Losing Logan

HAUNTING ZOE by Sherry D. Ficklin

Available NOW! 



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*Haunting Zoe will be FREE on Amazon soon! 

Logan woke up with a big problem.

He’s extremely dead.

No one from his former life seems able to see or hear him, making his afterlife little more than a miserable nightmare. 

That is, until the day of his funeral, when the bitterly sarcastic Zoe, a friend from his childhood, starts calling him out at his own wake. Now his only chance at moving on means dealing with his sordid past—and the girl he never really got over.

LOSING LOGAN by Sherry D. Ficklin

Find out why readers are saying that Losing Logan is the best paranormal-romance stand-alone novel of the year! 

"What if the one thing you never meant to hold on to, is the one thing you can't let go of?" 

Normally finding a hot guy in her bedroom wouldn’t irritate Zoe so badly, but finding her childhood friend Logan there is a big problem.

Mostly because he’s dead.

As the only person he can make contact with, he convinces Zoe to help him put together the pieces surrounding his mysterious death so he can move on. Thrust into his world of ultra popular rich kids, Zoe is out of her element and caught in the cross-hairs of Logan’s suspicious ex-girlfriend and the friends he left behind, each of whom had a reason to want him dead. The deeper they dig to find the truth, the closer Zoe gets to a killer who would do anything to protect his secrets. And that’s just the start of her problems because Zoe is falling for a dead guy.

Please help us spread the news about this early release by sharing this blog post, Tweeting it, Facebooking it and/or Pinning it!  

ABOUT SHERRY D. FICKLIN

Sherry D. Ficklin is a full time writer from Colorado where she lives with her husband, four kids, two dogs, and a fluctuating number of chickens and house guests. A former military brat, she loves to travel and meet new people. She can often be found browsing her local bookstore with a large white hot chocolate in one hand and a towering stack of books in the other. That is, unless she’s on deadline at which time she, like the Loch Ness monster, is only seen in blurry photographs.



She is the author of The Gods of Fate Trilogy now available from Dragonfly Publishing. Her previously self-published novel After Burn: Military Brats has been acquired by Harlequin and will be released in 2015 with a second book in that series to follow. Her newest YA steampunk novel, EXTRACTED: The Lost Imperials book 1, co-written with Tyler H. Jolley is now available everywhere books are sold and her newest YA novel, Losing Logan, is due for release in 2014 from Clean Teen Publishing.

  

More from Clean Teen Publishing:

   

 

A to Z Challenge: M is for Medusa

I know what you're thinking--you know who Medusa is. How could you not know? She's the lady with the snake hair who slew people with her gaze. As a child, Medusa fascinated me. I don't even remember the name of the show, but I remember the scene where Perseus walks into the cave where Medusa lurks and uses his mirror shield to defeat her. That scene has stuck with me for my entire life. I used its inspiration in my book, DemonSpark, and came up with my own idea of who Medusa was. (DemonSpark is still trying to find a home, so as of yet, it's still unpublished.)

In my book, the heroes, Lily and Ian, have entered an ancient pyramid in a world called the Everlands, a place where all myths co-exist. They have to find the ancient prophet Tiresias' eye, which in actuality is a seer stone, to defeat an evil demon-witch. They've fought the bad guys and have found a chamber with Medusa's corpse...

A wooden door with the eye’s image sat under an alcove. When they reached it, they stopped.
“The seer stone is in here?” Lily asked.
“Better be.” Ian grabbed the handle. Hinges squealed as he opened it. They entered a room only a little larger than her bedroom back home. Actual sunlight shone from a hole in the ceiling. It illuminated a stone coffin. A gentle calmness clung to the bare sandstone walls and dirt floor, as if they’d entered a sacred chapel.
With quiet footsteps, they crossed the room. She peered at the coffin, surprised to see it uncovered and open to the air. A woman slept inside.
She had flawless fair skin, pink cheeks, and a shapely body covered by sparkling gossamer fabric. A strip of cloth had been wrapped around the woman’s eyes, creating a blindfold.
Lily took another step, only then noticing that her shimmering white hair was actually made up of snakes fanning from the woman’s head.
“She’s . . . not hideous. Are you sure this is Medusa?” she asked Ian.
“Who else could it be?”
“I thought she was supposed to be repulsive. And her head is attached.”
“There are a lot of stories out there, not all of them true. Ovid called her ravishing, fair. I’ve heard Perseus fell in love with her and couldn’t kill her. He killed one of her Gorgon sisters instead. Stheno, I think was her name. I don’t know. I guess the myths aren’t always true.”

In researching for my book, I learned that Medusa was the only mortal Gorgon. She had two sisters, Stheno and Eurayle. Wikipedia has this to say about the three sisters...

Stheno (Greek: Σθεννώ, English translation: "forceful"), in Greek mythology, was the eldest of the Gorgons, vicious female monsters with brass hands, sharp fangs and "hair" made of living venomous snakes. The daughter of Phorcys and Ceto, she was born in the caverns beneath Mount Olympus. She and her sister Euryale were both immortal, and the third sister, Medusa, was mortal.

Of the three Gorgons, she was known to be the most independent and ferocious, having killed more men than both of her sisters combined. In Greek mythology, she was transformed into a Gorgon because of standing with her sister Medusa, who was either raped or seduced by the sea god Poseidon in the Temple of Athena. Athena was furious with Medusa. As a punishment, Medusa was changed into a terrible monster, along with her sisters Stheno and Euryale. Stheno tends to be depicted as a thin gorgon monster with red snakes curling around her head instead of hair.

I've always thought it was a neat concept to reintroduce characters who we have preconceived notions of, and then to undo those ideas we thought were true. It worked in the Twilight Series. Even if you're not a fan, there are plenty of people out there who feel differently.

As always, please follow me! Also, I have a brand new website that I'm really thrilled about. www.TamaraGrantham.com. And if you haven't read my novella yet--don't miss out. Raze is only $2.99 on Amazon. You would be doing me an amazing favor if you read and download--I'm a brand new author and need all the support I can get.

A to Z: L is for Lamia

In recent years, I doubt anyone could get away from the recent vampire hype. But vampires aren't the only blood sucking creatures out there. The Lamia may be just as infamous, though not as well-known.
Myths vary on Lamia's origin. Some say Hera slew her children, so Lamia stole other children as retribution. The Lamia were folkloric monsters similar to vampires or succubi who seduced young men and fed on their blood. Most describe them with the head of a female and torso of a snake, though other versions give them snake scales for skin and a human body. Other versions say that she looked like an ordinary mortal, though had a snakeskin wrapped around her arm or waist.

I thought this picture was beautiful. It's called Lamia (first version) by John William Waterhouse.(1905) Note the snakeskin wrapped around her arm and waist.

During the middle ages, mothers used the Lamia's tale to frighten their children. The Lamia, enraged and saddened at her own children's death, was said to snatch children from their beds and devour them.

In modern times, the Lamia appears in the BBC show Merlin, as well as in one of my favorite book series, The Kate Daniel series by Ilona Andrews.

Have you heard of the Lamia in any books or movies?

As always, I appreciate all my followers and welcome any newcomers! I have a brand new shiny website, if anyone wants to check it out, please got to www.TamaraGrantham.com. Also, be sure to check out my novella Raze, about two sisters who are New York's only professional hellraises. They're hired to find a missing girl who is a Shine--a young woman with extraordinary abilities. But when they do find her, they aren't prepared for what happens next...

A to Z Challenge: K is for Keres

Keres--Have you heard of them? If not, here's the scoop. The Keres are winged demons who, like the Fates, were daughters of Night. They are associated with the personifications of death and doom. And some claim that they may be involved with the destinies assigned to each person at their birth.

How cool is that?

A daughter of Night, assigning each person a destiny--I see a story in this. Do you?

Don't forget to follow my blog! I do a happy dance every time I get a new follower. Do NOT let me pass up my day without doing a happy dance. Also, my novella Raze in on Amazon for only $2.99. Check it out!

As today is K day, I'd also like to recommend a great series I've discovered by author Jennifer Anne Davis. Book One of the True Reign series is called The Key. (K for Key, get it?)I literally couldn't put this book down. My family hated me. Here's what it's about:

His father's kingdom is on the brink of upheaval and at the center of it all is an ordinary girl who could be the key to its undoing. When faced with the ultimate choice, will he choose the girl he's falling in love with or the kingdom he has sworn to protect?

An ordinary girl with an extraordinary past... All she wants is to be free. What she doesn't realize is that freedom comes with a price she can't afford to pay. She's forced to accept the proposal of a prince she despises, even though her heart belongs to someone else... his brother.

Seventeen-year-old Rema lives in a brutal kingdom where travel between regions is forbidden, people are starving, and looking at someone the wrong way can mean death. Nineteen-year-old Darmik is the king's son and Commander of the King's Army. He spends his days roving the island, doing his father's bidding and trying to maintain control over the people.

When a chance encounter throws Rema and Darmik together, they share an instantaneous connection, but any sort of relationship between them is strictly forbidden. Darmik's brother, the Crown Prince, notices Darmik's interest in Rema and, in a calculated, political move, blackmails her. Faced with an impossible choice, Rema is forced to sacrifice her heart in order to save her family.

As Rema is taken to the palace with the Crown Prince, Darmik confronts the growing rumor that a legitimate blood heir to the throne exists and is trying to overthrow Darmik's family. In Darmik's quest to hunt down and kill the threat, he discovers that nothing is as it seems. Locked in the king's castle, Rema finds herself a key player in a massive power struggle. When Darmik shows up, she's not sure if she can trust him. The line between friends, enemies, and loyalty becomes blurred. As truths are unlocked, Rema understands that she just might be the key to finding the rightful heir and restoring peace to the kingdom... if she can manage to stay alive long enough.

My thoughts: I've heard some reviewers explain that they found parts of the book cliche. In the book world, the word cliche has come to be a nail in the coffin, a hex for anyone who shall read the book. But there is one quality that trumps cliche, and that is intrigue. Write a good book, make it interesting and with likable characters, and cliche ceases to hold any power. At the beginning of the book, I thought that it did seem somewhat like other books I've read before, but by the end those thoughts didn't matter. I loved the characters. I wanted them to succeed. My heart hurt when they didn't, and I could NOT wait to read the next book, Red. I did. And it's just as good as the first. I give both books 5 stars, and I'm anxiously awaiting Book 3, War.

The Key is available on Amazon or B&N. It's FREE for a limited time, so don't miss out!http://www.amazon.com/True-Reign-Jennifer-Anne-Davis-ebook/dp/B00GOHVFPW/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1397316376&sr=1-1&keywords=the+key+jennifer+anne+davis

A to Z Challenge: J is for Judgment of Paris

There's a reason why Greek myths are still around today. Sure, they're a piece of history and important to our culture, but they're also just fun. They're like soap operas or, as is the case of today's myth, a bad episode of Jerry Springer. (You remember Jerry Springer, right?)

It started with a banquet. Zeus held it to celebrate the marriage of Peleus and Thetis--the parents of Achilles. Eris, the goddess of discord, was not invited, and she was not happy about it. She arrived at the banquet with a golden apple from the Garden of the Hesperides. She threw the apple into the crowd. Written on the apple were the words, "For the Fairest One."

Three goddesses claimed the apple. Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite. They demanded that Zeus judge who was the fairest of the three, but he refused to be involved, and chose Paris, a Trojan prince, to judge for him.

True to the drama, the judging proceeded with bribery. Hera offered to make him king of Europe and Asia. Athena offered wisdom in skill in war. But Aphrodite tempted him with something more alluring--the world's most beautiful woman--Helen of Sparta, wife of the Greek king Menelaus.

Paris, of course, chose Aphrodite's gift, incurring not only the wrath of Athena and Hera, but also the condemnation of the entire Greek nation. In fact, the Greeks expedition to retrieve Helen from Troy is the basis for the Trojan war.

As always, thanks for following! And if you need a fast read for this weekend, please check out my novella. Raze, Shine # 6. It's gotten some great five star reviews. You can check it out on Amazon. Also, for this week only, Shine # 7, Lost Haven by Sabrina Fish, is only 99 cents!

Do you need to read the previous five books to get up to speed? No. The Shine books are like comic books--they're published as monthly serials, although the first five are great reads too. I hope you discover the new Shine phenomenon!

In the near future, a few young women manifest extraordinary abilities called "Shine." Each girl's ability is different. Some develop extraordinary mental abilities. Some become physically strong. Others have powers that defy description. But the world does not embrace these Shines. It fears them.

Cover Reveal- A Losing Logan Novella

COVER REVEAL- A Losing Logan Novella

HAUNTING ZOE by Sherry D. Ficklin

Available 4/18/14 

Logan woke up with a big problem.

He’s extremely dead.

No one from his former life seems able to see or hear him, making his afterlife little more than a miserable nightmare. 

That is, until the day of his funeral, when the bitterly sarcastic Zoe, a friend from his childhood, starts calling him out at his own wake. Now his only chance at moving on means dealing with his sordid past—and the girl he never really got over.

*Haunting Zoe will be FREE to all readers! Please note that it will be free on Smashwords and then FREE on Amazon within the first few weeks.

CELEBRATE the Release of Losing Logan and the upcoming release of Haunting Zoe at our online Facebook Release Party Friday Night! April 11, 2014. Win prizes, get insider info and more! 

JOIN THE RELEASE PARTY TODAY!

LOSING LOGAN by Sherry D. Ficklin

Find out why readers are saying that Losing Logan is the best paranormal-romance stand-alone novel of the year! 

Publisher: Clean Teen Publishing

Genres: Young Adult, Paranormal Romance, Suspense

AVAILABLE NOW!

"What if the one thing you never meant to hold on to, is the one thing you can't let go of?" 

Save $2 on the purchase price of Losing Logan for 72 Hours Only! Reduced from $4.99 to $2.99! Release Special! 

Normally finding a hot guy in her bedroom wouldn’t irritate Zoe so badly, but finding her childhood friend Logan there is a big problem.

Mostly because he’s dead.

As the only person he can make contact with, he convinces Zoe to help him put together the pieces surrounding his mysterious death so he can move on. Thrust into his world of ultra popular rich kids, Zoe is out of her element and caught in the cross-hairs of Logan’s suspicious ex-girlfriend and the friends he left behind, each of whom had a reason to want him dead. The deeper they dig to find the truth, the closer Zoe gets to a killer who would do anything to protect his secrets. And that’s just the start of her problems because Zoe is falling for a dead guy.

Please help us spread the news about this early release by sharing this blog post, Tweeting it, Facebooking it and/or Pinning it!  

ABOUT SHERRY D. FICKLIN

Sherry D. Ficklin is a full time writer from Colorado where she lives with her husband, four kids, two dogs, and a fluctuating number of chickens and house guests. A former military brat, she loves to travel and meet new people. She can often be found browsing her local bookstore with a large white hot chocolate in one hand and a towering stack of books in the other. That is, unless she’s on deadline at which time she, like the Loch Ness monster, is only seen in blurry photographs.



She is the author of The Gods of Fate Trilogy now available from Dragonfly Publishing. Her previously self-published novel After Burn: Military Brats has been acquired by Harlequin and will be released in 2015 with a second book in that series to follow. Her newest YA steampunk novel, EXTRACTED: The Lost Imperials book 1, co-written with Tyler H. Jolley is now available everywhere books are sold and her newest YA novel, Losing Logan, is due for release in 2014 from Clean Teen Publishing.

  

More from Clean Teen Publishing:

   

 

A to Z Challenge: I is for Ixion

Ixion is a Greek character I've gotten to know over the years. He plays a major part in my third book, DemonSpark. First I'll give you the synopsis of my book, and then I'll tell you how Ixion plays into the story:

Lily White has two challenges. First, she struggles to keep her ancestry a secret. Her grandfather is Cain immortal, transformed by God into a feiry—a demon incubus. Her second challenge is more complicated. She can’t find a prom date. At Jefferson High School, going solo to the prom would be reputational suicide. However, she’ll do anything to hide her origins, even reject the new hot guy, Ian Kanellis, who’s into her, but knows way too much about her past.
She learns that Ian serves her aunt, the White Feiry. He captures her father, whose blood will be used to destroy all mortals inhabiting the planet. To save her dad, Lily leaves her hometown in Texas to descend into the Everlands—a melting pot of mythological beings. Tiresias’s reanimated corpse, ape-like wraiths called Vraithi, Ammit-the Egyptian, heart-eating goddess—bring it.
She’s got one problem—Ian. As the grandson of Zeus, and the sole remaining Vraithi in human form, only he has the power to kill the White Feiry. He swears he’s sorry for capturing Lily’s dad, but she can’t trust him. Unless she does, she’ll never save the world from destruction, she’ll never see her father alive again, and prom just became more of a myth than her ancestors.

Okay, so you're probably wondering how Ixion fits into the story. Ian's father is Ixion. We learn early on that Ian hates his dad. To get you up to speed, Lily learns that Ian is the only person who knows where Zeus is, and Zeus can help her save her father. She has to get Ian's help, but he's having daddy issues. At this point in the story, Lily finds out who Ian's father is, and learns about his past. Of course, I couldn't tell the myth without giving it a twist. But I won't reveal the twist here in my blog. You'll have to read my book if you want to find out what really happened to Ixion. (And that means I'll have to get it published first!)

To show who Ixion is, I've decided to use a snippet from my book. Lily and Ian are staying in an old fort in the Peruvian rainforest to hide from Lily's aunt, the White Feiry. She finds Ian hiding out in the bell tower, where she coerces him to tell her about his dad...

Lily had to make Ian cooperate. But how? She knew Ian didn’t like his dad. Now seemed like a good time to find out why. If they were going to find the Ever King and free her father, she’d have to.
She climbed the staircase, then entered the bell tower. The scent of rain filled the open space. Through the tall windows, a flash of lightning cut through the midnight sky, followed by a low rumble of thunder.
Ian sat on the windowsill.
A hard knot formed in her stomach.
The lightning illuminated his silhouette. As she approached him, she noticed he’d taken off his gloves. They sat on the windowsill with holes singed through them. She smelled burned leather.
Electricity glowed around his fingertips. She made sure not to touch him as she sat on the ledge.
“You burned your gloves.”
“It happens.”
Another bolt of lightning shot through the sky, lighting the jungle for a brief moment. Sounds of crickets and frogs filled the damp air, reminding her of the thunderstorms back home.
How should she approach the subject of his father? Would he be angry with her for bringing it up? She decided it didn’t matter. He would have to talk about it someday, even if it made him uncomfortable. “Will you tell me about your dad?” she asked in a gentle voice.
He didn’t answer.
“I know it’s hard, but you need to talk to someone.”
“Do I?” he asked with a defiant tone, as if he meant to challenge her. He knew better. Challenges were her weakness, and he seemed to have an uncanny ability at coercing her. This wasn’t going as well as she’d planned. “Tell me about your father,” she insisted.
He leaned closer. “Are you sure you want to know?”
“Yes.”
He paused before speaking. “His name was Ixion. He didn’t come to the Everlands like everyone else. Zeus cast him into Hades long before then—for kin-slaying—the first recorded in Greek history.”
Already she regretted asking. But she had to know more. “Who did he kill?”
“His father-in-law. Pushed him into a bed of coals. But that isn’t the only reason Zeus punished him. My father became an outcast after he killed his father-in-law. Zeus felt sorry for him and brought him to Olympus. And then my dad raped Hera.”
She stared at him, jaw slightly agape.
He shrugged. “I know. He was a real saint, wasn’t he? And thousands of years later, after he’d spent forever in Hades, the White Feiry finally let him go. He returned to the Overworld, met my mother, married her. They had me. Then he abandoned us both.”
“Why’d he do that?”
“Didn’t want the responsibility of a family, I guess. Who knows?”
“How’d he die?”
“The White Feiry,” Ian answered. “Executed him.”
“How long ago?”
“Twelve years,” he mumbled.
“Doesn’t it bother you that he died?”
He watched the storm raging outside. “No.”
“But what about your mom? Was she upset?”
“No idea.”
“Don’t you keep in contact with her?”
He turned to her. “When my dad died, the old gods thought his punishment hadn’t been fulfilled. They demanded justice. They captured me and sent me to the Everlands to fulfill his punishment. The White Feiry found me, felt sorry for me, I guess. She raised me as her own. But I haven’t seen my birth mother in years. I don’t even know if she’s still alive.”
“Do you think you could find her?”
Thunder rolled through the air. “Maybe.”
“Was your mother a goddess?”
“Yes, Hebe is the daughter of Zeus and Hera. One of their only children. She lives with them now in the Overworld.”
“Do you miss her?”
“How could I? I barely knew her.”
“Do you think she misses you?”
Ian stared at her with a confused look. Maybe he’d never thought of it. His leather jacket creaked as he crossed his arms and turned to watch the storm again.

I've modified the myth a bit. Instead of being executed, Ixion later becomes bound on an eternally revolving wheel in Tartarus.

I enjoyed sharing some of my own writing with you. I do this stuff for fun, and though I tend to obsess on when and if I will get published, I have to remind myself of the reasons why I really do this. I love stories. I'm fascinated with the way the imagination works, and how closely emotions are tied to it.

If you enjoyed today's snippet, please do me the favor of checking on my one published work, Raze, Shine # 6. Have you already read it? Today is the release date for Shine #7, Lost Haven, written by my good friend Sabrina Fish, who is also participating in A to Z over at Sabrina's Writing Reflections. You can also see her book on Alex Cavanaugh's post today.http://alexjcavanaugh.blogspot.com/2014/04/retro-to-z-challenge-i-iron-maiden-1982.html