Where Nightmares Ride

 

Summary: When Jack Park received an invitation to Camp Farley, a summer camp promising self-improvement using cutting-edge dream technology, he hoped he’d found a remedy for the repetitive nightmares that had been plaguing his dreams night after night. The camp, however, provided something far different than he’d expected: mysterious visitors, excessive security measures, abusive staff, unexplained technology, and camp courses seemingly bent on leading the campers on a path toward chaos. Katie Frost had endured too much after losing her adored older sister, Abby, to a freak accident. Not long after that, her mother had taken her baby sister and disappeared, leaving her alone with a neglectful father obsessed with, if not controlled by, Montathena Research, his secretive dream-tech business. When her father’s partners demanded that Katie be compelled to serve the company, following a security breach, she stopped caring altogether. The questions increased when Jack and Katie finally crossed paths, the course of events eventually propelling them into a surreal adventure where the boundaries of life, death, and nightmares meet.

I can’t tell you how excited I am for this book to finally be available! R. A. Baxter has been a close personal friend for over twenty years. We jointly created the world this book is set in and it has always been close to my heart. He has been with me on the writing and publishing journey every step of the way, and seeing his book in print makes me very happy. 🙂

About the Author: R. A. Baxter has always appreciated the arts, nature, religioun, philosophy, and all the mysteries this world has to offer. He grew up loving animals, gradually grew interested in all aspects of religion, history, and science, and finally sought to ease his curiosity of the writings of the many authors of the past. His interests led him to pursue a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in painting and drawing, a Science of Architecture degree, and a Master of Architecture degree. As an Architectural Specifier, R. A. Baxter spends much of his time manipulating words and instructing builders as to the best way to construct a coherent building. He would rather, however, spend his time with his wonderful wife and children, or lose himself in the imaginary worlds available to those who enjoy reading and creative writing. He and his longsuffering family life in the shadow of the Rocky Mountains in Bountiful, Utah.

You can see his blog at http://rabaxterauthor.wordpress.com

The story of this book is very long. It started over a decade ago as a co-authored project. But in time, I backed out and left the book to him. There are a few echoes of things I wrote a long time ago still in there, but the text is all his… and much better for it. The world of nightmares we co-imagined is one of the most well developed world building projects in history. I’m including Middle Earth in that. By the time we were done, we had a 110 page encyclopedia, maps, charts, and outlines possibly numbering half-a-million words. (I’ll talk more about that in my next blog on world building.) Seeing all that work bear fruit in such an incredible book has been extremely gratifying.

Review: The imagination and depth of the dream world in R. A. Baxter‘s premiere novel are both intriguing and startling. Where Nightmares Ride shows us that living nightmares, ghost knights, and monsters aren’t as bad as the scheming organizations bent on subjugating their fellow humans. Five stars!

Get Where Nightmares Ride on Kindle.

Get the Trade Paperback of Where Nightmares Ride.

Lots of Cheap Books

Who doesn’t like a good 99 cent sale?

My good friend Matthew Cox has a long list of books on sale for 99 cents each this weekend. Some of them are trilogies! Definitely check out this line up!

Actuator Spin-off: Adventures of Ubergirl

I’m thrilled to announce the first book in The Adventures of Ubergirl series, My Dad is a Mad Scientist, by the amazing Matthew S. Cox! This post-apocalyptic superhero story is made for young readers, but fun and funny enough to keep any adult reader intrigued. I am especially excited about it because the main character in this series originated in Chaos Chronicles, the second Actuator anthology!

Summary:

Saving the world isn’t easy. It’s even harder when you’re only nine.

Kelly Donovan used to be a nobody. Well, a smart nobody. Skipping ahead a year in school made her the smallest kid in fifth grade and a target for bullies in search of an easy mark. She tried to follow her father’s advice and ignore them, but it didn’t do any good. Escaping into her favorite comic books at least helped her through the day. Who needs friends anyway?

Sometimes, dreams find a way to come true, even if nobody asked them to.

Aliens bombard the Earth with gigantic glowing red crystals to restore its failing magnetic field. Soon after the seemingly benevolent invasion, Kelly discovers her wildest, happiest fantasy come to life: she has superpowers, along with roughly two percent of the population. Her strong good nature leads her to adopt the heroic persona of Übergirl. However, she has one major problem…

Her dad’s turning into a mad scientist.

It’s difficult to be a hero, especially when your father’s a bad guy.

Here is the story art from The Ruin of Man, Kelly Donovan’s first appearance as Ubergirl. Although Matthew said he had to change the setting somewhat to make this work outside the Actuator setting, the main Character (one of an ensemble cast he used the first time) is very true to the original and just as endearing.

Find out more about the Actuator series.

My Review: 5 stars

Ubergirl’s origin story is nothing short of amazing. In the midst of a world being morphed to the will of aliens, this adorable kid manages to keep her naivete and even use it (along with incredible super powers) as a weapon against the many villainous forces  suddenly ruining her life. Cox’s high speed writing career pushes one of his most powerful recurring themes to the next level in this children’s book which is fun and funny enough to keep even adults turning pages to the end. I can’t wait for the sequel!

Read Ubergirl’s adventures now!

Check out all of Matthew Cox’s books.

Actuator Spin-off: Arcane Casebook Series

I’m pleased to introduce the Arcane Casebook Series by the exceptionally talented Dan Willis – an awesome historical Urban Fantasy. The reason it’s so thrilling to me is that this series originated with two short stories Dan wrote for the Actuator anthologies.

 

Here’s what he had to say about it. “Alex Lockerby is definitely inspired by David Archer. I’d never tried to write a detective story until the Borderlands story. Turns out I learned something important about myself.”

You can get the prequel to the series, DEAD LETTER, free on Dan’s website. Here’s the blurb:

In 1930 New York, the sorcerers are the powerhouses of magic and the runwrights are the poor cousins.  Private detective Alex Lockerby is definitely in the latter category, plying his meager magic skills to help people the regular cops ignore while barely making ends meet.

What Alex needs is a break.  Just one good case to get his name out there and start bringing in business.  When ambitious beat cop Danny Pak gets stuck trying to solve a John Doe murder, it might just be the break Alex has been looking for.

As Alex and Danny team up they begin to unravel a tale murder, jealousy, and revenge stretching back over 30 years.  A tale powerful forces don’t want to come to light.  Now the cop and the private detective must work fast and watch each other’s backs if they hope to catch a killer and live to tell about it.

Get the FREE download now!

Once you have it, you will certainly want to get IN PLAIN SIGHT, a #1 bestseller on Amazon. Here’s the description:

When a magical plague is released in a Depression-era New York soup kitchen, private detective Alex Lockerby finds himself in a desperate hunt to catch a madman before he can strike again.

His investigations lead Alex to a famous thief, a daring heist, and the search for a mythic book of ancient magic, but none of that brings him any closer to finding the man responsible for the massacre. With the police and New York’s Council of Sorcerers desperate to find the culprit, Alex becomes a suspect himself, thanks to his ties to the priest who ran the soup kitchen.

Now Alex has his book of spells, a pack of matches and four days to find out where the plague came from, or that authorities will hang the crime squarely on him.

Book 2, GHOST OF A CHANCE, just came out! It’s already topping the charts. Here’s the pitch:

When a bizarre string of locked-room murders terrorize New York, the police have no leads, no suspects, and only one place to turn. Now private detective Alex Lockerby will need every magical trick in his book to catch a killer who can walk through walls and leaves no trace.

Unfortunately Alex’s magic hasn’t been working very well.  He can’t even manage to track down several truckloads of stolen goods, including one belonging belonging to New York’s preeminent sorcerer, Andrew Barton. To make matters worse, Alex and his clients are being stalked by a shadowy cabal with strange powers that Alex has never seen before.  

With the Ghost killer seemingly able to murder at will and the tabloids, the public, and Alex’s clients demanding results, Alex will need a miracle to keep himself, his clients, and his reputation alive.

I’m sure this series will just keep getting better and better! You can find more of Dan Willis’s books on his website.

Assembling a Cyberpunk Heist Team by Jodi L. Milner

As part of a blog swap (see my last post), Jodi L. Milner wrote these fun instructions, which I think you’ll enjoy.

Assembling your Cyberpunk Heist Team

By Jodi L Milner

Listen, if you’re reading this you are already up to no good. Kudos. I like your moxi. Chances are you’ve got plans, big ones, the kind that needs cash. We’re not talking about rummaging up enough coins to sleep in a real bed, that’s nothing. If you take my advice, you’ll never have to sleep on a pile of cardboard again.

We’re talking credits. Those penthouse-dwelling corporate yes-men got ‘em. You need ‘em.  The cybernetic enhancements you want won’t pay for themselves, and without ‘em you might as well start selling your brain space to the highest bidder.

To pull off a successful heist, you need a team.

The Mastermind – That’s you, sweetheart. Someone must know what’s really going on and drive this crazy bus all the way across the bridge. If you’re reading this, you better have a plan and charisma. You’ll need both to pull this off.

The Money – Great plans need credits. You’ve got to have credits to steal more. Watch out for this guy, he’ll be the first to stab you in the back. The best place to find Mr. Money? The DMV. Thanks to papa government’s stubborn insistence to cling to last centuries tech, all license and ID renewals still require in-person biometric data gathering.

The Metal – Get yourself a robot, the dumber and stronger, the better. They come in handy for carrying heavy bags, breaking through doors, and blaming stuff on. My personal favorite place to find one is at Walmart. Ever since they replaced the senior citizen greeters with robot thugs there is a whole new population of underpaid disgruntled robots to choose from.

The Motherboard – You’re smart, but you’re not that smart. You need a regular wiz kid, or even better, one with integrated fiber-optic circuitry and a high-speed network connection. If you play your cards right, this kid will crack codes, hack passwords, and hunt down all the intimate details of your mark. Find your motherboard anywhere where the drinks are cheap and the network is fast. I recommend choosing a teenager young enough to still believe they know everything and old enough to not get themselves killed.

The Magnet – Every organic being has a weakness and your magnet is there to exploit it. Both smart and sexy, the magnet must to be irresistible to your mark as well as completely loyal to you. Don’t use one of your exes, trust me on this. I personally prefer using restaurant staff working to make ends meet between movie auditions. They tend to be the perfect combination of desperate and good looking.

The Maniac – Every brilliant plan has a dash of crazy, and this guy is your man. He is essential for when things go wrong, his ability to improvise and adapt to ever-changing conditions can make the difference between success and failure. Interestingly enough, these guys tend to be good with explosives, go figure. Finding a good maniac is quite a challenge as every single one of them tend to be very different from the next. However, scammers and heist planners out there all tend to know at least one dependable maniac. Use your connections and find yours.

There’s one more person that you have to consider when assembling your team, and this person is quite possibly the most important person to put research into.

This person is your mark.

If you do your job right, the mark will never know he’s been had. If you do your job poorly, he’s the guy who will dog your every step until you’re behind bars, or worse, erased.

The ideal mark is someone who has staff who cares for his mundane needs. He has people who go to the bank, to corporate meetings, and pick up his current girlfriend from her flat for him. Bonus points if you’re mark just happens to be the head of the company that sells the drug which destroyed your family.

Research your mark well, know everything about him. Know his weaknesses, his strengths, his favorite candy bar, and his favorite brand of toilet paper.

With a solid plan, a skilled team, and an ideal mark, you are set to pull off a successful heist.

About the Author

Growing up, Jodi L. Milner wanted to be a superhero and a doctor. When she discovered she couldn’t fly, she did what any reasonable introvert would do and escaped into the wonderful hero-filled world of fiction and the occasional medical journal. She’s lived there ever since.

These days, when she’s not folding the children or feeding the laundry, she creates her own noble heroes on the page. Her speculative short stories explore the fabric of dreams and have appeared in anthologies and magazines, while her novels weave magic into what it means to be human.

She still dreams of flying.

Check out Jodi’s blog & website.

Follow her on Facebook.

Look her up on Twitter.

Also check out Jodi’s book, Stonebearer’s Betrayal.

A secret society of immortals tasked to protect the world.

A demon bent on revenge.

And a girl brave enough to fight for her family when the two collide.

When Archdemoness Wrothe stirs the ashes from a long dead war, it rekindles a fire that threatens to burn the world. The immortal Stonebearers have the power to bring her down, if they learn of her awakening in time.

Katira didn’t believe the legends. It wasn’t possible for a person to bend the very fabric of reality or live forever. She didn’t believe in the dark mirror realm either or that forces were at work to destroy the waking world.

That was before the first demon shadow hound came for her.

 

Author Interview: Rachel Huffmire

Rachel hit the literary scene fast and hard with her new book, Shattered Snow. Already a #1 bestseller in Fairy Tales and Hot New Releases, this book is the most interesting re-telling of Snow White I’ve ever heard of… including time travel! So lets find out more about the woman behind the novel. 

Author Questions:

• Where were you born?

I was born in Provo, Utah, a purebred BYU baby.

• Personal life? (snapshot)

I grew up in the country, surrounded by wheat fields and dirt roads. I was determined to make it to Broadway someday and performed in over 16 musicals during high school. Once I got to college, I switched to ballroom dance and did pretty well, placing 3^rd overall for American Triple Swing in the BYU Dancesport competition. I married my incredible husband and followed him to Optometry school in Texas where I started writing. After moving 10 times in 10 years, we finally landed for good in Southern California, where I am now.

• Educational history?

I was homeschooled until 10^th grade. My high school experience was overwhelmingly filled with performing arts electives and I did core classes through independent study. Because of that I was able to be in 4 different choirs, theater, music dance theater, interior design, orchestra, symphony, music theory, and ballroom dance for multiple years. I walked during graduation. I received an enhanced diploma in performing arts. After that, I went to Brigham Young University. I studied Home and Family Living, with a minor in dance. My husband had to leave for graduate school before I could finish my last semester. I only have four classes left to receive my degree, and they’re all English courses.

• When were you first published and how did it come about?

I signed up for a live pitch session with Holli Anderson at LTUE conference in 2018. I had queried another novel with Immortal Works the year before, but received a super encouraging rejection letter that made me want to try again. Holli requested a partial, then a full, and after two weeks, I was offered a contract for publication.

• What inspires you?

I love music. I often blast the most random songs in my office before sitting down for a writing session. I’m sure the people at Spotify talk about how weirdly diverse my playlists are.

• Aspirations? What are you going to do next?

For the last seven years, I’ve wanted to be a published author. Now, I’m ready to run with it. I have seven completed manuscripts and so many ideas that I don’t have time to write them all. I also recently bought myself a pair of bowling shoes, so that’s definitely going in the planner.

• What’s your dream/end game/final goal?

My dream is to visit all the castles I write about in my fairy tale retellings. There’s a land tour in Europe that hits them all.

• Advice to the world?

Look for the good in yourself and in others. Then amplify it.

Book Questions:

• What’s Shattered Snow about?

Shattered Snow is a time travel retelling of Snow White. It’s based on the real-life history of Margaretha von Waldeck, a German countess who is believed to have inspired the Grimm Brother’s story.

• What drew you to fairytale retelling?

While other kids were reading Goosebumps and babysitters club, I was reading Edith Hamilton’s Mythology and Richard Burton’s 1001 Arabian Nights. I had the idea for adding time travel into Snow White while I was cleaning a mirror. 30 days later, I had a completed novel.

• How is this better than all the other retells?

Science-fiction based time travel and fairy tales haven’t been combined, so I had a lot of fresh ideas to work with. I love when I can learn ambiguously through books. I did A LOT of research for this story to give it the life it needed. I stayed true to the Grimm brother’s rendition, trying to find a reason for every seemingly random detail they put into the story.

 

Quick Fire Round:

• Name your favorite book of all time?

Goose Girl by Shannon Hale

• What’s your strongest personality trait?

Attention to detail.

• Do you play or watch sports?

I love football, but I’m extremely uncoordinated unless I’m in dancing shoes.

• Last movie you saw in the theatre?

Into the Spiderverse. Wow.

• Dog person or cat person?

I like both, but I don’t think I would ever be able to own one. We’ll see if my kids convince me otherwise.

• Favorite TV show?

Fixer Upper.

• Favorite cereal?

Basic 4.

• If you could have a superpower what would it be?

Elastagirl. Hands down.

• If someone was to make a movie about your life who would play you?

Daisy Ridley.

• In a moment of rage, you kill your editor. How do you dispose of the body?

I ask Professor Plum to help me bury her in the lavatory with a candlestick.

• In consequence of the murder, you go to jail. What is the first thing you do there?

Try to become the jail librarian.

• When you are released from jail, what would you do first?

Hunt down Professor Plum. Because snitches get stitches.

 

Parting Shot:

• What are you writing next?

I’m currently working on the sequel to Shattered Snow based on Sleeping Beauty. I also have a short story based on King Thrushbeard (another Grimm fairy tale) that will be appearing in “Forgotten Fairy Tales” anthology by Immortal Works. And finally, I’ve been working on a full-length musical with a team of writers and composers for the last year. Hopefully you’ll be able to see it soon!

 

Get Shattered Snow now!

Also, check out Rachel Huffmire’s website.

 

Free Audio Book

Happy Holidays!

I like to give something free out on this blog every year. This year, it’s not mine, it’s from the amazing Craig Nybo— the complete audio book: Small Town Monsters. I’ve read it and it’s a blast!

May peace be with you.

Now go listen!

 

Book Review: Dragon Ascending

Just out today, the amazing DRAGON ASCENDING by debut author Amy Beatty. Ever since I read this book (some time ago) I couldn’t wait for the release.

Summary-

Edrik, son of the murdered Drake regent, never gained his dragon magic and cannot shapeshift into his dragon form. Unfit to marry his love, the Princess Lissara, Edrik embarks on a dangerous mission to prove himself worthy. He seeks Lissara’s missing father, the dragon king, before an enemy usurps the throne.

Unfortunately, the search for the king brings Edrik to a dungeon located in human territory. Inside the prison, Edrik discovers the missing king, whose captors are unaware of his true identity. Edrik must rely on a grubby young dungeon keeper to help them escape without disclosing that his companion is the dragon king. But the dungeon keeper has a secret identity as well, one that will change Edrik’s destiny forever.

Author Bio-

Amy Beatty grew up in the wilds of Yellowstone National Park as part of an experiment in crossing the genes of a respected research biologist with those of a grammar aficionado. She spent her summers making forts under the sagebrush with her friends and catching garter snakes by the creek to populate elaborate sandbox villages-or holed up in her bunk bed exploring the exotic worlds hidden between the covers of books.

She currently resides in Utah with her husband and two delightfully unconventional children, under the benevolent dictatorship of a toy fox terrier who plans to take over the world as soon as she gets her minions whipped into shape.

My Review-

To be fair, I’m kind of biased because I acquired this book for Immortal Works Press. Even still, I can’t recommend this book enough. First, I’ve always loved lycanthropes (were-creatures). And though this isn’t exactly the same thing, the whole plot revolves around a race of shape shifters who are essentially were-dragons. How awesome is that?!! The answer is: all the awesome. The characters are strong and engaging. The plot is stimulating. I’m looking forward to the sequel already. But in case you forgot the most important part: WERE-FREAKIN’-DRAGONS!

Get it now!

Uncommon Love

My latest blog post is part of series by Curiosity Quills Press on Romance (for February). I talked about love, but how genre fiction provides a unique medium for exploring non-standard relationships. Also, it includes an excerpt from Exacting Essence.

Go check it out!

All Immortal Works E-books on Sale!

Get every e-book published by Immortal Works Press for just 99 cents on Black Friday through Cyber-Monday! That includes my own Novella: Schism! This is a great time to get amazing stories to keep you warm through the cold of the upcoming winter. Also, e-books make great gifts! No need for anybody else to know you got them cheap. Also, you can avoid the madding crowds in the wee hours of crazy AM. Just follow this link and it’ll find you the whole list on Amazon.