Tag: Snippet

Guest Post: “Snippet from ‘The Boat on the Lake of Regret’ by Christy Matheson”

On By hmalagisiIn guest post1 Comment

I am pleased to welcome Christy Matheson to my blog today to share a snippet from her novel, “The Boat on the Lake of Regret.” I would like to thank The Coffee Pot Book Club and Christy Matheson for allowing me to be part of this blog tour.

Snippet

Conversation with Morálta: 

But Morálta just shakes her head. “How should I know? I told you, I just work here.” 

“What has happened to Mór and Nuala?” The words burst out of me. 

She shrugs again. “I’m not in contact with the giants, so I don’t really have details. Last I saw, Red-beard was hoisting Nuala onto his pillion, and Mór was in Black-beard’s cart.” 

“Are they safe?” 

She gives me a strange look. “Safety is an illusion, Hannah.” 

“But”—I wave my hands around this room—“any more danger than we are in, here?” Which might be considerable. 

Morálta rolls her eyes. “It’s not like they are man-eating giants or anything. Black-beard really doesn’t care for those who don’t do their fair share of the work, so I dare say that Mór is going to be doing some scrubbing, and from what I’ve seen of her she’s not going to enjoy it. But hopefully you all have some true loves signed up to come and fetch you home again, right?” 

“Maybe…”  

Morálta does a double-take. “Three princes, three princesses, et cetera, and you couldn’t even fall in love?” 

“We didn’t have enough time,” I protest. “They just arrived last night.” Except me. 

Morálta sighs, sounding put-upon. “And you couldn’t manage it in one evening? Young people these days. I don’t know why the Seven-Inch-Man didn’t give you three days, which would have fit better anyhow. I’ll put it in my Exit Survey when I finish up here. Now, did you want tea or did you not?” 

We both murmur politely that we would like tea, thank you, and Morálta whisks away again. 

That was possibly the strangest conversation I’ve ever had. Exit Survey?  

Blurb: 

He has one last chance to be a fairy tale hero.  

But she didn’t agree to be the damsel in distress. 

When her longtime boyfriend unexpectedly slides a ring on her finger, Hannah is whisked from her everyday bedroom to a medieval ball. Hannah knew that Dylan would do anything to prove to her parents that he’s husband material, including going into the Fae world—but she never agreed to go through the Veil herself. 

Now one of three princess sisters, Hannah is paired with now-Prince Dylan. But, homesick and blindsided, she pretends the Veil has wiped him from her memory. 

As her prince scrambles in vain to be the right kind of hero, Hannah ignores her instincts and follows her new sisters onto a mysterious boat—which promptly sails them into a land of giants, magical traps, and enchanted pianos…and away from Dylan. 

Read now to journey back to medieval Ireland, complete with the Fae and mythological monsters, in this fairy tale adventure and sweet “it was always you” romance. 

Buy Link: 

Universal Buy Link: https://buy.bookfunnel.com/hzxiszq79z 

Author Bio: 

Characters you connect with. Adventure. Love. Family… And endings that are more than a sugar rush.  

When Christy Matheson is not throwing ordinary characters into fairy tales, she is busy raising five children. (Very busy.) She writes character-driven historical fiction with and without fantasy elements, and her “fresh, smart, and totally charming” stories have won multiple awards. 

Christy is also an embroidery artist, classically trained pianist, and sews all of her own clothes. She lives in Oregon, on a country property that fondly reminds her of a Regency estate (except with a swing set instead of faux Greek ruins), with her husband, five children, three Shelties, one bunny, and an improbable quantity of art supplies. 

Author Links: 

Website: https://christymatheson.com  

Twitter / X: https://x.com/CMathesonAuthor  

Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100091887100897 

Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/christy_matheson_author/ 

Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/christy-matheson.bsky.social 

Book Bub: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/christy-matheson 

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@christy.matheson.author 

Amazon Author Page:https://us.amazon.com/stores/Christy-Matheson/author/B0D6J2KRLS 

Goodreads:  https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/49771827.Christy_Matheson 

Substack: https://unspokenstoriesofwomanhood.substack.com/  

 

 

Guest Post: “Snippet from ‘Lady of the Quay’ by Amanda Roberts”

On By hmalagisiIn guest post2 Comments

Eating alone at the vast table, which could seat a dozen people with ease, did nothing to improve my attitude or my mood, and I vowed that unless I was entertaining, I would take my meals in my closet from now on. Yes, I had to try to think of it as my closet now. I retired there after I had eaten, and although I relished the silence, I was not yet comfortable with the void that my father’s absence left in the space. With the shutters closed to deny the outside world, I settled by the fire and tried to cocoon myself in memories of him, but I could no longer trust my own mind. To keep secrets had not been in his nature, and yet that is what he had done. And these were not just any old secrets; they were big, black, ugly ones. How was I supposed to reconcile the man I thought I had known so well with the person I was now discovering? He had been the pivot of my existence for most of my life, my moral and spiritual guide, and a person respected by all who knew him, but who was he really? 

Blurb: 

Knowing she is innocent is easy … proving it is hard. 

1560, Berwick-upon-Tweed, northern England 

Following the unexpected death of her father, a series of startling discoveries about the business she inherits forces Isabella Gillhespy to re-evaluate everything she understands about her past and expects from her future. 

Facing financial ruin, let down by people on whom she thought she could rely, and suspected of crimes that threaten her freedom, Isabella struggles to prove her innocence. 

But the stakes are even higher than she realises. In a town where tension between England and her Scottish neighbours is never far from the surface, it isn’t long before developments attract the interest of the highest authority in the land, Sir William Cecil, and soon Isabella is fighting, not just for her freedom, but her life. She must use her wits and trust her own instincts to survive. 

Lady of the Quay introduces an enticing new heroine who refuses to be beaten, even as it becomes clear that her life will never be the same again. 

From the author of the award-winning ‘The Woman in the Painting’. 

Buy Link: 

Universal Buy Link: https://books2read.com/u/317rQa  

This title is available to read on #KindleUnlimited. 

Author Bio: 

Amanda Roberts has worked as an Editor in business-to-business magazines for over 30 years, specialising in out-of-home coffee, vending and foodservice/catering, including Editor of the global gastronomy title: ‘Revue internationale de la Chaîne des Rôtisseurs’. 

She currently freelances, editing UK-based healthcare titles – HEFMA Pulse, Hospital Food + Service and Hospital Caterer. She is a member of the Society of Authors, the Historical Novel Society and West Oxfordshire Writers. She also volunteers for Tea Books (part of Age UK) to run a book club/reading group for elderly people in the community. 

 

 

Author Links: 

 

Website: https://amandarobertsauthor.co.uk/  

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100095191090333  

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/amanda_roberts_author/  

Book Bub: https://www.bookbub.com/books/lady-of-the-quay-isabella-gillhespy-series-book-1-by-amanda-roberts  

Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Amanda-Roberts/author/B00N0RQBAI   

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/231816264-lady-of-the-quay  

Guest Post: “Snippet from ‘The Duty of Daughters’ by Wendy J. Dunn

On By hmalagisiIn guest post1 Comment

I am pleased to welcome Wendy J. Dunn to my blog today to share a snippet from her novel “The Duty of Daughters” as part of the blog tour for her omnibus “Falling Pomegranate Seeds Duology.” I would like to thank Wendy J. Dunn and The Coffee Pot Book Club for allowing me to be part of this blog tour.

Snippet:

“Josefa, you mistake my meaning.” Beatriz stared at the coverlet of Josefa’s bed. “All of us must walk our own roads, but ’tis wrong to prevent women from walking so many roads just because we’re women. Even Plato said, ‘Nothing can be more absurd than the practice of men and women not following the same pursuits with all their strengths and with one mind, for thus, the state instead of being whole is reduced to half.’ I so agree. Our world cuts off its nose to spite its own face by insisting the only purpose for women is to bear children and perpetuate the human race, as also said Plato. Surely ’tis far too hard a view to forever blame women for Eve’s sin.”

Blurb: 

In the Falling Pomegranate Seeds Duology, readers are transported to the rich historical tapestry of 15th and 16th-century Europe, where the lives of remarkable women unfold against the backdrop of political upheaval and personal struggles.  

In the first book, beginning in 1490, Castile, Doña Beatriz Galindo, a passionate and respected scholar, serves as an advisor to Queen Isabel of Castile. Beatriz yearns for a life beyond the constraints imposed on women, desiring to control her own destiny. As she witnesses the Holy War led by Queen Isabel and her husband, King Ferdinand of Aragon, Beatriz dedicates herself to guiding Queen Isabel’s youngest child, Catalina of Aragon, on her own path. Beatriz’s role as a tutor and advisor becomes instrumental in shaping Catalina’s future as she prepares to become England’s queen.  

Fast forward to the winter of 1539 in the second book, where María de Salinas, a dear friend and cousin of Catalina (now known as Katherine of Aragon), pens a heartfelt letter to her daughter, the Duchess of Suffolk. Unable to make the journey from her London home due to illness, María shares her life story, intricately woven with her experiences alongside Catalina. Their friendship has endured through exile and tumultuous times. María seeks to shed light for her daughter on the choices she has made in a story exploring themes of friendship, betrayal, hatred, and forgiveness. Through María’s narrative, the eternal question Will love ultimately triumph? 

Buy Link: 

Universal Buy Link: https://books2read.com/u/bax5n6  

Author Bio: 

Wendy J. Dunn is an award-winning Australian writer fascinated by Tudor history – so much so, she was not surprised to discover a family connection to the Tudors, not long after the publication of her first Anne Boleyn novel, which narrated the Anne Boleyn story through the eyes of Sir Thomas Wyatt, the elder.  

Her family tree reveals the intriguing fact that one of her ancestral families – possibly over three generations – had purchased land from both the Boleyn and Wyatt families to build up their own holdings. It seems very likely Wendy’s ancestors knew the Wyatts and Boleyns personally. 

Author Links: 

Website: www.wendyjdunn.com  

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

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wendyjdunnauthor/  

Threads: https://www.threads.net/@wendyjdunnauthor  

Book Bub: https://www.bookbub.com/profile/wendy-j-dunn  

Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B004FRTZFA  

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/197156.Wendy_J_Dunn

Guest Post: “Snippet from ‘Imperatrix’ by S.P. Somtow”

On By hmalagisiIn guest post1 Comment

Imperatrix Tour BannerI am pleased to welcome S.P. Somtow to my blog today to share a snippet from his latest novel, “Imperatix.” I would like to thank S.P. Somtow and The Coffee Pot Book Club for allowing me to be part of this blog tour. 

Have another brain,” said the Emperor, feeding me Himself.

“Divinitas,” I said, “how many peacocks does it take to make such a platter?”

“Wonderful!” said Himself.  “Poppaea never takes an interest in how the world runs.  For her, the brains just appear by magic.  The answer to question is — why — we have our own, private little — to coin a word — pavonarium.  Would you like to see peacocks — a veritable ocean of peacocks — more bird-brains than even in the Senate?”  He clapped his hands, dropping a brain onto the grass, though Hercules quickly disposed of it.  “Come!”

He took me by the hand and started to pull me in toward the far side of the garden, where there was a fountain cunningly designed like a pair of dolphins.  I turned to look at the Lady Poppaea, terrified that I would soon be alone with the God.

“This could be your fortune,” she said to me.  “You’ve insulted, you’ve appeased.  Now, Sporus, you must seduce.”

Imperatrix CoverBlurb:

Captured by pirates and sold to a Roman aristocrat as a sex slave, Sporus attracted the attention of no less a personage than the Emperor Nero, ruler of the known world. Would-be poet, patron of the arts, aesthete, and brutal autocrat, the Divine Nero saw in the boy a startling resemblance to the Empress Poppaea – and made him an empress as well.

Suetonius, Tacitus, and other Roman historians have given tantalizing glimpses into the incredible life story of the boy who became twice an empress to two emperors and was condemned to die in the arena by a third.

In this meticulously researched trilogy, World Fantasy Award-winning author S.P. Somtow lays bare the darkest secrets of Imperial Rome – its triumphs and its nadirs, its beauty and its cruelty. Through this chaos, a contorted mirror of our contemporary world, this figure of Sporus moves, all too knowing yet all too innocent, providing a worm’s eye view of one of the wildest periods in ancient history.

Imperatrix, the second volume of the tale, takes us into the heart of the Imperial palace with all its intrigue, depravity, and splendor.

Buy Links:

This title is available to read on #KindleUnlimited.

Universal Buy Link: https://books2read.com/u/mV2EaJ

S.P. Somtow authorAuthor Bio:

Once referred to by the International Herald Tribune as ‘the most well-known expatriate Thai in the world,’ Somtow Sucharitkul is no longer an expatriate since he has returned to Thailand after five decades of wandering the world. He is best known as an award-winning novelist and a composer of operas.

Born in Bangkok, Somtow grew up in Europe and was educated at Eton and Cambridge. His first career was in music and in the 1970s, his first return to Asia, he acquired a reputation as a revolutionary composer, the first to combine Thai and Western instruments in radical new sonorities. Conditions in the arts in the region at the time proved so traumatic for the young composer that he suffered a major burnout, emigrated to the United States, and reinvented himself as a novelist.

His earliest novels were in the science fiction field and he soon won the John W. Campbell for Best New Writer as well as being nominated for and winning numerous other awards in the field. But science fiction was not able to contain him and he began to cross into other genres. In his 1984 novel Vampire Junction, he injected a new literary inventiveness into the horror genre, in the words of Robert Bloch, author of Psycho, ‘skillfully combining the styles of Stephen King, William Burroughs, and the author of the Revelation to John.’ Vampire Junction was voted one of the forty all-time greatest horror books by the Horror Writers’ Association.

In the 1990s Somtow became increasingly identified as a uniquely Asian writer with novels such as the semi-autobiographical Jasmine Nights and a series of stories noted for a peculiarly Asian brand of magic realism, such as Dragon’s Fin Soup, which is currently being made into a film directed by Takashi Miike. He recently won the World Fantasy Award, the highest accolade given in the world of fantastic literature, for his novella The Bird Catcher.

Returning to Thailand in 2001, he became artistic director of Opera Siam and has had more than a dozen operas produced around the world including The Snow Dragon and The Silent Prince, which premiered in the United States, Helena Citronova, an opera set during the Holocaust, and the ten-part DasJati: Ten Lives of the Buddha.

In the last few years, he has made a return to writing novels with the Nero and Sporus trilogy and the young adult series, Club X.

In 2021 the film he produced and wrote, The Maestro: Symphony of Terror received over forty awards at international festivals, and in 2023 the Thai government officially elevated him to the status of National Artist.

Read S.P. Somtow’s interview on Literary Titan about Imperatrix at https://literarytitan.com/2024/01/21/the-core-of-innocence/.

Author Links:

Website: www.somtow.com

Twitter: www.twitter.com/somtow

Facebook: www.facebook.com/somtow

Instagram: www.instagram.com/somtow

Book Bub: https://www.bookbub.com/profile/s-p-somtow

Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B000APBJXC

Goodreads:  https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/81037.S_P_Somtow

Guest Post: “Snippet from ‘Signatures in Stone’ by Linda Lappin

On By hmalagisiIn guest post1 Comment

Signatures in Stone Tour BannerToday, I am pleased to welcome Linda Lappin to my blog to share a snippet from her novel, “Signatures in Stone.”I would like to thank The Coffee Pot Book Club and Linda Lappin for allowing me to be part of this blog tour.

Without inspiration, I could not write. What I needed was a new batch of
signatures, those curious messages our waking life sends us from our own unconscious, which I have come to see as promptings from the muse, and even as a spiritual guide for my own existence.

We are constantly immersed in a network of signs and symbols, whose meaning eludes us, but which, if only we could read them, would reveal every detail of our past and even predict our future.

The mind talks to itself not with words, but with scrambled symbols, pictures, fragments, often severed from any literal meaning. If we wish to learn to read them, we must abandon the rational links of words to thoughts. Signatures are always there waiting for us, like unopened letters slid beneath the front door, accumulating after a long absence, written in a hieroglyphic alphabet we have forgotten.

Signatures in Stone coverBlurb:

Captivating critics and readers, SIGNATURES IN STONE, was the OVERALL WINNER in the DAPHNE DU MAURIER AWARDS for Excellence in Mystery and Suspense Writing -Best Mystery of 2013

Rome, Italy – November 2023 – Pleasure Boat Studio is thrilled to announce the release of the second edition of Linda Lappin’s celebrated novel, SIGNATURES IN STONE: A BOMARZO MYSTERY. This captivating suspense tale takes readers on a thrilling journey through the enigmatic Monster Park of Bomarzo, also known as the Sacred Wood, an extraordinary Baroque sculpture garden in Italy. With the 500th anniversary of the park’s creation, this edition is accompanied by a magnificent new cover and a series of Tarot card illustrations by Santa Fe artist Carolyn Florek.

In SIGNATURES IN STONE, readers are transported to the atmospheric setting of the Monster Park of Bomarzo, a sixteenth-century garden adorned with mythical creatures believed to represent a terrifying journey into the realm of nightmares. Against this backdrop, four travelers find themselves intertwined in a fate-driven Italian holiday. Daphne, a British writer of occult mysteries, her down-on-his-luck aristocratic publisher Nigel, the aspiring artist and American gigolo Clive, and the art historian Professor Finestone, all converge in a dilapidated villa near the park. They are attended by rustic servants who harbor secrets of their own.

Professor Finestone has made a groundbreaking discovery, revealing that the garden was designed by one of Italy’s greatest artists as a transformative experience that delves into the shadow side of life. Over the centuries, the park’s meanders continue to influence the minds and destinies of those who venture within. As the group explores their heart’s desires amidst the haunting sculptures, they become entangled in a web of intrigue and danger. When Daphne, renowned for writing cozy murder tales, becomes the prime suspect in a shocking homicide, she must confront her own darkness and rely on her sleuthing skills to uncover the terrifying truth.

Linda Lappin’s gripping tale presents an intriguing exploration of gardens in Renaissance Italy, where they were regarded as tools for altering consciousness and changing destiny. The Monster Park of Bomarzo becomes the backdrop for a “Gothic-in-Wonderland” phantasmagoria, immersing readers in a suspenseful and thrilling journey.

New Edition of Linda Lappin’s Award-Winning SIGNATURES IN STONE: A BOMARZO MYSTERY Commemorates the 500th Anniversary of the Monster Park.

Praise:

“Layers of mystery are woven into Linda Lappin’s beautifully written and atmospheric historical novel set in Bomarzo, Italy’s enigmatic park of stone monsters.”
~ Gigi Pandian, author of The Accidental Alchemist.

“Deftly mixing fascinating art history and murder with an exotic atmospheric setting (the Bomarzo garden actually exists), dramatic historical period (1928 fascist Italy), and fully fleshed characters, Lappin (The Etruscan) has written a hallucinatory gothic mystery in which no one is as they appear. Daphne is a most memorable, if a bit unreliable narrator. Readers looking for an intelligent summer mystery will find much to savor here.”
~ Wilda Williams, Library Journal

Buy Link:

Universal Buy Link: https://books2read.com/u/mYDWvd

Linda LappinAuthor Bio:

Linda Lappin, poet, translator, novelist, and travel writer is the prize-winning author of four novels: The Etruscan (Wynkin deWorde, 2004); Katherine’s Wish (Wordcraft, 2008), dealing with the last five years of Katherine Mansfield’s life; Signatures in Stone: A Bomarzo Mystery (Pleasureboat Studio, 2013,2023), overall winner of the Daphne Du Maurier award for best mystery novel of 2013; and Loving Modigliani: The Afterlife of Jeanne Hébuterne (Serving House Books, 2020), 2021 Daphne Du Maurier award finalist and shortlisted for the 2021 Montaigne Medal for Books of Distinction.

She is also the author of The Soul of Place: Ideas and Exercises for Conjuring the Genius Loci, (Travelers Tales, 2015), winner of a Nautilus Award in the category of creativity in 2015.

A former Fulbright scholar to Italy, she has lived mainly in Rome for over thirty years. She is at work on a second Daphne Dublanc mystery novel, Melusine, set in Bolsena. The second edition of Signatures in Stone (2023) has been issued to commemorate the 500th anniversary of the Monster Park.

Author Links:

Website: https://www.lindalappin.net
Twitter: https://twitter.com/LindaLappin1
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LindaLappinAuthor/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/linda_lappin_author/
Threads: https://www.threads.net/@linda_lappin_author
Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/lindalappin.bsky.social
Book Bub: https://www.bookbub.com/profile/linda-lappin
Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/author/lindalappin
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/1157178.Linda_Lappin