#Cover #Reveal - The Book of Bart by Ryan Hill #YA #paranormal #humor @J_Ryan

Blurb:

Behold! The cover for Ryan Hill's debut YA Paranormal novel THE BOOK OF BART, coming May 22 from Curiosity Quills! 

Only one thing is so powerful, so dangerous that Heaven and Hell must work together to find it: the Shard of Gabriel.

With a mysterious Black Cloud of Death hot on the shard’s trail, a desperate Heaven enlists the help of Bart, a demon who knows more about the shard than almost anyone. Six years ago, he had it in his hands. If only he’d used it before his coup to overthrow the devil failed. Now, he’s been sprung from his eternal punishment to help Samantha, an angel in training, recover the shard before the Black Cloud of Death finds it.

If Bartholomew wants to succeed, he’ll have to fight the temptation to betray Samantha and the allure of the shard. After an existence full of evil, the only way Bart can get right with Hell is to be good.

Stalk Ryan Hill here:

Goodreads | Website | Twitter | Facebook

Going Full Frontal Nerdity ( @FOTSN @ColchesterArts ) #science #humour

What is it?

Well, according to their website "Festival of the Spoken Nerd is where sparkling wit meets fascinating science in a comedy night for the insatiably sci-curious. It’s hosted by award-winning geek songstress Helen Arney, stand-up mathematician Matt Parker and BBC 1 science experiments guy Steve Mould. They are currently on a nationwide tour of the UK with ‘Full Frontal Nerdity’ from January to April 2014."

And I got to see this for myself at the Colchester Arts Centre on Saturday. I've got to admit, I consider myself more of a geek than a nerd, but this group of touring nerds welcomes all levels. If you like your science but are afraid of something too complex and appreciate the thought of humour to lighten the weight of such knowledge, this is the show for you. I did find the formula for toroidal vortices a little long, but apart from that it was fun and informative. Did I learn anything? Sure. I learnt...

How to make a fire tornado with lighter fluid, a wire waste paper basket and a lazy susan. We were positively encouraged to try this at home! I learnt photos are actually made up of spreadsheets - it's true! - magenta only exists inside our heads and is actually negative green, that one in three of our kids will live to be 100, and that you can create a toroidal vortex cannon with a CD, part of a tube of Pringles, some plastic, and a bit of smoke so you can see it. Hubs did that one. We're still trying to figure out the best lighting to show the perfect smoke rings, but here's a picture of the cannon.

And here's what you can expect to see with a bigger scale version.

We also watched a pickle being electrocuted. Trust me, it was for the sake of science and didn't suffer...much. :P

Even if you didn't like science at school and have never remotely considered yourself a nerd, you should go and see this show. And if you need more convincing, go check out their website HERE.

Guest #Interview with the hilarious Liza O'Connor #romance #humor #free #ebooks #giveaway

Last Chance

To grab

Worst Week Ever for FREE!

This is the funniest book I’ve ever written. And today is your last chance to download it at the exceptionally inexpensive cost of FREE.

Most of my reviewers declare it hysterically funny and an easy read, so try it out and then if you love it, a week from now you can snare book 2, Oh Stupid Heart, for 99 cents on Jan 29^th.

Then you can grab Book 3, Coming to Reason, any time after Feb 3^rd. (That’s when it releases.)

What this means mathematically, is that you get the three books at a 58% discount from regular price which returns in Feb 1.  But only if you grab Worst Week Ever today and Oh Stupid Heart on Jan 29^th.

Now, I’ll take questions from the audience.

Liza: You, the lady in big hat.

Old Matron: I’ve heard these books are over the top. I don’t approve of such things.

Liza: Which is no doubt why you can’t smile. But honestly, I don’t personally think the things that go on in this book are over the top. That would imply they could never happen in real-life and at least in my real life, crazier stuff than this goes on all the time. I’m telling you, ma’am, if you’d wear a normal size hat, you would see a great deal of crazy stuff occurring on a regular basis around you.

Old Matron: Why do you think I wear this hat? I don’t approve of ‘stuff’ going on.

Liza: Next Question. Adorable tow-head kid up front.

  

Tow-head: Would you make a movie about the book? I don’t read many words yet.

Liza: Give it time. No wait, when you get older, you’ll still want the movie version because you’ll have a girl to cuddle in dark with.

Tow head: ewwwwww! Girls have couties.

Liza: I’ll let your mom know. Expect a lecture.

But in the meantime, 3,2,1, roll tape:

Liza: Okay last question. Old Guy in the back.

Old Guy: Will this week never end? I’m getting really tired.

Liza: Eventually, it will, but it takes a whole book to do it. So remove your hats, learn to read, and wake up.

This is the last day to get Worst Week Ever for free!

Last question. Lady in the middle.

Guy: I’m a guy, jerk.

Liza: Sorry, the hair mesmerized me. What’s your question?

Guy: I’ve already read Worst Week Ever. Any chance you’ve got a deal on Oh Stupid Heart?

Liza: Yes, but it’s next week: Jan 29^th Oh Stupid Heart can be bought for 99 cents during a countdown. Then each day after, the price increases by a dollar, until it returns to its regular price.

Guy: $3.99 is still a great price.

Liza: Yes, it is. I’m impressed you know that. There must be a brain under that hair.

Guy: Yeah, and you’re still a jerk.

Liza: Well, that’s all the questions I have time for.

GRAB YOUR FREE COPY of Worst Week Ever NOW

And don’t forget to enter to win Coming to Reason’s Blog Tour Prize of $50

We could all use $50 bucks. Am I right or am I right? Liza is RIGHT Finally!  
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Liza's Crazy Blog Tour - Worst Week Ever

Pippa Jay:  I've Trent Lancaster and Carrie Hanson from Worst Week Ever. So here's my question. If you were a Sci Fi character, who would you be?

Trent:  Captain Kirk from Star Trek. The early years before he started putting on weight.

Pippa Jay: Not terribly unique. So tell me why?

Trent: Because people don't challenge his every command. Also he doesn't have slacker workers and if he did, he could  just toss them out into deep space so they can go on to where no man has ever gone before-- by themselves.

Carrie:  Or maybe he could just leave them on a planet like Ceti Alpha V.

Trent: I'm not sending them on a vacation.

Carrie: No it's a barely habitable planet Kirk marooned Khan upon.

Trent: Or I could just shoot them with my laser gun.

Carrie: Phaser.

Trent: Phaser/Laser who cares? As long as they go away.

Pippa Jay: And you, Carrie. Hopefully, you have a better answer?

Carrie: Probably not. To be honest all I do is work, commute, and sleep. But I did see a movie once a really long time ago I liked. Does the Lord of Ring count as Sci Fi?

Pippa Jay:  No that's fantasy.

Carrie: Then I'm in trouble.

Trent: I found you one. She's beautiful, intellectual, brave and gets to marry the handsomest man in the universe. Her name is Princess Leia.

Pippa Jay: Seriously? First Star Trek and now Star Wars?

Carrie: I can relate really well to a character in a SCI FI Romance I read.

Pippa Jay: Perfect, what is it?

Carrie: It's called Phoenix Rises from the SkyRyders Series.

Pippa Jay: Hold on, never heard of it. Neither has Amazon.

Carrie: That's because it hasn't been published. However, Liza O'Connor does have it with a publisher for consideration right now.

Pippa Jay: What's it about?

Carrie: It's set in the future after a nuclear war destroys our remaining oil supplies and alters the wind currents of our world.  It's about a debutante turned street girl turned scavenger who is finally recruited in to military Corp, called the SkyRyders. Normally, they don't allow scavengers into the Corp, but despite her brief occupation, she scores high on the ethics test, and hands down she is the finest flier that anyone has ever seen. Which is weird since she taught herself to fly only a month before.

Pippa Jay: How is that possible?

Carrie: Turns out a lot of what the Corp teaches their riders to be impossible is wrong. Since no one ever taught her what couldn't be done, she constantly pushed the envelope.

Pippa Jay:  Tell me about the romance side?

Carrie: She falls in love with the man who recruited her. He's her colonel.

Trent: *smiles* Falls in love with her boss? Sounds like an excellent book!

Carrie: Only he thinks he's too old for her.

Trent: The hell he does!

Carrie:*grips Trent's hand* Not you...the colonel. He's in his forties and she's twenty one.

Trent: Oh. Yeah, he's too old. However, a six year difference in age isn't too much. In fact, after you take in consideration that guys are reluctant to grow up, we're probably the same age.

Carrie: *chuckles* I have no objection to your age.

Trent: *breathes out in relief*

*Carrie's phone rings*

Carrie: *Sorry, I have to take this. Hello? *grimaces*   Okay.   *hangs up and faces Pippa Jay*

Liza told me not to talk about the SkyRyder series before it finds a publisher. She says I'll jinx it.

Pippa Jay: Wel,l tell Liza when she is ready to talk about it, she's welcomed back. But right now let's find out more about this crazy book.

Worst Week Ever

by Liza O'Connor

New Adult, Humor, Contemporary

Available now!

BLURB

What do you get when you put a hardworking, can-do middle-class young woman together with a egoistical, outrageous, billionaire boss, then throw in the worst week of disasters imaginable?

Book 1 of the 3 book series A Long Road to Love.

Worst Week Ever.

Trent Lancaster spends one month without his Executive Assistant, or as his drivers refers to Carrie: 'Trent's brain, left hand, and right hand'. He's had a miserable month without her at his side and to ensure it never happens again, he intends to marry his brilliant beauty. Only given all the times he's threatened to fire her, he's not sure she even likes him. However, the future of his company and his happiness depend upon him succeeding, so Trent begins a slow one week seduction that happens to coincide with Carrie's Worst Week Ever when everything that can go wrong does so in hilarious form.

(Hilarious to the reader--Carrie is not having much fun this week.)

EXCERPT

The door burst open and Trent strode in, followed by a man dressed in a black suit, carrying a tray of food. “Good, you’re finally awake. Saves me from having to throw cold water on you.”

Trent sat on her bed as he pointed to the desk. “Put her breakfast there.”

“On the one of a kind, heirloom desk, which has been in your family since 1845?” his butler asked.

“Yes.”

“No!” Carrie yelled over him. “Let’s put it on the bed stand.” She pushed the Tiffany lamp further back to make room.

“Thank you, miss,” the butler said as he placed the silver tray on the stand and then stepped back. “Will there be anything else?”

“No,” her grumpy boss snapped. The moment the butler stepped into the hall, Trent slammed the door closed and glared at Carrie. “Do not countermand my orders to the staff. They’re impossible enough already.”

She chuckled. “I’m sure they say the same about you.” The tantalizing aroma of her food caught her attention. Unable to resist, she peeked beneath the silver lid.

Trent sat a foot away from her on the bed and sniffed at her plate. “I told the cook she’d be fired if you didn’t eat it.”

“If you actually said that, you should go downstairs and apologize. You appear to have a wonderful cook and should value her.”

He shrugged. “She’s okay. Not as good as the last one though.”

Unwrapping her fork from a swaddling of fine linen, Carrie dug into the egg-white omelet. Her eyes rolled in ecstasy. “God, this is fabulous!”

“Really?” He moved closer and stole her fork so he could try some.

She expected him to smile at first taste. Instead, he became annoyed. “Come on! Your taste buds can’t be that jaded.”

His eyes narrowed. “It’s very good. Far better than the crap she feeds me.”

Carrie shook her head and swiped the fork. If the cook prepared Trent mediocre meals, she understood why. During her first six months at Lancaster Chairs, Trent had threatened her with unemployment on a daily basis and she’d hated it. She nearly grew to hate him, would have, except his remarks always lacked sincerity, as if he’d learned them rote.

Once she’d consumed a quarter of the omelet, she offered him the fork. He smiled and shook his head. “You finish it. The cook will serve me my gruel later. Probably spit in it for good measure.”

Author Bio:

Liza lives in Denville, NJ with her dog Jess. They hike in fabulous woods every day, rain or shine, sleet or snow. Having an adventurous nature, she learned to fly small Cessnas in NJ, hang-glide in New Zealand, kayak in Pennsylvania, ski in New York, scuba dive with great white sharks in Australia, dig up dinosaur bones in Montana, sky dive in Indiana, and raft a class four river in Tasmania. She’s an avid gardener, amateur photographer, and dabbler in watercolors and graphic arts. Yet through her entire life, her first love has and always will be writing novels. She loves to create interesting characters, set them loose, and scribe what happens.

Author Links

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LIZA O'CONNOR

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Inspirations - Scifi/Fantasy Films

Staying with inspirations, these are my top five scifi/fantasy films that I wanted to share with you - let me know if you agree or what your alternative listing is! :)

1.Star Wars. Okay, slight cheat here as this refers to all three films of the original trilogy (and not the later-made prequels). If you want me to stick to the 'rules' then I'd put The Empire Strikes Back in the top slot. For me, this film is 'the Trials of Luke Skywalker' in the finest tradition of testing a young hero, and his struggle to deal with his new-found powers and his dedication to the Jedi religion while still being true to the people he loves. These were the films that converted me from my early love of fantasy to the world of science-fiction. Well, that, and a small crush on Luke Skywalker.<blushes>


2.The Fifth Element. Although I think the story is a little weak and Zorg (Gary Oldman) comes across as one of the most ineffectual villains I know, I love this film. Visually entertaining and with some fab music, it has redeeming features, the feisty and yet fragile Leeloo for one. There's also some great humour in this, and Zorg's crowning moment is his reaction when, having deactivated his own bomb, the device set by the Mangalores activates and explodes. The clip here is the Diva's performance - and it's probably not what you'd expect if you haven't seen the film. I love the mix of classical with funky electronica in this piece. Also evidence that I'm not the first person to have blue aliens, and to do so is not simply 'copying' Avatar. :-/


3.Galaxy Quest. A parody of Star Trek and similar scifi shows, this has some fantastic humour in it, but also rather poignant. If you were famous for a particular scifi role and the show got cut and you couldn't find another job, what would you do? Tim Allen as Jason Nesmith, the actor who played Cmdr. Peter Quincy Taggart, throws himself whole-heartedly into conventions and playing to his fans, only to discover that his 'crew' hate him. Just as he loses faith in himself and everything he's done, a group of aliens who have taken the show as reality - 'historical documents' - seek him out and ask for his help. The show's catch phrase of 'Never give up, never surrender!' is a cry all aspiring authors could adopt. :) The one down-point in this film for me is the death of Quellek. :( Strangely for me, I didn't feel my general nerdiness was being mocked - as scifi geek Brandon in the film says; I'm not a complete nutcase, you know, I understand it's not real. :-P

4.A Knight's Tale. Okay, this appeals more to my mushy side I'm afraid. I love the medieval era and have used touches of it in my writing. I adore Heath Ledger's character in this - a young man striving for his dreams, prepared to take any risk to achieve it, and despite the odd tantrum, he does so with the same nobility of the high-born knights he hopes to emulate. In fact, his behaviour is a darn sight more noble than some of the so-called champions he meets. The use of some classic rock music rather than the more historically-accurate kind makes this stand out for me, and the romantic elements are enough to touch my heart without making me cringe. Sir Ulrich and his lady Jocelyn are well-matched, and his heart-felt belief in himself and determination to succeed are inspiring!


5.The Dark Crystal. I adore this film. For me, it's unique and special. The skill that was needed to make it, the weird and wonderful characters - the whole concept of it. At a time when computerized special effects were laborious and still required the use of models and blue screen, in the early days of animatronics, this film is iconic. To this day, I still collect Brian Froud's fairies, and I even have a couple of the figures - Jen and Kira - that my husband bought me as a birthday present one year. My first full length story was based on this film. Am I gushing too much? :-P


So tell me your top inspiring films, and why they did it for you. :)

Christmas Jokes

OK, jokes are not my speciality, but I saw a couple of funny things over the weekend and clearly the muse was upon me (or should that be a-muse!), so I wanted to share.

I found this lying in the hallway .....



I guess it means Father Christmas has disa-beard!







Looks like Santa has bin and gone!







Right, now I've proved myself possibly the world's worst creator of jokes, perhaps some of you would like to share your efforts. If so, please post in the comments below and give us all a laugh this Christmas - consider it your gift to the world this year. :)