Thank you for taking part in Smoke and Stars Blog Tour! Below you'll find:
A blog tour Schedule
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A listing of: buy links, blogger run giveaway, rafflecopter, Blurb, about author, and excerpts. Please only use the excerpt assigned to you. (If you'd like an excerpt, get in contact with Echo at [email protected] and we'll see about getting you something for your blog--the more the merrier!)
Again we so appreciate the time and effort you've spent to join our blog tour and help get the word out about this latest release from Michelle Schad. Watching her succeed is such a privilege and we thank you so much for taking part in that. Please let us know when you post and send us a link at [email protected] so we can add it to our blog tour and, more importantly, share the heck out of it! Wishing you all the best! Echo Shea and Mindy Mymudes Let's Talk Promotions Psst...Promotions Know someone not part of our blogger list, that might be interested? Click here!
Blog Tour Schedule:
April 21 Ilovebooksandstuff #BRVL Book Review Virginia Lee Blog
April 24 Monster Complex Slippery Words Kat Reads Romance
April 25 I Smell Sheep Always Loved Books
April 26 Books Glorious Books April 27 All Things Dark and Dirty
April 28 The Romance Reporter Janet Walden-West
May 1 Books to Curl Up With
May 2 Distinct Authors
May 3
May 4
May 5
Twitter Post:
The past can't remain forgotten--even if you wish it would. Smoke and Stars by Michelle Schad #newrelease#urbanfantasy#BookBoost#booktwt#BookTwitter#BookRecommendations#BookPromo#outnow#booklove#fantasybooks#rt#retweet @ChelleSchadhttps://mybook.to/SmokeNStars
Instagram Post:
Five years have been lost to a void in Reven Si'ahl's mind. Now, everything Reven was is barreling at him faster than he can process it. Family, love, enemies, demons, and nightmares he can't control plague him at all hours. The more he learns about his previous life, the more he questions his sanity. Stuck with the small handful of survivors from the Phoenix Empire, Reven finds himself offering advice to his nephew, asking advice of his son, Kaleo, and learning that sometimes family can be your biggest enemy. Meanwhile, the Kormandi King, Demyan, finds himself in need of the bard's aid again as he is left to sort out how to escape a nation hell bent on killing people with Power. By sheer luck, and with the help of Idris Acai - an assassin and Reven's other son - the miraculous is achieved until reaching Tierra Vida with the others. What should be a warm family reunion turns into Reven's greatest nightmare when Kaleo is taken by the Queen of Torment herself, Madhavi. Now Reven has to accept his new role, and go rescue his urchin before it's too late.
Five years have been lost to a void in Reven Si'ahl's mind. Now, everything Reven was is barreling at him faster than he can process it. Family, love, enemies, demons, and nightmares he can't control plague him at all hours. The more he learns about his previous life, the more he questions his sanity. Stuck with the small handful of survivors from the Phoenix Empire, Reven finds himself offering advice to his nephew, asking advice of his son, Kaleo, and learning that sometimes family can be your biggest enemy. Meanwhile, the Kormandi King, Demyan, finds himself in need of the bard's aid again as he is left to sort out how to escape a nation hell bent on killing people with Power. By sheer luck, and with the help of Idris Acai - an assassin and Reven's other son - the miraculous is achieved until reaching Tierra Vida with the others. What should be a warm family reunion turns into Reven's greatest nightmare when Kaleo is taken by the Queen of Torment herself, Madhavi. Now Reven has to accept his new role, and go rescue his urchin before it's too late.
Five years have been lost to a void in Reven Si'ahl's mind. Now, everything Reven was is barreling at him faster than he can process it. Family, love, enemies, demons, and nightmares he can't control plague him at all hours. The more he learns about his previous life, the more he questions his sanity. Stuck with the small handful of survivors from the Phoenix Empire, Reven finds himself offering advice to his nephew, asking advice of his son, Kaleo, and learning that sometimes family can be your biggest enemy. Meanwhile, the Kormandi King, Demyan, finds himself in need of the bard's aid again as he is left to sort out how to escape a nation hell bent on killing people with Power. By sheer luck, and with the help of Idris Acai - an assassin and Reven's other son - the miraculous is achieved until reaching Tierra Vida with the others. What should be a warm family reunion turns into Reven's greatest nightmare when Kaleo is taken by the Queen of Torment herself, Madhavi. Now Reven has to accept his new role, and go rescue his urchin before it's too late.
This is the series that keeps on giving... - Lissa of Sassy_booklover about Schad's Beyond Human Series.
Michelle Schad recently had a signing at RavenCon in Richmond, Virginia, where she signed with fellow authors Brienne Lee Carter and Cathryn Leigh. Follow Michelle on Amazon, BookBub, and Goodreads for her latest releases. On social media? Follow Michelle on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok for giveaways, teasers, and general author updates.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: From a young age, there have been voices inside of Michelle’s head. No, not those kinds of voices – or, maybe they are; who really knows? Rather than fear those voices, Michelle wrangled them like wild mustangs on the prairie, make each one bend to her will in its own time. Well, what does that mean? It means that Michelle has been writing stories of the fantastic, the horrific, and the mysterious for as long as her little fingers have been able to hold a pen and probably longer, but memory only goes back so far. In a world that passes for ‘normal’, she is all of the ‘normal’ things one might expect: mother, wife, keeper of fur-babies. She is also a student of life, meaning if there is something to learn, she will learn it, thus making her a veritable font of only partially useful knowledge. The whimsy and ChAoS that actually controls the rest of Michelle’s existence has earned her a place in two different arenas so far: Bards and Sages Quarterly and Corrugated Sky Publishing. While wielding the unwieldiness of words is her primary function, she is also an avid crafter, collector of “creepy” ball-jointed dolls, and can run through a Target in under an hour with only two extra items from her intended list. Talent! You can find more about her on her website at https://tamingchaos.net/
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Blogger Run Giveaway:
For those that selected giveaway on the form, you're authorized to giveaway one e-copy of Ashes to Embers by Michelle Schad to one of your blog readers. This is a giveaway outside of the Rafflecopter, just for your readers.
Buy Links:
Buy Link: https://mybook.to/SmokeNStars Shop Indie: https://bookshop.org/p/books/smoke-and-stars-michelle-schad/19952742 Follow Michelle on Amazon:http://author.to/MichelleSchad Follow Michelle on Bookbub:https://www.bookbub.com/authors/michelle-schad Follow Michelle on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/3100179.Michelle_Schad
Five years have been lost to a void in Reven Si'ahl's mind. Now, everything Reven was is barreling at him faster than he can process it. Family, love, enemies, demons, and nightmares he can't control plague him at all hours. The more he learns about his previous life, the more he questions his sanity. Stuck with the small handful of survivors from the Phoenix Empire, Reven finds himself offering advice to his nephew, asking advice of his son, Kaleo, and learning that sometimes family can be your biggest enemy. Meanwhile, the Kormandi King, Demyan, finds himself in need of the bard's aid again as he is left to sort out how to escape a nation hell bent on killing people with Power. By sheer luck, and with the help of Idris Acai - an assassin and Reven's other son - the miraculous is achieved until reaching Tierra Vida with the others. What should be a warm family reunion turns into Reven's greatest nightmare when Kaleo is taken by the Queen of Torment herself, Madhavi. Now Reven has to accept his new role, and go rescue his urchin before it's too late.
From a young age, there have been voices inside of Michelle’s head. No, not those kinds of voices – or, maybe they are; who really knows? Rather than fear those voices, Michelle wrangled them like wild mustangs on the prairie, make each one bend to her will in its own time. Well, what does that mean? It means that Michelle has been writing stories of the fantastic, the horrific, and the mysterious for as long as her little fingers have been able to hold a pen and probably longer, but memory only goes back so far. In a world that passes for ‘normal’, she is all of the ‘normal’ things one might expect: mother, wife, keeper of fur-babies. She is also a student of life, meaning if there is something to learn, she will learn it, thus making her a veritable font of only partially useful knowledge. The whimsy and ChAoS that actually controls the rest of Michelle’s existence has earned her a place in two different arenas so far: Bards and Sages Quarterly and Corrugated Sky Publishing. While wielding the unwieldiness of words is her primary function, she is also an avid crafter, collector of “creepy” ball-jointed dolls, and can run through a Target in under an hour with only two extra items from her intended list. Talent! You can find more about her on her website at https://tamingchaos.net/
Excerpts:
Excerpt One
Excerpt Two “What is that?” Tondra demanded. She looked down into the hole to see the flat stone that took so much attention. Only part of it showed, the rest still firmly set into the moist earth. “A Grove Stone, general,” the soldier replied. “An old one, but it still radiates.” “Are there others?” Tondra frowned, squatting down to get a closer look. Time had worn some runes away and pocked the stone with holes as if acid had eaten it away. But if it still radiated, that meant it still worked. “At least one more, general. It’s… old. It would take ages to regrow a Grove here.” “But that gives me an idea of where that fool brat has gone.” “Where, general?” “Tierra Vida.” “From here, ma’am?” “That brat pulls off the impossible like a roach."
Excerpt Three: Kaleo Oenel sat outside Reven’s tent. Serai was inside with the bard. Kaleo had argued with the woman for the last three days since their arrival to Tierra Vida that clothing was required, that they were not home, that she could not walk around nude. It was like speaking to a child sometimes; a very Powerful child. He often forgot how much Power the woman had, tempering his annoyance only after he noticed her Power radiated off her like heat from an oven. Lara sat beside him, idly plucking at blades of grass. The runeli thief kept her opinions to herself, mostly, but they still found their way to Kaleo’s mind. Everyone’s opinions did. Three days since their arrival in Tierra Vida was a lot of time to think about how stupid he had been, how reckless. Whether he’d intended to or not, he’d stepped into a hornet’s nest of politics and warfare against an enemy he couldn’t see.
Excerpt Four: “Drink or somethin’, ya look … pathetic.” Reven frowned, turning a slow glare up at Liam as the drawling duende plopped down beside him on the sand that evening with two bottles of liquor in hand. He handed one to the bard by way of apology and drank from the other without saying another word. Unwilling to start yet another argument with the thief-taker, Reven kept his mouth shut and drank. Half a bottle later, he looked at Liam and frowned again. “How long have you known about me?” Reven asked. Liam didn’t answer. “Roe?” “Day one,” Liam sighed, then drank. “Weren’t no question when I seen what ya got on yer chest. Anyone what’s paid even a hair’s attention t’what tha’ bloody nation did woulda known it too. Ya just happened t’end up in a place what don’t care. Prolly fer th’best anyhow.” Reven remained silent. He felt betrayed and angry all over again, yet oddly grateful. It was for the best. If he’d been found in the state he was in by anyone else, he’d be dead or worse. But the knowledge that his so-called friend had known who he was, known even the smallest fragment of a life he’d been trying so hard to remember and kept it a secret hurt.
Excerpt Five: “Gonna catch flies leavin’ yer mouth hangin’ open. Wouldn’ta mattered if I said nothin’ or not. Still woulda been all fogged up. Not even Serai can fix it, can she?” Reven looked at Liam, but finally looked back at the sand and shook his head. She could not give him his memories, only guide him through the turbulent things he saw. So Reven looked back down at the sand instead, the bottle nestled in the natural divots and grooves within the grain. He wanted to be angry, but the anger leaked into something else, something closer to despair. He wanted to know who he’d been, to remember it, not just see it in flashes or know that it existed. The people in the Grove all looked at him with a silent plea to remember; Kaleo did too.
Excerpt Six: “He has a point, my love,” Ajana said as she glided down to the sand beside Liam, looking over the thief-taker to the bard. “Perhaps it is best that you simply move forward with what is presented instead of trying to dig for what has been lost. Some acquisitions are simply not worth the payout.” Both men looked at the radiantly flawed cantari woman sitting there in the dwindling sunlight. The bangles she wore on her wrists and neck, on her ears and in her nose caught glints of light when she moved. How Reven loved her. He loved listening to her voice, her oddly clipped accent. Looking at her, listening to her words, made the despair fade. It didn’t matter who he had been, only who he chose to be in the future and in the present.
Excerpt Seven: “That’s mine,” the bard said, taking another deep swig of the dark liquid inside. Olven rum. It had a stronger kick to it than normal rum, made from specially grown sugars and heady spices found in the roots of the sephirot trees where the duende made their homes. It was exactly what the bard needed. Serai flopped herself down on the sand beside him, grabbed the bottle from his hand and drank deeply. Reven blinked at her, watching with an arched brow. He saw the same reaction from Ajana and Liam out of the corner of his eye and just waited. “Everything alright?” Reven dared. Serai frowned at him, her freckled face scrunching into something very close to an angry pout blended with a wrinkle of disgust. The wild mop of red, frizzy curls on her head was pulled back into a crest of intricate knots that still did not tame everything. Fly-away strands blew into her face or fell around her neck and shoulders, breaking free of the crest that fell to her mid-back. Having her beside him made Reven feel almost complete. It was he who braided her hair earlier, letting the act soothe his aching soul and bring them a moment of much-needed intimacy. He knew things were missing and broken, but Serai filled most of those holes and put a smile on his face.
Excerpt Eight: “You do not understand, do you?” she huffed. Reven’s eye squinted slightly in a face of confusion and apathy that she apparently did not care for. Instead of saying anything, she took his hand and mentally fed him some of the atrocities she’d seen in Xandrix’s mind or the minds of the refugees; of Jaysen, and Nadya - both witnesses to the horrors wrought by the Red and his demons. The pain was excruciating. He yanked his hand away from her and rubbed his head. “Now do you see This is wrong!” “You couldn’t’ve used your bloody words instead!” Reven barked through a whimper, rocking slightly to focus on anything but what Serai showed him. “I do not know that many of your words!” she argued. She didn’t. Serai spoke many languages, but sometimes the word was not quite right or entirely different from what everyone else knew. She spoke a language that Reven had never heard, something as ancient as she was from a time no one remembered anymore.
Excerpt Nine: Serai slammed the bottle of liquor back against Reven’s middle, making him grunt. Some of it sloshed out over his chest and lap as she got up again, moving away from the group as quickly as she’d come. “What in the… Serai!” Reven called, absently handing Liam the bottle as he got up to follow the red-haired woman who’d wormed her way into his heart as quickly as Kaleo had. Quicker. People watched and whispered, but Reven ignored them and continued to follow Serai until the Grove became sand and the fires diminished to tiny spots on the horizon. The only thing he heard was the ocean lapping up against the shore at high tide.
Excerpt Ten: “Serai, please, slow down,” Reven continued as he followed her just outside the boundaries of the Grove, coming up short when Malek snarled at him. He stood near her, a fixture that was easily forgotten until he hissed or snapped. Azure claimed it was a drake thing. “Will you please talk to me? Preferably away from the overprotective lizard.” “I cannot fix you,” she sighed, on the verge of tears. “I see horrible things of what has been done to your people. If I cannot fix anything, then why am I here? What purpose do I serve if I cannot be the healer I am meant to be?” Tears rolled down her cheeks. Reven was not accustomed to seeing her so vulnerable. She was always so strong, even when she was first found. She was curious, cautious, but never vulnerable or afraid like she was now. That was his role in things - afraid of his own shadow, of what his mind hid in the dark.
Excerpt Eleven: He stepped forward, ignoring the low growls of warning from Malek until he could lift her chin carefully. Her eyes glistened with tears in a way that was not at all beautiful. Legends and stories always described the heroines with glistening tears in beautiful moonlight against stunning, pale skin. Except that wasn’t how reality worked. Reven smiled, seeing the blotchy red on her freckled face, eyes swollen. Any confusion or annoyance from earlier lifted away. “I don’t need you to fix me,” he began, brushing away her tears with his hands. “I need you to teach me. I need you to be there when I fall apart, so I can be right here when you fall apart. You’re the only thing in my life that’s honest and true. Not even Kaleo does that. He still won’t admit to being my son, like he’s afraid it’ll shatter me all over again. I’m not that delicate.” Serai laughed and gave him a look that made him sigh. He was that fragile. Liam pointed it out on the hour.
Excerpt Twelve “Liam thinks we should leave.” “Liam is an idiot,” Serai replied into his chest. Reven chortled, squeezing her tighter. “This is important for you and for Kaleo. These people need hope.” “I’m no one’s hope, Serai.” “You are,” she said, pushing back enough to look up at him. “You are Kaleo’s hope, and Liam’s. You are mine, too.” He looked at her with an argument on the tip of his tongue that faded the longer he looked at her. Instead, he simply smiled and pulled her close again, kissing the top of her head. Perhaps he could try his hand at hope after all.