BE CREATIVE

Acclaimed writing team HL Carpenter is here with a delicious appetizer that I plan to serve Christmas Eve. So, ladies, grab an apron, and share the goodness. The kitchen is all yours.

Hi Everyone,
October was National Pumpkin month, but we think such a beautiful fruit should get more than just one month of notoriety. So smile, say cheese, and make your own yummy appetizer for a holiday get-together.

Cheese Ball Pumpkin

2 8-ounce packages cream cheese
4 ounces crumbled feta or blue cheese
4 ounces shredded sharp cheddar or pepper jack cheese
2 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp. prepared mustard
½ tsp. onion powder
Paprika
The stem of a green bell pepper

Place all of the cheese in a large bowl and let soften to room temperature.

When cheese is soft, add Worcestershire and mustard. Blend with electric mixer or food processor on low speed. Scrape bowl and beat blended mixture on medium speed 1 or 2 minutes more until well mixed (do not over-beat).

Turn the mix onto plastic wrap. Pull the wrap up and secure with a twist tie. Shape the wrapped mixture into a ball. Score the pumpkin “ribs” onto the cheese ball with your fingertip or a flat knife.

With the plastic in place, set the cheese ball in a bowl and refrigerate for 4 hours or overnight.

Before serving, sprinkle with paprika and add a bell pepper stem to top.

Keep refrigerated until the crowd arrives, then serve with assorted crackers.

To add even more fun to the party, discuss a good book. We suggest our latest speculative fiction novelette, Taxing Pecksniffery.

Flying frizzles! The year is 2176, a rebellion is brewing, and the boss wants a recon report. Ichann Count is all wet as a spy, but she plunges into the fray. Will she emerge with her memory banks intact?

EXCERPT
The biggest surprise about the Shewawa Water Tax Rebellion of 2176 was that no one on Xerios saw it coming.

Oh, the Celestial Council knew cosmic numbers of Shewawans were swelling the ranks of the opposition. Who could miss that? Long before the proposed Water Tax had taken effect, news reports overflowed with stories of protestors and frivolous arguments—well, arguments the Council called frivolous. The protestors, as ever through recorded history, were deadly serious—so serious that when civilized avenues of protest failed, they turned to more forceful ways of expressing displeasure.

Tax accountants who’d been posted to Shewawa on standard duty tour understood the brewing danger. We encountered it every day, first hand. We sent urgent red-alert notices back to Xerios via the tax hotline, advising the Council’s Senior Tax Commissioner of the agitation boiling up all over the colony. The STC and the rest of the Council dismissed our warnings, refusing to believe a ragtag group of upstarts would challenge their authority to impose the Water Tax. So events continued to burble downhill, the way they do when no one has the courage to face the truth or the vision to chart a new course.

I never expected to get caught up in the rebellion. I was a Certified Etherworld Accountant, an expert at numbers warfare, not a Shewawantologist. Maybe I should have been less casual about the impact of the Water Tax, since I was part of what the protestors had begun to call the “oppressors.” But in some ways, I was as blind as the Council. As surely as my name is Ichann Count, I knew what was going to happen, even if I didn’t want to acknowledge my intuition or admit I thought the protestors had a point.

I considered myself an ordinary person, doing my ordinary job. Like a gazillion others across the Tri-Galaxies, I got up every morning, ate breakfast, brushed my teeth, and went to work. I spent my days crunching numbers at the Etherworld Tax Bureau with a hundred other CEAs and crushing on my cute cubicle-sharer, Fifo Ventry.

The Monday the Water Tax went into effect, I was doing both. I sat behind my light-beam privacy curtain, trying to ignore the office turmoil surrounding me. My co-workers abandoned their desks and gathered in uneasy clusters by the main conference room, sipping hot fragrant Starshine coffee and muttering to each other. We were all waiting for our boss to brief us on his morning’s skull sessions with the political factions on Xerios who wanted us to enforce the legislation and the Shewawan revolutionaries urging its repeal.

None of us expected the news to be good. We’d hoped to be back home in Xerios by now, but redeployment was doubtful. The Water Tax meant a ton more work and the Tax Bureau was already short-staffed.

To read excerpts from the other books by HL Carpenter please click a vendor's name Musa Publishing or Amazon.

HL Carpenter is a mother/daughter writing team. Their latest work is the speculative fiction novella Taxing Pecksniffery, the story of Ichann Count, an expert at accounting warfare. The year is 2176, a rebellion is brewing, and the boss wants a recon report. Ichann Count is all wet as a spy, but she plunges into the fray. Will she emerge with her memory banks intact? Learn more about Taxing Pecksniffery on HL Carpenter's website.

Eggs Not Quite Benedict

I'm delighted to have author James Hartley in the kitchen preparing a new twist on an old recipe. The stove is all yours, Jim.

Hi Sloane. Thanks for having me out and giving me full rein. Now tie on your apron and let's get cooking!

Everyone has heard of Eggs Benedict, that pearl of the Breakfast Brunch, but has anyone ever tried to make them? No way! First, they call for poached eggs, and who knows how to do that? Fried eggs, fine, but poached? And Hollandaise Sauce, well, real chefs know how to make that, but I don't think you can go down to the local grocery store and buy a jar of it, nope. So let's think of something else.

Suppose we settle for the eggs fried, then scrounge around in the fridge for some other kind of sauce. Like, maybe, spaghetti sauce. That's Italian, so we're going to call this one:


Eggs Benedito
1 English Muffin
Butter or margarine for muffin
2 slices Canadian Bacon (optional)
2 eggs
2-4 tbsp. spaghetti sauce (leftover is OK)
2-4 tbsp. ground or shredded Parmesan (or other Italian) cheese

Split and toast English muffin, spread with butter or margarine.

Lightly fry Canadian Bacon (if using it), place one slice on each half of muffin.

Fry eggs, over medium, then place one on each half of muffin. Top eggs with spaghetti sauce and cheese.

Serves one.

But then one day we were out of spaghetti sauce. A little more scrounging yielded a jar of Salsa, well, that sounded good. Being on the Mexican side, this one gets the name:

Eggs Bandito
1 English Muffin
Butter or margarine for muffin
2 slices Canadian Bacon (optional)
2 eggs
2-4 tbsp. Salsa (Mild, medium, or hot, your choice)

Split and toast English muffin, spread with butter or margarine.

Lightly fry Canadian Bacon (if using it), place one slice on each half of muffin.

Fry eggs, over medium, then place one on each half of muffin. Top eggs with Salsa.

Serves one.

A good book is perfect with a good breakfast. Here's a little from Jim's speculative fiction book for your reading pleasure.

Stories from one end of the universe to the other, and off into the realm of Faerie, too.

A collection of Fantasy and SF short stories. Space travel, time travel, aliens. Witches, wizards, ghosts, vampires. Oh, yes, and a bit of a look at what happens when the paranormal impinges on high school romance.

To read an excerpt from Worlds Away and Worlds Aweird please click here.

James Hartley is a former computer programmer. Originally from northern New Jersey, he now lives in sunny central Florida. He has published a fantasy novel, "Teen Angel," and stories in Illusion's Transmitter, Written Word Online, Clonepod, Every Day Fiction, Lorelei Signal, Beyond Centauri, Raygun Revival, and the "Desolate Places", "Strange Mysteries", "Book of Exodi" and "Christmas in Outer Space" anthologies.

He is currently working on a new novel. He is a member of IWOFA and the Dark Fiction Guild.

Learn more about James Hartley on his website and blog.

The Summer of “Can’t Put Down” Books

by Nancy DiMauro

Back to school is around the corner and I’m helping my two boys, who waited until the last minute (again) to complete their book reports. I decided to lead by example. I’ve already confessed to being a not-so-closeted romance reader and writer. You also know that my favorite time for reading romance novels is at the beach, and we’ve just returned from our family vacation to the Outer Banks in North Carolina. So, I thought I’d share 10 books from my summer reading list. It’s also a bit more eclectic than normal since I’m researching my next novel, Schrodinger Effect, which features Vonna from Paths Less Traveled. In no particular order:

1. Neil Gaiman – The Ocean at the End of the Lane - Fantasy.

Neil Gaiman started out writing a short story, but ended up with this lovely little novella. A suicide releases a supernatural creature into our world. In trying to send the creature back, Lettie Hempstock unwittingly allows it to lodge inside a 7 year old boy. Years later, that boy returns home for a funeral and discovers he’s forgotten about that summer day and the magic at the end of the lane.

This is a great little story. I fell into the narrator’s voice, spellbound. I finished it in one sitting, pausing only grudgingly to get a plate of food before the teenagers at the beach ate it all. The only criticism I have of it is the price-point. At $15.00 it’s expensive for a novella, and at $9.99 it’s a really expensive e-book. Now, I bought my advanced copy through Barnes and Noble because it was a signed copy. Still, I think the price is well worth it.

2. Kevin J. Anderson – Veiled Alliances – Fantasy.

In my opinion, Kevin is one of the greatest world-builders writing today. Veiled Alliances is a prequel to his Saga of the Seven Suns series. One hundred and fifty years after the Earth sent out its generation ships, Earth’s government has given way to a puppet king controlled by the Hanseatic League. The generation ships are found and given safe harbors by an alien race. With the gift of FTL (Faster Than Light) engines, Earth is poise on the brink of becoming a major player in the universe.

I “read” this one on audio book. The 4 plus hour recording got me most of the way to the beach. Unlike some prequels this one wasn’t forced or awkward. A large part of that is likely due to Kevin’s detailed outlining. Before Kevin had written the first word for the series, he would have already known the events set forth in this prequel. Whether you’ve read the other books in the series, or Veiled Alliances is your first journey to the Seven Suns, it’s definitely worth reading.

3. Jeaniene Frost - Halfway to the Grave. – Urban Fantasy with Romance.

Cat, the kick-butt heroine, is half-vampire. She hunts the undead in an effort to find and slay her father for destroying her mother’s life. Then she's captured by Bones, a vampire and vampire bounty hunter, and is forced into an unholy partnership. Cat agrees to help Bones cull the undead population in return for his help finding and exterminating her father. Life and unlife is never that simple though, and Cat finds Bones more tempting than any man with a heartbeat.

I also finished this one in a day. The tone and take no prisoners heroine reminded me a lot of Gini Koch’s Alien Series. One of my friend loaned me this book at the beach when I’d run out of other stories. It was the first time I’d read anything by Ms. Frost. I’m definitely looking up the rest of the series.

4. Sloane Taylor – French Tart (Naughty Ladies of Nice) – Erotic Romance.

Donatienne Dubois pins her hope for a “normal” life on an exclusive cooking school in Nice, France. But one by one her expectations are shattered. Donni’s lifesaver is a bad boy too hot not to handle. For his part, Mark Anderson, is incognito, hating every moment. To pose as a student while keeping tabs on a rich wild child is his version of hell, until he partners with the dish of Crème Brulée good enough to eat.

I love Sloane’s writing and her ability to transport a reader to the exotic locations she sets her stories and her characters. French Tart, a novella, lived up to all my expectations for Sloane’s work. I especially loved the foul-mouthed parrot that develops a crush on Donni.

5. John E. Douglas and Mark Olshaker – The Cases that Haunt Us – Nonfiction.

Certain homicide cases maintain an undeniable, almost mystical hold on the public imagination. This analysis of seven of the most notorious murder cases in the history of crime -- from the Whitechapel murders to JonBenet Ramsey -- often contradicts conventional wisdom and legal decisions. Using modern profiling techniques, the book reexamines cases we all know, and sometimes reaches fascinating and haunting results.

This is one of the many resource books I’m using for Schrodinger Effect. The writers take you through the criminal investigative process for each of the cases, noting how preconceptions or just investigative mismanagement affected the ultimate outcomes. A great resource and well-handled and sensitive narrative given the topics.

6. Brenda Novak - Whiskey Creek series – Romance

Brenda Novak’s romances are great examples of the genre. One of the things I like about this series is that the first book, When Lightning Strikes, introduces us to a group of high school friends approximately 10 years after graduation, and each book in the series (so far) has focused on one character’s happily ever after. The world Brenda Novak builds has a high degree of continuity and characters from the other books continue to interact as they really would have in any small community.

7. Lee Child – Jack Reacher series, Books 1-5 – Thrillers. Jack Reacher is a retired

Military Police officer with a monster case of wanderlust. His travels seem to leave him in the right places at the right time to become enmeshed in kidnapping, murder and mayhem. Given his military background and specialized MP training, Reacher’s highly competent in many areas, and more than holds his own against FBI and Secret Service experts. I’ve listened to these books on audiotape. Dick Hill is a fabulous narrator.

8. David Farland – Drawing on the Power of Resonance in Writing – Nonfiction.

A must read for every writer. Dave has long spoken about by drawing power from stories that came before; resonating with their readers' experiences, and by resonating within their own works. Frankly, Dave could sell this book for LOTS more and it would still be worth every penny. He teaches you exactly what resonance is and how to use it to make your stories more powerful with examples of how it is used in literature and other art forms, and how one writer, J. R. R. Tolkien, mastered it in his work.

9. John Scalzi, Editor - METAtropolis – anthology – Post-apocalyptic fantasy

Audible was running one of its book specials, and out of the audiobooks I could get for $4.95 was this anthology. I have to admit I picked this one because it had one of the longer run times (I drive about 3 hours a day), and the high quality writers who contributed to the work.

METAtropolis is a shared-world anthology, where all the stories take place in the same created urban fantasy world, but it’s more than that. A typical anthology has a common theme – ex. Humorous horror stories – and the writers have little direction beyond that. A braided anthology has a through line and character. This is another step up in continuity. The five writers collaborated on the world. They all had the same blue print when they set their characters free and let them interact with this world.

10. Harlan Cobin – Six Years – Thriller/ Suspense

Grammar Girl, Mignon Fogarty, recommended Six Years on her podcast. I met Mignon several years ago at Superstars Writing Seminar, and have often liked the books she’s recommended. She didn’t let me down. Again, this was an audiobook for me.

Six years have passed since Jake Fisher watched Natalie, the love of his life, marry another man. Six years of hiding a broken heart by throwing himself into his career as a college professor. Six years of keeping his promise to leave Natalie alone, and six years of tortured dreams of her life with her new husband, Todd. Then Jake comes across Todd’s obituary. At the funeral, Jake gets the glimpse of Todd’s wife…but she’s not Natalie. As Jake searches for the truth, his picture-perfect memories of Natalie begin to unravel. His search for the woman who broke his heart, who lied to him, soon puts his life at risk as it dawns on him that the man he has become may be based on a carefully constructed fiction.

This is another “can’t put down story.” It’s not a romance since the love story plays second fiddle to the mystery Jake’s trying to unravel. Cobin handles both the romance and the mystery with a deft touch. The characters are believable and I was rooting for Jake to solve the mystery, find the girl and live happily ever after. But you’ll have to read it to find out if he did.

Here's another book that will stand the test of time.

To restore Daphne to her nymph form, Apollo must bargain with treacherous Hades, but Death may demand too high a price.

Shot by a golden arrow, Apollo has only truly loved Daphne. He visits her each eclipse, and longs for reunion. He seeks the Fates’s advice and learns he may finally restore Daphne to her true water nymph form by enlisting other gods’ assistance.

If Apollo fails Daphne will be lost to him forever. To regain Daphne’s soul, Apollo must deal with the devil, King of the Underworld. Love-torn and treacherous, Hades would slay the pantheon to remain with his wife for the full year. Apollo’s quest might just give Hades the leverage he needs to do so.

Will Pheobus Apollo surrender the sun to try to reclaim love? Can he break Daphne’s curse or will his attempts destroy her forever? Will she still love him after millennia as a soulless tree? With the end of the quest see Apollo rising, or in sunset?

To read an excerpt from Apollo Rising please click HERE.

To read excerpts from Nancy DiMauro's other Musa Publishing books, please click HERE.

Learn more about Nancy DiMauro and her impressive work on her website Falcons Fables and blog. Stay connected on Facebook and Twitter.

What's in a Name?

by S.G. Rogers

Is naming your characters a joy or a chore?

Charles Dickens had a way with names. Many of his characters had odd, but memorable monikers, such as Wopsie, Winkle, and Spottletoe. Some were more descriptive, like the bombastic Mr. Bumble or the festive Mr. Fezziwig. Author JK Rowling has fun with her character names, too. Gossip columnist Rita Skeeter connotes an annoying mosquito and the cruel Dolores Umbridge isn’t that far a stretch from the word umbrage.


Strangely enough, I find it easier to name secondary or tertiary characters than the main ones. Perhaps it’s because I feel some sort of pressure to make my main characters somewhat dignified, approachable, or attractive. Since that impression is subjective, it always takes me longer to decide which way to go.

Is it just me?

Even though naming my main characters is always a bit of a challenge, picking names for the remaining residents of my stories is a delight. My creativity is unfettered and my humor comes to the forefront.

In my latest fantasy release, Tournament of Chance, my protagonists’ names are the relatively straightforward Heather, Dane, and Joe. Some of the minor characters, however, have more amusing names like Gumm the troll, Towcheez the fairy, and the one-eyed chef, Piers. Fun details won’t save a weak storyline, but a strong plot can be further enhanced with a little imagination.

As a reader, do you feel memorable names increase your enjoyment of a novel, or are they a distraction? As an author, do you agonize over your cast of characters?

After all, a rose by any other name might just be fantastic.

~ S.G. Rogers

A hunter’s daughter becomes the spark that ignites a revolution—in time.

When a beautiful commoner enters the Tournament of Chance archery competition, her thwarted victory sparks a revolution in the oppressive kingdom of Destiny. Although Heather never believed the legends about the restoration of Ormaria, after three shape-shifting Ormarian wizards awaken from a long magical slumber, she joins their perilous quest to regain the throne. Heather battles vicious predators and angry trolls to free the wizards’ magic, but at a horrendous cost. She is unexpectedly torn from the arms of the man she loves and hurled back in time to fulfill a prophecy not yet written. The ensuing maelstrom tests Heather’s survival skills, wits, and endurance. Will she become an unwritten footnote in history, or can she trust the magic to lead her back to her one true love?


To read an excerpt from Tournament of Chance, please click HERE.

Learn more about S.G. Rogers on her blog. Stay connected on Facebook and Goodreads.

I'll be back Wednesday with a new menu. Until then...

Happy Reading!

Sloane Taylor
Twitter
Amazon Author Page

Life as a God

Today we’re talking to the Sun God himself, Apollo, about his story Apollo Rising.

Thank you for coming to chat with us today. Why do you think Nancy DiMauro choose you to represent her?

I think it’s the blonde curls. [Absently flicks a lock of his hair.] She’s got a thing for them, and being the Sun god and all, I traded an extra hour of sunlight for the opportunity. She wanted to give her kids one last day of summer. Fair trade.

Tell us a little about yourself?
The family thing’s a bit complicated. I have a twin sister, Artemis. You so don’t want to see her when she’s mad. When we were children we had to protect our mother, Leto, a Titan, from Hera’s wrath since Zeus is our father. When Hera sent her pet, the Python, after Mom, I killed the beast when I was only four days old. We gods grow up so quickly. [Smiles.] We celebrated Python’s death with games. It was there Cupid shot me with a gold arrow. [Runs hand through hair and furrows brow.] I’ve never been what you would call lucky in love.

What is your birth date?
We didn’t really have calendars back then, and the passing of the years doesn’t mean as much to an immortal as it does to you. I have a number of feast days but tend to think of my “birthday” as the summer solstice, the longest day of the year.

Where do you live? What is it about that area that drew you there?
I have houses all over the world, and of course, my palace on Olympus. The place I consider home is just outside Old Towne Alexandria in Virginia. I love that it’s so close to the Potomac River, which reminds me a bit of the Styx. Olde Town is an eclectic mix of old and new, and that appeals to me.

What do you wish people would know about you?
That I’m not my father. I’ve only ever loved Daphne, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t care about my lovers through the eons, and most of them didn’t end with bad fates. The ones that did. . . they still haunt me.

If you loved Daphne so much, why did you wait until now to try to break the curse?
Fate is a funny thing. It unfolds as it will. A person needs to be ready to embrace whatever Fate has planned for him. For me, that means a few thousand lessons in humility and asking for help. Arrogance, you see, [Shrugs.] it’s my fatal flaw. I wouldn’t be part of the Greek Pantheon without one.

What music do you listen too?
God of Music, remember? I listen to all of it. I just love when one of the Muses prods someone into doing the unexpected.

Will we be seeing more of you or are you stepping out of the lime light?
I’m hoping to step out of the lime light, but I doubt the Fates will allow it.

What is your perfect evening?
Evening is Artemis’s time. She’s the moon goddess. Now, my perfect solar eclipse? That’s a different story.

Why?
I’m an aspect of the sun, and light refracts. This means at any given moment, I can actually be in two thousand places at once. While, I’m sitting here with you, some of my other aspects are driving the sun chariot, inspiring artists, listening to a symphony, and having a discussion with my oracle.

Sounds exhausting. What do you do to relax?
I play my lyre, and spend time with Daphne.

Is there anything you wish Nancy had kept her mouth shut about?
[Gaze wanders to the ceiling.] I wish she hadn’t mentioned my collection of art that depicts Daphne. Alex, my oracle, is right. It makes me look more than a bit stalker-y.

Tell us about Daphne. What drew you to her?
Do you have an eternity? For me, it started long before Cupid shot me with that damned arrow. From my chariot, I look down on the world. I saw Daphne running through the fields and hunting game. The way the light flashed on her throat was entrancing. Her slender wrists and ankles begged to be caressed, and the sinuous lines of her body drove me mad with desire.

Then, my rival Leucippus disguised himself as a girl and hid within Daphne’s troop of nymphs. I told Daphne that she had an intruder in her ranks, and that the nymphs should bathe naked and thus expose him. They tore him apart. She was… remarkable in her fury. I would have seduced her then, but I knew she swore to follow Artemis’s path and take no lovers. I intended to honor Daphne’s choice. Then Cupid shot me with a golden arrow, and reason had no place in my heart. I had to make Daphne mine.

What really pushes your buttons?
Cupid. Enough said.

You’re not on the cover. How come?
Did you see how beautiful Daphne looks? Besides I am there in the way the sunlight and the rainbow bathe her skin. I’m really very happy with the cover.

What’s you biggest turn ons?
Daphne. [Laughs.] Could I be any more predictable? Music is also wonderful. It’s kept me sane through the eons Daphne’s been trapped in the laurel tree.

What are your biggest Turn offs?
Wow. There’s really not much that can ruin the mood. I’m a very sensual being.

What your favorite Ice cream flavor, Chocolate, Vanilla, or Strawberry?
Yes.

Do you believe in ghosts?
You’re kidding, right? I’ve seen, and talked with spirits of those long past from the mortal realm in the Underworld. Hades rules over what you would call ghosts. So, yes, I believe in ghosts.

What is your biggest fear?
Losing Daphne forever.

Why should the readers be interested in Apollo Rising?
Who doesn’t like a good love story? Cupid once said that the reason heroes go on quests is to prove that they deserve the prize. The winged freak was right about that. Even for the gods, love extracts a terrible price.

Like most of the Greek myths, Apollo Rising is about so much more than whether I can break Daphne’s curse and restore her to her true form. It’s a story about accepting responsibility for our mistakes, and what we’re willing to sacrifice for love. Would you make a deal with Hades, the devil himself, if it was the only way to free your love even at the cost of everything else? I have to tell you, my uncle’s not a fun man to barter with, and he hates giving up the souls in his care.

Thanks for joining us. I look forward to reading about your quest.
My pleasure.

EXCERPT:
A soft glow beckoned from around a corner. While Hades pretended to be a traditionalist, he indulged in modern conveniences every chance he could. Ultra-violet panels, the ones mortals used to simulate sunlight, glowed from inside the walls. They brought day into the vaulted cavern. Hades had encrusted the ceiling with aquamarines since Apollo’s last visit. The light played off them simulating a summer sky. Another token of Hades’s love. Stalactites wider than a city bus hung from the ceiling. Others met stalagmites to form fluted columns reminiscent of the Pantheon. Stone draperies served as curtains, which separated Persphone’s chamber, and Hades’s media room from the main audience hall.

Reaching the center of the room, Apollo dropped to one knee.

“Lord Hades, I come to you as a supplicant.”

Hades could have passed for one of the stalagmites with his sharp and jagged features. His skin held a bluish cast from lack of sunlight. Obsidian color hair hung loose to his shoulders. Flint hard eyes glared at Apollo.

Persephone, on the other hand, reminded Apollo of a spring breeze. Sunshine colored hair swept away from olive skin, slightly pales in her time in the Underworld. Her bright ginger-colored tunic broke the unrelieved grays and blacks of the great hall.

“What brings you here?” Hades’s voice reverberated through the chamber.

Apollo raised an eyebrow. “I seek information, and possibly a trade.”

“Rise.”

The few times Apollo had needed something from Hades, he’d been treated as an honored guest. But not this time.

Enraged to the point of incivility by Persephone’s upcoming desertion, Hades was likely to vent his temper on any target. Sadly, Apollo provided him with one that could give him a decent fight. Daphne’s soul might cost more than Apollo could pay.

“What do you wish of me?” Hades asked.

“I wish to barter for Daphne’s soul.”

“I never said I had her.”

They’d never been friends, but then, they hadn’t been enemies either. There really wasn’t any reason for Hades to oppose Apollo’s attempt to rescue Daphne.

“Does that mean you are going to vie her to me?” Apollo asked.

“Give? Give? Now why would I do that?” Hades’s laugh grated in Apollo’s ears.

“What do you want, Hades?”

His gaze went hard. “A boon.”

“What kind?”

“Unlimited. To be provided when I demand.”

Apollo choked. If he agreed Hades could demand anything from him. Even the sun. The God of the Underworld had never been happy with his lot. Hades had helped his brothers, Zeus and Poseidon, wrestle the cosmos from Cronus. The brothers then drew lots for their domains. Zeus chose the sky, which is why Apollo as his son, was the Sun God. Poseidon chose the sea. But the brothers tricked Hades into becoming Death. In choosing the underworld, Hades lost the ability to walk comfortably in the sunlight. But if he took the sun from Apollo, Hades could remain above ground with Persphone.

Could Phoebus Apollo lose the sun?

Who would he be without it?

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Learn more about Nancy DiMauro and her impressive work on her website Falcons Fables and blog.

Stay connected on Facebook and Twitter.

He's Debonair and All Male. Introducing...

Henry the Rat, one of the protagonists of Ted Mendelssohn's debut novel The Wrong Sword.

So, Henry, why do you think Ted chose you to represent him?
Just lazy, I guess. I do the work while he takes the credit. Writers! Oh. You mean, why did he choose me instead of another character?

Um, yes. For instance, why not the Princess Mathilde? We understand she was very eager to do this interview.
I’ll bet. She never met an audience she didn’t like.

That’s an odd statement. We thought that you and she-
Shutupshutupshutup! Listen, she's a princess, I'm…really not. So just be cool. We're on the sub infra.

Okay. So, the other woman in your life-
Is a sword. Yes.

Excalibur, in fact.
Yeah, yeah, sword-of-kings-from-the-dawn-of-time.

You don’t sound very excited. Most warriors would kill to get their hands on a weapon like that.
Do I look like a warrior?

Frankly, no.
If you saw me in a dark alley, what would you do?

Check our wallet to make sure it was still there.
Exactly. Did you know the sword talks to me?

Really…
Stop edging away like that. I’m not crazy. It’s a magic sword. And it never lets me forget it. Do you know what was carved into the stone where I found it?

“Whosoever Pulleth the Sword From out the Stone Is Rightwise Born King of all England”?
No. “Hic gladio facit magna dolor in natibus.” You do the Latin.

This interview seems to have gotten a little off-track. Why don’t we go back to the prepared questions?
It’s your farthing.

When you were born?
Six years before Young King Harry of England burned my village to the ground.

Oh.
I don’t like knights much.

Okay, moving on, why should readers be interested in your story?
Evil princes, killer monks, hair-raising escapes, and the medieval version of three-card monte. Plus automatic shepherds.

Sounds fun.
Well, from my end of things, it's scary as hell. But if you're just reading it while you're safe and cozy at home, you'll have a great time.

THE WRONG SWORD
Ted Mendelssohn
ISBN 978-1-61937-195-8
Musa Publishing

For a thousand years, Excalibur has been the sword of heroes. Unfortunately, its new owner isn’t one.

BLURB:
Ever since he arrived in Paris, Henry the Rat has made a pretty good living selling "magic" swords to gullible knights. But when Henry sells one to Geoffrey Plantagenet, brother to King Richard, his happy days are over for good. Geoffrey forces Henry into a dangerous, uncomfortable quest for the most famous magic sword of all time, Excalibur, even though Henry is certain that it's just a myth.

Then Henry actually finds Excalibur - and his troubles really start: For Excalibur is not just the sword of heroes...it’s also the sword that won’t SHUT UP. It communicates with its owner, it knows what kind of owner it deserves, and Henry doesn’t even come close.

To keep Excalibur and the world safe from the appalling Geoffrey, Henry will have to masquerade as a knight, crash a royal wedding, rescue a princess, break a siege, penetrate the secrets of the Perilous Brotherhood, and find Excalibur’s rightful bearer, all while trying to reach an accommodation with a snotty, aristocratic hunk of steel that mocks him, takes over his body, and keeps trying to turn him into the one thing he hates most...a hero.

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After working as a lighting technician, a story analyst, and a paid Blackjack player, Ted Mendelssohn now writes ad copy and and speculative fiction, two entirely different kinds of imaginative literature. He lives in New York, is a graduate of several prestigious institutions of higher education, and knows the difference between a claymore and a pike.

Learn more about Ted and his uber creative work on his blog The Sword That Nagged.

I'll be back Wednesday with a new menu. Until then...

Happy Reading!

Sloane Taylor

A Can of Wryms

by S.G. Rogers

Norse mythology isn’t warm and fuzzy. In fact, many of the legends are off-putting and gritty. The creation myth involves a giant (Ymir) who births a man and woman from his armpits, and whose blood forms oceans. The more I did research on the subject, the less inclined I was to use any of the nine worlds of Norse mythology in my new fantasy series.

Then, I had an epiphany.

Norse mythology predates Christianity. These myths, legends and beliefs circulated for two centuries before any actual recordation occurred. What if the scribes in Midgard (Earth) got their facts wrong, or spun the legends to suit their own purposes? What if Asgard (home of the Norse Gods) still exists, and continues to evolve to this day? Now that playground was something that seized my imagination.

Although I was aware meddling with tradition might be opening up a can of ‘wyrms,’ the runestones were cast. In The Druid, I set about creating a world where I chose what worked for my story, massaged those aspects that weren’t quite so appealing, and discarded what I didn’t like. Fans of Norse mythology will recognize certain elements I wove into the fabric of the tale, but no knowledge of Norse mythology is required to enjoy the story.

Controversial? Possibly. Provocative? Hopefully. My hope is that interested readers will be motivated to do their own research. In The Druid, I write about ‘the road less traveled by’ and to me, that made all the difference. ~ S.G. Rogers

THE DRUID
An Asgard Adventure, Book One
S.G. Rogers
ISBN: 978-1-61937-179-8
Musa Publishing

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BLURB:
Dani Avery is an ordinary girl wishing for adventure. She never expected to be kidnapped by mythological creatures and taken to a place she thought only existed within the pages of a book. Abandoned in Asgard, Dani must find her way home. Along the way, she meets the handsome Prince Rein. Sadly, the elf is not-so-charming and has issues of his own, leaving Dani disappointed and vulnerable. With nowhere left to turn Dani looks for help among the powerful Immortals, but gets caught in a trap that may leave her stranded and alone in Asgard forever.

EXCERPT:
Outside, a flickering light in the adjacent parking area cast a moody pall. Even though the lot was deserted, Dani quickened her pace. Suddenly, out of nowhere, two towering figures with indistinct forms and features pinned her from either side. One of them spoke in a voice that was neither male nor female—or human.

“Druid, we have you at last.”

She was too shocked to react for a moment. But when something like clammy tendrils of rubber cement began to curl around her wrists and upper arms, Dani was galvanized into action. Although she tried to beat the ectoplasm out of her assailants, the tendrils continued to form until she was nearly immobile. Then, the shadowy figures dragged her into another plane of existence.

No longer in the Avery Dry Cleaners parking lot, Dani and her kidnappers had materialized in a field of electric-blue grass laced with broad swaths of green four-leaf clover. The sunlit sky was unlike any Dani had ever seen. The color was a kaleidoscope of intense periwinkle, purples, and pinks, with an occasional silvery wisp floating past. Reminiscent of the aurora borealis, the effect was dazzling, but Dani could scarcely enjoy the view in her current predicament.

She was lying in the grass, trussed up like a turkey, and utterly helpless. Unable to speak because of the rubbery tendrils across her mouth, Dani could only glare at Ninn and Ginn. Moments ago, the creatures had appeared spectral, but now they were vividly clear. They were humanoid, but the facial features under their hooded capes were strangely avian. Ninn prodded Dani’s thigh with the toe of his black boot. “It’s a female,” he chirped.

“I hate to admit it, but this definitely ain’t the Druid.” Ginn massaged his beakish nose, swollen even larger from close contact with Dani’s knuckles. “A shieldmaiden, I’m guessing, from her combat skills,” he said. “What should we do with her?”

“Send her back to Midgard?”

“Can’t. She’ll warn the Druid we’re looking for him.”

“Let’s dump her in Helheim.”

“Ah, that would be too cruel,” Ginn said. He gave a diabolical chuckle. “But I like it.”

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Learn more about S.G. Rogers on her website. Stay connected on Twitter and Facebook.

I'll be back Wednesday with a new menu. Until then...

Happy Reading!

Sloane Taylor

Are You into Speculative Fiction?

Or are you not quite sure what that is? This genre includes science fiction, fantasy, steampunk and more. Musa Publishing has a dedicated line, Urania, you definitely want to check out on their easy to maneuver website.

Among their noted authors is award-winning, multi-published, Mary S. Palmer. Her new release is TIME WILL TELL. This outstanding novel is destined to be a best seller.

For those of you not familiar Mary, she writes beautiful poetry along with fiction and non-fiction books and short stories. Mary makes her home in Alabama and currently teaches English at Faulkner State Community College and Faulkner University.

Mary holds a BA (Cum Laude) in English and an MA in English with a Concentration in Creative Writing from the University of South Alabama.

Among her many awards, she was also selected for Marquis’ Who’s Who Among America’s Teachers in 2002 and in 2005 also for Who’s Who in America (2005)

TIME WILL TELL
Mary S. Palmer
ISBN 978-1-61937-107-1
Musa Publishing

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BLURB:
Reporter Mona Stewart finds herself in another world of warring factions and one of them holds the key to immortality and cures for fatal diseases.

In the inner space of outer space, an earthling, reporter Mona Stewart, discovers that living almost forever in idleness, and without challenges, is much worse than having too much to do. The only reprieve from boredom for the Svarians is outwitting the Aliens.

EXCERPT:
The car skidded, swerved sideways and spun around three times before cascading into the gully below. There were no houses on this stretch of the sparsely populated road in west Mobile County and traffic was light at one a.m., so no one saw the accident happen. The driver lay critically injured at the bottom of the ravine.

Mona Stewart was motionless. Life was rapidly oozing out of her twenty-eight year-old body. The thirty-foot drop had left the little red Volkswagen bug in one piece but all sides were damaged. It landed right on top of Mona and threw one sharp piece of window glass directly through her abdomen. The heavy rainstorm, which had contributed to the accident, continued. Blood and water formed a puddle of red liquid. Pep, her little Beagle who was also in the car, revived and staggered over to his mistress, sniffed around and began to lap at the puddle. It did not suit his taste, so he crawled under the car, snuggled as close as he could to Mona and lay down on the ground to stand guard.

In her unconscious state with her life ebbing away, Mona’s mind reviewed her existence. In flashes she relived the good and the bad, the right and the wrong, her parents’ untimely death in a plane crash, her marriage and divorce. A couple of dateless years for fear of having a failed relationship. Now, in the last hour, she had to face the discovery that her current boyfriend was no longer interested in her. He had even laughed when he left her apartment saying, “What did you expect? I promised you nothing and that’s exactly what you’re getting. There were no commitments.” She should have known this would happen. The notoriously fickle Lee Black, III, was chased by girls because of his rugged good looks and his charming, though superficial, personality. He had never been noted for his loyalty.

Nevertheless, Mona was crushed and outraged. Feeling that she had to get out of that apartment, she’d hopped in her car and sped away into the humid summer night, roaming around aimlessly, not even knowing or caring where she was. When an announcer’s voice blared out of her radio that “Hurricane Dennis is on a path headed directly for Mobile, Alabama bearing one hundred and thirty mile per hour winds; please take heed and go to a safe place—shelters are open now,” thinking that it was no match for the storm going on within her, Mona clicked off the radio. She couldn’t run from either one. Then a sudden downpour made driving hazardous. She’d never been on this road before and did not even see the curve.

Now, strangely enough, as she relived the experience in her mind, she no longer felt resentment toward Lee or anyone else who had ever wronged her. Instead, she felt a sense of forgiveness toward them. A bright light seemed to hover over her. With it came a complete sense of peace.

“Gr-rrr,” Pep growled. Then he emitted a bark that sounded more like a frightened yelp than a threat. But when two people came over to his mistress, raised the car up and lifted her out of the pool of blood, the dog instinctively knew they were trying to help her. He backed off, following as they carried her to a shelter.


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Learn more about Mary S. Palmer on her website and her blog.

I’ll be back Wednesday with a new menu. Until then…

Happy Reading!

Sloane Taylor
Sweet as Honey...Hotter than Hell