Archive for the ‘blog tour’ Category

Calling All YA Fantasy Readers

Hi guys! Novel Publicity has another epic blog tour coming up on the 20th of May and we need you. Do you like YA fantasy, want to have fun, drive traffic to your blog, support a wonderful author and win tons of prizes (including cash prizes AND a Kindle Fire) at the same time? ‘Course you do!

We’re touring two books in a YA Fantasy series by Thaddeus Nowak, Mother’s Curse and Daughter’s Justice. Review one, both, or neither. That’s right, you don’t even have to read the books to participate – although we’d love for you to do so. But if you decide not to review them, we will provide your choice of a pre-formatted excerpt, interview, or guest post to make participation easy.

About the books

Thaddeus Nowak - Mother's Curse

Tradition holds that a mother who commits a mortal sin against the gods will be cursed with a daughter born a witch. Stephenie, the youngest princess of Cothel is just such a curse. Hostage to her mother’s will while her father and older brother fight a war two countries away, Stephenie must overcome her mother’s plots if she is to save her father, brother, and the many soldiers she trained with.

Fearful of her mother’s growing traitorous behavior, Stephenie must escape Antar Castle. But to do so, she might have to rely upon her hidden powers, risking others discovering she is a witch…a risk that would most certainly result in her death by burning. With the help of a select group of soldiers and an unexpected ally, she just might survive.

Daughter's Justice by Thaddeus Nowak

Stephenie has revealed to the world that she is a witch!The faithful followers of Felis and the other gods are now demanding that she be burned to prevent the spread of the demon god’s evil. However, another voice is rising up, declaring that she has already been cleansed of Elrin’s influence and that she is chosen by the gods; it is a claim Stephenie detests.

To make matters worse, her brother, who by rights of succession is now King, lacks the funds to pay his soldiers and keep control of Cothel. Their mother, having fled to Kynto with the treasury and war supplies, has emboldened some of the dukes and many of the barons to demand more control of the country in exchange for their support.

Can Stephenie avoid the fires of the followers of Felis and people she once called friend or will their claims of righteous anger overwhelm her support? And even if she avoids being burned alive, will her presence simply be the catalyst that plunges Cothel into a civil war?

Interested in joining us? Make sure to click here and sign up. :)

The Forever Girl Treasure Hunt

The Forever Girl treasure hunt

Hello and welcome to the treasure hunt tour for The Forever Girl! :) Here’s how it’s done: Each stop on the tour will have a small excerpt with a code hidden it. Visit all the stops to gather the letters, unscramble the phrase, and email it to Sandra by clicking here . (The complete list of blog tour stops can be found here.)

The winner will receive a goody bag including:
  • 1 Forever Girl Ring
  • 1 Forever Girl Keychain
  • 1 Forever Girl Necklace
  • 1 Forever Girl Bookmark
  • 1 Forever Girl Candle
  • 1 signed copy of The Forever Girl
  • 1 signed copy of the companion novella, Her Sweetest Downfall
  • AND the author will also immortalize the lucky winner by giving them a cameo appearance in the next Forever Girl book.
Bonus: If you’ve already reviewed The Forever Girl on Amazon, include the link to your review along with the unscrambled phrase for an additional entry!

Between Boyfriends Blog Tour: Guest Post and Giveaway

Hello everyone! Today I have the pleasure of taking part in author Sarka Miller’s Between Boyfriends blog tour. Sarka stopped by Books, Biscuits, and Tea with a special guest post and giveaway. I hope you’ll enjoy them!

Guest post

Chick Lit Cover Trends: What’s Wrong With Pink?

When I originally envisioned a cover for my chick lit novel, Between Boyfriends, I saw a detailed picture of my protagonist Jan and the two men in her life. On one side would be a small picture of San Diego State University’s Love Library where Jan’s ex-boyfriend Mike breaks her heart. On the other side was a picture of the fictional massage therapy school I invented. The background was sky blue. Yet when I went to design the cover for the ebook version, everything changed. Suddenly I wanted simple. I always admired Emily Giffin’s minimalist covers. Each cover has primarily one element and no background. I also decided I wanted pink. Cliché or no, I love pink and I really love pink and black together. I was still a bit nervous though until a friend criticize the cover as too pink. That’s when I knew I had struck gold.

Writers of women’s fiction often complain when their publishers choose a pink cover. Some of these writers have valid complaints. A few years ago, before chick lit was a “bad word,” publishers were assigning chick lit style covers to books written by women, whether they fit the genre or not. This is a disservice to everyone. But why would a chick lit writer complain about a pink cover? The colour certainly attracts attention and lets readers know that a light, fun story lies below the pink exterior. I decided to adopt the opposite attitude to these anti-pink crusaders. After all, resistance is futile. If pink works, then by George I was going to have the pinkest cover possible!

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Love Comes Later Blog Tour: Guest Post and Giveaway

Please enjoy this guest post by Mohanalakshmi Rajakumar, author of the heart-breaking multicultural romance, Love Comes Later. Then read on to learn how you can win huge prizes as part of this blog tour, including a Kindle Fire, $550 in Amazon gift cards, 5 autographed copies of Love Comes Later, and 5 copies of its companion, From Dunes to Dior.

 Where in the World is Mohadoha?
A guest post by Mohanalakshmi Rajakumar

Seven years ago, when I told people in the U.S. I was moving to Qatar, most people had one of two reactions. “Why?” was one. “Where?” was the other.

The prevalent stereotype was of oil rich countries was of places like Saudi Arabia where women cannot drive and houses were rumored to have gold inlay on the doors or doctors living on the family property. I found it difficult to navigate between these two extremes and avoided conversation with the uninitiated when at home in order to save myself time, aggravation, and the risk of offending with curt replies.

There was a minority who knew of the place where I was headed, but these were either engineers, oil industry professionals, or—as I found out at my 10 year high school reunion—people in the intelligence community (that’s right, one among us was in the CIA). He was the ONLY person at our meet and greet for whom I did not have to go through the standard questions about the heat, clothing, and food.

He knew no one had lived in tents in at least two generations and that camels were not the major source of transportation—but rather luxury SUVs.

If there has been anything positive from the many political and economic crises in the last seven years, from international banks in a tailspin to the overthrowing of dictators during the Arab Spring, it has been a shift in perception about the Middle East.

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Love Comes Later Blog Tour: Excerpt and Giveaway


Please enjoy this excerpt from Love Comes Later, a heart-breaking multicultural romance by Mohanalakshmi Rajakumar. Then read on to learn how you can win huge prizes as part of this blog tour, including a Kindle Fire, $550 in Amazon gift cards, 5 autographed copies of Love Comes Later, and 5 copies of its companion, From Dunes to Dior.

Abdulla’s mind wasn’t on Fatima, or on his uncles or cousins. Not even when he drove through the wrought iron entry gate, oblivious to the sprawl of family cars parked haphazardly in the shared courtyard, did he give them a thought. Despite the holy season, his mind was still hard at work. Mentally, he clicked through a final checklist for tomorrow’s meetings. I can squeeze in a few more hours if Fatima is nauseous and sleeps in tomorrow, he thought, rubbing his chin. Instead of the stubble he had anticipated, his whiskers were turning soft. A trim was yet another thing he didn’t have time for these days, though longer beards were out of fashion according to his younger brother Saad, who had been trying to grow one for years. Beard length. Just another change to keep up with.

Change was all around him, Abdulla thought. The cousins getting older, he himself soon to become a father. Abdulla felt the rise of his country’s profile most immediately in the ballooning volume of requests by foreign governments for new trade agreements. By the day, it seemed, Qatar’s international status was growing, which meant more discussions, more meetings.

He slid the car into a gap in the growing shadow between his father’s and grandfather’s houses. It would have to serve as a parking space. The Range Rover door clicked shut behind him as he walked briskly toward his father’s house, BlackBerry in hand, scrolling through his messages. Only then did the sound of wailing reach him, women in pain or grief, emanating from his Uncle Ahmed’s house across the courtyard. He jerked the hands-free device out of his ear and quickened his pace, jogging not toward the majlis where the rest of the men were gathering, but into the main living area of Uncle Ahmed’s, straight toward those unearthly sounds.

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Torn Blog Tour: Researching Afghanistan…

Hello and welcome to the last stop on the Torn blog tour! Today author David Massey is joining us here at Books, Biscuits and Tea to talk about his research methods for his debut novel, Torn. I thoroughly enjoyed the book and I can’t recommend it enough! If you like young adult fiction (or if you’re looking for a gripping adventure) you might want to give it a try. If you missed my review on Monday, you can read it by clicking here. And without further ado, please welcome David Massey!

Researching Afghanistan…

I did think of going but… there’s a war on. Fortunately though I’ve been privileged enough to have travelled to Africa, Europe and America and to Romania just as the revolution was ending. I think that gave me a feel for how young people are caught up in wars and conflicts too. In Timisoara, the two teenage sons of our contact had just got back from digging up some of their family who had been killed in the uprising and they showed us the very graphic video they were making so that the rest of the world would hear about what they were going through. Guns were still being fired at night although nobody seemed to know who was shooting, or why, now that the revolution was over. As we were leaving the town we met a young boy who took us to see the doorway where his friends and family were gunned down when they were demonstrating in the town square.

In Bucharest, we met a man who told us that the storming of the palace only started when the children rushed up the steps of Ceausescu’s palace. The adults, he told us, were too frightened. It took the kids to start the surge forward to storm the line of soldiers.

Torn by David MasseyRunning an emergency supplies business gave me an insight into some of the medical kit Elinor might need as an army medic. Things like Israeli bandages for serious trauma and gels that expand to fill entry and exit wounds like the one Ellie uses in the mountains… And for everything else I needed to research? All I can say is thank God for YouTube. I spent hours watching videos shot by soldiers, medics and documentary makers in Afghanistan.

Thank you David! If you’re interested in David’s work, make sure to stop by his author page, or purchase a copy of Torn. :)

Want to drive traffic to your blog and win great prizes? (Blog tour sign up!)

Novel Publicity is now recruiting bloggers for a gigantic whirlwind tour. Over 100 bloggers will be sharing excerpts, interviews, and guest posts and competing for $500 in prizes. Free eBook copies will be available for anyone who would like to review the featured book, and autographed copies will be raffled off during the tour as well. In summary, the benefits are huge! You can drive traffic to your blog, support a wonderful author, and win colossal prizes.

The featured book is Praise of Motherhood by Phil Jourdan.You don’t even have to read the book to participate; although Novel Publicity would absolutely love for you to post a review! As a blogger for this tour, you will receive your choice of a pre-formatted excerpt, interview, or guest post to make participation easy. Just remember, there is a $100 best/ most creative blog entry for this heart-felt and gripping memoir.

Here’s some more info about the featured book…

Tour Dates: August 6 through 10, 2012
Genre: Memoir
Page Count: 136

The Prizes:

* $100 best/ most creative entry
* $50 Rafflecopter (2 prizes)
* $50 Random blogger award
* $50 Google+ sharing contest
* $50 Facebook sharing contest
* $150 in the special author contest

Visit this link to sign-up now. And don’t forget to tell your friends! http://www.novelpublicity.com/whirlwind-recruitment/motherhood/

 

About the Book

When Phil Jourdan’s mother died suddenly in 2009, she left behind a legacy of kindness and charity — but she also left unanswered some troubling questions. Was she, as she once claimed, a spy? Had she suffered more profoundly as a woman and parent than she’d let on? Jourdan’s recollections of his struggles with psychosis, and his reconstructions of conversations with his enigmatic mother, form the core of this memoir. Psychoanalysis, poetry and confession all merge to tell the story of an ordinary woman whose death turned her into a symbol for extraordinary motherhood.

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