Blog Tour: TK Harris has Phantom Dreams

Today, I have the privilege of launching the Official Blog Tour of author T. K. Harris. She starts by sharing how her novel, Phantom Dreams, was born.

It started with a dream. I know cliché right? But it really did. I had a dream that I was walking through a large crowd of people, surrounded by white canvas tents. I am moving quickly but don't know why, when suddenly the crowd parts and there is a man in front of me, carrying a sword and it is aimed right at me. Then, just as quickly, the woman is no longer me and I am now watching. I woke up before the sword drove home. And that's how Phantom Dreams was born.

I wish I could say that I wrote it all down in a flash and everything just worked itself out. But, that didn't happen. First it percolated in my brain while I went about being a full-time mother while working a 60 hour a week job. (And that was a short week!). And then, I began writing down bits and pieces late at night in between trying to write and publish other stories. And I began to become more and more frustrated.

First, the stories that I had sold to date were short stories. In fact, the first publication I had ever been paid for was a 1200 word mystery sold to mysterynet.net. But it is a very different skill set to go from short stories to a full-length novel. I was good at cutting to the chase, getting to the point and well, you know the rest. So, I floundered. Second, I let my book slip in my priorities. I spent the next few years putting my effort into my work, family, a multitude of personal projects (I'm a Gemini and we can't help it), subsequent divorce, the 2008/2009 layoffs, and the many other awesomely awful and wonderful things that life carelessly threw in my path and laughingly under my feet to see how many times it could make me fall.

And then, one day, I realized I was frustrated for another reason. Nothing ever seemed to get done! I got mad. I wasted a little more time and then I did the only thing I should. I got focused. I made myself sit down and write a list of what I wanted out of life. My ideal job. My ideal partner. My ideal finances. My projects. And I wrote those lists and decided to start focusing. My first project was paying of debt (still working on that!). The second was finishing the d*m# book! The right way. (Or is it the "write" way? – Feel free to groan.)

I put the book out to beta readers and got feedback. And then began the arduous task of editing, rewriting and editing some more. And then began putting it out there on Amazon, Barnes & Nobles, Kobo, etc. I got a great review on Kirkus Reviews and started getting great comments.

I have marketed, tweaked it, re-edited it and developed a new book cover since it first launched but I still remember my first real sell. Not the books that were bought by friends and family. No. It was that one sell when you realized someone you didn't know, had just purchased your book.

And now, all I can ask myself is, 'why didn't I do this sooner?'

About the author: T.K. Harris was born in California and lived a gypsy sort of life traveling the world as a military brat. She has been writing since she was a child and as had several short stories published by various magazines, including one in Woman's World. She currently lives and works in Colorado as a Senior Solutions Architect and IT Instructor and has recently had her first novel, Phantom Dreams, published. She is looking forward to her next two books, already outlined and partially written. You can find out more at: http://www.tkharrisonline.com.

About the book: A scorned serial killer on an old vendetta. An FBI agent who has been chasing monsters for too long. A woman whose nightmares start invading her waking life. 

FBI Special Agent Jack Matthews finds himself on yet another serial killer case, having barely recovered from the last disastrous hunt. Still stiff from a gun shot wound in his leg, under investigation for a botched job, and having lost his fiancée when she walked out on him, Jack is beginning to wonder if it isn’t time to move on to something new. But, for Jack, these cases are personal and he can’t say no. 

Marketing specialist Kathy Gilliam leads a fairly boring life. If she’s not working or caring for her ailing father, then she is doing whatever it takes to avoid going anywhere near crowds of people. Her few distractions include her friend Margo Longfellow, occasional hiking trips, and her increasingly alarming dreams of women dying.
As her nightmares cause her to begin to doubt her sanity, the media releases news of the “Coast-to-Coast Killer” and Kathy discovers her dreams may be related. In a moment of panic, Kathy does something that places her on the FBI’s “persons of interest” list. Suddenly, her life is set on a collision course with Jack who must decide if Kathy is the killer or destined to become a victim.

You can get Phantom Dreams 

on Amazon Kindle for only $2.99

http://goo.gl/XoIV9

Also available on Nook and Kobo

The Stone Child Review

Here's a first, I'm reviewing another author's book. Normally, I am working hard to get a reviewer to read my books. Then there's the whole "raising four kids" thing. Rarely do I have time for leisure reading. I literally have a stack of books waiting for me.

So my oldest daughter came home from school (yes, several months ago) carrying a book with the most intriguing cover. It was Dan Poblocki's The Stone Child. She read the thing in two days flat. She said it was the creepiest book she'd ever read and this is coming from an Official Member of the American Chillers Fan Club. After she finished, that cover kept calling to me. Mostly black with a hint of blue light surrounding the statue of a child. She holds out a book, beckoning the reader to peak inside. It wasn't until after I had a few chapters down that I noticed the creatures wrapped around her feet.

This cover pulled me in, much the same as the pendant pulls in the two different authors in the story. For a writer, I am one of the slowest readers you will meet. It took me more like two weeks to finish the book, as opposed to my daughter's two days.

Don't take that the wrong way though. I completely enjoyed The Stone Child. Basic plot: the outsider, Edgar Fennicks, moves to Gatesweed, an unfamiliar world. We get to know Eddie over the first couple chapters as he is set up to be the classic underdog. We get several hints that things are not right in this town and Eddie discovers an unusual book, hand-written in code, by his favorite author, who also happens to have vanished from this very town. The story begins moving once Eddie meets Harris, the son of the quaint, local bookstore owner. Eddie and Harris embark on a quest to unravel the code and hopefully find the missing author. With the help of another outsider, the quirky Maggie, the three junior detectives encounter a menagerie of creative monsters.The Woman in Black is the most effective as her vagaries torment both Eddie and the missing author whether they are awake or falling through a nightmare.

Things that worked for me: The suspense; The monsters; The Lilith mythology; The setting came alive and I could feel Poblocki's passion for the North Eastern countryside, especially when they went to pick apples; And a genuine mystery that the characters and the reader solve together.

Things that didn't work for me: Maggie's extremely simple solution to one of the key elements of the mystery (trying to avoid spoilers); Never knowing Eddie's parents' names - for some reason, this kept me from totally connecting with Eddie. He thought of them as Mom and Dad, but I wanted to see them as adults since I am an adult reader; Being an adult leads to the final thing that didn't work - the font, parts of the story are told from the missing author's hand-written work. While an immersing technique, my eyes are not as sharp as my ten year old daughter and on a few late nights, I had a little trouble with the cursive.

Overall, for being a scary story that bigger kids can read, I say 5-stars. It is a creepy fun read of Good VS Evil and kids VS monsters. To paraphrase Nathaniel Olmstead, "this story has a jolt or two, which is all anyone really needs to remember he's still alive."

Mark Miller is the author of The Empyrical Tales fantasy adventure series from Comfort Publishing. Book 1: The Fourth Queen and Book 2: The Lost Queen are available now.Miller has also co-written A Prince in Trenton, Seriously? with Giovanni Gelati as part of Trestle Press's Author's Lab and will be headlining the upcoming inspirational anthology, Mark Miller's One. He has a background in motion picture production and elementary education. Follow his blog at EmpyricalTales.blogspot.com or find him on Facebook at Facebook.com/EmpyricalTales.

Review and Interview

Sat down to the computer this afternoon after a great book signing at Heroes' Landing comic book shop and had a couple nice surprises.

First, check out a new interview with me and a....werewolf? That's right, Harriet Von Lupin (one of John Rose's Monster Grrls) had the hard hitting questions.

You can read the entertaining Q&A over at the Tales from the Monster Shop blog.

Then to follow that, Valentina (reviewer for You Gotta Read and Midwest Book Review, among others) posted her review of The Fourth Queen on her blog, Carabosse's Library.

She says, "It's one of those stories that is hard to put down..."

Read her full review at Carabosse's Library.

Get your copy of The Fourth Queen on MillerWords.com, ComfortPublishing.com, Amazon.com or your favorite bookseller.

Showcase #1

Recently, I was invited to join the group Writers of the South (USA). It is a small, but enthusiastic group of authors in every type of genre. The group is aimed at supporting and promoting authors in Alabama, Georgia, Florida, Mississippi and Tennessee.

As we grow, we plan to take several opportunities to showcase the varied and talented people in the group. We will hit it hard over the next couple of days, hopefully gaining some new exposure and introducing you to writings you might not have found otherwise. Looking at the group, there is something for everyone, so be sure to check these posts every day.  The plan is to do this again in a few months.

Today, the spotlight shines on John Rose.

John says, "I teach art to 7th and 8th grade students for a day job. My ongoing project is THE MONSTERGRRLS, which takes up most of my other time. I like drawing, writing and making stuff in my Monster Shop, and have my own Atomic Brain named Alfred. I like people, but cannot always eat a whole one all at once."

The MonsterGrrls Book 1: Out From the Shadows - The first book in the MonsterGrrls series! When the new girls at Clearwater High turn out to be MONSTERS, something strange is bound to happen! But Emily and Theo, two lonely social outcasts at Clearwater, soon make friends with Frankie, Bethany, Punkin and Harriet--the MonsterGrrls. When the Grrls are challenged by the spoiled Jessica Hardin-St. James and her Clique to spend a night in a supposedly haunted house, they accept... but something is already there, waiting. And it doesn't like monsterkind...

If you are a fan of the Universal Monsters, or teenage angst, this could be the book for you. It looks fun and imaginative.

Please click on the links above and check it out.