:

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Planning for Pantsers - Visual Tools

I have always liked using Pinterest as a means to create storyboards for my book projects. Not only does it give me a great excuse to play around on Pinterest for hours, it also gives me inspiration for characters, scenes and sometimes even a story idea. But my boards are not real storyboards, they are just images of nature, people, art and some other interesting things that I came across the website of the social media giant.

As a sometimes visual artist - I love to paint and draw - the visual aspects of the images contribute quite a lot to my "seeing" my stories unfold.

Storyboard of a snippet from the novel

Until a few days ago, when I found actual storyboard software. Of course, the software has been around for a a long time, since cartoonists, writers of graphic novels, animators and many other visual artists have been using it for years. Only took me a few of those years to finally get it.

I registered immediately for a free option account to try it out. Hours later (not saying how many) I had my whole novel outlined as a storyboard. Since I started out playing, I stuck to doing the essence of each chapter, but there is scope to do every scene too. There are several options on how the look of the storyboard should be, but those are for paying customers only. The price isn't bad either, and they don't mind if you subscribe for a month, do your thing and then unsubscribe again, only to do it again some time later. Sounds like the ideal tool for a writer. Do the planning in the beginning of the process, and then write and edit until the project is done. When you're ready you can start again with a new subscription as you need it.

Even with only the free option, there are many little characters and scenes and add-ons to make the storyboard truly your own.

With my novel for April Camp NaNoWriMo properly planned, storyboarded and ready to write, I will test the storyboard idea to see if it helps when I write the words.

Here is the link to the website I used.

Book Feature: The Icarus Curse (Part II) by Carmen Botman

SYNOPSIS:

Shiloh Reed carries the burden of mankind on her shoulders – literally. Having inherited her father’s notorious legacy in this dystopian world, Shiloh realises that she holds the only blueprints in existence that could potentially save the planet from the brink of extinction. Seasons no longer exist on this planet – each day is hot and dry and food is scarce. Water is rarer than gold. Survival, here at the southern tip of Africa, is a day-to-day battle. Shiloh is a loner and has learned to depend on herself. But with the responsibility of rebuilding the Season Generator and saving the planet fixed squarely on her shoulders, she will have to learn to trust others if she wants to accomplish this mission. Should she trust her instincts? And does she have the courage to fulfil this massive undertaking?
Continue with Shiloh on her journey in this second instalment.​

BUY LINKS        Smashwords      Amazon      Kobo

EXCERPT

“I suppose we’d better get on with it, then,” she added and stood up.

Draven and I exchanged glances again and stood up, following her lead.

“I’m sure you’d like to see the progress downstairs?” she said.

“Downstairs?” Draven asked, finding his tongue again.

“Where the magic happens,” she smiled. “Where we try to make magic happen, at least.”

“Mireya, I don’t think we’re quite on the same page just yet,” I said. “What do you mean downstairs where the magic happens?”

“I thought Fritz told you all about it?”

“About what?”

The old woman took a step towards the broom cupboard and placed her hand on the door. She looked at us suspiciously. “Who are you two, really? And give me a straight answer.”

“I’m Shiloh Nox and this is Dr. Draven Young.”

“Everyone knows the name of Shiloh Nox around here. How do I know that it’s really you?”

“How would I be here and know about Fritz Moeller if I wasn’t?” I retorted, feeling bold.

“Everyone knows the name of Fritz Moeller as well. These things are common knowledge.” She removed the shotgun again and held it in her hands menacingly. This old woman was really feisty. Avila’s ears turned towards Mireya and her short hairs stood on edge.

“My mother was Evah. I had a brother and a sister named Jericho and Hannah. This is our family dog, Avila,” I explained, attempting to convince her.

“Too easy.” She cocked the weapon. “I think perhaps it was a mistake letting you in so blindly.”

“No! Wait! Fritz’s entire family has died. Fritz has black hair and blue eyes!”

“You think that at one point in time I wouldn’t have read the WebNews as well?”

She stepped forward, shoving the weapon in our faces. Avila growled. I held onto her collar, preventing an attack. I was certain it was all a horrible misunderstanding. Fritz wouldn’t have sent us here on a wild goose chase. We were slowly moving back towards the entrance. “I swear that you will be hunted down if you breathe a word of any of this,” Mireya said and placed the muzzle against my sternum.

About the Author

Carmen Botman is a writer of short stories and novels for all ages in a mash-up of genres. She lives in South Africa with her husband and Labrador named Daisy. Her professional title and day job is Occupational Therapist, but in her spare time she continues on her daily journey of creating the stories which float around in her imagination.

Connect with Carmen online: 

Blog: http://carmenbotman1.blogspot.com/

Facebook: http://facebook.com/carmenbotmanwriter

Twitter: http://twitter.com/@carmen_botman78

Book Feature: Sins of the Father by Jenny Twist

Synopsis

Rupert is having very strange and disturbing dreams about his dead father. In his dreams his father is a dark, shadowy figure who preys on people while they sleep. But in his waking life Rupert knows nothing about him. His mother refuses to talk about it. Then he meets Samantha and together they decide to find out what happened and track his father down.

Buy links   Amazon US     Amazon UK

The story behind Sins of the Father

I first read about the mantequero in Gerald Brennan’s books. He tells the tale of how a tall, thin and very pale aristocratic friend of his was captured by some peasants when he was walking in the mountains. They were convinced he was a mantequero because he was so pale and thin, and were about to murder him on the spot, but decided, to be on the safe side, to take him to the mayor. Luckily the mayor was not so superstitious and told them he was not a mantequero but an Englishman.

I was very intrigued by this and did some research. There are quite a few examples of real live people murdering others for their fat but of the legend itself there is very little, so I felt justified in inventing my own mantequero and wrote a short story in which a fat and unloved schoolteacher goes on holiday to Spain and meets the man of her dreams. You can guess the rest. Of all the short stories I have written, this one evoked more requests for a sequel than any other and I wrote another story about how two of the teacher’s friends went to look for her and found rather more than they bargained for.
Some time between releasing Mantequero and Disappeared, an American school teacher told me how much her class had loved Mantequero. Many of the children were Hispanic and were particularly interested because it was their culture. She suggested that I write a Mantequero story for young adults.
I toyed with the idea and deliberately left an opening for a new story at the end of Disappeared. The Sins of the Father is the result of that idea. It is the first time I have attempted to write a YA story and I am a little nervous about how it will be received. It is quite a dark story but I am informed by my teacher friends that this is preferred reading for many young adults. We shall see . . .

In the meantime Jenny would be very grateful for any feedback you can give on Sins of the Father (especially if you are a young adult). You can contact Jenny any time on casahoya@gmail.com or you could leave a review on Amazon. She is always grateful for reviews.

About the Author

Jenny Twist was born in York and brought up in the West Yorkshire mill town of Heckmondwike, the eldest grandchild of a huge extended family.

She left school at fifteen and went to work in an asbestos factory. After working in various jobs, including bacon-packer and escapologist’s assistant (she was The Lovely Tanya), she returned to full-time education and did a BA in history, at Manchester and post-graduate studies at Oxford.

She stayed in Oxford working as a recruitment consultant for many years and it was there that she met and married her husband, Vic.

In 2001 they retired and moved to Southern Spain where they live with their rather eccentric dog and cat. Besides writing, she enjoys reading, knitting and attempting to do fiendishly difficult logic puzzles.

She has written two novels - Domingo’s Angel – a love story set in Franco’s Spain and harking back to the Spanish Civil War and beyond - and All in the Mind – a contemporary novel about an old woman who mysteriously begins to get younger

She has also written an anthology of short stories - Take One At Bedtime – and co-written the anthology Bedtime Shadows – with the inimitable Tara Fox Hall.

She has contributed short stories to many other anthologies, of which two – Doppelganger and Uncle Vernon have recently been released as short ebooks.

Her first self-published ebook, Away With the Fairies, was released in September 2012. Her second,

Mantequero, was released in June 2013 and the long-awaited sequel, Disappeared, was released in January 2014. Take One at Bedtime was republished independently in May 2014 and Domingo’s Angel in July 2014. Sins of the Father, the third in the Mantequero series was released in August 2014 and Tales of the Mantequero, a compilation of all three Mantequero stories plus a further two, was released on 3 October 2014, and An Open Letter to Stephen King & Other Essays, a compilation of non-fiction essays and articles on 14 December 2014.

Jenny Twist: https://sites.google.com/site/jennytwistauthor/home

Facebook Author Page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Jenny-Twist-Author/291166404240446

Amazon Author Page: http://www.amazon.com/author/jennytwist

Twitter: @JennyTwist1

Multiple Book Feature Event hosted by Joel Ohman

Science Fiction is the hottest genre right now. Add in some best selling authors and Young Adult books and you have an event not to be missed. So come celebrate these awesome YA Science Fiction Authors with us! Giveaways, book exclusives, games and more! Young Adult Science Fiction Multi-Author Event March 19th from 5:30-9PM. You can enter the big $100 Amazon Gift Card Giveaway at the bottom of this post! Don't miss it!

Join the event!

The authors are excited to see you on the 19th but in the meantime, check out these amazing titles!

Schedule of events!

5:30-6:00 – Angela Scott
6:00-6:30 – Laxmi Hariharan
6:30-7:00 – Theresa Kay
7:00-7:30 – Lee Strauss
7:30-8:00 – Pavarti K Tyler
8:00-8:30 – Susan Kaye Quinn
8:30-9:00 – Joel Ohman
9:00 – Pavarti (Announce Rafflecopter winners - Enter at the bottom of this post!)

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