Let’s welcome the writing team of McDonald and McDonald back to West of Mars!

You may remember them from their Son of Cayn trilogy, which we featured here, here, and here. That was a couple of years ago, and between then and now, they’ve clearly been busy, with this first in a new series called Chronicles of Damage, Inc. (Oooh, don’t let Metallica’s lawyers see that! Although… good song.)

Still, Jason and Stormy have an other song or… well, three… that remind them of Phantoms of Ruthaer. And what songs would those be? Let’s let them tell us.

The characters who comprise the bounty hunting team of Damage, Inc. in Phantoms of Ruthaer have been waiting impatiently for us to tell their tale for a while now. During the early stages of their development, we began assembling a playlist of songs that spoke to us about each character, such as Drivin N Cryin’s “Straight to Hell” for the irascible archer, Dave, and “Adrenaline” by Gavin Rossdale for the team’s leader, Hector. Then we heard “The Outsiders” by Eric Church. Its gritty depiction of a group with a reputation for being dangerous, who aren’t afraid to go their own way, and are willing to stand up to anyone captured the essence of Damage, Inc and our novel.

Three songs, so have some aural fun as you read!

But… you’re not going to want to read until you know what the book’s about, right? Well, here ya go:

In the countries east of the White River, some call Damage, Inc. heroes. Others call the bounty hunters criminals. The truth lies somewhere in between. Hector de los Santos, the team’s leader, has only two rules about bounties: finish every job, no matter what it takes, and no charity cases.

Aislinn Yves, the team’s half-elven tracker, thought she’d never see the tiny village of Ruthaer again. That is, until a plea for help from her father’s old friend, Tallinn, arrives. The job sounds simple: track down a few missing people, perhaps a killer. The trick is convincing Hector to put their current job on hold.

Unfortunately, things are worse than Tallinn implied. Unnatural weather, restless dead, and gruesome murders are just the beginning, for the town harbors a terrible secret more dangerous than Aislinn or Hector could imagine. A secret that could spell the end of Damage, Inc. and drag Ruthaer straight to Hell.

Sounds like a winner? Grab your copy, exclusive to Amazon. And remember to leave a review once you’ve finished reading. There’s no better way to thank an author for their hard work, creativity, time, and inspiration.

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As always, remember to share the word of the spotlight with your author friends. Come one, come all! Here’s the link to the handy-dandy form.

I have known Jaime McDougall for … wow. Forever, in Internet terms. She offered me my first-ever guest blog post, so long ago now that I don’t even have a dead link to it in my archives, let alone a live one.

Yeah, that’s some history.

So I’m super glad to host Jaime today. It always feels like paying her back for taking a chance on someone new to the blogging community. And besides, I like the way this girl thinks. I’m pretty confident you will, too.

So, Jaime, what song makes you think of your book?

In many ways, Dark Echoes was my most difficult novel to write. The problem? My main character didn’t want to talk to me.

I knew from the start that Lily Peterson was stubborn and cranky – quite unlike her sister Charlotte and ‘aunt’ Phoebe (the main characters from the first two books). She wanted to do things her own way throughout the book. That certainly made for an interesting character, but it made it slow going for the author trying to get to know her.

In an attempt to ‘unlock’ her from a different angle, I went YouTube \\\’urfing’. I clicked on a music video and then continued to \\\’urf’ from video to video via the recommended videos in the sidebar. Though it took me a while, I finally found ‘Stand in the Rain’ by Superchick and thus found Lily’s anthem.

From then on, I could always listen to ‘Stand in the Rain’ when I felt like I wasn’t quite doing Lily justice. It’s not always easy to write a character who is stronger than you, so listening to this song helped me to find Lily when I was feeling lost.

 

I especially love this last paragraph. The romantic life of an author… yes, I see that as a romantic statement! Not romantic love. Sheesh. More like the romance and the beauty of writing.

Let’s just move on to the book description, shall we?

 

Lily Peterson is a wolf who hunts alone. Haunted by the attack that left her best friend permanently human, she will do whatever it takes to catch her prey.

FATE

Jason North is one of the Neuri, a pack of werewolves with special abilities. He knows he’s never met Lily before, but his instincts tell him he has. He’ll keep her close until he figures out why.

EVERYBODY LIES

A war that has played out across lifetimes threatens to consume Echo Falls. Friends become enemies, and old enemies become allies. Lily fights against memories that aren’t hers, forced toward a fate she doesn’t believe in.

Fate is about to learn that Lily doesn’t like being told what to do.

 

Proof that weres aren’t dead in today’s fiction. Jaime’s got it covered.

Pick up your copy at Amazon (only, unfortunately for those of us who don’t shop there).

 

Get to know Jaime. You’ll be glad you did.

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One of the best things about this here Internet is the way it brings us together. Take today’s feature author, for instance. I met Nessa on a booklovers’ forum, and she is one of the few people who knows what I actually look like. She’s even (brace yourself) been in my house.

So no one’s jumping for joy higher or with more glee — well, other than Nessa herself — than I am to see she’s got a book in print. And best of all, she did us all a zinger and wrote a super book (Okay, speculation there. I haven’t read it yet.) that’s outside the genre we all thought she’d first publish in.

Let’s get right to it. Nessa, what song makes you think of Syrah?

This was actually a very difficult question for me, because I am really bad with music. I’m just not the kind of person who is always listening to it, and associating songs with things is not something I tend to do. However, I asked my friends on Facebook & Twitter and I was told by someone who loved the book that it made them think of Stormy Weather by Ella Fitzgerald. So I’m going to go with that.

Ooh, what a voice. What a legend. Mmmmmmm….

Want to know what the book’s about? I sure do!

All Corked Up: Book One

All Shawn Neale is looking for when he stumbles into All Corked Up on Christmas Eve is some wine recommendations. What he finds is an instant attraction to Royce Wilkinson, the shop’s owner. After a few weeks of flirting during shopping and some semi-dates at Royce’s wine tastings, they decide on a real date. It goes well, but life isn’t that simple.

Shawn wants to buy Delicto, the local pub he manages. He’s been planning his life around this for years, but when the owner, who believes being gay is an illness, discovers Shawn went out with Royce, he gives Shawn an ultimatum: stop dating guys or he won’t get to buy Delicto. It’s a heartbreaking quandary: Can Royce and Shawn be happy with a secret relationship until Shawn buys Delicto or is Shawn going to have to choose between his dream job and his dream guy?

Ready? Go get your own copy!

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