Interview: Fantasy Author Stevie Rae Causey (Persephone Plus) + giveaway

Tell us about Persephone Plus

Persephone plus is a modern retelling of a Greek Myth that a lot of people don’t know about: Persephone’s fight with Aphrodite over the mortal Adonis.

In this short story, both Goddesses have been banished by Zeus to modern-day academia and given a year to negotiate their mediation.

We join Persephone at the end of her journey and get to see her dynamics with both her husband, Hades, and her partner, Adonis. It's an engrossing tale with a happily ever after for those who just want to read and run, but readers who find themselves wanting more of Persephone’s world can look forward to the release of Persephone Plus: Seasons of Change on Kindle Vella this summer.

What was edited out of Persephone Plus?

There are SO many backstories in Persephone Plus that didn’t end up in the final draft. I wrote it as part of a submission for another project but ended up cutting so many of my desired subplots due to length, that it was almost impossible not to turn it into a full-blown serial.

My favorite non-spoiler that was cut from this story was the fact that Hades had his mortal father sent to the Underworld a little ahead of schedule in order to gain more freedom during his time in the modern world.

Did you know?

I write other stories about magic, misfits, and villains you can fall in love with!

The Weaver’s Son.

Mother to the child who will doom a kingdom... Or save it.

Adelaide didn’t mean to doom an entire kingdom when she cut the queen’s lifeline to save the newborn prince. Now the banished Narn is determined to prove herself, even if that means playing with fate...just a little.

But all magic has a price, and the spell meant to bring her a human child instead brings her one sired by one of the Huldrefolk.

Adelaide can’t help but fall in love with the half-fae child that reminds her of her home, but when the Goddess Holda shows up with a warning Adelaide must choose between saving herself and protecting her son from the fairy folk.

Life was much easier when she was able to see ahead.

The Amasai Rising Series

Running isn’t new to Azlana. She ran from the harsh words of the kids back home. She ran from certain death when she fled the human city.

So, it only makes sense to run again.

That’s what The Amasai whispers to her when she’s swept away to a hidden school for elven royalty where she is the only pupil. And that isn’t all this new voice brings. Images of death fill her dreams until she can't tell where her thoughts end and The Darkness begins.

She has to run to save everyone she loves.

But if she runs, she dooms them to a war that may never end.

If she doesn’t assume the throne and unite elves and man, war will end magic forever.

But if she stays, the Darkness may overcome all.

Get the Prequel for Amasai Rising (Ring of Fire) Free when you join my mailing list.

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Persephone Plus: A Romantic Mythological Retelling
by Stevie Rae Causey

May 11, 2021

67 pages

Genre: LGBTQ Romantic Fantasy Retelling
After a year of banishment in the modern world Persephone must convince Olympus that love comes in many forms.

Persephone and Aphrodite must settle an old rivalry regarding their shared lover, or forfeit them to the mortal realm forever in this LGBTQ+ Romantic Fantasy with a HEA.

As their time runs out and the Goddess of Love shows no sign of wavering, it is up to Persephone to find a way to save the mortal she loves, without hurting the Immortal she married.

If you like old myths with modern twists and complicated romance, you'll love ♥Persephone Plus♥.

**Only .99 cents!!**

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About the Author

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I write MG and YA Epic Fantasy that explore real-life themes. I believe that fantasy and fiction create a safe space for young people to explore the ins and outs of the world we live in and I aim to write the kind of stuff that entertains as well as fosters introspection.

When I'm not writing or speaking to teens, I'm usually chasing my kids, going on wilderness adventures, and posting pictures of my pets on Instagram.

Giveaway

Signed Print copy of Persephone Plus – 1 winner,

Audiobook of Persephone Plus – 5 winners

$15 Amazon giftcard – 1 winner

Follow the tour HERE for special content and a giveaway!

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Excerpt: Generation of Vipers by Maria Ann Green + giveaway

Generation of Vipers
by Maria Ann Green
June 18th, 2021
Genres: Adult, Gothic, Psychological, Thriller
Rosabella Moore-Davis has just moved her husband halfway across the world, with a spur of the moment purchase–a glorious gothic mansion–while on vacation in France. It was love at first sight, and somehow she knew it was more than just some huge house; it was meant to be her home.

But not all things that are meant to be end happily ever after.

Rosabella soon finds herself waking in the middle of the night from more than just wind and creaking pipes. In the dark she discovers ghostly figures looking up into her windows from outside, rooms and treasures previously hidden for centuries, creeping crawling guests, and too many dark shadows lunging toward her. And still, somehow, instead of screaming and running away she researches, choosing knowledge over fear, and learns more about the house and the history of this place she loves so much.

Only when she stumbles into the past, meeting an aristocrat hiding enough deadly secrets to take down the patriarchy, does Rosabella start to regret her choices. And after having come this far, she worries it’s too late to turn back and save herself from a house that has more skeletons in its vast amount of closet space than anyone expected.

Rosabella isn’t the fleeing type, but she’s not sure she’ll survive the fight. Especially against a place with so many stories buried beneath it, burned into every fiber of the edifice, a house with a portal to dark places and troubles that shouldn’t be stirred up.

Generation of Vipers is a mix of crimson peak and Mike Flanagan’s Haunting of Hill House, with elements of Marisha Pessl’s Night Film mixed throughout.

If you like dark thrillers that border on horror, gothic elements, and deliciously dark twists that will keep you guessing, then Generation of Vipers might be your next favorite book. It’ll keep you reading just one more page all night long, too afraid to turn out the light and go to sleep.

It appeals to lovers of suspenseful plots, all things dark like thrillers and horrors, stories with murder and mayhem, dark romance elements, fans of American Horror Story, Shirley Jackson, Gilian Flynn, Ruth Ware, Tana French, J.A. Konrath, and the Timothy Blake Series by Jack Heath.

*Content Warning: graphic violence, sexual content, and language*

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EXCERPT
My eyes snap open.

There’s no disorientation, even though there should be.

Between stone walls and wallpaper older than my three decades, the cold air isn’t a surprise.

But what does scare me isn’t the new setting or the snoring of my sweet husband but the feeling that something just left. Like I’d been watched and only noticed after it ended.

Or—okay, well that’s crazy.

Though, I don’t know if I was dreaming or if something external woke me up.

Milos’s breath is soft, even if it rumbles in the back of his throat just a little. And I’ve slept next to it for years without jarring awake like this. As another creak sounds, followed by a tiny clunk, I know I’m right.

Maléfique has old bones, and they must protest changes in temperature as we take our trips around the sun.

Though…

The little noises aren’t really enough to have woken me up either. I don’t think so anyway.

Still, whatever the reason, I’m up now. Wider awake than I was when we were taking in the newness of our manor earlier. My eyes flick to the clock Milo insists on bringing with us every vacation, and I correct myself. It was now yesterday that we bought this beautiful space, considering it’s three in the morning.

And I’m fucking wide awake.

I’ll never get back to sleep right now.

So I slip out from under the comforter and let my toes touch the chilly wood of the floor. I move slowly, quietly, even though I doubt Milo would wake up for anything less than my screaming.

Heaviest sleeper I’ve ever met. Which he proves with a snort as he moves to face the other way, still very much unconscious.

And as I move toward the huge window of our new bedroom, I roll my eyes at Milo for the second time in the last twenty-four hours. It happens without forethought, and of course I feel instantly guilty after.

That’s when a kinder smile touches my lips just before my fingertips, then my forehead, touch the thick glass, as I lean against the window and look down at the greenery of our property.

Well, it’s all shades of gray and black at the moment, with the moon behind the clouds.

I can still make out plenty, though.

The woods just beyond an overgrown garden, a path starting just between two picturesque weeping willows—the kind that beg for a swing, or a hammock strategically placed for reading. I can see all of it well enough, but when the moon peeks out between two wisps of cover, my eyes scan harder, searching for something. I’m not even sure what.

Maybe for what could have woken me up if it wasn’t Maléfique.

And I’ve all but given up as the tall grass waves in a darkening breeze when something sparkles and pulls my eyes back to the opening of the track, the archway between hanging branches.

Though, not something. No.

Someone.

About the Author:

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Maria, a badass USA Today and internationally bestselling indie author, lives in Minnesota despite the frozen winters. Actually, she prefers snow drifts and icicles over summer and all that sweat running everywhere. She writes about bitches, breakups, and bloodbaths – not in any particular order. She lives with her husband and little family, which includes a few lazy cats who make great lap warmers. You can usually find her whishing that she lived in a secret cabin in the woods where she could be a hermit reading and writing all of the time. Instead she lives the suburban life where she pretends to her neighbors and the other moms around that she doesn’t swear like a sailor, have hidden tattoos, and loves a good bottle of wine. She absolutely believes in unicorns and ghosts and hopes vampires and monsters are real too. She’s a coffee-in-the-morning and alcohol-in-the-evening kind of person, preferably with a nap in between. Maria prefers cats over dogs, books over people, and late nights over early mornings. She probably shouldn’t talk to anyone until she’s had her first cup of coffee, extra sugar. And if you ever want to hang out with her, you’ll have to be game for a horror movie or just a quick run to target for two (hundred) little things. Also, you couldn’t pay her to be in her twenties again; Thirties is where it’s at. She’s a creative, mouthy, introverted, proud bisexual, highly-sensitive INFJ, chronic pain spoonie warrior, Slytherpuff, dork with a sweet-tooth.

Maria devours books, reading mostly in bed or listening to audiobooks in the car. Writing has been one of her passions for pretty much her whole life. So creativity is a necessity for her, always. After working in the mental health field for almost a decade, she’s now living her dream as a stay-at-home writer, kiddo wrangler, professional snuggler, and constantly-tired-person. When it comes to her writing, she specializes in dark and twisted thrillers or gritty, angsty contemporary romances. But no matter the genre, she always prefers writing deeply flawed characters with dysfunctional relationships. She’s pretty sure the whole “unlikable character” thing is a conspiracy because every character she loves have been labeled this way. Ridiculous. And because of this, she’s pretty much found it impossible to write anything without at least a little mayhem.

Maria was once told she painted with her words, and that phrase stuck with her – because writing really is an art, and good stories are true masterpieces. She’s always trying to grow and improve in her craft, shooting for a masterpiece of her own someday. And she plans to write forever because writing gives Maria the ability to disappear into new worlds and create people within twisting plots, all from the comfort of her couch. She will always believe that though not every story is for her, and her stories aren’t for everyone, every story has a reader.

For more from Maria find all of her links, including a link to get more content at her newsletter, here: linktr.ee/mariainmadness

GIVEAWAY

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2x ebook copies of Generation of Vipers

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Audiobook Review: Creature Feature: A Horrid Comedy by Steven Paul Leiva

CREATURE FEATURE--named a top book of 2020 by the Montreal Times, Steven Paul Leiva's horrid comedy is now being turned into an audiobook, read by Seamus Dever (better known as Detective Kevin Ryan on ABC's CASTLE) and Juliana Dever (known as Jenny Ryan on ABC's CASTLE)

Creature Feature: A Horrid Comedy

by Steven Paul Leiva

Narrated by: Seamus Dever and Juliana Dever

April 13, 2021

Estimated Length: 4.4 hours
Publisher: Magpie Press; (Spring 2021)
Publication Date: TBD
Genre: Horror/Comedy
Language: English
Available on Amazon, Audible, and iTunes

THERE IS SOMETHING STRANGE HAPPENING IN PLACIDVILLE!

It is 1962. Kathy Anderson, a serious actress who took her training at the Actors Studio in New York, is stuck playing Vivacia, the Vampire Woman on Vivacia’s House of Horrors for a local Chicago TV station.

Finally fed up showing old monster movies to creature feature fans, she quits and heads to New York and the fame and footlights of Broadway.

She stops off to visit her parents and old friends in Placidville, the all-Ameican, middle-class, blissfully normal Midwest small town she grew up in.

But she finds things are strange in Placidville.

Kathy’s parents, her best friend from high school, the local druggist, even the Oberhausen twins are all acting curiously creepy, odiously odd, and wholly weird. Especially the town’s super geeky nerd, Gerald, who warns of dark days ahead.

Has Kathy entered a zone in the twilight? Did she reach the limits that are outer? Has she fallen through a mirror that is black? Or is it just—just—politics as usual!

"Steven Leiva not only promises but delivers. Bravo!" -- Ray Bradbury, Author of Fahrenheit 451 and The Martian Chronicles.

$.99 ebook/free on KU

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This is the first time I have reviewed an audiobook even though I listen frequently while traveling (or cleaning house). It was also my first foray into this comedy-horror style and I must say after acclimating myself with the first chapter I decided I would hang in there and see where this was headed.

Outrageous, fantastical, eye-rolling, teenage boy-type storytelling in the dark or maybe sitting around a radio program in the ’50s are some of the thoughts that came to my mind. Mindless would be another...ha. 

A young actress returns to her hometown to find it overtaken with 6th-dimensional creatures and she is clueless until she becomes their “personal choice” for leader to help take over the world. See...fantastical plot.

But never fear, there is also a geek hero to help save the day with his outrageous inventions (more young boy imagination)! I didn’t feel the “comedy” as straightforwardly as just whimsy and wit but the title “A Horrid Comedy” seems rather appropriate. Short listen and could be the right fit for a short drive to bring companionship and not a mind-boggling script.

The narrations were great and easily understood. I felt like if there were a few more “clang”, “bang”, “shoe clops” and old-time sound effects I would have no problem imagining myself in front of that radio listening to a “horrid” short of “War of the Worlds”.

Getting 4 whimsical sheep from me.

Jeanie G

About the Author:

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A refugee from the silly fields of Hollywood where he cavorted with such luminaries as Bugs Bunny and Betty Boop (although the latter was but a brief affair), Steven Paul Leiva has authored nine novels and one novella since 2003. His work has been praised by literary great Ray Bradbury, Oscar-winning film producer Richard Zanuck, NY Times bestselling author and Pulitzer Prize finalist Diane Ackerman, and Star Trek actor John Billingsley, the greatest bookworm in Hollywood. He has received the Scribe Award from the International Association of Media Tie-in Writers. A traveler among several genres, his books include his witty Hollywood thrillers, BLOOD IS PRETTY and HOLLYWOOD IS AN ALL-VOLUNTEER ARMY, his novelization of the indie family film; the Scribe Award-winning 12 DOGS OF CHRISTMAS; his Sci-Fi satire of first-contact told from the point-of-view of the aliens, TRAVELING IN SPACE; his comic look at happy-ever-afters, BY THE SEA; his surreal political fantasia, IMP; his bizarre, possibly audacious, somewhat Sci-Fi novella, MADE ON THE MOON; JOURNEY TO WHERE, a contemporary "scientific romance" written in the tradition of H.G. Wells and Jules Vern; CREATURE FEATURE: A HORRID COMEDY; and his latest, BULLY 4 LOVE, a rather odd love story

Voice actors

Seamus Dever - Juliana Dever

New Release: Million Dollar Demon (Hollows Book 15) by Kim Harrison

Million Dollar Demon (Hollows Book 15)
by Kim Harrison
June 15, 2021
459 pages
To save the city, Rachel Morgan will need to show some teeth in the next Hollows novel from #1 New York Times bestselling author Kim Harrison.

The new master vampire of Cincinnati has arrived . . . and she wants Rachel Morgan out. No matter where Rachel goes, Constance is there--threatening Rachel's allies, causing city-wide chaos, and, to add insult to injury, even forcing Rachel out of her current quarters. Ever since Rachel found a way to save the souls of vampires, the old undead's longtime ascendancy has been broken. Now Constance sees eliminating Rachel as the key to consolidating her own power.

Rachel has no desire to be enthralled or killed--and she's terrified of what may become of the city if Constance forces a return to the ancient ways. But even a witch-born demon can't stand against the old undead--at least, not alone. And if Rachel refuses to claim the role of Cincinnati's master demon, the city will tear itself apart, taking her and all those who stand beside her with it.

photo by Myra Klarman Photography

About the Author:

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I'm Kim Harrison, best known for penning the Hollows series though I've tried my hand at YA, traditional fantasy, graphic novels, and a one-of-a-kind world book. I grew up reading science fiction and fairytales, which means my fairy garden has Daleks in it. Recently, I've moved back to my home state of Michigan after a ten year stint down in South Carolina, and it feels good to be home--even with the snow and cold. I've been traditionally published for almost twenty years, and a good day is still one where there is nothing to distract me from my keyboard.

Kim Harrison is best known as the author of the New York Times #1 best selling Hollows series, but she has written more than urban fantasy and has published more than two-dozen books spanning the gamut from young adult, accelerated-science thriller, several anthologies, and has scripted two original graphic novels set in the Hollows universe. She has also published traditional fantasy under the name Dawn Cook. Kim is currently working on a new Hollows book between other, non related, urban fantasy projects.

Book Review: Voice of Darkness: An Epic Fantasy Romance by A.G. Houser

Voice of Darkness: An Epic Fantasy Romance
by A.G. Houser
June 7, 2021
377 pages
Dragonborn powers. A blood-thirsty sorceress. A kingdom on the brink of destruction.

Eryane’s powers as a Voiced One grow stronger every day, but the consequences of breaking the Queen’s laws against magic are becoming deadlier than ever. She yearns to show her best friend Abbott who she really is, even though it could mean her death.

Princess Caryse has had one job her entire life: protect her brother and see him take his throne on his eighteenth birthday. But she’s growing increasingly suspicious of her stepmother, and worries if Queen Arabella will let her brother have his throne at all.

Jerra’s sudden dragonborn powers are worthless to her, a farm girl with no interest in saving the world. The infuriatingly charming Commander Everson wants her to hear out the Queen‘s plea. But when the evil she’s supposed to stop strikes too close to home, she’ll have to decide if these powers are worth dying for.

Each of these women will be tested by magic... but which of them will become the Voice of Darkness?

If you love the worlds of Brandon Sanderson, the biting excitement of Tahereh Mafi, and the twisting, entangled characters of Jennifer L. Armentrout, then you won’t get enough of A.G. Houser’s mythical, breathtaking series!

Enter the Kingdom of Voices by scrolling up to “Buy Now!” Available for FREE with Kindle Unlimited!

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Have you ever tried to sit down, read a book, and can't? You just CAN'T read that book? But, you forage on. You keep going, turning the pages and still, you just can't read the book? That's what happened to me with Voice of Darkness.

Maybe I was preoccupied with housework, kid's schoolwork, the chickens in my backyard, why the grass is so light in one section of the yard even though you water it like crazy, Bitcoin - cause is it really a thing?, re-watching all of GOT cause your spouse hasn't watched it and is probably the last person on Earth who has no idea how horrible the Red Wedding was!!!! God's only know, but hard as I try there was just no getting into this book.

Nothing really grabbed hold of me, I had a hard time getting a grip on the tale and falling in love with the characters. Gave it more time to simmer and pages to appetizer on but the spark of reading food life didn't take hold. So for these reasons, it would be unfair to rate or review a book I couldn't finish. Please read what other reviewers are saying because this one let the author down and perhaps the fate of the whole world!

KD

Voice of Shadows: An Epic Fantasy Romance (Kingdom of Voices Book 2)

Jan 10, 2022

About the Author:

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A.G. Houser writes epic fantasy romance, science fiction, and paranormal romance for readers who love getting lost in fictional worlds. She is married to her best friend, and they live in Oklahoma with their two fur children, a Cavalier King Charles named Abigail and a black cat named Nova. When not writing, she spends her time playing Animal Crossing, watching Doctor Who, and over-analyzing movie plot holes. She believes in advocating for mental health, in telling the truth even if your voice shakes, and that pineapple is the best pizza topping. If you like her books, she recommends checking out Brandon Sanderson and Frank Beddor. She often gets lost in their worlds.

For all the latest news on releases and to see frequent pictures of her adorable fur children, subscribe to A.G. Houser's email newsletter or hop over to her Instagram at @aghouserbooks!