Important Note: This post is dated Wednesday, April 18, 2012, and the titles mentioned here may remain free only until midnight PST tonight.

Their very blood betrays them.

A disease passed to each new generation of descendants attracts vampires. Pieces of family history and the secrets to survival are lost as the lineage progresses. The Kindred Curse Anthology of prequels lead you back in time, revealing the root of a dynasty’s plight and a beginning that ultimately transcends the family’s end.

Consisting of five short stories, each subsequent book in this anthology is written as a prequel to the prior. The matriarch of the family, Anna Sprengel, survives a vampire poisoning. Her tainted blood is passed down to each new generation, morphing into deadly auto-immune diseases. However, no descendant can escape the magnetic pull they have toward vampires – and vampires have toward the family. Loosely based on the true story of the foundations of the Order of the Golden Dawn, Anna foresees the destruction of the world, and joins forces with a vampire in order to prevent the total loss of both races. But every member of the family in each generation must play their part. Constantly on the run from vampires, their instincts for self-preservation overcome even their kindred bonds. Anna is no longer around to ensure the prophecy is carried out by her family, but her vampire cohort, Xavier, is. Even if he can overcome the sensual pull toward Isabelle, fulfillment of the prophecy remains precarious as the future of both races is at stake.

Fear and betrayal threaten the kingdom of Avador. Keriam, a princess with supernatural powers, must save her father from assassination. But can she trust Roric, or is he part of the plot?

Roric loved once and lost. He wants to put his past behind him and love Princess Keriam, but he fears she is a witch. And witchcraft is forbidden in the kingdom. If found guilty, she will be burned at the stake. Not even her father could save her.

Important Note: This post is dated Tuesday, April 17, 2012, and the titles mentioned here may remain free only until midnight PST tonight.

*  *  *

Knowledge changes everything…

Hoodoo-influenced Southern Louisiana seems like the perfect place for Camille to relocate and escape her abusive past. She didn’t expect to fall in love and plummet herself into the world of Amaranth, a place of exile for reformed vampires.

Thanks to her deadly vampire ex-boyfriend, she’s confronted with decisions that not only threaten her life but the lives of her inhuman friends that she has come to love. Entangled in her friends’ quest for freedom, she dives into their realm and faces the threats of the ruler of Amaranth—the mother of all vampires—and her own inner demons.

Will she derail her life and make the ultimate sacrifice for the very monsters that interrupted her bumpy path back to sanity—the one she wanted so desperately in the first place? Or will she find a way to escape with her vampire love before it’s too late?

The Private Confessions of Perfect Strangers

A collection of six poignant, sometimes heart-wrenching, sometimes heart-warming and frequently witty first person short stories from award-winning author Andrew Biss

They say never judge a book by its cover but it’s something many of us are apt to do at some point or another. Judging a person by their appearance is equally unwise, as none of us can know the personal turmoil behind the public façade of a perfect stranger. But what if we could…

Each of these stories juxtaposes the public face with the private, conflicted person behind it.

BIG GIRL:

An overweight young woman named Peggy appraises her recently purchased self-help book, “The Bigger the Better.”

THE REPLICA:

An abused wife reflects on her past and deconstructs the emergence of the replica that now haunts her present.

A SMALL ACT OF VANDALISM:

Malcolm, a gentle, middle-aged soul with a troubled mind, keeps his mother’s remains sealed in a small porcelain box. What he keeps hidden among his memories, however, isn’t so easily contained.

ONE NIGHT ONLY:

Denny, a prisoner on death row in an Alabama State Penitentiary, spends his final moments reviewing his career as a serial killer in an interview with himself.

ORGAN FAILURE:

A woman in the viewing room of a funeral home addresses the body of her lover in the coffin before her.

WYWH:

Eileen, a reclusive, middle-aged divorcee, still haunted by the loss of her son, discovers a new life in the virtual world.

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Alone in the bamboo forest, seven-year-old Little Jade, still dressed in red silk after her father’s recent wedding, wonders whether she will ever meet her real mother. DAUGHTER OF THE BAMBOO FOREST is a story set in war-torn, post-revolutionary China during the 1940s. From age seven to twelve, Little Jade longs for the attention of an opium-addicted father and clashes with a desperate, resentful stepmother. The young girl is inadvertently swept by the tides of history, encountering a plague that decimated a village, Catholic nuns in a convent school, and the fabled dragon king along the way.

Important Note: This post is dated Tuesday, April 17, 2012, and the titles mentioned here may remain free only until midnight PST tonight.

Seven Point Eight:
The most powerful number in the universe.
The number that connects everything.It is time to wake up….A physicist begins a quest to measure the soul but soon finds himself drawn into the world of the enigmatic Max Richardson, where research is sold to the military at the highest bid. However, he soon discovers another purpose when an extremely talented young psychic enters his life. He devises a project and builds a team to stretch the frontiers of exploration, only to make a reality-shattering discovery…Written in the style of a TV series, The First Chronicle is the beginning of a 5 part epic which follows the spiritual and emotional journey of five people; their quest to understand the universe and our place within it.Quantum physics meets spirituality in a tale which begins in the 1940s, unfolds during the 1960s; an era of social and spiritual transformation and reaches its conclusion in the modern age.
It interweaves the human dramas of love, betrayal, bitterness and above all, courage in a world where everyone must face their own dark shadow.For fans of the paranormal, big sweeping epics, metaphysics, science fiction, ‘Lost’, ‘Fringe’, contemporary fantasy, alternate realities and new age/spirituality.
It’s also highly suited to Young Adult readers, who like sci-fi along with their paranormal, or those who like a more challenging read.

The young Ben Clayton was one of Britain’s brightest boxing prospects, until the day he slammed a left hook into a fragile chin. Sickened by the consequences he turned away from the ring, found solace in the arms of the beautiful Lucy Kirk and looked for new challenges.

On the 7th March 1936, after almost two decades of peace in Europe, Hitler ordered the German Army back into the Rhineland. It was a direct challenge to Britain and France. Still unnerved by the toll of the Great War, the politicians dithered. The French Army stayed in its barracks, while the aristocratic British elite looked on from their country retreats.

History teetered on a knife edge, but the spymasters were busy.

Just one man could make the difference between war and peace, victory or defeat. And that man was Ben Clayton. Thrown into the maelstrom of plot and counter-plot, into a world of murder, spies and traitors, Ben must battle not just to survive, but to protect all that he loves and holds most dear.

The Fulcrum Files is a #1 Historical Mystery book on the Amazon.com Paid Chart.

Lila Carmichael, outrageous, bawdy comedienne, is a rich and powerful woman in television. But, it’s not enough she has everything she desires; for fifteen years she has been obsessively orchestrating payback to five unsuspecting, former schoolmates—“friends” who played a nasty trick on her, and now it’s her turn for revenge.

Under the flattering auspices of a cozy college reunion, these unsuspecting classmates are invited to Lila’s private island for a weekend from hell where Lila forces them to play a vicious parlor game—a psychological “Ten Little Indians,” where one by one Lila’s guests are figuratively killed-off. Yet, revenge turns bittersweet when the weekend is over and one guest is dead.

A psychological spinoff of Agatha Christie’s “Ten Little Indians” that Publisher’s Weekly calls “A page-turning thrill ride that will have readers holding their breaths the whole way through.”

75 years ago on March 18, 1937 around 3:17 pm, one of the most modern public school buildings in America exploded in a rural Texas community decimating the student population and destroying innocent lives. Considered the worst public school disaster in American history, controversial theories surrounding this tragedy are still debated to this day. The event sparked changes that soon reverberated around the world and continue to affect each of us in our homes, schools, businesses and places of worship.”An American Holocaust” is a story that begins with the giving of a child’s Christmas gift in 1936. The explosion took place at the London School in New London, Texas in 1937. The story relays more than simple facts. It is a personal account of unprepared loss and shattered dreams, followed by unfathomable grief. It describes the feelings of those who died in their innocence and of those who witnessed horror and lived through the aftermath. An unresolved silence persisted for forty years among the entire community of scarred survivors. For those who spoke out, their stories have been told and re-told for three quarters of a century, but most people have never heard them.

Although the innocent still suffer from the ignorance and indifference of a few, especially those we should be able to trust with the lives and safety of our children, this is also a story of hope. Countless lives have been saved by bold actions that were taken in the wake of this unanticipated sacrifice of so many children who were literally consumed by fire. It was truly an American holocaust. (See the video book at https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL0DE3ACE1517F08F2&feature=view_all )

Important Note: This post is dated Monday, April 16, 2012, and the titles mentioned here may remain free only until midnight PST tonight.

December 21, 2012 – Will that fateful day destroy our world, or did the Mayans have something else in mind? Maya Delaney knows. Unfortunately.

Maya Delaney is just an average sixteen-year- old. She’s busy dealing with exams, her soon to be ex-boyfriend and fitting in. But Maya’s got bigger problems. She’s hiding a major secret from her dad and having strange visions she can’t control. In her struggle to figure out who she is, she learns that she is meant to fulfill an ancient Mayan Prophesy and bring forth a New Age on earth. Will the spirit magic Maya wields be enough to defeat Toltec, an evil society bent on keeping her from her destiny? Or will that destiny destroy her?

*  *  *

*  *  *

Important Note: This post is dated Sunday, April 15, 2012, and the titles mentioned here may remain free only until midnight PST tonight.

A hedonistic killer clashes with a dedicated investigator in this psychological thriller about the abuse of power and the hidden demons that torment the lives of ordinary people.

Linda Morgan investigates psychotherapists who are having sex with their clients. The job is bizarre, but not particularly dangerous — at least until the day she discovers she’s being stalked. Is it one of the therapists she’s investigating? Her ex-husband? The new boyfriend?

(This book was originally titled Weep No More when it was released in 2011)

Fans of Robert B. Parker’s Spenser books should try this one. Hallinan, a 2011 Best Novel Edgar finalist, began his six-book Simeon Grist series with this white-knuckle mystery. Simeon Grist knows L.A. inside and out–the sex for sale, the chic seductions, every rip-off from City Hall to Venice. So when he’s hired by a Hollywood recording company to shadow one Sally Oldfield, suspected of embezzlement, Grist discovers she’s entangled in The Church of the Eternal Moment–a million-dollar religious scam built around a 12-year-old channeler and the voice of a man who has been dead for a millennium. When Sally turns up dead, Simeon knows he’s become the next target of a very flesh-and-blood entity waiting in the back alleys of sin and salvation to give him a brutal look at the four last things: death, judgment, heaven and hell–revelations he could definitely live without…

December 21, 2012 – Will that fateful day destroy our world, or did the Mayans have something else in mind? Maya Delaney knows. Unfortunately.

Maya Delaney is just an average sixteen-year- old. She’s busy dealing with exams, her soon to be ex-boyfriend and fitting in. But Maya’s got bigger problems. She’s hiding a major secret from her dad and having strange visions she can’t control. In her struggle to figure out who she is, she learns that she is meant to fulfill an ancient Mayan Prophesy and bring forth a New Age on earth. Will the spirit magic Maya wields be enough to defeat Toltec, an evil society bent on keeping her from her destiny? Or will that destiny destroy her?

Beautiful and talented, Addie came to the city with little more than a violin tucked beneath her chin and enough moxie to launch her dream – and find the father she hadn’t seen in sixteen years. And she did find him – just days before Jess’s article put a noose around his neck.

Now, in the darkest corner of the city, corruption and greed bring Addie and Jess to the brink of terror, and Jess must discover not only who wants this good man dead, but how to save the woman who has stolen his heart.

………….Historical Romantic Suspense set in 1896 New York City ………….

“Those who prosper by thievery, thuggery, or by ruining another, have chosen to live on the devil’s dime.”

Knowledge changes everything…

Hoodoo-influenced Southern Louisiana seems like the perfect place for Camille to relocate and escape her abusive past. She didn’t expect to fall in love and plummet herself into the world of Amaranth, a place of exile for reformed vampires.

Thanks to her deadly vampire ex-boyfriend, she’s confronted with decisions that not only threaten her life but the lives of her inhuman friends that she has come to love. Entangled in her friends’ quest for freedom, she dives into their realm and faces the threats of the ruler of Amaranth—the mother of all vampires—and her own inner demons.

Will she derail her life and make the ultimate sacrifice for the very monsters that interrupted her bumpy path back to sanity—the one she wanted so desperately in the first place? Or will she find a way to escape with her vampire love before it’s too late?

Have you ever experienced a heavenly encounter? Have you ever acted on a hunch or gotten a strong feeling that you needed to do something, but didn’t know why?  Many everyday people have had such events transpire in their lives and recognized miracles when they happened, whether a disaster was averted or they were helped by strangers who appeared seemingly out of nowhere.  This book offers a unique opportunity to read about some of those poignant occurrences.  The stories will astound you.   Would you like to view an inspirational promo video of this book?  It is located at Cindy Adkins’ Author Page.  You can reach that by clicking her name up above and it will take you to that page.  Once you arrive at the author page, just scroll down until you see it in the far right column.

Cindy Adkins is the bestselling author of “Do You Need a Hug from Heaven?”  She resides in New Orleans, Louisiana.  Adkins holds a Master’s Degree in Humanities from the California State University, Dominguez Hills. “In my graduate work, I was able to study about ‘life questions’ that have intrigued me for years.  But, I find that it is through personal experience that people come to learn about the deeper meaning of existence,” she said. “This book serves to illuminate the subject of spirituality by revealing the stories of many of those who have had heavenly events happen in their lives.  It is my hope that readers will get in touch with their own memories of such occurrences, feel validated, and question their deeper meaning.”

Important Note: This post is dated Saturday, April 14, 2012, and the titles mentioned here may remain free only until midnight PST tonight.

Fans of Robert B. Parker’s Spenser books should try this one. Hallinan, a 2011 Best Novel Edgar finalist, began his six-book Simeon Grist series with this white-knuckle mystery. Simeon Grist knows L.A. inside and out–the sex for sale, the chic seductions, every rip-off from City Hall to Venice. So when he’s hired by a Hollywood recording company to shadow one Sally Oldfield, suspected of embezzlement, Grist discovers she’s entangled in The Church of the Eternal Moment–a million-dollar religious scam built around a 12-year-old channeler and the voice of a man who has been dead for a millennium. When Sally turns up dead, Simeon knows he’s become the next target of a very flesh-and-blood entity waiting in the back alleys of sin and salvation to give him a brutal look at the four last things: death, judgment, heaven and hell–revelations he could definitely live without…

What happens when fate chooses an ordinary man for an extraordinary mission?

Arnab Bannerjee has little excitement in his life other than tracking down missing books as the Assistant Librarian in a small college in Delhi. All that changes one day when he is beaten and left for dead after a robbery. Arnab awakens to discover that he has developed fantastic superhuman powers and he tries to master his new¬found powers and to use them for good. As a hooded superhero he takes to the streets on a one-man crusade against injustice. However he soon realizes that in a society where the only power that matters comes from having money or the right connections, one man, even a superhero, can make little difference.

When he embarks on a final, desperate mission, he realizes that to succeed, he has to become a part of the very system he loathes by tapping into a motley set of allies such as the Minister who wants to use his powers to rig elections, the corrupt policeman who shot Arnab for exposing him and the corporate tycoon who wants to sign him up as a brand ambassador!

At one level, Heroes R Us seeks to entertain with a delightfully contemporary take on the superhero genre, and at another level it asks the provocative question of whether in the dark and corrupt times we live in, there is any place left for heroes. Slumdog Millionaire meets Spiderman in this exciting novel that will entertain and make you think at the same time.

Devan Stowe has only one thing on her mind when she teams up with Kent Crosby and his associates—putting an end to her father’s child trafficking business. Her determination takes her on a journey to discover her true strength and the… one man she was destined to love. In his arms, she’ll learn the meaning of trust, honor, and courage. Devan will unlock an amazing gift that will free her from her past and open up a future full of magic, faeries and more things than she ever imagined possible.

A hedonistic killer clashes with a dedicated investigator in this psychological thriller about the abuse of power and the hidden demons that torment the lives of ordinary people.

Linda Morgan investigates psychotherapists who are having sex with their clients. The job is bizarre, but not particularly dangerous — at least until the day she discovers she’s being stalked. Is it one of the therapists she’s investigating? Her ex-husband? The new boyfriend?

(This book was originally titled Weep No More when it was released in 2011)

Ellis Garrison, the son of an Earl, once had much more to offer the beautiful, Callie Dunning. Now he’s returned from the war. The war that left him near death and forced to walk with a cane. When Callie nearly sacrifices her safety to save one of Ellis’s new carriage horses from being shot by a stable hand, Ellis sees a change in Callie. She is not the spoiled, rich girl he knew.

Damage is not always external. Some is inside the soul.

Will Callie and Ellis rekindle the mutual attraction they once shared and be able to work through their wounds to give love another chance?

Chloe Banks has always been known for her political, powerful billionaire last name and of course, naturally, for her money. Now she’s ready to show to the world there is more to her than what meets the eye. She’s more than the prim debutante from a privileged background. Yes, her father may be running for President and her mother may be the socialite of the year, never lifting a finger unless it’s to sip a flute of champagne, but Chloe is just like any other normal twenty-three year old, wanting to love and be loved, wanting to make her own mark in this world.

So Chloe moves temporarily with her two friends to Venezuela to serve in an orphanage as a nurse. But it is there she faces the same prejudices she is running away from, including the judgment from the incredibly good-looking orphanage facilitator and a few grumpy doctors. Chloe has to learn to let go of others’ assumptions of who she is so she can finally live her life free. But will she?

The Last Name Banks is part of the “Living, Loving, and Laughing Again series”, but can be read as a stand alone novel.

If you enjoyed Norah and Maycee from The Last Page, you can find them again in Venezuela with Chloe in The Last Name Banks!

Book One: The Last Page (Norah’s story) out now!
Book Two: The Last Name Banks (Chloe’s story) out now!
Book Three: The Last Pretense (Maycee’s story) due fall 2012.

This novel is 57k words (roughly 284 paper pages).

THE TAMING OF A PRINCESS…

Serena Van Buren, the privileged daughter of a wealthy businessman, can’t wait to begin her three-month tour of Europe with her college mates. Little does she know that fate has other plans in store!

Instead of dancing with handsome Italians and dining with charming Frenchmen Serena finds herself trapped in a six-month internship with overbearing business tycoon, Roman Steele – an arrangement orchestrated by her own father.

Serena is determined to show Roman that she won’t yield to the demands of any man, boss or no boss. She’s a Van Buren, after all, known to wither a man with one look. But Roman Steele is like no man she’s ever met before. Suave, sexy and stunningly handsome, there’s something about him that she can’t resist. It looks like Serena Van Buren has finally met her match.

A sweet and saucy romance that will have you smiling…

Just because you can’t see them doesn’t mean they’re not there.

It was a normal Christmas Eve until Jeff Tanner’s son Davey snapped a turkey wishbone and made a crazy wish.

Now Jeff is seeing strange things that no one else can – bug-eyed babies, walking teddy bears, and tiny freaks galore.

What’s worse, they don’t like him. Not one bit.

Now Jeff has to figure out why they’re angry, and quick, before his life is ruined by a million, invisible…

Important Note: This post is dated Friday, April 13, 2012, and the titles mentioned here may remain free only until midnight PST tonight.

Dangerous Harbor is a seriously dangerous romantic suspense novel that will keep you up well past your bedtime! The heroine, Katy, is a beautiful and appealing San Francisco cop, whose solo sailing vacation down to Ensenada turns into a busman’s holiday, complete with a dead body, ex-boyfriend, sleazy business tycoon, drug Cartels, and a seriously sexy Mexican lawman. –M. Louisa Locke, author of Maids of Misfortune & Uneasy Spirits

“Take a San Francisco police officer who is on leave for shooting a man who threatened her sister, send her on a sailing trip into Mexican waters where she finds the body of a murdered teenage girl, and you’ve got the mix for an intriguing mystery. Add an irresistible Mexican-Italian man who happens to be the lead investigator on the case and the romance begins to sizzle. I loved the vivid descriptions of this coastal Mexican town, and the methodic way in which officer Katy Hunter helps with the investigation. A satisfying ending in which all the threads come together into a neatly plotted book.” – Connie Shelton, author of the best-selling Charlie Parker mysteries and the new Samantha Sweet mysteries

Bleary-eyed and sleep deprived after a long overnighter into Mexico, solo sailor and SFPD police detective, Katrina Hunter, thinks the mermaid twenty yards behind her thirty-two foot Westsail is nothing more than a sailor’s hallucination But everything she knows about floaters convinces her to turn her boat around for another look.
Now, alone and isolated in the Mexican port’s police station for six hours she’s convinced that reporting a floater to authorities was a mistake. Even the arrival of a handsome, if somewhat dour, Mexican/Italian investigator does nothing to dispel her growing anxiety that she’s about to be charged with the murder.
Chief Inspector, Raul Vignaroli, is as surprised by the attractive solo-sailor as he is to find that she’s a respected member of the San Francisco police force, and after some well-placed phone calls he’s sure that he’s found the perfect partner to help him solve a murder, if not the cure for his broken heart.
Released, she’s free to go. But leaving the police station hits a snag when two policemen march in, dragging a listless prisoner between them. But before Katy can dodge them for the exit, the prisoner raises his head and a startling pair of aquamarine eyes meet hers.
He straightens his back, wincing at the angle of his cuffed wrists. “What the… Whisper?”
Suddenly, the sound of the ceiling fan is terribly loud. Blood pounds in her ears, her mouth goes dry, her palms are damp and her feet are nailed to the floor. In a knee jerk reaction, she hisses, “Don’t call me that!”

She must die! No, Briana couldn’t bear it. The holy day of Samhain approached, when the veil between the real world and the Otherworld disappears, and demons stalk the land. To placate the gods and protect the people on the eve of Samhain, the druids choose the most beautiful woman in the land to sacrifice–to knife to death!

A seer with special powers, Briana’s adoptive mother knows it is Briana the druids have chosen to sacrifice. You must run, she tells Briana, escape! Reluctant to leave all she holds dear, Briana knows she must escape and flees in the dead of night.

The druids order their most trusted enforcer to capture Briana and bring her back. Why have they chosen him? Weylyn agonizes. He has loved Briana for years. Which choice will Weylyn make–love or duty?

With the King of Altera on his deathbed, all eyes are on his only child. Princess Angeline Robart has spent the last three years finishing her studies in a remote convent far away from the capital city of Brebackerin. On her way to her father’s side in preparation for her Ascension, Angeline is kidnapped by Connor, a mysterious vampire who has his own motivations for becoming involved in the high stakes game of intrigue.

As the last of the Robart bloodline, Angeline soon realizes that enemies long thought conquered have been doing nothing but lying in wait for just such an opportunity to turn things to their advantage, and horrifying myths are actually realities.

Facing the impossible consequences of a freak accident, Angeline must travel a dangerous path to regain control of her fate, even if that means relying on Connor, a man who epitomizes everything her family hated and tried to destroy. As Angeline struggles to find an escape, the future of Altera hangs in the balance.

Faith Carter thinks she is living the high life in California, getting any man she wants. However she soon finds out living in the fast line is not all that it’s cracked up to be. Will she survive a life changing situation?

This is a short-story from the Sweet-Bites range published under The Write to Inspire Publishing Company.

Jamie has it all, looks, brains, and a charming personality. But in this romance cover model’s world, those blessings become a curse when a colleague blurs the line between reality and fantasy. Will women only see him for his looks and never look below the surface to the man beneath?
Hope had a dream job, working with sexy, hot photographs, turning authors’ dreams into reality. When laid off from her publisher as a cover artist she must find her namesake in life again…some kind of hope for her future. Can a birthday wish give her what she truly desires? They say be careful what you wish for.
Destiny seems to bring Jamie and Hope what they need, each other. But a dangerous obstacle stands in their way as obsession turns deadly. Can Jamie trust in Hope’s grounded nature? Is Hope strong enough to live in Jamie’s world? Or will reality intrude on their fantasy of being together?