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Showing posts with label excerpt. Show all posts
Showing posts with label excerpt. Show all posts

Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Excerpt + Giveaway: Gini Koch

I would like to welcome Gini Koch to Sara's Urban Fantasy Blog to promote her new self-published book The Night Beat, Book #1 in the Necropolis Enforcement Files. Today, I have an excerpt from The Night Beat, and stick around to the end because there will be a giveaway!



Thanks for stopping by on the Necropolis Enforcement Blog Tour of 2012! If you haven’t read the first chapter of The Night Beat, hit Deathless Prose over at my website (http://www.ginikoch.com/deathlessprose.htm) and check it out. Then, hit each stop along the way to get more of the story. Missed a stop? Check the website for the Tour Page http://www.ginikoch.com/blogtour.htm and get caught up.

And don’t forget to get entered to win a copy of The Night Beat at EVERY blog tour stop along the way! Plus, follow the Tour ‘til the end and get entered for a mega-prize! So, grab your badge -- it’s time to join Necropolis Enforcement!

Title: The Night Beat
Author Gini Koch
Series: Necropolis Enforcement Files #1
Publisher: Self-Published
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Release Date: 06/08/12
Blurb:
The majority of Prosaic City’s residents don’t know that their town exists on top of another place -- Necropolis, City of the Undead. For the most part, the two planes of existence manage to remain separate. And when they don’t, Necropolis Enforcement has beings in place to ensure the general human population remains blithely clueless.

Victoria Wolfe is more than just a policewoman. She’s an undercover werewolf assigned by Necropolis Enforcement to work Prosaic City Police’s Night Beat. Victoria’s comfortable working the shift where all the weird comes out to play, especially since her partner is also her perfect man. Or would be, if Victoria could ever work up the nerve to tell him she isn’t like other girls.

It’s hard enough being a werewolf in disguise, but when a creature from the Depths of Hell shows up in an alley preferred by junkies, bums, and hookers, it’s going to take more than just Victoria’s special gun and werewolf skills to subdue the ancient Sumerian demon. Especially when the demon is merely the start of what appears to be a major takeover attempt by the Prince of Darkness.

Soon all of Necropolis Enforcement’s Undead Brigade is involved in the fight to stop the Prince’s Major Minions from taking over Prosaic City and the rest of the human plane. But it’s Victoria who has to face the Adversary and figure out what intricate plan Lucifer has up his wings before everyone she cares about is destroyed.

In other words, it’s just another day on the Night Beat.


Excerpt:
I went over to watch Ken work and Jack came with me. Ken had one hand on a dead hooker’s head, thumb and forefinger on the temples, with the other on the heart. He was concentrating.

“What’s he doing?” Jack whispered to me.

“Seeing if they’re worth reviving.” Ken had a perfect track record so far -- he’d never brought back a potential minion.

“But they’re dead.”

“Yeah, well, there are ways. I mean, they won’t come back as human, but being a zombie’s not as bad as it’s cracked up to be. And there are other options. Hookers usually come back as succubae. It’s typecasting, but it works.”

“What do the junkies and bums come back as?”

“Bums usually opt for zombie. Junkies…well, junkies rarely come back.”

“Why so?”

“They’re already too close to the Prince.” This was true. There were so many sins out there, and everyone indulged in at least one of them, even if they thought they didn’t. But junkies were among the most willful, more so than alcoholics, adulterers, or murderers. Pedophiles, rapists and junkies rarely got a second shot at life from us. We had standards and we also had history to back up our decisions.

“Who’s the Prince?” Jack asked as Ken shook his head and moved on to the next body.

“The Prince of Darkness.”

“Oh. The Devil. Or is that Count Dracula?”

“Neither.” I struggled to put the right words around what the Prince really was.

“Count Dracula gets a bad rap for no good reason,” Ken offered. “He’s one of the main reasons the Prince hasn’t taken over.”

“And the Devil’s really Yahweh’s servant,” Maurice added as he joined us.

“Yahweh?” Jack sounded confused.

“The entity most humans call God’s real name.” I was very fond of Yahweh, some because he was strong and righteous, mostly because he was the strongest god fighting against the Prince and it paid to support your boss.

“God has a lot of names, but --”

Ken interrupted Jack. “Yes, he does. But there are also more gods out there than you can count. And they all have a variety of names. But each prefers the name he or she feels is truly theirs. The one you’re talking about is named Yahweh. He likes his name used, by the way, though not in vain.”

“So, what does he do when someone says ‘God damn it’?” Jack sounded ready to sign up for H.P.’s Gods and Monsters for Beginners class at Necropolis U. I was getting worried.

“He laughs,” Maurice replied. “If he even hears it. ‘God’ is a general term. Now, if you cursed using his real name, then he’d be taking an interest. But when someone goes, ‘Oh God, oh God’ and then orgasms, it’s just a general statement, sort of like ‘the sky is blue’ or ‘demon kind are scary’.”

“So, the Prince isn’t Count Dracula and he isn’t the Devil,” Jack said. “So, what is he?”

My wrist-com came to life as the Count calmly answered. “Evil incarnate.”


Authors Bio:
Gini Koch lives in Hell’s Orientation Area (aka Phoenix, AZ), works her butt off (sadly, not literally) by day, and writes by night with the rest of the beautiful people. She writes the fast, fresh and funny Alien/Katherine “Kitty” Katt series for DAW Books, the Necropolis Enforcement Files series, and the Martian Alliance Chronicles series for Musa Publishing. As G.J. Koch she writes the Alexander Outland series for Night Shade Books. She also writes under a variety of other pen names (including Anita Ensal, Jemma Chase, A.E. Stanton, and J.C. Koch), listens to rock music 24/7, and is a proud comics geek-girl willing to discuss at any time why Wolverine is the best superhero ever (even if Deadpool does get all the best lines). She speaks frequently on what it takes to become a successful author and other aspects of writing and the publishing business. She can be reached through her website at www.ginikoch.com.

Buy Links:
[Amazon] [Amazon Paperback] [Smashwords] [Barnes and Nobles]

And now for the giveaway! Gini has graciously offered one ebook to one lucky reader. To enter, just leave a comment with a valid e-mail address. The giveaway is open internationally and will last through midnight EST on Saturday, September 29th. Winners will be chosen using random.org on Sunday, September 30th.

Saturday, September 8, 2012

Excerpt from Dead Mann Running

Interesting in Dead Mann Running by Stefan Petrucha, but not sure if you want to buy a copy? Well, the author has posted a free excerpt that you can read here.

Title: Dead Mann Running
Author: Stefan Petrucha
Series: Hessius Mann #2
Publisher: Roc
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Release Date: 09/04/12
Buy the Book:
buy the book from The Book Depository, free delivery
Summary:
Just because a bullet has your name on it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t duck...

Either I’m stubborn, or it’s rigor mortis, but being dead didn’t stop me from being a detective or finding my wife’s killer. But it’s tough out there for a zombie, and lately it’s been getting tougher. These days the life-challenged have to register and take monthly tests to prove our emotional stability. See, if my kind gets too low, we go feral. I’ve been feeling a little down lately myself...

So when a severed arm -- yeah, just the arm -- leaves a mysterious briefcase at my office, my assistant, Misty, thinks figuring out where it came from will keep me on track. But this case goes deeper and darker than I imagined, and my imagination gets pretty dark. Turns out the people after it know more about my past life than I can remember, and even more about what I’ve become.


You can also check out my review of Dead Mann Walking, book one in the Hessius Mann series here.

Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Excerpt + Giveaway: Jennifer Estep

Today, I’d like to welcome Jennifer Estep back to the blog. She’s stopping by of the blog tour for the third book in her Mythos Academy series, Dark Frost, which came out yesterday. You can read my review of Touch of Frost here and Kiss of Frost here. Today, Jennifer has been kind enough to give a sneak peak of Dark Frost with an excerpt and offer up a copy to giveaway.


DARK FROST EXCERPT:

We scrambled up onto the dais and around to the far side. Daphne took up a position between the knight and the centurion, looking like another proud figure standing there, the golden arrow nocked and ready in the onyx bow. Carson moved to her left, while I stood on her right, the two of us flanking and protecting our archer, just like Coach Ajax had taught us to during all the mock fights we’d had in gym class. Across the room, Logan slid behind the wax Viking.

“We’ll be okay, right?” Carson said, fear making his eyes seem more black than brown behind his glasses.

“Of course, we will,” I said, trying to make my voice light. “Just think how jealous all the other kids will be when they hear that we took on a group of Reapers—and won.”

Carson tried to smile at my lame pep talk, but his lips twisted into a grimace instead. I knew how he felt. After what I’d just seen, I didn’t know if I’d ever be able to smile again. There would be no winning. Not today. Not with the other kids outside injured.

Not with so many dead.

Beside us, Daphne remained silent, although pink sparks snapped all around her now, cracking like fireworks, letting Carson and me know she was just as scared as we were. The Valkyrie stared at me a moment, then at the band geek, before turning her attention to the open doorway. Carson gripped his staff and pushed his glasses up his nose, while I tightened my hold on Vic.

I looked at Logan. Even from across the room, I could see the anticipation in his face. The emotion made his eyes glitter like ice. The Spartan was ready for the Reapers, ready to put his fighting skills to the test. Logan gave me a thumbs-up. His certainty in himself, in us and in what we were about to do, made my stomach unclench the tiniest bit.

We hunkered down and waited for the Reapers to come.

WHY I WROTE THIS SCENE:
This scene takes place fairly early on in Dark Frost, when Gwen and her friends find themselves having to battle some Reapers of Chaos, the bad guys in my books. I love writing action and fight scenes, but in this case, Gwen and the other characters are scrambling to get ready for the fight. I think –- or at least hope –- that it adds some tension and will make the reader keep turning to pages to see what happens in the battle.

BIO INFO:
Jennifer Estep is a New York Times bestselling author. Jennifer writes the Mythos Academy young adult urban fantasy series for Kensington. Dark Frost, the third book, was released on May 29. Touch of Frost and Kiss of Frost are the other books in the series. Visit www.jenniferestep.com for excerpts and more information about her books.


Thanks again for stopping by! Now for the giveaway. Jennifer has generously offered up one (1) print copy of Dark Frost to one (1) lucky reader. To be entered, just answer the following question:
If you went to Mythos Academy, what type of warrior whiz kid would you be?

Giveaway Rules:
1. Open to US only.
2. Must answer question and leave valid e-mail address.
3. Giveaway ends at 11:59PM Saturday June 9th.
4. Winner will be announced on Sunday June 10th

Title: Dark Frost
Author: Jennifer Estep
Series: Mythos Academy #3
Summary:
I've seen so many freaky things since I started attending Mythos Academy last fall. I know I'm supposed to be a fearless warrior, but most of the time, I feel like I'm just waiting for the next Bad, Bad Thing to happen. Like someone trying to kill me -- again.

Everyone at Mythos Academy knows me as Gwen Frost, the Gypsy girl who uses her psychometry magic to find lost objects -- and who just may be dating Logan Quinn, the hottest guy in school. But I'm also the girl the Reapers of Chaos want dead in the worst way. The Reapers are the baddest of the bad, the people who murdered my mom. So why do they have it in for me? It turns out my mom hid a powerful artifact called the Helheim Dagger before she died. Now, the Reapers will do anything to get it back. They think I know where the dagger is hidden, but this is one thing I can't use my magic to find. All I do know is that the Reapers are coming for me -- and I'm in for the fight of my life.