Wednesday, April 9, 2014

{Blog Tour} Dark Angel - By Christine Pope



Happy Hump Day Peeps!!


Today I am beyond thrilled to have Christine Pope's blog tour stopping by my blog to share the love about her amazing new book, Dark Angel, which is the first book in the Witches of Cleopatra Hill series.

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 Release Date: 4/3/2014
Publisher: Dark Valentine Press


Jerome, Arizona, isn't just one of the most haunted places in America—it's also home to the McAllister witches and their extended clan. Angelica McAllister is the prima, the most powerful witch in her clan, but even she has to be on her guard, as the warlocks from a rival clan want nothing more than to capture her and bond her powers with theirs. To prevent this catastrophe, Angelica is expected to marry a compatible man from her clan. Never mind that she's not interested in any of them, and is instead haunted by the face of a man she's seen only in her dreams. 



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Excerpt:

Chapter One

Number Forty-Four

My Aunt Rachel paused at the doorway to my room. “He’s here,” she announced —
unnecessarily, since I’d heard the doorbell just a few minutes earlier.
“Okay,” I replied, and didn’t bother to keep the reluctance out of my voice. Neither did I
bother to turn away from the table where I sat, which functioned as both a computer desk and
dressing table. At the moment my laptop was closed. I should have been primping in front of
the mirror, but really, what was the point?
Up until that moment my aunt had worn her usual cheery expression. But I saw her
mouth compress slightly, even as she gave my jeans, black T-shirt, and black cowboy boots a
sideways glance. “Angela, it might help if you at least looked as if you were making an effort.”
I lifted my shoulders. “What difference does it make? If we’re fated to be together, then
he really shouldn’t care what I look like, should he?”
“That’s not the point — ” She broke off, really looking at me this time, instead of my
outfit. Voice gentler, she said, “He’s nice-looking, this one.”
Their looks generally weren’t the problem. My aunt knew I hated this ritual, knew how
much I hated not being free to make my own choice, and so I got the impression that she
quietly filtered out the candidates who were awkward or plain or had acne or whatever. Even
so, a depressing number of hopeful young men had passed through our door in the months
since I’d turned twenty-one.
Forty-three, actually. The one waiting for me downstairs would make forty-four. That
was a hell of a lot of blind dates.


“I’ll be down in a minute,” I told her.
Another one of those pauses, and then she nodded. But, since she was my Aunt Rachel,
she couldn’t seem to keep herself from adding, “Just a little lip gloss, dear,” before she turned
and went back down the stairs, silver bangles jingling, skirt swishing. Unlike me, my aunt
dressed in a jumble of multicolored broomstick skirts and ethnic jewelry, alternating from
tanks and tees in hot weather to long-sleeved T-shirts and sweaters in the winter. Her attire
wasn’t really that unusual for this part of the world, which had more than its fair share of
New Age practitioners of various persuasions.
The difference between all those New Age types and my aunt — and everyone in my
family, actually — was that we really were witches.


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About the Author:



A native of Southern California, Christine Pope has been writing stories ever since she commandeered her family’s Smith-Corona typewriter back in the sixth grade. Her short fiction has appeared in Astonishing Adventures, Luna Station Quarterly, and the journal of dark fiction, Dark Valentine. Two of her short stories have been nominated for the Pushcart Prize.

Christine writes as the mood takes her, and her work includes paranormal romance, and fantasy and science fiction/space opera romance. She blames this on being easily distracted by bright, shiny objects, which could also account for the size of her shoe collection. After spending many years in the magazine publishing industry, she now works as a freelance editor and graphic designer in addition to writing fiction. She fell in love with Sedona, Arizona, while researching the Sedona Trilogy and now makes her home there, surrounded by the red rocks. No alien sightings, though...not yet, anyway!

 

1 comment:

Karen H said...

Christine is a new-to-me author. I've enjoyed reading the excerpts of her book.

kareninnc at gmail dot com