Dear friends,
Let’s turn September 2020 into an exciting month!
So far 2020 has been hard on all of us. I think we deserve a treat.
Let’s hope children go back to school so they can see their friends in a safe and healthy environment. Let’s hope adults can go back to work so they can patch up the financial damages incurred by their offices closing. Let’s hope scientists come ever closer to developing vaccines that will protect us from COVD-19. Let’s hope businesses find innovative ways to offer their services in a safe manner.
Make no mistake, the road ahead is still long and we will face many challenges, but let’s keep our fingers crossed that the worst is over.
What innovative things have people, schools and businesses come up with in your area (you can discuss here: The Alien Skill Series FB Group)?
News about The Alien Skill Series
But, hey, enough rambling. You’re here for Ben Archer, right? ;)
Well, you won’t be disappointed because this is that special time when you’ll be glad you’re on my mailing list.
Why?
Because, right here, right now, I’m offering 200 FREE ARC COPIES of Ben Archer and the Star Rider (The Alien Skill Series, Book 5)!
Did I mention this is a time to get excited?
I can already tell you, you won’t regret it. This new Ben Archer adventure is nail-bitingly frustrating and mindbogglingly explosive (can I say that?...I guess I just did...). The alien skill will surprise you in ways even Ben couldn’t have foreseen. If you’ve enjoyed the series so far, you won’t be disappointed with this one!
CLICK HERE TO GET YOUR FREE ARC COPY*
* Offer ends: Friday, September 11, 2020
* EXCLUSIVE offer available for subscriber of my mailing list
* "ARC readers (Advanced Review Copy) are given a free copy of a book in exchange for leaving an honest book review (typically on Amazon and/or Goodreads) once the book is available for distribution."
Preorder Ben Archer and the Star Rider
You can preorder the Star Rider on Amazon now:
- Ebook: https://www.amazon.com/dp/
B086RK31LT - Paperback : https://www.amazon.com/dp/
1989605176 - Hardcover: coming soon
Mark your calendars: September 17, 2020 is the publishing date for Ben Archer and the Star Rider (The Alien Skill Series, Book 5).
Those who purchase the Star Rider will get the extra bonus of discovering the book cover and first chapter of Ben Archer and the Toreq Son (The Alien Skill Series, Book 6) at the back of the book.
So, NOW are you excited?
What's up in the neighbourhood?
I’d like to dedicate this section to all the people who have helped me and my family get this far.
I dedicate Ben Archer and the Star Rider to my mother-in-law, Norma, who came to help us while my husband is getting treated for stage 4 cancer. I wouldn’t have found the time to accompany my husband to his treatments or finish writing book 5 if it hadn’t been for her. Thank you, Norma!
Today, my husband is getting his last chemotherapy treatment. YES! THAT’S why I’m so excited! I’d like to thank the hundreds of doctors, nurses and medical personnel from the Canadian health system who have offered my husband top-notch treatment all through the COVID-19 nightmare. Not once was his treatment delayed. I would wish for everyone in the whole world to have access to such dedication and often think of those who have not had this incredible luck.
I’d like to thank Robin, Mystee, Giselle, John and D'artagnan for being such attentive beta readers and for pointing out so many details in the Star Rider that I would never have uncovered myself. Deema Kheiry, Zer Zabar and Mahtab Narsimhan have been incredible sources of cultural information regarding the Middle-East. These are the kind of people who will make your reading experience even more enjoyable and realistic. Kudos to them!
Same goes to Cristy Watson, my go-to author friend and editor who always brings that extra magic touch to the manuscript.
And, of course, to you, reader, without whom the Star Rider would probably not exist.
September 2020 reading list
Make sure you have a nice stack of books ready for the winter months (in the Northern Hemisphere) and summer months (for you lucky people in the Southern Hemisphere pulling out your bathing suits).
The Book of Chaos (Starfell) by Jessica Renwick
A magical book. An enchanted forest. One brave girl on a quest to save her family. Join Fable on this spellbinding adventure for middle grade children!
Winner of the 2019 Children's Literary Classics Award for Middle Grade General
Winner of the 2019 Book Excellence Award for Children's Fiction
There is no magic in the village of Larkmoor. None, except for the spark that runs through twelve-year-old Fable’s veins. Living under the roof of her over-protective aunt, her powers are kept secret, hidden inside the walls of their home.
But not everything is as boring as it seems in that cozy cottage. When a strange book lands in Fable’s lap and her cousin disappears into its pages, she follows, hurtling into an enchanted forest far from the rolling hills of her home. This is a land filled with strange people, magical creatures, and more danger than Fable has ever dreamed of.
She must battle for not only a way home, but for the lives of those she loves most. With the help of her peculiar new friends, Fable must learn to trust in herself or risk losing her cousin forever. Can she save him before it’s too late?
𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘎𝘶𝘪𝘵𝘢𝘳 𝘰𝘧 𝘔𝘢𝘺𝘩𝘦𝘮 (Book 2) is the Reader’s Favorite Awards 2020 Bronze Medal Winner
The Renegade Spy Project by Terri Selting David
It’s a Mystery! Wren Sterling knows she’s super smart and a good friend, but no matter how hard she tries, she can’t shake her reputation as a troublemaker. Her brain just doesn’t work like the brains of the other kids at Ada Lovelace Charter School. They all seem to know what’s going on. She’s just trying to get through the day. It feels like the only people who believe in her are her three best friends in the Renegade Girls Tinkering Club.
When the Renegades start a business inventing and selling spy gadgets, it looks like she’s finally done something right. But then they’re accused of a school crime! Can they use their own spy gadgets and ingenuity to clear their names? If they can find the real culprit, Wren might just discover she has a bright future after all. Build DIY SPY GADGETS along with the Renegades in this interactive adventure encouraging the STEM in all of us. Instructions and templates included for hands-on science and building projects.
The Babysitter's Club meets MacGyver in this charming story about friendship, middle school, and the Engineering Design Process. All the fun, all the engineering-based life lessons, and a lot fewer babies. THE RENEGADE SPY PROJECT is a perfect next step for kids who loved Rosie Revere, Engineer, the Questioneers, are now enjoying the Girls Who Code books, and are ready for a more advanced reading level.
With hands-on interactive tinkering projects the reader can build alongside the characters that are integral to the story line, these books are perfect for girls (or anyone) who love to read, love to make stuff, and love to make stuff while they read!
Solaria's Fist by K.D. Karnik
Arise. Awake. Betray. When the war comes, rejoice.
Smuggled radios scream such mottos at the Thousand Suns, as the navies of Solaria find themselves on the edge, scattered and fighting a lost battle. The battle to preserve what the war against the Tauran Empire ripped clean off humanity, and Solaria's decadent order.
Technologies banned for centuries are popping up on burnt worlds, military laws in several sectors turn into an afterthought. Eons of "peaceful oppression" end at the hands of an invigorated underground, tension amongst upstart superpowers teeter on the brink of war, and the Sun calls upon its workers to fight the Spacer Melds, forsaking a billion lives and counting.
Admiral Aggarwal, named most popular warrior of the colonial admiralty on Earth, appears to wallow in postwar depression. It makes for a good mask, as he works, collects, observes, a traitor in the midst of Solaria. But when a war leader's assassination plunges the fleets into frenzied mobilization, and he is sent into an escalating military situation at the Blackwaters with enough firepower to pulverize a planet, he can think of enough Divinity-approved ways to use it for his own planned crusade.
When an enemy messenger pops up to claim the existence of a new threat that "might" be unstoppable if humanity does not unite and prepare for a war of annihilation, doubts spring up. With doubts come more heat between allies, while the possibilities are far too dire to ignore. To Aggarwal, it is a matter to rejoice. He volunteers to head into the unknown, confident the enemy is a godsend method to weaken Solaria before he strikes his own blow. As his universe falls apart, he prepares. Before he can save humanity, he must cleanse it.
One way or another, reckoning is near …
Space Shifters of the Firesnake
Space Travel, Time Travel, or Metaphysical Travel? There are many ways to smash interstellar slavery.
Aedre is a spiritual young woman who grieves her mother’s death. She goes to another planet for a fresh start and hopes to find someone who might fill that hole in her heart.
Little does she know she’s headed into something much more threatening. Faced with interstellar human trafficking and murder, she quickly becomes the mafia’s target.
But there are prophesise about her becoming the saviour of slaves, and Aedre's bonds with the Godfather cross space and time.
When a stranger offers her a ticket home if she recovers a time-travelling key, the proposal seems too good to be true. But when she unearths the power of shape-shifting, she discovers more potential in revenging the Godfather and freeing his slaves.
Can she succeed while facing likely death?
Cynetic Wolf by Matt Ward
It's 2096, sixty years after ninety percent died from a man-made Bioplague. Humanity has splintered into four unequal subspecies: immortals, cyborgs, enhancers, and subservient half-human, half-animal hybrids.
The world is anything but equal. Hybrids everywhere are suffering, but sixteen-year-old Raek Mekorian, a wolfish with a nose for trouble, doesn’t see an alternative. Except the Resistance, who don’t stand a chance against the world government. His mom always said, “Keep your head down.”
And he does, until his sister is murdered by a pair of cyborgs. Overnight, his simple life is shattered, fracturing the rigid governmental caste as he is thrust into the dangerous world of superhuman hit squads, Resistance uprisings, and secrets better left unsaid.
With only built-in blasters and the advice of a mysterious professor, Raek must navigate crushing betrayal, self-doubt, and a limitless enemy whose evil knows no bounds.
Can Raek unify his people and free them from tyranny? The fate of mankind may rest in his hands.
They Came from the Trees by Christopher Francis
The invaders need the mentally strong and the physically able—the rest of the human population are simply landfill. Who are these creatures and what are their intentions?
Sheldon, a fifteen-year-old high school dropout, has no interest in finding out—at least not yet. Instead, he fights for his life as these ruthless aliens take over the little town of Hidden Trail.
Sheldon takes refuge in an abandoned school with a beautiful girl named Cara and a couple of kids who happen to have profound ideas about the motives of the alien invasion.
The group is soon picked up by some edgy teenagers who are preparing to escape to the water. However, when Cara goes missing, Sheldon deviates from the plans and discovers more about the rapidly evolving aliens and their horrifying yet curious vision. The lovestruck teen soon questions the morality of the human spirit, and wonders what it might be like to submit to the utopian idealisms of this new alien race.
Hidden Magic (Magic Underground Anthologies Book 1)
No matter the world, life can be dangerous. Be they wizards and shamans, assassins, or everyday people, Hidden Magic tells their stories about escape, consequences, and most of all, magic.
From Earth cities and fantastical new worlds comes a collection of stories where heroes grapple with the seen and unseen in order to save themselves, their families, and often the world. This collection features:
Elderly antiques experts interacting with souls
Shamans growing outlawed magic
Baby chimeras battling for their lives
Children sprouting fluffy tails
A king’s boat thrown off-course
A perfect life coming at a not-so-perfect cost
Vikings defending a village against the unseen
A lone shifter atoning for his past mistakes
Trolls and pixies tumbling through the doorway to another world
And more!
Fans of Patricia Briggs and Tamsyn Muir will love Hidden Magic, first of the Magic Underground trilogy of anthologies… Get it today!
Authors in this anthology include: USA Today Bestseller Joynell Schultz, USA Today Bestseller Melinda Kucsera, Seattle Times regional bestseller & multi-international award winner Raven Oak, Tiffany Shand, Alesha Escobar, USA Today Bestseller Lee French & Erik Kort, H.B. Lyne, Anela Deen, Majanka Verstraete, C.K. Rieke, Devorah Fox, Leah W. Van Dinther, C.S. Johnson, Barbara Letson, Toasha Jiordano, Gwendolyn Woodschild, H.M. Jones, Stephen Wallace, AR Johnston, and William C. Cronk.
Grant Us Mercy by D.C Little
When the world turns black, they realize that all their preparation means nothing if they can't find each other.
For Secret Service Agent, Blake Chantry, ensuring that his superiors thrive in the face of a national disaster has been his primary objective. Fulfilling his duty pales in the face of adversity when separated from his family by a blazing inferno, exploding vehicles, and the beginning of mob-rule. Blake will stop at nothing to find his wife and son.
Kris Chantry’s husband had prepared her for this day, though she had never believed it would actually happen. When her car stalls and bursts into flames leaving her and her young son fighting through wild fires, road blocks, and the unknown, she digs deep, remembers her training, and does what has to be done for her son to survive.
Dome Six by C.P. James
Generations have lived and died in Dome Six, safe from the terrifying world outside. When a looming threat forces them to look for a way out, it challenges everything they thought they knew — and brings them closer to what they fear most.
As the 21st century drew to a close, Cytocorp, the world’s most powerful company, built eight Domed cities to protect America’s best and brightest from a deadly climate event called the Burn. After losing contact with the outside world, all they could do was survive long enough for conditions to improve. But four generations later, Dome Six is still waiting.
Owen Welsh leads a relatively privileged life as a Technician’s Apprentice, repairing the Dome’s many problems under the watchful eye of his uptight adoptive mother, Tosh. When her estranged brother, Hideki, draws him into his tangled web of conspiracy theories and wacky experiments, he soon finds himself on the wrong side of the law. His punishment? Three months in the backbreaking hydroponic Towers.
As accidents and malfunctions pile up, however, Hideki’s relentless quest for the truth puts him in the crosshairs of the ruling Authority. Owen continues working a crazy theory while the noose tightens around his uncle, each step bringing him closer to the real saboteur.
When unlikely allies join Owen’s cause, however, they find themselves embroiled in a desperate race to save Hideki’s life and get out of the Dome before it crumbles on top of them. Will new clues point the way out before it becomes their tomb?
The Complete Gargoyle & Sorceress Boxset by Lisa Blackwood
An untried sorceress teams up with an immortal gargoyle to stop a goddess from enslaving Earth.
Chaos and romance ensues in this epic urban fantasy tale unlike anything you’ve read before. With over 2000+ pages of action-packed plot, rich world-building, noble gargoyles, and a little romance tossed in for good measure.
Join the battle for Earth today.
When Lillian finds herself facing off against demons out of mythology, help comes from an unlikely source—the stone gargoyle who has been sleeping in her garden for the last twelve years.
After the battle, Lillian learns the humans she thought were her family are actually a powerful coven of witches at war with the demonic Riven. Lillian is something more than human, a Sorceress and Avatar to the gods. The gargoyle has been her protector for many lifetimes, but when she was still a child, troubles in their homeland forced him to flee with her to the human world.
But something from her childhood has followed them to this world.
In a heartbeat, her ordinary life becomes far more complicated, and if her overprotective guardian is to be believed, there’s an evil demigoddess just waiting for the chance to enslave them both.
All the best,
Rae