Steampunk Romance, and Gift Card Giveaway!

I love steampunk romances! Don't you? Here's one for your Kindle or Nook from Stephanie Burkhart. Be sure to enter the Giveaway!

Victorian Scoundrel

by Stephanie Burkhart

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

BLURB:

It's 2011 and compressed natural gas has taken over from the coal producing steam machines of the Victorian Age. Alice Windsor, Princess of York, follows her mischief-making cousin, Edmund of Wales, back to 1851 where Prince Albert is hosting Britain's Great Exhibition.

Alice soon finds herself over her head in trouble. Edmund is determined to help Prince Albert build a dirigible and the prime minister appears intent in preventing her from stopping Edmund. Alice knows it's too early for the massive flying machine to take to the air. Complicating matters is the passionate Grayson Kentfield, Earl of Swinton. Alice can't stop her pulse from pounding when she's near him.

Can Alice give her heart to a man from the past while working to stop Edmund from changing history?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Excerpt:

Tired and thirsty, she finally made it to the courtyard. Edmund was nowhere to be found. She should have expected it, really. No doubt he was in the palace filling their great-grandfather's head with forward-thinking ideas. She crossed her arms, staring at the steps. Several carriages waited nearby. No one in their right mind would let her into the palace looking like she did -- like she had just stepped out of the gutter.

"Excuse me, who are you?"

Alice spun around to find herself face-to-face with two gentlemen who stood near one of the waiting carriages. One gentleman was older, Alice guessed in his fifties, one younger. The older gentleman stared at her like she truly was a guttersnipe, but the younger one -- he was tall, with chiseled cheeks and sensitive hazel eyes. His broad chest filled his suit well and he measured her with a cool, appraising look that hinted at... appreciation. An uncomfortable feeling washed over her. Never had a man's stare made her feel so... warm.

"Well?" asked the older gentleman.

Alice straightened her posture with her usual royal dignity and took off her glasses as she always did when she introduced herself. "I am Her Royal Highness, Princess Alice of York."

The men looked at each other, at her, then back at themselves. She wasn't sure if they were befuddled, confused, or wanted to laugh. Finally, the older gentleman spoke. "Princess Alice is seven years old."

Alice bit the inside of her lip, realizing she had totally forgotten where she was due to the younger gentleman's attention. She slid her glasses back on. "Simply call me Alice -- Alice Windsor."

"And you may call me Prime Minister."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

AUTHOR Bio and Links:

Author Bio: Stephanie Burkhart is a 911 dispatcher for LAPD.  She was born and raised in Manchester, New Hampshire.  After serving 11 years in the US Army she currently calls Castaic, California her home. Stephanie was married in Denmark in 1991 and has two young sons. She adores chocolate, is addicted to coffee and enjoys early morning walks.  She's also an assistant den leader for her son's Cub Scout den and is a Boy Scout mom. She writes paranormal, contemporary, and steampunk romance and has two children's books published with 4RV Publishing.

FIND ME ON THE WEB AT:

WEBSITE:

http://www.stephanieburkhart.com

TWITTER:

http://twitter.com/StephBurkhart

FACEBOOK:

https://www.facebook.com/StephanieBurkhartAuthor

GOOD READS:

http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4031660.Stephanie_Burkhart

YOU TUBE CHANNEL:

http://www.youtube.com/user/botrina?feature=mhee

PINTEREST:

http://pinterest.com/sgburkhart/

BUY LINKS FOR VICTORIAN SCOUNDREL:

Amazon Kindle

Barnes and Noble

All Romance EBooks

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Enter to win a $10 Amazon/BN GC - a Raflecopter giveaway

Spotlight on Suspense with L.K. Kuhl

Today's spotlight features Chasm by fellow Clean Reads author, L.K. Kuhl,
an Adult Suspense novel.

Warning: Kuhl gives Chasm a PG-13 rating for some fighting and gore.

What happens when you’re in love with your children’s abductor?

Blurb:

Taylor Vine thinks she can fight off the demons of her past when she moves back home to Estill Springs, Tennessee, but it doesn’t take long to see that things aren’t quite that easy. The bumps she hears in the night soon escalate, keeping her up at nights, and it isn’t long before her most precious possessions, her children, get abducted. She finds herself in a race against time to try to find them before it’s too late. One wrong move and the outcome could be disastrous.  

Excerpt:

Her heart picked up its pace, and she reached for the phone. She hesitated, unsure whether to even answer it. But she plucked it from its receiver. “Hello?” Her voice slid out rickety and unsure.

The male voice on the other end was dark and deeply plagued with distress. It broke, and she struggled to make out what he was saying.

What she heard next was unimaginable; it didn’t sound human. The grief penetrated through the voice—through the phone—flanking it with wretched wails and sobs. “I’ve killed the children. Heaven…help me…I’ve killed the children.” The phone went silent.

Taylor’s knees buckled. “What?” The hyper pitch in her voice strained out. “Goodness gracious, who is this? What happened? Whose children?” Her knees about took her down again. She caught the edge of the counter, catching herself before she fell. “Answer me, for crying out loud! Don’t hang up on me!”

She listened desperately, plastering the phone to her ear. But the phone was silent. “Hello, hello? Answer me!” Frantically clicking the telephone cradle button, she tried to bring him back, but there was only a dial tone.

She pounded the phone on the counter so forcefully that the plastic mouthpiece broke into a million tiny pieces. She let it fall, left it dangling by its cord. Swiftly making her way to the hall closet, she rummaged through the plastic totes for a flashlight. “There has to be one in here somewhere,” she mumbled to herself. Extension cords and old Christmas lights spilled over onto the floor.

Finally finding a flashlight, she clicked it on. It was dim, but it would do. She ran back to the hall, to the children’s rooms, feeling no pain in her swollen ankle.

Flinging Cody’s door wide, she flashed the light toward the wall where his bed sat. In slow motion, the lonely, empty, disheveled bed yanked a horrifying scream from her gut, reverberating through the house. The earth quit spinning, and she was lost to oblivion. “NO! Not my children! Please, God…not my children.” She needed life support, couldn’t breathe; the air was being sucked from her body in rapid swells. She dropped to the floor, her world going black—closing in—smothering.

Not knowing how long she’d been out, Taylor struggled to her feet, she was sure it wasn’t long; it was still black outside, flashes of lightning still cracking in through the window. She raced to check on Nora. Her room was the same: deserted, hollow, puncturing a bleeding, oozing hole in Taylor’s chest the size of a large, bottomless chasm.

“For crying out loud, no…please, no.” The tears coursed down her face. She staggered numbly to Nora’s empty bed, collapsing on it, her hand reaching, groping—trying to find the warmth of her baby girl. But the only thing the tangled blankets and sheets offered her was a bleak and disgusting coldness. It shocked her through her hand. How long had they been gone? Time couldn’t wait, she needed to find them.

Amazon   Barnes and Noble  iTunes   Kobo    Smashwords

L. K. Kuhl

Author Bio:

L.K. Kuhl lives in Nebraska with her husband of twenty-nine years, young son, Nathan, and Greg and Will, their furry dog kids. She has two older daughters, Morgan and Brittani and son-in-law, Trevor. L.K. has been writing for over twenty years. She first began writing children’s books and poetry, moved on to writing music, and is now writing Young Adult and Adult novels. Her first book, Everlasting, a Young Adult Paranormal Romance, was published in February, 2016. She loves spending time with her family, vacationing, writing, reading, and taking long walks. It’s the characters who write their own stories in her novels, and she is just their messenger, sharing it with the world.

I got the idea to write Chasm because my husband used to be an engineer for the railroad. Although my husband never worked with this gentleman directly, one of the engineers on the railroad hit and killed his wife and children with the train he was driving. It was no fault of the engineer. The wife did it deliberately to get back at her husband, the engineer. The engineer said the last thing he saw was his children looking up at him from the windows of the car.

Although this is a work of fiction, and this is just a story between two, make believe people, I felt compelled to tell his story about how utterly and completely devastating this would be. The engineer was never able to return to work after this. 

                                                                                                                      

Author Links:

Website: https://kuhlreads.com/     

Author Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/kuhlreads

Twitter: https://twitter.com/lynettehoff1

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/lynettehofferbe/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/l.k.kuhl/

Blogger: http://kuhlreads.blogspot.com/

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/28674602-everlasting

Amazon Author Page: http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B01BXDJGIY

Book Signings and Reader Spotlight

A huge shout-out and thanks to the fans and friends who attended my recent book signing at Barnes and Noble in Palm Desert. I hope to meet more of you at the Readers For Life Literacy Autographing
in July!

B-Fest, Barnes and Noble's recent big teen event, totally ROCKED! I loved signing the first books in my two series, The Beltane Escape from The Two Realms Trilogy, and Spell Check from The Teen Wytche Saga. Here are a few highlights:

The day begins!

Salim Alama adds to his Ariella Moon book collection.

How do you spell your name?

Early birds Suze Datz, Salim Alama, and Monty Poff

Barnes and Noble staff member, Allyson, bought a copy of
The Beltane Escape on her break!

Aspiring author, Sir Jr, brought his whole family!

These teens are wearing their Beltane Escape swag,
a necklace with a skeleton key. 

Such lovely sisters!! They bought two books!

Wonderful new fan, Miriam Herrera.

See you all July 13, 2016 at the San Diego Marriott Marquis and Marina for the "Readers for Life" book signing! Nora Roberts and Sylvia Day are expected to be among the 400 romance authors (including me!) raising money for literacy. The event is free to the public. Because it is a fundraiser, Romance Writers of America requests you do not bring books from home. Please plan to purchase them at the event.

Summer Festivals: 52 Fun Things To Do in 52 Weeks, #6

Summer is a great time to dive into culture and explore fun, free festivals. Cities large and small abound with free concerts, and art and book festivals. I just returned from the Bay Area Book Festival in Berkeley, California, and will be signing books June 11 at B-Fest. So this week’s 52 Fun Things To Do in 52 Weeks is…drum roll…Attend A Book Festival!

3 Reasons to Attend a Summer Festival

1.     They are free.

2.     They appeal to all ages.

3.     They are a great way to discover and meet new authors, artists, and musicians.

B-Fest

Nationwide, Barnes and Noble will celebrate teens, and young adult fiction, on June 10-12, 2016. Expect book signings with YA authors, author panels, swag, and more. Adults read the majority of Young Adult fiction, so I expect B-Fest’s appeal to extend beyond teens. 

I will be signing Spell Check and The Beltane Escape at 10 AM, June 11, at the Westfield Mall in Palm Desert. Expect magical swag, and yummy homemade cookies or brownies.

Bay Area Book Festival

Make a note of this event for next year. The free festival included great music at the Center Street Stage, author panels, book signings, and more. I enjoyed meeting new authors and local booksellers, and perusing book-related merchandise.

Do you know of any great summer festivals in your area? Please comment so others can discover these events, too. And if you attend B-Fest, check back and tell me what you thought.

Happy reading!

~Ariella

Copyright 2016 Ariella Moon

Book Signing News!

Meet me at B-Fest!

Book lovers please join me at 10:00 AM on Saturday, June 11, 2016 at Barnes and Noble in the Westfield Mall, Palm Desert. I will be signing The Beltane Escape and Spell Check, and giving away magical swag while supplies last!

Contest for Aspiring Authors

Once again I will be a First-Round Judge for the Heart-to-Heart contest. This competition is great for receiving constructive feedback. And, if you are one of the top three finalists in your category, your manuscript will be read by an agent and two editors! For details on how to enter, click here.

I hope you have a magical day!

~Ariella