You know you want it
Mario here:
It's another chance to win a Devil Duck. For those of you who don't know, I'm this month's pick in Barnes & Noble's Paranormal and Urban Fantasy book club. So it's an opportunity for a contest. Last week I noted that the most awesome book trailer of all time was mentioned on MediaBistro Galley Cat. The contest? It's my Lego vampire trailer against Second Life. You choose.
How do you win the Devil Duck? Go to the Barnes & Noble book club by following this
LINK.
Simply post a comment on the B&N book club that you've seen the videos and you're in the running. Warning though. This Devil Duck has special mojo.
Last week I'd returned from my spectacular, life-changing trip to Charleston, SC. The trip started great when on the airliner, a guy two seats over was reading one of my books. Zowie!
During my trip I had plenty of time to read and I zoomed through two fabulous books by kick-ass women authors featuring, what else? Kick-ass female protagonists.
First up,
Hallowed Ground by
Lori G. Armstrong.
This novel won the Willa Literary Award from Women Writing the West and was nominated for a 2007 Shamus Award for Best Paperback Original by The Private Eye Writers of America. The story? PI Julie Collins is drawn into an investigation of a kidnapped girl when Collins is hired by a tattoed, bad boy biker business owner, Tony Martinez. Add the Mafia, crooked local businessmen, an estranged father, filter through the smoke and booze of hard-boiled noir and you've got one hell of a read. Collins is as tough as the Dakota landscape. No wimps on her social calendar. Armstrong knows how to carve her words into gritty prose.
Speaking of carving, here's a completely different story of ghosts, lost memories, and best of all, knife fights.
Cherie Priest gives a literary dagger between your ribs with her southern gothic tale,
Four and Twenty Blackbirds. Priest takes risks in presenting the saga of Eden Moore, an orphaned bi-racial young woman in search of her identity. Eden's stalked by an ancient magician keen on using the living to execute his demonic intentions. Did I mention knife fights? Priest takes a story about a society as haunted by their prejudices as by their fears and lays it out in compelling modern detail. If you're curious about Cherie Priest, check out her and her nose ring
HERE.
Oh baby, I'm in love. Twice. But I won't say it as these two women can kick my ass.