Hello, beautiful readers! My 10-day HYPE blog tour has ended, and I can't be happier with how it turned out. (If you missed any days, you can see them here. I'll be choosing the winners of the free ebooks soon, so make sure you comment while you check them out.) As many of you know, I am not comfortable with having a lot of attention on me, but I forced myself to leave my comfort zone for this book. Its message is too important to hide in the shadows.
Asking for help has always been a bit scary for me, partly because I fear rejection and partly because I hate inconveniencing others. Luckily for me, when I reached out to authors and asked them if they would be willing to share their space with me to promote HYPE, they jumped at the chance. I hope this post will show them how much that act of kindness meant to me.
Please, join me in thanking these authors for not only hosting me but also visiting the other blog posts and promoting them to their followers. Take a moment to click on each of their names. Learn about their books. Follow their site and their social media. Show them the love they deserve for their kindness and generosity.
I'd also like to take a moment to thank all of you who tweeted and retweeted my blog posts. You are very much appreciated. I will continue to support you and share your works as well. I'd like to give a shoutout to three authors who were not part of the blog but took the time to share HYPE on their blog. Please, show them some love as well. :-)
Today is your lucky day! I am a proud member of the RAVE
REVIEWS BOOK CLUB and for the next 48 hours (11/15 through 11/17) there is
a $25 discount on any membership tier when you join
the club!
We aren’t just an organization where you add your name to
our roster and then disappear.We
are the club that supports our members in numerous ways! Here are just a few…
-We purchase, read, and review our fellow member
books that are listed in the catalog.
-We promote our fellow members and their books on social
media, just as hard as we promote ourselves.
-We promote our members with interviews via our RAVE
WAVES Talk Radio Shows for RRBC members only.Books are always being purchased during those
interviews!
-We keep our fellow members lifted and promoted even when
they can’t promote themselves (in the event of personal emergencies, illness,
etc.)
-We have a hard-working Tweet Support Team, promoting our
members and their books daily.
-At RRBC, we believe that “each one should teach
one.” Therefore, we don’t compete against each other.We lift as we climb.
There are so many more awesome ways that being a member of RRBC
has benefitted me and I would love to share them all with you.You have questions?Just ask me!
RRBC is such a fun place to belong!We’re not just about books, you know. We’re
also about making beneficial connections and lifelong friendships!
Today, Monday, 11/15, through
Wednesday, 11/17, are our Recruitment Days and when you join,
please list my name on your membership application as the person who referred
you, as I’ll get a special prize!You
can join here > RaveReviewsBookClub.wordpress.com/rrbc-join-renew
If you have specific questions regarding membership,
please reach out to Paula, our Club Personal Asst, at RRBCInfo@gmail.com.She’s a whole lot of awesome!
I hope to see you on the other side of membership soon and
your books in the catalog!
Thank you for sharing this page to your social media
platforms for me!
Hello, beautiful readers! Welcome to the 10-day blog tour for my newest release, HYPE! I am blessed to have many talented authors hosting my novel on their sites for this tour. Please click each day on the author's name and visit the various pages. Each day will give you new insight on the story. While you are there, take a look around at the hosting blog because each site is fabulous!
GIVEAWAY: Three (3) e-book copies of Hype. Comment on any (or all) pages for a chance to win!
Congratulations, winners!
(I'm in a giving mood, so I've chosen two extra winners. I will reach out to each of you through Twitter, your web site, or your email address.)
Elizabeth Gauffreau
Roberta Eaton Cheadle
Jill Weatherholt
Jacquie Biggar
Jacqui Murray
I look forward to interacting with each of you throughout the tour. Enjoy!
Hello, beautiful readers! It is with great excitement I share with you the cover for
my newest novel, Hype. Today is Release Day, so I thought I'd take a moment to discuss why I chose this cover.
It took many rough drafts before my book cover designer and I settled on
this one. It isn’t easy creating a book cover, especially when you are not a
graphic designer. Luckily, Tatiana was able to find images that truly portray
my characters. I was also blessed to have the help of Rene Pimentel, a professional
photographer, who helped edit the silhouette to make it perfect.
Meet Cici. She is the confident, sassy cheerleader on the
left. She’s a junior in high school and is loving every minute of it. She’s in complete
control of her life. So, when I thought of portraying her, I wanted to show her
personality along with the role she most identifies with in the story.
Meet Gabriella, Gaby for short. Everyone at school calls her
Grub. She’s a loner and prefers it that way. She’s considered the social
pariah, and everyone stays away from her. She only wears shades of black. When
we found this picture, I loved it. Everything about her says, “Stay away, or
deal with the consequences.”
The silhouette was the most difficult to choose because it
needed to evoke fear and helplessness. The duct tape over the mouth represents the
inability to speak the truth. Hopefully, it captures that essence for all of
you.
And finally, let’s talk about the title, Hype. The title
came to me almost immediately after I heard Cici’s voice. When she said, “I don’t get all the hype
about having sex before graduation,” the whole storyline laid itself out for
me. Hype means to stimulate or to enliven. It can also mean to put on or
deceive. Both of those definitions can apply to this story, so it’s perfect.
I wrote the first draft of this story ten years ago. It's been a work of heart, and I can't wait to hear your thoughts on it. In a few days, I will have a 10-day book tour in honor of the ten days Hype sat on the shelf waiting to be published. Stay tuned! :-)
Hello, beautiful readers! Today, I have the pleasure of sharing with you the work of an incredible author, Randy Overbeck as part of his Haunted Shores Mysteries blog tour. I have read Blood on the Chesapeake and can attest to its great storyline. :-)
GIVEAWAY: $25 Amazon Gift Card & 1 e-book or paperback copy of one book in the Haunted Shores series (Winner's choice). Simply leave a comment below for your chance to win!
What do most authors crave?
When a writer sits down at his
computer and types up a few hundred pages of his imagination, what is he hoping
for? When an author takes a risk and sends her “new baby” out into the harsh
light of the world, what are her expectations?
Well, he or she hopes to have
created the great American novel, become rich and famous like James Patterson
or Stephanie Evanovich and make gazillions of dollars.
But, when any serious writer
eschews such impossible fantasies and re-enters the real world, what is his actual
goal for any manuscript? If he’s lucky and perhaps possesses more than a
modicum of talent, what he longs for is for readers to savor his work and for his
novels to achieve recognition from knowledgeable reviewers in the profession.
But with the tsunami of books
cascading down upon readers and reviewers—three hundred thousand new titles a
year in the U. S. at last count—this aspiration is a high hill to scale. To
capture readers’ eyes and attain even a bit of notice from professionals is a
daunting task.
That’s why the remarkable success
of the books in my series, the Haunted Shores Mysteries, amazes and humbles me.
In the first entry, BLOOD ON THE CHESAPEAKE (2019), Darrell leaves his hometown
for the Eastern Shore where he lands a great teaching job, becomes a winning
coach and even falls in love. But he is also stalked by an angry ghost whose
murder thirty years earlier reveals an ugly side of the resort town. This first
book won over readers and even captured a national award. Then, last month
BLOOD became a #1 Amazon and B & N Best Seller! WOW!
“An absolutely
chilling ghost story wrapped around an even scarier piece of history - or
perhaps it’s the other way around.”★★★★★—Chanticleer
Reviews
That was followed by CRIMSON AT
CAPE MAY (2020) released right in the middle of the pandemic. The second book takes
Darrell to a beautiful Jersey shore town, which has been welcoming guests for
more than 150 years. He’s there to help coach a summer football camp and
introduces Erin to the lovely beach town with its scores of unique Victorians. Only,
he learns Cape May is also the most haunted town on the East Coast and Darrell
ends up with his own personal ghost this time—a bride killed on her wedding
night. CRIMSON surprised even me by collecting three national awards and stacks
of five star reviews as well as loads of new fans as well joining BLOOD in the
Amazon Bestseller category.
“I loved everything about this book. As a
ghost story combined with a mystery, a romance, a social injustice and stunning
historical details, CRIMSON AT CAPE MAY has something for everyone.”★★★★★—ReadersView
This fall the Wild Rose Press launched
#3 in the series, SCARLET AT CRYSTAL RIVER (2021). Darrell’s tale continues,
this time with his new wife, Erin. The couple heads to the Gulf Coast of
Florida for a romantic honeymoon. But when Darrell tries to share some
memorable experiences with Erin like swimming with the manatees and playing in
the warm ocean waves in December, their fun is derailed. The desperate ghosts
of two murdered children haunt Darrell, begging him to find justice for them
and their parents. SCARLET also includes some nice touches of the Christmas
season. Even before this book was released, SCARLET has garnered several five
star reviews and a national award—the Gold Award from Literary Titan.
“SCARLET AT CRYSTAL RIVER is
a suspenseful paranormal novel with compelling characters and an enigmatic
mystery that drives the story to a riveting conclusion.Overbeck
is a master.”★★★★★—Literary
Titan
If you haven’t had the chance to check
out one of the award-winning Haunted Shores Mysteries, there is no time like
the present.
Author/Book Info—SCARLET
Bio
Dr. Randy Overbeck
is an award-winning educator, author and speaker. As an educator, he served
children for four decades in a range of roles captured in his novels, from
teacher and coach to principal and superintendent. His thriller, Leave No
Child Behind (2012) and his recent mysteries, the Amazon No. 1 Best Seller,
Blood on the Chesapeake,Crimson at Cape May and Scarlet at
Crystal River have earned five star reviews and garnered national awards
including “Thriller of the Year--ReadersFavorite.com, “Gold Award”—Literary
Titan, “Mystery of the Year”—ReadersView.com and “Crowned Heart of
Excellence”—InD’Tale Magazine. As a member of the Mystery Writers of America,
Dr. Overbeck is an active member of the literary community, contributing to a
writers’ critique group, serving as a mentor to emerging writers and
participating in writing conferences such as Sleuthfest, Killer Nashville and
the Midwest Writers Workshop. When he’s not writing or researching his next
exciting novel or sharing his presentation, “Things Still Go Bump in the
Night,” he’s spending time with his incredible family of wife, three children
(and their spouses) and seven wonderful grandchildren.
All
Darrell Henshaw wanted was to enjoy his honeymoon with his beautiful wife,
Erin, in the charming town of Crystal River on the sunny Gulf Coast of Florida.
Only a pair of ghosts decide to intrude on their celebration. And not just any
ghosts, the spirits of two young Latino children. Unwilling at first to derail
the honeymoon for yet another ghost hunt, Darrell finally concedes when
a painting of the kids comes alive, weeping and pleading for his help.
When he and Erin track down the
artist, they discover the children’s family were migrant workers the next
county over. But when they travel there, their questions about the kids gets
their car shot up and Erin hospitalized. Torn between fear and rage, Darrell
must decide how far he will go to get justice for two young children he never
even knew.
Tagline
Darrell and Erin thought they were
heading to Florida for a carefree honeymoon, but the ghosts of two immigrants
children haunt them, pleading for help.
Trailer
Review Blurbs
“Scarlet at Crystal River is an eerie paranormal
mystery I couldn't stop reading. Randy Overbeck is a masterful writer of the
paranormal, drawing the reader in before instilling shivers down the spine. 5+
stars." –N. N. Light's Book Heaven
“A rollercoaster of a mystery, hurtling up and down hills
and sharp corners until the very end, when the reader is left slightly
breathless, waiting for their hearts to beat back to a normal rhythm.★★★★★—ReadersView
“Scarlet at Crystal River is a suspenseful paranormal novel with compelling characters and
an enigmatic mystery that drives the story to a riveting conclusion.Overbeck is a master at building tension–-this is easily a one-sitting
read.”★★★★★—Literary
Titan
“This is another masterpiece from Randy
Overbeck. His excellent writing style has left me speechless for one more time.
He writes in a way that makes you feel what the characters feel and you have no
choice but to partake in the journey with them.” ★★★★★—Ioanna’s
Reviews, Greece
To follow along with the rest of the tour, please visit the authors' tour page on the 4WillsPublishing site. If you'd like to book your own blog tour and have your book promoted in similar grand fashion, please click HERE. Thanks for supporting this author and his work!
Hello, beautiful readers! I have the pleasure of sharing with you a phenomenal woman and great author, Shirley Harris-Slaughter. I've read her books and short stories and encourage you to do the same. I hope you enjoy getting to know Shirley today. Leave her a comment below to show her some love! :-)
I was the financial/office manager for a Catholic
church on the east side of Detroit in a second career when I got
the inspiration to finally write our story. Three things happened that pushed
me to do it:
1) seeing the word “administrator” appear in “The Michigan
Catholic” behind the name of my former pastor’s affiliation with OLV during his
anniversary celebration as a priest. I thought he was our pastor. This revelation
would change everything;
2) the release of a book by the diocese called “Make
Straight the Path” celebrating 300 years of a presence in the Detroit region.
The book represented the history of all the churches in the region EXCEPT OLV; and
3) looking though a directory of churches and seeing OLVs’ start date listed in
1975 (after merging) when it clearly was founded in 1943, thereby wiping out its
entire early history.
I was horrified and shocked, so I contacted the archives
office and was asked, “Why don’t you get something down here?” Don’t present me
with a challenge because I will take you up on it. And that’s how I came to
write our story.
What interested you the most about this topic?
Seizing
the opportunity to preserve the history because it was clear to me that it was
never going to happen unless I did it. I was overcome with satisfaction knowing, in some small way, I could save those wonderful pictures that would have sat in
a box stored away forever or possibly destroyed.
How much research was required?
My book required a lot of initial research and interviews.
I’m a terrible procrastinator. It’s tedious work and requires will power sometimes
just to finish a task. I interviewed and recorded two individuals. My research
took me to Sacred Heart Major Seminary’s Archives; and I rummaged through the
files at our church -- recording & copying information; and I spoke with
individuals in their homes. But because I was driven to do this, I got the job
done. The rest of the research came from my own experience.
How long did it take you to write this book?
It took me 5 years from start to release date.
The editing and publishing took up the most time. Being a perfectionist about
my work didn’t make it any smoother. It was difficult finding the right kind of
editor, so I settled on a referral from a friend to use a print-on-demand
publisher. Today, I’m with Amazon and will always need an editor and formatter,
unfortunately.
What is the most valuable thing you learned through the process?
Saving our history and telling the story was by
far the most precious gift. It practically fell into my lap. I was the chosen
one to make it happen. And so, the lesson I learned is that if I don’t do it,
nobody will.
How hard is it to write about personal experiences?
It is extremely difficult to expose yourself. I
put down on paper experiences I was too ashamed to talk about my entire life.
In some ways, writing it down provided a release. I don’t think I ever would
have opened up any other way.
How do you like to connect with readers?
I want my readers to ask questions about
anything they don’t understand, and there are a lot of questions to be asked. It
lets me know that they read the book. I love doing speaking engagements because
audience connections stem from lots of questions
What advice would you give aspiring writers?
You are not alone. There is a community of
writers you should hook up with---preferably Rave Reviews Book Club. When I
first became an author, that was the first piece of advice I got. RRBC was not
around at the time, but I did join a couple of local writer’s networks. Enroll
in writing classes to hone up your skills. That is something I didn’t do.
Is there anything else you'd like to share with us today?
As I sat here and answered all your
questions, it struck me that being in Rave Reviews Book Club is like a
one-stop-shop, as you can get everything you need here in the club. We are
scrambling around trying to find editors, formatters, and book cover designers, and they are right there in the club. Plus, it has all the promotion you can get. We
have the Pop Up Book Shop coming up and must get registered for it.
Last of all, I want to thank you, Yvette, for
having me on your blog. It’s just wonderful!
One act set in motion a chain of events that threatened one
Catholic community's ability to thrive.
It
happened between 1945 and 1946 at the headquarters of the Archdiocese of
Detroit in the Chancellor's office. Msgr. John C. Ryan called an emergency
meeting with the cardinal...
And so the stage was set for the years of turmoil that followed and the
subsequent demise of this once vibrant church. Here comes the author who gives
the reader an intimate look at her Catholic community, the township she grew up
in, and its historical significance to World War II, Henry Ford's auto plant,
migration from the south, and the housing crisis that was unfolding. She talks
about having fond memories as well as sadness and pain. While preparing a
farewell speech for the departing pastor, she wondered at the age of twelve
what was going to happen to her and the parish family she came to love. What a
burden for a young child to bear? The reader is introduced to the pioneers who
helped shape and establish this community that shaped her. But the book takes a
different turn as the research uncovers forgotten secrets...
Shirley Harris-Slaughter @sharrislaughter is a Michigan native. She is a community activist having been a
school board trustee in the Oak
Park School District and mentored four
freshmen girls in the Winning Futures Program. Shirley loves
trains, vintage clothes, and old buildings with historic significance. So, it
was a natural that she would write about growing up in historic Royal Oak Twp.
and keep alive a Catholic community that was about to lose its history and
identity. It seems that everything she loved closed, and she was not about to
let any of it be forgotten. Shirley joined Rave
Reviews Book Club because she recognized the need to support fellow authors
in order to move forward in her own endeavors. She already had a thriving
relationship with like twitter followers that lead her there. “We all had the
same goals, so it was a natural fit.”
