THE CHRONICLES OF ARA Tour & Giveaway

The Book

The Chronicles Of Ara: Creation by Joel Eisenberg and Stephen Hillard
Genre: urban fantasy

About The Chronicles Of Ara: Creation:

"We have identified the catalyst of human inspiration. You are not supposed to know this. Nor this: Its essence is corrupted.

What then, of our creators?

The most perceptive - and most obsessive - among them have long understood that their influence could be dangerous, a sort of privileged comprehension that the end of the world may well converge upon the inspiration that fires them and the imagination that enables them ..."

So begins "The Chronicles of Ara", an eight-volume fantasy epic written by Joel Eisenberg and Steven Hillard that explores the origins and repercussions of artistic creation. Ara, the muse who inspires all of artistry and invention, has suffered a classic tragedy. In her grief, she manipulates a return to "dragon-scorched earth," a time before time once chronicled by the mystic S'n Te as "The Pre-Genesis Era".

In "Creation", retired author J.R.R. Tolkien is asked to validate the existence of an alleged "lost" book of his greatest literary influence: "Beowulf". Violent backlash from this event will force an imminent re-evaluation of some of history's most influential literary works and authors, whose words and lives have, apparently, warned us of the muse's grave intention all along ...

Source: Info in the About The Chronicles Of Ara: Creation was from the press kit from the publicity team.

Series Link(s):

chroniclesofara.com | facebook

a Zharmae Publishing / Luthando Coeur title

www.zharmae.com | twitter | facebook | google+ | pinterest

luthandocoeur.com | twitter | facebook | pinterest

Meet The Authors

About Joel Eisenberg:

Joel Eisenberg is one of the most well-connected first-time novelists on social media, having attained nearly 50,000 first-level contacts (so far) two months prior to his book's release. He is also an avid movie buff, loves horror and science fiction novels and wishes he never gave up on those Karate classes years ago. He ran the LA Marathon (and completed the course) in 2005, celebrated at Taco Bell and temporarily lost his Eye of the Tiger (aka went downhill from there). Now 50 and 15 pounds above his glory weight, he promised his wife that he'll complete the 2015 LA Marathon, or he'll buy her a new Lamborghini.

These days, Joel's professional universe has been overtaken by all things "Ara", as in, "The Chronicles of Ara" - the ambitious, new 8-book science fiction-fantasy epic he has co-written with Steve Hilllard. 'Overtaken' as the work has already been signed to a television development deal and seven more books are still to be completed.

Otherwise, Joel has been writing professionally since 1986, starting as a columnist for a series of national sports-entertainment periodicals. Joel has written and//or executive produced several films, including "April Showers" (EP), based on the Columbine school shooting tragedy, and the multi-award-winning drama "Out of the Black." Television deals in the hopper include a pilot for FOX, and the return of a soon-to-be-announced television favorite.

He has written or contributed to several books, including "How To Survive A Day Job," "Tales of the Dead" and "Championship Networking".

In 2004, Joel was hired by a private party to identify and organize a substantial lot of original handwritten John Steinbeck materials, referred to by a noted historian as "one of the most important literary finds of the century."

Joel supports Special Education programs, and worked as a teacher for at-risk youth in such avenues as Creative Writing. He is an in-demand speaker who has spoken for arts and educational organizations nationwide, on topics such as Maverick Career Strategies For Creative Artists.

website | twitter | facebook | google+ | pinterest | instagram | amazon | imdb | linkedin | goodreads

About Stephen Hillard:

Steve Hillard grew up in Bossier City, Louisiana and Grand Junction, Colorado. He graduated from Colorado State University and later earned a degree in philosophy at Columbia University and a Juris Doctorate from the University of Colorado. Before settling into his current career as a private equity entrepeneur, Hillard was a teacher at Rikers Island Prison, a welder, a carpenter, and a practicing lawyer. He is the founder and head of Council Tree Communications, a private equity fund involved in the entertainment and telecom industries. He resides with his wife, Sharmaine, in San Antonio. Publication of his first book, "Mirkwood: A Novel About JRR Tolkien", led to an exciting adventure. The Tolkien Estate sought to ban the book, to which the author responded with a lawsuit in federal court. The dispute received international attention, with articles in the London Guardian, The Hollywood Reporter, and The Christian Science Monitor. The case quickly settled and the book went on to become an Amazon Fantasy Best Seller, recipient of a national IPPY Award, and was published world-wide in Spanish by an imprint of Planeta. The book has since been picked up by a Hollywood producer and is listed in IMDB as in development as a movie. An epic spin-out of the book's main fantasy character, Ara, is the subject of an eight-volume series co-authored with Joel Eisenberg. The first volume, "Creation: The Chronicles of Ara", will be released by Zharmae Publishing in November, 2014. A companion series, "The Lost Chronicles of Ara", is written by the same duo and is slated for release starting in 2015. These series are the subject of an agreement with a major independent producer to create a TV series. Mr. Hillard's other writing projects include a forthcoming thriller about JFK.

eisenbergandhillard.com | amazon | goodreads

Giveaway

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RUMBLE, YOUNG MAN, RUMBLE Book Tour & Giveaway

The Book

Rumble, Young Man, Rumble by Dante Zúñiga-West

About Rumble, Young Man, Rumble:

Rumble Young Man Rumble is a modern coming of age story. I wrote it because as a young man I did not identify with any of the iconic coming of age stories people gave me. I don’t think any of my peers did either. It’s 2014, hand your average American 20 year old a copy of Catcher in the Rye and see if they get past the first couple pages… they won’t. It’s sad, because Catcher is a great book, but it just doesn’t speak to the experience of growing up now. There aren’t too many books that do. When I taught high school English, it became glaringly apparent that my students were suffering from a similar lack of literature they could identify with. When I taught undergrads in college, I found the same thing to be true. In America, we no longer come of age in our teenage years: we come of age in our mid twenties with far more access and danger around us. I wrote Rumble Young Man Rumble to renew the dialogue of the genre.

I wrote it to reach out to the young men and women who, unfortunately, look at books like they are things that belong on a dusty library shelf.

On a more personal note, I wanted Rumble to be a story about love, loss, and prizefighting, all things I find to be infinitely fascinating and quite similar to each other.


Who do you think would be most affected by or touched by this work?

It is my hope that this book finds its way into the hands of sensitive and angry young men who are learning to become adults. I think that they would be the most touched by this story. I also think people who’ve never given ring fighting a second thought but had the courage to pick up this book will be incredibly surprised at the complexity and emotion portrayed in this story with regard to fighting. It is a book that, if you can look past some of the raw grit, can transcend age and gender variables.

Source: Info in the About Rumble, Young Man, Rumble was from the press kit from the publicity team.

a Zharmae Publishing title

www.zharmae.com | twitter | facebook | google+ | pinterest

Meet The Author

About Dante Zúñiga-West:

Dante Zúñiga-West is a storyteller who escaped from Los Angeles. He is a graduate of the Evergreen State College and the Cal Arts MFA Writing Program. His fiction has been published in numerous literary journals, both online and in print; his journalism, in alternative newspapers and adventure magazines. He has worked as a high school English teacher, a librarian, a kitchen cook, a graduate teaching assistant, a childcare specialist, a counselor for the developmentally disabled, a bouncer, a Muay Thai kickboxing instructor, a bartender, a cab driver, a writing instructor to homeless youth, a landscaper, a videogame salesman, a copy-shop attendant, an SAT tutor, a freelance journalist, a newspaper editor, a private security guard, an at-risk-youth counselor and a touring musician. He lives off the grid in the coastal mountain range of Oregon.

google+ | facebook | goodreads

Q&A with Dante Zúñiga-West:

Why do you write?
That’s a difficult question to ask someone. There is a universe of narcissistic hacks out there who want nothing more than for someone to ask them this question so they can pontificate. I don’t have a grandiose explanation for why I write. I have always wanted to write. I always knew I would live and die as a writer … whether or not anyone read my stories. If I didn’t feel that way I wouldn’t write at all, because the writing life is a very difficult thing to endure. I think that being a writer is something severely personal, like a religious belief, suicide, or what it means to say, “I love you.” There is no singular explanation for such things. What I can tell you is that I write because I am meant to.

What do you write?
Stories that have stories inside them. Straightforward fiction that reflects gritty subculture, damaged people and marginalized behavior.

Who inspires you?
I am inspired by survivors, by people who refuse to quit in the face of adversity. I am from those people, and I hope to be of them.

Who are your influences?
Literarily speaking, the writers whose words I stayed up all night reading as a younger man: Thom Jones, Tom Franklin, Cormac McCarthy, Ernest Hemingway, Alex Haley, Ursula Leguin, Raymond Carver, J.D. Salinger, Donald Goines, Faulkner, Krakauer, John Fowles, Chris McKinney, Knut Hamsun, Pablo Neruda, Kahlil Gibran, Dante Alighieri, Harlan Ellison, Dr. Hunter S. Thompson, Isaac Bashevis Singer, Orwell, Huxley, Anais Nin, Ralph Ellison, John Fante, Charles Bukowski, Edward Abbey, Eli Weisel, Robert Heinlein, Casey Maddox, the list goes on, and on, and on … but those are just the literary influences. I really believe that any writer worth his/her ink is influenced primarily by the life they choose to lead, which inevitably is a writer’s life. The beauty of writing and having your work published is that you are able to contribute to the ongoing dialogue that is writing, built by writers who lived the writer’s life. Many of the people who influence my writing are not writers; they are kids from the homeless shelter where I taught, 100-year-old Benedictine monks I lived around, people who rode in the taxicab I was driving, men I fought in the ring, or musicians whose music was playing in the background of a dark bar. Those are the influences for my stories more so than anything else.

What are your three most favorite books and why?
Favorite is too finite of a word to apply to my preference in books. I will concede three of the most powerful books I’ve encountered, and why:
The Odyssey (Homer): this was the bedtime story my father read to me as a boy, repetitively.

The Autobiography of Malcolm X: I am a young man of color in the United States, and all young men of color in this country who read this book are not the same afterwards. This is not just a book, it is a right of passage for us.

Hunger (Knut Hamsun): this is the book that actually began what we know today as modern prose. Often people will credit Hemingway for this, however Hamsun predated Hemingway and Hemingway adored Hamsun’s writing. He “borrowed” Hamsun’s style and brought it to America. This is how we got modern American prose.

Giveaway

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WHOLE IN THE CLOUDS Book Tour & Giveaway

The Book

Whole In the Clouds by Kristine Kibbee
Genre: middle grade / urban fantasy

About Whole In the Clouds:

Cora Catlin is a misfit at best, and an outcast at worst. She feels out of place, as if everything is backward and something is missing from her life.

And then, on her first day of middle school, everything changes.

When Cora encounters an elfin stranger who speaks of the magical world Clouden, an entire kingdom hidden up in the sky, she can’t wait to leave her boring, humdrum life behind. As Cora travels to her new home, where children sprout from the ground and rivers flow with chocolate, she finds herself transformed—and if that weren’t enough, she has to adjust to royal parents, talking Pegasuses, a raging war, and an alluring love interest as well.

Exploring this new land, Cora unearths wonders and secrets beyond her wildest imaginings, discovering the meaning of true friendship, love, and what it means to feel whole

Source: Info in the About Whole In the Clouds was from the press kit from the publicity team.

a Zharmae Publishing title

www.zharmae.com | twitter | facebook | google+ | pinterest

Meet The Author

About Kristine Kibbee:

Kristine Kibbee is a Pacific Northwest native with a love of language, nature, and animals. Kristine’s passion for creative writing began in her early youth and led her to Washington State University, where she earned a degree with a concentration in professional writing. Kristine has since had works published in The Vancougar, The Salal Review, S/tick Literary Review, and she is a featured columnist in the nationally syndicated magazine, Just Frenchies.

From the small town of Castle Rock, Washington, nestled among 22 acres of towering fir trees, Kristine relishes time spent outdoors with her two French bulldogs and one husband. She dreams of making the everyday world more magical with her fantasy novels.

Whole in the Clouds is her first middle grade novel.

twitter | facebook | google+ | goodreads

Q&A with Kristine:

Did you always intend on writing for teens/tweens/inbetweens? No, I don’t think I’ve necessarily targeted a specific age demographic but in retrospect I feel like there is a wealth of material out there for adults, young children and the more mature sect of teenagers while tweens have little to choose from. It’s such an impressionable time in a person’s life. They need good material to inspire them!

Who (or what) inspires you to write, and who (or what) influences your writing? I would say that everyday things inspire me to write. Seeing ordinary things and wondering what would transpire if a magical element were introduced inspires me to want to put pen to page. I’m also a visual person so hearing tell of particular sights & places can inspire images in my mind, which compels me to write about them.

Is there something (like a message or idea) that you want or hope your readers will pull out of Whole in the Clouds? I hope that readers realize there is love and companionship out there. Simply because you are different from others and they do not accept you, it doesn’t mean that you are in any way faulty. There ARE people out there who will love and accept you, regardless of what your appearance or circumstances may be. In the end, a true heart will shine through.

Giveaway

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THE CHRONICLES OF ARA: CREATION Cover Reveal & Giveaway

The Book

The Chronicles Of Ara: Creation by Joel Eisenberg and Stephen Hillard
Genre: urban fantasy

About The Chronicles Of Ara: Creation:

"We have identified the catalyst of human inspiration. You are not supposed to know this. Nor this: Its essence is corrupted.

What then, of our creators?

The most perceptive - and most obsessive - among them have long understood that their influence could be dangerous, a sort of privileged comprehension that the end of the world may well converge upon the inspiration that fires them and the imagination that enables them ..."

So begins "The Chronicles of Ara", an eight-volume fantasy epic written by Joel Eisenberg and Steven Hillard that explores the origins and repercussions of artistic creation. Ara, the muse who inspires all of artistry and invention, has suffered a classic tragedy. In her grief, she manipulates a return to "dragon-scorched earth," a time before time once chronicled by the mystic S'n Te as "The Pre-Genesis Era".

In "Creation", retired author J.R.R. Tolkien is asked to validate the existence of an alleged "lost" book of his greatest literary influence: "Beowulf". Violent backlash from this event will force an imminent re-evaluation of some of history's most influential literary works and authors, whose words and lives have, apparently, warned us of the muse's grave intention all along ...

Source: Info in the About The Chronicles Of Ara: Creation was from the press kit from the publicity team.

a Zharmae Publishing / Luthando Coeur title

www.zharmae.com | twitter | facebook | google+ | pinterest

luthandocoeur.com | twitter | facebook | pinterest

Meet The Authors

About Joel Eisenberg:

Joel Eisenberg is one of the most well-connected first-time novelists on social media, having attained nearly 50,000 first-level contacts (so far) two months prior to his book's release. He is also an avid movie buff, loves horror and science fiction novels and wishes he never gave up on those Karate classes years ago. He ran the LA Marathon (and completed the course) in 2005, celebrated at Taco Bell and temporarily lost his Eye of the Tiger (aka went downhill from there). Now 50 and 15 pounds above his glory weight, he promised his wife that he'll complete the 2015 LA Marathon, or he'll buy her a new Lamborghini.

These days, Joel's professional universe has been overtaken by all things "Ara", as in, "The Chronicles of Ara" - the ambitious, new 8-book science fiction-fantasy epic he has co-written with Steve Hilllard. 'Overtaken' as the work has already been signed to a television development deal and seven more books are still to be completed.

Otherwise, Joel has been writing professionally since 1986, starting as a columnist for a series of national sports-entertainment periodicals. Joel has written and//or executive produced several films, including "April Showers" (EP), based on the Columbine school shooting tragedy, and the multi-award-winning drama "Out of the Black." Television deals in the hopper include a pilot for FOX, and the return of a soon-to-be-announced television favorite.

He has written or contributed to several books, including "How To Survive A Day Job," "Tales of the Dead" and "Championship Networking".

In 2004, Joel was hired by a private party to identify and organize a substantial lot of original handwritten John Steinbeck materials, referred to by a noted historian as "one of the most important literary finds of the century."

Joel supports Special Education programs, and worked as a teacher for at-risk youth in such avenues as Creative Writing. He is an in-demand speaker who has spoken for arts and educational organizations nationwide, on topics such as Maverick Career Strategies For Creative Artists.

website | twitter | facebook | facebook page | google+ | pinterest | amazon | imdb | linkedin | goodreads

About Stephen Hillard:

Steve Hillard grew up in Bossier City, Louisiana and Grand Junction, Colorado. He graduated from Colorado State University and later earned a degree in philosophy at Columbia University and a Juris Doctorate from the University of Colorado. Before settling into his current career as a private equity entrepeneur, Hillard was a teacher at Rikers Island Prison, a welder, a carpenter, and a practicing lawyer. He is the founder and head of Council Tree Communications, a private equity fund involved in the entertainment and telecom industries. He resides with his wife, Sharmaine, in San Antonio. Publication of his first book, "Mirkwood: A Novel About JRR Tolkien", led to an exciting adventure. The Tolkien Estate sought to ban the book, to which the author responded with a lawsuit in federal court. The dispute received international attention, with articles in the London Guardian, The Hollywood Reporter, and The Christian Science Monitor. The case quickly settled and the book went on to become an Amazon Fantasy Best Seller, recipient of a national IPPY Award, and was published world-wide in Spanish by an imprint of Planeta. The book has since been picked up by a Hollywood producer and is listed in IMDB as in development as a movie. An epic spin-out of the book's main fantasy character, Ara, is the subject of an eight-volume series co-authored with Joel Eisenberg. The first volume, "Creation: The Chronicles of Ara", will be released by Zharmae Publishing in November, 2014. A companion series, "The Lost Chronicles of Ara", is written by the same duo and is slated for release starting in 2015. These series are the subject of an agreement with a major independent producer to create a TV series. Mr. Hillard's other writing projects include a forthcoming thriller about JFK.

facebook page | google+ | amazon | goodreads

Giveaway

a Rafflecopter giveaway

w | t | f (cr) | f (jp) | g+ | p

RUMBLE, YOUNG MAN, RUMBLE Cover Reveal & Giveaway

The Book

Rumble, Young Man, Rumble by Dante Zúñiga-West

About Rumble, Young Man, Rumble:

Rumble Young Man Rumble is a modern coming of age story. I wrote it because as a young man I did not identify with any of the iconic coming of age stories people gave me. I don’t think any of my peers did either. It’s 2014, hand your average American 20 year old a copy of Catcher in the Rye and see if they get past the first couple pages… they won’t. It’s sad, because Catcher is a great book, but it just doesn’t speak to the experience of growing up now. There aren’t too many books that do. When I taught high school English, it became glaringly apparent that my students were suffering from a similar lack of literature they could identify with. When I taught undergrads in college, I found the same thing to be true. In America, we no longer come of age in our teenage years: we come of age in our mid twenties with far more access and danger around us. I wrote Rumble Young Man Rumble to renew the dialogue of the genre.

I wrote it to reach out to the young men and women who, unfortunately, look at books like they are things that belong on a dusty library shelf.

On a more personal note, I wanted Rumble to be a story about love, loss, and prizefighting, all things I find to be infinitely fascinating and quite similar to each other.


Who do you think would be most affected by or touched by this work?

It is my hope that this book finds its way into the hands of sensitive and angry young men who are learning to become adults. I think that they would be the most touched by this story. I also think people who’ve never given ring fighting a second thought but had the courage to pick up this book will be incredibly surprised at the complexity and emotion portrayed in this story with regard to fighting. It is a book that, if you can look past some of the raw grit, can transcend age and gender variables.

Source: Info in the About Rumble, Young Man, Rumble was from the press kit from the publicity team.

a Zharmae Publishing title

www.zharmae.com | twitter | facebook | google+ | pinterest

Meet The Author

About Dante Zúñiga-West:

Dante Zúñiga-West is a storyteller who escaped from Los Angeles. He is a graduate of the Evergreen State College and the Cal Arts MFA Writing Program. His fiction has been published in numerous literary journals, both online and in print; his journalism, in alternative newspapers and adventure magazines. He has worked as a high school English teacher, a librarian, a kitchen cook, a graduate teaching assistant, a childcare specialist, a counselor for the developmentally disabled, a bouncer, a Muay Thai kickboxing instructor, a bartender, a cab driver, a writing instructor to homeless youth, a landscaper, a videogame salesman, a copy-shop attendant, an SAT tutor, a freelance journalist, a newspaper editor, a private security guard, an at-risk-youth counselor and a touring musician. He lives off the grid in the coastal mountain range of Oregon.

google+ | facebook | goodreads

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Giveaway

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WHOLE IN THE CLOUDS Cover Reveal & Giveaway

The Book

Whole In the Clouds by Kristine Kibbee
Genre: middle grade / urban fantasy

About Whole In the Clouds:

Cora Catlin is a misfit at best, and an outcast at worst. She feels out of place, as if everything is backward and something is missing from her life.

And then, on her first day of middle school, everything changes.

When Cora encounters an elfin stranger who speaks of the magical world Clouden, an entire kingdom hidden up in the sky, she can’t wait to leave her boring, humdrum life behind. As Cora travels to her new home, where children sprout from the ground and rivers flow with chocolate, she finds herself transformed—and if that weren’t enough, she has to adjust to royal parents, talking Pegasuses, a raging war, and an alluring love interest as well.

Exploring this new land, Cora unearths wonders and secrets beyond her wildest imaginings, discovering the meaning of true friendship, love, and what it means to feel whole

Source: Info in the About Whole In the Clouds was from the press kit from the publicity team.

a Zharmae Publishing title

www.zharmae.com | twitter | facebook | google+ | pinterest

Meet The Author

About Kristine Kibbee:

Kristine Kibbee is a Pacific Northwest native with a love of language, nature, and animals. Kristine’s passion for creative writing began in her early youth and led her to Washington State University, where she earned a degree with a concentration in professional writing. Kristine has since had works published in The Vancougar, The Salal Review, S/tick Literary Review, and she is a featured columnist in the nationally syndicated magazine, Just Frenchies.

From the small town of Castle Rock, Washington, nestled among 22 acres of towering fir trees, Kristine relishes time spent outdoors with her two French bulldogs and one husband. She dreams of making the everyday world more magical with her fantasy novels.

Whole in the Clouds is her first middle grade novel.

twitter | facebook | google+ | goodreads

Giveaway

a Rafflecopter giveaway

w | t | f (cr) | f (jp) | g+ | p