Spring is in the Air bloghop

I love New England. Because of my husband's career in the US Coast Guard, we move a lot. We've lived from Kittery, Maine to Yorktown, Virginia. Fortunately all our moves have been on the East Coast. Then again, the Coast Guard tends to guard the coast.

When I started The Mark of Abel, I was living in Delaware and missing New England something fierce. I decided to set the book there. At first, I set it during the fall. My husband remarked that all books set in New England happen during the fall. As I was writing, I realized I needed to move the book to right before Spring break.

In New England, spring means one thing--baseball. Even the heroine gets swept up in Red Sox fever.

Excerpt:

Traffic on Storrow Drive was a nightmare. Janie laughed. Nightmares were precisely why she was caught in traffic hell. Unfortunately, she must travel through this to reach her salvation, something beautiful to erase the afterimages of her night terrors. She cursed that she needed to pass Fenway Park to get to the Museum of Fine Arts. A few more miles and she’d be cocooned in soothing blues of the Madonna. Each car inched along as if pulled by the one in front, all united by a common purpose proudly emblazoned on their bumpers. Go Red Sox. 

 
She’d never felt so alone. 

 
She didn’t even know the rules of the national pastime. Maybe she should change that. Then she could talk to strangers waiting in line. There was something about a green monster who ate balls. That would be interesting to paint. Then again, if she did, the monster would have blood dripping from his fangs. That wasn’t exactly kid-friendly. 

 
“How ’bout the Sox?” she said to her empty car. She sighed. 

The air was electric. She could come up with something special to paint here. There were rarely people in her paintings. Maybe that was her problem. She’d always felt removed from the people around her. The secret to healing her broken soul wasn’t communion with God, but communion with her fellow man. That’s what art gave her. She felt connected to the long dead artist. What she needed was to connect with the living. 

 
On the sidewalk to the left of her car, a small girl about three-years-old bounced on her father’s shoulders. Her hat was too large and fell over her eyes. With an iron grip on her father’s chin with one hand, she pushed it up. It fell again. Janie wiped away a tear. It had been decades since she had been her father’s Moonbeam. 

 
To her right, happy couples strode toward the stadium. Their joy was so palpable, she could feel it through the closed window. She rolled it down and fragments of conversation floated to her. None if it made sense, talks about winning a pennant or someone being sent down to the minors or a designated hitter, whatever that was. If she was going to become a fan, she needed to learn a new language. She wondered if tickets were available. With all these people, probably not.

Blurb/Backcover copy:

Lucifer is fed up with humanity. He created hell to deter evil, but man’s inhumanity is only escalating. He just wants to return home to heaven, but ever since that little problem in the Garden of Eden, the Pearly Gates remain firmly shut to him. It doesn’t help that he’s the first vampire, an abomination in God’s sight.

Fortunately, two thousand years ago Lucifer’s estranged brother, Jesus, gave him a prophecy. To fulfill it, all Lucifer has to do is find the right artist, study her artwork and the path back to heaven will be revealed. The artist even bears a symbol so he knows who she is. Too bad she is murdered every time he finds her.

Janie’s a frustrated artist and college art teacher who wants two things—a guy she can show her paintings to and a night without nightmares. Each nightmare plagues her until she paints it. She doesn’t realize these paintings are key to unlocking her destiny, one that could redeem the original fallen angel.


Buy Links:

MuseItUp Publishing: http://museituppublishing.com/bookstore2/index.php?page=shop.product_details&flypage=flypage.tpl&product_id=516&category_id=69&manufacturer_id=250&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=1&vmcchk=1&Itemid=1

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/The-Mark-of-Abel-ebook/dp/B00B0FSH9A/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1358130524&sr=8-4&keywords=The+Mark+of+abel

Trailer  Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UayqdSPMFMQ&feature=youtu.be

One lucky commenter will win a copy of The Mark of Abel and be entered into the hop's grand prize drawing for a pack of books from XOXO Publishing. You must include your email address to be eligible. 

Make sure you visit other stops on this hop for learn about more fabulous books and for more chances to win. There is a prize at every stop.

Also, I am currently involved in a uber-massive virtual book tour for The Mark of Abel. Feel free to join me at any of my stops. The  Grand  Prize for the tour is a $50 Amazon  Gift Card. Click on the graphic below and it will take you to the tour page. Thank you for stopping by.