Category Archives: Orangeberry Summer Splash

My Top Ten Heroes #OBSummer #Books

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So the next magnificent miscreant in our repertoire is…wait, what? Heroes? Did I read that right? My Top Ten Heroes? Yes, friends and foes, after all this time pouring over the dastardly deeds of about 50 of my favorite baddies, it’s time to give a brief – and I mean BRIEF – introduction to my all-time favorite do-gooders.

But you know I’m not doing that nonsense here, right? Oh no! As part of the Orangeberry Summer Splash, the good folks over at WeFancyBooks are hosting my first ever Top Ten Heroes list. Swing by and pay them a visit!

Water (The Akasha Series #1) – Book Review #OBSummer

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Let me get this out the way: Kaitlyn Alder is BADASS!

And now for the more subdued part of my review:
I read Water as part of the OrangeBerry Summer Splash Blog Tour and was introduced to Kaitlyn, her elemental powers and the eco-fantasy genre all in one fell swoop. And Terra Harmony, the author, doesn’t waste any time throwing you into the action. Some readers like to move into stories gradually—they want to learn about the sunlight, the intricate shapes the shadows make dappling on pavement, the sounds of children playing from the nearby park wafting through the air. Yeah, screw all that! Harmony introduces us to Kaitlyn as she’s snowboarding for her life, trying to outrun an avalanche.

She fails.

And that’s just the first chapter.

From here we learn that Kaitlyn is more than a globe-trotting, freelance photographer with intimacy issues: she’s a Gaia—a person with the ability to manipulate the elements (Air, Wind, Water, and Fire). Problem is Kaitlyn’s all power with none of the control. Where we’d love a light breeze, your girl is causing Hurricane Katrina. Not only that, she’s in the custody of an eco-friendly (but pretty freaking poor), shadowy group called The Seven. They lock her up, don’t tell her anything, vaguely answer her questions, are footloose and fancy free with sedatives, and promise to teach her about her powers.

What I like about Kaitlyn is that she takes none of this lying down: she puts a hurting on everyone until she gets the answers the wants or until her curiosity is peaked. And she’s got a smart-ass sense of humor. She’s all attitude, has great one-liners and a good right cross—it’s more like Captain Planet meets The Last Airbender with a little Firestarter thrown in there for good measure.

I’m gonna stop so I don’t ruin it: Water and its follow up, Air, are both available (you can get it on Amazon and Water is FREE!) and Book #3, Earth, is due out pretty soon. It’s a good, action-packed read. But I do have to say, Kaitlyn’s journey is no walk in the park: just because it has fantasy in the genre, don’t think this is Hunger Games. Harmony deals with some very adult themes in a very adult way and some of the sex scenes in this book are non-consensual.

I have a couple of cons. First, you know how I love my villains, right? Not a fan of this guy. At all. For all the crap he put Kaitlyn through, what he wanted was neither clear nor really all that deep. Ever. And the emotional component underpinning his actions and his goals was too little too late. I didn’t get the why of it all and, without that, I couldn’t get the point. Other than Kaitlyn learning her powers, the villain didn’t give me much to go on. Luckily, Kaitlyn’s story is strong enough to go on.

Beyond that, this is ultimately about saving the environment, right? Save the trees and feed the plankton and global warming stuff. It isn’t even that governments and companies don’t love their trees—it’s that they don’t want to pay to save them. So if you have a group of people who can fix the environment, through whatever means, who cares? Why be clandestine when you’re doing the stuff everybody wants? I couldn’t understand the bigger conflict; it was alluded to late in the book but never really clear.

That aside, would I recommend the book? Absolutely. Ms. Harmony is building a bigger story here and Water is only the beginning. It’s certainly worth diving in and seeing it to the finish line.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Terra’s Akasha Series is a set of FOUR contemporary eco-fantasy novels. ‘Water’ and ‘Air’ are available as e-books, and ‘Fire’ is due to release in October 2012. FYI: Water’s FREE! on Amazon Kindle and Smashwords.

Terra was born and raised in Colorado but has since lived in California, Texas, Utah, North Carolina and Virginia. She’s a former Marine (5½ years, people! We thank you for your service!), has her Masters’ degree and currently resides in the Washington DC area with her husband of 13 years and 3 children.

You can connect with Terra on Facebook or at her blog.

DON’T STOP READING!
Part of the Orangeberry Summer Splash is an awesome giveaway. Click HERE for your chance to win a Kindle FIRE!!

Terra Harmony Guest Post: FOUR ELEMENTS AND CHARACTERS

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I told you I was doing the Orangeberry Summer Splash Blog Tour, right? You were paying attention, weren’t you? Well, aside from me dropping my super-villainous knowledge on unsuspecting bunny-themed blogs and letting Lucifer darken Seryniti’s doorstep, I get to present to you some of the talented, innovative authors I come across. I am honored to have today’s guest, Terra Harmony. Terra’s here introducing the themes in her novel, Water (which I am reviewing later today).

TERRA SAYS:
In the Akasha Series, my characters possess abilities with the four classical elements of water, air, earth, and fire. I know what you’re probably thinking: ‘Avatar: The Last Airbender’.

You’re right…sort of. But instead of tween martial arts masters, think of hippies, in a cult-like environment who use their powers to provide balance to Earth’s ecosystems.

I love the idea of elemental powers. Combining them with wiccan traditions, a paranormal romance, eco-friendly tips, and an antagonist that readers love to hate has led to one awesome writing adventure. The possibilities really are endless when it comes to the elements. Each element has its own personality, and represents different characteristics, seasons, colors, and directions of the compass. Pitting them against each other makes for a great battle scene, but when they combine forces and work together, it is pure magic.

The fifth element, what some call spirit, aether, or Akasha, is the prime element present in all things. It connects and balances all the elements together, allowing them to exist. Throughout my series, the characters begin to seek Akasha. They learn that the only way to achieve Akasha is to perfect self-balance.

Along the way, we meet important characters called Elementals, who specialize in just one of the elements. Below is a description of each; which one best represents you as a person?

Earth: The earth element is the most dependable, steady and practical. Earth magic operates at a slower rate, but it is more likely to persist and endure. The Earth elements represents North, the color green, midnight, and winter. It signifies stability, order, birth and death, and fertility.

Air: Air expands your consciousness and represents truth. It is also associated with thought and language, the breath of life. The Air element represents East, the color yellow, mornings, and spring. It signifies intellect, reason, science, and youth.

Water: Water elementals can be described as timid and shy, though some of the most dangerous natural disasters are water based. The water element represents West, the color blue, twilight and autumn. It represents emotion, intuition, healing, and wisdom.

Fire: Fire is the purest element in the sense it cannot be polluted – though it depends on other elements to exist. The fire element represents South, the color red, noon, and summer. It represents strength, passion, energy, and transformation.

In reality, we don’t have to be blessed with elemental powers to make a difference, though how cool would that be? If given the choice, I’d go with fire (even despite my first name). I am a Leo after all! Leave a comment with your element of choice and tell us why!

NOW BACK TO ME:
What would I choose? The element of SURPRISE! Okay, fine…I choose Air. Thanks for swinging by, Terra! Remember, Terra’s Akasha Series is a set of FOUR contemporary eco-fantasy novels. ‘Water’ and ‘Air’ are available as e-books, and ‘Fire’ is due to release in October 2012. FYI: Water’s FREE! on Amazon Kindle and Smashwords.

She’s a former Marine (5½ years, people! We thank you for your service!), has her Masters’ degree and currently resides in the Washington DC area with her husband of 13 years and 3 children.

You can connect with Terra on Facebook or at her blog.

DON’T STOP READING!
Part of the Orangeberry Summer Splash is an awesome giveaway. Click HERE for your chance to win a Kindle FIRE!!

What the Hell Was I Thinking? Part 2: My Ford 99 Test

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So one of the things from the Orangeberry Summer Splash is a Ford 99 Test. Now I know you’re what you’re thinking–what the hell is a Ford 99 Test? Here’s what it’s based on: “Open the book to page ninety-nine and read, and the quality of the whole will be revealed to you.” –Ford Madox Ford. So it goes like this, find a book at your local bookstore or in your library, open it up to page 99 and it should give you a good idea of the quality of the writing.

As part of the blog tour, we were asked to comment on our own page 99 and Mommy Reviews was gracious enough to post mine. This is a little peek inside my mind–check it out here.

Still Talking: Orangeberry Summer Splash Author Interview

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So friends and foes, you may not know it but August is the MONTH OF PROMOTION! I’m trying to do it like Visa and be everywhere you wanna be so I’m participating in the Orangeberry Summer Splash–hence the lovely badge in this post and on the site. The Summer Splash is a blog tour of 100 magnificent authors and 106 books. I strongly, STRONGLY (this is me saying Pretty Please With Sugar On Top!) encourage you to check out these folks and their works.

Tomorrow, I’ll be haunting My Seryniti with another interview, a guest blog post (still all about villains) AND a book review by Seryniti herself. But wait, there’s more! There’s a TwitterView on August 8–a TwitterView is an interview via Twitter (yeah, I never heard of it either) sponsored by the Hostess With The Mostest, Pandora Poikilos, bestselling author of Excuse Me, My Brains Have Stepped Out. And there are more stops along the way: On August 12, I’ll be breaking down Page 99 of The Road to Hellover at Mommy Reviews. If you haven’t, start reading now! On August 18, I’ll stop by We Fancy Books to deliver my Top Ten Heroes (I like a couple of the good guys). And on August 22-23, Pandora will blow me up on Twitter and plaster my pretty face all over her site at Peace from Pieces.

But the party starts today with an author interview by lil ol’ me over at The Bunny’s Review. Check me out!

And if you wanna learn more about the Orangeberry Summer Splash and the authors in it, check out the press release!