Blog Tour + #Giveaway: Weariland by Mary Shotwell @MaryEShotwell @yaboundtourspr @MergePublishing

Weariland
by Mary Shotwell
Genre: YA
Release Date: May 10th 2016
Merge Publishing

Summary:

For fifteen-year-old Lason Davies, it all started with a text. 

“HIDING PLACE.” 

The last words of her murdered grandmother haunt Lason as she travels to England with her sheltering mother for the funeral. The crime is a sensation, but the clamoring reporters and news photographers aren’t the only ones interested in their arrival. 

As her mother’s behavior borders on erratic (on a good day), Lason encounters a stranger from Weariland, a dreary world once known as Wonderland. He petitions Lason’s help in finding a secret family heirloom, a key to saving his land—and to Lason’s past. Lason is swept in an adventure through Weariland’s unpredictable realm, encountering colorful, fantastical characters and discovering her family’s elusive history. But if she isn’t careful, she may never return… 

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Interview with Mary Shotwell

What inspired you to write Weariland?

I was a big fan of Gregory Maguire during my graduate stage of life. I kept hoping he would write a retelling of Alice and reimagine Wonderland from another character’s point of view, or from a different societal perspective. At the same time, I had a poster on my wall with the colorful characters and scenes from the original. I started to envision an updated Wonderland, and who I would want to be involved. The thoughts eventually developed to the point I said to myself, Why don’t I write it?

Can you tell us a little bit about the next books in Weariland or what you have planned for the future?

I planned Weariland to be the first in series. Some fans have noted there is room to expand and I did that on purpose. I essentially had the major actions of the whole series planned out before getting Weariland published. The next will be deeper and darker. I am close to releasing the first in a new series called The Underlings. It’s dystopian/sci-fi, about an underground society. That’s all I’m saying about that for now!

Can you tell us a little bit about the characters in Weariland?

Lason is based (loosely) off a teenager I know. She’s fifteen, yet has had to be independent or self-sufficient for a good while. In real life, the teenager’s mother is not all together motherly. I wanted to explore a story that explained why or how a mother could act in such a way. Therefore, Lason’s mother, Caroline, seems mean-spirited and unloving at first. When the mother-daughter pair experience their adventures, we learn more about the reasons behind their behaviors. I don’t want to give too much away about the fantastical characters, but you will meet some favorites and relatives of familiar ones.

You know I think we all have a favorite author. Who is your favorite author and why?

Hands down, Michael Crichton. I committed a blog to him at maryshotwell.com, but in short, his stories got me through a tough time in life. I loved how he could take a real scientific part of life and tweak it just a little to carry it over into fiction. It saddens me he is no longer with us.

If you could time-travel would you travel to the future or the past? Where would you like to go and why would you like to visit this particular time period?

Past! I don’t want to see the future. I’d be too Type-A and wonder if I could change the course of my life or other people’s lives. But then again, I wouldn’t want to make changes to the past to alter the present. I wouldn’t want my picture to fade a la Michael J. Fox. If I had to choose a time period…either the Victorian Era or the flapper days. I’m currently watching Z on Amazon and love the idea of speak-easies and swanky parties. But everyone has this idea of going back in time and participating in the best parts. Each era has a dark side, and I’m not sure most people think about going back and living the worst part of the time period, in the lowest social class.

Do you have any little fuzzy friends? Like a dog or a cat? Or any pets?

I have three children, or the equivalent of 17 dogs. In both love and odor.

Thanks for taking time out of your busy schedule to visit with us today.

About the Author
Mary grew up in northeast Ohio, so it was only natural for her to pursue a degree in marine biology. After studying dolphin behavior and estimating great white shark populations, she earned her Ph.D. in Biostatistics in Charleston, South Carolina. It was there, during the arduous dissertation process, where she had the idea to write a book. 

With Alice and the crazy characters from Wonderland staring her down from her bedroom poster, Mary envisioned what that fantasy realm would look like in current day. Creative writing served as a natural escape from technical writing, wedding planning, pregnancy, and job hunting. 

Mary is excited to debut Weariland (Merge Publishing, 2016), a novel introducing Lason Davies, a teenager who learns about her family's past in a world once called Wonderland. She currently resides in Tennessee with her husband and three children.

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Blog Tour + #Giveaway: Any Boy But You (North Pole, Minnesota #1) by Julie Hammerle @JulieHammerle @chapterxchapter @EntangledTeen

Any Boy but You (North Pole, Minnesota #1) by Julie Hammerle

Publication Date: February 13, 2017

Publisher:  Entangled: Crush

Elena Chestnut has been chatting with an anonymous boy late into the night. It’s a very You’ve Got Mail situation, and she has no idea who he is. He can’t be Oliver Prince, hot-and-bashful son of the family running the rival sporting goods store. Their fancy sales strategies are driving Elena’s family out of business. Elena’s mystery boy has teamed up with her in their latest sales strategy, an augmented reality game, to help her win the grand-prize plane tickets. Money’s so tight Elena’s going to miss senior year spring break with her friends if she can’t win this game.

The girl Oliver's fallen head-over-heels for online had better not be Elena Chestnut. She's his angry, vindictive Latin tutor, the daughter of his dad’s business rival, and the one girl he’d never even think of kissing. She’s definitely not his online crush, because that girl is funny, sweet, and perfect.

When Oliver asks to reveal their names at the Valentine’s Day dance, their IRL relationship will either ruin what they have online, or they’ll discover just how thin the line between love and hate really is.

Disclaimer: This Entangled Teen Crush book contains swearing, snowball fights, and sexual tension that could melt the North Pole. Read at your own risk.

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Guest Post:

Is there an author past or present that may have inspired you to write? If yes please tell us who this author is and how they may have inspired you?

Like most authors, I’ve always been a big reader, ever since I pulled Pet Sematary off my mom’s nightstand when I was four J

As far as the author who inspired me to write, that has to be Maud Hart Lovelace. I’m honestly not sure if I started writing because of her books or if I was so drawn to them because I already knew when I started reading them that I wanted to write. Lovelace’s Betsy-Tacy series follows a trio of best friends at the beginning of the 20^th century from age four through high school, college, and into adulthood.

The main character, Betsy Ray (loosely based on the author), knows from an early age that she wants to be a writer. She writes stories and plays. She takes her friends on wonderful adventures around their little Minnesota town, Deep Valley. What I liked about the books when I was a kid was that they were about a highly imaginative young girl who loved her family and friends. (Oh, and the romance was super swoony.)

What strikes me about these books now is how ahead of their time they were. The series is set in the 1910s and was published in the 1940s, and no one in Betsy’s life—not her parents, friends, or boyfriend—ever questions her desire to be a writer. Her career is a huge part of her identity. These are books about a girl (and then a woman), who is willing to do the work to achieve her dreams.

Maud Hart Lovelace and Betsy made me believe I could do whatever I set my mind to, namely write. 

Julie Hammerle is the author of The Sound of Us, which will be published by Entangled Teen on June 7, 2016. Before settling down to write "for real," she studied opera, taught Latin, and held her real estate license for one hot minute. Currently, she writes about TV on her blog Hammervision, ropes people into conversations about Game of Thrones, and makes excuses to avoid the gym. Her favorite YA-centric TV shows include 90210 (original spice), Felicity, and Freaks and Geeks. Her iPod reads like a 1997 Lilith Fair set list.

She lives in Chicago with her husband, two kids, and a dog. They named the dog Indiana.

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·        One (1) winner will receive a signed copy of The Sound of Us by Julie Hammerle (US ONLY)

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Book Tour + #Giveaway: Walking Out of War by Scott Bury @ScottTheWriter @SDSXXTours

Walking Out of War

by Scott Bury

Genre: Historical Adventure, War

Ukraine, 1944: After the Soviets burned the Ukrainian city of Ternopyl to the ground to crush the stubborn Nazi occupiers, they rounded up every remaining Ukrainian man around for the Red Army’s final push on Germany. Maurice Bury, Canadian citizen, Ukrainian resistance fighter and intelligence officer, is thrust once again into the death struggle between Hitler’s Germany and Stalin’s USSR.

Fighting across the Baltics in the autumn of 1944 is tough and bloody. Then the Red Army enters Germany, where they’re no longer liberators—they’re the long-feared Communist horde, bent on destruction, rape and revenge. The Communists are determined to wipe Nazism from the face of the earth. And the soldiers want revenge for Germany's brutal invasion and occupation.

Maurice has determined his only way out of this hell is to survive until Nazi Germany dies, and then move home to Canada. But to do that, he’ll have to not only walk out of war, but elude Stalin’s dreaded secret police.

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Transfers

May 1946

By late May, some refugees were beginning to give up. On a bright afternoon, a non-military Russian-made truck took three families from Belarus back to help rebuild their homes.

Maurice knew it was time for him to leave. Few of the refugees in the camp, and probably none of the American and French guards believed that he was from Montreal.

Then Corporal Knight handed him an envelope bearing the stamp of the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration, or U.N.R.R.A. “This came for you in today’s mailbag, Morrie.” The letter had been opened, following the protocol of the U.N. and the American Army to check letters sent through their postal system but addressed to non-military or U.N. personnel.

Heartbeat accelerating, Maurice unfolded the letter. It was a small piece of paper, two-thirds the size of the standard letter paper the Army used, and again, it bore the U.N.R.R.A. heading, along with a more specific designation of the author in French.

However, the text was perfectly typed in English.

“This is to certify that the U.N.R.R.A. Administration has no objection to accepting Mr. Maurice Bury, a Canadian subject, as an inhabitant of Camp Kufstein.” 

It was signed by E.F. Squadrille, Director, Camp Kufstein, and stamped by the U.N.R.R.A.-D.P. Center – Kufstein.”

Camp Kufstein was close to the German border, and closer to the U.S.S.R.

“You planning on leaving us, Morrie?” Knight asked. He sat behind his desk, and Maurice thought he looked a little hurt. “What’s the matter? Don’t you like us no more?”

“No, nothing like that ... I applied to go to Kufstein about a month ago. Now I have permission to go. But I don’t know how I can arrange transportation there.”

But there was one important aspect of the letter that Maurice knew was more important than permission to travel that he neither wanted nor could afford. 

Director Squadrille’s letter, stamped with the official mark of an agency of the United Nations, acknowledged him as a “Canadian subject.”

Documentation was the only weapon Maurice could use to save himself from the NKVD, and this would be a powerful addition to his arsenal.

Kufstein was about 150 kilometres, or 100 miles from Landeck. While civilian trains had been partially restored in Austria, buying a ticket required that he had permission to travel from the Allied occupying forces. If Corporal Knight’ reaction was any indication, Maurice might have trouble getting those permits from Commandant Whitney-Coates.

Soon after that, a letter arrived that changed his plans.

It came in a large envelope made of heavy, almost luxurious paper with a Montreal return address. The unfolded letter inside bore a red wax notary’s seal at the bottom left corner, and his Aunt Eudora’s signature on the right.

C A N A D A 

PROVINCE OF QUEBEC 

DISTRICT OF MONTREAL 

A F F I D A V I T  

I, the undersigned, Mrs. Evdokia Babiak,business Lady, residing and conduct the business at 1915 Centre St. Montreal, Que. Canada, after being duly sworn in , on the Holy Gospel, before the undersigned Commissaire of the Superiour Court, declared and say: 

- That I am a Canadian Citizen .  

That Mr. Bury Maurice who was born in Canada, and who is at Present in Austria directed by the address U.N.R.R.A. D.P.C. 188, Camp Landeck, Turol Austria-is my cousin. 

That his sincere wish to leave Europe and establish himself in Montreal Canada as soon as possible. 

That to give security to the Government of the Country where he has chosen to live, to the effect that he will

 have sufficient money to live independently, without being 

 at the charge of the Government, I, the undersigned, bind 

 and oblige myself to take care of my said cousin, to pay 

 all the transportation fees, and to provide him with - 

 sufficient money, for any other living expenses. 

--- That my present wealth is approximately of $15.000. 

 And I have signed at Montreal, Canada, this 25th day of April, 1946. 

 Ewdokia, 

 Mrs. Dora, Babiak  

Sworn before me , at the City  

of Montreal, Canada, on this  

25th,day of April, 1946.  

P.R. Rhodes 

Commissaire of the Superior Court.  

“What are you smiling about, Morrie?” Knight asked.

Maurice showed him the letter. I am one step closer to home, now.”

“Huh. So you really are Canadian.”

“Of course I am. I told you. I showed you my birth certificate.”

Knight shrugged. “Those things can be forged. But mostly, it’s your accent. You don’t sound like a Canadian to me. You sound like a Russian. And you don’t speak French.”

“A lot of people from Canada don’t speak French.”

Corporal Knight responded with a half-smile and a wink. 

Scott Bury can't stay in one category.

After a 20-year career in journalism, he turned to writing fiction. "Sam, the Strawb Part," a children's story, came out in 2011, with all the proceeds going to an autism charity. Next was a paranormal short story for grown-ups, "Dark Clouds."

The Bones of the Earth, a historical fantasy, came out in 2012. It was followed in 2013 with One Shade of Red, an erotic romance.

Army of Worn Soles, published in 2014, tells the true story of Maurice Bury, a Canadian drafted into the USSR's Red Army to face the German invasion of the Soviet Union.

Invited to participate in two Kindle Worlds, he published Torn Roots: A Lei Crime Kindle World Novella and Jet - Stealth: A Jet Kindle World Novella. Both came out in July 2015.

In between writing books and blog posts, Scott helped found an author's cooperative publishing venture, Independent Authors International. He is also President of author's professional association BestSelling Reads.

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Book Tour + #Giveaway: The Sweet Southern Hearts by Susan Schild @susan_schild @SDSXXTours

Sweet Southern Hearts

Author: Susan Schild

Publisher: Lyrical Press

Genre: Contemporary Women's Fiction

Susan Schild welcomes you back to the offbeat Southern town of Willow Hill, North Carolina, for a humorous, heartwarming story of new beginnings, do-overs, and self-discovery…

When it comes to marriage, third time’s the charm for Linny Taylor. She’s thrilled to be on her honeymoon with Jack Avery, Willow Hill’s handsome veterinarian. But just like the hair-raising white water rafting trip Jack persuades her to take, newlywed life has plenty of dips and bumps.

Jack’s twelve-year-old son is resisting all Linny’s efforts to be the perfect stepmother, while her own mother, Dottie, begs her to tag along on the first week of a free-wheeling RV adventure. Who knew women “of a certain age” could drum up so much trouble? No sooner is Linny sighing with relief at being back home than she’s helping her frazzled sister with a new baby…and dealing with an unexpected legacy from her late ex. Life is fuller—and richer—than she ever imagined, but if there’s one thing Linny’s learned by now, it’s that there’s always room for another sweet surprise…

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Back home, after they’d unpacked Jack left to pick up Neal at his ex-wife’s house and Linny hopped in her trusty old Volvo to drive the ten miles from their farmhouse to her mother’s house. She bumped down the long gravel road lined by rows of bushy tobacco plants thriving on the land her mama owned and leased out to other farmers. Rolling down the window, she breathed in the country fragrance of loamy earth, mown grass, and honeysuckle. She caught a whiff of skunk and it didn’t bother her a bit. It just smelled like her childhood. 

Slowing, she approached the driveway of the aqua blue trailer—the one her mother had let her stay in for free when Linny’s second husband had stolen her money and then died on her. The trailer had become such a haven for her while she’d rebuilt her life. She peered down the driveway, but it was too overgrown for her to see much. She spied a clothesline strung with brightly colored T-shirts and dresses that danced gracefully in the breeze and felt better. Mama said the new renters were a real nice young couple who adored the trailer Linny had turned into a little jewel box with new drywall, fresh paint, and reclaimed wood floors from Habitat Re-Use Center.  

Linny pulled in to the driveway of her mother’s tidy ranch, right beside the carport that housed her mother’s Buick. Trotting up the front walkway, Linny knocked on the screen door and looked inside. “Mama? Mama?” she called. In the background she heard a man’s voice on the TV, which was turned up to her mother’s usual blare level. Linny rapped harder and peered in the crack between the door and the frame. Her mother had a hook and eye holding the door shut, her version of home security. Linny pulled her cell from her purse and dialed Dottie but heard the ring and ring of the phone from inside the house. No one picked up. Her heart fluttering faster, Linny cupped her hands and called more loudly, “Mama! Mama!”  

A clatter sounded and Curtis barreled down the hallway, woofing a baritone bark that would have sent burglars straight into cardiac rehab at Raleigh Memorial. Her mother followed, cooing to the dog, “Now, sugar, you just hush. That’s just our Linny.” 

Breathing a sigh of relief, Linny broke into a smile. Though she’d always loved Mama, she’d only recently begun to really like her. Once Dottie shared the truth about how empty her marriage had been to Linny’s father, some weight had been lifted from her. Dottie had become sunnier, warmer, and more real—and Linny wanted all the time she could get with her. So if Dottie had a cold, Linny worried it was budding pneumonia. If she had a headache, it was a sign of an impending stroke. Dottie was a fit fifty-nine with no real health problems. And ever since she’d met the dapper Mack and begun to play pickle ball and dance the tango with him, she’d lost ten pounds and started doing a Jane Fonda DVD every morning. She could probably lap Linny in a 5K. Trying to hide how rattled she’d been, Linny waved too animatedly and made a big show of fussing over Curtis whose face was now pressed to the screen. “How are you, baby dog?” 

Curtis began to wag his long, thick tail—the one that could clear side tables and buckle you if he clipped your knees.  

“Sorry for not hearing you sooner, honey. I was snoozing with that Inspirational Living channel on in the background to keep me company,” Dottie said. 

Linny tried to be surreptitious in sizing up Dottie as she shooed away the dog and unlocked the door. Her hair was bunched up on either side like she’d slept on it funny, but she was steady on her feet and her eyes were bright. “Hey, Mama.” Linny wrapped her mother in a hug, comforted by the familiar smell of Jergens hand cream and baby powder with a hint of Aqua Net.  

“How are you, shug?” Dottie asked, motioning Linny to follow her back into the living room. “How was your trip and why are you back early?”

Dottie sank into her velour chair and reclined and Curtis gracefully curled into a loop on the carpet beside her. Linny filled her in on the honeymoon, omitting the part about Vera’s dramatics and talking instead about Jack needing to get back for a work issue. As her newly tech-savvy mother scrolled through the trip pictures on Linny’s phone, Linny noticed she was wearing a faded, polyester pink zip-up housecoat and those awful white Velcro-shut sandals that she thought had been relegated to the Goodwill box. Those were remnants of the bad old days when disappointment had made Dottie dress like a frumpy woman twenty years older than her actual years.  

These days, Dottie had a nice lady at Belk who helped her pick out sassy but age-appropriate clothes. So why was the frumpiness back?

After her mother’s final so pretty! and that looks so sweet, Linny settled back on the couch and cocked her head. “How are you feeling, Mama?” 

 “Oh, I’m bumping along,” Dottie said, not meeting Linny’s eyes. 

Trying to sound casual, Linny persisted. “So you didn’t feel up to going to the RV show?” 

“It’d be real crowded, plus my stomach was bothering me.” Dottie picked an imaginary piece of lint from her housecoat.

“I thought it was your feet and your sugar,” Linny said, raising a brow.  

Flushing guiltily and probably trying to remember her original ailments, Dottie nodded her head vigorously for emphasis, “It was all three. Stomach, sugar, and feet.”

The poofs on her mother’s hairdo bobbed as she nodded, and Linny pictured Precious the poodle with the faux tummy-toothache-itching issues. Linny was such a bad person. She bit the inside of her cheeks and tried to keep a straight face. “What’s really going on, Mama?”

Her mother blew out a gust of a sigh. “I don’t know,” she admitted. “Maybe I’m just getting cold feet about the whole trip.” 

“Why, Mama?” Linny asked. All she and her two friends talked about was Graceland versus Dollywood, interstates or secondary roads, and how to find the most accurate reviews of campsites on the internet.

Dottie paused and blurted out, “I’m scared. What if we have a flat tire or pick up a murdering hitchhiker or fight with one another the whole way? What about beavers with rabies coming after us? That happened in a campground in Arkansas just last weekend. Dragged the man under while he was swimming at the lake. What if we drive over a steep ravine?” She made a swooping downward hand motion to simulate driving off a cliff. 

Linny hid her smile. She’d had the same awful visual of the motor home flying off a cliff when she’d first heard about the US of A trip. Clearly, Mama was the genetic link to her own worrywart streak. “Anything else on your mind?” 

“Well, none of us are world trotters.” She glanced at Linny and smoothed the lace doily on the arm of the chair.  

Linny suppressed a grin. World trotters. Globe travelers. Dottie could mix an idiom, mash a metaphor. But it was a big deal that Mama and her girlfriends, who had been homebodies for most of their lives, were taking this trip. Travel could be daunting, especially when they were all in their late fifties and early sixties and planning on driving a giant bus of a motor home/camper thingy.  

Her mother went on, her words rushing as she let them go after penning them up for so long. “I’d never been out of the state before the big cruise and the girls had only been to South Carolina. Ruby went to Myrtle Beach once and Dessie went to Dillon, South Carolina, because she was underage and wanted to marry her first husband, who…” 

Linny raised a hand to try to head off the inevitable spelling, but it was too late. 

“…turned out to be G-A-Y.” Her mother nodded, looking proud of herself for being so wildly progressive as to know a G-A-Y person. “Anyhow, what if we can’t handle it? What if we get lost? What if Mack finds another lady friend while I’m gone? What if Curtis forgets all about me?” Looking stricken, she leaned over to scratch under the giant dog’s chin and stare at him soulfully. 

“You’ve been worrying about this a lot, Mama,” Linny said softly. 

Dottie nodded, poodle poofs bobbing again. Linny felt like reaching over and gently smoothing them down but didn’t. Dottie was feeling inadequate enough right now, the way her husband Boyd had made her feel for most of their marriage.  

“All of you are smart, competent women, and you did so well on that cruise,” Linny said in a soothing tone. “And you went to all of those islands and had different languages to deal with, and you flew in and out of some of the busiest airports. That’s pretty impressive.” Linny didn’t think she needed to mention that none of them had ever even flown before. 

Her mother considered this, a little smile playing at her lips. But after a moment doubts must have crept back because she threw up her hands and shook her head wearily. “I don’t know, sugar. I don’t think I’m up for this.” 

“What could make you feel more comfortable about taking this trip, Mama?” 

Linny’s mind was in high gear, sifting through options. Was there a Triple A deal for RVs or campers? Could the three women pool their money and hire a driver or… 

Her mother didn’t miss a beat. “I'd feel better if you came with us on the first week of the trip.” Dottie’s gaze was steady. “You can help us learn the ropes.” 

Linny opened her mouth and closed it again. Her big mouth. But she watched her mother patting Curtis and saw the thin gold band she still wore despite her husband’s betrayal. Linny understood every one of her mother’s fears and was so proud of her for all her courage. But Linny’d been married less than a week. She breathed out a sigh. “I can’t, Mama. Jack and I are just getting settled in and Neal’s coming to stay with us for a while.”

“I shouldn’t have even asked,” Her mother nodded, but her lower lip trembled and she looked as though she might cry. “I’m afraid I need to cancel on the girls, then.” 

Susan has an undergraduate degree from James Madison University and a master’s degree (MSW) from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She has used her professional background as a psychotherapist and corporate trainer to add authenticity to her characters.

Susan is a wife, a stepmother, and a dog lover. She and her family live near Raleigh, North Carolina where she is busy finishing up the third novel in the Willow Hill Series.

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