Straight Browsing from the Library: She's the One Who Gets in Fights by S.R. Cronin

This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. S. R. Cronin will be awarding a $25 Amazon or B/N GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.

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Do you know what your problem is?

Sulphur knows hers. This 13th-century woman has trained as a fighter all her life in hopes of joining the army. Then, within days, both of her older sisters announce plans and suddenly Sulphur is expected to find a man to marry instead.

Is it her good fortune her homeland is gripped by fear of a pending invasion and the army now goes door to door encouraging recruits? Sulphur thinks it is. But once she’s forced to kill in a small skirmish, she’s ready to rethink her career decision. Too bad it’s too late. The invasion is coming, and Ilari needs every good soldier it has.

Once Sulphur learns Ilari’s army has made the strategic decision to not defend certain parts of the realm, including the one where her family lives, she has to re-evaluate her loyalty. Is it with the military she’s always admired? Or is it with her sisters, who are hatching a plan to defend their homeland with magic?

The problem with being a woman who fights for what’s right is that now, she has to figure out what is.

(The War Stories of the Seven Troublesome Sisters consists of seven short companion novels. Each tells the personal story and perspective of one of seven radically different sisters in the 1200s as they prepare for an invasion of their realm. While these historical fantasy/alternate history books can be enjoyed as stand-alone novels, together they tell the full story of how Ilari survived.)

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The northern edge of Ilari rises rapidly into a high mountain range. The nichna of Tolo occupies this border, where Ilarians pass into the high mountains as needed for travel and trade. Early this morning word reached the Svadlu that troublemakers from further up the mountains had overrun a small village in Tolo. At first I worried these invaders were the dreaded Mongols unexpectedly entering our realm, but reports said otherwise. A small band from the north had commandeered the town, demanding food, bounty, and more from the residents.

Tolo has the most extreme winter weather of any nichna and is sparsely populated, with only a couple of thousand Tolovians who mostly mine ores and act as if the rest of Ilari barely exists and hardly matters. No one wanted to charge up into the mountains in winter to defend ungrateful Tolovians from their newly aggressive neighbors.

My commander, Tamara, was Tolovian and her Mozdol superior placed her in charge of the force being sent. As I watched her get ready for our departure, I understood this was no nuisance to her. She would be defending those she loved.

In the end, forty-five of us left at mid-day, heading into a snowstorm fully armed and bundled in furs. Rooslin and I began the ride side by side.

“Does it make you nervous going into battle for the first time with almost nothing but other untested new people?” he asked.

“What do you mean? The Svadlu would never do that. I’m sure this group contains a good mix of skills.”

He laughed. “I love how trusting you are. You’ve never heard the phrase ‘If it doesn’t sound pleasant, send the new people?’”

No, I hadn’t.

“I recognize a lot of these faces from our rock-moving days,” he explained. “But ask around. Maybe I’m wrong.”

I trotted ahead and made my way up to ten riders, introducing myself and asking each one a few polite questions. Most chatted with me as they answered but even those who didn’t fancy talking gave me the information.

“How many of the ten are first timers?” Rooslin asked after I rejoined him.

“Ten.”

Neither of us said more about it as we rode upward along the western banks of the Little River.

MEET THE AUTHOR

Sherrie Cronin is the author of a collection of six speculative fiction novels known as 46. Ascending and is now in the process of publishing a historical fantasy series called The War Stories of the Seven Troublesome Sisters. A quick look at the synopses of her books makes it obvious she is fascinated by people achieving the astonishing by developing abilities they barely knew they had.

She’s made a lot of stops along the way to writing these novels. She’s lived in seven cities, visited forty-six countries, and worked as a waitress, technical writer, and geophysicist. Now she answers a hot-line. Along the way, she’s lost several cats but acquired a husband who still loves her and three kids who’ve grown up just fine, both despite how eccentric she is.

All her life she has wanted to either tell these kinds of stories or be Chief Science Officer on the Starship Enterprise. She now lives and writes in the mountains of Western North Carolina, where she admits to occasionally checking her phone for a message from Captain Picard, just in case.

Author Social Media Links:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/cinnabar01
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/46Ascending
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/s.r.cronin/
Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5805814.Sherrie_Cronin
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Sherrie-Cronin/e/B007FRMO9Q
Author Blog: https://sherriecronin.xyz/
Book Series Blog: https://troublesome7sisters.xyz/

Buy Links:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08TQKGCP4
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B08TQKGCP4
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1068509

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Straight Browsing from the Library: She's the One Who Cares Too Much by S.R. Cronin

This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. S. R. Cronin will be awarding a $20 Amazon or B/N GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.

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Coral, the second of seven sisters, has been hiding her affair with the perfect man until her older sister can get her life together. But the perfect man is getting impatient and now she’s gotten pregnant. Coral decides it’s time to consider her own happiness.

But what does she want? The perfect husband turns out to be less than ideal. She adores the small children she teaches but the idea of being a mother fills her with joy. Meanwhile, her homeland is gripped by fear of a Mongol invasion and she can’t stop crying about everything now that she’s with child.

Then a friend suggests the ever-caring Coral possesses a power well beyond what she or anyone else imagines. Does she? And why is the idea so appealing?

When Coral’s big sister loses faith in the army and decides to craft a way to use magic to save Ilari from the Mongols, she decides Coral’s formidable talent is what the realm needs. Can Coral raise a baby, placate an absent military husband who thinks he’s stopping the invasion, and help her sister save her homeland?

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An ank later, during one of the worst storms of the winter, Davor proposed marriage.

The two of us drank red wine in his tent, huddled together under furs as the winds howled outside on a particularly brutal winter night. My lunch had been sparse and I was hungry, so I tore into the smoked ham he’d brought for our dinner, paying more attention to it than to his words, while hoping his tent could withstand the storm.

“Once I made up my mind, I was so anxious to get over here and do this,” he laughed. “I should have waited for a calmer evening.”

“Anxious to do what?” Had I missed something?

“Sweetheart. If you could leave the food alone for a bit, I’m trying to tell you I’d like to marry you.”

“Marry me? You want me to be your wife?” I dropped the meat onto the floor of the tent.

He laughed again. “Yes, that’s usually what marriage means. Look, I’ll be honest with you. I’ve been getting pressure from the Royals for a while now to settle down and recently they’ve gone so far as to imply further career advancement depends on it. Normally that kind of pressure, especially from them, would make me livid. Lucky for me, though, I’ve become quite taken with you. You may be a simple farm girl but your one of the kindest women I’ve ever met. I think a man could do far worse, you know?”

“I don’t know what to say.”

And I didn’t. This was the desired outcome, wasn’t it? Yet perhaps his proposal had included a little too much honesty.

“Say yes,” he suggested.

“I’m … honored. It’s just that this all began so strangely. My family doesn’t even know about you. I’ve never met yours. There’s so much we’ve never talked about…”

In fact, he and I had talked about very little. Talking wasn’t a big part of our relationship.

He held up a hand to stop me, a trace of irritation creeping into his voice.

“I know these things. We’ll do this slowly, Coral, as slowly as you need. You agree to marry me now and we’ll invent a more proper meeting and courtship we can tell everyone about. We’ll discuss anything you think is important. But by spring, let's be looking forward to our nuptials. Okay?”

“Yes. Of course, yes.” What else could I say? I suppose I had my reservations, even then, but he looked so earnest and I didn’t want to hurt his feelings.

MEET THE AUTHOR

Sherrie Cronin is the author of a collection of six speculative fiction novels known as 46. Ascending and is now in the process of publishing a historical fantasy series called The War Stories of the Seven Troublesome Sisters. A quick look at the synopses of her books makes it obvious she is fascinated by people achieving the astonishing by developing abilities they barely knew they had.

She’s made a lot of stops along the way to writing these novels. She’s lived in seven cities, visited forty-six countries, and worked as a waitress, technical writer, and geophysicist. Now she answers a hot-line. Along the way, she’s lost several cats but acquired a husband who still loves her and three kids who’ve grown up just fine, both despite how odd she is.

All her life she has wanted to either tell these kinds of stories or be Chief Science Officer on the Starship Enterprise. She now lives and writes in the mountains of Western North Carolina, where she admits to occasionally checking her phone for a message from Captain Picard, just in case.

Twitter: https://twitter.com/cinnabar01
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/46Ascending
Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5805814.Sherrie_Cronin
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Sherrie-Cronin/e/B007FRMO9Q
Author Blog: https://sherriecronin.xyz/
Book Series Blog: https://troublesome7sisters.xyz/

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Straight Browsing from the Library: One of Two by S.R. Cronin

This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. S.R. Cronin will be awarding a $25 Amazon/BN GC and a kindle copy of another book from the 46. Ascending collection (winner’s choice) to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.

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Telepathy creates as many problems as it solves, as everyone in the secret organization x0 would admit. When new member Lola discovers another group of telepaths with a totally different approach, those problems multiply at the speed of thought.

Soon, Lola’s family and friends are in danger. Lucky for her, she’s not your average budding psychic. Each person she is close to has a special gift of their own. That’s good, because it’s going to take every power they possess to stop these others from tearing apart x0.

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Gabriel decided to bring the monad Ezra from Tel Aviv because he’d once been in an interrogation unit in the army. For the second man, he considered several before picking Chidi, the Nigerian. Chidi’s mental abilities were immense, and even when Chidi smiled he looked scary to most people. Gabriel was betting few things would terrify an old man from Texas more than being at the mercy of an angry Nigerian.

Unfortunately, once the three boarded Warren’s jet, it became apparent this particular Nigerian objected to the mission.

“I’m an educated gentleman, and was raised to respect the elderly. I do not to try to force information out of old men.”

“You don’t have to do anything but stand there and look pissed,” Gabriel said. “We’ll do the rest.”

Ezra was chuckling. “Don’t worry. I used to be so good at this, and no one knew why, not even me. I just got ideas about what was the truth. After a while, they let me run with what they called ‘my instincts.’ Once I started picking at secrets I had no way of knowing, the captive would break like glass.” He gave Chidi a friendly punch on the arm. “No violence needed.”

Gabriel hated to derail this good cheer, but he reminded Ezra about the psychic wall surrounding the old man. “Your point is good, though. We need him to believe he has no hope. We’ll have to find other ways to do it.”

“I don’t understand why we can’t ignore these people. They seem simpleminded and harmless, with no ambition other than to stay hidden,” Chidi said. “In my country, we have enough trouble. We don’t go looking for more.”

“Warren calls the shots.” Ezra shrugged. “He wants us to be the only organization of telepaths in the world. I say we thank him and eliminate the competition.”

MEET THE AUTHOR

Sherrie Roth grew up in Western Kansas thinking there was no place in the universe more fascinating than outer space. After her mother vetoed astronaut as a career ambition, she went on to study journalism and physics in hopes of becoming a science writer.

She published her first science fiction short story and then waited a lot of tables while she looked for inspiration for the next tale. When it finally came, it declared to her it had to be a whole book, nothing less. One night, while digesting this disturbing piece of news, she drank way too many shots of ouzo with her boyfriend. She woke up thirty-one years later demanding to know what was going on.

The boyfriend, who she had apparently long since married, asked her to calm down. He explained that, in a fit of practicality, she had gone back to school and gotten a degree in geophysics and had spent the last 28 years interpreting seismic data in the oil industry. The good news, according to Mr. Cronin, was she found it at least mildly entertaining and ridiculously well-paying. The bad news was the two of them had still managed to spend almost all of the money.

Apparently she was now Mrs. Cronin, and the further good news was they had produced three wonderful children whom they loved dearly, even though to be honest that is where a lot of the money had gone. Even better news was that Mr. Cronin turned out to be a warm-hearted, encouraging sort who was happy to see her awake and ready to write. "It's about time," were his exact words.

Sherrie Cronin discovered that over the ensuing decades Sally Ride had already managed to become the first woman in space and done a fine job of it. No one, however, had written the book that had been in Sherrie's head for decades. The only problem was the book informed her it had grown into a six book collection. Sherrie decided she better start writing before it got any longer. She's been wide awake ever since, and writing away.

Twitter: https://twitter.com/cinnabar01
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Number46Ascending
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5805814.Sherrie_Cronin
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Sherrie-Cronin/e/B007FRMO9Q
Blogs:

46 Ascending - https://46ascending.org
Face Painting for World Peace - http://tothepowerofzero.org/
Fire Dancing for Fun and Profit - http://ytothepowerof1.org
Treasure Hunting for a Good Time - http://zsquaredblog.org/
Leaving the Nest to Touch the Sky - http://ctothepowerofthree.org/
Touching the Sky to Save the World - http://dtothepowerof4.org/

Email me at lola.zeitman@gmail.com

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