Top 10 List from Author, Brian S. Leon. 

My favorite books

Brian S. Leon

Top 10 Books (not in order)

10. The Fifth Profession, David Morrell

9. 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Jules Verne

8. Turn Coat, Jim Butcher

7. Storm Front, Jim Butcher

6. The Count of Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas

5. The Old Man and the Sea, Ernest Hemingway

4. The Iliad, Homer

3. The Cabinet of Curiosities, Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child

Brian S. Leon is truly a jack-of-all-trades and a master of none. He began writing in order to do something with all the useless degrees, knowledge and skills--most of which have no practical application in civilized society--he accumulated over the years.

His varied interests include, most notably, mythology of all kinds and fishing, and he has spent time in jungles and museums all over the world studying and oceans and seas across the globe chasing fish, sometimes even catching them.

He has also spent time in various locations around the world doing other things that may or may not have ever happened. Inspired by stories of classical masters like Homer and Jules Verne, as well as modern writers like J.R.R. Tolkien, David Morrell and Jim Butcher, combined with an inordinate amount of free time, Mr. Leon finally decided to come up with tales of his own.
Brian currently resides in San Diego, California.  

Title: Havoc Rising
Author: Brian S. Leon
Publication Date: June 16, 2015
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Publisher: Red Adept Publishing

Amazon ~ Barnes & Nobles ~ Kobo

Eternal life. Eternal battle. Steve—Diomedes Tydides to his Trojan War buddies—just had a bad day on his charter fishing boat in San Diego, but when the goddess Athena calls on her faithful warrior for another secret mission, he’s ready.

The bomb that exploded inside the Metropolitan Museum of Art isn’t the crime American authorities think it is. Someone also stole the Cup of Jamshid, and Diomedes knows its fortune-telling abilities won’t be used for anything benign. Though Diomedes recovers the Cup from a determined shaman holed up beneath Central Park, when he finds his allies slain and the Cup taken once more, he knows he’s up against a truly powerful enemy.

Over a millennium has passed since Diomedes last contended with Medea of Colchis, deranged wife of Jason the Argonaut, but neither her madness nor her devotion to Hecate, goddess of witchcraft, has waned, and she intends to use the Cup of Jamshid to release across the world a dark brand of chaos unseen in human history. Immortal since the Trojan War, Diomedes must once again fight for mortals he understands less and less, against a divine evil he may never truly defeat.

 

AUTHOR BIO:

Brian S. Leon is truly a jack-of-all-trades and a master of none. He began writing in order to do something with all the useless degrees, knowledge and skills--most of which have no practical application in civilized society--he accumulated over the years.

His varied interests include, most notably, mythology of all kinds and fishing, and he has spent time in jungles and museums all over the world studying and oceans and seas across the globe chasing fish, sometimes even catching them.

He has also spent time in various locations around the world doing other things that may or may not have ever happened. Inspired by stories of classical masters like Homer and Jules Verne, as well as modern writers like J.R.R. Tolkien, David Morrell and Jim Butcher, combined with an inordinate amount of free time, Mr. Leon finally decided to come up with tales of his own.
Brian currently resides in San Diego, California.  

Seven Weeks to Forever – Excerpt

Excerpt #1

I take a few breaths, trying to clear my mind. We walk for three blocks in silence before I get my bearings and finally find my voice.

“Thank you,” I tell him. I swear I hear him snort.

“Yeah, no problem.” He sounds put-out and doesn’t even try to hide it. If he recognizes me from the concert last night, his face doesn’t show it.

We walk a few more steps, then he stops so abruptly that I almost plow into him. He drops my hand.

“Do your parents know you’re out roaming the city in the middle of the night?”

His jaw is set, and I’m pretty sure that’s irritation I see on his face. Well, that’s interesting. I wonder if getting mad at strangers is something he does a lot.

“My parents died when I was six.” I regret my words the instant they leave my mouth. Surprise replaces the irritation in his eyes, and then I see exactly what I didn’t want to see. He’s uncomfortable now. Talking about death seems to do that to people. Discomfort isn’t exactly what I was going for, but maybe I shouldn’t care. It’s better than being lectured.

“I’m sorry.” His eyes drop to the sidewalk and stay there.

“Don’t be.” I start walking again.

“Do you make a habit of walking alone down dark streets at night, this close to bars and people drunk out of their minds?” he calls after me.

Oh, joy. Here we go again.

I stop and turn around. He sounds angry, and a quick check of his energy shows me little red sparks shooting everywhere. Yup, that’s definitely the color of anger.

“I got to town a week ago. What am I supposed to do, leave a breadcrumb trail to my house and stay there until new friends magically show up at my door?” I stop talking when something occurs to me. He’s out here alone, too. I put my hands on my hips and glare at him. “Why are you giving me a hard time, anyway? I don’t see you working the buddy system for safety.”

He narrows his eyes. It’s completely the wrong time for me to notice that they’re this incredible shade of deep brown, lit up with little golden flecks here and there. I didn’t notice his eyes last night, but they sure have my attention now.

Stop staring, I tell myself. Easier thought than done.

“I’m a little bigger than you,” he tells me. I still can’t tear my gaze away from him and I think he’s noticed, because he’s staring right back. I feel warmth run through me and am about to check my energy when I realize energy has nothing to do with it. The heat is in my cheeks. Curse him, I’m blushing.

* * *

Title: Seven Weeks to Forever
Author: Jennifer Farwell
Publisher: Booktrope
Publication Date: January 8, 2015
Genre: Young Adult

Goodreads ~ Amazon ~ B&N

Cassidy Jordan knows she’ll die a few weeks after her eighteenth birthday, and she can’t wait. This is her second time here, and she knows what’s waiting for her in The Life-After–the place most mistakenly call “the afterlife.” Getting back there is supposed to be easy: she just has to find nineteen-year-old Riley Davis and help him get his life on track.

By the time she finds him, though, she has only seven weeks to help him. Riley will die too young if she fails, and she’ll never see The Life-After or this life again. But no one told her helping Riley would mean dating him; she hasn’t dated anyone since the love of her first life caused her death the last time she turned eighteen.

When Cassidy realizes she’s falling for Riley, she’s faced with a choice: give him the life he’s meant for and leave when it’s time, or give up eternity for the true love she’s never had, knowing Riley will die the same way she did in her first life and that her entire existence could end at any time.  

AUTHOR BIO:

Jennifer Farwell has been writing since the day she picked up a navy blue Crayola as a toddler and began scribbling on her parents' freshly painted white walls. She's the author of SEVEN WEEKS TO FOREVER and ROCK STAR'S GIRL. When not writing novels, she can often be found at a Kundalini yoga class, cheering on the L.A. Kings during hockey season, or curled up with a good book.

Her love of storytelling led to completing a Bachelor of Journalism degree and a Master of Arts degree in English, both from Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada. She grew up in Thunder Bay, Canada, and now lives in Los Angeles with her dog, Pico.  

Favorite Dragon-Themed Book of All Time

Dragons and fantasy often go together like shirtless men and unsanctioned martial arts tournaments. That being said, my favorite dragon-themed fantasy books are the ones where the emphasis is on human character development, and the dragons themselves are almost peripheral. George R. R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire is an obvious example, though others that I grew up on included many of the Dragonlance books by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman, and The Pit Dragon Chronicles by Jane Yolen.

I think my favorite, though, is Martin’s YA novel, The Ice Dragon. On the surface, the story is quite simple: a young girl named Adara befriends an ice dragon, which appears only occasionally throughout her life, set against a background of her homeland being threatened by fire dragons from the North. But, as is true of any good book, there’s a lot more to it than that.

The book is short (just a little over a hundred pages) but it deftly establishes Adara’s character, plus her feelings of detachment from her family, by using the ice dragon as a metaphor. Like all good metaphors, though, it’s visual, fun, and not too heavy-handed. The book also takes a lot of familiar notions and turns them on their head. For example, the ice dragon appears to be good, and Adara’s friend, yet its very presence is the natural harbinger of frozen desolation.

Especially when working in a genre like fantasy where readers come to the table with certain must-haves, it’s important—and tricky—to show respect for the genre by giving readers at least some of what they ask for, but also be unique and original by occasionally turning those notions on their heads. For instance, dragons are a bygone race in the Dragonkin Trilogy. Men covet their bones, and tell stories about their tragic fall, but otherwise, they exist only in dreams and visions.

Or do they?