As an author, I am always curious about what motivates people to read. I’ve done posts before about how people choose books, about covers and colors and what you seek in a blurb, but this post poses a simpler question with perhaps an opportunity for more complex answers.
Why do you read?
Sometimes I read to learn, sometimes to go on an adventure in a far away place I will probably never get to in real life. Occasionally, I read because it is such a part of me. Whereas some people enjoy movies, music or the theatre, favourite sports or socialising with others, I like books. I love the feel of them, the scent of them, the way they make you feel like someone understands when no one else does.
Sometimes I read to improve my craft. There are so many reasons. I also love the feeling of finding a…
When Herman Anderson leaves home to make a better life for herself, she doesn’t expect to meet a tall, dark stranger with whom she’ll fall hopelessly in love.
Charming and mysterious, Stephen Dagmar is a stage magician seeking an assistant. The moment he sets eyes on Herman, he knows she’s the one. He brings her home to his Victorian mansion where they embark upon an extravagant romance. Yet a shadow hangs over their love. Will the curse on his family end Stephen and Herman’s happily ever after, before it really begins?
Amidst lace and leather, innocence and debauchery, The Magician’s Curse begins the Gothic tale of The Great Dagmaru. Magic and romance await.
Official release date: June 27, 2017! Pre-order your Kindle copy today here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0721ZH2KN
Available soon on Kobo, and on June 27th in paperback on Amazon.
An excerpt from Chapter 2:
The moment Stephen stepped out the door, the foyer fell silent again. He didn’t have to look at any of the interviewees perched, alert upon burgundy velvet-covered benches against both sides of the room, to know their eyes were on him. They were drawn to him as though he were a human magnet, just as Herman had been. He passed the stairs, turned right, and stepped into the dining room where his agent, Margaret, waited for him to arrive.
“Hey,” she said without looking up. She sat poring over the applications that were strewn across the large antique dining room table. He closed the door behind him and leaned against it, staring at the top of her dark mane of hair shining in the light of the chandelier above her head. Her long, graceful fingers, poised to turn a page, were an elegant extension of the rest of her lithe body. Finally, she looked up and took in his appearance with icy-green eyes. She was every bit as beautiful as any of the women outside.
“What’s the matter with you?” she asked. Being inseparable for five years, both as best friends and then co-workers, made it easy for her to tell when there was something different, however subtle, about him.
“I found her,” Stephen said, his back still to the door.
“Who?”
“She has a perfect body and long, brown hair and the bluest eyes you’ve ever seen. And her lips! Full and beautiful. And the way they move when she speaks … absolutely captivating.”
Margaret narrowed her eyes. “You hired someone on the train again, didn’t you?” It was a statement more than a question.
Stephen nodded.
“Okay,” she said, sitting back in her chair. “Tell me more about her.”
“I think she’s running away from home. She has a job to go to, but she agreed to come and check this one out. She’s sweet and innocent and she’s almost eighteen.”
Margaret crossed her arms and narrowed her eyes even more.
“No, I didn’t audition her the same way I did the others,” he said.
“So you didn’t bang her in the limo on the way here.”
“No! She’s not of age. And anyway, I knew from the second I saw her that she’s the one.”
Margaret began to say something just as the door opened on the far side of the room to her left, and Nina came in from the kitchen. Both Stephen and Margaret glanced at the slight young woman and then at each other.
“Should I leave the two of you alone?” Margaret asked.
Stephen shook his head almost imperceptibly and walked over to have a quiet word with the girl. After a few seconds she bowed and backed out of the room, and Stephen turned back to his friend.
“Well then,” Margaret said, throwing her hands up and glaring down at the stacks of paper in front of her. “Tell them all to go home.”
“No, I still want to interview them.”
“What the hell for?”
“Herman might not take the job.”
Margaret raised her eyebrows. “Herman?”
“Yeah.”
“Okay, let me get this straight. You’re telling me she’s the one you want but that she might not stay. I’m confused.”
He stood, silently pleading with his friend to understand what he had only begun to comprehend himself.
“What the hell is wrong with you, Stephen? I’ve never seen you undone like this before …”
Margaret put her hand up to her mouth, realization dawning on her face. “Oh my God,” she said quietly.
He closed his eyes as he spoke. “It doesn’t matter whether or not she’ll be my assistant, Margaret.” He opened his eyes and swallowed hard. “She’s the girl I’m going to marry.”
With an old war raging between vampires and shifters, Ria must learn to refocus her life if she’s going to survive.
Her renegade fight was just the beginning. The queen is recruiting new soldiers. Ria’s going on vicious missions with her battle buddy. And her explosive abilities are malfunctioning at inopportune moments.
So now, Ria must forgo her selfish desires to compartmentalize her life, but what’s she to do when she can’t save everyone she wants to? One girl may not be capable of taking down an empire. Good thing Ria’s got help.
Coming May 9, 2017!
An Excerpt from Chapter Eleven:
Tahe whimpered beside me as I came awake with the hot fumes of barbequed meat and blood clogging my sense of smell. Her breath fast and shallow, her nails dipped into my forearm. “You awake, red.”
“Yeah.” A mallet pounded on my temples in a steady staccato, and I rubbed them as the cracked windshield came into view.
“Good.” Her breath caught. “Need some help.”
Terror strangled me when I turned to her. A piece of metal pinned her to the seat through her abdomen. I jumped back, hitting the door handle with my shoulder blades.
“Oh shit.”
Harris blinked at me from the passenger seat, dagger handle jutting out of his chest and blood dripping from the corner of his mouth. “You bitch.”
“Red.”
I jerked back to reality and the blood spreading through her top. I peered around quick, looking for the phantoms of Harris. Nothing but woods.
“Ain’t nothing to go off the deep end about. At least it ain’t wood.” Tahe took another shaky breath. “How far out the back is it?”
The metal came out clean on the other side. “A few inches.”
“Doable.” Wetness garbled her words.
“Okay. You need to stop talking unless it’s necessary. Let me see if I can pull it out the front.” A single hole of a few inches in diameter punctured the windshield on her side, and the metal looked like one of the posts off the guardrail. The end still had a flat wire where it connected to rail and left Tahe enough room to grab hold of it with one hand. I hoped there were no jagged pieces inside that would tear her further when I pulled it out, but if it did, I’d need something to stop the bleeding.
My door was crushed shut. “I’m going to see if there’s anything in the trunk to tend the wound once you’re free, but I have to break my window. Turn away so I don’t spray you.”
Pulling my sleeve taut against my elbow, I hit the glass three times before it shattered. A small chunk fell inside, but the rest remained intact with spider-line fractures that I pushed out.
The trunk didn’t have a whole lot of useful junk: just fluids, a jack, and a spare tire. Crap. I needed to call for help. My phone proved useless with its smashed screen. Double crap.
My giant savior it was then.
Bio: Alisha Costanzo is from a Syracuse suburb. She earned her MFA in creative writing from the University of Central Oklahoma, where she currently teaches English. She’s the author of BLOOD PHOENIX: REBIRTH, BLOOD PHOENIX: CLAIMED, BLOOD PHOENIX: IMPRINTED, and LOVING RED, and co-editor of DISTORTED. UNDERWATER, and AFTER THE HAPPILY EVER AFTER. She’s currently editing her new 2017 fire-themed anthology, writing about Ria’s father, and crafting her new YA novel for its 2018 release. In the meantime, she will continue to corrupt young minds, rant about the government, and daydream about her all around nasty creatures.
The first thing that springs to mind when I see the word “diversion” is magic. Which isn’t surprising, since I’ve been writing and editing a novel (or three) about a magician called “The Great Dagmaru” for the past five and a half years. Making someone look the other way is an art, whether it’s in order to perform a trick behind their back or whether it’s to cause them to pay more attention to you.
Yet some might say it’s easier now to create a diversion: our attention spans are shortening with so much going on around us and in our own living rooms, on our screens where everything is the next biggest or cutest spectacle. For as far as entertainment goes, it seems to me that those of us who still read novels are the last holdouts of the ability to concentrate. And still, so many books, so little time. A novel must capture the reader’s attention in the space of a few sentences or it will be passed over. And authors wonder why the blurb is so much harder to write than the book itself.
Oh look! It’s a chipmunk.
But I digress.
All this talk about diversions and how they entertain has led me to seek the difference between a diversion and a distraction. According to my trusty thesaurus, it seems diversions are happy things and distractions are less-than-desirable things. Somewhat. The synonyms for distraction range from “delirium” to “relief.”
One way or another, diversions and distractions add up to procrastination.
***
Looking for a fun diversion? Look no further. Please check out my A to Z Challenge-inspired novelette “All Good Stories.” It’s a romantic comedy about two best friends who belong together – Xavier knows it, but Jupiter has her eye on another guy: a shady character named Bob.
“Delightful, Light-hearted tale with great twists!” ~ Lori Carleson, 5 stars, Amazon review
“Quirky and charming.” ~ Bobby Underwood, #11 top reviewers on Goodreads – 5 stars
My new novel Ashes to Ashes comes out today! To celebrate the release, I’m putting it on sale for 99 cents for a limited time. Pick up your copy now
From tragedy came power. And from mishandled power came mystery.
After moving into a new gated community with her family, Natalie is ready to begin a peaceful year at Emerson High. A year complete with boy troubles, school dances, new friends… everything an average girl could expect.
Then she starts receiving notes warning her not to go to school November first. Notes in her day planner, on a piece of homework, on a homecoming ticket… The more notes she receives the more details she uncovers, and the clearer it becomes: words like peaceful and average are about the worst ones anyone could use to describe the year she’s about to have. Crazy? Maybe. Violent? Definitely. Heart-wrenching, mind-blowing, life-changing?
And a new book is released into the world, with a cover by my own favourite artist, Belinda. Head on over to wish Trent all the best with his book, and buy one while you’re there!
Thank you all for joining me today for this celebration of my first book, Seasons of Imagination, being released. I know this was an impromptu gathering, though you can’t say I didn’t give you hints it was coming up. Sorry about that bump in the red carpet that I just couldn’t flatten out. I hope not too many of you twisted your ankle or anything. You just need to be careful..
Be careful! Careful!!! CAREFUL!!!
Sorry!
Of course the person bringing in the cake had to be the one who tripped. Sorry, I do still have some left over hors d’oeuvre from yesterday’s Cover Reveal, so help yourself. I hope they’re not stale.
After Happily Ever After Cover by Dean Samed, banner by Rohit Sawant
If you haven’t heard about the After Happily Ever After anthology, this interview series is a front row seat into the creative minds of the authors who have re-envisioned the fairy tale world beyond the final credits. Linda G. Hill has her own creative wonderland to share with us!
Author Linda G. Hill
How did you set upon the path of writing fiction?
When I was a child, I was very close to a certain aunt who always had a romance novel in her hand. She inspired me to want to read. I’m not sure how that translated into wanting to write, but it must have had some effect; I began writing my first “novel” when I was five years old. I drove my parents crazy, asking how to spell words. The only ones I knew were “and,”…
The “After the Happily Ever After” anthology is finally out! My story, “Alice on the Analyst’s Couch” and many more wonderful tales can be found in this beautiful book. The Kindle version is on sale until January 1st. Please click on the original post and read all about it, and pick up your copy today. 😀
If I wasn’t competing this week, I would totally be supporting Judy and Chris every step of the way. But alas, this can’t be so. War is war, after all, and one must stick up for oneself.
Having said all that, the main point of Cover Wars, for me anyway, is exposure for my novelette, All Good Stories. I’m sure Judy is thinking the same thing. So while you’re there today voting for my cover ( 😀 ), please also check out Judy’s. Each cover, when clicked, will take you to the book’s Amazon page. Why don’t you click on over and buy Judy’s book?! I haven’t read it yet, but if I know Judy, it’s awesome! Here’s the link to Author Shout, Cover Wars for the vote: http://authorshout.com/cover-wars/ You can cast your vote once every 24 hours.
This is my beautiful cover, (drawn with love by the ever-talented Belinda Borradaile) for you to vote on:
And here’s Judy’s! You can click on it here to go directly to its Amazon page, too.
After Happily Ever After Cover by Dean Samed, banner by Rohit Sawant 
Author Linda G. Hill 
lindaghill.com 