Literary Loners Reading Challenge 2016!

                       Literary Loners Reading Challenge 2016

Every year I sign up for reading challenges, not many, I usually sign up for the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge at Passages to the Past, Goodreads and BookLikes. This year I have signed up for Crazy for Cozies Reading Challenge and I have been invited to join Literary Loners Reading Challenge.

Take a look at the challenge below and sign up if interested! 

From Whatever I Think Of

There will be two options for this challenge and you may choose one or both.  The first option is to read books featuring a character identified as a loner, outcast, recluse, wallflower, or introvert. This can be the main character (such as Bella from Twilight or Charlie from The Perks of Being a Wallflower) or a secondary one (such as Miss Havisham from Great Expectations or Boo Radley from To Kill a Mockingbird).  The second option will be to read works written by writers known to have been loners or recluses. The great poet Emily Dickinson was very much a loner as was author J.D. Salinger,  and this link says the ancient Greek playwright Euripides was something of a loner.  A biography of such writers may be read as well.  For more reading suggestions, see the following links:

A Look at Loners in Literature
The Top 10 Loners in Literature
Fictional Loners Books
5 Books About Loners
Goodreads lists
Why Do We Love Literary Lone Wolves?

You are by no means limited to reading what is suggested in the links.  Any books you find that fit the challenge description may be read.  



Guidelines for the Challenge

• Challenge will run from January 1 to December 31, 2016.  Books must be started on or after January 1 to count.  Re-reads will be allowed as long as they are read during the specified time period.
• Books may cross over to other challenges in which you are participating.  
• Fiction (all genres and subgenres), nonfiction, poetry collections and plays that fit the challenge description may be read.
• All book formats are allowed (paper, audio, electronic, graphic novels/manga). 
• Please link back to this blog, post about it on Facebook, Tweet about it, and so on to help spread the word.
• I will not be creating levels.  I will leave it up to you to decide how many books to read. 
• You do not need a blog to sign up.  You may keep tract of your progress on Goodreads, Amazon or other similar sites with a shelf dedicated to this challenge.  Or sign up on Youtube, Facebook, or Twitter.
• You do not need to post reviews, nor will there be any check-ins.

Sign up at this LINK with a direct link to your signup post, and please feel free to leave a comment after linking. 

Have fun, and I look forward to seeing what you choose to read. 

It's the Grand Finale for Craving Beauty By Jennifer Silverwood!

On Tour with Prism Book Tours.

Did you come along with us as the classic fairy tale of Beauty and the Beast is retold in a Gothic setting where nothing is exactly as it seems and the heroine must be her own hero? If not, go back and check out each stop...

Launch - Author Interview

What do you hope readers take with them after they’ve read it?

Sometimes there is no knight in shining armor coming to rescue the damsel. Sometimes the damsel has to be the hero. I hope readers will find their courage, along with our heroine, Vynasha, to realize they too are beautiful beyond their inner and outer scars.

Painted Words Reviews - Review

"Whatever you think you know, forget it, you are probably wrong. As I said earlier, there is so much going on within the pages of this book you won't know what to expect but that is what makes this book so utterly amazing. It was so different. It took a classic fairy tale one that I absolutely adore and made it something more. It made it something new."

Mythical Books - The Characters & an Introduction to Craving Beauty

Craving Beauty is yet another adaptation of the beloved fairy tale, Beauty and the Beast, with a darker twist. Elements of Gothic romance and high fantasy flesh out this retelling. I have always wanted to read a high fantasy retelling of my favorite fairy tale, so I decided to write one. . . .My story is different from other retelling's because it focuses less on the romance and more on the journey of Vynasha.

deal sharing aunt - Author Interview

6. What would you like my readers to know?

Craving Beauty, Vol. 1 is a gothic romance as well as a high fantasy retelling of Beauty & the Beast. While it is a clean YA Fantasy, be prepared for a lot of mayhem and magic. And don’t be too surprised by the blood and beasts, or cloak and dagger. In the end, Craving Beauty is about finding courage and your own inner beauty despite all obstacles. Hope you will join me in Vynasha’s journey!

Singing Librarian Books - Review

"Author Jennifer Silverwood will blow you away with her latest release, Craving Beauty. In this rendition of Beauty and the Beast, Jennifer has created a twist on the story that readers will fall in love with from page one. Although a little darker than I originally thought it would be, this novel is filled with a delightful story and excellently developed characters."

Rockin' Book Reviews - Review

"If you are a fan of Beauty and the Beast type of story you will love this. It is a story of a girl with a tragic life who finds herself in a castle filled with Beasts and other enchanted characters."

Cover2Cover - Review

"This is a story of love and loss, sacrifice and finding the strength within oneself to beat the odds."

Colorimetry - Interview with Vynasha

The following interview was the last time anyone from the village of Whistleande had contact with her before Vynasha and her nephew, Wyll disappeared this winter. They are currently presumed dead by the local magistrate. One can only ponder what would drive these poor souls into a forest populated with danger and shrouded in myth.

Wishful Endings - Excerpt

The creature’s heavy limbs pounded upon the floor with every scrape of its claws. Roars echoed her flight over the crimson carpet. The hall was black as pitch without the light of the fire and candles. It wasn’t long before she felt the creature’s hot breath above her neck. Her heart pounded as she pushed harder and barely missed colliding with a column. She pivoted to avoid one agony, only to feel the rip of claws sinking around her waist.

Then she knew no more.

Bookworm Lisa - Not Your Average Beauty

As I mentioned before, Vynasha is not your average “Beauty”. She was beautiful once, but now is covered in scars. She has little interest in romance or personal goals but doesn’t consider herself to be selfless. From an early age, like so many women today, she learned to get by on her own. Sometimes the prince doesn’t come in time and the damsel has to rescue them both. In “Craving Beauty”, Vynasha will discover that her inner beauty, like her bravery comes in many shapes and sizes.

Writing Pearls - Promo

Zerina Blossom’s Books - What I Learned From Craving Beauty

Of all the projects I’ve worked on since I started writing professionally, Vynasha’s story has stuck with me the longest. It has been drafted and re-drafted, revised and edited and revised again. At times I wanted to throw in the towel and give up because I thought I would never see the day it would publish. Some authors in that position might have set it aside for a later date, or put it away for good to collect dust. And I might have done exactly that except for one thing, I love the story. I love gothic romances and fairy tale retellings, and “Craving Beauty” is somewhat of a conglomerate of the two. It has elements of horror and high fantasy with the necessary Byronic hero and a heroine who isn’t your average “Beauty.”

Teatime and Books - Promo

J. L. Mbewe - Interview

What are you working on now? What’s next for you?

As you might have guessed, I’m already hard at work on the sequel to Craving Beauty, as well as polishing up the companion novella, Wolfsbane’s Daughter. I’m also working on a contemporary adult romance novel called “Moonlight.” I hope to publish all three this next year, so be on the lookout for news from my website!

Reader Girls - Excerpt

The beast growled as it dragged her back into the shelter of the room. She felt a powerful arm, muscle and sinew straining against her body as it tucked her against its brown mane. She was too dazed to do anything but cling to the creature in turn as it barreled through the castle. Slowly, her muscles relaxed enough for her to almost enjoy that wild rocking sensation and the thump of the beast’s heartbeat.

alwaysjoart - Wylder Tales

Craving Beauty is the first book in a three part series. The next, Wolfsbane’s Daughter is a companion novella and in-between for volumes one and two. It follows the journey of a few side characters you’ll meet in volume one. We will get an up close and personal glimpse of Wolfsbane’s mute daughter, Resha as she looks after Wyll. Wolfsbane and Resha both have major parts to play before the story plays out in volume two. I had a lot of fun diving into a different perspective, since the other two books are told from Vynasha’s point of view. Also, because Resha was born and raised in the forbidding Wylder Mountains, she gives us a closer look at the new world Vynasha and Wyll have traveled to.

Craving Beauty

(A Wylder Tale, #1)
by Jennifer Silverwood
YA Dark Fantasy

Paperback & ebook, 239 pages
October 31st 2015

Vynasha has spent the last four years tending her mother's roses and looking after her nephew. The fire that killed their family has left her scarred and put Wyll on the brink of death. Soon the first frost will come down from the mountains and she knows this winter will be his last.

Until a strange beggar appears on the road, telling her of the majikal Source that can heal her Wyll. With nothing left to lose, Vynasha braves the forbidden Wylder Mountains to seek out a cure and her fate.

A lost kingdom is uncovered by an equally lost girl, but the castle is not abandoned as she believes. Shadows cloaking unseen eyes watch. Tapestries whisper from the hidden corners, wondering if the one to break their curse has come. And a hungry beast waits, ready to devour her soul.

Amazon - Barnes & Noble - Book Depository

Other Books by the Author

   

Jennifer Silverwood was raised deep in the heart of Texas and has been spinning yarns a mile high since childhood. In her spare time she reads and writes and tries to sustain her wanderlust, whether it’s the Carpathian Mountains in Transylvania, the highlands of Ecuador or a road trip to the next town. Always on the lookout for her next adventure, in print or reality, she dreams of one day proving to the masses that everything really is better in Texas. She is the author of the Heaven’s Edge series, Stay and Silver Hollow.

Website - Blog - Goodreads - Facebook - Twitter - Tumblr

Tour Giveaway

$20 Amazon eGift Card & ebook of Craving Beauty (INT)
Print copy of Craving Beauty + swag (Us Only)
Ends November 27th

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Longworth by J.Russell Smith Virtual Book Blog Tour with Guest Post and Giveaway!

 Today, it is my pleasure to have author of Longworth, Rusty Smith at Celticlady's Reviews.

I have been asked on more than one occasion just how one goes about writing a novel or, in general, how does a writer approach his/her work?  I would suggest to all that it is very much an individual endeavor, though there are certain things in common to all……….research, a good deal of time devoted to each volume, character development, story line development (as opposed to a formula), and a host of other items.  I recall many, many years ago that the writer Mickey Spillane (the writer of the “Mike Hammer” detective novels.  Please note I use the term writer and not author) was asked how he went about his writing.  First of all, this particular interviewer used the term author to describe Mickey Spillane.  He was quick to point out that he was NOT an author, but merely a writer.  The difference, he noted, was in the content and how one goes about writing.  In his case, he had a formula in place that deviated very little from one book to another.  He was not creative, he pointed out, in the sense that, say, Hemingway or Steinbeck were, because he did not create anything beyond that which was already created/borrowed from others at one time or another.  That is, he had his formula down, massaged that genre/formula from book to book, and was able to crank out his next “formulaic” book in as little as three days.  It is exceedingly difficult to imagine a dedicated “author” cranking out something in that amount of time.  It can take years to write a single book and that is if the author spends a good deal of time working and re-working his manuscript until he feels it is ready (which most never do). 

Certain authors have a story to tell.  They tell the story and move on.  Many suggest that the best work by most novelists of any consequence whatsoever, though I believe it applies to most authors, is their first endeavor.  If it is a novel, it tends to be at least semi-autobiographical, thus the author certainly has something invested in his/her first work.  Many, including myself, had a story to tell as much for themselves as for the audience, thus it truly comes from the heart as well as the head.  Examples abound of authors who were never able to top that first novel, but they continued to write, with varying degrees of success.  In my particular case, it is very true that I had to write Longworth as much for myself as the audience.  What it did, as one might expect, was to serve as an appetizer for additional writing.  While I needed to complete that first work (Longworth) for many reasons, the result of that endeavor was to whet my appetite for more.

My next novel has absolutely nothing to do with Longworth nor does it resemble the genre.  It is, however,  no less compelling to me simply because of the way the notion arrived on my doorstep so to speak.  It is a science fiction novel, generated by a dream/nightmare I had, that has as its basis the disconnect between reality and one’s perception of reality.  If one grows up expecting certain things or that one behaves in a certain fashion based on a set of rules and that is completely upended, then how does one react to that or how does one face what appears to be the “new normal”?  I have not quite decided if I am going to attach significance to this “new normal”, treating it in the same fashion as H.G. Wells did with  his famous work “War of the Worlds”.  This was a thinly veiled depiction of the outreach/overreach of the British Empire at the turn of the 20^th century.  My work is as surreal as, at times, the policies of the United States have been toward other countries.  The general ignorance of our citizenry about the conduct of life in other countries is absolutely appalling, but we continue to motor along in our ignorance.  We get away with it, because we are powerful and wealthy.  That allows our monumental screw ups to have some gravitas, though most see right through them.  The problem is we are just too powerful a nation not to be taken seriously.  And that is a shame.  It is causing way too much unrest and outright damage.  Do I move in this direction or allow my thoughts to continue as they are right now?  I will likely make that decision as I am in the midst of actually writing rather than as a preconceived plan.

About Longworth:

Carson Longworth seem to have been born under a lucky star. Handsome and athletic, with a certain mystique that both intrigues the people around him and keeps them at a distance, he drifts through his high school years, focusing on music, dancing, dating, and having a good time. But while he is pursuing these easy pleasures, the world around him is changing. Carson leaves the warm cocoon of his family to go to college where he gets his initial dose of reality along with his first realizations that his peripatetic childhood has left him unprepared to relate deeply to the people around him. As the Vietnam begins to escalate, Carson is drafted into the Army, but instead decides to join the Marines. His experiences in the Marine Corps will begin to provide both the discipline he so desperately needs and the framework of domestic and international politics against which he will begin to rebel, defining and shaping his character in ways he could not have imagined.

While traveling form one duty station to another before leaving for Vietnam, Carson meets Kathy Wilkerson, a brilliant and beautiful young woman whose devotion provides the support and grounding that Carson needs in order to find his version of the truth. As a helicopter pilot in Vietnam, Carson will witness atrocities and absurdities that will reveal who he truly is: a formidably intelligent and ethical man with a need to understand the world and to stand up for what is right. Longworth is a unique coming-of-age story with a strong educational component, as well as a tender and inspiring love story. Broad in scope and beautifully detailed, Longworth is a deeply satisfying novel with thought-provoking themes that continue to resonate long after the last page is turned.

About Rusty Smith:

J. Russell Smith has spent a lifetime fighting for a sense of moral justice, on both a personal level and on a broader stage. His experiences in the Vietnam War and his graduate studies in intellectual history and political theory allow him to bring both an intimate perspective and a scholar’s analysis to the writing of Longworth. Smith is currently at work on his next two novels.

Social Links:

Webpage:        http://www.jrussellsmith.info/

Facebook:        https://www.facebook.com/authorjrussellsmith

Twitter:           https://twitter.com/j_russellsmith

Where to Purchase Longworth:

Amazon.com:  Kindle, Hardcover and Paperback:   

Barnes&Noble: Paperback, Harcover and NOOK Book: 

Giveaway:

1^st Prize: Kindle Fire 7” WiFi 8GB Black plus ebook or paperback copy of Longworth

2^nd Prize: $50 Amazon Gift Card and ebook or paperback copy of Longworth

3^rd Prize: ebook or paperback copy of Longworth

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The Spanish Patriot by Nicky Penttila

Publication Date: September 3, 2015 Wondrous Press Formats: eBook, Paperback, Audio Genre: Historical Fiction

   

  READ AN EXCERPT.

  Some fly to war. Others flee it. No one is safe. When the British army is sent into Spain to help expel Napoleon’s invaders, nothing goes as expected. Not for London newsman Sam Kerr, hunting a story that will win him the editor’s chair, who discovers one that could wreck his career. Not for the Wakefield family, loyalist refugees from America seeking peace among people of their faith, who find war has followed them even here. And certainly not for the British troops, whose mission of support turns into a fight for all their lives. Historical fiction set in Corunna 1808.

AMAZON | BARNES & NOBLE | INKTERA | ITUNES (AUDIOBOOK) | KOBO | SMASHWORDS

PRAISE FOR AN UNTITLED LADY

“Penttila shows a deft hand with complex, believable characterizations that accurately reflect the historical period.”–Publishers Weekly

“The social turmoil in Manchester leading to the Peterloo Massacre of 1819 is the unusual setting for Penttila’s quietly stunning, memorable debut novel. A very highly recommended book.”–Historical Novel Society

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Nicky Penttila writes stories with adventure, ideas, history, and love. She enjoys coming up with stories that are set in faraway cities and countries, because then she *must* travel there, you know, for research. She lives in Maryland with her reading-mad husband and amazing rescue cat.

WEBSITE | BLOG | TWITTER | TUMBLR | GOOGLE+ | GOODREADS | PINTEREST

BLOG TOUR SCHEDULE

Sunday, November 1
Guest Post at Please Pass the Books
  Monday, November 2
Review at Book Nerd
  Tuesday, November 3
Excerpt at What Is That Book About
  Wednesday, November 4
Spotlight & Giveaway at Passages to the Past
  Thursday, November 5
Spotlight at Just One More Chapter
  Friday, November 6
Guest Post at The Writing Desk
Monday, November 9
Character Interview at Boom Baby Reviews
  Tuesday, November 10
Review at She Is Too Fond of Books
  Wednesday, November 11
Review & Interview at Back Porchervations
Spotlight at A Literary Vacation
  Friday, November 13
Spotlight & Giveaway at Queen of All She Reads
  Saturday, November 14
Spotlight & Giveaway at One Book Shy of a Full Shelf
  Monday, November 16
Guest Post at I Heart Reading
Wednesday, November 18
Review at With Her Nose Stuck in a Book
  Thursday, November 19
Spotlight & Giveaway at Teddy Rose Book Reviews Plus More
  Friday, November 20
Review, Interview, & Giveaway at Eclectic Ramblings of Author Heather Osborne
Spotlight at CelticLady's Reviews