Hunter’s Assessment Release Day Blitz

I don’t normally post reviews on this blog, but in honor of the release of a short story by author Karyn Pearson, here is my review of her story, “Hunter’s Assessment.” Congratulations on the release of your story, Karyn!

Blurb:

After years of training, they should have been ready for this. It was supposed to be a simple mission: eliminate the vampires and acquire the intel they’re guarding.

Shane Kantor figured that this hunter’s assessment would be like every other test the Hunter’s Society had thrown at him and his squad. But he was wrong. Now Shane might just lose everything: his life, his legacy, and worst of all, her.


Review:

Hunter’s Assessment  (Arcturian Bloodlines series)
by Karyn Pearson
Distinguished Press, 2013

"Hunter’s Assessment" is about a group of vampire hunters called the Hunter’s Society. The group is headed by Nadia Kantor, whose son, Shane, is trained to be a leader. The story begins when Shane is first initiated into the group at age 12 then later we see him in action when he is 16. Shane’s teammates, Troy and Sophie, work together as one but Shane has feelings for Sophie, which he knows he has to put on the back burner in order for his team to function competently.

I enjoyed reading this short story, though I wished there had been a little more background. What had Shane’s life been like before he joined the Society? What kind of a relationship did he have with his mother? And if Shane had a father, where was he? I also wanted to learn more about Sophie and felt she could have been fleshed out a little bit more. There were just a lot of unanswered questions and I hope they would be answered in future stories.

Sill, "Hunter’s Assessment" was an interesting quick read. For anyone interested in vampire stories, check out "Hunter’s Assessment."

Bio:

Karyn Pearson is the author of Spark (Hellfire Trilogy #1) and full-time pet parent of her two dogs Nikki and Jamie. She has a B.A. in Anthropology and has explored dozens of cultures in her studies, but has imagined countless more. Karyn enjoys reading, playing action RPGs, and plotting the next adventure for her characters when she has a spare moment free of the dreaded and undefeated “puppy dog eyes attack.”

Her current projects include Inferno (Hellfire Trilogy #2) and the first novel of the upcoming vampire series, Arcturian Bloodlines. When she’s not writing, Karyn can be found playing with her puppies or Googling various dangerous topics for novel research that make her constantly question why federal agents haven’t yet knocked down her front door.

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Planning for 2014

In less than a month and a half, the year will be over. While I have been spending these last weeks wrapping up loose ends and finishing projects, I have also been planning ahead.

Next year is going to be a little bit different. For one thing, there will be two poetry books from me instead of one. Jennifer and I will still do our annual poetry book together, but as far as my own poetry books, there will be two instead of one. This is because I have two of them ready to go and feel there’s “no time like the present” to get them out there. I will be spending next year finishing up two other poetry books.

Also next year, there will be two nonfiction books released instead of one, like before. I am very excited about the pending release of these books. It will certainly be nice to finally see them turned into actual books.

Another “two” from me next year are two children’s books. One of them is already written and my daughter will create illustrations for it next month. The other will be written very soon and is slated for a July publication.

And guess what? There is a third “two” item for this list! The 3rd and 4th stories in The GHOST Group series will be published next year. Yay! I can’t wait to see them come out. The third story in this series, The Ghost of the Irish Setter, was actually based on true events.

Another thing on the agenda for next year is a new ghost book by Martha Jette and myself. Martha agreed to co-write this book with me and I’m very excited at the prospect of working with her again on another ghost book. We’ll be spending time next year writing the book and putting it together; no idea on when it will be done or published. This book is based on a personal ghostly experience I had many years ago and I have come across other stories of this happening, so I really feel there is a book there.

I will be working on some works-in-progress next year and finishing those books up, as well.

And, finally, there won’t be another novel from me next year. I’m thrilled that Shadow of Samhain came out, but I really need to take some time to improve my craft in writing fiction. Sadly, writing novels is not my strong suit, even though I’ve written a few novel manuscripts and love writing novels. But I really want to take some time with my next novel and get it into perfect shape! I don’t think that will mean a new novel next year, and I’m totally fine with that. I am happy with the books I’ll have in progress and coming out in the new year.

As to other things, my daughter will have her novel out next year. It’ll be published in the Spring. I’m also going to be working with a few other writers to help them get their books published. I’m very excited about my publishing ventures planned for next year and can’t wait to get all these books out on the market. The year 2014 is going to be very busy with quite a few changes, but I'm excited by the things I have planned for the year so far.

The Missing Hat, a new book by Jennifer Wilson

Earlier this year, my daughter, Jennifer Wilson, brought home a "book" she made at school. The book was called "The Missing Hat" and it had been a school assignment. When I read it, I told her I thought it was pretty good. Since I've been publishing her books through Createspace, she asked me if I would publish this one, as well. I told her I'd be happy to do it; it did have an appeal to kids who have a favorite hat/cap, and it was a good story about a brother and sister learning how to work together and get along. It also sent an important reminder about how we shouldn't let our hobbies or obsessions make us neglect our siblings. But first, a bit of edits on the manuscript had to be done.

When I edited her manuscript, the first thing I pointed out was that, technically, the story was about a missing "cap" and not a "hat." A cap is more recognized as the kind of headwear she had in her pictures for this story. It's actually inspired by her beloved Kidsports baseball cap that she got for the last season she played baseball, although the cap in the book does not have the "KS" logo. (She stopped playing baseball for a while because in her very last game, she got hurt, but now she's ready to get back into sports again except she wants to play softball next year. She didn't want to play basketball again this year.) She LOVES that cap and she wore it to school practically every day fo her last year in elementary school, except for a time while it was lost. (Maybe that's what inspired her to write this story?) And, against my wishes, she even wore that cap for her school picture! (GAH!!!) So, it is technically a "cap." But Jennifer said she likes "The Missing Hat" better than "The Missing Cap." So, we kept "hat."

Next, I tackled the story itself. I asked Jennifer to clarify a few things ("how old are your characters?" and "where is the story set?"), as well as a reminder to show and not tell. I asked her to show me how her character was sad when he realized his hat was missing. I also asked her to add a bit of background to the story ("why did things all of a sudden change between the character and his sister?").

After Jennifer finished the requested edits, I next took a look at her illustrations. The big issue I have seen with her books is that reviewers complain her illustrations are not in color. Like they are only "sketches." When looking at her drawings, I thought it would be nice to add some color to them so I asked her if she would do that. At first, Jennifer said she would, but after several weeks of nothing, I checked in with her about them. She finally admitted she didn't want to add color to her drawings. She WANTED them to be that way. She wanted her illustrations to be in black and white. Now, I know we should respect how an artist wants her pictures to be, so I told her okay, we'll leave them without color.

So I proceeded with the "fun" job of getting the manuscript turned into a book. (Until I get better at this publishing stuff, it usually takes me a week to get everything done!) After it was satisfactory, I ordered the proof. Jen approved the proof (yay!) and I clicked on the link to make the book go live. A few days later, Jennifer's new book, The Missing Hat, was on Amazon. Yay!

We are very excited that she has a new book out and I'm proud of Jennifer for putting in the effort to make her story shine. I hope other readers enjoy her book, too.

Congratulations, Jennifer!

Here is the blurb:

Koku dreams of being a professional baseball player, so he is excited when his parents buy him a baseball cap. But he spends so much time practicing and playing baseball that he forgets about his little sister, Kokuboro. Kokuboro hides his hat, but then it disappears! Can this brother and sister work together to find the missing hat and have fun together again?


And the links:

Paperback

Kindle

Tenth and final stop for Shadow of Samhain blog tour: An interview and a review!

This is the very last blog post about my blog tour for my novel, Shadow of Samhain. I am very excited about this blog tour! It's been a fun experience and I look forward to doing another one for another book in the near future.

I have been interviewed at The One Saga, which is the blog of author Mathew Bridle. You can read it here. 

Also, Shadow of Samhain got a nice review on the Page Turner Book Tour site. You can read that review here. It's interesting the reviewer said that at the end of the review, because I have entertained the idea of writing a prequel about those very two characters!

Thank you to Page Turner Book Tours for setting up this virtual tour, as well as the review, and thank you to Mathew Bridle for the interview!

Ninth stop for my virtual book tour for Shadow of Samhain: A review at Publish or Bust

The blog tour for my novel, Shadow of Samhain, is almost at an end. I am very excited about this blog tour! It's been a fun experience and I look forward to doing another one for another book in the near future.

I'll pop in here at the blog to share where I'm appearing for each day of the tour.

For today, my novel has been reviewed at Publish or Bust, which is the blog of author Leona Bushman. You can read the review here.

Thank you to Page Turner Book Tours for setting up this virtual tour, and thank you to Leona Bushman for reviewing my book!

Eighth stop for my virtual book tour for Shadow of Samhain: Guest post at Unwritten

The blog tour for my novel, Shadow of Samhain, is almost at an end. I am very excited about this blog tour! It's been a fun experience and I look forward to doing another one for another book in the near future.

I'll pop in here at the blog to share where I'm appearing for each day of the tour.

For today, I am a guest at Unwritten, which is the blog of author Mysti Parker. I made in a goof in this post: I incorrectly noted that November 1st was Christianized as All Souls Day. That is not correct. November 1st is All Saints Day and November 2nd is All Souls Day. I had a "duh moment" when I wrote that. Whoops! I tried to fix the mistake in time before the post went live, but that just couldn't happen. You can read my post, "Samhain and the Veil Between the Living and Dead: A Guest Post and Giveaway by Dawn Colclasure" here.
 
Thank you to Page Turner Book Tours for setting up this virtual tour, and thank you to Mysti Parker for hosting me!

Seventh stop for my virtual book tour for Shadow of Samhain: Two guest posts!

The blog tour for my novel, Shadow of Samhain, is almost at an end. I am very excited about this blog tour! It's been a fun experience and I look forward to doing another one for another book in the near future.

I'll pop in here at the blog to share where I'm appearing for each day of the tour.

For today, I am a guest at TWO blogs! Yay!

The one for the tour is a post at the blog opf author J.S. Council. Check it out here. (SIDE NOTE: I kinda goofed on that one but fixed the problem in my comment. :) )

The other guest spot is actually at the blog of fellow GSP author, Catherine Cavendish! Catherine is awesome and it's been a pleasure to know her. I always enjoy reading her blog posts; she writes about such interesting things! Sadly, I have never been to Stonehenge, but a trip to England is on my bucket list and when I get out there someday, I hope I can look Catherine up! (As well as some of my other friends in England -- including Kate Bainbridge of Page Turner Book Tours!) Check out my post here.
 
Thank you to Page Turner Book Tours for setting up this virtual tour, and thank you to J.S. Council and Catherine Cavendish for the guest spots on your blog!

Sixth stop for my virtual book tour for Shadow of Samhain: Spotlight at the Spellbindings blog

Today marks the continuation of my first ever blog tour for my new book, a dark fantasy novel called Shadow of Samhain. I am very excited about this blog tour! And there are only 4 days left!

I'll pop in here at the blog to share where I'm appearing for each day of the tour.

This post is very late in the day because it's been a really stressful day.

For today, the book was spotlighted on the blog of author Rebecca Ryals Russell. You can check out the spotlight here.


Thank you to Page Turner Book Tours for setting up this virtual tour, and thank you to Rebecca Ryals Russell for the spotlight! 

Fifth stop for my virtual book tour for Shadow of Samhain: Interview at Emily Walker's blog

 This week is my first ever blog tour for my new book, a dark fantasy novel called Shadow of Samhain. I am very excited about this blog tour! Yay!

I'll pop in here at the blog to share where I'm appearing for each day of the tour.

This post is a little late in the day. My Internet was disconnected this morning while work was being done on the house and I just now got back online with my PC and saw that the post was now up. Yay!

For today, I have been interviewed by author Emily Walker. You can check out her interview with me here.

Thank you to Page Turner Book Tours for setting up this virtual tour, and thank you to Emily for the interview!