Blackbird Fall

My City Owl Press sister, Em Shotwell, has a new book out! YAY!!!! Here are the deets you need to know.

About the book

Meet Delia. Gifted. Magical. Broken.

Hell hath no fury like Delia Caibre—Gifted single mom with the power to make people love her, and a chip on her shoulder the size of the Mississippi.

When last summer left her broken by a monster, and abandoned by the man she trusted, Delia pulled herself up and vowed to never let anyone hurt her, or those she loves, again. So when Thomas Richard shows up, begging forgiveness and flashing his hundred-watt-smile, Delia lets him know that it will take more than dimples and promises to win her back.

Besides, raising her daughter, Genevieve—whose Gift is rare and stronger than anyone in the magical Caibre family—leaves little room for things like dating. But Thomas is persistent. And cute…and it would be nice to feel carefree and nineteen.

Until a masked-man from her past wields a Curse that leaves Delia’s beloved sister on her deathbed, and makes off with Genevieve. It will take the most powerful in the Caibre family to put things right. But bringing her broken family together may prove impossible, even if not doing so means their destruction.

Available everywhere October 30^th. Be sure to ask for it at your local library and favorite book shop!

Buy your copy

Want to be at the launch!

Em Shotwell invites you to help her launch her latest book, BLACKBIRD FALLING. The launch will be hosted on November 9^th, 2018 by Conundrum Books in St. Francisville, Louisiana. Em will happily sign books and answer questions. Check out Conundrum Books online for more info (http://www.conundrumbooks.com).

Em will be speaking about her writing process and answering book questions at the Zachary branch of the Baton Rouge Public library on December 12th. For more information, please contact the library at (225) 658-1840.

About the Author

Em Shotwell is a mom, writer, cancer survivor, foster youth advocate, podcast producer, and a casual geek–among a million other things. Sometimes she writes books about misfits and the people who love them.

When she’s not frowning at her computer screen, Em enjoys spending time outdoors hiking, or indoors daydreaming and wishing she could play the banjo.

*Em is available for signings and book discussions. Please contact her via email or her website. She loves speaking with students and book clubs.

Previous Works: Blackbird Summer, Forget Me Not, The Chans, These Roots Run Deep, These Resting Bones, and This Hollow Heart.

Find Em:

Website

Facebook

Goodreads

Review Quotes for Em’s Work

“Sweet. Magical. Heartbreaking. Healing. (In Forget Me Not) Em Shotwell delivers an engaging, romantic paranormal fantasy with a real-world message.”   –JD Horn, Author of the best-selling WITCHING SAVANNAH series.       

“This magical romance (Forget Me Not) draws you in from the first page. What starts as a sweet romance with the appearance of a classic love triangle quickly breaks down into something much heavier–a fight to reclaim happiness after the inevitable scars of wartime.” – E.J. Wenstrom, Author of MUD and winner of the FWA book of the year.

“Fans of Sookie Stackhouse and Beautiful Creatures who are looking for their next fix from the sticks should look no further than Blackbird Summer. I can’t wait for the next book in the series.”-Kchase, Goodreads Reviewer and Reader. (Link)

“This southern gothic paranormal blew me away. The take on magic was refreshingly new and the characters deep and well-developed. Fans of Beautiful Creatures who wanted something with a bit more of an adult feel to it will love this.”- Award Winning Fantasy Author, Heather McCorkle (Link)

“One of my favorite things about this novella (Forget Me Not) was that, while the story was engrossing and something entirely new, it still included some of my favorite aspects of Blackbird Summer. The large, close-knit family dynamics, for one – particularly the relationships between strong, passionate women. The rich, southern gothic atmosphere was equally well-developed, and I felt like I was escaping to another world every time I opened the book.” –Andrea Berthot, Author of The Gold and Gaslight Chronicles.

“It’s unbelievable when you get dropped into an Em Shotwell world. As a writer myself, I must tell you that this is one of the biggest compliments I can give.”-Award winning author Randi Perrin.

Analiese Rising cover reveal

Rheia by Cassandra Page: Book Blitz!

Rheia
Cassandra Page
Publication date: October 13th 2018
Genres: Fantasy, Young Adult

“Beauty and the Beast” meets Ancient Greece, with a steampunk twist

Every year, Rheia’s father brought home four prisoners of war, sacrifices to keep the demon Typhein bound. Rheia never gave them much thought … until her father’s enemy made her one of them. Now she has two weeks to find a way to escape death at the hands of the Beast and either save her people or condemn them to destruction.

The last thing Rheia expected was to fall in love with the Beast oath-bound to kill her.

Goodreads / Amazon / Barnes & Noble / iBooks / Kobo / Smashwords

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EXCERPT:

Rheia waited, fidgeting, until the herbalist finished tying off the bundle of fennel and counting out her change. Then she tucked the herbs into her basket and followed her brother, head down so as not to attract attention: an unwed, unaccompanied woman. She would kill Aias if his running off resulted in any slight against her name. She swallowed and adjusted her veil, making sure her hair was completely covered.

She found Aias standing in the deep shadows beneath the statue. He couldn’t see into the temple from there, wedged as he was between one huge sandalled foot and an outer pillar, adjacent to the shadowed porch, but his head was cocked as he listened, eyes wide as wine cups. “You just wait until I tell Mammidon about this,” she hissed.

“Shh,” Aias whispered, raking her with a contemptuous gaze. “I’m listening.”

“And if the priests see you out here, lurking like a thief, what will they say?” She grabbed his arm and tried to pull him away, but he eeled from her grip and stepped closer to the entrance. If she tried to grab him again, he might stumble backward, out into the bright sunshine where he would be much more obvious. Grinding her jaw with frustration, she glared at him.

He glared back, head tilted upward to meet her gaze. “Rheia, something is going on. They are stirred up like an ants’ nest. Don’t you want to know why?”

“No,” she whispered, shaking her head emphatically. And she didn’t. She wanted to browse the trinkets at Phidias’s stall, see if he knew her name, see whether Galen was lurking out the back somewhere and might come over to see her.

But she couldn’t do so without Aias. “All right,” she said with a sigh, crossing her arms and looking away towards the harbour as though she was merely taking a moment to shade herself from the hot sun. “One minute.”

Resolved not to listen to the voices inside the great building, Rheia studied the mason’s mark hidden at the statue’s heel as though it were the most interesting thing in the world. She had heard of Myron, even though he’d died when her grandmother was a baby; the huge statue had been his last great work. But a babble of raised voices as they passed close by the inside doorway caught her ear: the words thysia and offering louder than the rest, as the speaker emphasised a point. They fell away, and she wondered what had happened to cause such consternation. Had the helot girl tried to escape again? Had she been successful this time? There would be a city-wide manhunt to find her if it were true. A surge of sympathy for the girl made her purse her lips. How awful it would be, to know you would be dead when next the moon was full.

Aias’s fingers digging into Rheia’s arm brought her back to herself. “Rheia,” he whispered, the sound sharp with fear. “Let’s go.”

“Finally,” she muttered, glancing up and down the street for watching eyes before hurrying him away from the temple, her hand at the small of his back so he couldn’t dart off again. But when she tried to stop at the goatherder’s stall to buy a pottery jar of milk, he dragged her on, out of the agora. “Aias, stop! Wait!”

“You heard what they said.” He shook his head, curls bouncing emphatically as he hauled her along the street, almost at a run. “We have to get home. Father will know more.”

Rheia’s heart felt strange in her chest, anxiety making it flutter. “More about what? I was trying not to listen. As you should have been.”

Her little brother stopped, staring up at her with his mouth ajar. Then he pulled her by the hand into a quiet alley, away from the bustling traffic of the main street. “One of the helots is dead,” he whispered, eyes glittering with excitement. “One of the girls. Suicide, they say.”

Rheia’s eyes widened as she stared at her brother. The flutter in her chest expanded to swallow her belly. “But what will happen now? It’s only two weeks until the festival. The offering!”

“That’s what they were arguing about. One of the priests thought the triremes would be sent back out, while the other said it was too late. Father will know; if the ships are to be sent, he will captain the fleet. Come on. Before he leaves!”

Rheia let Aias drag her up the hill towards their villa, her mind whirling with the implications. The Broken Ones were meant to have the thysies for a full ten days before the ritual. Something about cleansing rituals. But that would only give the triremes three days to get to the helot lands and back again. Would it be enough?

And if not, what was the alternative?

 

Author Bio:

Cassandra Page is a mother, author, editor and geek. She lives in Canberra, Australia’s bush capital, with her son and two Cairn Terriers. She has a serious coffee addiction and a tattoo of a cat – despite being allergic to cats. She has loved to read since primary school, when the library was her refuge, and loves many genres, all of them speculative fiction. When she’s not reading or writing, she engages in geekery, from Doctor Who to AD&D. Because who said you need to grow up?

Website / Goodreads / Facebook / Twitter / Instagram

 

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