promo post – Page 4 – Everything Is Better With Dragons

Promo Post: Does Snow Turn A Person White Inside?, by Max Lobe

Publication date: 25th August 2022
Category: Fiction
Print RRP: £11.99
Print ISBN: 978-1-913109-90-5
Paperback: 198 x 129 mm
E-book RRP: £6.99
E-book ISBN: 978-1-913109-96-7

Blurb

The narrator, Mwana, is a young man from Bantuland, living in Geneva. A
graduate from a Swiss university, we first encounter Mwana waiting for a bus in the hills of Lugano gazing at a poster calling for “black sheep” to be sent home. Mwana’s efforts to find work are fruitless until he lands an internship in an NGO campaigning against racial discrimination. The team is busy organising a demonstration against the black sheep poster.

Mwana has one foot in each culture. He sees Swiss society through African eyes, with all its contradictions: its moderation, stunning landscapes and its eccentricities, but also its intolerance and inflexibility. He also casts a critical eye on his native Africa, the weight of its traditions and beliefs. Is belonging nowhere the price Mwana has to pay for these insights?

Sad and playful Does Snow Turn a Person White Inside? is a moving
reflection on the immigrant experience.

Rosemarie’s Note: This was going to be a review, but the book didn’t arrive in time, so promo post instead. The book arrived on Monday, I’m reading it and will review it as soon as possible. I’m about 23% of the way through the book.

I’m disappointed, I was looking forward to sharing this book with you. It’s not the fault of the blog tour organiser, but probably a delay at the publisher’s end. These things happen, unfortunately.

Author Biography:

Max Lobe was born in Douala, Cameroon. At eighteen he moved to Switzerland, where he earned a BA in communication and journalism
and a master’s in public policy and administration. In 2017, his novel Confidences won the Ahmadou Kourouma Prize. Other books by the
author include 39 Rue de Berne and A Long Way From Douala published by Small Axes in 2021. Max Lobe lives in Geneva.

Extract from ‘The Hostage of Rome’, by Robert M. Kidd – Giveaway!

The Hostage of Rome

217 BC. Rome has been savaged, beaten and is in retreat. Yet, in that winter of winters, her garrisons cling on behind the walls of Placentia and Cremona, thanks to her sea-born supplies. If he could be freed, a hostage of Rome may yet hold the key to launching a fleet of pirates that could sweep Rome from the seas. For that hostage is none other than Corinna’s son Cleon, rival heir to the throne of Illyria, held in Brundisium, four hundred miles south of the Rubicon.

But Hannibal is set on a greater prize! Macedon is the great power in Greece, feared even by Rome. Its young king, Philip, is being compared with his illustrious ancestor, Alexander the Great. An alliance with Macedon would surely sound the death knell for Rome.

Given Hannibal’s blessing, Sphax, Idwal and Corinna face an epic journey against impossible odds. Navigating the length of the Padus, past legionary garrisons and hostile Gauls, they must then risk the perils of the storm-torn Adria in the depths of the winter. If the gods favour them and they reach the lands of the pirate queen, only then will their real trials begin.

Purchase Links

UK – https://www.amazon.co.uk/Hostage-Rome-Histories-Sphax-Book-ebook/dp/B09X3L8WLB/

US – https://www.amazon.com/Hostage-Rome-Histories-Sphax-Book-ebook/dp/B09X3L8WLB/

Publication Day Blitz: The Last Gifts of the Universe, by Rory August

Buy Link: https://amzn.to/3tAeJXk

Blurb

A dying universe.

When the Home worlds finally achieved the technology to venture out into the stars, they found a graveyard of dead civilizations, a sea of lifeless gray planets and their ruins. What befell them is unknown. All Home knows is that they are the last civilization left in the universe, and whatever came for the others will come for them next.

A search for answers.

Scout is an Archivist tasked with scouring the dead worlds of the cosmos for their last gifts: interesting technology, cultural rituals—anything left behind that might be useful to the Home worlds and their survival. During an excavation on a lifeless planet, Scout unearths something unbelievable: a surviving message from an alien who witnessed the world-ending entity thousands of years ago.

A past unraveled.

Blyreena was once a friend, a soul mate, and a respected leader of her people, the Stelhari. At the end of her world, she was the last one left. She survived to give one last message, one final hope to the future: instructions on how to save the universe.

An adventure at the end of a trillion lifetimes.

With the fate of everything at stake, Scout must overcome the dangers of the Stelhari’s ruined civilization while following Blyreena’s leads to collect its artifacts. If Scout can’t deliver these groundbreaking discoveries back to the Archivists, Home might not only be the last civilization to exist, but the last to finally fall.

Author Bio

Rory August is a speculative fiction writer, animal lover, nature walker, and all around nerd. When they aren’t writing stories about lonely voyages through space, you can find them playing video games, the guitar, or a myriad of TTRPGs. They live in woodsy New England with their cat and husband. The Last Gifts of the Universe is their debut novel.

You can find out more about Rory and their upcoming works by visiting www.roryaugust.com

Author illustration by Camila del Aguilla. You can find more of her work by visiting www.camiladelaguilla.com

Promo Post: A Plethora of Phantoms, by Penny Hampson

A Plethora of Phantoms

What makes Freddie shiver? Is it the spooky happenings in his family’s stately home? Or is it Marcus, the handsome antique dealer who Freddie thinks he can’t have?

Freddie Lanyon has it all: a loving family, a privileged background, and a stately home filled with antiques. What his family don’t know is that Freddie is desperately unhappy.

Troubled by spirits that only he can see, Freddie Lanyon, the heir to Lanyon Park, is also in denial about his sexuality. It takes a meeting with handsome and psychic antique dealer, Marcus Spender, to convince Freddie that he might need to change.

When Freddie’s latest purchase of an antique dressing case triggers fresh poltergeist activity, he is awakened each night by an anguished spirit seeking help. Contacting the previous owner of the dressing case leads Freddie and Marcus on a journey to Cornwall, but what starts out as a straightforward quest soon turns into a challenge to their growing relationship.

Will Freddie’s restless spectral visitor be finally laid to rest? And will Freddie find the courage to be true to himself at last?

Purchase Link – http://mybook.to/plethoraofphantoms

Author Bio – Some time ago Penny Hampson decided to follow her passion for history by studying with the Open University. She graduated with honours and went on to complete a post-graduate degree.

Penny then landed her dream role, working in an environment where she was surrounded by rare books and historical manuscripts. Flash forward nineteen years, and the opportunity came along to indulge her other main passion – writing. Penny joined the New Writers’ Scheme of the Romantic Novelists’ Association and three years later published her debut novel, A Gentleman’s Promise, a historical mystery/romance. Other books in the same genre soon followed.

But never happy in a rut, Penny also writes contemporary suspense with paranormal and romantic elements. Her first book in this genre is The Unquiet Spirit, published by Darkstroke.

Penny lives with her family in Oxfordshire, and when she is not writing, she enjoys reading, walking, swimming, and the odd gin and tonic (not all at the same time).

For more on Penny’s writing, visit her blog: https://pennyhampson.co.uk/blog/

Twitter: @penny_hampson

Facebook: www.facebook.com/pennyhampsonauthor

Promo Post: A Mother’s Story, by Maggie Christensen

A Mother’s Story

A lost child. A mother’s grief. A daughter’s journey.

In Scotland, in1941, as WW2 increases in ferocity, Rhona Begg goes against her parents’ wishes and enlists in the ATS—a decision that brings with it heart-breaking consequences. After the war, weighed down with regret and grief, Rhona receives news that has the power to change her life.

Across the ocean in Australia, Nell Duncan worries about her husband who is fighting in the Far East. When she receives the dreaded news that he is missing in action, her world collapses. The end of the war brings changes to Nell’s life, but her dream of bearing a child is no longer possible and she grieves for what might have been.

In 1971, when Joy Baker gives birth to her daughter, she begins the journey to discover her ancestry. What she finds shocks her to the core and propels her on a journey to the land of her birth.

Three women. Three mothers. Three astonishing stories.

From wartime Scotland to present day Australia. A Mother’s Story is an emotion-filled sweeping family saga.

Purchase Link – getbook.at/AMothersStory

Author Bio –

After a career in education, Maggie Christensen began writing contemporary women’s fiction portraying mature women facing life-changing situations, and historical fiction set in her native Scotland. Her travels inspire her writing, be it her trips to visit family in Scotland, in Oregon, USA or her home on Queensland’s beautiful Sunshine Coast. Maggie writes of mature heroines coming to terms with changes in their lives and the heroes worthy of them. Her writing has been described by one reviewer as like a nice warm cup of tea. It is warm, nourishing, comforting and embracing.

From the small town in Scotland where she grew up Scotland, Maggie was lured to Australia by the call ‘Come and teach in the sun’. Once there, she worked as a primary school teacher, university lecturer and in educational management. Now living with her husband of over thirty years on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast, she loves walking on the deserted beach in the early mornings and having coffee by the river on weekends. Her days are spent surrounded by books, either reading or writing them – her idea of heaven!

Social Media Links –

Facebook            https://www.facebook.com/maggiechristensenauthor
Twitter                 https://twitter.com/MaggieChriste33
Goodreads          https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/8120020.Maggie_Christensen

Instagram https://www.instagram.com/maggiechriste33/

Bookbub https://www.bookbub.com/profile/maggie-christensen

Website https://maggiechristensenauthor.com/

Publication Day BLITZ: FAKE NEWS, by Caroline Dunford

Blurb

Four teenagers, and one dog, suffer at the hands of online media and come up with a plan to show people they should never trust what they read on the internet. They launch their own news site detailing amazing, shocking, utterly believable but totally untrue stories. They always

intend to come clean, but success goes to their heads and before long they are enmeshed in a world of spies and aliens. How will they get out of this unscathed? What happens next will change all of their lives forever.

Author Bio
Author of over 30 books, C J Dunford is best known for her crime and spy stories set around the world wars (The Euphemia Martins Mysteries and The Hope Stapleford Adventures).

She has been, in no particular order, a hypnotist, a drama teacher, a journalist, a psychotherapist, a voice actor, a playwright and a novelist. She is currently a part-time Teaching Fellow at the University of Edinburgh where she teaches creative writing, freelance journalism and statistics. Never one to follow the usual route she holds degrees in both arts and social science, as well as a smattering of professional qualifications. She is good with a blow torch, but better behind a steering wheel (her youngest son believes she used to be a racing driver). It was, in fact, a desperate attempt to get her two sons to read, and because she thinks all the best stories are YA, that she wrote Fake News. After all, with spies, cyber threats, disinformation and aliens, why wouldn’t you want to read it?

Cover Reveal and Publication Day Blitz: Fake News, by Caroline Dunford

Blurb

Extract Post: Grudge Match, by Robert B Parker

Pub. Date: 16 November 2020
Price: £9.99
ISBN: 978-0-85730-402-5
Binding: Paperback

Robert B. Parker’s beloved PI Sunny Randall returns on a case that blurs the line between friend and foe… and if Sunny can’t tell the difference, the consequences may be deadly.

When Sunny’s long-time gangster associate Tony Marcus comes to her for help, Sunny is surprised – after all, she double-crossed him on a recent deal, and their relationship is on shakier ground than ever.
But the way Tony figures it, Sunny owes him, and she is willing to consider his case if it will clear the slate.

Tony’s trusted girlfriend and business partner has vanished, appearing to have left in a hurry, and he has no idea why. He just wants to talk to her, he says. While Sunny isn’t willing to trust his good intentions, the missing woman intrigues her – against all odds, she’s risen to a position of power in
Tony’s criminal enterprise. Sunny can’t help but admire her and, if this woman’s in a jam, she would like to help.

But when a witness is murdered hours after speaking to Sunny, it’s clear there’s more at stake than just Tony’s love life. Someone – maybe even Tony himself – doesn’t want this woman on the loose…and will go to any lengths to make sure she stays silent.