Wesley Snipes' new Urban Fantasy

Actor Wesley Snipes and co-author Ray Norman have a new urban fantasy novel out from Harper Collins. Talon of God got a nice review from USA Today and it's currently available in all formats. Here's the blurb:

Imagine that everyone you have ever known or loved was forced against their will into a state of demonic possession and spiritual slavery. Imagine an unholy cabal of the world’s richest and most powerful men directing this sinister plan in order to cement their unbridled control of the planet.

Imagine two heroes emerging from that darkness to do battle with the forces of evil.

Set in the mean streets of Chicago, Talon of God is the action-packed adventure centered around the Lauryn Jefferson, a beautiful young doctor who is dragged into a seemingly impossible battle against the invisible forces of Satan’s army and their human agents that are bent on enslaving humanity in a mission to establish the kingdom of hell on Earth.

But Lauryn is a skeptic, and it’s only as she sees a diabolical drug sweep her city and begins to train in the ways of a spirit warrior by the legendary man of God, Talon Hunter, that she discovers her true nature and inner strength. Facing dangerous trials and tests, it’s a true baptism by fire. And if they fail, millions could die. And rivers of blood would flow throughout the land.

Imagine such horror. Such pain. And imagine what it would take to fight against it. For only the strongest and most faithful will survive?

Get ready. Armageddon approaches quickly.

Sounds like the beginning of a great new series to me!

Books about books--a great list of suggestions

One of the things that's happened in the last few years is that publishers are starting to repurpose thier websites as content hubs. thus you have Macmillan's crime fiction site Criminal Element, which features numerous bloggers contributing articles and reviews, along with excerpts and contests and sweepstakes.Penguin/Random House is no exception. They have exceptionally engaging content, including their READ DOWN feature. One of the offerings today is a list of books about books. It's an eclectic list (Ink and Bone, The Book Thief, The Fault in Our Stars) and even if it is heavy on Penguin books, that doesn't take away from the suggestions.

Free books for the First of August

It's Tuesday. Want some free books for your favorite ebook reader? Of course you do. Here's an instafreebie giveaway sponsored by writer Erik Carter.

Friday Freebie Fiction!!!

It's Friday and there are freebies all over the place.

Like Dystopian? Here you go. Fancy something more steampunky? Check these out. Books with kick-ass heroines across a variety of genres? There's a giveaway for that.

Here's a thriller and mystery deal that will end soon--as in today, Friday the 28th. So don't wait.

Twenty -three writers, one boxed set

Venom and Vampires, a boxed set of novels and novellas themed to paranormal creatures, went live last night on Apple, Kobo, Nook, and Amazon.  It's a double-dozen tales, with a little something for everyone, from straight up urban fantasy to historic fantasy to Kory Shrum's rural noir-tinged tale. This is a limited edition and the material is all original, so it's not one of those boxed sets where the editor gathered a bunch of stuff that's already out there. If you love the genre, you really owe it to yourself to pick it up. (Just 99 cents plus tax where applicable.)

Author Interview...KB Inglee

KB Inglee writes historical short stories. Her collection, The Case Book of Emily Lawrence is available from Wildside Press. She works as an historical interpreter at a 1704 water powered grist mill. She lives in Delaware with her family and too many pets.

When you research your fiction you really get into it. Are you part of an organized group of history re-enactors? I work at Newlin Grist Mill where I present the 1704 grist mill and the 1739 miller’s house, spin on a great wheel, and wrangle any animals I can. I am not part of an independent group of re-enactors.

What is your favorite era, and why? Early colonial. My grandfather was the pastor of the Pilgrim Church in Plymouth and the Adams church in Quincy, so I was pretty much brainwashed as a kid. I haven’t figured out how I ended up writing late 19^th century, probably my least favorite time period.

In the spirit of your historical fiction, have you ever written a story longhand? When I started writing, I wrote in longhand a lot, but as I aged it got more illegible, so if I want to read it, it has to be on the computer.

Do you find it hard to “switch gears” when you go from short to long fiction? I don’t have a problem since nowadays write only short fiction.

Are you a member of a writer’s group? Do you belong to Sisters in Crime? Have you ever been to a writer’s convention? Yes, yes, and yes. I would not be where I am now if I hadn’t found Sisters in Crime. I belong to two SinC chapters, and a critique group. I also belong to Pennwriters, and I am part of a group of Delaware writers. I try to attend two writer’s conferences a year. Favorites are Malice Domestic, New England Crimebake and Pennwriters.

Author Interview...Debra H. Goldstein

Judge Debra H. Goldstein is the author of Should Have Played Poker: a Carrie Martin and the Mah Jongg Players Mystery (Five Star -2016) and the 2012 IPPY Award winning Maze in Blue, a mystery set on the University of Michigan’s campus. Her short stories and essays have appeared in periodicals and anthologies, including Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, The Birmingham Arts Journal, Mardi Gras Murder and The Killer Wore Cranberry: a Fourth Meal of Mayhem. In addition to being the Sisters in Crime Guppy President, Debra serves on the national Sisters in Crime board, numerous civic boards in Birmingham, Alabama and is an MWA member.

I love the title of your website, “It’s Not Always a Mystery.” Your first two books—including the IPPY Award-winning Maze in Blue—were mysteries. Do you have an alter-ego who’s writing in another genre?

For years, my alter-ego could be found in the decisions I issued as Judge Debra H. Goldstein (much more boring than my mysteries).  I called my blog “It’s Not Always a Mystery” because, under my own name, I write both mystery and literary short stories and non-fiction essays, as well as my novels. 

You grew up in New Jersey and Michigan and worked in New York before moving to Atlanta to attend law school. Now you live in Birmingham, Alabama. Was it an adjustment, a culture shock when you first moved to the South?

For me, moving to the South was a charming experience.  I embraced it although I came South by accident. I was working in New York and had been accepted to several law schools.  I got on a plane to tour some of the ones offering me scholarship money.  It was snowing when I left New Jersey, snowing harder in Pennsylvania, snowing even harder at my next stop, but when the plane broke through the clouds in Atlanta, I saw the red clay Margaret Mitchell described in Gone With the Wind and this English major was hooked.  I didn’t know it was the day after one of our terrible rainstorms when the air is clear, the pollen washed away. At that point, I thought I would be here for three years, but when I took my first job out of law school, it was in Michigan during a winter which had thirty-four inches of snow.  I moved back to the South the following year.