DARE TO SHINE COVER REVEAL!

It's here! The beautiful cover Emma Hibbs has worked so hard on is finished! Soon, the book we ALL worked so hard on will follow and I can't tell you how proud I am to be a part of this.

THIS is the Anthology I mentioned a few months back. The fundraiser for S.O.P.H.I.E. and the crusade against bullying.

A lot of writers, AND editors put their time, effort and hearts into this. All for a good cause. Would you like to meet us?

COMING TO PAPERBACK AND E-BOOK

SUNDAY 22 MAY 2016

WORLD GOTH DAY

SYNOPSIS

In August 2007, Sophie Lancaster was viciously attacked and later passed away from her horrendous injuries. The only reason she was targeted was because she looked different.

Now, authors from across the world have come together to present an anthology of stories inspired by the joy of individuality.  From science fiction and paranormal to fairy tale reimaginings, fall into a celebration of life and difference, all to benefit ​The Sophie Lancaster Foundation.

 Registered charity number - 1129689

​

Website: http://www.sophielancasterfoundation.com/

THE AUTHORS

E. C. Hibbs

E. C. Hibbs has lived all her life in Cheshire, north-west England. A lover of stories from an early age, she wrote her first 'book' when she was five, and throughout school was a frequent visitor to the younger classes to read her tales to the children.

Living so near the coast, she loves anything to do with the sea. She studied Animal Behaviour at university and longs to work with marine mammals in the future. As well as nature and animals, she also has a soft spot for history, and loves paying visits to castles, cathedrals and museums. She also runs Elphame Arts; creating unique portraits in both digital fantasy and graphite mediums, as well as book and CD covers.

There are many things she could be without, but writing isn't one of them. She carries a pen everywhere, in case an idea appears, and takes pride in still seeing the world as brimming with magic. Besides writing, she reads obsessively, her favourite genres being the classics and all kinds of fantasy. She enjoys Disney and horror films, practising Shotokan karate, drawing, archery, hiking up mountains, and playing with her very cheeky cat Millie-Moo. She also models for the UK Alternative Fashion Fest in aid of local charities and S.O.P.H.I.E., and is an avid supporter of WWF.

Website: http://www.echibbs.weebly.com/

Facebook: http://facebook.com/echibbs

Twitter: https://twitter.com/echibbs

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbjx3A43ygTUWxr3EyFjQTg

Instagram: https://instagram.com/e_c_hibbs/

Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6571427.E_C_Hibbs

Elphame Arts: http://www.elphamearts.weebly.com/

Donna Milward

Donna Milward lives in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada with her troll and two cats. She is a proud old-school headbanger of 30 years who has always embraced her individuality with determined ferocity.  She loves Iron Maiden, Megadeth, Skinny Puppy, Sepultura, Rammstein and anything unique and abrasive...like her. Besides writing, she likes gardening, canning, and all things to do with cats, mythology and the paranormal. She is the author Thoeba and Aphrodite’s War.

Blog: http://www.earthtothoeba.blogspot.com/

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/donnamilwardauthor

Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/donnamilward

Mystell Oshay

Mystell Oshay is a 24 year old from Fife in Scotland. She started writing when she was nearly in her teens and always enjoyed reading books as a child. Her other hobbies include gaming and listening to music. She loves to escape reality and travel to other worlds and has even made her own world. Music inspires her to create things and gaming is a great pass time as well as writing to escape everyday life. She is an animal lover and has gerbils. Her favorite genre of book is fantasy.

Twitter: https://twitter.com/MystellOshay

Rose Titus

Rose Titus works two jobs to support her writing habit. She exists somewhere in cold, dreary New England, with two manipulative cats and a very out of date Macintosh with which she creates horror and fantasy fiction. She also has a restored classic car to ride around while in search of adventure.

For travel she has stayed for the night in an allegedly haunted castle, has taken a boat ride on Loch Ness, and has visited the fabled Bermuda Triangle without getting lost.

Her work has previously appeared in Lost Worlds, Lynx Eye, Bog Gob, Mausoleum, Midnight Times, Blood Moon Rising Magazine, The Bugle, Weird Terrain, Descend, Wicked Wheels, The Dead River Review, and other literary magazines. Her novella Night Home has been published with Bathory Gate Press and is available with Amazon, Barnes and Noble.com and Smashwords.

​When she’s not writing or working or messing around with her old Buick, she waits by her mailbox for the next issue of Fortean Times to arrive.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AuthorRoseTitus?ref=aymt_homepage_panel

Bobbie Palmer

Bobbie Palmer is a Delaware Author who is very involved in her local writing community.  She currently has three novels out and has short stories in two anthologies.  She writes Young Adult, Fantasy, and Murder Mysteries.  In addition, she has a full-time job, but in her spare time she enjoys hanging out with her family and reading.

Website: http://authorbobbiepalmer.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Bobbie-Palmer/304444518542?ref=hl

Twitter: https://twitter.com/bobbie_palmer

Mari Brown

Mari has been writing as far back as she can remember. She spent most of her teen years writing short stories for her friends, it was a hobby for her even though she was published in the school newspaper.

She met and married her very own Alpha male 20 years ago and they have a 19 year old daughter, and two sons ages 16 and 15. They have 4 dogs and 2 cats. There is never a dull moment around the house. They live on the beautiful Gulf Coast of Alabama and are blessed to have a home on the river and to have the beach just 20 minutes away.​​

Over the years she wrote a few short stories in-between raising babies but it wasn't until 2012 she decided she needed to pursue her dream of writing a full novel. It took a while but in January of 2014 her debut novel was self-published. There is always a story in her head and characters talking to her. She enjoys being able to share her characters with others.

Website: http://www.maribrownauthor.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/maribrownauthor

Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/maribrownauthor

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Mari-Brown/e/B00JND6YO6

Lilly Rayman

First and foremost I am a wife and mother.  I was born in England where I had a dream at the age of 14.  That dream was to chase cattle on horseback across the Australian Outback.

In 2008, I had the opportunity to follow that dream, and found myself travelling to Australia on an Outback working holiday, and I've chased cattle, on horse back, across the Outback.  I met my soul mate, whilst on my working holiday, married him, and we have two beautiful daughters, and I'm still loving life in Australia.

I love to read, much to my husbands dismay sometimes when I have my head metaphorically buried in the pages of a book (I mean, how can that be literal since the dawn of e-books?)!

I love fantasy, I used to take myself away from my nasty world of bullies and appear in some wonderful land of dragons and magic! Pern was my all time favourite hide out world, God bless Anne and Todd MacCaffery.

When I immersed myself in my fantasy worlds, I used to re-write the plots in my head, starring myself as some great, sword drawn character who wouldn't give two hoots what the local bully thought! That eventuated in my actually writing down my own stories.

More recently I was inspired to start writing again, and I picked up on the whole craze of werewolf and vampire. I have had the most enjoyment writing AN UNEXPECTED BONDING, and the two books that will follow it!

Website: http://www.lillyrayman0007.wix.com/lillyrayman

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/lillyrayman0007

Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/lillyrayman0007

Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/lillyrayman0007

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/author/lillyrayman0007

MP Ashman

MP Ashman debuted in 2012 with Black Hollow, a fantasy fiction novella about Jessica Bannerly, a girl who believes herself to be far from special, until she is whisked away into a magical kingdom, where an ancient wizard believes her to be his only way of escaping a mystical prison. This was followed, a year later, by Black Hollow Part II, in which the wizard uses Jessica's best friend Ciara, and her brother, Justin, to finally win his freedom.

In 2014, Ashman turned to science fiction, with the novella Time's Child, following Nina Summer, a technophobic 21st century teen who discovers that the life she has is not the one to which she belongs.​

With The Water Tower, Ashman begins a whole new saga in the Time Twins science fiction series for young adults.

MP Ashman lives in Toowoomba with his family, including his cat, Prue.​​

Author Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MpAshmanAuthorNews

Time Twins: https://chaseandstaceyblog.wordpress.com/

Time Twins Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ChaseandStacey

Twitter: https://twitter.com/Mpashmanauthor

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-zCGbcvFP10eXt7p7IK9cQ

Allana Kephart & Melissa Simmons

Allana Kephart

Allana Kephart has been making things up and bending people to her will from a very young age. She loves animals and reading and spends a large amount of time thinking up ways to torment her characters. When not writing she can be found walking one of her many furbabies, working at a local pet supply store, or jamming out in her car. She lives south of Denver, CO with her six fur-babies.

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.%20com/author/show/7376577.Allana_Kephart

Amazon: http://www.amazon.%20com/Allana-Kephart/e/B00JOVDOF4/ref=ntt_athr_dp_%20pel_1

Melissa Simmons

Melissa Simmons loves music, reading, her cat and her husband-not necessarily in that order, of course. She is obsessed with all things Disney, Supernatural (TV show) and comic book TVshows/ movies and doesn’t care who knows it. Her favorite superhero is Batman and she will defend his awesomeness to her last breath. When she isn’t writing and plotting, she loves to bake and spends her days helping other authors promote their work. She resides in upstate NY with her husband and their adorable cat.

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.%20com/author/show/1639094.Melissa_Simmons

Amazon: http://www.amazon.%20com/Melissa-Simmons/e/B00JOLW9J6

Blog: http://melandlanawrite.blogspot.com/

The Dolan Prophecies: http://%20dolanpropheciesseries.blogspot.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/%20MelandLanaWrite

Twitter: https://twitter.com/MelandLanaWrite

Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/%20melandlanawrite/

Fiona Maher

Fiona Maher is the author of the dark fantasy The Last Changeling and also the ‘Horror in a Hurry’ series of novellas. She also co-organises The Legendary Llangollen Faery Festival and loves anything fae and fantastical.

Legendary Llangollen Faery Festival: http://www.northwalesfaeryfestival.com/

The Last Changeling: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Last-Changeling-Enigma-Wars-Book-ebook/dp/B00B90EIRQ/

Horror in a Hurry: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Salem-Strategy-Horror-Hurry-Book-ebook/dp/B00RHW14AY

Please share this, and support us in our cause. The world is a better place when we don't judge others by the way we look.

Fem-Two, As in Muse-ik

Kind of looks like Furiosa, doesn't she?

This album was one of the first I ever purchased that wasn't Duran Duran or a Smurf album. (Strange fact, my very first album was Styx, 'Use your Illusion'. Short story--I have no idea why I bought it. I was six and I think I wanted to buy something grown-up with my first allowance.)

I bought 'Touch' because of "Here Comes the Rain Again." It was this beautiful, painful song about unrequited desire that spoke to me. At the time, I assumed Annie Lennox was 'just' a singer. I thought Dave Stewart was the brains behind the whole outfit. Now I know Eurythmics  ( It means: a system of training through movement to music.) would not be the unique animal it is without her. She's an equal and appreciated partner in the duo.

If you watch her musical partner in interviews explain lyrics, Dave Stewart will say things like, "It was just something Annie needed to express at the time and it really shaped the album." I have to give kudos to Stewart for putting ego aside and allowing Annie to do the thing that makes them great together. Not every man is that laid back. That's why they made brilliant music for over thirty years. He`s a musical genius, she`s a lyrical mastermind who is exceptional at using her voice.

My enlightenment occurred while listening to my favorite song of theirs, Beethoven (I love to)
It's a cool video too. See here:Beethoven (I Love to)

I loved that song because of the emotion it invoked.  When I'm stressed out at work, I hear it in my head, and I feel her tension. Then, after years of playing that song, a single lyric slapped me in the face..I was just thinking of something SLEEK, to wrap around my tender throat. 

I thought, "Ohhh. That's RAW." Lyrics about fantasizing about suicide isn't what amazed me.  As she says herself, it's "Something extreme." It's the fact that she said it. She went there without apology. She came right out and said it, and doesn't care if anyone heard her.

I love Annie because #1: She's amazingly talented. Anyone who has ever heard her voice knows she's got a perfect sound and great range. But seriously listen to her voice. It's more than perfect tone. It's truly an instrument. If you have any doubt, listen to this:Sex Crime

It was about the George Orwell novel, 1984. Listen to the many different ways she uses her voice.  Right from 'HAI!" To 'Doopa-doopa-doo-booboop'. She likes to use her vocals to create different effects. (And sometimes with Mr. Stewart's help.)

Number Two: Annie is unique. She once said in an interview. "You can't define me by the way I dress."  In Annie Lennox's career, I've seen her as a man, an angelic waif, a housewife, a slut. Like how she felt here: I Need a Man Plus many more. It depends on her mood. I LOVE how she dons any character she feels like. Which brings me to the number three reason why I love Annie Lennox.

Number Three: Annie is emotional, and she doesn't care that everyone knows it. Remember that bit where I said her lyrics are what makes the Eurythmics great? Yeah, it's because she isn't afraid to tell you she's feeling hurt, pissed off, happy, liberated or lonely. She's made a successful career out of it. She's 'used that weapon against us'. And I really admire it. In a world where women are belittled and shunned for expressing themselves, Annie Lennox never made apologies.

This is why Annie Lennox is Fem-Muse#2.

At Last. Progress. (New Cover Release)

Cover by Anima Black.

First, I must apologize. This has been a real adventure, trying to self-publish my new novella, but I'm getting there. I finally have something to show you. TA-DA!!! New book cover!!

The novella is called HER TRUE NAME: VOLUME ONE, and yes, it's going to be series. My first! It is edited by Heather Savage of Staccato Publishing, and the cover is done by Anima Black.

Publishing date? Uncertain, but certainly sometime this month. I hope!

I'm doing this through Createspace, and will have information about it's availability soon. Sorry to say, I only plan to publish it as an e-book. It's only 25,000 words, so it doesn't look feasible to publish it in paper form.

If anyone has questions, I'll be happy to answer them as best I can. In the meantime... Here is the back blurb. (Thanks Heather Savage for helping me write it.) And wish me luck!

When Virtus dies in a demon attack, Sage defies the Energy and goes in search of his soul. She finds him on Earth, and sacrifices her immortality to join him. She will pursue him through every human incarnation, each lifetime, until they can return home to Eden, together.

Finding each other is only the beginning. Theophrastus is a scholar and healer, come back to the village where he was raised. Salvia married a merchant, her greatest joy her three young boys. When Apophis, god of chaos, meddles in the affairs of humans no one is safe. Will they find love again? Or is survival their greater obstacle?"