Cover Reveal: Charming by @KrystalWade

Popular YA author Krystal Wade has a thrilling new young adult novel coming out in October, 2014! The spine-tingling suspense in CHARMING will get your heart rate up. We promise you.

We have a fun jigsaw puzzle of the cover for you guys! Go on, give it a try!

...but if you can’t wait, just scroll down and take a peek at the final cover of CHARMING!

About CHARMING:

They say what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, and that's great . . . as long as you don't die.

Sixteen-year-old Haley Tremaine had it all: top-notch school, fantastic family, and a bright future, but all of that changed when an accident tore her family apart. Now, an alcoholic father, a bitter younger sister, and a cold headstone bearing her mother’s name are all she has left.

Chris Charming has it all: a powerful CEO for a father, a prestigious school, and a fortune at his fingertips, but none of that matters when he lands a reputation as a troublemaker. Struggling to follow in his father’s footsteps, he reaches out to the one person he believes truly sees him, the one person he wants: Haley.

Little do they know someone's determined to bring the two together, even if it means murder.

Add CHARMING to your TBR pile on Goodreads!

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/20703750-charming

 Author Bio

Krystal Wade can be found in the sluglines outside Washington D.C. every morning, Monday through Friday. With coffee in hand, iPod plugged in, and strangers - who sometimes snore, smell, or have incredibly bad gas - sitting next to her, she zones out and thinks of fantastical worlds for you and me to read.

How else can she cope with a fifty mile commute?

Good thing she has her husband and three kids to go home to. They keep her sane.

Website: http://www.krystalwade.com

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/author.krystalwade

Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/KrystalWade

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5773867.Krystal_Wade

Cover Reveal: The Book of Bart by @J_ryan

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

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

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

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

Links:

Goodreads | Website | Twitter | Facebook

Helen of Troy #atozchallenge

H- Helen is one of those legendary women I love to hate and hate to love.

Frederick Sandy's "Helen"

According to the myths (or legends in this instance), Helen was the daughter of Zeus. As a child, Theseus kidnapped her before her brothers swooped in to rescue her. As she grew, so did her beauty. Men from all over Greece vied for her hand in marriage, but Helen chose Menelaus (brother to her sister's husband, Agamemnon), King of Sparta.

But Helen wasn't satisfied with Menelaus. She fell for the lovely Trojan prince, Paris. Like Helen, Paris was married, too. But neither seemed to care much. Together, they fled Greece. This didn't sit well with Menelaus or Agamemnon, who rallied the troops and descended on Troy. The resulting battle was the great Trojan war.

Here's where the story gets complicated. 

According to one version, Paris was killed during the war that ravished Troy. When he died, Helen married his brother. But Helen is anything but faithful in this version of the story, so when it became evident that Troy would fall... Helen ran to Menelaus and promised to return to him. In exchange for his mercy, she handed Deiphobus over to Menelaus, who immediately killed him.

Together, Menelaus and Helen hopped back on their ship and returned to Sparta.

In another version of the story, the real Helen never made it to Troy with Paris. Their ship was detained in Egypt, and the King replaced Helen with a phantom who sailed on to Troy with Paris. The real Helen was handed back over to Menelaus, and Troy was destroyed anyway.

And in yet another version, Helen survived the war in which Paris died. Her brothers refused to welcome her home, and Menelaus refused to take her back. She then spent the rest of her days wandering. 

I hate these versions of the story. In the first, Helen is a bed-hopping hussy, Paris is a cheater, and thousands die as a result. In the second... she is returned to Menelaus, and thousands still die alongside the cheater Paris. In the third... Menelaus starts a war over a woman, and then won't even take the hussy back (not that she deserved it or anything).

If we must accept any of these versions, I like to think being kidnapped by Theseus screwed her up mentally, and she ran to whichever man she felt was the best able to protect her. 

Barring that tragic explanation, I prefer to believe that Diane Kruger's Helen fell in love with Orlando Bloom's unmarried Paris because Brendan Gleeson's Menelaus was a brutish husband, they hauled butt to Troy, survived the war, and lived happily ever after. War is such a nasty business. Believing it happened for love is just so much more pleasant than the other options. Plus Orlando Bloom's Paris shoots Brad Pitt's Achilles in the Achilles with an arrow in the end... which is pretty awesome too.

I'll also note that Agamemnon and Helen's sister didn't live happily ever after either. According to the myths, Helen's sister, Clytemnestra, was about as faithful as Helen, and she and her lover killed Agamemnon upon his return from Troy with Cassandra (the concubine he acquired during the war). Cassandra tried to tell Agamemnon of the treachery awaiting him, but no one believed her because she was cursed, so he walked right into it.

You'd think that would make for an interesting read, but it did not. My junior year of high school, I was absolutely certain reading Agamemnon in Aeschylus's Oresteia would bore me to death.

Have you read the play? Loved it? Hated it? What about Helen? Love or hate her?

xoxo,

Ayden

We've got two exciting cover reveals scheduled for later today and tomorrow (before our next A to Z post). Be sure to check those out!

FALL– The Ragnarök Prophesies: Book Two is now available at Amazon | Barnes and Noble | KOBO. FADE - The Ragnarök Prophesies: Book Two is available at: Amazon US | UK | DE | FR | IT | ES | Barnes and Noble | Kobo | Books-a-Million.

Gaia #atozchallenge

G - Gaia (or Gaea) is the Greek Earth Goddess, also known as Earth or Mother Earth. She is the primordial Mother Goddess, having birthed all that is upon the Earth, as well as the Greek pantheon. Hesiod's Theogony tells how Gaia sprang from Chaos. 

Verily at the first Chaos came to be, but next wide-bosomed Earth, the ever-sure foundations of all the deathless ones who hold the peaks of snowy Olympus, and dim Tartarus in the depth of the wide-pathed Earth, and Eros (Love), fairest among the deathless gods, who unnerves the limbs and overcomes the mind and wise counsels of all gods and all men within them. 

Hesiod goes on to explain that Gaia then gave birth to Pontus and Uranus (the sea and sky), the Titans, the Cyclopes, Cottus, Briareus, and Gyges (the Hecatonchires), Erinyes, and the Gigantes. 

Gaia took her son Uranus as her mate. Unthinkable to us, but let's face it... when you're mama to absolutely everything... finding a non-familial mate just isn't possible.

Uranus feared many of their offspring, requiring Gaia to hide them away within herself to protect them. Eventually, the pain of carrying them became too much for Gaia to handle. 

Recognizing the danger she and Uranus had birthed, she asked Cronus (her son by Uranus) to help her severe the union between her and his father (whom he despised) to prevent any further monstrous children.

Cronus laid in wait for Uranus, and when he came to lay with Gaia, Cronus castrated him. When Uranus's blood touched the ground, the Giants, Nymphs, and Furies sprang into being.


With her union to the Sky thus ended, Gaia took Pontus (the sea) as her mate. Together, they birthed Thaumus, Nereus, Ceto, Phorcys, and Eurybia. With Tartarus (her brother in Chaos), Gaia gave birth to Echidna and Typhon. Gaia is Zeus's grandmother.

The relationship between Earth and sea, and Earth and sky, according to the Greek myths, is quite complex as a result of these primordial unions. And the need for balance obvious. In more modern terms, Gaia holds a very special place for many of the Pagan faiths found today. A deep respect and reverence of nature is often associated with her. How could it not when Gaia is a divine representation of the Earth itself and the mother of the many, many gods worshiped in Greece and beyond?

Charles Leland's Vangelo Delle Streghe (Aradia: Gospel of the Witches) contains a similar creation story to that related in Hesiod's Theogony, with Gaia's role given to Diana. The Vangelo is said to have been passed to Leland by Maddalena, an Aradian witch. Leland's work is largely allegorical, portraying complex themes in simple ways. Even so, the creation myth related within is reminiscent of that found in Hesoid's Theogony. It's an absolutely beautiful story.

To gain a true sense of the importance of Gaia's role in mythology (and modern Paganism), I highly recommend giving both it and Hesiod's work a read. You can find a translation of Theogony here, and the Vangelo here. 

xoxo,

Ayden

FALL– The Ragnarök Prophesies: Book Two is now available at Amazon | Barnes and Noble | KOBO. FADE - The Ragnarök Prophesies: Book Two is available at: Amazon US | UK | DE | FR | IT | ES | Barnes and Noble | Kobo | Books-a-Million.

False Face Society and the Flying Head #atozchallenge

F  - Prior to the arrival of our European ancestors in the Americas, the Iroquois Confederacy (or the Six Nations) had spread far and wide across what is now the United States. Each of these tribes had their own unique traditions, beliefs, and folklore. Unfortunately, many of those traditions have been lost to us over the years.

Those that remain are absolutely fascinating, however.

The Flying Head.

The Iroquois believed in a spirit called the Flying Head. This was a very bad spirit with long, tangled hair and fiery eyes. The origin of this spirit varies between Nations, but the Flying Head was believed to live in the forest. His purpose was to devour humans and cause disease and death.

The False Face Society is an Iroquois medicinal society charged with healing. Part of their role as healers is to cure illnesses the other societies have been unable to cure. Long ago, those diseases were thought to have been caused by the Flying Head. 

To scare him away, the False Face Society instructed the sufferer to carve an elaborate mask from a still-living tree. Once carved and consecrated, the False Face Society then performed a ritual with the masks to help scare away the Flying Head. Once the sufferer recovered from the illness, he or she was required to join the False Face Society. 

To this day, these masks are sacred to the False Face Society and the Iroquois, as the masks portray the Great Doctor and are representations of a living spirit. Because of the significance of these masks, many Iroquois find it disrespectful to photograph them. If you want to see one, I'm sure you can find a photograph somewhere, but I opted not to post one here.

In many of the Flying Head stories passed down, the creature was defeated when he gobbled up hot coals, thinking they were the acorns a widow had been eating. When the hot coals burned the Flying Head, he fled, never to be heard from again. Which is probably for the best because he doesn't sound at all pleasant!

You can read one version of this legend here. 

xoxo,

Ayden

FALL– The Ragnarök Prophesies: Book Two is now available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and KOBO. FADE - The Ragnarök Prophesies: Book Two is available at: Amazon US | UK | DE | FR | IT | ES | Barnes and Noble | Kobo | Books-a-Million