Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Review: Skipping Stones at the Center of the Earth by Andy Hueller

Skipping Stones at the Center of the Earth by Andy Hueller

* NetGalley book

Amazon Product Description:
Calvin Comet Cobble lives at Hidden Shores Orphanage. Location: the very center of the earth. Cal's life is full of the school bully and mean teachers, but when he meets Mr. E, who can skip a stone clear across Lake Arctic, everything about Cal's life changes. Told with wit and charm, Skipping Stones at the Center of the Earth is guaranteed to excite and inspire readers of all ages.


My thoughts:
This is an interesting story set in a most unusual place!  The center of the Earth!  What a creative mind to have built such a setting.  The author leaves the reader the opportunity to easily see and feel the similarities and differences between people (good and evil sides of them) and the world he has created for the orphans and prisoners in the center of the Earth.
The characters are brought to life by careful descriptions.  Mr. E - of course - is my favorite character, besides Bernie and Cal.  The orphanage and it's teachers and staff are given terrible personalities and totally dishonorable human traits.  Such unfortunate situations for children, so much hardness and sorrow.  The bright spot being Mr. E and his skipping stones.  
The characters are courageous and I found myself cheering, holding my breath, being outraged at their treatment, and hoping.  Cal and Bernie find a friend in each other and a true friend in Mr. E.  It is here in the story where you will see the true measure of determination.  The story leans towards deep meaning and gives the reader the opportunity to find their own story within the tale.

Blog Tour: Dark Magick by Stacey Thompson-Geer & Stevie Trinity (with Giveaway!)

This Virtual Book Tour is presented by Bewitching Book Tours.
You can get to the entire tour schedule by clicking HERE.
Welcome to The Wormhole and my day on the tour!
Author Bios:
Stevie Trinity
Stevie lives in Wyoming with her family. She loves the wide open space There is nothing better than sitting out on the prairie looking out at the stars, or driving less than an hour to the Mountains and climbing trees, and yes she still climbs trees! :)

Stevie started to write short stories when she was 12. She loves poetry and started to write poems when she was 13. She then stopped writing in her early 20s, due to raising a family and focusing her attention elsewhere. When she was 30 she started to write again.

A couple of years later the Gatekeeper series emerged. She and her co author spent many hours talking about and discussing the world they created. Stacey really encouraged Stevie to write again.

Currently Stevie is working on a historical romance about the old west in a time of amazing change! She is also working on the second book to the Gatekeeper Series.
Stacey Thompson-Geer

Stacey is a wife and mother of three. She started writing in High School with horror short stories. One of her first is now published through the kindle - Silver Bullet. When she's not dreaming up her next story or novel, she can be found hanging out with her kids or reading one of her favorite authors. She is also an avid Facebooker and Twitter user. Stop by her website to see what she's working on and any of her backlist work.
 

Please enjoy the featured guest post:


 The World Of The Gatekeepers

When we started writing this book, we knew what our world was going to look like. We planned out the different places where the gateways are as well as how it works. It's a rich and complex world of Fae, Witches, Demons, and much more all stuck together to make something new and different from other books we read.

The Gateways

In Dark Magick, there are seven gateways that open up to let in beings of all kinds. Some are able to help us in some way or another, while others are made of your worst nightmare. There is one on each continent, creating seven. It's impossible to know what ones are for good beings and what ones are for the scarier kinds, but they must all be closed to maintain some kind of balance.

Each gate has a witch assigned to them to open or close the gateway. They are hunted and captured in order for the evil to control the gateways and what ones close or stay open. They are also hunting witches who are working to stop them in their plans.

The Bad Guys

The bad guys are made up of a few different levels within this world. We have the ones we are confronted with regularly, being Acacia and Kalerian. We also have government officials who's only goal is to gain power. They helped to move the world into the chaos it is now and benefit from it.

These government officials create prisoner camps to collect humans and break their spirits. They also use these camps to find Witches in hiding.

We also have the Kings of Hell, which is loosely taken from the Japanese cultures. In our world, The Kings of Hell are trying to break the final barrier to the lowest realms of hell to take over the earth realm. They also materialize as black smoke to those they are using for their goals.

The Good Guys

The good guys consist of many levels of Witch to human. They are fighting to stay alive in a world that is totally against them. In Dark Magick, you get to see some of these pocket groups as they try to find each other and mount a war of sorts against those that want to kill them.

Along with the human and Witch survivors, we have a light touch of Fae. They want to stay out of the fight for the most part, but are inclined to help when one of their own is aligned with the bad guys of the world.

Dark Magick is full of action, romance, and fun. We think readers will love the mix and the characters as much as the world we created to put them in.

Character Profile: Raiden

Raiden is one of the characters you will find in Dark Magick. He is a smart ass guy with a past all his own, but he also carries secrets even he is unsure about telling Lynn or the others.

Raiden is the typical surfer dude, with blond hair and blue eyes. He is happy to be who he is, even if he's still unsure about exactly what that is. Raiden can control the thunder and lightening as his gift and electricity in general. When the world went into chaos, he received a ramp up in powers from the Goddess to help try and save the world from distruction.

Lynn and Raiden have a past, but it's not as clear to either of them as Lynn's and Kalerian's Past lives seem to be. They are good friends and Raiden would give his life to help Lynn or the others in the retreat they worked so hard to build.

Character Profile: Acacia

She is a mean jealous kind of person. She wants everything to be as she see's it and control those around her. When she met Kalerian, he helped her to find power and to use it against those that would bring her down.

Acacia is very beautiful with long blond curls and bright green eyes, but under all that is a dark witch with abilities that even Rhea and Lynn are not able to fully understand. She has a past with Rhea as they were once coven sisters. Rhea chose a path of good, while Acacia chose one of darkness. 

And now...the giveaway!
To win an ecopy of Dark Magick:
1. be a follower of The Wormhole
2. be at least 18 years old
3. leave a comment with your name and a valid email address
Giveaway ends July 30, 2011 and the Winner selected by random.org.