EVERY NOW AND THEN A FRIEND MAKES THINGS BETTER

 

Every now and then a friend makes things better ...

 

A new audio book newsletter is out that spotlights audiobooks (for a price, of course)

but you have to have your own banner made!

AudaVoxx

http://www.audavoxx.com/

And my photoshop skills are unto that of Wiley E. Coyote's!

http://heathermccorkle.blogspot.com/p/cp-design.html

But then along came Heather McCorkle, steampunk/fantasy author & graphic designer!


And faster than Alice can get Victor Standish into trouble, Heather came up with this grand banner:

Isn't this a beautiful banner?

 

THANKS, HEATHER!

 

AS HURRICANE ISAAC HOWLS, WELCOME HEATHER McCORKLE!

It's finally here, the cover reveal for Heather McCorkle's Rise of a Rector, the final novel in her channeler series (due out this October). To celebrate Heather is giving away two copies of her historical fantasy novel, To Ride A Puca. Before we get to that though, here is the cover:





To add it to your Goodreads lists click here. If you'd like to check out the rest of the channeler series (her novella Born of Fire is now FREE on Amazon & B&N!) you can do so on Amazon and Barnes and Noble. To win an eBook of To Ride A Puca, all you have to do is help Heather spread the word. There will be two winners! To enter fill out the form below.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

If McCord had a theme when he plays poker in his haunted jazz club, this would be it:

HEATHER McCORKLE & ALL KINDS OF SECRETS AT MESMER'S

Mesmer’s was as it always was : utterly unique …

and dangerous.

Mesmer’s is the only French Quarter restaurant owned by a cat … Mesmer, daughter of Bast. If you are lucky, you will only see her in her cat form. Unlucky is the mortal that sees her as a tiger.

A tiger can eat 100 pounds of meat a night! Compare that to 400 hamburgers! They need a lot of food because they go days between meals. So it is no coincidence that Mesmer owns a restaurant!

Heather McCorkle was here to talk about a special edition of her The Secret Of Spruce Knoll being releasing from Compass Press this month.

She’s doing a special tour to go along with it.

The special part,

a percentage of the proceeds from every special edition sold (in every format) between its release date and 12-12-2012,

will go toward Heather’s favorite charity that protects endangered species.

Her goal is to make at least $10,000 for the charity.

Of course there are prizes during the tour which goes from December 1st through the 17th. Prizes include

a symbolic endangered species adoption of the winner’s choice

(a $50 donation by Heather to the charity for the endangered species of the winner’s choice, and cute stuffed animal for the winner!),

signed copies of her novels and great swag. For full details, and to enter, go here. http://heathermccorkle.blogspot.com

For the tour Heather has asked each blog host to pick their favorite endangered species and she will tell us a fun or interesting fact about that animal.

My favorite?

The tiger, hence my suggesting Mesmer’s at the site of the interview.

Heather looked around at the surroundings. Strange eddys and currents flowed through the darkness, changing the clothing and era of those around us.

Roaring Twenties mobsters and their gun-toting molls became toga-clad Roman Senators with their ladies.

Maid Marion looked askance at the link of Boudin on her plate, while Robin of Locksley lustily wolfed it down, smiling at her expression.

The willowy Amanda Carr was singing "Where Can I Go Without You?," backed up by the Kenny Hadley band. She was a survivor, starting her own record company to get her music out to the world.

Heather cleared her throat, "Much like you, Roland, I’ve felt a close connection with tigers since I was young, though I don’t have the fun story to tell that you do.’

Mesmer leapt into the empty chair between us at our table and yowled oddly. Heather looked a question at me. I translated :

“Mesmer wants to know what story.”

Mesmer turned her strangely intelligent eyes to me, and I explained, “Ever since Mother gave me a stuffed …”

Mesmer began to growl, and I hastily explained, “”A toy tiger! Anyway since then, I loved tigers.”

Mesmer yodled, “Naturally so.”

“So when my kindergarten class toured the Detroit Zoo with my mother as the other leader – and I turned up missing at the lunch break, she knew just where I was.”

Heather laughed, “The tiger enclosure, right?”

“Too right. When she arrived, all out of breath from running, sure enough, there I was, having edged past all the barriers, just slipping down the fake stone cliff to my beautiful tigers.”


Mesmer rumbled, “You would have made a beautiful ... snack.”

I nodded. “Again, too right. But Mother knew the awe I held of her, so she whispered, “Roland Durand Yeomans, you come right back up here. Don’t make me go down there and hurt those tigers!”

My eyes grew wet. “And such was my belief at the time that Mother could do anything, I scurried back up … to save the tigers from her!”

Mesmer chuckled, then a crash of falling dishes came from the back of the restaurant. She leapt down to the floor, her body suddenly shimmering. I shivered.

Five pounds of cat eerily, slowly transformed into five hundred pounds of tiger with each padding step. Muscles rippled like corded rope beneath a pelt of amber, streaked with black.

Long sharp fangs gleamed in the dark restaurant. The dinnerware was a gift from her mother, Bast. Mesmer only reluctantly tolerated two-leggeds at best. At worst? You don't want to know.


Heather looked another question at me, and I said, “Some feeble-fingered dish washer is about to become lunch.”

Heather paled, and I replied, “What can I say? Mesmer’s is that kind of place.”

There was a loud human yelp from the closed kitchen doors, followed by Mesmer’s roar, then silence.

Heather shivered, then husked, “It breaks my heart that tigers have moved up from endangered to critically endangered.”

I frowned, “Really?”

She nodded. “Yes, part of that reason is that an astounding 93% of their natural habitat has been destroyed or developed.”

To get Heather’s mind off the new sounds of Mesmer eating, I said, “Here’s a Fun Fact: Though it may be hard to tell them apart, each tiger’s stripes are a pattern unique to the individual.”

Heather rasped, “I didn’t catch a clear glimpse of Mesmer’s.”

I shivered. “Only the unlucky do that.”

That was when the ghost of Errol Flynn sat down beside Heather, flashing his wide sly grin. You want to know what happened next? Sure you do.

But what happens at Mesmer’s stays at Mesmer’s.


Here are the Buy links for the eBooks :


http://www.amazon.com/Secret-Spruce-Knoll-Channeler-ebook/dp/B006BL0WR8

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/books/1036661905

***

LOOK WHAT CP DESIGN DID FOR ME!

HEATHER MCCORKLE DID SOME AMAZING BOOKMARKS FOR ME, DIDN'T SHE?

Her company is CP DESIGN FOR AUTHORS :

http://cpdesignandcompasspress.blogspot.com/

She even does gift certificates if you are thinking of what to get an author this Christmas.

Bookmarks, business cards, even covers! What a list of services she offers for the struggling author.

Look at what she did for me.

***

HIBBS : A is for APPLAUSE!! THE LUCKY WINNERS ARE ...

Hibbs, the cub with no clue and all dancing feet, here!

Mr. Roland let me pick the names for the four autographed books.

Ah, my paws might've mangled up the entries a bit. But we could still make out the names :

MARGO BENSON wins the autographed Laurrel K. Hamiltion



HEATHER McCORKLE wins the DEAN KOONTZ autographed copy of ODD THOMAS



DONNA HOLE wins the NEIL GAIMAN authographed HANGING OUT WITH THE DREAM KING



and T. D. McFROST wins the JIM BUTCHER autographed WELCOME TO THE JUNGLE graphic novel



Mr. Roland says I win ...

an autographed copy of

THE BEAR WITH TWO SHADOWS?

That is so NOT funny, Mr. Roland. Not even on April's Fool's Day!!

All you winners, email Mr. Roland your address so that he can mail you those autographed books! ***