04 December 2015

I'll Be Signing Books Here on Friday!



Come see me! It doesn’t cost anything to enter the event to shop for books and meet authors. The cost is only for those who wish to attend the luncheon.
Go here for more information!
Hope to see you there!

~Belle

13 November 2015

I'll Just Put This Here...



Posted by Tyler Perry on Thursday, November 12, 2015

07 November 2015

NORTH BEACH by Miles Arceneaux

The content of this promo post was provided by Lone Star Literary Life Blog Tours.  If you're a Texas blogger interested in joining the ranks of Lone Star Book Blog Tours, contact Tabatha Pope.



NORTH BEACH 

by 

Miles 
Arceneaux






It’s 1962 on the Texas Gulf Coast, and 15-year-old Charlie Sweetwater and his brother, Johnny, are happily oblivious to the world’s problems. Charlie’s main concerns are qualifying for an upcoming Golden Gloves boxing tournament, ducking a local bully and, with any luck, stealing a kiss from Carmen DelfĂ­n, the prettiest girl he’s ever laid eyes on.

Charlie’s last innocent summer ends abruptly when his boxing coach is murdered and his friend, a black Cuban boxer named Jesse Martel, is accused of the crime.

Their problems are compounded when Jesse becomes a political pawn in a high-stakes contest between Cuba and the CIA—a contest that intensifies when the Cuban Missile Crises begins, and the world’s two superpowers come within an eye blink of mutual destruction.

Through it all, Charlie and his brother are convinced that Jesse is innocent, and they are determined to find the real murderer—a remorseless killer who is stalking more victims—and clear Jesse’s name before time runs out. Suddenly the Sweetwater boys find themselves navigating through a world that is much bigger, more complicated, and scarier than they ever imagined.








EXCERPT FROM NORTH BEACH

As we drove over the tall hump of the Harbor Bridge, I gazed down at the North Beach neighborhood below. It looked gloomy and pitiful and dark. . . . Once it had been a popular tourist destination, full of boisterous crowds of vacationers, stevedores, and sailors, along with local well-to-do families. Billboards promoted it as Texas’s own Coney Island, “the Playground of the South.” I had vivid childhood memories of the long fishing pier, the saltwater swimming pool with its high-diving board, and next to it, the Surf Bath House, where you could rinse off in a fresh-water shower after swimming, and then order an ice cream float from the soda fountain. . . . You could see clear to Mustang Island from the top of the Ferris wheel. . . .

But North Beach had changed since then. The carnival and amusement park went broke after the causeway was constructed, and a few years later, when the pivoting Bascule Bridge was replaced by the high-arch Harbor Bridge, people and cars began to hurry past the area as if it were a drunk passed out on the street. You could stare as you went by, but you sure didn’t want to stop. . . . Now only a few greasy spoons, pawn shops, dollar-a-day-flophouses, and a handful of windowless bars remained—bars off the beaten path, bars that people went to when they didn’t want to be seen, or found.

“Johnny?”

“What, brother man?”

“Do you think Rachel would’ve been crazy enough to duck into one of those North Beach joints?”

He eased his foot off the accelerator, thinking about it, and then zipped over to catch the last North Beach exit before the Nueces Bay Causeway. “It’s worth a shot,” he answered. “And, yeah, I think she’s crazy enough.”


Praise for Miles Arceneaux:
“Miles Arceneaux named among the top five Texas authors of 2014.”
Mystery People, Top Five Texas Authors of 2014, December 23, 2014

Praise for Ransom Island:
“A seamless, atmospheric and sardonic comic thriller.”
The Dallas Morning News, Book review: Four mysteries with Texas ties, December 26, 2014

Praise for La Salle’s Ghost:
“Arceneaux keeps the story moving and the suspense building, working in plenty of
humor along the way.”
Glenn Dromgoole, Texas Reads, September 7, 2013

Praise for Thin Slice of Life:
“An engaging crime caper. This book hits the mark.”
    — Kirkus Reviews, November 15, 2012


Blurbs for Ransom Island:
“Like Carl Hiaasen and John D. MacDonald, Miles Arceneaux sets his dark doings by blue water, and has a ball doing it. He makes me want to run away to the islands—Galveston, Mustang or Padre—and sip a tall, cold glass of gin-and-something while I read his latest tale. RANSOM ISLAND may be his best one yet.”
Sarah Bird, Best Selling Author of Above the East Sea China, September 2014

Blurbs for La Salle’s Ghost:
“The story would make a good film . . . Seamlessly plotted and beautifully told.”
Lubbock Avalanche Journal

Blurbs for Thin Slice of Life:
“Miles Arceneaux has written a classic . . . steeped in salt-air atmosphere that just can’t be faked . . . It’s as if Dashiell Hammett had grown up on the Texas Gulf Coast.
Stephen Harrigan, Best Selling Author of The Gates of the Alamo

“The best suspense novel I’ve read since Cormac What’s-His-Name.
Kinky Friedman, Governor of the Heart of Texas





The author of four funny, fast-paced novels of intrigue set on the Texas Gulf Coast, Miles Arceneaux is a one-of-a-kind writer. Or, to be precise, he is three-of-a-kind. The irreverent persona of “Miles” is the product of three friends, lifelong Texans, and Gulf Coast aficionados.


Brent Douglass’ inspiration for Miles’ tales stems from his family’s deep Texas coastal roots, and the iconoclastic characters he crossed paths with growing up there. James R. Dennis’ intimate knowledge of both sides of the law (he’s one of the good guys, it should be mentioned) and his deep appreciation for Texas Rangers lore helps keep Miles’ protagonists on the side of the angels. As a longtime journalist covering Texas and Texans, John T. Davis has sometimes been accused of writing fiction, but this is the first time he has set out to do it on purpose. Together, Douglass, Dennis and Davis make “Miles Arceneaux” truly more than the sum of his parts.




Follow the Blog Tour

Oct 27  Book Crazy Gals review
Oct 28  Texas Book-aholic review
Oct 30  MissusGonzo review
Oct 31  The Crazy Booksellers promo
Nov 1 The Page Unbound promo
Nov 2  Hall Ways review
Nov 3  Texas Book Lover promo
Nov 4  Bookishjessp  promo
Nov 5  All For the Love of the Word Author Q&A
Nov 7  Books and Broomsticks  promo
Nov 8  My Book Fix Author Q&A
Nov 9  Secret Asian Girl review



blog tour services provided by

02 November 2015

YOU WON'T BELIEVE WHAT'S HAPPENED!

Monarch is a semi-finalist in the Authordb cover contest!

YOU can help us win!


I'd appreciate it so much if you'd drop by and give it another vote!  Please help us make Monarch the winner!

How do you vote? I'm glad you asked!
1.)  Go Here
2.)  Scroll Down
3.)  Click the Blue "Submit Your Vote" Button
4.)  Vote for Monarch
5.) Please share with your friends by using the social networking buttons beneath the cover image!


Thank you so much! <3

~Belle

30 October 2015

HARD FALLS by Elizabeth A. Garcia

The content of this promo post was provided by Lone Star Literary Life Blog Tours.  If you're a Texas blogger interested in joining the ranks of Lone Star Book Blog Tours, contact Tabatha Pope.



HARD FALLS

by 

Elizabeth A Garcia


Genre: Mystery
Author: Elizabeth A. Garcia
Publisher: Mountain Press
Release Date: October 15, 2015
#of pages: 378






It's March in Terlingua and the weather is playing games—icy one day and warmish a few days later. But the weather is not the problem.


The trouble begins with a Photoshopped picture of Deputy Ricos and Sheriff Ben that makes an innocent encounter look like something it's not. Someone is making a problem where none exists. Why?


Mix in the brutal murder of quiet man "everyone likes," a young, green-eyed deputy trainee, a wealthy, mysterious newcomer to Alpine, a prostitute from Mexico, and a local ranch where it appears something "wrong" is happening. Then stir in a cast of characters you will swear you know, hillsides purplish with bluebonnets, and the never-changing/always changing mountains of South Brewster County.




Award-winning author Elizabeth A. Garcia has lived for more than thirty years in the Big Bend country of far west Texas. She has hiked, rafted, explored, and earned a living in this wild desert-mountain land near the Rio Grande, on the border of the United States and Mexico.


It was experiencing the deep canyons, creosote-covered bajadas, and stark, jagged mountains, and the wide-open spaces and dark, starry nights that eventually brought her to writing.


She tells her fans, "I have loved to write since I was a child. As I grew up I never made much time for it.  I was busy raising a family and running a company.  Once I started writing I realized how many stories have been stockpiled in my brain.  I'm getting them out as fast as I can."


Her first novel, "One Bloody Shirt at a Time," won "Best Crime Novel of the Year" from the Texas Association of Authors for 2013. It was her first novel, but not her first written story. For several years Ms. Garcia’s short stories were published by the Big Bend Gazette.

In addition to novels and other stories, Ms. Garcia writes a blog on this site.  In the past she has shared her blog with the Alpine Avalanche and later with the Daily Planet. She loves to describe and write about west Texas and continues to live there.









Follow the Blog Tour:

Oct 26  Missus Gonzo Promo
Oct 28  Hall Ways promo
Oct 29  My Book Fix promo
Oct 30 Books and Broomsticks Author Q&A
Oct 31  Texas Book Lover  promo
Nov 2  Bookishjessp promo
Nov 3 Texas Book-aholic author Q&A
Nov 4  Book Crazy Gals review


blog tour services provided by

www.lonestarliterary.com

29 October 2015

***The Clock is Ticking, Y'all!***





Pre-Order *NOW* at the low price

of 99 cents!


The price goes up on Halloween!


COVER REVEAL!!!! LIZARD WORLD by Terry Richard Bazes and Louis Netter

Jack Sprat Press cover reveal tour for Lizard World.
View this email in your browser

It's cover reveal time!

Jack Sprat Press is revealing the cover of the highly anticipated graphic novel, LIZARD WORLD, by Terry Richard Bazes and Louis Netter! Help us celebrate the event on Thursday, October 29th by sharing the image and summary on your blog, facebook, twitter, etc.

A guest blog post by Terry or a video on the making of the cover by Lou is available to anyone interested! Just email us back and we will get those to you!

Summary
In 21st century Florida, a dentist from New Jersey -- Max Smedlow D.D.S. -- crashes his BMW in the Florida swamps and is captured by Lemuel Lee Frobey and his Aunt Ligeia, two of Dr. Josiah Fludd’s malicious and cretinous descendants.
So it is, thanks to a grave-robber and his psychopathic descendants, that the fates of a modern dentist from New Jersey and a 17th-century earl become inextricably entangled. For after the Florida yokels kidnap him, scoop out his brain and transplant it in the head of the still-surviving Lord, the dentist tries desperately to retain his identity and fight off an onslaught of alien memories. Now that they’ve been surgically connected, the dentist and the lord alternate like Jekyll and Hyde: whenever the dentist’s brain tries to take control of the decrepit body and return to his life filling cavities in suburban New Jersey, the ancient lord interrupts him with three-hundred-year-old memories of his depraved youth when he debauched maidens, ate beggars, schemed to steal a dukedom and underwent excruciating operations that grafted stolen body parts and cut out his growths of reptilian flesh.
As the dentist’s brain and the old Lord’s body struggle for supremacy, a cast of modern and 17th-century characters take the stage, including the editor of a New York City publishing house, a tribe of Florida Indians, the lesbian madam of a Restoration brothel and an albino alligator whose musk is the elixir of immortality.
Based on Lizard World, by Terry Richard Bazes. Art by Louis Netter.