Blog Tour with Excerpt: Purgatory Origins by Darryl Olsen

Purgatory Origins: Powers of Darkness

Publication date: October 21, 2014

SYNOPSIS

When Professor Harrison Standish, a bookish young archeologist inadvertently stumbles upon an ancient burial chamber in Egypt, he is baffled to find symbolism inside that would appear to date from two different historical periods, thousands of years apart. Suspecting the tomb had been tampered with at some point in the distant past, Professor Standish soon discovers the skeletons of ten half-human/half-canine creatures lying in a far corner of the chamber and his initial bafflement now turns to shock. What kind of ancient madman would be conducting such a horrific experiment?

As Dr. Standish endeavors to explain this mystery over the ensuing days, he happens upon a news report, suggesting that these same grotesque, half-human/half-canine creatures have come to life in the remote mountains of Wyoming and he is immediately on the next flight. By the time he arrives in Wyoming, a World War II Nazi bomber has materialized out of the sky and crashed off the coast of France and a Nazi general named Schmitz has stumbled into the 21st century, leaving behind evidence of his presence in Professor Standish's ancient burial chamber back in Egypt, all of which sets the stage for a rollicking, nonstop, modern day fantasy/sci-fi adventure.

The cast of characters in Purgatory: Origins includes Rachael, a pesky, auburn haired New York magazine correspondent, who is known equally for her ability to sink her teeth into a story and her unwillingness to let it go, Jason Kendall, an escaped rapist and killer who falls hard for Rachael when they cross paths and turns out to have a past with our half human creatures, and Harper, the ex-special forces FBI agent, whose primary goal is finding Jason Kendall, getting him back behind bars and keeping him there for the rest of his life but soon finds himself sucked into this mystery woven of ancient symbolism, old Nazi war criminals and otherworldly creatures.

Excerpt:

“Sir, you’d best get up here. They’ve found something and according to the captain of the search boat, it’s very strange.”

Jacques got to his feet wearily.

“Please wait here,” he said to the father and son. “I will return soon.”

Back up on the Préfet Maritime vessel, the inspector grabbed the radio receiver.

“Yes, this is Inspector Mitterand. What it is you’ve found?”

“Sir, we have located a plane on the sea bed that fits the general description and dimensions that your two witnesses described. It’s in about 50 meters of water.”

“Very well, send your divers down and get back to me once they’ve had a closer look.”

Jacques had started to hang up but heard a voice coming through the receiver.

“Yes, what it is?”

“Sir, there is more.”

“There is more what?”

“The plane appears to be balancing on a deep ocean trench.”

“And your point is?”

“Sir, there is no deep ocean trench in this area. At least there should not be. I have worked the waters off this coast for many years and have never heard of such a thing. I can assure you it doesn’t exist on any of the ocean charts we have.”

Where to purchase Purgatory Origins

Amazon - Kindle   
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The Author

Darryl's Website / Facebook / Twitter

Darryl Olsen is a writer who lives in Sydney, he was educated on the Mid North Coast of New South Wales and after leaving school joined the Australian Regular Army. Darryl Olsen now writes part time, and when he is not finishing off his latest novel, you can catch Darryl at the gym lifting heavy weights, but still avoiding all forms of leg work.

Darryl Olsen is the author of the Purgatory series with the first title, Purgatory, Soldiers of Misfortune- now available. Stay tuned for the second novel titled, "Purgatory Origins" He also wrote "Children of the Gods-The Talon Project"

For more information about Darryl and his upcoming books please go to www.darrylolsen.com or you can contact him on darryl@darrylolsen.com

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Ten Terrific Trip Tales- Great Roadtrip Movies

We have all had a horrible or utterly fantastic roadtrip. They tend to go to an extreme and are very rarely somewhere in the middle. In a departure from my book-centric lists, here I am thinking movies. These are the best movies that capture the horror and joy of being trapped in a car for an extended period with other people.

Planes, Trains and Automobiles is a classic travel disaster movie. Steve Martin as an uptight executive and John Candy as a bumbling boob are trying to get to their destinations as crisis after crisis comes their way. Granted Candy's character is often the cause of said crisis. The movie is funny, has a great soundtrack and a terrific ending. What more could you be looking for?

Thelma and Louise is another classic roadtrip movie. Great cast chemistry makes this story of a weekend out of town gone wrong a fantastic flick about women, friendship and freedom. Great chase scenes help this movie transcend the label of chick flick.

Midnight Run is full of great action sequences and exchanges between the two main characters, played by Robert De Niro and Charles Grodin. De Niro plays a bounty hunter and Grodin is his prisoner as they head cross-county, but mobsters want Grodin too.

National Lampoon's Vacation is the first and best of a collection of Lampoon roadtrip movies. This movie introduces us to the Griswald family. Chevy Chase plays the well-intentioned patriarch of the family and leads them on a crazy, disaster filled family vacation.

Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle is an over the top comedy about two guys on a quest for their favorite burgers. It is silly and depraved, but sometimes you are just in the mood for that sort of thing.

The Darjeeling Limited is a comedy about three brothers on a spiritual roadtrip through India. The brothers are quirky and well played. Disasters fall upon the brothers one after another, and they reforge their bonds.

The Muppet Movie is a roadtrip movie that makes me smile just think about it. Kermit and the gang heading out to Hollywood. Things go wrong and critters get crazy, the result is a fun film for everyone. 

The Gumball Rally is a hysterical comedy from 1976. It is about an illegal cross-country race with only bragging rights and a gumball machine for the prize. The cars and the action scenes are all phenomenal, and I do not believe that a better movie of this sort has been made.

Smokey and the Bandit is another great example of a road trip movie done right. Bandit and Cletus are hauling beer to win a bet, but pick up a run away bride hitchhiker. The jilted groom just happens to be a sheriff's son, and the chase and all its misstep begin.

The Motorcycle Diaries is based on the memoirs of Che Guevara, leader of the Cuban Revolution. The movie focuses on his journey in the 1950's across South America with his best friend.

Blog Tour with Except: Aquarius Rising: In the Tears of God by Brian Burt

2014 WINNER for the EPIC eBook award for Science Fiction!

SYNOPSIS

On an Earth ravaged by climate change, and a disastrous attempt to reverse it, human-dolphin hybrids called Aquarians have built thriving reef colonies among the drowned cities of the coast. Now their world is under siege from an enemy above the waves whose invisible weapon leaves no survivors. Ocypode of Tillamook is an Atavism: half-human and half-Aquarian, marooned in the genetic limbo between species. Only he knows why the colonies north and south of Tillamook Reef have been destroyed, literally turned to stone. Ocypode knows that Tillamook will be targeted next, but sharing the reason might prove as deadly to Aquarius as the Medusa plague itself.

Ocypode and his Aquarian and human comrades flee into the open ocean to escape Medusa, until another Aquarian's treachery leaves them at the mercy of a killer storm. Ocypode must pass through the Electric Forest, where he faces nightmarish creatures and a legendary sea witch who becomes an ally. Finally, he must confront the cyber-ghost of the human he most despises: Peter Cydon, the Great Father who bioengineered the mutagenic virus that gave birth to the Aquarian species. These unlikely allies provide the only chance to stop the Redeemers, rogue scientists who are determined to resurrect the land by slaughtering the sea. Even these allies will not be enough, and Ocypode must decide whom to trust with a secret as lethal as any plague.

Novel Excerpt for Aquarius Rising: In the Tears of God, by Brian Burt

             We were born in the tears of God.

When the First Creator wept at the fate of His Creation, His tears fell like burning rain to melt the polar ice and swell the seas, the cradle of all life.  His grief swallowed the mighty human cities of the coast and gave them over to the realm of Mother Ocean.  Humanity, who did not aggrieve the Maker out of malice but out of ignorance, wished to atone for their sins against the Earth.  We are that atonement.  We are Humankind's offering to the First Creator, the Maker of All.  The Great Father — a man, and nothing more — crafted his transforming virus and infected his own kind, so that we might be born as the children of Man and Mother Ocean.  Humanity became the Second Creator, Aquarius the Second Creation, and we the stewards of its bounty.

We owe much to Man, who is our father and our brother.  We must honor our debt to him.  But we must always remember this: he who has the power to Create also has the power to Destroy.

— Delphis, Third Pod Leader of Tillamook Reef Colony, from a speech to commemorate the Fiftieth Aquarian Birth Day

CHAPTER 1—BIRTH DAY

Ocypode dove through the turquoise waters of Tillamook Reef toward the fringes of the celebration.  Revelers floated everywhere.  Strings of limpets, whelks, and periwinkles glittered around their necks, clicking when they moved.  Brightly colored pigments stained their skin of blue and gray and silver with pictograms symbolizing the history of Aquarius.  Ocypode ghosted through the crowd in silence.  His own flesh bore no ornaments.

Ocypode of Tillamook had no desire to draw attention to himself.

He slipped through the window of an ancient building, its barnacle-encrusted frame long devoid of panes, and hovered in the opening like a misshapen eye thrust into the socket of a skull.  Birth Day throngs made him want to flee toward open ocean.  He preferred to watch from the shadows.

The surface shimmered overhead as sunlight filtered down to paint the reef.  The drowned Human city had been reborn, bones of steel and concrete covered with a growth of corals. Fish darted between caves marked by crumbling doors and windows, danced across the reef like fragments of a shattered rainbow.  Waves soughed beneath the chatter of the crowd.  When he listened, Ocypode could almost grasp the secrets hidden in that ceaseless whisper.

Ocypode hated secrets.  They had ruled his life for far too long...but not today.

Where to Purchase Aquarious Rising

Amazon - Kindle
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B & N - Nook
iBooks
Lulu Paperback

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The Author

Brian's Website / Goodreads / Facebook 

Brian Burt works as an information security engineer in West Michigan, where some of his most bizarre flights of fancy wind up in threat assessments.  He's been blessed with a wife and three boys who tolerate his twisted imagination and even encourage it.  He enjoys reading, cycling, hiking, horseplay, red wine, and local micro-brews (so hopefully the virtues balance the vices, more or less).  At every opportunity, he uses his sons as an excuse to act like an overgrown kid (which is why his wife enjoys rum, school days, and migraine medication).

Brian has published more than twenty short stories in various markets, including print magazines, anthologies, and electronic publications.  He won the L. Ron Hubbard Gold Award in 1992 for his short story, “The Last Indian War,” which was anthologized in Writers of the Future Volume VIII.  His story “Phantom Pain” received an Honorable Mention in The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror, Tenth Annual Collection, edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling.  He's a card-carrying member of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America.  His debut novel,Aquarius Rising: In the Tears of God, won the 2014 EPIC eBook Award for Science Fiction. Book 2 of the Aquarius Rising trilogy, Blood Tide, is scheduled for release from Double Dragon Publishing in 2015.

Follow the entire Aquarious Rising tour HERE

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Early Book Review: How Come? by Kathy Wollard

How Come? by Kathy Wollard is a non fiction book currently scheduled for release on January 13 2015. This is a fun, fact-filled book that will be as interesting to parents as it is to kids. There are lively but clear answers to kids’ common science queries, and some less common questions as well, collecting the best questions and answers from three books; How Come?, How Come? Planet Earth, and How Come? In the Neighborhood and supplemented with twenty completely new questions, and combined into one bigger, better volume.

How Come? explains in clear but detailed explanations the answers to more than 200 mysteries and phenomena in the world around us. Some of my favorite questions where; When it rains, does running (rather than walking) to the nearest shelter really keep you any drier?, Why do we sound better singing in the shower?, Why is the cashew the only nut you cannot buy in its shell?, and Why do songs get stuck in your head?. The answers are fascinating, witty, and informative. I love anything that makes knowledge fun and exciting, and this book certainly fits the bill.

I highly recommend How Come? to everyone that has even stopped to ponder the whys and hows of the world. This is a particularly good book to have on hand when you have a child in your life that loves to ask why. The text is clearly written, engaging, and accessible. It’s for every kid who wants to know, and every grown-up who simply doesn’t know.

Early Book Review: When by Victoria Laurie

When by Victoria Laurie is a young adult novel that is currently schedule for release on January 13th 2015. Maddie Fynn is a shy high school junior, cursed the intuitive ability to see the death date of every person she sees in person or in a photo. Her earliest memories are marked by these numbers, but it takes her father’s premature death for Maddie and her family to realize that these mysterious digits are actually death dates, and just like birthdays, everyone has one. Forced by her alcoholic mother to use her ability to make extra money, Maddie identifies the quickly approaching death date of one client's young son, but because her ability only allows her to see the when and not the how, she’s unable to offer any more insight. When the boy goes missing on that exact date, law enforcement turns to Maddie. Soon, Maddie is entangled in a homicide investigation, and more young people disappear and are later found murdered. A suspect for the investigation, a target for the murderer, and attracting the attentions of a mysterious young admirer who may be connected to it all, Maddie's whole existence is about to be turned upside down. Can she right things before it's too late?

When is a book that I wanted to love, because Laurie’s adult romantic mysteries are great fun. I was not disappointed, in the major characters, plot, and feel of the book. I was a little surprised at the amount of moments that had me holding my breath in dread. Maddie is a character that makes you care about her. She has been through so much, and struggles to be self sufficient and independent at all times. Her best friend is on the fringes as well, and they share a bond that is unbreakable even under the worst conditions. There were just so many subtle set ups for the big twists in the story that I was honestly taken by surprise with a couple. That is always a nice surprise, especially when you are already familiar with the writer’s style and quirks.  I think mature middle grade readers, young adults, and adult readers can all lose themselves in the story. I will admit that I found the end to be a little too well wrapped up, a little too perfect, but there is room for more in the future.

I would recommend When to readers that like strong characters, a mystery or suspense filled story that takes you by surprise, and some serious family drama. There is an element of police procedure and investigation as well. I think anyone that likes a book that keeps you enthralled in the action and thinking about what might happen next will appreciate this new novel.

Book Review and Giveaway: Waggers by by Stacy Nyikos and Tamara Anegon

Enter to win a hardcover copy of this picturebook at the end of this review!

Waggers is a picturebook written by Stacy Nyikos and illustrated by Tamara Anegon. When Waggers is adopted, he tries to be a good dog, he really does! But Waggers’s tail goes crazy when he gets excited, and Waggers' tail is extra long. You would not think a tail could do much harm, but his tail causes trouble on a epic level. He never means to cause trouble, but his happiness or excitement makes his tail go crazy and then trouble ensues. After too much damage has been caused, mom and dad think Waggers might not be the right dog for their family. Can Waggers and his family find a way to stay together?

Waggers is a charming picturebook about a dog that just wants to be loved and be part of a family. however, Waggers' seemingly uncontrollable tail causes trouble at every turn. Anyone that has a good natured but very active child, pet, or adult in their life has met a creature like Waggers. All smiles, love, and good nature but leaving destruction in their wake. Like Waggers,  awareness of themselves and a good way to channel that energy makes all the difference. I think the book offers a good message about giving chances, channeling enthusiasm, and love surpassing issues when given a chance. the illustrations perfectly capture the trouble and charm that is Waggers. I really enjoyed the colors and personality evident on each page.

I recommend Waggers to anyone with a pet, particularly one that causes unwitting destruction. Readers that carry that same enthusiastic abandon or know someone that does will also greatly enjoy this book. however, do not pass it up just because your life or house is peaceful, Waggers will charm and bring a smile to the face of anyone that picks it up.

About the Author:Stacy Nyikos is the award-winning author of many mischievous books for children. She’s not sure how that happened. She didn’t get into trouble as a child. Well, if you don’t count borrowing sandwiches from her dad. He wasn’t eating them anyway. Stacy holds an MFA in Writing for Children at Vermont College, which she didn’t borrow. They gave it to her. Really. Ask her kids. Or her dog. Just don’t ask her husband. He’s misplaced a few sandwiches. When she isn’t chasing stories—or sandwiches—Stacy can be found scribbling in the wilds of Oklahoma. She is currently working on a new adult novel about her grandfather’s adventure canoeing from Indiana to New Orleans – over 2,000 miles of paddling – in 1939.

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