The Beautiful Evil is a surreal & tense journey into the darkest recesses of the human psyche. By Robbi Sommers Bryant

About the book:

 

How well do you know yourself? If forced to either face your inner demons—escaping with a secured, inner peace or the possibility of complete emotional ruin — how would you fare? The demons? They dwell in all of us. They watch us from our shadows. They ride us—oh, yes, they do—whispering in our ears, tempting us with our own darkness. In the end, many succumb. And you? The Beautiful Evil takes readers through the tumultuous consequences of one woman’s journey into a dark, personal hell in the pursuit of passion, hope and serenity.

Scarred by the death of her father at a young age, Constance is a heartbroken child with no place to turn for emotional support. Any discussion regarding her father’s mysterious final days and his scandalous death are forbidden by her cold and distant mother, Madeline. Instead, Madeline dedicates herself to the mission of turning her daughter into a proper debutante. Madeline chooses Constance’s friends, activities and clothing according to her rigid, high society standards. Devoid of self-expression, Constance's only true friend is her reflection in a bedroom mirror.

Her adult life, however, proves to be just as passionless and controlled. Constance believes her life will stay this way forever, until a purchase of an antique vase changes everything. When Constance opens the vase, demons storm into her life. Like bloodthirsty parasites, they dig into her, quickly attaching themselves to her psyche; quietly sucking away her soul. But one of the demons, Tisiphone, befriends Constance—offering her a way out of her shut-down heart and emotionally bereft life. Desperate to feel anything, Constance's decisions catapult her into the shadowy world of untrustworthy men, illegal drugs and murder.

In the mists of the wreckage, Constance finds herself staring into the abyss, forced to make one, final heart-rending decision if she is to find peace. A captivating thriller that will keep readers questioning reality until the final ultimate act, The Beautiful Evil is a surreal and tense journey into the darkest recesses of the human psyche.

About the Author

Robbi Sommers Bryant published works include 3 novels, 5 short story collections and 1 book of poetry. Her work has been published in magazines including Readers Digest, Redbook, Cupido and Penthouse and included in several anthologies.

After the sudden death of her 21-year-old son in the late 1990's, Robbi's passion and creative flame extinguished. She only began writing again last year. Robbi has recently retired as a dental hygienist.

She has also worked as a licensed esthetician and a certified massage therapist. Once a disco dance teacher and tarot card reader/teacher, Robbi has dabbled in many of life's experiences. She is married and is the mother of three sons. Justin 1976-1997, Brian and Nick (twins, age 28.) The Beautiful Evil, a novel, is her first major work since her son passed.




 


Patti says: Love the book cover!

 

Up Close & Personal with Author - Ella Grey

Where were you born and where do you call home? I was born in the UK and I live in a reasonably small town where not much happens.

What is the name of your most recent book and if you had to sum it up in 20 or less words, what would you say? I'm currently writing an eshort series called 'A Difficult Decision'. A brief summary would be; a young girl runs away from a boarding school run by nuns to find her brother. In London she finds out that her brother has been dragged in to a turf war between werewolves and she isn't as completely human as she thinks.

If you gave some of your characters an opportunity to speak for themselves, what would they say? Rachel Valentine would probably ask me to make her life a little more normal. I drown that voice out with chocolate and coffee.

Do you have plans for a new book? Is this book part of a series? Currently I'm writing the last instalment to the 'A Difficult Decision' series but I've also written a novella, published with Echelon Press, about a fire witch called Molly O'Brien. Which is the first in a trilogy of novellas. I'm also working on my first novel as well. It's going to be a busy year lol,

What or who inspired you to write? And how long have you been writing? I've now been writing for 12 years. Originally I was inspired by Christopher Pike and L.J Smith, but that's changed as I got older and my tastes varied. Now its Stephen King, I like how most of his stories are interlinked, even if it isn't obvious.

Do you gift books to readers for book reviews? Yes I do. I've found it a great way of getting new readers. Especially if it encourages them to read more of my stories.

How did you come up with the title and cover design? I'm afraid titles have never been my strong suit, I usually play around with a general idea and pray that I'll find something that fits. The cover design for my shorts are concieved by the head editor at Echelon Press, Karen L. Syed and she does a great job. I'm not just saying that either : )

Have you based any of your characters on someone you know, or real events in your own life? Molly O'Brien, the fire witch in 'What a Way to Start the Day' is based on me. We have the same sense of humor which makes her incredibly easy to write.

Is there an Author that you would really like to meet? I would love to meet the rest of the Echelon Press writers. I'm based in the UK, so it might never happen, failing that? I would love to meet Terry Pratchett.

Do you prefer ebooks, paperbacks or hardcover? All of my work have been done in ebooks, its a great way for a new writer to become known. At some point I would love to be in paperback, which is one of the reasons I'm working so hard on the novel. I'm pretty sure that even if its released in paperback, it would also be in ebook.

What book are you currently reading and in what format (electronic/paperback/hardcover)? I've just finished 'The Folding Knife' by K. J. Parker, a great story and I'm looking forward to reading more stuff from this writer. I got it from my local library so it was in paperback.

Do you have a book trailer? No I don't, but I would be interested in learning how to do one.

What is the best advice that you have ever been given when it comes to writing? Stop questioning yourself, if you weren't a good writer, you wouldn't be published. Thanks Sean.

Do you write under a pen name? Yes, Ella Grey was orginally a character in a short I wrote a million years ago.

Cats or dogs? Cats, but don't tell my dog, he'll be upset.

Where can your readers follow you? I'm on twitter, ellagrey26 and wordpress http://www.ellagrey.wordpress.com

My blog: http://www.ellagrey.wordpress.com
My Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000921734990

My Goodreads author page: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4632820.Ella_Grey

Twitter: ellagrey26

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Ella-Grey/e/B004UI52HE/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_pop_1
Smashwords: http://www.smashwords.com/books/search?query=ella+grey

Is your book in Print, ebook or both? ebook.

Thank you so much for taking the time to do this interview with me and allowing us a glimpse into your writing word. Thanks for having me.

The Man in the Shadows (A Difficult Decision) by Ella Grey (Kindle Edition - Apr 12, 2011) - Kindle eBook

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What a Way to Start the Day by Ella Grey (Kindle Edition - Feb 15, 2011) - Kindle eBook

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A Heart-shaped Memory (A Difficult Decision) by Ella Grey (Kindle Edition - Jun 11, 2011) - Kindle eBook

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Searching for Michael (A Difficult Decision) by Ella Grey (Kindle Edition - Mar 7, 2011) - Kindle eBook

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Forever Sunshine by Collette Scott

Forever Sunshine - Currently Available Online

Now Available in Print and as an Ebook: Up close & personal interview with Collette coming soon!

Young and naïve Cherisse Bridwell had focused solely on completing her college
degree and beginning her career until one hot summer evening when her
frightened older sister, Shelly, arrives looking for help.

Cher's carefully ordered life quickly comes to an end. Trapped in an abusive marriage, Shelly is terrified and has nowhere else to go but to her overworked and oblivious
sister. Though Cher is not prepared to handle the effects of a controlling and
violent husband, fate delivers help via police sergeant Brandon Nicholson. With
his strength and guidance, he shows Cherisse and Shelly how to survive and how
to live life to the fullest. As both women find their inner strength, Cher and
Brandon fall in love and build a future together.

However, life is full of ups and downs, and through it all Cher and her family must continue to face every day with a feeling of hope and optimism, even when it seems as though all hope is gone.

Available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Borders, Smashwords, Diesel and others!

Exciting News!!
My ebook book publisher, Smashwords, is having their annual July Summer/Winter Sale. For the entire month of July, Forever Sunshine will be available for $1.75! How cool is that? That’s 75% off. So all ebook readers should take a look at http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/55308 and enter code SSW75 for the promotional price. Remember, Smashwords offers all formats. If you have Kindle, Nook, Kobo, Palm, BlackBerry, Android, iTunes, etc., you can download it. If you don’t have an e-reader, you can view it through your computer as well via PDF or HTML. Anyone can set up an account at Smashwords. So check out the book that has been called ‘highly emotional’, ‘riveting’, and ‘a powerful read’ today!

---

Collette Scott's books on Goodreads

Forever Sunshine

reviews: 1
ratings: 7 (avg rating 5.00)

Hannah's Blessing - Coming Soon!

Coming Soon:

In the more lighthearted followup to Forever Sunshine, meet Diana and Devlan as they learn to love in Hannah's Blessing!

Following her husband's betrayal and subsequent death, a devastated Diana Somerset makes a promise at his funeral to never trust so easily again.

However, she was not prepared to meet his enigmatic step-brother, Devlan Doyle, a man used to getting what he wanted. And Devlan wanted Diana. Not only was her child his heiress, but Diana's stubborn pride and disinterest intrigues him.

Setting out to conquer her distrust, Devlan whisks Diana and Hannah on a fairy tale of a lifetime. But is his determination strong enough to weaken her defenses and win her love, or will he lose the two people he has grown to care for the most?

Have any questions for Collette? Ask here in the comment box below.

Smashing new release by Jayde Scott - Doomed

Doomed is the second book in the Ancient Legends series by Jayde Scott.

The next book in the series, VOODOO KISS, is anticipated to be released in Sept. 2011.

Enter a paranormal world of dark magic, rituals, love bonds and legends…

Fallen angel Cassandra wasn't supposed to fall in love with Dallas. It should've been just a bit of fun she couldn't resist.

The bond they share could save her from her curse before she's forever bound to Hell. Trouble is, she's Lucifer's daughter and Dallas is mortal, and mortals don't survive in Cass's world. Cass has many enemies. One is an immortal hunter who wants something Cass guards. The killer knows the only way Cass can be destroyed is by killing the mortal soulmate.

But where Cass comes from, losing one's twin flame is a fate worse than death...

Will chaos-loving Cassandra find a way to sway her immortal family in time with a revengeful killer wracking havoc in Hell in her quest to get the one thing half the paranormal world desires?

Full-length fiction: approx. 360p. This book also works as a stand-alone novel.


Also by Jayde Scott: A JOB FROM HELL, Book One in the Ancient Legends series, and THE DIVORCE CLUB, a fun chick lit novel.

Jayde lives in London with her family and two cats, and is a huge fan of baking chocolate cake and listening to indie music.

	A Job From Hell (Volume 1) Paperback: $14.99 Kindle Edition: $0.99 May 9, 2011 (36) Expand See Book Details
	The Divorce Club (A chick lit romance about dating, divorce and OCD) Kindle Edition: $0.99 June 18, 2011 (3) Expand See Book Details
	Alex Gonzo, Royal Spy Kindle Edition: $0.99 December 25, 2010 (7) Expand See Book Details

Ways to find out more and keep in touch with Jayde:

http://www.twitter.com/jaydescottbooks
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Official-Jayde-Scott-Fanpage/184687468220935
http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4507090.Jayde_Scott
http://www.youtube.com/jaydescottbooks

And the Devil Laughed by Carole Sutton

HANNAH FORD, an under-cover cop, takes a surveillance job in Draper's Wharf. The small town on the banks of the Parramatta River in Australia has links to the drug trade, so the latest whisper goes. Her brief: to observe, report, and locate its source.

When she arrives, the town is in shock after the rape and murder of its local barmaid. Hannah, a rape victim, could pull out, but she needs this job to prove her competence to return to the streets and full duties.Threaded through the main story, is Hannah's own account of guilt and rage born of her husband's death, her rape and degradation that followed.

In working to find the source of drugs in Draper's Wharf, the line between her case and the murder enquiry is fading fast. Can she hack it, or is her worst nightmare about to be re-enacted, as she becomes their next target. (Short listed for the Genre Fiction Award by New Holland Publisher 2007)

Prologue

Old Marty could have chosen a better day for his funeral. The gravedigger hawked and spat a gobbet of phlegm. He squatted against an old stone wall and sniffed the damp air. He turned his weary face upwards to check the progress of a threatening squall line. Fat drops of rain fell on his cheeks.

The warning on the radio that morning told of severe weather from the west approaching Sydney. It was coming in earlier than expected. He rolled his tobacco, lit up and let the weed dangle between his lips. He hoped to God they’d be finished in time. He shifted and sat, gangly arms looped around his legs – a bag of aching bones. Across the tombstones towards the church, he could see the funeral party on its way.

Reverend Timms led the procession along the narrow path, his balding head bowed to the wind, black and purple robes blown flat against his legs. The quartet of undertakers in maroon suits carried Old Marty in a coffin crowned with yellow roses. The widow, wrapped in a navy blue anorak, clutched the arm of her tall, angular sister. A few members of the Over 60s Club trailed along in their wake.

Large multi-coloured umbrellas mushroomed to shelter the mourners. The gravedigger sniffed again as the party stopped beside the hole he’d dug the night before. Brought up in an age when the predominant colour at funerals was black, the gaily-coloured golfing shades they used today struck a note of incongruity and turned his graveyard into a fairground. The billowing storm cloud burst. The gravedigger lurched to his feet and stumbled to his shed.

Storm driven rain slanted in the wind, bounced off the ground. Ferocious gusts tore at the robust umbrellas, lifted the corners of the tarpaulin covering the loose earth and turned the soil into a running river of mud. Deep puddles formed at the base of the grave, shifting and resettling the dirt.
As the minister began his intonation, the first of the storm clouds passed. The sun found an avenue between the clouds. In the moment’s respite, raindrops hung like splinters of glass from the surrounding bushes and trees. Freed from the umbrella’s cover, the widow lifted her face to the sky to look at the expanding rainbow. Her tall sister took a step forward to peer into the waterlogged grave.

Her scream drove seagulls from the church roof into the air with raucous cries and brought the gravedigger back to the party. Reverend Timms jerked forward, his gaze following the agitated woman’s pointed finger. Others bent to see.

There, in the dark wet pit, emerging from the muddied waters, they saw a human hand. Stark in its whiteness, washed by the rain, scarlet lacquer and bejewelled rings adorned the fingers. Runnels of water drained down the wrist and forearm as the water level dropped away. Only the tatty remnants of a thin blanket of soil remained to cover the naked, blue-tinged body of a young woman.

Straightening up, the minister met the gravedigger’s eyes. Turning to the undertakers, he nodded for them to take up their burden once more. Then gently he shepherded the funeral party back to the church. The gravedigger returned to his shed. With someone else occupying his grave, Old Marty would have to wait awhile.

Reviewed by Randall Radic

In a sense, Carole Sutton – who is the author of the book under discussion – is a little like Jesus. During his First Advent, Jesus wandered around preaching a message of salvation. Whereas Carole – in her delightful first novel, Ferryman – preached a message powerful enough to convert this reviewer, who found crime-fiction distinctively boring, to the pleasures provided by a rollicking ‘who-dunnit.’ Furthermore, according to some, Jesus will return at the Second Advent and kick Satan’s butt. Taking a cue from Jesus, Carole decided to make a second appearance too. She’s back with another bang-up ‘who-dunnit.’ This one’s called And the Devil Laughed. And just like Jesus, it kicks ass.

The plot of the story goes like this: Hannah Ford is a policewoman trying to make a comeback from an emotional double whammy – the recent death of her husband and her own traumatic experience as a rape victim. She takes a job as an undercover cop in a small town, which, so the rumor goes is little more than a depot for drug smugglers. Hannah’s job is to determine if the rumors are true. When Hannah arrives at the town, drug smugglers are old history. No one cares about that anymore. What’s worrying them now is the rape and brutal murder of a local barmaid. It’s this intersection of hysterical trends that sends the story rocketing off with reckless dynamism.

When it comes to telling a story, Carole Sutton is the Mistress of Mechanical Advantage. For she knows just how to do it. She winds the story tight, then lets out a little slack so the reader thinks this might be a good time to take a breath. Just as the reader opens his mouth to inhale, she pulls the line even tighter, almost garroting the hapless reader with breathless excitement. And the Devil Laughed is the textbook example of the raw power of superb storytelling, which is a talent that can’t be taught or bought. It’s a knack. Either a writer has it or not. Carole Sutton has it!

Some novelists, of course, can tell a story, but where they come up short is in their dialogue. In other words, when the story’s characters speak, they don’t sound like real people. Instead, they sound like no-talent actors in a really bad horror flick, which was written and directed by some haberdasher from New Jersey, who got the job because his brother-in-law put up the money for the flick. It’s called ‘cultural dislocation.’ Which means the author has no ear for conversational idiosyncrasies. This literary disease is usually brought on by proximity. Proximity narrows perspective.

Hooray! Carole Sutton does not have the dreaded dialogue disease. She has DESH, instead. DESH is a musical term – diatonic elaboration of static harmony, also known as the major chord accompanied – appropriately – with a descending bassline. Which means her dialogue is life-affirming. Which is a fancy way of saying that when her characters speak, their speech patterns sound right. There is texture and streamlined organicism. Which means harmony in the conversational universe. And that translates into happy readers.

On a scale of 1 to 5, with 5 being the best And the Devil Laughed hit a factor five on the Read-o-Meter. Even if, like the reviewer, you think ‘who-dunnits’ function best as paperweights, do yourself a favor and read this book. Perhaps you, too, will have a religious conversion.

	Ferryman by Carole Sutton (Goodreads Author) 4.75 avg rating — 20 ratings — published 2008
	Blood Opal by Carole Sutton (Goodreads Author) 5.00 avg rating — 2 ratings — published 2010

blog hop & giveaway by Angel Haze

Angel Says:

	Bloodletter Kindle Edition: $0.99 June 14, 2011 Expand See Book Details
	Legacies of Talimura: War of the Witch Kindle Edition: $0.99 June 30, 2011 Expand See Book Details

To launch my thriller, Bloodletter, and YA fantasy, Legacies of Talimura: War of the Witch, I have put together an international blog hop with seven authors.

This International Blog Hop starts July 1st and runs for 30 days. There are well over 50 books to giveaway (mostly ebooks but some paperbacks as well) so there are lots of chances to win!

To enter, visit:

http://www.angelhaze.com/2011/07/01/blog...


About Angel -

Angel Haze is a Canadian author who spent her teens watching CSI, studying forensics, and delving into the criminal mind. She is an avid reader of thriller, mystery, horror, and fantasy novels.

A message from Mike about those Those Crazy Tanner Kids

Mike from goodreads is looking for reviews on this Family friendly yarn.....

Those Crazy Tanner Kids: Door Knob to Broken Leg

Despite the best efforts of their parents, the Tanner children are crazy.

Grace, the seven year old, has a princess complex, Bobby, the five year old, can’t put his underwear on right, Stephen, the three year old, has been talking non-stop to anyone and everything since one and a half, and Jason, well, he eats anything he can get his hands on.

To add to the challenge, Marie and Jim, the mom and dad, have discovered that child number five is on the way. Not the way this family expected to finish its summer vacation.

Any takers? I can provide the novel in epub or pdf format. It is currently available on Kindle.

Mike Jackson

Available to purchase at Amazon