If you've read one or both, or just want to vote, I want to hear from you! Whichever book has the most votes by this Sunday, 5/17, is the winner! My wife's vote counts for 3! :)
Let the bout begin!!!
Vote in the comments section below!
Drop down drag out FIGHT for the existence for a sequel! Come one! Come all! VOTE on which book you'd like to see expanded into a second book! Romantic Suspense/Christian V.S. Fantasy/Christian! If you've read one or both, or just want to vote, I want to hear from you! Whichever book has the most votes by this Sunday, 5/17, is the winner! My wife's vote counts for 3! :) Let the bout begin!!! Vote in the comments section below!
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'Fusion: A collection of short stories from Breakwater Harbor Books' authors' has been nominated in the Best Anthology category for the '2014 eFestival of Words Best of the Independent eBook Awards!' This festival is put together by Bards and Sages Publishing, a Publisher of Speculative Fiction and Roleplaying Games since 2002, and nominations will be narrowed down to finalists and then voted on by the general public starting in July. In August the winners will be announced during the actual festival which will include virtual panel discussions, live author Q & As and even run a seminars and workshops. I am excited and honored to have the nomination alongside my fellow BHB authors. In addition Claire C Riley has been nominated in the Best Romance and Best Novel categories and Ivan Amberlake has been nominated in best Contemporary Fantasy/Urban Fantasy! Check out Fusion below and go to Amazon to get your free copy today! Below is also the link to the eFestival website! http://www.efestivalofwords.com/post3276.html#p3276 Featuring gripping Independent authors from around the world, FUSION is the first collection of short works published by Breakwater Harbor Books. Contributing heart-pumping tales of Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror and Crime are seven stories that will thrill you, rivet you and some will even make you sleep with the light on. Authors from across a wide variety of genres, Dee Harrison, Ivan Amberlake, Claire C. Riley, Scott J. Toney, Mindy Haig, Cara Goldthorpe and C.M.T. Stibbe. The Sliver of Abilon – A Mirrorsmith Tale – 'and you thought it was safe to look in the mirror?' Diary of the Gone - Without a girlfriend, bullied by the Principal’s son, and haunted by the dead, Callum Blackwell thinks his life can’t get any worse. But he’s wrong. Life Ever After. Nina's Story: Part one. – When the dead begin to rise, it's time to put your differences aside and run! NovaFall – When the Meteor falls, the essences will come, forging flesh and planetary souls as one. Cybilla. – To claim his Muse, one man must find the gate between the mortal and the immortal worlds. Capturing Perfection – An artist's tale of love, loss and beauty in Renaissance Milan Until The Ninth Hour – Until a man loses his daughter to a serial killer, until he loses his best friend, until he is down on his luck, Darryl Williams must put all thoughts of retaliation out of his mind. An excerpt from Dee Harrison’s The Sliver of Abilon – A Mirrorsmith Tale Junah Venmark, Master Mirrorsmith, exited the wayportal directly into the seaweed stench of Abilon. The foul odour tickled the back of his throat and he gagged on a rise of bile. Mirrorsmith Guild protocol demanded that he preview his destination before he arrived but it could not prepare him for an assault on his other senses. He vomited onto the trackway, just thankful that there was no-one to witness his most pitiful entrance ever. He loathed the smell of mouldy greens – it stirred up too many reminders of his wretched childhood in the back alleys of Varna, largest city on his homeworld of Vargo – but this was kabbige soup intensified tenfold. When his heaving subsided, Junah sank down onto his rump, trying to ignore the early evening dew which was soaking into his leggings. He pulled a kerchief from his belt-purse, to wipe the spittle from his lips, and cursed this ill-favoured world. Sissik, his wail, chittered and scurried around him like a silver-furred cyclone, mewing her distress. Junah winced when she skipped onto his tender stomach, the better to peer into his face with her large, prosimian eyes. He ran a finger down her spine and she slowly relaxed beneath his touch. Junah ill? She sent. No, I’m fine, Little One he reassured her. He grimaced. The smell caught me out, that’s all. Sissik wrinkled her own nose. Nasty, nasty stink, she concurred. Junah delved into his purse a further time and extracted a couple of lozenges from a packet. A few chews later and he could smell nothing. “Next time I’ll take ‘em before I get here,” he promised out loud. “Not that there’ll be a next time!” Junah clambered to his feet and peeled the sodden fabric from his buttocks. Sissik took her accustomed place on his shoulders, hiding beneath his long, dark hair and curled around his neck like a fur collar. Wails were native to all the worlds of the Regium, even the undeveloped ones like Abilon. Some wails, the silver-furred ones like Sissik, were prized for their ability to generate the acoustic frequencies that Mirrorsmiths depended upon. Others, the plumper, browner ones, made good eating. Whenever Sissik irritated him, which was often, Junah threatened to dye her coat russet. Now, however, she was quiescent, understanding that it was time for work. The wayportal, part of the network of gates that connected all the worlds of the Regium, had opened between a pair of standing stones that dominated the headland to the north of Abilon. For your FREE copy please visit one of the links below! Solaris. A planet like any other, rife with wars, science and love. But at the peak of its civilization, a great meteor fell, bringing long-dead souls to Solaris, souls that had been sustained by the life-force of one lone man, Ineal. At the moment of impact, these souls scattered across Solaris, giving inhuman abilities to mortals while scarring their bodies and corrupting their lives. Samuel was one such man, a man of faith who thought to use his powers to worship his God: he watched his followers, and his planet, die. Seas turned to lava and the skies darkened. And as Samuel’s heart grew weary and angry, he used his powers to manipulate the world to serve him alone. Samuel became god of a planet whose only life was the symbiotic life so like his own. Centuries later, he discovered others, threats that had not been on this planet before. A winged woman; a cyborg; a future-seer and a child. A great vengeance burned a comradery between them. They were souls that could overthrow him. Souls that he would need to destroy. An excerpt: Darkness consumed Ineal as the voices tore at his thoughts. The sole survivor of the planet Eon, he wanted to shut off his brain, to destroy his consciousness and be nothing. But the voices would not let him. The planets’ souls, he thought, encased in this meteor hurtling through space. The souls of dead planets destroyed us. I am the last. They take me for their own. He did not know when the essences of dead planets first came to Eon. Men and women bonded with them, inviting the haunting gaseous essences to their bodies and allowing the essences to become necessary symbiotes of the flesh. The symbiosis with the dead planetary souls gave his people powers and abilities beyond their dreams. But the price, the price of the flesh was great, and an ultimate death of sacrifice and pain was given in return. Ineal was the last, and the only being of Eon who had not accepted them into his flesh. But you took me, he thought as they spoke with their unintelligible voices, whispering in a constant echo through his mind. When my planet died you came to me. You took my body to keep yourselves alive. They kept him alive too, feeding him their energy as they fed off his living essence. Millennia of time passed as the meteor orbited the solar system. Ineal could take no more. Rock pressed against him, suffocating his thoughts. He closed his mind, pulling blackness from the void beyond and urging it to destroy him and the planetary souls, so that whatever planet they would go to next might be spared. His mind’s darkness came. He forgot speech. He forgot sight. He forgot love. But the essences would not release his life force and the greatness it became in their harnessing embrace. They would not allow him to forget primal sense. Then, in that rawness of life, where he was barely being at all, he sensed a planet. They had intended this new planet as their destination from the start. The essences’ telekinetic connection pulled away from him, severing the symbiosis and sending searing heat through his form. There was a moment of silence for Ineal, of freedom. Then came the violent crack of stone, as meteor met planet. A great boom consumed him. Ineal’s consciousness was lost… almost. But his essence lingered somehow in the planet’s form. The planetary essences fled their transport, consuming life and searching for prey. Now available in Ebook and Paperback! Support an Indy author and check it out today! I'd like to introduce to you today Scott J. Toney. Co-founder of the Indie-Imprint BREAKWATER HARBOR BOOKS that I'm a part of. He's sharing with us his newest release - Nova Forge, so if you love sci-fi and fantasy, this might be right up your street, plus the guy is one of the sweetest people I've ever met. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Interview With Scott J. Toney Social Media Links | Website Goodreads | Amazon Author Page Tell us about your latest book? Genre: Sci-Fi/Fantasy Title: NovaForge Brief run down in your own words: Scott- Here’s a review below by a fellow author to give you a good grasp on the book. “Nova Forge is a Sci-Fi book that also fits in to the Fantasy genre. There is a distinct voice that makes this story what it is and from the onset, I knew it was going to be a good one. A meteor punches through the atmosphere and we meet Julieth, bow and arrows in hand, fleeing a scorched city with the ten-year-old Bayne. As she meets Ivanus something strangely wonderful happens. Not only can she fly, but Ivanus can help her people. Is this perhaps the winged woman the dark-hearted Samuel is afraid of? The descriptions in the narrative are strong and we can ‘feel’ Julieth’s pain and her sense of mistrust. Already she is a character to root for. Bayne is injured and so she must carry him to safety. This cleverly fulfils the ‘pet-the-dog’ theme through the first chapter and we can only hope he survives. Toney has cleverly set the scene of devastation, raging battle, ripping explosions and a crumbling city in this opening chapter that will keep readers rooted to the end. I can’t recommend Toney’s work more. He never fails to entertain. A five star review for another roller-coaster ride into the unknown.” CMT Stibbe Author of Chasing Pharaohs and The Fowler’s Snare Release date: 5/3/2014 Anything in particular that you want to say about it? Where did you get the inspiration from? Favourite characters? Tell us something unusual. My favourite character in NovaForge is Julieth. The character Julieth in NovaForge is an intense, headstrong female character with vast feathered wings and a leaning towards the bow and arrow. She’s tough, and yet in a world that has been decimated by years of corrupt humanity, she is the character with the most heart. She understands the need for battle, and yet struggles in her mind against it. The origin of the name Julieth has a long history for me. Each one of my books has a character in it that in some way came out of my poetry book, Dusk Crescence. In NovaForge Julieth is that character. There was a character in Dusk Crescence named Julieth who was a winged woman. She had a different personality than this Julieth, but that is the name’s original usage in my books. When I created the name I was in High School, sitting in class looking at a friend of mine, Judy. I needed a name and I thought… Judith, Judie, Julie, Juliet. But Juliet is Shakespeare’s character’s name. Then I added an H. Julieth. So now you know where and how. Julieth is a key player. There are many fantastic characters in NovaForge; a cyborg, a telepath, a dark priest, were-beasts, Julieth and a young boy who has to come to terms with the decimated realm he exists in, just to name a few. But Julieth is certainly my favourite. What are you working on next and when can we expect to get our greedy little mitts on it? I’m currently deep in the grind of writing NovaForge’s sequel, NovaSiege. It will release June 2015 and is just as high-intensity as NovaForge. I’ve got some striking plans laid out for NovaSiege. NovaForge Book Cover & Blurb Solaris. A planet like any other, rife with wars, science and love. But at the peak of its civilization, a great meteor fell, bringing long-dead souls to Solaris, souls that had been sustained by the life-force of one lone man, Ineal. At the moment of impact, these souls scattered across Solaris, giving inhuman abilities to mortals while scarring their bodies and corrupting their lives. Samuel was one such man, a man of faith who thought to use his powers to worship his God: he watched his followers, and his planet, die. Seas turned to lava and the skies darkened. And as Samuel’s heart grew weary and angry, he used his powers to manipulate the world to serve him alone. Samuel became god of a planet whose only life was the symbiotic life so like his own. Centuries later, he discovered others, threats that had not been on this planet before. A winged woman; a cyborg; a future-seer and a child. A great vengeance burned a comradery between them. They were souls that could overthrow him. Souls that he would need to destroy. Look for NovaForge's release Tomorrow, Saturday, May 3rd! Ivanus, NovaForge, An excerpt as the meteor falls -- NovaForge to release Saturday May 3rd4/29/2014 Ivanus stood in awe, watching the radiant orb and its tail of fire growing larger and larger in the sky. He stood in the market of the city of Asil. Men and women streamed around him, while others did as he did, watching death come down. It had been prophesied that the meteor would come, and then the world would die of fire. It radiated a striking hue. Ivanus shut out the sounds around him. Silence loomed past the screams of his city’s people. A vast burning ring ripped in his planet’s atmosphere as the meteor punched through. A second passed. It hit as if in slow motion, pummeling the earth miles before him, and a massive shockwave blinked the plants, city and people from existence. But in that instant, something punched Ivanus through his skin and muscle. It held his body solid while he watched the world flatten in the meteor’s wake. He watched as glowing spirits splintered and burst forth from the crag. His stomach lurched. Black swelled over him. His body disappeared from the expanse of the land, leaving nothing where he once stood. He was gone from that time. When Ivanus opened his eyes, centuries later, radiant sunlight burned his retinas. Before him, a woman screamed in pain. The character Julieth in NovaForge is an intense, headstrong female character with vast feathered wings and a leaning towards the bow and arrow. She’s tough, and yet in a world that has been decimated by years of a corrupt humanity, she is the character with the most heart. She understands the need for battle, and yet struggles in her mind against it. The origin of the name Julieth has a long history for me. Each one of my books has a character in it that in some way came out of my poetry book, Dusk Crescence. In NovaForge Julieth is that character. There was a character in Dusk Crescence named Julieth who was a winged woman. She had a different personality than this Julieth, but that is the name’s original usage in my books. When I created the name I was in High School, sitting in class looking at a friend of mine, Judy. I needed a name and I thought… Judith, Judie, Julie, Juliet. But Juliet is Shakespeare’s character’s name. Then I added an H. Julieth. So now you know where and how. Julieth is a key player in NovaForge. Check out an excerpt below involving her character. I take great pride in Julieth. NovaForge releases Saturday May 3rd. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- She fell to the ground, clenching earth with her hands and barely seeing Ivanus dragging Bayne’s limp body away from her. Her back quaked as something ripped from her flesh. It felt like a writhing serpent, moving, but still connected to her. A moment later another surge of pain struck her as another massive thing burst out of her back. A slimy substance oozed around her on the red soil. The pain receded as regular sight returned. Feathers blew in the wind away from her, covered in the same gooey substance on the earth around her body. “You have wings!” Ivanus called out nearby. “Vast, beautiful wings. I didn’t know what they were when I saw them in my sight.” What is he saying? Julieth worked through the remaining pain, trying to pull together her thoughts. She could move the things protruding from her back, and could feel them as if they were her limbs. What is going on? Do I really have wings? She could believe it if she had somehow bonded with an essence, but had never seen wings in person before. All species of flight perished shortly after the meteor, except for one man who had been possessed by the essences. He was rumored to be part dragon, but she had never seen him. Whatever struck me when Ivanus arrived, those must have been essences from his time, if he is telling the truth. Julieth touched her chest where the things had entered her, and then reached around her back to feel for their markings. Her hands touched slime, and then the intricate patterns of fresh muscle and feathers. A shiver ran through her and she used the new muscles protruding from her back to curve her wings before her and into her sight. Their ivory white feathers were beautiful. They are a part of me, she thought in surreal wonder. With the approaching release of my Sci-Fi novel, NovaForge, I’ve recently been editing, re-editing, hashing and re-hashing over word after word in the document. I’ve been asking for opinions, taking some really good advice and getting extremely excited for the release. And as I examine each word with a fine-toothed comb I’ve been thinking of all the memories for me within the work. That’s what’s so fantastic for an author. Each character’s name has a story behind it that you may never know as a reader. Sometimes a character will experience things just because that author was experiencing something similar that sparked that idea or a character will have an emotion because of what went on in the author’s life. When you read a book you enjoy a fantastic story that transports you in to an incredible new realm or experience. But as the author we revisit a realm we created and remember all these experiences that helped shape what we wrote in the book. As we near the release I thought I’d share one of these. There’s a character in NovaForge who has the ability to morph from human to dragon form. When he is in human form he burns a brilliant light. The man’s name is Shaun Dune. So how did the name come about? For a few weeks my daughter kept saying that her ‘invisible friend’ son’s name was Shaun Dune, and as I listened to that name day after day I thought, Hey, that’s a really cool name. And so I stole it. My daughter has officially named her first book character and every time I read the name I’ll be reminded of that and that fun experience with her. Look for NovaForge when it releases on Amazon.com and Smashwords.com Saturday May 3rd! It will be at Barnes&Noble.com shortly after that. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Solaris. A planet like any other, rife with wars, science and love. But at the peak of its civilization, a great meteor fell, bringing long-dead souls to Solaris, souls that had been sustained by the life-force of one lone man, Ineal. At the moment of impact, these souls scattered across Solaris, giving inhuman abilities to mortals while scarring their bodies and corrupting their lives. Samuel was one such man, a man of faith who thought to use his powers to worship his God: he watched his followers, and his planet, die. Seas turned to lava and the skies darkened. And as Samuel’s heart grew weary and angry, he used his powers to manipulate the world to serve him alone. Samuel became god of a planet whose only life was the symbiotic life so like his own. Centuries later, he discovered others, threats that had not been on this planet before. A winged woman; a cyborg; a future-seer and a child. A great vengeance burned a comradery between them. They were souls that could overthrow him. Souls that he would need to destroy. Sometime last month I posted on the blog that my work and I were trying to raise $750 for March of Dimes, and that if we did then I would shave my head. I also asked for help from you, my readers, saying that every dollar I made off of sales for a two week time period I would donate to that cause. Well, as you can see, we reached that $750. We actually reached over $1,000 and so I had my goatee shaved too. Thank you so much for adding to that donation by purchasing my books. Without you, I'd still have hair ;) NBC 29 in Charlottesville VA will be airing news coverage of my hair cut at 5:30 today. The video will be available on their site after that, until around 2 weeks from today. Of course if you're interested in reading one of my novels and you haven't yet, I would be honored and would love to hear what you think of them! I'll list what's available on Amazon.com below. Lazarus, Man Paperback Kindle - Free Audiobook Eden Legacy Paperback Kindle - Free Audiobook Hearts of Avon Paperback Kindle - Free The Ark of Humanity Paperback Kindle - Free Eden and Ark Fantasy Twin Pack Kindle Dusk Crescence Paperback Kindle Have a blessed day. Thank you so much! The link to Amazon.com is below. Scott J. Toney, Amazon.com Something wonderful is happening at work, we're raising money for the March of Dimes. If we reach our goal of $750 then I'm going to shave my head ;). Something I've been doing to ensure my haircut, and to assure assistance for babies in need, is to ask for a donation at work of $15 and then give the person donating one of my books. I'm excited to say that it's going extremely well and that so far I've raised around $225. As a father of an amazing daughter and a wonderful baby on the way I am excited to give my support. Would you like to help? For every book purchased from now until April 23rd I'll donate the proceeds to March of Dimes. I'd be honored to team with you in helping babies in need. Would you like to know what I have available for you to purchase and for me to donate from? I'll list what's available below, and also a link to Amazon.com so that you can check everything out there. There is no better time to check out my books than now. Lazarus, Man Paperback Kindle Audiobook Eden Legacy Paperback Kindle Audiobook Hearts of Avon Paperback Kindle - Free The Ark of Humanity Paperback Kindle - Free Eden and Ark Fantasy Twin Pack Kindle Dusk Crescence Paperback Kindle Have a blessed day and please consider this. I would love to reach our goal and far beyond! The link to Amazon.com is below. http://www.amazon.com/Scott-J-Toney/e/B0098JRXWC/ref=ntt_dp_epwbk_0 Have you ever had the urge to own both Eden Legacy and The Ark of Humanity in one crisp, fine-tuned eBook? ;) Well then I've got great news, a Fantasy Twin Pack of both books has just released. If you'd like to take a gander, then follow the link below to Amazon.com and check it out! Praise for Eden Legacy "...utterly believable and yet simultaneously fantastical! This is not unlike the styling of C.S. Lewis. It is an epic, fantasy tale that will hit home with all readers, and when the last page is reached, leave them with a thirst looking for more of Scott J. Toney's writing!" - Laura A. Diaz, author of They Call Me Blanca Praise for The Ark of Humanity "I can see comparisons to Philip Pullman's 'His Dark Materials' trilogy in some of the themes raised [in The Ark of Humanity]. As with Pullman's 'daemons', the relationship between the beings and their companions who transport them is particularly enjoyable, a relationship which also reminded me of the dragons in the film 'Avatar'. I can see this as a fantastic storyboard for a Pixar film." - HarperCollins Review "Now this is what fantasy is supposed to be. The fact that so many are so much the same proves that people can copy but this takes a step forward." - Andrew Skaife The link to Amazon.com is below. http://www.amazon.com/Eden-Fantasy-Twin-Pack-ebook/dp/B00CA51ESK/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1365608852&sr=1-1&keywords=eden+and+ark+twin+pack |
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