YA Indie Carnival Secret Santa Giveaway: Ebooks & Excerpts under my tree!

Ever wonder if the people you meet on a paradise vacation are what they seem? Ever imagine that Valentine’s Day could be cursed, literally? What would it be like to be turned into a vampire and find that you couldn’t leave your old life behind, even if you wanted to? What about karma? If bad things we do could come back to haunt us, what about the good things? Did you ever wonder what inspired certain statues or pictures of art, or what pieces of the artists soul, went into their creations? This collection of short stories explores vengeance, closure, justice and other possibilities from beyond the grave.

EXCERPT FROM KISSES––BEYOND THE VEIL: A GHOST STORY ANTHOLOGY 

Terry Cooper tried hard not to kick the side of the automatic door as it opened on an explosion of scarlet and bubble-gum satin and lace. The menagerie of heart bedecked stuffed animals crowded the aisles like a cupid-struck taxidermist’s fantasy, and Terry’s worst nightmare. The stacks of chocolate boxes waited, like Gretel’s witch in her candy house, to tempt her into a sugar feeding frenzy that would use up every drop of insulin in her diabetic body for the rest of her life. Valentine’s Day sucks! Fuck Valentine’s Day! she thought, as she savagely shoved the grocery cart ahead of her. It nearly careened into a stand of skimpy thong underwear with curly “I Love You” script littering the tiny triangle of fabric.

She tossed packets of lettuce and other veggies into her cart haphazardly, and then buried them under bags of chips and other snack food. Two minutes and counting, she thought as she reached for the rice cakes around a portly woman blocking the entire aisle with her cart. If I don’t get out of here soon, I’m going to shoot these people, she vowed. Two days until Venereal Day. I’m not going to survive this time without committing multiple homicides.

The woman giggled and grabbed a third box of frosty angelic white Valentine’s Day Little Debbie cakes. “Oh, I just love these things! I buy out a whole shelf every Valentine’s Day to decorate for everyone I know. I put messages on the top. They taste so much better than those chalky candy hearts, don’t you think?”

“I’m diabetic.”

“Oh, well, no cakes for you, then!” She waggled a puffy finger at Terry. “I bet those rice patties would decorate up nice. Lots of room to write, ‘I wuv you’ on those! You can whip up a batch of sugar free frosting in a jiffy with that Splenda now.”

But I don’t love you, I hate you, and your little teddy bear too. “Thanks.” Terry grimaced, pulled a box of angel cakes into her cart and ran.

ABOUT RACHEL COLES:

Rachel Coles lives and works in Denver, Colorado with her husband Adam, and young daughter Rosa. An anthropologist by training, Rachel pursued her love of diverse cultures and passion for mythology into writing. She is from an Ashkenazi Jewish family, and grew up with a rich background in Semitic and Middle Eastern folklore. Together with her husband and daughter, she enjoys martial arts, science fiction, fantasy, and horror, in all their forms. They are, in fact, the proud parents of one of the youngest Trekkies in the state.

Rachel Coles’ other stories include the story Orphans of Lethe in the new anthology What Fears Become from Imajin Books, and Into The Ruins anthology available on Kindle.

Stay tuned for her debut novel, Pazuzu’s Girl in the spring!

Visit Rachel at www.rachelcoles.wordpress.com, Rachel Bernstein Coles on Facebook, rcoles66 on Twitter, or zhadum6@yahoo.com

Torn between her father’s Catholicism and her mother’s Pagan beliefs, Eva finally chooses Paganism. She accepts the name of Arethusa but learns too late that her life will mirror the Greek nymph’s tragic fate. When they sail to the Azores Islands, her mother tells her that her destiny rests with Diogo, the shipowner’s son. But Eva sees a vision of another . . .

When the ship founders off the Azores, Tristan, a young Azorean, saves her. Destined to be with Diogo yet aching for Tristan’s forbidden love, Eva must some­how choose between them, or fate will soon choose for her.

Artemis Rising is a beautiful, seamless blend of two mythologies: the Arthurian legend of Tristan and Isolde, and the ancient Greek legend of Alpheus and Arethusa. It is a story filled with young romance, tragedy, forgiveness and attempts at redemption.

EXCERPT : 

1: DAUGHTER OF THE MOON
24 August 1893

Strange how our names become our fate. No mat­ter my fate, given a choice, still I would choose that name: Arethusa, nymph of the old world, daugh­ter of the moon. Is the name a curse or a bless­ing? Perhaps nei­ther. Perhaps my mother has merely des­tined me for a love of watery things. It is true. The sea is in my blood, slip­ping quick­sil­ver through my veins. And the Moon Goddess is to be my mis­tress. No more Eva now. No more a daugh­ter of God.

Eva’s fin­gers shook as she held the match to the can­dlewick. The chill night air seeped through her thin shift. Even in deep sum­mer, Massachusetts still clung to the rem­nants of spring when the sun sank below the foothills. But it was not the wind that gave her shivers.

“Calm down,” Mãe said, lay­ing her hand over Eva’s to still them. “Your Pai will be gone for hours and Artemis will rise soon enough.”

Eva held the match closer to the can­dle. The wind snatched out the flame with a huff. Her hand trem­bled when she drew another match, and she hated that her mother saw it.

With the chang­ing of her name, she would deny her father’s faith and embrace her mother’s. A sim­ple choice. And a dan­ger­ous one. A pagan in a Catholic world had need of secrecy and courage. But for her it was more than a ques­tion of faith. This choice would direct her des­tiny. Her name­sake was a nymph devoted to Artemis, Goddess of the Moon. A nymph who was chased by the obses­sive river god Alpheus into the depths of the sea and back. Yet in the end, Alpheus found Arethusa and merged his waters with hers until they became one.

She knew that this would be her fate. But it was not the Catholic fate of heaven or hell. It was a kind of immor­tal­ity. A death­less death. She feared this most of all. When she was joined to Alpheus, would she cease to exist? Would her soul be lost?

For many years, she had known this day was com­ing. Her mother had taught her the old sab­bats and rites and, for Mãe’s sake, had prac­ticed these secret rit­u­als over and over. At first, Eva felt torn—it was so dif­fer­ent from Pai’s strict Catholic sacra­ments of the Eucharist and Confirmation—but over time, Mãe’s beliefs had become her own. Despite her fleet­ing doubts, she knew she would not hes­i­tate when it came time to give her promise. It was not in her nature to fal­ter. And she dared not fal­ter now.

ABOUT CHERI LASOTA:

Over the course of her sixteen-​​year career, Cheri Lasota has edited fic­tion, non­fic­tion, screen­plays, and short sto­ries for pub­li­ca­tion. Clients include McGraw-​​Hill Publishing Company as well as indi­vid­ual fic­tion writ­ers and screen­writ­ers, some of which have been published.

Cheri also has over twenty-​​four years of expe­ri­ence writ­ing poetry and fic­tion. She has recently signed on with SpireHouse Books, which has pub­lished her debut novel, ARTEMIS RISING. The YA his­tor­i­cal fan­tasy is set in the Azores Islands, Portugal, and is based on two dif­fer­ent mythologies. Currently, Cheri is writ­ing and research­ing her sec­ond novel, a YA set on the Oregon Coast.

Cheri is a mem­ber of SheWrites​.com, Women In Portland Publishing (WiPP) and the NW Independent Editors Guild (NWIEG). She is an active mem­ber of Willamette Writers and attends the Willamette Writers Conference every year. She has also par­tic­i­pated in National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) for five years. Find Cheri at http://www.cherilasota.com

Most of K.C. Neal’s days are filled with some combination of writing, reading, gardening, working, and watching stuff on Netflix with her husband and their maltipoo, Oscar. She has an irrational fixation with L.A., and during occasional trips there she pretends her life is more glamorous than it really is (“Entourage” is her guilty pleasure). She likes to surf and hang out on sandy beaches, especially where drinks are served adorned with tiny umbrellas. Find her here at http://kcneal.blogspot.com/ and at http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5163997.K_C_Neal

 

1.	Laura A. H. Elliott author of Winnemucca & 13 on Halloween, Book 1 in the Teen Halloween Series	2.	Bryna Butler, author Midnight Guardian series
3.	Heather Self	4.	T. R. Graves, Author of The Warrior Series
5.	Suzy Turner, author of The Raven Saga	6.	Darby Karchut, author of GRIFFIN RISING
7.	Lexus Luke	8.	Cheri Schmidt, author of the Fateful Trilogy
9.	Rachel Coles, author of Into The Ruins, geek mom blog	10.	K. C. Blake, author of Vampires Rule and Crushed
11.	Patti Larsen, The Hunted series and The Hayle Coven series	12.	Amy Maurer Jones, Author of The Soul Quest Trilogy
13.	Dani Snell’s Refracted Light Reviews	14.
15.	M. Leighton, Blood Like Poison Series, Madly, The Reaping	16.	Abbi Glines, author of Breathe and The Vincent Boys
17.	Kimberly Kinrade, Bits of You & Pieces of Me, Forbidden Mind	18.	Madeline Smoot, Missing, Summer Shorts, and The Girls
19.	Cidney Swanson, author of Rippler	20.	Gwenn Wright, author of Filter
21.	TG Ayer	22.	Melissa Pearl, author of Golden Blood