Virtual Tourist 11/05/21

 

Table of Contents

1) News/Musings

2) StoryOrigin Swaps 1& 2

3) Virtual Tourist – Control

4) Books for Reviews

5) Strong Women – Strange Worlds

Greetings!

It’s been 🧊 chilly the last few days. Brrrr. I hope you are keeping warm! 🔥

I hope you had a fun Halloween! If you celebrate it, a warm family celebration of Day of the Dead as well.

News/Musings

I did do a newsletter on 10/22/21 but due to the mad chaos of October, I never did get a chance to post it as a post on the website. If you want to see what you missed, you can find a copy of that newsletter here. 

In general, the rest of October kind of stunk. Hubby’s kidney stone is still navigating his insides, so he’s had a lot of trouble. The Evil back muscle came back for an encore as well. So couch potatoness has continued to be enforced! Boo!

I did have a couple of good productive days, but overall, little to nothing has been accomplished. 😭

I am really hoping November turns it all around! I got stuff to do! 😁

Extra stuff I’ve shoved in here:
1) Two book info swaps from StoryOrigin. (Including the Woman of the Stone.)

2) One opportunity for you to get books 📚 for reviews.

3) Info on the Strong Women – Strange Worlds Year End Party!

Scroll on down to get all the deets. 😉

The Melody of Three by S.D. Reeves

Story Origin Swap 1

The Melody of the Three by S.D. Reeves

Sorcerer Christaan De Rein’s return to Liverpool does not go well, starting with the fact that his trusted apprentice, Higgins, dies on the way. Then again, Higgins dies a lot. Of course, Rein doesn’t expect to be welcomed with open arms after being banished for nine years, but a cryptic summons from The Musician herself cannot go unanswered.

But when Rein arrives all is in chaos. People with fairy blood are turning up dead. The Forum Magicae is undone and the Curators sieged.

And in another world altogether, where Earth is just a legend, a girl named Niena and a cursed lyre hold the key to saving both realms. Or destroying them.

Prophecy by Amanda Lynn Petrin

Story Origin Swap 2

​Prophecy – The Owens Chronicles Book 1 by Amanda Lynn Petrin

I was falling, the air like ice against my face, but a calm rushed over me, like I was finally at peace. He wasn’t going to get me. We were safe…

When eighteen-year-old honor student Lucy Owens discovers her family secret, she must leave the world she knows behind or suffer a fate worse than death.

Dubbed “that weird Owens girl” since grade school, Lucy struggled to find her place in the small, New England town she grew up in. She lived a quiet, sheltered life with her guardians, surrounded by the memories of her ancestors. Lucy bears a striking resemblance to some of these Owens women, down to the crescent moon shaped birthmark on the back of their necks.

Among her only visitors are two young men, Embry and Gabriel, who claim to be friends of the family. When prom night takes a sour turn, Lucy is forced to take shelter with them from a mysterious man hell-bent on acquiring her.

She also discovers that Embry and Gabriel are Gifteds, a subset of humans with supernatural abilities who don’t die until their job is done. In this case, they claim their job is to protect Lucy’s line. But as she gets to know them and her family’s history better, she has to wonder if their ultimate goal is to keep her safe, or to stop the man who’s after her?

Prophecyis a coming of age supernatural novel by Amanda Lynn Petrin. If you like strong heroines who keep fighting no matter how many times they are knocked down, then you’ll love this paranormal adventure.

Control

Still having mind-bending fun with this one.

All currently uploaded pics can be found here.

Control

This is a pic of the entity currently connected to Jesse. You will see it in the game almost like a marker of where it wants her to go. (As in letting you know the direction for the current mission.)

ControlAn open area that leads to several divisions. Office workers are floating in the distance.

Control

Close up of Jesse Faden. Really nice work on the facial features and details.

Control

3D Mockup of the Astral Plane area controlled by the Board.

Control

Tainted zone – reality has shifted ahead.

Control

The Black Quarry – it’s on another plane of existence. The stone has multiple qualities. I rotate often employees as it will slowly affect those working there. Eek!

​

Control

In the motel. The room is showing a future picture of where Jesse will be once she clicks the light for the third time and it includes her in it. Time and reality are so fluid in this place!

Control

If you had any doubt you weren’t in Kansas anymore, just look up. 😁

Books with Dragons! Books for Reviews

Books With Dragons! Books for Reviews Exchange. 🐉 You can see all the participants here.

Strong Women – Strange Worlds

​SWSW will be having a Year-End Event 🥳 on 12/12/21 from 12 to 6 PM EST. Get more info here. There will also be fun stuff on the days leading up to it! Should be fun! 🎉 Reserve your spot today! 

Strong Women Strange Worlds YE Party

I hope you have a fabulous week! ​😍

Gloria

Virtual Tourist 9/10/21

 

Table of Contents

News/Musings	StoryOrigin Swaps
Control	Audiobooks for Reviews
Books for Reviews	Strong Women – Strange Worlds

Greetings!

I hope you had a fun and safe Labor Day.

We stayed home and I goofed off in the afternoon, which was sweet! 😊

 

News/Musings

Not much to report. The Amazon AMS experiment is still showing mixed results. I’ve tweaked what I am using on the book page for the Excerpt, but the first time it messed up and the Amazon peeps have not fixed it yet. 😭

One thing I did do, is use Fiverr to contract an artist to do headshots of Dai, Jacques, and Prince Razor to use on the Amazon A+ Content past of the page. I’ve gotten Dai’s and Jacques, and added them to the page already. You can see them at Amazon’s Black Jade page. I will be adding them to the website when I have all three. (I also need to add reviews there, too. But not all reviewers want their reviews reposted.)

I’ll add the headshots here so you don’t have to go looking for them. 🤩

 

 

Headshots

Artwork by orenjilemonade at Fiverr

Miss Daiyu Wu (AKA Dai)

Jacques Haskin

 

 

Extra stuff I’ve shoved in here:
1) Two book info swaps from StoryOrigin.

2) One opportunity for you to get books 📚 for reviews.

3) One opportunity for audiobooks for reviews

4) Info on the next Strong Women – Strange Worlds virtual readings!

Scroll on down to get all the deets. 😉

 

Story Origin Swap

Skald’s Hollow by J.A. Brooklyn

Everyone handles their soap operas differently. The Lausch family does it with blood and magic.

A fantasy story that will hit you like a thunderbolt.

Set in a magical kingdom, Skald’s Hollow shows Stefan Lausch purchasing a mountain. Stefan tells Gustav he wants to spend quality time by going on a hunt to find dragon bones, wolves, and nightshades. He doesn’t tell him that the safari is really an excuse to kidnap mountain soldiers and execute Nazi-like experiments on them.

To distance himself from his father’s crime empire, Gustav built a million-dollar car company and got married to an exiled princess to start a new family with less blood on its hands. Now, Gustav must struggle to prove he can protect himself from his Goliath-like father and the evil he exhibits.

Skald’s Hollow is the prequel to the Chronicles of Alder’s urban contemporary fantasy series.

 

 

Story Origin Swap

​Blood and Loyalty – The Dracomancer Book 1 by Lona Fox and F. Lowberry

“The world needs to change. That much is obvious. But what kind of change does Parthenis need, I wonder?”
“A drastic one, no doubt. Let it be born over and better. Or is that too much?”

At ten years old, Kalindra Therin, throne-princess of Lundell, is tested to discover whether she has the potential to become a Dracomancer. When she’s proven worth it, despite her father’s protests, she chooses to travel with her mentor Yenderen to the Iclindir Dracomancy Academy to learn the arts of combat and spellcasting as well as to commune with her new dragon companion Rina.

But after 5 years of training as a keeper of balance, is she still willing to obey her father, the King, and secure a political alliance with a nearby kingdom out of duty? What would become of her if she dares to take a stand for herself and her dragon?

Control

Control is a mind-bending science fiction third-person shooter. I’d had it on my wishlist for a while and grabbed it when it went on special. 😎

The story follows Jesse Fadden, a young woman who has been looking for the Federal Bureau of Control for years in order to find out what happened to her younger brother thirteen years before.

It’s a very atmospheric game with twisted visuals as reality is malleable. Unlike a lot of games, it doesn’t come with preset levels of difficulty you can choose, but rather, down in the guts of the options menu, you can choose assist mode and then choose which aspect you want to increase. I like that a lot as if one area is way too difficult, I can tweak the damage I take and this give me a chance to get through it! Lol. Combat is harsh here. 😁

It has been super trippy so far, which is awesome! Like when the Board (Astral conglomeration of aliens?) give Jesse the job of Director since the last one shot himself, all the picture frames in the building showing Director Trench all switched to photos of Jesse! Time is fluid!

More pics here.

 

Street view of the entrance to the Federal Bureau of Control. Jesse has been to New York several times and this is the first time she has seen it. Most people are not aware it is even there.

 

This is the lobby of the Federal Bureau of Control. As you pick up random documents, you’ll find one stating the protocols for anyone who actually sees it and walks in. Depending on the answers to some simple questions, visitors are either asked to leave or detained.

 

​Director Trench. He will be dead by the time Jesse meets him. She does the one thing one should NEVER do when they come upon the crime scene—grab the weapon.

In Control, grabbing the bio-gun has a different consequence than being accused of murder though. 😁

I thought it funny that for a bureau no one can find, they still want to show off the logo! Heh heh

​This is Ahti, the bureau’s head janitor. Except, I am sure he’s way more than that. He’s the one who sends me to the Director’s office. I also have a feeling he’s aware of the entity who came in with Jesse. She talks to him/her/it on occasion.

 

A giant file room in the midst of its reality being changed. Red is the signature color of Hiss (Jesse finds paperwork calling it Hiss, but the first time she meets a live person after Ahti, Jesse calls it that and they act as if she’s named it for the first time. Yes, lots of reality is being bent!)

 

 

The Board. Jesse first meets them after picking up the bio-gun in the Director’s office. Bwahahaha!

 

 

 

Audiobooks for Reviews Exchange!

HMT Audiobook Reviews! For the month of Sep 2021, these audiobooks will be available in exchange for reviews.

 

Books for Reviews Exchange!

Back to School! Paranormal romance and urban fantasy books for reviews for the month of Sep 2021.

 

Strong Women – Strange Worlds

The next Strong Women – Strange Worlds virtual readings are set for Thursday 9/16/21 at 5 pm EST. Check out the graphic below for the participants. Here’s the pre-registration link. They’ve now added a little time for those who don’t need to rush off to do a Q&A with the participating authors. Nice!

That’s it for this round. I hope you have a fabulous weekend. 😁

 

Gloria