Are you ‘living’ your life or just living your life? #coverreveal #selfdiscovery #cheatingdeath #truelove #fantasy #books .@KiltieJackson .@rararesources

An Artisan Lovestyle

Are you ‘living’ your life or just living your life?

Elsa Clairmont was widowed barely five years after marrying her childhood sweetheart. She has struggled to come to terms with the loss and, six years later, has almost ceased to live herself. She does just enough to get by.

Danny Delaney is the ultimate ‘Mr Nice Guy’. He’s kind, caring and sweet. A talented artist in his teens, his abusive mother ruined his career in art and he turned his back on his exceptional gift. Now, he does just enough to get by.

On New Year’s Eve, both Danny and Elsa die in unrelated accidents.

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Thanks to some poker playing shenanigans, Elsa’s husband Harry, and Danny’s old Art teacher, William, manage to orchestrate a deal with Death that allows Danny and Elsa to live for one more year on the condition they both agree to complete three tasks.

They have until the last chime of Big Ben on the 31st December to fulfil their quests.

If they succeed, they stay in the world of the living.

If they should fail however…

‘An Artisan Lovestyle’ is a story of personal growth and self-discovery as two people find themselves forced to make overdue changes in their lives, changes in other people’s lives, and all with the added challenge of finding true love before their time runs out.

Will they do it?

Can they do it?

After all, it’s a matter of Life or Death…

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Kiltie Jackson

Kiltie Jackson grew up in Glasgow in Scotland. This is a very unique city with a very unique way of looking at life. When she was old enough to do so, she moved to London and then, after several years of obtaining interesting experiences - which are finding their way into her writing - she moved up to the Midlands.  Kiltie currently lives in Staffordshire with five cats and one grumpy husband. Her little home is known as Moggy Towers, even though despite having plenty of moggies, there are no towers! 

The cats kindly allow her and Mr Mogs to share their house on the condition they keep paying the mortgage! She loves reading, watching movies, and visiting old castles. She really dislikes going to the gym! Her biggest desire is that one day she can give up the day job and write her stories for a living.

Kiltie's debut novel, 'A Rock 'n' Roll Lovestyle', was released in September 2017 and won a "Chill With A Book - Reader Award" in December 2017. She first began writing her debut novel eleven years before it was released but shelved it as she didn't think it was very good. In November 2016 when, having read more on a bestselling author who had begun her own career as a self-published author, she was inspired to revisit the unfinished manuscript and finally finish what she had started.

Since beginning to write again, the ideas have not stopped flowing. 'An Artisan Lovestyle' is the second book in the Lovestyle Series. Work is due to begin on book three (not yet titled but also part of the Lovestyle Series) in the Summer of 2018. She currently has a further ten plots and ideas stored in her file (it's costing a fortune in USB drives as each story has its own memory stick!) and the ideas still keep on coming. Kiltie now lives her life around the following three quotes:

"I love having weird dreams, they're great fodder for book plots!"

"Why wait for your ship to come in when you can swim out to meet it?"

"Old enough to know better, young enough not to care!"

Decide To Hope by June A. Converse #Excerpt #romance #books .@rararesources .@JuneAConverse

An Excerpt from

Decide To Hope

by

June A. Converse

“Kathleen, I swear to you that if you are ever in my bed, it won’t be fucking.” He punctuated the final words and wiped away the single tear that moved down her cheek. He leaned across the table, nuzzled her face, and said into her damaged ear, “What I want is for you to be safe. What I want is for you to never push me away, for you to let me make you safe again.” Relaxing back into the bench, he added, “What is it you want, my Kathleen, what do you want? I’ll move heaven and earth to be what you need.”

Her eyes widened and her face jerked out of his hand. Tears streamed down her face. Staring at him, showing him her weariness and her abject terror, her blue irises turned a stormy gray.

“They’re gone, Matt.” She spoke with an eerily calm voice. “All of them. Everyone I’ve ever loved. Gone. I’m so tired, Matt. Do you understand?” She pushed away from the table. Her gray eyes blazed inches from his own. “I want to be gone, too.”

Matt’s arms thwomped onto the table. He sat immobile as Kathleen raced out the door into the pouring rain. The restaurant door thwacked behind her. Shaking himself, he realized she’d left her sunglasses, her bag, and even her shoes. The impact of the last few seconds held him in his seat. Time seemed to stop. Sound dropped away. The shadow of her danced behind his closed eyes.

 

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Decide to Hope

An unimaginable trauma.
A future that seems impossible.
When your world shatters, how do you put it back together?

For 950 days, Kathleen Conners has struggled with that choice. Behind a scarf and sunglasses, she hides from the world, from herself, from The Event, from any future with anyone.

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After receiving a box of letters from his deceased mother, Matt Nelson is shoved from his predictable, controlled life to a secluded beach in North Carolina. While trying to understand his mother's intent, he discovers Kathleen.

Matt must choose whether to follow the path his mother orchestrated or rescue the woman who has captured his heart. When the only person Kathleen blames more than herself reappears, can Matt be the strength Kathleen needs to create a new life, or will he be forced to walk away if she decides the climb is too great?

~

Author, June happily resides in Sandy Springs, Georgia, with her husband, Dave, and their dog, Sodapop.  They have two wonderful adult children and two grandchildren.  She is an enthusiastic exerciser and an accomplished cook.  She and her husband enjoy hiking with Sodapop, traveling, scuba diving, trying new restaurants, concerts, and whatever other adventures they can find.  Reading and a constant desire to learn keeps her busy too. 

A trauma survivor who struggles with mental illness, June is continuously reaching for hope like the characters in her books.  She openly discusses her personal struggles on her blog, JuneConverse.com 

Decide to Hope is her first novel and relies a great deal on her own experience with trauma, choices, recovery and hope.  If you’d like to discuss trauma, coping and recovery, contact her at JuneConverse.com or DecideToHope.com

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For those who enjoy a good thriller and #crimefiction check out The Picture by .@rogerbray22 #thriller #mustread #bynr .@rararesources

Introducing…

The Picture

by

Roger Bray

A warehouse in Japan used as an emergency shelter in the aftermath of the 2011 Tsunami. A distraught, young Japanese woman in dishevelled clothes sits on a box, holding her infant daughter.

Ben, a US rescue volunteer, kneels in front of her offering comfort. They hug, the baby between them. The moment turns into an hour as the woman sobs into his shoulder; mourning the loss of her husband, her home, the life she knew.

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A picture is taken, capturing the moment. It becomes a symbol; of help freely given and of the hope of the survivors. The faces in the picture cannot be recognised, and that is how Ben likes it. No celebrity, thanks not required.

But others believe that being identified as the person in the picture is their path to fame and fortune. Ben stands, unknowingly, in their way, but nothing a contract killing cannot fix.

Excerpt

The Picture

Context:  Ben Davis a retired Portland, Oregon police officer volunteers in the relief effort to the areas devastated be the 2011 Japanese Tsunami. He meets a young Japanese woman cradling her baby and a picture is taken of them which becomes an iconic emblem of the disaster.  A conman, Vince Brown, decides to pretend he is the man in the picture to star in a reality TV show focusing on natural disasters.  He realises that his connection to the picture could be his undoing if the truth were to come out.  Vince and his business partner decide to kill Ben to stop him exposing them and through a contact a pair of inept junkies are paid to carry out the task.  This scene is the aftermath of that attempt when a local young couple, trail bike riding in a wood hear a crash and go to investigate. 

As Brian approach the road through the trees, he saw a man standing on the road. He had his hands on his hips and appeared to be sucking in air; he straightened and ran to the passenger side of the truck. As Brian stepped onto the road, the Tahoe accelerated with a screech of the tires and took off down the road. He knew that there was no cell coverage round here, not on this bit of road, a bit further up near old Johnston’s place you could usually get a single bar, but only on clear days, any rain or even a strong wind and the signal was gone. Even so, as was usual for teenagers anywhere, Brian always carried his cell phone with him. Not understanding what was going on he understood enough to know something was and Brian quickly pulled his cell out of pocket and pointed it at the Tahoe as it skidded slightly, straightened then headed west on the highway.

Disappointed he hadn’t been able to get a picture of the man he managed a couple of quick shots of the back of the Tahoe before it disappeared from view.

“They drove off.” Alice had caught up by this time and stood next to him on the road.

“Yeah, maybe they hit a deer or something,” Brian said looking around.

The trees lining both sides of the road cut down the light and as Brian peered around through the gloom expecting to see a buck or doe lying on the road dead or maybe injured but he could see nothing, so he looked toward where he had first seen Feral standing on the road trying not to vomit. Brian took a couple of steps and saw the back tire of the Harley before he realized what else he was looking at.

It was quiet now, but he realized what he could hear was the tick, tick, tick of the contracting metal of the cooling Harley engine.

“Stay here, Alice,” he said.

She nodded, deciding that there was a good chance that whatever was there was something she didn’t want to see, anyway.

Brian walked across the road and he could see the marks running along the shiny railing. It hadn’t been there long, a couple of months maybe, the old damaged and often repaired railing replaced with a shiny new section. When he was standing in the same place that Feral had been, he looked up the railing and saw the same view he had, he forced himself to look to the right and saw the wreckage of the Harley and the crushed body.

Like Feral he took a deep breath as Alice called out.

“What is it, Brian?”

Brian walked over to where she was standing a look of fear on her face. He took her arm and turned her away from the scene and took a step with her back into the tree line and away from the road.

“Motorcycle, it looks like a hit-and-run.”

“The rider?”

Brian shook his head.

“He’s there but there’s nothing we can do for him.”

“He’s dead?”

Brian nodded, “I’m pretty sure he is, he certainly looks it. Alice, do you think you can ride the Honda home, tell your mom what’s happened, and get the sheriff out here.”

She nodded, “What about you?”

“Well, I suppose someone should stay here, I guess that it’s the right thing to do, someone should stay with him.”

Alice hugged him and kissed him on the cheek, “I’ll be as quick as I can.”

“Don’t rush, take your time, and be careful on the bike.”

She kissed him again, this time on the lips, “Don’t worry I will.”

She turned and taking hold of low branches to slow her down as she scrambled down the slope toward where Brian had left the trail bike.

Brian watched as her long blond hair disappeared through the trees before he turned and vomited his lunch on the ground. Taking another deep breath, he wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and looked up toward where he knew the Harley was. With a lot more bravado than he felt, he walked back to wreck and looked down at the body. He knew he was dead, he had known that from the first look before he had sent Alice for help, he knew that there was nothing he could now do except stay with the man until help showed up.

He walked up the road to well beyond the start of the marks on the rail and sat on a clear, new, and untouched piece of railing while he waited for the sheriff to show.

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Author Bio –  'I have always loved writing; putting words onto a page and bringing characters to life. I can almost feel myself becoming immersed into their lives, living with their fears and triumphs. Thus, my writing process becomes an endless series of questions. What would she or he do, how would they react, is this in keeping with their character? Strange as it sounds, I don’t like leaving characters in cliffhanging situations without giving them an ending, whichever way it develops.
My life to date is what compels me to seek a just outcome, the good will overcome and the bad will be punished. More though, I tend to see my characters as everyday people in extraordinary circumstances, but in which we may all find our selves if the planets align wrongly or for whatever reason you might consider.

Of course, most novels are autobiographical in some way. You must draw on your own experiences of life and from events you have experienced to get the inspiration. My life has been an endless adventure. Serving in the Navy, fighting in wars, serving as a Police officer and the experiences each one of those have brought have all drawn me to this point, but it was a downside to my police service that was the catalyst for my writing.

Medically retired after being seriously injured while protecting a woman in a domestic violence situation I then experienced the other side of life. Depression and rejection. Giving truth to the oft said saying that when one door closes another opens I pulled myself up and enrolled in college gaining bachelor and master degrees, for my own development rather than any professional need. The process of learning, of getting words down onto the page again relit my passion for writing in a way that I hadn’t felt since high school.

So here we are, two books published and another on track.

Where it will take me I have no idea but I am going to enjoy getting there and if my writing can bring some small pleasure into people’s lives along the way, then I consider that I will have succeeded in life.'

It isn't write what you know, it's know what you write! .@rararesources #steamy #novels #thriller #research .@SCCunningham8

S C Cunningham discusses how she researched the steamy

The Penance List

As with many Authors, being observational and asking ‘why?’ is my research. I tend to write what I know; my storylines are mainly founded on real life experiences. For characterisation research I draw on people I know or have closely watched, it’s easier to write from truth. 

I’m in my fifties and luckily have had quite a hectic life (see below). I’ve worked in a few fascinating industries and have gleaned a wide range of characters and scenarios. Living in the very topics you write about, ie as a Police Crime Investigator is research gold.

For finer detailed research, ie blood splatter, gun calibre, psychotic behavioural patterns I read up as I go along. trying not to get too bogged down in detail as it can kill the flow.

My life experience ‘research’ is as follows – am British born of Irish parents, was plonked from the age of 8yrs into an Irish Catholic Nuns Boarding School. After a short spell of studying law (frustrated at lack of justice in our systems) I went on to work as a fashion model, married a rock musician and worked in the music to film industry. Got divorced and then as a single mum worked within football, sports celebrity management, horseracing, children’s charities, and more recently for the Police as a Crime Investigator – Intel Analyst, Major Crime Team, Wanted and Absconder Units.  Oh yes, and somewhere in there I got drunk and married (again) in Vegas (Oops!). Am proud mum to a wonderful daughter (Contemporary Artist) and owned by three dogs.

For the past ten years I’ve been drawing on this natural research resource to write steamy Psychological Thrillers (The David Trilogy) and gritty Paranormal Crime Romance (The Fallen Angel Series).

The Penance List (The David Trilogy) was kick-started by an incident that happened to me in my twenties when I was living in London. Quite frighteningly and out of the blue, I crossed paths with a prolific serial attacker who targeted single girls living alone in basement flats in Notting Hill and Olympia. It was then that I realised evil can sit around any corner - learn to trust your gut.

This male haunted London for a long period of time; he was astute, studied his victims for days and avoided capture. I believe he attacked 14 or so women, luckily I got away unscathed (must have an Angel looking out for me) and managed to help Police ID him with a photo fit. He was a nice looking, well dressed, calm, cold, precise and unhurried. He didn’t say a word, just stared, seeming to revel in the fear he instilled.

I remember looking into his face and asking why? I needed to understand how a human could be that cruel to another. He had the look of a spoilt mother’s boy; I guessed his mother must have loved him at some stage, but what life changing event or who had turned him from a sweet little boy into an evil adult? The seed for complex protagonist David Howard was sown.

Using a mix of my own experiences (boarding schools, models, the press, celebrity management, footballers, London haunts, and fun loving career boy and girl friends) and further study into the psychotic mind, I created David’s fictional world which shines a light on the ripple effect carnage the misuse of power, religion and passion can cause.

The book has been adapted to film script, so we may see David on our screens one day. I loved working on his character so much that I’ve dragged him into The Fallen Angel Series where he causes further chaos in the skies.

The research for the paranormal Fallen Angel Series was based on a kidnap incident I experienced as a child. At 3 or 4 years old I was taken and got away (that Angel again!). The following week another little girl was taken, she didn’t get away. I remember being upset that the nasty man had got away, and said my prayers every night, asking God for a deal – That if I was a good girl, when I die, would he let me sit on a cloud for a while, invisible, and help him get the baddies that slip through his fingers? This wish has stayed with me throughout life, I tend to find myself supporting the underdog, and looking for justice.

The only research for this series is the imagination I had as a child, what I envisaged the place in the clouds to be like. My childhood experience mixed with my crime knowledge and the empowering thought that we’re not alone, creates a fictional fantasy where vigilante Angels dish out tough karma from the skies, protecting the underdog and sorting out the baddies. It’s fun, the angels are feisty, naughty and brave, their work is contemporary and thought provoking.

I guess, in a nutshell, my research has been my life.

Pleased be warned, The Penance List is a sexy thriller, think Psycho meets 50 Shades. It can be a little naughty at times and may not be for everyone. But if you’re brave enough, grab a glass of vino, close the bedroom door and read alone.

Thank you, and remember to follow that gut of yours, it’s the strongest tool in the box.

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Introducing...

The Penance List

This one comes with a warning - a steamy suspense-ridden psychological thriller - think Silence of the Lambs meets 50 Shades and hold on tight! S C Cunningham writes with a skilled mix of fuelled tension, dark humour and pulsating sex scenes. Grab a glass of wine, close the bedroom door and read alone!

Amazon UK

What happens when opposites attract - when a scorned childhood sweetheart grows into a gorgeous sexual tour de force - when a fun loving career girl, her racy girlfriends and insatiable lovers get caught in his revenge - when sex becomes a weapon, hearts become bait and straight tastes gay - when hi-flying careers, clandestine affairs and wannabe starlets are hunted by celebrity hungry press? Obsession, kidnap, murder... and he's just getting started!

Author Bio –

British Crime Investigator and Crime Writer, Siobhan C Cunningham creates steamy psychological thrillers and kick-ass paranormal romance with a skilled mix of fuelled tension, dark humour, and pulsating sex scenes. Having worked in the very industries she writes about, her novels offer a fresh level of sincerity and authority, rare in fiction.

An ex-model, British born of Irish roots, she married a rock musician and has worked in the exciting worlds of music, film, sports celebrity management and as a Crime Investigator for the British Police (Wanted & Absconder Unit, Major Crime Team, Intelligence Analyst, Investigations Hub).

Abducted as a child, she survived; and every night for months afterward, she prayed to God, asking for a deal. This personal journey sparked the fuse behind the intriguing and riveting fictional world she portrays in The Fallen Angel Series. Twenty years later she crossed paths with a violent serial attacker who haunted the streets of London, the seed for The David Trilogy was sown, book one is The Penance List, and has been adapted to film screenplay.

She is the proud mother to contemporary Artist Scarlett Raven and is owned by three dogs.

Social Media Links –

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Prizes!!!

Giveaway – Win 1 x Signed Copy of The Penance List (Open Internationally)

*Terms and Conditions –Worldwide entries welcome.  Please enter using the Rafflecopter box below.  The winner will be selected at random via Rafflecopter from all valid entries and will be notified by Twitter and/or email. If no response is received within 7 days then I reserve the right to select an alternative winner. Open to all entrants aged 18 or over.  Any personal data given as part of the competition entry is used for this purpose only and will not be shared with third parties, with the exception of the winners’ information. This will passed to the giveaway organiser and used only for fulfilment of the prize, after which time I will delete the data.  I am not responsible for despatch or delivery of the prize.

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