Larry Peterson - The Priest and the Peaches - Author Interview

My thanks to Larry Peterson for stopping by The Character Connection for an author interview during the blog tour for his book, The Priest and the Peaches.

Author Interview

1. Who is your favorite character?
Beatrice Amon, the antagonist.

2. Why is he/she your favorite?
As the story unfolded Beatrice morphed into someone that even surprised me. Hopefully the reader will be as surprised as I was.

3. How did you come to create him/her?
Once I happened to pass by a woman as I was walking and she was dressed in a black dress that hung to mid-calf, wore thick soled, ugly black shoes and sported a wide rimmed black hat that sat on her head at an angle. She was walking like someone who was on a mission, fast and purposeful, and had a mean look on her face. Her eyes never waivered from looking straight ahead. Our encounter lasted for about two seconds but I never forgot her and the bleakness that surrounded her.

4. Where was he/she given life in the creative process?
In my quest to find a suitable antagonist I toyed with several ideas: a mean nun and/or an overbearing relative, (that almost happened with Aunt Vera) to name a few. I settled on the mean, intrusive neighbor. It just seemed to fit into where I was going.

5. What do like the most about him/her and what do you dislike the most about him/her?
What I like about Beatrice is who she really is and why. What I do not like is how she masked herself by shrouding herself in meanness to escape her reality.

About the Book
The Priest and the Peaches

Book Details:
Price: $2.99-$4.99
Format: ebook
Published: January 1, 2012
Pages: 285
ISBN: 9780983741848
Genre: Young Adult, Historical Fiction
Buy Links: Kindle, Nook, iPad, Smashwords, Google, PDF

Blurb:
Historical fiction novel set in the Bronx in the mid-1960s

Take a seven day journey with the five, newly orphaned Peach kids, as they begin their struggle to remain a family while planning their dad's funeral.

They find an ally in the local parish priest, Father Tim Sullivan, who tries his best to guide them through the strange, unchartered and turbulent waters of "grown-up world." A story that is sad, funny, and inspiring as it shows how the power of family love and faith can overcome seemingly insurmountable obstacles.

About the Author
Larry Peterson

Larry Peterson was born and raised in the Bronx, New York. A former Metal Lather/Reinforcing Iron-worker, he left that business after coming down with MS. He, his wife and three kids moved to Florida 30 years ago. Larry began doing freelance newspaper commentary after graduating from Tampa College in 1984.

His first children's picture book, Slippery Willie's Stupid, Ugly Shoes was published in 2011. In 2012, his full length novel, The Priest and the Peaches was released and he is presently working on the sequel.

He also has a blog (http://www.slipperywillie.com) where he posts weekly commentary. He lives in Pinellas Park, Florida and his kids and six grandchildren all live within three miles of each other.

Connect with Larry:
Website/Blog
Facebook
Twitter

About the Tour

Tribute Books Blog Tours

The Priest and the Peaches Blog Tour Site

Christopher Profeta - Life in Pieces - Author Interview

Author Interview

1. Who is your favorite character?
In my debut novel, Life in Pieces, An unemployed stay at home dad who opens the paper one morning to find he is running for congress, a young man struggling to hold onto a life that is slipping away while meeting the love of his life, and a crazy old man who couldn't care about any of this all cross to show that we are never too old to come of age. I’d probably say that the crazy old man character is my favorite.

2. Why is he/she your favorite?
He was so much fun to write. I love the way he and his wife have given up caring about all the silly things that people in their twenties and thirties care about. He doesn’t care what people think about him, he thinks it’s silly how fast the world moves, and he just does what he wants. He has this mentality that he’s lived his live and now it’s time to enjoy his life. There is a scene in which he’s dressed in Hawaiian shirt and shorts, sitting in a beach chair with an umbrella by the side of a busy road just watching traffic go by. It’s my dream to be like that someday.

3. How did you come to create him/her?
To be honest, I really just thought of everything I’d like to be when I get to that age. There’s a lot of wishful thinking going on on my part with this character.

4. When did he/she first enter your mind?
I’ve thought about this person for years. I was probably in college when I realized who this character was and how much I loved him. It wasn’t until about a year or so ago that I actually started to write the character, but he’s been in my head in some form or another for a very long time.

5. Where was he/she given life in the creative process?
When I realized that Life in Pieces was going to take the form that it did – three disconnected narratives about characters and different stages in life – I knew this guy was going to have a place here.

6. What do like the most about him/her and what do you dislike the most about him/her?
I like how free he is. It’s interesting to me to think that it isn’t until we get into the last stages of life that we really are able to understand what it’s really all about. I love that this character is in that place, but I guess I kind of hate that it takes so long to get there.

About the Book

An unemployed stay at home dad who opens the paper one morning to find he is running for congress, a young man struggling to hold onto a life that is slipping away while meeting the love of his life, and a crazy old man who couldn't care about any of this all cross paths in Christopher Profeta's debut novel, Life in Pieces, to show that we are never too old to come of age.

Price: $8.99 eBook/$22.06 Hardcover
Pages: 288
Genre: Literary Fiction
Publisher: Renegade Book and Press
Release Date: February 28, 2012
Buy links: Kindle, Lulu (ebook), Lulu (hardcover)

Author Bio

Chris teaches writing at Macomb Community College and Davenport University. He has had various works published in the Foliate Oak online literary magazine, one of which was nominated for a Pushcart Prize. He attended school at Wayne State University where he was awarded two Loughead-Eldridge Scholarships in Creative Writing, and at Michigan State University where he was a winner of the Jim Cash Creative Writing Award. He lives in Clawson, MI with his wife and two kids.

Connect with Chris

Facebook
Twitter
Website
YouTube

Kick-Butt Characters Giveaway Hop

Congratulations to our winner!
Deborah A.
deborah [at] deborahandreasen [dot] com

Enter to win the latest young adult ebook release from Tribute Books.

1) Add Jolene Perry's upcoming May 2012 release, Knee Deep, to your Goodreads to-read list. Click here for the direct link.
2) Leave a comment with your email address.

***

Night Sky
by Jolene Perry

After losing Sarah, the friend he’s loved, to some other guy, Jameson meets Sky. Her Native American roots, fluid movements, and need for brutal honesty become addictive fast. This is good. Jameson needs distraction – his dad leaves for another woman, his mom’s walking around like a zombie, and Sarah’s new boyfriend can’t keep his hands off of her.

As he spends time with Sky and learns about her village, her totems, and her friends with drums - she's way more than distraction. Jameson's falling for her fast.

But Sky’s need for honesty somehow doesn’t extend to her life story – and Jameson just may need more than his new girl to keep him distracted from the disaster of his senior year.

http://night-sky-book.com/

Mark Saunders - Nobody Knows the Spanish I Speak - Guest Post

My thanks to Mark Saunders for stopping by The Character Connection for a guest post during the blog tour for his book, Nobody Knows the Spanish I Speak.

Guest Post

Plot, action, dialogue, conflict, scenes, descriptions, narration, exposition, and whatnot are all important elements of story, of course. But when I think of books I’ve read or movies I’ve watched, what most often sticks in my mind and stands tall are the characters, warts and all. I find such people, real or imaginary, hard to shake, and, for the most part, I don’t want to shake them. In fact, I like having them sitting in the recesses of my recessed-hairline head, on a bench, as if waiting for a bus to arrive or the coach to call their name (“Gatsby, in for Ahab. Now!”).

Even a minor character by one of my favorite authors, Elmore Leonard, can stick with me long after I’ve turned the last page and moved on to another book. But usually when we discuss “character” we’re talking about fiction. What about non-fiction or, more to the point, autobiography?

In my case, I wrote a humorous memoir, Nobody Knows the Spanish I Speak, with, as generally happens with memoirs, the author as the central character. My memoir about dropping out, selling almost everything, and moving to the middle of Mexico, when I should have been old enough to know better, also featured my wife, Arlene, as a main character. What’s a writer to do?

It’s not as if a writer can’t create vivid and memorable characters when telling a true story. In fact, truth is quite often much stranger than fiction, as the saying goes, especially when it comes to people. One of my dad’s cousins, for example, had a hernia and would wear his truss outside of his pants.

When writing a biography of a legend such as Marilyn Monroe there is no shortage of interesting—and real—characters to introduce. But unless one has lived a rarified life, most of the people in one’s own life are, well, neither Jay Gatsby nor Captain Ahab, and, of course, they’re not Joe Dimaggio or Arthur Miller.

I felt it was critical before taking readers on my journey, to introduce myself and my wife, as the primary characters, as well as our supporting cast, the Standard poodle and the part-Siamese cat we took with us. I wanted to set up our personalities and character flaws and give my memoir an authentic voice, even if at times my narrator’s credentials could be questioned. All of which I set out to do in the book’s prologue. After which I used the first three chapters to begin the narrative, as well as further establish the main characters.

Throughout my memoir, I re-enforced our character traits. For instance, I talked about how our driving skills complemented each other. I refused to ask for directions, and Arlene had absolutely no sense of direction at all. Stubborn is not a good character trait.

Nor is envy. In another example, I suffer from insomnia. Arlene, on the other hand, has slept through barking dogs, smoke alarms, earthquakes, and helicopters spraying insecticide over our house seeking to eradicate the Mediterranean fruit fly.

By the end of the book, if I have done my job correctly, the reader should feel as if he or she knows me and my wife and may choose to ignore us at parties or run the other way. We won’t take it personally.

About the Book
Nobody Knows the Spanish I Speak

Book Details:
Price: $14.95 paperback, $9.99 ebook
Format: Paperback, ebook
Publisher: Fuze Publishing
Published: November 2011
Pages: 298
ISBN: 9780984141289
Genre: Memoir, Humor
Buy Links: Amazon, Fuze Publishing, Kindle, Nook

Blurb:
Ay, chihuahua! Ay, caramba! Oy vey!

In early December 2005, Mark Saunders and his wife, along with their dog and cat, packed up their 21st century jalopy, a black Audi Quattro with a luggage carrier on top, and left Portland, Oregon, for San Miguel de Allende, three thousand miles away in the middle of Mexico, where they knew no one and could barely speak the language.

Things fell apart almost from the beginning. The house they rented was as cold as a restaurant’s freezer. Their furniture took longer than expected to arrive. They couldn’t even get copies of their house keys made. They unintentionally filled their house with smoke and just as unintentionally knocked out the power to their entire neighborhood. In other words, they were clueless. This is their story.

About the Author
Mark Saunders

An award-winning playwright, screenwriter, and cartoonist, Mark Saunders tried standup comedy to get over shyness and failed spectacularly at it — the standup part, not the shyness. He once owned a Yugo and still can’t remember why. Nearly 30 of his plays have been staged, from California to New York - with several stops in-between - and two plays have been published.

With three scripts optioned, his screenplays, all comedies, have attracted awards but seem to be allergic to money. Back in his drawing days, more than 500 of his cartoons appeared nationally in publications as diverse as Writer’s Digest, The Twilight Zone Magazine, and The Saturday Evening Post.

As a freelancer, he also wrote gags for the popular comic strip “Frank and Ernest,” as well as jokes for professional comedians, including Jay Leno. Nobody Knows the Spanish I Speak is his first book.

Connect with Mark:
Web Site

About the Tour

Tribute Books Blog Tours

Nobody Know the Spanish I Speak Blog Tour Site

Tour Participants:

March 1
The Book Connection

March 2
Crazed Mind

March 5
I Am A Reader, Not A Writer

March 6
Sharon's Garden of Book Reviews

March 7
Book Dilettante

March 8
CMash Loves to Read

March 9
Book Sake

March 15
Mom in Love with Fiction

March 17
Literary R&R

March 19
The Character Connection

March 20
The Plot Thickens

March 21
City Girl Who Likes to Read

March 22
Fighter Writer

March 26
Celtic Lady's Reviews

Lucky Leprechaun Giveaway Hop

Congratulations to our winner!
Victoria Reljin
vickie8818 (at) gmail (dot) com

Enter to win the latest young adult ebook release from Tribute Books.

1) Add Jolene Perry's upcoming May 2012 release, Knee Deep, to your Goodreads to-read list. Click here for the direct link.
2) Leave a comment with your email address.

***

Night Sky
by Jolene Perry

After losing Sarah, the friend he’s loved, to some other guy, Jameson meets Sky. Her Native American roots, fluid movements, and need for brutal honesty become addictive fast. This is good. Jameson needs distraction – his dad leaves for another woman, his mom’s walking around like a zombie, and Sarah’s new boyfriend can’t keep his hands off of her.

As he spends time with Sky and learns about her village, her totems, and her friends with drums - she's way more than distraction. Jameson's falling for her fast.

But Sky’s need for honesty somehow doesn’t extend to her life story – and Jameson just may need more than his new girl to keep him distracted from the disaster of his senior year.

http://night-sky-book.com/

Jill Limber - The Right Track - Author Interview

Author Interview

1. Who is your favorite character?
There are really only two characters in this book, and I love Jefferson, but I have to say I adore Liz.

2. Why is he/she your favorite?
She is young and spunky and is willing to take chances and go for her dreams. She has faith in herself and a soft heart. All these characteristics add up to someone I would love to be friends with.

3. How did you come to create him/her?
Actually, it wasn't until my husband pointed out (he reads all my final drafts and does the copy editing) that the heroine reminded him of our daughter, Elizabeth, that I realized what I had done. I had based her on my first-born. The character's name had originally been Jenny, but it never seemed to fit her. When I saw the similarities, I changed the name to Liz, and bingo! It felt right.

4. When did he/she first enter your mind?
◦ This story is set on an existing train car. For years I did all the catering for business events on the car, and now that the owners have retired, I am their personal chef on the cross-country trips. The idea was kind of a natural extension of working on the car. Jefferson is a little like the actual owner of the car.

5. Where was he/she given life in the creative process?
The hero, Jefferson, J. D. to his friends, was the first character that came to me. Liz was created second, because I needed to first work out what the hero was doing on the train, and why. Then I created Liz to be his opposite. He needed someone like Liz to show him all the joy he was missing in life.

6. What do like the most about him/her and what do you dislike the most about him/her?
I think the thing I like best about her is her positive attitude. She works hard to make things happen, and she has fun while she's doing it. The only part that was hard to write was when she thinks she's not good enough for him, that he wants someone who is smarter and prettier. Because I like her so much, this was difficult to write. I wanted her to believe in herself, always. But who doesn't have the occasional doubts?

Bio

A multi-published author and former RWA President, Jill Limber’s latest books are Montana Morning, A Heart That Dares and The Right Track. As a child, some of Jill’s tales got her in trouble, but now she gets paid for them. Residing in San Diego with her husband and a trio of dogs and one very ancient cat, Jill’s favorite pastime is to gather friends and family for good food, conversation and plenty of laughter.

You can visit her website at www.JillLimber.com.


About the Book

Jefferson Kennedy runs his life and his business in an orderly, practical and scheduled way. When he decides it is time for him to marry, he does his research and picks the most likely candidates for the position from women he has met over the years. As he travels cross-country in his private restored antique train car, his new gourmet chef is amused at his plans, and when she begins to fall for him, things heat up in the kitchen, turning Jefferson's plans into chaos as he falls in love with his fun-loving, madcap companion.

Jessica Chambers - Dark is the Sky - Author Interview

Author Interview

1. Who is your favorite character?
Ooh, that’s such a tough question. I love all my characters, even the obnoxious ones. I’m not a mother, but I suppose it’s rather like having children. You love them no matter what! If I had to pick one though, it would have to be the wild, outrageously sexy Scott Cameron, whose death forms the focal point of Dark is the Sky.

2. And why is he your favorite?
Mainly because he was so much fun to write. On the outside, he’s the funny, flirtatious guy his family knows and loves, the life and soul of the party, always ready with a charming word for the ladies, or a hilarious anecdote for his nieces and nephew. On the inside, however, he is harboring a secret that will bring the happy family gathering crashing down. I found this conflict between his outward flippancy and inner turmoil intriguing.

3. How did you come to create Scott?
Before writing Dark is the Sky, I would have had no hesitation in saying that my characters come almost entirely from my imagination. In fact, this is one of the things I love most about being an author, creating multi-layered characters that will hopefully stay with readers long after they close the book. However, when I wrote Scott, I realized there’s rather too much of my ex in him to be wholly coincidental!

4. When did he first enter your mind?
Actually, Scott was responsible for this entire novel. That’s often how my ideas begin, with a single character. In the case of Dark is the Sky, I had a vivid picture of a handsome, dark-haired young man, and he was dead. Immediately, This raised a number of questions. How did he die? Was it suicide, or murder, or merely a tragic accident? What part did his family play in his death? And as I unraveled the answers to these questions, the story gradually emerged.

5. Where was Scott given life in the creative process?
Oh, from the very first scene I wrote with him. Sometimes it’s a while before a character really starts speaking to me and they take on a life of their own. With Scott, however, the connection was instant. I could hear his husky, smoke-roughened voice in my head, visualize the roguish twinkle in his blue eyes, almost breathe in the scent of his aftershave mingled with Jack Daniel’s, and most of all feel his utter desperation at his own foolish actions.

6. What do you like the most about Scott and what do you dislike the most?
I love his generosity. Scott would never turn away someone in need, and is forever handing over money to strangers who are down on their luck. Still, for all that he has a good heart, he is incredibly careless with the hearts of the girls he dallies with. It isn’t that he deliberately sets out to hurt them. He just can’t seem to help himself.

Book Summary

Twelve years earlier, Olivia and Joel Cameron invited the family to spend the weekend at their new country home. Olivia hoped to provide them all with a much-needed escape from their anxiety over the recession crippling the nation; instead, the visit ended in tragedy when Scott, Joel’s wild and outrageously sexy youngest brother, was found dead. The repercussions tore the family apart.

Now, Olivia’s sister Violet has persuaded her to host a reunion. She claims it’s time they finally put the past behind them and laid their ghosts to rest. However, some wounds run too deep to heal, and some secrets are too destructive to remain hidden. Still grieving for the man she loved, Violet is determined to uncover the truth behind his death—a truth she believes lies within her own family.

As the web of deceit and hostility begins to unravel, family ties are tested to the limit, and no one will emerge unscathed.

Price: Kindle $5.99, Nook $5.99, paperback $16.99
Number of pages: 236
Genre: women’s fiction/mystery
Publisher: All Things That Matter Press
Release date: November 21, 2011
Buy Links: Paperback, Kindle, Nook

About the Author

Jessica Chambers has been inventing stories even before she was old enough to hold a pen. She has a passion for writing contemporary novels packed with emotion, complex relationships and often a touch of mystery.

Visually impaired from birth, Jessica currently lives with her family and Staffordshire bull terrier in the English town of Windsor. In addition to devouring fiction of all genres, she loves watching TV quiz shows and admits to being extremely competitive when it comes to a game of Trivial Pursuit.

Connect with Jessica
Website
Blog
Facebook
Twitter

Fay Klingler - A Woman's Power - Guest Post

Guest Post

Because I write non-fiction, the characters in my books are real-life people. Sometimes I have to change their names, but they are real people with real stories. In my novelette, My Magnificent Mountain, I changed more than names. I changed colors of cars and made up some symbolic characters and life surrounding those characters. But the story was based on what really happened to me in my life.

A Woman’s Power, however, is completely factual. Oh, I take that back. I did change one person’s name to protect her identity. But other than that, the stories in this wonderful book were shared by me and others, desiring to give hope and healing to readers.

I had MANY experiences writing A Woman’s Power like the following. Here is an excerpt from the book.

When I was in the process of writing Shattered: Six Steps from Betrayal to Recovery, I had a remarkable experience with quiet communication from the Holy Ghost. At one point, I couldn’t figure out what to write. I knelt and prayed for help. I so wanted to convey what the Lord would have in that book. At the conclusion of my prayer, I sat at my computer with my fingers on the keys, waiting for an answer. I waited for what seemed a long time before thoughts came into my mind. I thought, “But this doesn’t make any sense. It doesn’t fit anything I’ve written.” After a few minutes, I knelt again in prayer with the same request as before. And again, when I sat at my computer, the same thoughts and feelings flooded my mind and I said, “I don’t understand. How does this fit?” Now, I know memory can play tricks with you, but as I remember it, I repeated the process once again before I heard a definite but quiet voice in my mind say, “If you’re going to ask for revelation, don’t you think you ought to write it down?”

I was startled, and quickly moved the keys to type what I had been told. More words came then, and I realized how they all fit together, not only for that chapter, but the next.

Book Summary

In today's chaotic world, most women feel like they're hanging on by a single, ever-fraying thread. But the gospel teaches us differently. As daughters of God, we're blessed with lifelines from above. All we have to do is reach up and grab hold of them. The author simply and beautifully illustrates which threads have the strength and power to carry women of virtue to safety, peace, and lasting happiness. This inspiring work will help you hold fast to the divinity within you, as you learn just how powerful a faithful woman can be.

Price: $15.99
Release Date: March 13, 2012
ISBN: 9781462110292
Dimension: 6 x 8.5
Pages: 144


Author Bio

Author and illustrator Fay A. Klingler is an award-winning creative and technical writer. An often sought-after motivational speaker for women's groups and radio and television audiences, her expertise includes betrayal recovery, blending families, and successful grandparenting. Her previous publications include Shattered: Six Steps from Betrayal to Recovery; Daughter's of God, You Have What It Takes; The LDS Grandparents’ Idea Book; My Magnificent Mountain; The Complete Guide to Woman's Time; Our New Baby; and A Mother's Journal.

Together, the Klinglers have twelve children and thirty-five grandchildren in their blended family. They reside in Draper, Utah.

Connect with Fay
Website
Facebook
YouTube

Rudy A. Mazzocchi - Equity of Evil - Author Interview

Author Interview

1. Who is your favorite character?
The book’s main character, Roman Citrano.

2. Why is he your favorite?
Well, this novel was created from true events (and experiences) over a twenty-five year period. Roman is modeled after yours’ truly. The story begins with Roman as a young college student working in human genetic research who eventually becomes a serial entrepreneur, and then venture capitalist. This was my career track and one that gave me a glimpse into a world that seemed to be more “science fiction” than reality. I then built a reputation for taking on early-stage, high-risk deals that others would run away from.

3. How did you come to create him?
It was actually like writing my memoirs! This is why writing EQUITY of EVIL was therapeutic for me. It made me dive deep into memories and past experiences that I tried to forget or suppress for so long. There’s even a scene in which Roman reflects back on the time when his ex-wife had a miscarriage on a cruise ship and he was forced to flush the remains down the toilet out to sea. The scene forced me to think about how I actually felt back then… something which caused a numbness inside me at the time. I was permitted to re-live the anguish of that experience through Roman.

4. When did he first enter your mind?
The first sentence of the page one….

5. Where was he given life in the creative process?
When I created a WORD document on my laptop….

6. What do you like most about him and what do you dislike the most about him?
Wow… this is better than paying for a therapist! First the easy part…. I’m hopeful that Roman’s character comes across as strong, confident, and passionate (at least in regards to his business acumen). He’s also vulnerable and has managed to deal with numerous struggles and failures in his life. It’s often said that those failures are more valuable experiences that successful one. But his dedication to business, along with his past failed relationships, affects his ability to deeply commit himself to others. The most disappointing thing about Roman’s character is his ability to transition too quickly between the women in his life. He tends to embrace the same business philosophy that “you’re only as good as your last deal”….

About the Book

A Venture Capital Fund makes a risky investment to start a challenging new business that appears capable of reaching profitabililty with modest capital requirements. The real challenge: optimizing one of the most frequently performed surgical procedure in the World — Abortion.

Founding Partner, Roman Citrano, a successful entrepreneur turned venture capitalist, soon struggles with what he believes is his choice to establish the controversial new company. He soon realizes that he and others are but pawns on a massive, ugly chessboard being manipulated to benefit a far larger, illicit market in human organs for transplantation. Unknowingly, prime, hyper-enriched organs are spawned from the aborted fetuses and grown like hydroponic vegetables.

An unfolding world of deceit, rape, human trafficking and assassination becomes deeply personal as Roman’s sole love interest secretly uses one of his new abortion services to terminate her untimely pregnancy. When she disappears, his frantic search becomes a hellish nightmare that grows worse by the hour.

Based on true events, this bold novel involves some of the world’s oldest, most emotional and controversial issues. At the core of each matter is man’s predisposition to control and take ownership of the human spirit for the sake of profit and person gain… such is the dark and brutal new world where life becomes the equity of evil.

Publisher: Twilight Times Books
ISBN: 978-1-60619-236-8
Pages: 310
Genre: Medical Thriller
Format: ebook in pdf, ePub, Kindle, Mobi, PRC, etc.
Distributors: Amazon Kindle; Apple iBookstore; BN.com; eReader; Fictionwise; Kobo Books; OmniLit; Sony eBookstore, etc.
Release date: March 5, 2012

About the Author

Rudy A. Mazzochi is best known as a medical device and biotechnology entrepreneur, inventor, and angel investor, with a history of starting new technology ventures throughout the U.S. and Europe. He’s been privileged to have the opportunity to see the newest innovations in healthcare and work with some of the most brilliant researchers, scientists and physicians in the industry.
Authoring more than 50 patents, he has helped pioneer new companies involved in cardiology, oncology, orthopedics, neurosurgery and even embryonic stem-cell development. Through these efforts, he has become the recipient of many technology and business awards, including the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year in Healthcare and the Businessman of the Year Award. Combining these experiences and opportunities, with thousands of hours of travel and long evenings in hotel rooms, he found the initiative to start writing a collection of medical thrillers based on true events, the first of which is entitled EQUITY of EVIL.

Connect with Rudy

Blog
Website
YouTube
Facebook
Twitter

Lunar Love Giveaway Hop

Congratulations to our winner!
Kaci McClellan
kacidesigns AT yahoo DOT com

Enter to win the latest young adult ebook release from Tribute Books.

1) Become a Google Follower of this blog.
2) Leave a comment with your email address.

***

Night Sky
by Jolene Perry

After losing Sarah, the friend he’s loved, to some other guy, Jameson meets Sky. Her Native American roots, fluid movements, and need for brutal honesty become addictive fast. This is good. Jameson needs distraction – his dad leaves for another woman, his mom’s walking around like a zombie, and Sarah’s new boyfriend can’t keep his hands off of her.

As he spends time with Sky and learns about her village, her totems, and her friends with drums - she's way more than distraction. Jameson's falling for her fast.

But Sky’s need for honesty somehow doesn’t extend to her life story – and Jameson just may need more than his new girl to keep him distracted from the disaster of his senior year.

http://night-sky-book.com/

Timothy B. Sagges - Best Seller - Author Interview

My thanks to Timothy B. Sagges for stopping by The Character Connection for an author interview during the blog tour for his book, Best Seller.

1. Who is your favorite character?
Abby. She makes only a cameo or two, but her life is examined more deeply in the current novel I'm writing.

2. Why is he/she your favorite?
She gives credence to the idea that everyone, whether they are a star or not, has a story.

3. How did you come to create him/her?
At first, she was just meant to be the embodiment of why we hate Ed, Rachel's ex-husband.

4. When did he/she first enter your mind?
Not until I realized I needed to put Richard's nephew in peril.

5. Where was he/she given life in the creative process?
She's actually had a life of her own before I began writing. She is a character in my current project that I wanted to connect to Best Seller.

6. What do like the most about him/her and what do you dislike the most about him/her?
In Best Seller she is a background player who barely makes and impression. It's not until my next novel, TAPE is released that we find out how complex and dangerous she has been nearly her entire life.

About the Book
Best Seller

Book Details:
Price: $14.99
Format: paperback
Publisher: self-published
Published: February 2011
Pages: 326
ISBN: 9781456478193
Genre: Suspense, Thriller
Buy Links: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Author Web Site

Blurb:
Thirty-five year old fiction writer, Richard Rossi would do just about anything to get his manuscript published. However, months of rejection and unanswered prayers have strained his capacity to hope. Alone in New York City, he teeters on the brink of alcoholism, as his hope erodes into desperation.

His prayers are finally answered when a simple misdirected piece of mail spawns a chance encounter with an extraordinary man, Seth Volos, Publisher. And while their unholy alliance thrusts Richard to the top of every Best Seller list in America, the horrifying outcome for the book's legions of fans is anything but a happy ending.

About the Author
Timothy B. Sagges

Fifty-year-old actor, director and playwright, Tim Sagges has been tormented by a series of recurring night terrors since 1967, long before there was a name for such a curse. It is only recently that he has found the courage to formulate some of these visions into works of literature. In an effort to purge himself of the unrelenting horror of his dreams, he has created Best Seller, the first in a series of nightmares exorcised from his mind and onto the page.

He is currently the owner of Eye Candy Vision in Philadelphia.

Connect with Timothy:
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About the Tour

Tribute Books Blog Tours

Best Seller Blog Tour Site

Tour Participants:

March 1 (interview)
Just a Girl - Heidi Ruby Miller

March 2 (interview)
I Am A Reader, Not A Writer

March 3 (guest post)
Literary R&R

March 5 (interview or guest post)
The Character Connection

March 5 (interview)
You Gotta Read

March 6 (interview or guest post)
The Plot Thickens

March 7 (interview or guest post)
City Girl Who Loves to Read

March 8 (interview)
Fighter Writer

March 8 (review)
Kritters Ramblings

March 9 (review)
Must Read Faster

March 11 (review)
TicToc

March 13 (review)
My Reading Room

March 15 (guest post)
Bibliophilic Book Blog

March 15 (review)
The Book Review

March 19 (review)
The Book Addict

March 20 (interview)
The Book Addict

March 22 (interview)
The Book Connection

March 23 (guest post)
Books-n-Kisses

March 26 (review)
The Book Connection

March 27 (review)
My Tower of Books

March 28 (review)
Telly Says

March 30 (review)
From the TBR Pile

Kim Antieau - Her Frozen Wild - Author Interview

Author Interview

1. Who is your favorite character?
This is a difficult question to answer! I love so many of the characters in Her Frozen Wild. I really like Opyea. She’s a Scythian warrior. She can do anything. I like capable people, and I’d love to have her as a friend. You’d know that she’d always have your back. Actually, I’d love to be her. I really like Sergei, too. We see him through many time periods and at different ages. He goes through so much during the course of this book, but he’s always devoted to Ursula. He loves her unconditionally. But probably my favorite character is Ursula.

2. Why is she your favorite?
She’s the main character of the book, and she goes through a lot of changes. She starts out being afraid of many of things. For instance, she’s afraid to fly. Her marriage has just ended. Her mother disappeared in a Siberian cave years earlier and she was raised by her grandmother, so she’s never felt like she’s been on stable ground in her lifetime. Ursula goes to Russia in spite of her fear of flying, and she begins a relationship with the mysterious Sergei, which I thought was quite brave. Then he tells her he’s known her before and she’s destined to save the shapechanging People. She wonders if he’s crazy, but her life is such a mess that she decides to see if there’s any truth to what he’s saying. She lets a shaman tattoo her back in a mysterious cave. In the next moment she ends up alone in another cave in Siberia--practically freezing to death--but she doesn’t become catatonic: She goes with it! She wants her life to have some meaning. I think most people do. Later she ends up with a group of Scythians and she learns survival skills. She learns how to ride and hunt and generally take care of herself. She doesn’t whine about her situation-which is what I would do!--but just keeps going. I admire her for carrying on and becoming the hero of her own story.

3. How did you come to create her?
I saw an article in National Geographic magazine about the discovery of ancient tattooed mummies in in Siberia. The researchers believed one of the mummies was probably a priestess or shaman. She was buried with a long conical hat and several other items which indicated she had some status in the tribe. I was completely entranced by the story and the idea of this woman. What would she be like? How did live? What did the tattoos mean for her? And what would happen if they took her DNA and it happened to match up with an American archaeologist’s DNA, an American archaeologist whose mother disappeared in Siberia decades earlier? That gave me chills! And that becomes a major question throughout the book: Is Ursula the “Lady.” And if she is, how is that possible? And if she isn’t, why does her DNA match? That was the beginning of Ursula.

4. When did she first enter your mind?
After I read the Nat Geo article, Ursula knocked on my imagination door and said, “Tell my story.” That’s what it often feels like to me: as though the character comes to me and asks me to tell her story. Characters are always central to my stories, and what they have to say is the heart of my books.

5. Where was she given life in the creative process?
Ursula came to me pretty early on in the process, probably right at the beginning, and she was whole and real right from the start.

6. What do like the most about her and what do you dislike the most about her?
I liked that she’s one of those people who others don’t notice at first, and when they do, they’re not really comfortable with her. She stays to herself, for the most part, but she’s not anti-social. She has a gift with languages, for instance. She can learn a language almost instantly. Since other people find this bizarre and fascinating at the same time, she doesn’t broadcast this particular talent. I like that even though she’s afraid, she keeps going forward. When people says they are fearless, then they’re not really brave; they don’t actually have courage--they just have no fear. But if someone has fear and she still acts, that’s courageous. I like that about Ursula. I don’t dislike much about her. I wish she hadn’t stayed with her twit of a husband for as long as she did, but it all worked out in the end. She didn’t see her own worth and abilities for a long time. I don’t dislike that about her--I understand it--but her life might have been easier if she’d known herself better sooner.

Book Summary

Scientists in the Altai in Siberia uncover the 2,500 year old frozen mummy of a tattooed priestess or shaman. This mummy has the same mtDNA (mitochondrial DNA) as American archaeologist Ursula Smith whose mother disappeared in Siberia 30 years earlier. Ursula travels from the U.S. to Siberia to unravel the mystery of the “lady” and meets Sergei Ivanovich Polyakov, a Russian doctor who graciously invites her into his home. After they become lovers, she discovers he has the same tattoos on his body as the tattooed lady. He tells a disbelieving Ursula that they have met before and she is destined to save the ancient People, considered as devils by some and shape-changing gods by others. A shaman takes Ursula to one of the sacred timeless caves where Ursula’s mother supposedly disappeared. When Ursula allows the shaman to tattoo her, she is thrown back in time where she must unlock the mystery of the People and their link to her past in order to save them and Sergei—even if it costs her her life.

price: print: $16.99, e-book: $6.99
number of pages: 372
genre: adventure, mainstream, fantasy, science fiction
publisher: Green Snake Publishing
release date: January 2012
buy links: Print, Kindle, Barnes&Noble.com, Smashwords

About the Author

Kim Antieau has written many novels, short stories, poems, and essays. Her work has appeared in numerous publications, both in print and online, including The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Asimov’s SF, The Clinton Street Quarterly, The Journal of Mythic Arts, EarthFirst!, Alternet, Sage Woman, and Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine. She was the founder, editor, and publisher of Daughters of Nyx: A Magazine of Goddess Stories, Mythmaking, and Fairy Tales. Her work has twice been short-listed for the Tiptree Award, and has appeared in many Best of the Year anthologies. Critics have admired her “literary fearlessness” and her vivid language and imagination. She has had nine novels published. Her first novel, The Jigsaw Woman, is a modern classic of feminist literature. Kim lives in the Pacific Northwest with her husband, writer Mario Milosevic.

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LibraryThing

Glen Lacock - To A Darker Brightness - Author Interview

Author Interview

1. Who is your favorite character?
Vitto, the main character of the book.

2. Why is he/she your favorite?
He's my favorite because, he goes through a change from the man that no one would want to be, to one everyone would want to be. He stands up for himself and follows his heart. He grows into the leader, that both worlds need, at the time when everything was at risk of being lost.

3. How did you come to create him/her?
I sat down and started writing, and he came to life. I get an idea for a story and will set down and see it in my mind and it just flows. He was the main character that I started with, and everything grew up around him.

4. When did he/she first enter your mind?
I was watching Twilight. When I got the idea of writing a book about vampires.

5. Where was he/she given life in the creative process?
At the start of the story; he is talking about himself. As he goes through the story, he changes into a different person.

6. What do you like the most about him/her and what do you dislike the most about him/her?
I like that fact that he is a good person, but sometimes I think he's too good.

Book Summary

This is the story of Vitto and how he saves the human and vampire worlds from being destroy by a very old evil that want to destroy all the worlds.

price: $1.50
genre: fantasy
publisher: self-published
release date: September 25, 2010
buy links: Barnes&Noble.com, Smashwords

Author Bio

Glen Lacock is a 41 year old writer and professional, who has bounced back so many times, his friends call him the "rubber band man." He has been a preacher, and finished Bible college in 1994. He also went into the graphic design field in 1996. He has worked with "at risk" children, and shown them that there is life after everything has fallen apart. He received his four year degree in Information Technology from University of Phoenix in 2011. As he was working and going to school, he wrote his first novel. He is the father of two children, whom he loves very much. He lives in Redlands, California.

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