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The Princes of Stone and Steel - Book Tour and Giveaway

7/6/2020

78 Comments

 
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The Princes of Stone and Steel
Roshambo Rising Book 1
by Sarah Zolton Arthur
Genre: YA Fantasy Romance 

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She must remember the past to save the future.

What starts as the abduction of Millie Merchant turns into an awakening of bitter truth. Her life is a lie. Her family a fake. It’s all been part of an elaborate hoax to keep her from her destiny. A destiny that lies in the land of Roshambo.

The lines between fantasy & reality blur as she’s transported to a fantastical realm boarding on extinction. Struggling to make sense of it all, Millie is presented with two princes determined to win her hand. One has her best interest at heart, the other seeks control of the realm. But who can she trust in a world full of strangers?

War is looming. Nightmarish beasts prowl the lands. It falls to Millie to be the salvation of Roshambo. For she alone is the ruler the Outliers have been searching for. The origins of rock, paper, scissors come alive in a tale far more twisted than a simple child’s game.



Goodreads * Amazon ​



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​One:
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I think I peed a little
MY HEAD FELT FOGGY, LIKE THAT INTERIM TIME BETWEEN SICK AND WELL, when the antibiotics started to kick in, but you still couldn’t think clearly enough to go back to school. Not that I’d been sick. I typically never got sick. So, perhaps what I said wasn’t exactly accurate, except that I pulled my point of reference from other people’s conversations.
Part of me just wanted to get to school and get the day over with. I hated school, not the learning part. I actually liked to learn. I hated the people part. The socializing, or anti-socializing, in my case. We lived in small-town-nowheresville-Michigan which meant most of the kids at my high school were small-town-nowheresville students with paper-thin personalities that I could see right through.
It hadn’t seemed that bad before, I didn’t think, not until about three months ago when I’d made a new friend. She’d opened my eyes to the life of drudgery I’d been living amongst the jockstrap boys and mean girls. That bourgeois ‘us against you’ typical of the small-town Midwest and so very Michigan. A life so bourgie, numerous teenage angsty-to-rom/com movies had been made throughout the nineteen-eighties and nineties on this exact subject, or so my new friend, Korrigan, informed me by making me watch them, contraband-like, because Aunt Cynthia believed movies rotted the brain. Calling Cynthia old school was akin to calling the dark ages progressive. My aunt’s ideas on life and gender roles were nothing short of ancient.
The other part of me wanted to curl back up in my nice warm bed and try for sound sleep. I hadn’t slept soundly in months. Every single night, plagued by the same dream.
Immersed in this time and place—the intensity—that even though it wasn’t real… it felt real. The girl in my dream, Millicent, she was me, yet she clearly wasn’t me. Although we shared a few things in common, namely a name and a face, she lived in the nineteenth century and thankfully, I was a twenty-first century girl. Antibiotics. Sexual freedom. Pants.
The worst part was that it seemed the dream had been trying to tell me something. My subconscious reaching out to me. Cynthia didn’t believe in “that third-eye nonsense” as she’d called it after about the fourth time of me trying to explain the dream to her. Though, did the subconscious trying to work out a problem really constitute ‘third-eye’ anything?
“Millicent Merchant, get down here.” My great aunt called up the stairs to me from the landing in the living room, in her everyday harsh tone.
Cynthia, how did one describe Cynthia? I’d lived with her for as long as I could remember, and she wasn’t a cold woman per se, but wasn’t especially giving in the hug or kind words departments. Too pragmatic for either of our own good. She kept her white hair pulled back in the tightest ponytail imaginable, no doubt contributing to her sour mood. Her skin pulled taut on the sides of her face enough to smooth out her wrinkles and she always wore loose, white or off-white linen dresses with long sleeves, high neckline and fabric down to her ankles. She used wool shawls instead of a coat during the winter. The one modern convenience she afforded us was her car. Thank goodness for small miracles.
“Yes, ma’am,” I called back. I wasn’t being smart with her, my aunt expected me to address her as either ma’am or Aunt Cynthia. I couldn’t respond with a simple ‘yes’ to her without getting a ‘yes, what?’ in return.
She never cooked breakfast and I never asked her to. I skidded into the kitchen off the momentum of bounding down the stairs, to grab a yogurt from the fridge and a snack pack of pipitas out of the snack cupboard.
Spoon in mouth, I walked out the side door from the vestibule off the kitchen where we kept our washer and drier, and climbed directly into the parked car—aunt Cynthia’s metallic blue 1963 Oldsmobile Cutlass in pristine condition which got about 2.2 miles per gallon. Only one previous owner. She’d been driving it since before I was born, always promising this jewel of the road would be mine someday. Joy.
Our tiny farmhouse didn’t have a garage and I’d been hearing the loud rumbling of the massive engine for the past twenty minutes, when Cynthia went outside to start it. Just one woman’s way of punching a bigger hole in the ozone.
We had to leave ungodly early for me to get to school on time as she refused to drive any faster than twenty-five miles per hour. Thankfully the weather had held out for us so she didn’t have an excuse to go any slower like, say, when the snow started falling and I’d swear she put the car in neutral and let the wind push us along.
October in Michigan could go one of a few ways: a beautiful summer not quite ready to end, crisp fall, or polar vortex. We’d found middle ground this year with crisp fall. Real sweatshirt and jeans kind of temperatures. In any weather, Aunt Cynthia preferred I dress like a “girl” with frilly dresses and shoes with pointed toes and heels. I never wore dresses and preferred to wear my docs.
No hello as I clicked my seatbelt, only a, “Don’t slouch. It looks common.” Then she shifted into gear and drove forward around the circle drive to lead us down the bumpy, dirt path carved out from years of tire wear. See? Not really cold, but certainly not friendly.
As we reached the end of our very long country road Cynthia slowed but didn’t stop. A Jeep running perpendicular to us sped through the intersection missing the front end of the Olds by inches. She slammed on the breaks. I slammed a hand against the dashboard. The Jeep raced past without a second glance to see if we were okay.
“I think I peed a little,” I tried to infuse a little joking to ease a bit of the tension but she bristled out her look that said she’d have none of it. She bristled out that look a great deal around me.
I barely made it to school on time, what with her dropping down from her speed racer twenty-five to a respectably safe fifteen. My classmates shot out ridiculous taunts as I exited the front seat, directly in front of the school where Aunt Cynthia insisted she drop me off every day.
“You sure you’re all right?” I asked. The hope was small, but maybe she’d let me skip just today.
“I’ll be fine. Thanks for your concern.”
“If you need me—”
“I’ll be fine,” she cut me off and I knew damn well not to push the issue with her.
“Well, remember I get out late tonight. Working off my volunteer hours at the daycare.” The school called them “volunteer” but in reality, since we didn’t get a choice in it if we wanted that stupid diploma, I usually referred to them as “community service” hours. But I found that most parents—including Aunt Cynthia—didn’t like telling others their kid had to do community service.
Aunt Cynthia nodded. “See you at six.”


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Sarah Zolton Arthur is a USA TODAY Bestselling author of Adult Contemporary Romance, Romantic Suspense, Rom-Com, LBGTQ+, and PNR author who recently decided to dip her toes in the world of YA Fantasy. She spends her days embracing the weirdly wonderful parts of life with her two kooky sons while pretending to be a responsible adult. And there is plenty of the weird and wonderful to go around with her older son being autistic and the younger being a plain ol' wisecracker.

She resides in Michigan, where the winters bring cold, and the summers bring construction. The roads might have potholes, but the beaches are amazing.

Above all else, she lives by these rules. Call them Sarah's life edicts: In Sarah's world all books have kissing and end in some form of HEA. Because really, what more do you need in life?



Website * Facebook * Twitter * Instagram * Pinterest * Bookbub * Amazon * Goodreads ​



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I bet you’re wondering about what would cause a normally sane person to write a book based on the game rock, paper, scissors. Me too--kidding. I was on vacation with my boys up at Mackinac Island in the Straits of Mackinaw in Michigan. The sun shone bright with a light breeze dancing over the beach. There was the sound of gulls screeching overhead, and that smell of water that only comes off a large body of water. That’s where I wrote what would become chapter 2, or Millicent Merchant 1820s.

So into this story, when my boys began arguing over a toy, I had them rock, paper, scissors it out to decide who got to play with it first. That’s honestly how it came about. No one had done it, based a book on the game, so why didn’t I?

I’ll continue to write my steamy romance but YA PNR and fantasy are where I found my love of writing again. It’s where my heart is at. No matter what I write in the future, I won’t stop.
The name of the land is Roshambo, it’s the lesser-known name of rock, paper, scissors. Sometimes you see it spelled Rochambeau but I changed the spelling because some people had a hard time in those early days pronouncing it.

Since it’s based on rock, paper, scissors those clearly had to be the people of the land. I thought, wouldn’t it be fun to base their civilizations off of major civilizations in our history. Thus, we have the Vrachos, which is Greek for rock, then we have the Forfex which is Latin literally for scissors, and Papyrus people. Papyrus is clearly the ancient Egyptian word for paper.

The role of the flesh in the story came to me because you need people to play it. Hands. Hands covered in… wait for it… flesh! This is the start of a series because, with rock clans, paper clans, and scissor clans, somebody’s always up to something. Plus, there are other major civilizations to pull from that have the potential to cause trouble.  


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78 Comments
James Robert
7/6/2020 04:52:46 am

Thanks for sharing your great  book and for the giveaway too.

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Sarah
7/17/2020 09:39:26 am

You're welcome! I wish you luck in the giveaway.

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Bernie Wallace
7/6/2020 05:56:07 am

How long did it take you to write your book?

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Sarah
7/17/2020 09:38:34 am

I started writing the Milicent Merchant 1820s back in 2008. Then I put it away for a while as other projects came along that needed to be completed. I always loved the story, though, and once I broke it back out it took about 3 months to complete.

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Stephanie Jones
7/6/2020 06:12:37 am

i love the book cover

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Michele Soyer
7/6/2020 06:18:39 am

Love the cover.. gorgeous.. best of luck and thank you...

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Shirley Ann Speakman
7/6/2020 08:14:12 am

The book sounds very intriguing and the book cover is beautiful.

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Sarah link
8/5/2020 09:23:55 pm

I hope you’ll enjoy it if you get to reading it.

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Wendy Jensen
7/6/2020 09:01:35 am

Wonderful book cover.

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Rita Wray
7/6/2020 11:37:45 am

Sounds like a good book.

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Beyond Comps
7/6/2020 01:09:58 pm

Great cover

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wendy hutton
7/6/2020 01:24:21 pm

very nice cover

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Debbie P
7/6/2020 01:29:57 pm

This sounds like a excellent read. Great cover!

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Victoria Scott
7/6/2020 02:13:38 pm

Sounds awesome! Thanks for sharing!

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Sherry
7/6/2020 04:30:38 pm

I love the cover it's very eye catching.

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Calvin
7/6/2020 04:33:00 pm

That's some pro design, nice theme to your book!

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Elaine
7/6/2020 05:38:19 pm

This sounds really good. Nice cover.

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Susan Smith
7/6/2020 06:06:05 pm

Sounds like a great book. I like the cover.

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Victoria Alexander
7/6/2020 07:04:25 pm

Great post!

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LYNN CLAYTON
7/6/2020 08:31:33 pm

nice cover looks like a great read

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Heather Mahley
7/6/2020 08:37:07 pm

The cover is wonderful

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Amy F
7/6/2020 08:59:03 pm

Amazing cover design!

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Clem
7/7/2020 02:10:34 am

It's an interesting cover.

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Judy Thomas
7/7/2020 06:48:06 am

Great cover, the book sounds like a great read.

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shannon zeidan
7/7/2020 11:29:18 am

This sounds like a fabulous book.

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Chrystal D
7/7/2020 02:16:45 pm

I love the cover, the colors are great and LOVE that crown!

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Ginger Hafer
7/7/2020 02:23:11 pm

The cover is very artfully done and the story sounds like a good read.

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Sandy Klocinski
7/7/2020 03:16:51 pm

Thanks for the opportunity to win! Awesome cover.

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Ann Fantom
7/7/2020 03:43:40 pm

I love the cover. It has great artwork

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Mya Murphy
7/7/2020 04:11:26 pm

The design on the cover is stunning!!

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BILL HOFF
7/7/2020 04:54:33 pm

My daughter would enjoy these books

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Julie Lundstrom
7/7/2020 05:40:04 pm

I really like the cover of this book.

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MARCY MEYER
7/7/2020 07:14:45 pm

I like the cover. Looks great.

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Mary Cloud
7/7/2020 07:18:48 pm

No questions - the cover is nice

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Terri Quick
7/7/2020 08:58:56 pm

Cool looking cover

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Renata
7/7/2020 11:09:18 pm

Nice cover

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Belinda Shaw
7/8/2020 01:09:00 am

reminds me of the age of knights and midevil

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Serge B
7/8/2020 06:32:52 am

I liked the cover--especially the themed font!

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Julie Murphy
7/8/2020 07:25:07 am

I like a good to romance.

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Debbi Wellenstein
7/8/2020 11:27:20 am

This sounds great! Thank you for the giveaway!

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Cynthia C
7/8/2020 01:02:44 pm

Thank you for sharing the excerpt. It sounds very interesting.

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Sarah
7/17/2020 09:43:03 am

It's one of my love projects. The story came to me and wouldn't let go until I wrote it. I hope you get the chance to read it in its entirety.

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beth shepherd
7/8/2020 09:28:05 pm

This looks really good. Great cover!

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brittany doerfler
7/8/2020 11:30:38 pm

I really love the cover especially the crown.

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Stephanie Liske
7/9/2020 12:51:37 am

I like the cover.

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Francine Anchondo
7/10/2020 03:49:58 pm

I like the cover

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Barbara Montag
7/10/2020 08:30:33 pm

My tween granddaughter would love reading this.
And the cover is so special.
Thank you for sharing this review.

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Kelly D
7/13/2020 02:51:13 pm

I like the cover. It looks like a great book.

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Karin
7/13/2020 02:58:18 pm

Great choice fo r the cover.

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Paula
7/13/2020 03:26:20 pm

The cover art seems appropriate for the book. Good job.

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Diana Hardt
7/14/2020 03:34:24 am

Nice cover. It sounds like a really interesting book. Thank you for sharing.

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Jennylyn Gross
7/17/2020 04:38:55 am

cool cover

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Sarah L
7/21/2020 12:50:22 am

Looks like an interesting book.
Thanks for the contest. 

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Thomas Gibson
7/22/2020 09:54:24 pm

The cover art is amazing.

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Sydney Winward link
7/25/2020 01:44:18 pm

Love the cover! Who is your cover artist?

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Sarah link
8/6/2020 10:37:40 am

It is beautiful. The cover was designed by Kim Thurlow. She's amazing

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Heather Kaufman
7/26/2020 02:22:29 pm

The cover is very pretty & fancy.

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IRENE
7/26/2020 10:46:28 pm

Like the title & the cover. Every little girl likes to think she'd really a princess or that a prince will one day whisk you away, but it sounds like it's not quite working out as it should for Millie!

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Sarah link
8/6/2020 10:39:02 am

I don't think you'll find Millie complaining at the end of it all.

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Daniel M
7/30/2020 06:40:41 pm

like the cover

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molli taylor
7/30/2020 11:07:06 pm

this looks like agreatread

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Max Morais Dos Santos
8/1/2020 05:15:00 pm

Very nice cover...

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Robyn Bellefleur
8/3/2020 12:30:24 am

I really like the cover.

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angie lilly link
8/3/2020 09:30:04 am

I love this cover! I especially love the red and the embers/jewels that are orange. Very high quality!

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latisha depoortere
8/3/2020 06:58:17 pm

Thank you so much for sharing!

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sandra
8/4/2020 10:08:22 am

my favorite part of the cover is the jeweled crown

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Betty Curran
8/5/2020 08:40:31 pm

What a wonderful basis for a book.We can all relate to rock, paper, scissors.

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Sarah link
8/6/2020 10:40:38 am

Thank you. It was a fun book to write.

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susan smoaks
8/6/2020 07:00:25 am

i would love to read this. i like the cover.

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Sally Hill
8/6/2020 10:34:18 am

Oh wow I love the look of this - definitely look like my sort of read!

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Sarah link
8/6/2020 10:41:31 am

I do hope you'll enjoy it if you get the chance to read it.

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Emily B.
8/6/2020 12:27:32 pm

Love how Stone and Steel reflect their textures.

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Juana Esparza
8/6/2020 02:35:09 pm

I liked both the excerpt, and the book cover.

Reply
Hesper Fry
8/6/2020 06:51:56 pm

The book cover looks really cool and the book sounds great!

Reply
Stacey A Smith
8/6/2020 09:20:24 pm

I love the cover it's very cool looking.

Reply
Sand
8/6/2020 09:59:14 pm

Looks like a great cover!

Reply
Jerry Marquardt
8/6/2020 11:59:17 pm

I would like to give thanks for all your really good works.

Reply
Bella Martinez
8/7/2020 12:27:45 am

Love the title!

Reply



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