JQM LITERARY SPOTLIGHT PRESENTS Dusk Mountain Blues by Deston J. Munden

 

 

FIRST, LET’S GET TO KNOW YOU A BIT. TELL US SOMETHING UNIQUE ABOUT YOURSELF:

 

Hello! My name is Deston J. Munden, author of Dusk Mountain Blues and Tavern. If I had to tell you one unique thing about myself it will be that I’m a samurai nerd. I’m a huge fan of old black and white samurai films and westerns (which has a lot more overlap than people think). Other than that, I’m a dungeon and dragons fan boy, I love video games like Mass Effect and Dragon Age, and I’m a budding cook.

 

 

WHAT IS THE GENRE AND AUDIENCE FOR THIS BOOK:

 

Science Fiction (Space Opera/Space Western). The intended audience is for adults 18 and up who enjoys a good blend of science fiction, comic like battles, and a western atmosphere.

 

 

WHAT WAS THE INSPIRED YOU TO WRITE THIS BOOK:

 

Quite a few things inspired this book. Like I said before, I’m a huge fan of old black and white westerns but the major thing that inspired this book was bluegrass music (thus the name of the series being Blues). From there, I started being inspired by other elements that I liked such as Red Dead Redemption, X-Men, Borderlands, and Firefly and made this universe.

 

 

TELL US ABOUT YOUR BOOK:

 

Dusk Mountain Blues is a science fiction that follows three characters from the same family but different generations, each with their personalities, superhuman abilities and flaws. They live on a backwater planet named C’dar in the middle of nowhere, smuggling and scavenging to survive. But, it’s their home. That’s until the main force of a colonization force named the Bluecoats comes planet side and threatens to take everything they hold dear. Drifter, Appetite, and Kindle—mutants from a lost generation—must use their wits, their guns, and their abilities to fight off the forces of the Bluecoats and their cyborg and android soldiers. It’s perfect for fans of X-Men, Red Dead Redemption, Borderlands, Firefly, Gareth L Powell, and James S.A Corey.

 

 

WHERE CAN WE PURCHASE YOUR BOOK:

 

JQM Literary Spotlight Presents “Heartmender” by V. Romas Burton

 

 

First, let’s get to know you a bit.  Tell us something unique about yourself:

I actually didn’t go to college for Creative Writing or English. My bachelor’s degree is in Government with a specialization in Politics and Policy. I was planning to be a lawyer! 😛

 

What is the Genre and Audience for this book:

The genre is Young Adult Fantasy and audience would be 14 and up.

 

What was the inspired you to write this book:

I’ve always loved reading, but as I read more and more young adult books, I noticed they were drenched in sex and language while promoting a lifestyle that I didn’t agree with. They all had wonderful plots and characters, so, to me, these additions took away from that.

When I started writing, I wanted to write a story that had an amazing plot but was also from a Biblical worldview.

I was working on another story when the idea for Heartmender came to me. I had just heard a sermon that talked about God giving us ideas and if we just let them float out of our minds because we think they’re impossible. So when a few lines of text came into my thoughts, I quickly wrote them down! Little did I know that those four lines would evolve into a trilogy.

Tell us about your book:

In the land of Barracks, the economy thrives on the barter of their citizens’ most precious commodity—a human heart. Each year, the Heart Reign festival is thrown for those who have become of age to trade their hearts for their deepest desires. And this year is Adelaide Tye’s year to trade.

After despising Heart Reign for years, Addie endures her Extraction and discovers that her heart isn’t gray and dying, like all other hearts in Barracks, but bright red, alive, and teeming with power.

With a warning from the extractor of hearts, Addie rushes through Heart Reign to make her choice—trade her heart to Schism, the monster who took her brother years before, or go in search of the Mender—a mythical man said to purify hearts and save her own heart. Either decision will rip her away from the one man who has always been by her side.

Knowing there is only one real choice to make, Addie jumps through Schism’s red door and is thrust into a dark and dangerous realm where she is faced with making a trade she may not survive.

For fans of Stephanie Garber’s Caraval and ABC’s Once Upon a Time.

 

 

Where can we purchase your book:

Amazon

Barnes & Noble

Walmart (online)

Target(online)

Monsterivy.com

JQM Literary Spotlight Presents “Diana Alderoot and the Gilded Mage” by Trista Shaye

 

 

First, let’s get to know you a bit.  Tell us something unique about yourself:

I’m a part-time author but my day-job is as a voiceover artist. Currently, I narrate a ton of audiobooks for a living but I’ve also done voiceover for LEGO and am a superhero’s voice in a podcast (SuperSonicPodComics). My husband and I are looking to move to the west coast for the sun, the palm trees, and opportunities with my job I can’t find here.

What is the Genre and Audience for this book:

Diana was written for ages 10 and up. It’s a clean, wholesome adventure but there are some deeper themes scattered throughout that can easily be enjoyed by older readers. This MG fantasy has adventure woven through the chapters and friendship and identity are leading ideas of the tale.

What was the inspired you to write this book:

Some of my books are inspired by dreams, some by a tiny snippet of what someone said to me during the day, or I get inspired by seeing beautiful scenery and need to capture that somehow in an epic story. However, none of these are the cases for this book.

Honestly, my inspiration was that once I had Diana fully finished and ready for release I could throw an enormous release party. That sounds so weird, but I love giving things to people and I’ve never thrown an official release party for either of my previous books, so it was a huge inspiration to me as I worked to finish the first draft. And then also just being able to release a story I would have loved growing up and would still love just as much if I picked it up today.

Tell us about your book:

Diana Alderoot and the Gilded Mage is an MG (Middle Grade) fantasy adventure story. It’s aimed at readers 10 and up and has some deeper themes that can easily be appreciated by older readers, as well. The book tells the story of Diana Alderoot, a fairy living in The Magic Vale. Her realm has known peace and prosperity for as long as she or anyone else can remember. Then, suddenly, Diana comes across something that changes everything and threatens the very existence of all she’s ever known. Diana must decided who she can trust to help her save, not only her realm, but the other four as well. The young fairy sets out on an adventure that is quite unlike anything she thought it would be and has to come to grips with her own past and unravel a web of identity and lies.

Where can we purchase your book:

Diana Alderoot and the Gilded Mage releases on March 21st. On Amazon the hardback version is now available for pre-order and the week before the release date, the ebook will also be available for pre-order. Once released, you will be able to find it on Amazon in paperback, hardback, and ebook forms. On Audible as an audiobook – narrated by yours truly. And then also on IngramSpark in hardback and ebook form.

JQM Literary Spotlight Presents “VICTORINE” by DRĒMA DRUDGE

 

 

First, let’s get to know you a bit.  Tell us something unique about yourself:

Considering the cool treehouse building shows on nowadays, maybe this doesn’t make me so unique, but my dream house would be a treehouse. Or, at the very least, I’d love a writing treehouse. (I do often write outdoors. A treehouse would only be a step away from that!)

 

What is the Genre and Audience for this book:

This novel is technically historical fiction, but it’s also very much literary fiction. So if literary historical fiction were a thing, I guess it would be that. Maybe that is a thing?

 

What was the inspired you to write this book:

I saw the painting Olympia by Edouard Manet. I’ve always loved art in fiction, and I’d taken a class about it, and had even written a short story about a model who was also painter. So when I learned that Victorine Meurent, the red-haired model in the painting was also a painter, I wanted to find out more.

 

Tell us about your book:

My debut novel, Victorine, features Victorine Meurent, a forgotten, accomplished painter who posed nude for Edouard Manet’s most famous, controversial paintings such as Olympia and The Picnic in Paris, paintings heralded as the beginning of modern art. History has forgotten (until now) her paintings, despite the fact that she showed her work at the prestigious Paris Salon multiple times, even one year when her mentor, Manet’s, work was refused.

Her persistent desire in the novel is not to be a model anymore but to be a painter herself, despite being taken advantage of by those in the art world, something which causes her to turn, for a time, to every vice in the Paris underworld, leading her even into the catacombs.

In order to live authentically, she eventually finds the strength to flout the expectations of her parents, bourgeois society, and the dominant male artists (whom she knows personally) while never losing her capacity for affection, kindness, and loyalty. Possessing both the incisive mind of a critic and the intuitive and unconventional impulses of an artist, Victorine and her survival instincts are tested in 1870, when the Prussian army lays siege to Paris and rat becomes a culinary delicacy, and further tested when she inches towards art school while financial setbacks push her away from it. The same can be said when it comes to her and love, which becomes substituted, eventually, by art.

 

 

Where can we purchase your book:

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/s?k=victorine+drudge&ref=nb_sb_noss_2

B & N: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/victorine-drema-drudge/1136381955;jsessionid=4BD38602B03CDC21639E34F23984A7D8.prodny_store01-atgap16?ean=9780996012034

 

JQM Literary Spotlight Presents “Feeling Swamped” in Rise and Rescue by Cindy Koepp

 

 

 

First, let’s get to know you a bit.  Tell us something unique about yourself:

 

Unlike most writers, who type their tales directly into the computer, I write mine out with paper and pen first and only later read it into the computer to do the editing.

 

 

What is the Genre and Audience for this book:

 

This anthology is GameLit. In other words, it all takes place inside a game with all the cool game mechanics and other quirks. The audience? I think they were striving for PG-13. My tale certainly fits under that umbrella.

 

If you like role-playing games, this anthology is for you.

 

 

What was the inspired you to write this book:

 

When the wildfire misadventure in Australia made a mess of things there, Stephen Landry organized this anthology. The proceeds for the next year will go to the rescue efforts via a group called WIRES.

 

My story had actually been written for a contest last year. I didn’t win the contest, but it fit the theme for this anthology, so I polished it up a bit more, got some feedback from GameLit author S. L. Rowland (author of Pangaea Online and Sentenced to Troll), and sent it in!

 

 

Tell us about your book:

 

The anthology is a collection of GameLit/LitRPG tales about rescues and hope. Sooo many stories were submitted that there will be a volume 1 and volume 2 in the works. (I’m in volume 1).

 

My story is called “Feeling Swamped.”

After arriving early for a little long-distance snooping before his team arrives, Leif discovers that something is amiss. The AI-driven character who’s supposed to keep low-level characters out of a higher-level area lets a group of noobs get by. Someone has hacked the AI, and Leif and his party need to rescue the noobs before the AI goes completely buggy.

 

 

Where can we purchase your book:

Preorders are going to be available on Amazon starting March 3. The release is slated for March 10.