Cover Reveal: The Awakening

I am so excited I can hardly contain myself.

Today I get to share with you the official cover for

The Awakening: Book 1 of the Valkyrie’s Curse series!

https://media1.tenor.com/images/6bfbf4938de27861ba931635c2f20160/tenor.gif?itemid=5292331

https://media1.tenor.com/images/1a5ef388675bef5e3323bb2cb9f11327/tenor.gif?itemid=6141069

Are you ready?

 

Available for Preorder NOW on Amazon

Release date – June 20, 2018

Link: The Awakening

I think Shannon at Nemo’s Designs did an amazing job! Thank you Shannon!!!!

My cover model is Savanna Rundel. She will be the model for the entire series.

I”d like to get them all done now,  but $$$$$$.

Patience –  have to learn some.

BLURB:

Helena Eskildson is obsessed with Vikings and Norse Mythology. Neither Helena nor her sister knows they are Freya’s daughters – Valkyries, the shield maidens to Odin.
When her obsession leads her to a remote site at Roskilde and it’s two monolithic rune stones, her destiny is awakened.
While the team wages a battle between a cursed site and a sociopathic killer, time is ticking closer to Ragnarok.
Will her friends be able to save her before the gjallerhorn sounds?

 

Do you want a little sneak preview? I’ve been sharing snippets on Sundays WEWRIWA of this soon to be released book! 

EXCERPT 1:

He felt he had the favor of the Norns, the three goddesses associated with destiny, that were akin to the Greek gods of fate.

Having the favor of the gods meant success in his goals. He was destined to be Lif, the last man standing, the lone man that would repopulate the earth after Ragnarok. In essence, he would become the new Adam.

The rituals were necessary, an integral part of the process before using the key. Unfolding the linen handkerchief carefully, the ancient bronze key looked nothing like what most would think of as a key. A circular piece, about six inches in diameter spanned from his thumb to the tip of his middle finger. Runic writings along the outside edge written within the form of the great serpent Jormungand, the great dragon conquering the gripping animal grouping in a circular band about two inches wide, the design in the eternal triskell pattern. Inside of that, written in runes was the location of the gjallerhorn. At the center were nine swords pointing to an amber stone, nine strands over an open area, the stone center raised with a square notch in the back. It had to be positioned precisely at the solstice.

 

EXCERPT 2:

Helena dreamed of flying. In the past, it seemed that she miraculously flew, but in this dream she had wings. Great wings with silvery white feathers that shimmered in the sun’s rays. Her hair shone in brilliant golden hues. Her skin had a radiance from within, her cheeks rosy, her lips full. She felt an inner beauty and confidence that although unfamiliar fit her perfectly like a glove. She rose into the air, watching the warriors below.

Brave men poured from a hidden passage into the courtyard. Moving with quiet stealth, they moved to stations waiting for a signal from the leader.

Her eyes scanned the scene, watching. Which one was the leader? Then with a quick raise of his hand, the men advance with a great war cry. Waiting, observing the men working as a unit together to accomplish a greater goal. This would please Odin!

A young man poked his head from the tunnel, then ducked back inside. A few seconds later he darted across the courtyard to a smaller building. Drawing his sword he entered.

She dropped lower, so she could see inside, seeing a large wooden cabinet and another man fleeing. The young man approached the cabinet, searched it and found it empty, then pursued the other man.

The encounter was brief, easily taking the treasure from the thief. Confidence flooded over her. At last, a worthy warrior to claim.

 

 That’s right,  it’s ME!!!

Author Bio:

Since leaving the corporate world for the title of MOM, Ellie Mack has pursued her writing dreams. This former columnist is using her sassy opinions to shape her writing in novels. She lives near St. Louis, MO with her husband and two daughters. Ellie is a breast cancer survivor and wants to encourage others who are going through this battle.

When she’s not writing she can be found bullet journaling, crocheting, or cooking. You can find her musings on her blog: https://quotidiandose.wordpress.com

 

OTHER BOOKS BY ELLIE MACK:

Red Wine & Roses

Quotidiandose: 30 Days of Sass

Roxy Sings the Blues

Tempting Fate: Charity anthology

 

Follow my Amazon Author page – Ellie Mack author 

Follow me on BookBub It’s fun and easy, and you’ll never miss out on meeting new authors or having a chance to win great prizes. Here’s the link – Ellie Mack
Follow me on Goodreads – Ellie Mack
Facebook  Ellie Mack author

Twitter- @Mack_Ellie

Pinterest- Ellie Mack

My blog- Quotidiandose  You’re already here!

Be sure to order yours now!

I’m so excited!! SQUEEEEEEE!

Write on my friends, write on!

Viking Battle

Hello everyone!

Weekend Writing Warriors.

HOW IT WORKS

This is the description on their site:

       Welcome to Weekend Writing Warriors, the weekly hop for everyone who loves to write! Sign up below with your name, blog, and email and share an 8 to 10 sentence snippet of your writing on Sunday. Your post needs to be live between 12:00 noon on Saturday 01/27/18 and 09:00 AM on Sunday 01/28/18. Visit the other participants on the list and read, critique and comment on their 8sunday posts. 

I think they said it better than I could.

Look below the linky list for genre categories.
Spread the word, share the love, warriors. Twitter hashtag #8sunday.

It’s simple and fun. Sign up on the linky list with your name, blog URL, and email address on Mondays, 8:00 AM EST. Each week, the list remains open until Saturday, 11:59 PM. Then on Sunday, post 8 to 10 sentences from a current writing project, published or unpublished. Visit other participants and offer opinions, critiques, support. Writers hanging out with writers, a good time with a great group of people.

~~~~~~~~~

For my longtime readers, The Awakening, Book 1 in Valkyrie’s Curse series is slated to release on June 20th – I had to push it back a week as I don’t yet have the cover from the cover artist.  The cover reveal was supposed to go up Wednesday, May 9th. Can’t reveal a cover you don’t have now can you? The preorder is up however – 99 cents until release date! The cover on there is not the final cover – it’s a placeholder.

The Awakening: Book 1 in the Valkyrie’s Curse series preorder

So let’s jump in shall we?

This is from the prologue, continued from last week.

~~~~~

Aella saw a shadow move beyond the curtain. He took the sword from the hand of the second guard he had killed. Now armed with two swords he moved forward cautiously, muscles tensed at the ready. Aella moved behind the altar and found the secret compartment in the back opened. The key was gone!

Out of the corner of his eye, he caught a movement. He had to get that key! Aella moved to follow the thief. Swiftly he thrust his sword forward spun around and struck again with both swords, removing the thief’s arm. As the arm fell to the ground, the key dropped free. For a split second, his eyes followed the key, enough time for the man to raise his broad axe, but Aella was faster and thrust again. One sword found its mark in the enemy’s chest, the other slashed across the man’s throat.

~~~~~

 Let me know what you think!

Be sure to check out the other author’s snippets as well HERE

Happy Mother’s Day to all the moms out there!

Write on my friends, write on! I need to go read those snippets –  catch ya later, gator!

Romance 101

Welcome readers to Week 19 of the MFRW Blog hop.

Week 19: My Most Romantic Memory

Do you have any idea how difficult it is for a guy to romance a romance author? Hmmm?  Seriously,  how does any man ever compete against our book boyfriends?

OK, so I’m not really a mushy, gushy type of gal with frilly lace around my house with romantic decor, the rooms filled with soft mood inducing elements.  In fact, I’m a bit of a slob if truth be told.  As I look around at the moment,  I need to do some serious houseleaning.  But that’s another story.

Plus,  this isn’t my first rodeo. We’ve been married for almost 33 years.

I could list so many things in that amount of time, not to mention the 6 years we dated before tying the knot!

I remember our first kiss like it was yesterday,  but I have to say it pales in comparison with the deep passionate kisses now.

I remember our first time, . . . well, you know.  We were young, clumsy, neither of us knew what we were doing. But now, bow chicka wow wow!

But, passion is not the same as romance.

Romance is so much more than a hot date that ends with sex! Romance is being pursued.  It’s connecting, caring deeply in such a way that he makes me know that I am his heart! 

How can I pick just one thing?

My husband is an engineer.  He overthinks most things. He’s not Mr. Romance. BUT, he’s got such a wonderful heart and he gets me.  He loves me despite my bad habits,  my insecurities, and struggles. It’s so hard to pick just one thing or event.

I think the most romantic thing he has ever done for me is forgiving me.  We were very near divorced a few years back. I was done, fed up, hurt.  He never cheated on me – I want to make that clear.  It was other things.  We weren’t connecting,  we weren’t being considerate of each other, and in my hurt I was angry.  So very angry.

I wasn’t nice to him at all. Yet,  he was willing to go to marriage counseling,  bare his soul in front of someone else in order to work things out. We both had some changes to make  and my husband was better at it than me.  I was all for talking about the actions but when the counselor wanted to address underlying issues. . .  it took a long while before I opened up.

At the time I had shut him out but he wooed me back.

I Know it may not seem romantic to some people,  but changing a lifetime of habits is difficult. We had to change some elemental behaviors, both of us. The fact that he was willing to change for me when there was nothing really wrong with him, to begin with, . . . well to know that someone loves you so much they are willing to sacrifice everything else,  that’s LOVE.

Fictional characters never stink up the bathroom, they don’t leave their clothes on the floor, or their plates on the table.  They don’t have bad breath or get sick.  They don’t say the wrong thing at the wrong time and fictional characters don’t share our physical space.   BTW,  it’s not just the men that are guilty of these things. I’m sure the men could add a few more things to that list.

In real life, I found my Prince. Real life love trumps any fictional romance every time. We’ve been together for  39 years between dating and marriage –  I think we may have figured out a thing or two.

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This is us!

I am blessed to have him in my life! He’s my best friend!

You can check out what the other authors are saying HERE.

Write on my friends, write on!

Warranted Desires – Shannon Nemecheck

Who is ready for a new book to read? A friend of mine has a new release coming soon. She’s sharing her cover reveal and an excerpt with us today.

THERE IS NO FORCE STRONG ENOUGH TO TAKE

HER FROM ME…

It’s been six months since all hell broke loose. Six months since I killed the organization’s leader. And six months since I fell for the love of my life.

Samantha and I thought the worst was over, that we would be able to move on—together. But we were wrong.

What we thought was in the past has now come back to haunt us. We’ve only managed to scratch the surface of this war raging against terrorism, and we have no idea who to trust anymore.

But one thing is for damn sure. I won’t let anyone hurt her. I will keep Samantha safe…even if it kills me.

Add to Goodreads

Purchase at Amazon

 

 

 

 

GRAB BOOK ONE TODAY!

EXCERPT

Where could that man be? Sam wondered as she grabbed a sheet from the bed, wrapping it about herself as she started the coffee. She had already been up nearly half an hour, and he still wasn’t showing. Not even a note, weird. Must not have gone far then. As the coffee pot filled with water, she caught what she thought was Raleigh’s voice in the hallway. Turning off the water, she strained to listen. Yep, that’s him. She inched closer to the door and, still unable to hear clearly, pressed her ear against the wooden door and heard his voice clearly.

“Yes, sir,” he said. “I can report to Fort Bragg as soon as we close up this investigation.” Sam could feel a lump in her throat start to form as she listened to the excitement in his voice. This is something he wants.

“No, sir. I have nothing holding me in Alabama. Nope, no relationship either. I am as free as a bird.” His words cut through her.

No relationship? Nothing holding him? Report to Fort Bragg? None of this made sense to her; they hadn’t known each other long, but he never mentioned leaving and had continued to express his love for her and how he never wanted to leave her side. The tears started to flow as Sam tried to hold herself back from flinging the door open and punching him in the throat.

Stopping herself, she paused and thought about it. He was right—they didn’t have a “relationship” and there wasn’t anything holding him back. Just because he says he loves me doesn’t mean we’ll be married and live happily ever after, white picket fence and all. Besides, I’m not the white picket fence kind of woman. What does Happily Ever After mean in the first place?

Samantha paused and pressed her ear against the door to catch more of the conversation just as she heard the door key click. She quickly jumped clear of the door just in time and made it to the bathroom, standing in front of the mirror when Raleigh waltzed in, a huge smile on his face.

Seeing Sam in front of the mirror as he entered the room, he snuck up behind her, scooped her up in his arms, kissed her, and tossed her onto the bed, jumping next to her. “Good morning, darlin’. How’d ya sleep?” he asked as he propped his head up, looking down at her.

“I slept fine. I’m good.” Straining to rise, she uttered, “I’m just fine.” Her lips were pursed and her eyes almost burned with anger.

Confused, Raleigh sat up as Sam stood in front of him naked. “Well darlin’, you don’t look okay. You look pissed. If I didn’t know any better, I would think those hazel eyes of yours want to burn a hole right through me. Did I do something?”

“No,” she snapped back. “I’m okay, just sore is all.” “Well, baby, do you want me to give you a massage or we can get into the shower and see what comes up?” He smiled and winked at her. She couldn’t resist that damn smile, let alone be mad at him. Samantha smiled back. He will tell me in his own time. For now, I will enjoy what he has to give and hope for the best.

Samantha looked down at him, her eyes bright with anticipation. “Well, what are you waiting for?” she spoke, extending her hand to his to pull him up from the bed and into the shower. It didn’t take much for Raleigh to figure out what she was hinting at; he grabbed her hand, sprung to his feet, and pulled her into the bathroom all in one complete action. Sam giggled as he picked her up and placed her on the bathroom counter. When he bent over to turn on the water, she slapped him on his ass.

She did love that ass of his, so tight and firm he could crack a walnut between those cheeks.

“Whoa now, missy. It ain’t time for that yet. You will get your chance to play. Right now, it’s my turn.”

As he turned toward her, she could already see the effect she had on him. She never thought of herself as someone who could affect a man that quickly. They hadn’t even gotten started with the fun stuff yet.

Here is the full cover:

 

About the author:

Shannon started her writing career while still serving in the US Army. As an NCO in the Army, she led and trained soldiers.

Shannon grew up in Macomb, IL where she graduated from High School in 1987 and soon after joined the US Army. Shannon served from 1987 to 2015 during Operation Desert Storm and during Operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

In April 2015 Shannon retired from the US Army with 23 years of service as a Unit Supply Sergeant in several Army unit overseas and the United States. She served as a US Army Recruiter for 4 years and She holds a degree in clinical psychology and has been awarded multiple awards during her Army service. She is a mother of 4 children and a grandma to 2 beautiful Grand-daughters. She has been married 24 years to her husband, Ken. They reside in Staunton, IL a small town along Old Route 66.

Website | Amazon | Bookbub |Goodreads | Facebook | Instagram | Twitter

SGT NEMO’S NUTS

Men of the 9th Facebook Fan Page

Go check ’em out! Write on my friends, write on!

Weekend Writing Warriors -Awakening

Hello everyone!

Weekend Writing Warriors.

HOW IT WORKS

This is the description on their site: Welcome to Weekend Writing Warriors, the weekly hop for everyone who loves to write! Sign up below with your name, blog, and email and share an 8 to 10 sentence snippet of your writing on Sunday. Your post needs to be live between 12:00 noon on Saturday 01/27/18 and 09:00 AM on Sunday 01/28/18. Visit the other participants on the list and read, critique and comment on their 8sunday posts. 

I think they said it better than I could.

Look below the linky list for genre categories.
Spread the word, share the love, warriors. Twitter hashtag #8sunday.

It’s simple and fun. Sign up on the linky list with your name, blog URL, and email address on Mondays, 8:00 AM EST. Each week, the list remains open until Saturday, 11:59 PM. Then on Sunday, post 8 to 10 sentences from a current writing project, published or unpublished. Visit other participants and offer opinions, critiques, support. Writers hanging out with writers, a good time with a great group of people.

~~~~~~~~~

Greetings! It’s been a while since I’ve tried to share anything for this. I’ve been plugging away at two shorts and revisions on the next novel. Before I shared from The Blood Key which was one of the shorts I was working on.  The anthology was canceled unfortunately. I will release this one though after I get the first and second books from the Fae series out.

For my longtime readers, The Awakening, book 1 in Valkyrie’s Curse series is slated to release on June 12th.  The cover reveal and preorders will go up soon, I promise.

So let’s jump in shall we?

~~~~~

Olaf, Sven, and Aella glanced between themselves nodding. They had fought together in other battles, but this was the first in their homelands. They touched their swords to their chest and made the family sign, mouthing silently together “united by birth, bound by blood”.

An insurgent had taken their lands, their women, and killed their king. Now it was time to reclaim what was rightfully theirs.

The ship slowed as the V-shaped hull found the soft sand. Jorvic gave the forward motion. Two men steadied the ship as the others slipped into the surf. IT was only knee-deep, the men sloshed forward as quietly as possible. By the stealth of moonlight, they slipped through the secret door on the outer wall.

 

~~~~~

 Let me know what you think!

Be sure to check out the other author’s snippets as well HERE

Write on my friends, write on!

Get On With It

It’s been a little over a year since my diagnosis, and a year yesterday for surgery. Wow, what a whirlwind ride this has been.

I’m thankful to still be here. I’m thankful to have hair, even though it’s white now.

I promise I am not going to dwell on this forever, but since I’ve been riddled with anxiety for the past week over just about everything, this is part of my healing process.  I have to process these thoughts, learn to manage the emotions and the overwhelm.

What has changed?  Everything.

OH, on the surface onlookers may think I’m the same old same old. but I’m not. I am learning to make myself a priority –  still learning, still trying to use that word NO, and still doing the self-talk to tell myself I’m worth it. Because you know what?  I am!

We all are.  Each one of us deserves a fulfilling life and to achieve our own happiness.  Each of us is a unique one of a kind original. It’s hard to keep that in mind at times when the lemming tendencies of our society scream that we need to fit in and do what everyone else is doing.

How are we ever going to stand out from the crowd if we are doing the same thing, looking the same, wearing the same hairstyle?  There is nothing wrong with being ourselves.  There is nothing wrong with being who you are, regardless of that mean bitch from school says.

Screw her! OH wait,  most of the guys already have!

That was a joke, sort of.

We need to stop being influenced by those mean girls and the pretty people. They are a minority and we outnumber them into the millions. Why do we ever care what they think?

For me,  I’ve always had this element of people pleasing. It’s a lifelong habit that I’m working on breaking.  It’s part of exercising that word NO.

What do you think?  What do you want to do? I”m not saying that you do whatever you want even if it’s illegal or immoral. I’m talking about pursuing your dreams, setting goals for yourself and learning to get our thoughts in line with drawing what we truly want out of life.

There are times when the overwhelm is just too much for me. This was never an issue before cancer. I’ve been thinking about why that is.  Part of it, as listed in the side effects of the chemo meds I have to take is increased anxiety. OH, joy! But I take the meds because I want to live cancer free.

Part of it, I’ve deduced is because I’ve spent a lifetime stress eating and putting myself into a food stupor when I was overwhelmed so that I could numb myself from the pain and anxiety.  Do you think overweight people simply eat too much?  It’s so much more than that.

OK, you take someone who has put on twenty pounds because they’ve been hitting the pizza and beer too often and no biggie,  they cut down on their consumption and within a short time have taken the weight off. But a fat person?  I mean someone who has been overweight for a long time, maybe their whole life, it’s a psychological issue as much as it is about overeating.  Hence the yo-yo up and down the scale.

Anyway,  this isn’t about being fat or me being frustrated that the weight isn’t coming off faster. This is ultimately about change and learning to control the thoughts and emotions.

Some things change quickly –  surgery – I had cancer, they removed the tumors.

Some things take time –  it took many treatments for the radiation to be effective.

Some things take even longer – learning to eat differently, learning new habits, learning new limitations.

Ultimately though, aren’t we all learning? Whether we are adjusting to dietary limitations, or physical limitations or emotional,  we have to overcome, adapt, and learn what our best is each and every day.  Maybe today it’s learning that “I’m OK. Tomorrow it may be “I can’t do that but I can tackle this.”

Early in the week, I was a whirlwind of energy and productivity. Yesterday I fell into a pit of overwhelm and could barely function.  I was a mess of tears, snotting and snorting and nearly hyperventilating. My friend Misty talked me down. She walked me through the sensory steps,  reminded me of the four agreements, and then my husband called around lunchtime and told me to throw away my list.

 NO, not my list! The LIST is like, THE PIRATE CODE.

Cue increased panic.

He reminded me that nothing on my list was mandatory. (But,  it’s my list.  I don’t list unnecessary things to do.) Nothing is mandatory and has to be done today.  The only mandatory things on the list were my day job, getting my blog post up (because it was a personal goal) and making sure I did my physical therapy.

As I glanced over my precious list of twenty-seven items, I realized he was right. As much as I wanted to get those other things accomplished and checked off the list –  only list makers will get that – the world was not going to end if I waited for another day to try to tackle them.

One of those items was a social situation with someone that causes me continued stress. At the end of the day, I realized that it was in my own best interest to say NO, and bow out. The second part of that is allowing myself to not fret over the decision and accept that I need to take care of myself.

Why does it have to be so hard to say no? What is it that I was so afraid of? That they would be mad at me? They don’t like me anyway. Hard to imagine, but they don’t.

I refer to Agreement Number 2: Don’t take anything Personal. Nothing others do is because of you. What others do or say is a product of their own reality, their own dreams and actions. When you are immune to the opinions and actions of others, you won’t be the victim of suffering.

Breathe.

Inhala . . . exhala . . . and now I can get on with it.

Write on my friends, write on!

 

 

Who’s Who In Mackworld

Welcome readers to Week 18 of the MFRW Blog hop.

Week 18: How I work up Character/Setting Profiles.

 

How do I “do” characters and setting?

You really want to get into this? Surely there are better things to discuss, like plot points, the beach, coffee. 

*waits for MFRW to change their minds* 

NO?  OK, well this isn’t going to be pretty.  You might want to grab a rain poncho or something.

Characters:

My characters come to my mind, as if they had popped into the office and made a request. Imagine that you are the receptionist for a small company and a woman comes in.

“Good afternoon, how may I help you?” My fingers move from the keyboard to grab the pen and notepad.

She looks around nervously. “I have an appointment with Mr. McDaniels for ten.”

“Please fill out these forms.”

I pass the clipboard across the counter to the woman as I open a new client screen. When she returns the clipboard,  I enter her name, address, the reason for visit, and any other pertinent information. I begin to process what I’ve entered and then it gets weird. It’s like I trade places with the “boss” whether he’s a private eye, a counselor, or a physician. The character then tells me the details of her visit.

As she tells me what’s going on and what her concerns are,  I begin to learn who she is.

Now, in reality, I may be working at the day job.  I may be doing housework or I might be driving in the car. All of this goes on inside my brain until I can get to a point where I can sit down and start jotting thoughts down. A friend gave me a character development worksheet that I fill out, but to be honest it’s only partially filled out before the story fully develops.

I’ve said before that I am a plotter –  I have been using the W method that the wonderful Karen Docter taught me. This gives me a basic outline that I can fill in the important scenes in between the 9 major plot points. This still allows the freedom to “pants it” while I am making my first draft.

Usually as I am learning my character,  the details on setting come out from their first “visit”.

I have had some characters come to me fully developed and practically begging me to write their story, and then others seem a little shy and I have to play twenty questions to dig the information out of them.

Bran, the brother in Kiss of the Dragon came to me fully developed, showing up in my “office” stark naked, fully muscled, demanding my full attention RIGHT NOW.   Unfortunately,  I was really green when I did the draft of that one during nano and it needs major revisions, which is why it’s still in the files.

Julia from Red Wine & Roses was the shy one.  She was hesitant to talk about herself.  I had to pry the information from her while Derek wanted to talk inside my head for hours. Great dude,  shut up while I find out about Julia!

Settings: As I learn the character and their story,  the setting becomes clearer. Whether it’s the town they are in, the state, or a small little convenient mart, it’s part of them, part of their story.

I know it would make more sense to make up characters by sitting down and deciding OK, this one will be a male,  dark hair, beard no wait a goattee,  blue eyes, a scar above his brow, thin lips, tats on his arms and chest, a scar on his thigh. Let’s say he got the scars from a car accident. Let’s call him Joe.  It doesn’t always work that way. By the way,  this is the description of a character for a piece that I’ve been working on in the background, kind of a pshycho-thriller. If you are judging by appearances you might think he’s the antagonist but he isn’t. He’s sort of an antihero. but I don’t have my W worked out, or what his goal is, or his end game. We just met a few weeks ago, so I don’t even know his name yet.

Nathan’s story unfolded quickly. It was like I was a fly on the wall watching his story unfold like a movie behind my eyes if that makes sense.

 

 

 

 

 

Be sure to Preorder your copy of Tempting Fate: Charity Anthology today!

You can go to the blog hop and check out what other authors have to say about this by clicking on MFRW BLOG HOP.

Write on my friends, write on!