#CoverReveal and #BlurbReveal of Harpyness Is Only Skin Deep By DH Willison- @dhwillison #Audiobook #Fantasy @WriteReadsTours @The_WriteReads #HarpynessIsOnlySkinDeep

Today, I have the opportunity to be part of the audiobook cover reveal for Harpyness is Only Skin Deep. A fantasy book that has grounded themes such as friendship and wit and more. Check out the vibrant cover, the blurb and see where you can find out even more below.

Blurb:

Unassuming human Darin yearns with every fiber of his being to be that grand hero from countless books and games. When given the chance for a one-way trip to the fantastical world of Arvia, he quickly realizes he’s terrible at it. Yet the qualities he’s always undervalued—quick-wittedness and empathy—save his life when he encounters the ferocious harpy Rinloh.

Harpyness is Only Skin Deep is about friendships that defy all odds, laughing at the absurdities of life, and seeing the good in the worst monster in the realm.

The audiobook of Harpyness is Only Skin Deep is available from September 22nd in over 40 global retailers, including Spotify, Kobo, Libro.fm, and Apple.

Author: DH Willison

https://dhwillisoncreates.com/

Twitter: @dhwillison

Cover Artist: Papaya Style

https://www.instagram.com/papaya_style

artstation: https://papaya_style.artstation.com)

Audiobook narrator:

Rachanee Lumayno

twitter @rachaneelumayno

instagram https://www.instagram.com/rachaneelumayno)

#AuthorInterview with Lou for Blue Lunar & The Apex Grail Author R.L. Baxter #RickyBaxter @ZooloosBT #BlueLunarAndTheApexGrail #Fantasy #BlogTour

Q&A with Blue Lunar & The Apex Grail Author –
R.L. Baxter

Q&A By Lou – Bookmarks and Stages

It gives me great pleasure to interview R.L. Blue Lunar about his book – Blue Lunar & The Apex Grail as part of the Zooloo blog tour. Let’s give a warm welcome to Ricky Baxter.
You’ll discover his inspiration and what he particularly likes about the fantasy genre, discover the heroes, where you can follow him and more. Ahead of the interview, let’s find out a bit about him and then check out the cover and discover the blurb.

About the Author

Ricky Baxter is a London born, fantasy author of novels and short novellas. He is an avid blogger, giving advice and thoughts to fellow creators from all walks of life. Starting out as a composer after graduating with a Ba(Hons) in music and multimedia, Ricky worked for many independent short film directors, gaining notable IMDB credits. Since then, he has embraced his earlier passion for writing fictional stories.

Blurb

In a world where the gods have long deserted mortals, a powerful sorcerer emerges from a 100-year-old prison. Releasing an army of beasts, he enters a path of destruction while searching for an ancient relic.

Tasked with challenging the darkness, a pure and naive-hearted boy named Luke embraces his destiny to defeat the wizard – for the promise of a better tomorrow.

Equipped with a divine armour, fashioned by the most powerful goddess, Luke will journey across the land in pursuit of the dark sorcerer, making unforgettable allies and bonds along the way. However, as a long-buried tragedy slowly comes to light, the boy will question everything he believes in… including his destiny.

Without further ado, let’s head to the first question.

1. Who or what inspired you to write novels?

I was actually inspired to write novels thanks to my secondary English teacher. At the time, I was heavily into gaming, films and TV shows but I couldn’t find a way to create my own stories. One day, my English teacher tasked the whole class to write their own story! I believe the assignment was named “Original writing”, and it changed my life forever. I wrote my first story ever and it was named “Rei’s great adventure”, a story about a boy who could transform into a tiger. I received an A+ for my work, which surprised both myself and teachers. Since then, I have been writing ever since and I probably will continue to keep writing forever!

What do you particularly like about fantasy and what made you choose this genre to write in?

I love fantasy for the sheer fact that it isn’t the real world. As amazing as the real world is, I adore fantasy because it provides a wonderful escape/break from our lives for but a moment. To have characters, laws and history that is wildly detached from our own is wonderful. At the same time, I love who certain parallels can be found between fantasy and our reality as well. Problems such as war, love and friendship are just as vital within fantasy as it is the real world. As such, fantasy has always been my genre of choice, as I can get to tell stories that we all can somewhat relate to, yet in an amazing world of make-believe. I especially chose this for Blue Lunar & The Apex Grail for that very reason.

Who are the heroes of your book and how did they emerge to write about?

The three heroes of my story are: Luke, Aurora and Umbra. Luke is the main hero, being a boy tasked with saving the world. He is naive , kind and thoughtful. At times he can live in his own thoughts, causing him to be overly critical of himself and hesitant. He possess a divine suit of blue armour that allows him to do what no normal person can. My idea for Luke came from childhood TV shows such as power rangers, where the heroes could transform into a powerful version of themselves. Aurora is a master female swordsman. She is strong and focused. Born with a mysterious golden eye that allows her to heighten her skills, many fear her for being different. As such, she tends to not trust others easily. I thought of Aurora upon watching an anime named Claymore. Within that anime, there was a character named Teresa who was almost perfect in every way, to the point of being envied and hated by her comrades. Lastly is Umbra, a boy who claims to be a vampire, although he has no problem being out during daylight. He possesses the uncanny ability of immortality which he almost never explains. He likes to laugh, rub people the wrong way and is seen as the joker of the trio. However, his smiles belie a seriousness to him which he keeps hidden. Umbra was thought due to the need to create a mystery character that is somewhat hard to fully trust.

What’s your process of creating a fantastical world?

That’s a great question! I typically imagine just enough of the world to get started, without knowing everything about it. For example, in the case of Blue Lunar & The Apex Grail, I knew enough that it was a world with lands yet to fully be explored, and that a blue moon orbits the world. From there, I create as I go along, in many ways seeing the world through the main character’s eyes. This not only helps to get the story moving, but also keeps a level of excitement from an author perspective, for of course the last thing I would want is to grow bored of my own world. Essentially, I create the laws of the fantasy world (gods, mortals and demons etc) and then allow my imagination to do the rest. In many ways, I’d like to think that the creation of fantasy worlds take a certain kind of faith in the imagination.

In your bio it states a wide and varied career, it says you started out composing music. What genre did you compose and where can people find it?

Yes I used to compose music! In fact, I am quite the piano player. I used to compose orchestral background music to short films in my university days. I absolutely adored composing piano and string pieces. You can find music to a past short film here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ndVrjap6n_c

Where can people follow you and find out more about your book?

You can find me on on Instagram @authorricky

I am also on Amazon and good reads at Ricky Baxter

Thank you for having me!

#BookReview By Lou of Normal Rules Don’t Apply By Kate Atkinson #KateAtkinson @alisonbarrow @TransworldBooks @DoubleDayUK #NormalRulesDontApply #ShortStories #OutNow

Normal Rules Don’t Apply
By Kate Atkinson

Review by Louise (Lou) – Bookmarks and Stages

I am so excited to share my review of the latest book by Kate Atkinson – Normal Rules Don’t Apply. I savoured it and from today it can be yours as it is Publication Day. It’s a book of excellent short stories. Discover the strikingly gorgeous cover, the blurb and my review below.

The first story collection from Kate Atkinson in twenty years, Normal Rules Don’t Apply is a dazzling array of eleven interconnected tales from the bestselling author of Shrines of Gaiety and Life After Life

In this first full collection since Not the End of the World, we meet a queen who makes a bargain she cannot keep; a secretary who watches over the life she has just left; a man whose luck changes when a horse speaks to him.

With clockwork intricacy, inventiveness and sharp social observation, Kate Atkinson conjures a feast for the imagination, a constantly changing multiverse in which nothing is quite as it seems.

I love, love, love the title. The whole idea of being told ‘Normal Rules Don’t Apply’ is exceedingly appealing. The themes are powerful and striking, through life and death. The writing is absorbing, twisting your mind in all directions, full of different concepts, some perhaps already pondered and some perhaps not. The book from the off, has a certain aura and presence about it, saying “read me” and the plots of each short story, even more so. Kate Atkinson, I think it is fair to say, is as skilled at writing short stories as she is, her novels.

She creates seemingly normal worlds from the edges and then delve deeper into “Normal Rules Don’t Apply” and you find that you’ve got more than you bargained for because within the seemingly familiar is a touch of magic and fantasy. You discover that it is true, they do not apply. Readers are whisked into other worldly things, from certain characters doing the unexpected or certain events being unexpected. Nothing is as it first seems from story to story, propelling you from page to page and a desire to read more and more.

Atkinson has the skill to quickly hook a reader in, especially in the economy of words in a short story and reel them in and leave you wanting to read the others and before you know it, you’ve read them all and then sit still for a moment and think, before, just knowing that you’ll then dip in and out of them again.

There is life and death and strange goings-ons in Waitrose in The Void and ghostly occurrences in Blithe Spirit. Romance could be in the air for the “Indiscreet Bourgeoisie” with music filling the air and intriguing ideas, as well as something chilling too. Classic Quest 17 – Crime and Punishment will make you sit up and think about life and death, disease and medications. Puppies and Rainbows is more thought-provoking and deep than the title suggests with mental health being one of the subjects. This is just a few of the short stories, I have mentioned that all culminate quite wonderfully and fittingly, when the last title poses the question – What If?

This is a book that is sure to swirl round many minds, even after the very last page has been turned.

Thanks to Alison Barrow at Transworld books for sending me a gorgeous proof copy to review from, in exchange of an honest review.

#Review By Lou of The Ghost Theatre By Mat Osman, plus a bit about his talk at #EdBookFest (Edinburgh Book Festival) @matosman @BloomsburyBooks #TheGhostTheatre

The Ghost Theatre
By Mat Osman

Review By Louise – Bookmarks and Stages

The Ghost Theatre by Mat Osman (author of The Ruins and frontman of Suede) is Elizabethan, theatrical, mixed with a bit of historical fantasy and it’s a very good, interesting and compelling read. Find out about the book in the blurb and then my review below, where you’ll also find out a bit about what he was talking about at the Edinburgh Book Festival.

BOOK OF THE YEAR – EVENING STANDARD, THE OBSERVER and THE TIMES

‘Beautifully written and completely convincing’ The Observer

TO LOVE IS TO FALL . . .

On a rooftop in Elizabethan London two worlds collide. Shay is a messenger-girl and trainer of hawks who sees the future in the patterns of birds. Nonesuch is the dark star of the city’s fabled child theatre scene, as famous as royalty yet lowly as a beggar.

Together they create The Ghost Theatre: a troupe staging magical plays in London’s hidden corners. As their hallucinatory performances incite rebellion among the city’s outcasts, the pair’s relationship sparks and burns against a backdrop of the plague and a London in flames. Their growing fame sweeps them up into the black web of the Elizabethan court, where Shay and Nonesuch discover that if they fly too high, a fall is sure to come.

Fantastical and captivating, The Ghost Theatre charts the rise and dramatic destruction of a dream born from love and torn apart by betrayal.

Review

Mat Osman has been at The Edinburgh Book Festival, so within my review is a little about that, intermingling in my book review of The Ghost Theatre.

The Ghost Theatre is set in Elizabethan times. First, there’s the cast of people at Blackfriars Theatre, who perform for the gentry. Later, the cast in Blackfriars, form a new theatre – The Ghost Theatre. This causes a different dynamic, in dramatic style. The start of the book has a list of cast members who appear in the book and has acts as it goes along. There are other books that are theatrical and some do this. I rather like it as it goes along with what you would see in the likes of a programme for a theatre show. It also means you know in advance who you’re going to “meet”, so starts to set the scene before the layering that up when the story/performance begins.

Shay is the main character. She has more than just foresight, she can see the future, as well as train hawks. She is an interesting character, full of an aura of intrigue and mystique, which keeps you wanting to read more, to find out where her story takes you. She can tell you a lot about the birds and studies the murmuration. She, herself is more at home on rooftops than anywhere else. Shay has an aura and energy that just captures your attention with ease, along with the setting, which becomes immersive. It is a book that you can almost see being on a stage, any stage within the UK.

Nonesuch is an intriguing supporting character to Shay. Nonesuch is quite a chancer in life. A talk I went to see at the Edinburgh Book Festival, where Mat Osman was talking about the characters, said it wasn’t always the case that Shay was going to be the main character, Nonesuch was, but Shay emerged as such.

A bit about the talk at the Edinburgh Book Festival, before returning to the book

The Ghost Theatre, once formed, goes from strength to strength. Shay is a young actor and at the Edinburgh Book Festival, the topic of child-stars rise and down-fall was talked about and that of being “pushed” into the limelight. It was truly fascinating, as well as heart-breaking, since we see this happen a lot in today’s society. It was interesting to hear his perspective on such a huge topic. He also talked about writing and the differences between writing a book and how solitary that is to working with a band and producer, where the feedback is harder-hitting and more immediate.

Mat Osman talked about theatre and how it all goes back to Shakespeare (who would have then been inspired by earlier playwrights), and in just 10 years of theatre, what we see today, was created. Mind-blowing isn’t it? From today’s actors, directors, scriptwriters and more for theatre, it all has thanks to Shakespeare and his fellow playwrights and creators of theatre in that decade. He mentioned this because of his book being set in his times and also due to the theatrical element.

He also talked about how the process of writing a song is quicker than writing a book as by the end of a day you can have a complete song with the tune and lyrics being right. It was incredibly refreshing to hear him speak so openly and so honestly about it. It was hugely insightful and something that I had never heard people talk about before in the way he did, when it comes to the challenges. It was raw and clearly, his truth. I have to say, this impressed me.

Going back to the book:

Osman cleverly curates a London that is both fantastical and earthly, with The Ghost Theatre, mysteriousness and alternativeness of place, as well as encompassing the plague and the class system. He ensures there is grounding, within the Elizabethan times, which he writes in, even though there is something fantastical about it and it works rather well.

Whether you like books set in the theatre, historical fiction, general fiction, realism, magic, this book has it all and something for everyone as a “pull” into its land.

If you are ever fortunate enough to see Mat Osman talk, then I highly recommend it. You’re in for an entertaining and very insightful time.

#Review By Lou of The Heart of Pangaea By Lindsey Kinsella #LindseyKinsella #LoveBooksTours #Fantasy #BlogTour

If fantasy worlds and dinosaurs, with a dose of family life are your bag, then take a read of The Heart of Pangaea. Find out more in the blurb and my review.

Blurb

Robyn has a vivid imagination, even for a twelve-year-old. Vivid enough to create herself a companion—but Ed isn’t your ordinary imaginary friend. Ed is a Dimetrodon, an ancient beast from a forgotten age.

When her mother falls ill, Robyn and Ed delve into her subconscious, to the prehistoric kingdom of Pangaea, in search of a cure. But in a world of dinosaurs, pirates, and ancient magic, can they even save themselves?

The Heart of Pangaea brings the wonders of palaeontology to a magical, fantasy setting.

Review

Palaeontology seems to be a emerging in a few books recently, from crime fiction to fantasy. It’s a fascinating world, after all, people are infinitely interested in dinosaurs and fossils from eras gone by. Robyn, the main character in this book is too. It’s an imaginative world that she creates, conjuring up an imaginary friend – Ed, a creature that walked the earth long ago. Her mum falls seriously unwell with a disease so many adults get and this sends her on course to find a cure. This in-turn puts her own life in danger in the fantastical world she lands in, as she travels back in time to to when the world was in what was called “Pangaea”, estimated at some 300 million or so years ago, when continents were vast and Africa, India, South America, Australia, and Antarctica created the Pangaea continent, long before it is thought humans walked the earth.

The book is adventurous as well as dealing with significant health issues, but in a way that is definitely aimed at the young adult market, done in a sensitive and yet bold way, which is good since so many people have an unwell adult in their family at one time or another. The fantasy element brings fun, magic and adventure as well as a realism that people want to be proactive in helping a loved one.

The pace moves quite well to capture young minds and I would say certainly 12 years plus would be able to enjoy The Heart of Pangaea.

#Review By Lou of – If You Read This By Kereen Getten @kereengetten @PushkinPress #ChildrensFiction #MiddleGrade #MiddleGradeFiction #YAFiction #IfYouReadThis

If You Read This
By Kereen Getten

If You Read This is a book I do highly recommend you read. It is endearing and tackles big subject matters incredibly well for readers of middle-grade and those moving onto YA. Find out more below in my blurb and my review below…
Thanks firstly to Pushkin Press for a copy of the book in exchange of an honest review.

Blurb

A tender, warmly moving story of grief and self-discovery by the celebrated author of When Life Gives You Mangoes.

When Brie was younger, her mama used to surprise her with treasure hunts around their island town. After she died three years ago, these became Brie’s most cherished memories.

Now, on her twelfth birthday, her mama has another surprise: a series of letters leading Brie on one last treasure hunt.

The first letter guides Brie to a special place.

The next urges her to unlock a secret.

And the last letter will change her life forever.

Review

I think this is a fantastic book for children who are going through grief or want to know more so they can empathise with their friends.

The book gives children hope and some positivity through dark times and the main character – Brie is written so well into what is a challenging theme. She is utterly relatable to any child. She treasures the memories of her mama and the treasure hunts she used to create around where their home island. This is a sensible and mature way of showing that there will always be memories to be cherished and in a way, keep her mama alive in a sense. This isn’t to say Brie, nor the other characters are perfect, they aren’t and this makes the book even more endearing. It shows how things can be messed up and how so much can change. It is great to see how the relationships within the rest of the surviving family also change. It really does give a rounded perspective on the impact on everyone, that a death has on a family.

The letters left behind for Brie to discover, sends her off on quite the twisty adventure of discovery of secrets.

This is a MiddleGrade book I highly recommend!