Masked Hearts Anthology

HAPPY BOOK BIRTHDAY TO

MASKED HEARTS!

Masked Hearts

A sweet romance anthology

By Various Authors

Publisher: Roane Publishing

Release Date: May 23, 2016

Keywords: Fantasy, romance, shifters, dragon, elves, masquerade, sweet

What secrets do the Masked Hearts hold?

Blurbs:

Affinity by Dana Wright

Behind the shadows lies the truth…

A magic mirror and a houseful of ghosts await Kristen when fate leads her to Wanderly House. Secrets and spirits consume her days, but one look in the magic mirror and her heart falls fast. A mask, a cloak, and a key leading her to an enchanted evening in the faery garden might be Kristen's end as all that glitters may well have sharp teeth.

Magic mirror on the wall…

Connor is trapped in Faery. With only a view through a bewitched mirror to the real world, his attention is nabbed by a curious cat shifter with a ghostly following. Can he find a way to break the spell that binds him so he can reach the girl that haunts his dreams?

When the forces of Faery and Wanderly House collide, will Kristen and Connor's love be enough to save them?

Water Woman by Claire Davon

Sparks fly when a Spanish water woman, and an African two-horned horse shifter meet at a masquerade. Kimoni has gone to ask Isidora to use her skills to aid him with his ailing grandfather. When strangers claiming to be Isidora’s relatives try to force her to share her powers, the pair is plunged into danger. Isidora and Kimoni look for a way to fight the ruthless intruders, while also saving his grandfather.

Using their combined powers, they meet the challenge, all the while conscious of the growing attraction between them. It has been a long time since Isidora has met a man who calls to her as Kimoni does. The strong, handsome horse shifter sings to her senses, and she sees a matching spark in his eyes. Can love between them blossom? Can a water woman and a horse shifter find happiness together?

Dragon Law by Nemma Wollenfang

The kingdom of Baelin is under attack. A terrifying dragon rains fire down on the capital city, burning all in his path. The people’s one hope lies with the Princess Draxa, who – in accordance with an ancient rite – must willingly sacrifice her future to sate the beast’s wrath.

For her kingdom, Draxa will do it. She will leave Andre, the fierce soldier she loves with all of her heart, don her red cloak, and make the treacherous trip into the heart of the mountain, to face the monstrous Lord Siouxlian in his lair.  

Feather Fall by Sheryl Winters

Brooke Adair's autism has turned the world into a constant puzzle, especially when it comes to men. When she meets fellow swan shifter Blake Landen in a dream, though, Brooke feels a potential connection to someone who could understand her. If she lets him.

But trusting in Blake takes a whole lot more courage than Brooke has. After all, if she doesn’t take this leap, Brooke might miss out on meeting the one man she could actually learn to understand.

Duty or Desire by Sharon Hughson

Alyona Wyrden dwells contentedly in her elven realm, but when her brother disappears, she travels to Earth to bring him home.

Camden Kerr hunts down magical artifacts, keeping them out of the wrong hands. The amulet that draws Alyona to her brother is just the sort of object Cam’s after. The way his flesh responds to the lithe, blonde necklace wearer is a different matter altogether. When their paths keep crossing, Camden decides they can work together-until he discovers her elven heritage.

Can their attraction defeat prejudice? Which will rule—duty or desire?
Buy links:

Roane Publishing Createspace Amazon Amazon (UK) Barnes and Noble Kobo Books Smashwords Bookstrand All Romance eBooks

Author Interviews for On the Broomstick

Choice: 1. Name three things on your desk right now. 2. What inspired your story? topic-favorite whimsical books and movies

Sharon Hughson:

Whimsical? Some people think Harry Potter is whimsical. I will say the Percy Jackson series by Rick Riordan for favorite whimsical books. I laughed out loud at some of the outrageousness in those stories. The Princess Bride is the only whimsical movie to enter my head. “Inconceivable!”

Dana Wright:

Three things on my desk:

A giant pile of books, a bag of chocolate covered raisins and another of salted nuts and a huge bottle of water. 

Sheryl Winters:

Favorite Movie series is the Lords of the Rings. Particularly the Fellowship of the Rings. Book favorites is a whole different subject. I read all of the place, historical, fantasy, biographies. If it catches my eye, I’m usually reading it.  

Nemma Wollenfang:

What inspired my story? Well, another writer recently commented that every SFF writer has to have a dragon story. I didn’t have one, so I thought it was about time that I did. Then, with this photo, the idea just settled into place. Fantasy romance + dragons = a Beauty and the Beast scenario that I couldn’t let go. Hey, the beast doesn’t always have to be the bad guy. And Dragon Law was such a blast to write. Thanks for the inspiration Roane Publishing!

Claire Devon:

Three things on my desk are coffee (and lots of it!), a small spiral bound book of index cards that I am using to keep track of character names and characteristics for all my stories and finally a bean bag tiger since I was born in the Year of the Tiger and they are nearest and dearest to my heart.

PURCHASE LINKS

Tour Schedule

~~~oOo~~~

GIVEAWAY!

A $10 Roane Publishing gift card

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Open only to those who can legally enter, receive and use an Amazon.com Gift Code.  No purchase necessary, but you must be 18 or older to enter. The winner will be chosen by rafflecopter, and announced on the widget. Winner well be notified by emailed and have 48 hours to respond or a new winner will be chosen. The number of entries received determines the odds of winning. Giveaway was organized by Roane Publishing's marketing department.

Fae

Meet Robin Goodfellow as you’ve never seen him before, watch damsels in distress rescue themselves, get 
swept away with the selkies and enjoy tales of hobs, green men, pixies and phookas. One thing is for 
certain, these are not your grandmother’s fairy tales. Fairies have been both mischievous and malignant 
creatures throughout history. They’ve dwelt in forests, collected teeth or crafted shoes. Fae is full of 
stories that honor that rich history while exploring new and interesting takes on the fair folk from castles 
to computer technologies and modern midwifing, the Old World to Indianapolis. Fae covers a vast swath 
of the fairy story spectrum, making the old new and exploring lush settings with beautiful prose and 
complex characters. Enjoy the familiar feeling of a good old-fashioned fairy tale alongside urban fantasy 
and horror with a fae twist.

With an introduction by Sara Cleto and Brittany Warman, and new stories from Sidney Blaylock 
Jr., Amanda Block, Kari Castor, Beth Cato, Liz Colter, Rhonda Eikamp, Lor Graham, Alexis 
A. Hunter, L.S. Johnson, Jon Arthur Kitson, Adria Laycraft, Lauren Liebowitz, Christine 
Morgan, Shannon Phillips, Sara Puls, Laura VanArendonk Baugh, and Kristina Wojtaszek.

Fae will be available in trade paperback and ebook via Amazon.com, Barnesandnoble.com, Kobo.com, 
and other online retailers. You can also find Fae on Goodreads.

Anthologist Rhonda Parrish is driven by a desire to do All The Things. She has been the publisher and 
editor-in-chief of Niteblade Magazine for over five years now (which is like 25 years in internet time) and 
is the editor of the benefit anthology, Metastasis. In addition, Rhonda is a writer whose work has been 
included or is forthcoming in dozens of publications including Tesseracts 17: Speculating Canada from 
Coast to Coast and Imaginarium: The Best Canadian Speculative Writing. Her website, updated weekly, 
is at rhondaparrish.com.

World Weaver Press is a publisher of fantasy, paranormal, and science fiction, dedicated to producing 
quality works. We believe in great storytelling.
Publication Date: July 22, 2014 • Fantasy / Horror Anthology

Guest Post: Kristina Wojtaszek

Solomon's Friend is actually my own very personal story of raising a son with Asperger's.  Kadie, the mother in the story, has all the doubts about herself that I have, and Solly, her son, shares many unique viewpoints with my own son.  Hobby, the cranky old hob who narrates much of the story, came from an often-ignored voice of my own-- a well of common sense and courage that I found within.  Instead of seeing my son as having a problem (which, let's face it, is still predominantly how society looks upon children who have any form of social or emotional "disorder") I took a new perspective, seeing him as whole and perfect in his own right, just the way Hobby sees Solly in the story.  Children with Asperger's often have high IQs and tend to think more in depth about little things most of us simply take for granted, a quality that makes them well suited for future jobs in science, engineering, medicine, and technology.  These are great qualities that offset their social rigidity and high levels of anxiety.  Other traits, like finding it easier to spy on people rather than interacting with them, and taking things perfectly literally, jive well with the kinds of personality traits we see in fairy creatures all across the literary world.  It only makes sense that fae would have a greater fascination with the world, and a greater respect for the rules of nature, than we humans do, and yet, just as a child on the spectrum would, I imagine them to find it difficult at times to identify with the rest of us oddly social humans.  Thus evolved the deep understanding between Solly and his friend, the hob.  I also think that parents of those on the spectrum carry a lot of guilt and self-blame for things that simply aren't in their control.  I created Hobby in an effort to help me correct that.  I wrote Solomon's Friend as a reminder to myself that I am making some of the right connections with my child, that I am loving him every moment of every day, and that there is still a bit of magic left in the world, especially in the curious and cautious mind of my child.  And maybe there's even a little left in me.

Fae Cover Reveal

“FAE”

EDITED BY RHONDA PARRISH

Alpena, MI (May 8, 2014) – World Weaver Press (Eileen Wiedbrauk, Editor-in-Chief) has announced Fae, a new anthology of fairy stories from classic tales to urban fantasy, edited by Rhonda Parrish, will be available in trade paperback and ebook Tuesday, July 22, 2014.

                                                                                                                                                           

Meet Robin Goodfellow as you’ve never seen him before, watch damsels in distress rescue themselves, get swept away with the selkies and enjoy tales of hobs, green men, pixies and phookas. One thing is for certain, these are not your grandmother’s fairy tales. Fairies have been both mischievous and malignant creatures throughout history. They’ve dwelt in forests, collected teeth or crafted shoes. Fae is full of stories that honor that rich history while exploring new and interesting takes on the fair folk from castles to computer technologies and modern midwifing, the Old World to Indianapolis. Fae covers a vast swath of the fairy story spectrum, making the old new and exploring lush settings with beautiful prose and complex characters. Enjoy the familiar feeling of a good old-fashioned fairy tale alongside urban fantasy and horror with a fae twist.

With an introduction by Sara Cleto and Brittany Warman, and new stories from Sidney Blaylock Jr., Amanda Block, Kari Castor, Beth Cato, Liz Colter, Rhonda Eikamp, Lor Graham, Alexis A. Hunter, L.S. Johnson, Jon Arthur Kitson, Adria Laycraft, Lauren Liebowitz, Christine Morgan, Shannon Phillips, Sara Puls, Laura VanArendonk Baugh, and Kristina Wojtaszek.

Fae will be available in trade paperback and ebook via Amazon.com, Barnesandnoble.com, Kobo.com, and other online retailers, and for wholesale through Ingram. You can also find Fae on Goodreads.

Anthologist Rhonda Parrish is driven by a desire to do All The Things. She has been the publisher and editor-in-chief of Niteblade Magazine for over five years now (which is like 25 years in internet time) and is the editor of the benefit anthology, Metastasis. In addition, Rhonda is a writer whose work has been included or is forthcoming in dozens of publications including Tesseracts 17: Speculating Canada from Coast to Coast andImaginarium: The Best Canadian Speculative Writing. Her website, updated weekly, is at rhondaparrish.com.

World Weaver Press is a publisher of fantasy, paranormal, and science fiction, dedicated to producing quality works. We believe in great storytelling.

Release date: July 22, 2014

Grail of the Summer Stars: A Visit With Freda Warrington

The climactic novel in the spellbinding magical contemporary fantasy Aetherial Tales trilogy

GRAIL OF THE SUMMERSTARS

By Freda Warrington

“A classy, beautifully rendered tale that persuasively builds from low-key beginnings into a complex enterprise with real heft, a rich back story and

characters that grow with the narrative. A must for existing fans, while being easily accessible to newcomers.”

—Kirkus Reviews

 TITLE: GRAIL OF THE SUMMER STARS

Author: Freda Warrington

$27.99 / 384 pages

INFORMATION ABOUT THE BOOK/AUTHOR

A painting, depicting haunting scenes of a ruined palace and a scarlet-haired goddess in front of a fiery city, arrives unheralded in an art gallery with a cryptic note saying, “The world needs to see this.” The painting begins to change the lives of the woman who is the gallery's curator and that of an ancient man of the fey Aetherial folk who has mysteriously risen from the depths of the ocean. Neither human nor fairy knows how they are connected, but when the painting is stolen, both are compelled to discover the meaning behind the painting and the key it holds to their future.

In a haunting, powerful tale of two worlds and those caught between, Freda Warrington weaves an exciting story of suspense, adventure and danger that fulfills the promise of the Aetherial Tales as only she can. This stand-alone novel will appeal to readers of urban and modern fantasy and grab the attention of fans who love dark and sinister tales.

Maiden, Mother, Who? By Freda Warrington

Just a few weeks ago I was the fantasy Guest of Honour at Eastercon (UK) and we had a panel entitled, “Maiden, Mother, Who?” discussing the invisibility of older characters, specifically older women, in fantasy fiction. This is a subject very dear to my heart. By coincidence I had pulled a book down from my attic – one I first read in the early 1990s – to reread. That book is The Crone by Barbara G Walker. You probably know it. In it, Ms Walker explores how the figures of the Crone, the Wise Woman, the Witch, indeed older women in general, have become invisible in our culture. And not only invisible but – not so very far in the past – reviled as evil, and even mass-murdered, hanged, burned at the stake. Her thought-provoking study examines how women were once attributed with supremacy over life and death – naturally so, since it’s women who give birth, and have always acted as midwives, healers, layers-out of the dead. Terrifying, dark goddesses such as Kali were believed to have the powers both of Creation and Destruction: the power to destroy all other gods and to consume everything into her black Abyss at the end of time.

Walker dissects how male religions arose and set about rejecting the dark goddess – far too terrifying! – by crushing all aspects of female wisdom, sacredness and autonomy. This was in a futile urge to deny Death itself. Female religion was circular, a churning cauldron of life, death and rebirth. Male religion was linear: one life, one God, one afterlife in eternal bliss or torment. In the process, the Crone figure of the older woman was demonized until she became virtually invisible. (Really, if you haven’t read Ms Walker’s book, just read it!)

We’re still living with the consequences today. In spite of a long battle for equal rights, there remain societies in which women are treated like scum. In the West, one of the greatest sins a woman can commit – at least in the public eye – is to grow old. In my Aetherial Tales (and other novels) I try to do my bit to redress the balance.

Themes of paganism and ancient earth magic weave through most of my novels, sometimes blatantly so and sometimes more subtly. The Crone, and numerous other books on female spirituality, helped me understand how the idea that women are naturally secondary and subservient to men is a Great Big Lie. What a relief to know that! However, the idea is distressingly persistent. We seem to be taking backward steps, if anything, as young girls are treated as sex objects and women still fight to be taken seriously. The term “witch” is still used as an insult, and there are countries where “witches” are still persecuted and murdered. Sometimes you’d hardly know we were in the 21^st century!

My novel Midsummer Night revolves around Juliana Flagg, a sixty-something sculptor and grande damewho is a legend in the art world and something of a character, to say the least. She also appears in the new novel, Grail of the Summer Stars, to advise and guide Mistangamesh (a young man we first met inMidsummer Night) on the next step in his difficult journey. Juliana was one of those characters who leapt into my head fully formed, as it were, and she’s been hanging around for at least fifteen years before I found the right story for her. I imagine her as a tall, strong woman, silver-haired, bohemian, usually dressed in pale grey silks and velvets so she is like a tower of silver. She’s sharp-tongued, confident, intolerant of fools. That’s not to say she lacks warmth, or insecurities, or has no fear of ageing. Yet she faces the future with courage, remarking that when she dies, they will have to fell her like a tree and lash her to the back of a truck!

Of course Grail has younger characters too, and others who are ancient yet ageless – but writing Juliana was so much fun, I don’t know why anyone would shy away from wanting to write or read about older characters. Others crop up in my Aetherial Tales series – but I try to show them as real people, not all-powerful fantasy sorceresses. In Grail we also meet the tough, angular Frances Manifold, who is trying not to fall apart as she fears her missing son is dead. And we meet a character who first appeared in Elfland:the more obviously witchy Virginia Wilder, who never tells people what to do but subtly guides them onto the right path. These are women who have to deal with their own flaws and potential frailties – but they have guts, good sense and personality, and at their core they are strong, strong, strong.

The panel discussion left me somewhat optimistic as we uncovered lots of examples of strong, powerful, older female characters in SF and fantasy. The situation’s not as dire as I’d feared! In the real world, too, more attention is being paid to older females – usually in the shape of Helen Mirren, Judi Dench, or Sophia Loren! Which raises the question, can you only remain visible as you grow older by being a glamorous film star? The academic Professor Mary Beard, who presents historical documentaries for the BBC, has come in for irrational criticism for refusing to glam up, having unkempt grey hair and crooked teeth. For goodness’ sake! She is a Professor of Classics at Cambridge University and a fantastic presenter! But I think the tables are turning. People of discernment love Mary Beard. And folk the world over adore the Queen, who seems to be admired more and more the older she grows. Truly a woman of wisdom, compassion and power.

So let’s hope we can look to a future where the older female – both in real life and in fiction – is no longer denigrated for her lack of youth and fluttering eyelashes, but celebrated for her long, rich life and simply for her magnificent self.

FREDA WARRINGTON, who was born in and lives in Leicestershire, England, is the author of twenty novels. This is her third Aetherial Tales novel, her first series to be published in the United States. The first,Elfland, was named Best Fantasy of the Year by RT Book Reviews. For more information, please visitwww.fredawarrington.com

I am utterly transfixed as I delve into the pages of this book. Stay tuned for an upcoming review!