The Witching Hour is here.

It's October, so it's time to think about witches!USA TODAY bestselling novelist Christine Pope invited me to join this boxed set of novels about witches and wizards and warlocks. My contribution is Magic in the Blood, which I've expanded into an actual novel. The set is full of great writers and available wide.
Buy it on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Kobo, iTunes, and Google Play.

#Amazon! #RiteToReign--the best boxed set of the season

Listen up witches!!!  Rite to Reign has landed on Amazon for pre-order.
Ninety-nine cents and this is what you get:

Willful witches, supernatural sorcerers, cruel queens, and powerful priestesses fall out of favor and rise to rule in this highly sought-after collection of spellbinding stories! 

More than 20 award-winning and bestselling authors have come together to curate this bewitching boxed set collection of the best PARANORMAL ROMANCE and URBAN FANTASY books in the genre, each brimming with stories of royal magic. 

Journey through worlds of danger and mayhem, where witches and warlocks battle for influence and wizards fight for unrestricted power. 

But reader beware: the highly addictive stores in RITE TO REIGN will put you under their spell. One click to secure your limited edition copy today!  Find it here.

stephanie Barr Interview

Introducing writer Stephanie Barr

 Although Stephanie Barr is a slave to three children and a slew of cats, she actually leads a double life as a part time novelist and full time rocket scientist. People everywhere have learned to watch out for fear of becoming part of her stories. Beware! You might be next!…

You’re a rocket scientist! What do you do? I've done a number of things. I'm a dabbler. I've rebuilt data handling systems for ground chambers, designed ground comm systems for those same chambers (used for crew to test suit capabilities and procedures and test hardware). I've done qualification and acceptance testing for payloads going in the Mir (Russian) space station and the Space Shuttle,  wrote communication software for robotics, evaluated main engine software changes, addressed micrometeoroid/orbital debris risks, spent several years as an EVA Safety Engineer – (EVA +> when they go out in spacesuits) including more than one Hubble mission and Columbia's last flight. Now I help evaluate design changes and issues for our large launch

vehicles (Delta IV and Atlas V)

If you ran the space program, what would be your priority? A manned Mars mission? A moon base? Moon base. Pretty much any technology or system we'd need on Mars we could test on the moon where we're actually close enough to do something if it went south.

Did you ever want to be an astronaut? Nope. Can't stand free fall.

You’ve been writing since you were a child, at what point did you veer into science? I've always loved science and could do math and languages. I loved all kinds of academics, including literature. I loved writing but I figured I'd need a day job, so I majored in Engineering Physics because I could get a scholarship from the Physics dep't and the Engineering College at the same time. And then I was just too stubborn to get out. I really love problem solving so it turned out to be a good choice.

#RiteToReign #iBooks--a boxed set for your iDevices

I don't know about you, but doesn't it sometimes feel like if you want to get an ebook you have to go through Amazon? My fellow writers on Rite to Reign feel your pain. That's why we want to offer it to you on iBooks for 99 cents. Preorder now!  You haven't heard of Rite to Reign? Hold on to your crowns and cauldrons..

Power is never given, it has to be taken.

In this collection of stories about wicked witches, cruel queens, and powerful princes, you'll find something for every flavor of your paranormal fancy. My own story Secret Hexe, is a tale inspired by the life of Catherine the Great from her childhood apprenticeship in magic (with her French nanny) to her arrival at the Russian court where her soon-to-be husband makes the mistake of thinking she's someone he can manipulate on his own way to power.

He is so wrong about that!

My story is just one among more than two dozen tales by North America's best-selling writers of paranormal and fantasy romance. This is a limited edition set and ONLY 99 cents. 

A preview of hell...

It's been smoky in the Pacific Northwest for the last week thanks to more than 300 fires raging out of control in British Columbia. The wind is finally blowing the smoke away but for a while there, the air quality was worse than it is in Beijing, giving everyone dry and red eyes.

It struck me that this might be a good time to share my list of favorite fire-related books. Everyone always points to Young Men and Fire by Norman Maclean, who also wrote A River Runs Through It, but I prefer Dennis Smith's Report From Engine Company 82, which came out more than 40 years ago, but is still available. If you were a fan of Denis Learay's Rescue Me, you'll see similarities in this book.

John Maclean (son of Norman) has written several books about fires, but his best is probably Fire on the Mountain, about a fire known variously as the South Canyon Fire and the Storm King Mountain Fire. (I'd have gone with Storm King Mountain--so incredibly evocative.) This was a particularly deadly fire in that it killed an entire elite team of 'hot shots" who'd been dropped into the area. The lone survivor of that event has written his own book.

An even deadlier fire, the Granite Mountain Fire near Prescott, AZ claimed 19 firefighters and is the subject of a movie called No Exit, starring Josh Brolin.

Two other memoirs that are gripping:  Bob Donbrowski's 38 Years: A Detroit Firefighter's Memoir  and Nick Brunaciini's B-Shifter.

One for the TBR list

The cover of this book caught my eye.
I'm currently writing a sequel to Magic in the Blood called Santa Muerte, but the saint of the title is a benign, female version of death who grants favors to her followers. this looks like a very different book, but I definitely want to read it. It's available on a bunch of different platforms, but here's the publisher's site.

The debut authors are crushing it lately

Heart of Thorns, described as a fierce feminist fantasy, is the first in a series (of course), about a young woman who lives in a world where only women can possess magic. The author is Bree Barton, and if you sign up for her newsletter, you can win a copy of the book. (It was published last month.)

I like the cover--simple and elegant. I like the concept. Can't wait to dig into this one.