Orangeberry Book Tours – Deadly Memories by SD O’Donnell

Who is the beautiful Jayne Doe? And why does someone want to kill her?

Ex-detective Saul Becker learned the hard way not to get involved in the troubles of beautiful women. But what else can he do when a barefoot, catatonic Jayne Doe turns up practically in his backyard? Who is she, and what is she so afraid of?

Jayne Doe doesn’t remember anything about her life before she crawled into a hollow tree at the lake next to Saul’s home.. All she knows is that she’s afraid of something—or someone.

Together, Saul and Jayne set out to uncover her past. But they are in more danger than they know, and it will take all of Saul’s skill and training to track down the past that’s stalking them.

Deadly Memories is a fast-paced novel with unexpected twists and a surprise ending.

Buy Now @ Amazon

Genre – Murder / Thriller

Rating – PG13 (some foul language, a few short love scenes)

More details about the author & the book

Connect with S.D. O’Donnell on Facebook & GoodReads

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Deadly Memories by S.D. O’Donnell

Deadly Memories by S.D. O'Donnell
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Did the plot pull you in or did you feel you had to force yourself to read the book? This was a reat read. Couldn't put it down. It didn't feel forced at any point.

How realistic was the characterization? Realistic. Seemed like you were right there with them. Everything was well thought out and executed

How does the setting figure into the book? All the different setting were very important. Took them all to understand, what Saul and Jayne were going thru.

What are some of the book's themes? The research on Jayne and another unsolved case. So many intertwining people and events. Murder and revenge. Love and hate. All were necessary to pull you into their world.

Disclosure: I received a review copy of this book from the author.

View all my reviews

Orangeberry Book Of The Day – Wildflowers by Schledia Benefield

Have you ever feared what may be hiding deep within you?

Darkness often skulks in the blood of unsuspecting victims, but Aster McGrath is acutely aware of the violence coursing through his veins. After all, he is the son of a murderer, and everyone in the town of Bayville, Mississippi says he will end up just like his father.

When Susan Blackman moves into town, Aster has already embraced his brutal nature, but her gentle spirit draws him in and slowly melts the icy exterior of his heart. Taming his savagery, she professes her love, but will the good within him be able to overcome the evil lurking deep inside? Or will the fiend break free of its fetters and seek blood?

Buy Now @ Amazon

Genre – YA Contemporary Romance

Rating – PG13

More details about the author

Connect with Schledia Benefield on Facebook & Twitter

Blog http://schlediabenefield.blogspot.com/

SD O’Donnell – Writing by the Seat of Your Pants

Writing by the Seat of Your Pants: Outline or No?

by SD O’Donnell

I am frequently asked if I write from a structured outline or by the seat of my pants. We’ve all heard stories of writers who do it either way. Most are passionate that their way is the right way. After finishing my first novel, my answer is: mix things up a bit.

I started Deadly Memories completely by the seat of my pants. One week when my husband and son went camping and left me alone, I immersed myself in books and movies. I was so immersed in plots, they showed up in my dreams. One morning I woke up with the idea of a catatonic woman being found in a park and the thought just wouldn’t leave. Who was she? What made her run away in such an extreme way? How would she get help if she wasn’t able to interact with people?

I have always been a strong and confident woman in my professional life but my first marriage was abusive. My best friend was the same – a power to be dealt with at work and a victim at home. I often wondered, for both of us, how two such extreme personalities existed in the same person. So I added that puzzle to my dream-inspired story. When the woman came out of the catatonia, she would have amnesia. Having forgotten who she was, she could be anything she wanted to be. Would that person bear any resemblance to who she was when she remembered everything? How and why would it be different?

That’s all I had to start with. I wrote the early scenes and worked out plot points at the same time. I wrote from two points-of-view: the detective that finds the woman and the woman’s. At first, his voice was third person and her voice was first. That didn’t work, so I had to rewrite everything to be in third person. For awhile, I had vignettes of the villain’s point-of-view. That turned out to be overkill, with too much foreshadowing, so I took all of that out. I’d write with the flow, then get to a point when I didn’t like where it was going. I had to go back and replot, then rewrite. Getting the picture? For me, seat of the pants created a lot of rework.

So, I took a deep breath and outlined. To my surprise, that wasn’t the end of rework. Sometimes my characters refused to do what I had planned for them. Sometimes, something that seemed so obviously right in the outline just didn’t feel right once it was written. Then I had to change the outline. And rewrite, again.

It took more renditions than I’m willing to admit here to finalize Deadly Memories. In the end, I outlined some and I wrote by the seat of my pants some. And I figured out that what works for me is a combination of both methods.

 

Buy Now @ Amazon

Genre – Murder / Thriller

Rating – PG13 (some foul language, a few short love scenes)

More details about the author & the book

Connect with S.D. O’Donnell on Facebook & GoodReads

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Orangeberry Book Of The Day – Books by Eleanor T Beaty

On the Caribbean island of Maurray, spoiled-rotten, fifteen-year-old Hanna wakes up to a nightmare. She is not the daughter of an aristocrat but the orphan of a Gypsy. She is the descendant to a mystical Gypsy tribe. Their magic is strong and has lasted six hundred years. Ornella, the tribe’s guardian, arrives at the island with her mutt, Count Dracula, to guide Hanna. Hanna is told she must embrace her heritage or die at the ripe age of seventeen. But Hanna does the unthinkable, she chooses death. She hates Gypsies and would rather die. What she doesn’t know is that her death will destroy the entire tribe. What she also doesn’t know is how persuasive Ornella can be. The nightmare begins.

Buy Now @ Amazon

Genre – YA / Paranormal

Rating – PG13

For sixteen years, Lya, has lived as a normal human, until her father, Walter, gets involved with the wrong people and puts Lya’s life at risk. During a visit to Miami, Lya’s older sister is kidnapped, and Lya and her father are subsequently taken hostage by Walter’s associates and forced to board a plane to India. When the plane lands in Delhi, Lya is rescued by three monks and taken to a Monastery. There her reality is shattered, when she learns the true identity of her rescuers and, even more surprisingly, herself. Lya is now faced with the toughest decision of her life. Can she live up to her ethereal destiny and save her family?

Buy Now @ Amazon

Genre – YA / Paranormal

Rating – PG13

Alex’s life is turned upside down after his father’s sudden death. An old pamphlet found in his father’s belongings leads Alex and his mother, Charlotte, to a remote Polynesian island. His mother longs for a place untouched by past memories, and Alex hopes the trip will help her to heal.

Their arrival on the island elicits an eerie episode of déjà vu for Alex, and he begins to wonder about the pamphlet and his father’s past. Why did he have it? Had he been there before?

Alex senses something is off with the island. Progress is unwelcome by the inhabitants. A local girl reveals the history of the island and its dark spirits. She warns him to never be caught outside after dark, but Alex finds it all hard to believe… Until inexplicable and terrifying events begin to unfold. While digging for information, Alex finds his presence on the haunted island is not by chance. Rangur, the most evil of souls, aims to use him to acquire great power. There’s only one way Alex can stop him and for that he must uncover his father’s past connection to the island.

Buy Now @ Amazon

Genre – YA / Paranormal

Rating – PG13

More details about the author

Liz Schulte – A World Without Books

A World Without Books

by Liz Schulte

A world without books isn’t a road less traveled by, it is a barren wasteland of dashed dreams and lost inspiration—one where imagination is feared and whimsy is met with suspicion.

A Cat In A Hat would be absurd and Green Eggs and Ham would be seen as nothing but bad. No one would say Goodnight Moon or know Where The Wild Things Are. Charlotte’s Web would just be another spider in a barn and The Diary of a Wimpy Kid might go unread.

Harry Potter would never learn who is and still be living under the stairs. Voldemort would win and Captain Hook persuade Peter Pan.  The yellow brick road would stay empty and Dorothy would never meet the Wizard of Oz. The Hunger Games would go unwatched and no one would see Katniss Catching Fire or her Mockingjay pin.

Romeo would never meet Juliet and Pride and Prejudice would go unchecked.  Jane Eyre may never find her way to Thornfield Hall and Mrs. Rochester may kill them all. The Importance of Being Ernest would still be unknown and The Dubliners would be on their own.  A Hitchhiker would have no guide to the galaxy and the Lord of the Rings would still be Sauron.  The Thirteenth Tale would never be told and Atonement couldn’t be had.

Pet Sematary, The Shining, and It would never frighten a living soul and redemption wouldn’t be found at Shawshank.  Gone With The Wind wouldn’t turn curtains into couture and James Bond wouldn’t Die Another Day.  The Godfather wouldn’t make an offer that couldn’t be refused and Atticus Finch would never try the case of his life. The world would stay East of Eden and Fear and Loathing would spread far beyond Las Vegas.

Buy Now @ Amazon & Smashwords

Genre – Paranormal Romance

Rating – PG13

More details about the author & the book

Connect with Liz Schulte on Facebook & Twitter

Website http://www.lizschulte.com/

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Orangeberry Book Of The Day – The Book by Jessica Bell

This book is not The Book. The Book is in this book. And The Book in this book is both the goodie and the baddie.

Bonnie is five. She wants to bury The Book because it is a demon that should go to hell. Penny, Bonnie’s mother, does bury The Book, but every day she digs it up and writes in it. John, Bonnie’s father, doesn’t live with them anymore. But he still likes to write in it from time to time. Ted, Bonnie’s stepfather, would like to write in The Book, but Penny won’t allow it.

To Bonnie, The Book is sadness.
To Penny, The Book is liberation.
To John, The Book is forgiveness.
To Ted, The Book is envy.
But The Book in this book isn’t what it seems at all.

If there was one thing in this world you wished you could hold in your hand, what would it be? The world bets it would be The Book.

Buy Now @ Amazon

Genre – Contemporary Fiction

Rating – PG13

More details about the author

Connect with Jessica Bell on Facebook & Twitter

Website http://www.jessicabellauthor.com/

Orangeberry Book Of The Day – Dark Mountain by Robert Michael

While hiking on a lonely mountain in Arkansas, Jacob Barclay finds a cabin with a terrible secret.

Sheriff Billy Joe Shoemaker discovers that his small, backwoods town may hold more danger than he ever imagined.

Molly Carothers, lost in a sea of woods, starving and scared, believes she has found a guardian angel to free her.

Brian Carothers, haunted by his family’s heritage, struggles with his sanity.

Victor Carothers influences his family through fear and blood. Along with his wife, Patsy, they find victims among transients and strangers as they seek to sate their appetite for the occult.

The lives of the town of Bexton, Arkansas depend upon Jacob, the strange Yankee seeking adventure and solace. Jacob finds he is faced with a struggling faith, and the realization that sometimes evil runs in the family.

Buy Now @ Amazon

Genre – Horror / Suspense

Rating – PG

More details about the author

Connect with Robert Michael on Twitter

Blog http://www.robertamichael.blogspot.com/

Blog http://www.infinitewordpress.com/

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Orangeberry Book Of The Day - Beyond Escape - Deborah Jensen

 

After separating from her husband of twenty years, Kim is in desperate need of an escape. Retreating to her parents’ home in Texas for a month, Kim encounters ample distractions, the best being Camilo, an alluring Latino man seventeen years her junior. However, when returning to Texas unearths memories of a long-ago lover, Kim discovers her unintentional involvement in a series of dangerous escapades, bringing her deeper into her past than she ever cared to venture. Beyond Escape follows Kim as she pursues a trail of drugs, murder, and secret love affairs that were meant to stay buried.

Buy Now @ Amazon

Genre – Women’s Contemporary Fiction / Romance

Rating – PG13

More details about the author & the book

Connect with Deborah Jensen on Facebook & Twitter

Website http://www.deborahkjensen.com/

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Orangeberry Book Of The Day - Sex and Death in the America Novel - Sarah Martinez

Free March 19th - 21st.

Vivianna Post is the family anomaly. Daughter of a Pulitzer Prize winner and an academic, she has never quite fit her parents’ expectations as a free-spirited erotica writer. When Vivianna encounters the award-winning author Jasper Caldwell at a nightclub, all she wants is to blame him for blowing off her brother at a writers’ conference the year before and possibly causing his suicide. But as the night—and then the weeks—wear on, Vivianna finds herself drawn to Jasper in ways she cannot understand. When their differences—literary and sexual—threaten to pull Vivianna and Jasper apart, Jasper rediscovers Alejandro, an old friend who just might have the power to complete them both in every way. Using quotes and references to classic erotic and literary icons, Sex and Death in the American Novel is on one level an unconventional romance and on another a discussion of the merits of erotic literature.

Using quotes and references to classic erotic and literary icons, Sex and Death in the American Novel is on one level an unconventional romance and on another a discussion of the merits of erotic literature.

Buy Now @ Amazon

Genre – Literary Erotica

Rating – X

More details about the author

Connect with Sarah Martinez on Facebook and Twitter

Website http://www.mywildskies.com/

Author Interviews http://site.mywildskies.com/Appearances.html

 

Excerpt (First pages):

We all know the first line is the most important: it sets the tone, tells you what this story will be about. Call me Vivianna. Would Melville approve? How about copying straight from Heller: It was love at first sight. We all remember Lolita; how would Nabokov do it?

What if I just come out and say it. This book is the answer to the notion that women ought to fear asking for what they want the most. Whether it’s time alone to write, demanding for and getting respect, or a patient hand under which to soften up and eventually get off. You know what’s even worse: we know we won’t get it anyway. Fuck Virtue. This document serves as my rejection of the notion that I am doomed—by virtue of my gender—to a life of boredom, inanity, and servitude.

An old man in Arizona has over seventy wives. If a woman ever said that one man wasn’t enough for her, you know what they would say about her? I could spend at least ten minutes on the list. Making up lists is a great writing exercise by the way. I learned that from my father. He won a Pulitzer Prize in 1989 for his novel Taking Ivy Down. Dear old Dad.

Let’s start with two men—just for argument’s sake. What would that look like? Feel like? Smell like? Taste like?

            Two men…two sets of lips, two pairs of eyes moving over my face, my breasts, my hips, resting further down. Two sets of hands, warm and strong, only me, naked and trembling with anticipation between them. Two rustling, soft heads of hair, two minds, two hearts...spirits, two of everything. The energy between them flows through me. Associations come freely when I am in this state; rain, dark swirling skies, and rich red blood flowing from both their hammered faces, they fought…for me. Now we are all together, and they’ve forgiven each other, their bruised lips crush against mine, against my face, against every part of me until finally they come together. As I tip my head back, taking in the scents of their bodies, metallic and musky, sweaty and raw, they reach for each other. The one who lost the battle—the blonde with red rimmed blue eyes—faces me, his arms around mine, his hands reaching further to the one behind me who, underneath the scents of exertion, smells like leather and tangy soap. Their faces come together over my shoulder, first testing, pulling back, then together again. They kiss, more roughly than they would kiss me, with hands moving up to run through each other’s hair, pulling on it, and both pairs of hands move over my arms and shoulders. Sounds of stubble across skin, scraping, hands over tingling flesh, mine, a wince, low voices, soft wispy sounds echo in the silence of this old warehouse...no wait, make that a boxing ring, we’re on the dirty white mat in the center of the ring.

The one behind me—the winner—leans forward, grazing the skin behind my ear with his teeth, the sticky wet skin of his torso connecting all the way along my back. He pushes me down, working himself deeper in me, opening me wide, his hands wrap around both sides of my hips. He groans and the sound sends a thrill though me. The one in front works his way in from below. I am sandwiched between the two of them, and take the loser’s face in my hands, stroking the area near his swollen eye, running the tip of my nose over his lips, his cheek; I gently kiss his forehead, pulling back and tasting coppery blood.

My mother’s words intruded, “Vivianna, are you paying attention?”

 

Orangeberry Book Of The Day - Alice in Deadland Trilogy - Mainak Dhar

Buy Now @ Amazon

Genre – Horror / SciFi

Rating – PG

More details about the author & the book

Connect with Mainak Dhar on Facebook & Twitter

Alice in Deadland
Civilization as we know it ended more than fifteen years ago, leaving as it's legacy barren wastelands called the Deadland and a new terror for the humans who survived- hordes of undead Biters.
Fifteen year-old Alice has spent her entire life in the Deadland, her education consisting of how best to use guns and knives in the ongoing war for survival against the Biters. One day, Alice spots a Biter disappearing into a hole in the ground and follows it, in search of fabled underground Biter bases.
What Alice discovers there propels her into an action-packed adventure that changes her life and that of all humans in the Deadland forever. An adventure where she learns the terrible conspiracy behind the ruin of humanity, the truth behind the origin of the Biters, and the prophecy the mysterious Biter Queen believes Alice is destined to fulfill.
A prophecy based on the charred remains of the last book in the Deadland- a book called Alice in Wonderland.
Through The Looking Glass: Alice in Deadland Book II
More than two years have passed since Alice followed a Biter with bunny ears down a hole, triggering events that forever changed her life and that of everyone in the Deadland. The Red Guards have been fought to a standstill; Alice has restored some measure of peace between humans and Biters; and under Alice, humans have laid the foundations of the first large, organized community since The Rising- a city called Wonderland.
That peace is shattered in a series of vicious Biter attacks and Alice finds herself shunned by the very people she helped liberate. Now she must re-enter the Deadland to unravel this new conspiracy that threatens Wonderland. Doing so will mean coming face to face with her most deadly adversary ever- the Red Queen.
Off With Their Heads: The Prequel to Alice in Deadland
A few months before Alice was born and fifteen years before the dramatic events depicted in Alice in Deadland, there was The Rising. A few days that destroyed human civilization as we know it, reducing much of the world to a radioactive wasteland teeming with hordes of undead Biters and controlled by a shadowy Central Committee.
Off With Their Heads brings to life the final harrowing days of The Rising through four shorts, each depicting events through the eyes of one pivotal character in the Alice in Deadland series. See how Dr. Protima became the Queen of the Biters; feel the pain of a young man's sacrifice as he becomes the bunny-eared Biter whom Alice later follows down a hole; follow the rise of Chen from a conflicted young Chinese Army officer to a General in the Red Guards; and finally share in the dramatic escape of Alice's parents from a city overrun by Biters.