Blog Tour: KC Neal, Estevan Vega, Aaron Patterson, and Chris White

Welcome to the three author blog tour/swag & Kindle giveaway! There are three amazing authors on this tour, and they're giving away a bunch of stuff! I told you that you wouldn't want to miss this, and I wasn't kidding. They're giving away a Kindle! See below on how to enter. But for now, please check out all three books and a guest post from the wonderful K.C. Neal!

Guest Post: Dark Dreams in Pyxis
by K.C. Neal

Did you ever have a dream that seemed so real you’d almost swear it was a glimpse into another universe? Corinne, the main character in Pyxis, learns that there is a whole other world, called the hypercosmic realm, that our minds enter when we sleep. In the story, she first realizes things are not what they seem when she discovers that she and her friend Mason are having the same haunting nightmares of a dark, consuming force. In this excerpt, Corinne encounters this force for the first time.

When my tired eyes finally closed, the cove materialized before me. The bonfire blazed high into the night, but I stood alone on the beach. Twilight rainbows of every color raced across the sky, one after the other. The effect was dizzying.

A low rumbling echoed off the mountains, and trying to locate the source of the sound, I turned toward the lake. My breath caught at the sight of a dense, dirty-looking wall of fog billowing over the water toward me at an alarming speed. Panic surged through my veins as I imagined the fog overtaking me, filling my nose and ears, creeping into my lungs, soaking into my blood, and eating me from the inside out.

My heart pounding in my ears, I whipped around, desperate for some way to protect myself. I turned to the bonfire, thinking the heat of the flames might stave off the fog. But the fire ring was dark, and Mason stood in the center of it.

“Mason? When did you get back to—” I started to ask, but he grabbed my shoulder and pushed me behind him, shielding me with his body.

He held me with one arm and lifted the other arm, palm out. A burst of blue-white light swelled out from Mason’s hand, and for a second, I could make out the silhouette of a person in the fog before I squeezed my eyes shut against the painful intensity of the light. When I opened them, after-images bounced around in my vision. Both the fog and Mason were gone.

I tried to sit up in bed, groggy and struggling against the sheets twisted around me. I untangled myself and groped around for my pillow, which I’d pushed onto the floor. Nestled back in bed, I took a deep breath, and blew out slowly.

I knew it was just a dream, but it clung to me. My mouth felt gritty, as if I’d tasted the sooty fog, and the smell of Mason’s shampoo filled my nose.

I reached for my jacket, which was hanging on the back of my desk chair next to the bed, and pulled out the pinecone I’d picked up at the cove. I cupped it in my palms and inhaled its woody, resinous smell, and some of the tension melted from my body. Curled into a ball, with my blankets pulled tight around me, I stared at the window and waited for the gray light of daybreak.

Corinne learns she is destined to protect the fragile gateway between the waking world and they hypercosmic realm, but her grandmother, who was to teach her everything she needed to know, is dead, and now Corinne must find out who her grandmother really was. In her quest to unravel her family’s history, she races to find the answers she seeks before her nightmares break free.

K.C. Neal - PYXIS

Corinne lives an average teenage life working at her dad’s cafe, hanging out with her best friend, and trying to forget a falling-out with her almost-boyfriend Mason. Things take a strange turn when she uses her late grandmother’s food dyes for a bake sale, and her customers suddenly find her irresistibly alluring. Then she discovers she and Mason are haunted by the same dreams of a dark force that consumes everything in its path. Pursued by shadowy figures and a crazy woman with secrets from the past, Corinne must find out who her grandmother really was. In her quest to unravel her family’s history, she learns she is destined to protect this world--and the dark world of her dreams. She races to find the answers she seeks before her nightmares break free.

99¢ on Amazon | £0.77 on Amazon

Estevan Vega - ARSON

Arson Gable feels like a freak. He can create fire. He never asked for it. He never wanted it. But he can't shut it off. Before now, three things were true: he both loved and despised his grandmother; his life was going nowhere; and he was alone. But when a strange girl--who feels more normal behind a mask than inside her own skin--moves in next door, Arson hopes to find something he's never had: purpose. Using what he fears most about himself, Arson must face his consuming past and confront the nightmare that is his present as he walks the fine line between boy and monster.

99¢ on Amazon | £0.77 on Amazon

Aaron Patterson/Chris White - AIREL

Airel is a story about an angel who falls so deeply in love with a woman that he chooses to fall from heaven to be with her. She gives birth to a daughter in Arabia, 1250BC. The girl is pursued ferociously, relentlessly by an enemy in the deepest darkness. In present day Boise, Idaho is just a girl: Airel. She's just your average high school student...who turns out to be anything but average. It's because of who she is, because of her ancestry, because of her lineage. Past and present crash in on each other in the final pages as what has been twisted comes dangerously unraveled.

$2.99 on Amazon | £1.98 on Amazon

Giveaway Alert!! Two of 'em!!

Want to win a signed paperback copy of K.C. Neal's PYXIS?! You're in luck! Leave a comment here with a way to contact you (email or Twitter) and you'll be entered. US only please. Ends 2/16/12. Questions? Email me: imabookshark AT yahoo DOT com. Good luck!!

And don't forget to enter the Kindle Giveaway! Go to K.C. Neal's blog here or enter below if the Rafflecopter form is working! :o)

http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/share-code/NmU4YmI2MDVlYTgyMDNmODM2NzI5NzMzODZkNzEyOjIw/