Release Day Celebration & Giveaway ~ Roger Mantis by Tom Alan Brosz

 

Welcome to the Release Day Celebration for

Roger Mantis by Tom Alan Brosz

presented by Month9Books!

CONGRATULATIONS TOM!

 

 

Baseball is Roger McGillicutty’s whole life. That is until he wakes one Saturday to find he is no longer a normal eleven-year-old boy. He's a five-foot-tall praying mantis.

 

Roger has school on Monday, the carnival comes to town next week, and his baseball team is poised to play their biggest rival in one week. Being a giant bug will seriously cramp Roger’s style!

 

To Roger’s surprise, his parents and friends are supportive. Even his dog isn’t spooked. But not everyone’s thrilled about Roger’s change. Some people are frightened and others would like nothing more than to squash him into the ground like the bug he is.

 

And when Little League officials oust Roger from baseball, his world collapses.

 

When a reporter from the city comes snooping around rumors of a man-sized baseball-playing praying mantis, Roger must choose between hiding his true self or being the hero he's always wanted to be.

 

 

Roger Mantis by Tom Alan Brosz

Publication Date: April 2, 2019

Publisher: Tantrum Books

 

Google Play | BAM | Chapters | Indies | Amazon | B&N | Kobo | TBD | iBooks

 

 

INSERT EXCERPT HERE

 

 

 

Tom Alan Brosz actually is a rocket scientist (sort of), having done design and engineering work in the private space industry back before the private space industry was cool. His qualifications for writing this book are that he has experience in raising children who like bugs, and raising pet mantises for those children. Normal-sized mantises, of course.

 

Website | Twitter | Goodreads

 

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Blog Tour & Giveaway ~ Iron Circle by Justin Joschko

 

Tour Schedule

 

Iron Circle (Yellow Locust #2) by Justin Joschko

Publication Date: March 26, 2019

Publisher: Month9Books

 

The path west is long, but despite Selena’s progress, New Canaan is never far enough behind her. It was there that her parents were killed, forcing her and her little brother Simon to flee the tyrannical state. Now, New Canaan wants control over  every last inch of America-That-Was. Only the Republic of California can stand against it—but not without the data stick in Selena’s pocket, rumored to contain vital information about New Canaan’s deadly new weapon.

 

As winter closes in, Selena races south in search of an open passage to the coast. She must pass through Nuevo Juarez, where a ruthless leader named Thorin has seized power. Selena runs afoul of Thorin’s men and is separated from her brother, captured, and auctioned off at the city’s thriving slave market.

 

Her only way out is through the Iron Circle, a fighting ring where the city’s most fearsome warriors pit their skills against one another. As the populace and Thorin watch Selena rise through the ranks, Selena earns a reputation she doesn’t want and the attention of man with the power to destroy her and what’s left of America-That-Was.

 

 

Excerpt

 

Otis and Emily stood outside the vehicle. Emily dragged her foot along the ridge of the mesa, chipping stones loose from the dirt and sending them skittering down the cliff face. Otis stared at the squat adobe huts that described the city’s border, his body still and rigid. He seemed less a man than a man-shaped outcrop of artfully weathered stone. He turned his head to glance at the vehicle, spoiling the effect.

 

“It’s time, I think,” he said.

 

Simon nodded. He adjusted his grip on the joystick, made a few minor adjustments to the mortar. Gears whined and hydraulics wheezed. He pictured the cannon perched above him, a black hollow eye gazing into the city’s apocalyptic future. Sweat dampened the joystick’s rubberized grip. He rubbed his eyes, hiking his glasses onto his forehead, and slid from the seat. Otis cocked his head, curious and concerned. Simon set his glasses on the bridge of his nose and sniffed.

 

“I can’t do it.” The words came out as a sob, choked and damp with misery. His breath hitched, clambering up a windpipe slick with mucus.

 

Otis took the boy in his arms and patted his shoulder. “This is a hard thing you’re doing,” he said. “It’s not something that should be up to children. It’s not right.”

“But I need to!”

 

Otis shook his head. “You don’t need to do it. But it needs to be done.”

 

Simon blinked, for a moment not understanding. Otis stepped past and climbed into the vehicle’s cab. Far from a giant’s den, the front seat looked positively cramped when accommodating his lanky frame. He took the joystick with his right hand and squeezed the trigger. Phthuff! The missile was airborne before Simon even had a chance to panic. He watched the arc of its trajectory, his stomach lurching as if it were him being launched through the air.

 

The rocket landed with an orange flash. A crackling rumble followed. Smoke rose from the point of impact, dark clouds lit from below by the flaming wreckage. Otis stared, transfixed, at the carnage. He tweaked the joystick and fired again. This time he hit an enormous structure in the center of town. A sustained rumble echoed over the plains as the wall collapsed.

 

The shots came faster, their targets random at first, but soon concentrated on a crescent of land to the south. The streets here were wider, the buildings larger and built from a broader range of materials. Their grandeur meant nothing to the bombs, whose flames found if anything a heartier meal. Otis continued bombing the rubble, his lips folding into a snarl. A thin whine escaped from the back of his throat, swelling throughout the onslaught into a scream. He kept screaming and firing after the last rockets were spent and the mortar clicked drily overhead.

 

Emily climbed into the seat beside her father and pried his fingers from the joystick. When the last of them was free she took his hand and clutched it in both her own. The screaming subsided. Otis closed his eyes. Tears leaked from their corners and down his chin, spreading like cracks in the mask of dust and dirt that the desert had made for him.

 

Purchase Links

Google Play | BAM | Chapters | Indies | Amazon | B&N | Kobo | TBD

 

 

Justin Joschko is an author from Niagara Falls, Ontario. His writing has appeared in newspapers and literary journals across Canada. Yellow Locust is his first novel. He currently lives in Ottawa with his wife and two children.

 

Website | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads

 

Giveaway Info

One (1) winner will receive a Starbucks Gift Card

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