Brain to Books Sister Team Blog Tour: The First by A. Claire Everward

Today I get to post twice! Such an amazing time celebrating books, books, books!

So, to go along with our two-for-one, let's meet a duo who together have published a terrific looking novel! Not only that, but they are sisters to boot!

I am so excited to be one of the first to see the cover, and hear all about it! So it is such a thrill to be able to present it to you!

Let's meet these terrific gals!

With one sister a debuting author and the other a debuting publisher, how can it go wrong?

A. Claire Everward

Kate Anne Everward

“Forever Looking Forward”. That’s their motto. And that was what they were thinking when they decided to drop everything and just do it.

Once upon a time a sister told her sister that her imagination is going wild, that she has so much to say and stories chasing through her head (don’t worry, no voices) and that escaping into that endless world of imagination makes everything (well almost everything…) tolerable. So the sister sighed indulgently and told her sister, you want to write, write. We’ll publish. People love to read.

Anna Claire Everward is now an author with already two book series on their way. And her sister? Kate Anne Everward became her publisher and PR agent. That’s how Author & Sister was born.

Ready for the book yet?

Let's see what it's all about!

The First

A debut novel by A. Claire Everward

Find Her.

Is the ancient directive that has once again reawakened in the hearts of those who hide.

Kill Her!

Is the frantic command of those who fear their rise.

Aelia returns from a vacation that did not go quite as she expected, to a life she does not quite feel at home in but that is, at least, hers. Or so she thinks. Within days of returning she is targeted by a hit man and she has no idea why.

But then neither does he. All Kyle Rhys knows is that to protect humanity, this woman must die. At least, he thinks, killing her will be easy. After all, the organization that has raised him has prepared him for her death his entire life.

So why can’t he kill her?

What? Whaaaat? Need to know more?!

Is this cover gorgeous, or what?

Let's meet this fabulous new author!!

A. Claire Everward takes the world far too seriously. Passionate and sensitive to her surroundings, she takes it all to heart, sometimes too much so. but it makes her fight for what she believes in. She is direct, although she tries not to be, at least not always. Like every artist she has her quirks, some understand them and some don’t. She prefers to keep to herself and spend time with her characters, and for her escaping into writing is always the best refuge. She would say it maintains her sanity but her sister Kate says that sanity does tend to be overrated.

Claire spent years away from home getting an undergraduate degree in aerospace engineering and a graduate degree from the same faculty, with a risk management specialty. During that time she lived in the university, surrounded by forested hills and too much silence, and so to keep away the boredom she also took on an MBA, and now she feels ridiculously over-educated.

She tried to work in her field, she really did, and even put her education to good use in the finance field for a while. But eventually her love for writing took over, and she decided to leave it all and move to the world of her imagination. Her characters had a lot to do with that—they had lived in her mind, waiting patiently for her to be ready, for too long, they felt, and so they finally decided enough is enough and took over. And Claire didn’t put up that much of a resistance. She has always loved to read, but writing, that’s a whole new world she soon knew she could never give up.

She lives with her two cats, a brown tabby named Mary Boleyn who is much smarter than her and who likes to take over her laptop exactly when she wants to write, otherwise she starts throwing all kinds of stuff off the desk, and a black cat named Henry VIII who loves to jump on top of the kitchen cabinets and scream at the ceiling. Especially at five in the morning.

Nowadays, when she’s not rudely peeping into the lives of her characters, or having in-depth conversations with them, which she does tend to do quite often, Claire actually manages to do some writing. The First is only the first of her novels. With a sequel on its way and a whole new series to follow, Claire is turning her dream to be an author, a reality.

The second half of this incredible duo!

After ten years working as a PR expert specializing in crisis and reputation management, voicing other people’s thoughts and needs and making sure they got what they want, Kate knew it’s time for a change. She’d always been a dreamer, a bookworm who escaped to her imagination when things got tough, and when her sister, another bookworm (they got it from their bookworm mother) came to her and told her she wanted to be a writer, and already had stories and books to show her, Kate decided to help her dream come true.

And so from crisis manager she became a book publisher/marketer/literary PR agent. Her career had taught her how to fight for what she believes in, and she was tenacious to begin with, and now she’s using it all. While her sister writes, Kate is learning everything she can about the traditional and self-publishing world, and is talking to anyone, anywhere out there. She and her sister Claire have now created Author & Sister, so they can publish Claire’s books and tell the world their story.

Kate lives with her laptop (Yogi) and her 10 kg gorgeous red-haired cat who never sleeps. At least not when she wants him to. She is now starting to voice her thoughts, dreams and truths in her and her sister’s blog and is even considering writing a story of her own.

Want to stalk? Here's where to go!

Author website

Publisher Website

Author on Facebook

Publisher on Facebook

Twitter and Instagram @authorandsister

Goodreads

While you're in the mood to stalk, I can't say goodbye without a self plug.  ;)

Feel free to check out my website for Sigrun, the Bandamann Saga!

Have a wonderful weekend, and have fun at the book fair!

The Call to Search Everywhen blog tour and launch party!

We're celebrating the release of Time for the Lost and the box set of the YA time travel series, The Call to Search Everywhen, with a blog tour and a Facebook party! Join the party for bookish games and giveaways. Keep reading for an except from the latest book in the series, Time for the Lost.

Read Calla and Valcas' full story in this collection of the first three books in The Call to Search Everywhen! More than 600 pages of YA time travel adventure inside the following full-length novels:

 In TRAVEL GLASSES, Calla Winston falls into a world of worlds after meeting Valcas, a time traveler who traverses time and space with a pair of altered sunglasses. He offers his further protection in exchange for a promise. After learning that his search for her was no mere coincidence, she tracks down the inventor of the Travel Glasses in hopes of discovering more about Valcas' past and motivations. With Valcas hot on her trail, Calla hopes to find what she's looking for before he catches up.

 In INSIGHT KINDLING, Calla faces charges against her for changing the past. Despite the risk of becoming lost, she accepts a dangerous travel mission that may help her find her father. She teams up with a group of talented travelers and discovers that she has a special travel talent of her own. But will that be enough to protect her and her teammates before they complete their mission?

TIME FOR THE LOST completes the story line of the first three books in the series. The travel team reunites for a mission they never saw coming: a journey to a world caught between life and death, and hidden within the deepest recesses of time. Ivory rediscovers a friend and Ray learns the meaning behind his tattoo. But the connections they make between travelers and the lost may twist the core of the Time and Space Travel Agency inside out.

Excerpt from Time for the Lost

Carefully, I climbed the clock, placing my feet on the times of other worlds, in order to see more along the top. Fragile materials supported my weight as if I weighed nothing—were nothing—but a breath of air in time and space. I climbed on, grabbing timepieces with my hands and pulling myself upward along the tower. The skin on the back of my neck prickled when I reached the topmost third of the tower. An hourglass sat perched on the tower’s tapered tip, like a golden star crowning one of Earth’s Christmas trees. The top half of the glass was mostly full. Both halves rested on a crescent moon-shaped base. The hourglass hung balanced, lightly swinging back and forth, ready to flip over when empty. I made my way back down the tower, wondering whether time ever ends, whether it could be eternal—how a system of worlds with World Builders could possibly have an end. My brain ached as I tried to make sense of it all, wondering where to begin searching for Calla. My attention turned to something bright and painful: a miniature White Tower, representing the world my parents created, the timeline of which reset when I was born. The White Tower replica had no clock hands. There were no digital measures of time, no sand trickling from the top of a glass. But I knew how the time was recorded and what time it was at the tower, based on the brightness of its glow. Like the sky which backlit the clock tower, the White Tower was a dazzling white. From what I’d learned as a child, the more brightly it glowed, the later its time and the closer to its end. I tightened my grip and groaned. “Why does every search lead back to the White Tower? Have I traveled here to the Clock Tower only to be faced with it again?” I descended a few more steps toward the base of the tower. “Is there no way to escape the past—to leave it behind me?” “You don’t appear to be biding time, friend.” I nearly fell from the tower. I glanced beneath me to see who’d spoken. The man who looked up at me was thin, with a nose as straight and long as his gangly limbs. He regarded me with eyes of purple ice. His hair, white like snow, was bound in a loose tail. Friend indeed. I exhaled, relieved. Everything about him radiated Aborealiandescent. I jumped the last few feet from the Clock Tower and signaled to him, the way I would have greeted anyone in my mother’s home country, Aboreal. His amethyst eyes met mine as he drew his lip into a thin line. He signaled back, and then frowned. “I disclaimed Aboreal long ago, but I respect the gesture.” “You’re from my mother’s homeland,” I said. “I just wanted to be sure.” The former Aborealian nodded and held out his hand. “Valcas Hall,” I said, clasping it. He grinned. “You can call me Nick.” I squinted. Aborealians had no last names, so I hadn’t expected one. Aborealian citizens were simply individuals of Aboreal. But the man’s first name didn’t fit the metric. Nick didn’t have the same significance to it as Ivory and Sable, shades of white and black. He should have had a name that reflected his wintry hair. Nick meant nothing in Aborealian. I opened my mouth to say something. “I’ve renamed,” he said. “When I denounced Aboreal, I changed my first name and adopted a surname of sorts.” “Which is?” “Time,” he said. “I’m now Nick, no longer of Aboreal, but of Time.” Nick of Time. Was this guy serious? If he noticed my cringe at the horrible pun, he didn’t show it. “What brings you to this part of the worlds, friend?” “A search.” I looked around, disturbed. “How did you get here?” “I’m the keeper of the Clock Tower. Welcome to my home.”

***

Get the series for Kindle, Nook, and iBooks.

Chess Desalls is the author of the YA time travel series, The Call to Search Everywhen. She's a longtime reader of fantasy and sci-fi novels, particularly classics and young adult fiction. Her nonfiction writing has led to academic and industry publications. She’s also a contributing editor for her local writing club’s monthly newsletter. The California Writers Club, South Bay branch, has awarded two of Chess’ stories first place for best short fiction. When she's not reading or writing, she enjoys traveling and trying to stay in tune on her flute.

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Top 10 Ways To Survive The Harsh Winter

To say I have the winter blues this winter would be a massive understatement. Every winter I get some degree of seasonal depression. I live in a climate where it is cold, snowy and cloudy all winter and then some. Winter is technically 3 months, right? Not here it isn't. Here it's more like 5 or 6. Here, the sun shines a couple times a week through the winter months, if we're lucky. It's very cold, it's dark and snowy.

I just want to hibernate.

Really.

People who live in warmer climates don't get it. They keep right on going with their lives, oblivious to the hardships of living in a cold, snowy climate. They might get a day or two with a sprinkling of snow, or a dip in temperatures to 20, 30, or 40 degrees. (Egad!)

Where I live, I would welcome those temperatures with open arms.

Especially this winter.

This winter has been so cold, I am ready to lose it. And by, "lose it," I mean, I'm not even sure what I might do, or what might become of me. I feel trapped in my house and I just want to sleep all the time. I don't care if I eat, until I actually get hungry. Then, look out. I am like a grizzly bear coming out of hibernation!

I don't even want to do things I normally want to do. That's when the siren goes off in my head.

I am depressed.

I've been depressed a few times in my lifetime, so I know what it looks and feels like for me. I know the signs and can spot when I need to intervene.

I'm ready for some winter rescue!

This is a list of things I've done, been doing, will try to do to get myself through the rest of this trying winter. I thought I'd share to help the rest of my peeps here in the tundra.

1.  Sunbathe. Get that sun on your skin whenever it comes out. We are so vitamin D starved at this point, we need that sun whenever we can get it. I literally will get as much of my skin as I can into a sunny window. Much like a napping cat, I will sun myself for as long as possible; sometimes that's 5 minutes, sometimes it's up to 30 minutes. Some mornings, it has been the only thing that got me out of bed that day. It seriously helps. Give it a try.

2.  Speaking of vitamin D, let's talk supplements. I take a pretty good variety of them every day. Everything I take, I've built up over the years, finding that each one helps my health in some way. Don't forget these every day. The mornings will happen where there won't be time, or the thought of opening all those bottles exhausts you. Do it. Every day.

3.  A bit more on supplements. Taking care of your skin. Our skin goes through so much this time of year. Winter is as hard on our skin as a desert. The dry heated air sucks moisture from our bodies like a child sucking lemonade from a straw on a hot summer day. You can try the obvious lotions and oils, but these only do so much. They help, but you really need to work from the inside out to really give your skin the upper hand it needs to get through this dry tundra. A good vitamin E, and an omega fat supplement is what you need. I have been taking these for years now, and not only has it gotten rid of the nasty cracks on the bottom of my feet, but my skin is so much softer and able to retain moisture through these harsh conditions. I also use lotion, of course, and I use natural soaps as well, leaving softer skin all around. The less chemicals we expose our skin to, the better off it can breathe properly, and help moisturize itself.

4.  Move. Whenever, wherever you can. You'll have to fight it, because your body just wants to hibernate. If you have a workout regiment, good for you! Keep it up, and try not to slack off (I have basically forgotten how to walk on a treadmill).

5.  After all this talk of taking care of yourself from the outside, let's move on to taking care of your mind and spirit. The mind goes a bit wild this time of year, and it needs attention. Occupy it. Get into your hobbies like never before. It may take a bit of force, as all the brain really wants to do is sleep. But get it going, whenever possible. Read, knit, play an instrument, do a crossword puzzle, play a video game, write a journal. Whatever it takes to use your brain in a way that makes you happy. We all get busy with life, and sometimes we need to be reminded that it's ok to take time for your needs, wants and desires. At this time of year, it is crucial to keep the mind from losing it. Find your happy place for your brain.

6.  Aromatherapy. Stimulate your senses. Get some candles, get some body spray, get some lip balm (after all, your lips should not go outside without it). Start a fire in the fireplace, cook up something delicious. Hot tea, coffee, chocolate. What do you like the smell of? Get it and let it fill your home and/or workplace.

7.  Get out! Make yourself get up and get out of the house. Find places to go; the mall, the movies, a restaurant. Wherever you enjoy, go there.

8.  Get together with folks you enjoy. Friends, family, it doesn't matter. Whoever you like to be with, be with them. Spending time with other people can make the time go by so much more pleasantly. Throw a winter fest. Build some gingerbread houses. Have a hot drink party with tea, chocolate, or toddies.

9.  Get your sleep, but don't overdo it. It's easy to stay in bed 'til noon (believe me, I know). Try hard to stay on your routine. It's definitely acceptable to give yourself a morning in bed if you've been running yourself ragged all week. There's nothing better than a Saturday or Sunday morning snuggled up in a soft, warm bed. But don't make it a regular thing. Because your body and mind will want it every day. If you really find it hard to get out of bed on a particular day, open those curtains, fluff the pillows behind you and sit up. Stay in bed and watch a good movie, or read a good book. (Sigrun, anyone?)

10.  If you can't beat it, join it. Get outside! Go frolic in the snow! No, not when it's zero or below, but when it creeps up to a whole double digits, bundle up and get out there! Just breathing in the fresh but frozen air will do your body good. The great thing about having lots of snow is being able to play in it! Build a snowman, go sledding, skiing, snowshoeing, color spray designs in the snow! Build an igloo or other snow sculptures. There are so many things to do in the snow. I would rather have a snowy winter than a plain, frozen, gray landscape you can do nothing in.

So, there it is. Ten things you can try to get through the rest of the winter. Try these individually, or better yet, use them in combination for the best impact on your sanity. Stay warm and good luck, my friends, as I do know how challenging it is.