Stevie-girl and the Phantom Pilot Book One

What does this song have to do with Stevie-girl and the Phantom Pilot?

Stevie-girl and the Phantom Pilot ~ Book One ~ http://tinyurl.com/6wl3oe2

Stevie-girl and the Phantom Student ~Book Two ~ http://tinyurl.com/6wl3oe2

Crybaby Bridge http://tinyurl.com/6wl3oe2

Also available on Audible.com http://tinyurl.com/p4gr2cb

International Author's Day Blog Hop & Giveaway!

Good morning and welcome to Ann's Afterthoughts. This is the place where I can be myself. The place where I expound on anything and everything. The place where I promote my writing and that of other authors. Today's post is sponsored by Debdatta Dasgupta Sahay, a wonderful blogger/reviewer in India.  http://www.b00kr3vi3ws.in/  For today's post I wanted to give a nod to some of my favorite authors from years past.

As a child I read a lot. I discovered Poe's short stories when I was very young--they terrified and delighted me. I also loved Ray Bradbury and Mary Stewart. Bradbury's speculative fiction and Stewart's fantasy fiction transported me to other worlds. In addition to my books, I grew up watching The Twilight Zone and Star Trek on television. It wasn't until I discovered Nathaniel Hawthorne that I came back down to earth so-to-speak. Later there was Stephen King. I could write an entire post on my love/hate relationship with his work (maybe I'll do that later, suffice it to say I've read almost everything he has published).

For now let me direct you to the remainder of the hop (see the link at the end) and to my own giveaway, a digital copy of Memories from Maple Street, Pawprints on My Heart (an anthology of true stories about beloved pets from best selling authors), OR a digital copy of Takers: Apocalypse in Eden, my latest speculative fiction novel. TO BE ENTERED IN MY GIVEAWAY, SIMPLY LEAVE ME A COMMENT WITH YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS. Random.org will choose the winner on July 19th.


 

Pawprints on My Heart

Wonderful Pet tales to tug at your heartstring and your funny bone! Stories about pets we rescued and those that rescued us. My story is about Snakeman, my furry, four-legged sibling. I based the dog in Takers on old Snakeman. After all these years, I still miss him. 

Available at Amazon and elsewhere in print or ebook. Digital review copies are available for a short time (they're going fast), just comment on this post with your email address if you are a reviewer.

http://tinyurl.com/gu7mmzw

Goodreads Winners: Oh, the Horror!

Yay! Goodreads Giveaways are complete.  Out of 1, 014 entries, FIVE readers won autographed copies of TAKERS: Apocalypse in Eden. I hope you all like Jack and Snake -- if you do, please leave me a review on Amazon and/or Goodreads. You can say you won the book, it doesn't have to be a verified purchase. Check out this cool review from NetGalley:

This is a fast moving, bloody, and dark book – and it’s got some awesome musical references. Aside from the aforementioned underlying mysticism, there’s a religious aspect to it. It’s not a preachy book, but the religious aspect plays a very direct role in what happens here. Note further that, even though our main character is a kid not yet in high school, this is by no means a kid’s book or even YA. This is Horror/SF for adults.

Only $2.99 Amazon

Here are the names of the lucky winners: Heather Cooney, Doug Brown, Scott Parker, Rachel Burke, and Jennifer Lorenz - Congrats to all, the books are in the mail! Next time, I'll list the winners of the COPPER LAKE giveaway.

Luck of the Irish $250 Cash Giveaway

It's all about the GREEN - $250 Cash - Enter over and over again. Good luck! Luck of the Irish $250 Giveaway March 17th to 31st $250 Amazon.com Gift Code or $250 in Paypal Cash   Thanks to this Awesome Group of Authors & Bloggers have joined with me to bring you this fabulous prize!! Sponsor List I Am A Reader Magical Cool Cat Mysteries Kimber Leigh Wheaton Author MK McClintock Jennifer Faye - Romance Author EskieMama Reads Theresa DaLayne Melissa Haag - YA Author Glistering Bs Blog Simple Wyrdings Why Not? Because I Said So!(Sheila Staley) Lisa Wainland, Author Aubrey Wynne: Romantasy Through the Ages Prism Book Tours Krysten Lindsay Hager author Books R Us Ann Swann Nikki Jefford D.E. Haggerty Lori's Reading Corner Heather Gray, Author Author Deb Atwood Poppy Lawless Coupons and Freebies Mom Melanie McFarlane Books Everly Frost, YA Author Leora Krygier author Vicki L. Weavil Beck Nicholas Jennifer Bardsley Stacy Claflin, Author Diana's Book Reviews J.L. Weil Joshua David Bellin Bella Street Time Travel Romance Bonnie Blythe Christian Romance Rockin' Book Reviews Lonna @ FLYLēF Book Reviews Author Inger Iversen Lise McClendon Annie Cosby, YA Author Katy Haye Paisley Piranhas Giveaway Details $250 in Paypal Cash or a $250 Amazon.com eGift Card Ends 3/31/16 Open only to those who can legally enter, receive and use money sent via Paypal. Winning Entry will be verified prior to prize being awarded. No purchase necessary. You must be 18 or older to enter or have your parent enter for you. The winner will be chosen by rafflecopter and announced here as well as emailed and will have 48 hours to respond or a new winner will be chosen. This giveaway is in no way associated with Facebook, Twitter, Rafflecopter or any other entity unless otherwise specified. The number of eligible entries received determines the odds of winning. Giveaway was organized by Kathy from I Am A Reader and sponsored by the authors, bloggers and publishers on the sponsor list. VOID WHERE PROHIBITED BY LAW. a Rafflecopter giveaway

Carry On, Jack, Carry On

Excerpt from TAKERS, and this classic song. I can't wait to see them in concert in two weeks!

Where is everyone?
I raced down the hallway toward the gym. The powerful hum had lessened, but it was still so loud I could hardly focus. I wiped a trickle of blood from below one ear. A whistling sound echoed deep inside my head. Did my eardrum burst?
A muffled scream yanked my attention toward the front of the school. At least I thought it was a scream. With the vibrations threatening to rattle the flesh off my bones, I couldn’t be sure.
Heart pounding in rhythm with the hum, I came to a halt, trying to decide what to do. Shelter in place. Hide until the police come. That was our school policy. It had been drilled into us every time another nut with a gun made the headlines somewhere. But where is everyone hiding?
I looked for an open door. The floor shook beneath me. I knew I should hide, but my feet kept moving toward the empty foyer. Soon I found myself running. I had to find someone, anyone. Maybe they’re outside.
Slowing to a trot, I held my breath, listening. The hum had been replaced by something else, something worse.
Not one scream, but many.
I stopped in front of the cracked glass entrance doors.
My mouth fell open in disbelief.
The sky appeared as tattered as a paper snowflake. “The fabric between our
dimensions is shredding—” Dr. D’s words echoed in my head as I stared through the window. Many of the sky holes were little more than slits. Others were huge, ragged,

gaping. Through each opening elongated globules of matter oozed down like strings of cloudy rain. The matter fell harder and faster until the ground was covered with slick, writhing puddles. From those puddles strange humanoid creatures arose, hissing. When they left their pools of muck, the sound was like a thousand leeches being pulled from wet skin.
As they emerged from the glassy soup, the area was flooded with watery-gray, garnet-eyed creatures. Everything in sight dripped; even their black-slashed mouths and jagged silver teeth oozed with slime.
Dr. D was right. I had to get underground. Back to the basement!
I wanted to run, but my feet felt glued to the floor. The syrupy downpour coated power lines and broke branches from the sycamores as surely as if they’d been covered with ice. I saw people crumpled on the pavement, dead. Others hung from stalled car windows, moaning. As I watched, one of the gray creatures picked up a man and dragged him, screaming, across the street.
As quietly as possible, I backed away, determined not to attract attention. I wanted to turn and run, but I was terrified, afraid to turn my back on the huge, naked creatures that were now headed toward the school. The sound of their bare feet sliding across the wet ground matched the shushing sound of the rain.
I blinked and rubbed my eyes as they came closer.
Strange blue-black tattoos pulsed beneath their glistening skin.
I spun around and sprinted down the hallway toward the basement. Yanking open the
doors, I tripped back down the stairs into the darkness. 

Afterthoughts:
In this chapter, Jack is on the run, but when he stops to take stock, Kansas blasts their iconic song into his head. "Carry On, Wayward Son."

Does anyone know why the title of the song is "Carry on Wayward Son," when they obviously sing "Carry on MY wayward son ..."  I really don't know. Do you?

I Miss You - Excerpt from COPPER LAKE

Played this song a lot while writing scenes like the one below:

Kendra Goes Missing

Amazon Link

He strode to the kitchen and immediately noticed the coffee maker still on. He turned it off and opened the door leading to the garage. Try as he might, Woody couldn’t dispel the feeling of ghosts looking over his shoulder—the living ghosts of her children as they’d been at Thanksgiving. It was as if they were all there with him, urging him to hurry and find their mom.

Her pickup was in the garage, the engine as cold as the coffee.

He dashed back into the living room, grabbed up her handbag, and dumped out the contents. When he spied her key ring, he plucked it up and hurried back to the garage to make certain she wasn’t slumped over behind the wheel of her truck. The tinted windows made the cab seem like a cave. Woody unlocked the driver’s door and climbed inside.

The clean, crisp smell of her perfume lingered in the fabric of the seats.

Woody inhaled deeply, remembering how he’d once breathed in her whispered words in the hallway of a Holiday Inn.

His heart thrummed inside the cage of his ribs.

She’s off on a hike, his mind insisted. She went for a hike and went farther than she intended. She’ll come bursting through the front door any minute and proceed to chew my ass from here to Kingdom Come for jumping to conclusions.

But that idea didn’t ring true.

Ken would never go hiking and leave her phone at home, and the front door unlocked. Especially not at night. Not when she was supposed to meet me over an hour ago. No way.

He closed and relocked the pickup and made his way through the rest of the old house checking every room, every closet, and under every bed.

He even checked the attic.

Still nothing.

Nothing out of place, nothing overturned. No sign of a struggle. No sign of life.

Afterthought: FOR A DIGITAL REVIEW COPY, SIMPLY LEAVE A COMMENT WITH YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS.

Contest Winners!

Yay! The winners of my "Become a character in my next novel" contest are ROSE FREEMAN and GABRIELLE KELLY. Yes! You read that right, while I was running the contest on my blog, someone else was running one for me so now we have TWO winners. Yay!

Rose won the contest by being one of the subscribers to my new (and very random) Newsletter. Of course you can still sign up, I have contests all the time. The next one will be coming up SOON.

 Gabi won by entering a Rafflecopter. Now, I can't say the names of the novels they will be in, that would bring down the JuJu gods and we can't have that, but I will say that I cannot wait to see where these two characters will take me!

5 Things New Author's Should NOT Do

This is what you should NOT do when you're starting out in the writing biz ...

1. Don't assume everyone loves you or your work

2. Don't enter a contest against your agent's wishes -- yes, I actually lost mine when I entered a contest against her wishes

3. Don't assume you know what's best for your book just because you wrote the darn thing -- see #2

4. Don't assume your editor will catch every little mitsake in your writing -- fine-tooth it yourself

5. Don't rely ONLY on your and your editor's fine-toothing abilities -- use beta readers -- every time


There, those are just a few things you should NOT do in this indie press business.

Now, what should you do?

Here's the main thing...

When you DO find someone who loves you and/or your work, cherish them and never let them go -- especially agents, editors, publishers, and most important of all -- READERS!

The Phantoms Are Now in Kindle Unlimited!

The Phantoms are now in Kindle Unlimited - READ for FREE if you're a member of KU. 

Kewl, huh? 

The Phantom Series – ghost stories with heart!

"Don't go in the spooky old house. No matter who dares you, no matter what lures you, do not go in!"

 

Stevie-girl and the Phantom Pilot ~ Book One ~ http://ow.ly/rkYrw

Stevie-girl and the Phantom Student ~Book Two ~ http://tinyurl.com/d47a8hs

Stevie-girl and the Phantom of Crybaby Bridge  ~ Book Three 
http://tinyurl.com/n7pusfw

All three are also available on Audible.com http://tinyurl.com/p4gr2cb