News and New Books!!

My first post on Operation Awesome in months went up yesterday and you can find out what I've been up to here.

It involves this ...

Isn't she beautiful?

Between paperwork and meetings for our buying/building project and baking a bun in the oven, I vacillate daily between Cloud 9 and Garbage Pail 5. It's a roller coaster-y time. But I find that to be true generally when my life is filled with blessings.

With every blessing comes a lot of work to make it worth it. New babies? Poopy diapers! New house? Unexpected expenses! New job? Awkward adjustment period!

While I've been hopping between clouds and garbage pails, so to speak, my blog partners have been very busy pumping out novels. Check them out:

Over the summer, Michelle McLean released ...

Amazon  Goodreads

A woman with a past…

Widowed mother, Brynne Richardson, gave up her bandit activities when she left California to make a fresh start with her young daughter in Boston. Working for a handsome doctor fulfills her need to be useful and independent, but he creates another yearning she can’t deny. 

A man with a purpose…

Dr. Richard Oliver assumes Brynne is just another debutante hunting for a rich husband, until she intrigues him with her steady hand for stitches…and guns. He can’t put her out of his mind, but the young widow has mysteries he’s determined to unravel. 

A love in danger…

When smugglers raid the much-needed supplies from the clinic, Brynne must resurrect her bandit persona for the good of the sick and the poor. Her secret life threatens to destroy everything she’s worked so hard to protect…her life, her family…and her heart.


and more recently ...

Amazon Goodreads

Ceri McKinley never stopped wishing that her ex-fiancé Jason Crickett would come back into her life. But when he finally does, he comes with a request that puts them both—and all of humanity—into jeopardy.

Jason only wants two things: to bury his brother properly and to convince Ceri to trust him again after he jilted her. But when Ceri agrees to help him get his brother back, they end up fighting for their lives as the second zombie uprising threatens them all.

And Angela J. Townsend, through Clean Teen publishing, released ...

Amazon Goodreads

Angus MacBain is unaware that his ancestral roots hail from an ancient sect of Scottish kings. When his dying grandfather gives him a dragon pendant, thirteen-year-old Angus learns of a legacy that will take him across an ocean to the island of Iona and thrust him into a heritage he did not know he had. 

He soon discovers that his mother, whom he had believed dead, is really a seal fairy, in hiding from a dangerous enemy. To save her, Angus must undergo a perilous journey of destiny and power to battle an evil Dacian knight and those who serve him. With only his family shield and the advice of a wizened vampire hunter to protect him, Angus must navigate dangerous terrain and dark enemies, in a land where the past and the present mingle, and sleeping kings wake.
and the day before Halloween ...

Amazon Goodreads

When 17-year-old Dharma Moore moves to Bayou country so her scam artist mother can work as a Paranormal Investigator, she discovers more than ghosts haunt the abandoned plantation they now call home. Centuries ago, a voodoo curse was placed on the swamp waters surrounding the old plantation by a murdered slave. A terrible curse that snares Dharma. To save herself, she must face the terror of the haunted waters, find the dead woman's skull and convince the slave's soul to release her from its torments. However, there is more to this curse for Dharma personally than anyone else knows as she discovers an ancient secret that links herself to the property—a secret kept from her by her own family. To survive, she must accept the help of locals and to learn to embrace the truth—that magic is not only real, but that it can be very, very deadly!

Max Gladstone and Wes Chu both came out with sequels to their big hits, THREE PARTS DEAD and THE LIVES OF TAO:

Amazon Goodreads

The new novel set in the addictive and compelling fantasy world of Three Parts Dead

Shadow demons plague the city reservoir, and Red King Consolidated has sent in Caleb Altemoc — casual gambler and professional risk manager — to cleanse the water for the sixteen million people of Dresediel Lex. At the scene of the crime, Caleb finds an alluring and clever cliff runner, crazy Mal, who easily outpaces him.

But Caleb has more than the demon infestation, Mal, or job security to worry about when he discovers that his father — the last priest of the old gods and leader of the True Quechal terrorists — has broken into his home and is wanted in connection to the attacks on the water supply.

From the beginning, Caleb and Mal are bound by lust, Craft, and chance, as both play a dangerous game where gods and people are pawns. They sleep on water, they dance in fire... and all the while the Twin Serpents slumbering beneath the earth are stirring, and they are hungry.

Amazon Goodreads

The sequel to The Lives of Tao.

The Prophus and the Genjix are at war. For centuries they have sought a way off-planet, guiding humanity’s social and technological development to the stage where space travel is possible. The end is now in sight, and both factions have plans to leave the Earth, but the Genjix method will mean the destruction of the human race.

That’s a price they’re willing to pay.

It’s up to Roen and Tao to save the world. Oh, dear…

So as you can see, my peeps have been busy bringing the AWESOME to the world of fiction. I'm so proud of them! If you get the chance, any one of these reads will transport you to another world with characters to love/hate and compelling endings. Happy reading!!

THE DEATHS OF TAO Cover Love!

The Deaths of Tao, sequel to The Lives of Tao by Wesley Chu, has a COVER and it's just as awesome as the first:

Add on goodreads

The sequel to The Lives of Tao.

The Prophus and the Genjix are at war. For centuries they have sought a way off-planet, guiding humanity’s social and technological development to the stage where space travel is possible. The end is now in sight, and both factions have plans to leave the Earth, but the Genjix method will mean the destruction of the human race.

That’s a price they’re willing to pay.

It’s up to Roen and Tao to save the world. Oh, dear…

It's out from Angry Robot Books October 29th 2013. Looking forward to reading this with the hubz! 

If you missed it, check out Jessica Brooks's Afterglow Review of The Sea of Tranquility by Katja Millay.

Q, R, S, T: Quasing, Roen, Sonya, and Tao

Spies and aliens: a match made in heaven.

Go read The Lives of Tao by Wesley Chu (Couple's Review)

It's my first couple's review with my husband after we used THE LIVES OF TAO for our date book over the course of the past month. A chapter or two each date night kept us laughing and intrigued. But last night we couldn't put it down after our usual few chapters. There was too much at stake! We read for a couple hours and both very much loved the ending.

Quasing from Quasar

The Quasing are an alien life force that relies on a host for survival. They feed off enzymes in carbon-based life forms and also get protection from wind, cold, and heat within our relatively harder casings. Without a host, their thin membranes can be shattered by a strong gust of wind, scattered to the Eternal Seas. What's intriguing about these aliens? They've been here on Earth since before mankind, and have been instrumental in mankind's evolution. Once mankind reached an evolutionary stage where they could be equal partners, the Quasing split into two political factions: The Genjix and The Prophus. The Prophus tend to consider humans as partners worth protecting. The Genjix consider humans a means to an end. They are supremacists at the core. Author Wesley Chu did a thorough job creating this alien race. Hardcore sci-fi fans will find plenty to love in The Lives of Tao.



Roen Tan

One reviewer compared our protagonist Roen Tan to Brendan Fraser, such is the quirky lovable nature of his character. Much of the humor in the first half of the book is drawn from alien Tao's attempts at getting couch-potato Roen out on a running trail, or out of an attempted assassination alive. With all his faults, Roen is lovable because he is humble, compassionate, and loyal to friends. Also, the man can't lie to save his life... literally. Not exactly the type of person you'd cast in the role of international man of mystery. And yet it works so well in The Lives of Tao.



Sonya Lyte

Sonya shows up at Roen's door to train him in hand-to-hand combat and fire arms. Well matched to his goofy sense of humor, she also knows when to get deadly serious. Unlike Roen, she is not an accidental host, but the daughter of her quasing's former host. She was raised for this, and it's intensely personal for her. Like Roen comments at one point in the book, she would never be a Bond girl, but she'd be the one kicking James Bond's butt.



Tao

Formerly known as Genghis Khan, Alexander the Great, and the creator of Tai Chi, Tao has been influencing human politics since before human politics existed. He has millennia-old enemies who hold millennia-old grudges, and his chubby, uninitiated host Roen Tan gets to deal with all of it. Tao has a few things in common with Roen. He's fiercely loyal to his hosts and his friends, even to a fault. He's compassionate, too, seeing his host as an equal partner and allowing Roen to choose whether or not he takes a wise, ancient alien's advice. Their relationship is mostly humorous at first, but deeply bound by shared loyalties and mutual appreciation in the end.

(Letters and concept of A to Z April challenge here)

READ AN EXCERPT at TOR.com 

Buy on Amazon: The Lives of Tao

Links, In Case You Missed It Edition 3-18-13

Recent happenings in my online sphere:

My review for STUNG by Bethany Wiggins is up on Afterglow Book Reviews this morning!

Amazon bestseller lists: AMAROK wins three spots!

March Mystery Agent reveal!

Pens for Paws: Operation Awesome's item went for $170! Thanks to all who bid at this charity auction benefiting Fat Kitty City in California.

PITY ISN'T AN OPTION by Jessica Brooks has a new cover and the cover designer, Icey Books, is holding a giveaway for 9 more days! Go enter!

Books I'm reading right now:

SPELLBINDING by Maya Gold: I'm enjoying the delicious magic in this one.
THE LIVES OF TAO by Wesley Chu: well-paced and deep at the same time, not to mention very funny. I'm a quarter of the way through this one, reading slowly because I'm reading it with my husband who works all day. If I were reading it alone, I'd be done already, no doubt, because it's so intriguing and action-packed! But I'm being patient because I LOVE sharing a story with my hubz. We courted over the Harry Potter books. (Goodreads Giveaway going on now!!)
GONE WITH THE WIND by Margaret Mitchell: I'd really like to be done with this one already, but I'm only at 45%. It's for book club this Friday. Anybody think I can make it in time? (Hint: it's got over 1000 pages.)

My writing update:

THE LIVES OF TAO by Wesley Chu: Cover Reveal!!

Sharing the awesome! Operation Awesome's very own Wesley Chu has his cover for his SF book.  Introducing...

THE LIVES OF TAO

Seriously, just stare at this for a minute if you're not laughing yet. It goes perfectly with the book.

When out-of-shape IT technician Roen woke up and started hearing voices in his head, he naturally assumed he was losing it. 

He wasn’t. 

He now has a passenger in his brain – an ancient alien life-form called Tao, whose race crash-landed on Earth before the first fish crawled out of the oceans. Now split into two opposing factions – the peace-loving, but under-represented Prophus, and the savage, powerful Genjix – the aliens have been in a state of civil war for centuries. Both sides are searching for a way off-planet, and the Genjix will sacrifice the entire human race, if that’s what it takes. 

Meanwhile, Roen is having to train to be the ultimate secret agent. Like that’s going to end up well…

~~~~~~~

Here is the link on good reads: HERE

It comes out in just a few short months (April 30th) so add it to your list.

Or go ahead and PREORDER it now!

~~~~~~


Wesley Chu was born in Taiwan and immigrated to Chicago, Illinois when he was just a pup. It was there he became a Kung Fu master and gymnast.

Wesley is an avid gamer and a contributing writer for the magazine Famous Monsters of Filmland. A former stunt man and a member of the Screen Actors Guild, he can also be seen in film and television playing roles such as “Banzai Chef” in Fred Claus and putting out Oscar worthy performances as a bank teller in Chicago Blackhawks commercials.

Besides working as an Associate Vice President at a bank, he spends his time writing and hanging out with his wife Paula Kim and their Airedale Terrier, Eva.



OKAY, now don't forget the always awesome MYSTERY AGENT CONTEST on March 1st. We've got an agent who specializes in children's books (PB, MG, YA) with specifics here.