07 February, 2013

#BlogTour :: #GuestPost by David Estes


With one touch, Leila can see it all.


Leila Marx is trying to put her life back together after her fiancé is murdered. When Detective Garrick Pearson enlists her help with a difficult case, she is thankful for the distraction and the opportunity to use her talents as a touch clairvoyant. Leila and Garrick delve into the mystery behind a series of missing teenage girls and mummified corpses while discovering their own growing attraction to each other. 



Conner Hoffman is an intriguing lawyer and striking half-demon who enters Leila’s life unexpectedly. Although her visions are terrifying, she is fascinated by his charm and his legacy. When it becomes evident that the murders are linked to a paranormal event, Conner introduces Leila to a world unbeknownst to ordinary society. She suddenly finds herself immersed in supernatural politics, sorcery, and danger as she becomes the killer’s next target. 



Staying alive will mean relying on friends, accepting the unbelievable, and trusting in her heart again.





A first date, a lottery, treachery and deceit. Sometimes fate has other plans. Sometimes there’s more to tell.



In Furthermore: An Anthology, eighteen original stories take you on a journey through worlds here and beyond. From the depths of the earth to the embrace of the sea, your favorite series continue. Prequels, alternative views, and new scenes give readers a chance to experience more than originally told. 


Including stories from Rebekah Campbell, Amber Garr, David Estes, Leigh Michael, Karen Amanda Hooper, Stephanie Judice, and Mayandree Michael. And most importantly, in honor of those who lost the battle and those who continue to fight, all proceeds from this anthology will be donated to cancer research and support.


Guest Post by David Estes



I’m not much of a short story writer. Never have been. I’ve always preferred a good 90,000-word novel where I can fully develop my characters and create complex plotlines with surprises revealed at just the right times. However, when my friend and fellow author Amber Garr approached me with the chance to write a couple of short stories for Furthermore, I jumped at the opportunity. Why? Two HUGE reasons:

Angels of Cancer- First and foremost was the chance to use my writing for an amazing cause. Because all profits from sale of the book go to the American Cancer Society, we as authors can make a difference in the fight against cancer, even if only a small one. Every little bit helps, right?

Before I started writing my short stories, I thought about why defeating cancer is so important and what it means to me. I personally have been very fortunate, in that I haven’t had any friends or family members afflicted by cancer at a young age. I never realized how lucky I was until I met my wife, Adele. In the months preceding us meeting, Adele had had two very close friends, who were young, in their twenties and thirties, die of cancer. I feel like I know Chris and Volkan now, from talking to Adele. They were good people—no, the best kind of people. People who gave of themselves all their lives, selfless to their own detriment, caring, loving, kind. People who deserved more than most of us to live long and beautiful lives. And they probably would have, but for the fickle and unflinching hand of cancer, which ended theirs early.

From the beginning of Adele and my whirlwind romance that resulted in marriage in less than 8 months, we knew there was a hand in it that was far greater than either of us. We truly believe that our angels, Chris and Volkan, both of whom wanted nothing more than for Adele to find her soul mate, brought us together at the perfect time in both of our lives. I’ve never met them, but they’re my heroes. My angels.

We all have to do our part to beat this disease, for people like Chris and Volkan and the many others who are chosen by a mindless force that almost seems beyond comprehension sometimes. Buying this book costs less than a Starbucks coffee, and your money goes to a cause that’s so important to the world.

The Moon Dwellers- The second reason I decided to write two short stories for this anthology, was to further develop a couple of the characters in my YA dystopian series, The Dwellers Saga (Book 1- The Moon Dwellers, Book 2- The Star Dwellers, Book 3- The Sun Dwellers). In The Moon Dwellers, an underground dystopian world I’ve created, one of the main characters, Adele (Yes, she’s named after my beautiful wife), meets a girl named Tawni while in a juvenile prison called the Pen. Tawni is funny, smart, and loyal to Adele for reasons that only become evident later on, but her backstory of how a beautiful, nonviolent girl with a very wealthy family came to be locked up in such an awful place was never told. My short story The Runaway- Tawni’s story, gave me an opportunity to tell her story and what befell her when leaving home for the very first time.

My second short story, The Life Lottery- A Tale from Year Zero, takes the reader back five hundred years, to Year Zero, when by a strange twist of fate, the world was changed forever, forced underground into the caverns that later became the homes of the sun, moon and star dwellers. The only problem: the caverns couldn’t fit everyone. The story tells of a young girl, Anna, as she prepares herself and goes through with the Lottery, a random draw to decide who would be allowed to go underground and be saved from the apocalyptic event that was hurtling through space toward earth. This was an important piece of backstory that I just had to write, and Furthermore gave me the chance, for which I’m eternally grateful.

I truly hope you enjoy my short stories and all the other short stories in Furthermore, but even if you don’t have time to read the book, buy it anyway, because your money will help save people like Chris and Volkan, angels of cancer.

About the Author
David Estes was born in El Paso, Texas but moved to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania when he was very young. David grew up in Pittsburgh and then went to Penn State for college. Eventually he moved to Sydney, Australia where he met his wife. A reader all his life, he began writing novels for the children's and YA markets in 2010, and started writing full time in June 2012. Now he travels the world writing with his wife, Adele. David's a writer with OCD, a love of dancing and singing (but only when no one is looking or listening), a mad-skilled ping-pong player, and prefers writing at the swimming pool to writing at a table. 

Stalk David online at:
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Giveaway
Ms.Amber Garr has kindly agreed to giveaway an e-copy of her book. Enter in the Rafllecopter below for your chance to choose either Touching Evil or Furthermore.


a Rafflecopter giveaway




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