The Character Connection

Glen Lacock - To A Darker Brightness - Author Interview

2012-03-01T00:01:00.000-05:00

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.

Connect with Glen
Facebook
Blog

Leap Into Books Giveaway Hop

2012-02-29T16:54:00.002-05:00

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/

Kerry Downing - Time Slice - Author Interview

2012-02-28T00:01:00.000-05:00

My thanks to Kerry Downing for stopping by The Character Connection for an author interview during the blog tour for his book, Time Slice.

Author Interview

1. Who is your favorite character?
My favorite character in Time Slice is Roy Washburn, the story’s protagonist.

2. Why is he your favorite?
Roy is my favorite character because, like many of us, he’s basically a good person but struggles sometimes with doing the right thing vs. doing what he truly wants to do. I’m sure there are some people in the audience that don’t suffer from this affliction, but I don’t know any personally and I’m certainly not one of them. I think that Roy’s decision making, while flawed sometimes in retrospect, is something that most people can identify with and understand. I mean if you had the choice between going to the mall to shop with your wife or traveling the time stream, which would you choose?

3. How did you come to create him?
Roy came about the way most of my characters do. I wanted a normal, average person to be put in an extraordinary situation and then see what happens. Roy is just your average guy, newly retired, and a little bored with his life. The perfect kind of person to jump on something adventurous that might come along.

4. When did he first enter your mind?
Roy was my main man from the very beginning. He didn’t have a name in the very beginning (in fact, I still can’t tell you why his name is Roy … it just kind of happened) but I knew the main character was going to be an older male. The rest of his characteristics grew as the story progressed. And, as he grew and changed as a character, he also helped guide where the story went.

5. Where was he given life in the creative process?
As I mentioned earlier, Roy existed from the very beginning. I know that some writers create bios for each of their characters before any words are put to paper. I prefer to start with a general idea of the character (sex, age, general appearance, etc) and then figure out the rest as I go along.

6. What do you like most about him and what do you dislike most about him?
The thing I like most about Roy is his devotion to his wife, Emily. He may be a bit rough around the edges but there’s no denying his love for his spouse. The thing I dislike the most about him is also the thing that makes him the most real, in my opinion, and that’s his selfishness. Roy realizes that it’s his biggest character flaw, but there are times where he just can’t help himself.

About the Book
Time Slice

Book Details:
Price: $14.95 paperback, $4.95 ebook
Format: paperback, ebook
Published: June 2011
Pages: 256
ISBN: 9781603818520
Genre: Science Fiction, Fantasy
Buy Links: Amazon, Barnes & Noble,
Kindle, Nook, Smashwords

Blurb:
Ordinary People. Extraordinary Adventures. Science Fiction with Heart.

Newly retired workaholic Roy Washburn is not ready for a life of leisure. On a trip to the mall with his wife, he finds a small metal cylinder with odd markings. One nudge of the cylinder's triangle-shaped pointer and Roy finds himself embarking on an exciting new adventure in the Time Stream.

There he meets The Traveler, a tall, gangly being who shows Roy how to use the cylinder to visit other civilizations that co-exist on "his" Earth, each occupying a different, thin Time Slice. The Traveler solicits Roy's help in recovering an object invented by his murdered father and beyond his own reach. Roy is his last hope.

At first it seems that the Traveler's wish might be easily granted. But after Roy's wife Emily becomes ill and his daughter's long-held resentments rise to the surface, he can no longer "travel" at a moment's notice. He also discovers the very real physical and mental risks involved in roaming the Time Stream.

Despite the dangers, Roy is determined to help the Traveler. But he can't do it alone. Fortunately he has a loving wife and a core group of loyal friends. But first he must convince them--and his daughter--that he isn't crazy ...

About the Author
Kerry Downing

Kerry Downing set out to become a meteorologist, but was hooked by the world of computers instead, becoming a systems analyst and programmer. Astronomy and science fiction are his passions. He’s been gazing at the stars at all hours of the night since the age of 10, when he received his first telescope. As for science fiction, Arthur C. Clarke and his brand of “it really seems as if it could happen” has always been his favorite. In the 90s, Kerry found the third love of his life: his wife, Lucy. They live in St. Louis, Missouri, with their five children. Time Slice is Kerry’s second science-fiction novel. His self-published, debut work is The Collective.

Connect with Kerry:
Web Site
Twitter
Blog

About the Tour

Tribute Books Blog Tours

Time Slice Blog Tour Site

Tour Participants:

February 1
Crazed Mind

February 1
The Book Connection (author interview)

February 2
Heidi Ruby Miller - Just a Girl (author interview)

February 2
I Am A Reader, Not A Writer (author interview)

February 3
Live to Read

February 4
Feeding My Book Addiction

February 5
Book Lover's Hideaway

February 5
Red Adept Reviews

February 6
Peace Love Books

February 7
My Tower of Books

February 7
Sapphyria's Book Reviews

February 8
Carabosse's Library

February 9
Book Dragon's Lair

February 9
Broken Teepee

February 9
Wakela's World

February 10
Flutey Words

February 13
Bibliophilic Book Blog

February 14
City Girl Who Loves to Read (author interview/guest post)

February 15
Book Junkie

February 15
The Plot Thickens (author interview/guest post)

February 16
Adventures of Frugal Mom

February 17
The Prissy Book Snob

February 17
The Wormhole

February 18
Minding Spot

February 20
Books-n-Kisses

February 21
Livre De Amour (Books of Love)

February 21
vvb32 reads (guest post)

February 23
Mom in Love with Fiction

February 24
Mom Reads My Books

February 25
The Bookshelf Review

February 27
Celtic Lady's Reviews

February 28
Mission to Read

February 28
The Character Connection

Young Adult Paranormal Giveaway Hop

2012-02-24T12:10:00.002-05:00

Congratulations to our winner!
IdentitySeeker
sarah DOT setar AT gmail 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.

***

Until Next Time:
The Angel Chronicles, Book 1
by Amy Lignor

How does a girl choose between the one who steals her heart and the one who owns her soul?

Matt and Emily were created for a specific job. Raised and trained as the ultimate angel/warrior team, they are sent down to save, defend, judge and forgive, depending on the 'life' they've been assigned. What they don't realize is that the power of human emotions, such as love, anger, passion and fear can take over even the best of souls, causing them to make mistakes and follow paths that lead to confusion and heartache.

When the reason for their training is finally revealed, the angel/warrior team find themselves thrust into a world they know nothing about. Matt takes over the life of Daniel, a young man with a great deal of baggage. Emily becomes Liz, a girl living in a remote village who relies on nothing more than her own strength to survive. A violent storm erupts one night, and framed in the window of Liz's establishment is a frightening face. Let in by the soul of a Good Samaritan, the two visitors bring with them a past full of secrets that could literally change an angel's path and a warrior's plans.

From murder to redemption, this angel/warrior team must find a way to keep the faith they have in each other in a world that's ripping them apart.

http://www.the-angel-chronicles.com

Alicia Singleton - Dark Side of Valor - Author Interview

2012-02-20T00:01:00.000-05:00

Author Interview

1. Who is your favorite character?
My favorite character in Dark Side of Valor is a secondary character named Aunt Lou.

2. Why is he/she your favorite?
Aunt Lou is outrageous! The bright yellow tee-shirts, neon orange basketball earrings, high top sneakers and Kente Cloth skirts she sports match her boisterous, outspoken personality. Who wouldn’t love her?

3. How did you come to create him/her?
After doing research on the culture of several tribes living in the jungles of the Congo, I needed a character that was strong, adventurous and intelligent to be the heroine, Lelia’s teacher, while Lelia was hiding in the jungle. That teacher needed to be well versed in her tribes traditions, be able to thrive in the Congo as well as any modern day metropolis. That is when Aunt Lou’s character started to materialize.

4. When did he/she first enter your mind?
I was at the grocery store one day and a woman stopped me to ask my opinion about a product. In her mid-sixties, very eccentric in her dress, over the top with her accessories and colors, she was an oddity. Confidence, intelligence and boldness radiated from her. I liked her immediately. Her personality was so outrageous and delightful, she stayed in my mind. When Aunt Lou’s character needed to be written, my grocery store buddy came to mind. Her characteristics were perfect for Aunt Lou.

5. Where was he/she given life in the creative process?
Aunt Lou’s character doesn’t come to Dark Side of Valor’s stage until halfway through the novel. But, she is well worth the wait.

6. What do like the most about him/her and what do you dislike the most about him/her?
I love Aunt Lou’s confidence, wisdom and her intelligence. The one thing Aunt Lou needs to work on is her sensitivity to other people’s feelings. She can be ruthless when she goes after what she wants and she doesn’t mind trampling on your feeling to get there. She loves deeply, but sparing your feelings isn’t her concern.

Book Summary

“A well-paced novel of suspense that veers into romance and ends like a thriller.”
- Kirkus Reviews

Child advocate Lelia Freeman saves children for a living. As the director of ChildSafe Shelters, she ventures to abandoned squats and crackhouses to rescue teens from the hellish streets of Los Angeles. When she is summoned to Washington to serve on a committee that aids the children of a war-torn African nation, Lelia is kidnapped and becomes a political pawn in a sinister conspiracy. Oceans away from everything she knows, she must trust a mercenary to save her life, or die in the clutches of a psychopath.

Hunting, combat and staying alive are Elijah Dune's specialties. Vengeance is his passion. Haunted by past demons, he travels to the Motherland to collect a debt. A debt that demands one payment. Death.

Caught in the crosshairs of a madman, Lelia and Elijah must survive the jungles of Zaire and the horrors of their pasts or be forever consumed by the DARK SIDE OF VALOR.

price - $15.00
number of pages - 352
genre – suspense thriller
publisher –Simon&Schuster/Strebor
release date – February 7, 2012
buy links – Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Indie Bound

Click here to enter The Dark Side of Valor Contest for chance to win $125 in Visa and Amazon Gift Cards!

Author Bio

By her sophomore year in college, Alicia Singleton knew she was born to be a writer. Too intimidated to change her major, she continued her nursing studies and received her Bachelor’s of Science in Nursing in 1987. Many years later, the dream deferred became reality when her debut novel, Dark Side of Valor, won the Sistah Circle National Book Club Best Thriller Award. Alicia was also awarded the National Association of Women Writers Award of Excellence from the Maryland Chapter.

Alicia resides in Maryland with her wonderful husband and son and is hard at work completing her next suspense novel.

Connect with Alicia

Facebook
Twitter
Web Site
Email
YouTube

Valentine's Day Books with Love Hop

2012-02-14T00:02:00.002-05:00

Congratulations to our winner:
Brenda Demko
brendem7 [at] comcast [dot] net

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.

***

Until Next Time:
The Angel Chronicles, Book 1
by Amy Lignor

How does a girl choose between the one who steals her heart and the one who owns her soul?

Matt and Emily were created for a specific job. Raised and trained as the ultimate angel/warrior team, they are sent down to save, defend, judge and forgive, depending on the 'life' they've been assigned. What they don't realize is that the power of human emotions, such as love, anger, passion and fear can take over even the best of souls, causing them to make mistakes and follow paths that lead to confusion and heartache.

When the reason for their training is finally revealed, the angel/warrior team find themselves thrust into a world they know nothing about. Matt takes over the life of Daniel, a young man with a great deal of baggage. Emily becomes Liz, a girl living in a remote village who relies on nothing more than her own strength to survive. A violent storm erupts one night, and framed in the window of Liz's establishment is a frightening face. Let in by the soul of a Good Samaritan, the two visitors bring with them a past full of secrets that could literally change an angel's path and a warrior's plans.

From murder to redemption, this angel/warrior team must find a way to keep the faith they have in each other in a world that's ripping them apart.

http://www.the-angel-chronicles.com

Fiona Ingram - The Secret of the Sacred Scarab - Author Interview

2012-02-14T00:01:00.000-05:00

Author Interview

1. Who is your favorite character?
This is a really hard question because I have grown to love all my characters, even the bad ones. I guess my number one favorite is my young hero, Adam Sinclair, although he shares the limelight with his cousin Justin in The Secret of the Sacred Scarab.

2. Why is he/she your favorite?
I created the book from a short story I wrote for my nephews. The story was based on a family trip we made together to Egypt. I took my 2 nephews, then aged 10 and 12. I felt a particular affinity with my 10-year-old nephew, possibly the result of lots of babysitting when he was small. We did most of our sightseeing together so I experienced closely all that he felt during our trip. In my young hero I found many of the wonderful characteristics of my nephew: Eagerness to absorb every second of the trip; excitement and wonder when faced with the massive monuments of an ancient civilization; an unswerving belief in the possibility of amazing things happening to them while on the trip. I saw the magic and adventure though my young nephew’s eyes and it really moved me. I remember how I had felt at that age, when any and everything was possible. You just had to believe!

3. How did you come to create him/her?
My nephews both displayed the most incredible enthusiasm one usually finds in that 10-12 age group, when kids are off on the most exciting escapade of their lives. It seemed a natural progression when writing the short story (that became the book!) to base the adventure and the characters on the people who had shared the trip with me: Mom, my nephews and the people we met along the way. As I wrote I found the idea of two young boys merging with my two nephews, and the character just grew.

4. When did he/she first enter your mind?
I think right away because I had always intended the short story to feature the boys themselves. It was going to be something they could show their friends at school.

5. Where was he/she given life in the creative process?
That was not very difficult because as I wrote the adventure I kept seeing my nephews and imagining how the youngest one particularly would react when he found out he was to undertake a task of monumental proportions and in so doing save the world!

6. What do like the most about him/her and what do you dislike the most about him/her?
I love Adam’s fervent belief in the magicality of life, his unswerving faith in the fact that they were going to have an adventure because in Egypt anything could happen. He is also an honorable character, and will do the right thing because that’s the way he has been brought up, even though he might be very afraid, or place his own life in grave danger. However, he can also be a bit of a Moaning Minnie in that he gets easily despondent, sometimes feels he cannot do what is required of him, and after having asked to be someone special then thinks he actually just wants to an ordinary boy. Of course, by then it’s too late… the adventure has begun, the die is cast, and the only way is forward, whatever the future holds!

About The Secret of the Sacred Scarab

A 5000-year-old mystery comes to life when a scruffy peddler gives Adam and Justin Sinclair an old Egyptian scarab on their very first day in Egypt. Only when the evil Dr. Faisal Khalid shows a particular interest in the cousins and their scarab, do the boys realise they are in terrible danger. Dr. Khalid wants the relic at all costs. Justin and Adam embark upon the adventure of a lifetime, taking them down the Nile and across the harsh desert in their search for the legendary tomb of the Scarab King, an ancient Egyptian ruler. They are plunged into a whirlpool of hazardous and mysterious events when Dr. Khalid kidnaps them. They survive terrifying dangers in a hostile environment (such as a giant cobra, as well as sinking sand), pursued by enemies in their quest to solve the secret of the sacred scarab. They must translate the hieroglyphic clues on the underside of the scarab, as well as rescue the missing archaeologist James Kinnaird, and their friend, the Egyptologist Ebrahim Faza, before time runs out. They must also learn more about the ancient Seven Stones of Power and the mysterious Shemsu-Hor. With just their wits, courage, and each other, the boys manage to survive … only to find that the end of one journey is the beginning of another!

Young explorers will enjoy an interactive journey through Egypt, following Justin and Adam’s exciting adventure on www.secretofthesacredscarab.com. Readers can also browse the first chapter of the book. Those who survive the journey and manage to translate the Curse of Thoth will be able to read the first chapter in Adam and Justin’s next adventure—The Search for the Stone of Excalibur—as they hunt for the Scroll of the Ancients.

The Secret of the Sacred Scarab has received the following awards:

• Book Award Nominations & Wins:
• Finalist Children’s Fiction USA Next Generation 2009 Indie Book Awards
• Finalist Juvenile Fiction USA National Best Books 2009 Awards
• Winner Pre-Teen USA 2009 Readers’ Favorites Awards
• Number 2 in the USA Children’s & Teens Book Connection Top Ten Favourite Books of 2009 for Kids, Tweens & Teens
• Winner Silver Medal Teen Fiction 2010 Nautilus Book Awards
• Finalist Children’s Fiction 2010 International Book Awards
• Winner Bronze Medal Pre-Teen Fiction 2010 Moonbeam Book Awards
• Finalist 2011 Rubery Book Awards
• Winner Gold Award Mystery Pre-Teen 2011 Children’s Literary Classics Awards

Book Details:

• price: soft cover $17.95; Hard cover $27.95; e-book $2.99
• number of pages: 270
• Genre: middle grade/juvenile fiction
• Publisher: iUniverse
• release date: December 2008

Buy Links:

• Amazon: (Kindle) http://www.amazon.com/Secret-Sacred-Scarab-Chronicles-ebook/dp/B005CRRU5E/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1311106921&sr=8-3

• Amazon (hardcover & paperback) http://www.amazon.com/Secret-Sacred-Scarab-Fiona-Ingram/dp/0595457169/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1322830100&sr=1-1

• All other purchase sites listed: http://www.secretofthesacredscarab.com/purchase.asp

About Fiona Ingram

Although Fiona Ingram has been a journalist for the last fifteen years, writing a children’s book—The Secret of the Sacred Scarab—was an unexpected step, inspired by a recent trip to Egypt. The tale of the sacred scarab began life as a little anecdotal tale for her 2 nephews (then 10 and 12), who had accompanied her on the Egyptian trip. This short story grew into an award-winning children’s book, the first in the adventure series Chronicles of the Stone. The author has already completed the next book in the series—The Search for the Stone of Excalibur—a huge treat for young King Arthur fans.

Although Fiona Ingram does not have children of her own, she has an adopted teenage foster child, from an underprivileged background who is just discovering the joys of reading for pleasure. Fiona’s experiences in teaching her daughter to read has resulted in her interest in child literacy and in creating ways to get kids more interested in reading, as well as helping parents to instill a love of reading in their children.

Naturally, Fiona is a voracious reader and has been from early childhood. Her interests include literature, art, theatre, collecting antiques, animals, music, and films. She loves travel and has been fortunate to have lived in Europe (while studying) and America (for work). She has travelled widely and fulfilled many of her travel goals.

Fiona’s latest book is the middle grade adventure novel, The Secret of the Sacred Scarab – Book 1 in the Chronicles of the Stone series.

Connect with Fiona:

• Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Secret-of-the-Sacred-Scarab/104933012497

• Twitter: http://twitter.com/FionaRobyn

• web site: http://www.secretofthesacredscarab.com

• blog: http://fionaingramauthor.blogspot.com

• video book trailer links: http://www.facebook.com/search/results.php?q=the+secret+of+the+sacred+scarab&init=q#!/pages/The-Secret-of-the-Sacred-Scarab/104933012497?sk=videos

Trish McCallan - Forged in Fire - Author Interview

2012-02-10T13:13:00.003-05:00

Author Interview

1. Who is your favorite character?
My favorite character in Forged in Fire is Commander Jace (Mac) MacKenzie.

2. Why is he/she your favorite?
I’m not sure actually. The guy is a serious ass. He’s a misogynist, with a huge chip on his shoulder and nasty temper, but he intrigues me. He’s intensely loyal to the people he cares about and would do anything for them. He’s highly intelligent, bluntly honest, and politically incorrect. All of which makes him an interesting character. He is in a position of authority, one that requires a certain amount of kiss-assery—which he refuses to do—which puts him in constant conflict with someone.

3. How did you come to create him/her?
He was supposed to be a throw-away character. I needed the hero of the book, Lieutenant Commander Zane Winters to call his Commanding Officer and lie about something, something that would eventually come back to haunt him. Mac was only supposed to be the vehicle to bring in this lie. But the scene needed to be shown in Mac’s POV, and from the minute I started writing it, Mac just burst to life.

4. When did he/she first enter your mind?
Mac showed up in the fourth chapter. From the moment he burst onto the scene he just took over. His voice and personality were so strong from the first paragraphs his scene seemed to write itself, from that point on I couldn’t keep him out of the book. He ended up being a major player and the character that gets the most fan mail.

5. Where was he/she given life in the creative process?
He came to life in the first draft, but I had to rein him in and ease him back during revisions because his first draft scenes were even more obnoxious than the heavily edited scenes that made it into the book. LOL. I remember emailing his first polished (and edited) scene to my critique partners and getting these immediate emails back from them. They all agreed that Mac was incredibly well drawn, very realistic, but that he was such a jackass there was no way I could ever redeem him to the point readers would accept him as a hero and want to read his story.

6. What do like the most about him/her and what do you dislike the most about him/her?
I liked his loyalty, his honestly, his refusal to play games or take short cuts. I hated his attitude toward woman and his foul mouth. All the heroes in the Forged series swear, but Mac takes swearing to an entirely new level. If there was a degree in creative swearing, Mac would have a PHD. This is going to play an interesting roll in his romance, because the woman that Mac falls for will not accept his mouth and will make no allowances for him.

Book Summary

Beth Brown doesn’t believe in premonitions until she dreams a sexy stranger is gunned down during the brutal hijacking of a commercial airliner. When events in her dream start coming true, she heads to the flight’s departure gate. To her shock, she recognizes the man she’d watched die the night before.

Lieutenant Commander Zane Winters comes from a bloodline of elite warriors with psychic abilities. When Zane and two of his platoon buddies arrive at Sea-Tac Airport, he has a vision of his teammates’ corpses. Then she arrives—a leggy blonde who sets off a different kind of alarm.

As Beth teams up with Zane, they discover the hijacking is the first step in a secret cartel’s deadly global agenda and that key personnel within the FBI are compromised. To survive the forces mobilizing against them, Beth will need to open herself to a psychic connection with the sexy SEAL who claims to be her soul mate.

Author Bio

Trish McCallan has been writing for as long as she can remember.

In grade school she wrote children’s stories, illustrated them with crayons and bound the sheets together with pencil-punched holes and red yarn. She used to sell these masterpieces at her lemonade stand for a nickel a book. Surprisingly, people actually bought them. Like, all of them. Every night she’d write a new batch for her basket.

As she got older her interest shifted to boys and horses. The focus of her literary masterpieces followed this shift. Her first full length novel was written in seventh grade and featured a girl, a horse and a boy. At the end of the book the teenage heroine rode off into the sunset . . . with the horse.

These days she sticks to romantic suspense with hot alpha heroes and roller-coaster plots. Since she is a fan of all things bizarre, paranormal elements always find a way into her fiction. Her current release, Forged in Fire, was the result of a Black Dagger Brotherhood reading binge, a cold, a bottle of NyQuil and a vivid dream.

You can find Trish at www.trishmccallan.com.

Website | Blog | Twitter | Facebook | Amazon Kindle

Follower Love Giveaway Hop

2012-02-09T12:40:00.001-05:00

Congratulations to our winners!
Valerie
redfearnv [at] gmail [dot] com
&
Lexie
lexie.bookbug [at] gmail [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.

***

Until Next Time:
The Angel Chronicles, Book 1
by Amy Lignor

How does a girl choose between the one who steals her heart and the one who owns her soul?

Matt and Emily were created for a specific job. Raised and trained as the ultimate angel/warrior team, they are sent down to save, defend, judge and forgive, depending on the 'life' they've been assigned. What they don't realize is that the power of human emotions, such as love, anger, passion and fear can take over even the best of souls, causing them to make mistakes and follow paths that lead to confusion and heartache.

When the reason for their training is finally revealed, the angel/warrior team find themselves thrust into a world they know nothing about. Matt takes over the life of Daniel, a young man with a great deal of baggage. Emily becomes Liz, a girl living in a remote village who relies on nothing more than her own strength to survive. A violent storm erupts one night, and framed in the window of Liz's establishment is a frightening face. Let in by the soul of a Good Samaritan, the two visitors bring with them a past full of secrets that could literally change an angel's path and a warrior's plans.

From murder to redemption, this angel/warrior team must find a way to keep the faith they have in each other in a world that's ripping them apart.

http://www.the-angel-chronicles.com

Rebecca H. Jamison - Persuasion: A Latter-Day Tale - Author Interview

2012-02-08T00:01:00.001-05:00

Author Interview

1. Who is your favorite character?
My main character, Anne.

2. Why is he/she your favorite?
Anne is the classic doormat, living her life for others and letting life happen to her. She dreads answering the phone because she knows someone else is going to ask her to do something she doesn’t want to do. She’s not really living, just surviving. She spends time thinking about her past instead of living in the present.

I’ve been where Anne is. I think a lot of women have. One of the fun parts of writing the book is getting Anne to a place where she’s in control of her life and enjoying it.

3. How did you come to create him/her?
A few years ago, I read Jane Austen’s Persuasion for the first time. Then I read it again, then again, then again. I was totally obsessed. It just seemed natural to bring Austen’s Anne Elliot--with her money problems, marriage fears, and crazy family relationships—into the modern world.

From the start, I had a really strong image of Anne running her very first garage sale because her father was in over his head in debt. I saw her wearing sloppy clothes without any make-up on. Of course, that’s when she runs into her ex-fiancé for the first time in eight years.

4. Where was he/she given life in the creative process?
My first draft was written in the third person, but I decided to do the second draft in first person. When I let Anne tell her own story, her voice really came through and she came alive for me.

5. What do you like the most about him/her and what do you dislike the most about him/her?
I like that Anne is really compassionate and calm. What I don’t like is that she’s so afraid to take any risks and lets her negative inner voice dictate her choices.

Book Summary

When Anne broke off her engagement seven years ago, she thought she’d never see Neil Wentworth again. But when Neil’s brother buys the house she grew up in, it seems fate has other plans in store. Anne is unprepared for the roller coaster of emotions that come when Neil returns and starts dating her younger friend.

Convinced that Neil could no longer have strong feelings for her, Anne pushes away all thoughts of the past. But when the handsome man she’s been dating decides he can’t live without her, Anne must come to terms with her past.

Fans of Jane Austen’s Persuasion will enjoy this modern version of her most romantic story.

Price: $15.99
Number of pages: 240 pages
Genre: Romance
Publisher: Bonneville Books (Cedar Fort)
Release Date: Feb 7, 2012
To buy: http://www.amazon.com/Persuasion-Latter-day-Rebecca-H-Jamison/dp/1599559471/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1326255452&sr=8-1

Author Bio

Rebecca Jamison met her husband on a blind date. His first words to her were, "Do you want to get together and play spin the bottle?"(He was trying to avoid another bad blind date, but she went out with him anyway.) Rebecca grew up in Vienna, Virginia. She attended Brigham Young University, earning a BA and MA in English. In between college and grad school, she served a mission to Portugal and the Cape Verde islands. Rebecca and her husband have six children. She enjoys running, dancing, making jewelry, reading, and watching chick flicks. You can learn more about her at www.rebeccahjamison.com

Connect with Rebecca:

Blog: www.rebeccahjamison.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/#!/RebeccaHJamison

Youtube book trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oKgM9tuCzSo

Dorothy James - A Place to Die - Guest Post

2012-02-08T00:01:00.000-05:00

My thanks to Dorothy James for stopping by The Character Connection for a guest post during the blog tour for her book, A Place to Die.

Guest Post

Developing Characters in A Place to Die

When I write a novel, I do not sketch the characters and plot the events ahead of time. I do have to know the setting and the viewpoint from which I will look at the place and at the events.

I thought of writing a murder mystery set in a retirement home when I was visiting a friend’s mother in a home, and so one important angle of observation became that of a woman visitor, Eleanor, to my House in the Vienna Woods. I gave this angle another dimension by adding sections seen through the eyes of her husband. And then of course there was the Viennese detective, a third quite different angle on the events of the novel.

These three characters were in my head from the beginning, and they all have something of me in their thoughts, their observations, their foibles. But each of them grew in the course of writing into an independent character. People who know me might think that Eleanor is most like me, and yet Inspector Büchner, a character of whom I am very fond, certainly incorporates some of my own thoughts, hopes and disappointments.

These three, as observers, cannot also be murder-suspects. I peopled the House in the Woods with a disparate group of characters, all of whom are suspects, from the porter and doorman through various employees of the House, such as the handyman and housekeeper, to the Director and to one visiting doctor in particular—and of course, the residents. For all of these, I would first have a physical type in mind—I visualized them, sometimes based on people I know, but usually only on people I had seen, and then imagined.

Sitting in the café of the retirement home where I first had the idea, I jotted down notes on the people I saw there: e.g. “thick waistline and hips, thick stockings, carefully guiding the wheeled Zimmer-frame,” or “elderly, well dressed gentleman, drinking a schnapps, with him an elderly animated lady, looking at him” . . . and then from these notes I imagined the person, and out of the person came pieces of the plot. Thus a whole variety of characters gradually peopled my House: a retired lady psychiatrist, a one-time opera singer, a former art-dealer . . . and so on. Through conversations, in this case often interrogations by the detective, they gradually grew into living beings, at all events they lived for me.

The hardest thing was to find out which was the murderer. I cared about each character, and I did not want any of them to have murdered someone. But this was a whodunnit, after all, and I had to find out who did it. By the last but one chapter I could see the one who had to be the culprit. Then the end was inevitable. I hoped it would be this for reader—inevitable, in terms of character, but not predictable.

About the Book
A Place to Die

Book Details:
Price: $34.99 hardcover, $23.99 paperback, $3.03-$9.99 ebook
Format: hardcover, paperback, ebook
Published: April 2010
Pages: 436
ISBN: 9781450082709, 9781450082693
Genre: Murder Mystery
Buy Links: Amazon, Barnes & Noble,
Kindle, Nook, iBookstore

Blurb:
Eleanor and Franz Fabian arrive from New York to spend Christmas with Franzs mother in her sedate retirement home in the Vienna Woods. Their expectations are low: at best, boredom, at worst, run-of-the-mill family friction. But when the wealthy, charming Herr Graf is found dead in his apartment with an ugly head wound, the Fabians are thrust into a homicide investigation.

Some residents and staff have surprising connections to the dead man, but who would have wanted to kill him? Inspector Buchner tracks down the murderer against a backdrop of Viennese history from the Nazi years to the present day. Witty, suspenseful, lyrical, this is a literary whodunit that will keep you guessing till the last page.

About the Author
Dorothy James

Dorothy James was born in Wales and grew up in the South Wales Valleys. Writer, editor, and translator, she has published short stories as well as books and articles on German and Austrian literature. She has taught at universities in the U.S., England, and Germany, makes her home now in Brooklyn and often spends time in Vienna and Berlin.

She wrote A Place to Die in her attic apartment on the edge of the Vienna Woods. She has traveled far from Wales, but has not lost the Welsh love of playing with language; she writes poems for pleasure as does Chief Inspector Büchner, the whimsical Viennese detective who unravels the first mystery in this new series of novels.

Connect with Dorothy:
Web Site
Facebook
Twitter
Blog

About the Tour

Tribute Books Blog Tours

A Place to Die Blog Tour Site

Tour Participants:

February 6 (guest post)
Proud Book Nerd

February 6 (guest post)
Bibliophilic Book Blog

February 6 (author interview)
You Gotta Read

February 7 (guest post)
vvb32 reads

February 8 (guest post or author interview)
The Character Connection

February 8 (author interview)
I Am a Reader, Not a Writer

February 9 (review)
Kritters Ramblings

February 10 (review)
A Lovely Shore Breeze

February 10 (guest post or author interview)
The Plot Thickens

February 13 (guest post)
Book Dilettante

February 13 (review)
Books and Needlepoint

February 13 (review)
Tic Toc

February 14 (review)
Reviews by Molly

February 15 (guest post or author interview)
City Girl Who Loves to Read

February 15 (review)
The Book Connection

February 16 (review)
Book Dragon's Lair

February 16 (guest post)
Books-n-Kisses

February 17 (review)
Simple Wyrdings

February 18 (review)
Lesa's Book Critiques

February 21 (review)
Words by Webb

February 22 (guest post)
Mama Knows Books

February 23 (guest post)
Fighter Writer

February 24 (review)
Minding Spot

Young Adult Giveaway Hop

2012-02-01T16:00:00.002-05:00

Congratulations to our winner:
Shawn Kirsten Maravel
ShawnKirstenB88 [at] gmail [dot] com

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

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

***

Until Next Time:
The Angel Chronicles, Book 1
by Amy Lignor

How does a girl choose between the one who steals her heart and the one who owns her soul?

Matt and Emily were created for a specific job. Raised and trained as the ultimate angel/warrior team, they are sent down to save, defend, judge and forgive, depending on the 'life' they've been assigned. What they don't realize is that the power of human emotions, such as love, anger, passion and fear can take over even the best of souls, causing them to make mistakes and follow paths that lead to confusion and heartache.

When the reason for their training is finally revealed, the angel/warrior team find themselves thrust into a world they know nothing about. Matt takes over the life of Daniel, a young man with a great deal of baggage. Emily becomes Liz, a girl living in a remote village who relies on nothing more than her own strength to survive. A violent storm erupts one night, and framed in the window of Liz's establishment is a frightening face. Let in by the soul of a Good Samaritan, the two visitors bring with them a past full of secrets that could literally change an angel's path and a warrior's plans.

From murder to redemption, this angel/warrior team must find a way to keep the faith they have in each other in a world that's ripping them apart.

http://www.the-angel-chronicles.com

***

The Priest and the Peaches
by Larry Peterson

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.

http://www.ThePriestAndThePeaches.com

Paul H. Magid - Lifting the Wheel of Karma - Author Interview

2012-01-31T00:01:00.000-05:00

My thanks to Paul H. Magid for stopping by The Character Connection for an author interview during the blog tour for his book, Lifting the Wheel of Karma.

1. Who is your favorite character?
I consider my novel, Lifting the Wheel of Karma, to be my baby, so by extension, all of the characters are my babies. But if I have to make a literary Sophie's Choice, I have to go with my main character/protagonist Joseph.

2. Why is he/she your favorite?
He is my favorite character because endures unrelenting suffering, yet perseveres to emerge on the other side of The Dark Night Of The Soul.

3. How did you come to create him/her?
Joseph is a fictional character who evolved from my own spiritual journey.

4. When did he/she first enter your mind?
He came to me all the back in 1986.

5. Where was he/she given life in the creative process?
Joseph has been with me from the very start.

6. What do like the most about him/her and what do you dislike the most about him/her?
What I like most about Joseph is that he will not quit. I can't say that there is anything that I dislike about him. He does, of course, as a main character in a mythological story, have a flaw and it is his journey that helps him to become a fully evolved human being and spirit.

About the Book
Lifting the Wheel of Karma

Book Details:
Price: $15.00 paperback, $9.99 Kindle
Format: Paperback, Kindle
Publisher: Point Dume Press
Published: September 2011
Pages: 192
ISBN: 9780984016068
Genre: Fiction, Spirituality
Buy Links: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kindle

Blurb:
A Profound Spiritual Journey of Extraordinary Healing and Redemption - a modern tale that harkens back to the myths of antiquity. It takes you on a remarkable journey, while exploring the themes of healing, redemption, forgiveness, sacrifice, and ultimately...peace within.

Joseph Connell is a gifted high school athlete from Montana, loved deeply by his family, yet tormented by nightmarish visions he can neither explain nor escape.

He believes the answer to what threatens to crush him can be found in the knowledge possessed by a mystical old wise man, who lives deep within the remote Himalayas of India.

If Joseph is ever to find the peace he so desperately seeks, he must get this wise old man to reveal what he truly knows, but that will not be easy…for this sage knows far more than he admits.

About the Author
Paul H. Magid

Paul H. Magid started writing his debut novel, LIFTING THE WHEEL OF KARMA, twenty-five years ago while still in high school. It took him so long to complete because he tried repeatedly to abandon it, but the work refused to be forsaken. Eventually he realized that sharing this story with the world was, in fact, his Dharma.

Along the way he has worked as a Wall Street financial analyst, a waiter (not a very good one), a Hollywood Agent Trainee, a real estate developer, a summer day camp director, an award winning screenwriter, and independent filmmaker—including his autobiographical film, A LIFE UNFINISHED, which screened in The Hamptons International Film Festival.

Connect with Paul:
Web Site
Facebook (book)
Facebook (author)

About the Tour

Tribute Books Blog Tours

Lifting the Wheel of Karma Blog Tour Site

Tour Participants:

January 1 (review)
Dad of Divas

January 2 (review)
Crazed Mind

January 3 (review)
Minding Spot

January 4 (review)
Live to Read

January 5 (review)
vvb32 reads

January 5 (author interview)
You Gotta Read Reviews Guest Blog

January 6 (review)
Tic Toc

January 6 (review)
Tribute Books Mama

January 7 (author interview)
Tribute Books Mama

January 8 (review)
Red Adept Reviews

January 9 (author interview)
I Am A Reader, Not A Writer

January 10 (review)
My Favorite Things

January 10 (review)
Knits & Reads

January 10 (review)
Adventures of Frugal Mom

January 11 (author interview)
The Book Connection

January 12 (review)
Book Dragon's Lair

January 13 (review)
Bibliophilic Book Blog

January 13 (review)
Concert Katie

January 14 (review)
My Tower of Books

January 15 (review)
Cheryl's Book Nook

January 16 (review)
Tribute Books Reviews & Giveaways

January 17 (guest post)
CMash Loves to Read

January 18 (review)
Community Bookstop

January 18 (review)
Satisfaction for Insatiable Readers

January 19 (guest post)
Community Bookstop

January 20 (guest post)
Splashes of Joy

January 21 (guest post)
A Bookalicious Story

January 22 (author interview)
City Girl Who Loves to Read

January 23 (review)
The True Book Addict

January 23 (review)
Proud Book Nerd

January 24 (guest post)
Proud Book Nerd

January 26 (guest post)
Ascroft, eh?

January 27 (review)
Whispering Winds Book Reviews

January 28 (review)
Scorpion Stalking Duck

January 29 (author interview)
The Plot Thickens

January 30 (review)
Celtic Lady's Reviews

January 31 (author interview)
The Character Connection

Jennifer Ann Holt - Delivering Hope - Author Interview

2012-01-25T00:01:00.001-05:00

Author Interview

1. Who is your favorite character?
That’s a tough one, because I really love all of the characters in Delivering Hope, but if I had to choose one, I would say it’s Olivia.

2. Why is she your favorite?
She’s real. She’s not perfect. She gets upset and cries and yells. She struggles, but she doesn’t give up. Plus, throughout it all, she wants to be happy, and she learns that happiness is possible, even when life doesn’t go the way you had planned.

3. How did you come to create her?
Olivia is the embodiment of so many of the feelings I had when I was struggling with infertility. I wanted her to be an honest and candid picture of a woman dealing with this struggle while going about the business of living her day to day life; going to work, dealing with friends and family, trying to live up to the expectations that she (and others) had for her life.

4. When did she first enter your mind?
Wow, it was more than four years ago. At that point, I felt that my family was complete (after 5 years of fertility treatments and two adoptions). I was writing some non-fiction stuff, and one day the idea came to me that I needed to write a novel about two women. One who couldn’t get pregnant, and one facing an unintended pregnancy.

5. Where was she given life in the creative process?
Right at the beginning. When I first came up with the idea for the book, I had a scene in my mind where this woman takes a pregnancy test and discovers that (yet again) she is not pregnant. That ended up being the opening scene for the book, and Olivia is the woman.

6. What do you like the most about her?
I like that she does everything that she’s “supposed” to do, and her life still doesn’t turn out how she wanted it to be; and I especially like that, in the end, she is able to let go of that plan, embrace a new one, and find hope and joy.

Book Summary

Olivia Spencer wants to be a mom more than anything else in the whole world, but years of infertility have wounded her soul and placed a strain on her marriage to Michael. Now, Olivia finds herself wondering if the life she has built will even survive.

Allison Campbell is a recent high school graduate who discovers that a moment of excitement has led to an unplanned pregnancy and an overwhelming heartache.

As the lives of these two women touch, you’ll see how deep love can pave the way for sacrifice and lead to the true source of hope, healing, and joy.

Published by: Cedar Fort, Inc.
Release Date: February 8, 2012
Genre: General Fiction / Women’s Fiction
Pages: 224
Price: $14.99

Available for pre-order at:

Amazon
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1599559021/sr=1-1/qid=1327008151/ref=olp_product_details?ie=UTF8&me=&qid=1327008151&sr=1-1&seller=

Barnes and Noble
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/delivering-hope-jennifer-ann-holt/1105707325?ean=9781599559025&itm=1&usri=delivering+hope

Author Bio

Jennifer Ann Holt grew up as a farm girl in Enterprise, Utah so she is very good at moving sprinkler pipe and mucking out calf pens. She can hold her own when handling a tractor as well. An avid reader singe age 4, Jennifer loves the power of the written word to heal, uplift, encourage understanding, bring people together, and entertain. She graduated Cum Laude from Brigham Young University, and went through 5 years of fertility treatments and was blessed with 2 adoptions to create her family of 3 beautiful children. She and her husband Shane have lived all over Utah from Enterprise to Logan and currently reside "north of the border" in Boise, Idaho. Besides reading and writing, Jennifer enjoys wakeboarding and visiting any zoo, aquarium, or museum with her daughter and two sons.

Connect with Jennifer:

http://www.facebook.com/DeliveringHopeNovel

http://www.twitter.com/JenniferAnnHolt

http://www.deliveringhopethebook.com

http://www.jenshopefulwriting.blogspot.com

Book trailer: http://www.bit.ly/peCixw

Leslie Soule - Fallenwood - Guest Post

2012-01-25T00:01:00.000-05:00

My thanks to Leslie Soule for returning to The Character Connection for a guest post during the blog tour for her book, Fallenwood.

Guest Post

Hey there, everyone! Thanks for joining me here today.

Today I’d like to talk about character development and how I ended up creating the many characters that make up the fantasy world of Fallenwood. Well, let’s see – a character is made up of several things – a physical aspect, a personality, and a job description at the very least. When I first thought about writing Fallenwood, I didn’t think about the specific characters that I wanted to be there. Rather, I started with types of characters that I wanted to exist in my world. There’s a reason that credit card salesmen and telemarketers don’t appear in Fallenwood. I banished them to the Land of The Unmentionables.

I knew that with Fallenwood, I wanted to write about a sorcerer, a jester, a talking cat, a gypsy or two or three, maybe some pirates and a queen. Once I had the types down, I could start looking at them individually, giving them personalities and figuring out what their connections to each other might be and how they’d interact. I base a lot of the character actions on things people have said or things I remember people doing, or even ways I think they might act in certain situations. I’m no psychology major, so to me it makes sense to base the things that people do on things I’ve seen people do before.

Of all the aspects of character development, naming them is the hardest part for me. Sometimes, it’s important to me that a name means a specific idea or connects with it. For example, I named a wizard in Fallenwood “Hieropraxis” which means “sacred knowledge, put into practice”. It took me like a week to come up with that. Ash was easy since I had a co-worker named Ash. Greymalkin is the Old English word for gray cat. Paddock, which is the name of the castle toad, is an Old English name for toad. When I named Will, I was in love with Orlando Bloom (still am *sigh* - be still, my heart) and I named him after Will Turner from Pirates of the Caribbean. At the time, I was also reading Erasure by Percival Everett, hence Will’s last name, Everett.

So I guess that’s a long way of saying that character creation involves taking a bunch of things you like and smashing them together!

Thanks for joining me here today. If you’d like to be entered to win a gift card to Barnes & Noble, please leave a comment, along with your name and e-mail address.

About the Book
Fallenwood

Book Details:
Publisher: Decadent Publishing
Published: March 2011
Genre: Fantasy
Format: ebook
Price: $5.99

Buy Links: Kindle, Smashwords

Blurb:
Fallenwood—a land where magic is the life force, dragons are sages, and wizards good and evil battle for supremacy. When 16-year-old Ash is thrust into the middle of Fallenwood’s power struggles, she is also forced to face her own inner battles. Life on Earth was hard enough on Ash, who is locked in grief for her stepfather. Now, the fate of Fallenwood rests on her shoulders. She must destroy the Great Crystal—the catalyst for all the land’s magic. As the kingdoms prepare for war, Ash must look inside to find the power to save the world, and herself.

Excerpts:

Tears blinded her. She couldn’t stop and even the rough winds couldn’t scatter the wild thoughts that swirled in her mind—memories of her stepfather, words that people had said at his service, images of her mother and that stupid grin she wore—all she could do was run. Ashley was deeply wounded but was powerless to heal this kind of pain. She’d looked into the face of evil. Her feet hit the gravel, and the wind whipped at her face as she tried to outrun her anguish. She closed her eyes for a split second, and the wind stilled, and she stopped. Ashley looked around her. It had suddenly become night, and she was now in an unfamiliar part of the woods.

***

The dragon’s eyes glowed, for a flickering moment, with white light.

“Ash,” the dragon continued, “Welcome to Terra Illumina…or as it is more commonly known, Fallenwood.” Then a fierce roaring laugh erupted from the stone, as though the dragon thought the new name a joke. “A dark, difficult, dangerous path lies before you, Ash Kensington.”

Ash’s heart grew heavy. In truth, she knew that she was destined to some terrible, dark fate. For so long, her life was filled with sadness and doubt, and one horrible thing after another. What else can I hope for?

“But Ash, you must not lose hope. Our world needs you..."

About the Author
Leslie Soule

Leslie Soule lives in Sacramento, California. Fallenwood is her first fantasy novel. She has received her B.A. in English from Sacramento State University and is currently working on her Master’s degree in English at National University.

Connect With Leslie:
Blog
Web Site
Facebook

About the Tour

Goddess Fish Promotions

GIVEAWAY:
Leslie will be giving away a $25 Barnes and Noble GC to one randomly drawn commenter during the tour as well as to the host with the most comments (excluding Leslie's and their own).

Encourage your readers to follow the tour and comment; the more they comment, the better their chances of winning. The tour dates can be found here: http://goddessfishpromotions.blogspot.com/2011/11/virtual-book-tour-fallenwood-by-leslie.html

Teaser Tuesday

2012-01-24T00:02:00.000-05:00

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

- Grab your current read
- Open to a random page
- Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page

BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)

Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

My Teaser:

"But I’m supposed to believe that this is the man who will save my soul? There’s no question about what’s right and wrong up here. Down there, it becomes messed up so fast that I’m afraid. I’m afraid that Matt and I will make all the wrong decisions, and live our lives trying to be God instead of working for God.”

Tears streamed down her cheeks and the walls of the magic room began to change into somber shades of gray. Her powerful feelings melted the sunny portraits on the walls replacing them with desolate scenes of stranded souls begging for the Good Samaritan who would never come.

- Until Next Time: The Angel Chronicles, Book One
by Amy Lignor
Chapter Twenty-Three

Paul Oliver Westmoreland - Cardsharp - Author Interview

2012-01-24T00:01:00.000-05:00

Author Interview

1. Who is your favorite character?
My favorite would have to be Cardsharp’s hero, Vincent Ward.

2. Why is he/she your favorite?
I like him for two reasons, mainly, the first is I think he’d be a good person to know, he very loyal, determined and interested in everything around him, particularly art. The second is, he’s great fun to write; he reacts well in a crisis, which there seem to be a lot of in his life, and he really pushes me to think of ways out of the situations he finds himself in, like foiling art thieves or even jail breaks.

3. How did you come to create him/her?
I started looking for a good hero readers could get behind, but I also wanted someone with a background that made them human, so they felt like a real person in an extraordinary world coping that drove them to be resourceful at every turn. Indiana Jones was a big inspiration in this.

4. When did he/she first enter your mind?
I started researching art and art crimes long before I imagined Vincent. I also left him out until after I’d developed a crime for him to uncover. Keeping your villains and hero separate for a long time can make for good drama when they crash into each other.

5. Where was he/she given life in the creative process?
Before I started writing the story or the book of Cardsharp, I wrote about 10,000 words and just took my hero for a test drive. This allowed me to try out his tone of voice, to see how he phrases things, how he acts and reacts, is he slick or is he slow? Subtle things mostly, but Vincent grew out of that. It’s a great way to get a feel for your character and the book I was about to write.

6. What do like the most about him/her and what do you dislike the most about him/her?
I most like and even admire Vincent’s determination. Most other people would give up long before Vincent, and that’s why he succeeds. Vincent is as human and he has faults, but I save all the dislikeable character traits for my villains, like the Wasp. And the brutal pirates at the end.

Book Summary:

Cardsharp: A Vincent Ward Adventure by Paul Oliver Westmoreland (aka POW)
Middle Grade adventure novel (UK author)

Cardsharp is an exciting adventure book for children set in the art world. Escaping house fires and fighting daring robbers is just the beginning for art researcher, Vincent Ward, and these battles do little to prepare him for the exciting adventure that unfolds. An old journal discovered at an auction in Rome puts Vincent on the trail of an undiscovered painting by one of art history’s most notorious masters, Caravaggio. But paintings this rare and valuable are sought after by more than just collectors and galleries. Vincent soon finds himself on the run from a brutal and lawless policeman, a gang of international criminals, and fighting vicious pirates.

There are stings, tricks and conspiracies around every corner, and bullets flying from the shadows. Only The National Gallery, London is safe for Vincent and the painting. But is there a way back? Get ready to be thrown into the world of Vincent Ward, where getting through each day alive just isn’t enough.

Kat Henry Doran - Mad Dog and the Archangel - Guest Post

2012-01-19T00:01:00.002-05:00

Guest Post

"How I develop characters in my writing"
by Kat Henry Doran

For me, a story begins with the picture—of a man, woman, perhaps an event. From there, I build characters based on facial gestures and body types which, for me, automatically predicts the occupation. I then complete a multi-page character outline which includes the character’s likes and dislikes in the clothes they wear, cars they drive, income and occupation, family of origin and friends or associates. By the time I've got the first under wraps, and there's always room for tweaking, I've got a pretty good idea about the opposite’s physical features, occupation [former , perhaps current], what they like to eat, read, watch on TV, clothes and car choices. It's important for both be the direct opposite of each other in almost every way, right down to their choices in restaurants and music. I find this process relaxing as well as stimulating; it helps me build the plot. Names and titles often come later in the process.

The hero of one of my earlier novellas is patterned after the English actor Daniel Craig whose face perfectly matches the taciturn county sheriff Rory McElroy from Embraceable You. I took the hero for my first full length novel, Captain Marvelous, from a cologne ad in Vogue Magazine.

My current release, Mad Dog and the Archangel, began with a picture of the actor Lou Diamond Phillips who I felt epitomized the look of the tortured hero, Rafael Archangeli. One of the secondary characters in Mad Dog, a pro hockey player turned attorney, came from an article about the NHL strike several years ago. The player had a don't-mess-with-me look in his eye that spoke to me.

I have on occasion based characters or incidents from my life as a nurse, later as a victim advocate. The core of Raising Kane, part of the Out of the Dark anthology for The Wild Rose Press, is based on a Take Back the Night march, protesting violence against women. The heroine, an investigative reporter covering the protest is arrested after the march evolves into a riot. The hero, a Public Information Officer for the local police department, has the job of putting a positive spin on things events and keep public pressure off the cops and onto the true criminals. I had a lot of fun with that story.

The premise for my second full length novel, Try Just Once More, arose out of a newspaper article about a local philanthropist who died in a seamy motel of a drug overdose after partying with paid escorts. The escorts were eventually tried and convicted of manslaughter claimed the philanthropist 'begged them to help him shoot up'. He may well have done that, beg them to give him the drug, but they always had the right to say no and walk away. They elected not to do that. I chose to focus my story on the family and how a crisis like this can have long lasting effects on the innocent wives and children.

And that's how I develop my characters.

Thanks for inviting me to visit your blog. You've made me think about things which in turn gave me some ideas for new stories.

Blurb

Rafael Archangeli returns home to Summerville to bury an old friend, collect his inheritance, and then return to the only life he knows—conning wealthy women out of their money. In Rafe's world, money not only equals success, it goes a long way to obliterate the stigma of his past.

Grace Dunavan, former nun turned community activist, gave up worldly goods a long time ago with no regrets. But she's never known a man with the raw appeal of the Scourge of Summerville: Rafael Archangeli.

Their first meeting is like an errant strike of lightning, fierce and stunning in intensity, and takes both by surprise. Has Grace turned Rafe into a changed man? Or is he using his inheritance to pull off the biggest scam of his life?

Excerpt #1

Safety First.

A personal motto that served Grace Dunavan well for the past thirty-something years. She never picked up strange men. In fact, she rarely dated men, strange or otherwise. And wasn't she the first to preach the wisdom of obtaining a detailed history—family, medical and sexual before contemplating a walk on the wild side? With any man, including the brother of her best friend.

Especially one whose thick mop of jet colored hair, hooded black eyes and razor-sharp cheekbones, all of which held undeniable appeal for a good girl who always did what the nuns and her parents dictated. With a name like Archangeli he should be a protector, not a walking advertisement that proclaimed: I've Been There, Done That; Let Me Tell You All About It.

As he helped her into her coat, Grace heard Gaby murmur something about an attorney who was trying to track down Rafe. None of it made sense. What woman in her right mind could think straight when faced with a man who redefined potency?

It was a night of firsts for Grace: leaving a party with a man she'd never met before; admitting how and where she'd learned to drive; breaking the land speed record for contemplating her first one night stand.

Excerpt #2

“For the last time, Arch, how long do you plan on sticking around?”

It dawned on him that Rory was only doing his job. Christ only knew how this scene would have turned out if it was Dickhead standing here, though blood and gore likely would be involved.

More for dramatic effect, Rafe heaved a deep sigh. “For old time's sake, Sheriff, I'll answer your questions. I came back for Deege's funeral and to spend quality time with my sister. I saw Ryder Burke this morning who told me I was left something in the will. I'll be gone by the weekend.”

The sheriff nodded, just once. “A couple weeks ago, Burke asked me to run a list of names for wants and warrants. Your name took the top spot. Didn't take a rocket scientist to deduce it had something to do with Deege's will. I suggest you keep your word on your travel plans.”

“My record is clean.”

“Save that song for some other numb nuts, Arch. Just because the New York City courts haven't seen fit to convict your ass on grand larceny and other assorted grifts does not make you citizen of the year.”

That pretty much summed up the life and times of Rafael Archangeli. “As I said, Sheriff, I'll be out of your hair inside forty-eight hours.”

“After you’re gone, I'd hate to learn you've worked a scam on a fine woman like Grace Dunavan.”

“That a threat?”

“Leave it at a warning—for now.”

Bio

Over the years I've had the honor to work at a number of occupations: operating room nurse, malpractice insurance investigator, forensic nurse examiner, victim advocate, wife and mother. Five years ago I became Nana for the first time and, believe me, it’s the best job ever!

Even if I sometimes wish they'd remain in the closet, the years I spent in the OR and labor floor, and later advocating for victims of sexual violence, contribute significantly to the voice of my writing. You don’t spend thirty years playing loyal serving maid and mind reader to egotistical surgeons, then twelve years haunting police stations, Emergency Rooms, and criminal courts without developing an internal alarm system for covert misogyny, rampant apathy, and overwhelming bigotry.

I retired my stethoscope and speculum a few years ago but continue to advocate quietly for marginalized populations through Amnesty International and Doctors Without Borders.

I like hearing from readers. You can contact me through my website: www.KatHenry.com, or blog: www.WildWomanAuthor.blogspot.com

Giveaway:

PLEASE MENTION THE PRIZE THAT THE AUTHOR WILL BE GIVING AWAY: a Funky Bag and a Toiletries Bag from Kats Kustom KarryAlls, filled with author swag to one random commenter on the tour as well as to the host with the most comments (excluding the host's and Kat's). US and Canada only, please.

Waiting on Wednesday

2012-01-18T00:02:00.000-05:00

"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted here, that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.

This week's pre-publication "can't-wait-to-read" selection is:

Until Next Time
The Angel Chronicles
Book 1
by Amy Lignor
Publication Date: February 1, 2012

How does a girl choose between the one who steals her heart and the one who owns her soul?

Matt and Emily were created for a specific job. Raised and trained as the ultimate angel/warrior team, they are sent down to save, defend, judge and forgive, depending on the 'life' they've been assigned. What they don't realize is that the power of human emotions, such as love, anger, passion and fear can take over even the best of souls, causing them to make mistakes and follow paths that lead to confusion and heartache.

When the reason for their training is finally revealed, the angel/warrior team find themselves thrust into a world they know nothing about. Matt takes over the life of Daniel, a young man with a great deal of baggage. Emily becomes Liz, a girl living in a remote village who relies on nothing more than her own strength to survive. A violent storm erupts one night, and framed in the window of Liz's establishment is a frightening face. Let in by the soul of a Good Samaritan, the two visitors bring with them a past full of secrets that could literally change an angel's path and a warrior's plans.

From murder to redemption, this angel/warrior team must find a way to keep the faith they have in each other in a world that's ripping them apart.

GoodReads link to Until Next Time

Lynn Hardy - Prophecy of the Flame - Author Interview

2012-01-18T00:01:00.000-05:00

Author Interview

1. Who is your favorite character?
I would like to say my favorite character is the main one, Reba, but to tell the truth, Prince Szames is my first choice.

2. Why is he/she your favorite?
Szames is the ultimate “knight in shining armor.” He’s kind, compassionate, ready to save a damsel in distress at a moment’s notice - not to mention, totally hot!

3. How did you come to create him/her?
My book was based on a set of dreams. If you changed the order and filled in the blanks, you have the basics for my Prophecy of the Flame series. I went to school with two of the hottest guys on the planet. One was the inspiration for Alexandros and the other Szames. Although the man - or teen boy - I knew hadn’t matured into Szames yet: the character is what I always hoped he would become.

4. When did he/she first enter your mind?
About 10 years ago was when I had the dreams. I spent many nights fleshing out the story before I began to write. After the story was complete, I had my kids and put the project away for many years. Four years ago, I picked up the project again and began the road to self-publishing.

5. Where was he/she given life in the creative process?
The story centered around Szames and his connection to Reba. He was with me from the beginning.

6. What do like the most about him/her and what do you dislike the most about him/her?
The thing I like most about Szames can’t be easily found in the pages of the book, but is clearly revealed in the full-cast audio, unabridged audio book. Szames has as deep, sexy, bedroom voice: filled with strength and power that is a perfect match to his incredible good looks.

Book Summary

In a blinding flash of light, five nondescript strangers are yanked from this world and thrust into a land of sorcery. Transformed into the characters they were pretending to be; Archmage Reba, Jamison the healer, Jerik the dwarf, Charles the prince charming, and Allinon the druid elf blend twentieth century technology with the supernatural powers of this new world.

This band of wannabe heroes soon discovers that having the powers you have always dreamed of, does not make life a dream come true. The Crusaders of the Light struggle to form a cohesive band as they fight to liberate the kingdom of Cuthburan from the evil horde threatening humanity.

For those who believe the struggle of love adds a greater depth to any story, the romantic thread in Book One is explored in greater depth in this version.
Battle is also waged within Reba, an ordinary housewife who has become the most powerful mage on the planet, as she struggles to remain true to her wedding vows. Drawn against her will to the arms of Prince Alexandros, Reba must choose between the prophesied marriage to a handsome prince in a magical world or returning to the husband she left behind.

ORDER YOUR COPY HERE:

Amazon

Barnes and Noble

Author Bio

Led by a series of dreams and encouraged by friends, Lynn Hardy began the journey to become an author. She stored her work in a computer file labeled “second job.” Writing began as a passion she could not contain and has become much more than she ever expected.

Lynn has attended many science fiction conventions and has had the privilege of serving on panels about writing. Renaissance fairs are another favorite event for the author. Seeing others dressed in costume (as she always is during book signings) makes her feel right at home.

The real shock came at a chance meeting in a videogame store in 2008. It took several meetings before she realized JR was a CEO and Hippocrit Games was offering her a contract: they were not just making small talk about what a great videogame her book would make. Hippocrit plans to launch their new company with the release of Prophecy of the Flame, the live action videogame, in Fall 2010.

In reality, Lynn is overcome with compassion for families who are suffering through the recession and so she has created Agape Assistance. Knowing that times are hard for everyone, Lynn wants to give back to those who join Agape Assistance in providing shelter for families who are homeless. Buying Book One will provide a book for you and a bed for them. 100% of the proceeds from Prophecy of the Flame: Book One go to Agape Assistance. (AgapeAssistance.org)

Lynn is now a stay-at-home mother of two. The road has been longer and more complicated than she would have ever guessed–not always smooth, but filled with wonderful surprises. Like most stories, Lynn is sure that her journey has only just begun.

The Prophecy of the Flame is being made into a movie by a independent film company, which is very exciting for Lynn and her book.

Connect with Lynn:
Facebook

Lightning Book Promotions

Tour Schedule

January 15th Mary Ann @ Chapter by Chapter (guest post only)

16th Jacque @ Good Family Reading

17th Nikki @ Close Encounters with the Night Kind

18th Connie @ Character Connection (interview only)

18th Rebecca @ Everything To Do With Books

19th Divya @ Bookish Delights

20th Louisa @ Words I Write Crazy

21st John @ Incessant Droning of a Bored Writer (guest post only)

21st Becky @ Inquisitive Hippo

22nd Aine @ House Millar

Marie Astor - On the Rim of Love - Author Interview

2012-01-16T00:01:00.000-05:00

Author Interview

Hi and thank you for inviting me to the Character Connection – I am very excited to have this opportunity to talk about my latest contemporary romance novel, On the Rim of love.

1. Who is your favorite character?
I would have to say that in On the Rim of Love, Taylor Denton is my favorite character.

2. Why is he/she your favorite?
I really admire off-piste skiers and the courage it takes to engage this dangerous pursuit. When I was writing Taylor’s character, I gave him the qualities that, in my opinion, would be required to lead the lifestyle that he leads. There are not too my white knights in real life, so I enjoyed creating Taylor’s character immensely. That being said, Taylor is far from perfect – he too has flaws – as they still water runs deep….

3. How did you come to create him/her?
When I was thinking for a setting for On the Rim of Love, I thought that it would be an interesting premise to set the love story at a ski town. I think that there is something special about the atmosphere of ski towns and the people who inhabit them. And then I started thinking about Taylor…

4. When did he/she first enter your mind?
Taylor’s character entered my mind pretty much at the inception of the book – I was looking for a hero and Taylor’s image materialized in my mind.

5. Where was he/she given life in the creative process?
As Taylor and Maggie grew to know each other more, so did I grow to know Taylor better, and he became more real to me with every page.

6. What do like the most about him/her and what do you dislike the most about him/her?
I admire Taylor’s fearlessness, his zest for life, and his rigid set of moral principles. That being said, very often our strengths become our weaknesses, and I dislike Taylor’s stubbornness and his lack of caution, which at times borders on recklessness.

Book Summary

Maggie Robin has been dating the irresistibly good-looking, successful Jeffrey Preston for two years. But when Jeffrey proposes marriage a week after Maggie’s college graduation, she is no longer sure if she wants to marry a workaholic TV producer.

Her doubts culminate when during a ski trip to British Columbia, Maggie meets Taylor Denton, a handsome, free-spirited big mountain skier who is the complete opposite of Jeffrey. It does not take Maggie long to realize that she has fallen in love with Taylor and she decides to break off her engagement with Jeffrey. But just when she thinks she has found the love of her life, an ill-fated misunderstanding tears Maggie and Taylor apart.

A week later, Maggie is told that Taylor has died in a tragic ski accident; yet, her heart refuses to believe in Taylor’s death. When Maggie returns to Taylor’s native town, she learns that Taylor is indeed alive, but has been seriously injured. Resolved to bring her lover back to life Maggie stands by Taylor’s side, convincing him to embrace life again.

Author Bio

Marie Astor is a die-hard romantic who wholeheartedly believes in true love, which is why she writes in the contemporary romance genre.
Marie is the author of contemporary romance novels, On the Rim of Love, Lucky Charm, and a short story collection, A Chance Encounter and Other Stories.

In addition to being a writer, Marie is an avid hiker, an excellent swimmer, and a good skier.
Currently, Marie is working on her next novel - stay tuned for details! If you would like to receive updates about book releases and events, please visit Marie’s website at: www.marieastor.com or visit Marie at her Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/marieastorcollection and Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/marieastor.

On the Rim of Love – contemporary romance about the unexpected power of love.

Available on Kindle for $2.99 (235 pages)

http://www.amazon.com/Rim-Love-Contemporary-Romance-ebook/dp/B005TOWI7K/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1325643233&sr=8-1

Giveaway

Marie will be awarding a custom made jewelry set (necklace and earrings) to one randomly chosen commenter and to the host with the most comments (excluding the host's and Marie's) -- US / Canada only, please.

Follow the tour and comment; the more you comment, the better your chances of winning. The tour dates can be found here: http://goddessfishpromotions.blogspot.com/2011/11/virtual-book-tour-on-rim-of-love-by.html

Terri Reed - The Secret Heiress - Author Interview

2012-01-10T00:01:00.003-05:00

Author Interview

1. Who is your favorite character?
In The Secret Heiress my favorite character was Don Cavanaugh, the hero of the story.

2. Why is he/she your favorite?
He’s my favorite because he had several issues to work through, but was honorable and kind, yet flawed.

3. How did you come to create him/her?
I started writing knowing very little about him but as the story progressed he became more complex and three-dimensional. It’s always enjoyable to get to know the characters.

4. When did he/she first enter your mind?
He started out as a throw away character in my 2009 release, Chasing Shadows. He was hired as a bodyguard to protect the heroine of the book, but he wasn’t the hero. He almost died in that book. So when I decided to continue to write books with bodyguards, it seemed appropriate to give Don his own book.

5. Where was he/she given life in the creative process?
He really came to life for me around chapter four or five when I realized that he was dealing with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

6. What do like the most about him/her and what do you dislike the most about him/her?
I liked how thoughtful he was toward Caroline and how protective. I didn’t like how he kept pushing her away emotionally. But eventually she and I wore him down. It is a romance after all!

Book Summary

A Shocking Revelation

Finding out she is heir to a fortune shocks Caroline Tully to her core. And to “qualify” for the inheritance, she just has to visit her newfound grandfather’s Mississippi home from Christmas to New Year’s. Adopted as a baby, Caroline knows nothing about her mother’s family...and doesn’t realize they can’t be trusted. When attempts are made on her life, there’s only one man who can protect her. Donovan Cavanaugh—a man who made her lonely heart want to love again. Posing as her fiancé, Don promises to find the would-be killer. But will his protection-and his love-be enough to keep her safe?

Protection Specialists: Guarding the innocent.

Excerpt:

Tears shimmered in her eyes. “Don, I need to hire you.”

Absorbing the announcement with surprise, Don was at her side in two strides. “Come, sit down.”

“Come, sit down.” He took her by the arm and led her to one of the cushy sofas. “Tell me what’s happened so we can figure out what to do next.”

“I—” She took a shuddering breath. “Someone tried to kill me. My apartment door was wired with explosives. The police are investigating.”

Don sucked in a sharp breath of shock. A bomb. His right hand flexed, stretching the scar tissue along the outer edge. His gaze went to the bandage on her head. “Are you okay?”

She touched her fingertip to her forehead. “Yes. A mild concussion. My hearing still isn’t completely back and part of my front door hit me in the head.”

He sent up a silent prayer of thanksgiving that she hadn’t suffered worse injury. There was no mistaking the fear on her pretty face. He understood. He’d felt the same way the first time he’d faced a life-threatening situation during his military tour. Only time and repeated exposure to war had dulled the panic. His faith had kept him sane. But this wasn’t a war zone. Caroline shouldn’t have to be afraid in her own home.

Dubbed the best in the business of protection, Trent Associates employed ten operatives, all highly trained with either a background in military like Don or in law enforcement. “You did the right thing coming here. Start from the beginning. Tell me everything.”

Author Bio

At an early age Terri Reed discovered the wonderful world of fiction and declared she would one day write a book. Now she is fulfilling that dream and enjoys writing for Steeple Hill. She is an active member of both Romance Writers of America and American Christian Fiction Writers. She resides in the Pacific Northwest with her college-sweetheart husband, two wonderful children and an array of critters. When not writing, she enjoys spending time with her family and friends, gardening and playing with her dogs.

http://www.loveinspiredauthors.com

http://www.craftieladiesofromance.blogspot.com

http://www.eharlequin.com

Giveaway

Terri will be giving away a $10 Visa GC for both blog host with most comments and one randomly drawn commenter during the tour.

Encourage your readers to follow the tour and comment; the more they comment, the better their chances of winning. The tour dates can be found here: http://goddessfishpromotions.blogspot.com/2011/11/virtual-book-tour-secret-heiress-by.html

Sallie Lundy-Frommer - Yesterday's Daughter - Author Interview

2012-01-10T00:01:00.002-05:00

My thanks to Sallie Lundy-Frommer for stopping by The Character Connection for an author interview during the blog tour for her book, Yesterday's Daughter.

Author Interview

1. Who is your favorite character?
Okay, this should be an easy question to answer, but it isn’t. I’m torn between four characters in my book. They are all my favorites, in different ways, for different reasons. I guess you figured out I’m hedging answering this question. Okay, okay I’m getting around to it. Sapphira is my favorite character; there, I said it. If I have to choose only one character as my favorite, it’s Sapphira.

2. Why is he/she your favorite?
Sapphira’s my favorite because she evolves into a force to be reckoned with. I love the roller coaster journey she takes the reader on. She is not the only character that experiences highs and lows. But, Sapphira’s journey is unlike the others because she must struggle with the revelations that impact her very identity and destiny.

3. How did you come to create him/her?
Sapphira is the product of my dreams, plain and simple.

4. When did he/she first enter your mind?
Sapphira first entered my dreams approximately five years ago. It took me a while to gather the courage to begin the process of writing her story. But, I had to write this book; there was no getting around it. Sapphira and Malachi’s story became a waking distraction until I began to write.

5. Where was he/she given life in the creative process?
Sapphira was given life the moment she first appeared in my dreams. There was no specific point in the story where she was given life or entered the story. In my creative process, Sapphira is like the Alpha in the biblical sense; she was just there. She is the beginning.

6. What do you like the most about him/her and what do you dislike the most about him/her?
What I like most about Sapphira is her independence. Sapphira is a survivor and is accustomed to handling her problems. She’s never had a support system, as a consequence of her need to keep her differences secret. She is use to handling everything on her own. But it’s also her independence that I dislike at times. We all need help from time to time and need to be willing to ask for it. Sapphira learns this lesson the hard way.

About the Book
Yesterday's Daughter

Book Details:
Price: $12.99 paperback, $9.99 ebook
Format: Paperback, ebook
Publisher: Self-published
Published: January 2011
Pages: 250
ISBN: 9781460925232
Genre: Vampire Romance
Buy Links: Amazon, Kindle, Nook, Smashwords

Blurb:
An emotionally laden paranormal vampire romance novel woven with layers of betrayal, love and loss.

Grace Stone, who later learns her true identity is Sapphira, is a loner who survives abuse in the foster care system after being abandoned as a child. A brilliant student, she escapes from her brutal foster parents as a teenager and creates a life for herself. But, her life is little more than existence; plagued with questions about what she really is, a family that she has never known and the never-ending need to keep her differences hidden.

She is alone and lonely, believing it will always remain so until Malachi appears in her life. Malachi, a Guardian of the vampire communities, has searched for his life mate, Sapphira, for decades. He refuses to cease searching for Sapphira even though she is believed dead by all. Conflict arises over the decades between Malachi and his family because of his refusals to accept another mate. But his very soul drives him on to continue his search, knowing that he could not exist if Sapphira were not in the world, somewhere.

About the Author
Sallie Lundy-Frommer

I can’t remember a time when vampires have gotten more attention. With shows like True Blood, The Vampire Diaries and Being Human and popular books like the Twilight and Dark Series, it’s seems like they’re everywhere. Vampires have always been my favorite supernatural characters. But why? Why am I fascinated with these fantasy beings? Why are you? My interest drove me to write a book, Yesterday’s Daughter. But I could have written about anything, werewolves, cat people or some other paranormal beings, but I chose vampires. Why, I wrote about vampires? I’m not sure I can fully explain why. Maybe I chose vampires because they exude prowess and majesty. But, that would be an all too simple answer. And when I think about it, I know it’s not a complete answer. But it’s a start. What do you think? Why are so many people so interested in these mythical creatures.

As for me, I was born on a farm in the rural South to a family of migrant farm workers. At an early age,my family moved to the urban North-East. Now I live in the suburban North-East with my husband and a large assortment of plants. I hold bachelors and masters degrees in Human Resource Management and currently work in the health care industry.

Connect with Sallie:
Web Site
Facebook (author)
Facebook (book)
Twitter
Blog

About the Tour

Tribute Books Blog Tours

Yesterday's Daughter Blog Tour Site

Tour Participants:

January 2
Sapphyria's Book Reviews

January 3
Unabridged Bookshelf

January 4
BookChowDown

January 5
The Ink Puddle

January 6
Paranormal Indulgence

January 7
The Writer's Voice

January 9
Addicted to Romance

January 10
The Character Connection

January 10
Mom in Love with Fiction

January 11
The Plot Thickens

January 11
Reading and Writing Urban Fantasy and Paranormal Romance

January 12
Books-n-Kisses

January 13
I Just Wanna Sit Here and Read!

January 13
Reader Girls

January 16
City Girl Who Loves to Read

January 17
Xpresso Reads

January 17
The Wormhole

January 18
Lisa's World of Books

January 20
Mrs. Papillion The Book Worm

January 24
vvb32 reads

January 30
From the TBR Pile

Follow Friday

2012-01-06T17:58:00.001-05:00

Go count the number of unread books sitting on your shelf. How many?

At least 25 including The Night Circus...sigh...which I've wanted to read for weeks.

Michael J. McCann - Blood Passage - Author Interview

2012-01-06T00:01:00.000-05:00

Author Interview

1. Who is your favorite character?
Although Hank Donaghue is the central character in the series and probably closer to me than the other characters, I have to admit that Karen Stainer is the one I'm most fond of.

2. Why is she your favorite?
She's foul-mouthed, aggressive, cocky and violent, and not the kind of person I'd take to in real life, but I've never had a character come to me before as complete and as round as Karen. Her scenes flow onto the page without effort. As well, she cares deeply for Hank Donaghue and will always have his back, and her past, once it's revealed in detail throughout the series, will explain a great deal about her personality and will show how she can find a much better balance in her life than she has in Blood Passage.

3. How did you come to create her?
I have absolutely no idea. It was as though she sprang out of my forehead fully developed.

4. When did she first enter your mind?
Hank Donaghue came first, but I'd decided up front I wanted a male/female duo and since Hank is well-educated and from an upper-class background I naturally wanted to cast the female as an opposite of sorts. I ran a couple of Google image searches looking for a face that might serve as a reference and found a photo of an actress I didn't know and whose name I don't recall now, but as soon as I saw that photo I understood who Karen Stainer was going to be.

5. Where was she given life in the creative process?
I began with the story idea. I'd been reading a book called Life Before Life: A Scientific Investigation of Children's Memories of Previous Lives by Dr. Jim B. Tucker of the University of Virginia when I thought the concept might make a great premise for a crime novel. When I asked myself who the homicide investigators would be, as I say, Hank came first but Karen was close behind.

6. What do you like and dislike most about her?
As a writer, I like the fact that Karen has a wicked sense of humor. Hank's sense of humor is wry and very ironic, but Karen gives me a chance to zip a few fastballs in there. Plus, I have to admit, I love her foul mouth -- although I know it bothers some readers -- because it's such an important part of her personality. I'm asking readers to take her foul language with a grain of salt and try to figure out why she's always so damned angry! What do I dislike most about her? As a writer, I dislike her Texan accent because I want to get it just right but I don't want to overdo it. I drop final consonants sometimes and other times I don't because it just doesn't look right. However, I only use "y'all" in the plural and I understand that's correct. Right?

Book Summary

Four years ago Martin Liu was found dead in an alley and the physical evidence suggested it was a drug deal gone wrong. Homicide Lieutenant Hank Donaghue didn’t like the feel of it, but it wasn’t his case and it ended up going nowhere.

Now Donaghue and Detective Karen Stainer are drawn into the Liu cold case when an out-of-town graduate student is beaten up by gang members after asking the wrong questions about the victim. Donaghue and Stainer discover that Martin Liu’s cousin, Triad enforcer Peter Mah, has taken an active interest and is tracking down suspects on his own to extract his own deadly brand of vengeance.

As Donaghue and Stainer race to contain the violence sweeping their city, they must confront the troubling fact that new evidence, including the names of the men responsible for Martin's death four years ago, seems to be coming from the most unlikely of sources – a three-year-old boy!

Title: Blood Passage. A Donaghue and Stainer Crime Novel
Publisher: The Plaid Raccoon Press
Genre: Crime fiction; Mystery & Thriller/Police Procedural
Paperback edition: 250 pp., published June 28, 2011

Links to buy the paperback:

http://www.amazon.com/Blood-Passage-Michael-J-McCann/dp/0987708708

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/blood-passage-michael-j-mccann/1104161526?ean=9780987708700&itm=4&usri=michael%2bj%2bmccann

See my website for Canadian and international links.

E-book edition: Published by Smashwords on July 11, 2011.

Links to buy the e-book:

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/72770

http://www.amazon.com/Blood-Passage-Donaghue-Stainer-ebook/dp/B005GRAK5M/ref=tmm_kin_title_0?ie=UTF8&m=AZC9TZ4UC9CFC

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/blood-passage-michael-j-mccann
/1104161526?ean=2940011425219&format=nook-book&itm=4&usri=michael%2Bj%2Bmccann

http://itunes.apple.com/us/book/blood-passage/id453284535?mt=11

Author Bio

Michael J. McCann lives and writes in Oxford Station, Ontario, Canada. He's the author of Blood Passage, a Donaghue and Stainer Crime Novel, and The Ghost Man, a supernatural thriller.

Connect with Michael:

Twitter:
http://www.twitter.com/MichaelJMcCann1

Website:
http://www.mjmccann.com

Blog: The Overnight Bestseller: http://michaeljmccannsblog.blogspot.com/

Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/people/Michael-J-McCann/100002485759516

Video book trailer:
http://vimeo.com/31346221

Gordon Gumpertz - Red Hot Sky - Author Interview

2012-01-05T00:01:00.000-05:00

Author Interview

1. Who is your favorite character?
I created two protagonists for Red Hot Sky: Ben Mason and Claudine Manet. They are equal favorites.

2. Why is he/she your favorite?
Ben has all the traits people admire: courage, loyalty, selflessness, quick thinking under stress, ability to accomplish great things against impossible odds. And he does it with modesty and a sense of humor. Claudine has beauty, brains, determination, and a soft, loving side. She's fearless when it comes to driving people to get the job done. But her love and caring for Ben run deep.

3. How did you come to create him/her?
I wanted to write a story about a relationship between two strong people who love each other but have their own ideas. And about their reactions when the ideas conflict and the relationship is strained.

4. When did he/she first enter your mind?
The character profiles developed as I was outlining the plot and storyline for Red Hot Sky.

5. Where was he/she given life in the creative process?
Ben was introduced on page 1 and we came to know something about him by the end of Chapter 1. Claudine was mentioned early as being out of town, and not introduced till page 33, after which we gradually learn more about her.

6. What do you like the most about him/her and what do you dislike the most about him/her?
The likes are same as question 2. As for the dislikes, Ben can keep his head under extreme pressure and do great things. I guess I'm jealous. Also, his addiction to danger puts him in conflict with his responsibilities to others. The main discomfort with Claudine is her set of rigid expectations for her relationship with Ben.

Book Summary

CO2 buildup in earth’s atmosphere reaches a tipping point. Global weather destabilizes, turns chaotic. Ice storms, dust storms, floods, blizzards, hurricanes, tornadoes pummel the earth nonstop. A secret computer model reveals that the frantic weather will peak out, and transform world climate into an alien environment devastating to human survival.

Scientists Ben Mason, Claudine Manet, and Bertrand Short are developers of the computer model. Ben and Claudine are lovers as well as lab partners. While they work frantically to head off the approaching catastrophe, a disgraced Russian general hacks into their model and sees earth’s bleak future as his opportunity for ultimate world power.

Ben, who had left the CIA to develop the computer model at the national lab, is reactivated by the Agency and sent on a perilous mission to block the rogue general’s plot. Claudine, not realizing that Ben is on a secret mission, misunderstands his absence, putting their relationship on thin ice.

Claudine is placed in charge of a massive NASA project that, if completed on time, could stop the approaching doomsday climate change. But her project is stalled by bureaucracy. Ben is on the run in hostile territory. The climate change calamity steadily approaches.

Author Bio

Gordon Gumpertz brings fiction readers another exciting action/adventure experience in his new novel RED HOT SKY. This is the author’s second book, following his highly acclaimed novel TSUNAMI.

In addition to writing novels, Gordon has won gold and silver awards in national and regional short story competitions. He is a member of the Authors Guild, the Palm Springs Writers Guild, a UCLA graduate, and an instrument-rated private pilot. He keeps his website current by blogging on natural disasters and natural phenomena.

Gordon and his wife Jenny live not far from the San Andreas fault, where the Pacific Plate thrusts into the North American Plate, building increasingly high levels of faultline stress which, the seismologists say, may soon produce the Big One.

Visit his website at www.tsunaminaturaldisaster.com.

Website | Amazon | Amazon Kindle | Barnes & Noble | Smashwords

FINAL SNEAK PEEK of Chapter Twenty of the young adult ebook "The Priest and the Peaches" - NOW AVAILABLE

2012-01-04T11:32:00.000-05:00

A final sneak peek of chapter twenty of The Priest and the Peaches - a young adult ebook release from Tribute Books by Larry Peterson

NOW AVAILABLE!

buy links
Kindle - $2.99
Nook - $4.95
iPad - $4.99
PDF - $4.95
Smashwords - $4.99

CHAPTER TWENTY
Beatrice Amon and the Peaches

Teddy said uneasily, “Well look, Father. I can't help but think that all Miss Amon did by calling the cops was cause a whole bunch of trouble for all of us—even you.”

The priest’s exasperation with the young man's remarks was obvious. “Oh really? That's what you think, is it? Did you listen to one word I just said? Did you?”

Now Teddy was unnerved. When Father Sullivan got angry he seemed to grow two feet in height. He became very intimidating, especially for an 18 year old who knew him since the third grade. “Yes, Father, I was listening.”

“No, Teddy, you weren’t. You were too busy thinking about how much you don't like Miss Amon. Your pride has gotten in the way of your faith. L-Y-N, remember? Time to move on, Teddy. Miss Amon is not the mean-spirited person you think she is. In fact, none of you really know anything about her, do you? Now, you’re going to have to take this pride of yours and stuff it in your back pocket and sit on it. The fact is, you owe Miss Amon something.”

www.ThePriestAndThePeaches.com

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.

Brian Young - Blood Veins - Author Interview

2012-01-04T00:01:00.002-05:00

Author Interview

1. Who is your favorite character?
My favorite character ended up being Briah.

2. Why is he/she your favorite?
Briah I think stands out the most in the novel. She is the only prominent female character and there is a lot of mystery behind her. The reader won’t be entirely sure where Briah’s allegiances lie. She is a young and strong character, but she is a little naïve and will have a lot of learning to do before the story is over.

3. How did you come to create him/her?
Briah is integral to the story. I knew I needed a strong female character and the role she occupies fits that perfectly. Her role is to lead the other main characters along, all men. They are following a certain path, one that they want to take, but she nudges them in a certain direction in order to make sure they end up where her master wants them. Who better to play that role than an intelligent, attractive and strong female?

4. When did he/she first enter your mind?
She entered my mind very early in the story. She is in the second scene of the first chapter and I always knew I wanted the type of character she portrays to be present in my novel. I grew up with two sisters. I’m married and I have a daughter. I’ve been around a lot of strong women and I think Briah has a lot of those qualities, though she will have some struggles in the novel with her values.

5. Where was he/she given life in the creative process?
Many of the characters in the novel have very limited knowledge about the circumstances surrounding them. Briah develops the most in her interactions during these conversations. She represents a group that has a much greater view of the world beyond what most understand. Briah has answers to many of the questions the other characters are looking for but is forbidden from answering them by her superiors. But Briah is still very young and over the course of the novel as she spends more time away from her former home and more time with her current companions she starts to question where here her future will be.

6. What do like the most about him/her and what do you dislike the most about him/her?
I like that Briah really gets a chance to shine in the novel, both mentally and with her physical prowess. The reader will get to see her struggles especially internally develop throughout the story. She is put into a very dire situation in the latter half of the novel and really shows her toughness and perseverance. I don’t think there is anything about the character I dislike except that I wasn’t able to feature her even more in the novel.

Book Summary:

A black wave has passed over the thriving kingdom of Larista. Mysterious invaders calling themselves the Dolus have swept over the land laying waste to everything in their paths and leaving ghost towns in their wake. No one knows where they came from and no one knows what their purpose is. Tasting nothing but defeat after defeat the light of hope is fading in the kingdom; but the guerrilla forces resisting the Dolus invasion have received new information. This news has provided a small glimmer that could possibly spark into something more. Captain Maximus Rex leads a daring rescue mission deep in the Laristan forests to save the lone surviving member of the royal family.

Once freed Prince Alexander Novelle along with his friends and comrades face a perilous journey deep behind enemy lines. Their destination is Castle Varanasi. The once proud Laristan capital, gateway to heaven and salvation, lies in ruins under Dolus occupation. Mysterious assassins, underworld savages and renegade Dolus survivors stand between them the answers they seek. What they find there will shatter their perceptions and lead to unknown perils none of them are ready to face.

Excerpt:

Percival shook his head. "It's our duty to kill that murdering, traitorous scum, Novell, and free everyone. Not just these people here today. We can't do that on our own though. We need him or no one will follow us."

Maximus cocked his head and looked quizzically at Percy. "You know both their names are Novell, right? Not to mention there's no proof Prodis is responsible for this. I doubt Alexander would appreciate you calling his brother a murdering, traitorous scum."

It was clear Percival was convinced Prodis was responsible and all he gave in response was a short grunt.

"Anyway," Maximus continued, "If Alexander is down there and we don't go in, we will have missed our best and possibly our only chance at freeing him. We go."

Percival's face went blank as he barked out, "Yes Sir."

The captain sighed, his breath showing in the crisp cold air. The rain had started to let up and it seemed the temperature had dropped another ten degrees as the chill renewed its assault against his rain soaked cold weather gear. "I hate it when you call me Sir. It means you disagree with me, or you're mad at me"

Percy gave his Captain a half grin. "First, if I can't call you Maxi and I can't call you Sir, what am I suppose to call you? Second, I do agree with you. I just know when you need someone else to voice your inner thoughts and help you sort things out. Lastly, I'll make sure everyone is ready." Percival finished with his customary grin.

"I hate you sometimes, Lieutenant."

Percival shrugged and turned to pass the plans along to the rest of the squad.

Author Bio:

Brian is a graduate of the University of Oregon. He works as a banker and an editor for Rogue Phoenix Press. He currently resides in Oregon with his wife and daughter.

Find Brian on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Author-Brian-Young/209003422499368

Giveaway:

PLEASE MENTION THE PRIZE THAT THE AUTHOR WILL BE GIVING AWAY: a $25 Amazon GC to one randomly selected commenter during the tour, and a $15 Amazon GC to the host with the most comments (excluding Brian's or the host's).

Encourage your readers to follow the tour and comment; the more they comment, the better their chances of winning. The tour dates can be found here: http://goddessfishpromotions.blogspot.com/2011/11/virtual-book-tour-blood-veins-by-brian.html

SNEAK PEEK of Chapter Nineteen of the young adult ebook "The Priest and the Peaches" - NOW AVAILABLE

2012-01-03T11:01:00.000-05:00

A sneak peek of chapter nineteen of The Priest and the Peaches - a young adult ebook release from Tribute Books by Larry Peterson

NOW AVAILABLE!

buy links
Kindle - $2.99
Nook - $4.95
iPad - $4.99
PDF - $4.95
Smashwords - $4.99

CHAPTER NINETEEN
Father Sullivan visits Beatrice

He pushed the doorbell and waited. He heard a faint voice coming from inside. “Oh, just a moment, please. I'll be there as soon as I can. I'm not moving very well. Hold on, please.” It sounded like someone was trapped in a deep hole calling for help as they attempted to climb out.

A few moments passed before Miss Amon slowly opened the door. She was dressed in a floor-length, gray housecoat, a maroon, button-down wool sweater and a pair of rubber boots. Her body was sort of listing to one side and she was holding an ice pack to her bruised forehead.

“Oh my, Beatrice, you look awful. Is there anything I can do for you?”

“Oh no, Father. I'll be all right. It's those kids upstairs. My apartment is destroyed. I was almost killed. I don't know what happened up there or what they were doing. All I know is, I'm lucky to be alive.”

“May I come in, Beatrice?”

“Oh, I'm sorry. Where are my manners? Of course, Father, come in.”

Father Sullivan followed the slow moving, lucky-to-be-alive woman into her apartment. She immediately headed to the sofa, as she fell more than sat on it. She took a deep breath while simultaneously emitting a soft moan. Leaning her head back, she removed the ice pack, shook it to rearrange the ice inside it before placing it back on her forehead.

Father took in the entire performance. “Well, Beatrice, tell me what happened here today. And what in heaven's name happened to your head?”

www.ThePriestAndThePeaches.com

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.

Rachel McClellan - Fractured Light - Author Interview

2012-01-03T00:01:00.000-05:00

Author Interview

1. Who is your favorite character?
It would have to be Llona.

2. Why is she your favorite?
Because she’s got this voice that makes me laugh, which made writing about her very easy. As her “creator” I wanted her to do different things, but she literally took over the book and sent it in a direction I hadn’t intended.

3. How did you come to create her?
I was thinking one day about people who say they can see a person’s aura’s, you know, the “light” that surrounds us. I thought it would be cool if someone could actually use this as a power, and from there I began to explore all the things an Aura might do with her ability.

4. When did she first enter your mind?
My friend and I were swapping various writing assignments (we’re total nerds), and one of them was something like, “write about a person at a funeral.” I instantly thought of my Aura, and Llona appeared. This scene ended up being my first chapter in FRACTURED LIGHT.

5. Where was she given life in the creative process?
When I heard her voice. She’s so snarky and sarcastic.

6. What do like the most about her and what do you dislike the most about her?
I didn’t like that, at first, she was afraid to show her true self to others. Gratefully, that changed though. I loved that Llona didn’t need Christian, her love interest, to fight the final battle. She depended upon herself to get the job done and did a very good job of it. Girls, never need a guy, want a guy. Go girl power!

Author Bio

Rachel McClellan currently lives in Maine, but was born and raised in Idaho, a place secretly known for its supernatural creatures. When she’s not in her writing lair, she’s partying with her husband and four small children. Her love for storytelling began as a child when the moon first possessed the night. For when the lights went out, her imagination painted a whole new world. And what a scary world it was…

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/AuthorRachelMcClellan
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/RachelMcClellan
Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFefXbzlfo4
Website: www.rachelmcclellan.com
Blog: http://blackbirdinmywindow.blogspot.com

Book Summary

I’m dying, I thought. This was unexpected and not at all how I envisioned my death. I was supposed to die gardening in a flowerbed as a hundred-year-old woman, not as a seventeen-year-old trapped in a lake beneath inches of ice.

Llona Reese is used to living on the run. After a Vyken killed her parents, she knew they would eventually come for her too. She can’t take any chances. But when she starts to make friends for the first time in her life, she gets careless and lets her guard down. Big mistake.

As an Aura, Llona can manipulate light and harness its energy. But if she wants to survive, Llona will have to defy the Auran Council and learn to use her power as a weapon against the Vyken whose sole desire is to take her light. Now she’s caught in something bigger than she can understand, with a power she can’t wield, and no one she can trust, except, just maybe, a mysterious stranger.

Publisher: Cedar Fort Publishing
Genre: Urban fantasy
Release: February 7, 2012
Pages: 312
Price: $16.99
Purchase on Amazon

SNEAK PEEK of Chapter Eighteen of the young adult ebook "The Priest and the Peaches" - NOW AVAILABLE

2012-01-02T12:14:00.000-05:00

A sneak peek of chapter eighteen of The Priest and the Peaches - a young adult ebook release from Tribute Books by Larry Peterson

NOW AVAILABLE!
Holiday Special
Kindle version only 99 cents until January 2
buy link
Kindle - $0.99

other available buy links
Nook - $4.95
PDF - $4.95
Smashwords - $4.99

Coming soon:
iPad ($4.99)

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Running from the cops

“Don't do it, Dancer. Please don't leave us here alone.”

“You wanna go home, don't you?”

“Yeah, but...”

“Then be quiet and take care of Joey.”

Officer Joe was by the doorway with his back to the room talking to the nurse in the hallway. Dancer stepped quietly to the side of the unsuspecting policeman then bolted from the room. Officer Tommy, talking on the pay phone in the lobby, caught a glimpse of someone running. He turned to see Dancer headed for the exit. He dropped the phone as he ran after him but Dancer made it outside. He turned left and kept going—running faster than he ever had in his life.

Officer Tommy shouted, “Dancer, stop right now. You come back here!”

Dancer turned to see Officer Tommy gaining on him. He knew he was no match for the fleet-footed policeman. As he rounded the corner of the hospital he crashed into someone. The man instinctively raised his forearms to protect himself. He held onto Dancer preventing him from getting away. A second later, Officer Tommy grabbed Dancer by the arm. Dancer started hollering, “Leave me alone! I didn't do anything. Let me go!”

Surprisingly, Officer Tommy said, “I'm sorry. Are you all right, Father?”

Dancer turned and looked up at the man he almost knocked over. It was Father Sullivan.

www.ThePriestAndThePeaches.com

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.

Tom Mach - Stories to Enjoy - Guest Post

2012-01-02T00:01:00.002-05:00

Guest Post

"How I Made All My Characters Come Alive for Stories to Enjoy"
by Tom Mach

Making all of your characters come alive for a collection of short stories is a difficult task. Unlike developing characters for a novel, where you can spend time flushing out your protagonist, you don’t have that luxury with a short story. I’ve compiled a collection of sixteen different short stories in Stories To Enjoy. With each of these stories, I had to interject myself into the characters and see everything through their eyes and experience their reaction to evens through their own thoughts and feelings.

For instance, in “Assassin” in my short story collection, I’m a woman who is about to die. I put myself into the mind and body of Kerry Kingston, the President’s Press Secretary, who has just been shot. I do more than simply say she was shot….

A sudden pain in her chest, the sharp stabbing pain took her totally by surprise. What was happening? Why was she dropping to the floor? The hot, burning pain was now tearing through her chest. A rainbow of bright colors flashed through her brain.

In “Priscilla’s New Word” I am an 8-year-old girl named Priscilla who is jealous of her classmate Barbette because her father gives her anything she wants. I made Priscilla come alive by going into her thoughts as her dad has her fitted for glasses….

These glasses would help her study harder and become smarter than anyone in class—especially Barbette. She’s so stuck up and thinks she’s better than everybody just because her parents give her things…but she will be at her feet, begging to know the answers to an important test, and Priscilla would tower over her like a queen.

A real challenge is in creating a believable character in a short scene. In “Son” I describe an old man by revealing his past failure as a father and by his thoughts about the urgent need to see his son again. In “Breakfast, Over Easy” I show how emotionally confused a young man is by being enticed by his best friend’s attractive fiancée. I don’t have to describe the physical attributes of these characters nor do I have time to do so.

It reminds me of a story I heard about a little boy who asks his father, “Daddy, I don’t have much.” And his father replies, “But that’s okay, because you have enough.”

That is a point to reflect on when we create characters for a short story.

Book Summary

This unique collection of 16 short stories written by prize-winner Tom Mach includes stories such as "Real Characters," which is about a writer who gets his wish--that his characters come alive.... "Breakfast, Over Easy" makes you wonder about loyalty in the face of temptation.... "When Kansas Women Were Not Free" takes you to a time when women were less free than former males slaves.... "Son" make you think differently about compassion. One novelist describes STORIES TO ENJOY as "memorable and intriguing, with O. Henry twists that are sure to surprise and entertain."

Excerpt

The professor focused his entire attention on what Ford’s Theater looked like back in April of 1865. He imagined himself to be John Wilkes Booth’s friend and stagehand—Edman Spangler. After a long while he felt himself growing exceedingly tired, and when he opened his eyes he found himself in the real Ford’s Theater. There was no one in the presidential box and Wilson, who now believed he was indeed Mr. Spangler, ran his hand over the balustrade.

“Spangler,” a voice called out to him from below, “are you still working on removing the partition of the box to make room for the President and General Grant?”

It was John Wilkes Booth himself speaking to him!

Bio

Tom Mach wrote two successful historical novels, Sissy! and All Parts Together, both of which have won rave reviews and were listed among the 150 best Kansas books in 2011.Sissy! won the J. Donald Coffin Memorial Book Award while All Parts Together was a viable entrant for the 2007 Pulitzer Prize Award. He also wrote a collection of short stories entitled Stories To Enjoy which received positive reviews. Tom’s other novels include: An Innocent Murdered, Advent, and Homer the Roamer.

His poetry collection, The Uni Verse, won the Nelson Poetry Book Award. In addition to several awards for his poetry, Writer’s Digest awarded him ninth place in a field of 3,000 entrants. His website is: www.TomMach.com He also has a popular blog for writers of both prose and verse at http://tommach.tumblr.com

Links

http://twitter.com/kansasauthor

http://www.facebook.com/kansasauthor

http://www.linkedin.com/in/tommach

http://tommach.tumblr.com

Giveaway

PLEASE MENTION THE PRIZE THAT THE AUTHOR WILL BE GIVING AWAY (a $25 Amazon gift card to one randomly drawn commenter) and encourage your readers to follow the tour and comment; the more they comment, the better their chances of winning. The tour dates can be found here: http://goddessfishpromotions.blogspot.com/2011/11/vbt-stories-to-enjoy-by-tom-mach.html

Follow Friday

2011-12-30T12:12:00.002-05:00

The New Year is here — and everyone wants to know your New Years Blogging Resolution! What are you going to try to revise, revamp and redo for 2012 on your blog?

I would love to post more author interviews and guest posts for anyone out there looking for some extra word-of-mouth publicity for their book.

SNEAK PEEK of Chapter Seventeen of the young adult ebook "The Priest and the Peaches" - NOW AVAILABLE

2011-12-30T12:08:00.001-05:00

A sneak peek of chapter seventeen of The Priest and the Peaches - a young adult ebook release from Tribute Books by Larry Peterson

NOW AVAILABLE!
Holiday Special
Kindle version only 99 cents until January 2
buy link
Kindle - $0.99

other available buy links
Nook - $4.95
PDF - $4.95
Smashwords - $4.99

Coming soon:
iPad ($4.99)

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
"Batman & Robin" collapse a ceiling

“Hey, Beeker, let’s play Batman and Robin. Watch this.” And just like that, Joey bounced across the bed and rolled onto the floor triggering a new round of heavy coughing.

Downstairs, Beatrice was in her living room lying on the sofa. Wrapped in a bathrobe and covered with a blanket, she was quickly using up the box of tissues on the coffee table as she attempted to restrain her cough and keep her nose dry. She heard the thump caused by Joey's landing. Turning her head upward, she glared at the ceiling. “They’d better not start,” she mumbled to herself.

Beeker started to laugh and decided to keep wearing his damp Batman pajamas. The shirt was stretched up passed his belly button and the legs on the bottoms barely covered his knees. “Okay, watch me.” He climbed onto the dresser before jumping down on the bed. Rolling onto the floor, he said, “Oh, I forgot something.”

He grabbed a dirty towel, tied it around his neck making a Batman cape. Back on top of the dresser, he flew with outstretched arms onto the bed again. The Batman and Robin show was in full swing. They both began taking turns leaping from the dresser to the bed before rolling onto the floor.

Maybe it was an adrenalin rush but the characters they were pretending to be took over their psyche. Beeker and Joey, coughing and sneezing, overcame their blazing fevers turning into superheroes. Time after time, they climbed up on the dresser and flew to the bed.

Beatrice was holding her pounding head in her hands. They have one more minute to stop or else.

The bed, supported by four wooden slats across the bed frame, held together as long as it could. Then Batman made an extra mighty leap and the bed collapsed, slamming to the floor. Not only did the box spring and mattress crash to the floor, the side rails ripped from the headboard causing it to fall forward. The combination of all the parts collapsing together made for a super loud crash.

Beatrice was so startled by the crash that she vaulted up from her prone position. She accidentally rolled off the sofa smashing her head on the edge of the coffee table.

The crash was so loud—it even woke Dancer. Robin, not concerned in the least about the collapsed bed, was about to make another leap when Dancer came bursting in. Seeing the mess he hollered, “What, are the two of you crazy? Look what you did. Oh man, Teddy is gonna freak. We gotta get this fixed. Dang, I gotta go to the bathroom. I'll be right back.”

Dancer hurried to the bathroom. As he reached the living room, he felt cold water squishing between his toes and under his feet. “What the heck is going on?” He sloshed into the bathroom. The big afghan was floating in water that was spilling over the sides of the tub. “Holy crap...oh, man.”

He ran back to the bedroom yelling, “What did you do? The tub is overflowing and there’s water all over the place.”

“Uh oh, Joey, we forgot to turn the water off.”

www.ThePriestAndThePeaches.com

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.

SNEAK PEEK of Chapter Sixteen of the young adult ebook "The Priest and the Peaches" - NOW AVAILABLE

2011-12-29T10:37:00.001-05:00

A sneak peek of chapter sixteen of The Priest and the Peaches - a young adult ebook release from Tribute Books by Larry Peterson

NOW AVAILABLE!
Holiday Special
Kindle version only 99 cents until January 2
buy link
Kindle - $0.99

other available buy links
Nook - $4.95
PDF - $4.95
Smashwords - $4.99

Coming soon:
iPad ($4.99)

CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Going to see Aunt Vera

“Okay, so I'm not allowed to call your house? Is this a joke? Are you kidding me? What’s going on, Sarah? What, have I turned into a demon or something?”

“Stop it, Teddy. I asked you to trust me. Do you think you can do that? I'll explain everything when I see you.”

He knew it was best to leave it alone. “Okay, Sarah. Talk to you tomorrow. I love you.”

“Yeah, Teddy, I know you do.” Click.

He stood there, holding the silent receiver, suddenly feeling lost and alone. He did not know what to think. Sarah was his refuge—she listened to him, she understood him. They were in love. They were going to get married. And she didn't say, “I love you” back. It was as if she had turned on him. He had tried his best to be a man for his family and show them that everything was under control and everything would be all right. Taking the grief, the embarrassments and the fears that bombarded him over the previous six days, he tried to stuff everything inside. But the simple click of the phone became his coup de grace. Alone in Celia's back room, he started bawling.

www.ThePriestAndThePeaches.com

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.

SNEAK PEEK of Chapter Fifteen of the young adult ebook "The Priest and the Peaches" - NOW AVAILABLE

2011-12-28T10:27:00.000-05:00

A sneak peek of chapter fifteen of The Priest and the Peaches - a young adult ebook release from Tribute Books by Larry Peterson

NOW AVAILABLE!
Holiday Special
Kindle version only 99 cents until January 2
buy link
Kindle - $0.99

other available buy links
Nook - $4.95
PDF - $4.95
Smashwords - $4.99

Coming soon:
iPad ($4.99)

CHAPTER FIFTEEN
"I have five orphans living above me"

Joanie came hurrying to the front door and as she got there, Dancer exited the bathroom. Joanie, seeing Miss Amon standing there, quickly put her arm around Joey's shoulder saying, “Teddy's not here Miss Amon. Can I help you with something?”

“Yes, I saw him on his way out. He ran right into me causing me to smash my head into the wall. He almost knocked me down. I was fortunate I didn’t have to be hospitalized. Thank God, Mr. Zimmerman came along. He saw the whole thing. In fact, it was he who helped me back to my apartment. Anyway enough about me, Joey told me that your lights and phone are...as he put it...broken. Is that correct?”

Dancer stepped in front of his sister. “None of your business. You just wait until my brother gets back if you want to talk to us. Right, Joanie?”

Miss Amon became angry. “That is no way to speak to a lady, young man. Where are your manners?”

“Yeah well, who said you’re a lady anyway?”

Joanie was aghast. She was still trying to process the incident with Teddy and Miss Amon and now Dancer told the woman that she was not a lady and to mind her own business. “Oh my God, Dancer. What's wrong with you? I'm so sorry, Miss Amon. Dancer, you apologize to Miss Amon right now.”

“You apologize, Joanie. I don't care. She doesn't like us. She’s trying to make trouble for us. I'm not apologizing to nobody. C'mon Joey, let's go see what Beeker is doing.”

Joanie was stunned and embarrassed by Dancer's behavior. No matter how right he was about the woman's motives, at 14, his behavior made him look like an ill-tempered juvenile delinquent. Joanie was frightened. Miss Amon never came to their door. Now in less than a week, she was there a second time. Teddy had slammed the door in her face ending her first visit. Now Dancer had insulted her. She was wishing that Teddy or Scratch would come walking up the stairs but that was not happening. Like it or not, she was in charge.

www.ThePriestAndThePeaches.com

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.

SNEAK PEEK of Chapter Fourteen of the young adult ebook "The Priest and the Peaches" - NOW AVAILABLE

2011-12-27T10:43:00.000-05:00

A sneak peek of chapter fourteen of The Priest and the Peaches - a young adult ebook release from Tribute Books by Larry Peterson

NOW AVAILABLE!
Holiday Special
Kindle version only 99 cents until January 2
buy link
Kindle - $0.99

other available buy links
PDF - $4.95
Smashwords - $4.99

Coming soon:
Nook ($4.95)
iPad ($4.99)

CHAPTER FOURTEEN
"The keys are in Pops' leg"

Teddy headed to the back room to begin searching for the keys. His brief altercation with his brother made him momentarily forget about the box on the kitchen table. Teddy was surprised to see Joey sitting on the bed, legs crossed, hands folded, just doing nothing. “Oh hey, Joey. What's going on? You okay? Why are you back here all by yourself?”

Joey looked sheepishly at his big brother. It was if he had done something wrong, but he hadn't. Teddy simply said, “Can you help me look for Pops' keys. They’re around here somewhere. We have to get the mail.”

Without hesitating, Joey said, “They're in Pops' leg.”

Teddy froze right where he was. He looked at little Joey wondering if he really heard what he thought he heard. “What? What did you say, Joey?”

“The keys are in Pops' leg. He put them in there when he went to the hospital.”

“Joanie, get back here. Hurry up.”

Joanie ran back to the room. “What? What's wrong?”

“Okay, get this. Joey just told me that the keys are in Pops' leg. This is getting weird. First the insurance, now this.”

“C'mon Teddy, how could they be in his leg? That's crazy.”

Joey got up on his knees and yelled at his sister, “It’s not crazy. Pops told me, and Pops isn’t crazy. You shouldn't say that Joanie. That's a bad thing to say.” Then he started crying.

“Oh my God, Joey, I didn't mean...okay, okay, stop crying. Just tell us when you talked to Pops?”

www.ThePriestAndThePeaches.com

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.

SNEAK PEEK of Chapter Thirteen of the young adult ebook "The Priest and the Peaches" - NOW AVAILABLE

2011-12-26T10:27:00.000-05:00

A sneak peek of chapter thirteen of The Priest and the Peaches - a young adult ebook release from Tribute Books by Larry Peterson

NOW AVAILABLE!
Holiday Special
Kindle version only 99 cents until January 2
buy link
Kindle - $0.99

other available buy links
PDF - $4.95
Smashwords - $4.99

Coming soon:
Nook ($4.95)
iPad ($4.99)

CHAPTER THIRTEEN
"Pops' grand finale"

At nine thirty Mr. Kelly told the kids they should begin to say their goodbyes. The four of them walked up with Scratch. Beeker and Dancer went up to Pops together. Dancer's arm was around his brother's shoulder and they were both crying. Beeker reached into the casket touching Pops' hand while Dancer laid his free hand on Pops' chest. They stood together crying, their hands both seemingly frozen in place on their father. Their broken hearts were visible.

Teddy stepped up to them and guided them away placing his arms around each of them. Joanie, with Scratch at her side, went up to Pops kissing him on the forehead. She and Scratch stepped away and it was Teddy's turn. He was dreading this moment. He remembered kissing Mom on the forehead when he said goodbye to her and how cold and hard her forehead felt. He was so unnerved that he never forgot it. Nevertheless, he leaned forward, closed his eyes and kissed Pops on the forehead. Once again, that same cold, hardness greeted his lips. He stood, looked at his father's dead face and whispered, “Love you, Pops. I'm sorry about the other night. Say hi to Mom for me.”

www.ThePriestAndThePeaches.com

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.

Follow Friday

2011-12-23T10:25:00.002-05:00

If you had to spend eternity inside the pages of a book which book would you choose and why?

Without a doubt, L.M. Montgomery's Anne of Green Gables - Marilla's home-cooking, the beauty of Prince Edward Island, the simplicity of the lifestyle - yep, I'd be there in a heartbeat.

SNEAK PEEK of Chapter Twelve of the young adult ebook "The Priest and the Peaches" - NOW AVAILABLE

2011-12-23T10:21:00.001-05:00

A sneak peek of chapter twelve of The Priest and the Peaches - a young adult ebook release from Tribute Books by Larry Peterson

NOW AVAILABLE!
Holiday Special
Kindle version only 99 cents until January 2
buy link
Kindle - $0.99

other available buy links
PDF - $4.95
Smashwords - $4.99

Coming soon:
Nook ($4.95)
iPad ($4.99)

CHAPTER TWELVE
"I don't have any money"

Did you find any insurance papers?”

“This, here. But it says redeemed on it. What does that mean?”

“I'm not sure. Let me see.”

Joanie handed Teddy a clear plastic envelope filled with neatly folded papers. He removed the paperwork and unfolded it. There were six sheets and he slowly began to flip them over as he read through them. “Oh boy, Joanie. He cashed it in last September.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean this policy was worth $7,500, but he cashed it in. He redeemed it. I guess these things are worth some money before you die. He only got $156 for it. So, this policy is worthless. I don't even know why he kept it.”

“He must have needed the money pretty bad. That's sad. So, now what do we do?”

“Geez, Joanie, I don't know. This is all new to me. The one thing I do know is that I have to tell Mrs. Kelly. Dang, I have no idea what a funeral costs. And we're supposed to pay for it. I think I’m getting a knot in my stomach.”

www.ThePriestAndThePeaches.com

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.

Teaser Tuesday - SNEAK PEEK of Chapter Eleven of the young adult ebook "The Priest and the Peaches" - NOW AVAILABLE

2011-12-22T12:14:00.002-05:00

A sneak peek of chapter eleven of The Priest and the Peaches - a young adult ebook release from Tribute Books by Larry Peterson

NOW AVAILABLE
buy links
PDF - $4.95
Smashwords - $4.99

Coming soon:
Kindle ($2.99)
Nook ($4.95)
iPad ($4.99)

CHAPTER ELEVEN
Father KO's "Trumpet Man"

All things being equal, it seemed fitting that they had all come out to witness a man, obviously under the influence of something besides coffee, demanding to know where Esther was. “Esther? Esther, where you at, honey? C'mon, Esther. Stop fooling around.”

The guy was quite a sight. He was about 6’ 2” and very obese. He had a full beard, long stringy hair and of course, he was wearing a New Year's party hat. In his right hand was a tarnished trumpet. He obviously had some knowledge of the instrument because his left thumb and fingers were wrapped around the valve covers and his right three fingers were on the valve buttons. Scratch was making a futile attempt to reason with him. “C'mon, buddy. This is a funeral home. There’s no Esther here. You have the wrong place. You have to leave.”

Then Scratch put his hand on the man's arm in an attempt to lead him to the door. The man shoved Scratch turning belligerent. “Don't nobody touch me, man. I'll kick your ass.”

He immediately put the horn to his mouth and began to blow, creating a racket that quite possibly could have awoken Pops. Teddy felt a sudden rage swell up, and threw a punch at the guy. The way things had been going it was only fitting that he missed his target and hit Scratch square in his nose. Scratch put his hands to his face as blood started oozing through his fingers. Joanie started screaming. “He's bleeding! Stop it! Stop it!”

Father Sullivan hurried over and the man threw a punch at him, hitting him in the chest. Father staggered backwards into the wall. Joanie kept yelling while Dancer and Beeker tried to join the fray. The man was pushing everyone this way and that, swatting them away as if they were mosquitoes. His elbow connected with Beeker’s eye. Losing his balance, Beeker grabbed Dancer's shirt as they both fell down. It was a scene of utter chaos.

www.ThePriestAndThePeaches.com

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.

SNEAK PEEK of Chapter Ten of the young adult ebook "The Priest and the Peaches" - NOW AVAILABLE

2011-12-21T10:28:00.000-05:00

A sneak peek of chapter ten of The Priest and the Peaches - a young adult ebook release from Tribute Books by Larry Peterson

NOW AVAILABLE
buy links
PDF - $4.95
Smashwords - $4.99

Coming soon:
Kindle ($2.99)
Nook ($4.95)
iPad ($4.99)

CHAPTER TEN
L-Y-N

Father read the gospel in Latin at the altar and then walked to the pulpit looking out at everyone as he read it in English. When he had finished, he signaled for everyone to sit down. Looking out at the congregation, he began his sermon. “Two days ago, a dear friend of mine and a dear friend to many of you unexpectedly passed away. His five kids are sitting right here this morning in the first pew and many of you know them also. Velemer Peach, known to his kids as Pops and to his friends as Yimey, left his mark in the world simply because he did his best to help anyone who happened to come his way. Yimey had a little acronym he always used. I'm sure some of you know it. It was L-Y-N, and it stood for love your neighbor. Instead of saying hello or goodbye, Yimey would always say, ‘Hey Joe or Jan or whoever, L-Y-N.’ It was a beautiful thing. So, on this New Year's Day of 1966, in honor of Yimey, maybe we can truly start something new. I want you all to turn to each other right now, shake hands and say L-Y-N to each other.”

Somewhat taken aback by this unprecedented directive from the priest in the pulpit, the people in the pews began to squirm. It was amazing how people packed tightly together could still maintain their own personal space. Father Sullivan had asked them to step outside of it. It was unnerving. Father continued to encourage them, “C'mon folks, just shake hands with your neighbor and say L-Y-N. I promise, no one will bite you.”

There was muffled laughter that circulated throughout the church and then the people began saying L-Y-N to each other. When they were all facing front again and the rumble of the quiet L-Y-Ns had subsided, Father Sullivan simply said, “And there you have it. The golden rule as explained by Yimey. I hope and pray that you all remember it. God bless you all. Happy New Year and L-Y-N.”

As Father left the pulpit and walked back to the altar, a delayed reaction kicked in. Teddy started to quietly sob. Joanie followed and like dominoes, so did Dancer and Beeker. Joey did not know what was going on. People in the pews near them began to wipe their eyes and soon most of the congregation was doing the same. Father Sullivan's New Year's Day homily about Pops had taken two minutes and it was memorable for its brevity. It was beautiful in its simplicity. Years later, those who were there that morning still remembered it.

www.ThePriestAndThePeaches.com

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.

SNEAK PEEK of Chapter Nine of the upcoming young adult ebook "The Priest and the Peaches"

2011-12-20T11:40:00.000-05:00

A sneak peek of chapter nine of The Priest and the Peaches - an upcoming young adult ebook release from Tribute Books by Larry Peterson

Look for the ebook on January 1, 2012:
Kindle ($2.99)
Nook ($4.95)
iPad ($4.99)

CHAPTER NINE
"What's a chastity belt?"

Teddy and Sarah sat next to each other on the sofa. Teddy pulled the big afghan up tucking under their necks. The only light in the apartment came from the almost dead Christmas tree. Peace and tranquility settled upon them—a welcome reprieve from a day full of chaos and confusion. After a few quiet moments, Sarah said, “I am so glad I stayed with you.”

Teddy lifted his arm and put it around her. Pulling her close he said, “Me too. Are you, okay? I mean with the not going home thing.”

“No, not really. I know she'll try to lay all this guilt on me when I get home tomorrow and…oh, just let's forget it for now. Okay? Nothing has changed anyway. I'm used to it. Just hold me. Okay?”

The sudden quiet coupled with the dim lighting quickly joined forces with their fatigue and vulnerability creating the perfect moment—and just like that they were kissing each other. Slowly, softly, their lips moved back and forth, their youthful passion springing to life. Then an unexpected voice doused the erupting flames. “Hey, what are you doing?”

Surprised, they both turned their heads to see Beeker standing next to the sofa looking down at them. “Damn it, Beeker. What are you doing up?” Teddy asked, “You're supposed to be in bed.”

“I can't sleep. I'm not tired.”

Sarah straightened up and ran her hands down over the sides of her tussled hair. “Okay, Beeker, come sit between me and Teddy. It's okay.”

She pulled the afghan aside and Beeker plopped between them. Sarah tossed the blanket over him tucking it under his chin. “So, what were you doing?” he asked again.

“Nothing, Beeker, nothing,” Teddy said. “We were just giving each other a kiss. Is that okay with you?”

“Yes, Teddy. It's okay with me.” Beeker than giggled a bit and leaned his head next to Sarah's arm. Within a minute, he was fast asleep.

Sarah said quietly, “I think it might be a good thing he came in here.”

Teddy sighed, “I know, I know. Problem is, I don't think I cared. I didn’t want to stop. When I start kissing you and holding you…well…something happens and…you know what I mean.”

“Maybe my mother’s right. We could get into trouble. We have to avoid these kind of situations.”

www.ThePriestAndThePeaches.com

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.

SNEAK PEEK of Chapter Eight of the upcoming young adult ebook "The Priest and the Peaches"

2011-12-19T11:17:00.000-05:00

A sneak peek of chapter eight of The Priest and the Peaches - an upcoming young adult ebook release from Tribute Books by Larry Peterson

Look for the ebook on January 1, 2012:
Kindle ($2.99)
Nook ($4.95)
iPad ($4.99)

CHAPTER EIGHT
The Floating Leg

As the leg kept floating, people began pushing back, creating an impromptu path leading to the casket. When the people closest to Teddy and Joanie separated, the mystery of the floating leg was revealed. Holding Pops' artificial leg high above his head was Dancer. His face was beet red from the cold. His shirt was torn from the breast pocket down to his belt buckle. He had a nasty scrape above his left eye, and the fingers on his right hand were covered in blood that had managed to spread to his shirt and trousers. He was quite a horrific sight. He was also quite angry as he said, “Look what I found out back. Can you believe it? It was out back against the dumpster. Good thing I went out there. Pops was supposed to be wearing this. They threw it away. They threw it in the garbage.”

“Oh my God,” Joanie said. “What happened to you? You're bleeding everywhere. What do you mean…out by the dumpster? I can't believe this. Oh my God, Teddy. Pops' leg was in the garbage.”

Teddy was stunned. Suddenly he felt overwhelmed and insecure. Up until this very moment, he had been trying to be the man in charge, and he thought he was wearing his new crown quite well. Looking at his bloodied brother with torn clothes and a bloody hand wrapped around his father's wooden leg was a bit much to mentally process. What am I supposed to do? I don't know what to do. Everyone expects me to take care of this. Pops could. The thoughts stopped and his mind went blank. An unnerving sense of loneliness embraced him. Teddy started to shake.

Joanie looked at her brother and his demeanor frightened her. “Teddy, what's wrong with you?”
He did not respond, so she raised her voice, “Teddy, do you hear me? Dancer has Pops' leg. TEDDY! Did you HEAR ME?”

www.ThePriestAndThePeaches.com

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.

Follow Friday

2011-12-16T10:55:00.002-05:00

When you’ve read a book, what do you do with it? (Keep it, give it away, donate it, sell it, swap it..?)

I swap it with my book blog friends, The Plot Thickens and City Girl Who Loves to Read.

SNEAK PEEK of Chapter Seven of the upcoming young adult ebook "The Priest and the Peaches"

2011-12-16T10:53:00.001-05:00

A sneak peek of chapter seven of The Priest and the Peaches - an upcoming young adult ebook release from Tribute Books by Larry Peterson

Look for the ebook on January 1, 2012:
Kindle ($2.99)
Nook ($4.95)
iPad ($4.99)

CHAPTER SEVEN
"Yimey’s New Year’s Eve Jamboree"

The Peaches never imagined that an impromptu and quite unconventional party was about to begin at Kelly's Funeral Home. A steady cast of characters was about to descend for a mixture of odd, unforeseen and even outlandish farewells ultimately defining the man Pops had been—a man his kids really did not know. These people were Pops' friends from all over the neighborhood, a man they loved as Yimey—not Pops. If there was a marquee outside, it might have read, “Yimey's New Year's Eve Jamboree, Admission free—BYOB.”

The five kids only knew their father as Pops. Yimey, the man, they did not know. Teddy had started to get a glimpse into their father’s inner world, but that insight was halted in its tracks. Joanie, her maternal instincts jump-started at the age of 13, concerned herself with Pops' behavior and stayed on him about eating properly, getting more sleep, being home more, and cutting back on the cigarettes. The one thing she truly hated was the drinking and she was relentless in voicing her feelings about it. Pops would tell her, “Joanie, stop. You're my daughter, not my mother. Get off my back.” She never did, and he loved her for it. But of course, he never paid attention.

www.ThePriestAndThePeaches.com

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.

SNEAK PEEK of Chapter Six of the upcoming young adult ebook "The Priest and the Peaches"

2011-12-15T11:07:00.000-05:00

A sneak peek of chapter six of The Priest and the Peaches - an upcoming young adult ebook release from Tribute Books by Larry Peterson

Look for the ebook on January 1, 2012:
Kindle ($2.99)
Nook ($4.95)
iPad ($4.99)

CHAPTER SIX
"God likes to laugh too"

Scratch started to laugh. He related how he and Teddy had been talking about Pops having a good laugh himself over his lost leg, and how the bony-faced receptionist had looked at them like they were nuts. Then Teddy started talking about how the leg had hit Scratch in the head before flipping into the front seat. Father Sullivan, laughing said, “Well, Scratch, at least it didn't kick you in the ass.”

Surprised at the priest’s colorful language, they all started laughing like crazy, even Joey, who was, of course, knew all about that particular word. Intent on changing the subject, Father began, “Okay everyone, gather around and join hands.” Forming a circle, Father bowed his head as they all did the same. He began to pray, “Heavenly Father, these young people stand before you today somewhat confused and frightened…”

Beeker and Joey were still giggling. Father looked at them and said, “C'mon, boys. Stop laughing now. We're saying a prayer.”

Joey, a bit embarrassed, said, “You said ass.”

Joanie gasped, “JOEY, stop that right now.”

Father smiled, “No, Joanie. It's okay.” He put his hand on Joey's head and said to him, “Well now, Joey, I guess I did say that. We all just needed to laugh a little. That's why I said that. God understands. Believe it or not, God likes to laugh too.”

Wide-eyed, Beeker asked, “He does?”

www.ThePriestAndThePeaches.com

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.

Greg Messel - The Illusion of Certainty - Author Interview

2011-12-15T00:01:00.002-05:00

Author Interview

1. Who is my favorite character?
It is Alexandra "Alex" Mattson, the young female attorney

2. Why is she your favorite?
Alex is very brave, tries to help people and is a good friend. But she's also very human. Alex is trying to figure out her life and she has to overcome some devastating developments to find happiness.

3. How did you come to create her?
I began "The Illusion of Certainty" concentrating on Marc and his story. The focal point was the disconnection he was feeling from his wife. I planned to bring another female character into the story in part three--one who would ultimately meet Marc. Then I decided to switch gears and switch to Alex's story. From then on the two stories ran parallel until Alex and Marc met. It was much more interesting that way because you had really gotten to know Alex over the course of the story. You really care about her. Readers and reviewers seem to really like the Alex character.

4. When did she first enter your mind?
I had a good friend who experienced what Alex did. She came out of her house one day and discovered that a neighbor had backed over a small child. My friend, who is a very mild mannered woman, sprang into action in the crisis and took care of the child until the EMTs arrived. I wasn't sure what Alex was going to be like. Her character was still evolving. I put Alex in that same circumstance and had her help the child who was in an accident. Her character just took off from there and I really got to like her.

5. Where was she given life in the creative process?
I wanted to have a woman who would take Marc into a whole new place in his life. She had been wounded deeply by the turns in her life. However, Alex was able to heal Marc and change his life. Alex was a strong character. She became just as important to the whole story as Marc was. I also liked the fact that Marc and Alex had crossed paths in Portland but didn't notice one another. Then when they are England, they suddenly notice one another. In fact, there is an immediate and strong connection.

6. What do you like the most about her and what do you dislike the most about her?
I don't think there's is much to dislike about Alex. She is grieving for her lost love through most of the book, but she remains positive and hopeful. There is a continual assault on her, including a literal attempted sexual assault. However, Alex is a survivor, yet very tender person. There is more to dislike about Marc's handling of his crisis then Alex. She handles her challenges in a very admirable way. I like that when she meets Marc, she is open to a new direction in her life.

Book Summary

"The Illusion of Certainty" follows two parallel storylines. Marc is a successful businessman who seems to have everything-a great job, a beautiful wife, a house in an upscale neighborhood of Portland, Oregon and two great kids who are preparing for college. But something is not right. Marc is unsettled by the sudden change in his wife, Aimee, who seems distant and unhappy. What is going on with her? The second storyline involves a successful young attorney Alexandra Mattson. Alex, as she is called by her friends, meets a handsome young cop, Sean, during an unexpected crisis in her neighborhood. Sean and Alex seem made for each other and begin to merge their futures in a world of uncertainty. The only certainty in life is uncertainty.

I'm available on Facebook and Twitter @gregmessel. My blog is www.gregmessel.com

My book trailer can be found at http://expiationbook.wordpress.com/2011/09/22/see-the-new-book-trailer-for-the-illusion-of-certainty/ or on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LKPdosHGYDc

The Illusion of Certainty sells for $14.99 in softcover and the ebook for iPad, iBook, Nook and Kindle sells for $2.99.

It is published by Yorkshire Publishing. It was released August 5, 2011 and has 452 pages. It is historical romance.

The buy links are:

Barnes & Noble http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-illusion-of-certainty-greg-messel/1104533824?fmt=200&itm=3&usri=greg%2bmessel

Amazon http://www.amazon.com/Illusion-Certainty-Greg-Messel/dp/193675052X/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1315697123&sr=8-4

About Greg Messel

Greg Messel has written three novels and three unpublished memoirs. He published his premiere novel “Sunbreaks” in 2009, followed by “Expiation” in 2010 and “The Illusion of Certainty” in 2011. Greg has had a newspaper career as a columnist, sportswriter and news editor. He won a Wyoming Press Association Award as a columnist. Greg also spent many years in the corporate world as a Financial Manager. He now devotes his energies to writing at his home in Edmonds, Washington on the Puget Sound just north of Seattle, where he lives with his wife, Carol.

You can visit his website at www.gregmessel.com. Connect with Greg on Twitter at www.twitter.com/gregmessel or Facebook at www.facebook.com/greg.messel.

About The Illusion of Certainty

The Illusion of Certainty follows two parallel storylines. Marc is a successful businessman who seems to have everything—a great job, a beautiful wife, a house in an upscale neighborhood of Portland, Oregon and two great kids who are preparing for college. But something is not right. Marc is unsettled by the sudden change in his wife, Aimee, who seems distant and unhappy. What’s going on with her?

The second storyline involves a successful young attorney, Alexandra Mattson. Alex, as she is called by her friends, meets a handsome young cop, Sean, during an unexpected crisis in her neighborhood. Sean and Alex seem made for each other and begin to merge their futures in a world of uncertainty.

The only certainty in life is that we will face uncertainty. Despite all of the technology and controls available in the modern world, sometimes the only comfort comes from the human touch.

Giveaways, Contests & Prizes!

To celebrate the release of Greg Messel’s new book, The Illusion of Certainty, he is offering one free paperback copy of his book at Pump Up Your Book’s 1st Annual Holiday Extravaganza Facebook Party on December 16. More than 50 books, gifts and cash awards will be given away! Click here for details!

SNEAK PEEK of Chapter Five of the upcoming young adult ebook "The Priest and the Peaches"

2011-12-14T10:50:00.001-05:00

A sneak peek of chapter five of The Priest and the Peaches - an upcoming young adult ebook release from Tribute Books by Larry Peterson

Look for the ebook on January 1, 2012:
Kindle ($2.99)
Nook ($4.95)
iPad ($4.99)

CHAPTER FIVE
Back to the hospital

The few moments of lightheartedness ended abruptly as they walked into the hospital and approached the information desk. A thin woman with a long, bony face looked up from behind the counter. “Yes, may I help you?”

“Uh, yeah. We're looking for my father's leg.”

The woman's body froze and her eyes bulged out from behind her glasses. “Excuse me?” she asked.

Teddy started to wipe away some unexpected tears, and Scratch quickly intervened.

“I'm sorry, ma'am. His father died here the other night. Okay? He had an artificial leg and we think it was left here by mistake. We just want to get it so we can bring it to the funeral home.”

The lady breathed deeply and stared at the two young men as she processed what she had just heard. Then she replied, “Oh, I'm so sorry. Please, tell me the patient's name.”

Scratch answered, “Velemer Peach.”

“I beg your pardon.”

Scratch sighed, “Velemer. V-e-l-e-m-e-r. Peach. P-e-a-c-h. Okay?”

“Thank you.” She picked up the phone and dialed a few numbers. “Yes, this is the information desk. There is a Mr. Peach here and he is trying to locate an artificial leg that seems to have been misplaced.” There was a pause. “Yes, that's what I said. A leg. Could you come down here right away?” After another brief pause before she said, “Yes sir, I'll tell him.” She looked at Teddy and said, “Someone will be right over to see you.”

While they were waiting, Scratch said, “Hey, Teddy, do you think Pops is having fun with this leg thing?”

Teddy looked at him and slowly smiled. “Um, yeah, probably. No, definitely.”

www.ThePriestAndThePeaches.com

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.

SNEAK PEEK of Chapter Four of the upcoming young adult ebook "The Priest and the Peaches"

2011-12-13T10:54:00.000-05:00

A sneak peek of chapter four of The Priest and the Peaches - an upcoming young adult ebook release from Tribute Books by Larry Peterson

Look for the ebook on January 1, 2012:
Kindle ($2.99)
Nook ($4.95)
iPad ($4.99)

CHAPTER FOUR
"How could they lose his leg?"

By 1965, most families had acquired telephones but the old tried and true method of intra-building communication in the Bronx was far from passe. After all, the phone company charged message units for every call. You certainly were not going to use the phone to call upstairs, downstairs or across the street. No way. You simply used the send & receive system. To send a message, you yelled out the window. To receive a message, you listened for the return yell. It was as simple as that. This extremely effective system even had a playback feature. If you did not understand the yell, you yelled back—“What?” The message would promptly be re-yelled by the sender.

Joanie went into the kitchen, opened the window, gulped in a big burst of frigid air, and turned her head up to yell, “Denis! Denis!”

A few seconds went by and the response came, “Yeah, what is it?”

“They lost Pops' leg. Teddy wants you to go with him and find it.”

There was a pause. Then a reverberating laughter filled the icy air. Joanie yelled, “You know what Scratch you're a big JERK.” Then she slammed the window shut.

www.ThePriestAndThePeaches.com

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.

SNEAK PEEK of Chapter Three of the upcoming young adult ebook "The Priest and the Peaches"

2011-12-12T12:13:00.000-05:00

A sneak peek of chapter three of The Priest and the Peaches - an upcoming young adult ebook release from Tribute Books by Larry Peterson

Look for the ebook on January 1, 2012:
Kindle ($2.99)
Nook ($4.95)
iPad ($4.99)

CHAPTER THREE
"Now we're orphans, right?"

Teddy saw everyone at once and immediately started to cry. He did not even realize that it was Sarah who had gotten up and was standing there hugging him. His tears were contagious and within seconds the somber room was filled with crying young people. Sarah hugged Teddy for about 15 seconds then moved back and held his face in her hands. She wiped away his tears with her thumbs and stared into his eyes. “Teddy, listen to me,” she said. “They need you to be strong. Okay? They need you to be in charge. They're all scared, even Joanie. They think they’re all going to end up alone. So, right now, try to be strong.”

He took a breath and looked down at her. “Alone? That's ridiculous. Me and Joanie are here and you…”

“Look, you are all in this together and have to survive it together. They just need some reassurances from you that everything will be all right and that they are safe. Understand?”

The magnitude of the situation was starting to hit Teddy right between the eyes. At 18 years old, he was quickly feeling alone and overwhelmed. Looking at Joey and Beeker, he suddenly realized how young they were. Dancer was only in eighth grade. I'm only four years older than Dancer. Beeker and Joey…dang, this is messed up. Okay, be strong, whatever that means… Then he heard a small voice that had been calling his name, “Teddy…Teddy?”

He turned to his right and saw Joey. Teddy rubbed the palms of his hands across his eyes wiping them dry. “Yeah, Joey? What is it?”

Joey, still sitting on Joanie's lap, had his head pressed back into her chest. His wide-open eyes overwhelmed his little face. He seemed to be slightly rocking back and forth with the top of his head staying right under her chin. Sniffles punctuated every third or fourth tear. He was frightened, all right. No doubt about it. He did not understand. He wanted all this talk about Pops being dead to stop. It wasn’t funny. He wanted him to come home. It had to be a mistake. Why, Pops had even promised that, no matter what, he was going to let him watch the ball drop at Times Square at midnight. Well, tomorrow was New Year's Eve. Pops had promised. He was positive he would be coming home any minute. They were all stupid. “Are you bringing Pops home later?”

www.ThePriestAndThePeaches.com

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.

Emlyn Chand - Farsighted - Author Interview

2011-12-12T00:01:00.001-05:00

My thanks to Emlyn Chand for stopping by The Character Connection for an author interview during the blog tour for her book, Farsighted.

Author Interview

1. Who is your favorite character?
Definitely Shapri Teak, daughter of the woman who runs a psychic shop in a small Midwest town.

2. Why is he/she your favorite?
Not only is she the most fun of all my characters, but she’s also the kind of the person I wish I could have been like back when I was younger. She’s strong, always true to herself, and won’t let anyone disrespect her. Sure, she has fears, but we all do. Shapri is the kind of girl I would love to be friends with. You know she’ll always go to bat for you when you’re too tired to step up to the plate.

3. How did you come to create him/her?
For each manuscript I write, I have one minor character who refuses to remain minor. These players take over the stage and throw-out my previous plans. In Farsighted, this character was Shapri. I just openly admitted to her being my favorite and many readers adore her as well, but she was not supposed to be a main character. She demanded it, and I’m so glad I listened!

4. When did he/she first enter your mind?
I wanted a character who could channel spirits to round out my psychic gang, but I didn’t anticipate her being in more than a couple of scenes. When I wrote the scene in which she first appears, I was hooked and knew she would become one of the most important characters in the series.

5. Where was he/she given life in the creative process?
Shapri first appears in chapter 3 when she meets the main character Alex in her mother’s psychic shop. She becomes increasingly important as the story progresses and later in the series she will narrate her own volume.

6. What do like the most about him/her and what do you dislike the most about him/her?
I love Shapri’s realness to herself and others. She knows who she is (for the most part), and she demands that others accept her for it. She’s also incredibly intelligent but not at all pretentious. On the negative side, she takes some getting used to. She moves around a lot and is kind of all over the place. Some people find her quite annoying.

About the Book
Farsighted

Book Details:
Publisher: Blue Crown Press
Published: October 2011
Genre: Young Adult
Pages: 224
Format: paperback, ebook
Price: $12.95 paperback, $0.99 ebook

Buy Links: Amazon, Kindle

Blurb:
Alex Kosmitoras's life has never been easy. The only other student who will talk to him is the school bully, his parents are dead-broke and insanely overprotective, and to complicate matters even more, he's blind. Just when he thinks he'll never have a shot at a normal life, a new girl from India moves into town. Simmi is smart, nice, and actually wants to be friends with Alex. Plus she smells like an Almond Joy bar. Yes, sophomore year might not be so bad after all.

Unfortunately, Alex is in store for another new arrival--an unexpected and often embarrassing ability to "see" the future. Try as he may, Alex is unable to ignore his visions, especially when they begin to suggest that Simmi is in danger. With the help of the mysterious psychic next door and new friends who come bearing gifts of their own, Alex must embark on a journey to change his future.

About the Author
Emily Chand

Emlyn Chand has always loved to hear and tell stories, having emerged from the womb with a fountain pen grasped firmly in her left hand (true story). When she's not writing, she runs a large book club in Ann Arbor and is the president of author PR firm, Novel Publicity. Emlyn loves to connect with readers and is available throughout the social media interweb. Visit emlynchand.com for more info. Don't forget to say "hi" to her sun conure Ducky!

Connect With Emlyn:
Web Site
Facebook
Twitter

About the Tour

Lightning Book Promotions

Follow Friday

2011-12-09T15:16:00.002-05:00

Keeping with the Spirit of Giving this season, what book do you think EVERYONE should read and if you could, you would buy it for all of your family and friends?

The Hunger Games - to prepare everyone for the next movie phenomenon for those unfamiliar with the series.

SNEAK PEEK of Chapter Two of the upcoming young adult ebook "The Priest and the Peaches"

2011-12-09T15:13:00.001-05:00

A sneak peek of chapter two of The Priest and the Peaches - an upcoming young adult ebook release from Tribute Books by Larry Peterson

Look for the ebook on January 1, 2012:
Kindle ($2.99)
Nook ($4.95)
iPad ($4.99)

CHAPTER TWO
"Before"

“What's wrong with me? What's WRONG with me? I'll tell you what's wrong with me—that mean old lady in the other room. That's what's wrong with me. And nobody cares, nobody, not Pops, not you, not anyone. She’s so mean to me. I hate her. I swear—I hate her. And now I'm going to hell because I hate my own grandmother.”

Teddy fumbled around inside himself trying to find something to say. His 15-year-old wisdom was still in the early developmental stages so all he could come up with was, “Hate her? Going to hell? That's ridiculous. I don't think…”

She cut him off and began to ramble, “Ridiculous! I'll tell you what's ridiculous. The fact that you and Pops don't have any idea what’s going on around here. That's ridiculous. She's gone crazy. Half of the time she thinks I'm Mom and calls me Elizabeth. Then she's nice. Then, all of a sudden, I'm Joanie and I'm scrubbing the woodwork again and, then I'm not doing it right and have to do it over. Sure Teddy, you are absolutely right. You don't think. The ceiling could fall down and you wouldn't think. Pops is never home. She hates him and is always saying mean things to him. So he stays away. LUCKY him. She tells the boys how rotten he is and tells them that he killed their mother…”

www.ThePriestAndThePeaches.com

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.

Coral Russell - Amador Lockdown - Author Interview & Guest Post

2011-12-09T15:00:00.002-05:00

Author Interview

1. Who is your favorite character?
Hector

2. Why is he/she your favorite?
He is because a lot of his actions and feelings are my own. He's dealing with a difficult child and I wrote a lot of my reactions through him.

3. How did you come to create him/her?
I started going on ghost tours and one was lead by a Hector-like person. I enjoyed it and thought it would make some great stories. Luckily, when I mentioned it to the Hector-like person, he was fine with it and said I could use whatever I wanted.

4. When did he/she first enter your mind?
When I went on the ghost tour and had some strange experiences. I liked the way the Hector-like person handled himself.

5. Where was he/she given life in the creative process?
Well, I only used the basics of that real person. I think in the father/son interactions is when Hector really comes to life and you see how he's trying to deal with the situation.

6. What do like the most about him/her and what do you dislike the most about him/her?
I like that he steps up and takes responsibility. I dislike that at the end things still aren't resolved for him even though he did the right thing.

Guest Post

I can't say that I've used this with any sense of accomplishment, yet. I ran across this wonderful information when a writer friend shared it with me. This is by Jim Butcher and I'm going to show how I should have used it in Amador Lockdown.

Jim Butcher says - TAGS are words you hang upon your character when you describe them. When you’re putting things together, for each character, pick a word or two or three to use in describing them. Then, every so often, hit on one of those words in references to them, and avoid using them elsewhere when possible. By doing this, you’ll be creating a psychological link between those words and that strong entry image of your character. Let me take one of my characters from Amador Lockdown, Hector. Hector is short, black unruly hair, black cowboy hat.

Jim Butcher says - TRAITS are like TAGS, except that instead of picking specific words, you pick a number of unique things ranging from a trademark prop to a specific mental attitude. Let me attempt this with Hector again. I think this is great, but is harder for me to do because I didn't think about it before I wrote the story. So Hector's traits are, in the Paranormal Posse, he's the responsible one. He always tries to take responsibility for what happens with the group. He founded it and tries to do the right thing.

Book Summary

Something has moved into the Amador Hotel. Hector, Marcos, Bev, and Tony of the Paranormal Posse are called in to either debunk the haunting or get rid of whatever is causing the problems. With the surprise arrival of Hector's son, he tries to keep his professional and personal lives separate, but whatever is haunting the Amador Hotel has other plans.

Price: $0.99
Format: ebook
Pages: 154 pages
Genre: horror
Publisher: alchemyofscrawl
Release: 10/24/11
Buy Links: http://www.amazon.com/Amador-Lockdown-ebook/dp/B005TDRKZ6/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1318792863&sr=8-1

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/amador-lockdown-coral-russell/1106472265?ean=2940013232594&itm=1&usri=amador%2blockdown

Author Bio

Coral Russell runs the blog alchemyofscrawl
Stop by for the latest in book reviews, news, and resources.

Ms. Russell won the 2003 McCaleb Peace Initiative which produced the non-fiction articles Peace on the Peninsula (proceeds from this eBook go to benefit rebuilding Joplin, MO). You can also find various articles written by her on Technorati and BlogCritics.

Want more Hector and Marcos ghost hunter stories? Check out Playing with Fire Anthology of Horror for Devil of a Ghost Tour and Key to a Haunting. Also available The DIY Guide to Social Media Marketing and eBook Publishing.

Look for Cube in the Twelve Worlds Anthology for Charity which benefits Reading is Fundamental.

My Stalker Package http://alchemyofscrawl.wordpress.com/my-stalker-package/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UuWCi6xjLaE

SNEAK PEEK of Chapter One of the upcoming young adult ebook "The Priest and the Peaches"

2011-12-08T16:30:00.000-05:00

A sneak peek of chapter one of The Priest and the Peaches - an upcoming young adult ebook release from Tribute Books by Larry Peterson

Look for the ebook on January 1, 2012:
Kindle ($2.99)
Nook ($4.95)
iPad ($4.99)

CHAPTER ONE
"If only I had—"

Pops said nothing. Besides pain and fear, there was a resolute sadness etched into his face. It frightened Teddy, although he did not understand it. Their eyes locked, blue on blue, father and son, sharing what would turn out to be their final moment together. Teddy thought he noticed a solitary tear drip from Pops' eye and slowly roll down onto the pillow. Still, he remained by the door. He broke the silence saying, “Okay Pops, I gotta get home. See you tomorrow.” As he turned and headed to the elevator, Pops raised his hand and held up his thumb and pinky finger, but Teddy did not notice.

Walking away from the hospital, Teddy briefly stopped, turned and looked up at the third floor. He located the window of Pops' room and stared at it. Whispering, “I love you, Pops,” he began to cry. He knew he should go back, but he didn't. That decision would transpose into a lifelong, heartbreaking memory transfixed around the words—if only I had… Sometimes, you just don't get a second chance.

www.ThePriestAndThePeaches.com