Here’s the itinerary! You can start at Author Airicka Phoenix’s blog, and wait until you see the great swag we’re giving away (access to the Rafflecopter on each site):
You’ve stumbled across the online home of Pam Ripling, aka Anne Carter, and Beacon Street Books. Here you will find a showcase of my published books, info on upcoming releases… Read more »
August 1st is just a few days away and I can barely contain my excitement! My Tour with Lady Amber is finally almost here… I’m busy putting together some great giveaways and writing interviews and making sure Paulie is up to all this attention. Of course he’s a big star, a wild glam rock star who’s traversed many a stage; but he’s been through a lot over the past few years!
So stay tuned for the info on the tour. Paulie, Kate, Rob and of course author Anne Carter (ahem) will all be on hand to make this tour exciting!
PS – In celebration of the tour, Unmasking Paulie Bingham on Kindle is on sale for 99 cents! Limited time so hurry, LOL
We’re back with another stop on another hop. I hope you’re enjoying this as much as we are! Most of you know the drill: Look around, read the blog post, play with the Rafflecopter (& ENTER!) then scroll down to the Linky List of Blog Hoppers!
And while you’re here, take a look at this excerpt from the just-released UNMASKING PAULIE BINGHAM by Anne Carter:
He slept, for a time. Kate watched with eyes she wished weren’t so clouded with obsession. She touched his hair, a wispy touch, fearful of waking him. For as long as he slept, she could pretend that he belonged to her. That he wasn’t gay, that he was a real boyfriend who would stay and cherish her and commit.
Paulie opened his eyes, looked around.
“Is it morning? Are we late?”
“No. We’re not late.”
He stroked her bare shoulder, ran his hand down her arm. “You’re very soft.”
“I’ll be leaving now.”
“What?” Paulie adjusted the pillow so that he was eye-to-eye with Kate. “It’s your room, remember?”
“Not the room. The tour. Can you do your own makeup for the rest of the shows? It’s only four nights.”
Paulie sat up, his face twisted into a worry. “Why? Because of this, tonight?”
“Partly.”
“But, no. You can’t. Not now.”
“What happened tonight changes everything, and nothing. I will always love you, Paulie. Always. You gave me something tonight that I’ll cherish forever. But if I continue on, if I’m forced to keep my hands off you and pretend that this just didn’t happen… it’ll make me bitter.”
“Surely we can work something out.”
Kate ignored his plea. “If you ever need me, you find me, understand?”
“What if I need you right now? Tomorrow? A week from Friday?”
She laughed. “You won’t. You’re a big boy with lots of people, millions of people feeding you attention. Lovers at the snap of your fingers. You’re on a path. A very different path from mine.”
Paulie looked away, and Kate reached for his chin, gently turning him back toward her. She saw the tears. “Dammit Paul, you can’t have it both ways.”
Paulie & Kate is all about unconditional love, something everyone deserves. The series has been called heart-warming, surprising, poignant, superb, complex, unconventional, remarkable. Readers looking for something “different” find Unmasking Paulie Bingham a refreshing respite from the ordinary. Unexpected charm. And that’s all just Part 1; For the Love of Katrina Bingham releases on September 1st, just far enough away to make time to read Part 1! Check it all out here: Paulie’s Amazon page (ON SALE for 99 CENTS!).
Still not convinced? Well, here’s another tasty morsel… Paulie Bingham will tell you about his life in his own words! (Hint: turn up the sound!)
Sweet, huh? Okay, now it’s time for the … Rafflecopter!
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Last, but not least, here’s the Linky List!!!
Thanks so much for stopping by! Good luck, everyone!
Wait til you see and HEAR my new video for Unmasking Paulie Bingham! Whether you’ve read it and are dying to hear Paulie’s voice, or are a prospective fan wondering what all the buzz is about, you’ll enjoy this short trailer featuring Paulie, Kate and Rob with a personal narration by British actor Matthew Wade. Mat did a wham-bam job giving Paulie the image, the sound, the emotion needed. Be sure to check out Mat’s website at http://matthewwade.co.uk and witness this amazingly talented guy.
Our Goodreads Giveaway has ended, with 297 entrants! Thank you all so much for jumping in. Winners are chosen through Goodreads and supplied to me, and they are: Dan H., of Kansas, Gary M., of Illinois, Nancy C. of Rhode Island and Adrian P., of Tennessee! You all will be receiving your autographed copy of UNMASKING PAULIE BINGHAM shortly by U.S. Mail!
If you didn’t win, there’s always Amazon, LOL. Reviews are starting to come in, and so far, so great!
Stay tuned for two more cyber happenings in the coming weeks: Indie Ink Blog Hop (beginning July 25th) will feature all of Anne Carter’s mysteries and romances, and her Lady Amber Blog Tour is will be bounding out of the station on August 1st. Just wait until you see the swag / prizes! I promise you something new.
Until then… these snippets from reviews on Amazon:
“The author has handled the characters in this book beautifully. The emotion ride for both of them was so evident. I could feel the vibes coming out of the page with each one I turned.”
“I must say, I am very impressed with the way Ms. Carter writes and kudos for taking on what I think is such a difficult subject matter. It’s not a story you could ever imagine and you just need to read it to understand why.”
“Ms. Carter steps out of the box to weave an unconventional romance with complex characters and complicated lives. I look forward to the next book to find out who ‘did it’, but more so where all the characters end up. Will my assumptions match hers?”
“This wasn’t a ‘normal’ boy meets girl & falls in love story. It was so much more than I expected…. [a] superb piece of art!”
Add it to your to read list.Goodreads
Gerry, Addie and Cael almost captured Careen’s murderer but lost Cael in the battle. Is he alive? If so, will he return? And the bigger question, thanks to Gerry’s handiwork, will Cael remember Addie? Is their love lost with him?
Addie’s family and friends think she should keep her relationship with Cael a secret from him so he isn’t forced into feelings he can’t remember. Just what she needs, more secrets and on top of everything else, someone stole the crystal. How is she supposed to get over the loss of her lover, a lover she’d barely had for only a few short months and deal with the secret of the lost crystal at the same time?
Aiden wants nothing more than to help Addie overcome her grief and get over Cael. Or is that all he wants? What happens when too many people know the secret and someone slips up?
For the umpteenth time, over the past two weeks, Addie recited the words over and over again in her head, begging, pleading, Cael, please remember me. Please remember you love me.
Dragging her useless, helpless, and now rail-thin of a frame from the bed—their bed, his bed—she stumbled into the bathroom, hardly recognizing the person in the mirror. The sunken, dark eyes, her indented cheekbones, only made her brown eyes look larger and more recessed, giving her face a hollow look. Well, that was fine, now her face matched her hollow and empty soul.
She couldn’t work, couldn’t sleep, couldn’t eat. Gerry threatened to give her job to Darcy permanently if she didn’t snap out of it and get her rear end into the bar soon. She didn’t care. Why should she? Let Darcy have the damn job. She didn’t need it. She had her trust fund, didn’t she? She couldn’t face going in there, seeing all those people, everyone asking how she was getting along … without Cael—the unspoken part of the sentence. Well, how the hell did they think she was? She just lost the man she loved. Lost her dad the year before. Who would be next? Who would she lose next? Maia? The Twins who weren’t even born yet? Unthinkable. But, as the old saying went, bad things happened in threes. Maybe if she stayed home, away from other people, nobody else would die or disappear. Her family, friends, they’d all taken turns checking in on her, Darcy one day, Maia another. Gerry, Cael’s uncle Bart even stopped by. Someone, once a day would come knocking on her door, trying to coax her out of the house. “Not ready,” she’d say. “I need time.” How much time would it take? How much time does a person normally require before they learn to cope with the loss of a loved one? Learn to cope? She didn’t want to learn to cope. Addie hadn’t had much time with Cael to begin with. She felt cheated. Resentful and cheated that she didn’t get to love and enjoy her soul mate for any longer than only a few short months. According to Maia, Cael and Addie were fated. She and Cael had joked, laughing about it being a secret fate because of Addie’s secluded and sheltered childhood. Well, fate was cruel, wasn’t it?
Susan Griscom daydreams often. And sometimes her daydreams interfere with her daydreams not to mention real life. Because, let’s face it, her character’s lives are so much more exciting. Sometimes it’s young adult or new adult or just plain old mainstream fiction and sometimes it’s paranormal romance, where her playing field delves into a different milieu than the usual vampires and werewolves. Some day she might write about fangs and fur, but for now she prefers sticking to strong heroes and heroines confronted with extraordinary forces of nature, powers and abilities beyond the norm, mixed with a little romance to get the blood boiling.
Susan lives in the Sierra Foothills in Northern California with her very romantic husband, her small yippy dog, Riley, and her humongous black cat, Saké. Her family consists of his and hers; four wonderful sons and one beautiful daughter, and seven grand angels.
Susan loves when a story takes hold and pulls her into the fantasy, that’s magic.
Hello all! I’m so excited to be a part of Lady Amber’s Author Blog Hop!! So glad you stopped by. I know you have a lot of blogs to visit, so I’ll make this stop brief and fun. I guess the whole point is to make new friends, find new authors and new readers, and win great prizes! So here goes.
Introduction, please! My name is Anne Carter but you might sometimes see me as Pam Ripling. Yup, another author with two names, who writes in more than one genre. But today we are talking about mystery and romance, two of my favorite topics. I write about unsolved mysteries of the past, lighthouses, and those proverbial restless spirits. I write about stardom and love triangles. Most recently, I’ve delved into challenges with regard to love & sexuality (oooh…) in my new release Unmasking Paulie Bingham and its sequel, For the Love of Katrina Bingham, due out September 1st. (You can see all these books to the right on my Goodreads list!)
But what’s in it for you, you ask? Free copies! The prizes:
1 – “E-Boxed set” of the Beacon Street Mysteries (Point Surrender and Cape Seduction) in the format of your choice
1 – “E-Boxed set” of the StarCrossed Romances (StarCrossed Hearts and A Hero’s Promise) in the format of your choice
1 – “E-Boxed set” of the Paulie & Kate Books (titles above) in the format of your choice
and
1 – $25.00 Amazon Gift Card!
Enter the giveaway here!!! Just take a deep breath, fill out the answers, sigh and get ready for your next stop. OR… take a look around Beacon Street for a minute or too, explore the books and reviews and other fun stuff! Winners are chosen at random.
Thank you SO MUCH for stopping by! Now check out the next stop, and have fun! And if you haven’t already, check out Lady Amber’s own fab stop. Good luck!
So, what’s up with all these generous authors, making their ebooks free or 99 cents? When I recently published with Amazon’s KDP program, I was offered their “Select” designation if I agreed not to publish elsewhere. In return I would have the opportunity to offer my books for FREE during five days of my choosing over the next ninety. Opportunity?
Every day, I see numerous books being touted on Facebook and other social networks that are free for a day or two. Authors seem to be clamoring to do this. It was explained to me that the “free” offer is useful—possibly necessary—for the acquisition of reviews. You make it free, hundreds of copies are downloaded, and a few return to post their views on your Amazon page. In theory, these readers should return and actual purchase your other titles. These free downloads do not, however, add to your Amazon sales ranking, because—obviously—they aren’t sales.
This whole thing gives me a bad taste. When my first ebooks hit the screen back in 1998, they were priced somewhere around $6.00. Known NY-type authors’ books were always higher. I got that. I was an unknown. Never sold a whole lot of books, but enough to make me feel like a real author. Prices have steadily dropped for us mid-listers, and seem to have settled around $3.00. Until this new wave of bandwagon discounting hit.
The more people that offer their books for free and cheap, the more it diminishes the value—perceived or otherwise—of our work. These books that we have slaved over for months (maybe years) go up for less than a dollar or worse. Is that really all they are worth? Worse, we are encouraged to want this “opportunity” in exchange for market exclusivity? Come on, I could offer my work for free if I wanted to, on my own, without having to give up rights to sell in any venue I wanted.
What’s happening, people? Why are you so willing to give it all away? When you offer your great novels for less than a buck, how can the rest of us sell for a reasonable cost? Readers are savvy now; their TBR piles are easily filled with freebies. Why pay for anything when every day, the new list of free books comes out. They may love their authors, but money is money.
So what is it really getting you? Reviews? Great. But unless those reviews result in a lot of sales—for real money—so what? You want to feel good about your book, of course. But why go to all the trouble to publish and market it if you’re not serious about being a professional?
Note: This is in no way intended to pick on Kindle or insult any of my friends and fellow authors who’ve taken this route. I respect that we all have to try different avenues to potential success. I would definitely like to hear other points of view, because surely I am missing something here.
END OF RANT.
Whew.
Paulie has launched. My buzz team and I have some fun things planned to keep you all entertained and engaged with Paulie and Kate. But the work doesn’t stop there.
The Beacon Street Mysteries are still growing! Angel’s Gate (working title) is next up, and I have a whole new mystery for you to solve. “Regulars” Case & Amy (Point Surrender), Matt & Rebecca (Cape Seduction) and Jack & Maddie (In Too Deep*) all return to enrich the story around newcomers Nate and Emelie, who find something very wrong at Los Angeles Harbor Lighthouse. A Beacon Street Mystery wouldn’t be right without a venture into the past, and Angel’s Gate happened to be a very interesting locale during World War II.
Taking a cue from popular Hollywood techniques, here is the “meet cute” between Nate and Emelie. Nate is on his way from Arizona to Los Angeles, where he hopes to uncover answers about his family history. Emelie is heading home from a weekend in Lake Havasu with her pals. Here’s an excerpt:
________________________________________
September, 2012
Nate stared out of the bus window as the Blythe, California, Greyhound station came into view. Was it the right thing to do, going back to Los Angeles? Of course it is. I have no choice. It won’t leave me alone until I do.
The going-away party had been tough. Especially the kids. “Why are you leaving, Mr. Sinquah? When will you come back? Who will teach us our soccer lessons?”
So deep into his thoughts, Nate didn’t notice the girl standing in the aisle until she spoke a second time.
“I’m sorry, I asked if this seat was taken.”
“Oh! No, no, it’s not. It’s empty. I mean, no one is sitting here. Yet. It’s, uh, free.” Nate moved closer to the window, despite the fact that the seats were individual.
The girl sat down and sighed. “Thanks.”
“Sure.” Nate forced himself to look straight ahead. It would be rude to stare, but from what he’d glimpsed, the girl sitting next to him was unbelievably beautiful. Long tresses of chestnut brown hair hung in gentle waves around her bare shoulders, framing a heart-shaped face like he’d never seen before. Warm brown eyes with attractively curved brows. Fair, flawless skin.
“So where did you get on?”
Nate started. “Uh, me?”
His companion pretended to look around. “Uh, yeah. You.”
“Oh. Um, Phoenix. I mean, I live in Flagstaff, but I got a ride to Phoenix first, you know, it’s not that far, but the bus… the bus doesn’t connect… at the right time.”
Crap. I sound like a blithering idiot!
“What about you?”
The girl lifted her perfect eyebrows as her eyes searched his face. “I just got on in Blythe. You know that, right?”
Nate pursed his lips. “Yeah, right. I meant, do you live there? Or, are you going someplace else? I mean, home, like, do you live in L.A.?”
“You’re cute. I’m Emelie.” She stuck out her hand, and Nate stared at it for a moment before taking it in his.
“Nate. For Nathaniel. Nice to meet you.”
“Same. I live in Santa Monica. And I would be home by now if I was not being punished. Dad thinks I need to be humbled. Hence, the bus ticket.”
Nate looked at his hands, clasped in his lap. “I’m sorry. That’s too bad. What did you do?”
“A little personal, isn’t it?”
“Oh, sorry, I thought—you know, you offered the part about being punished, so…”
Emelie laughed. “I left school without telling him. I never wanted to go there in the first place. It’s worthless information for a world I do not live in.”
“What world do you live in?” Nate asked softly, wondering how anyone could turn down a college education, something he could only dream about.
“Certainly not the one that turns out corrupt politicians, greedy corporate moguls and white collar criminals. So we had a fight, and he cut me off. Just like that. It’s okay, though. I will be fine.”
The frivolity in her voice dimmed toward the end of her short tirade. She’s not fine, Nate thought. She’s scared and sad.
“Besides,” Emelie continued. “I have other talents. I can earn good money with what I have. Personal services.”
Nate felt himself blush. “You—you don’t need to resort to that, you know. You could do lots of other things.”
“Resort to what? Oh! Not that!” Emelie laughed again, and Nate’s face grew even warmer. “I’m… special. I have a special talent. I’ll tell you if you promise not to laugh.”
“I won’t laugh.”
Emelie grew serious and stared past him out the window, so long that he was tempted to wave his hand in front of her face.
“I am psychic.”
“Psychic? Like, you can read minds or something?”
“It’s hard to explain. I… get visions in my head. I hear things. Things that happened in the past. I get feelings from, you know, others. It comes and goes.”
Nate’s eyes widened. “Why would I laugh at something like that? Back home, on the Mesa, you would be…”
“Would be what? What mesa? Wait—are you an Indian?”
“Hopi.”
Now it was Emelie’s turn for astonishment. “You don’t look like an Indian.”
“Well…” Nate searched for the right words. Outside the bus, the cactus rushed by. “Let’s just say that someone in my heritage might have been white. I’m a… a throwback?”
Emelie reached over and took a strand of his hair between her fingers. “You certainly got that Tonto mane.”
Nate licked his lips. References to the Lone Ranger’s Indian sidekick had long grown stale.
“The cheekbones work, and the dark eyes, too. But your skin’s too fair and those dimples just don’t say ‘How!’ to me.”
“’How’? Are you kidding me?” Nate smirked and looked toward the front of the bus, shaking his head. “Right now, I could say that your brown hair doesn’t match your blonde personality.”
Emelie’s quick intake of air reflected her outrage. Crossing her arms, she turned her head the other way. Nate continued to smile.
In Indio, they got off the bus for a cold drink. Nate went into the restroom and washed his hands and face, then neatened his hair with a comb. He stared hard at himself in the mirror and tried to chase the worry from his mind. Los Angeles was a metropolis. He was an under-educated Native American with common skills. He didn’t know the first thing about finding work in L.A., or where he would stay when he got off the Greyhound. His last job was in a reservation elementary school, but he had no credential. He could build furniture, but didn’t have so much as a photograph of the beautiful pieces he’d designed.
Taco Town. All-Green Landscaping. Sunny Acres Rest Home. His best friend Johnny’s suggestions on possible L.A. careers brought a smile. Yet Nate had left one important trait out of his self-assessment: he was a survivor. He would find something.
Back on the bus, he half expected the-girl-who-didn’t-use-many-contractions to find another seat, but she sat down beside him just before they rolled. After a few moments of silence, she giggled.
“I bleached my hair once. Platinum blonde. I thought Daddy would have a heart attack.”
Nate turned to look into her face. “Your hair is far too beautiful to mess with. No wonder he disowned you.”
Emelie colored and smiled with a glimpse of shyness. Encouraged, Nate ventured a question.
“What were you doing in Blythe, anyway? Doesn’t seem like a very fun place.”
“Havasu. I was up at the lake with a friend. I got a ride down to Blythe to catch the bus. I had to trade my watch for bus fare. But it’s okay, I did not need it. I almost never looked at it. And besides. I have my phone. That is, until Daddy remembers to cancel it.”
“Living without a cell phone isn’t so bad,” Nate murmured. “I gave mine up… oh, wait. I never had one.”
Emelie appraised him. “I like that. I think you are a pretty smart guy, Mr. Nathaniel Hopi.”
This time, instead of taking offense, Nate smiled. Inside his shirt, against his chest, he felt the warmth of the turquoise beads on the leather string.
________________________________________
So that’s it. How Nate and Emelie meet. They are young, they are sweet, they are about to embark on an unsettling quest together. Stay tuned for the third Beacon Street Mystery! Coming Fall, 2013. I hope.
Oh, and that asterisk:
* In Too Deep is currently getting ready to re-release under the Beacon Street imprint. You will be advised! 🙂