MK McClintock's A Home for Christmas - Book Blast and {Giveaway}

Publication Date: November 5, 2014
Trappers Peak Publishing
eBook; 74 pages
ASIN: B00NE43C0O

Settings: 19th Century Montana, Wyoming, and Colorado
Genre: Christmas Short Stories/Western/Sweet Romance

Includes three historical fiction short stories to delight and entertain this holiday season.

CHRISTMAS MOUNTAIN In search of family she barely knows and adventure she's always wanted, Katherine Donahue is saved from freezing on a winter night in the mountains of Montana by August Hollister. Neither of them expected that what one woman had in mind was a new beginning for them both.

TETON CHRISTMAS Heartache and a thirst for adventure lead McKensie Stewart and her sister to Wyoming after the death of their parents. With the help of a widowed aunt and a charming horse breeder, McKensie discovers that hope is a cherished promise, and there is no greater gift than love.

LILY'S CHRISTMAS WISH Lily Malone has never had a real family or a real Christmas. This holiday season, she might get both. From an orphanage in New York City to the rugged mountains of Colorado, Lily sends out only one wish. But when the time comes, can she give it up so someone else's wish can come true?

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Praise for A Home for Christmas

“5 stars! I have just finished reading three short stories written by M.K. McClintock, part of her collection A HOME FOR CHRISTMAS. I really enjoyed these charming historical fictions CHRISTMAS MOUNTAIN, TETON CHRISTMAS and LILY’S CHRISTMAS WISH!” – Nicole Laverdure

"Heart-warming and inspiring." - Kat Cambron

"A delightful collection of stories sure to warm any reader's heart." - Elizabeth Loftus

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About the Author

MK McClintock is the author bestselling historical western romance and award-nominated historical romantic mystery. She spins tales of romance and adventure inspired by the heather-covered hills of Scotland and the majestic mountains of home. With her heart deeply rooted in the past and her mind always on adventure, she lives and writes in Montana.

Learn more about MK by visiting her website and blog. You can also find her on Facebook, Twitter, and Goodreads.

A Home for Christmas Book Blast Schedule

Monday, November 3
Literary Chanteuse

Tuesday, November 4
Unshelfish

Wednesday, November 5
Book Nerd
The True Book Addict

Thursday, November 6
So Many Books, So Little Time

Friday, November 7
Bibliotica
Let Them Read Books

Monday, November 10
Susan Heim on Writing

Tuesday, November 11
What Is That Book About

Wednesday, November 12
Historical Fiction Connection

Friday, November 14
Passages to the Past

Giveaway

To enter to win the following prizes, please complete the form below. Giveaway ends on November 14th at 11:59pm EST. One winner per giveaway item.

- PB Trilogy of the Montana Gallagher Series + Woolrich Rough Rider Throw (Open to US residents only) - Ebook Trilogy of the Montana Gallagher Series (International)

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Shaun D. Mullen's There’s A House In The Land - Guest Post, Excerpt and {Giveaway}

As a career journalist of the old school, I had long resisted writing about my own life on a farm beyond the far western suburbs of Philadelphia in the 1970s, but people kept telling me that those years on the farm would make for a very special book. They were right.

“There’s A House In The Land (Where A Band Can Take A Stand)” fell into place when I decided to write about the farm from an historical fiction perspective.

Writing about my decade on the farm through the lens of historic fiction let me do a couple of things: A few of my housemates had not survived the decade, but most were alive and I wanted to protect their identities, so names of people and places were changed. And I rearranged some events from their sometime chronological inconvenience to my writerly convenience to give the book a better and more dramatic flow.

Another problem remained. Our adventures aside, there was a profundity to our time together, the lessons we took away and how they have shaped our lives since. I did not want to write a fictionalized memoir that would come off sounding like a rural version of the movie “Animal House.” In this I succeeded, at least according to reviewers.

Here with the opening of the first chapter of “There’s A House In The Land”:

“The first time I went out to Kiln Farm, bumping along in an aluminum beach chair anchored to the floor in the back of Eldon's Chevy Step Van, it seemed like it took forever although the farm was only 10 miles from New Park.

“Back then New Park was a quaint college town without a single decent restaurant. But it did have the New Park Tavern, which Edgar Allan Poe is said to have cursed when he got falling-down drunk following a lecture at the college and was thrown out, as well as two other establishments where students could hoist a pint before returning to the comfy confines of a picture book campus with ivy-covered buildings. The Poe story is apocryphal because the tavern didn't exist when the poet-storyteller gave the lecture, but that hadn't prevented the management from plastering raven images on beer mugs and T-shirts.

“Today that quaintness is long gone. There are several decent restaurants, the tavern is still raven-centric, but has been cleansed of its rusticated piss and beer charm. About the curse, I don't know. After a night of drinking, students now return to a campus that has grown up to become a world-class university known for far more than its football team.

“As for the farm, all but the farmhouse was razed years ago. The garden, apiary, barn, milk house, chicken coop, black walnut tree that little Caitlin swung under, and the fields that seemed to go on forever, were bulldozed and replaced by cookie cutter townhouses in a development insultingly called Kiln Farms.

* * * * *

“Eldon turned off the state road onto a driveway flanked by row after row of field corn and began the bumpy ascent to a place that would be my home for the next 10 years.

“My initial impression was a cosmic wow! For the first time since I had returned from Nam, I finally felt like I was home. It just wasn't the kind of home I had expected when a past and future resident of the farm, whom I had met in Saigon shortly before we caught Freedom Birds home, invited me to hang out until I got my bearings.

“The upper story of the farmhouse came into view as we began to crest the last hill and broke free of the cornfields. Windows blazing brilliant orange with the reflection of the late afternoon sun framed by white stucco walls and topped by a faded red tin roof created the appearance of a gigantic grinning jack o' lantern. Appropriate, because it was Halloween. There was music playing. Very loud music. I recognized it as King Crimson's ‘In the Court of the Crimson King.’

“The music was blaring from large Pioneer speakers on a porch flanked by two guys guarding a half keg of beer in a wash tub filled with chunks of ice. Both could have been mistaken for guitar god Duane Allman with their tall and lean builds, bushy moustaches and long hair, while an Irish setter, whom I imagined had to be deaf from the volume of the music, slept on the steps between the porch and front lawn, where a hotly contested game of horseshoes was being played.

“The guy sitting on one side of the keg was resplendent in a sparkling red lamé jumpsuit, MARS emblazoned in big letters on the back. His head and arms were painted a matching red, as well. The guy on the other side was wearing a similar only blue lamé jumpsuit with VENUS across the back, his head and arms painted blue. Trick or treating had obviously started early for these two planets . . .'

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About the author

Shaun D. Mullen is an award-winning journalist and more recently an author.

Over a long career with newspapers, this editor and reporter covered the Vietnam War, O.J. Simpson trials, Clinton impeachment circus and coming of Osama bin Laden, among many other big stories. His work was nominated for five Pulitzer Prizes. Mullen also mentored reporters who went on to be the best in the newspaper and television business, including several who won Pulitzer Prizes.

He is the author of "The Bottom of the Fox: A True Story of Love, Devotion & Cold-Blooded Murder," a 2010 true-crime book about an unsolved murder in the Pennsylvania Poconos that recently has seen a surge in sales because of the manhunt for Eric Frein, who was captured after a 48-day manhunt and is charged with murdering a Pennsylvania state trooper. In August, he published "There's A House In The Land,” an historical fiction tale of the 1970s.

“Kiko’s House” is Mullen’s blog about political and cultural affairs. He also is a guest columnist at “The Moderate Voice.”

Much of Mullen's work is archived in the Shaun D. Mullen Journalism Papers in Special Collections at the University of Delaware Library.

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Follow the instructions on the Rafflecopter form below to enter for a chance to win one of three print copies of There's A House In The Land (Open internationally)!

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Elaine Cougler's The Loyalist's Luck - Guest Post

A Personal Secret, Governor Simcoe, and the Land Grants

“You. What are you waiting for?” the man barked. “Take this pile out to the sleigh.” His eyes were on John whose military training kicked in. With nary a word of protest, he grabbed the indicated bundle and followed an Indian, similarly encumbered, out the door. They emptied their arms and headed back inside. John hesitated to interrupt the man for surely this was the famous Governor Simcoe who was ordering the loading of all the supplies, for what reason he could not guess.

When the room was emptied and the sleigh loaded, everyone went their own way; John saw his chance.

“Sir,” he called as the Governor turned away and made for the door that led further in to Navy Hall. “Sir,” he almost shouted at the retreating figure. “I must speak with you.”

“And who are you?” the booming voice called out as Governor Simcoe turned back.

“I am John Garner, late of this township but now of Bertie Township.” The governor took a couple of steps toward John. “And what do you need of me at this awkward and extremely inconvenient time, my good man.”

“It’s the land grants, sir. In Bertie Township.”

“Yes, what about them? You have one already, don’t you?” He almost shouted, his face so close to John’s that his sharp woodsy scent combined with the sweaty smell of a man of action rendered John speechless. He stood a moment, felt his head nodding, and then continued.

“I, I need proof, sir. A proper deed. Of ownership.” He stopped and waited. In less time than a heartbeat the Governor turned on his heel and headed for the door. Over his shoulder he hollered, “Come with us tomorrow. We’ll talk on the trail.”

~From The Loyalist’s Luck by Elaine Cougler

These words hurriedly flipped over Governor Simcoe’s shoulder at John, start a short section in The Loyalist’s Luck. John thinks he has agreed to accompany the Governor for a couple of days on the trail. I could have left this section out entirely but I wanted to show more of the conditions in Upper Canada in the 1790’s and Governor Simcoe’s profound influence on early Canada.

The real secret behind this is that I grew up a mile from the Governor’s Road near Woodstock so that all my life I have known about Governor Simcoe. What a wonderful chance it was for me to explore him and his uniquely talented wife as I embarked on this Loyalist trilogy.

And everything I read about this Governor from Britain was positive. He had a vision for this new land and did all he could to fulfill it. Because the revolution with the Americans was so recent and the border with them so close, he did all he could to settle United Empire Loyalists along that border. Those whose loyalty was more in doubt, he placed in the back settlements.

He travelled to Detroit with native guides, walking most of the way and back in five and a half weeks and along the way picked out a spot at the forks of the Thames (renamed from the La Tranche) River for New London, now London. I brought this trip to light in The Loyalist’s Luck.

Of course I have other reasons for including this section but I don’t want to spoil the story so will leave you to find them yourself.

About the book

Publication Date: October 2014
Peache House Press
Formats: eBook, Paperback
Series: The Loyalist Trilogy
Genre: Historical Fiction

When the Revolutionary War turns in favor of the Americans, John and Lucy flee across the Niagara River with almost nothing. They begin again in Butlersburg, a badly supplied British outpost surrounded by endless trees and rivers, and the mighty roar of the giant falls nearby. He is off on a secret mission for Colonel Butler and she is left behind with her young son and pregnant once again. In the camp full of distrust, hunger, and poverty, word has seeped out that John has gone over to the American side and only two people will associate with Lucy—her friend, Nellie, who delights in telling her all the current gossip, and Sergeant Crawford, who refuses to set the record straight and clear John’s name. To make matters worse, the sergeant has made improper advances toward Lucy.

With vivid scenes of heartbreak and betrayal, heroism and shattered hopes, Elaine Cougler takes us into the hearts and homes of Loyalists still fighting for their beliefs, and draws poignant scenes of families split by political borders. The Loyalist’s Luck shows us the courage of ordinary people who, in perilous times, become extraordinary.

About the AuthorA lifelong reader and high school teacher, Elaine found her passion for writing once her family was grown. She loves to read history for the stories of real people reacting to their world. Bringing to life the tales of Loyalists in the American Revolutionary War and the War of 1812 is very natural as Elaine’s personal roots are in those struggles, out of which arose both Canada and the United States.

For more information please visit Elaine Cougler’s website. You can also find her on Facebook, Twitter,Google+, and Goodreads.

Visit other blogs on the tour--Tour Schedule

Twitter Hashtag: #LoyalistsLuckBlogTour #HistoricalFiction

Twitter Tags: @hfvbt @ElaineCougler

Stephanie Thornton's The Tiger Queens - Guest Post and {Giveaway}

Genghis Khan: Perception v. Reality

History is chock full of half-truths and lies.

I went into writing The Tiger Queens with the image of Genghis Khan as a sword-wielding, long-haired monster galloping helter-skelter across the steppes, mostly because that’s always how he’s portrayed in history books.

(I mean, come on, he’s not in charge of the Mongol phalanx or the Mongol tribes, but instead the Mongol horde.)

Yes, but Genghis was also a wily practitioner of propaganda, meaning that you were just as likely to be slaughtered by the crafty old guy as you were to surrender to him long before you could see the whites of his eyes. (Side note: He only killed men and boys taller than the lynchpin of a cart. Who knew Genghis had a soft side?)

In fact, Genghis propagated myths that his skin was made of impermeable copper and his men could actually ride on the wind. (In fact, they just rode hard and fast because that meant they didn’t have to stop to urinate as often.) He was also known to send ahead inflated casualty lists to make his next target city quiver with fear and capitulate long before he showed up at their gates.

Yet this is also the same guy who poured molten silver down the throat of the governor of Otrar because he’d been insulted. (Sound familiar to all of you Game of Thrones fans?) There are also accounts of pyramids being built from the severed heads of his enemies, a tactic which one of his daughters certainly used after destroying the city of Nishapur.

There’s another side to Genghis too, because this is the guy who moved heaven and earth to reclaim his first wife after she was kidnapped by a rival clan, and maneuvered his daughters to govern many of his territories even as his sons were drinking themselves to death. He also gave a whole slew of orphan boys to his mother to raise, rather than put them to the sword.

So was Genghis a marauding conqueror responsible for the deaths of thousands of people? Certainly. Was he also a political mastermind, capable of cowing his enemies while drawing allies to him in droves? Absolutely. And was he also a man of intense loyalty who cared for and honored his family, especially his wives and daughters? Yes indeed.

In short, Genghis Khan was one complicated guy.

***************

Publication Date: November 4, 2014
NAL Trade
Formats: eBook, Paperback
Genre: Historical Fiction



In the late twelfth century on the sweeping Mongolian grasslands, following a violent feud between blood brothers, the victor Temujin ascends to power, declaring himself Genghis Khan. But behind one powerful man stand many strong women…

After her mother foretells an ominous future for her, darkness looms over Borte’s life. She becomes an outcast among her clan and after seeking comfort in the arms of an aristocratic traveler, she discovers he is the blood brother of Temujin, the man she was betrothed to years ago but who abandoned her long before they could marry. And he will only leave her behind again.

Temujin will make Borte his khatun, his queen, yet it will take many women to safeguard his fragile new empire. Their daughter, a fierce girl named Alaqai, will ride and shoot an arrow as well as any man. Fatima, an elegant Persian captive, seeks revenge against the Mongol barbarians who destroyed her city and murdered her family, but in the end will sacrifice everything to protect the Golden Family. Demure widow to Genghis’ son, Sorkhokhtani positions her sons to inherit the Empire when it begins to fracture from within.

As Genghis Khan sets out to expand his conquests and the steppes run red with blood, Borte and the women of the clan will fight, love, scheme, and sacrifice, all for the good of their family and the greatness of the People of the Felt Walls…

Praise for The Tiger Queens
“A gripping epic of sacrifice, revenge, and conquest…kept me riveted from beginning to end!” –Michelle Moran, bestselling author of The Second Empress

“From under the felted ger tents of Genghis Kahn emerge four powerful women. It is a testament to Thornton’s writing prowess that she can so intricately whittle heroines that are both compassionate and ruthless from the bones of our ancestors…a stunning achievement!” — Barbara Wood, New York Times bestselling author of The Serpent and the Staff and Rainbows on the Moon

“A vivid depiction of warrior women tough as the harsh, windswept steppes which nurtured them and who, as the warring Mongol clans battle for supremacy, survive… to ensure their men emerge the victors. Gripping stuff!” –Alex Rutherford, author of the Empire of the Moghul series

“A sprawling historical saga centering on the wives and daughters of Genghis Khan. These bold, courageous women make tremendous sacrifices in the face of danger, revenge and high-stakes survival, all in the name of family love and loyalty. Be prepared to be swept away by Thornton’s richly drawn epic of an empire and its generational shifts of power.” –Renee Rosen, author of Dollface and What the Lady Wants

“They were the Golden Family of Genghis Khan. Yet their lives were anything but golden as they struggled to hold together the very center of the largest empire the world has ever known. An empire that was built in one lifetime, and would have been destroyed in the next had it not been for the wives and daughters of the Great Khan. This is historical fiction at its finest.” — Gary Corby, author of The Marathon Conspiracy

“Three generations of strong women live, love, suffer, and triumph in a fresh and gritty setting—Genghis Khan’s forging of an empire in thirteenth century Mongolia. Marginalized in most histories, these Mongol mothers and daughters, empresses and slaves, claim their voices again in Stephanie Thornton’s The Tiger Queens. Unusual and imaginative!” –Elizabeth Loupas, author of The Second Duchess and The Red Lily Crown

“Stunning. The Tiger Queens sweeps the reader into the ruthless world of Genghis Khan’s wives and daughters with a gritty realism as intense as the eternal blue sky and blood-soaked steppes. Vivid characterization and top-notch writing. This story of strong women, their enduring friendships and passions give a rare glimpse into a shadowy period of history. A worthy successor to Taylor Caldwell’s The Earth is the Lord’s.” –Judith E. French, author of The Conqueror, The Barbarian, and The Warrior

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About the Author
Stephanie Thornton is a writer and history teacher who has been obsessed with infamous women from ancient history since she was twelve. She lives with her husband and daughter in Alaska, where she is at work on her next novel.

“The Secret History: A Novel of Empress Theodora” and “Daughter of the Gods: A Novel of Ancient Egypt” are available from NAL/Penguin. “The Tiger Queens: The Women of Genghis Khan” will hit the shelves November 4, 2014, followed by “The Conqueror’s Wife: A Novel of Alexander the Great” in November 2015.

For more information please visit Stephanie Thornton’s website and blog. You can also find her on Facebook, Twitter, and Goodreads.

Visit other blogs on the tour--Tour Schedule

Twitter Hashtag: #TheTigerQueensBlogTour #HistoricalFiction #GenghisKhan

Twitter Tags: @hfvbt @StephMThornton @PenguinUSA

Follow the instructions on the Rafflecopter form below to enter for a chance to win a paperback copy of The Tiger Queens (Open to U.S. only)!

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Spotlight on the works of Juliet Waldron and a {Giveaway}

Publication Date: October 1, 2013
Books We Love, Ltd.
Formats: eBook, Paperback
Genre: Historical Fiction

READ AN EXCERPT.



Loyalty Binds Her.

More like a gangland war for turf and loot than chivalry, the War of Roses disrupted the life of the English commoners for hundreds of years. Roan Rose is the story of one of them, a girl born on the Yorkshire dales. When the Countess of Warwick decides to take sturdy, gentle Rose to Middleham Castle to be companion and bed-time poppet for her youngest daughter, Anne, her fate is changed forever. Rose bears intimate witness to the passions, betrayals, battles and all the reversals of fortune which will shape her lady’s life—and her own. Anne Neville will briefly become a Queen, and Richard, Rose’s secret love, will become a King, one whose name has become synonymous with evil. When her King is betrayed and slain at Bosworth Field, Rose returns to a peasant’s hard life. She has one final service to perform.

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Praise for Roan Rose
"a beautiful story of love and loyalty set during the tumultuous reign of Richard III"

"I loved the strength of this woman"

"This author has a powerful sense of Time and Place"

"Waldron certainly knows her history…Yet despite its accuracy … Roan Rose is ultimately a book about character".

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Publication Date: October 26, 2013
Books We Love, Ltd.
eBook; ASIN: B00G8OYHFG
Genre: Historical Romance



To help her impoverished family, Sophie agrees to marry a wealthy older man in far off America. Less than twenty-four hours after she arrives in German's Mill, Pennsylvania, events have taken a far stranger turn than anything she could have imagined.

Set in Post-Civil War Pennsylvania, this tale of an arranged marriage gone wrong is as much family saga as it is a romance. Sophie is a sensitive young woman trying to make sense of her past and to understand the unfamiliar ways of her new homeland. Karl Joe is not only a veteran of the great war, but scarred by the secret violence of his privileged childhood. How they learn to trust each other and how they discover love is the beating heart of this old time story.

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Publication Date: September 9, 2012
Books We Love, Ltd.
eBook; ASIN: B0098CSH5Q
Genre: Historical Romance

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Angelica is a Patriot heiress, stalked by a brutal, fortune-hunting British officer. Forced to trust Jack, the mystery man who pledges to take her on a dangerous war-time journey to her Albany home, she expects to encounter brigands, Tories and Indians. What she doesn’t expect is to lose her heart along the way.

Praise for Angel's Flight

"It's quite a journey. If you like detailed historical novels, road romances, and war stories, then Angel’s Flight is for you." -IRRS @ Amazon
"This story has heart… " -Linda @ Romance Studio

"I found Juliet Waldron's attention to detail and historical accuracy refreshing and entertaining...a unique voice … Readers will be transported to a time of peril, divided loyalties and intrigue as Angelica triumphs over threats and danger." -Southern Gal @ Amazon

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About the Author

"Not all who wander are lost." Juliet Waldron earned a B. A. in English, but has worked at jobs ranging from artist's model to brokerage. Thirty years ago, after the boys left home, she dropped out of 9-5 and began to write, hoping to create a genuine time travel experience for herself--and for her readers. She loves her grand-girls and her kitties, likes to take long hikes, and reads historical/archeological non-fiction as well as reviewing for the Historical Novel Society. For summer adventure, she rides behind her husband of 50 years on his "bucket list" (black, and ridiculously fast) Hyabusa motorcycle.
You can find more information at www.julietwaldron.com or connect with Juliet on Facebook.

Juliet Waldron Blog Tour Schedule

Monday, October 6
Spotlight at Caroline Wilson Writes

Monday, October 13
Spotlight at Flashlight Commentary

Wednesday, October 29
Review at Book Nerd (Hand-Me-Down Bride)

Monday, November 3
Review at History From a Woman's Perspective (Roan Rose)

Thursday, November 6
Spotlight at Historical Fiction Connection

Monday, November 10
Review at 100 Pages a Day - Stephanie's Book Reviews (Roan Rose)

Saturday, November 15
Guest Post at Romantic Historical Lovers

Tuesday, November 18
Review at TeacherWriter (Roan Rose)

Monday, November 24
Review at Book Nerd (Roan Rose)

Tuesday, November 25
Guest Post at TeacherWriter (Roan Rose)

Thursday, November 27
Spotlight at Let Them Read Books

GiveawayTo win a $20 Amazon Gift Card please complete the Rafflecopter giveaway form below. Giveaway is open to US residents only.

Giveaway ends at 11:59pm on November 30th. You must be 18 or older to enter.
Winner will be chosen via Rafflecopter on December 1st and notified via email.
Winner have 48 hours to claim prize or new winner is chosen.

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