Destiny's Anvil: A Tale of Politics, Payback & Pigs by Steven Hicks Spotlight!

New Orleans novelist Steven Wells Hicks recently published his latest novel Destiny’s Anvil: A Tale of Politics, Payback & Pigs. 

Synopsis:

Will Guidry’s career as a backwater lawyer is going nowhere until he has a couple of beers with up-and-coming political operative Tucker Callahan, whose family’s petrochemical fortune instills in him a confidence bordering on hubris. As Tucker explains to his rudderless brother, Carter, “Guidry and I made a deal because he needed a miracle and I wanted to play God.”

Guidry rides Tucker’s political horse sense into the office of Louisiana’s Attorney General, while Tucker capitalizes on Guidry’s victory to bolster his own political reputation. But what should become a powerful alliance deteriorates into a bitter feud when Guidry tries to flex his political muscle and Tucker suspects he may have maneuvered a calculating sociopath into the marble halls of power.

Caught in the crossfire is Carter, the story’s narrator. Devastated by betrayal at the hands of his brother and the woman he loved for a lifetime, a brooding Carter remains content to watch the power struggle between Tucker and Guidry from the sidelines. Everything changes when he stumbles on the charismatic attorney general committing a monstrous crime, and finds himself drawn into the vortex of his brother’s private war.

Racing from a bungled execution through ruthless political payback and a no-holds-barred courtroom showdown, before culminating in a bloodbath by the side of a bayou, the stakes continue to rise and Carter finds his small-town naiveté peeling away. Replacing it is a mounting dread of what will happen when the hammer of Fate meets destiny’s anvil.

Destiny’s Anvil was published in June 2014 and is available for sale on Amazon.

Excerpt from Destiny’s Anvil:

THE MERCURY WAS STILL HOVERING ABOVE NINETY when the three of us rolled up to the first set of gates at the state penitentiary in Angola. Climbing out of my car, I glanced toward the sun dropping over the cotton, bean and sweet potato fields that stretched unbroken toward the horizon. I wondered if the hapless bastard who had fewer than fifteen minutes left was gazing out a window, watching the last day of his life ebb toward eternal darkness.

I didn’t want to be there. I was twenty-six years old, secure in the prospect of at least fifty more years of a generous life, and didn’t want to see a man put to death before my eyes, no matter what he did. My brother Tucker had tried to worm his way out of witnessing the execution as well, but he couldn’t come up with an excuse that Will Guidry might buy. We both knew that over the previous fourteen years Will had worked up a hankering for blood that eclipsed any reverence he ever may have held for justice.

Two guards checked our names against their clipboard, opened the back doors of a cruiser and we got in. Without a word, they drove us through the prison compound to the no-frills building where Louisiana’s executions were carried out. We were led through several sets of barred doors until we reached a stark room with two rows of wooden chairs at one end and the electric chair at the other, maybe fifteen feet apart, maybe less.

The drifter who had raped and smothered Will’s kid brother Robby in the clearing of a cane field was already strapped into the chair and an electrode was being attached to his left calf. He watched the process, showing no emotion beyond detached curiosity. His expression didn’t change as his shaved head was straightened and a man wearing a threadbare black suit put a moistened sponge on the crown of his head and covered it with a metal skullcap. His eyes never wavered as he declined to buy final seconds with last words.

Father had told Tuck and me about how the dog, after nosing the sneaker around the drainage ditch, took off through the canebrake, how the three men looked at each other and started working their way into the thicket behind the dog, their hands and forearms collecting nicks and scratches as they hacked through the stalks of cane, how they were barely twenty yards into the cane when they heard the single bark followed by whimpers. I was later told that my father had been the first of the three to make it into the clearing, and that once he realized what he had stumbled upon, the only thing he could whisper was, “Oh, Jesus.” The dog’s chin was between its forepaws, and inches from the tip of its nose lay the second sneaker, still on the foot of Robby Guidry’s lifeless body. Even in the rose light of fading afternoon, the sock on the boy’s other foot glowed white, in stark relief from the blue jeans that had been yanked down to his ankles. A rivulet of blood had seeped out of his rectum, and was drying halfway down his left thigh. Once his face was pulled out of the mud into which it had been pressed, the parish coroner said he wouldn’t be able to tell if Robby had been strangled or forcibly drowned in mud until he got the body hosed off for the autopsy.

While the warden read the sentence in a bland monotone, the drifter’s eyes scanned across the faces on our side of the room. I felt myself shudder when his eyes locked on mine. He looked at me for an eternity that lasted less than a second, and my eyes followed his as he shifted them to his left and into the steady eyes of Will Guidry. Will’s face was stone except for the slightest movement of his lips, and I heard him whisper, “Fry in hell, dickhead.” Even though I knew there was no way the drifter could hear Will at that distance, I swear I saw him smirk at Will as a sweating guard stretched a black blindfold across his eyes before knotting it against the back of his skull.

The warden nodded his head and the electricity rocketed through the convict with the hiss and crackle of bacon in a dime store skillet. His hands tensed into claws as he dug his nails into the arms of the chair and his body thrashed against the leather restraints until thirty seconds had passed and the current was switched off. The silence was thick and underlined by the stench of smoldering flesh.

A doctor with a stethoscope moved toward the convict, but stopped once he realized the body would need a few seconds to cool down enough to touch. I let my held breath release and was gulping for any whisper of sweet evening air when the doctor looked at the warden and said, “He isn’t dead.”

Robby Guidry was only the murderer’s first victim. Three months after her son’s desecrated corpse had been discovered in the cane field, a disconsolate Marie Guidry had shoved her head in the family oven and turned on the gas. Having lost his wife and younger son within less than one hundred days of each other, Frank Guidry’s drinking ran away from him until the day that an increasingly withdrawn Will showed up at school with a shiner everyone couldn’t help but notice. The news of Will’s black eye hit my father particularly hard. Father was a good neighbor, the kind of man who always kept jumper cables in his trunk or saw to it that your garden was watered if you’d gone out of town and forgotten to ask anyone for help. I knew for a fact that Father felt acutely sorry for Will Guidry when he stepped up his regular prodding of both Tucker and me to spend more time and behave like brothers from the womb with Will. But Tuck was better at being an openhearted brother than I ever was, and as Tuck and Will became more like actual brothers, Tuck and I became less.

The second jolt was set to last a full minute, but I doubt thirty seconds had gone by when tongues of orange flame blazed from beneath the skullcap, followed by billows of steam and acrid smoke. A urine stain spread across the front of his pants, his skin bloomed scarlet as the temperature rose, and his body swelled to the point his flesh began to split. Blood streamed from his nose and mouth, and the smell of sizzling flesh mixed with the stink of where he’d fouled himself. I was ready to scream for someone to cut off the power for God’s sake when the room went silent except for the retching coming from Tucker as he lurched forward and vomit spattered on the waxed linoleum floor.

After letting the lifeless body cool, the doctor listened to his stethoscope, nodded and read the time off the wall clock in the death chamber. Two guards wheeled in a wobbly cart, on top of which was a state-issue coffin covered with a cheap, nubby fabric, while a third guard started to absentmindedly whistle between his teeth as he unbuckled the restraints. We were herded out with the other witnesses and taken back to our car at the prison’s main gate as the evening’s first stars pierced the twilight.

The emotional canyon separating me from Tuck had widened during our time at LSU, and I was neither surprised nor disappointed, in fact I was relieved, when Will Guidry realized he’d find more butter on my brother’s side of the bread than he ever would on mine. Hell, Will glommed so close to Tucker that people on campus started to snicker that Tuck was having the devil of a time trying to figure out how he might ever separate himself from his Siamese twin.

Following graduation, Tucker and Will had set off in search of stars beyond their reach while I returned home to New Acadia, a house that had grown empty during my time away and no prospects for any kind of meaningful work.

None of us had said the first word to each other since we pulled up at Angola, and I didn’t think any of us knew what to say after what we’d just witnessed. I glanced at the rearview mirror expecting to see a brooding Will Guidry, only to find one who was downright chipper as he said, “That was great. Let’s go find us someplace to eat.”

About the Author:

Steven Hicks came to Mississippi in 1974 and spent the next quarter century writing for various advertising agencies, including his own. He wrote commercials and print ads about hot dogs and other baloney, used cars, barbecue shacks, sunscreen, banks galore, white bread, undertakers, churches, casinos, turkey calls, finger-lickin’ chicken and symphony orchestras. Some of the work was thoughtful. Some was funny. Most was neither.

During that period of time, he earned the enmity of his competitors and peers by being named Mississippi’s top copywriter nine times, winning six certificates of excellence in the International CLIO Awards, over 150 ADDY Awards, Radio Mercury honors and being included in Who’s Who in American Advertising.

A major portion of his advertising and marketing income came through his work as a political consultant, engineering the media and messaging efforts for more than six dozen campaigns, culminating with the POLLIE Award for best statewide/national commercial from the American Association of Political Consultants in 1989.

While the embarrassing abundance of honors mean next to nothing to Hicks, the education he got through the process meant everything. He learned how to write what people like. He learned to write with economy and clarity, because consumers won’t buy things from long-winded peddlers of perplexity. He learned when words have to be polished and when they’re best left plain.

Through it all, people kept telling Hicks he should write books and he kept saying, “Maybe one day,” until the day came when a near-fatal stroke in 1997 forced him into an eyeball-to-eyeball confrontation with his own mortality, and he realized he wanted to be remembered for something more consequential than gimmicky commercials.

There was only one hitch. The stroke had taken away his ability to read.

For the next thirteen months, Hicks stubbornly stared at newspaper letters until he could form words, read sentences, then paragraphs, and finally had the ability to once again read novels, albeit at a far slower pace and with cognitive problems enhanced by lingering reading difficulties stemming from alexia, an aphasia problem caused by brain lesions.

It made the headstrong Hicks more determined than ever to take a shot at those novels people had been encouraging him to write for years.

Ten years and eleven revisions later came his debut novel, The Gleaner, a trans-racial romance set in a sleepy Mississippi whistle-stop. In a competition of 5,000 entries, The Gleaner was named a quarter-finalist in Amazon.com’s prestigious “Breakthrough Novel” competition. Upon its heels came two comic novels in 2009, The Fall of Adam, a satire of Deep South advertising, and Horizontal Adjustment, a farce about sexual escapades among competitors for a news anchor position in a tank town television station along the Florida Panhandle.

Deciding to take a breather from novels, Hicks started publishing New Orleans restaurant guidebooks on an annual basis in 2011, all of which have become mainstays on Amazon.com’s list of the 100 top-selling books about world dining.

In May of 2014, Hicks published his fourth novel, Destiny’s Anvil, which marked a stark departure from the breezy style of his earlier works.

“The final product is the polar opposite of the novel’s original intent. It is dark, violent bordering on savage, as it strips away the veneers of not only politicians, but the entire American political system. At the same time, it moves with the furious pace of a thriller overflowing with cliffhangers,” says Hicks.

Steven Wells Hicks currently resides in Jackson, Mississippi, but is in the process of moving to New Orleans. To learn more, go to StevenWellsHicks.com, or connect with Steven on Twitter.

The Last Infection and The Hand That Feeds by Michael W.Garza Spotlight!

Halloween is coming soon...just saying!!!

The Last Infection chronicles the fall of civilization and the rise of the dead and the evolution of the infected. The infection swept across the country like a tidal wave. Survivors cling to life as the infected own the night and the dead walk the streets. Chris has endured on his own and bumping into Jake and Alicen weren't in his plans. The young brother and sister have plans of their own, but Chris has heard too many promises of sanctuary and infection free zones. Jenn's arrival turns his attention to the one thing he never thought he would face again, hope. They make a pact to reach the kids safe haven, but only time will tell if anyone can survive the last infection.

The Hand That Feeds

 How far will a parent go to keep their child alive?

John and Angela Mason’s lives are brought to a tormenting halt when their ten year old son is reduced to a lifeless shell. John watches his wife slip into madness as his son rises from the dead. He realizes they must escape the terrifying infection in order to survive but how can he choose between the insanity consuming his wife and the undying hunger of his son.

An appetite for death will come in one form or another and it will be left to John to decide on the hand that feeds.

Michael W. Garza often finds himself wondering where his inspiration will come from next and in what form his imagination will bring it to life. The outcomes regularly surprise him and it's always his ambition to amaze those curious enough to follow him and take in those results. He encourages readers to peek at his latest work as well as the material he's published in the past. He sincerely hopes that everyone will find something that astonishes, surprises, or simply scares the heck out of you. 

 www.facebook.com/mwgarza | www.mwgarza.com |

| www.twitter.com/mwgarza  | mwgarza@yahoo.com |

Ruin Falls by Jenny Milchman Review!

In a suspenseful follow-up to her critically acclaimed Cover of Snow, Jenny Milchman ratchets up the tension with this edge-of-your-seat story of a mother determined to find her missing children.

Review

I recently read Ruin Falls by Jenny Milchman, a suspense author. This is her second novel and I found it to be quite a good read. Typically, the suspense genre is not one of my favorites, but the description on the jacket caught my attention right away and what I found between the pages lived up to the description on the jacket.

A synopsis from Goodreads is as follows:

Liz Daniels has every reason to be happy about setting off on a rare family vacation, leaving behind her remote home in the Adirondack Mountains for a while. Instead, she feels uneasy. Her children, eight-year-old Reid and six-year-old Ally, have met their paternal grandparents only a handful of times. But Liz’s husband, Paul, has decided that, despite a strained relationship with his mother and father, they should visit the farm in western New York where he spent his childhood.

On their way to the farm, the family stops at a hotel for the night. In the morning, when Liz goes to check on her sleeping children, all her anxiety comes roaring back: Ally and Reed are nowhere to be found. Blind panic slides into ice-cold terror as the hours tick by without anyone finding a trace of the kids. Soon, Paul and Liz are being interviewed by police, an Amber Alert is issued, and detectives are called in.

Frantic worry and helplessness threaten to overtake Liz’s mind—but in a sudden, gut-wrenching instant she realizes that it was no stranger who slipped into the hotel room that night. Someone she trusted completely has betrayed her. Though she knows that Ally and Reid are safe, Liz will stop at nothing to find them and get them back. From her guarded in-laws’ unwelcoming farmhouse to the deep woods of her own hometown, Liz follows the threads of a terrible secret to uncover a hidden world created from dreams and haunted by nightmares.

This book kept my interest the whole time I read it. It was an interesting concept, that the fact that it is not a stranger who “kidnaps” her kids but someone she knows and loves. The idea of kidnapping is not an original concept; however,  the reason the person takes the kids is a somewhat original idea. Some parts of the book reminded me of the idea behind the show Doomsday Preppers and that made it interesting. For her second novel, Milchman provides a truly suspenseful story where you suspect everyone because the cast of characters are all shady and seem to have secrets to hide. I would recommend this book to anyone who is also a fan of Laura Lippman, Liane Moriarty, or even James Patterson.

Guest Reviewer: Kara C. Kelly

About the Author

Jenny Milchman is a suspense writer from the Hudson River Valley of New York State. Her debut novel, COVER OF SNOW, was published by Ballantine/Random House in January 2013 and her follow up novel, RUIN FALLS, will be published in April 2014. 

Her short story 'The Closet' was published in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine in 2012, and another short story, 'The Very Old Man', will be published in EQMM this year. The short work 'Black Sun on Tupper Lake' appears in the anthology ADIRONDACK MYSTERIES II.

Jenny is the Chair of International Thriller Writers' Debut Authors Program. She is also the founder of Take Your Child to a Bookstore Day, which was celebrated in all 50 states and four foreign countries by over 700 bookstores in 2013. Jenny hosts the Made It Moments forum on her blog, which has featured more than 250 international bestsellers, Edgar winners, and independent authors. Jenny co-hosts the literary series Writing Matters, which attracts guests coast-to-coast and has received national media attention. She also teaches writing and publishing for New York Writers Workshop and Arts By The People.

A copy of this book was received for review and there was not monetary compensation.

Blood White by Ashley Nemer Book Spotlight and Excerpt!

The Art of Safkhet Presents – ASHLEY NEMER

BLOOD WHITE, July 14th, 2014

Blood White contains a novella, Blood Gold and deleted scenes, interviews and other extra tidbits from the blood series that could not make it into the other three print novels.

This is an Insiders Guide to the Blood World.

Do you wonder how the Algula race came to be? Or how Earth and everything we know have been manipulated over time and the world we think we know isn't even close to what reality is.

Take a step back in time with Blood Gold, the short story inside this book to discover the truth about our existence and how we really came to be called humans.

Also inside this book discover what makes the main characters tick as you take a journey into their thoughts with interviews with King Zayn, Princess Nikole, Princess Leigh and Princess Haydar. As an added bonus enjoy deleted scenes from the Blood Series Trilogy.

Purchase Links

Amazon http://www.amazon.com/Blood-White-Insiders-Guide-ebook/dp/B00LEZQQP8/ 

B & N www.barnesandnoble.com/w/blood-white-ashley-nemer/1119887160

Smashwords https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/452311 

All Romance Ebooks https://www.allromanceebooks.com/product-bloodwhite-1557712-143.html 

Bookstrand http://www.bookstrand.com/blood-white 

Author Bio

Ashley, also known as Niki Becker, is married and lives in Houston with her husband Tony. They have two dogs, Toto and Doogie. They have been together for over 9 years and he brings her more joy than she could ever imagine as a child. She loves to read and has been hooked on the romance genre ever since her lifelong best friend gave her "Ashes to Ashes' by Tami Hoag to read when they were younger.

Ashley finds her strength through her family, especially her parents. They always support her in life; they push her to strive for greatness. There once was a motto that Ashley heard in her youth through her Taekwondo life 'Reach for the Stars' and that is what Ashley has always done. It was through her upbringing that the values Ashley has and displays come from. With her parents always cheering her on in life she was able to grow up having faith in herself and her ability to conquer the world.

Ashley enjoys writing many different genre’s of fiction. Her areas range from science fiction/ paranormal, mystery, romance, poetry and erotica (using pen name Niki Becker.)

EXCERPT

CHAPTER ONE

The beginning of the earth’s creation …

Fire and lightning flared around the mountaintops of Har ha-Elohim. The air whipped back and forth while the four Gods paced up and down the valleys. There was a storm brewing in the air. The taste of salty rain touched the four tongues of the deities who were invading this new realm.

“Isaf, it is time to make this land flourish,” Hubal commanded. He raised his arms out past his sides, over his shoulders, and then above his head. The rain began to beat down on them, growing stronger with each inch his arms moved up his body.

“Hubal, what do you want me to use as a starting point?” Isaf moved over to stand next to his leader. Each step that he took made the ground beneath him rumble.

“Take this land with you; we will make a new home on this plane called Earth. We will be Gods greater than all others. Our pantheon will not only have our realm, it will have a planet to claim as well.”

Tornadoes and water spouts started to form along the land and lakes. Na’ila came behind Isaf and stood next her bonded mate. Hubal watched her take Isaf’s hand, and then he motioned for Manad to join them in the valley.

< div style="text-align: left;"> “Sun, moon, ground, air, water, all of us joined together, we will create the greatest place in all of eternity. We will create Earth.”

The four deities held hands in a circle and began to chant low. Their voices carried over the plains and through the valley. Isaf’s ground started to move under them, and within a few hours, their reality changed. They began to watch as trees, rivers, grass, shrubbery, and sunlight became their surroundings. When they let go of their hands, a loud, cracking thunderbolt went off in the sky. They looked off to the east and knew that their enemy, Zeus, was casting them out.

He’d cast them out of the realm of other Gods, the place they had known as their own for their lifetimes. He had cut them off from their families, mates, and children alike. It was up to these four beings to bring life to this new planet, make it flourish. Hubal knew that once this was a success, they would be able to go out and claim other parts of the galaxy, and eventually the other Gods would seek out their creation as a new place for escape, peace, and freedom.

“We did it,” Manad said. He broke free of the circle and ventured off into the west. He moved across the grass, the sun following him along his journey.

“Look how the blades of grass follow the light. They move in an east to west pattern,” Na’ila noticed.

“Manad doesn’t know how powerful he is going to be here on this new planet. Everything will rise by his command and set by his slumber.” Hubal could see into the future. He could feel and taste what their paths held for them all.

“And what about you?” Isaf said. “What happens to you when your friend is off walking away?”

“I’ll follow him. Every day, when his sun sets, my moon will be there to catch him and follow the same course he took that day, cleaning up any mess that might have been left in his wake.”

“And this is the life you want for yourself?” Na’ila’s disapproving gaze wasn’t missed by the two other Gods standing there.

< div style="text-align: left;"> “No, it is my duty to protect us all. I brought is here; I will see that we all thrive.”

“Then let us begin the creation of this new realm.” Isaf kneeled on the ground. He placed his hands palm down on the fresh blades of grass. His magik was different. He balanced himself out. When in one section he created earthquakes, in another he created mountains. He brought land and water together before he was done, and a solid continent was formed, a vast and glorious creation.

Author Links

www.artofsafkhet.com

www.ashleynemer.com

www.nikibecker.info  

http://www.facebook.com/ashleynemerauthor

http://www.facebook.com/ashers83 (Add Friend)

http://ashleynemer.blogspot.com 

https://twitter.com/ashleynemer

www.amazon.com/author/ashleynemer

www.amazon.com/author/nikibecker 

https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/2897381-ashley-nemer 

https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/22194803-niki-beckerhttps://www.goodreads.com/user/show/22194803-niki-becker

Ashley’s published works under

Ashley Nemer & Niki Becker

Novels

Maverick Touch: The Cat by Ashley Nemer March 25th, 2013

Maverick Touch: The Highway by Ashley Nemer March 24th, 2014

Blood Purple by Ashley Nemer September 24th, 2012

Blood Yellow by Ashley Nemer July 3rd, 2013

Blood Green by Ashley Nemer April 28th, 2014

< div style="text-align: left;"> Blood White by Ashley Nemer July 14th, 2014

Special Assignment by Niki Becker December 17th, 2013

Short Stories

Bud’s Christmas Wish by Ashley Nemer November 17th, 2012

Bud’s Christmas Miracle by Ashley Nemer November 24th, 2013

The Café (Temptation Tuesday) by Niki Becker May 7th, 2013

Fantasy Cruise (Temptation Tuesday) by Niki Becker July 2nd, 2013

The Backyard (Temptation Tuesday) by Niki Becker August 6th, 2013

Sekhmet’s Revenge Volume One through Four by Ashley Nemer & Stacy A. Moran September 28, 2013

Soul Mates by Ashley Nemer and L.S. Broomfield October 2nd, 2013 (Through Secret Cravings Publishing)

Dependent by Brenda Corey Dunne Spotlight with Giveaway!

When 45-year-old Ellen Michaels loses her husband to a tragic military accident, she is left in a world of gray. For 25 years her life has been dictated by the ubiquitous They—the military establishment that has included her like chattel with John’s worldly goods—his Dependents, Furniture, and Effects. They—who have stolen her hopes, her dreams and her innocence, and now in mere months will take away the roof over her head. Ellen is left with nothing to hold on to but memories and guilt and an awful secret that has held her in its grip since she was 19. John’s untimely death takes away her anchor, and now, without the military, there is no one to tell her where to go, what to do— no one to dictate who she is. Dependent deals with issues ever-present in today’s service families—early marriage, frequent long absences, the culture of rank, and posttraumatic stress, as well as harassment and abuse of power by higher-ranking officials. It presents a raw and realistic view of life for the lives of the invisible support behind the uniform.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Brenda Corey Dunne grew up in rural New Brunswick, Canada. She originally trained as a physiotherapist and worked several years as a Physiotherapy Officer in the Royal Canadian Air Force before meeting the love of her life and taking her release. 

She completed her first full length manuscript in 2008 as a bucket-list item and since then she has self-published a work of YA historical fiction (TREASURE IN THE FLAME). DEPENDENT, an adult contemporary fiction, was published by Jolly Fish Press in July of 2014. She has several other manuscripts in various stages of completion. Brenda is represented by Jennifer Mishler and Frances Black of Literary Counsel.

When not working as a physiotherapist or writing, Brenda can be found juggling taxi-mom duties, working in the garden or strolling through the horse paddock with a coffee in hand. She currently resides on on Vancouver Island with her husband and their three children.

Amazon: 
http://www.amazon.com/ Dependent-Novel-Brenda-Corey- Dunne/dp/1939967368
B&N: 
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/ w/dependent-brenda-corey- dunne/1117389190?ean= 9781939967367
Goodreads: 
https://www.goodreads.com/ book/show/18755012-dependent

You can find Brenda online here:
https://www.facebook.com/ brendacoreydunneauthor
https://twitter.com/overdunne
http://brendacoreydunne. blogspot.ca/ 

Giveaway!!
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Lies Told in Silence by M.K.Tod Book Blast!

Publication Date: June 29, 2014 
Tod Publishing 
Formats: eBook
Paperback Genre: Historical Fiction



In 1914 Paris half the city expects war while the other half scoffs at the possibility. With knowledge gained from his role at the War Department, Henri Noisette fears that Germany may soon attack Paris. He therefore sends his wife, mother and two younger children to Beaufort, a small village in northern France. By late 1914, instead of a safe haven, Beaufort is less than twenty miles from the front. As war unfolds, Henri’s daughter, Helene, grows up quickly and in 1917 falls in love with Edward Jamieson, a young Canadian soldier. The novel examines love and loss, duty and sacrifice and the unexpected consequence of lies.

Praise for Lies Told in Silence

‘Dramatically depicts the horror and heartbreak of war, while also celebrating the resilience of the human spirit.’ - SHARON KAY PENMAN author of A King’s Ransom 'An intricate, well-researched novel of life forever changed by WWI yet still sweet with the tender innocence of the age.’ - DONNA RUSSO MORIN author of The King’s Agent ‘M.K. Tod is a powerful new voice in the historical fiction genre.’ - AMY BRUNO Historical fiction blogger at Passages to the Past ‘An absorbing and rewarding historical read .. depicting the ruinous impact of war on human lives across the generations.’ - MARGARET EVANS PORTER author of The Proposal ‘A compelling read right up to its taut page-turning ending.’ - RICHARD LEE founder of the Historical Novel Society

Buy the Book

Amazon US Amazon UK

About the Author

M.K. Tod has enjoyed a passion for historical novels that began in her early teenage years immersed in the stories of Rosemary Sutcliff, Jean Plaidy and Georgette Heyer. During her twenties, armed with Mathematics and Computer Science degrees, she embarked on a career in technology and consulting continuing to read historical fiction in the tiny snippets of time available to working women with children to raise. In 2004, she moved to Hong Kong with her husband and no job. To keep busy Mary decided to research her grandfather’s part in the Great War. What began as an effort to understand her grandparents’ lives blossomed into a full time occupation as a writer. Her debut novel is UNRAVELLED: Two wars, Two affairs. One Marriage. LIES TOLD IN SILENCE, her second novel, is set in WWI France and tells the story of Helene Noisette who featured in Unravelled. Mary has an active blog - www.awriterofhistory.com - which discusses all aspects of historical fiction and includes author and reader interviews. Additionally, she is a book reviewer for the Historical Novel Society. Mary lives in Toronto where she is happily married with two adult children. Connect with M.K. Tod on Facebook, Twitter, and Goodreads.

Lies Told in Silence Blog Tour & Book Blast Schedule

Monday, July 28 
Review at Unshelfish 
Review at Flashlight Commentary 
Book Blast at Our Wolves Den 
Tuesday, July 29 
Review at Just One More Chapter 
Book Blast at Book Babe 
Book Blast at A Book Geek 
Book Blast at Mel's Shelves 
Wednesday, July 30 
Review at Bookish 
Guest Post at Just One More Chapter 
Book Blast at Passages to the Past 
Thursday, July 31 
Book Blast at Royalty Free Fiction 
Friday, August 1 
Book Blast at Back Porchervations 
Book Blast at So Many Books, So Little Time 
Saturday, August 2 Book Blast at Mythical Books 
Monday, August 4 Review & Guest Post at A Bookish Affair 
Book Blast at Historical Tapestry 
Tuesday, August 5 
Book Blast at Layered Pages 
Book Blast at Princess of Eboli 
Book Blast at What Is That Book About 
Wednesday, August 6 
Book Blast at Literary Chanteuse 
Book Blast at Caroline Wilson Writes 
Thursday, August 7 
Review at The Book Binder's Daughter 
Book Blast at Kinx's Book Nook 
Friday, August 8 
Book Blast at The Maiden's Court 
Monday, August 11 
Review at Dianne Ascroft Blog 
Book Blast at Svetlana's Reads and Views 
Tuesday, August 12 
Book Blast at Book Nerd 
Book Blast at The Bookworm 
Wednesday, August 13 
Review at The Writing Desk 
Thursday, August 14 
Book Blast at Words and Peace 
Book Blast at CelticLady's Reviews 
Friday, August 15 Review at Lost in Books 
Book Blast at The Mad Reviewer 
Sunday, August 17 
Book Blast at Brooke Blogs 
Monday, August 18 
Review at The Librarian Fatale 
Review at Historical Fiction Notebook

Giveaway

To win a copy of M.K. Tod's Lies Told In Silence please complete the Rafflecopter giveaway form below. Giveaway is open internationally!

Giveaway ends at 11:59pm on August 18th. You must be 18 or older to enter. Winner will be chosen via Rafflecopter on August 19th and notified via email. Winner have 48 hours to claim prize or new winner is chosen.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Sextet by Judy Jackson Book Spotlight!

Sextet is a contemporary novel of music and deceit. 

Two strangers meet in a hospital, unaware that their lives are inextricably linked. Tom Fielding is waiting for news of his wife, the victim of a road accident. Joseph Maggiore is silent, blaming himself for the crisis that engulfed his world and led to his wife lying unconscious in Intensive Care. When tragedy strikes, both men are left to confront painful reality. Tom evaluates his marriage to the fragile and elegant Sophie. Joseph has neglected Carla in his pursuit of fame as a concert pianist. 

As their lives unravel, Tom seeks justice from the authorities, and Joseph learns a truth that rocks the foundation of his being. Joseph's agent Richard and an innocent child are enmeshed in the fallout from unforeseen discoveries.

Sextet follows Joseph and Tom on a journey through grief and recovery. The drama of betrayal and deception is played out against a background of piano music and hotel bedrooms. The facade of harmony is torn away and from six shattered lives, hope emerges.
 
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Judy Jackson is a food writer with 8 published cookbooks and a daily food blog, The Armchair Kitchen, with 25,000 followers. Her first novel, The Camel Trail, won the Best Food Literature Book in the UK in 2007. Rather than writing on typical themes for older people, such as decline or debilitation, Judy is a mature writer who spends much of her time in the company of younger people, writing about real life. SEXTET was chosen as "one of 10 outstanding books" at its recent book launch in London. 

SEXTET - available to order from bookshops, and on Amazon at £8.99 (paperback) and £3.77 (Kindle version).

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Links:

The Armchair Kitchen

www.lookitcookit.tumblr.com/

Amazon details: http://amzn.to/1h97wid  (this also gives the Search Inside opportunity to read the first few chapters,

plus the chance to read the reviews.

Publisher details:

Marsons books

www.marsonsbooks.com