Book Blitz & Excerpt: Social Vampire + Giveaway

Social Vampire Blitz Banner

Social Vampire
by James Schannep
Publication date: April 4th 2023
Genres: Romance, Young Adult

At a new school, you get a chance to reinvent yourself, so…why not be a vampire?

Gordon is hiding something. Is it the fact that he’s secretly a vampire? No, of course n-wait. Yes. That’s exactly what he’s hiding. Let’s go with that.

So when this nerdy teen moves to a small town where all the kids are obsessed with vampire fiction, he reinvents himself as their dream character: dark & brooding, cool as hell, and overly susceptible to stabs through the heart.

While rivaling the alpha male jock, garnering the attention of the most popular girl in his class, and forming a hilarious friendship with the girl next door (the only one who knows his secret), Gordon might find that his new school is the perfect place for him to shine-or, better yet, sparkle.

But if his classmates dig up the truth, it’ll be the nail in his coffin…

Goodreads / Amazon / Barnes & Noble / Kobo


EXCERPT:

Taking my first bite of Pop-Tarts, I turned to head inside, but froze in my tracks when I heard something that made my teenage ears perk up.

“Hi, I’m Emily,” said one voice.

“Kimberly,” said the second.

“Gordon!” said Dad.

Girls. I quickly chewed up and swallowed the dry mouthful of toaster pastry before dumping the rest inside the top drawer of Dad’s tool chest. He only ever called me “Gordon” if he was specifically trying not to embarrass me (as I generally loathed nicknames), or if I were in trouble. This situation felt like it might be a bit of both. Indeed, if Dad wasn’t calling me “Gordy,” that could only mean one thing. As I rounded the column of stacked boxes, the girls coming into view, my suspicions were confirmed.

Yep, they were cute.

They wore matching soccer uniforms, long hair pulled back into ponytails: one blonde and the other brunette. Grass-stained white and red Bozeman Hawks jerseys, athletic shorts, knee-high socks. They carried their cleats with laces tied together and slung over their respective shoulders. On their feet, they wore slip-on toeless athletic sandals; socks still dirty from practice. The blonde carried a soccer ball in the crook of her arm and eyed me cautiously.

“We came by because we heard there was a new kid,” her counterpart said.

A range of responses fired across my synapses. I could:

  • Play it cool and go with a nonchalant, “Well, then you won’t leave disappointed.”
  • Give a sly look to the packing boxes and say, “Not much gets past you. I’m guessing you play defense.”
  • Totally choke and mutter a noncommittal, “Uh…yeah….”

I went with the third option.

Hey, when you’re fourteen (or fifteen, or fourteen, again), the presence of a pretty girl will often sever the connection between brain and mouth. And two pretty girls? No chance of intelligent discourse whatsoever.

“Do you play soccer?” the one with the ball asked. One-track mind.

Boy, did I want to say yes. I didn’t play soccer, not in the slightest, but couldn’t I say yes anyway, then spend all weekend learning how to play? How hard could it be? She didn’t ask if I played soccer well, and it would still be mostly true, if I intended to play soccer, right? I mean, I literally knew how to kick a ball….

The words leapt into my throat, ready to scream, “Yes! I love soccer! Goooooaaaaaaaaalllll!!!!!”

But something more powerful overrode the system—my inability to lie.

“Uh, no,” I said. “Sorry.”

The blonde made a forced, toothless smile—more like a grimace—and looked down at the garage floor in disappointment. Strike one! Swing and a miss! (This is what’s called “mixing your metaphors” but, hey, I said I didn’t know anything about soccer).

“Well, do you, umm, like to read? We’re in a book club,” the brunette said.

“Yes!” I said, a little too excitedly. Then I gathered myself and asked, “What are you reading?”

RMH:VA…again,” she said with a giggle.

“R-M…V?” I asked. I didn’t get the joke.

Rocky Mountain High: Vampire Academy,” her friend explained.

My mind searched for recognition. Where had I heard that before? It took a second, but the book cover from the truck stop rack flashed to mind just as the brunette continued.

“We’re re-reading the first five books just in time for the new release. Red Moon Yellowstone is supposedly where the love triangle really gets interesting. Sorry, fangirling here. Anyway. Do you want to read with us?” the brunette asked, her voice lilting up at the end of the question. Hopeful.

I cringed deeper, collapsing into internal despair, trying not to answer. But the words came; painfully extracted like I was in the dentist’s chair.

“No,” I said, honestly.

They shared matching frowns this time. Penalty flag! Punted that one deep offside, or whatever.

“So, what do you do?” the blonde asked, no longer trying to hide her contempt.

 

Author Bio:

James Schannep has no tragic backstory.

Having grown up in a fairly ordinary suburban household, with a family who loved him, he was forced to dream up far flung adventures on strange new worlds where the hero can save the day and make a difference through strength of character alone.

Schannep attended the United States Air Force Academy, where he earned a Bachelor of Science in English Literature with a minor in General Engineering. After serving honorably as a Nuclear Missile Command and Control Officer, he returned to trying to make a difference through story.

As a screenwriter, game designer, and novelist, he is probably best known for his Click Your Poison series of interactive gamebooks.

Social Vampire is his first novel.

When not dreaming up strange new worlds, James lives in the one inhabited by his wife, who faithfully remains the patroness of his art, and with his children, who don’t quite grasp what they’ve inherited yet with such an eccentric father.

Website / Goodreads / Facebook / Twitter / Instagram


GIVEAWAY!
a Rafflecopter giveaway


Book Blitz & Giveaway: A Wound Like Lapis Lazuli, by Melody Wiklund

A Wound Like Lapis Lazuli Blitz Banner

A Wound Like Lapis Lazuli

by Melody Wiklund

Fantasy

Date Published: 4/15/2023

photo add-to-goodreads-button_zpsc7b3c634.png

 

Ricardo Montero is a painter of great repute, favored by the king of Salandra and chosen by him to paint the ceiling of a temple dedicated to a sea goddess. When he mysteriously goes missing, his friend Beatriz enters a competition to paint the temple in his stead. But when the sea goddess herself gets involved in Beatriz’s painting, and in her life, Beatriz finds herself in over her head. Hopefully the woman she’s falling in love with can help keep her afloat.

Meanwhile, Ricardo has been kidnapped by one of the king’s enemies, a woman who claims the kidnapping is purely to spite the king but who seems obsessed with Ricardo himself. Under pressure and learning secrets he never wanted to know, Ricardo fights to maintain his loyalty to the king and control over his feelings and his life.

Purchase Links
Amazon
Barnes and Noble
Kobo


Excerpt

He’d blacked out in a stable the stranger had led him to, as near as he could remember. The night was all a bit of a blur. The next thing he knew, he was waking up to the jolting rhythm of wagon wheels, unkind to a pounding headache. Where… what…

And something scratched at his wrists and ankles when he moved, trying to stretch out. He groaned, trying to find a comfortable position. The only bright side was a dark side—there was a blanket over his body, including his head, and from what he could tell it was blocking out a lot of sunlight which would not have been kind to his hangover.

“Juan?” he muttered.

No one responded.

Still dizzy and not entirely sober, he’d fallen back into a light sleep, waking now and then at being jostled against other items in the cart. There was a chest of some sort, that was the biggest thing, but also a couple of smaller boxes, and a length of rope. Half-asleep, he felt the oddest thing about his situation to be a lack of hay. When he was young, he used to sneak into hay wagons and hide under the stacks. You could catch a ride that way, at least until the farmer caught you. He felt that he was hiding from someone now but couldn’t remember who or why. And there wasn’t any hay, no hay at all.

It was only after a good long while—maybe half an hour or maybe a couple hours even, hard to tell half asleep—after a thousand bumps in the road and a few muffled overheard conversations and a whole lot of confused pondering about the lack of hay—that Ricardo realized the source of discomfort on his wrists and ankles was rope. He’d been bound hand and foot, and he was in a strange cart with no memory of how he got there. This realization demanded some action.

“Hello,” he called out. “Excuse me. Who’s out there? What are you doing? What-what is this?” He kicked at the bottom of the cart too, though he doubted that would be heard over the rattling of the wagon. His voice was a bit raspy too, as his throat was almost as sore as his head, and he wondered if that would be heard either. After a couple minutes, however, the wagon slowed to a stop, and the blanket was lifted off his head, exposing his eyes to sunlight. He winced, groaned, and then slowly processed the face he was seeing, the face of the stranger who’d been drinking with him at the bar last night. What had been the man’s name… It had started with a D. Oh, right, Diego.

“Diego,” he said, “What the hell is this? Get me out of these ropes and this damn wagon. Gods, what time is it?”

“Almost noon,” the man said. “And I’d prefer you call me Captain Alban. Not that I didn’t enjoy drinking with you, but I wouldn’t say we’re on first-name terms, Montero.”

“I really don’t care,” Ricardo said. “Fine, Captain. Am I under arrest, then? This is a fine way to go about it. If the king hears…”

“You’re not under arrest. I’m kidnapping you,” Captain Alban said far too calmly. “As for the king, I don’t really care what he’d have to say about it. I’m part of the guard of the countess of Suelta. As you mentioned last night, we don’t get along well with the king.”


About the Author

Melody Wiklund is a writer of fantasy and occasionally romance, including the YA novel Eleven Dancing Sisters, published in 2017. In her free time, she loves knitting and watching Chinese dramas. Sometimes she draws, more rarely paints. She is a big fan of baroque art, particularly that of Diego Velasquez.

 

Contact Links

Website

Twitter

Instagram

Goodreads


 Giveaway:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

RABT Book Tours & PR

Scroll Up