Book Tours: Starter Day Party The Portal & The Panther

I’m hosting the starter day party today for the book tour for YA fantasy / science-fiction “The Portal & The Panther”. The tour runs from January 28 to February 28. I’ll review the book on February 10. Stay tuned for the review, and in the mean time, check out the other tour stops.

Tour Schedule

January 28^th: Starter Day Party @ I Heart Reading

January 29^th: Book Excerpt @ Indy Book Fairy

January 31^st: Promo Post @ Nat’s Book Nook

February 2^nd: Book Excerpt @ The AP Book Club

February 4^th: Author Interview @ The Single Librarian

February 6^th: Book Excerpt @ Tea Talks

February 8^th: Character Interview @ The Book Daily

February 10^th: Book Review @ I Heart Reading

February 12^th: Guest Post and Excerpt @ Literary Musing

February 14^th: Promo Post @ Bookish Madness

February 15^th: Author Interview @ Editor Charlene’s Blog

February 17^th: Book Review and Excerpt @ A Virtual Hobby Store and Coffee Haus

February 19^th: Book Excerpt @ Realm Tramper

February 21^st: Book Review, Author Interview and Character Interview @ Literary Musing

February 22^nd: Book Excerpt @ Sunshine Book Promotions

February 24^th: Guest Post @ Bedazzled Reading

February 26^th: Book Review @ Books, Books and More Books

February 28^th: Book Excerpt @ Hollow Readers

About The Book

Title: The Portal & The Panther

Author: R.A. Marshall

Genre: YA Fantasy / Science-Fiction

The only thing seventeen year-old Jon Parker wants is to escape his sleepy hometown of Mecksville, Arkansas. But everything changes when Jon stumbles into the boys’ bathroom and transforms into a black panther.

Without choice, Jon is thrust into a world where parallel universes are real, shapeshifters exist, and dangerous “intruders” can control the elements with a mere thought. Jon learns he’s inherited his shapeshifting ability from his long-dead mother, and now, like it or not, his mission is to protect our world from invaders from other worlds.

But is it a mission Jon will accept? His decision will determine the fate of the people he loves — and our whole world.

Author Bio

My first attempt at novel writing was when I was ten years old. At the time, I was writing fan fiction, without realizing what fan fiction actually was (I don’t think the term existed yet). I had just finished reading Tunnel in the Sky by Robert A. Heinlein for the second time and, for the second time, couldn’t stand that the book was ending. I needed some sort of sequel. I think I got about 12 handwritten pages into my Tunnel in the Sky sequel before my father pointed out that I’d never be able to publish it.

I tried writing novels again some time in college, but that was the period in my life when I took myself faaaaaar too seriously. If you’re over the age of 23, you’ll know what I mean by that. I was only interested in writing something Important, something that Mattered, and consequently wrote no more than about 10,000 words before giving up. In my heart, I didn’t want to write Les Mis or War and Peace, but The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.

When Kindle came along and I stopped buying actual paper books, I realized that there was a revolution going on in the publishing world. As I heard tales of self-published authors meeting with unprecedented success, I decided it was time to dust off my fiction writing skills and join their ranks. I could finally just write for the hell of it and never have to worry about what a publisher would think or what anyone else would think.

I finished the first draft of The Portal and the Panther in April 2014; I plan to publish it in January 2015. Meanwhile, I’m hard at work on the second book in the Guardians of the Portal series, The Girl Between Worlds. I hope to also have it ready at the same time as The P and the P.