The Lizard Queen Series by H.L. Cherryholmes
Give a warm welcome to H.L. Cherryholmes, author of The Lizard Queen Series.
Pull up a chair, grab a drink of your choice from the cooler, a Chocolate Chip or Peanut Butter cookie from the plate, and let’s find out a little about H.L. Cherryholmes and The Lizard Queen Series.
300 years ago, in a nameless world, a prophecy passed unfulfilled. A secret society that formed to prevent its occurrence believed it was their doing, while the secret society created to ensure that the prophecy came to pass wasn’t certain it had been stopped at all. Eventually, the prophecy of Lacáruna, a female from another realm and the only being who can read the Lizard Queen’s language, fell into legend. What no one realizes, however, is that Amy Darlidale is just a tad late.
Book One:
an unusual color for a lizard isn’t it? I’ve seen red ones.”
looked at the wall just above her therapist’s head. She’d seen the family photo
dozens of times but had never given it much attention. This was the first time
she’d noticed the pendant his young daughter wore. Was it a circle within a
circle? It was difficult to make out from a distance. “Maybe your red lizard
mated with a yellow one and produced my orange lizard.”
“Maybe. Where did you see it?”
interesting thing.” Amy stopped bouncing the leg she had crossed over the
other. “I saw it in my office. It ran across my desk.”
How do you suppose a lizard—of any color—made it up to the twenty-seventh floor
of your office building?”
crawled through the pipes.” Amy glanced out the window and resumed bouncing her
leg.
John leaned back in his chair. “You seem rather distracted today.”
drifted across John’s desk. When he started seeing her alone, he’d moved from
the couple’s area to the desk. She liked it better this way.
lizard. I saw it first thing this morning, and I can’t get it out of my head.”
She uncrossed her legs. “I feel a bit silly for saying this, but it stopped and
looked at me.”
unusual about that. A deer-in-the-headlights response. Animals often
momentarily freeze when they think they’ve been caught.”
pictured the incident in her mind. “But that wasn’t what it seemed like at the
time.”
seem like?”
focus to the pendant on the girl’s neck in the family portrait. It was a circle
within a circle. “I swear it was looking at me.” She remembered how the small
creature had scrambled up a pile of reports centered at the far edge of the
desk and stopped there. “We sort of locked eyes for a moment. I had the oddest
feeling she had been waiting for me to notice her.”
the therapist. “What?”
not it.”
you assume it was female?”
sort of marking that gave away its gender?”
weren’t any markings. She was just orange. Bright orange like a…well, like an
orange. Her underside was slightly more yellow.”
and the lizard locked eyes. Then what?”
blinked a few times and ran off my desk. I shouted for my assistant and we
looked in every corner and under every piece of furniture but never did find
it.”
about this incident that you can’t get out of your head? Not being able to find
it?”
assume what bothered her was the lizard’s disappearance didn’t surprise Amy in
the least. John was a marriage counselor, which was why she’d started seeing
him in the first place; unfortunately, despite the bi-weekly appointments for
nearly a year, she and her husband, Peter, hadn’t been able to work out their
problems and eventually divorced. Peter got the SUV and the boat; she got condo
in Palm Springs and John. They sold the house in Brentwood. One issue that had
brought the (then) couple to see a therapist was Amy’s inability to let things
go. Her husband said it bordered on obsessive. Amy believed she was just
determined. As it turned out, John tended to side with her husband on that
particular topic and even after the divorce John still thought it was something
Amy needed to work on. That’s when she started seeing him only once every other
month.
that I couldn’t find the lizard. Although, I will admit that was frustrating.
I’m guessing I can’t get it out of my head because, for some reason, it made me
think of my father.”
remind you of?”
anxious to hear her answer, which also came as no surprise; Amy seldom talked
about her childhood. Something else that annoyed her ex-husband.
made me think about when he married my stepmother. A few months after their
wedding I became very ill. My father said that he found me unconscious and
rushed me to the hospital. I was in a coma for three days. The doctors never
found out what was wrong with me.” She paused to clear her throat. Talking
about her childhood always made her uncomfortable, mostly because she
remembered so little of it. “But to get back to your question, the way that the
lizard looked at me was exactly how my father was looking at me when I woke
from that coma. I remember opening my eyes and seeing my dad watching me as if
he were waiting for me to notice him. That’s what the lizard seemed to be
doing.”
pen on the notepad. “I find it interesting that the first thing you said it
reminded you of was when your father married your stepmother and not that you
were in a coma.”
asked why he found it interesting.
tell me?” He smiled wryly.
smile; John only used it when he knew how she would respond. “Maybe it’s
because I found my father marrying Alice more traumatic than being in a coma.”
She laughed.
seeing the orange lizard brought this all back to you. My question then is why
do you see it as a distraction?”
her jacket, Amy wished she hadn’t brought up the lizard. She’d only done so
because she hadn’t had anything else to talk about and didn’t want to waste a
session. “I don’t really know. Seeing the lizard just brought out…a feeling, I
suppose.”
said, mimicking his smile, “I’d be the therapist.”
Book Two:
to be taken to some sort of a cell, as had happened too many times before, but
instead Quoia and she were taken from the cliff tower into another part of the
istanté enclave. Her mind continued to reel from the events that had occurred
in the past hour. After having been abducted in Últimojo, right under the noses
of her friends, and unceremoniously carted from one end of Rescatazo to
another, she’d thought her ordeal was coming to an end when the clan’s
spiritual leader revealed that she was a Trotéjo comrade. But no. Once again,
the irony of not heeding the mysterious message sent by an unknown source while
she had been out at sea wasn’t lost on her. You didn’t think it would be that
easy, did you? Actually, she had. Silly her.
come about simply because she’d been curious as to what an adividria—an alleged
diviner of fortunes and dreams—actually did. She had been called one, which had
also occurred while she’d been out at sea on the Pen-Mai II, because someone
had assumed only a quimera capable of evocasado, this world’s version of magic,
would be able to read the Extiguos. Just outside of the Eyes of the Ultimate
Cathedral in Últimojo was a long row of tents commonly referred to as Charlatan
Shacks and she’d visited an adividria there. What followed led the adividria,
Nayel, to believe Amy was something her Ojor Mountain clan in northern
Rescatazo had been looking for. And because of that belief, Amy had been
rendered unconscious, snatched up, and dragged unwillingly up the river and
across the land only to learn that Nayel had been wrong and she wasn’t what the
istanté clan was looking for after all.
becoming the clan’s newest spiritual leader, she was to be thrown to the wolves
(in this instance, to something called a vueltó) that outsiders had never
bested. Her only consolation was that her abductor and the current spiritual
leader-cum-Trotéjo comrade’s son, Quoia, was being tossed into the ring along
with her. The broad-shouldered, pale-skinned quimero hadn’t been very happy to
learn his fate any more than she had. In fact, he probably had been even more
stunned by the turn of events than she. Amy would have felt a bit of smug
satisfaction over that, if not for the staggering sense of dread crawling up
her legs.
ugly istanté guards with the muscular hunched shoulders silently led Quoia and
her to a room with a floor covered entirely in pillows except for a small path
along the edges. Adorning the walls were more than a dozen swords of varying
sizes. The room opened onto a large empty yard surrounded by high walls. The
guards left them and closed the door, locking it from the outside. Quoia
immediately scanned the weapons on the wall, as he circled the pillow-covered
floor. Light from the flickering lanterns shined off the perspiration dotting
the skin of his bald head. When Amy had first seen him—well, not the first
time, the first time she’d only caught a glimpse of him before he covered her
face with a rag soaked in something called cañart that had knocked her
out—she’d noted that their pale-peach skin-coloring was very similar. With his
square jaw and button nose, he could have passed for human, if not for the
small curved horns just above his temples. The tall quimero was body-builder
big with a neck as wide as his head. When he found a sword to his liking he
removed it from the wall and held it out.
should be easy for you to handle.”
the sword in silence.
cuchelgado. Ranjeros call it a sword.”
is and I don’t care what it’s called. What I don’t understand is why we’re
going to a circus. Actually, let me amend that. What I don’t understand is why
any of this is happening.”
Book Three:
the blank pages and couldn’t believe her eyes. So she closed them. When she
opened them again, however, nothing had changed. The final Extiguo was no
longer visible to her.
out instructions as to which direction the others should face while Amy read
the last third of the Extiguo.
repeated.
looked at her. “What?”
gone.” She held up the book with the pages facing outward, even though she knew
he wouldn’t see it as she did. To anyone native to this world, the symbols that
were the written language of La Reina were still stamped upon the pages. “I
can’t see any of the words.”
Jandro, and Madu scrambled to gather around her. Sitting as she was on the
footboard of the carriage that had delivered goods to the hundreds of Trotéjo
hiding in Naclaquí didn’t make this easy, so she stood up. Licha pulled at
Amy’s arm until the book was low enough that she could see it.
the quimera with the alabaster-white skin said. “I thought that the words
didn’t disappear until you’ve read all of it.”
the book to be certain the pages were blank, Amy said, “They haven’t until
now.”
her shoulder. “Why now? Why would they disappear on you like that now?”
lupercas, the pince-nez reading glasses, from the bridge of her nose. No point
in keeping them on when there was nothing to read. “I don’t know why. It’s
never happened before.”
at her. His eyes were wide and seemed to be floating in the black pools that
were the ovals encircling them on his face. His blue-gray skin was almost
silver in the glow of the moonlight. “You’ve never gone so far into one of the
Extiguos and then stopped,” he said. “Could that be why?”
threw the paluz to the ground. “I don’t care what caused it. All that matters
is that I can no longer read it.” She looked at Dack. “What are we going to
do?”
green light of the paluz at his feet. “There doesn’t seem to be anything we can
do.”
know how it ends.” Madu’s voice went up an octave.
Jandro said. “La Reina creates the—”
said, his voice higher still. The tall, lanky quimero began to pace. “Not
what’s in the Translation, but what’s in the actual Extiguo. None of you seem
to comprehend that nearly all that Amy read so far is nowhere to be found in
its translation. For all we know, the Winged-One really did create the Morphósis
and La Reina became Lacáruna.”
yourself, Madu,” Dack said. “Hysterics are never constructive.”
assure you I am not La Reina,” Amy added.
mouth and drew in several breaths through his long nose. He ran his hands
through his thick, dark red hair a few times and slowly his shoulders relaxed.
“I didn’t mean that literally. I’m only conjecturing that anything is
possible.”
have left.” Licha looked up at Dack, whom she stood beside. “We should have
remained in the building when you sent out the group disguised as us. Amy
should have kept reading.”
between them and, surprising everyone, shoved Licha back. “Stop being an idiot.
We couldn’t have stayed. You heard what Dack said. Whoever caused the explosion
could have sent someone to storm into Winfred’s room and what would we have
done then?”
put Winfred’s lupercas in a pocket and rubbed her eyes. “Instead of focusing on
what we don’t know, how about focusing on what we do. I was more than halfway
through the Extiguo. We have plenty of revelations to discuss and mull over.”
It was wonderful having you with us today. Please feel free to stop by anytime. Good Luck with The Lizard Queen Series!
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Posted in Authors' Secrets Blog and tagged fantasy, H.L. CHerryho.mes, The Lizard Queen Series by Tena Stetler with comments disabled.
Goals or Resolutions I’ll Strive For In 2020
The Resolutions I make are more like goals for the coming year. So…. Lets get started.
When my hubby and I left the fifth wheel all snug in a storage space under its cover until next spring, I said the holidays will be here before you know it. He chuckled and said, “Don’t I know it.”
In the blink of an eye, Christmas is knocking at the door, filled with family, friends and a great time to be had by all. Well, mostly. Some tragic events befell several friends and family this year. I shed many tears for those individuals this year. For those I pray a for a better, kinder 2020.
Another year passed, but what was accomplished? Surprisingly, I met all of my 2019 New Year’s resolutions of 5,000 words written each week, won NaNoWriMo, 50,000 words in 30 days (but it was close),a new book contracted, I managed two, and spend quality time with family and friends. My list was short but attainable. I try to keep it that way each year.
This year in front of the Christmas tree decorated with bright multi-colored lights and ornaments that evoke wonderful memories, I ponder what the New Year will bring. First and foremost I’m going to slow down, take time to notice what is changing around me. I seem to always be focused on what’s coming up several hours from the present or days or weeks ahead. Life is to short to live life in that fashion. You miss so much. I hope, no let me rephrase I will do the following:
Have more quiet, reflective walks with Mystic my dog. We have great conversations as we tour the neighborhood or hike in the mountains. One sided sometimes, but my dog is a great listener and doesn’t judge.
Spend more playtime with our Eclectus parrot, Taco.
Take time to appreciate and enjoy each day.
Keep the those with negative thoughts or words at bay. Life’s to short.
While working towards my professional goals, I’ll up my word count goal to 6,000 words written in a week this year.
I hope to have one or two more books contracted and published.
Take more time for family and friends, you don’t know how long they will be around. The future is not a given so make the most of your present.
Last but not least, spend more time camping in our new fifth wheel for long weekends from Spring to Fall. All the comforts of home on wheels! LOL
I best get back to my WIP, or one of my goals will be slipping away before 2020 even gets started! LOL
What are your New Year’s Resolutions or goals? If you don’t make any, why not? Do you just take life as it comes and hope for the best?
Start your New Year off with a BANG. Take a peek at my New Release, CHARM ME AGAIN.Breaking the curse is only the first step to forever. Spend a few hours in a magical, fantasy 
adventure. Pick up a copy today! Available at: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo and Itunes
A little about Charm Me Again!
For several months a Scottish Highland Ghost has haunted Daylan, in his personal life, his professional life and at his forge. Yet, being a talented warlock, he is no closer to discovering what the ghost wants or why he chose Daylan. A trip to his estranged sister’s home in Colorado may have unforeseen consequences especially when family history leads him to a shocking discovery.
As his attraction blooms for Josie, a yoga instructor in his sister’s studio, he realizes there may be more to Josie than he can imagine. When an ancient rogue Fae Warrior set on revenge kidnaps her in an attempt to claim her as his own, a devastating curse comes to light.
Daylan’s world spirals out of control as he searches for Josie. Can he break the age old curse to save her and their future, or will she be lost to him forever?
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
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Posted in Authors' Secrets Blog and tagged 2020, goals, New Year, Resolutions, Tena Stetler by Tena Stetler with 9 comments.
Enraptured:The Discovery by Barbara Bretton
Happy holidays to all! Give a big welcome to Barbara Bretton, author of Enraptured: The Discovery – The Sugar Maple Chronicles, Book Seven.
Have a seat and grab an insulated mug. I’ve got hot chocolate, hot cider and coffee. Choose your pot, they’re labeled. Pick your choice of a Snicker-doodle, Chocolate Chip or Peanut butter cookie from the plate. Yep, I baked them myself. Lets see what Enraptured: The Discovery is all about. Thanks for joining us! But first a list of Barbara’s favorite Christmas Movies. How many have you seen?
anything better than curling up on the sofa with a mug of hot chocolate, a
special someone, and a full slate of Christmas movies ready to take you away?
Some of them are universal favorites. Some of them are up for debate. (Die
Hard? That’s a no from me but my husband will argue the point for days!) Here
are a few of mine. I’d love to know where they rank on your list of must-watch
holiday movies.
a Thanksgiving evening tradition in our house. The holidays don’t start until
Kris Kringle shows up.
Crosby’s farmhouse and I’m ready to pack my bags and time travel back to 1940s
Connecticut.
Scott version gets me every time. It doesn’t matter how many times I’ve watched
this classic, I turn into a teary mess when Tiny Tim runs into Scrooge’s arms
at the end. Great from beginning to end.
Sentimental. Of course. (It’s the holiday season, isn’t it?) Outdated? In many
ways. But I still love it.
Barbara Stanwyck original version. (And who doesn’t love S. Z “Cuddles”
Sakall?)
list.
Book Seven
Since the birth of my daughter last year, I have become a world-class, gold medal-winning worrier. I worry that Laria isn’t getting enough sleep and then, when she’s snuggled down for the night, I lurk in the doorway to her room and listen for the soft sound of her breathing. I worry that she isn’t getting enough milk. I worry about the transition to solids. I worry about childproofing our cottage. I worry about potty training and her first day of school.
Mostly I worry about what she’s going to be when she grows up. All things considered, that’s pretty silly because everyone in Sugar Maple knows that Laria’s future had been determined long before she was born.
But, then again, so was mine.
I’m Chloe Hobbs, the half-sorceress/half-human owner of Sticks & Strings, the most popular yarn shop in New England. (And maybe the entire east coast . . . not that I’m proud of it, or anything.) I’m also the de factomayor of Sugar Maple, one of those postcard-perfect towns Vermont is famous for, a picturesque throwback to simpler times.
At least, that’s what we want you to think.
The truth is, there is a lot more to our small town than meets the eye. My BFF Janice, who owns the spa across the street, is a Harvard-educated witch married to a strapping selkie. Lynette, my other BFF, is a shapeshifter. She and her husband and kids keep our local theater up and running. A werewolf and his sons operate the hardware store.
A Norwegian troll named Lilith maintains both our library and our historical society. Three generations of Fae run the Sugar Maple Inn and restaurant. Don’t laugh, but a team of vampires own the funeral home.
And that’s just for starters.
We have been hiding here in plain sight since my sorceress ancestor Aerynn fled the horrors of Salem centuries ago to found a sanctuary for other magicks like her.
I’m not bragging when I say that for over three hundred years, we’ve done a pretty good job of flying below the radar. The fact that you didn’t know about us is proof of that. Thanks to a protective charm created by Aerynn, we have been able to escape discovery even while living and working among humans. I’ll admit, however, that it was a lot easier before the Internet and drones and smartphones became part of our daily lives.
And there are a few old-timers around town who would say I was the biggest threat of all. We were already a popular stop for tourists looking to experience a trip to nostalgic, old school New England, when the runaway success of Sticks & Strings added a steady stream of knitters to our village. Now I’m not saying knitters are nosier than your average visitor, but nothing much gets by them. A dedicated knitter can sniff out a bargain three towns away and will do anything to reel that treasure in.
But knitters go home at night, something you can’t always say about relatives.
It was wonderful having you with us today. Please feel free to stop by anytime. Good Luck with Enraptured: The Discovery.
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Posted in Authors' Secrets Blog and tagged Barbara Bretton, Enraptured:The DIscovery, Paranormal Romance, The Sugar Maple Chronicles book 7 by Tena Stetler with comments disabled.
Interview Helen C. Johannes Author of Lord of Druemarwin
Happy Holidays to all! Give a warm welcome to Helen C. Johannes, author of Lord of Druemarwin just released!
Have a seat and grab an insulated mug. I’ve got hot chocolate, hot cider and coffee. Choose your pot, they’re labeled. Pick your choice of a Snicker-doodle, Chocolate Chip or Peanut butter cookie from the plate. Yep, I baked them myself. Lets find out a little about Helen and her Lord of Druemarwin. Up first Helen.
Why should we read this book/series and what sets you apart from the rest and makes your book/series unique?
My logline is “hearts in search of home” because each of my characters is in some way searching for the place he/she belongs and the people with whom he/she can make a home. As a military brat who attended 12 schools in 12 years, this constant search for someplace to settle, to feel as if I belong, is central to my being. For anyone who’s ever felt like a fish out of water, the odd person out, my stories should resonate.
Why do you write what you write? Ie. Contemporary, paranormal, suspense, etc.
I write fantasy romance because, first, I grew up on fairy tales. My beloved first book was a collection of these archetypal stories from the European tradition. Second, I spent formative years in the heart of Europe’s castle country where all things medieval surrounded me and history fascinated me. I could have gone into historical romance but for one important trait: I really, really like playing by my own rules. Fantasy romance lets me build medieval-style worlds that deliver the kind of storylines I want, limited only by my imagination.
Why did you choose the cover concept you did?
I’m not a big fan of clinch covers, and if I’ve seen one 8-pack torso cover, I’ve seen them all. Consequently, for this book I wanted to present my heroine as fierce and capable but very much a woman in a male-dominated medieval-style world.
What’s your approach to writing? Are you a plotter or follow your characters flow (Pantser)?
I’m what I call an ‘into the mist’ writer. That means I’m a pantser with an initial, loose plan of some serious problems for my characters to solve. The way they solve those problems usually morphs as I go along and as the characters reveal more about themselves. I craft as I go, so I don’t have to do major rewrites or multiple drafts.
How long have you been writing?
I’ve been writing since I was in grade school. The world LORD OF DRUEMARWIN inhabits was created the summer I graduated from high school. I took time off from writing for college and family, but stories kept percolating in this world and others until I was ready to commit to writing them.
SPEED ROUND FOR A LITTLE ADDED FUN:
Speed Round (one word only answer): Yep, I know torture for a writer!<evil laugh>
Favorite movie: Shrek
Favorite book: Breathing Room by Susan Elizabeth Phillips
Last book read: The Tyrant’s Tomb (Trials of Apollo #4) by Rick Riordan
Favorite color: blue
Stilettos or flipflops: Neither
Coffee or tea: Tea
Ebook or audiobook or paperback: Reading
Pencil or pen: pen
Favorite song: Bridge over Troubled Water
Streak or not: steak
Favorite dessert: homemade
Favorite junk food: fries
Favorite thing to do to relax: read
Champagne or gin: Moscato
Paranormal or Historical: Historical
Wonder Woman or Top Model: Wonder Woman
Favorite TV show: Big Bang
Hot or cold: Temperate
POV: 3rd limited
I’d die if I don’t have: Family
Review or Not: Review
LORD OF DRUEMARWIN – PAGES FROM THE HEART Winner in Fantasy Romance
In a world of lies and betrayal, can they trust each other?
So tell us about Lord of Druemarwin:
Lady Raell can fight, ride, and argue politics as well as her brothers. Only being mistress of her father’s household keeps her in skirts. In Naed, the new Lord of Druemarwin, she has found devotion, a kindred spirit, and a marriage promise. But when a forgotten and unwanted betrothal comes to light, she has no choice but to run.
Amidst sweeping revolution, Naed must rally his people, fend off assassination attempts, and fight against claims he’s a traitor. Then he discovers everything about his lineage and family is a lie. And his beloved belongs to another.
With lives and a kingdom at stake, Raell and Naed must find a way to protect the innocent and save their love.
A peek between the pages of Lord of Druemarwin:
“Raell, now is not the time—”
Aye, it wasn’t. They stood in torchlight on an open parapet while assassins stalked them, but this might be her only chance to reach him across that precipice he’d thrown up between them, to secure the future they were meant to share.
“Does my honor mean naught? When weighed with D’nalian honor, is mine lesser because ‘tis a woman’s honor? Or because ‘tis a Tolemak’s honor? Be honest and tell me that.”
The world had gone silent; Raell could hear nothing over the rush of blood in her ears, the terrible heavy beats of her heart while she waited, dizzy with fear, breathless with longing, for the man she loved to respond with a word, a look, even a blink. Even a shift of his gaze she’d take as a sign he’d at least heard, mayhap begun to consider—
“Yes, be honest, Lord Naed,” said a voice she’d heard but once, a voice that raised all the fine hairs on her body and made her innards contract into a cold, tight knot. “Tell us both how much honor means to a bastard who’s betrayed his countrymen and his blood.”
Buy Links:
About the author:
Helen C. Johannes writes award-winning fantasy romance inspired by the fairy tales she grew up reading and the amazing historical places she’s visited in England, Ireland, Scotland and Germany. She writes tales of adventure and romance in fully realized worlds sprung from pure imagination and a lifelong interest in history, culture, and literature. Warriors on horseback, women who refuse to sit idly at home, and passion that cannot be denied or outrun—that’s what readers will find in her books.
Social Media Links:
Blog: https://helencjohannes.blogspot.com/
Author Central: https://www.amazon.com/Helen-C-Johannes/e/B003JJDQWS/ref=dp_byline_cont_book_1
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4031965.Helen_C_Johannes
Bookbub: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/helen-c-johannes
It was wonderful having you with us today. Please feel free to stop by anytime. Good Luck with Lord of Druemarwin!
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Posted in Authors' Secrets Blog and tagged Helen C. Hohannes, Historical Romance, Lord of Druemarwin by Tena Stetler with 17 comments.
