Tara Tyler's POP TRAVEL Cover Reveal & 7 of My Own Travel Confessions

Drum Roll please... I'm thrilled to reveal the cover for POP TRAVEL by author Tara Tyler (the uber-creative mastermind behind many blog headers around the blogosphere, like mine!). Can you say, multi-talented?

How cool is her cover?

POP TRAVEL by Tara Tyler

Cover Reveal: May 13, 2013

Release Date: July 7, 2013

Publisher: Curiosity Quills

Back Cover:

Private Investigator J. L. Cooper always knew pop travel laser teleportation was too good to be true. Finding video proof of a disintegrating traveler is the stomach turning “I told you so.”

Cooper can’t broadcast the video on the nosy, government monitored Qnet, so he digs around, revealing more suspicious traveler disappearances, the death of his client, and threats to his political little brother, who is in jeopardy of turning to dust anyway for disregarding Cooper’s warnings not to pop. Cooper has to do everything himself.

To stop the disappearances and save his brother he must shut down the ruthless mega corp Pop Travel International (PTI). And that means convincing Hasan Rakhi, the celebrity Creator of pop travel, to publicly admit the deadly flaw. No problem. Under constant surveillance, Cooper will have to be unpredictable, facing his fear of popping to crash a party at Hasan’s well-fortified plantation compound. Yes, the laser fences are real. As long as he survives his next pop, Cooper won’t let anything distract him from getting the job done. Not the android security guards, who aren’t as bright as they look, or even Southern Comfort in a purple dress, Geri Harper (an undercover Agent). Nothing Coop can’t handle.

 

Tara's Bio:

Math teacher by day, sports mom by night, when does she have time to write?

Good question, but the Lazy Housewife makes time! Tara Tyler writes sci fi, thriller, and fantasy, with dabs of romance and humor and tips for efficient living. Something for everyone.

Congrats on your upcoming publication, Tara!!

***

Last week I was nominated by Tonette dela Luna (Yay! and thanks, Tonette!) for the Very Inspiring Blogger Award! You know me, I'm terrible with blog awards, but I thought it'd be fun to announce this one in conjunction with Tara's cover reveal. The rules are: link back to the blogger who awarded you, reveal 7 things about yourself and nominate 15 bloggers (here's where I suck at awards). Anyone and everyone reading my blog, I nominate YOU! If you visit here, you must rock & inspire, right?!

To keep in the spirit of POP TRAVEL,  here are 7 of my travel confessions (all true):

1. I despise (fear) flying (even though since the age of 4, I've flown from Houston to Chicago 2x per year to visit my father).

2. When I was young, I could always convince one of the flight attendants to play the Crazy 8 card game with me.

3. Chewing gum (or swallowing) does NOT work when you have sinus issues.

4. For some odd reason, I like to use airplane bathrooms. Part of me thinks it helps pass the time. But there's another part of me that just wants to get up and be nosy, observing all the passengers.

5. Nowadays, I have to take an anti-anxiety pill or stop by the terminal bar before boarding.

6. I perform a visual pat down of every passenger, searching for bulged pockets or anything out of the ordinary. Then I watch any suspicious folk like a hawk during the flight.

7. And the funniest was two years ago when I thought there was an issue with the cabin pressure of our plane. I hit the button for the flight attendant twice. She pretty much looked at me like I was freak, assuring me nobody else on the plane was having problems. My daughters teased me when we landed. They said, "Mom, if you wanted to play cards with her, why didn't you just ask?"

Have a writerly week, y'all and watch for POP TRAVEL on July 7!!

The Final Day of May Monster Madness -- It's Been a Howlin' Good Time!

This is day 7 and the final day of May Monster Madness hosted by Annie Walls , Something wicKED This Way Comes, & Little Gothic Horrors. I hope you've enjoyed my Texas monsters this week! Many of you have commented about the number of monster legends around Texas. 

Texas is HUGE with a population of 26 million and growing. There are ten different climate regions in Texas and eleven different ecological regions. There are vast areas with little or no civilization. So I guess IF monsters exist, Texas would be an excellent place to hide! 

My notebook

These were the seven most exciting monsterly stories from my Texas supernatural notebook. There are more where these came from. O_O 

I've learned about many of these legends from a creeptastic book called WEIRD TEXAS.  I've went on many road trips inspired by the stories in this book.

Aaaaaa-oooooo!! Let's chat werewolves today. It seems there are many legends of werewolves around the world. These are a few stories of werewolves in Texas. The story I found most bizarre was the legend of a baby girl in Marshall, Texas back in the 1950's, abducted from her crib allegedly by a large dog or wolf. She was believed to have survived and turned feral, and raised by the pack of dogs or wolves. She's still known today as the Wild Woman near those parts and is said to still roam, sometimes seen on all fours through the dense forests. The last known sighting was in the 1990's. Is that weird or what?

photo from WEIRD TEXAS

In Kimble County, legend has it a Native American Shaman could shape shift into a large wolf. According to the legend, which you can read in full  HERE, a tombstone carver carved a representation of the beast into a limestone cliff in Bear Creek. It's known as the "Cleo" face. To date, there are no known images of the Cleo face. It supposedly sits on private property and there is no public access.

We also have the legendary Converse Werewolf story from the 1800's. You can read the longer version HERE. Here's the short version: A young rancher's son was sent out to hunt. He never returned. When a search party found him, a large wolfman was bent over, devouring him. A few of the men shot at the creature, but it escaped. 

Well folks, it's been a monsterly romp these past few days. I've enjoyed reading your posts and meeting some new friends! Thank you so much to our hosts. See y'all around!

Day 6 May Monster Madness -- The Texas Big Bird

Welcome to Day 6 of May Monster Madness, hosted by Annie Walls, Little Gothic Horrors, & Something wicKED This Way Comes.

photo credit American Monsters

I've been featuring reported monsterly sightings from around my home state of Texas. Today I'm introducing you to Texas' Big Bird. No, not the canary-colored, neighborly pal, but a monstrous winged beast. 

Many of Texas' accounts began in the 1970's in the Rio Grande Valley area. American Monsters website wrote a detailed post you can read here. It features several eyewitness accounts. One man's story claims the creature mutilated some of his cattle.

Some believe the beast to be the Native American legend of the Thunderbird. Here are a few stories of the strange creature.

Many creature-seekers dedicate their lives to proving the existence of creatures like Big Bird. I owe heaps of gratitude to some of these folk. They've provided me with information, sparking my inspiration for many of my stories. One of my favorite crypto-hunters is a Texas Cryptozoologist, Ken Gerhard. He has written a book about the giant winged beasts, BIG BIRD! MODERN SIGHTINGS OF FLYING MONSTERS.

Of course, Texas also has a few species of birds, some endangered, which have large wingspans. Is it possible that the sightings were merely mistaken identities of a Bald Eagle, vulture, crane, or the Great Blue Heron?

Most recently (2008), there have been a few eyewitness accounts of the Texas Big Bird in the San Antonio area.  This man's account refers to a large flying creature with a 10-12 foot wingspan and bat-like or pterodactyl features. 

Wikipedia

The Quetzalcoatlus was a pterodactyloid pterosaur, from around 66 million years ago. The first Quetzalcoathlus fossils were found in the Big Bend National Park in west Texas in 1971.

Do you think it's possible a prehistoric bird-like creature still exists? Logic tells us no, but sometimes, I wonder. 

I've visited the vast, west Texas deserts several times. I'll tell you this, out there, the barren and harsh landscape whiplashes the imagination into high gear. And then anything is possible.