Wednesday, March 13, 2024

COMING RELEASE -- and a chance to get a FREE ebook short story.


 Coming April 1

The next book in the Enchanted Castle Archives series. Sequel to LIARS' QUEST.

You can listen to chapters of THE BEASTLY BEAUTY now on the Ye Olde Dragon's Library storytelling podcast.

Either go to your favorite podcast app and subscribe, OR you can go to Ye Olde Dragon Books and listen to the latest episode on the podcast page.

There are lots of short stories taking place in the enchanted forest and the enchanted castle, featuring 'Na -- short for Belladonna -- the daughter of the heroes of the novels. 

You can get the ebook of THE BEASTLY BEAUTY right NOW from Ye Olde Dragon Books, nearly 3 weeks early. The audiobook will be available by the end of the week.

And if you buy from Ye Olde Dragon Books, you'll get a new, not-yet-released short story, ASH, BREAD, AND THE BOY. This is an adventure of Ash, the heroine of THE BEASTLY BEAUTY, that was originally part of the book, but cut out during edits. FREE, in ebook. Just buy from Ye Olde Dragon Books, and you'll get a follow-up email using the email address you provide when buying your ebook or audiobook.

You can buy the other short stories in the Enchanted Castle Archives series at your favorite online store, or at Ye Olde Dragon Books. But what might be more fun is to buy the anthologies put out by Ye Olde Dragon Books, where these stories originally appeared. Either the Fairytale Anthologies or the Classic Monster Anthologies. Visit our website and check them out!

TALES FROM THE FOREST, Fairytale Anthology 4, will be releasing May 1, featuring stories that take Red Riding Hood and turn the story inside out and upside down!


Friday, March 1, 2024

CELEBRATE a new release with a FREE ebook short story!

 INQUEST, AFV Defender book 4, releases today, March 1.

In paper, ebook, and audio.

You can buy the ebook and audio on the Ye Olde Dragon Books website and anywhere on the web that sells books.

The Defender is sent on a mission beyond charted space with the crew of the notorious Inquest, and their equally notorious, rule-breaking captain, Illean Shryne. The Inquest crew always comes back from dangerous missions covered in glory, but that is rarely so for the ships teamed with them. Will the Defender and her crew survive? Or has their misfit luck finally run out?

So, how are we going to celebrate this book release? Simple:

FREE Ebooks!!

(Offer good until March 15 -- so hurry!)

Purchase INQUEST from Ye Olde Dragon Books, and you'll get an email offering your choice of 5 AFV Defender short stories, as a thank-you.

OR: buy the book elsewhere online, and email 2OldeDragons@gmail.com with a copy of your receipt/screen shot of your order, to get your short story. Our ebooks are on Overdrive and other library subscription outlets, so you can send a screen shot of your reservation order for your local library, and get the free short story.

Sound good?

Thursday, February 29, 2024

New release sample: WHITE ROSES

Mt. Zion Ridge Press

Listen to the Books on the Ridge podcast for a discount code to get $1 off ebook, audiobook or print from Mt. Zion Ridge Press!

 

"Likely prospect?" he greeted Angela, as she came back down the hall. They paused in front of the large room where the reporters worked.

"Maybe. But we really don't have any openings. Something about her caught my attention. I'm not sure what." She rubbed her temples and attempted a smile. "Please tell me Dad isn't trying to install another arcade game on the file server?" She gestured at the cluster of workers gathered around the stacked unit of CPUs and printers, with a jungle's worth of cables leading out to the other computers in the office.

Andrew Coffelt had inherited the Tabor Picayune from his father and had gladly embraced every advance in technology. Curt sympathized with Angela, because her father was a little too eager to rest on his credits as publisher, semi-retired yet still in the office every day. His delight in trying out new software on the office system was a constant source of frustration for Angela. The only thing that kept her from banning her father from the office was the fact that his experiments hadn't interfered with the publication of the paper. Not yet, anyway.

Curt suspected that even if Andrew caused a power blackout of downtown Tabor Heights for a week, Angela still couldn't ban her father from the paper. They both loved it too much. He just wished she wasn't stuck with being the adult while her father enjoyed his second childhood.

"I think he's just checking out the FBI site that Loni decided to access. Tracking the White Rose and identifying him has become the favorite hobby here," Curt offered.

"Unfortunately." Angela's brown eyes lost focus. Then she shuddered, wrapped her arms around herself, and continued down the hall to the lunchroom, her shoulder-length black hair streaming out behind her with the impetus of her exit.

"Something wrong?" He followed her.

"Everything lately reminds me of the White Rose. That woman who was just in here—”

"Looks like both his targets?" He nodded when she stared at him. "I noticed. She reminded me of someone I knew when I was a kid."

"You might have known her. Toni said she lived here for a few years. Toni Napolitano. Sound familiar?"

Curt started to say no, then choked. "Short for Antoinette?"

He remembered Angelique's little sister, trying to tag along with them when their gang from school went to play kickball. A scrawny kid, she pouted a lot when Angelique told her to stay home. Curt thought she was four years younger than him, putting her in third grade while the rest of them were in seventh.

"Yes, Antoinette. Her credits are impressive. She brought a folder full of clippings." Angela sighed and put down the coffee carafe without filling her mug. "We can't really afford another reporter on staff right now. But it wouldn't be fair to just tell her no without at least examining her work."

"Look at it this way." Curt's smile felt stiff. "She looks so much like the White Rose's targets, would you feel right giving her a job that would have her all over town, letting him get a good look at her?"

"That's not funny." She dumped cream and sugar into her cup before reaching for the carafe again.

"I wasn't trying to be funny." He glanced toward the open door of her office. "So, those clippings she brought. What did she write?"

"Everything. Her specialty seems to be investigative reporting. If you ever feel like you need a partner, I'd seriously consider her."

"Nah, not yet." Curt stayed in the kitchen when Angela went back to her office.

Investigative reporter, huh? He felt sick with the certainty of what brought Toni Napolitano back to Tabor Heights. Somehow, she had heard about the White Rose, the two women he had terrorized, the one he had killed. She heard about the notes, demanding undying love and purity; the white roses left on doorsteps and even inside the victims' houses. The threats against any men who trespassed on his territory. 

Just like he had done, had Toni made the connection between the White Rose and her sister's murder? Did she feel duty-bound to hunt him? Just like Curt felt duty-bound? After all, he found Angelique's body, left lying like so much discarded forest trash in the park.

 

Wednesday, February 28, 2024

Upcoming release: INQUEST

Ye Olde Dragon Books


 Releasing March 1

These are the adventures of  the E&D ship, AFV Defender. While they aren't quite as death-defying as a certain other notorious ship in the Fleet, they're developing a legend of their own. Some good. Some bad. But most important, they're a family, with all the benefits and drawbacks.

Every day is a new adventure. If their misfit luck doesn't finally run out on them.

 

INQUEST: AFV Defender Book 4

 

Signals are coming from beyond the edges of charted space. All indications are that they are being generated by the broken pieces of a Gate, used by the ancient Gatekeepers to scatter all the Human races across the universe.

 

Except that as far as anyone knew, nothing could dent a Gate, forget break it. Yet the legendary warrior, Etrusca, scattered pieces of broken Gate across known and unknown space. Now, a response is coming in. As one of the top E&D (Exploration and Diplomacy) ships in the Alliance Fleet, the Defender heads across the galaxy to find out just who or what is sending the signal.

 

Except this time, they've been partnered with the Inquest. The only ship in the Fleet with a stranger reputation and record than the Defender. The notorious Captain Illean Shryne and her crew of rule-breakers and miracle-workers always manage to escape from the jaws of death and return covered in glory. Unfortunately, the ships sent on missions with them don't fare so well …

 

Monday, February 26, 2024

New release sample: BRIGHTEN YOUR CORNER

 

Mt. Zion Ridge Press

Listen to the Books on the Ridge podcast for a discount code to get $1 off ebook, audiobook or print from Mt. Zion Ridge Press!


“He claims I broke his heart,” Cilla said, punctuated by the snap of the measuring tape as it retracted back into its case. She snickered as she wrote down the measurements of the display window.

“Grandpa should have broken his head.” Melba chuckled. “Our grandparents had that big old house the Gallery took over. We used to have sleepovers, all the cousins, maybe once a month. Ernie decided he would play Romeo and tossed rocks at the dormer windows to get Cilla’s attention. The problem is, he used really big rocks and broke Grandpa and Granny’s bedroom window. The big buffoon actually refused to pay to replace the window, because he claimed Granny insulted his family, getting her landscaping rocks from someone else. Can you believe that?”

“Ernie’s father and uncles had a landscaping business,” Cilla explained.

“Well, that’s a chunk of Cadburn history I never heard,” Tracy said, punctuated with a chuckle. “So Miss Cilla, you’re a heartbreaker, are you?”

“There’s gotta be a heart to break,” she muttered, and stepped over to the built-in counter that divided the front room in half, lengthwise. She extended the measuring tape down the long side and paused to run her fingers over the dings and gouges and dents and what certainly looked to Melba like burn marks in the wood.

“Some common sense would have been nice, too,” Melba added. “Remember the time he showed up to take you on a date, and he wouldn’t take no for an answer because he had paid Boyd for the right to take you out? He wanted exclusive access to you for the entire week.”

“Wait,” Tracy said. “Who’s Boyd?”

“Our money-grubbing cousin.”

“Makes those stereotyped ambulance-chasing lawyers on TV look like Boy Scouts,” Cilla added. Then she giggled. “Remember the time he tried to convince Aunt Myrna to join some pyramid scheme, and when she didn’t give in fast enough, he stole the old glass piggy bank where she put her egg money? She went chasing after him with her rolling pin and he fell going down the steps and …” Her laughter faded into a sigh and she shook her head. “Oh, my, listen to me. Gossiping.”

“It’s not gossip if you’d take Ginny’s advice and put all those family memories into a book and sell it as humor,” Melba said.

“And get sued by three-quarters of the family for embarrassing them.”

“They did it to themselves!” She snickered. “We really should. Even if it’s just as a joke. Let’s talk to Charli Hall, since she knows writing. Or Saundra Bailey. What do you say?”

“It might be fun,” Cilla admitted and chuckled.


Thursday, February 22, 2024

New release sample: WHITE ROSES

Mt. Zion Ridge Press

Listen to the Books on the Ridge podcast for a discount code to get $1 off ebook, audiobook or print from Mt. Zion Ridge Press!

 

"The White Rose?" Ted Gruber, the senior advertising rep, sauntered into the room. "Bet you anything he got rejected by e-Harmony. Maybe we should get the cops to subpoena them to open up their records."

Curt and Max exchanged glances. She muttered about a queue full of stories that needed to be edited and hurried out of the lunchroom. Ted sidled up next to Curt and went up on his toes to see through the gap into Angela's office. He whistled.

"Who's the cutie? Looks kind of familiar... Hey, is she victim two? What's her name, Karen? Kate?"

"Katrina," Curt muttered. "That's not her."

His stomach twisted and he stared at the young woman, standing now and shaking hands with Angela. Make her hair longer, exchange that brown blazer for a fuzzy pink sweater, and make her twelve years old… she could be Angelique Napolitano.

But Angelique was dead. Nearly twenty years now.

Curt shook his head. He was seeing Angelique everywhere, lately. He had nearly knocked himself out on the basketball court two weeks ago, when he looked up in the stands and thought he saw her sitting there, cheering for Tabor Christian's team in the inter-church basketball tournament. The look-alike was Sheila McGuire, Officer Frank McGuire's niece. Her parents were Army doctors, both on duty overseas.

Ted stomped over to the coffeemaker and tossed a quarter into the donation jar. Everyone was supposed to put in fifty cents for the coffee. "Some loony thinks he's in love and plays Cyrano DeBergerac, spouting love poetry from the bushes. When the girls get scared, he gets nasty." He spilled coffee on the counter, then scattered as much sugar as he put in his coffee. He picked up the sponge from the tiny sink, made a half-hearted swipe at the mess, left it sitting there, and headed out of the lunchroom. "What happened to the good old days when a guy saw a girl he wanted, clobbered her over the head and dragged her back to his cave?" He disappeared down the hall to the front of the long, narrow office space.

"I bet you got rejected by e-Harmony, too," Curt muttered.

He heard the doorknob click and pretended to read the six-month-old copy of Writer's Digest. He sauntered to the doorway of the lunchroom, watching from the corner of his eye as Angela walked the stranger to the front of the office. The long hallway down the far side of the office unit went from front to back, giving Curt a clear view of the traffic at the front door. He watched Angela and the Angelique look-alike shake hands. Several knots of tension in his gut and shoulders loosened when the young woman walked out the door.