2015-05-26

Have you ever made a mistake? 
A big one?


I’m back in Chicago and back in business with my boss, Rinaldo Moretti.  
So much for my run at a normal life.  There are some new faces in the organization, and someone’s been cooking the books.  Personally?  I think they’re after more than a just little cash.  If I have any hopes of flushing out the traitor, I’m going to need to find a good hooker to help me sleep at night.
As the bodies pile up, I find solace in Alina.  There’s something about her, something different.  She understands me without asking a lot of questions.  It’s as if she’s known me for years, yet we’ve only just met.  If I weren’t so distracted by business, I’d try to figure out her story.  She’s the only one keeping me grounded as my world spins out of control.

I’m going to lose the one man who has ever meant anything to me – the only man to ever call me son. I want to deny his request, but there is no avoiding what awaits me.  I never wanted any of this, but I’m out of options, and time is running out.

Some choices have unforeseen consequences, and some choices are simply irrevocable.


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About the Author

Shay Savage lives in Cincinnati, Ohio with her family and a variety of household pets.  She is an accomplished public speaker, and holds the rank of Distinguished Toastmaster from Toastmasters International.  When not writing, she enjoys science fiction movies, masquerading as a zombie, is a HUGE Star Wars fan, and member of the 501st Legion of Stormtroopers.  When the geek fun runs out, she also loves off-roading in her jeep, and soccer in any and all forms - especially the Columbus Crew, Arsenal and Bayern Munich.  Savage holds a degree in psychology, and she brings a lot of that knowledge into the characters within her stories.





2015-05-17

Fingers crossed for poor Jamie Fraser, while we're waiting for the season finale. I've deeply enjoyed this first season of Outlander, and you?



Would you recommend the books as well?

Enjoy the promo for the last episode; it will air on May 30th...almost two weeks of anxiety!


Have a good week,

- Raum

2015-05-15



This May, TWCS is paying tribute to the SciFy genre in honour of the EPIC Star Wars series and LEGENDARY The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, amongst others...

Sebastian and the Afterlife (by William j. Barry) - Guest Post

Sebastian, an average seventeen-year-old boy, has just paid this debt. He awakes in a surreal world somewhere between mortal life and the afterlife, where the Grim Reaper rules and his loyal agents maintain the law. But not all is peaceful in this mystical realm. Axis Red and his soul pirates threaten the future of all who dwell there.
Sebastian soon finds himself at Sapentia, a high school for the departed. There he makes new friends but longs for his lost love, Sarah, who is still alive in the mortal world. Some things are forbidden; some lines cannot be crossed. What will Sebastian risk to be close to Sarah again?
Continue the adventure with Sebastian and the Afterlife Book II - Agents of the Reaper.

How did your own personal beliefs affect your writing on the Afterlife? 
Did you model Sebastian after anyone or were you inspired by something/someone?

 I don’t think my personal beliefs played a huge role in writing about the afterlife. The process was more about starting with the story’s core concepts, and then letting my imagination loose to develop the universe around them. But I feel like my upbringing helped out a lot with the spiritual aspects of the story. 

As a kid I grew up in a very religious family. We were brought up to believe that even though you couldn't see them, angels and demons were all around us, manipulating the physical world. Growing up with these stories gave me some good footing when constructing a spirit world.

Something that had a direct influence on Sebastian and the Afterlife were some particular stories my mother told me when I was young. She said that on two separate occasions, that she had seen a shadow travel across a room when she was visiting someone that was about to die. Both people died shortly after she had seen this, and she was convinced that it was 'death' preparing to take the individual. Besides being struck by how eerie the stories were, I found it interesting that the 'death shadow' that she said to have seen, was not evil. It was simply there to do a job (collect a soul). When I was imagining the spirit world, I knew that I wanted to incorporate a character as iconic as the Grim Reaper, but I knew he wasn't going to be an evil being, but more like my mother had described, simply there to do a job.

Possession was also a concept that I was brought up with (though we were told it was by demons, not so much by departed spirits).  I used the concept of possession a lot in the series, especially in the first book. 

While I don’t really subscribe to a lot of the beliefs that I was raised with as a kid, I found them to be a great source to draw from when writing about the afterlife and a spiritual world. It definitely helped the process. 

Sebastian was very loosely based on a seventeen-year-old version of myself, polished up a bit, of course. There are some basic similarities between him and myself, like him playing soccer in high school, and things like that. But it was more about me thinking back to what it was like to be that age, and remembering my own insecurities and my wide-eyed naivety about life. Back when little things seemed like cataclysmic events. In a sense it was like imagining the high school me going on this adventure, and how I might of handled it. I’m sure I wouldn't have been as composed as Sebastian about the situation, but like I said, this is the polished up version. I feel most of the emotions he experienced are universal, so I hope that anyone could see themselves in his shoes.


 
Say NO to REALITY!




This May, TWCS is paying tribute to the SciFy genre in honour of the EPIC Star Wars series and LEGENDARY The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, amongst others...

BOOKS ON SALE FOR ONLY 99 PENNIES!

LEGACY OF A DREAMER, Allie Jean, Paranormal

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Chantal Breelan is plagued by horrible nightmares too realistic to ignore. Her past has been a mystery, and the foster system isn’t providing any answers. Starting a new life alone at eighteen is a challenge, especially when things that go bump in the night appear out of the shadows, and her dreams begin to breach reality. Darkness surrounds her from all sides, but is it only evil that hides in the shadows, or are the answers to her past lingering just beyond?

ZOMBIFIED, Maggie LaCroix, Paranormal Fantasy


Zombified-Hi-Res-CoverThe_Six_Low-Res_CovermoreThe_Silver_Crescent_Hi-Res_Cover1551f-the_memory_healer_low-res_coverHunted-Hi-Res-Cover77b12-mountain-charm-hi-res-coverRedemption_Low-Res_CoverConvergence_Hi-Res_CoverObvious_Child_Low-Res_CoverghostwriterThe_Stars_Are_Falling_Low-Res_CoverLaundromat-Low-ResSatA_Low-Res_cover

Monsters know their place: vampires are sexy; zombies just decompose.  But Maggie La Croix’s Zombified conjures up an entirely different kind of undead raised by good old-fashioned Voodoo. Take Henri—still gorgeous, over one hundred years after his death. And now a hurricane has set him free from a curse.
Enter Josie, a reporter with her eyes on Henri. But falling for a man without a heartbeat could get her more than a broken heart. It could get her zombified.

 THE SIX, K.B. Hoyle, Fantasy


Darcy Pennington feels like she is an insufferably average thirteen-year-old, but when a change in her dad’s job forces her to attend Cedar Cove Camp, she unwittingly stumbles upon a magical gateway. Along with five other teenagers, she will travel to a world called Alitheia. The “arrival of the Six” was prophesied long ago, but will she have what it takes to save Alitheia?

MORE, T.M. Franklin, Paranormal


Haunted by terrifying nightmares and certain she’s being watched, college student Ava Michaels finds an unlikely ally in Physics tutor Caleb Foster. But Caleb isn’t quite what he seems. In fact, he's not entirely human, and he's not the only one.
Together, the duo faces a threat from an ancient race bent on Ava’s capture, and possible extinction. As Ava fights to survive, she learns the world’s not what she thought.
It's a little bit more.

THE SILVER CRESCENT, Debby Grahl, Paranormal


An ancestor’s tale of betrayal, murder and a stolen fortune in silver leads Elise Baxter to Max Holt’s Victorian inn.
She is reluctantly, though irresistibly, attracted to Max. Leery of loving again, Max lets passion overrule caution, tumbling them into an erotic encounter.
Guided by ghosts and opposed by an evil presence, the couple searches for the treasure. But there are others who will stop at nothing to unlock the mystery of the Silver Crescent.

 THE MEMORY HEALER, Julie Filarski, Paranormal


When Beth Montgomery reluctantly agrees to carry out a psychic assessment of Carrington House, she is transported to another era, where she sees a date on a calendar that fills her with dread.
Back in the present time and sensing an eternal bond with the irresistible Dr Matthew Jamieson, she wonders whether he was once the darkly handsome but unfaithful Samuel Methven. Beth must regress to the tragic events of 1895 to learn the truth.

HUNTED, Lorenz Font, Paranormal


Disease is ravaging the vampire community in New York City’s underworld. Harrow Gates is sick, alone, and hunted. When Pritchard Tack offers him a new beginning, he is in no position to refuse.
Jordan is a young vampire whose only focus is revenge. In her search for her family’s killer, she meets a man who threatens to pull her heart away from her sworn mission. Is love strong enough to override her thirst for vengeance?

MOUNTAIN CHARM, Sydney Logan, Paranormal


“True love and sweet whispers, till death do us part;
Send someone to love my Appalachian heart.”
At the age of thirteen, Angelina Clark followed in the footsteps of her ancestors by casting an Appalachian love spell, which promised she would blossom into a beautiful and gifted woman who would find her true love. A young Angelina had been thrilled to participate in the sacred ritual, but through the years, her father’s untimely death and her mother’s failing health have shaken Angelina’s magical faith to its core. As her twenty-first birthday approaches, she refuses to practice her supernatural gifts and no longer believes in the love charm.

REDEMPTION, Lindsey Gray, Paranormal


Life is for living. Afterlife is a chance at redemption. As the only remaining female vampire in existence, Lily attempts to make her way towards her ever after. But with best friend Becca, new beau Ian, human husband Ryan, Archangel Peter, and a host of demons all standing in the way of Lily's chance at a peaceful eternity, how can she possibly survive?

CONVERGENCE, J.D. Watts, Paranormal


Daniella Rossi is a nineteen-year-old college student who sees the world quite differently than those around her. From infancy, she was aware of the beings that walked among her kind who were not like them, as well as her own personal Guardian who watched over her. Dani always knew she was different, but she never dreamed the full scope of her importance. When a new male Guardian comes to replace her lifelong friend and companion, will Dani be able to accept him as she deals with a world full of the other Children of Creation, Angels, both good and evil?

OBVIOUS CHILD, Warren Cantrell, SciFy


In 2015, Sam Grant is chosen to take part in a contest that will choose the world’s first time traveler. There’s just one problem—Sam doesn’t want anything to do with the contest. Yet his deliberately profane public appearances and sabotaged interviews only boost ratings. Now stuck, Sam must plot how he’ll get out of the contest, or if he should embrace it all and become the most famous person in history.

GHOSTWRITER, Lissa Bryan, Paranormal


Unemployed, with her savings dwindling, Sara Howell thinks things are looking up when she lands a ghostwriting job and rents the affordable island home of her favorite author, Seth Fortner, who mysteriously disappeared in 1925.
Strange things happen, making Sara wonder if Seth ever left. When she finds an old trunk of Seth’s letters, she delves into a world she never imagined, filled with love and a family curse it seems only she can break.

THE STARS ARE FALLING, Michelle Birbeck, Paranormal


Jenny’s life revolves around surviving university, watching the stars, and staring at her housemate, Dale. But as the night sky glows with the light of falling stars, Jenny’s classes and crush seem unimportant. The Stars are retaking Earth, saving mother nature by eliminating the problem. Together, Jenny and Dale can save the world and the human race, but surviving long enough to convince the Stars of that is perilous and may kill them both.

EVERYBODY OUT OF THE LAUNDROMAT, I NEED TO THINK! 

Phil G. Glenn, Paranormal

When the ordinary life of Virgil Blaine crosses the path of the even more ordinary Doug Coulthard, it sets off a series of extra-ordinary events. Doug Coulthard is a Filing Clerk and the President of the Unpublished People’s Poet’s Party –Political Unit (UPPPPU) where a catastrophe has just happened; two of his long time members have been published. The UPPPPU goes on a recruiting drive by distributing leaflets, one of which finds its way into Virgil Blaine’s pocket. Virgil Blaine, who is a slight poet himself, attends one of the meetings where he meets Forward Slash who offers Virgil Blaine a job. The offer comes with two things Virgil Blaine has never had; a job and a car and on a whim he accepts. The problem is, through no effort of his own, his position is suddenly elevated. Virgil Blaine says the job is ‘messing with his DNA – Deliberate Non-Achiever’ and he misses his old life and so hatches a plan to get it back…

SEBASTIAN AND THE AFTERLIFE, William j. Barry, Paranormal


Sebastian, an average seventeen-year-old boy, has just paid this debt. He awakes in a surreal world somewhere between mortal life and the afterlife, where the Grim Reaper rules and his loyal agents maintain the law. But not all is peaceful in this mystical realm. Axis Red and his soul pirates threaten the future of all who dwell there.
Sebastian soon finds himself at Sapentia, a high school for the departed. There he makes new friends but longs for his lost love, Sarah, who is still alive in the mortal world. Some things are forbidden; some lines cannot be crossed. What will Sebastian risk to be close to Sarah again?
Continue the adventure with Sebastian and the Afterlife Book II - Agents of the Reaper


2015-05-13

Today one of my favorite authors turns 750. I'm not joking... Dante Alighieri was born in Florence in 1265.


If you haven't read Dante's works -- the Divine Comedy in particular -- his special birthday can be the right opportunity to begin.

A starting point: http://etcweb.princeton.edu/dante/index.html

Dante Alighieri is an artist of the highest universal value, who still has much to say and to give, through his immortal works, to all those who are willing to walk the path of true knowledge.
Dante is a man who invites us to regain the path of our human journey and the hope to once again see the bright horizon where shines the full dignity of the human person.
(Pope Francis)

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