Help Author Anita Stansfield In Her Battle with Celiac

08 Aug, 2013 by in Uncategorized Leave a comment

Hey book friends, one of our authors Anita Stansfield is in need, and we at Fire and Ice want to help!

Anita Stansfield’s  friend and fellow author Rachel Ann Nunes wrote the following in explanation:

 “Beloved author Anita Stansfield has Celiac Disease, which went undiagnosed for nearly nine years and caused a great deal of damage in several of her body systems. Through the years of treating it, she also had breast cancer and multiple surgeries for that and other reasons. During all this illness she put out 58 books in 19 years! But because she has a tendency to migraines, that’s how her body responds when it’s not healthy, and now she spends most of her days on bed rest and is unable to write…

…Anita has a great doctor who is helping her become healthier, but it will take a lot of time, and she really will not be able to put out a lot of books. In an effort to help her get through this rough patch, her friends have put up some of her previously unpublished books on the Kindle and now they have drastically dropped the prices to increase sales. 

All proceeds go directed to the family…

The first book The Captain of Her Heart is only $3.99! If you love historical romance with an inspirational tone or any of Anita’s books, please consider checking out this series and passing this information on to others who may be interested. You can also make a straight monetary donation if you wish by clicking the DONATE button on the facebook page below.

Anita is a very loving, generous person (very like the heroines she writes about!) and has given a lot to world of writing. It’s really tough to see her in this position after writing so many great books. You can find the URL to the first book below and click on the Amazon links for the others. THANKS!”


 Find out more or donate on the facebook page which has been set up.


About the Author: Anita Stansfield has been the reigning queen of LDS romantic fiction for more than a decade, although her general market releases have been among her readers favorites. Her work has shattered the stereotypes of romance novels with her trademark ability to combine great storytelling with intense psychological depth as she focuses on the emotional struggles of the human experience. Her novels cover a huge spectrum, from the eighteenth century to the present, from heart warming to heart stopping. Hundreds of thousands of readers agree: Anita Stansfield’s characters and the lives they lead are not easy to forget.

Anita’s statement: As a breast cancer survivor, I strongly encourage all of my female readers and their loved ones to practice keen self-awareness, get regular screenings, and support the ongoing movement for a cure. We as the women of this generation have so much to live for! ~Anita

Learn more about Anita Stansfield on her Website/ Blog/ Goodreads/ Facebook/ Twitter



The year is 1777. As the brooding mists of war settle over a stark American battlefield, Captain Ritcherd Buchanan yearns for his native England—and for Kyrah Payne, the woman he loves. Wounded and disheartened, he eventually returns home, only to have Kyrah torn cruelly away from him and deported for a crime she didn’t commit. Desperate to bring her home, he joins a band of privateers and finds himself embracing the American patriot cause—a cause he’d once sworn to defeat.

All alone in a country at war, Kyrah becomes a victim of the breach between her own impoverished circumstances and the aristocratic upbringing of the man she loves. They had been best friends and confidants for more than half her life, but now she wonders if Ritcherd will ever be able to find her—or if he’ll even try. And she fears that the chasm between their worlds can never be bridged.

A powerful and deeply moving saga, its intricate plot expertly woven and guaranteed to keep any reader turning its pages. The only disappointment is that the book ends!

The Captain of Her Heart may be the finest novel yet by best-selling author Anita Stansfield.


Any book purchased from the Buchanan Saga series will directly help Anita!



 Please help spread the word and thanks so much!

Emma: A Latter- Day Tale by Rebecca H. Jamison Blog Tour

07 Aug, 2013 by in Rebecca H. Jamison 3 comments



Fire and Ice welcomes Emma: A Latter- Day Tale today for the official blog tour, an author guest post, excerpt and giveaway.


Why I Wrote about a Life Coach
A Guest Post by Rebecca H. Jamison

When I decided to write a book based on Jane Austen’s Emma, I knew right away that the Jane Fairfax character was going to be a country singer and that Emma hated country music. I did a lot of brainstorming while I was on vacation in Virginia, walking in the same neighborhood where Emma lives in my book. On one of these walks, my husband suggested that Emma should be a life coach. That made sense to me. At heart, Emma’s someone who wants to help others.

Coaches aren’t just for athletes any more. Average Americans are using coaches to help them with relationships, weight loss, career development, and many other areas. I have a health coach through my insurance company who helped me lose 30 pounds. I also subscribe to motivational e-mails from other coaches, who help me with other goals. 

In the beginning of the book, Emma isn’t anything like my coaches. She’s an embarrassment to the profession of coaching. She has such great intentions, but every time she tries to help someone, she makes the situation worse. I think we’ve all felt like that at times. Emma has to learn that it’s okay to be imperfect. Just because you make a mistake doesn’t mean you can’t improve and do a better job next time. While I wrote the book, I researched how to become a successful life coach, so that by the end of the book, Emma starts to get it right.

My coaches have helped me meet my personal goals to lose weight and become a writer. They gave me a more positive outlook on life, and that’s what I hope my book does for readers. Emma’s life isn’t perfect, but she learns to be positive anyway.


Rebecca H. Jamison Biography


Looking for love? Rebecca H. Jamison would love to set you up with that special someone, but you’re better off reading her books. She has a terrible track record as a matchmaker.


Rebecca grew up in Virginia. She attended Brigham Young University, where she earned a BA and MA in English with an emphasis in creative writing. In between college and graduate school, she served a mission to Portugal and Cape Verde.


Rebecca enjoys running, dancing, reading, and watching detective shows. She and her husband have six children. You can learn more about her on her website.



Emma: A Latter-day Tale

by Rebecca H. Jamison
Published by Cedar Fort Books
ISBN: 9781462112609
256 pages

Emma’s her name and matchmaking is her game! Quirky life coach Emma wants to help her first-ever client, a lonely nanny named Harriet. But all of her attempts at matchmaking result only in embarrassing miscues and blunders, leaving the pair disheartened and confused. This modern take on the Jane Austen classic shows that sometimes the greatest match is the one we make for ourselves.

Fans of Jane Austen’s Emma will love this modern retelling of the classic romance novel. Fall in love with Emma’s latter-day tale of redemption, forgiveness, and the quest for true love.

Excerpt:

It was amazing how much more snow Phil could pick up with his shovel than I could with mine. He cleared three feet of the driveway before I was done with one.
“When we’re done, if you have time, you should come in and meet Harri. I think you two will get along.”
Phil stopped and looked at his watch. “I’m planning to do a couple more driveways before it gets dark.”
“I’ll go get Harri now if you’re in a hurry. She wants to meet you.”
Phil leaned on his shovel. “Harry is a she?”
“Her real name is Harriet. She moved here a couple months ago and she’s hardly met anybody. I think you’ll like her.”
Phil threw his head back, laughed, and started shoveling again. “I thought you were trying to introduce me to your new boyfriend.”
“You think I would be out here shoveling snow while my new boyfriend stays inside?” I grabbed a handful of snow and threw it at him. I didn’t mean to hit him in the face, but that’s where it landed.
Phil wiped the snow off his face and grinned. “I wondered why you were dating such a loser.” I expected him to throw a snowball at me, but he just stood there. “So you don’t have a boyfriend?”
I giggled a little at his awkwardness. “Nope. Harri doesn’t either.”
Phil threw another shovelful of snow away from the driveway. “So you . . . I mean, you and your friend are . . . available?” Phil didn’t open his mouth enough when he talked. That was the one thing about him that always distracted me. I couldn’t help staring at his mouth.
I had to force myself to look into his eyes. “Why is that a shock, Phil? Every woman in that house right now is available. You can take your pick—Harri, me, or Barbara. You’re surrounded by single women.” It was safe to assume Phil wouldn’t pick me. I was at least three inches taller than he was, and it was a rare man who dated a taller woman.


The Giveaway: Cedar Fort is giving away an ebook of Emma: A Latter-Day Tale to one lucky Fire and Ice reader. Winners can choose among PDF, Kindle, and Nook formats. 

The winner will have 2 weeks to download the e-book from the Cedar Fort website.


a Rafflecopter giveaway

Authors Are Rockstars Tour Stop- Elana Johnson

05 Aug, 2013 by in tour 5 comments


I am so honored to be a part of the 2nd annual Authors are Rockstars Tour hosted by Fiktshun, Two Chicks on Books, Magical Urban Fantasy Reads. and to introduce my Rockstar author Elana Johnson. 

I love Elana because not only is a she a genius writer, she also has an amazing personality! I frequently see her supporting fellow authors as she comes to cheer them on at their book launches. She is friendly to all. Elana is down to earth, has some sass in her characters and can frequently be spotted with some awesome hair style or her collection of colored sharpie markers for signings. She’s a teacher by profession who inspires youth and she wears her many hats in the writing community well. I am proud to call Elana my friend.


Photo by Erin Summerill
Here’s a little note Elana Johnson to all of you…

Hello! I’m glad to be here today for this Authors are Rockstars event! I’m not sure how much of a rockstar I am, but I did get recognized while I was picking up dinner the other night… And I hadn’t even showered! Ha! (Now you know why I needed to GO OUT and PICK UP dinner!)

Anyway, today I’m going to talk a bit about what inspires me to write, and my dream writing destinations. 

I think I might be in the minority on this, but I like reading stories that are real—which usually means they don’t all get wrapped up in a nice, red bow. I like the angsty, emotionalities of life, so that’s the kind of story I like to write. 

I draw the needed angst for this type of story from my own life, because the emotions I’ve felt over the course of happenings in my life can be translated to different situations. The loss my main character experiences might not be the same kind of loss, but the emotional transfer still works. 

I’m inspired by people who have overcome difficult circumstances in their lives. So I love watching documentaries (usually on athletes on ESPN), and those True Hollywood Stories, and reading biographies of historical people (think KILLING KENNEDY). Learning about other people and the trials they’ve overcome inspires me to create a character who can do the same thing. 

I like writing these stories on the go. I don’t have a permanent writing spot in my house. It’s more of a “have laptop, will travel” type of thing. Sometimes I write on the couch, sometimes at the library, sometimes in bed late at night. 

But my ultimate destination to write is the beach—which is pretty hard since I live in Utah. But this last April, I went to speak at a library in Santa Monica, and man! I got to sit on the beach and write. It was amazing!



About Elana Johnson: Elana is the author of the Possession series, which includes full-length novels POSSESSION andSURRENDER, and short stories REGRET (ebook only) and RESIST (free here!). Learn how to spell and say her name.

Elana wishes she could experience her first kiss again, tell the mean girl where to shove it, and have cool superpowers like reading minds and controlling fire. To fulfill her desires, she writes young adult science fiction and fantasy.

Using her boring human powers, she graduated from Southern Utah University with Summa Cum Laude honors in Elementary Education with a minor in Mathematics. She started her teaching career as an upper grade music and art specialist. After a four-year stint in 3rd grade, she is currently the technology specialist.

In her world, Oreos and bacon would be the only food groups. Everyone would drive 10 over the speed limit. Winter would be eliminated as a season, and Jeff Probst would be President. As it is, she lives with her husband and two kids in central Utah, gets cited when she drives too fast and eats Oreos only on special occasions.

She is the author of From the Query to the Call, an ebook that every writer needs to read before they query.

She runs a personal blog on publishing and is a founding author of the QueryTracker blog, a regular contributor to The League of Extraordinary Writers, and a co-organizer ofWriteOnCon. She is a member of SCBWI, ANWA, and LDStorymakers.

Elana is represented by Michelle Andelman of Regal Literary.

Check out her series on writing a query letter, and tips for building a better blog.


Learn for yourself how awesome Elana is on Goodreads/ her blog and on the following links…



The Giveaway: your choice of a copy of Possession, Surrender, or Abandon. Elana is willing to ship it Internationally. If the randomly chosen winning address is in the U.S., she will sign it! The winner will be displayed on our rafflecopter widget and announced on the blog. You then have 48 hours to respond with your mailing address. Enter below and good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Summer Book Giveaway from Albert Whitman Books

03 Aug, 2013 by in Summer Book Giveaway 3 comments

Albert Whitman Company is hosting a huge Summer Book Giveaway and Fire and Ice is part of the fun!
Simply fill out the form below to be entered to win one signed copy of Being Henry David by Cal Armistead.

Hardcover, 320 pages
Published March 1st 2013 
by Albert Whitman Teen 
ISBN  080750615X

Seventeen-year-old “Hank” has found himself at Penn Station in New York City with no memory of anything –who he is, where he came from, why he’s running away. His only possession is a worn copy of Walden, by Henry David Thoreau. And so he becomes Henry David-or “Hank” and takes first to the streets, and then to the only destination he can think of–Walden Pond in Concord, Massachusetts. Cal Armistead’s remarkable debut novel is about a teen in search of himself. Hank begins to piece together recollections from his past. The only way Hank can discover his present is to face up to the realities of his grievous memories. He must come to terms with the tragedy of his past, to stop running, and to find his way home.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Some Quiet Place Blog Tour

03 Aug, 2013 by in Uncategorized Leave a comment

We have author Kelsey Sutton at Fire and Ice today for an exclusive interview as part of the official blog tour for Some Quiet Place hosted by the Mod Podge Bookshelf.


If you were an emotion personified what would it be and why? Great question! Though there are so many cool ones, I would want to be Joy, I think. After all, that’s what most people strive for, right? To be happy?

Your cover is beautiful did you have any input on the selection of that image? Have you run across any other photos or graphics that you think fit with Some Quiet Place? Thank you! I did have input, yes. My editor sent me a group of images and asked which one I liked, and I picked this one, among a couple others. There are other images I think could work for the story, but I’m so happy with this one I’ve never had a moment of regret!

What are the movies and books that have most inspired you and why? This is so hard to answer, but three of my favorite movies are Chocolat, Stardust, and the newest Pride & Prejudice (although I love the old, four-hour version too). The soundtracks are so amazing and the stories are also incredible. Books that I reread annually are Daughter of the Forest by Juliet Marillier – a fantastic retelling of the Seven Swans fairy tale – and The Host by Stephenie Meyer. The romance is so strong in these books and the plot only adds to it. I just love it.

 Do you use journaling as a gateway to writing or do you have any other exercises you recommend to aspiring writers? I don’t journal, no, but I admire those who do! Whenever I have time to sit down and write something, I’m drawn to one of my manuscripts. Those stories are my gateway. Exercises I recommend to aspiring writers would be to write something every day. Vague but true. It doesn’t need to be good or relevant. Just something. It really is like a muscle, and the more you exercise it, the stronger you’ll get.

 Tell us about your favorite character to write and give us a nutshell of the main themes in the book. Fear, definitely Fear. He’s so fun and crazy and, well, hot. Is that weird? Anyway, there are several themes throughout SOME QUIET PLACE. Some prominent ones are abuse, illness, identity, grief. It’s not a light read. Thank you so much for having me on Fire & Ice! (See attached for picture) Name: Life A Typical Summons: A lone tear trails down her sunken cheek. This time I don’t reach out to wipe the water away; I let it go. Down, down, until it drips off the side of her jaw. This is humanity. This is life and death in one room.

Our Name: Life



A Typical Summons: A lone tear trails down her sunken cheek. This time I don’t reach out to wipe the water away; I let it go. Down, down, until it drips off the side of her jaw. This is humanity. This is life and death in one room.

Author Bio: I was born in Tucson, Arizona. Shortly after this my mother moved us to Minnesota, where I have remained ever since. There has never been a time when I was not writing. As a child I would come home from school, pull out my plastic bin full of markers and paper, and arrange everything around me in a circle. I would then fold some paper in half, staple the side three times, and proceed to fill the white spaces with words and pictures.

The first novel I ever finished was so thick it could have served as a doorstop. It was about Victorian vampires. It was 2008, and I was sixteen years old. Since I have always been a huge fan of Libba Bray’s, I decided I wanted to follow in her footsteps in every way. So I did research on how to get a book published. I discovered what a literary agent was. And I promptly wrote a query to send to Barry Goldblatt, Libba’s agent.

Understandably, that awkward, snail-mail query received no reply. As the days turned into weeks I reconsidered my approach. I concluded that maybe this manuscript wasn’t the one I wanted to show the world. So I took another year and wrote a completely new novel, a contemporary-suspense kind of story. It was 2009, I was seventeen and on my own.

By this time I had realized that agents accepted e-mail queries, and Barry Goldblatt wasn’t the only one in the world, so I sent off a new query to a list of them. Beth was among that list. After a long, enlightening journey, I again shelved a manuscript. Time passed. I graduated high school in 2010, and immediately afterwards ran off to California and wrote another novel. Then I came back to my beloved Minnesota and got responsible, enrolling in college and finding a job.

And in the beginning of 2011, I queried Beth again. I was eighteen years old, with a story that was new and strange and exciting. I had written it during a time when I was living with people I didn’t know that well, in a place that was a little frightening, during a time when absolutely nothing was certain. Beth quickly got back to me. The subject of her e-mail read, RE: Query: SOME QUIET PLACE.

The rest, as they say, is history. 


Learn more on her Goodreads page, blog and Twitter.

About the book…



I can’t weep. I can’t fear. I’ve grown talented at pretending.

Some Quiet Place
by Kelsey Sutton
Paperback, 331 pages
Published July 8th 2013
 by Flux
ISBN 0738736430 


Elizabeth Caldwell doesn’t feel emotions . . . she sees them. Longing, Shame, and Courage materialize around her classmates. Fury and Resentment appear in her dysfunctional home. They’ve all given up on Elizabeth because she doesn’t succumb to their touch. All, that is, save one—Fear. He’s intrigued by her, as desperate to understand the accident that changed Elizabeth’s life as she is herself.


Elizabeth and Fear both sense that the key to her past is hidden in the dream paintings she hides in the family barn. But a shadowy menace has begun to stalk her, and try as she might, Elizabeth can barely avoid the brutality of her life long enough to uncover the truth about herself. When it matters most, will she be able to rely on Fear to save her?



Follow the entire Mod Pod Bookshelf Blog Tour here.

The Giveaway: a Rafflecopter giveaway

Divider

Book Review- The Winds and the Waves by Dean Hughes

30 Jul, 2013 by in Shadow Mountain, The Winds and the Waves Leave a comment

The Winds and the Waves (Come to Zion #1)

by Dean Hughes

Hardcover, 444 pages

Published May 2012

by Deseret Book

ISBN: 7816090705
Genre: Historical Fiction
Age: Adult

Book source: publisher

4 1/2 stars

Book Summary from Goodreads: Will Lewis is stuck. the class system in England in the 1840s seems destined to keep him in his place as a poor tenant farmer who cannot improve his lot and will never be able to marry the woman he loves. But the “new religion” that is sweeping through congregations of the United Brethren, Will’s church, may hold the key to the better life he longs for. As he listens to the preaching of Wilford Woodruff, he almost dares to hope for the Zion the young Apostle describes.

Will’s struggles to believe and to face the rigors of immigrating to an unknown land are paralleled by the modern-day story of Jeff and Abby, a young married couple facing challenges of their own. When Jeff begins digging into his family history, he finds himself particularly drawn to “Grandpa Lewis,” an ancestor whose life was more like his than he would have imagined.

The skillful interweaving of these two stories brings Church history to life while demonstrating how much we can learn from those who went before us. Anyone who has ever faced the winds and the waves, in some form, will love this novel.

Review: This is the first Dean Hughes novel I have ever picked up and what drew me in were the historical elements and rich authentic detail of his writing. Mr. Hughes has researched out the setting, speech, and every day way of life of his characters.  In this case, story of Will, an Englishman living with his family as a tenant under the rule of a squire. He is wary of the religious fervor of the United Brethren and feels stuck in his place, without opportunity to improve on his circumstances to win the heart of Liz, the solicitor’s daughter. Willis cast out from his town and farm after choosing to try to trap his own meat on the squires land. Thrust into the real world and a harsh work camp, starving, and at times homeless he beings to rely on first his own strength, and later on the small whisperings of his heart.

Eventually the reader also experiences what life was for immigrants coming by ship from England to America. I had no idea how long and treacherous the journey was, nor how sick the passengers would become from indigent conditions. Infants were lost, grown men and women grew ill and died. Most make it to America and then take a steam boat up the Mississippi to find Zion. Here again we get a clear picture of what the trip would have been like, the sights, sounds and trails those who traveled would have seen. I was carried there by the rich world building and character development that occurs in the old world.

What set it back for me a bit was the present day parallel plot of Will’s descendants trying to make it as a young married couple in Nauvoo. I feel like I just could not connect with either the husband or wife, so at times the storyline dragged for me because I wanted to get back to Will and Liz’s story instead of Jeff and Abby’s.

I have already started book 2 in the series, so the answer is, yes, I enjoyed it enough that I’m excited for the next book. It was amazing to see how the timing of this read corresponded to my own family history research of my pioneer ancestors that traveled form England to Zion. The experiences were the same and historically correct! I even found one of my ancestors as an author of a book listed in Mr. Hughe’s references in the back.

Overall- fascinating, well crafted historical fiction that gives us a good taste of tenant farms in England, immigration to the United Sates, life along the Mississippi and Nauvoo, Illinois.


Content: Some intense violence, lots of fist fights and one involving a knife.

About the Author: Dean Hughes is the author of more than eighty books for young readers, including the popular sports series Angel Park All-Stars, the Scrappers series, the Nutty series, the widely acclaimed companion novels Family Pose and Team Picture, and Search and Destroy. Soldier Boys was selected for the 2001 New York Public Library Books for the Teen Age list. Dean Hughes and his wife, Kathleen, have three children and six grandchildren. They live in Midway, Utah.

Find out more about author Dean Hughes: Goodreads

Friends and Traitors by C J Hill- Blog Tour Sign Ups

26 Jul, 2013 by in slayers 2 comments

Fire and Ice is pleased to announce the official the Blog Tour for C. J. Hill’s latest book, #2 in the Slayers series…

Friends and Traitors
  

Slayers #2
by C.J. Hill
Hardcover 400 pages
Coming October 15, 2013 
from Feiwel and Friends
ISBN 1250024617

Book Summary : The Slayers – teens who have powers to fight dragons—are back by popular demand in this high-octane sequel, now with a new cover package!

Tori is at a White House dinner party when she hears a horrifying sound: dragon eggs hatching. It means in less than a year, the dragons will be mature and dangerous. The Slayers are well-trained, but their group is not yet complete, and Tori is determined to track down Ryker Davis, the mysterious Slayer who has yet to surface.

What Tori doesn’t bargain for, however, is the surprising truth about her powers: she isn’t a Slayer after all, but a Dragon Lord, with a built-in predisposition to protect dragons, not kill them.

How will she overcome this to save the lives of her friends?


Fire and Ice is arranging the blog tour for Janette Rallison / Feiwel & Friends. I am currently accepting blogger applications now to host a stop on their site October 15th- November 2, 2013.

Requirements for Bloggers: 
  • Must have over 1000 followers on one of your social media outlets or blog
  • US and Canada addresses only for reviewers, as we will be mailing out books
  • Must be willing to schedule your post to be up on or before 8 AM EST on your posting date



Fill out the form below to be considered for this tour and feel free to email Heather with any questions!


Loading…