#NewRelease

#TheEmissary is Live on Amazon! #wwwblogs

/ Marcia Meara / 51 Comments

I’m very excited to announce my newest book, The Emissary: A Riverbend Spinoff Novella, is now available for download on Amazon! Don’t ask me how, but I managed to get all the last bits and pieces put together, and spent most of yesterday trying to coax my formatting skills into life again, just so I could have that blissful moment of glee as I watched it go live on Amazon. For a while, all thoughts of smashed garages, and crushed cars, and hurricane clean up went away. It was joyous!

BLURB

An angel’s work is never done–that’s part of the gig. But angels hadn’t been created to deal with such a vastly over-populated planet, rife with misery, suffering, and general chaos. Helping souls in peril has become a nearly impossible job, and even angelic tempers are frayed.

The archangel Azrael has had enough. He believes he’s found a way to ease their burden while saving jeopardized humans, too–hired help.

When Jake Daughtry lost his life rescuing a total stranger from certain death, he was on the fast track to Heaven. But that was before Azrael pulled him right out of line at the Pearly Gates. Now, as an Emissary to the Angels, Jake is taking to the highway in a quest to help souls in trouble. But the innate stubbornness of human beings bent on self-destruction is a challenge unlike any he’s ever faced.

It’s up to Jake and Azrael to bridge the gap between humans and angels. Will they ever convince the Council of Angels this endeavor is worthwhile? Can Jake ever figure out how to play by Azrael’s complicated rules? Will Azrael ever master the use of contractions in general conversation?

To find out the answers, hop on board Jake’s big, red-and-white semi, and travel the roads from the Florida Keys to north Georgia on an adventure that will make you laugh hard and cry harder.

The Emissary: A Riverbend Spinoff Novella

 

 

I’m Baaa-aaack.

/ Marcia Meara / 29 Comments

Did you miss me? Rats. I was afraid of that. But for anyone who may have noticed that I’ve been quieter than usual, I am happy to announce, I should be much more visible now. I’ve been in full-on Edit Mode for the last couple of weeks, but guess what? It’s DONE! The Emissary has been tweaked, nudged, tickled, polished, and otherwise edited to a fare-thee-well, and will definitely be released for public consumption in the next couple of weeks.

I’m pretty excited about this one, as it is a bit of a departure for me in several ways. For one, it’s my first novella, and if rapidity of writing and editing is anything to go by, it won’t be my last. Not quite instant gratification, but darn close. I’m definitely planning on doing more novellas in the future, and the next two will be the second and third books in the Emissary series.

It’s also my first attempt at something in the fantasy/urban fantasy vein–Urban Fantasy Lite, shall we say. Yes, there are paranormal aspects to the Wake-Robin Ridge series, with a few ghosts, an Appalachian legend or two, and some ESP, but this one is definitely new subject matter for me.

The Emissary is a spin-off of my Riverbend series, featuring a character introduced in Finding Hunter, but Riverbend is set firmly in reality, and The Emissary is most assuredly not. Since the story doesn’t take place in Riverbend, I think the genre change works. After all, Willow Greene did pose a question as to whether a certain trucker named Gabe Angelino might, in fact, be a real angel, so she opened the door. Blame her, if you don’t like what walked through. 😀

Telling this tale might have been the most fun I’ve had since I started writing. Look for more info (and possibly an excerpt or two) very soon.

 

It’s Coming Soon!

/ Marcia Meara / 30 Comments

Woohooooooo! I will have my proof copy of That Darkest Place in my hand on Wednesday! If all goes well, and it looks good, I’ll okay it, and order my first box of books that afternoon. You folks who’ve been waiting patiently, or not so patiently–you know who you are–will soon have yours! I will be delivering copies to Bev at DeBary Nursery and Doug at St. Johns River Eco Tours just as soon as I get these.  (And of course, they will be available on Amazon almost immediately.)

Doing the happy dance, here! (See?)

That Darkest Place: Riverbend Book 3
Available in Kindle Format Now and in Print Format  Next Week

#ThatDarkestPlace Has Arrived!

/ Marcia Meara / 32 Comments

It’s here at last! That Darkest Place: Riverbend Book 3 is now available on Kindle, and will soon be out in print. And I’m so excited, I’m running a One Week Only sale on it, and ALL of my other books, as well. Yep, my characters are celebrating from Riverbend, Florida, all the way to Wake-Robin Ridge, North Carolina! The Painter Brothers, Maggie & Gunn, Sarah & Mac, and even Little Rabbit are putting out the word that this is the best deal you’ll get all year, and a chance to begin each series from the beginning, if you haven’t already done so. 

Starting today, and continuing through Sunday, 5/21, you can download my books at the following prices:

That Darkest Place: Riverbend Book 3 – $2.99
Finding Hunter: Riverbend Book 2 – $.99
Swamp Ghosts: Riverbend Book 1 – $.99

Harbinger: Riverbend Book 3 – $.99
A Boy Named Rabbit: Wake-Robin Ridge Book 2 – $.99
Wake-Robin Ridge Book 1 – $.99

That Darkest Place Blurb

“There are dark places in every heart, in every head. Some you turn away from. Some you light a candle within. But there is one place so black, it consumes all light. It will pull you in and swallow you whole. You don’t leave your brother stranded in that darkest place.” ~Hunter Painter~ 

The new year is a chance for new beginnings—usually hopeful, positive ones. But when Jackson Painter plows his car into a tree shortly after midnight on January 1, his new beginnings are tragic. His brothers, Forrest and Hunter, take up a grim bedside vigil at the hospital, waiting for Jackson to regain consciousness and anxious over how he’ll take the news that he’s lost a leg and his fiancée is dead. After all, the accident was all his fault.

As the shocking truth emerges, one thing becomes obvious—Jackson will need unconditional love and support from both of his brothers if he is to survive.

Just as he begins the long road to recovery, danger, in the form of a sinister, unsigned note, plunges him back into bleak despair. Scrawled in blood red letters, the accusation—and the threat—is clear. “MURDERER!”

Will the long, harrowing ordeal that lies ahead draw the Painter brothers closer together, or drive them apart forever?

Suspenseful and often heartbreaking, this small-town tale is a testimonial to the redemptive power of love and paints a story filled with humor, romance, and fierce family loyalty.

~~~

I hope you’ll share my good news far and wide! Shout it from the rooftops. Have a t-shirt made. Hire a skywriter. Okay, maybe not. But I’d love it if you’d share this post via social media, and help me get the word out. I thank you, Forrest and Hunter thank you, but most of all, Jackson Painter thanks you. He spent a long, long time in a very bad situation, waiting for me to return to Riverbend, and now he wants his story told.  😀 

While you’re helping  spread the word, you really should swing by Amazon and grab your copy, too.

And now, it’s back to work for me. So many stories, so little time!

 

8 Tips for Short and Sweet Descriptions in Fiction #FabulousFridayGuestBlogger

/ Kassandra Lamb / 14 Comments

by Kassandra Lamb

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While editing the book I’m releasing tomorrow, and especially while trying to pare down the scenes that beta readers and my editor said were dragging, I truly came to appreciate the importance of a finely honed description.

Descriptions in fiction are needed to ground the reader in the setting and allow him/her to visualize characters. But they can also bog down the pace and bore the reader if they are too long, and they can be jarring if they’re in the wrong spot. Today I’d like to share some thoughts about how to make descriptions concise and effective.

1. Why descriptions are so important. People’s brains tend to show a preference for one sense over the others when processing information, and which sense is in the lead varies from person to person. Some people are primarily auditory (30% of U.S. population); they process words and sounds far easier than what they see or sense in other ways. Others are primarily kinesthetic, i.e., movement and touch-oriented (3%). A rare few are primarily smell and taste-oriented. Continue reading →

#NorseMythology by #NeilGaiman

/ Marcia Meara / 19 Comments

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Neil Gaiman AND Thor? In one book? Be still, my heart! Just thought I’d share this  with those who might be as excited as I am by the thought of a Gaiman anthology based on all the Norse mythology, from the beginning of the nine worlds, to Ragnarok, to rebirth. I’ve already preordered! (And for those who pick up on the line about Thor not being “the wisest of gods,” I’ll just say this: “Brains? Thor has brains, too?”) 😀

To read more and choose your preorder site, click HERE.

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#WakeRobinRidge Book 3: #Harbinger

/ Marcia Meara / 16 Comments

Final Harbinger Cover at 25percent

 

Nope, I haven’t actually launched this book yet, as I haven’t finished deciding how to go about it, but it is available in Kindle and print format, and already selling, in spite of my lack of a cohesive plan.  (Boy, do I hate that “P” word.) So I figured I’d better let you guys know, at least! This is the third book in my mountain series, and for those of you who enjoyed #WakeRobinRidge and #ABoyNamedRabbit, I hope you’ll be eager to follow Rabbit’s latest shivery adventure.  (Meanwhile, I’m trying to remember how to put the image/link in the right sidebar with my other books. Doh! Brain is on vacation!)

Blurb

“. . . he felt the wet slide of the dog’s burning hot tongue on his face, and the scrape of its razor sharp teeth against the top of his head. A white-hot agony of crushing pain followed, as the jaws began to close.”

The wine-red trillium that carpets the forests of the North Carolina Mountains is considered a welcome harbinger of spring—but not all such omens are happy ones. An Appalachian legend claims the Black Dog, or Ol’ Shuck, as he’s often called, is a harbinger of death. If you see him, you or someone you know is going to die.

But what happens when Ol’ Shuck starts coming for you in your dreams? Nightmares of epic proportions haunt the deacon of the Light of Grace Baptist Church, and bring terror into the lives of everyone around him. Even MacKenzie Cole and his adopted son, Rabbit, find themselves pulled into danger.

When Sheriff Raleigh Wardell asks Mac and Rabbit to help him solve a twenty-year-old cold case, Rabbit’s visions of a little girl lost set them on a path that soon collides with that of a desperate man being slowly driven mad by guilt.

As Rabbit’s gift of the Sight grows ever more powerful, his commitment to those who seek justice grows as well, even when their pleas come from beyond the grave. 

Wake-Robin Ridge Book 3: Harbinger