EPIC KINDLE GIVEAWAY AND SALE!

My novel BANISHED is one of 12 that are on sale in the Epic Kindle Giveaway Sale today and tomorrow. We're giving away a Kindle Fire and Amazon money vouchers.(Check on the right side of this page to enter.) I thought I'd talk a little about what made me write a novel about a couple of fallen angels in BANISHED when, except for my Vampire Nation Chronicles, I have written suspense crime thrillers. --- It came from a dream related to me by my grown daughter. We get our ideas from everywhere and this idea really snagged my attention. The vivid dream was about a little girl who was not really human, couldn't be, since she had "powers" and seemed ancient, not young, and she was evil as she could possibly be. I even used the entire dream in what will be the next book, the sequel, to BANISHED. The girl in the dream was a voodoo queen in New Orleans. She was not a fallen angel--that came from my imagination. She wore a little white dress, white frilly socks, and black patent leather Mary Jane shoes. She had long black hair and a red ribbon tied in it. She was a threatening little person, horridly beautiful, the beauty of a perfect child who held within her a great propensity for evil and destruction to those who happened into her sphere of attention. She could read minds and manipulate people. The contrast between her looks and presence and the inner demon that resided inside her fascinated me. (Haven't we all met people who were beautiful, but frightening in some way?) How she became a fallen angel, I can't remember exactly, she just did, and not just any angel, but the Queen of all the fallen. What did she want in her centuries' walk on this earth? What all who are evil want--she wanted domination over everything and everyone, she wanted to rule, she wanted to be the Queen of the human world just as she was queen of the underworld fallen and cast-out angels. That is where the book BANISHED came from and now it's spawning a sequel and perhaps will inspire me long enough for a trilogy. If you want to see what I did with my bad little angel, get BANISHED today for just $.99. I think it's worth a lot more and that's a bargain, but grab your copy, enter the Kindle Fire Giveaway, and you decide about the tiny angel who has come down from the darkness to spread her wrath and fury on humankind...

12 novels on sale for three days only for just $.99. Enter to win on this blog in the raffle to the right of this page. Pick the great novel of your choice and enjoy a holiday deal for only $.99. I wish you great luck and hope you win the Kindle Fire!

Repost of a Soltice List: Books and Stories Not to be Missed from 2012

Solstice List: Books and Short Stories Not to be Missed 2012

by Malina Roos on Thursday, December 20, 2012 at 10:01pm ·

I have read a lot of books in the last two years. Well, I have always read a lot of books but in the past eighteen months I started tracking just how many I read. I am up to 623. There were a lot of good books and a few great ones. Fortunately only about a dozen or so were bad, really, really bad. This year I also joined the Horror Writers Association and with that honour I nominated a few great stories. Don't know if they made it all the way through, but I guess we will find out in a few months. The only down side to this is books can only be nominated in the year they were published. That left out a lot of great books. Books that people read a year or more after publication, or books that were written by authors unsure of the HWA and were not members. So I decided to publish my own list of great reads.

I also write book reviews for my own page Only Five Star Book Reviews as well as for Hellnotes. Some of the books on the list you will find have been reviewed on both sites, but others have not. Not enough time in the day right now, to do all I want to do. But I will get to them.

All of these stories touched me in some way. Either the way the author used prose, the depth of characters, or the story. I only had a couple of rules; the story must be edited, no typos, gramamtical, or punctual errors. I don't care about style. If an author chooses to write about a character with a speech impediment, or accent, so be it. But to publish something that has numerous errors makes my teeth itch. If I get to chapter two and already have enough highlighted areas on the pages to make a black and white page look like it is printed on yellow paper, I toss it. Did that to about a dozen novels. Irritated the heck out of me. If you as an author, spend time and energy creating a story, spend some time or money or both, editing it. Please.

Second rule was it had to make me think or engage me in a way to let me get lost in it. That brings me back to rule number one.......if I am reading a story, I want to become lost. I want to wander down the trail of well-spun prose and sharp descriptives and I don't want to trip over poor editing and fall on my face.

That was it. Now the problem......I wanted a Top Ten List. I have 40......so, since this is my list I took the liberty of separating the stories and books into categories, cause I can. I have the Solstice Top Eleven (?)  Short Stories and Long Fiction, Solstice Top Novels (20), and Solstice Anthologies.

On this list you will find a myriad of authors, writing styles and publishing dates. You will also find a variation on theme, voice, tone and style. One thing they all have in comon though is brilliant writing, great storytelling and a way to stick in your mind. Keep in mind these tomes have not all been published in 2012. These are the stories I have read this year that I believe are top notch.

Best Short Stories and Longer Fiction

1. Flesh & Blood Jerry McKinney
2. Tears of Love Jerry McKinney
3. Prison Planet Billie Sue Mosiman
4. Mourning Mansion Billie Sue Mosiman
5. The Girl Bryan Hall
6. Pisswidget Franklin E Wales
7. Mama Said Lee Allen Howard
8. Unleashed: Tail One Lori R Lopez
9. Feed Jerry McKinney
10. Frankenstein:Return from the Wasteland Billie Sue Mosiman
11. Labour Pains Lee Allen Howard

Best Anthologies of 2012

1. Zippered Flesh: Tales of Body Enhancements Gone Bad Weldon Burge*
2. Dark Blessings John Paul Allen
3. Dead in the Truck Craig Saunders
4. Midnight Hour Neil Davies
5. World Collider Richard Salter
6. Night Sound Jerry McKinney

Best Novels 

1. Scars on the Face of God Chris Bauer
2. 100 Unfortunate Days Penelope Crowe**
3. Apparition Michaelbrent Collings**
4. Gifted Trust John Paul Allen***
5. Seven Point Star Craig Saunders
6. Requiem for Dead Flies Peter Dudar
7. Nightwhere John Everson*
8. Selection Event Wayne Wightman
9. Wishbone Brooklyn Hudson
10. Shining in Crimson Robert S Wilson
11. Don of the Living Dead Robert DeCouteau****
12. Critique Daniel I Russel**
13. Pressure Jeff Strand
14. The Vampire Club Scott Nicholson****
15. One Night Stan's Greg Sisco****
16. Zomblog Todd Brown
17. The Plauge Lisa Hinsley
18. Widow Billie Sue Mosiman
19. World Mart Leigh M Lane
20. Anon Pete Giglio

Series

1. Chronicles of the Vampire Hunters: Creation (Book 1) Judgement (Book 2) Extermination (Book 3) Dustin Palmer
2. Scrolls of the Dead- Legions of the Dark, Rise of the Legend, and Hunter of the Dead  Billie Sue Mosiman

                                        *Dark  **Disturbing ***Dark and Disturbing ****Hillarious

Do yourself a favour and read these books. Read all of them. If you are a writer, read them and see what makes these great. If you are a reader, read them for entertainment and pleasure. I know I will be reading them again and again and again.........