KEEPER OF THE STONES Blog Tour + Book 2 Reveal!

Today is going to be one monster of a blog post! I've got a post for Keeper of the Black Stones about Jason, in honor of PT McHugh's blog tour, plus the title reveal for the second book to the series! You ready for this?

First, Keeper, one of the few books of 2013 that has my heart:

 Awkward in his own skin, shy around girls and worried about anything and everything, Jason Evans is just like a million other teenage boys in high school, with one very large exception: he has been given a gift that allows him to jump through time. A set of stones has fallen into his lap that gives him access to any place - and any time - that he chooses. But along with that gift comes the responsibility of stopping the man who is using those very stones to travel through time and change history for his own purposes. A man who is now holding Jason's grandfather hostage, and threatening the world's very existence. Jumping through time with his best friend and body guard, Jason must enter the world of Medieval England, learn its customs, navigate unimaginable danger, and help Henry VII win the Battle of Bosworth, in the name of finding his grandfather, rescuing a beautiful girl from the clutches of a corrupt church, and destroying the one man who pledges to turn history inside out.

Amazon US Link

And now, the guest post I'm happy to share! Here's 10 things we didn't know about Jason, the main character from Keeper of the Black Stones, until now...

Ten things we didn’t know about Jason …

1. Favorite Movie(s): The Lord of the Rings trilogy, of course. He’s read the books, but the movies were better.He loves the fantastical world and the fact that there are elves and dwarves. He loves the fact that the hero wins, and gets the girl. He loves the hobbits, who are the best kind of buddies – people who travel anywhere together, and never fail to take care of their friends. Most of all, though, he loves the history of the world, and wonders if it might have actually happened. If so, could he use the stones to get there? Would he survive the trip? Could he take his friends? 
2. Favorite Book: Catcher in the Rye, though he’d be hard pressed to tell you exactly why. There’s just something about it that feels familiar.
3. He was given an IQ test when he turned eleven, and his score was 143, which he’s heard is pretty high. He doesn’t take that too seriously, though, because he doesn’t think it means much. Certainly nothing to do with the real world, which now consists of jumping through time and outsmarting bad guys while surviving random medieval torture devices.
4. Jason’s never kissed a girl. Not that he really wants to. He thinks girls are fine, really, but he can think of a lot of things he’d rather be doing than trying to get one to like him. Movies, golf, finding out where Dresden is hiding … the only girls he’s met that he’s even slightly interested in (other than for looking at) are Tatiana and Katherine. He finds them both incredibly confusing and a LOT smarter than him, which doesn’t happen often. He also knows that Tatiana could kick his butt, and though his male ego finds this shocking, he also finds it somehow fascinating. (He does, of course, let Paul think that he’s interested in Cristina, from school. It gives Paul something to tease him about.)
5. Jason was diagnosed with insomnia after his parents died. He doesn’t know if there’s any connection, but he does know that he has to do certain things to get to sleep: have his pillow lined up exactly with the top right corner of his bed, have his slippers where his feet can reach them, have either the lamp on his desk OR the light in the bathroom turned on, and be wearing one of two sets of pajamas. If he goes to sleep without these things, he’s prone to terrible dreams about things he doesn’t want to remember.
6. He carries a picture in his wallet that shows him at six years old, on a bike path with his dad. They used to ride their bikes for hours, making up stories to tell each other, and then race home to tell his mother. She was the judge, and whoever had the best story won one of her famous chocolate chip cookies.
7. He’s allergic to cats, despite his affection for Milo.
8. He fell off his bike when he was ten, and got his foot caught in the tracks. Then he heard the train coming, and realized he was going to be one of those kids – like the one in Fried Green Tomatoes, which Paul made him watch – who died by getting stuck in the train tracks. He’d seen the train coming, and thought he was a goner, but Doc had appeared at the last moment to save him. He still doesn’t know where Doc came from or how he knew Jason’s life was in danger, but he has nightmares about that day, and the scars to prove it.
9. He didn’t take his first steps until he was two and a half. His mother was afraid he’d never walk. But once he did, she couldn’t keep him still.
10. His favorite hobby is fishing with Paul on a Saturday afternoon. His dad taught him, and he still uses the fishing pole his dad gave him for his tenth birthday. He likes to think that his dad is connected to the pole, which makes him feel like Mr. Evans is there fishing too. Which brings him to his fondest wish – somehow seeing his dad one more time.

Okay, you've had Keeper flashed around like a pretty, shiny new penny, and now I'm pleased to be part of the title reveal for book two in the Stone Ends Series. It has been announced that the second novel will be titled:

A Rebel's Stone

My brain is working, trying to see if I can guess anything off the title alone. I can't wait to get my hands on this book!

Oh, want a little bit more? How about a sneak? Enjoy!

Have you ever had a dream so real that when you woke up, for one brief moment, you weren’t sure where your imagination stopped and reality began? Where you forgot who you were and how you got there, and had trouble remembering even your own name? 

I only ask, really, because that’s been happening to me a lot lately. 

I realize this sounds crazy, but it’s not too hard to imagine when you think about what I’ve seen over the past few weeks. God, has it only been that long?

I guess I should probably start at the beginning, for this to make any sense at all. Months ago, John Fleming, an old friend of my grandfather’s, introduced him to an archeological discovery. A large stone, which looked more like a kitchen counter than the find of the millennium. His son had found it on an archaeological dig, and taken it to Dartmouth College to unravel its secret. 

Fleming showed the stone to my grandfather – Doc to me – because he was a mathematician. See, the stone had hundreds of symbols engraved on its surface, and Fleming thought he’d be able to read them. In the end, of course, he did a lot more than that. He deciphered their meaning, yes. And then he listened to their instructions. Turned out the stone wasn’t just a dusty old relic carved out of granite by an ancient civilization. Or rather, it was, but it was also something a lot more. A portal, capable of doing the impossible. Capable of transporting someone back in time, into the very history of our books and stories. And it wasn’t the only one.

Allowing that journey, of course, means allowing us access to that history, and the people that made it. And that, my friends, is the crux of the problem. 

My grandfather recognized immediately how dangerous the stone was. He knew that going back in time would endanger history, and the fate of the world itself. Unfortunately, Nicholas Fleming, John’s son, looked past the danger and saw the fame and fortune that such a discovery would bring. Unwilling to listen to my grandfather’s warning, Nicholas armed himself with a weapon and his twenty-first-century knowledge, climbed onto the stone, and went merrily back to Old England, to reappear some five hundred years before I was born.    

My grandfather, with his ability to read the stones, identified Nicholas’ destination and went after him. His plan was to bring the man home, to safety, but that goal was quickly overshadowed by what Nicholas was doing. Because within days of finding him, Doc realized that Nicholas’ ambition had gone far beyond money and glory. He had decided to reshape history to his liking, starting with the War of the Roses. And in changing history – for reasons that still escape us – he was putting the entire world in danger. He had to be stopped. 

You might be asking yourself how I got involved in all of this. Devine intervention, coincidence, bad luck? Well, that’s the million-dollar question that keeps me up at night. And I still don’t have a good answer. Not one that would make sense to anyone other than myself. The simple truth is that I also have the ability to read the stones. And I can do it better than my grandfather. I can travel back in time, yes, but I can also do more. Somehow, and I know how crazy this sounds, I can talk to the stones. Learn from them. Use them as the tools they actually are. And it’s all with one goal in mind: to preserve our past. To maintain history and, with it, the thread of time, and the world around us.

How do we do that? I have no idea. But I can say with a bit of pride that we’ve already started. Doc and I, with the help of my friends, Tatiana, Paul, and Katherine, and my recently acquired body guard Reis, defeated Richard III at the battle of Bosworth, despite Fleming taking his side, and thus helped to close the door on the Dark Ages. We stopped Nicholas Fleming from throwing the world off balance by changing the outcome of that one important war. So we’ve already started our fight for history and the world.

Unfortunately, Nicholas Fleming, now known as Dresden, escaped. Doc believes that Dresden has no true relationship with the stones, and therefore can’t predict their line of travel. Based on that, he thinks that Dresden’s last trip on the stones must have ended up at the bottom of the English Channel, or atop Mount Everest under several feet of snow. He doesn’t believe that Dresden survived his escape. He thinks that we’re safe, now that Dresden has disappeared. 

But I know differently. I know what I saw when Dresden escaped, and the stone he was on made sure I understood. In reality, Dresden was sent to Germany in the year of 1939, right when the Nazis were coming to power. He didn’t know where he was going, but I’m sure he made it there safely. And I have to find him. No matter how much Doc tries to convince me otherwise, the stones don’t lie. Dresden is still out there, somewhere. And I have to find him and stop him, before he does anything else to damage history.

Because the world won’t be safe until I do.

Jason Evans

Keeper of the Black Stones

We Interrupt Your Standard Program For...

This! 

Just learned that my name and quote is going in the re-print of Keeper of the Black Stones by PT McHugh! Can you say, HOLY HOT BURRITOS?! Should I crack out another Supernatural gif? 

How about a Sailor Moon one? 

And now, back to the world of books, and writing, and prepping for more beautiful quotes and mentions. 

Oh, and don't forget the winning cover reveal for A Shard of Ice is this Thursday, April 11th. You'll finally get to learn more about the mysterious project I've been hiding in my back pocket. (insert well-deserved cackle here.)

Interview with PT McHugh, Author of KEEPER OF THE BLACK STONES

Hey all! 

Guess who's one of the first stops in the KEEPER OF THE BLACK STONES blog tour? A- this gal! I'm incredibly proud to say Glass House Press gave me the honor of doing an interview with the fresh, intelligent new author PT McHugh. We definitely hit some of the more... interesting topics in this interview. What can I say, I like asking all the weird questions in life, hah! 

Alivia Anders: I'm not one to ask the standard 'When did you start writing, what gave you the idea for Keeper, blah blah blah.' So, I'll go straight for the jugular. Name the weirdest place you had an idea for a scene for Keeper of the Black Stones. Bathroom with a Soap Opera Digest? Shower while singing to Beyonce? Baking a cake for your dog? 

PT McHugh: Weirdest place to think of a scene or a character?  How about walking steel beams several stories above the ground, just after the last beam was hung out at the Raleigh museum? That’s when I figured out how to introduce Tatiana’s character.   

Alivia Anders: We both know that, as authors, sometimes we think of our characters as darling little children. And sometimes, those children misbehave. Tell me which character was the biggest pain in your behind out of everyone in KEEPER.  

PT McHugh: Paul was the most misbehaved character.  Not so much in regard to his antics and humor, but just because of his unpredictability.  I pretty much know where I stand with Reis, Jason, and even Tatiana, but Paul is sometimes out there, and I don’t always know where he’s coming from.  I don’t think he does either.  

Alivia Anders: If you had to choose a lifetime of bacon-flavored foods, or lifetimes of cheesecake flavored foods, which one would you consume?  

PT McHugh: That’s a tough one because you’d be ruining one of the two favorite food groups: bacon and cheesecake (and yes, they have their own individual food groups because of how great they truly are).  But let’s just say that I wouldn’t get sick of one or the other. I guess I would have to vote bacon.  My dogs agree.  

Alivia Anders: Give me three words typically used to describe food, but use them to describe Keeper of the Black Stones. Bonus points if you don't use the words 'juicy' or 'delicious'.  

PT McHugh: Let’s make it more interesting, I can only use words that start with the letter “S”: succulent, savory, scrumptious!

Alivia Anders: Finish the sentence! If I could, I would wear ________ with a superhero costume every day.  

PT McHugh: That’s easy, my Patriots baseball cap.  

Alivia Anders: You wake up in a stalled out elevator, flickering lights and impending doom looming. With you is a cellphone good for one phone call for 30 seconds, a pen and paper, and a copy of Twilight with a lighter. You have enough time to use one of the three. Do you burn Twilight, write something on the pen and paper, or call someone with the cellphone? 

PT McHugh: Well, since Twilight never hurt me physically, I’d leave the book alone.  I wouldn’t want my loved ones to hear me screaming like a little girl, so that leaves me with then pen and paper.  “Love you all … don’t stay up too late girls, and make sure Mommy lets the dogs out before going to bed.”  That’s pretty much what my last though would be.  

Alivia Anders: If Jason from KEEPER had to read one girly magazine (Cosmo, Seventeen, Vogue, etc.) which one would he choose? 

PT McHugh: How about Good Housekeeping?  There are some beautiful younger women who don’t wear as much makeup in that magazine (pretty girls make him very nervous) AND Jason enjoys cooking every once in a while (something we haven’t covered yet). 

Alivia Anders: I typically hear from authors a lot that they never saw themselves as becoming an author. So, pretending you never became an author, list your three fantasy careers and why. (But I'm so going to guess one of your fantasy careers would be a football player for the Patriots!) 

PT McHugh: You’re close on the Patriots, but the real action isn’t playing for the Patriots, but owning them.  I want Robert Kraft’s job.  So that’s number one.  Second choice, how about film director? And for my last wish list fantasy job … professional golfer (they’ve got it made).  

Alivia Anders: If KEEPER was made into a movie (or TV series!) who do you think would play Jason?

PT McHugh: My daughter said the boy who played Peta in the Hunger Games.  Can’t think of his name, but he would be great.  

Alivia Anders: Are you a glass half-full kind of guy, or a glass half-empty gent?

PT McHugh: I wish I were a half-full kind of guy, but unfortunately I have a knack for worrying, just ask my wife, coworkers, daughters, editor, publisher…

Oh, Patrick, you should definitely be looking at the glass half-full! You, sir, have done one of the impossible things in life; you got a book published! Much luck to you and your wicked debut.

Make sure all of you pre-order your copy of KEEPER OF THE BLACK STONES today! (Especially since I see the paperback is on sale, double bonus!)

Amazon or Barnes & Noble

KEEPER OF THE BLACK STONES Cover Reveal!

Today is an awesome day. As in, pure awesomeness by default. Why? Because I get to help Glass House Press unveil a wicked cover today for an AWESOME book that'll be coming your way before you know it! 

Want to see it? Do you?!
Pssst, look down. 
/supremely cheesy drum roll

Add KEEPER to your To-Read list on Goodreads!

Expected release date: February 5th, 2013

ISBN: 978-0-9816768-0-7 (paperback)
ISBN: 978-0-9816768-1-4 (ebook) 

Synopsis:

Jason Evans, a shy, introverted high school freshman, thought that his mundane life was all there was - girls, golf, physics, and the occasional bully. Until he found out about the secrets his grandfather had been keeping from him ... a set of stones that allowed him to jump though time ... a maniacal madman who used the stones to shape history to his liking ... and Jason’s role as one of the few people in the world who could stop that man. 

Against impossible odds, a fourteen-year-old boy must take up his legacy, learn everything he needs to know within one short day, and travel helter skelter into the Middle Ages, to join Henry VII’s fight against Richard III, end the Dark Ages, and stop the man who now holds his grandfather captive. In this romp through history, Jason and his friends must race against time to accomplish not one, but two missions. 

Save his grandfather.

And save the world. 

I'm definitely getting a vibe of interest over here. But hey, if the synopsis already has you clicking that 'to-read' button on Goodreads, then you're going to LOVE the sneak peek at the KEEPER OF THE BLACK STONES below! 

Snippet:

“What is this place?” he asked breathlessly. We were in a dark underground room, much smaller than our basement. The room was lined in thick concrete blocks. There was no light coming from the outside, and I guessed that the room was probably soundproof as well. Not a room built for entertaining. A room built for keeping secrets. 

Paul found a cord in the ceiling and pulled it. We both jumped as several light bulbs clicked on and flooded the room with harsh artificial light. The light revealed a small metal desk with an old wooden straight-back chair against the back wall. A computer monitor and hard drive sat on top of the desk, along with several pens and pencils and one red three-ring notebook. Beside the desk stood two wooden bookshelves, filled to bursting with books. Next to those, a large map of England was taped to the concrete wall. 

I ran my eyes over the map to the floor on the left, and froze. The desk and map were odd, but at least they were everyday items. The large black slab of stone lying next to them was not. The cold chill ran down my spine again, and I shuffled backward several steps. 

“Oh my God, is that it?” Paul asked nervously. 

I ignored the question and inched my way forward, toward the stone. It was large, perhaps 7 to 8 feet wide and 10 to 11 feet long. Easily 3 to 4 inches thick. Hundreds of symbols were etched into the dark surface, in a language I’d never seen before. The stone was glossy, but didn’t reflect light the way it should. Instead, it seemed to suck the light from the room around us, building its own dark aura. And it hummed. I could feel the pulse of the stone in my bones, like a giant, steady heartbeat. It beat again and again, matching my own heartbeat, and I forgot to breathe. Doc hadn’t been lying, then. The stone did speak to him. And it called to me the same way it called to him. I’d been hearing it for days. I just hadn’t realized it. 

As I stood there, transfixed and listening, the writing on the stone began to glow. I blinked and looked again, to see that the glow was gone. 

“Did you see that?” I gasped, reaching for Paul and taking my eyes off the stone for the first time.

“See what?” Paul whispered. “The only thing I see is that creepy stone.”

“The symbols … I think they moved,” I said, surprised that Paul hadn’t seen it. 

Paul shook his head. “Didn’t see anything like that, buddy.” He took a step toward the stone and bent over to look at it. 

I followed slowly, wondering if I’d been seeing things. Then the humming started again, louder than before. This time it went straight to my head, and I gasped and fell to my knees. The stone thrummed louder, and took on its eerie glow, burning brighter and brighter until the symbols themselves lifted up off the surface. They hovered just above the stone’s surface, ghostly, dark reflections of their physical counterparts. Then they began to move, dancing around the edges of the stone to the humming rhythm of its heart. 

“Holy…” I breathed. It was one of the most beautiful things I’d ever seen. 

“Hey, what on earth are you doing?” Paul asked nervously. 

I stood, keeping my eyes fixed on the dance in front of me. “You’re honestly telling me that you can’t see that?” I whispered. 

“See what? This isn’t funny anymore.” 

Paul grabbed my arm, and the dance ended as abruptly as it had begun. The symbols fell back into place, and the stone lost its glow. I moaned quietly. The symbols had been strange, eerie, and frightening, but they’d also been surprisingly familiar. Losing them was almost physically painful. I focused on the stone, trying to bring them back, or make the slab glow again. 

“So how exactly does this thing work?” Paul asked, breaking my focus. 

I cleared my throat and tried to find my voice. “Doc didn’t exactly leave directions in his journal. He just said that the stone … spoke to him.” 

“Well what the heck does that mean? That stone doesn’t look like it has any kind of speech capabilities.” 

I smiled. “Actually, I think I know exactly what it means.” 

Paul didn’t hear me, and reached out to touch the stone. “So this is it,” he said, bending down. “This is the stone that can take us into the past.” 

“Stop! What are you doing?” I grabbed his hand and pulled him back. 

“I’m just touching it. Why?" 

“I don’t know. Who knows what might happen? Maybe you’re not supposed to touch it,” I answered. 

“Ah.” Paul nodded. “Good point.” He shoved his hands back into his pockets. 

As he spoke, though, a jolt of energy shot from the stone into my bones, and the unearthly glow returned. I felt an irresistible urge to put my own hands on the stone, and allow the symbols to race across my skin. Confused, I closed my eyes, trying to focus and clear my head. All I could feel, all I could hear, was the stone’s humming, drowning out all other sight and sound. Drowning out thought. Then it was gone, leaving in its place a feeling of calm contentment. Of readiness. And a clear, precise light in my mind. 

I could feel the stone beneath my hands, as though I were already touching it. My mind explored the deep, cold grooves in the surface, and felt the light touch of the symbols as they moved. A shot of heat moved from the stone, through my hands, and down my spine. 

“I wonder what the symbols mean,” Paul said quietly. 

I heard him through the haze of the stone, as though he were standing on the other side of a wall, or under water. I suddenly became acutely aware of my surroundings – the smell of mildew and garlic, the friction of a cricket rubbing his back legs together outside. I could taste the sodium that clung to the salt water embedded in the concrete of the walls around us, and felt Paul’s heart beat as if it were in my own chest. I heard sounds that didn’t make any sense. Horses running, and the sound of metal screeching against metal. Men yelling, or cheering. 

Looking down, I saw a hazy, half-formed path in front of my feet. Listening closely, I heard exactly where it would lead. And when. 

I opened my eyes, breaking the spell, and turned to face Paul. His face had gone slack and white as he stared at me. 

“I know exactly what the symbols mean,” I said quietly. 

“How do you know that?” Paul asked. 

“Because,” I replied slowly, “the stone just told me.” 






Yeahhhhh, this is definitely going on my birthday list next year. 

If you want to know more about the author, PT McHugh, check out PT McHugh! 
And, of course, a HUGE thanks to Glass House Press, and Carrie for letting me join in on the unveiling! (This kind of stuff makes me so giddy, and I absolutely love that I got to do it!)