Tuesday, May 26, 2015

Daily Vintage - Mechanical Valentine by Charles Twelvetrees

This charming mechanical vintage Valentine has an illustration by Charles Twelvtrees.  It shows a little boy with a bouquet of flowers:  "Among the posies you will find - a special thing I have in mind."  This exceptional card is at Birdhouse Books.  I always love Twelvetrees illustrations!

Guest Post, Book Spotlight, and Giveaway - Hope in Every Raindrop

On Tour with Prism Book Tours.

Hope In Every RaindropHope In Every Raindrop
by Wesley Banks
NA Contemporary
ebook, 202 pages
May 26th 2015

“Small towns have big stories.” That was a lesson Katie’s father taught her years ago. A lesson she’s taken to heart. And right now, Katie is desperate for a big story. Reeling from the recent loss of her father and with her agent breathing down her neck for the next book, the twenty-one-year-old writer picks a spot on the map and finds herself bound for a middle-of-nowhere town called Bishopville, South Carolina.

Taking a chance on the words of a local grocer, Katie stumbles upon a rare breed of dogs raised by the town doctor and his nephew Kyle. The only problem? Kyle isn’t interested in telling stories—especially not to a big-city girl who can’t seem to sit still. In an attempt to win him over as the clock winds down, Katie finds herself immersed in Kyle’s world, doing everything but writing.

When inspiration finally strikes, Katie is faced with an unforeseen catastrophe and a truth she can no longer ignore. While she has come to love the dogs, the real story may be about Kyle Walker. 

Guest Post by Wesley Banks


Recently I posted my current to-be-read (TBR) list on Instagram. There were 15 books on that list, and since then I've read 3. Of course, none of those 3 were on my TBR list, but that's a different story. 

Today I wanted to talk about the 5 books I'm most excited about on this list. 

Musashi by Eiji Yoshikawa
I'm a huge fan of Japanese culture, and especially samurai. This book recounts the life of Japan's greatest swordsman, Miyamoto Musashi. It's been on my TBR list for a while, but it's at the very top.

Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson
I actually read this series when it first came out, but recently lost the books and ended up buying the entire series...again. Most people probably know Brandon Sanderson for finishing Robert Jordan's famous series Wheel of Time, but I'm super excited to read this series again.

Liar's Poker by Michael Lewis
The first book I read by Michael Lewis was The Big Short which was an amazing insight to the housing market crash in 2007-2008. I don't expect Liar's Poker to be as great as The Big Short, only because it's based on the 1987 stock market crash (something I don't know that much about), but I still think it's going to be a good read.

Riddle-Master by Patricia McKillip
This is actually a trilogy, but I'm only counting it as one book. I probably would have read this book based on the title alone, but everyone I have talked to has raved about it.

The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein
I'm shocked I haven't read this book. I've had it for quite a while, but at the time I was reading Marley and Me, then Merle's Door, and The Philosopher and the Wolf (which is probably on my top 3 all-time list!). This eventually got lost in my small library. But after the move I recently found it and it's back on my TBR.

If you didn't notice, I read pretty much everything. Though, typically I try to alternate between fiction and non-fiction, unless I'm in the middle of an awesome series.

What about you, what's on your TBR list?


wesley-bio-300x460Wesley Banks was born in 1983 and grew up on the west coast of Florida. He graduated from the University of Florida with a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Civil Engineering. After spending over 7 years building movable bridges from Florida to Washington he decided to focus on his true passion: writing.

Wesley recently moved from Florida to Oregon to get back to the great outdoors that he’s love so much. He lives with my wife Lindsey, and his two dogs Linkin and Story. Most of his time these days is spent writing, with as much rock climbing, hiking, or skiing as they can fit in.

Wesley’s debut novel, “Hope In Every Raindrop,” is set to be released May of 2015.



Follow the Tour

May 21st - Launch
May 24th - Writing Pearls
June 3rd - Grand Finale

Tour Giveaway

$25 Amazon Gift Card
3 ebook copies of Hope In Every Raindrop
Open internationally
Ends June 8th

a Rafflecopter giveaway




Book Spotlight - Off Balance, Book 1 of Ballet Theatre Chronicles By Terez Mertes Rose



Off Balance, Book 1 of Ballet Theatre Chronicles
By Terez Mertes Rose
Genre: Women’s fiction (with YA crossover), performing arts related

Book Description:

Alice thinks she’s accepted the loss of her ballet career, injury having forced her to trade in pointe shoes onstage for spreadsheets upstairs. That is, until the day Alice's boss asks her to befriend Lana, a pretty new company member he’s got his eye on. Lana represents all Alice has lost, not just as a ballet dancer, but as a motherless daughter. It’s pain she’s kept hidden, even from herself, as every good ballet dancer knows to do.

Lana, lonely and unmoored, desperately needs some help, and her mother, back home, vows eternal support. But when Lana begins to profit from Alice’s advice and help, her mother’s constant attention curdles into something more sinister.

Together, both women must embark on a journey of painful rediscoveries, not just about career opportunities won and lost, but the mothers they thought they knew.

OFF BALANCE takes the reader beyond the glitter of the stage to expose the sweat and struggle, amid the mandate to sustain the illusion at all cost.


Author Bio:

Terez Mertes Rose is a writer and former ballet dancer whose work has appeared in the Crab Orchard Review, Women Who Eat (Seal Press), A Woman’s Europe (Travelers’ Tales), the Philadelphia Inquirer and the San Jose Mercury News. She reviews dance performances for Bachtrack.com and blogs about ballet and classical music at The Classical Girl. She makes her home in the Santa Cruz Mountains with her husband, son and too many cats. She loves good food, good wine, and a good (but not too hard) adult ballet class. She also publishes under the name Terez Rose.

Author website:  www.terezrose.com
Author blog site: www.theclassicalgirl.com