Sparky is a very special dog – Come meet him in Stray Ally by Troy Lambert

Posted on March 4, 2014 by fundinmental

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It’s launch day for the newest book by Troy Lambert, and you’re invited to participate! This incredible book is being released by Tirgearr Publishing, just after it’s recent Anniversary event, on the 4th of March. As ever, Troy’s kept everyone abreast of the writing of this book on Facebook, and even had a mini-competition to name it. Troy is a stalwart supporter of other writers and is well worth following.

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Stray Ally by Troy Lambert - 500

A strange accident on the freeway, accusations of murder, and an encounter in the Idaho wilderness all propel Todd Clarke into a new friendship with a dog named Sparky. But Sparky is no ordinary dog, and there is more going on than Clarke could have imagined.

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A military commander he investigated for Aryan activity and links to domestic terrorism is after him, and he’s not sure why until another chance encounter provides the answer.

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With Sparky and the help of his canine friends, will he be able to figure out the Colonel’s plan and stop him in time? All Clarke knows for sure is none of it would be possible without the help of his Stray Ally.

Buy the book here, from the Tirgearr Publishing.

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The skateboard collided with my windshield, and I braked with both feet, screeching forward. The body hit the glass next, spider-webbing it as the skater’s helmet-clad head struck the glass in the center of my vision. The rear view mirror separated from the window and hit the center of the seat with a thud as the car skidded to a stop.
Marsha is gonna be pissed, came the unbidden thought. We just replaced this windshield.

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Where did he come from? Creedence still blared from the stereo speakers and I turned the ignition key to the rear. Silence descended, broken a moment later by distant sirens.
I lifted my hand and felt wetness on my forehead, cut by—something. Glass? Must have been.

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I opened the door, dazed. Under the helmet, a young face offered a blank stare. Nothing but blackness in the eyes: no color. Not good.

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“You okay, kid?” I felt stupid asking. Stupider for expecting a response. “What were you doing on the freeway?”

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I heard distant voices. Looked up. Kids, on the overpass above. Did he fall?

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They pointed. One slugged the other one. A scuffle brokeout and they ran. All of them.
The sirens came closer. Another car pulled up, tires squealing as it stopped, rocking on its springs.

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“What happened? Is everyone okay?” the driver asked.

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Struck dumb, I just pointed. The skateboard rested half on the roof, half on the shattered windshield. The skater lay below it, unmoving, his left foot against the hood ornament, the Mercedes star cocked sideways.

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“Is he..?”

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He didn’t finish, but rushed over, feeling for a pulse, checking for breath. All things I should have done, but couldn’t.

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He shook his head, glanced over at me. “What was he doing here?”
I shrugged.

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“Did you see him?”

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Head wag, substituted for speech.

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“Are you okay?”

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Another head wag. I couldn’t articulate what was wrong.

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“You’re bleeding.”

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I managed a nod, and then my legs gave out. I dropped to the pavement and grimaced as my tailbone impacted the hard surface. I heard a whimper. It must have been me, because the other driver rushed over.

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I stared ahead, seeing and not seeing the scene.

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The sirens got closer, red and blue light illuminated Marsha’s car, the body, the skateboard, the chrome of her wheels, even making the brake lights appear to flash.
Help arrived, even though the boy was clearly beyond help. So was I, but no one knew it yet.

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Troy works as a freelance writer, researcher, and editor. He writes historical site characterization reports for those performing remediation on former resource extraction sites, software instruction and help guides, and edits the research of others as well. His true passion is writing dark, psychological thrillers. His work includes Broken Bones, a collection of his short stories, Redemption the first in the Samuel Elijah Johnson Series, Temptation the sequel to Redemption, along with the horror Satanarium, co-authored with Poppet, a brilliant author from South Africa and published by Wild Wolf Publishing. His next novel, Stray Ally, will be published March 4^th by Tirgearr Publishing. The final in the Samuel Elijah Johnson Series, Confession will be published May 1^st.

Troy lives with his wife of twelve years, two of his five children and two very talented dogs. He is a skier, cyclist, hiker, fisherman, hunter, and a terrible beginning golfer.

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Author Website |Twitter |Facebook | Amazon Author page | Goodreads | Smashwords | Linkedin | Pinterest

giveawaysblack Best story of a dog (Stray Ally) that you rescued or that helped you through a hard time sent to author@troylambertwrites.com by March 29^th wins a $25 Amazon gift card. Winner and story shared on my blog Monday, March 31^st. Share your story today!

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Troy is appearing on multiple blogs in the next few days – head on over to The Finishing Fairies for tour central, information and more!

Promotion of Stray Ally Launch Tour is brought to you by:

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Look on the right sidebar at Home and let’s talk.

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Cover Reveal – Life After Death – Thereafter by Terri Bruce

Posted on March 4, 2014 by fundinmental

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I read Hereafter, Book I, and fell in love with Irene. I have been waiting for Thereafter and am very excited to be a part of this tour.

Would You Like A Glimpse of the Afterlife? Review of Hereafter by Terri Bruce

Thereafter, Afterlife, Book 2 by Terri Bruce

Genre: Contemporary fantasy/paranormal

Publisher: Mictlan Press

Date of Publication: May 1, 2014

ISBN: 978-0-9913036-2-5 (print) /

ISBN: 978-0-9913036-3-2 (ebook)

Number of pages: 318

Word Count: 99,000

Cover Artist: Artwork by Shelby Robinson;

Cover layout by Jennifer Stolzer

Book Description

When recently-deceased Irene Dunphy decided to “follow the light,” she thought she’d end up in Heaven or Hell and her journey would be over.

Boy, was she wrong.

She soon finds that “the other side” isn’t a final destination but a kind of purgatory where billions of spirits are stuck, with no way to move forward or back. Even worse, deranged phantoms known as “Hungry Ghosts” stalk the dead, intent on destroying them. The only way out is for Irene to forget her life on earth—including the boy who risked everything to help her cross over—which she’s not about to do.

As Irene desperately searches for an alternative, help unexpectedly comes in the unlikeliest of forms: a twelfth-century Spanish knight and a nineteenth-century American cowboy. Even more surprising, one offers a chance for redemption; the other, love. Unfortunately, she won’t be able to have either if she can’t find a way to escape the hellish limbo where they’re all trapped.

Author’s Note

I am THRILLED beyond all measure to finally be able to bring you Thereafter, and I want to thank all the fans who have waited (more or less patiently) an extra year for this book to finally come out. Thereafter would not have been possible without your support—thank you all! I hope you love this beautiful new cover as much as I do, and I hope you find Thereafter to be worth the wait.

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EXCERPT

Her hand touched a rock, one of the flat beach stones she’d seen on graves. She picked it up, laying it flat in her palm. She didn’t remember picking this up. In fact, she had been careful not to take any. It had seemed disrespectful and too much like stealing to remove them, and while she’d seen a few here—both loose and piled in cairns—she hadn’t picked any of them up. There had been no point. What would she do with a rock?

No wonder her bag was so heavy.

She tossed the rock over her shoulder and heard it hit the ground with a satisfying thud some distance away. It felt good to be rid of something, to make a decision and be sure it was the right one.

She surveyed the pile again and then grabbed a small handful of paper animals. She picked one up between a finger and thumb. It was a horse. Irene had been in Chinatown during Chinese Ghost Festival, a holiday in which the living left offerings for the dead. These offerings included paper replicas of things people thought the dead would need in the afterlife—money, clothes, television sets, and even animals. Irene had admired the precise and delicate folds of the Origami figures and had picked some up to admire them more closely. Without thinking, she had dropped them into her bag and apparently been carrying them ever since.

Well, even Jonah couldn’t argue with her on this—there was no way she was going to need a paper horse on her journey through the afterlife. Plus, these didn’t hold any sentimental value. She cast the horse onto a nearby fire and watched as the paper curled and blackened in the low-burning flames.

The fire leapt and seemed to glow blue for a moment. Irene tensed—what was happening?

Thick black smoke began to rise slowly from the flames, spiraling upward in a thickening column. The smoke grew denser and then elongated sideways. Irene leapt to her feet and backed away, her heart pounding. Something was forming in the fire.

The smoke was taking shape now; there was purpose and design in its movements. She could see a long, horizontal back, four legs, a neck, and finally a head and a tail. The smoke swirled with a final flourish and then shuddered into the solidity of a smoke-colored horse. The animal blinked passively. Then it violently shook its head, blew out a breath, and delicately picked its way forward out of the fire. It immediately put its head down and began to lip the ground, looking for food.

Irene stared stupidly at it. “Are you shitting me?”

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Terri Bruce has been making up adventure stories for as long as she can remember. Like Anne Shirley, she prefers to make people cry rather than laugh, but is happy if she can do either. She produces fantasy and adventure stories from a haunted house in New England where she lives with her husband and three cats.