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Only one week remains to pre-order your copy of Tears of Heaven, and get ready for the ride of the ages!

The fight was not going well.  Del should have brought Marrin.  Ahadiel had told her to bring Marrin, but that only made certain that she wouldn’t.

"The Host takes care of their own.
Even if they have to hire it done."

Del gasped as the rogue landed a solid punch into her stomach and ribs.  The air whooshed from her lungs.  He followed with a stab of his fingers into her right arm.  Cold-filled pain suffused her shoulder and caused it to spasm painfully.  She spun away, awkwardly.  Her right arm felt like it had been shattered, pulverized into pudding, useless as gelatin.  The cold-forged iron spike she’d been holding dropped from useless fingers and clattered to the floor.  The rogue looked at her with brutal menace in his eyes and flame licking around the lids.

It would have been a good trick.

If only it was a trick.

The flames were all too real.

Fortunately, Del didn’t suffer from the same fears that mortals contended with.  A rogue divinity hissing heresy and spouting fire, literal fire, around his eyes would have left a mortal quivering in terror until the Last Judgment.

She’d seen it happen.

“Leave now, little half-breed,” the rogue said. His voice had a sibilance that surrounded her, whispering in both of her ears intimately. “Leave, and I will not kill you.  Stay, and I will make your pain a torture.  I will see you last for days upon days, and I promise you abuses you could not dream.”

Del said nothing.

“Go, little girl,” the rogue gestured with his right arm, the one where she’d managed to drive a spike through his wrist.

It would have been stupid to engage the rogue, or really any opponent, in conversation.  Witty banter was for the movies.  Errol Flynn and John Wayne could while away the hours as they faced a bad guy and spouted catchy one-liners.

In the really real world, Del knew better than to take time out of her busy schedule.

She still held a second cold-forged iron spike in her left hand.  She wanted to drop it and reach for her last SIG Sauer .45 behind her back.  Most melee weapons against a rogue were nearly useless. Unless it was the right weapon.  She shifted her grip, stepped into the rogue with speed no mortal could, and stabbed with enough power to lift the rogue off its feet.  Rogues might be strong, but the laws of physics were stronger.  The foot-long spike punched into the rogue’s left shoulder and only her fist on the weapon stopped it.

The Host takes care of their own.

Even if they have to hire it done.

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Eight Days Until Release!

Pre-Order Tears of Heaven Today!

There are just eight days left until Tears of Heaven releases.  Be certain to pre-order your copy and get ready for the ride of the ages.

"The rogue looked at her with brutal menace in his eyes
and flames licking around the lids."

Del unwillingly works for the Throne, obeying the commands of the angel Ahadiel. She helps to keep the world safe from the horrors of escaped demons. At the same time, she keeps herself in the Throne's good graces. Whenever a rogue demon breaks free from Hell, she and her partner, Marrin, another Nephilim, work together to banish it.

Thrilling danger, fast-paced adventure, high-seas action, and heart-warming romance fill this novel, with a page-turning story that won't let you put it down.

Tears of Heaven is scheduled to release Thursday, December 5th, but you can pre-order your copy today!

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Anxiously Awaiting

Clockwork Angel - For Obvious Reasons

Ladies and gentlemen, readers of all ages!

I am pleased to announced that Tears of Heaven has gone from bottom of the list to 229th on the Anxiously Awaiting for 2013 list at Goodreads.

If you voted already, thank you very much.

If you haven't voted yet, please do so (you can vote for five books).

Del, Marrin and Tears of Heaven can use all the help you can give them!

Thank you!

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To Sweatpant Or Not To Sweatpant

My friend asked if I wore sweats on my international flight to Malta.

I did not.

Writerly = Being Published?

I had in my mind a totally inaccurate vision of starting up a conversation with my fellow passengers about my writing.  After sharing with them the brief, but intriguing premise, of Tears of Heaven (pre-order today!) they would be so excited that they’d want to know more.  BAM!  I’d pass out the business cards I’d brought along with links to my blog.

In that increasingly inaccurate vision, I needed to look the writerly part.  So, I wore a button down shirt and cargo pants with my urban hikers.  Of course, that was without knowing I’d be hiking three miles across parking lots in a mad dash to make my flight.

Nothing says “writer” like an American soaked in sweat on a 15-hour plane flight.

International plane rides are just like domestic flights, only longer.  This means most everyone wants to be left alone, to read, play Candy Crush, sleep and have the flight attendant pick up their garbage in a timely fashion.

No one asked if I was a writer or if I had a pending book release.

Those knights sure knew how to make a cross!

I tried to find sweatpants for the trip back. First, I tried to find them in Scotland, because SCOTLAND on your sweatpants means no one is going to screw with you.  It’s the next best thing to wearing a kilt and a claymore.  Alas, I failed.

Then I tried to find some in Malta. My first thought was get the St. John eight-point cross. Not as effective as a claymore, but easier to get through security. Again, utter failure.

I wore cargo pants on the flight back, but this time with a tech running shirt and my Disney-themed hockey jersey.  On the full sweatpants comfort level (1 being a suit of armor and 10 being Demirol-infused bliss) I was at a 7.5.

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Just Two Weeks To Release - TEARS OF HEAVEN

Pre-Order Tears of Heaven Today!

You should buy Rob's book.

Del unwillingly works for the Throne, obeying the commands of the angel Ahadiel. She helps to keep the world safe from the horrors of escaped demons. At the same time, she keeps herself in the Throne's good graces. Whenever a rogue demon breaks free from Hell, she and her partner, Marrin, another Nephilim, work together to banish it.

Thrilling danger, fast-paced adventure, high-seas action, and heart-warming romance fill this novel, with a page-turning story that won't let you put it down.

Tears of Heaven is scheduled to release Thursday, December 5^th, but you can pre-order your copy today!

Pre-Order Tears of Heaven Today!

Leaving On A Jet Plane

The trip to Malta and Scotland was an utter success.

Getting there, however, is a different story.

I flew out of LAX the same day Paul Ciancia decided to visit.  I heard about it from my office, and started checking to see if the flight was delayed or cancelled.  Magically enough, neither.  The airline representative (because I wasn’t about to believe the computer) told me there was no delay or cancellation.

C'mon.  How can this guy be a crook?

My good friend Dave was my ride, and we listened to the news the whole hour-plus trip from Riverside to LAX.  There really wasn’t much in the way of “news” beyond what was known a few hours after the shooting occurred, although the reporters doggedly kept repeating the information most people already had.

What was useful was knowing they’d shut down all ground traffic, including foot traffic, into the airport.  Dave and I grabbed dinner and beers to kill time, and then we made another attempt at the airport.  Traffic was an utter nightmare.  As the passenger, normally this wouldn’t have bothered me.  But as a passenger trying to make an international flight with all that entails, I was a wreck and getting worse by the minute.  I stared at the impassable jam of cars and willed them, ala Magneto, to lift out of our way.  I used every Jedi mind trick I knew (This is not the lane you’re looking for.) to no avail.

Eventually, traffic was let closer to the airport, but not actually into the drop-off zone.  Taxis, however, were exempt from this.  Dave was valiant.  He circled around, cut people off, forced his way through clogged intersections, all with the grace and confidence of a young Richard Nixon.

Me, on the other hand, I’m a frantic Sam Kinison.

I'd LOVE to help you with your bags!

Eventually, Dave managed to swing close enough to the blockaded airport drop-off that I tell him to pull in close and I’ll walk in.  I take off at a semi-frantic speed-walk, with sixty-pounds of baggage and not a wheeled hand-cart in sight.  I truck through two mile-long parking lots and another mile along the causeway into the terminal area.  Terminal 1 and Terminal 2 are filled with people who look like me, trying to make their flights and nervous about the whole thing.  I keep up my half-jog only to be turned around at Terminal 3 where the shooting happened.  Police and a hundred men and women in suits and carrying walkie-talkies have the place buttoned up tight.  I have to go back to Terminal 2, around and under to get through.  

As I’m taking the final set of stairs to the bag check-in and ticketing, this older lady is struggling with two hundred-pound bags.  She’s pulling one up a few stairs, setting it down, and then returning the first bag, repeating the process.  She looks pleading at me, and I say, “Don’t worry, we’re going to get you to the top.”  I shoulder my duffle and scoop up her bags with what must have been panic-fueled adrenaline.

I make it to the top like an older version of Rocky Balboa, except panting and under cardiovascular distress.  I’m third in line at bag check-in, soaked with sweat and only an hour before my flight. 

I assure you, this is not the best way to start a 15 hour journey by airplane.

Tears of Heaven - Excerpt

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“Marrin is young.  He speaks before he thinks sometimes.” Del smiled again.  “But he is a damn fine speaker.  He has the fire and soul of the first of us, before the Throne took a hand.  Had he been born among us, he would have been one of the greats.”

Jaccob looked at the closed door and nodded.

“They were good days, weren’t they, Del?” Jaccob asked.

Del looked at him. He continued to look at the door.  She could sense the age of him now.  He wasn’t staring at the wood and metal, but looking back through the long, dusty years.  The very same years that Del experienced.  It was an odd thought, and she suddenly saw an image in her mind of the two of them sitting in rocking chairs, blankets across their laps as they sipped tea.

Not old lovers, not even old friends.

Just old people who witnessed the same history pass, the same empires rise and fall, the same walls built and torn down.

“No, not good days,” Del responded, and Jaccob turned to look at her.  “Days.  Days we remember fondly.”

“That’s a little cynical,” Jaccob replied.

“A little?  I must be truly getting old.”

“Aren’t we all?”

“No, some of us died.”

“I had meant the question to be rhetorical.”

“It seemed like a good opportunity to show true cynicism.”

“I was a general once,” Jaccob replied.  “I had a legion under my command and whole nations fell beneath our blades.  The pillars of heaven shook as we marched.”

“A general, eh?  Why not a king?”

“Why not indeed?  I told you I was never much of a fighter.  Strategy, guile, intrigue, those were my tools.  But I preferred to operate behind the scenes, moving the pieces.  Kings make too good a target.”

“True, true.”

“And you?”

“I owned a ranch, with horses.”

“That doesn’t sound too glorious.”

“You never saw the horses.”

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Book One of The Chosen of the Light Series

 

Spirit Summoner

By Matt Campbell

 

Coming December 3, 2013 

Darr has the ability to hear the disembodied voices of the spirits. Unfortunately, the spirits have nothing useful to say. A young, inexperienced Spirit Summoner, Darr often wonders at the purpose of such a useless ability. When an unnatural fire sweeps through his village, Darr sets out on a mission of self-discovery and curiosity.
As a Spirit Summoner, Darr learns he can enter the spirit realm. There he has access to the elemental magic contained within the Sephirs, legendary artifacts that once promised balance for a world turning towards chaos. Now, the Sephirs’ powers are dwindling since their untimely disappearance, and Darr is at the center of the quest to find and recover them. Suddenly, Darr’s curiosity is a whirlpool threatening to drown him, but his compulsion to see things through locks him into a journey attracted to disaster.
For the Sephirs do more than restrain the primal forces of magic. The Devoid, an evil long caged and hungry, has begun to loosen the bars of its prison. If the Sephirs fail, the Devoid will escape and feed on the Light of the living until nothing remains.
And the Devoid knows Darr’s lack of confidence is the key needed to free itself completely.
Pre-order now from Wild Child Publishing!

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Click here to read a previously unreleased excerpt

Cover Reveal -- Tears of Heaven by RA McCandless

Cover Reveal

Tears of Heaven

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Urban Fantasy

From R.A. McCandless

 

In the past, the children of angels and humans, the Nephilim, were allowed to lead their lives as they willed.  But they proved too strong, too ambitious, and too cunning for their own good.  They became warlords, conquerors and emperors.  They caused war and strife until the Throne stepped in and forced them to submit to Its will, or die.

Unlike most of her fellows, Del, one of the first Nephilim, had no interest in conquest and domination.  In the ancient past, prior to the Throne’s interdiction, she met and fell in love with Dami, a Mediterranean ship captain and trader.  Together, they face down pirates and storms and try to create a future together.

In the present, Del unwillingly works for the Throne, obeying the commands of the angel Ahadiel.  She helps to keep the world safe from the horrors of escaped demons.  At the same time, she keeps herself in the Throne’s good graces.  Whenever a rogue demon breaks free from Hell, she and her partner, Marrin, another Nephilim, work together to banish it.

Thrilling danger, fast-paced adventure, high-seas action, and heart-warming romance fill this novel, with a page-turning story that won’t let you put it down.
 

Pre-Order Today!
From Wild ChildPublishing

December 2013

Goodreads

 

Tears of Heaven - Cover Reveal Tomorrow

“No?” Aeschylus asked the small crowd.  “No more?  She may not have much, but they say that hard women birth hard sons.  Sons that will tend your goods, and fight in coming wars.  No, none?  Come, come good men.”

Twenty-five shekels was a months’ pay for some of these men, it was two months for others.  No one was going to risk that much money on a girl so skinny and proud.  It would take too much time and effort for her to learn her place and act the proper slave.

“None,” Aeschylus said, and paused.  “None.  None.  The deal is done!”

He raised up his hands, dropped them both to point at Dami and then pointed to a table where Aeschylus’ moneychanger sat.  Dami gave a slight bow of his head, and began to move through the men who still looked up to the slaver’s block.  Aeschylus motioned, and a Nubian, easily a head taller and a stone heavier than Dami, came forward and took the girl by the chains.

Dami approached the table. The man sitting there looked up.

“Twenty-five shekels,” the man said, as he began to tally.  “It’s another shekel if you want her robed, and another three if you want to keep the chains.”

He looked up at Dami, as the Nubian brought the girl toward them, still naked and glistening in the sun.  The moneychanger leaned forward and motioned Dami to come closer.

“This one,” he said.  “I suggest you keep the chains.  I’ll give you a good price for them.  They were made for her special.”

Tears of HeavenCover
Reveal Tomorrow!

Two Week to Cover Reveal

The Nephilim were on the earth in those days – and also afterward – when the sons of God went to the daughters of men and had children by them. They were the heroes of old, men of renown. (Genesis 6:4)

We saw the Nephilim there. We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them. (Numbers 13:33)

In the past, the children of angels and humans, the Nephilim, were allowed to lead their lives as they willed.  But they proved too strong, too ambitious, and too cunning for their own good.  They became warlords, conquerors and emperors, causing war and strife until the Throne stepped in and forced them to submit to Its will, or die.  Unlike most of her fellows, Del, one of the first Nephilim, had no interest in conquest and domination.  In the ancient past, prior to the Throne’s interdiction, she met and fell in love with Dami, a Mediterranean ship captain and trader.  Together, they faced down pirates and storms and tried create a future together. In the present, two-thousand years later, Del unwillingly works for the Throne, obeying the commands of the angel Ahadiel.  She helps to keep the world safe from the horrors of escaped demons.  At the same time, she keeps herself in the Throne’s good graces.  Whenever a rogue demon breaks free from Hell, she and her partner, Marrin, another Nephilim, work together to banish it.

If you have a blog, please click this link and help me reveal the cover for "Tears of Heaven" on November 15th.  Only a few days remaining to join!